Sukeban

Madoka sighed softly when she heard the doorbell ring loudly throughout the living room. With a huff, she pushed herself away from Ken'ichi who only made a soft grunting sound in response to the doorbell. Madoka pushed herself off of the couch, stretching her tired arms a bit before making her way over to the door. As Madoka pulled open the door, she could feel her heart monetarily stop while her eyes widened.

"Good evening, ma'am. My name is Officer Minami and this is my partner Officer Moto," the decorated officer said when Madoka opened the door. "This would be the Ono residence, is that correct?"

"Yes, sir," Madoka managed to respond once she had gotten her shock in place. Seeing a pair of police here was the last thing Madoka had expected and the last thing she ever wanted to see. She could feel her grip on the door handle tightening while she attempted to keep control of herself from the emotions that slowly began to surface at the sight of them.

"May we come in? We'd like to ask you a few questions," Minami asked her. Madoka could feel the worry rising again but she pushed it down, keeping a smile on her face. She never let anyone see her worry and she wasn't about to begin now.

"Of course, sir. Please come in." Madoka stepped aside, giving the men a small bow. They returned her gesture before stepping into the house.

Madoka was prompt with leading them down the small pathway to the living room. When she stepped inside, Ken'ichi looked up and his eyes instantly widened at the sight of the officers standing behind Madoka. She shot him a look, telling him to keep quiet and not let them in on anything. She didn’t need him slipping up and ruining anything for her. She could have this all under control as long as Ken’ichi could at least manage to control himself.

"Please come sit down," Madoka said, motioning to the couch. The officers thanked her softly and made their way over while Madoka took a seat in one of the chairs. Ken'ichi never took his puzzled gaze off of Madoka, still confused as to what they were doing over here.

"Thank you for agreeing to speak with us," Minami began while his partner pulled out a small notebook and pencil. "First off, is a young woman by the name of Haruna Ono living here?"

"Yes, she is living here," Madoka answered. She was doing her best to keep her cool. She knew it; she knew that little brat had something to do with this. Whenever there was trouble, Haruna always had something to do with it.

"Is she your daughter?"

"No, sir. Haruna is our niece. I am Madoka Ono and my husband is Ken’ichi Ono. You see, her parents are away on business and wanted someone to make sure Haruna was caring for herself properly in their absence, so we came here to do that."

"That's very understandable, teenagers do cause a lot of trouble when left alone," Minami said with a nod while his partner scribbled something down. "Where is Haruna now?"

Madoka exchanged a glance with Ken'ichi who silently told her to think of something. This was Madoka's fault after all; she's the one who wanted to come back for Haruna. It wasn't his choice so she ought to take the fall for it if anything happened. In his opinion, they should have left when they saw how much trouble Haruna had become, but Ken’ichi knew there was no convincing Madoka otherwise.

"Haruna is at school," Madoka replied with a smile. Minami raised an eyebrow before exchanging a glance with his partner. He leaned forward, clasping his hands and staring straight at Madoka. The older woman in front of him continued to smile despite the worry that began to grow. They didn’t know; no one did and even if Haruna had told, who would believe a person with her track record?

"Are you positive, Mrs. Ono? Because we did think Haruna would be at school at this time so we checked with her school first before coming here." Minami paused briefly to see the look of surprise cross Madoka's face before disappearing on a second later. "The school informed us she was suspended until next week... Now, I will ask you again and I implore you to be honest with us. Where is Haruna?"

"I apologize deeply for lying, but I thought we'd get in trouble if we answered honestly. Haruna isn't here, I'm afraid," Madoka said smoothly.

"Where is she then, Mrs. Ono?" Minami asked in a harder tone. Madoka sighed softly, hanging her head and letting the first of many tears slip down. She was going to do this right if she was going to do it at all.

"I'm not sure," Madoka said with the best distraught tone she could manage. "Haruna and I got into a fight last night and she just up and left. I imagine she is with a friend right now but I couldn't tell you who or if she truly is."

"That's a shame; we did truly wish to speak with her and get her side of the story."

"What story? If I might ask." Madoka's body was beginning to burn with anger. If that child had called the police... Haruna would know a new world of trouble.

"We received a call of a disturbance in this particular household so we simply want to make sure there is nothing such as child abuse or domestic violence occurring here."

"Oh my!" Madoka gasped, "Of course not, sir. Such barbaric behavior would never be allowed in a house I'm in. Both of those are atrocious."

