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
Hai はい means Yes
Minna 皆 means Everyone
San さん means Mr, Mrs, A universally to address people out of respect
Arigatou ありがとう means Thank you (Informally usually among friends)
Urusai 煩い means Shut up 
Boku wo Shinjite Kudasai 僕を信じてください means Please believe in me
Onegai お願い means Please
Obaasan おばあちゃん means an impolite way to address an older woman
Yapari やはり means Hurray (A cheer)
means erts
Aieru 愛してる means I love you
Kokuhaku 告白 means Confession
Okaeri お帰り means Welcome Home
Dare 誰 means Who
Kimi wa dare na no 君は誰なの means Who are you?
Anata no namae wa あなたの名前は means Your name is? (Formal)
Desu です means I am
Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu よろしくお願いします means Nice to meet you

“Is it my fault?”

An unfamiliar whisper cut through the tense air within the car as Inspector Kenmochi was driving them towards Hachioji city. A city within Tokyo which had become the talk of the country in the past two days. It was the city where the country’s latest hostage situation which everyone in Japan were twitting and talking about took place. The taking over of the Shida Bank by an unknown person had been the headline news for the past two days but there was no breakthrough so far, despite being surrounded by police.

“Sho-chan?” Kindaichi Hajime looked over to the young profiler who was sitting beside him in the car, unsure whether the question he had overheard came from her as her voice sounded so different from the usual Aoyama Sho they knew.

“I messed up again, didn’t I?” Aoyama Sho lowered her head and asked in a pitiful voice after scrolling through all the news reports found on the IPad which Detective Akechi had provided her with, “That’s why Akagi-san finally decided to kick me off S.T….”

Speechless, Kindaichi was still caught in the unsure situation of whether he should be angry with her or comfort the obviously upset profiler. Rubbing his forehead, the young detective smiled mirthlessly. Ever since meeting that girl, his emotions have been going haywire and there were times which he had no idea what to do with her, just like now.

Exchanged a look with Akechi and Kenmochi who were seated in the front, he silently urged the two officers to say something to the young profiler instead.

It had been the first time they had ever heard her speak in such a soft tone and childlike lost voice. The profiler whom they were familiar with had always spoken in a cool confident and low pitch tone because of her boyish image. There were times which Aoyama sounded like your usual girl-next-door, but those were times when she was required to pretend to be somebody else. Hence, they were surprised to hear such a child-like innocent tone coming from her naturally.

“Everything was my fault again…” The young profiler repeated with a sad sigh as she rubbed her nose hard to punish herself, “I am useless…”

“Ahem… Aoyama-chan, I am sure that Akagi-san didn’t mean it that way,” The confused Inspector Kenmochi scratched the back of his head as he tried to comfort her half-heartedly.

“S.T. is powerless without you in that situation,” Detective Akechi remarked coolly as he glanced over through the mirror to see the young profiler looking sadly at the IPad he had passed over to her when they got on-board. He had not expected the confident and rude profiler to be depressed upon learning that her fellow members had decided to operate without her. He had thought that the profiler in her would make her start analysing the scene for clues instead of moping around like a child.

But having such a reaction should have been normal for anyone who had been forsaken by their teammates.  S.T., regardless of what the rest of the TMPD thought of them, was viewed as an unbeatable team together. So, he too was surprised to learn that Akagi Samon had cast his best member off the team now. At a time when S.T. needed their profiler most.  

Aoyama Sho raised her watery eyes to meet the eyes of the other three men on-board the car with her and sniffled softly with her little red nose, earning her an untimely humorous smile from everyone. It was little actions like that coming from her which often reminded them that she was closer in personality to her youthful image in actual, despite her attempt to prove to everyone that she was mature enough to be considered as a grown-up.

Sighing softly to himself, Kindaichi Hajime frowned deeply at the young profiler. He should have been angry with the stubborn girl. Considering the fact that she was fighting for her life just forty-eight hours ago, Kindaichi did not agree with the young profiler’s insistence to be released from the hospital immediately. He felt that Aoyama Sho still looked far too pale to be released but there was no way to convince the girl otherwise.

