,日本語 101
Japanese 101

Baka 馬鹿 means Stupid / Idiot 
Chan ちゃん means little one, a honorific usually reserved for children or people who are close friends
San さん means Mr, Mrs, A universally to address people out of respect 
Ano あの means well, errr ...
Gomen 御免 means Sorry (informally)
Ne ね means Hey

 

Aoyama Sho took a look around her and smiled to herself, ‘it’s a fifty-fifty chance, but it might reveal the answer Akagi-san is looking for.’

“Ne, Sho-chan. What is it that is so important that we have to wait here in the middle of the night doing nothing?” Kindaichi Hajime half yawned as he tried to rub his eyes to keep himself awake.

“Is it true that wherever you go, you will come across a murder case?” Aoyama looked at Kindaichi for a moment before asking innocently as she tried to calculate the probability of what she hoped to witness.

“Eh?! Ano…. Yes? How do you know?” Kindaichi blinked his eyes at the strange question and answered uncertainly, as it was something he would never like to admit.

“Good… with your luck of finding dead bodies, my chances have improved at least by 10 percent,” Aoyama offered Kindaichi the smile belonging to an eager predator before hopping off to find herself a spot next the barbwire fences, “old building checked, 2 am checked, no passer-by checked, haunted look checked and bad luck of a walking death magnet checked! And now we wait for the perfect crime to brew.”

"Eh? My luck, why do you need my luck for?"

Kindaichi looked at the happy Aoyama in confusion, but he could not help but to smile at the sight of a strangely excited Aoyama Sho. He had noticed Aoyama’s quietness over the past two days ever since they reached Yokohama. It also did not escape his notice that hints of light shadows have begun to form circles around her tired eyes.

Whatever she was doing the past two nights, it must have been important enough for her to lose sleep over them.

“Keep your eyes on the building top,” Aoyama Sho instructed as she took a last glance at a text message on her mobile phone. This was it, the day she could finally provide an answer to Akagi Samon's question. 

Taking a peek over her head, Kindaichi Hajime was not surprised to see that it was the same message which Akagi Samon has sent her three days ago, which was the reason for their journey to Yokohama.

It was still that one line message, “this is not a suicidal case,” followed by a news link.

Kindaichi Hajime noted that the news link offered was no help too, as it was another of your usual brief death reporting by the local media. With a short one paragraphs suicide found with death note article and a simple heading such as “School Teacher Dies over heartache,” it was really nothing eye-catching about this news or anything for a detective to investigate into.

But coming from Akagi Samon, the genius team leader of S.T. to his profiler, this case was at least noteworthy to him. 

Likewise, Aoyama Sho seemed to have taken it very seriously, remarking to him in passing that “Sometimes the perfect crime is the easiest crime. The line between murder and suicide is not just the deciding emotional factor for the family grief, but also the gateway for a criminal to escape from a crime scene.”

It was obvious that the young profiling expert has been sent to work on a case by Akagi Samon, but the way it was done was also something Kindaichi Hajime has never experienced before. He could not believe that all the instructions the young profiler needed were a one-line thought without any further information. Kindaichi was somewhat amazed to learn of how Aoyama Sho worked. Unlike the usual procedures of investigation and debriefs required, all Aoyama Sho needed was her trusty laptop and a direction by Akagi Samon.

Kindaichi Hajime was also impressed by the level of trust which Akagi Samon had for young Aoyama Sho. His action had also spoken in large volume of the confidence level he has of his team members as he could simply let the young profiler to run wild guided only by his one sentence. That was something which will never happen in any other department.

Once again, Kindaichi Hajime was reminded why S.T. was considered the elite specialist team. It was not just that they were different from the rest, but rather the amount of trust entrusted to this team was something everyone other teams would have been envied of.

S.T. was entrusted highly by Akagi and Aoyama Sho was also not one to disappoint him, as Kindaichi Hajime soon learned.

With only the briefest direction and limited material on hand, armed with her knowledge of criminal minds, the young profiler was able to generate the endless amount of possible crime scenarios and data which were left lying around her room.

"In every crime committed, there is always a Modus Operandi. The work of a Profiler is to identify that MO with the use of existing data and to make sense of the mind of the criminal. In other words, a good profiler needs to be able to predict the criminal’s mind and next move with the existing data in order to stop them. To obtain a more accurate the forecast would depend on the amount of data and the profiler's ability to read and decode the thinking of the criminals using the data. In a way, profilers are said to behave like criminals by using data to think like one, a common assumption of most and a usage of profilers in crime detection and preventions. As stated in Sun Tzu’s Art of War, ‘If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperilled in a hundred battles...’, we must know the enemy to defeat one hence the importance of having a profiler to reorganise the cues and data of a crime. A profiler is a spy in a way, creating a connection to the criminals using their own behaviours against them."

The unspoken shades of grey in the police force are what Aoyama Sho had used to explain the work of a Criminal profiler, in a nutshell to him, nothing glamorous at all, but Kindaichi Hajime could now understand why many of his seniors were so wary of profilers now. 

The way their minds spun with unlimited knowledge of past crimes complete with the full understanding of police procedures and laws, made them the worst nightmare of any detective. The not so flattering words used by many to describe a profiler in the TMPD were often treacherous enough to cast any profiler in under a negative light with the warning that they might just cross over to the dark side anytime with their dark knowledge.

Yet, the existence of a profiler was a necessary evil to the TMPD.

Because it would take one profiler to unearth another. Just as how it was rumored that it was Aoyama Sho who put the final nail in the coffin of the famous criminology profiling professor Niijima Yasuhiro. Just when everyone else was troubled by who the murderer could be, Aoyama Sho predicted his involvement in the double exchange murder cases and directing the police to uncover the necessary evidence to arrest him. 

