[Case One] The Curious Case of the Whip and Sword

3:00 PM YST

In the end, Araiah had asked Sierra to drive the police car to the scene -- a thirty-minute endeavor of which they had completed only ten. It was in downtown Kyoto, in a warehouse that had been left mostly unattended since the Battle of Yamatai had presumably killed whoever had owned it.

Araiah shared with them the details: several bodies had been found bound together in an enclosed section of empty crates by a pair of curious Gakuen students that had escaped classes for the day. Nothing more could be told, or at least nothing else had been said to Araiah.

"I'd like you to each begin with some theories -- what could have happened, when, and why?" Araiah asked loudly.

---

"So you're Yoketsumaru Gertrude? Lieutenant Araiah said that you'd stop by." The Nekovalkyrja YNP officer pressed a button on one of the cordon posts, deactivating the alarm on the door. "Looks like you get first crack, Jenny is inside taking pictures. She can give you the details, Agent Yoketsumaru."

The warehouse was large, but rather unremarkable despite its size. It had once been painted a pale shade of pink, with steel doors with old-style knobs to open them. In several places the Yamataian sun had begun working on the paint, bleaching it and beginning to peel it off. The surrounding warehouses and adjoining street that allowed entry into the block were in no better repair, and a stray dog sat in the midst of the three YNP units parked in the alley.

Overall, it was one of the dreariest parts of Kyoto, and arguably of Yamatai.

Sashi gazed out the window of the car at the passing structures while he put the information down in his mind. He frowned a little at his reflection in the window and put his knuckles underneath his chin.

"With so little information, it could be anything." He said. His tone suggested an eagerness to actually arrive at the scene. He struck the bangs from his face with a wandering finger before continuing, "Of the top of my head, I'd say organ traffic. Maybe serial murder."

"Thanks for the update Officer"

Trudy said to the YNP Neko, giving her a little wave of thanks as she passed through the door. The sound of her heeled boots echoed throughout the warehouse as she made her way to, or at least she assumed was, Jenny.

Agent Yoketsumaru, Its gonna take a while to get used to that. Trudy thought, as she took out her data pad and opened one of her many checklist neatly.

"Well i can check off half of this, seeing as i skipped it coming here ahead of schedule" she said to her self, marking things off of her list, "....wish i was dressed more appropriately too..."

While looking down at her current attire, a hot pink and black motorcycle jumpsuit with black high heeled biker boots, she nearly collided with Jenny, stopped only by Jenny's voice asking if she could help. Trudy's ears perked up and let out a startled squeak as Jenny's remark, sending her back to reality and then quickly composed herself.

"Ahem, ah yes, yes you can, can you fill me in a bit about the victims? Oh sorry where are my manners, you are Jenny I presume? Agent Yoketsumaru Gertrude, though you can call me Trudy." Trudy said with a quick bow. Opening up a new page in her data pad Trudy's ears perked up, this time in less startled state, as she readied herself to jot down this new information.

Sierra glanced over at the Lieutenant for a moment before returning her attention to the road. From what Araiah had told her, they had almost nothing in terms of information and it seemed unprofessional to try and draw speculation at this point.

"No offense ma'am," she spoke up, "but it seems a little early in the case to be drawing speculation, at least for my taste. I'd prefer to wait until I have some evidence in front of me before I start drawing conclusions.

"Oh, that is true, Sierra-san." Sashi was poking his head between the seats now. "However; I prefer to spout theories at every possible juncture." The young agent explained, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them.

"In my experience, the theories of others are always what gives the one who solves the case his intuition."

Sashi was removing his uniform gloves as he spoke, in favor of a pair of synthetic gloves made to preserve evidence.

"I don't mean to be indignant, Miss. I just want to provide my point of view."

"Yes, I am Jenny. You're lucky -- I just got done taking pictures. I'll just flash them over to your datajockey, then..." Jenny was a short Yamataian girl with shoulder-length green hair, and her smile seemed non-existent.

The reason for her melancholy was clear -- seven bodies, bound together around their waists and elbows in a tight pile. They were obviously fresh, as these things went, and at least one had had some sort of surgery or torture done on them: a gaping hole from back to front where their kidney should have been. The kidney-less corpse had clearly been the one to bleed out across the floor, and all over her 'friends' in death. It was less clear because of the blood and because the bleeder was on top what had happened to the rest.

