My train was on time. Not surprising, but pleasant nonetheless. I ate a late lunch from a street stand and watched the salarymen stuff themselves at record speed at one of those restaurants that charges by the minute. It never ceases to amaze me what people will agree to. I was early for my appointment with Kiryuu of the Kiryuu, Takahashi and Suzaki Partnership. I preferred to be early, so I could get a feel for the office culture. I was surprised to find the secretary greeting me pleasantly, without that superciliousness they usually reserve for the unworthy visitor. Meaning nearly everyone. She was plain, but polite and efficient. Her relationship with the people that she spoke to on the phone was reserved, but she exhibited none of that "executive’s assistant" snobbishness I frequently see. In her brief moment off the phone, I asked her a few questions, which she could not, or would not answer, but never did she become less than professional. By the time I was let in to see Kiryuu himself, I was pretty sure what I’d meet – stolid, ex-jock, coming from a long enough line of money that he doesn’t have to be rude to the help. Married, family man, traditional values, etc. I was wrong. The man that greeted me had never been a jock. I could see immediately, from his almost effeminate gestures, to his insinuating voice – he had been a pretty boy. Athletic, maybe, but his main hobby had been ladykiller. His hair, a little longer than is usual in a corporate firm, was red and silky. He tossed it back uneccesarily from time to time. It was a habit he had picked up with it had been much longer, I guessed. His greeting was warm, but not familiar and he led me into a very office-like office. It might have been furnished from "corporate office handbook." Big desk, big window, sideboard, bookshelves, etc. Nothing worth looking at. I got the feeling he wasn’t really comfortable here. His eyes moved around the room, not lighting on any one feature. He hadn’t picked the furniture – not even the sculpture on his desk. Poor guy. As he talked about the company – they did something horribly dull that I completely blocked out, even as he talked about it – I noticed that he fiddled with a silver ring on his pinky. No wedding band, but that didn’t mean anything. No photos anywhere, either. That did. This guy was still single. I wondered if he was gay, but he didn’t strike me that way. Another mystery, but a small one. He probably kept more than one mistress in more than one place. He was telling me something about how he and his sister ran the company together. She handled Operations; he was more the figurehead of the group. That would explain why he hated the office so much – he was a people person. Being stuck here, without crowd adulation was killing him. I reappraised him. Good looking, playing to a camera that wasn’t there – yes, I could see that he’d be the company spokesperson, and do it well too. I thought about the plain, efficient secretary outside and decided that she had been picked to protect him from himself. I almost smiled at the idea, but managed to cover it by coughing slightly. "Which brings me to the reason for your visit." Kiryuu turned away as he spoke, his eyes wandering to the window and back. "You said you have some questions about an old schoolmate of mine?" "Yes," I agreed pleasantly. "A girl named Tenjou Utena." Kiryuu’s face didn’t change. Polite smile, dissatisfied eyes. He met my gaze evenly. "I’m afraid I won’t be of much help to you. I only remember her very vaguely. After all it was ten years ago that we were in school together. And she was younger than I was." "But you *do* remember her?" I pressed. To my surprise, he colored slightly. "I do. As I say, she was at school with me." He cleared his throat and swiveled towards the window. "I believe, well, I went out with her for a very brief time." He paused. "I remember liking her quite a bit." I was getting used to saying nothing – a time honored technique to get people to talk about themselves. Kiryuu laughed a little, a dry laugh, self-deprecating. His voice was insinuating, as if he was confessing a great secret. "It may seem very odd to you, but I was not in the habit of actually liking the girls I went out with." He swiveled back and looked at me, from beneath what had once been long bangs that would have fallen over his face. "I went out with so many you see, they all kind of...blurred." I nodded encouragingly and said, "But this Tenjou Utena, she was different?" He sat back in his chair, fingers steepled, eyes closed. "Yes, different. I remember she used to dress in a different school uniform, more like the boys’." Smiling, he opened his eyes and said, "I remember when they passed the new rule that stated girls could not wear the boy’s uniform. This was just before I graduated, you understand, and I was still President of the Student Council. What a riot! There were protests everywhere - some of the boys even went so far as to wear the girl’s uniform…it would have been funny if it weren’t so very silly. The rule was repealed, though – my last act before I left." He preened, pleased with his magnanimity. I disliked this Kiryuu and allowed my impatience to show. "And Tenjou Utena?" I prodded. "What about her? She was different…I liked that. Confident, athletic. It might have been good between us, only…" he stopped, his brows furrowed. This boy was either the best liar in the world, or should have avoided poker like the plague. "Only…?" "Only it wasn’t." His soft mouth tightened and regard for Tenjou upped a notch. Anyone that rejected Kiryuu was a hero in my book. The door opened and a pert little figure strode into the room. Immediately the cameras all swung her way. Kiryuu noted this and stood to meet her, gaining back some of the crowd for his own. "Allow me to introduce our COO, and my sister, Kiryuu Nanami." I bowed, but made no motion to stand, or shake hands. Nanami raised one eyebrow, but said nothing. She greeted me, then launched into a rapid-fire speech, requiring Kiryuu’s complete attention. Now my eyebrow rose. This Nanami was a spitfire. It was obviously she who really ran the company, as Kiryuu had implied. I could see that she had a precise grasp on the daily operations of the firm. And it hit me in a blink – she had chosen the secretary and the furniture. She probably ran his whole life. No wonder he wasn’t married. After a few minutes of business talk, she