Volume 6, Chapter 4: Conclusion@??? Part 11-17

This chapter is updated by wuxiaworld.eu

Part 11 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

I had removed PSI_ver_RAIN aka Amagoi Haruka’s handcuffs and we walked through the city. A look at the TVs in an electronics store show window was enough for me to be feeling quite blue.

Wow, I really look like a villain there!!

Of course, I wasn’t a super policeman running through the city to clear the nonsensical charges disgracing his name. I had in fact killed the person they were accusing me of killing.

“Sh-should we really be wandering around the city like this? We live in a world where one hundred million people have cellphones. And if you have a camera, you can transmit the footage right away. So…”

“There are more people on the streets than normal due to the train signal trouble and related traffic jams. We can hide behind the wall of people. And the police are busy managing traffic, so they don’t have the manpower needed for human wave tactics.”

“Y-you mean if someone started looting, the police wouldn’t be able to chase after them?”

“That’s a secret. It would cause a panic if that got out.”

Her distinctive sailor uniform and paint tattoo below the eye weren’t that rare a sight near a university during cultural festival season. And the best way of getting past police checkpoints was to move on foot. Or rather, Japan’s police checkpoints were primarily meant to block off the roads. As long as we didn’t approach any major transportation facilities like train stations or airports, we wouldn’t be caught if we walked around without doing anything too suspicious.

“For now, let’s get to the Metropolitan Police Department. We’re in Minato, so Sakuradamon isn’t far. It should only take ten minutes even on foot.”

“W-wait! But isn’t that right next to the Imperial Palace and the Diet? Aren’t we trying to run away from the police!?”

“Real police officers aren’t a problem. And ‘they’ won’t want to get close to anywhere with strict security. We can assume that the greater the security, the more allies we have around. Isn’t that right?”

Of course, that was only if PSI_ver_RAIN really hadn’t chopped Professor Matsukai in two.

“To make sure there are no misunderstandings, let me make it clear I’m not completely on your side. I’m protecting you because you were in danger, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a suspect.”

“…Sigh.”

The psychic middle school girl let out a heavy sigh.

Then she removed her mobile glasses.

“I get the feeling we’re going to be together for a while, so it might be a good idea to share what information I have.”

“What’s this?”

“These are mobile glasses. Basically, they’re a smartphone shaped like glasses. They can access the internet, make calls, and record both audio and video. …Seeing things from my viewpoint would be faster than having me explain it.”

“You mean you recorded when you found the body!?”

I quickly grabbed the mobile glasses and put them on. I wasn’t used to them, so I followed PSI_ver_RAIN’s instructions to start playing the video.

At first, it was footage of her walking through a university staircase.

Unlike a normal camera, it wobbled a lot from the movements of her head and eyes, so I had to focus my mind to avoid motion sickness.

“I mentioned the professor’s belt earlier, remember?” she asked from the side.

The footage moved from the stairs to the hallway. It approached one of the doors and a hand knocked, but the hand suddenly stopped. She must have expected a solid sensation, but the door creaked open instead.

“That belt – well, actually the buckle – was a strange type of USB memory. He didn’t trust the defenses of online or cloud storage, so he liked to keep the data on him in a way that couldn’t be pickpocketed or snatched away by a thief.”

The past footage of the girl called “professor” through the cracked door.

Finding this odd, she placed a hand on the door and slowly opened it. Inside, she found the elderly man lying on his back. His right side was dyed in red, but it looked more like a stab wound than a bisection.

…No, wait. Does this mean…?

“When you found him, the door wasn’t locked. And the body still wasn’t chopped in two?”

“There’s more. Pause it and rewind. Look more carefully at the body this time.”

“…?”

I did so and realized what she was getting at.

Several wounds were cut into him below his navel and just to the left of his belt buckle.

“To prevent theft, the belt buckle wouldn’t open without a code. It was like a chastity belt or something. But thanks to that, the murderer panicked. They wanted to get the buckle’s USB memory no matter what, so they initially tried to cut the belt itself, but…”

“They couldn’t do it with the blade they had on hand?”

“The professor bragged about that belt. It was made of carbon something-or-other which apparently makes it harder than diamond but still flexible.”

The footage on the screen, rushed into the room, crouched down by the professor, and called out to him again and again. She didn’t grab his shoulders and shake him, but she may have been afraid of making him bleed any further.

Finally, the footage turned around as if she had noticed something.

“But the murderer didn’t give up. They wanted to get the buckle no matter what. If they couldn’t cut the belt, what else could they cut through? And what would they need to do so? If they had only left to find that, they were sure to return. And with an even more brutal tool. So what would have happened to me if they ran across me?”

That was the truth of the bisected corpse.

Someone had cut through the torso to steal the belt filled with research data.

“So that’s why you fled…”

“But the guilt won out in the end. I turned back toward the lab to help with the investigation, but then all the policemen and students were talking about a bisected corpse, a psychic murder, and that I supposedly did it. I had no idea what to think.”