Knowing that he needed to make his opinion known to the profiler to stop her pouting act, Kindaichi Hajime sighed again, noting once again how easily the young profiler had manoeuvred him into responding to her.

“He is only angry with you because he knew you would never listen to his instruction due to your order phobia. The very same reason why I am angry with you now,” Kindaichi Hajime added his observation for Aoyama, “we are only angry with you because we know you never knew your limits and would always end up putting yourself at risk. Like I have told you previously, there are many ways to help people, not always at the expense of yourself and knowing you, I will not doubt that you will put yourself right in the line of fire again, Sho-chan.”

If he could, Kindaichi Hajime would have chosen the same decision as Akagi Samon, to hide this case from the young profiler. Simply because he did not have a good feeling about this case. There was something brewing in that situation which could not be seen by the eyes. Considering how impulsive Aoyama Sho could be at times, he did not feel comfortable bringing that profiler to the scene.

But when Detective Akechi had his orders from Commissioner Matsudo Murasakio to bring the young profiler to the scene, Kindaichi Hajime knew that it was impossible to hide the news from her anymore.

It was unavoidable because once the newsflash was reported on television, none of them could ignore the biggest case of a hostage situation in Tokyo’s recent history. However, the young profiler actually turned even paler when she heard the news about the hostage incident in Hachioji city. It was as though there was something else about the case that affected her more deeply than Akagi’s order to stay away from the latest S.T. mission.

“No… you don’t understand… It’s all my fault that everything turned out to be this way,” Aoyama Sho whispered to nobody in particular, but they could all hear the fear in her voice, “I should have known better than to run away like this, after all, all forms of freedom come with a price, especially mine.”

"What makes you say so, Sho-chan?" Patting the young profiler's head in a comforting manner, Kindaichi Hajime could tell that Aoyama Sho was reacting very strangely to the news with her strange sentences.

Looking at his right, Kindaichi Hajime could see how quiet the formerly aloof profiler was as she scrolled through at least 2 days’ worth of news on the IPad air at a great speed again. The usually laidback Aoyama was so tensed that he could see how her jaw tightened with stress as she continued to stare at the photographs which showed all the members of S.T. on the scene but her.

“They are innocent people… who should have never gotten involved,” Aoyama Sho remarked softly in regret, “I truly messed up this time.”

Reaching out to hold the hand of Aoyama Sho to stop her from scrolling the screen again, Kindaichi Hajime whispered softly to her, “Don’t worry too much, I am sure that they will be fine. We are on our way to the scene, you will be able to help them later, Sho-chan.” 

“No, I am not worried about S.T. at all because Akagi-san is there,” Aoyama Sho finally looked up from the screen to look at him and snapped back to her profiler mode as she criticised the team for their actions, “But I am disappointed and angry at their foolishness. How much time have they wasted in these 2 days when I was not around? This must be the stupidest thing they have ever done! Akagi-san should have known that having a profiler during this critical time is the most important factor in saving these people! The longer this situation dragged on, the lower the chance of saving them. He should have never kept me away when he knew that I am the best person to handle it!”

“We will get there in time to help them,” Kindaichi Hajime could see the sign of tears in her eyes as she criticized her most trusted leader harshly and decided to offer the young profiler a one-arm hug to calm her trembling body.

Aoyama Sho might have appeared as though she felt betrayed by the leader when she was not called to the scene, but something tells Kindaichi that there was a more important reason which was holding back Akagi Samon from recalling his best profiler back to the scene.

It did not escape his notice that Aoyama Sho was much more emotional than any other times. The sharp gasp and wide eyes shock when she first learned from Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi about the sensational news on the hostage situation in the Shida Bank. Her impatience and the emotional manner in demanding to know whether anyone from the bank was injured spoke in volume about her concern for those who were trapped in that bank. Unknowingly to her, it had shown him a side of Aoyama Sho which he had not known about.

A caring side of her for others which she would have tried to hide from everyone else, but yet openly displayed for whoever was trapped in the building. That one little difference hinted that whoever was inside the building shared a level of closeness which Kindaichi had never experienced with. And that feeling did not settle well with him because he wanted to be the one who she could share everything with him.

It was highly possible that Aoyama might have known somebody from Shida Bank to cause such a strong reaction from her. However,  Aoyama had refused to say anything at all. Another decision made by the young profiler which had unknowingly upset the young detective again.

