False Testimony

Ikaho town, Gunma, Japan
August 24th
20:25

We were in the dining room of the hotel looking around while pretending to be eating, after all, Haru wanted to know everything she could about what happened, after all this seemed to be her first time near where the events happened, and at the same time an opportunity to help her grandfather, she wanted to show that she was able to follow the same path as him. While Tamamo and I were only there mainly because we had promised the old man to take care of his granddaughter, although I did not expect him to take advantage of us, but even that was something I was willing to let pass without putting many obstacles, until the situation changed again with the arrival of those two people.

At the hotel reception, two people appeared by surprise. However, they were a man and a woman, they did not appear to be a couple, both were well dressed in suits and seemed quite serious about the matter, they said that they had booked a couple of nights at the hotel, but when they arrived at the hotel they found the police all over the place, indicating that something had happened that they could not stay. They mentioned that they couldn't go to another hotel because it was too late and they had already booked a room, which the receptionist checked the computer and found to be true. Normally I would have pitied them, but when I realized that one of them was stupid Akane, I started to wonder what the fuck was going on in this place, what was the real story.

Next to Akane, Brandon's lackey and the disgraced cause of the Ueno Dam problem, was a man I had never seen before. He was a rather tall, serious person, black suit, gloves of the same color and sunglasses, he looked like the stereotype of a secret agent, but curiously you could clearly notice that he was a foreigner by his complexion, along with his accent which came out despite how much he tried to hide it. He didn't seem to be Akane's employee either, as he was actually the one who was doing most of the talking.

In the end both the guarantors and the police relented and let them stay for the night because of the couple's supposed need to find a place to spend the night. They both thanked them and went upstairs to a room on the second floor. There was something I was missing, a piece that I wasn't seeing. First what the inspector did and then that guy and Akane show up almost by surprise and they arrange to spend the night where someone had recently died. I had to move so I wouldn't be left behind.

"Okay, change of plans"
"I have to make a call back home"
"Tamamo, can you stay with Haru while I go back? Thanks."

"Calling home?"
"Just like that? So suddenly?"
"Did something happen?"  Haru asked curiously.

"Yeah, it turns out there's a dead guy in the Arcade."
"I'm just going to let my mom know about it because of what might happen."

"Oh, okay."
"You're right about that"
"...."
"You know I find it cute how even though you two are from a different species you still think of Adelis as your real mother."

"Well, that's because she is."
"Why would I treat her differently to begin with?"
"...."
"Well if you'll excuse me I'm going to be out in the gardens making the call."

"All right! Be careful!"
"It's just a moment like that where the villain of the episode appears!"

"Please send my regards to Okasan when you talk to her!"

I got up from the table and walked to the other side of the hotel, past the lobby, the gift store, and the entrance to the hot springs, just before reaching the other stairs there was a door leading to a very neat Japanese garden, known as "roji", which are spaces designed for guests to relax and enjoy the natural beauty while strolling through the garden. But this time I wasn't looking for that, what I was just looking for was a place where there weren't many people, especially the police. I took my cell phone from my pocket and dialed home. Where immediately an emotionless voice answered.

"Good evening, Father"
"How can I help you? Do you need assistance with anything?"

"Kazumi? Charlotte?"
"Which one is the one with the phone?"

"It's both of us, Dad"
"And we are not using the phone either, we are simply redirecting the call directly to us."
"Although if you want to talk to Adelis we can go ahead and let her know to pick up the phone and continue as a normal call."

"No, don't bother her, it's not necessary."
"How is everything over there? Is everything all right?"

"Everything is fine"
"....."
"Although Mom Lisa has been lying on your bed doing something weird with your clothes."
"She's been laughing for two hours straight."

"Yes, the problem is that it is still within her normal range."
"...."
"Ah well, I  will try to trust her, and hope she didn't do anything weird."
"...."
"Weirder than normal at least"
"...."
"Well it doesn't matter anyway"
"Actually it was you two I wanted to talk to."

"Yes, of course we accept your proposal of marriage to us."
"It had taken you a long time Dad"
"We thought this day would never come"

"Wait What?"

"What?"

"...."

"...."

"What was that a just moment ago"
"Didn't you say something pretty quick and quiet?"

"Oh, maybe a small error in the data transmission."
"Maria was cleaning the room and by mistake, she hit something that fell on my head while I was connected to my terminal"

"I'm sure it was something else entirely, but I'll let it go for now because I have important things to do"
"Look, I'm in a predicament right now"
"Not very serious, but it is serious, like dead serious"
"It's not like with me, but I don't want to risk it and I'd better prevent something before it tries to bite me in the back."

"What is the deceased's name?"

