The Testimony

2013-8-4

According to Lars, on August 4, 2013, the suspect had called him to cut his classes short and to meet her outside her school gate. This was contrary to her text in the earlier week where she had told him to meet her at the garage next week.

" I excused myself to my teacher in the middle of fifth period and ran down from my room to the school exit, and found Shiro leaning on her car and looking at me.
"Get in, i'll drive.", She said before she got in the car, I followed.
Shiro then drove slowly around the city before she turned to a luxurious subdivision.
"Here's how this will go, you'll help me tend to some government official's garden.", Shiro told me the job. Out of all the things...

We got out together, then I walked up to Shiro
"When you called and forced me to cut classes for an errand, I didn't think it'd be... something like this." I told Shiro about my mild frustration. She sighed.
"Look, I didn't think i'd be the second person the Yakuza would call to do a gardening assignment out of anything else. Apparently my friend was supposed to be the one to do this, but called in sick because he apparently got tinnitus." Shiro said in disbelief. Seems we both don't want to be here. I wanted to ask her about last night but I decided it would be better if I asked her in her garage instead.
"Alright, so did you at least bring tools? I have homework to do and an excuse letter to write.", I asked Shiro, giving her 'hints' that I want to get this over with.
"Bitch, you street race nearly every evening after class. Don't you dare complain to me about not being able to do homework. If you decide to be insolent again, i'm taking away your cars. Understood?" Shiro said and glared at me. Yikes.
"Yes ma'am.", I said. She seemed extra grumpy today, and I don't think it's just because of the job, or that night. Come to think of it, we were under the sun for barely a minute but she already seemed to be sweating an ocean.
"Good, here's your shit.", Shiro opened her car's trunk, got the toolbox and shoved it on my chest.
I noticed Shiro was wearing a hoodie underneath the sun, at like noon. No wonder she was sweating and grumpy...
"Hey, you're not just gonna sit on your air conditioned car and make me do all the work aren't you?" I asked, thinking Shiro never took off her hoodie because she was going to stay in her car after giving me the tools. It was quite a big garden, I can't get these done alone in a day...
"Ugh, i'll help but if you're asking because of my hoodie, i'm keeping it on." Shiro said. Back then I was confused how she was gonna help because the tools in the box she gave were only enough for one person, one pair of gloves, one pair of scissors, a trowel, just one of every basic gardening tool in here. 'Oh well, so be it' That's what I thought.

"Alright so what's the deal? What do we do? What..." I asked Shiro, but I got interrupted.
"For the love of god, shut up. Look, we just have to trim the bushes and cut any weeds we find. Look, i'll do the trimming, you look for the weeds." Shiro ordered with very audible anger. I was starting to get scared of her again. She's usually laidback and relaxed. Is the sun getting to her? She put on the hoodie on her head and began work after I put on my gardening gloves.

For a little while, we were making steady progress together. She was somehow cutting the bushes with her fingers in a scissor-like motion with her middle and index finger, but what worried me was how much she was sweating.
"Shiro...are you sure you want to help? You're sweating a bunch." I asked her out of concern, she apparently didn't like that.
"W-what?! I'm not a fucking child! Stop worrying about me and worry about your work and continue your weeding! Don't even look at me until you're finished." She yelled after wiping the sweat on her face, twice. I just nodded at her and minded my work.

The sun started setting, and I had finished weeding the vast garden. I had pulled away from Shiro hours ago, so I ran across the field to find her. After what seemed like an hour of backtracking, I found her in the middle of the field, lying down. Not in a relaxed way, but in a very exhausted way. She was shaking and continuously gasping for breath. Thankfully, we weren't far from the car, so I carried her back. She must have been suffering from a heatstroke. She was looking at me, but i wasn't sure if she was unconscious and sleeps with her eyes glaring or she's awake but too weak to say anything. Either way, I had to shove her inside her car and crank up the air conditioning to the maximum.