I removed the mobile glasses.

PSI_ver_RAIN quietly bit her lip.

“It started as a way to get my name out there. And it probably was for him too. We both wanted to make an impact.”

Those mobile glasses held the final moment of someone who was gone and she held them to her chest like a funeral portrait.

“But he wasn’t a bad person. He was certainly eccentric, but no matter how ridiculous a thing it was, he wouldn’t laugh and drive you out. He would seriously investigate it all. He would actually work with you…”

“That’s an important piece of evidence. We need to get it to the police as soon as possible.”

“Who’s going to believe it? Digital data is easily modified and I’m known for working on the internet anyway. It’s all over if they call it fake.”

I had no response for that.

I tried to say something, but I couldn’t find any words and then I heard a phone ringing.

It was the smartphone the Mystery Freak had given me.

“What is it?”

“I have some good news and some bad news. I’ll start with the good news. Detective, what’s the first place you would want to investigate concerning all this?”

With Professor Matsukai, the fake police officers, and PSI_ver_RAIN herself, there were a lot of candidates, but my mind turned to the most unusual one which was not covered in police officers.

“The prosecutors and the courthouse. For one, how did the thesis on psychic murders get submitted as having scientific basis?”

“Bingo. I thought the same thing and looked into it. That thesis was forced through by the assigned prosecutor, Uzuki Minato. …But doesn’t that seem odd?”

“The suspect hasn’t even been arrested or indicted, but there’s already a prosecutor?”

“They were setting this up to frame Rain-chan in advance. I tried calling up the prosecution office to tell them there was some falsified data in that thesis and its credibility would drop like a rock if that got out. That would ruin their plans and their partner would probably punish them for it, so I was going to ask for some money to keep quiet.”

Hold on. Should you really be telling me that?

The Mystery Freak ignored my thoughts and continued.

“But that gets to the bad news. Uzuki Minato hasn’t returned to the office since leaving for lunch. He didn’t have any plans for working out of the office and his phone is off. I couldn’t catch him.”

“When was the thesis in question submitted?”

“1:30 PM. That’s right after the murder. It’s possible he vanished as soon as the submission was accepted at the courthouse.”

Once his role was complete, had they eliminated him or were at least trying to?

“Did you call his home?”

“I did. No response.”

“I’ll head there. Tell me where it is.”

I hung up and PSI_ver_RAIN looked puzzled.

“Head there? Head where? Why!? Aren’t we on the way to the Metropolitan Police Department to protect me from whoever killed the professor!?”

“Sorry. All I can do is apologize.”

I obediently bowed my head,

That seemed to catch her off guard, but I didn’t have time to worry about it.

“But Uzuki Minato, a prosecutor who seems to be involved in this, is in danger just like you. I can’t put one life above another. I can’t call in backup like normal, so I have to head there on my own. I know this is selfish, but will you go with me?”

“…”

She averted her gaze, toyed with her hair, and finally gave a long sigh of resignation.

“Fine! Then let’s go. But this ends with checking to see whether this Uzuki person is alive or dead. You need to get me to the Metropolitan Police Department as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

“This isn’t worth thanking me for. The situation is just making it really difficult to do what should be normal.”

With a change of plans, we started toward Uzuki Minato’s home.

If he was there, that was fine. If not, we might find a clue to where he was hiding.

Part 12 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

Uzuki Minato’s home was located on reclaimed land bordering the bay. The area had originally been planned as a district of high-class apartment buildings, but the plan was halted when soil liquefaction was discovered. From there, it transformed into an incredibly cheap area of land in the city center due to unfortunate circumstances.

I rang the doorbell but received no response.

I slipped through the small gate and grabbed the knob, discovering the door was not locked.

“…”

PSI_ver_RAIN and I exchanged a glance and I slowly opened the door. I wasn’t sure what to do inside, but I decided to remove my shoes and continue on in. It took some doing for PSI_ver_RAIN to remove her boots and she even politely removed her hat, but she kept the mobile glasses on.

I walked down the hallway, opened the first door, and found a living room.

A young man was collapsed face-up in the center of the room.

“Uzuki-san!? Dammit!!”

I ran over and grabbed his shoulders, but he was just an object now. Shifting his position allowed blood to pool up by his side.

Were “they” faster!?

And…

“Kyah!?”

This time, PSI_ver_RAIN cried out behind me.

My mind turned to my handgun as I turned around, but I only found the girl there and she was messing with her mobile glasses for some reason.

“What is it?”

“Eh? Um, uh, my mobile glasses are acting up for some reason.”

We had discovered a corpse and our electronics weren’t working. It sounded like a scene from a horror movie.

As that thought reached me, the door to the dining room casually opened.

A young woman in a tank top and hot pants poked her head out with a sake bottle in one hand.

“Hishigami…Mai!?”

