2026-01-08: Zebras
- Log: Zebras
- Cast: Kazuhiro Motojima (played by Kazusa Motojima), Tamaki Uchida
- Where: Kuzunoha Detective Agency, Aoba Ward, Sumaru City
- OOC Date: January 08, 2026
- IC Date: Friday, September 07, 2012 (After School)
- Summary: Kazuhiro has some information for Tamaki regarding one of her investigations, which he chooses to deliver in person... because he also wants to ask her help. Tamaki immediately has a hunch of what the danger is, and clues Kazuhiro in on perhaps a bit more than he should know.
- Content Warning: Verbal/emotional abuse from a parental figure referenced (but not described)
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro Motojima, in some ways, thrives by not standing out. 'Going with the flow' might be one way of putting it. 'Escaping notice' might be another, more accurate way of putting it. At least when it comes to certain parties.
But as a certain convenience store clerk has noted recently, he's still sharp. A trait he often hides, but still persists.
And he has definitely noticed that something is up with his sister. He doesn't have the supernatural senses to know what, but just by observation he can tell... something's not right.
Even if their father had finally gotten his way, he knows it wouldn't look like... whatever the hell has happened to her. But he has precious few resources, but there's one thing he might be able to take a gamble on...
And so he'd taken that business card he'd gotten and put it to use, to call Tamaki and arrange a meeting. And now he's arriving, after a school day, still in his Sjujin uniform and a backpack over one shoulder. Short, black touseled hair, dark purple eyes heavy with worry, and his usual casual grin starting to slip.
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Phoenix had mentioned something was up with Kazusa, but they were vague about it. She can't say she was surprised at Kazuhiro's call...
"I'm home," Tamaki jokes to the lucky cat statue and Todoroki as she arrives after her own university classes have let out, but before her appointment with Kazuhiro. She doesn't run the show here: remember, Todoroki's the top brass!
The lucky cat statue says nothing as Tamaki passes by. Todoroki looks up from his desk and gives a low, rumbling noise in greeting.
It's in these moments that Tamaki places her bag on her desk, cracks open a can of cold coffee, and takes a bit of a study break before Kazuhiro arrives.
As Kazuhiro does arrive, it's not Tamaki who immediately greets him, but the lucky cat statue: it pipes up in a tinny voice coming through a set of speakers: "Nya~! Nya~! Nya~! Please donate 100 yen!" It could be charitably described as grating.
The noise is enough to cause Tamaki to spring from her chair and onto her feet to attend to the door, giving a polite bow along with her well-practiced greeting to customers. "Welcome to the Kuzunoha Detective Agency! We handle everything from love affairs to ghosts!" A moment later, still beaming, she nods to Kazuhiro. "What brings you here today, Motojima-kun?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro stops and looks at the lucky cat statue, tilting his head a little. "... Huh." Grating is charitable, but... he's curious enough to give it a shot. And as Tamaki gets up to attend to the door, Kazuhiro is already slipping 100 yen into the statue.
But then he looks up, trying to flash a relaxed smile, "Oh, hey, Uchida-tantei." He chuckles weakly, "I'm, uh, not exactly here for a love affair."
He fishes a folded up piece of paper out of his pocket, holding it up. "I've got some information about the attack at the school-- the one you were investigating? I thought I'd bring it by." He offers the piece of paper, which just has a few names and notes. Takeshi Nakata, the target, the name of the student who got run through, and Maria Sakurai, Takeshi's ex-girlfriend.
This could have been an email.
After a moment he rubs at the back of his neck a little, glancing off to the side. "... and, uh... there's... something weird I was hoping you could look into. It's... about my sister." Here all his fake good cheer really fades, leaving a teenage boywho has spent the last week wracked with worry.
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
The cat statue chirps "Thank you, nya~!" in gratitude. (But what does it even use the money for ..?)
Tamaki peers at Kazuhiro as she briefly scrutinizes him, then breaks out into a grin. "I'd hope not! That's more for the older crowd. Married folks. Ideally, people wouldn't need to use our services at all."
Silently, she notes to herself that she should probably adjust her memorized sales pitch based on the target audience. Kazuhiro's reaction has revealed a bit of a disconnect there.
