The Lost Twins 7. Japan

A/N Himawari means sunflower, a Ryokan is a traditional Japanese hotel.

The last time Athena visited Japan was more than a year ago. Back then it had been business as well, however quite a different business, relating to the re-build after the tsunami disaster in 2011, which one of her companies had been involved in. It sure felt like another time and another world, before Zeus had decided to pull her into his life again. And before Artemis and her mystery brother Apollo had entered her life. (Well, Apollo hadn't exactly 'entered' her life yet, but he was the reason for her to be here now.)

The taxi pulled up to the Himawari Ryokan where Athena always stayed when in Tokyo. After gathering her bags, Athena paid the driver and got out of the car, noting that a light rain was falling, wetting the sidewalk and her hair. The glowing red and gold Japanese characters above the entrance read himawari and it was surrounded by said flowers in elegantly stylized forms, a kind of Japanese version of art noveau if you like. Strolling through the front doors, Athena entered the foyer and walked up to the lady behind the sign-in desk. She was fiddling with the room keys on the shelves, unaware at the moment that Athena was waiting, so she tapped quietly on the top of the desk.

"Excuse me?" Athena asked in her flawless Japanese. The woman looked over her shoulder at her, and whilst doing so, she dropped the set of keys she had been holding. She blushed and quickly picked them up. After hastily putting them back in their place, she turned around once again and grinned warmly at her visitor. Her heart-shaped face showed wisdom with her age. The creases around her eyes were more than clear when she smiled. It made Athena feel welcomed.

"I've a room reservation here, starting tonight but with an open end," Athena explained.
"Your name?"
"Athena Olympias."
"One moment, Olympias-san!" she turned to a keyboard upon which she started tapping away quickly.

Meanwhile, Athena took a second to look at the finely decorated interior of the hotel. There was a fountain in the middle of the room that was ornately designed in bamboo and gold accents. A shimmering engraving of Amaterasu, the sun goddess of the Japanese mythology, was in the center of the display. Beyond that one was a small living area by the elevators, where there were a few incense burning on the tables. The constant opening and closing of the front doors nearby let in a breeze that pushed the calming scent of the candles towards her. It smelt like vanilla and lavender. Athena turned back to the woman, who was being pleasantly patient.

"Your hotel is gorgeous. Lovely decor you have."
"Thank you." She replied, flattered. She extended a small, frail hand to Athena, who accepted the handshake with a smile. Her handshake didn't come natural as with a westerner, still it was sweet.
"My name is Tomoko," she introduced herself while Athena was receiving her room keys. Before Athena left for the elevator, Tomoko added more thing: "Welcome to the Himawari Ryokan."

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Less than an hour later Athena had taken a quickie shower, unpacked her few things thing and then she set out to do what she had come to Japan to do. Finding Apollo. Following her one lead to her and Artemis' lost brother.

Churning her hands in the pocket, Athena started off for the underground, she had memorized the way to the Unicorn site, there were just a few stations to go including one change, from the Oedo Line to the Chiyoda line. Unicorn was located at Ayase, the second last station of the Chiyoda.

The Tokyo underground was like the Tokyo underground always had been, clean and utilitarian, not decorative like those of Stockholm or Moscow, pleasantly worn like in London or Rome or just generally ugly as in Athens or New York. And the ticketing system – which seemed like a mystery at first sight was actually easy to use. Athena purchased her ticket and went down to the platform to wait for her train.

She looked at school children in uniforms, at advertisements, at Rokeru and Goth Lolita girls and when her train came in, she remained standing up, since the low seats were quite a bit uncomfortable for her. She noted that people were staring, however that was the Asian way, nobody thought it rude to stare, and it was not every day a 6 feet 5 woman with a flowing cascade of blond hair was riding the Oedo line, no matter the mere size of Tokyo.

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Eric had been right. The Unicorn factory base was enormous. Up front, the structure looked just like any other glass cube building, laid out random in an industrial area at the outskirts of Tokyo. In front of it a large sign with a stylized unicorn and then the company's name in huge, purplish indigo lettering. No parking lot or grass plain in front of the structure, the prices of land in the Tokyo area simply did not allow for such excesses. But a large glass front facing the street outside and running from both sides, a high steel fence with barbed wires on top of it and mounted surveillance cameras as if it was a military base rather than just a factory plant.

Strange, Athena thought, what secrets could they keep in there? Then she shrugged it off and walked up to the large glass doors leading into the main building. They slid up as she entered and they admitted her into a three floor large foyer which had a somewhat dated design, with a water art and faux greenery which looked like it needed some pimp-up.

Playing her part, Athena walked over to the reception disk where two girls were taking phone calls and a slimy-looking man in shiny suit and back-licked hair was waiting his turn. Not surprisingly Athena soon found his eyes lingering a bit longer upon her than they should have, browsing down her cleavage, but she pretended not to see and busied herself with her phone. Then he was speaking American English to one of the ladies by the disk, asking to see some gentleman with an Indian sounding name. The girl had him signing in to the guest data base and then turned her attention to Athena.

