Erbe Declares Manhunt after Ninth “Kappa” Victim Escapes Killer 05/27/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
KORDAVA--The search for the elusive serial killer calling himself the “Kappa” took a
dramatic turn this evening when Kaori Atariya, a 19-year-old retail employee from
Kordava’s southern waterfront community, burst into a city police station, bruised
and disheveled--but lucky to be alive after an alleged attack by the “Little Luthien”
killer himself. Just hours after this shocking event, Knight-Errant Kristoff Erbe
declared a province-wide manhunt for Shu Imashinigi; he declared the man, described
as a 53-year-old local fisherman, “armed and extremely dangerous.”
“Whether or not Mr. Imashinigi is or is not the so-called Kappa killer will be up to the
courts to decide,” Erbe told INN in an emergency press conference after making the
announcement. “What is known is that an individual fitting his description has been
linked by several witnesses to the recent assaults, including tonight’s attack on Miss
Atariya.”
“Anyone seeing or harboring this individual is advised to contact authorities
immediately,” Erbe added. “People should not attempt to confront, question, or
apprehend this individual themselves. He is to be considered armed and extremely
dangerous.”
Inspector Frances Becca of the Towne Bureau of Investigations (TBI), speaking
alongside Erbe, further added that Imashinigi’s private fishing boat, a blue-and-white
Enfield Runabout E-31 named Luka and bearing the call number KB-156A, is not
presently in the waters of Kordava harbor, having set sail apparently in the late
evening. Despite this fact, Becca said, police and TBI officials are focusing their
search for Imashinigi in the Kordava city’s southern districts at this hour.
“We are leaving no stone unturned,” Becca told INN. “Mr. Imashinigi may be at sea,
or he may be at large on the streets at this hour. At the present time, the Zingara
Province Coast Guard has reported no sighting of his vessel, so his whereabouts
remain a mystery.”
An unidentified source close to the case told INN earlier today that police had begun
focusing their search on the transient fishing community, and that Imashinigi, a
widower and resident of Kordava’s Little Luthien district, was one of only a handful
who was still being sought for questioning. Imashinigi, whose wife died five years
ago from lung cancer, was described as a “recluse” by some fellow Kordava
fishermen since the loss of his 18-year-old daughter, Luka, this past December. Our
source declined to say for sure whether or not the object of the police investigation,
now under the direction of Sir Kristoff Erbe, was believed to be the Kappa himself,
but did say that his capture was considered “critical” to the case.
The breakthrough, apparently, was the late-night arrival of Kaori Atariya at Kordava’s
Little Luthien police precinct 671, in the company of city police. Atariya, according to
a police source, claimed that she was assaulted just outside Sato’s department store,
where she is employed as a clothing sales clerk. According to the report, Atariya was
waiting for a ride home, in the company of her store manager, and was approached
by “a plain-looking gentleman” when her manager stepped back into the store to
answer a phone call. She said the individual, whose description matched that given by
police for Shu Imashinigi, first engaged her in conversation, but then quickly
attempted to strangle her with a length of some kind of rope or wire. Atariya then
claimed that her alleged attacker ran off when her manager returned, having heard her
alarmed cry for help.
Though police refuse to speculate on Imashinigi’s character, his friends and neighbors
expressed a mix of shock and outrage over Erbe’s declaration and its implications.
“Are the police trying to pin these killing on [Imashinigi] now?” asked Giovanni
Laputin, a Kordava school teacher who counts himself one of Imashinigi’s neighbors.
“How could he? He’s an old, kind man who doesn’t bother anyone. How could
anyone think he’s a killer?”
“I can’t believe it,” said Nihongi Estelle, a Kordava fisherman who said he often spoke
with Imashinigi via radio during expeditions in the tropical ocean off the southern
shores of Hyboria. “[Imashinigi] was always polite and friendly whenever I spoke
with him. I can’t imagine he’d ever harm another soul.”
“After poor Luka died, [Imashinigi] was just never the same,” said Priscilla Narabu, a
Little Luthien grocer who claims Imashinigi often frequented her store in the
marketplace near the marina. “He almost never talked or smiled . . . and just seemed
to stare off into space. It’s such a shame.”