“Okay, okay. I used remote control to take over those glasses of yours. For people like us, nothing could be more troublesome than those things. To be honest, going around recording everything is like asking to be killed.”

Mai seemed perfectly carefree despite the corpse in the room.

“And if you’re going to come in here, couldn’t you at least wear gloves? Well, I was about to erase the evidence with some alcohol, so I’ll help you out if you tell me what you touched. Was it only the corpse and the doorknob? Anything else?”

“Erase…the evidence? Are you saying you did this!?”

“Don’t insult me. I was going to clean up the floor because the Sunekosuri pissed himself quite spectacularly when he saw the corpse. He’s out in the yard doing some soul-searching, so you can go say hi if you want.”

What was this woman doing in the PSI_ver_RAIN incident?

When she was involved, it went beyond simple crimes and nearly reached the level of a war.

“You aren’t wrong to think that way.”

Mai seemed to have read my mind.

“I’m not the one getting involved where I don’t belong. You’re the ones doing that. …So how much do you know about this incident? Do you know what was on the belt buckle’s USB memory? Do you know who’s after it? In fact, do you even know who Professor Matsukai Hiroshi was?”

“What? What do you mean who he was?”

Mai was always several steps ahead of us, but that final question seemed different to me. We had never even thought about it like that.

“Wait, really? It didn’t come back to you the second you heard the fake name Matsukai Hiroshi? When we were caught in the Hyakki Yakou coup d’etat in that red brick hotel up north, every member of Saishi Kajin used that name. It’s the fake name used by the people who slaughtered the hotel’s workers and took their place.”

“Wait. You don’t mean…”

“Oh, it isn’t Saishi Kajin themselves. That’s a free fake name that anyone can use. But there’s definitely an organization on an equal level involved in this. That means this was in my territory from the beginning. Understand now?”

This was no laughing matter and I couldn’t understand any of it.

If this really was part of Mai’s world, then how did we get involved? What landmine had we unwittingly stepped on?

“That professor was a member of a certain team.”

“A team?”

“The one the Aoandon is gathering. And the buckle contained the program used to activate a Package including the Aoandon herself.”

Professor Matsukai’s original field of study was information engineering. The psychic powers research was supposedly only a performance meant to get him on TV, make a name for himself, and get funding.

“So someone stole that from him?”

“Now you’re getting it. And of course, it wouldn’t have been someone with the Aoandon. This is probably a close competition between the Aoandon’s group and another group trying to crush it.”

For the group stealing the professor’s buckle, the torso bisection had been a deviation from the plan.

Simply stabbing him and swiping the buckle could be passed off as a random industrial spy, but their method had been far too grotesque. It was impossible to ignore now, so they were making it look like a sensational psychic murder as if covering food with mayonnaise to hide the original flavor.

So who was it we were after here?

Who was this enemy of the Aoandon?

“Who are ‘they’? How can I clear PSI_ver_RAIN…no, Amagoi-san’s name!?”

“At least you have enough sense not to try to take on the Aoandon at the base of all this. Of course, that’s my job. They’re known as Konrin Naraku. They’re one of the lowest level organizations out there. Or rather, they intentionally gather a ton of low-level firepower. If you think of Hyakki Yakou as a top-class restaurant, then Konrin Naraku is the king of fast food.”

“…?”

“Basically, they’re all expendable. They recruit people dealing with debt, abuse, a stalker, trouble with a large criminal organization, or some other problem. Then they take care of that problem for the person in exchange for doing a job that will land them in jail. They’re not expecting to return safely and getting arrested is a part of their plan from the beginning. Then again, I hear some of them are asked to give their lives in exchange for saving their families.”

It all started to make sense.

When I had revealed Katou and Arisaka as fake policemen, one had shot the other and then made a hopeless threat that got him shot by me.

He hadn’t been trying to win. He may have been using the Mystery Freak as a way to commit suicide.

“But Konrin Naraku is an entirely mercenary group, so they wouldn’t go and kill someone for their own principles. That means someone else has hired them to stop the Aoandon’s group and they’re using you as a part of that plan.”

“Who is that?”

“You’ll wish you hadn’t asked, officer.”

“Either way, I’ve already made an enemy of whoever it is. There’s no two ways around it in this situation, so tell me. Who in the world is it!?”

Mai slowly exhaled and then spoke.

“What do you think the Aoandon is after anyway?”

“Stop beating around the bu-…”

“The answer is Nagatacho.”

That word seemed to squeeze at my heart.

My mouth flapped opened and closed without a word escaping, so Mai continued.

“More accurately, Nagatacho Station. You’ve heard the rumors, right? Supposedly, there’s a largescale nuclear shelter for the Diet members and bureaucrats hidden below that subway station since it’s so close to the Diet building. Even if their diplomatic strategy fails and nuclear war begins, the very ones who started it can live on in peace without taking any kind of responsibility.”

