It's Off to Work I Go!

[tokio_takagi]

It feels like I have already put in a full day today, and I just now arrived at work. If you want to see what I have done this morning up until now, checkout the Gumi-Reloaded stories, A Conversation at a Crossroads (1st) and Starting the Day Saitoh Family Style (2nd).

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[tokio_takagi]

Chapter 5 - Mysteries

It all started when a clerk leaked the confidential information of 36 Department of DOJ employees. The offending staff member was only removed from her position, and suffered no other consequences. One interesting rumor-mill tidbit was that Major Saitoh tried to have the woman arrested but to no avail, since she was the niece of a powerful finance minister.

The data breech started the speculation, because the names of all the recent hires were hung out like laundry on a line for everyone to see. One of those names was Takagi and everyone in the New Meiji DOJ was quite familiar with that surname since it was the same as that of the big boss, Takagi Morinusuke, Chief Prosecutor of the National DOJ in Yokohama. Oharu wondered if the man was related to her boss. It was enough to pique the secretary's interest and she decided to do some investigating on her own.

The research wasn't hard to do. Takagi Morinusuke was indeed her boss's brother. But things didn't add up. Takagi Tokio was only an assist prosecutor here in New Meiji, yet she had one of the highest conviction rates in the country when she worked in Yokohama. She even won a very high profile case against a high-up syndicate boss. Everyone in the DOJ had heard about that case, even if they didn't recall the name of the one who litigated it. That is when the speculation started in Oharu's mind about why Tokio was really in New Meiji. A person such as Tokio was not easily demoted unless they'd done something terribly incompetent. Her boss was anything but that as far as Oharu could tell even after working with the black haired woman for only a week. What exactly was Takagi Tokio doing here in New Meiji working as a low-level assistant?

Oharu felt there was something that did not add up with her boss-san. The secretary's fact finding mission, prompted by the data breech, yielded results. It didn't take much for Oharu to put two and two together, especially when Takagi was the surname. It astounded her that her boss had not used an alias when she relocated here from Yokohama. After Oharu figured out the connection, the rest was easy. Why would Takagi Moriusuke send his sister, who was his top prosecutor, who garnered more convictions than anyone else, to New Meiji as a lowly assistant prosecutor? It made absolutely no sense to Tokio's secretary unless the attorney was here for a completely different reason. That had to be the explanation. Another interesting coincidence was that her boss had been in two life-threatening situations with Major Saitoh in just the short time she'd been in New Meiji. Hm. Perhaps. Oharou would need to keep her eyes and ears on alert. She usually knew the comings and goings, the ins and outs of what was happening in this department. It didn't hurt that her brother was an EMT and answered incident calls from the MPD, like the one at the Sunshine Cafe.

As Oharu watched her boss leave before noon, she scanned the area of the office pool. Most people had left for lunch, but there were still a few at their desks, heads down, most likely trying to finish up some time-sensitive project, or they would have already left to have their mid-day meal. Not many stayed and ate at their desks due to a very nice, nearby break room stocked with snacks and vending machines which offered more substantial fare. if you wanted to pay for it. All the hot and cold drinks were free. She and Tokio had their own hot drink machine because it was more convenient. If a person wanted, they could always go down a couple of floors to the cafeteria, but it was a long walk and took time away from the hour lunch break.

Knowledge was safety in Oharu's mind. Knowledge minimized the surprises that always seemed to pop up in life, especially in this city. That is why the secretary noticed a particular person today, a woman with short hair and glasses, still at her desk, who hired on about the same time as her boss-san arrived. Tokio's secretary thought a moment to recall the woman's name. That woman looked up as soon as the prosecutor left her private office and her gaze continued to follow Tokio as she left the pool area. Hm. Now that Oharu thought about it, this particular woman always seemed to watch her boss whenever the dark-haired attorney left or entered her office. Oharu kept staring at the woman, who by this time was pushing away from her desk as it if to leave. The woman eventually spotted Oharu's piercing gaze, quickly sitting back down in response. It occurred to Oharu that something fishy might be going on. Tokio's secretary was naturally suspicious, more so since the assassination of her former boss, Fujita, and his family. Oharu would keep an eye on this person, and tell Tokio-sensei about this possibly disturbing turn of events.

[90 minutes later]

Tokio walked back to her office. The meeting with Makino Kazuharu went better than she could have hoped. The judge was delighted to help them out as soon as she explained the situation to him. After that she regaled him with stories about her brother and his family. She was sure that her brother would grill her about what she'd told his old mentor, once he found out the two of them had a nice visit over lunch, which turned out to be a very nice bento spread that the judge ordered in. It made Tokio think about the bentos she delivered to her husband's office all those years ago when he was a member of the Tokyo MPD. Even though she was not a stay at home mother in this era, she would have to think of a way to get him a homemade bento, just for old times sake.

The attorney greeted her secretary with a smile. Oharu's expression seemed to be a mixture of concern and concentration. Tokio wondered if something happened while she was away during lunch, but would trust her secretary to let her know if there was anything she needed to know about.

When Toko returned to the sanctuary of her private office she saw a luggage-like cold box, and a small package with an Amazon return label neatly placed in the corner. Now that the matter was settled there was more to be ordered, and hopefully delivered, before the day was over. There were still over four hours left in the attorney's work day. She would need to check to see if there were any messages from Captain Wantanabe. Hajime emailed that the prosecutor would hear from the officer to make arrangements for late today.

First things first.

Tokio took out her gray cell phone, turned it on and tapped in a simple text. If he had his phone on, which he probably did, he should answer her quickly. It was, after all, a very important matter. She had no desire to use names that could be identified even on her secure personal phone.

############################################################
TEXT

RE: The Matter

Wolf ..11 am... 2 days...details later

END TEXT
############################################################

This way he would at least know the date and time.

[a mere seconds later]

PING

############################################################

RETURN TEXT

Wildcat - details received and understood

END TEXT
############################################################

She laughed. The two of them were quite the pair.

Opening up a search on her phone's screen, scrolling, looking, she finally found something very suitable. It was a white silk sheath, below knee length with a short jacket adorned with some tasteful beading, three-quarter sleeves. It was simple, but elegant. Just what she liked. She hoped he would like it, too.

With a little more scrolling she found another item and ordered four of them, two of each size. She hoped she would need those soon. One more very important item also went into her shopping cart, a small bottle of perfume called Meiji Memories, a light sakura fragrance, to replace the one lost in the blast. Tapping in her order, paying extra for end of the day arrival, she was done after pressing the complete purchase button.