“We have reached!” As the car turned into the CBD area parking lot, Inspector Kenmochi could barely start to announce their arrival to everyone on-board, when Aoyama Sho acted immediately by unlocking the door of the still moving car and jumped out without any warning at all. Almost causing the old inspector a heart attack with her reckless action, but all of his scoldings had once again fallen on deaf ears, "Aoyama-chan! You can't just jump out of the car like that! What if..."

The way she jumped out of the car before Inspector Kenmochi could announce their arrival sparked another doubt in Kindaichi’s mind about her familiarity with the surrounding area, and made him almost certain that he was right about her knowing someone in the bank, “Sho-chan! Be careful!”

“Arigatou, Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi,” Kindaichi Hajime nodded to them before rushing after the young profiler.

“What are you thinking, Baka!” He could hear Aoyama Sho yelled at someone not farther ahead and was amused to hear a similar reply from the other party who calmly confronted her with “What do you think you are doing, Baka! You are off the team with immediate effect!”

It was the long-awaited reunion of S.T. members after being separated for over a month and everyone would have expected the team to welcome their runaway profiler with joy. But her welcome party was anything but joyous.

The sight of Aoyama Sho and Akagi Samon shouting at each other for their own foolishness had set the tone for an ugly confrontation between the two S.T. geniuses. It was the showdown which all S.T. members have expected and decided to keep their silence as they watched on the sidelines.

Yamabuki Saizo pulled Kurosaki Yuji’s jacket lightly and shook his head at him, stopping the martial artist from moving forward to protect the young profiler from Akagi’s verbal abuse.

Listening to Akagi Samon’s speech carefully, Yuuki Midori frowned as she detected the unusually high pitches in the cool Akagi Samon’s tone of speech.

“Akagi-san is hiding something from Aoyama-chan,” Yuuki remarked with a crease between her brows and supported by Kurosaki’s nod of agreement. Like Yuuki, Kurosaki had smelled an unusual scent of cortisol in him as he argued with the young profiler. Noting the responses from Yuuki and Kurosaki, Yamabuki Saizo smiled calmly, “they have a special bond with each other, something that Akagi-san does not have with us. But it is this same bond which caused him to react extremely, just like how he reacted when he realised that Yurine Cap was being set up for a trap.”

“Does that mean that Akagi-san knew that something in there will endanger Aoyama-chan and that is why he is trying to get her away?” Yuuki considered the similarities between how Akagi tried to treat Yurine then and how he was reacting to Aoyama now and made a shocking conclusion.

“Possibly, but no parents can ever protect their children from every harm, despite, how hard they tried. If this is a crisis destined for Aoyama, there is little we can do to prevent it. All we can do is to pray for her safety,” Yamabuki smiled gently at his two worried teammates before putting his hands together to pray for the young profiler’s safety.

The three S.T. members turned to look at their team leader and assistant team leader with a tremulous smile and heavy heart.

They would not be Akagi Samon and Aoyama Sho if they did not shout at each other because they thought that each other was making a mistake. The two S.T. monsters who had problems expressing their concern for others and would always be the harshest to whoever mattered most to them. It was a fact known to the few of them who knew S.T..

Just like how the two of them were trying to win over each other by cursing at each other now.

“The team don’t need another stubborn team leader to get us into trouble again,” Akagi Samon shouted sharply at Aoyama Sho as his hand moved to cover his mouth unknowingly again.

“Baka no Akagi-san! You know perfectly well that there was no way to solve this case without me,” Aoyama Sho countered the forensic expert with a sharp glare, “only a profiler could help to gather all the necessary information to make a decision.”

“I could have done the profiling myself, you are not needed here at all.” The lonesome wolf Akagi insisted by pulling Aoyama’s collar and dragging the young profiler away from the scene, “Just get out of here quickly!”

“You’re lying! You have no confident of handling this case at all. The way you touch your face when talking to me and avoided looking straight at me are because you knew I would have seen through you, Akagi-san. I agree that you are good at profiling but you are not me. No matter how good you are, any S.T. member is irreplaceable because each of us has our own speciality. While you and I are both certified geniuses, neither of us can ever replace each other,” The young profiler stood firm against her best competitor and countered her leader without any fear.

