Vocaloid Mysteries - A Skating Escort Chapter 01

January 1st, 6:00pm Japan Standard Time

National Diet Building, Tokyo, Japan


The brunette daughter of the Prime Minister was jolly. Nineteen-year-old Meiko’s New Year’s Day living in the National Diet Building was in the perfect mood for the occasion. Inside her room, she had everything associated with the coming age to immerse herself with the coming of the New Year. She was cleaning up her room as she danced to a J-Pop rendition of “Auld Lang Syne” on her radio. But the winter wasn’t simply all about New Year’s for Meiko, she saw it as the perfect time of year to practice her figure skating skills and take home the gold in the day she’d participate in the Winter Olympics. Oh, what she would give to undertake such an event!


Then she thought about her best friends, Linako Sonone and Lily, who helped teach her the essentials of figure skating. They were going to be her partners in the up-and-coming charity figure skating event. The event, just like it sounded, was going to provide charity to a rising children’s hospital in Hokkaido, and the trio was going to be front-page, center stage of the occasion. Meiko was playfully polishing her clarinet, which was her favorite instrument, when she heard a knock at the door.


At the sound of that, she turned the volume down and said, “Just a minute! I’ll be right there!” She proceeded towards the door, feeling so cheerful because it was the beginning of 2017 and a new chapter in her life. Upon opening it, standing outside her room was Hiroki Yamashita, the Minister of Finance.


From the first look at him, Meiko delighted to see the man, “Ah, Mr. Yamashita! What’s up?” The middle-aged man was not in such a good cheer as the young lady. He spoke with a firm tone of voice, “Your father wants to see you in the meeting room, Meiko.” Again? She thought with annoyance, was this another instance of her playing music too loud again? With a disgusted sigh, Meiko exited her room with Yamashita leading the way to see her father.


The duo came to the door with a polished black plate with Kanji characters that read, “Meeting Room”, and Yamashita allowed Meiko inside so that she and her father could speak alone.


At the moment, the Prime Minister was pacing back and forth near the head of the table, looking very concerned. Meiko approached him as he turned to face in her direction, “Daddy, I’m so sorry for playing my music loud again… I just couldn’t help myself enjoying New Year’s Day, even when the whole celebration was...”


“Meiko, my daughter,” The Prime Minister replied as he placed his arm on her shoulder, “I did not call you here to apologize. As this concerns more for your safety… Not your music.”


Her safety? What on earth would ever lead her own father to be suddenly concerned for her safety? No one ever in her lifetime, domestic, or abroad, ever would threaten her or the family. Meiko was about to ask her father why it was so when he handed her an envelope. It had large characters that read, “Tokyo Police Department – Medical Examiner, Coroner’s Office”.


Now, Meiko’s mind raced and her heart was beating wildly as her fingers trembled while opening the letter. This was all because of the obvious fact that receiving a Coroner’s report was often bad news. Did someone in the family, or one of her friends die at the hands of a vile criminal? By now, she was able to pull out the folded sheet of paper that displayed the report. And sure enough, the brunette saw the Kanji characters that read, “Name of the Deceased”, and her eyes widened and her heart sunk in horror.


By that moment, she whispered aloud at what she saw on the report, “No…!” The deceased individual in question was Linako Sonone. Frightened, Meiko then skimmed over the report until she saw “Cause of Death: Sharp Trauma to the Spleen and Asphyxiation”. And then she dropped the report, feeling frightened over the two-pronged demise of her good friend. Who on Earth would commit such a twisted, unspeakably sick deed to one of her childhood friends? Linako Sonone, a rosy-pink girl with an hourglass figure, having her spleen being cut open and being choked to death at the same time at the hands of a bloodthirsty delinquent? How nauseatingly-horrifying! And where was her boyfriend, an American named Jero Coppola when all this happened?


Meiko turned to her father and suddenly rushed towards him. Whereupon she threw her arms around him, and she cried. Linako was brutally killed, and Meiko didn’t want herself to meet the same fate. Initially surprised by his daughter’s unexpected hug and hearing her sobbing, the Prime Minister returned the hug. Trying his best to make her feel safe in his presence as white-hot tears rolled down her face.


“You see now,” The Prime Minister asked his weeping daughter, to which she responded with her grimacing face nodding at him. With that, he continued to speak in a solemn tone of voice, “Linako’s death has given me cause for concern. If a friend like hers died like that, I cannot stand the thought of you being preyed upon and meeting a similar fate.” Meiko was too sore in emotion to even speak, but she knew her life in the coming days of her life was at stake.