“…”

“But do you really think it’s just a nuclear shelter hidden there? The younger Diet members seem to believe that, but it isn’t true. That isn’t some puny little facility meant to protect the easily replaceable Diet members that pretty much just won a popularity contest.”

In other words, our enemy was…

“It’s someone who doesn’t want the Aoandon to open that door,” said Mai. “It’s one of the few VIPs who know the truth about Nagatacho Station that not even the cabinet ministers know about. That’s the target you need to bring down.”

Part 13 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

I felt my vision shaking.

The Diet? The cabinet ministers? Someone even higher? One of the few VIPs who know the truth about Nagatacho Station?

The more she described our enemy, the less clear a picture I had of them. That was how deep they were. It was like chasing after a monster from an urban legend.

Was there really anything we could do?

But even as a mixture of doubt and fear came over me, time was passing.

This time, the Mystery Freak’s smartphone rang.

“I’m relaying a call, detective. I answered because someone called your number, but I can transfer them to you if you want. Should I?”

“Who is it?”

“Mishima Jun. That’s the Chief Superintendent of the National Police Agency. Including the director of the agency, there are only about two posts above him.”

Him!?

I clenched my teeth and sweat poured down my face, but there was only one answer I could give.

“Transfer him over.”

“Will do. But detective, be careful here. This is on a different level from before.”

After a small click, the line was switched to someone else.

This new person spoke in a gentle voice.

“Hi, Uchimaku-kun, how much do you know?”

“What in the world is hidden in the depths of Nagatacho Station?”

“Well done. We can’t discuss this on the phone, so could we meet in person somewhere?”

“…”

“Yes, you should be cautious, but if you don’t agree to this, I’m pretty sure you’ll find yourself at a dead end. You want any new information you can get your hands on, right?”

He was exactly right, so I could only agree to his request.

After deciding on the specifics of our meeting, I asked a question that suddenly came to me.

“Why are you giving me a hint?”

“I’ve told you before that I have high hopes for you, haven’t I?”

He hung up there.

PSI_ver_RAIN looked like she wanted to say something, but I held up my index finger to stop her.

“I’m going alone this time. This is too dangerous for you.”

“That’s right, detective. You’re about to meet a VIP from the NPA. And surely you know he’s not about to meet an armed fugitive without some bodyguards, right? If you run out there without thinking, those guards in black suits will end up capturing you.”

“I have an idea about that.”

“What kind of idea?”

“I’m going to stop by a supermarket or department store on the way. I’ll get everything I need there.”

Part 14 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

You were only going to get run-of-the-mill flavor from a major chain café, but this one was full of customers today. The trains were stopped due to signal trouble and the roads were congested, so everyone was traveling by foot and thus quite thirsty. The inside of the café and the open space outside were both overflowing with people.

Inside, I killed time sitting at one of the few round tables.

By the time I had finished half of my large-sized iced coffee, someone sat at the next table over. We were sitting back to back and the other person began speaking quietly.

“Hi, Uchimaku-kun. Long time no see.”

“…Mishima-san.”

“Yeah, don’t turn around. That would ruin the entire setup.”

I used my smartphone screen as a mirror to see Mishima pretending to read an English newspaper.

“Now, then. Where should I begin?”

“How about the secret of Nagatacho Station and the people who don’t want that door opened?”

“Okay. It would be over too quick if I started out with the conclusion.”

He answered like it was no big deal.

“Remember what happened at the special casino district called Goldmine Island? I’m not sure how much of the information made it to you, but that was all centered on a national suicide Package that used an Usuhiki Warashi. But that was only one thing Nagatacho Station does.”

“…?”

“The true reason for that shelter is to store a secret server that automatically backs up all of the classified data stored in each ministry, government office, and research institute. The bureaucrats and officials don’t even know it exists or that every word they type is being sent outside of their building. They voluntarily share their information, but sometimes someone wants to hide some key data and that would make it all meaningless.”

“You mean all of Japan is hidden there?”

“When we suffered a critical defeat in the precision machinery industry, we managed to recover using extreme high quality brand-name agriculture. All of the technology used to do that is stored in the server. And not only is that server’s existence one of those specially designated secret that are all the rage lately, but it’s also secretly designated a strategic cultural property.”

“A strategic cultural property?”

“That’s a new clause in the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. It was secretly added using the specially designated secret system. The framework is meant to protect the traditional culture at the foundation of our national economy. That is, the artisan techniques and agriculture of Intellectual Villages or anything else we don’t want leaking out to other nations. And the classification means all the submitted documents would be blotted out with a black pen even if this did cause a scandal.”

“Specially designated secrets and strategic cultural properties? Don’t those conflict with each other?”

“It’s made that way on purpose to blur the lines of jurisdiction. Even if someone submits a proper disclosure request, it’ll just get passed on to someone else forever and nothing will ever come of it.”

The Aoandon’s group was trying to force open that door.

