日本語 101
Japanese 101

 Niisan 兄さん means Older brother
Jigoku no Kugutsushi 地獄の傀儡師 means The Puppeteer From Hell
Dare だれ means Who
Nani なに / 何 means What
Chan ちゃん means  little one, an honorific usually reserved for children or people who are close friends or family members
Desu です means Am
Baka 馬鹿 means Stupid / Idiot 
Chibi ちび means Little / Short
Kaibutsu 怪物 means Monster
Itai 痛い  means Pain / Ouch
Dōmo arigatō  どうもありがとう means Thank you very much (Formal)
Gomen Nasai ごめんなさい means  I'm Sorry

High up in the office tower of the Kamiki Technologies, on the top level within the secret guest lounge, a battle of strength was brewing among two deadly men. It was easy to see which of the men had the upper hand at one glance simply because one of them was glaring while the other simply smirked. 

Kamiki Ryunosuke, the heir of Kamiki Technologies, was losing his host advantage fast as he tried to control his anger. The young man glared at the tall smirking man in black who stood so casually in front him as he runs his right hand through his fiancée’s long flowing black hair. The soothing action helped to keep his anger at the irritating man at bay, despite his burning wish to rip the man apart for his act of deception and betrayal. Unlike the sleeping girl in his arms, there was nothing he could do to bend another man to his wishes.

For the last time, Kamiki cursed his foolish decision to seek help from that deadly viper, Takato Yoichi aka the infamous Jigoku no Kugutsushi. He should have thought of it that he would be reduced to another chess piece in that man’s game with Kindaichi Hajime. But his pride refused to see the truth, until now. 

Everything was working so well according to his plan, that he has been too trusting in that man, to think that Takato was on his side. He should have known better. That man lives for Chaos, nothing else pleases him most to see people fall apart, including him.

“What did you do?” He asked forcefully, “I know Mirai-chan has met them and she would not have if not for you.”

“What makes you think it’s me?” Takato Yoichi laughed as though he was amused by the accusing tone, “You give me too much credit, but too little to your fiancée. She too is capable of masterminding anything on her own. Don’t tell me that you have forgotten how it all started with her?”

Tracing the shiny silver proposal ring on her finger, Kamiki Ryunosuke smiled contentedly to himself. It would not be any longer for that ring to turn into a wedding band, binding her to him forever.

“It would be impossible,” Kamiki Ryunosuke looked up and sneered at Takato, “unless you are not as great as you claimed to be. Surely you won’t disgrace yourself by allowing yourself to be fool by a little girl? All you needed to do was to erase Aoyama Sho from her world and insert a couple of obedience passwords and commands for her. Unless you are incapable of doing such a job, Jigoku no Kugutsushi."

Takato merely smiled at him without a word.

'The mental mind of a human is complex beyond logic and once joined with a strong will of the said person, the potential is beyond the comprehension of a normal person. And Aoyama Sho was never a normal enemy, to begin with.'

After that exchange, he would even rank Aoyama Sho side-along with his lifelong nemesis, Kindaichi Hajime as his favourite chess pieces.

Kamiki Ryunosuke was fighting a doomed battle right from the start because he had no idea who his real enemy was.

'Fool of a man to think he could even try to control me, Jigoku no Kugutsushi,' Takato Yoichi sneered at him, unknown to Kamiki Ryunosuke.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 10 May 2014
Time: 9.11p.m.
Location: Unknown

Casting a lazy eye on the unconscious S.T. Profiler, Aoyama Sho, Takato Yoichi almost yawned at the boringness of the situation. The thought that he, Jigoku no Kugutsushi, was called in to kidnap a little girl and to mask her non-presence with a burnt body was almost like getting Harry Houdini to perform a simple card act.

That was perhaps the simplest thing to achieve among all of his acts. All he needed to do was to get hold of the young Shida heiress blood, the universally rarest blood group, AB Negative. The blood was almost impossible for any outsider to get their hands on. But with an insider’s access to Shida Family resources, it was as simple as to withdraw some of the young heiress’s stored blood in the family’s blood bank and pouring it all over the crime scene. It was an added bonus that the young profiler was also injured before his final showdown. That way, no one would even doubt the authenticity of blood, even if they have no idea that Aoyama Sho was, in fact, the Shida Mirai they were searching for.

The DNA of the blood was enough for anyone to believe that the burnt corpse belonged to Aoyama Sho when Akagi Samon tried to match the limited records against the police’s officers record database.

“Aoyama Sho, I would have thought that you would be more of a challenge,” Takato patted the young profiler’s bloodied cheek lightly and sighed, “I am so disappointed in you.”

“Dare?” A soft muffled voice asked weakly surprising the evil mastermind, “Who… are you?”

Pulling back his hand, Takato Yoichi shook his head in amusement and smiled good-naturally at the slowly waking girl, “I’m afraid that should be the question I am asking you instead, Princess.”