"I'm glad to hear you say that, Mrs. Ono," Minami said to her, "But we still need to ask some questions. How close are you to Haruna?"

"Both I and Ken'ichi are very close to Haruna. We love her as if she was our own and we know she feels the same, we simply want what is best for her," Madoka explained with ease. As she finished her sentence though, a loud crash came from the closest, the officers' heads snapping over to look at the closed door.

"What was that?" Moto spoke up for the first time. Madoka looked over at the closest, momentarily glaring at it before plastering the smile back on her face and looking over at the officers.

"We recently did some cleaning but we haven't gotten to the closest, it was probably just something falling over. Nothing really," Madoka explained with the best smile she could manage. The officer gave her a suspicious look but accepted the answer regardless. Even if Madoka was lying, there wasn’t much that could be done about it. They could ask her to take a look but if she declined them, they had no choice but take her word for it.

"Very well... Let's continue then. Would you say that Haruna is a good person?"

"Oh heavens yes!" Madoka replied instantly. "She's a sweetheart but she's a bit rough around the edges. She has a temper and sometimes she's so hotheaded that she doesn't think about what she does before she does it."

"I see," Minami mused aloud, tapping his chin in wonder. "So you truly have no idea where we can find Haruna?" Minami watched Madoka carefully and was able to see how she glanced at the closest again. His eyes narrowed slightly at the older woman who looked back at him fully and shook her head sadly.

"I'm sorry, sir, I wish I had a different answer but I truly don't." Minami nodded at Madoka's words before coughing lowly.

"Thank you for answering all of my questions. You have my word that if we encounter Haruna, we will make sure to pick her up and bring her back here. It’s not safe for teenagers out there; someone needs to bring her home soon.”

"Thank you, sir," Madoka said softly. Minami nodded, pushing himself up as Moto did the same. Madoka rose as well, shaking the outstretched hand Minami had given her.

"We will be on our way then," Minami told her.

"Would you like me to walk you out?" Madoka asked. Minami chuckled lowly and shook his head.

"No need, ma'am. We'll find out own way out. You two have a good day." Minami gave the couple a bow before he and his partner turned around to make their way out. Madoka waited until they heard the door close before turning to Ken'ichi, her boiling anger now clear on her face.

"Get her out here," Madoka practically growled. Ken'ichi sighed softly and shook his head. Really, was this worth it? Haruna was a useless brat who would never learn. Why did Madoka keep her around? He didn’t understand Madoka’s fascination with toying with Haruna; there were plenty of others she could find to do the same thing to. Others that wouldn’t cause nearly as much trouble as Haruna did these days.

"Yes, dear," Ken'ichi responded. He made his way over to the closet, yanking it open. Inside, Haruna's arm shot up to cover her eyes from the stream of light that broke through the darkness that had clouded her vision for so long.

Ken'ichi rolled his eyes at the teenager who was practically cowering against the back wall. The mouthy teenager was reduced to nothing more than a sniveling coward when she was alone. He did have to give Madoka some credit. Even with as much trouble as Haruna tried to make herself be, Madoka was gaining control back slowly. He huffed out a heavy breath of air before stepping forward a bit so he was closer to her and reaching out, grabbing onto her arm before yanking her roughly to her feet.

Haruna stumbled as she was practically drug from the closest before her body was weakly thrown at Madoka's feet. She groaned softly, pushing herself up onto her knees. As she did this, Madoka leaned down, capturing her chin with her fingers and forcing Haruna to look at her.

"What do you think you were doing in calling the police?" Madoka asked in a calm tone that sent shivers of fear through Haruna's body. Haruna growled lowly, trying to break her head away from Madoka's grasp but it was all to no avail. As Haruna struggled, Madoka tightened her grip, beginning to dig her nails into the skin.

"I didn't call them," Haruna forced out, "I don't even have my cellphone." Madoka raised an eyebrow at Haruna's words before glaring at the teenager again. Haruna was simply insistent on making everything worse for her. Couldn’t she ever behave for once?

"Where is your phone?"

"Like I'd tell you," Haruna shot back. Where was the point in telling Madoka anything? If she didn’t say anything, she’d get in trouble. But if she did tell Madoka that she’d given her phone to a friend, she’d just get in trouble anyway. There was no avoiding it no matter which way she went.

Madoka let her hand drop from Haruna before she pushed herself into a standing position. Haruna wanted to stand as well but she knew better; standing would only make whatever Madoka had planned easier, and Haruna intended to make whatever it was as hard as possible for Madoka to accomplish.