What were they hoping to accomplish?

“With power, gas, and everything else, there’s been a ton of infrastructure damage lately, right? They’re all unrelated incidents and accidents, but look at them all together and it looks like the Japanese Archipelago’s arteries are hardening.”

“Y-yes. There was even a blackout when I was capturing the culprit behind the Ubasute Apartments case.”

“That’s part of the Aoandon’s show. Nagatacho Station has several security levels and this infrastructure damage has caused that to shoot up by a few levels.”

“Hm? Doesn’t that just make the place more secure?”

“There was a vulnerability in the process of switching to the highest security level. The process is only used once a century, so it didn’t seem like that big a deal. There were countless warnings, but it seems the defense contractors are all colluding together and it never got fixed. The politicians are only starting to panic now, but you can’t fix such a largescale system in a few days. This is exactly what the Aoandon wanted.”

While he didn’t say this was checkmate, he sounded like he was watching everything on the game board falling apart after someone made a pointless move. The Aoandon’s plan had to be underway.

But what was that plan? Who would want to stop it?

“The Public Security Intelligence Agency had been investigating that professor, Matsukai Hiroshi. Although they were close to giving up since he was so obsessed with the occult. Still, they managed to intercept a few fragments of information. About the program he was building, for example.”

“The one in his belt buckle?”

“The Aoandon is a collection of one hundred ghost stories…that is, rumors. She herself is a giant information system. It seems that professor was working on a program to efficiently search through that information system. Of course, we only know that from the restored fragment of a corrupted email.”

“So it’s a search program that amplifies the Aoandon’s power?”

“No, that doesn’t quite cover it.”

Mishima rejected my idea but did not stop there.

“It would be more accurate to say it links the Aoandon to Nagatacho Station. Everything is located there: Japan’s technology, Japan’s systems, Japan’s dirty secrets…everything. You could say the Aoandon Package is a criminal system meant to expose Japan.”

“…”

“The restaurant politics, dirty money, collusion, kickbacks, illegal donations, cover ups, voter fraud, paid silence, and control of the media. There are plenty of terms you’ve heard but don’t know exactly what they refer to, right? All of that will be revealed, translated into words a child could understand, and left in a place where anyone can read it,” said Mishima. “Such an obvious bomb, isn’t it? Once its existence is exposed, everyone will try to set it off. This age is oppressive and everyone wants entertainment. But not many of the people are going to be smart enough to realize that they’ll be caught in the blast once it blows. They think they can just separate the politicians from the normal people. They’ve been taught to think that way, after all. They naively believe nothing they see on TV can reach them.”

He may have had a point there.

People always innocently insulted the politicians and carelessly blamed them for anything they could. But when this country’s bubble burst or when the precision machinery industry suffered its “critical defeat”, had those people realized the politicians’ failure would end up destroying their own lifestyle and way of thinking?

“But that’s only getting your just deserts. It only harms the people who did something they don’t want anyone to know about. That’s no reason to sacrifice PSI_ver_...Amagoi Haruka-san.”

“I agree completely. But the political pressure has reached me now. They don’t care if it means making this a psychic murder. They just want us to arrest the scapegoat or even to shoot her if a trial would be too difficult. They managed to help Japan by stealing the buckle from the Aoandon’s group, but then they created more doubt with the torso bisection which will lead to a scandal in and of itself. …I had to avoid mentioning some things here or there, but that should give you a general idea of the situation.”

“…”

“You don’t have to give off that scary aura. I’m going to tell you, I promise. It’s Katagiri Hitsuji. He’s part of what’s known as the Restaurant Master. The rumors are even more well-known than the ones about Nagatacho Station, so I’m sure you’ve heard them. The ones about a don controlling all politics from inside a fancy restaurant. He’s part of that. I know it sounds as fake as the Kuchisake Onna, but it actually exists.”

“The Restaurant…Master?”

“Katagiri Hitsuji has a lot of influence over the cutting-edge agriculture centered on the Intellectual Villages. And interestingly enough, he controlled the precision machinery industry before its critical defeat.”

He suppressed a laugh and continued in an icy voice.

“This is really only a rumor, but some say he helped push things from industry to agriculture during the transitional period. To make sure the industrial makers didn’t put up too much of a fight, he finished them off by accessing their design data in the patent office and sending it overseas while disguising it as an accidental leak. If that story was substantiated by any actual evidence, it would be far more than just a scandal. Requests for damages in the trillions of yen would be flying all over the place. His glory days would quickly come to an end. Not to mention that the Restaurant Master controls everything from the shadows. Well, you can find some details on that power structure by doing a search for ‘Panopticon’ or ‘The Birth of the Prison’. At any rate, it’s all over for everyone connected to the Restaurant once their identities are exposed to the media.”

Unlike a king or president, they did not rule from center stage. In fact, they hid their presence as much as possible so they could observe the people without any chance of being attacked.

