Cold Chase

Investigative Diary of Journalist Nozomi Yasuda
February 28th

When I got up to report the news of the shooting at that house in Sumida, I never imagined that I would be dealing with what might be the case of my life. If this story turns out to be true, it will undoubtedly have repercussions all over the country, perhaps even making me a heroine for telling the people of this country how foreign forces once again tried to take advantage of us and how, thanks to my work, we were able to stop them.

It all started when I reported for the news about the shooting in that Sumida neighborhood, where, talking to the local people, they told me that everything happened in a recently built house. The owner of the house seems to be a foreigner from some Mexican province like Salvador or Colombia, but despite being from that place, she had money to have a decent house, which was strange. Obviously, this requires more research than just a story in the incident section. So I decided to go further and investigate the owner of the house, and this is where I found all of this.

First of all, all I know about this woman is that her name is Adelis and she seems to be working for the United States or the Alliance, I really don't know. At least three times a week she travels to the Akasaka Press Center in Minato, which are the offices of the United States Army in Japan, but with what happened in the continental war, she could be from another member of the Alliance. I don't have her full name, job title, or even what she does there. Since I have seen several members of the government go in and out on the days that she is here, I assume that she may be in charge of negotiating something with the Japanese government. I am sure that she obtained the land of her house illegally, but that is not the point anymore; it seems that the shooting near her house in the early morning of February 15th was an altercation between her and her killers in the face of an attack by the ISC, according to a witness I interviewed.

Based on this small clue they gave me, I decided to investigate further what was happening, as it was not the first time the I.S.C. appeared in one of my investigations. The I.S.C. in Japan was founded several years ago and was mainly responsible for the production of medicines and the medical research department of the company. Thanks to its large initial investment, the I.S.C. quickly became one of the most important companies in the country, and with the war in Europe, demand increased even more after loose an important research center. When the war in Europe ended, the president of I.S.C. wanted to change the focus of his company's division in Japan. He personally appointed Mr. Brandon, who is listed as a researcher and developer of military equipment, to head the division. Mr. Brandon's accomplishments are currently classified by the Alliance. This can only mean that this person is good at his job, that his efforts in the Alliance have been important, and that he is personally trusted by Mr. Raven.

It is with his arrival in the country that violent things began to happen here, a shooting in a warehouses in the port, the shooting in the dark where he apparently attacked a rival of the company, and the recent attack on the Ueno Dam where one of his main suppliers was badly affected. It seems that the police and the Naichō are also suspicious of them, but so far nothing of what he said has been made public.

I have been investigating the most important recent movements of the I.S.C. It appears to be the renewal of its contract with BioLife Laboratories, which has been working with them since they came into the country for the creation of medicines. The details of the renewal contract were also kept confidential, but according to the president of BioLife, he was nervous about it, but the profit margin was so great that he could not refuse. Before the attack on the dam, the I.S.C. was sending new equipment and supplies to BioLife's headquarters as part of this new contract, but after the attack the shipments did not decrease, but actually increased. It was as if they were trying to speed up the work even more. This set off an alarm in me, something bad must be happening under the table, something that could negatively affect the people of Japan. I looked for a way to contact various BioLife employees, but none of them wanted to talk to me, I thought I had hit a wall, but then something strange happened, one of them decided to contact me, it seemed that one of his colleagues told him about me and he decided on his own to talk to me in exchange for some money and some information about Adelis.

His name was Fuji Igarashi, and when I met him yesterday, he seemed quite nervous and afraid that he was being followed. He told me to be careful what I did with the information he gave me and that I would tell absolutely no one until my story was in the newspaper. He left without telling me anything else, but he left me a USB drive with data. It was the information of various people along with their medical records and what appeared to be a checklist of their health that was done every 6 hours. Most of these people were people who had been reported missing since February 14 or later, the day before the Sumida shooting.

At first I thought that what happened to me was some kind of lie, that he was just playing with me, because even though it didn't mean anything, it seemed like the typical story of a conspirator from a movie, but then the name of Jiro Iwasaki appeared. He is currently wanted by the police as the prime suspect in the cold-blooded murder of his ex-girlfriend, Yuji Kondo, as she was returning home from work. As I heard, she was found completely destroyed in a public park.

Seeing the terrible coincidence, I decided to contact Fuji Igarashi again, but he did not answer his phone. While trying to contact him by other means as soon as possible, I discovered what had happened to him. The BioLife employee who gave me the information had been found dead earlier today, nailed to the wall with several metal stakes all over his body. It was an extremely violent death that sent a clear message to me: no leaks.

At first, I thought that all this was just a gang war between that Alliance woman and Mr. Brandon of the I.S.C. But now I fear that even that is nothing more than something secondary to what is really happening now. The coincidences are everywhere, this is not a coincidence, something has happened in the ISC, something they do not want to be exposed under any circumstances. And maybe the attack on the dam was the Alliance's way of responding to the ISC and trying to delay their project.

I could probably be on their list of problem people, maybe my life could be in danger right now. I have to be careful because they could be following me right now and I haven't realized it. Both the Alliance and the I.S.C. could be following me right now and deciding what to do with me. But right now my life does not matter, this story must come out and warn the citizens of Japan of what our country has become because of the damn foreigners and their stupid power games. I must continue this no matter what the cost, so I decided to try to talk to another colleague of Fuji Igarashi who, after showing him some things, decided to talk to me. But when I left my house and went to the train station, the police blocked the street, it seemed that another murder had occurred, as a journalist I went to see what had happened, gather information and then pass it on to one of my colleagues so that she could pass on the news while I continued. But everything changed again as I approached the yellow police tape. From where I was, I could see several stakes impaled on a wall, several red stains, and a pool of blood on the ground. From the angle I had, I couldn't see who the victim was, but I didn't think it was necessary, I already knew who that person was. He must be the person I wanted to talk to today. 

Now my suspicions are confirmed, I am being followed. Someone is investigating me and the people I talk to. He is trying to find out who my contacts are and to end them, and when I am not important, he will end me. I need to protect this data, so I decided to make this backup, which I put in the safe. If something happens to me, I hope you can continue this and bring the truth to the people of Japan. I trust you to finish my work, so I am also leaving some of the possible facilities that the I.S.C. or BioLife and all the information I have about this Adelis, I hope.

Good luck, Natsuki.

Sincerely, your Senpai Nozomi Yasuda.

The demon finished reading the computer the journalist had left, she put it in a backpack she had brought for the same reason and looked around. She was in a dark room with several safes, they were in a section that was not used in the Tokyo subway, but since they were near a guard's office it was a good place to keep things safe, since the journalist knew the guards they let her put it there and let her colleagues pass to pick it up. It was useful for keeping important things. The journalist had used this place many times before. And that was why the demon had discovered it. She had noticed that she had put it here, so as soon as the girl had left, she had gone in to pick up the package.

At her feet lay one of the two guards who had been knocked out and who had found her while she was picking up the computer. She finished him off almost immediately. Walking over him as if he was just an obstacle, she left the station and jumped several meters. Once in the air, she grew a pair of black wings and flew somewhere out of sight.