Akagi Samon might have been widely acknowledged as the main thought processor of S.T., but it was undeniable that Aoyama Sho was the one who assisted to form the links and guideline between thoughts to prove his case. Because if there were anyone whom the top genius would ever trust in TMPD, then that someone would be Aoyama Sho.

For that, many in TMPD have thought for the intelligent pair to be monstrous enough to call them monsters behind them.

'How can anyone ever think of Sho-chan as a monster?'

It amused Kindaichi Hajime to no end whenever he looked at Aoyama Sho and thought of the reputation she had in the TMPD. It was because it was near impossible for anyone to think that the messy child-like Aoyama was said to be the top criminology profiling expert of the whole Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The constant kid-like preferences to have some sweet and colourful candies, lollipops, jellybeans, cakes and doughnuts in the pocket or in , did nothing to let anyone take Aoyama Sho seriously if they had no idea that she was the profiling monster of S.T..

Aoyama Sho reminded him of the never grow up Peter Pan in a way. But sometimes the flashes of pain in her eyes spoke of unexplained maturity given her age, like an old weary soul trapped inside the body of a young child, speaking of great wisdom beyond most knowledge shared. It was moments like those, Kindaichi Hajime wished that the young girl would remove that indifference mask on her face and learned to speak of her mind instead. 

Kindaichi Hajime remembered how Inspector Kenmochi Isamu has once explained the concept of S.T. to him, he mentioned that the “members of S.T. are supposed to be extraordinary; they are the kind of people who we can never defeat even if we tried our very best because they are the specialists. The only reason for the survival of S.T. was the fact that they were to achieve what the other police were unable to do. Once they lose that edge, then there isn’t a need for S.T. to be in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.”

“Extraordinary?” Kindaichi repeated with a smile.

Based on the past interaction with Aoyama Sho during these three days, he could not agree with anything lesser than that, but he too had caught sight of the contradicting child within at times. The seeming indifference personality which she would showcase to people was constantly fighting against her nature to care for others. More often Kindaichi Hajime could swear that he had seen her expressive eyes appeared troubled with all the internal battles inside her mind.

Kindaichi Hajime might have lied about his name being Yamada Ryosuke, but Aoyama Sho appeared to play her cards close to her chest in a very cautious manner which made observing her very difficult. Something or someone had done something to cause the girl to learn to rein in all her emotions in public.

Just as Kindaichi was deep in thoughts while the whole city was asleep at this unusual time of the night, a sudden gust of wind and a loud bang echoed through the silent night, shattering the moment of peace.

“What was that?” Kindaichi Hajime reacted instantly, pulling Aoyama Sho into his arms for protection automatically while looking around him.

“You’re truly a death magnet,” Aoyama Sho shook her head teasingly before focusing all her attention at the rooftop of the abandoned building, not caring that she was once again trapped in the arms of the young detective.

“So Akagi-san was right, this is a murder case in disguise after all,” the quiet words of Aoyama Sho caught Kindaichi Hajime’s attention and he too started to look at the top of the old building where he could spot someone was looking down.

“Male in late twenty, at least 1.86m in height, wearing an expensive looking business suit,” Aoyama Sho remarked to herself while looking at the perp through the night vision binoculars she brought along for observing, trying to gather every bit of information she could get from the sighting of the man.

“Something metallic is being held by his left hand, probably a weapon such as a pistol, this would explain how he forced the victim to leap to her death,” the young profiler continued to rattle off her casual observation and startling Kindaichi Hajime with her latest discovery.

“Stay here, Sho-chan.” Upon hearing that the perp might be armed, Kindaichi untangled his arms from her and instructed her seriously before running toward the main gate of the old building in an attempt to chase the man. Away from the job or not, Kindaichi Hajime was still very serious about nabbing murderers.

“It’s no use… unless you are Kurosaki, it’s impossible to jump over the fence and barbwire,” Aoyama Sho shook her head lightly in a half-hearted attempt to stop Kindaichi from chasing. But as she expected, her calls had fallen on deaf ears.

"You silly Baka," the young profiler smiled ruefully at the disappearing back of Kindaichi.

Taking a deep breath, Aoyama Sho turned slowly to face the source of the bang earlier with an unexplained mixed look of unhappiness and pity in her eyes. Lying on the ground of the old building is the body of 23 years old school teacher, Takane Akira, just as she had predicted.

“Gomen, I wasn’t able to save you at all. I just don’t have enough data on hand to find out who is the next possible victim. Victim Profiling is only possible if I know what to look for among the many missing person reports. All I could work out was the location, time and possible MO.”

Aoyama Sho looked into the fearful eyes of Takane Akira and made the dead woman a promise, “but I can promise you that you will be the last death in the hands of this man. This will be his worst mistake, by committing this crime; he has given me the clues to locate him.”

As she stopped to whispering a short prayer for the victim, a drop of tear was seen slowly rolling down her cheek.

Despite how unfeeling they had appeared to others at times, deep down inside, every member of the infamous ST was always deeply affected by every death they had seen. It was often the reason why they would fight tooth and nail to uncover all mysteries. Not out of satisfaction of being right, but rather doing all they could to right a wrong before anything goes out of hands.

Drying her eyes and taking a deep breath to calm her heart, Aoyama Sho took out her mobile phone to make the long-awaited call to the Yokohama Police Department.

“This is Aoyama Sho from S.T. reporting a murder case at the abandoned Negishi Grandstand,” she announced coolly to the telephone opera