The thing with Arisu, my older sister, is that her personality is often portrayed as kind and gentle, and by this I don't mean to say that she isn't both of those things. However, there are times when some kind of flip inside of her gets switched, and she acts pretty terrifyingly.
And, I think this is one of those times. We were eating in an unusual silence, when she suddenly spoke up.
"So…I've been meaning to ask you since I came home but, why did Akira suddenly decide to sleep over at a friend's house?"
"What do you mean? Isn't it normal for an adolescent to spend time with their friends, and even have sleepovers?"
"While that may be true for other kids, don't you know Akira's personality? He spends most of his free time editing videos, playing Fortfight all day and trying to start a streaming career… Do you really think he would just suddenly sleep over to a friend's house?"
Well, that's true… Akira is somewhat of a shut-in. He goes to school and while he probably has friends, (I say 'probably' because I never saw them before), and wastes his time on his PC.
"You're not wrong there…"
"Right? So tell me, did something happen to him?"
"I don't understand why you're so suspicious, but I don't really know much either. All of a sudden, he just called me and said he's going to a friend's house to stay over."
"Hmm… I still don't buy it, but if you don't want to tell me that's fine. I'll just find out for myself."
She's still looking at me doubtfully, but it seems that she is going to do her own little investigation? I'm not sure how she's planning to achieve that, but for now, she's not questioning me anymore.
"Sure, go ahead."
"Yes, I will."
After a few minutes of uncomfortable and unusual silence, my sister speaks up.
"Thank you for the food."
I gave her a little nod, and she seemed unsatisfied but she didn't say anything else and went into her room.
I also finished eating my food, so I sat down on my couch when I heard my phone ring. Looking at my phone's display, I see that Ken was calling me. I guess it was about time.
"Okay, so I found the SUV's position. I will send it to you in a message."
"Thank you. Did you notice anything else out of the ordinary?"
"I looked at the security cameras around, and I found that the two men inside the vehicle entered an alley roughly ten or twenty minutes ago. They still didn't come back and they just left it right there."
"Got ya. Thank you once again, talk to you later."
"Yeah, stay safe."
And I hung up. After a minute, I received a message from Ken which included the address where the machine was located.
After entering the address in my GPS, I could see that it was located relatively close to the place I was given by the kidnappers.
Since I have the SUV's current position, and now that it's almost certain the location they left me is one of their hideouts or operations buildings, I can start planning.
First of all, I should text Johnny to let him in on a few things. So, I texted Johnny the following:
[Hi Johnny, I'm writing this message to let you know that if I don't come to college by next week, please file a missing report for me. I also left you a piece of paper at ____ explaining the current situation I am in, and what steps you should take should you not hear from me soon.]
And, sent. I am not expecting a quick reply as this is Johnny we are talking about, but he'll definitely help me.
Now that I have somewhat taken care of things on this side, I can finally deal with the people who kidnapped my brother.
I got the keys to my car, took my phone, put on some different clothes from the ones I usually wear. Which mainly consists of wearing an outfit all black.
I regularly go to college by public transportation since that's way more comfortable and cheaper than driving by car, but I do have a driver's license.
Anyway, I told my sister I am going to go out, and left the apartment. Got inside my car and started driving towards the place. The location is around 10 km away from my house, therefore I can get there pretty fast.
15 minutes later, I arrived 1km away from where the SUV currently is. I parked my vehicle in the vicinity, since I thought it would be way safer that way.
Getting out of the car, I started walking towards the street. This street was located in the area of the city which was known for being pretty dangerous, so I was being more cautious.
The only sounds that could be heard around me were my footsteps, the distant cars driving by, and the leaves getting rustled by the wind.
In any case, it wasn't a place where someone should be walking alone, and the whole vibe I was getting was unwelcoming.
Arriving at the SUV's whereabouts, I started inspecting it. Tried opening its doors, looked inside it, but I didn't arrive at anything.
Remembering Ken mentioning that the two individuals went down the alley, scanning my surroundings, I found a single alley.
Walking over there, there was no source of light, nothing. It looked like one of those alleyways where the protagonist of a horror movie would be killed. Mustering up my courage, I advanced into the passage.