Explanations and Explorations

[saitoh_hajime]

Date: February 6, 2060
Time: Late Afternoon - Early Evening
Location: New Meiji Department of Justice (Police Wing, Armory, Shooting Range)
Characters, NPC, Saitoh, Tokio

“YOU HAVE ACCESSED THE NEW MEIJI POLICE DEPARTMENT ANSWERING SYSTEM.  PLEASE LISTEN TO THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS BEFORE MAKING YOUR SELECTION.”

Saitoh took an impatient drag on his cigarette and listened.  

“TO CHANGE YOUR PERSONAL GREETING, PLEASE PRESS 1. TO LISTEN TO YOUR PERSONAL GREETING, PLEASE PRESS 2. TO FORWARD CALLS, PLEASE PRESS 3. TO ACCEPT FORWARDED CALLS, PLEASE PRESS 4. TO FORWARD A CALL TO A FORWARDED NUMBER, PLEASE PRESS 5.”

Saitoh swore, and tried to resist the urge to throw his office phone out the window, wishing that they would stop changing the options every few weeks.

“TO CHANGE YOUR RINGTONE, PLEASE PRESS 6, TO LISTEN TO AVAILABLE RING TONES, PLEASE PRESS 7. TO REQUEST A CUSTOM RING TONE FOR ALL FORWARDED CALLS PLEASE PRESS 8”

Exhaling smoke out of his nostrils in a murderous sounding snort, Saitoh slammed the phone down onto the charger with enough force that his terminal and desk shook.

“Yorimoto!”

Saitoh’s new secretary jumped in his seat, knocked over a picture of his mother and her passel of pugs, and then tried to give his commanding officer a smart, manly sort of salute. “Yes, Saitoh-sama!” Newly promoted from the office accounting pool, Yorimoto Katsume  was a twitchy little ferret of a man, one whom Saitoh suspected had an unholy fixation with fountain pens. “How may I provide you with assistance, Sir!”

(Holy freaking hell…) Saitoh gave his newest secretary a long measured look.  “What is the prompt on the automated phone system so I can listen to my messages?”

“That’s easy, Sir! It’s option 18. Would you like me to assist you in button pressing, Saitoh-sama?” Yorimoto said hopefully, eager to prove his worth.

“No.” Saitoh pinched the bridge of his narrow nose and prayed for patience, since his preferred course of action, that being strangling his secretary and shoving the body where the sun didn’t shine was generally speaking, frowned upon.

“Oh,” Yorimoto’s face fell. “Well, if you have any trouble, please know that you can safely rely on me to provide you with timely assistance.”

Saitoh pinched harder, reminding himself that slaying evil instantly was not applicable to the mentally deficient, no matter how annoying they might be, “I will keep that in mind.”

“Oh, and if you are wondering about that voicemail you received fifteen minutes ago, the transcript is on your desk.” 

Saitoh glanced down at his desk and saw that there was in fact, a memo near his cigarette ash covered keyboard. (Unlike most people, he preferred typing rather than relying on voice recognition software) He frowned (due mostly to the smiley face stamp that was by Yorimoto’s name) and began reading.

MEMO:

To: Captain H. Saitoh

From: Office Secretary K. Yorimoto (recently promoted)

Subject: Voicemail from O. Murakami, DOJ (13:35:05)

Dear Captain Saitoh-sama,

Here is the transcript of a voicemail you received from one O. Murakami. Please review and let me know if you need any further assistance in this, or any other matter.

With the most profound respect that you could ever imagine,

K. Yorimoto   ^__^

Start Message

“Hello, this is a message for Captain Saitoh-san. This is Oharu Murakami. I’m not sure if you remember me, but I was the secretary to the late Fujita Hiroshi? Yes, well… I am now working for Takagi Tokio, Assistant Prosecuting Attorney. She asked me to call and let you know that she will be stopping by your office to return an item that you lent her the other day and that you should anticipate her arrival no later than 15:30….

Saitoh-san, I heard about your injuries sustained in the line of duty. I hope that you will make a speedy recovery and that your boys, bless their hearts, are safe and well. If you have any questions, or can’t speak with Takagi-san during this time, please call me directly or send an email so that I can reschedule.

Warmest Regards,

O. Murakami”

End Message.

.

Comments

[tokio_takagi]

Tokio let out an exasperated sigh. This was Monday of her second week working at the New Meiji branch of the DOJ. She wasn’t an idiot. She usually had a decent sense of direction. But this building was hopeless. It was some sort of mega maze. That was the only way to describe it. She supposed that this was probably a good thing because any thugs looking for a specific office, like she was trying to do at the moment, would never find it, ever.

Oharu, her secretary, had given her directions, which at the time seemed quite easy to follow. The young attorney was reasonably sure that she *was* on the correct floor, but she had no idea which wing of this monster of a complex lay before her. All the hallways looked the same; there were no signs on the walls, or doors, which again confirmed her thought that no one had to worry about unauthorized intruders. Even the crime syndicate lackeys wouldn’t be able to find their way around. That thought made her acutely aware of the body hugging shoulder holster underneath her blouse. Somehow she felt safer carrying his small side arm next to her body, than she ever did when hers was holstered. Her standard issue model was currently in her shoulder bag.

Tokio glanced down again at her phone’s screen. She studied the directions, Oharu had texted to the hand-held device, trying to figure out exactly where she’d made a wrong turn.


The most frustrating was that the halls were empty, empty, empty. There should be people around at this time of day, unless everyone in this wing worked an earlier shift than those in the other departments. Maybe the personnel in this wing used some sort of secret ‘I’m invisible’ app, she smirked to herself. All she wanted was to find a flesh and blood person, so she could ask for directions.

Most of the government’s law enforcement divisions, courts, and legal services were located in this behemoth of a building. Supposedly --as stated in the new employee orientation that she’d been forced to attend last week-- the offices were located at the same place to make it easy for the different branches of the justice system to work together efficiently. What a joke, the woman thought. There was no way anyone could work together, period, if they couldn’t find who they were looking for. The orientation packet she’d received at that meeting didn’t even have an electronic link to a map of the place. Most of the offices could be located by the gps app on a person’s phone, but for some reason the gps coordinates for *his* office weren’t even listed in the building’s electronic directory.

Okay, now she was sure she had it correct. All she needed to do was to go down the hallway to her left, make a right turn at the first place she found intersecting hallways. Then look for a blue and white colored door… That should take her to his department. Perhaps, if that door wasn’t locked, there might be a real person behind it to direct her the rest of the way.