Each had a thin, close-fitting necklace on their necks, and all appeared to be either Nepleslian or Geshrin.

"A pair of Gakuen students that were skipping classes ran into the warehouse to poke around for some fun or somesuch... They found the bodies because of the smell. That must have been, oh, three hours ago? We took them to the local station here, rather than a YNP building. Any questions you have that I might be able to answer, Agent?" Jenny asked, successfully transferring the pictures and slipping her thin digital camera into a small bag at her hip. She wore the traffic vest of the YNP, and shone a bright orange and yellow in the light. "Oh, also, I have some extra evidence gloves if you need them."

----

"Here!" Araiah said, pointing to an exit ramp. "Warehouses down that-a-way."

And they were: rows and rows and rows of them. Dozens, if not at least a hundred or more large warehouses occupied a lot between skyscrapers. Roads barely big enough for trucks criss-crossed in a grid through them, and would fit the YNP police car well.

"Anyway, you're both boring. My guess is either a Kaserine incident -- those are always fun -- or maybe slavers, though those are less rare these days. Maybe even an NMX terrorist cell operating in the area. These are the typical sorts of things we'll be investigating. Anyway, you're both right in that we won't find out in the car. So let's hurry up and meet a new agent in the Unit I had sent ahead of us," Araiah said, slipping on her glasses with a grin.

"None at the moment Jenny but as things get rolling here I may have some more." Trudy said tying her twintails into a bun to keep it out of the way. "Though i will grab those extra gloves from you if you don't mind."

Grabbing the offered evidence gloves from Jenny, Trudy went to work poking around the bodies for any other clues. "Well who or whatever did this, was defiantly after organs seeing as this one is missing a few." She said looking at the kidnyless corpse, "The only thing that's bugging me is this necklace their all wearing, seems to be the thing linking them together, aside from species that is."

Trudy took a step back to let all of the information sink in a bit so she could get a better grasp of the situation and maybe come up with some more theories.

"Oh trust me Araiah-sama, I'm loads of fun," Sierra said with a bit of emphasis on the word "fun." Grinning, she turned her eyes back to the road and added a little more pressure to the gas. Speaking of fun, I never got a good look at the agent in back. Sierra turned her head to the side, getting a quick glace at the agent in back. Not the cutest, but not bad either. Having a good mind between those ears always helps too.

"Slavers, this far from the Colonial Expanse? Ariah-sempai, you must be reaching." Sashi nudged at the Lieutenant's seat and poked his head between the seats again. "You may be very right, of course. My brief experiences with YSA agents suggest that not much is done to keep slaves from moving into the core. They seem to be more concerned with tobacco smugglers coming in and slavers going out."

As they entered the massive warehouse complex, Sashii leaned back again and took renewed interest with the view out the window.

"Yare-yare..." He muttered, counting the side-roads as they whizzed by, "There's so many of them. Who owns all these buildings?"

"Oh, corporations and private entities of every sort, and even a few noble houses I'd assume. It's a big yard," Araiah said with a shrug. "Anyway, we're here, pull over by those other YNP cars."

((Refer back to first post for description.))

---

"Looks like a slave collar to me," Jenny said. She had packed her camera away with a rustle of fabric and the unmistakable sound of a zipper.

"Need anything else, Agent?"

"Slave Collar eh?" Trudy said, carefully removing one from one of the bodies and placing it in an evidence bag. "This may have gotten a bit more interesting, thank you for your time Officer Jenny, I don't believe I need anything else from you at this moment I'll wait for the other to get here before deducing anything solid."

As she sealed up the evidence bag she could hear the sound of another YNP car pull up out side. Looks like i finally get to meet everyone Trudy thought, trying to make herself as professional as possible (though it was somewhat hard in a pink and black biker suit) I hope they don't hit my bike by accident just repainted it last week....

Sierra navigated the field of warehouses until she came up on the one that Araiah had indicated. Once they arrived she pulled the squad car up next to the other ones and turned off the engine. Stepping out of the car, she slammed the door behind her and put on a pair of sunglasses that she pulled from her pocket.

Sashi exited the car and strode a broad circle to come alongside Sierra, his eyes still taking in the magnitude of the warehouse district. Although he seemed to be interested in the area, it didn't take long for his gaze to wander to the warehouse entrance. He knelt on the ground and peered carefully around the threshold, his gloved fingers splayed over the pleats of his slacks.