Someone like that could never come out onto the stage. They would influence that field, but they would never actually appear there.

But what if you could drag them up onto that field?

Or…

“Now, that’s about all I have to tell you.”

“That doesn’t mean this is over though, does it?”

“At least you understand.”

We had our backs to each other, but Mishima seemed to be smiling.

“I want you to leave all of this alone. Just hand Amagoi Haruka over to us. Could you do that maybe?”

“I have no reason to.”

“You may be in Department 1, but it’s a dead-end job as a police sergeant. And you didn’t end up there because it was your first choice, right? You had to have ended up there after coming across and overcoming a number of setbacks. So what’s wrong with one more setback here? This is your chance to turn your life toward strategic failure or strategic success. You ended up where you are by giving up on something, but this will be enough to make you glad it ended up this way. So can’t you just do this one thing?”

I closed my eyes just once.

A number of things appeared in my mind’s eye, but then I forced my eyelids open and spoke.

“There is no way I can do that.”

Silence followed.

I was well aware I had thrown down the gauntlet against someone far, far above me.

An oppressive wave of noise seemed to assault my ears.

It was nothing but the hustle and bustle of the people moving around us, but I was so focused on my conversation with Mishima that I couldn’t split it into individual voices.

“It’s true my life has been full of setbacks and failures. For one thing, the main reason I left my rural home was my fear of Youkai. My parents paid my way through college, but I ended up failing the national exam and couldn’t get anything but a dead-end job. I’m doing my best in Department 1, but I’m not entirely confident this is even the best job for me.”

But…

“Still, I only managed to get this far because I worked hard to never leave the path I had set for myself. No matter how pitiful or pathetic it might be, I’ve always had a line I refuse to cross. And that’s why your path and mine will never, ever intersect. No matter what reason you might have, I can never allow myself to happily abandon a middle school girl suspected of murder just to protect myself.”

Mishima cut in with no discernable emotion in his voice.

“Even if that means destroying your own life?”

“I know I’m being idealistic and I know this is naïve nonsense I shouldn’t be saying at my age!! But I’m a police officer. If the police can’t be idealistic, then who in this country can!? How many people do you think there are that want to be but can’t!?”

That was the kind of job this was.

Everyone wanted to rescue the victim being targeted by a criminal with a knife. They wanted to interfere and stop it themselves. But that wasn’t realistic, so they left it to someone else. They passed off the job and silently begged for someone to bring back their peaceful days or to protect the victim’s smile. And that was our job. Fulfilling that role was the job of a police officer.

So what was this?

We’re supposed to give in to pressure from some VIP abusing his power, arrest a minor girl who we know is a scapegoat, force a confession through a questioning that’s basically torture, use a rigged trial to force the ridiculous crime of psychic murder on her, and throw her behind bars? That’s supposed to be a job well done where everyone lives happily ever after?

Whose tax money did these people think their pay came from?

It wasn’t that they’d done everything they could and it wasn’t quite enough.

If you aren’t willing to put in the work from the get-go, then why call yourself a police officer at all?

“Is there any chance at all of you leaving this alone?”

“Hell no.”

“Well, that’s a problem,” muttered Mishima.

But something seemed strangely off about it. His voice contained a nuance of slight enjoyment that did not fit his position or what he was saying.

And over the phone, he had said he had high hopes for me. Which side had he “hoped” I would go for? And if he only had to arrest me, this entire chat would have been meaningless. He could have done it the instant I showed myself here.

Despite the situation, I turned around to see the look in his eyes, but before I could, he calmly snapped his fingers.

“Then it’s time for a change of plans. I’ll have to arrest you.”

Kh!! So we’re doing that, are we!?

I grabbed what was sitting on my lap and thus hidden below the table and I looked around the area. About ten bodyguards were so clearly visible I was amazed I hadn’t noticed them before and they were rushing toward me.

But I was faster.

I pulled out a plastic bag of red liquid, stabbed a ballpoint pen into it, and threw it under the table. The bag contained fish blood I’d bought at a supermarket, but it would have enough of the rusty smell I wanted.

As the odor wafted out, I raised my voice.

“He’s got a knife!! And he stabbed someone! Run! Hurry!!”

The people nearby looked over in confusion at first, but once the rusty smell reached their noses and mouths, a clearer image filled their minds.

A wave of people pressed outwards in every direction.

As numbed by peace as the country was, we were sensitive to stabbings. Just like the United States with mass shootings or South America with drugs. That fear had soaked into us for centuries. As screams and shouts of anger filled the air, I slowly stood up and followed the flow of people. The tough-looking bodyguards could not fight the current and they couldn’t pull out their guns and fire randomly for fear of hitting innocent bystanders. Meanwhile, I blended into the crowd.

Mishima waved goodbye without getting up from his seat. He wasn’t even looking my way, but I could somehow tell this was exactly what he had wanted to happen.

At any rate, I had the information I wanted.

