IKAHO TOWN, GUNMA, JAPAN

AUGUST 24TH

20:45

After talking to the police girl the couple walked outside the hotel, towards their gardens, when they arrived outside they checked their surroundings a bit, making sure there were no police around, but mainly people listening to their conversation. The man took out a pack of cigarettes from one of his pockets and lit it, while trying to sort out his thoughts. His partner was trying to hide her nervousness by trying to act as tough and cool as possible, something she was quite good at, she was checking her phone, she was checking various data before reporting.

"That police girl, Kaori Sato"

"She doesn't exist, it's a fake identity, there is no Kaori Sato in Shibukawa police department."

"Her badge number belongs to Mr. Satoshi Tanaka, 5 years of service, the scariest thing is that he was deployed right here, he is the policeman guarding the arcade door" said Akane worriedly while informing her partner"

"The girl was very well dressed, her whole outfit was official Japanese police equipment."

"I'm also sure the face she had was one of the investigators taking pictures of the arcade."

"I saw her for a moment before talking to that officer Kaori."

"It was almost like seeing the same person twice," Gomez replied as he looked around the rest of the yard."

"A spy killed our man?"

"No doubt she's doing something strange, but her actions don't make any sense at all."

"If she killed our man, why risk passing herself off as a cop?"

"Why don't you just run the hell out of here?"

"Unless it's ...."

"Someone trying to figure out what happened as well as us."

"Or perhaps someone helping to cover up a crime committed by someone else"

The sliding door moved suddenly, a person came out of it into the garden as well, it was the old Inspector, who was looking to rest a while from the pile of questions that the detectives asked him, in his hand, he had a bottle of sake, a tokkuri with its corresponding set of glasses, he wanted to drink a little to relax. But when he noticed the couple and an eyebrow on his forehead twitched in surprise, then his hand followed him with a greeting.

"But wow, what do we have here"

"I never thought I would see you again Mr. Gomez."

"And much less on a day like today, what a big surprise for me!"

"You are right Mr. Yamamoto, it has been a long time since Moldova."

"Oh right, it's been 30 years since then?"

"How can we forget being chased by the KGB through the streets of Tiraspol?"

"I see you made it to old age, it is good to see that the 15-year-old did learn well what I taught him"

"Well, what can I say, I had a good teacher."

"I would never have survived my second mission if it wasn't for you."

"But tell me seeing as you're with Miss Akane, I can assume you're now working for the private sector"

"You've come to investigate what happened to Mr. Takahashi Shuichi?"

"That is correct."

"After leaving the organization and NATO I was lucky to meet a great promoter and investor who became interested in my career and now I work directly for him doing what I do best"

"What about you Mr. Yamamaoto?"

"I heard recently that you lost your daughter in a traffic accident near here"

"I am very sorry for your loss"

"I am also very sorry for her death"

"...."

"But I can't undo the past, now I just have to go on and move forward"

Yamamoto took his bottle and placed it next to them, took several glasses from the set, and divided them among the three of them. The Inspector poured himself a drink from the sake bottle.

"A drink among friends, please pour yourselves and fill your glasses to your heart's desire, that's how westerners usually do it, right?" And he immediately drank his entire glass of sake.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Gomez and Akane each poured their drinks from the bottle as the inspector insisted. They both drank the offered drink at the same time, but instead of the smooth, aromatic, and well-balanced drink expected of it, instead a soft and almost bitter taste replaced it, but not enough to say that something was wrong, probably just poorly preserved. The Inspector who was pouring himself a second cup noticed it this time and spat out its contents.

"Agh, this Sake tastes awful"

"I can't believe I just paid 3,000 yen for this crap."

"This is not good enough for me to at least celebrate" said Inspector Yamamoto as he poured the rest of the contents of the bottle into the garden next to a tree.

"What a rude gesture for a Japanese person like you Mr. Yamamoto" Gomez stressed.

"Rude the one who made that drink and sold it."

"But hey, what's done is done, right?"

"There will be no way to find it and it won't hurt anyone else."

"It is just as you say, Mr. Yamamoto."

"In fact I also found out that you are staying here with Emiko's daughter, your granddaughter."

"Isn't she with two of her school friends?"

"I wonder how she is? I mean with everything that happened"

"Oh don't worry, she's with her friends."

"They are two really great people, really capable."

"Being with them reminds me a lot of the old days of the past, they even make me feel like I'm much younger than I really am."

"I even consider them my friends myself, I'm sure that if we were playing against the Soviets again I would have no problem working with them "

"Boy, coming from the old Yamamoto that's enough to make me shudder."

"That's why I invited them"

"You know, it's always good that if you're going to do something that seems stupid, it's better among reliable friends."

"...."

"Oh look at the time, I still have a few more things to do, you know the place is crawling with cops."

"I'd like to sit down and chat a lot more and catch up, but I don't think it's going to be possible."

"You know how it works"

"Don't worry Yamamoto"

"Maybe before tomorrow, we'll meet again to talk again."

"Ha ha ha ha"

"Do what you want, but I wouldn't count on it."

The inspector returned inside the hotel, this time taking nothing with him, he had left the bottle of Sake next to the couple. The man had outplayed his rivals again.

"He left the sake bottle behind without even thinking twice about it as if it were garbage."

"What a lack of models, does he really consider himself an honorable Japanese?" Akane said as she picked up the bottle to put it away.

"Akane, take that bottle and the glasses, hide it well and try to keep it in the car as soon as possible"

"Eh? why? are you planning to steal a bottle of sake from a hotel?"

"What you are holding right now is the weapon with which the crime was committed"

Akane paused for a moment processing what Mr. Gomez had just told her, trying to come up with the answer herself. She was frightened to see that she had been blindsided by a huge problem of which she was completely unaware. Gomez, seeing that the girl was still struggling to understand what had happened, tried to explain to her, trying to keep the cops from overhearing.

"The bottle was used to kill Takahashi Shuichi"

"Yamamoto used the sake in the bottle to do it."

"Bottle that now has our fingerprints on it as well."

"Bottle that you are holding yourself now"

"What? What?"

"A poison!? We drank from the bottle too!"

"Shit!"

"Yamamoto is not an idiot"

"He has years of studying homicide and doing some"

"He knows that now that he's a public figure he can't do anything too flashy."

"Including poison"

"It has to be something that only works with high doses."

"One drink isn't enough to kill, that's why he drank too."

"To make us believe that the drink was safe to consume, but mainly to save him the trouble of having to dispose of the evidence among so many cops"

"If you knew why did you go along with it!"

"Because I didn't know it until I tried the drink."

"This is what I get for underestimating the old man"

"I thought I had the advantage of knowing that his granddaughter was here and using it to preach to him."

"Instead he was already counting on it."

"Now we can't tell the police about the inspector."

"What do we do now, just let it go?"

"No, we can still have a drink."

"The old man said he trusts the other two girls completely."

"They are most likely his bodyguards."

"Yamamoto was teasing us the whole time without us noticing."

"He must be pretty confident in his victory."

"Find out who the two of them are as much as you can."

"If we can get past them and take Haru, we can force the old man to confess."

"But we can't underestimate them in the slightest, these are Yamamoto's trusted people we're talking about here."

"Have the battle gear ready when we start."

"The place is swarming with cops so we can't do what we always do."

"Instead, we'll try to run down the mountain through the forest to get to the car with the girl."

"What will you do?"

"Contain the three of them while you escape" Gomez responded seriously.