Mission Start [Jessica]

[Thoma Hirako]

"My searching, looking for these names, made me remember them. I met most of these people, and was a rival, as they were mine. I had to see some of the other things they did to remember; the treasure stuff isn't here, though, just their crimes.

"Now...nobody knows what this treasure is, so I can't tell you anything about it. But...Kido is possibly being paid off by someone else looking for this treasure. I don't know exactly what's going on, but the treasure is the link. But...the killer has to be someone who knows these people, since the information on the treasure isn't on the internet, or anything. It's just a legend."

He expected her to discount the legend as false, as some legends were, but he knew it was true. It had to be.

[Jessica Jane]

"Uh... right... so basically, you and these other people have been running all throughout the world because someone promised you an undisclosed shiny if you did." Jess finished a sigh and then she brought a hand up to massage the bridge of her nose. "And people wonder why I'm a cynic.

"But bottom line..." She lowered her hand. "you knew these people and they're ending up dead. That means that if you aren't knocking them off yourself, someone's seriously got it in for you."

A thought occurred to her, and it was actually rather frightening. She didn't bother to think this one through, she needed to get it out of the way as soon as possible. Someone's life could depend on it.

"And perhaps our second question is: who else is after this treasure and are they in danger?"

[Thoma Hirako]

He looked through the reports, remembering the names of anyone they hadn't copied the reports of and looked them up, finding them as familiar, for the most part. Some weren't people he knew of, however.

"This is proof of it," he told her, "That's what spurs so many of us on to find it. And, as for who could be next, I have no idea. I remember a few people who should still be around who searched for it, but then again, we only looked at a small selection of reports. They could have been killed by now, for all we know. We looked at such a small timeframe, after all."

[Jessica Jane]

"I suppose that you wouldn't know each and every treasure hunter on the planet." Jess conceded. "So we're going to have to find this Kido sooner rather than later... If he's killed this much, he'll undoubtedly be going to kill again."

[Thoma Hirako]

"I think I have a better way. I think I know who might be paying him to kill these people," Thoma told her.

[Jessica Jane]

"Okay. So shoot." She replied, folding her arms. "It can't be any crazier than running all over creation just for the sake of some unknown treasure that we don't even know what it is."

[Thoma Hirako]

"The man is in prison. He's kind of like me...the blue collar version of me. Violent and deadly, but skilled like I am. His name is Kaito, Uryu," he told her, ignoring her statements on the treasure.

[Jessica Jane]

"Uh... Yeah, I hate to throw cold water on all this, or to perpetually be the voice of reason, but if the guy's really in jail, then it makes you wonder how he's able to pull all this off." Jess was really starting to wish that she didn't have to pry all the answers out of Thoma. It'd help if he'd just explain whatever it was that he was thinking. "So... all the murders were committed before he was incarcerated? He's not really in the slammer? Kido's really Kaito? How's all this supposed to work? Talk to me, man."

[Thoma Hirako]

"Kaito has a lot of assets. Like I do. The most reasonable answer is that he's paying Kido off by telling him where to find such assets. And of course, Kaito being Kaito, they're scattered so they aren't found all at once; Kido has to do the work to keep being paid.

"Even from prison, that man is ruining my life," Thoma muttered, "We have Kaito to deal with, and we still have to wait on my contact to locate Kido. We'll learn what we can from Kido, and see if they're in league, I guess."

[Jessica Jane]

"Yeah... I'm starting to think that maybe we're grasping at straws and leaping to a lot of conclusions. Maybe we should actually talk to Kido before we start making blinding leaps of logic about what's going on?" Honestly, Thoma was starting to come across as a bit paranoid in her mind. "Maybe Kido's found out about your treasure and just doing it for kicks and giggles, y'know? There's a million ways this could work out... until we know more... there's not a lot of conclusions we can make."

She hoped, anyway. Thus far they had a lot of guesswork to go on and too little everything else. Jess was tired of chasing imaginary phantoms. She needed something concrete to work off of.

[Thoma Hirako]

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's just that...Kaito told me that he would do anything he could to get at me. I guess I made a jump that we have no logical information on. Yeah, let's find Kido first and find out what we can."

He didn't like having to jump right to Kaito with nothing to go off of other than an old threat. It was hardly something for a detective to go off of, but it made some sense to him. Or did he just hate Kaito that much for threatening Yuka by extent?

Probably his blind hate.

[Jessica Jane]

"No problem. That's why I'm around, to keep your head on straight." Jess chose not to belabor that point, they needed to move on soon. "So how long until your contact finds Kido? Daylight's wasting."

[Thoma Hirako]

"I don't know," he said, leaning back in his chair, "Could be a few minutes, or a few hours. But no doubt by the end of the day, we'll have his location."

He leaned forward and stood up, "I figure I'd best clean while we wait."

[Jessica Jane]

"If you want, I won't stop you." Jess punctuated that sentence by turning and sweeping her arm over the surrounding area. The place sure could use some help. "I guess I might as well pitch in and help. It's not like I've got much else to do."

[Thoma Hirako]

"If you want to, but you're my guest," he reminded, collecting old canvas from his painting. Some had half completed scenes, beautiful scenes, but they were cast aside as failures. He was starting with this, instead of the cans.