日本語 101
Japanese 101

Baka 馬鹿 means Stupid / Idiot 
Chan ちゃん means little one, an honorific usually reserved for children or people who are close friends or family members
San さん means Mr, Mrs, A universally to address people out of respect 
Kun 君 means an honorific for male 
Ojou-sama お嬢様 means Young Mistress

It was supposed to be another boring day in the Scientific Taskforce office within the Metropolitan Police Department Forensic Science Institute. Superintendent Ikeda Sousuke, the newly chosen commanding officer of the S.T. was merely reading all the compiled reports from the various police departments when something caused him to choke on his mouthful of tea and spitting it all over his office desk.

His coughing and wheezing made the rest of the S.T. members looked up curiously at him from their desks, while Akagi Samon walked straight to the source of the disruption.

The elite commander of theirs was usually all calm and proud, it would only take something shocking done by either Akagi Samon or Aoyama Sho to unnerve him. Hence, the watchful reactions from the S.T. members.

If the lonesome wolf-like leader of S.T. who was in the lab with them was not the reason for his reaction, there could only be the other trouble-maker on their team who could cause that reaction from him.

“That baka brat!” Nobody was surprised when S.T. Team leader Akagi Samon started cursing out loud when he saw that Superintendent Ikeda was reading a report from the Yokohama Police Department when he started choking. It was almost expected of him, the man who had the highest expectations of their profiler and harshest to her when the occasion called for it.

“What has she done this time?” Akagi pinched the bridge of his nose with his middle finger and thumb in exasperation as he asked the unanswered question to nobody.

At the sound of the word ‘brat’ being uttered by Akagi Samon, all S.T. members stood up from their workstations looking worriedly at Akagi. There could only be one person who earned that nickname from their otherwise aloof leader.

“What happened to Aoyama-chan?” A concerned female voice rang out in the silence aftermath of Akagi’s question, expressing the one single thought of all S.T. members upon hearing Akagi’s words.

Nobody could ever accuse the ever cool Yuuki Midori of being concerned about anyone. But if there was anyone whom she felt most about, the one condition would be that the person involved must be a member of S.T. team.

Yet, it was often the youngest Aoyama Sho who had the rest of the S.T. members jumping to all her every whims and wish. As much as Akagi would like to deny, he knew that the fact that S.T. members looked up to him was because their assistant leader Aoyama thought of him worthy of their respect.

But he held no lost illusion that the mark of respect could easily be undermined by Aoyama’s displease. They have shown him by withdrawing their support earlier this year when he tried his lonesome wolf act during his unfortunate arrest. Aoyama was unhappy when he tried to send them away from the danger and a sharp glance from her was all that needed to convince the rest of S.T. to decline their support for him.

Akagi Samon was never a people person and the only two people he could ever click with were his best friend--former commanding officer Yurine Tomohisa and his personally selected assistant team leader Aoyama Sho.

As much as Aoyama was alike him, Akagi Samon knew perfectly well that while all the S.T. members saw him as their leader, Aoyama was their human connectors or the glue that held them together. Because she was the only one could see through all their pretences easily and made them understood themselves without them saying anything at all. To some extent, one could even say that Aoyama understood them better than they understood themselves, simply by watching them.

But knowing and understanding them were insufficient to win their weary hearts because even Akagi Samon could also see their issues. But he could never bring it up to them due to his discomfort of talking to people. It was their assistant team leader, Aoyama Sho's ability to dish out thought-provoking questions in her usual sarcastic manner which helped enlightened them when Akagi could not bring himself to speak to them. That damning profiler ability of hers was the one and only thing all members of S.T. had tried to restrict her from using on fellow team members. But as always, Aoyama Sho was not one who listened to their commands. The repeated stressing of no profiling of S.T. members was allowed on team fall to deaf ears every time. Yet strangely, it was how the individual members secretly felt a close connection to the young profiler. 

To Akagi Samon, Aoyama Sho was more than a member on his team, she was also his agent of communication. Just like how he used to rely on the young profiler to relay his commands to the members when he was unable to leave his house, the leader of S.T. would expect s to be more accepting to Aoyama than him. 