“You just have to defy my orders, you and your stupid order phobia!” Akagi Samon growled in frustration, knowing that Aoyama was right in saying so, and he could not find a good reason to keep her away without revealing the death threat he received from The Puppeteer from Hell for her. A threat which could not be taken lightly because nobody else had ever survived once the death threat had been issued.

“Then tell me, whoever among this group of bakas, can save those people trapped inside the building, if it is not me? How confident are you all to get everyone out safely? If anyone of you can promise that you can get every one of them out safely, then I will walk away now pretending that I never knew this. Tell me that if you want to convince me to go away!” Fuelled by her worry over the people trapped in the building and Akagi’s stubbornness, Aoyama Sho turned around to challenge the whole department to make her stand, “Get this straight into your heads, none of you have the brain that I have nor the ability to profile and forecast the captors’ next action as I do. Not even you, Akagi Samon! Are you ready to shoulder the deaths of everyone inside because of one stupid decision or move which you made? Are you prepared to face the stress mounting on you and be the one responsible for every single life in that building? You're welcome to it but it will be a thankless job!”

“We can always get another profiler,” Akagi insisted strongly, even though he knew in his heart that what Aoyama said was the truth, “you are not the only profiler in the whole TMPD! Anyone else could have done that.”

“But I am the only one with the accuracy rate of 98.5%, the top profiler in this country and among the world’s top 10 best profilers. Can you find anyone to match all that achievements even by half?” Aoyama Sho raised an eyebrow and smirked to Akagi, it was rare that she would challenge her team leader directly but when it was about Profiling, she was confident that nobody could ever win her in Japan.

“You…fine… go ahead and get yourself kill! I will never care!” Throwing his arms up in the air, Akagi Samon had no other way to convince that little brat, all he could do was to be extra careful to look out for anything suspicious to protect that stubborn kid from harm.

“Aoyama-chan! Don’t mind Akagi-san! You know how he is like when he is dealing with you,” Yuuki Midori decided to step in and stop their silly argument if this was as Yamabuki predicted, then she would rather have a heart-warming reunion instead.

Not hiding her happiness anymore at finally meeting the baby kid of S.T. after so long, Yuuki quickly hugged the young profiler while Yamabuki and Kurosaki ignored Akagi’s evil glare and moved forward to pat the head of Aoyama Sho to welcome her back.

“Welcome back, Aoyama-san!” Former S.T. Commanding officer, Yurine Tomohisa greeted the young profiler with a bright smile as he tried to pull Akagi towards Aoyama and tried to speak up for his best friend, “Don’t ever run away again! Do you know how worried we were? Including Akagi-san who even started a news article collection about the cases, you helped to solve in Yokohama. Even though he didn’t say it, I know that he was really proud of you!”

“Urusai, Baka Mister Yurine!” Aoyama Sho and Akagi Samon turned towards Yurine Tomohisa at the same time to mutter the same line to the amusement of Kindaichi Hajime and the other police officers who were on the scene watching the S.T. reunion. In one action, the two geniuses had shown everyone how similar they were.

“Detective Akechi Kengo and Inspector Kenmochi Isamu from the Yokohama Police Department 1st Division reporting for duty,” Detective Akechi and Inspector Kenmochi walked to the command post and saluted to the main commanding officer of the investigation, Commissioner Matsudo Murasakio and Superintendent Ikeda Kusakai, the newly promoted S.T. commanding officer.

“I must say that I was not expecting Detective Kindaichi’s presence when I requested for Detective Akechi to fetch our missing profiler… So, I guess it’s true that they cannot be seen without each another? I heard that Aoyama Sho was working together with Kindaichi Hajime in Yokohama while she was away and had helped to solve many cases,” Commissioner Matsudo eyed the lack of distance between Aoyama Sho and Kindaichi Hajime and how Kindaichi had could place a hand on the profiler’s shoulder without the profiler’s objection with great interest, “The two of you seem to make a good pair from all the reports I have received from Detective Akechi. I do look forward to seeing more from you two.”

