The workday had barely begun before a young, uniformed officer walked over to the detectives' desks and cleared her throat, making Ritsu and Masamune look up at her. "Detectives? The chief says he wants you both in the conference room." she said.

"Thank you, Officer Sato." Ritsu smiled. The officer smiled back and turned down the hallway without bowing.

"You know her?" Masamune asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, I just read her badge." Ritsu said honestly, getting up from his desk, grabbing his notebook and a pencil.

"Really?", Masamune asked, standing up as well. "For a second there, I thought you had friends."

"Shut the hell up", Ritsu said, taking a right turn down the hallway. He disappeared for a moment before walking back to Masamune. "Actually", Ritsu continued, "I take that back. Where is the conference room?"

Masamune gave his usual barking laugh. "Idiot", he said, turning right down the hallway and waiting for Ritsu to fall into step with him. "You should really follow your instincts more, Onodera. You're right more often than you give yourself credit for."

Ritsu flushed and opted to stare straight ahead rather than look at Masamune.

When the detectives entered the conference room, they found Chief Isaka seated at the head of the table, a man Ritsu didn't recognize sat on the police chief's right, and Kisa and Mino the coroner sat on the left. Masamune casually pulled put a chair and sat down, whereas Ritsu scrambled to seat himself in the first empty chair he found.

"Let's get down to business, boys", Isaka said, standing. "Kisa, what do you have for us?"

Kisa slid a manila folder over to Isaka. "Forensics has been running tests on the swabs from the victim's knuckles and his fingernail scrapings. We've got two sets of DNA, the victim and, presumably, whoever killed him. It's just a matter of isolating the samples now."

Isaka had leafed through the contents of the folder while Kisa was talking and slid it down the table to Ritsu and Masamune. Masamune grabbed the folder first. Ritsu frowned.

"Are we any closer to find out our victim's name?", Masamune asked, looking up from the file and passing it to Ritsu.

The man Ritsu didn't know spoke up. "We've been looking every day for anyone even remotely matching the victim's description in the missing person's database, which you know, Takano," he spat, clearly annoyed. "That train did a number on his face, body, and pretty much any and all identifying characteristics… but the guys in tech are cleaning up the security camera footage."

Masamune rolled his eyes. "I was hoping for new information, Yokozawa. Not the same stuff you've been telling us since this case began."

Ritsu glanced down at the file. It listed the injuries the victim received in the most detail. Blood loss had been significant, but the official cause of death was blunt force trauma from the impact. Ritsu's stomach dropped.

Ritsu took a deep breath. "Um, excuse me, Yokozawa-san?", he began, nervously. He had no idea who this guy was, but Ritsu decided he was already a little afraid of him.

"Yeah?" Yokozawa sighed, eyebrow raised.

All eyes were on Ritsu, making him really, really want to crawl under the table and hide. But he pressed on. "What if, now that we have a proper sample of the victim's DNA, we run that through the criminal database?"

Masamune looked over at Ritsu with pride. Yokozawa shifted in his chair and crossed his arms. "What makes you think this guy is a criminal?", he questioned. Ritsu swallowed the lump in his throat and met Yokozawa's gaze. "Well, uh, just a hunch, really, I suppose. And it's better than nothing." He shrugged slightly.

Yokozawa sized Ritsu up, his scowl deepening. "Onodera", he said, saying the name like it was an insult, "We'll try, but if it's a waste of time-"

"Personally, I think it's a wonderful start!" Isaka interjected excitedly. Yokozawa rolled his eyes but said nothing. "Anyone have anything else at all to contribute?" Isaka continued.

Everyone in the room looked at each other expectantly, but no one said a thing. Masamune's eyes stayed on Ritsu, searching. All Ritsu could think about was how uncomfortable he felt that Yokozawa had known his name without Ritsu introducing himself. Someone must've told him about me. Oh God, what if there was a memo or something?, he thought.

"Meeting adjourned, then." Isaka concluded, ushering everyone out of the conference room.

Heading down the hallway, Masamune turned to Ritsu. "That was a good idea you had back there", he smiled.

Ritsu looked down at the ground as he walked. "It's not like it was something no one else would have thought of", he said humbly.

"Yeah, but you thought of it first."

They walked in silence for a minute before Ritsu said, "I don't think Yokozawa-san likes me."

Masamune laughed. "Don't worry, he doesn't like anybody. I should know, he's my best friend."