Other members of the Little Luthien community, so named because its residents
continue to uphold the traditions and culture of their shared heritage in the Draconis
Combine, have complained that Erbe’s manhunt further stains the image of their
community in a time of social strife.
“This manhunt is yet another example of the Davionist elements of the government--
and The Republic at large--to strip away the dignity of those citizens and residents of
Draconis descent,” declared Yoshiro Kalawaska.
Kalawaska, a prominent Little Luthien community leader, has been at the heart of
many civil disturbances over the past week, all directed at the seemingly ineffectual
efforts by the local authorities and the TBI to find and catch the Kappa. The latest
demonstration, in fact, prompted Sir Kristoff Erbe to personally intercede before the
situation could degenerate into violence.
“What we have here is a blatant move by the local government to find a kindly,
upstanding member of the community guilty of a crime, just to appease the masses,”
Kalawaska added. “The people of this community deserve far better!”
Regardless of the opinions, however, a community continues to live in fear tonight,
stalked perhaps by one of their own, and the search now begins for a man who may--
at the very least--know who is responsible for terrorizing his people. At last,
according to Sir Erbe, the end of this ordeal may be in sight.
Towne Log
+ All this time, and it was a freaking fisherman!? Oh, gawd! I bet those malfing cops
got egg all over their faces now! :- WetWillie
+ I’m still betting on ex-military. They didn’t say if that Imashagi guy--damn, Dracs
have some tough names to spell!--ever served, but you gotta wonder. Killing eight
women and avoiding capture like that, he just *can’t* be an ordinary fisherman! :-
Lkool
+ Any of you consider he may not be the guy? I mean, the killer’s taken out people
ranging from 20 to almost 40 years old, people who should know a lot better than
some 19-year-old girl, anyway. And getting away with it, too. Anyone consider that
this sloppy guy who went after what’s-her-name there is just a copycat? :-
Chungabunga
+ I think it’s just ridiculous! I know Mr. Imashinigi. His boat is parked just three piers
from my uncle’s! The man’s no killer! He’s just an old guy who’s had a rough life--
and no, Lkool, he’s not ex-military, so he’s not your guy! :- RaiRai
+ Well, RR, maybe you should be watching your back, then, eh? Or better yet, go to
the cops and tell ’em what you know, because your boating neighbor there is a
wanted man. Or do you think it’s just a coincidence he happens to be nowhere about
when Erbe says they want him? :- FMLurder
+ It’s gotta be a mistake is all I’m saying! The girl’s gotta be confused or something! :
- RaiRai
+ Which brings us to the next question: This girl gets attacked, and may have given a
description of the fisherman, and suddenly it’s a manhunt? Can we say “grasping at
straws,” folks? :- Draco041
+ Right, Drac. That’s what you say now. You know, I’ve listened to you fume about
how the cops can’t find any leads and make any arrests, and now you’re bitching
because they locked onto somebody. :- Synnik
+ Okay, so assuming just for a second that this Imashinigi guy IS the killer, what’s
the deal? Why’s a fisherman doing in a bunch of women? Is it just because his wife
and daughter died? Now he’s bitter about other women or something? :- XSOkay
+ Heh. Ask RaiRai. They’re buds. ;-) :- FMLurder
+ Ah, shove it, Lurder! The man lost his wife to cancer, like the article says, and his
daughter fell into the ocean and got caught by a Seraphim Swimmer! You know what
those things can do? :- RaiRai
+ Frag! You know, I don’t have any idea why they ever named those things after
angels! More like a giant piranha! That’s a grisly way to go! :- Chungabunga
+ You aren’t kidding! My uncle told me about how his friend was fishing off the Styx
coast there, and a school of Seraphim Swimmers came by. Apparently, they’d
snagged a five-meter-long blackback and were just starting to reel it aboard. The
school picked up the scent and, wow! They say the whole thing was gone in 20
seconds flat! :- RaiRai
+ Okay, I dunno what to believe, now. That the cops really may have a lead on this
Kappa killer, or that there IS such a thing as a five-meter-long blackback! :- Synnik
INN - Interstellar News Network
KORDAVA--The search for the elusive serial killer calling himself the “Kappa” took a
dramatic turn this evening when Kaori Atariya, a 19-year-old retail employee from
Kordava’s southern waterfront community, burst into a city police station, bruised
and disheveled--but lucky to be alive after an alleged attack by the “Little Luthien”
killer himself. Just hours after this shocking event, Knight-Errant Kristoff Erbe
declared a province-wide manhunt for Shu Imashinigi; he declared the man, described
as a 53-year-old local fisherman, “armed and extremely dangerous.”
