A and K Chapter 62: Finding Clues

With the morning sun barely above the horizon, Kei, Josh, Shigure, Nick, and Saori join together.
Kei: Josh, I’m sure you’re already met Shigure. Please allow me to introduce Saori and Nick.
Nick: Greetings, I’m known as the police dog of Yamatsumi, or more recently the ‘Bloodhound of Yamatsumi’ after my recent promotion.
Kei: (Thinking) Oh shut up, show off.
Saori: My name is Saori, I’m just coming along.
Josh: Hi, I’m Josh… but people sometimes call me “the Big Bad Wolf” when I’m angry.
Kei: (Thinking) Thank merciful God Athena isn’t here.
Nick: Kei has taken the liberty of filling me in on all the details you provided him. So I imagine the first step would be starting at the last known location of your sister. Would you be able to take us there, Josh?
Josh: Um, sure… the last thing I remember of her is the orphanage we were in. Then I’ve lost her track.
Nick: How far away is this orphanage?
Josh: Conveniently for you, it’s in this city. Yamatsumi is my hometown as well.
Nick: Then lead the way, Josh.
Kei: (Whispering, to Shigure) Has that promotion gone to his head or what?
Shigure: (Whispering, to Kei) Easy Kei, Nick’s just happy he’s not regulated to desk work, I’m sure.
The group begin to travel to the orphanage.
Nick: How long of a walk are we looking at here?
Kei: Its gotta be a couple of hours, I would think. How far away is this orphanage, Josh?
Josh: It’s in the outskirts of this city.
Nick: So we’re talking about a four-hour walk from here.
Saori: Easy.
Kei: Very well, let’s get moving.
Shigure: How are your wounds holding up Kei?
Kei: They’re alright. I knew I was going to be sore for a while, but I’ll let you know if we have to stop for any reason.
Shigure nods. Meanwhile, at the house, Athena quietly enjoys her peace and quiet as she watches over Alexandria. Alexandria was simply watching the television.
Athena: Did you not watch a lot of television before you came here?
Alexandria: Not really.
Athena: Is there anything you’ve ever really wanted to do?
Alexandria: (Thinking, then aloud) Um...no?
Athena: Oh come on, surely there’s always something you’ve wanted to do.
Alexandria: Go swimming?
Athena: (Confused) You’ve never gone swimming?
Alexandria shakes her head.
Athena: Well, here’s an idea, why don’t we go swimming?
Alexandria: But I don’t have a swimsuit…
Athena: (evil glare) Not to worry, I’ll help you!
Later, at a nearby river, Alexandria had been dressed in a school swimsuit that Athena had.
Alexandria: Where’d you get this?
Athena: Oh I’ve always had it.
Alexandria: (Thinking, sarcastically) Yeah sure.
Athena: So, time to learn how to swim!
Alexandria: ...okay?
Alexandria seemed to be confused when Athena didn’t move.
Athena: So? Jump in?
Alexandria: Are you nuts? I don’t know how to swim!
Athena: Oh, right.
Alexandria: Somehow I don’t think you’re the right person for a swimming tutor.
Athena: Oh catnip, I’m just fine.
Alexandria: I’d be safer having someone else teach me.
Moments later, Aria had been roped into this endeavor. She wore a black swimsuit, comprised of shorts and a top she had, since she had refused to wear anything Athena would offer.
Aria: Tell me again, why am I here?
Athena: Cats don’t like water, Aria, someone has to help her.
Aria: But why me?
Athena: You weren’t doing anything.
Aria: I was meditating.
Athena: What’s meditating?
Aria: (sighing) Stupid cat…
Athena: Perhaps I should get someone else?
Aria: Please?
Moments later, Yui and Aria were now standing there in swimsuits. Yui wore a plain blue bikini and seemed happy to break it out.
Aria: (Greatly annoyed) HOW AM I STILL HERE?!
Yui: It's certainly been a while since I wore this.
Aria seemed distressed over still being stuck in a swimsuit.
Athena: Yui and Aria, you can teach Alexandria how to swim right?
Aria: You just wanted me in a swimsuit, didn’t you, Athena.
Athena: And if I say yes?
Aria: (Giving Athena the death glare) I’m going to kill you.
Athena laughs nervously.
Yui: (Stopping Aria) Easy, easy. We’re here for an important lesson on teaching Alexandria how to swim.
Alexandria: Preferably soon.
Elsewhere, the group finally arrives at the orphanage, having spent the last four hours on foot. The orphanage looked abandoned. Pieces of the building were falling apart, the windows were boarded up, and it didn’t sound like anyone was around.
Kei: So did the orphanage shut down?
Josh: I guess so. I wasn’t around when that happened
Nick: It's no surprise that it was. Its usually unlikely for orphanages like this to stay open long. A lot of them operate illegally.