That didn't make Ritsu feel any better, the response raising more questions than answers.

The rest of the morning passed without incident, or much of anything, really. Nighttime was when things got interesting. Crimes committed during the daytime were rather tame, generally, save for the occasional daylight robbery or home invasion. The fare today was a man who streaked naked for a few blocks, clearly impervious to the November chill, before being apprehended by law enforcement. A fairly innocuous crime to everyone except those who'd witnessed him in the act. The arresting officers had tackled the man and one had forced him to put something on before getting in the cruiser. What he'd been forced to wear, was the sweatpants from the officer's gym bag that had been sitting in the cruiser's trunk.

This precinct may have been understaffed and lacking some resources from what he was used to, but Ritsu found the people here to be much more genial. They were some of the most dedicated and hard working people he had ever seen. At his previous station there had been major task forces and other big to-dos, but no one would come near him if they didn't have to, with the exception of Saiki-san from down in evidence. Friendships with coworkers would be something he'd have to get used to, just as much as every other challenge his new place of work offered him.

But Ritsu knew he'd better improve at this whole 'friendship' thing, and fast, because an invite from Kisa and Mino had resulted in the three of them spending their lunch together at a table in the breakroom. Ritsu had been relatively happy eating whatever meager lunch he'd packed for himself at his own desk (when he remembered to have lunch at all, that is). Yet it would be impolite to refuse the invitation, so he accepted.

Mino had been looking through a newspaper, not sparing a glance at his companions. Ritsu had been lost in thought, staring out the open breakroom door, into the hallway, unaware of the precinct's most recently apprehended criminal. Naturally he was quite surprised to see a man wearing nothing but the lower half of a tight, fuschia tracksuit. The man was handcuffed and being lead through the precinct by none other that Officer Sato and another uniformed officer who he assumed was her partner. She looked over and noticed him, giving the detective a brief wave, which he returned. Ritsu turned around in time to see Kisa pouring an energy drink into his black coffee.

"Kisa-san, are you okay?" Ritsu asked, concerned.

Kisa laughed hollowly. "Oh, Ricchan. I haven't been okay in years." He poured three packets of artificial sweetener into his drink.

"No, Kisa-san, I meant because of… whatever that is." Ritsu said, gesturing to Kisa's ungodly concoction and hiding his disgust.

Kisa stirred the cup with a plastic spoon before chugging the awful thing with a wince. "In time, you will want to have the recipe." Kisa said with a sly smile. Ritsu couldn't help but wonder what else had gone into Kisa's coffee.

"Why an energy drink, though?"

"Because it's not like they'd let me use vodka", Kisa said matter-of-factly.

Ritsu was going to question further when Masamune stepped into the breakroom, composed as always. "Hey, Onodera, drop whatever you're doing. I got word they're almost done processing the security camera footage."

Ritsu righted himself and glanced over his shoulder at Kisa and Mino. I know it's rude to leave like this, but it can't be helped, Ritsu thought. Kisa waved him off, smiling. Mino lowered the newspaper enough to make eye contact and gave Ritsu a thumbs up.

"Didn't feel like having lunch at your desk today, Onodera?", Masamune asked as they made it back into the general 'office' area.

"Kisa-san was very nice to invite me, so…" Ritsu trailed off.

"Why don't you have lunch with me tomorrow?" Masamune asked.

Ritsu was confused. "Since our desks are next to each other, don't we technically have lunch together most of the time?"

"No, like, an actual lunch with actual food. And conversation."

"What could we possibly have to talk about that isn't work related?" Ritsu asked, annoyed.

Masamune sighed. "That's the point of a lunch date, idiot. You talk over food, figure out what the other person likes."

Ritsu blushed. "A date?!", he asked incredulously, his voice rising a couple octaves.

Masamune reached over and mussed up Ritsu's hair. "God, you're oblivious."

Ritsu grimaced and patted his hair back into place. "And you're irritating. What's your point?"

They continued to bicker until a man in an ugly tie raced over, carrying a stack of papers and clearly out of breath.

"Here, Takano-san, we've digitally enhanced some stills from the security footage as best we can. These are straight from the printer", the man said, handing over the stack of documents.

"Thanks, Hatori. We really appreciate what you guys do." Masamune offered a curt nod.

Something which could be considered a smile briefly flashed over Hatori's face. "Likewise, sir.", he said before leaving.