"That's the fun part, I don't know"
"But it wasn't me, I swear!"
"Look everything was fine, everything was quiet, I went to play ping pong with your mother and when we arrived there was already a dead person there."
"The police are already on the scene investigating, but the truth is that we don't know anything about anything."
"Could you look in the police files to see if they have already uploaded information about him?"
"Look for something in the recent stuff, surely must have something regarding the hotel where I am calling you from right now?"

"I understand, Father"
"Researching the Gunma Police Department's databases regarding Ikaho village."
"Analysis completed"
"According to the DL-6 police log, a 40-year-old man has been found dead inside the arcade of the Yuuna Onsen rotenburo to Ryokan."

"Yes, correct, that one"

"Victim identification: Takahashi Shuichi"
"Age: 42 years old"
"Single"
"Employee of Biolife Pharmaceuticals development department in Tokyo"
"Found dead inside the arcade of Yuuna Onsen rotenburo to Ryokan"
"Cause of death: undefined"
"Estimated time of death: 16:00"
"Time of police report:19:00"
"Number of witnesses: 1"
"Police Inspector Yamamoto found the victim's body after he came out of the hot spring and was on his way to the dining room."
"Current possible suspects: 0"
"Report still in progress, information may vary greatly over time."

"Ok, Interesting"
"....."
"But I'm sure there is still something else that is missing"
"Can you do me a small favor and investigate more on this Takahashi Shuichi"
"Try to find out about his work and why he was here in the hotel, as it seems he came alone."
"...."
"And try to see if he knew Inspector Yamamoto before."
"Focus on where there might be a relationship between the two of them"

"Reviewing data"
"Match found"
"Takahashi Shuichi worked at Biolife Pharmaceuticals with research director Emiko Yamamoto"
"Daughter of Inspector Yamamoto"

"And Haru's mother"
"Shit"
"....."
"Could there be a link between Biolife Pharmaceuticals and I.S.C?"

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"Biolife Pharmaceuticals is a company founded 30 years ago."
"But it was acquired by the I.S.C. conglomerate 3 years ago when the company was facing debt problems."
"It now focuses mainly on biotechnology"
"It is in charge of the development of new drugs and medical innovation in the area of treatments and surgeries."
"They have several free and private hospitals around the country."

"A company with both public and private hospitals?"

"The public hospitals operate thanks to the government's Healthy Citizens program, which provides part of the necessary funds."
"In addition, these hospitals are used as a data collection center for the development of new products."
"If the patient so desires, he or she can even volunteer to be a research subject for a new drug or product that Biolife Pharmaceuticals is developing."

"Okay, you can now look for something between Emiko Yamamoto and Takahashi Shuichi Shuichi"
"You can now look for something between Emiko Yamamoto and Takahashi Shuichi."
"I don't know, relationships? work they did? Did they work on the same project maybe?"

"Negative"
"There are no records or notations to indicate the type of relationship between the two."
"It appears that they were only co-workers"
"They only worked together on two projects during their entire careers."
"The first was a stem cell study"
"The second one does not specify the details but is named project X5-37A."
"No further information is available"
"Due to the high risk of corporate espionage, Biolife Pharmaceuticals undertakes strong security measures to prevent the theft of crucial information."
"A large number of projects are only kept in physical form in secure facilities."
"One of them was the X5-37A project."

"Fuck, that doesn't leave much to work with."
"...."
"Can you see if by any chance Takahashi Shuichi was that kind of nerdy brat?"
"You know, perfect attendance in school, never took time off work, employee of the month title?"
"Things like that."
"Were there any indications that he was very loyal to his job?"
"Things that would create rivalries with his coworkers?"

"Takahashi Shuichi has won several competitions within Biolife Pharmaceuticals."
"Several research initiatives have been created thanks to him."
"His name tops the list of top I.S.C. medical wing employees."
"They had noticed his skills and were planning to transfer him to work overseas as a team leader within a month at the Los Angeles headquarters."

While I was walking I see one of the doors open. Two men come out to smoke for a while while arguing with each other. On their chests they have a police badge, surely they are the detectives assigned to the case. They both look at me for a while seeming to wonder what the fuck I was doing dressed as a cosplayer, I've seen it many times before.

"Finally, can you tell me where he slept?"
"Send me a better picture when I hang up."
"Also can you tell Mom if she can buy me another box of clonidine? The inspector took most of the box I brought with me."
"thank you, good night, and take care"
"Oh and tell my sister that if she takes my hair dryer again I will use her hair straightener to cook Beacon in BBQ sauce."

I said trying to camouflage my conversation as I waved my hand in greeting to the cops, to draw their attention away from what I had been discussing. But as soon as I hung up the call they came over and approached me to talk. I was acting natural while in my mind I was cursing as much as possible in panic over the fact that I had to talk to the police so unexpectedly. Come on, you just have to say what Adelis prepared, I just have to say it as we have rehearsed it before.