Athena slid over the photo she had prepared, the one of Apollo.
"I'm looking for an employer of yours," she said. "I'm not sure of his name, but he's Italian of origin. And I'm Minerva Hanizzi, a Roman attorney, here to tell him that I'm representing la Signora Diana Crescentini. She's his sister and she has an amount of money for him, which I have been deployed to hand over. It's highly important that these money end up with the brother of my client."

The Japanese by the desk wrinkled her brow as she studied the photo, a copy of the last one of Apollo which Athena had. Athena had created her story together with Artemis the evening before she left for Japan, including figuring out that the cover story to be used should be enough to pull Apollo out in the light, and at the same time no reveal his identity. Thus they had decided upon using Artemis' alias as Diana Crescentini, since that was an alias which Apollo had been familiar with.

Turning to her computer by the desk the receptionist pulled the photo through some scanner kind of thing, and then she started typing, but now and then looking up at Athena.
"We don't have any Italians working here that I'm aware of, but I can see if I can find this man going by the picture only. We have a photo recognition system here, to find faces with. And the Caucasian men here are few and far between." Then she shook her head, while biting her lip.

"Perhaps you can answer me another thing meanwhile. Who am I to speak with if I want to know details considering a large shipment going from Sweden and here a month ago. The exact arrival date in Tokyo being 15th of March."
"That should be Mr. Maeda," she nodded her head. "Goro Maeda. You want me to see if he's in?"
"No, you can just give me his phone number, and I'll call him later. Because this might be of less importance, and in that case, I don't want to take up his time."
"You're certain you have no name for this Italian man?"
"Unfortunately not, since Signora Crescentini and he has not been in touch in quite a while and she is certain he changed his name after his move to Japan."

"How peculiar, and I can't find any man looking like your photo here. Neither anyone named Crescentini, if that should have been his name. In fact there are no labours of Italian origin here now. But I'm giving you Mr. Maeda's number so you can get in touch with him."  

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When Athena stepped back out in the slanted afternoon sun again, she cursed between clenched teeth. Then again, what had she expected? This was more or less a wild goose chase. The only trace they had was an email, which Apollo had sent to Artemis more than two years ago. Then she should not be surprised by not striking luck when coming here. Nevertheless, she could always give this Goro Maeda a try. See if he could help her. However she was not going to call the man, then he could easily avoid her. Instead she gave Eric a call, telling him who he was looking for and then Eric was able to trace down Mr. Maeda.

"I'll let you know when he'll be leaving the building and which way," Eric told her. "And then you can intercept him."
"But what if he uses a car?"
"He doesn't have an allotted parking spot, so I bet he's not."
"Okay, then I'll go sit down at the café from across the street, and you can give me a call when he comes out."
"Sure thing."

"So how's everything going back home? With Artemis and all that."
"She quit her job, called them already this morning, say she won't be coming back." Eric's voice became filled with laughter. "She told me they were so pissed off with her."    
"Oh, well, I guess she won't regret it a single second, that theatre, that play – it was all a piece of crap!"

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"Mr. Goro Maeda?"
"Yes?"
"May I speak to you for a few moments?"
"How may I help you?" the ever polite behaviour was right there in almost every Japanese's spine, and Goro Maeda was no exception. He had stopped in the street, facing Athena with a honest and slightly surprised expression, and she could clearly see that he was not used to being contacted by random foreigners outside his workplace, and who spoke perfect Japanese on top of that.

"I'm Minerva Hansen, and I'm a researcher working on a thesis about international businesses with subsidiaries located around the world and in several countries. Unicorn seemed like the perfect example. And I wonder a bit about the production process, it seems that you have production lines going on in several countries and then goods arriving here in Japan for a final refining."
"Yes?" he nodded his head to indicate he was following.  

"I'm especially interested in something I've read about on the internet. About a project starting in Sweden and then being shipped here about a month ago. Something called the NeoGenesis project."

She was met with a blank stare from Mr. Maeda, a stare which was obviously an act, since her sensitive eyes had noted a small tick around his right brow and a slight widening of the nostrils. So she pressed on.
"You're familiar with that one?"
"I'm sorry, I have to go," Goro Maeda took a step to the side, indicating that he wanted to finish this discussion.

"But can you say anything about any shipment from Sweden, which..."
"I beg your pardon, but I don't know what you're talking about!"
"Can you tell me who I should talk to instead then?"
"You must have been misinformed, there's no such thing as the NeoGenesis project within the Unicorn corp. Now you will have to excuse me, Mrs. Hansen, but I have to catch a train."

With those words, Goro Maeda turned around and hasted down the street, as if chased by one of the Erinyies. Once he turned around, glancing over his shoulder as if to check if there really was nobody following him and Athena knit her brows. Now, there's definitely was something fishy about this project. And you didn't exactly have to be a rocket scientist to realize that Mr. Maeda knew quite a bit about it. Not unsurprisingly, Athena felt her curiosity awaken, plus a certain gut feeling that this was connected to her lost brother Apollo somehow. Then she realized that the only way to find out more about the NeoGenesis was to go ahead the unconventional way. She would have to take help from Eric and then come back here already tonight.