The young officer's first step in finding the perpetrator of his first solo case was to head to the police file computer data bases to look up the last name of Tachibana. He typed it into the computer and came up with quite a few addresses of people with the last name of Tachibana.

But what stood out to him was the address of the puppeteering school run by the Tachibana's. Perhaps there had been a mistake in the last name and this was in fact where the puppet was stolen from. That was at least what his mind set was. He scribbled it down on a piece of paper and stuck it in his front coat pocket, a smile on his face.

They said that suspects tended to return to or near the place of their crime in order to figure out how well they pulled of their crime and to gage police response. So what he needed to do was canvas the area for the suspect. There couldn't possibly be too many teenagers with green hair, unless they dyed it green.

He grabbed the keys to the squad car and hurried to the parking lot, forgetting that procedure required one to take their partner with them. He also left his coffee and the information on the desk. He was too excited to be making an arrest on his so called first solo case.

About five to ten minutes later his partner returned. He looked around looking for the young rookie. Not seeing him, he turned to one of the officers taking a woman's statement so that she and her children could have their names changed so that they could be protected from her estranged husband. "Where is Officer Kondo?"

"He ran out of here like his house was on fire a few minutes ago." The officer stated.

"I hope for his sake it isn't. But then again, I do, because he takes off like this on me too much." The older officer then glanced at the desk and noticed that the keys to the car were gone. "Sheesh… he's taken off on a call with out me again."

It was then that the officer noticed the incident report still lying on the desk. "Baka, Shousoko, what have you gone and done this time."

M

Sakon and Ukon were walking to the store to pick up some groceries for his mother. She was waiting for him to get home so that she could make supper for her family of three, plus a wooden puppet, and perhaps the added addition of a younger sister.

It was then that a police car came around the corner. It was rather odd that there was only one cop in the car, but Sakon paid him no mind as he figured that the officer was doing a routine patrol as officers were apt to do. However, Ukon looked at the car, his eyes filled with curiosity, but his mouth showing concern.

Suddenly the police car stopped a few feet ahead of them and a young cop stepped out and walked over to Sakon. "Are you Tachibana Sakon?"

Sakon nodded his head, startled that someone would ask him something like that. A thought flashed through his mind that something might have happened to his Aunt, but he then realized that the cop was smiling, so it was very likely that she was fine. "Yes…"

"The police received a report from an older lady that you had stolen a puppet, an antique as she put it." The cop stated.

"That old hag," Ukon muttered, placing his hands behind his head and jutting out his lip with displeasure. "She sure was full of it yesterday."

"Ahh!" The young cop startled and pointed his finger at Ukon while Sakon shook his head at the puppet.

"Sheesh… is he really supposed to be a cop?" Ukon stated, his eyes looking sky ward.

"Ukon!" Sakon whispered harshly to his wooden friend so that the cop couldn't hear him.

"You certainly have a mouth on you, don't you? We'll I've caught you with stolen property." The young cop pulled out his hand cuffs.

"Ahh… hold on… Ukon isn't stolen." Sakon started.

"Hey… Mr. Cop… if you arrest Sakon, you have to arrest me too!" Ukon stated, shaking his hands in the air and kicking out, letting the world know he wasn't happy with the situation. He was fully willing to argue back with the cop and attempt to stop him from arresting Sakon. This only led to the cop narrowing his eyes and placing the cuffs onto Ukon. "Oi!"

Both of the two were opening their mouths to say something, but before Sakon or Ukon could complain about the fact that what was going on made no sense, the cop removed the puppet gently from Sakon's grip. "Now, are you going to come quietly, or am I going to have to call back up."

Sakon got into the back seat of the cop car, his shock from the situation to huge to argue the point with the man. He watched as the cop buckled the wooden puppet into the front passenger seat and then turned the car back on. The cop looked nervously at Ukon, as if the puppet would go and bite him, which would have been likely if Ukon had been in Sakon's hands.

As they drove through town, Sakon was wondered how the man had become to be a cop. He had a full composure of not knowing what was going on. Sakon was hoping though that this was just something his Aunt had put together to tease him, but that was very unlikely, as it really didn't fit her personality.