"You are in so much trouble, Haruna."

***

Omar pushed himself away from the car that idled on the other side of the street when he saw the two officers emerge from the house. They quickly made their way over to where the older male still stood by the squad car.

“What did you find?” Omar asked them. Minami shot him a look, still displeased that their chief had given him permission to come along. To him, it didn’t matter if Omar was once an officer or not, he was still retired and it felt uncomfortable to be bringing along someone who was once again a civilian on a call like this.

“Haruna wasn’t there,” Minami began. He coughed lowly, making his way around to the driver’s side of the car before continuing. “There were only two people there who claimed to be Haruna’s aunt and uncle. They told us Haruna had run off the night before and they can’t find her.”

“So you didn’t find anything out about Haruna then?” Omar asked when he stopped talking. Minami laughed softly, pulling open the door and getting in, motioning for Moto and Omar to follow his lead. Moto took the passenger’s side while Omar begrudgingly climbed in the back again. It was rather embarrassing to him to be on this side of the caged off car.

“I didn’t say that, Karim,” Minami countered him once they were settled safely in the car. He couldn’t run the risk of anyone else hearing them discuss these things. “Something interesting happened while we were talking to them, wouldn’t you agree, Moto?”

“Of course,” Moto agreed quickly, being a man of only a few words. Omar huffed from the backseat.

“Care to clue me in on what it was?” he grumbled. Minami chuckled again at the short temper Omar was displaying. It was a wonder how he managed to work so successfully with troubled teens with his evident temper.

“As we were talking to the woman of the house, something from the other side of what I assume was a locked door made a very loud crash. The woman who introduced herself as Madoka said it was merely remnants from their cleaning. I tried to believe her at first but as we continued talking, I caught her glancing back at that very same door more than once. Given the allegations, I feel that’s rather suspicious, wouldn’t you say?” Minami finished and glanced at Omar in the mirror.

“You could say it’s suspicious. But I bet you didn’t try to take a look, did you?”

“Would there have been a point to asking, Karim?” Minami asked. “If she told us no then our hands would be tied, we wouldn’t be able to do anything…”

“It would have been worth the effort to try,” Omar interrupted him. Minami shot him a look, giving him a momentary glare before shaking his head and shaking contact with Omar’s reflection.

“We will be paying them another visit soon in a few days.”

“Why a few days?”

“I am interested in searching their house. Not only did we encounter that strange moment but we also caught Madoka in a lie about Haruna’s whereabouts…”

“You failed to mention that,” Omar grumbled, interrupting Minami again. This time, he sighed, doing his best to keep his temper with the annoying male in the backseat.

“Need I remind you that you aren’t an officer anymore, Karim? I’m not required to tell you everything, you shouldn’t even be here right now and you wouldn’t be if you hadn’t talked your way into the chief’s good side.”

“Just tell me what you plan to do,” Omar responded to him in a rough tone.

“We’ll get a judge to issue us a search warrant. We have enough probable cause to believe that they aren’t telling us the full truth; her lies are enough to get us a warrant. We might be able to find information on Haruna’s whereabouts if we can search the house. In the meantime, while we wait for the warrant, we’ll head off the Suzuki girl at her school tomorrow and bring her in for questioning.”

“You could have searched it while you were in there.” Minami shot Omar another glare for his next set of comebacks.

“Listen now, Karim. Unlawful searches might be how you operate in the States but that’s not how we operate here. We have procedures to go through; we cannot just violate a citizen’s privacy without going through the proper procedures to get permission to do so. It’ll only be a few days, a week at the maximum. We’ll come back, search the house, and confiscate any type of evidence we can find. Everything will work out; I’m one of the best on the force and this is my case now. You’ll leave the detective work to the people who are still detectives.”

Omar sighed heavily, leaning back into the faux leather seat of the car. He squeezed the bridge of his nose, shutting his eyes tightly. He wanted so badly to make a snarky comeback to the way Minami spoke to him. Minami was a much younger person than he was and yet he was so cocky with himself. Omar never did appreciate working with officers who had attitudes quite like Minami.

But that wasn’t his main concern at the moment. Even from the minimal description Minami had given him about the talk and the events as the talk happened, Omar had gotten the feeling that something was amiss here. He wouldn’t rule out any possibilities but whatever was happening to these girls could very well get worse in a few days. Omar let out a heavy sigh, dropping his hand back down to the seat before muttering a few soft words.

“These girls might not have a few days.”