❄️Almost three weeks have passed since winter arrived❄️
🕗8:30 PM
Madara sits in his chair in the police department. He has a thoughtful look when his index finger touches his lip.
What could that mean? As expected, there was no sign of her. It's odd. Haruko suddenly disappeared as if the ground had swallowed her up. Something must have happened. Two days after the previous meeting, I visited the bank because she wasn't getting in touch.
Flashback
"Yes, you're right," the woman murmurs, "Yuhara Haruko worked here. She resigned of her own accord a day ago."
"What?" Madara left the bank surprised. "That's unusual."
"I tried calling several times, but it went unanswered. I guess she changed her phone number. Before she changed it, the last thing she texted me was: - "
💬"I'm sorry, and don't come looking for me."
"Was she gone? Why so suddenly?"
~~~
There was yet to be a reply from her. She would've contacted me by now if something had occurred to her. At least, that's how I see things. I checked her address. Her house was far from where we met up for the last time. I wondered if she ever lived there at all. When I asked around, nobody knew anything about Haruko. So, I decided to visit the place myself. I started asking around. They stated that she didn't live at the home where I dropped her off. That means she lied to me that she was living in this place. But why? Was it an excuse, or did she move elsewhere for another reason? Perhaps she lied so we wouldn't get close, for fear of getting hurt by me. That's certainly possible. The only problem is that I must determine what she would gain from keeping such a secret. What did she think she could accomplish with a lie like that? I need help locating information about her from the license plate number or the VIN check.
Recollections from three weeks ago
I can find some info by the VIN check. To get the information on the vehicle, insurance, registration, and the owner's history.
Madara searches the database.
Vehicle Identification Number: JM1CW2BL3C0007351
The information will be displayed on the screen in front of me. It's going to take some time. In ten minutes, I got what I was trying to find. "Let's see, so Mazda Soul Red 20XX year...What's more, it was registered to someone else."
The name came up on the screen...Yuhara Mariko.
It says the driver is a woman named Mariko. It may be either her mother or a relative. She is from a small town near here. She is forty-five years old and has been driving this car for six months. There haven't been any accidents or parking tickets reported against her. The vehicle's ownership was transferred to another person two weeks ago. The name of the new owner is not listed in the database. But there were no names attached to the transfer notice either. The only difference is that the vehicle's ownership was changed to someone who lives in the same town as Haruko. Therefore, she must be here in Tokyo.
Madara is trying to access the address right now. He is finding little.
~~~
Having so much mystery surrounding her, I wonder if it was an innocent joke. A ringing signal interrupts his thoughts. He looks at his mobile phone and notices that the caller:
"Yes, Hashirama, I'm listening." A voice answers from the other side.
"New task? I am on it."
"I'll contact you and tell you the details when you arrive," Hashirama said.📞
"Okay, I'll be there in about 10 minutes." Then he hangs up. Madara stands up and walks toward the window.
The sky is dark at this time of night. Snow is falling steadily from the evening sky.
He looks down below with a calm expression. At the end of the street, there's a well-lit building with people walking around everywhere.
"The winter comes early this year. It looks like we will be buried under white until spring," Madara remarks casually. "I'm going out for some fresh air to clear my mind," he says, grabbing the black jacket and leaving the office.
~~~
A/N
*Author's note
So, I'm going to catch up on my old JIJ! Comic pages in this chapter. The continuation of the JIJ! pages is finally here. Some of the elements in the old pages may need to be clarified because I added more details in the earlier chapters of the extended story. Whatever I came up with was about these previous pages. Sorry for the poor quality; these are ancient images from 2014. They have a creepy look. I didn't want to redo them because it would take forever. I look at them now, in the year 2023, and I want to drop to the ground in shame. XD This chapter has a page count going from 196 to 207.
It has also English, Spanish, French, Russian, Ukrainian, and Brazilian Portuguese translations. 🔗All links are here:
You do not need to register on VK.com. You can also watch the JIJ! It's a comic video on my YouTube, but it's censored. VK is the only site where I have uploaded the full doujin without censorship.
And here we go... The chapter continues with pages from now on.
"It's..." - he opens his eyes wider. "Haruko...?! Is she engaged? So that's what "complicated circumstances" she was referring to and why the contact's name was "Old Creep."
Suddenly, it hit him. Everything made sense to Madara now.
"What? Madara?" She was surprised.
*An extended conversation with Haruko's parents.
Her mother speaks.
"How do you talk to me, Haruko? Everything was agreed upon! It would be best if you quit your job and visited your fiancé a few weeks earlier. Where the hell have you been? He's already looking for you! You're being stubborn for no reason." She stated.
"Who asked me about everything in the first place?" I growled.
"It's all for your good! You have to listen to everything you're told." She keeps rasping.
"Are you considering me a toy or a human being with feelings?" I quired.
"This is not the time for your trivia!" She rolls her eyes and complains.
Hearing these words makes my jaw drop. "For my trivia? So I am your fucking WHAT?? Does your daughter's feeling seem petty to you? Is there a reason why you gave birth to me?"
Mother objected, "Because I become pregnant."
"Because you got...pregnant?" I widened my eyes at her. "Wonderful answer. To give birth is not the same as to raise! Your life has been spent wanting to spit on me."
"Come on, stop it. I don't want to hear your whining." She leered.
I snickered and narrowed my eyes. "Even now..."My so-called mother did not take an active part in my upbringing. I grew like a weed that nobody wanted. It didn't matter to her how or what I lived. The same goes for my dad as well. My parents are only biologically my parents, that's it. This woman has no right to say such things about me! She should have just let me die! I'd rather die than live with her for the rest of my life.
The man snapped. "How dare you disobey your mother!"
Her father swung to punch her in the face.
"Ah!" Haruko winced and closed her eyes, trembling.
"Wait!" Mariko stops her husband from doing that. "Please don't hurt her. Her fiancé is the person who will notice! We don't need anything to go wrong. If he sees the bruises on her face, it won't be good for our reputation. Haruko needs to marry him; we're running out of time. His wealth will make things easier for us."
"I know that," Haruko's father growls at his wife.
I cringe. "So the only reason I wasn't hit is that the old man would notice?!"
Her voice is husky. "You are rotten to the core!" Haruko declared as she bowed her head.
"I hate you! I fucking hate you both!" She blustered and ran away with tears in her eyes.
"Where do you think you're going —?" Mother's hand stopped him from reaching her.
"She'll come by herself; don't stalk her because she has nowhere to hide," Mariko murmured.
"But she disobeys me all the time. I can't trust her." Haruko's father scoffs at his wife.
She sighed heavily in response. "Yoshio, honey, calm down; I know what I'm saying. She's your daughter, too; you should know how much she hates to obey you." Mariko smirks at him and walks away.
Soon after, Madara and Haruko left Tokyo for Osaka. It's a 3-hour drive from here. He was required to take her with him on a business trip.