After reading the note, Tamaki's confusion grows, and nervous creeps across her smiling face. "Oh! Is -- is that all? Well, thank you, all the same." He continues, then she gives him a somber nod. "... I thought as much, if you were visiting in person like this."
The note could have just been an email, but Tamaki's very much a proponent of giving her work more of a human touch. She gestures to the pair of couches surrounding a table in the center of the room. "Would you like a seat while you're here? We've got some snacks and drinks, too."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro stares at the statue for a moment. "... huh." He wasn't sure what he was expecting, but... there it is, one supposes. "Welcome."
In an ideal world. "Ah, yeah..." Some teenagers have messy romances, but that's hardly the type of thing you call a detective for.
He did say he'd keep an ear out, so... he wanted to at least do what he could for her other investigation. But there is more, and he nods. "Yeah, I didn't... think a phone call would work for this, so..."
Kazuhiro anods and moves to sit on one of the offered couches, dropping his backpack and sitting leaned forward, with his elbows on his knees. "Uh, just water, please? Gotta hydrate, you know?"
It takes him a long moment to sort through his thoughts. "Look, I know... my sister doesn't always... make a good first impression. But for the last week she's been... a lot different. Nicer, but... in a way that worries me. It just..."
"... it doesn't feel like it's her in there, you know?"
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
There's more at stake in the adult world. Infidelity to a married partner potentially means divorce, which means figuring out who keeps what in the aftermath -- but that's a topic that hits too close to home for Tamaki. She'd rather think about literally anything else right now, and luckily there's a kid here asking for help.
"Got it. Water it is!" Tamaki briefly disappears into the kitchenette in the back, then comes back out with a glass of fridge-chilled water for Kazuhiro. While she's still up, she grabs her opened coffee can from her desk and takes a seat on the opposite couch. "Now, tell me what's up?"
Her chipper demeanor fades to seriousness as he explains. Her eyes widen in both recognition and fear of the phenomenon: the same as what happened to Rin Sasaki's husband.
Flatly, she repeats, "She's a lot nicer all of a sudden?" Recalling what Yanagi told her of the subject, concern apparent in her voice, Tamaki asks, "Lemme guess: It's like something sanded off all of her rough edges? Feels like she's now the walking, talking epitome of a 'better' version of herself? She's now become everything she could have been -- and overnight, at that?"
She narrows her eyes and steeples her index fingers together in front of her face. "We ... might have seen something like that before. I don't mention 'ghosts' in my sales pitch for nothing. Before we continue, am I on the right track here?"
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro offers a brief smile as he accepts the water. "Thanks." He takes a sip from it, collecting his thoughts for a moment as Tamaiki settles in.
Tamaki takes a guess--and as that guess goes on Kazuhiro flinches back a little, the shock evident on his face. "I-- whoa. Uchida-tentai, I know you're a detective, but... that's... kind of a scarily good guess."
Not as scary as watching whatever is going on with his sister, but still pretty scary.
He looks down at his glass."I mean... 'ghosts' is kind of why I'm here. I mean, just... that you mentioned them. Figured... there was at least a chance I wouldn't get laughed out, you know?"
He nods, somberly. "... yeah. You are. My parents are thrilled at the new Kazusa, but..." He's not a fan.
BBS: New BB message (2/125) posted to 'Announcements' by Penguin Sniper: An Important Announcement
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Tamaki glances up and away to the ceiling. "It's less of a blind guess and more of a recounting of a recent experience with a different case."
She's not going to forget that night when she came across a Homunculus in the Dark Hour anytime soon. That nearly proved fatal.
Tamaki returns her focus to Kazuhiro. "There's a chance that I'm wrong, but I was trying to be as specific as I could there." She clicks her tongue, then adds, "You ever hear the expression, 'if you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras'?"
On 'ghosts': "Nine times out of ten, investigating paranormal phenomena is just a way to provide some peace of mind for a customer -- there's often a rational explanation. 'Horses, not zebras'."
She narrows her eyes and looks to the side. "... I'm not exactly sure offhand how to ascertain if it's a case of what I'm thinking of -- the 'zebras' scenario. Is there a chance I could go see her in-person?"