Josh: (kicks the brick under his feet) Dammit… this has led us nowhere.
Nick: No, its a great place to start. If we’re lucky, we can find some of the documents still left over from adoptions. When some of these illegal places shut down, they don’t bother with unneeded paperwork.
Kei: So you think you can salvage something.
Nick: That’s the hope.
Josh: Huh… I guess so.
Nick: Josh and Saori, you’re with me. Kei and Shigure, stay out here.
Kei: (thinking) I don’t remember putting you in charge.
Shigure: Okay. We’ll be here.
Josh: Alright… (Thinking) I’m still not used to working with police dicks.
Nick, Josh, and Saori walk inside. The door easily fell over with the braces holding it up having broken and rusted over the years. Enough sunlight peered into the rickety orphanage that spiderwebs glistened under the light. The place hadn’t been touched in what looked like years. It was surprising someone hadn’t put up a ‘condemned’ sign on the front of the building.
Nick: Alright, Saori, you check upstairs. Josh, you’re with me.
Josh: Fine.
Saori: (shrugs) If you say so.
Saori moves up the rickety old stairs. Each step complained and moaned as if it had an issue with being walked on again. Josh and Nick moved towards the office. The window in the center of the door had shattered, and only cobwebs took the center of it now.
Nick: This place has certainly seen better days…
The door seemingly still worked. The two of them walked into the room. Nick, on instinct kept swiping his hand in front of his face, as webs were seemingly everywhere in the room.
Nick: Surprised this building has even survived and hasn’t collapsed on itself.
Josh: They used to make buildings to withstand more than just a breeze.
He puts his hand in his pocket and pulls out a strange object. He presses a button on it, and the thing in his hand turns into an elegant metallic baton. Nick takes notice of what Josh does.
Nick: What are you pulling that out for?
Josh: Just in case. If someone is going to attack us here, I will be prepared.
Nick pulls out his gun and checks its chambers and then keeps it in his hand.
Nick: You make a good point.
Nick makes his way, to what he believes, is a filing cabinet, he blows off the dust.
Nick: (coughing) Goodness, way too much dust.
Josh opens the cabinet and pulls out all files he could find.
Josh: I suppose we found something.
Nick: See if a file on your sister is somewhere in there.
Josh reads through files until he finds the one he needs.
Josh: Here. Looks like she was adopted by… dammit, the name was erased. Who would do that?
Nick: Could’ve been anyone, really. But its odd, who would have the incentive to want to erase what family adopted her, unless someone didn’t want her to be found.
Josh: I don’t know… anything could happen.
Nick: Well, hold on to the file all the same, who knows how useful it could be.
Josh: (puts the file in his shoulder bag) Yeah, I guess.
Nick: I imagine there’s not much else here we can find, we might as well go see if Saori was able to find anything.
Josh: We’ll see.
The two exit the office, and they can hear only one set of footsteps above them.
Nick: Sounds like she’s hard at work up there.
Josh: Hm… I guess we should help her.
Nick nods. The two proceed up the stairs. Despite all the dust and spiderwebs, they don’t have to bother with most of them. As they reach the top, they are surprised to see that Saori was in fact, on the ground, as opposed to moving around.
Nick: Saori?!
Josh: Hey, miss!
Saori rubs her head as she comes to. Nick and Josh move over to her.
Nick: Are you alright?
Saori: (Nodding) I’m fine, just a little ringing in my ears.
Josh: What happened?
Saori: I was knocked out from behind. The person must have climbed through the window. I imagine the back window over there. Kei and Shigure would have seen someone climbing through the front.
Nick quietly moves to the back window, and sure enough, there are fingerprints and places where its clearly visible where someone had been. Nick, ever the detective, pulls out a small case.
Saori: What are you doing?
Nick: I have to be quick about dusting for fingerprints. If I can get a good print, we can run it.
He powders the spot, and then lightly brushes off the excess dust. He then puts the duster away, and uses a special device to lift the fingerprint off the windowsill.
Nick: At the very least, we can give this to the precinct I work at and get some kind of clue as to who else might have a vested interest in this old place.
Nick puts the special device away.
Nick: Josh, can you think of anyone else who would come by here? Beside us, I mean.
Josh: Hm… I guess that was someone who wanted to find something here as well.
Josh picks Saori up and then puts her on the ground, dusting her clothes.
Josh: Here you go.
Saori: Its appreciated.
Nick: Could be anyone, then. perhaps even someone who wanted the same thing as we did.
Josh: Maybe…
Josh takes a silver medallion out of his shirt’s collar and looks at it for a second.
Josh: That’s something we have to figure out.
Nick: We’ll have to be careful moving forward, they might be after exactly the same thing that we just took from that filing cabinet.
Josh: Yeah, we gotta be careful.
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Category:Novel Chapter