Smirking at Kindaichi, Detective Akechi nodded lightly, “they have the most interesting partnership together and probably are the best seamless pair that I have ever seen so far. It would be interesting to see what will develop from this partnership in the future.”

“So, you are the Baka who brought her here?” Observing the way how Detective Akechi smirked at Kindaichi, Akagi Samon knew that he must have been the one who brought his profiler to the scene and not the walking dead man collector, Kindaichi Hajime whom he had originally thought to be the one. He walked to confront Detective Akechi by growling angrily at him, “Do you know what you have just done here?”

“Of course, I know what I am doing! You needed her to be here and I brought her here!” Detective Akechi sneered back at him and took the opportunity to whisper to the pathologist as he pulled Akagi Samon by the collar towards him, “you can’t always be the one to save the day, Akagi Samon! Everyone could tell that you are at a loss without her in this case, that’s why Matsudo Riji-kan had requested for her assistance.”

Stunned, Akagi Samon could only stare wordlessly at Detective Akechi, not believing that the fool of a detective would actually choose to endanger his profiler just to make him look bad.

“Just because you know 1 + 1 = 2, doesn’t mean that you know everything in the world! You have no idea what a big mistake you are making here! If anything happened to Aoyama, be prepared to die the most horrific death,” Akagi Samon finally spoke out coldly, not forgiving the detective for spoiling his plan.

Turning away to face his profiler, Akagi Samon tried to school his facial feature into a neutral look, to keep his worries and concern from colouring his tone. If anyone could tell that he was lying just by looking at him, it could only be Aoyama Sho.

“Aoyama Sho, I am revoking your investigating rights from now, as your leader, I am commanding you to go back to wherever you came from! Since you made the choice to leave S.T. before, you have no right to come back! I will not accept any members of mine to defy my commands!” Akagi Samon commanded ruthlessly to the surprise of everyone, including the S.T. members.

“Akagi-san!” The rest of the S.T. members exclaimed in shock at his strict command and wanted to plea for their assistant team leader, “Please take back your command!”

“Boku wo shinjite kudasai!” Undeterred, Aoyama Sho requested seriously to Akagi Samon, “Onegai? I promise you that I will be able to everyone out of there safely. I heard that the captor had requested only to speak to a Shida family member but none of them is willing to risk their lives over this right? I have a way to make him speak to me. Please let me do it for the last time, Akagi-san?”

“Aoyama, I said no, get out of here now! This is not something you should do, at least not for those power-hungry cowards,” Akagi Samon was stubborn, there was no way he could watch the kid he cared about to be involved in this case or worse killed.

“It’s not for them, I promise,” Aoyama denied his claims firmly and explained her feelings clearly, “we have no idea who is trapped inside the building, who is involved and what is the situation inside? For all we know, all the bank employees might be trapped inside, and if there is anything I have learned so far it would be that every life is important. Because they have a family out there waiting for their return. I want to try because I… want to do my part to protect every one of them… Something that I had never been able to do so before. They have always said that we are coldblooded and unfeeling, but we knew that each death had affected us more than anything else. But unlike that pretentious bakas, we chose not to wear our hearts on the sleeves and did the only thing we could do for them. To solve all the mysteries given to us and prevent the next tragedy. This is what I am doing now, to use my best ability to prevent a tragedy from happening again as an S.T. member! You should be able to relate to this, Akagi-san.”

Blinking their eyes at the rare heartfelt speech made by the Chibi S.T. monster, Aoyama Sho, many police officers who heard her words could barely believe it as they directed their eyes towards the grim looking silent S.T. members for an answer.

“Baka! You don’t have to do anything to explain to them what we are feeling! We don’t need any of their understanding as long as we knew what we are doing in our heart,” Akagi Samon rebuked weakly, hating once again how alike Aoyama and he were because she had come to the same conclusion which he had previously with Yurine Tomohisa’s explanation a year ago.  

The two geniuses stared wordlessly at each other, waiting for the other to give in.

“Akagi-san, is it really that bad that you didn’t want her to be involved?” Kindaichi Hajime asked quietly having observed how the two geniuses interacted with each other; he noted that as cold as Akagi Samon had appeared to be, he was only trying his best in his own way to protect the young profiler from harm.

“The worst,” Akagi