“Whether or not Mr. Imashinigi is or is not the so-called Kappa killer will be up to the
courts to decide,” Erbe told INN in an emergency press conference after making the
announcement. “What is known is that an individual fitting his description has been
linked by several witnesses to the recent assaults, including tonight’s attack on Miss
Atariya.”
“Anyone seeing or harboring this individual is advised to contact authorities
immediately,” Erbe added. “People should not attempt to confront, question, or
apprehend this individual themselves. He is to be considered armed and extremely
dangerous.”
Inspector Frances Becca of the Towne Bureau of Investigations (TBI), speaking
alongside Erbe, further added that Imashinigi’s private fishing boat, a blue-and-white
Enfield Runabout E-31 named Luka and bearing the call number KB-156A, is not
presently in the waters of Kordava harbor, having set sail apparently in the late
evening. Despite this fact, Becca said, police and TBI officials are focusing their
search for Imashinigi in the Kordava city’s southern districts at this hour.
“We are leaving no stone unturned,” Becca told INN. “Mr. Imashinigi may be at sea,
or he may be at large on the streets at this hour. At the present time, the Zingara
Province Coast Guard has reported no sighting of his vessel, so his whereabouts
remain a mystery.”
An unidentified source close to the case told INN earlier today that police had begun
focusing their search on the transient fishing community, and that Imashinigi, a
widower and resident of Kordava’s Little Luthien district, was one of only a handful
who was still being sought for questioning. Imashinigi, whose wife died five years
ago from lung cancer, was described as a “recluse” by some fellow Kordava
fishermen since the loss of his 18-year-old daughter, Luka, this past December. Our
source declined to say for sure whether or not the object of the police investigation,
now under the direction of Sir Kristoff Erbe, was believed to be the Kappa himself,
but did say that his capture was considered “critical” to the case.
The breakthrough, apparently, was the late-night arrival of Kaori Atariya at Kordava’s
Little Luthien police precinct 671, in the company of city police. Atariya, according to
a police source, claimed that she was assaulted just outside Sato’s department store,
where she is employed as a clothing sales clerk. According to the report, Atariya was
waiting for a ride home, in the company of her store manager, and was approached
by “a plain-looking gentleman” when her manager stepped back into the store to
answer a phone call. She said the individual, whose description matched that given by
police for Shu Imashinigi, first engaged her in conversation, but then quickly
attempted to strangle her with a length of some kind of rope or wire. Atariya then
claimed that her alleged attacker ran off when her manager returned, having heard her
alarmed cry for help.
Though police refuse to speculate on Imashinigi’s character, his friends and neighbors
expressed a mix of shock and outrage over Erbe’s declaration and its implications.
“Are the police trying to pin these killing on [Imashinigi] now?” asked Giovanni
Laputin, a Kordava school teacher who counts himself one of Imashinigi’s neighbors.
“How could he? He’s an old, kind man who doesn’t bother anyone. How could
anyone think he’s a killer?”
“I can’t believe it,” said Nihongi Estelle, a Kordava fisherman who said he often spoke
with Imashinigi via radio during expeditions in the tropical ocean off the southern
shores of Hyboria. “[Imashinigi] was always polite and friendly whenever I spoke
with him. I can’t imagine he’d ever harm another soul.”
“After poor Luka died, [Imashinigi] was just never the same,” said Priscilla Narabu, a
Little Luthien grocer who claims Imashinigi often frequented her store in the
marketplace near the marina. “He almost never talked or smiled . . . and just seemed
to stare off into space. It’s such a shame.”