" -- and don't worry about cost, we can treat your info on the Shujin attack as payment." Tamaki places a hand on her neck and rolls her head to give it a stretch. "If it's a 'zebra', someone's safety is on the line."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
"This... happened to someone else?" Kazuhiro tilts his head a little. "I'm not sure if that makes me feel better or not... should I ask how that other case turned out?"
aKazuhiro has never heard fo the Dark Hour. Which is really fortunate considering he lives in the same apartment as Kazusa.
Zebras and horses. "... yeah. Kinda like Occam's Razor, right?"
But he looks at Tamaki as she talks of ghosts. "... and the other one time?" he prompts, quietly. "When it's a 'zebra'?"
But Tamaki wants to see Kazusa. "Well... she's got classes most days." Kazuhiro rubs the back of his neck for a moment. "I could..." He sighs, making a sour face. "... probably convince her to go do something nice with her 'beloved otouto-kun'."
He really doesn't want to take advantage of her current state like that, but...
"... so I could make plans with her and then let you know what they are," he finishes.
He regards Tamaki for a moment. "... sounds to me like you're pretty sure it's a zebra, though. You haven't mentioned any horses, and... you haven't said what the zebra even is."
"So it must be really bad."
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
"Two that I know of, actually," Tamaki clarifies. "One of them's better now, the other one's still an ongoing case. If it is what I think it is, then there's a series of steps to take to return someone to normal." She scratches at her cheek. "Though if I say them out loud, you'll probably think I'm crazy or trying to pull one over on you."
Tamaki snaps her fingers and points at Kazuhiro when he suggests that she eavesdrop on a sibling outing. "That! -- is pretty common in my line of work, so that sounds good. I was going to suggest the same! Just let me know when and where."
Tamaki laughs nervously when Kazuhiro points out the lopsided nature of the horses/zebras ratio in the conversation. "H-hey! When you nearly get trampled by a 'zebra' like I have, you start to question that old adage! As for what a 'horse' scenario would be here -- I dunno, something happened in her life and she had some epiphany, some revelation that changed her outlook on life. Like maybe she got in an argument with someone and realized she was in the wrong." She glances at Kazuhiro meaningfully.
The private investigation industry in Japan was the target of several reforms in the last several years. They've honestly got a scummy reputation to dig themselves out of.
Tamaki continues: "I wouldn't blame you if you thought I was trying to pull one over on you. Like -- take a step back and evaluate things here. You're scared, you're uncertain, you're vulnerable. Scammers and hucksters can prey on that, make you feel like they're the only ones you can rely on for whatever price -- or at least make you feel dependent on them. I'm hardly the only authority on this stuff, and I can give you the contact information of other people to ask if you ever feel like I'm not on the level."
It must be really bad. Tamaki grimaces. "... yeah. The term for it is a 'Homunculus.' The steps to remove it from someone are pretty involved. Once you know too much about the supernatural, there's no going back, and personally, I try not to let normal people know all the details. That includes you." After a beat, she adds, "Don't take it personally, it also included my ex-fiancé."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Two other cases. Kazuhiro doesn't know how to feel about that, then. "Mm. And by 'better' you mean 'back to their old self', right?" Considering the context of his 'better' sister... he understandably wants to be really specific on that point.
"... but if you don't tell me anything I might still think that," he points out, quietly, of Tamaki potentially pulling one over on him.
But the suggestion he had works. Kazuhiro nods. "I will. I've got your contact info."
"... trampled? Is this a metaphor still, or...?" But then she does suggest a horse, and Kazuhiro frowns for a moment before looking down. "... I wish you would have asked more questions before saying that, Detective."
"My sister and her best friend went to Level-up! Con in cosplay. My father found them there and..." He struggles with what to say--he wasn't there for the initial part but he definitely caught a lot of the fallout at home. "... did not approve." He looks uncomfortable even saying the words.
He looks up to Tamaki again. "She spent most of the week before school in her bedroom. And then right before school started again she came out of her room like nothing had happened and just... apologized to our father. And at first I thought she was just... playing along, trying to keep him happy but..."
He slowly shakes his head. "... I don't think anybody can keep an act going for that long. She won't let it down, even for me. And I don't know much about psychology or whatever, but I don't think that's normal."
