The police car arrived at the station and parked in the spot marked with its car number. Sakon glanced out the window, concern on his face. With the way things are, he was defiantly going to cause his Aunt a major embarrassment. He then glanced at the floor, knowing that he would have to now get out.

The young cop went and grabbed Ukon from the front seat so that the puppet hung limply with his limbs hanging down. Somehow, the handcuffs stayed on him as the cop went and opened the door for Sakon. "Come on now, we need to get this over with and feel out all the paper work. I'm going to take you and put you in an interview room until it is done. You are to stay there, understood."

Sakon nodded his head and allowed the cop to push on his shoulder and guide him up the stairs into the police headquarters. He noticed a few cops laughing under their breath at the younger cop and Sakon couldn't help but look away. The cop who had arrested the green haired glared at them.

"You know, you probably think that it is very funny that I had to arrest a teenager for stealing a puppet. But seriously, these things do happen," The cop then glanced at Ukon. "With the way the puppet spoke back to me, I could almost swear that he was alive."

"So, you arrested the puppet because it talked back to you and was trying to help the young man evade arrest." One of the cops spoke up.

"I guess you could say that." The young cop said, causing Sakon to groan inwardly. He thought back to all the times his Aunt had ranted about the male cops. His grandfather had made a comment that it was supposed to be men's business and that Kaoruko should be worried more about marring, but he didn't push the issue with her.

"We'll take the wooden suspect of your hands then," The other cop stated, taking Ukon away. The two cops then walked off, while Sakon stared after them. The look on his face was like he had lost a friend. In truth, he had no clue what those two were going to do with his childhood friend.

"Come on kid. You're in a lot of trouble." The cop stated and pushed Sakon to the interrogation room.

M

Kaoruko was still embarrassed over the fact that the old lady had come in and accused her nephew of something. She wasn't completely sure if it was Sakon himself she was embarrassed with, or the accusations that there might actually be something wrong with him. She glanced at the clock on her desk and sighed.

While Kaoruko loved her nephew, she was constantly plagued with the idea that Ukon might be something more then what she was seeing. She didn't believe in such things as ghosts and demons and such, even if they were a scary concept. She was more concerned with the fact that Sakon might actually have a split personality, which might lead to something more drastic then what had so far happened.

In her mind, the incident with the old woman had been, to put it kindly, only a small smidgen of what she feared might happen to Sakon due to his oddity of caring around the puppet. He had been that way with Ukon since he was a child; except there was the fact that the boy hadn't always been able to make Ukon talk.

The only one in the family who hadn't been irked by Sakon's ability to make Ukon speak was surprisingly their grandfather. This was an oddity in itself as Saemon had always been one for conformity and sticking to the old traditions. And old traditions included families acting a certain way.

One of the few reasons that Kaoruko thought that her father didn't chide her for her role as a policewoman was because he didn't want to lose another child and that was the only reason. Nagare had not been her father's biological son, but it had hit every one of them hard when he was no longer with them. Sakon the most though.

Kaoruko had been up taking a restroom break and was heading back to her desk. She went and sat down in her seat and took a sip from her cup. She blinked a couple of times at what she saw sitting in the chair across from her. She then startled with shock and liquid splashed on her. Thankfully it wasn't to hot.

"Sakon! Why in the world have you gone and left Ukon here! It is a very funny joke by you two." Kaoruko suddenly found herself tilting her ear towards the sound of laugher on the other side of the cubicle that separated units. She stood up and peered over, spying two male cops. "I want to know exactly what is so funny and where my nephew is."

One of the cops coughed out an answer and Kaoruko gasped in shock. "You let that buffoon take my nephew into questioning when there was no reason for it! Never mind! The two of you are buffoons too!"

With that, Kaoruko grabbed Ukon and hurried to the interrogation room.

M

Sakon was wilting under the gaze of the overzealous cop. The cop was interrogating him, but getting no answers, as Sakon could only stammer out the first syllable of anything and was trying to look away. He was hoping that Ukon would be given back to him soon, or that something else would happen to help him get out of the situation.

It was then that two people burst into the room, causing the young cop to jump out of his skin. "Sempai!"

"More like Sensei! Baka, what the hell have you done this time!" His partner snapped at him. He shook his head at the young man who was obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation.

"I was handling my first case," The young cop quipped only to have the lady that was with his partner grab Sakon's hand. "Hey, I'm interrogating this suspect! You can't just waltz into the room here! I mean, civilians aren't allowed back here!"

This caused Kaoruko to glare at him. She then snapped at him, and then went to yelling at him in the same sentence. "This… This interview is over! Tell him why!"

"First off, the puppet belongs to the boy. Second, this is officer Tachibana. She is the boys Aunt and part of the Tachibana family which has been in Bunraku for years now. Third, the case was handed to you because she could not take a case involving her nephew and somebody wanted to play a trick on her because she is a female cop and high ranking and you because you're the new rookie."

"I… uhh… I…" The young cop found himself feeling much like Sakon had a few minutes ago. "But, that isn't normal behavior!"

