National Journalism

February 24

A couple of days have passed since the end of the school year. And although I would like to announce progress in our investigation, the truth is that we have not been able to advance in almost anything. Besides that for now we have less help than usual because the inspector is currently busy with more paperwork about what happened at the dam so he doesn't have time to help us. Xian is on vacation after what happened, she will be back when classes come back.

The only thing we have been able to get out was once again thanks to Charlotte and Kazumi, they thoroughly checked Matsumoto Chemicals, but they couldn't find anything important. By parting several days before the attack on the dam, the I.S.C bought a lot of things outside of the commercial agreement they have. Basically, the I.S.C bought almost everything that had not been sold in advance to other companies. Although we know that this was due to their plan to attack the dam where Matsumoto Chemicals used to draw electricity to work, there is nothing illegal or that can tell us what to look for. Unfortunately, as I said before, the I.S.C bought almost everything in general, so the purchase invoice was absurdly large and everything was used to create almost anything, from explosives to pool cleaning products. There was no way to see what they would use them for. It also seems that according to the inventories made by various containers are disappearing from their warehouses every time they do the inventory, but for some reason, they do not seem to worry about the theft of those things. But once again the missing things are a bit of everything to know what they plan.

There was nothing we could do at the moment and that was frustrating me. I could not rest easy knowing that the I.S.C has the advantage and the nerve to attack at any time without repercussions. Feeling uneasy, I thought about taking a tour alone of their headquarters, the Raven's Tower, stupidly believing that perhaps I would thus be able to discover something. Even though I had the idea of maybe entering the building and forced my way to be able to investigate, I could help, thinking better of that, it was not very difficult to realize that that would not do any good and would only bring me more problems in the future. The result of my trip? a wasted day like the previous ones. 

On the way back I got thirsty so I stopped in the park near my house to buy a drink from a machine, then I sat on a bench to be able to drink calmly. My house is pretty close to here, so I can see my house from here. And just as I was thinking that I realized something very peculiar. There was a girl on another bench with a table, in it there were several snack packages and a large bottle of juice, all empty, indicating that she had already had time there, but her eyes did not leave a particular address, my house. 

What the hell! was she watching us? The girl's appearance was that of a woman in her 25s, she wore a white long-sleeved shirt and black suspender shorts, she wore glasses and had brown hair. Her physical appearance was slender she did not seem to be ready to fight, but she saw she looked fragile She also had an open bundle with several notebooks but paying attention I could see a photo camera as well. She didn't seem like someone who could pose a danger, but I couldn't ignore this either, not after everything that's happened these days. So he decided to try to see what she was doing in the park.

I approached silently from behind, and just when I was behind her without her noticing my presence I spoke aloud to her scaring her.

" Spying on others wasit's rude  and wrong" I said trying to sound innocent and more like a young girl according to my appearance to make her lower his guard.

"Ahhh"
"What a scare you gave me  girl"
"I don't expect that"
"But I'm not spying, I'm doing my job"
"You see, I am a journalist and I am currently investigating for my next publication in the newspaper"

"Do you work in the newspaper"
"And what could be here that appears in the newspaper? "

"Well I'm currently investigating something that happened with that house over there"
"Tell me are you from around here?"
"Do you know anything about that house?"

Got damn, she's investigating us. This may not be good, but how did she find out? Wait, she's asking me if I'm from here, she's probably asking me something, maybe I can get information from her if I play along.

"Well yes, they are my neighbors, they moved here recently" I answered in a way that maybe she would see me with more interest.

"You knew that that land used to be owned by the government, but as you can see now it is being occupied by that idiot North American army officer. "
"She sure to use some dirty method to take over the place"

"Well, as I understand it, they are not from the United States, they are Latin American, they speak Spanish."

"That is even worse!"
"Those damn foreigners must be even more intolerant of our culture than I thought"
"What else can come of people who come from a place as poor as Mexico"
"They are surely part of a drug cartel"

"You know, not all Latin Americans are from Mexico, there are more countries on that continent, and the lady works in the coffee shop across the block "

"Listen well girl and learn it now that you are still young"
"Foreigners are a threat to our country, to our culture"
"Outside our borders, there are countries that want to take our resources and replace our way of thinking with one that fits their needs"
"It is for those that you and I must work together to be able to get those taco eaters out of our territory"
"But don't worry, I have a plan to do that and save our homeland!"

I took the safety off my gun. I was just one more word away from making that person disappear.

"And what do you know about them that can be used to get news to get them out of the country?"I said trying to contain the urge to shoot her in the face 

"So you were paying attention to your older sister, that's good"
"Now listen, a couple of days ago there was a shooting in this same place between those stupid indigenous people of the forest and the yakuza who died bravely trying to defend our home"

Damn!
What you need is to find Jesus, girl.