"Remember, thirty percent of officers miss evidence because it's outside of the crime scene." He reminded himself aloud. His eyes dug towards the door; looking for footprints, stray scuff-marks, evidence of vehicles, evidence of loading activities, and even the off chance of a simple blood trail to sample from.

A small smudge of dark that appeared at first as some sort of dirt spot or dried paint. The closer Sashi looked, the more detail that came to light -- fine, wavy lines identified the smudge as a bloody fingerprint. Other than that, there was no trace of anything.

"Konichiwa," Jenny greeted Sashi with a bow, and seeing Araiah and Sierra bowed again. "I've briefed Agent Trudy on the scene. Now, if you don't need anything else, Kurumi-san and I will take our leave. Radio in when you're finished here, please, so HQ can dispatch a final forensics and cleanup team."

That said, the YNP officer that had been eying Sashi oddly as he examined the door and Jenny got into their police unit and exited the warehouse.

--

The moment Trudy removed the collar, it activated, luckily missing her hand. Wet needles shot out instantaneously inward from the collar, and were obviously designed to puncture the airway of the slave and important arteries. If a slave had tried to remove a collar themselves, they would likely have drowned on their own blood.

At the entrance, Jenny could be heard greeting someone.

Trudy nearly dropped the necklace as the needles shot out of it.

"Well now that's a pleasant surprise."

She said sarcastically holding the slave necklace closer for a better look. As she tucked the necklace back into a non ripped evidence bag, taking great care to seal and fold it perfectly nice and even, she whipped out her datajockey and began to run some cross references on any current slave trafficking groups to see if they used this particular brand of collar.

"Hopefully whoever did this left a call sign of some sort with these collars, or I can easily trace down who makes them for further questioning"

Trudy said to herself, fingers flying on her data jockey pulling up any info she could on slaves and slave collars in the region. after a few moments of searching she heard Jenny talking to someone near the entrance. Trudy nearly forgot that she was getting into a new unit today and if she had a tail it would be wagging with excitement though her face didn't show it.

Sashi squinted his eyes at the print coming into focus as his hand idly waved to Jenny. That was secondary now. Sashi removed a Type 31 Science Scanner from his belt and hovered it over the print for a moment. It didn't take the machine long to log the print and form a digital model of it. Sashi left it at that and returned the machine to his belt in exchange for a thin piece of film, which he pressed gently down onto the print before sliding it into a small case and dropping it into his waist pocket, where his evidence bags lay, still dormant.

Standing, he stated, "Print." Simply, yet not sharply. Next, Sashi let his eyes take another quick sweep over the doorway before passing through it and into the warehouse.

Sierra watched Sashi with fascination. She had never been to a real crime scene before, so it was interesting to watch the older agents at work. Once Sashi was finished, she followed him into the warehouse, taking a quick glance at his rear end as they entered. She grinned.

Araiah slipped on her glasses with a grunt of approval at Sashi's find and followed in.

The only change to the mound of bodies was the lack of a collar on one and a fly that had landed softly on the cheek of a dead Nepleslian woman.

"Agent Trudy-san? I'm Lieutenant Araiah, the young woman here is Sierra-san, and the young man is Sashi-san. Unfortunately you're partnerless in the unit officially for now, but feel free to call on one of us for help... What have you found so far?" She stepped closer to the bodies, and kneeled down to inspect them.

"Only one of them has had something... removed. And these slave collars activated on the rest of them. Only one bleeder..." She mumbled, waiting for Trudy's answer. She slipped on some gloves and began probing the mass.

"Ooh ooh," Sierra pipped up. "I know that one. Uhm..." She squinted her eyes and rubbed her forehead as she thought really hard. "Oh! A substantial difference in the comparative amount of blood depletion between multiple casualties asserts that the injuries inflicted upon those casualties with the inferior amount of blood displacement were inflicted post-mortem." She opened her eyes and looked back at the others, removing her hand from her forehead and placing at back at her side.

"Did I get that one right?"

Araiah looked up when Sierra spoke. "Yes... The thing is, none of the others look to have a mark on them, except for the collars," She turned back to them, and reached for the knot of the binding rope to undo them.

"Might as well get a better look. Sierra, you have some sort of camera ready?"