GFP 037: The Deep Sea

“Where is she?!” Noguchi roared.

“I… I’ve lost her…” Ishikawa replied weakly through the speakers. “I think she put a face mask on or something. I got confused.”

“Are you telling me you let a non-breathing house maid botte… put on a face mask she doesn’t need… and vanished into Suidobashi Station???”

“It was loud! You know how it is here, boss. The train does that thump-thump, clackety-clack rhythm. I couldn’t focus…”

“You are the most incompetent, useless little fuck this agency has ever hired. aho! baka! kutabare!”

“Sir,” Ishikawa whined, “There’s no need…”

“No, you little shit.” Noguchi leaned into the monitor, as if he could wring Ishikawa’s pixelated neck through the glass. “You listen to me. You’re terminated. Effective immediately. Don’t even come in to hand in your badge. You can mail it in for all I care. Shinjimae!”

Noguchi tore off his ear piece and threw it into the screen overseeing Suidobashi Station’s East Entrance. It smashed into Ishikawa’s dumbfounded open mouth and then bounced off limply, broken, useless and sad.

He had no idea why his boss, Matsuda, would put hetakuso new recruits on this detail. But he did. And now it was up to fifty-five-years-old-and-still-not-promoted-to-Chief-Superintendent Noguchi. Reliable-but-never-good-enough-for-MPD-internal-heads Noguchi-san.

How would Noguchi tell his superiors about tonight? How a botte fled a crime scene, vanished in spite of a coordinated pursuit… and excised her own trackers while running?

The short answer is: He can’t.

Noguchi will get shit on from above and he will grin graciously as he receives it all.

“Chikushō,” Noguchi muttered under his breath.

His eyes darted from one flatscreen to another. Maybe he can catch her leaving another station. Chuo or Mita line? Which one is it little girl?

The problem was, with four different directions, within one stop, the Tokyo JR lines diverged into seven other possible lines. In two stops, another two lines. Three stops? You might as well supervise every line and every station.

Noguchi was left with no choice. He had to call it in. Admit his failure and get backup.