Then the Prime Minister continued on with, “Hence, I’m arranging for a detective from Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Branch to escort you effective tomorrow.” His daughter’s mouth hung open as he released her and went call the Police Department. An escort? Her father was seriously going to spend the time and resources to give her someone for protection? She had mixed feelings about this, one on hand, she felt like was going to be in good hands… And if this escort was younger than thirty, she’d make him her boyfriend! But in equal measure, she felt even more restricted than ever before… Considering that the escort couldn’t slack off in keeping an eye on her. Not to mention, she felt like daddy dearest – No, the Prime Minister was doing it just to keep himself happy.


Outside a Maid Café, Akihabara, Tokyo

9:30pm


The hand of a blue-haired young man was able to snatch the gruff hoodlum that was threatening one of the maids. Then the young detective proceeded to flip the scumbag on his back, before flashing his badge and drawing his handgun upon him. He declared, “I’m detective Kaito Shion from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, Manic Musashi, you’re under arrest!” Kaito had been on the hunt for this crazed suspect for weeks, and now he got his man right where he wanted him. This felon was responsible for illegally spraying graffiti around beauty salons, harassing maid cafes and robbing pharmacies for the sole purpose of getting high. Hence, why he was named as such due to his insane nature and obsession with drugs. And now, courtesy of witness reports, his reign of madness over the Akihabara District was coming to an end at the hands of the 23-year-old prodigy detective.


But the quick hand of victory was suddenly turned as Musashi grabbed Kaito by his arms, and slammed his face into the latter’s. This allowed the manic ruffian to place arms around the young detective’s neck in a chokehold, and ultimately allow him to incapacitate him. Kaito felt his windpipe being gradually compressed by the thug’s muscular arms, and struggled to break free… The hunter had become to the hunted, much to the former’s chagrin. Was this to be the young detective’s fate? He continued to gasp under the suffocating pressure of the squeeze.


That was until he heard the hoodlum cry out in pain, and Kaito turned around to see Manic Musashi clawing away at his eyes. They were caked in a yellow, foamy substance – Pepper spray, no doubt. Often, Kaito knew what this meant as he looked up to his left and saw a man about his age formally dressed, holding a canister of said spray in his hand. This was his longtime partner on the detective business, Kiyoteru Hiyama. He gave off a sarcastic remark as he motioned to Kaito’s zip-cuffs, “Took you long enough, partner.”


The blue-haired wonder prepared the plastic zip-cuffs as he gave a rather rash reply to his partner in relief, “Kiyoteru-san, you son of a bitch! Good to see you, too.” Kaito finally proceeded to tackle Manic Musashi, and to shackle the crook, and tightened the cuffs on his hands with the plastic fasteners. The struggling crook was finally apprehended as the sound of sirens drew close to the maid café.


Sure enough, a number of police cars and a police van arrived on the scene. Out from the first of the cars closest to Kaito and Kiyoteru was the Commissioner, Ryuichi Ajibana. He peered at the blinded and handcuffed crook before he motioned to two strong police officers to take him to the van. The two cops pulled Manic Musashi off the pavement and towards the van as Ajibana turned to the two detectives and said, “Job well done, boys. Not bad for your two-hundredth arrest.”


“Thank you, sir,” Kiyoteru saluted and smiled.


“Just doing our job, sir,” Kaito responded with a proud grin and a salute, to which the Commissioner returned the duo’s salute.


And with that, Ajibana responded with a stern tone of voice, “And doing it well. But I didn’t just come here to give you congratulations and see your quarry off to the doghouse. Kaito-san?”


At the sound of his name being called, Kaito replied with, “H-hai, Ajibana-kacho?” This was the sort of voice that meant that he was needed to prepare for another assignment right away. Oh brother, what a drag it was to do one case after another!


Now, the Commissioner handed him a vanilla folder with papers inside of it, “You’re being reassigned from detective work to escort.”


“Escort,” Kaito asked as he looked over the papers, which had all the details about his new job. Sure enough, it involved being an escort to the Prime Minister’s daughter until the year was over. The blue haired detective’s mind was exasperated, I’m being assigned to babysitting the Prime Minister’s daughter? This isn’t what I wanted the most in life! I wanted to be the Sherlock Holmes of Tokyo! Ajibana placed his hand in his shoulder, as if to reassure the scowling Kaito about his new duty.


“Who knows,” He said, “You might also get to do something in your field of work. As you might have seen in the fine print, a friend to the Prime Minister’s daughter was murdered.”


For hearing that from Ajibana, Kaito’s eyebrows perked up. Maybe there was some merit to this new duty after all.