“Na…Ni?” Aoyama Sho tried to lift up her head to meet the eyes of the stranger in front of her, but a massive headache was pounding hard, the young profiler was awfully distracted by the pains and blurred visions. The professional in her noted that she was at a great disadvantage if she was to negotiate her way out alive.

With an unknown perp, no clear motive and an unidentifiable location, Aoyama Sho knew that she was probably dead to the rest of the world now. The percentage of her coming out alive from this ordeal was fast dropping to less than 10% according to her inbuilt data analysis.

Kindaichi Hajime and S.T. members must have been disappointed with her when they realised that she was gone, the young profiler tried to choke back her tears at the realisation.

But her drips of tears were already seen by Takato Yoichi.

Takato paused his speech to consider his options, should he do as requested or should he offer his good twin an olive branch for his return to their world? The loss of this girl would probably destroy his good twin for good, but a world without his good twin would seem so… Boring… Kindaichi and Aoyama have been the only bright spots in his life recently, watching them struggling to piece together the puzzle have been fun.

And Aoyama Sho… she had been a delightful little surprise for him recently, the only one who has managed to surprise him more than anyone else in recent years. For that rare achievement, Takato supposed he should give her a reward?

‘Yes, a reward for the little one indeed,’ Takato chuckled to himself and grinned, Aoyama Sho will become his second favourite toy, if that genius could figure out his last hint at her worst. If she failed, then it would be her own failure which sealed her fate instead.

He took a step closer to the young profiler and mumbled in a soothing voice, “stay with me, Princess. You can tell me who you are, Aoyama Sho or Shida Mirai?”

Aoyama Sho forced herself to focus on the voice and could see the shadow vision of a man waving in hand slowly in front of her and tried to stare hard by using the hand motions as her point of focus, “Ao…yama… Sho.”

“Are you sure?” Takato asked in an overconcerned voice and whispered gently to her, “I thought I heard people calling you Shida Mirai instead. One of them is a tall pale handsome young man, he seemed so horrific to see the blood on you. He kept calling out for you, Mirai-chan… Mirai-chan… Mirai-chan…”

Fighting to regain her full consciousness of the surrounding, Aoyama Sho did the only thing she could, she followed the soothing voice despite her own uneasiness about the situation.

'Focus, Aoyama Sho, focus,' mind mantras found its way into her mind, despite the fact that she hated the orderly manner of repeating mantras, Aoyama Sho knew that losing her mind in the face of danger was the something she could not afford to. In too many times in her past experiences, it often spelt the worst for her, which was the reason why Akagi Samon had taken so much time and effort to make the lesson hurtful enough for her to remember.

Hearing voices in mind was not a good sign for anyone, but heeding commands from an unknown voice was equally deadly. Aoyama Sho knew she had no choice. It was a lesser evil choice to stay awake and face danger than to give into the darkness in the face of danger. She would prefer knowing than not knowing, even if she was helpless against whatever she was facing. 

While the trained profiler in her would have screamed at anyone making such a foolish mistake of following an unknown voice, the despairing little girl in her was grabbing straws, she needed to stay conscious at all costs to understand what was going on. Even at the cost of her life.

Mirai-chan, she could almost see that familiar face calling out to her, the big brother who swore to protect her previously was calling out to her dearly before she blackout earlier. She had wanted to apologise then, but her strength failed her as darkness descended upon her world.

'Kanata-niisan,' her mind acknowledged the identity of the mentioned man with a moan of despair, as painful images begun playing in her mind's eye again, his eyes of anguishes were burning bright as darkness closed in on her, her last memory of him was a crying broken man, 

'Don't say it out,' a plea was quickly formed in her mind, but the pain and guiltiness were too much to ignore, 'Gomen nasai.'

The stranger’s words and her memories were slowly bringing forth a long-forgotten name close to the edge of her lips again, despite a voice in mind was screaming for her not to say it out, “Kanata… niisan…”

“Stay with me Mirai-chan,” Takato frowned disappointedly at her perfect response, perhaps he had given too much credit to Aoyama Sho, after all, she was merely a helpless child in her current state when compared to the rest of his past victims. He really should not expect her to deny him of his questioning.

“Stay with me Mirai-chan. There was also another young man with him, he was tied up and beaten up on the chair. I could see bruises forming on his face and how dried blood caked his short spiky hair. Who is that, Mirai-chan?” 

Pausing again in his speech, Takato continued his gesturing with his hand, ensuring that the girl was still following his movements with her eyes even if she was silent, “Stay with me Mirai-chan, who was that young man coughing out blood after being beaten up by those men in black. I could hear him muttering a name… Mirai-chan.”

Aoyama Sho continued to follow his movements in silence, as a trained psychologist, her mind was slowly registering something about his movements, but the cloudiness of her mind had allowed that knowledge to hide from her for now, 'what is it that I am missing?'

The pauses in speech, the slow gesturing, the gentle probing, the hint of persuasion, the understanding and concern