"That February 14 it was my turn to report the news"
"Since the police did not want to give me the names of the heroes, I decided better to focus on the testimonies of the neighbors, so I ignored it that day"
"But back in the office do some research on the property that the events occurred, look it up in a slightly old property file"
"And that's where it appeared!"
"That property was formerly owned by the government"
"It looks like they were just administrative offices, but that's not the point!"
"That place was ours!"
"Investigating the purchase I came across several dead ends, as the property changed hands several times in a very short time"
"At the end of the trip, there was a law firm in Los Angeles"
"But when asked about the property they denied having it"
"To cut a long story short, using my journalistic skills I managed to get a name, a lady named Adelis is the current owner of that property"
"Finding information about it is undoubtedly quite difficult, as it is not something easy to locate or that appears on the internet"
"The most that I manage to get out of her seems that she is somehow related in the chain of command of the Alliance"

Okay, despite her horrible prejudice towards foreigners this girl is pretty good as a journalist. It is so much that she even she could win the maximum trophy to journalism, be disappeared by some agent of national security. Hell, I'm even thinking of making her disappear myself for fear that she'll find out something else. And worst of all, she doesn't seem to be aware that what she just said is not a topic to talk to an unknown girl in a park. She has felt how it seems that she is a genius in some parts and an idiot in others. But this can serve me well because if I manage to guide her where I want, she does her job and I just steal her homework I could maybe make some progress.

"Well, the lady of that house has been talking something about what the I.S.C. owes her"
"But I don't know what, what I do know is that since the day of the fight she has been more nervous about something" I said trying to bait her.

"The I.S.C again?"
"It is not the first time that his name appears in events like these"
"But all this could not happen overnight, that Brandon must know what happened to those boxes."
"In addition, there is the sudden visit of Mr. Raven to the police station of that time."
"But if so, that also means that the strange girl who was in her office yesterday would have something to do with it as well."
"But to find out, I must first find proof of the infidelity of the guard's wife so that his companion lets me pass."
"I also may need use a mini spy camera, but the store owner will not give it to me until I cancel my previous debt and for that, I need an advance on my pay and for that, I need to get something out ahead of time"
"I still have that news saved about the food at the school that the neighbor goes ....."
"...."
"...."

The journalist began to speak to herself at an alarming speed, almost impossible for a non-native like me to understand. From what little I could understand at first it seemed that everything was related to the same thing that she was investigating all this time.

"Okay, it might work!"
"Girl you have no idea how much you helped me today"
"You could certainly be of help to me in the future and get those troublesome foreigners out of here once and for all"
"Don't you want to exchange phone numbers?"
"If you help me with my work, I can get you things that are difficult to achieve, such as tickets to the premiere day of a famous movie so that you can go with your friends or your boyfriend"

"OK"

"Don't use that word, it's another one of those things that the Yankees try to impose."

Are you not aware of how ironic you just said right?

"By the way, I forgot to ask your name!"
"May I know what it is?"

"My name is Nanami, I am living with my parents in that house over there" I lied to her so that she would continue to view me favorably

"Well my name is Nozomi Yasuda, I work for Nichibotsu no taiyō Shimbun newspaper"  she said cheerfully 

"I hope those movie tickets arrive soon, Miss Nozomi Yasuda"

"Don't worry, I'll give them to you next time we meet" she said as she laughed a little when she saw the problem she had gotten herself into. 

After talking with the journalist, I returned to my house and immediately told my mother about her. My mother did not pay much attention to it, arguing that she could try to search for everything she wanted but that she would not find anything. Although we decided not to risk it anyway and asked the twins to watch her a bit. Seeming like they were paying attention to our conversation and moving ahead a bit, Charlotte responded by saying that Mrs. Nozomi Yasuda works part-time at a movie theater in Shibuya, so you didn't have to be very smart to know why she offered me movie tickets. 

As night fell everyone in the house was doing the usual. My mother was in the living room watching her novel, Maria was with her also watching. Momo was working on improving the system to connect my daughters to the internet with a strong emphasis on data transfer speed. Charlotte was trying to learn how to make flower arrangements from Tamamo. For my part, I was trying to build a shoe rack with the help of Kazumi at the entrance of the house because now there were too many people living here to have them messy. When suddenly the doorbell of the house rang, since I was the closest to the door, I quickly put on my hat and my jacket for the waist that I always leave hanging at the entrance and opened to see who it was, because it was probably someone piece of equipment that Momo had asked for. But we were all surprised to see who it was.

"Good evening, I am glad to see that you are all well."
"Let me introduce myself my name is Stella and ....."

I Immediately close the door as fast and hard as I could, trying uselessly to keep bad luck away from our house.