Detective Yuki

4. Sumo

1.       Sumo

The next morning, Yuki had been trying to interpret the meaning of the mask's note all night at her candle lit worktop desk in the middle of her quaint living room.

"what does this mean?, and who left it?." She thought to herself reading the note:

To whom it may concern, the blaze is just the start

For the next phase of this game will come from oceans apart

Out of the ashes I will rise again, and no one will see me come

Fighting the new fight will be the end for some

Between two isles I will be

Sun and sand, sand and sea

On her desk she rested her head, trying to find a objective, and shuffling her left hand across the desk came something to give the mystery momentum.

"why, these look exactly the same, with Senbi's style of handwriting" she gasped as ideas sparked like wild fire. She hummed in approval at what she had theorized, then shuffled again to turn on her desktop radio:

This is NHK Radio one, Japan's premier radio station.

The date, August the fifteenth 1925

Now the news. Chaos in Tokyo as multiple reports are being received that a large crowd was attacked in the Ginza neighborhood earlier this morning. Authorities say the attacker as described by eyewitnesses as a hellish monster that was definitely not human. Several people are known to have been injured in the attack and are being interned at local hospitals. Tokyo police are still baffled by this attack, coming less than a day after a massive explosion razed the Senbi motor factory in the city, and the inexplicable rain of fire that occurred immediately after. Right wing politicians in the imperial diet say that Korean nationalists or Chinese terrorists are to blame, but this is just one of many rumors that are spreading around. In other news....

Yuki switched off the radio and looked out of her window, shocked that such an attack could occur.

"miss Yuki, I have some news on that trail you were asking about" Aibo chirped as he was granted entrance onto Yuki's cottage.

"that is good, I also have some news for you too" Yuki countered. Aibo took a newspaper out of his uniform pocket and laid it on a small tea table. Yuki gazed at the ominous figure on the front page and the headline "Man of ash survives fire: city gripped in fear by violence and mayhem overnight".

"what happened Aibo?" Yuki asked. Aibo relayed how he followed the trail of ashy footprints across town, witnessing horrific dark monsters with wings and jagged teeth damaging property and killing innocents outside their homes.

They were like the goblins and demons of folklore, but with a higher bloodlust and causing more damage, such as fires and potential massacres. He had to flee the scene and continued to follow the trail as the city collapsed into disorder around him. Witnesses saw the person making the footprints and guided Aibo further. The tracks continued for two miles until they suddenly stopped in the Shibuya neighborhood, and from there Aibo made his way to Yuki's address, grabbing a newspaper from a local vendor on the way there, but the fire department was working around the clock to get the recent fires under control. The police engaged in several gunfights against unknown suspects similar to a western novel.

"that is very strange, but what I have discovered may be even stranger than an Ashman. I have compared the writing of the note to the handwriting of a note I received from Senbi yesterday. This means Senbi was present when the explosion occurred, and he had written this note" Yuki displayed to an attending Aibo.

"but why would he want to kill himself and destroy his factory?, it would take an explosion of great magnitude to blow up both the factory and the surrounding houses" Aibo suggested. Yuki puzzled a second more, until she received a ringing phone call on her work desk.

"hello?" she answered.

"Yuki, this is the sergeant. I need you to report to headquarters at once. We have a new assignment for you" the voice replied across the phone.

"Aibo, I have to go, thanks for your assistance. You know where the door is" Yuki stammered as she rushed into her investigation outfit.

"miss, this could be dangerous, and you may need some help. Consider it a way of repaying your hospitality to me. I am coming with you" Aibo persuaded the changing Yuki to keep him on side. They exited the cottage quickly, then took to the new car and jetted off to the police headquarters.