Other members of the Little Luthien community, so named because its residents
continue to uphold the traditions and culture of their shared heritage in the Draconis
Combine, have complained that Erbe’s manhunt further stains the image of their
community in a time of social strife.
“This manhunt is yet another example of the Davionist elements of the government--
and The Republic at large--to strip away the dignity of those citizens and residents of
Draconis descent,” declared Yoshiro Kalawaska.
Kalawaska, a prominent Little Luthien community leader, has been at the heart of
many civil disturbances over the past week, all directed at the seemingly ineffectual
efforts by the local authorities and the TBI to find and catch the Kappa. The latest
demonstration, in fact, prompted Sir Kristoff Erbe to personally intercede before the
situation could degenerate into violence.
“What we have here is a blatant move by the local government to find a kindly,
upstanding member of the community guilty of a crime, just to appease the masses,”
Kalawaska added. “The people of this community deserve far better!”
Regardless of the opinions, however, a community continues to live in fear tonight,
stalked perhaps by one of their own, and the search now begins for a man who may--
at the very least--know who is responsible for terrorizing his people. At last,
according to Sir Erbe, the end of this ordeal may be in sight.
Towne Log
+ All this time, and it was a freaking fisherman!? Oh, gawd! I bet those malfing cops
got egg all over their faces now! :- WetWillie
+ I’m still betting on ex-military. They didn’t say if that Imashagi guy--damn, Dracs
have some tough names to spell!--ever served, but you gotta wonder. Killing eight
women and avoiding capture like that, he just *can’t* be an ordinary fisherman! :-
Lkool
+ Any of you consider he may not be the guy? I mean, the killer’s taken out people
ranging from 20 to almost 40 years old, people who should know a lot better than
some 19-year-old girl, anyway. And getting away with it, too. Anyone consider that
this sloppy guy who went after what’s-her-name there is just a copycat? :-
Chungabunga
+ I think it’s just ridiculous! I know Mr. Imashinigi. His boat is parked just three piers
from my uncle’s! The man’s no killer! He’s just an old guy who’s had a rough life--
and no, Lkool, he’s not ex-military, so he’s not your guy! :- RaiRai
+ Well, RR, maybe you should be watching your back, then, eh? Or better yet, go to
the cops and tell ’em what you know, because your boating neighbor there is a
wanted man. Or do you think it’s just a coincidence he happens to be nowhere about
when Erbe says they want him? :- FMLurder
+ It’s gotta be a mistake is all I’m saying! The girl’s gotta be confused or something! :
- RaiRai
+ Which brings us to the next question: This girl gets attacked, and may have given a
description of the fisherman, and suddenly it’s a manhunt? Can we say “grasping at
straws,” folks? :- Draco041
+ Right, Drac. That’s what you say now. You know, I’ve listened to you fume about
how the cops can’t find any leads and make any arrests, and now you’re bitching
because they locked onto somebody. :- Synnik
+ Okay, so assuming just for a second that this Imashinigi guy IS the killer, what’s
the deal? Why’s a fisherman doing in a bunch of women? Is it just because his wife
and daughter died? Now he’s bitter about other women or something? :- XSOkay
+ Heh. Ask RaiRai. They’re buds. ;-) :- FMLurder
+ Ah, shove it, Lurder! The man lost his wife to cancer, like the article says, and his
daughter fell into the ocean and got caught by a Seraphim Swimmer! You know what
those things can do? :- RaiRai
+ Frag! You know, I don’t have any idea why they ever named those things after
angels! More like a giant piranha! That’s a grisly way to go! :- Chungabunga
+ You aren’t kidding! My uncle told me about how his friend was fishing off the Styx
coast there, and a school of Seraphim Swimmers came by. Apparently, they’d
snagged a five-meter-long blackback and were just starting to reel it aboard. The
school picked up the scent and, wow! They say the whole thing was gone in 20
seconds flat! :- RaiRai
+ Okay, I dunno what to believe, now. That the cops really may have a lead on this
Kappa killer, or that there IS such a thing as a five-meter-long blackback! :- Synnik
| May 27, 3133 |