I needed to leave the area, meet back up with PSI_ver_RAIN, and make my next move.

But then a bodyguard in a black suit appeared right in front of me.

“!?”

“!!”

He had not been lying in wait and he looked as surprised as me. He had probably been pushed out in front of me by the moving crowd, but he was pursuing me regardless. I tensed up and he drew his handgun of all things.

You drew your gun because you’re panicking!? How many civilians do you think there are around here!?

A weight pressed down on my stomach.

And a moment later…

Part 15 (3rd person)

The bodyguard lost sight of the suspect who had been right in front of him.

“Eh? What?”

The crowd was moving by on either side, but Uchimaku Hayabusa alone was nowhere to be seen.

He heard a colleague’s voice over the headset on his ear.

“Did you find him?”

“I lost sight of him. But I was sure he was right there!”

And…

Uchimaku Hayabusa stood just a few meters in front of him. He had not taken a step from his previous position. Even with the wall of people, the bodyguard should have spotted him immediately, but there was a reason why he had not.

That reason was a girl.

Tsumada Mio had wrapped her arms around his waist from behind.

As a side effect of the Jinmensou, that girl’s presence had thinned.

Whenever three or more people were gathered, herself included, she would often become indistinguishable from others, as if her face had vanished.

“(Over here.)”

Uchimaku was confused, but the two of them started moving as one. Fleeing people ran into them left and right. It happened far too often. It was like those people could not see them and therefore could not even try to avoid them.

After escaping the surrounding bodyguards and entering a nearby alleyway, Tsumada Mio removed her arms from Uchimaku’s waist.

“Long time no see. Are you okay?”

“Tsumada…-san?”

“That’s right. It’s Tsumada Mio.”

She had waist-length straight black hair and a white long-sleeved sailor uniform. Her slender legs were entirely covered in black stockings and she looked somewhat gloomy, but that impression was entirely overturned once one actually spoke with her. She was nothing but a normal teenage girl.

“Tomoe-chan looked sad when she saw the news on TV, so I ended up doing something reckless. Oh, but I got Enbi-san’s help setting it all up. I had Tomoe-chan tell me how to contact her via computer a while back. She apparently lets people consult with her. Did you know that?”

“She’s getting civilians involved for her own convenience again, isn’t she!?”

“I hate that framework.”

Hayabusa held his head in his hands, but Mio puffed her cheeks out in protest.

“Tomoe-chan is too of course, but Enbi-san is a normal girl. As am I. If we know you’re in trouble, we want to use everything we can to help. I think you should, well, rely more on things that are against the rules. Your insistence on the rules looks kind at first, but it’s actually horribly cruel. Did you know that?”

“…”

It was true Tsumada Mio’s power was convenient and the Mystery Freak’s smarts could come in handy.

But what if it failed? If they had not fooled that bodyguard, she might have been shot along with him.

“We wonder those same things. After all, we’re not just characters given the symbols of a middle school girl. We’re human beings who can be trapped by fear when we’re worried about something. There are people who would be filled with pain if you were hurt and shudder just imagining you collapsing to the ground. Did you really know that?”

“Yeah…”

There was nothing he could say to that.

What if it was the reverse? What if he was being disciplined for some mistake and couldn’t call himself a police officer? If he learned they were in danger during that time, would he abandon them just because he was a civilian for the time being?

Of course, a professional policeman could not exactly allow himself to put amateur minors in danger while doing his job, but he could at least understand why they would take action on their own.

He raised both hands in a sign of defeat.

“I’m sorry for worrying you.”

“Good. That answer gets a perfect 100.”

Tsumada Mio smiled and rubbed his head like he was a small child. And since he had been in the wrong, he could not bring himself to brush her hand away.

With a sour look on his face he let her due as she pleased.

“Now, how about this?” she suggested. “Whatever you’re doing, my special trait is sure to be useful while you’re on the run.”

“…”

He thought for a moment and then gave his answer.

“No, I can’t use your help here.”

She puffed her cheeks out again.

“Oh, um, but I won’t be placing the whole burden on myself.”

He frantically corrected himself.

“The mastermind we’re after is out of reach. At this rate, we’ll never be able to settle this. Our first priority is dragging him out onto our field. Moving along in secret won’t do that. In fact, standing out even more than necessary would be perfect. And that means your power would have the opposite effect.”

“Ha ha. If you were actually thinking it through, then that’s fine. Good, good.”

When she clasped her hands in front of her chest and smiled brightly, he added in his heart that he had trouble dealing with this girl. Or rather, he always seemed to be at her mercy.

“But what exactly are you going to do? If you’ll tell us in advance, it doesn’t matter if it’s to me, Tomoe-chan, or Enbi-san. We won’t get jealous.”

“Okay then…”

There was no real point in hiding it.

“This person killed someone and framed us to acquire a certain object.”

“Is that so? And?”