"Excuse me, Miss, we are detectives Yui Tanaka and Takashi Nakamura."
"We work for the Shibukawa Police Department."
"May we ask you a couple of questions?"

"Oh, yes, of course"
"That's if you'll have to excuse me a little bit."
"I am a foreigner and although as you can see I can speak Japanese, well, it might confuse what I say a little bit."
"Please be patient with me"

"Oh really"
"Would you mind giving us some details about yourself?"
"Name, ID, what you do and why you are staying at the hotel?"

"Elise Valkyria"
"No, I'm not teasing you, I know it sounds stupid, it was my mother who put the name in the registry."
"I have my passport in my room if you want to check it."
"I am a student of Amari High School in Aoyama-Itchome in Tokyo."
"I am in this hotel enjoying the summer vacation with my friend Haru Yamamoto."
"Her grandfather invited us and even paid for everything."

"Can you tell us what country you are from, Miss Elise?"

"Born in Costa Rica"
"I am also naturalized in the United States so my passport is from there."
"My mother has a diplomatic visa and we are trying to get a permanent visa."
"I have been living in the country for about 8 months"

"Ok."
"Can you tell us what you were doing between 16:00 and 19:00 hours?"
"Where were you? Was there anyone else with you?"

"16:00 and 19:00 hours?"
"When is that?"
"Oh! from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM."
"Well at that time I was at the hot spring baths."
"I was together with Haru and Tamamo the whole time."
"I don't know what time we left exactly, but the dead man hadn't been discovered yet."
"I realized what had happened when the Inspector reported it at the reception desk."

"You can tell us how the events happened, whatever you remember"

"Well, as I said before I was with my friends at the hot springs."
"After we left we were walking around the lobby for a while looking at what to order for dinner."
"Tamamo and Haru went back upstairs to our room while I ordered the food."
"While I was alone I went to look in the gift store to see if there was anything that caught my eye."
"It was near there that I saw the inspector walking into the lobby and he told me what happened and that the hotel was closed."
"He insisted that I go back to the room as soon as possible and that is what I did."
"In fact because of that we had not eaten anything, so we recently had to go downstairs to get something to eat because we were already very hungry."
"We were the ones in the dining room while you were working."

"You seem pretty calm even though someone died in the hotel."

"Well, things of growing up in a third-world country I guess."
"Also my father, may he rest in peace, worked for a long time as a bellhop in a hotel in Costa Rica."
"It's not like I don't know that this doesn't happen from time to time."
"All this commotion is just because it happened in a public area."

"Can you tell us more about Inspector Yamamoto?"
"Did he act in any strange or suspicious way?"
"How did he handle the situation?"

"Gee, I don't know what to tell you"
"I think he handled it very well, in a professional manner."
"He made no fuss, acted quickly and calmly."
"He quickly went to report what happened"
"..."
"But isn't that his job? He was doing the same thing you have been doing for years?"
"So I think he had enough experience to know what to do in a case like that."

"Do you happen to know what the Inspector was doing between 16:00 and 19:00 ?"

"Well, yes, he was also in the hot springs."

"Wait a minute!"
"The bathrooms are divided by gender, how do you know that he was in the men's bathroom at the same time you were in the women's bathroom?"

"Wait a minute, don't get ahead of me, don't misunderstand me."
"In all the time we were in different areas."
"...."
"What happened was that at one point, our conversation between girls got out of control and the Inspector called us to attention shouting from the other side of the wall."
"..."
"Not a story I like to go around saying out loud."

"Okay, that would be most of it."
"Lastly, may I ask you about your clothing?"
"Why are you wearing ...."

"Ahg, otro pendejo que pregunta por lo mismo...."
"The original idea was to have a cosplay photo session tomorrow right here in the garden"
"But since it looks like it got canceled, well I want to use the ears and tail."
"That's all"

"Okay, thank you very much for your cooperation, Miss Elise."
"You have helped us a lot in our investigation."
"Unfortunately, our work will take at least until tomorrow."
"Normally we would close the hotel but due to the fact that there are no more places available in town for today we have decided to let you stay until tomorrow."
"The hotel will relocate you to another place free of charge if necessary."
Please try to bear with us"

"Okay, that's fine."
"It's also not like I can go to another place in a town I don't know at all."

After talking with them, I went back inside the hotel. There the Inspector was still talking to several policemen. But near them I could see Akane and the other guy, talking between them and a policeman, he was handing them a couple of sheets of paper, from what I could hear while walking it seemed that the policeman was giving them details of how the dead man was found, which was suspicious, because I thought that the police did not share so many details with the common people. It was clear that the two of them were also investigating what was going on. Damn Akane's luck, if there weren't so many cops right now I'd kill her and bury her in the woods, in the wrong order. But since I have to pretend for now I won't do anything. For now, the most important thing I had already done as the Inspector wanted, now I just had to distract Haru until we left.

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