Kingo was a bit off balance.

 

 

 

The truth was, the cop wasn't bad looking. Yeah, she didn't care about her appearance that much, but she still had that healthy glow of someone taking care of her body over all. Kingo wouldn't admit it, but there was something about a woman in uniform that was enticing. So it was little wonder that when the police officer started to check his crotch for contraband, he had an obvious reaction.

 

The officer turned Kingo around and gave his crotch another quick grab, "So what sort of weapon you got in there?"

 

Kingo blushed furiously and looked away. Through gritted teeth he hissed, "That's all me and I'm sort of in a committed relationship." He looked up at her with a baleful glare, "Normally I wouldn't mind but I'm trying to get this girl to go out with me and it just doesn't feel right." With a flex from his shoulders, He pushed himself off the wall and out into the room. Turning to face her with his arms still handcuffed behind his back, he moved to put the table between himself and officer Nagai, "Can we get back to this joke of an arrest?"

 

The officer titled her head to the side, "There you are..." She walked up to  the table, grabbing the edge with one hand and abruptly shoving it to the side, "Rolling up your sleeves..." She slowly stalked closer, "And making all sorts of demands. How DID you expect this to play out?"

 

Kingo backed up and away, looking around to see that there was no place to retreat to except for the corner of the room, "Sleeves? What are-" He paused for a heartbeat as something dawned on him, "Oh. Sleeves. I keep forgetting about that."

 

Kim stalked up to Kingo and dragged a finger up and down one of his exposed arms, "You keep forgetting that you are basically asking me to drop the charges in exchange for sex?"

 

Kingo's eyes became the size of dinner plates, "What???" I- Uh..." He pressed himself back into the corner of the room, "I- Uh. Wait. I-" His eyes flickered up and down Officer Nagai's body, "Not to say you aren't appealing, but- " He let out a burst of nervous laughter, "Any other day I might take you up on this, but-" He turned to look away, his face turning an ever deeper shade of crimson.

 

Kim slowly shook her head and put a finger under his chin to force him to look back at her, "I am so impressed." He blinked at her in confusion as she continued, "How do you pull off blushing like a virgin?"

 

Kingo's expression shifted to one of annoyance, "HEY! I ain't no virgin!" The force of his declaration actually made her back up a step in surprise, "Naora and I-" He cut himself off. His face fell and he looked at the floor, "Naora." He squeezed his eyes shut, "This is all so screwed up."

 

Officer Nagai was about to ask a question when there was a furious pounding at the door. She snapped her head over to the entrance, then back at Kingo, then kept her eyes on him as she walked over, "I'm in the middle of an-"

 

The voice on the other side shouted, "Kim! Open the fuck up! NOW!"

 

Kim opened the door and the first officer stepped in right past her. The first officer looked at Kingo, "Hey! What's the name of that disease your support group all has?"

 

Kingo looked a little puzzled, "Huh? Oh. Uh... Ichikawa said something... They wanted to name it after her but..." He squinted and looked at the ceiling, "Sarah Disease? No. Sahara disease."

 

The first officer winced, "You mean Shiraha Disease?"

 

Kingo snapped his fingers behind his back, "That's it."

 

The first officer turned, grabbed Officer Nagai by the arm and hauled her out of the room. The door slammed behind them leaving a very puzzled Kingo all alone.

 

---

 

"Kimoto Toshi?"

 

 

Toshi had stepped outside the satellite station and started to wave his phone about, trying to find some bars. As he started to head towards the stairs and had just found a bar as someone spoke to him from behind. He turned around to find a rather short man. He appeared to be the same height as Toshi, yet had to be nearly twenty five. He was holding up a badge in Toshi's face, "You are Kimoto Toshi, correct?"

 

Toshi blinked at the badge and nodded, "Yes. Is there a development with my friend?" Toshi took a step back to look at the man before him. He stood out as a little strange. He was wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a rather frumpy brown trench coat. Around his neck he had a rather shiny brown scarf that looked glittery when viewed at different angles. The overall appearance was as if this guy was expecting to deal with a blizzard, which was unusual considering the warm weather and the lack of rain.