“What if someone appeared in the public eye with something that looked exactly like that object? He wouldn’t be sure anymore if the one he had was real or not.”

Part 16 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

By the time I overcame the turmoil around me and regrouped with PSI_ver_RAIN, it was already evening. I explained my overall plan and had her tell me more about Professor Matsukai’s belt buckle.

“The belt was pretty unique. He said it was made of carbon something-or-other, so it was harder than diamond but still flexible. He apparently got the material from one of the university’s departments that had developed it as a prototype for use in a space elevator’s wire.”

As she tried to remember, she also checked the past video logs on her mobile glasses.

“But the buckle itself was something he just bought in a store. I think it was some kind of joke product. You’ll probably find one just like it for sale at an electronics store.”

“Then that’s where we’ll go next.”

The two of us made our way to a nearby electronics store. The evening must have been when gadget-loving office workers stopped by on the way home from work because it was pretty crowded. Instead of rushing things, we followed the line up the escalator to our destination floor.

“Here we go. Is this it?”

Surprisingly, there was more than one type of USB memory belt buckle. I asked PSI_ver_RAIN since I had never seen the professor’s one and didn’t know which one it was.

But when I turned around, she was gone.

Instead, she was standing in front of the TVs a short distance away. I approached and found all of the large TVs playing the evening news. This particular news program was partially a talk show and it emphasized the emotional side of things to target the housewife demographic.

“As you can see, Professor Matsukai Hiroshi is believed to have been murdered in his laboratory at Keijou Ijuku University by…well, she’s a minor, so we can’t give her real name or show her face. But the girl also goes by the name PSI_ver_RAIN.”

“This is part of the madness brought by the internet age. A self-styled psychic middle school girl? It reeks of the occult. She is said to be even worse than Tarot Girls 22 as far as that’s concerned and I can’t understand why anyone would ever praise her. Have they been brainwashed?”

“Her songs are popular on video sites, but they’re kind of scary, aren’t they? Like that woman’s scream hidden in her latest song’s PV. Kya ha ha! And when you can have the Vocanoids sing, why do you even need her?”

Thanks to freedom of the press, everyone would say these people meant no harm, but the girl swallowed up by that deluge of sound and voices could not move a single step. She was simply overwhelmed.

“What was the point of anything I was doing?” muttered PSI_ver_RAIN. “Why won’t anyone believe me? Something’s clearly wrong here, so won’t someone at least say I wouldn’t do something like that? Were my fans no better than this?”

I hesitated to say something, but before I could…

“And that’s what a lot of people have been saying, but there are also others with a different view of PSI_ver_RAIN.”

…?

The female announcer’s voice strayed from the narrative I had expected. We both looked up in confusion as the woman on the TV continued.

“We did some research out on the streets and found a surprising number of people supporting PSI_ver_RAIN and claiming she was falsely accused. We asked one thousand different people and out of the 951 answers we received, 58% supported her, 30% opposed her, and the rest could not decide. Shockingly, a majority of people continue to support her even now.”

“She had no reason to kill. Her PVs’ view counts are still shooting up and her single CDs are neck and neck with Tarot Girls 22 even though she’s an amateur. That’s seventy-eight against one! She has influence online and an endless number of online friends. What complaint could she possibly have worth killing over?”

“Yeah, even if she really was going to kill someone, whether she used her psychic powers or not, wouldn’t she at least unlock the door before leaving? That negates the locked room scenario and makes plenty of other people suspects. The people hating on her aren’t being logical.”

“Rain-chan’s psychic powers can only be used to make people happy. It says so on her website! Eh heh heh. When I grow up, I want to be just like her.”

A different color enveloped the deluge of sound and voices.

She clenched her small fists around her skirt, clenched her teeth, and listened intently to those voices.

Finally, she spoke.

“People are going to say these people supported a murderer for standing up for me, aren’t they?”

“As things are now, yes.”

“It’ll look like I used the madness of the internet to brainwash them into a cult to support me.”

“Until we clear your name.”

We said nothing more.

PSI_ver_RAIN slapped her cheeks just once.

It was a ritual meant to wake her up.

“I don’t care what they say about me.”

Public opinion was split.

She turned her back on the TVs that were saying whatever they pleased and she made an announcement.

“But I have to protect the lives of the people who believed in me.”

Part 17 (Uchimaku Hayabusa)

After getting the USB memory belt buckle we needed, we left the electronics store, I removed the product from its box, and PSI_ver_RAIN asked a question.

“What exactly are we going to do?”

“Can you grab that rock over there? I want to give it some noticeable marks and differences to make a better bluff.”

I scratched up the surface of the buckle and then tossed the small stone aside.

I checked the time on the Mystery Freak’s smartphone and then glanced through the TV schedule.

…Good, they’re doing one nearby.

“Let’s go to Teikyo Tower. It’s close enough to walk. One show always sends an announcer out there to do a live weather forecast at this time.”

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