Chapter Text
“You know, I’m almost tempted to back out of this, if only to prove to that neighbor I spoke to the other day I wasn’t a criminal…”
Detective Arakawa always seems to find himself in strange situations whenever he approaches the Oyama house. Of course, this time, he isn’t staking it out so much as he was, er… Performing mild breaking and entering?
…It was hard to defend himself for this one, but he was nothing if not committed to a job. Although, maybe there was something known as being too committed. Was he really going to do this?
Ah, who was he kidding. Of course he was: In fact, in the middle of that internal dialogue, Arakawa had already picked the (thankfully) simple lock on the back door and made his way through the entrance.
“...The fact that I’m not more concerned about what I’m doing is… well, concerning.” Arakawa muttered to himself. He looked up, snapping out of his thoughts and observing the (currently) empty home.
The interior of the home was about what he’d anticipated: homely, and well lived in. He wasn’t here for sight seeing or gawking, though. He was on a mission, and that mission was to trust his gut instinct, and look for signs of the brother’s existence. It takes a bit of poking around, being careful not to mess anything or move anything around, less the homeowners get suspicious. However, after making his way upstairs, he eventually finds something of interest: bedrooms. Well, okay, it wasn’t the existence of bedrooms themselves that surprised him, but rather the number of them. Three. One for the presumably absent parents, one decorated for a teenage girl, and one that, at first glance, seemed somewhat sparse. Given that there are three siblings, and the amount of futons seems to be… Yes, the numbers were definitely off.
One other thing of note was that, to Arakawa’s luck, a computer was in one of the rooms… and the user had neglected to log off. Surprise, surprise. Arakawa flicks through the P.C., and after quickly checking the printed off chat logs… “Bingo.” Sure enough, the computer seems to belong to Mahiro. This must be Mahiro’s room, or at least, was his room. The accounts on the computer match and everything. Arakawa leans back up from his position, thinking over what he’d learned. If Mahiro did go to college, why leave his computer behind? It’s hardly an unusual thing for a college student to have. And Mihari absolutely would have noticed if Mahiro was missing, given the proximity of the rooms. Sound very clearly could travel through the two. Arakawa returns the P.C. to the condition it was in to the best of his ability, moving over to the table left in the middle of the room. It looks like some sort of school project: Paper, scissors, and white out. Arakawa picks up some of the papers. What does it say-
Uh oh. Arakawa stiffens up as he hears a laugh coming from out the window. Looking outside, he sees Mihari, along with a young girl who he presumes is the girl Mahiro. She looks similar enough to her brother. Arakawa is out of time. Shoving the papers into his jacket, Arakawa bolts down the stairs and out the back door, shutting the door behind him in the nick of time as he darts through the back yard and vaults the fence. A lucky break. Time to head home with what he’s gathered.
When he gets back to his apartment, Arakawa leans against a wall, contemplating what he could do next. If Mahiro had gone to college, he'd have taken his computer with him, and the logs on the computer clearly belonged to him. So was he still living at home? The room was being lived in by someone, but he hadn't seen or heard of Mahiro at all when he was performing his cursory investigation. …Actually, now that he thinks of it, he hasn’t actually tried looking up anything on Mahiro. Hell, for all Arakawa knew, he could be some sort of… internet gamer? That was a popular career these days, for certain.
Logging onto the computer, Arakawa rifles through the web, scouring quickly through various social media webpages and what-have-you. As he probably should have suspected, he doesn’t find much. Everything he does find seems to be either unrelated, or having something to do with his sister or parents. About what he expected, but it’s still disappointing. They do seem to possess more notoriety than he anticipated. The Oyama parents seemed to have no small bit of renown due to some sort of pharmaceutical research they’d done nearly two decades ago. Another nail in the coffin that is Mahiro’s inadequacy complex.
Arakawa turns the PC off, thinking through what information he has. Not much more than what he had going into today’s endeavor. Was it really that worthless- wait! The papers, of course, how could he forget the papers? Rifling through his jacket, Arakawa recovers the ‘borrowed’ papers. It was probably just a school project or some sort of non-related paper, but maybe he’d be lucky?
And lucky he was. By all appearances, these were birth certificates. How fortu- wait what.
Why the hell were these just… lying on a table? Any thief could walk in and take them! Not counting himself, of course, he’s acting on work related business. But the point stands. Looking at the papers incredulously, he noted that one of the certificates was only partially filled out. Are they doctoring birth certificates over there or something? “Aren’t they a bit young to be committing tax fraud?” Arakawa muttered to himself. “Mahiro Oyama, year of birth… hm?”
The last two digits of the year had been painted over delicately using white out. Nothing else seemed to have changed on it, compared to the original. Ah. It must not be blank naturally, then. But what purpose does this have? Why fake a second birth certificate for someone who has one? …Is it for the younger Mahiro? They have the same name and birthday, only the year would need to be changed. Yes, the younger Mahiro would have possessed such a thing for a long time. Arakawa snorted. Unless the younger Mahiro just popped into existence, she’d have one. No point in faking it, unless there's some sort of family drama going on here. Still, he wasn’t any closer to figuring this out. This was interesting information, but it didn’t help much. It’d only really matter if… Well, if the younger Mahiro didn’t exist up until a few weeks ago. But that’s impossible, isn’t it?
Arakawa stands up from his desk. There’s no options left. Gathering the information he has left, he leaves his apartment. He has no choice but a direct confrontation with the information he has. All that’s left to do is go to their house and demand…
Er, demand what? Technically, Arakawa is in the wrong here. He did break into their house, and he didn’t even get any definitive proof from it.
Well, shit.
Arakawa stands outside dumbly for a few minutes, before sighing and entering a phone number.
“Misami? It’s Detective Arakawa. I need a favor from you…”