Poison City [PAUSED]

Chapter 5

Nara and Fumiko were pointlessly doing the research. After over two hours of going through all the documents that they could find on the Great Pandemic, they still couldn't find any specific cases. All of the documents were government issued, with quite a bit of information blacked out, but the researches done by doctors and scientists were nowhere to be found.

The more time passed, the more was Fumiko convinced that the government was trying to hide something. She wondered if it was only the pandemic that they were lying about, or was it everything? Were they lying about the situation in the rest of the world? Were they lying about the nutritional values and benefits of the newly invented cheap food, which was meant to feed large amount of poor people? Were they lying when they said that people in the Poison City wouldn't be made to leave Tokyo in order to accommodate the ever-growing population of the rich newcomers?

"Fumi-chan, come on. We should go. There is obviously nothing here that would be of any assistance. I'm guessing that the only place left that we could look at would be the restricted area." Nara was wistfully looking at the doors which led to the restricted area.

"That doesn't seem to be a problem for you..." Fumiko cemented quietly. However, that was obviously not quiet enough, and the next thing Fumiko saw was Nara's charger flying towards her face.

Just as the charger hit Fumiko's face, Nara started to talk in a surprisingly calm voice. "Just because I know Jack, and know how to make him let me do what I want, doesn't mean that I can do it with anyone. Especially not with the guys who are guarding the restricted area. I heard that they are doing all sorts of identity checks before they let anyone get inside there."

Fumiko was rubbing her forehead where the charger hit her. "Well, it seems to me that they do let someone slip through."

Nara frowned, "What do you mean by that?"

Fumiko was thinking again about that someone she saw sneak out of the restricted area and into the staff only room. For some reason, Fumiko had a feeling that that was Mitsuki. And if she was right that that was her, than she was definitely sure that Mitsuki should not be there.

Fumiko lowered her head. "It's just... I thought I saw someone suspicious sneak out of that room..."

If what Fumiko was saying is correct, than the security should have stormed in a long time ago, thought Nara, but considering there wasn't any lock down, they probably hadn't realized yet that there was an intruder.

"Fumi-chan, I think we should go. Besides, we won't find anything here."

Fumiko was looking at her sister, who was hurriedly packing her stuff. She could feel the tension coming from her.

"Fumi-chan, if you are right about somebody breaking in to the restricted area, than security would have been flooding this place a long time ago. Which leads me to two conclusions. The first one being, that that someone you saw, had a permission to access the restricted area, and the second one is... well, that that someone is really good at going around unseen. If the second theory is correct, then the security should be noticing that something is wrong right about now, and as you and I aren't supposed to be here, we should better hurry up and get out of here, before we get into trouble." Nara's voice was very calm, but her movements were a bit shaky.

Fumiko started packing without further questioning her sister. They briskly left the archive, when they came to the front desk where Jack was siting, Nara gave him one of her most brilliant smiles, and Fumiko noticed that right as her sister was about to turn around and leave, she winked at her "friend".

The two sisters barely had time to go two blocks down, when they heard alarm coming from the library.

***

Asami was truly a diligent employe and her boss really liked her work. She was still a junior journalist who was helping the senior journalists. Her main job was background checking white collar criminals, and writing small articles about them, which later on her senior colleagues used in their articles, which were actually being published. Her boss had really high standards, and she knew that there were some people who worked for him for ten years and still hadn't gotten promoted to senior journalists.

However, if this article went well with her boss, Asami knew that she would get promoted. Sure, her boss told her that it was only because Becky, senior journalist she was mostly working with, was on her vacation, and other senior journalists were busy with other articles, but Asami knew that he had many other junior journalists to choose to work on this article. Moreover, she heard some of her colleagues whisper among each other how she was only working for the Middle Ground Daily for two and a half years, and was already about to get promoted. On other occasions, hearing someone spread rumors about her, would hurt her very much, but this time she really hoped that the rumors would turn out to be true.

She went over what she wrote for what seemed like the hundredth time. Everything had to be spot on, and Asami wasn't about to let Mr. Yamamoto down. She was so excited to get a promotion, because then she will get to interview people for her article, and have others prepare background checks of people she would interview.

After she heard her two little sisters come back home, she knew she should be done for today and join others for dinner.

***

The next day Daido was called to his office in the City Security Corpus in the Poison City. He was supposed to have a day off and being called in by Tatsuya, the young field commander, did not smell good. Especially not after what had happened at the northern border.

While he was walking to his office, Daido was thinking about the girl that attacked them in the forest. He couldn't shake off the look in her eyes. It was haunting him ever since that night.

When he finaly came to the office, he went straight for Tatsuya's office and knocked on the door.

"Come in Daido", came the ever arrogant voice of the commander.

As soon as Daido closed the door, Tatsuya started talking slowly in his 'I am better than you' voice, "Yesterday someone sneaked in the restricted area of the library in the Middle Ground. I already have a team of detectives working on the case. Right now they have a guy here in the station, that they think is holding some information back, and I would like you to interrogate him."

"Yes sir."

Tatsuya just nodded and went back to typing whatever it was he was typing before Daido came in. After few second passed and he noticed Daido was still there, he looked at him.

"Anything else inspector Hayashi?" the irritation in his voice was clear as day.

"Well, sir I was just wondering about that night at the northern border..."

Tatsuya didn't let him finish before he started talking quite impatiently. "I already told you to forget that anything even happened that night, didn't I? It's as simple as that, plus those are the government orders, so no complaining. Understood?"

Daido nodded "Yes sir." After that he bowed his head and left Tatsuya's office.

Tatsuya's assistant gave him a folder containing all of the information on the case told him in which room was the guy he was supposed to interrogate. It was a new assistant, and Daido wondered was was it exactly that drove the girls away. None of his assistants lasted longer than a month and a half, which made Daido wonder if there was anything other than the Tatsuya's arrogance that drove them away.

Just as he was about to think the worst about his commander, he approached the interrogation room. After taking a deep breath and putting on a serious face, Daido went in.

"Hello Jack, I am Daido and I am going to pose you a few questions, which you are going to answer truthfully. Is that understood?"