 

The officer shrugged, "I don't know anything about that. I'm from the computer forensics department. I know your mother." He held out a hand, "Officer Mukai Yori."

 

Toshi blinked again. Much, much harder this time, "You do?"

 

Yori closed his eyes and nodded once, "Indeed. I have orders to collect you." He gestured to the stairs leading up out of the station platform to the street, "I have a car waiting."

 

Toshi narrowed his eyes and took another step backwards, "Collect me? Why-"

 

Officer Mukai cut off Toshi, "Look. She's very busy. She has no time to deal with... whatever this is. She gave me strict orders to come get you and, I quote, 'If you have to arrest him to drag him here, then do so. I will deal with the consequences.' unquote." Toshi's jaw dropped as Yori continued, "I think she's quite angry that you were brought in for questioning in what appears to be a case of underage prostitution."

 

Toshi flinched, "She... knows about that?"

 

Yori nodded, "Nothing enters the computer system about you that your mother doesn't know."

 

Toshi pointed to the station, "But my friends are in trouble. Can I at least go in and tell them-"

 

The officer held up his badge again, "I like my job. I follow my orders. Do I need to cuff you?"

 

Toshi sighed and shook his head, "Ugh. Fine." He started to take out his phone, but the officer snatched it out of Toshi's hands, "There is already news about this on the internet. I'm supposed to keep you from making things worse until she can talk to you directly." He slipped it into a trench coat pocket and repeated his gesture to the stairs, "If you don't mind..."

 

Toshi seemed to collapse in on himself as he gritted his teeth and winced at the same time, "It's... on the internet?"

 

He nodded, "Why do you think she's so pissed?" He took Toshi by the elbow, turned him around, and started to walk Toshi up the stairs.

 

---

 

Meanwhile, in the Police Satellite Station, the clerk whose job was to handle the phone lines and monitor the cameras was puzzled. He was watching the kid who had walked out of the station and was apparently trying to find some bars for his phone when the camera started acting funny. He looked at it and tapped the monitor as suddenly it started getting darker. He tilted his head to the side and looked at it, then started typing on his computer.

 

It took a minute to figure out that something was wrong with the detector. For some reason, the camera thought someone was shining a laser directly into it, switched to night vision, and had turned down the brightness to compensate. This resulted in the picture growing darker and darker until, basically, there was nothing to see but shifting blobs of blackness. For about a minute, the operator played around with the controls, trying to fix the camera when, abruptly, everything went back to normal.

 

 

 

The kid he was looking at was gone.

 

 

 

The operator cycled through the cameras to see if there was a chance the kid had come back inside. There was no evidence that he was anywhere inside the station. A chill went up the operator's spine. On an impulse he turned on the link to the cameras that were spread through out the station. There was one camera just outside the subway entrance that was completely black, just like the camera that went black in front of the station.

 

The operator jumped up and grabbed his radio, "Something is going on outside! Someone watch the phones!" He started to bolt out. The other female officers watched him rush out, a little puzzled. The new guy was cute and all, but he was so high strung. He needed to relax. The desk sergeant wanted to ask what was going on, but the operator had already rushed out the front and was sprinting away.

 

He was breathing heavy as he ran up the stairs and out onto the street. He looked around, his hand on his taser as he checked around, trying to see if anything suspicious was going on. Everyone was just going about their business as if nothing was going on. He relaxed his grip on his weapon as he walked over to look up at the camera that was acting funny, then turned to look at where it was pointing. It was aimed at the area in general. Then he noticed something that caught his eye. He walked over to the trashcan that was near the center of the camera's field of view and noticed something odd. Someone had shoved a brown scarf partially into the trash, but left most of it hanging down the side.

 

 

When he picked it up, he couldn't help but notice a strange metallic thread that had been woven into the scarf that gave it a rather bright sheen.