He takes a sip of his water before continuing. "That and there's just something that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up when I look at her. My parents don't seem to notice, though."
"So no, I don't think it was some kind of 'epiphany.'"
Tamaki explains all the reasons Kazuhiro should be suspicious of her or private detectives in general. Kazuhiro listens. "I might ask for those referrals. But I just... I just want some answers, okay?" He pauses. "... besides, your registration was clean."
On his phone he has photos of Kazusa's phone displaying the photos she took.
"'Homunuclus'...." he repeats the word quietly. "... that's the 'zebra' you think this is?" He frowns a little as Tamaki suggests that it's supernatural. But it's a thoughtful frown, not a dismissive one. "... let's say I buy that. What would we need to do next?"
<Pose Tracker> Tamaki Uchida has posed.
Well, about that. Tamaki frowns. "You know, I'm not actually sure. I helped out with the work, but I was less involved and haven't followed up on how the kid ended up. There's someone else who would know more, a Hazuki Nakao. I can get in contact with her and send her your way." She's not saying it's through the dark web on a certain conspiracy and Persona-related message board.
Was being trampled a metaphor? Tamaki's expression and tone of voice go flat. " -- no. It was not."
Kazuhiro's wish inflicts a critical hit on her heart and her sense of professionalism! Guilty as charged. She has got to break this habit and stop immediately jumping to zebras. This is only the power of an assistant private investigator.
As he explains about what happened with the con and the aftermath, Tamaki remains silent and intently listens until he finishes. "... rough. Could go either way, still, and I'm not exactly well-versed in psychology, either." He mentions that his hairs stand on end around her, however. Tamaki narrows her eyes. "... yeah, that's what I want to get a sense of by getting close to her. People like me should be able to distinctly tell if this is mundane or if it's a Homunculus by feeling that sensation more strongly."
Tamaki nods as he mentions their registration. "And if you have a problem with us, you can file a complaint with the government -- we risk getting it revoked. That's your leverage against us."
Tamaki's intent here is to provide an implicit lesson for Kazuhiro to retain for the future: learn how snake oil salesmen work and keep an eye out for them in the future. She is an edge case -- everything else about this should have a sane person's mental alarm bells going off at max volume.
What next? Tamaki counts off on her fingers as she explains. "Yeah, it's the Well, there's three major steps:"
"One, we retrieve an item of some importance to the host. Is there anything she's particularly protective of these days?"
"Two: we take that item to a place of importance to the host. Do you know of anywhere like that offhand, some place significant to her?"
"Three: this is going to sound like some /really/ out-there urban myth, but we take the item to a place where people are often 'alone together' and use it to enter a representation of their inner self, and that's where can sever the Homunculus from its host." A beat. "By 'we' I mean 'myself and/or people capable of handling this supernatural stuff.' It's really dangerous if someone goes in without protection."
<Pose Tracker> Kazusa Motojima has posed.
Kazuhiro blinks in mild surprise as Tamaki drop sthat name. "Wait-- Is that the same one that goes to Shujin? " He frowns a little, remembering watching Hazuki interacting with Kazusa that first day back from break. "... if she knows about this, you might want to get in contact with her. Nakao-senpai and my sister are in the same class together."
Yes, that is definitely a wonderful time, to be stuck in a classroom with a Homunculus all day.
"'Rough' is... kiiind of an understatement, but yeah." Tamaki, you might want to watch what you say--Kazuhiro is highly motivated to scrutinize everything you're saying right now. "... 'people like you'? Detectives?" It's clear he won't accept a 'yes' answer to that question.
Sadly, Kazuhiro's mental alarm bells have already been going off after spending a week with his Homunculized sister. "... right."
But the steps come, and Kazuhiro finishes his glass of water and sets it down. It takes a long few moments to digest all of that. "... you're right. That does sound like a crazy urban legend."
"But you've given me something to work with. And I think I'll do what you suggested and double check what you've said." He stands up, shrugging on his backpack. "Thanks for taking the time to meet with me, Uchida-tantei. And... I really am sorry for the comments I made the other day." That would be calling a female detective 'hot.'
He looks a little chagrined. "I... sometimes having a hard time turning it off."
He heads for the door. "I'll be in touch."