"The thing is my nephew did nothing illegal." Kaoruko said as she pulled Sakon out after her.

The young cop's partner turned to the young man and snapped at him. "You're lucky I happened across her! Yes, Sakon has an odd habit with that puppet, but, seriously… this went too far!"

Chapter 6: Kaoruko’s Rival

Auntie to the Rescue

Kaoruko's Rival

Zouo Sadao was typing up a report onto the computer when he heard yelling coming from the interrogation room. He peered over from his desk, which was within site of the room just in time to see Officer Tachibana storm out of the room with a young man. He quickly recognized the young man as her nephew.

Officer Zouo stuck a pencil into his mouth and began to suck and chew angrily on the end of the pencil end. He had great animosity against Kaoruko as he felt that a woman should not be an officer, expesully one that dealt with homicide. He had felt long ago that he should have been the one placed into her position.

It was his decisive mindset that the only reason that she had gotten the position that she had was because she was a female and they were looking to make it seem like the female cops were moving ahead. All of society was getting away from the ideal that women should be wives and mothers, which irritated him.

Suddenly he saw a women bustle over to the Tachibanas. He had to hold back his laughter at the woman's horrible appearance. There was way too much makeup. There was so much makeup that he felt like calling her a fat geisha to her face, but he knew that he would get slapped with sexual harassment by his fellow officers. By the looks of it, the woman would push for it too.

He already had enough complaints about how he had treated the female officers in the division. He noticed though that Kaoruko was irritated with the fact that the women was there. Sadao decided that he couldn't miss the interaction for the world, the whole fact being that it was likely that those two women's personalities were going to clash drastically. So he ambled over to hear the conversation.

M

Kaoruko and Sakon had stepped out of the room. The officer's partner was yelling a lecture at the rookie cop. Kaoruko carefully placed the wooden puppet into Sakon's arms and he hugged the puppet close. "Ukon!"

Ukon then went onto Sakon's hand and the puppet stretched then went into a pout. "I can't believe that moron is a cop! I would say today was useless except for the fact that I got to see Auntie make a very funny face!"

Ukon had a grin on his face, but this was quickly washed away as Kaoruko pulled his ear. "There is no way I reacted in any way funny to seeing you sitting in my partners chair handcuffed!"

"Thankfully that one cop had keys to his partner's handcuffs. He must be really dumb." This statement caused Kaoruko stare in disbelief at Ukon.

"One can simply tell that by the fact you couldn't have a copy and Ukon no longer has handcuffs on." Sakon stated, directing her attention else where. She was looking down the hallway when her jaw dropped. "What is it?"

Both Sakon and Ukon turned to look at what she had seen and their eyes went wide with disbelief. There, coming towards them was the lady they had met on the bus earlier. The woman hurried over to them. She looked them up and down with disgust. "I left my purse and came back to get it when I found out that you are letting this miscreant go."

"Ahh, hello Mrs. Yami." Kaoruko stated.

"That is Ms. Yami. I thought that female cops would better the police force, but apparently from you, I was wrong. Letting him go." The woman stated, her fat lips pursed and the lipstick sticking as her mouth opened and closed, causing Sakon and Ukon to take a step away from her. "See, he is guilty, no?"

"This young man is my nephew, Sakon Tachibana. The puppet belongs to him, so he didn't steal it. He's been taught puppetry since he was a child." Kaoruko stated, trying to soften the subject.

"Tachibana… as in Saemon Tachibana?" The woman nodded her head as the two Tachibana's looked away and Ukon nodded his head saying it was true. Her eyes lit with anger. "To think that someone so prestigious would have such a mentally ill grandson."

Kaoruko's eyes in turn blazed with anger. "My nephew is not insane. And I am taking him home, thank you."

"He still caused a disturbance. I personally wonder if this boy won't cause harm to another person." The lady snapped.

"My nephew…" Kaoruko started, only to be interrupted by another person.

"Officer Tachibana, she has a point, no?" Someone stated from near by. Kaoruko turned to the voice and grimaced. "And you know what happens when someone files such a complaint?"

Kaoruko pursed her lips, not wanting to answer. He turned to the woman. "It means that we need to have a psych evaluation done on the boy. You know that."

M

Kaoruko was not in a good mood and wasn't speaking to her nephew or his wooden friend on the way home. But they weren't speaking to each other either, which worried her. In fact, Sakon had put Ukon into his box. Suddenly, he spoke to her in a whisper. "Aunt Kaoruko, I'm sorry you got embarrassed at work today."

This caused Kaoruko to look over to the passenger seat. She bit her lip not saying anything. She heard his two feet click in a rhythm on the floor. It was obvious that he was upset. She couldn't think of anything to say to him though, so it was Sakon who ended up speaking up. "I was supposed to be getting groceries for Mama, but…"

"You got interrupted?" Kaoruko asked. "I guess it was for tonight's dinner. Tell you what, I'll buy dinner for the family tonight. I need to speak to the old man and sis about the situation anyways."

"I just became the head of the family and already I've disgraced them…" Sakon stated.

"Don't say that Sakon!" Kaoruko said, turning to her nephew, only to get no response.