turned towards me, almost dismissing her brother, who moved back to his chair by the window. "I’m sorry that I could not be here sooner. As you can see, we’re very busy." The royal we, I supposed, because Kiryuu didn’t look busy at all. I imagined him sitting at his desk, twiddling his thumbs, and had to cover my smile with another cough. "I’m sorry to interrupt you, as well." I made the usual polite noises. "Actually, I was just finishing up. Do you have a moment to answer a few questions? I’m here about a missing person – an old schoolmate. Tenjou Utena." Kiryuu Nanami was a spitfire, with all that implies. Engines revving, wings spread, machine gun pumping out lead. My simple sentence seems to have torn a hole in the manifold, though, and the Kiryuu Nanami was grounded immediately. "Tenjou Utena?" She said the words like they tasted bad. "Yes, I’m trying to find her – what can you tell me about her?" Nanami’s face went through an amazing variety of expressions in less than a second. From distaste, to chagrin, to embarrassment and even a little fear passed over her carved features. I watched this amazing transformation patiently. "There isn’t much to tell," she began. I doubted that. I wondered what she wasn’t saying to me, but could hardly press her here, in front of her brother. "We hardly knew each other. We didn’t get on very well." And her face closed off, just like that. She made her apologies, ended the interview and was about to leave, when she turned back and said, "If you have no further questions, I’ll be glad to escort you out." I know a lead-in when I see one. I accepted, made my farewells and thanks to Kiryuu Touga and walked down the hall with the younger Kiryuu sibling. She was silent all the way to the elevator. When the elevator had started down, she punched a code into the pad and the car stopped. Turning to face me, her face flushed, she grabbed my arm. "Leave us alone, please. Did *she* send you?" "Who?" I asked, not sure what she meant. "That witch, Himemiya!" she hissed, her nails biting into my wrist. "She sent you, didn’t she?" I nodded, stunned. I expected information about Tenjou, not this reaction to my client. "Whatever you do – never trust her. Do you hear me?" Tears filled her eyes and anguish made her voice crack. "She’ll use you, as she’s used us, me and my brother…" She wiped the tears away angrily. "I thought we were free of her, now I see we never will be." And she let go of my arm with a jerk, as if it caused her pain. Pulling out a handkerchief, she dabbed at her eyes, then punched a second code into the pad with a stabbing fingertip. The elevator continued its descent. This performance so shocked me I completely forgot to ask her what she meant. The elevator came to the ground floor and the doors slid open. I stepped out and before I had time to do more than turn around, I found myself being met by two sauntering building security men. Nanami stepped out of the elevator and spoke to the security goon who had taken a position on my left. "Will you please escort the Investigator out of the building? And make sure we never have a repeat visit." To me she simply hissed. "Go away. Drop the case. Forget everything. And leave my brother alone." Then turning away she walked quickly out of the foyer and into a section marked "Executive Suite." And that was it. The guard on my left looked at me and smiled politely – a genuine smile, not one that was intended to intimidate. I recognized him slightly and when I caught the name on his uniform I smiled broadly in return. This was the younger brother of a guy I had gone through Police Academy with – a good kid. I didn’t want to make any trouble for him, so I headed for the door and he and his partner accompanied me while we caught up on a few years of life. Just outside the door I paused. "Can I ask you a couple of questions? Nothing that’ll get you in trouble." I grinned and he nodded. "What do you think of the Kiryuu's? Anything about them striking?" Shun looked thoughtful, but his partner laughed derisively. "Other than the fact that she’s got all the balls?" I grinned at that. "She’s a pistol, that’s for sure. Nah, what I mean is – what do you think they’re like as people? Know anything about them?" Both shook their heads, but Shun added, "There’s something…weird about them. Is that what you meant?" He paused. He’s no quick wit, but his mind is a steel trap – I remembered his brother saying that a few times. "Something weird." Shun continued. "Like there’s something she knows and he doesn’t. And she knows he doesn’t, but he doesn’t even know he doesn’t know it." His partner burst out laughing at that, but he had hit the nail on the head. I was suitably impressed. We made some small talk and I left, promising to let his brother know I’d seen him. On the train home three girls in school uniforms talked filth about the boys they knew, the punk next to me snored while his headphones blared and salarymen stood like sardines in a can all the way home. By the time I got home I was ready to fall down where I stood and sleep. Blearily I checked the machine for messages; there were two. The first was my now even more mysterious client. "I’d like to hear what you’ve learned so far. Will you join me for dinner at Capital Toyotei tomorrow night? Let’s say 20:00?" the message clicked off. I gave a low whistle as I pondered it, but the next message stopped that train of thought dead. "Hello? I’m not sure if I have the right number, but my name is Kaoru Miki. I am a professor here in Kyoto…I received a phone call today from my friend Kiryuu Nanami. She tells me that you’d like to find Tenjou Utena. I thought I should save you some time and call you. Please call me back at…" the string of numbers listed informed me that he was calling from Kyoto Sangyo University. I walked over to the table, found the portfolio of information that Miss Himemiya had collected and paged through it to the end. Kaoru Miki, professor of Intercultural studies…Chiba University. As I changed for bed, I pondered what brought the good professor out here to Kyoto. Then I pondered over my dinner date tomorrow night – fancy restaurant, overlooking the Botanical Gardens. Better go black tie…or at least tie. I wondered if I had clothes nice enough to get myself in the door of Capital Toyotei. Then I laid down and didn’t wonder anything else for several hours.
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