Masamune wasted no time in dropping the printed-out stills on his desk. He took the top few papers and stared at them, looking from one to the other in an attempt to see what he could glean from them. He beckoned Ritsu closer, and the other detective walked over to stand next to him. "I'll take one half of the stack, you take the other." Masamune said. Ritsu extended his arms, palm up, and accepted his half of the images with an eager look in his eye.

Ritsu had taken the bottom half of the stack. He seated himself and began thumbing through the photos carefully. The second portion captured the crime itself and the immediate aftermath. They did a pretty good job enhancing these, Ritsu thought. He could clearly see the victim and the suspect standing on the platform, and they were not arguing, but they clearly looked pissed. Ritsu could make out a couple scratches already on the victim's face, further reinforcing the theory that there had been some kind of altercation prior to death. The perpetrator's face was conveniently obscured at all times, like he knew where the security camera was. Even when conversing with the victim, he never turned to look at him. Based on the height of the victim, Ritsu approximated the suspect was somewhere in the neighborhood of… 185-189 centimeters? He couldn't be sure. But this man was maybe medium build, with brownish hair. Ritsu figured that much. He kept flipping through the photos.

"Any luck over there?", Masamune asked, looking up from his own work. Ritsu sighed and relayed his findings.

Masamune ran his fingers through his hair. "I mean, I can see all that too, idiot. It's a match for the descriptions in the witness statements. I thought there might be something more useful you could come up with."

"Well I'm not done yet, am I?", Ritsu huffed angrily. Masamune scowled and went back to his own stack of photos.

Ritsu rolled his eyes and picked up where he left off. The photos were pretty much frame-by-frame, each meticulously enhanced. It was hard not to feel a little disheartened, trying to find one man in a city of almost fourteen million and knowing he could very well be gone by now. Out of Tokyo, out of Japan. He felt it would be an injustice in more ways than one for him to not do absolutely everything he could to solve this case. Ritsu took a deep breath and buckled down with new resolve.

Well over an hour had passed of Ritsu and Masamune looking at the photos in total silence. Ritsu had already made it to the section of photos showing the murder. He had scrutinized these, looking for clues. There was the part where it seemed that the automated voice had announced that the train was arriving, because this was followed by the three or four dozen people on the platform pushing closer. The suspect and victim had already been pretty close to the edge of the platform, but the sea of people swarming around them had moved them even closer. All those around them were caught up in their own affairs- be they chatting or looking at their phones, or whatever else. As if taking advantage of an opportunity, the suspect stole a glance to the left, one to the right, then shoved the other man into the path of the oncoming train. Nothing happened for a moment.

Then all hell broke loose.

People surged forward. To help the man? To see what happened? Only those individuals would themselves know for sure. Pandemonium ensued as the people on the platform realized what had just transpired. Ritsu could see the different array of expressions on the people's faces. Horror, confusion, shock. It was a lot to take in. One woman took out a cellphone and made a call, and Ritsu presumed she was the one who had called the police.

In the confusion, the suspect slipped out of the crowd and moved towards the exit of the train station. He looked down as he walked, until something- a noise perhaps- caused him to snap his head up and look in the general direction of the security camera. He quickly looked down again and walked out of the station.

The instant he looked at the camera had been infinitesimal, but it had been enough to capture his face. He had sort of spiky hair, cold eyes, knitted brows. And the beginning of a fist-sized bruise on his jaw. The deceased man apparently had a good right hook.

"Oh my God", Ritsu whispered.

"What is it?", Masamune asked, worried.

"The killer- we've got his picture." Ritsu was in ecstatic disbelief, but he knew enough not to get his hopes up too high yet.

"Let me see", Masamune said, standing up and going over to Ritsu's desk. He took the photo and stared at it for a moment before putting it back down. "This might be a long shot, but I think I know this guy."

Ritsu's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Really? Is he a repeat offender or something?"

"Hardly. I actually went to the police academy with him, back in the day. He dropped out." Masamune snorted.

"Give me a name", Ritsu chided. "Don't be so mysterious."

Masamune furrowed his brow and paused a moment to recollect. "Again, it might be a long shot, but- Haitani Shin."

(( /wheeze/ I've worked on this off and on for 2 weeks and if you want to know how my process went, it's me up at 3 am blasting disco and eating Chips Ahoy while typing furiously. I hope you guys like the new chapter! And, happy holidays! I hope you all get what you want and have a fabulous 2019. -Ronnie ))