Like any other S.T. members, any hints of concern for anyone were always hidden under aloof or sarcasm. All S.T. members knew that anything from their two geniuses was often if not always, filled with sarcasm. But the main point was they cared about their members despite their coldness to others. 

"Baka, Aoyama! Of all things to repeat, you have gone ahead to land yourself in a detaining centre like Cap and I. You just have to spite me, don't you?" Akagi Samon uttered softly in dismay, he was often at a loss when dealing with their mischievous profiler.

“At this rate with S.T. members being thrown into the detaining centres, I think we can consider renaming our team to the detained team instead,” Superintendent Ikeda Sousuke sighed helplessly at the computer after he finished reading the full report from the Yokohama Police Department.

“Why is Aoyama being detained?” Yamabuki Saizo wondered out loud wide-eyes in concern, “Surely she would not have done anything as baka as Akagi-san or Yurine-cap? She was laughing and rolling on the floor calling them bakas when she first heard of them being detained.”

With an angry glare to shut Yamabuki’s up, Akagi scowled his face at the reminder of his and Yurine’s not-so-glamourous overnight stays in the detained centre earlier this year. The S.T. members had never let him live down that moment of lapse in judgement to offer himself up as a replacement for Yurine when he learned that a criminal was working hard to close down S.T..

In the Aoyama’s teasing words, “it was my most entertaining moment in S.T. to be able to witness how Akagi-san and Cap fleeing as criminals and trapping them like cockroaches.”

Apparently, her words were the overall conclusion of the S.T. team as well because the rest of them were busy smirking at them when they finally caught up with Akagi and Yurine.

“That baka brat has to go against my order to land herself in a detaining centre just to spite me when I made it clear that no one else is to be detained like me?” Akagi Samon commented coldly to all but it was also well equally obvious to all that he was nowhere as unconcerned as he made himself to be.

The S.T. team leader was pacing back and fro in front of Superintendent Ikeda Sousuke’s desk when he swore angrily at the unpresented profiler.

“It was not mentioned why but Aoyama is currently in the official custody of the Yokohama Police Department as an important witness of a crime,” Superintendent Ikeda Sousuke provided more details to his team as he noticed how suppressed looks of worry had made its way to his individual members.

‘I’ll never understand their relationship,’ Ikeda Sousuke shook his head at the contradictions the S.T. members have shown.

“Was she hurt?” The usually silent Kurosaki Yuji was the only one brave enough to say the unmentioned worry in everybody’s mind.

Looking surprised at the sudden comment, Ikeda was about to answer the quiet martial master when the glass door of S.T.’s lab was pushed open by two strangely different visitors.

While Saegusa Toshiro, the Police Counsellor who formed S.T. was graceful in his entrance to the S.T. Lab, the former commanding officer Yurine Tomohisa burst his way into the lab with the speed and suddenness of a tropical typhoon exclaiming loudly to everyone.

“Why is Aoyama-san being detained in Yokohama?” Yurine Tomohisa almost shouted his question at his cohort mate, Ikeda Sousuke.

Smiling at the outcry of concern for the young profiler, Saegusa Toshiro who followed after Yurine, coughed to gain the attention of everyone in the lab.

“Saegusa-riji-kan,” Ikeda Sousuke exclaimed in surprise, choosing to ignore Yurine’s outburst over the quiet appearance of his supervisor.

“I thought I would drop by to assure you all that Aoyama-kun is safe with Detective Kindaichi and Akechi. I have just received words from them that Aoyama-kun is doing well,” Saegusa waved off Ikeda’s greeting and acknowledged the S.T. team with a gentle smile.

“Why won’t you allow me to recall her?” Akagi confronted Saegusa with a badly hidden anger, “leaving her with that…. Death magnet will cause her more harm than good! I won’t be surprised if that baka caused her death somehow in the future!”  

Aware of how all the six pairs of burning eyes on him, Saegusa Toshiro marvelled at the degree of emotions shown in each and every member past or present of S.T..  They have grown so much that they were no longer the four chosen socially-awkward and emotionless misfits he handpicked from various departments, or the weak-will commanding offic