"These are the modern times where humans no longer live in the darkness. Instead, we now live in a world full of cheerful, bright, and white despair."
...
...
...
When I came to, I found myself lying on the hard concrete floor.
The first thing I felt was the sharp pain in the back of my head. My clothes were wet and cold, the winter making it even worse. My vision was still hazy for some reason. I blinked a few times to get myself adjusted. When I tried to get up and sit down..
"Huh-?" I fell back on the ground.
For some reason, I couldn't move. No matter how much I struggled, my hands wouldn't be free. Something stopped my hands when I tried to move them. A foreign texture on my wrists; nylon rope, I think?
Someone had me tied up. It was a no-brainer.
I propped my head up in order to get familiar with the surroundings. A bonfire was burning beside me. Though the flames lit up some of the area, the majority remained dark and ambiguous. From what little I could manage to make out, there was something like a cross in front of me, broken. It seemed damp from where I lay. Moss had been growing on it, as well as the nearby walls. The discolored Rosewindow (or at least what was left of it) could barely be recognized from the layers of dust on it.
It was an old church, probably had been decades since it was abandoned.
I knew where this was.
The abandoned church on the Najima Hill. During WWII, when the Allied forces anchored near this archipelago, they built one to practice their religious beliefs. Now, it's just part of an area that was yet to be occupied by civilization.
'How did I get myself stuck here?'
"You're up." before I could wonder about that question more, a deep chilled voice spoke out from outside my field of vision.
It felt strange. Not because I was confused by the turn of events; but that voice.. it sounded.. oddly familiar.
With what little strength I could muster, I pushed my chest against the ground and sat down. In a swift motion, I twisted my neck toward the direction of the voice. There he was, sitting comfortably on one of the benches that'd managed to survive the cruelty of time. He was playing around with a knife and a rope in his hands.
He looked at me with cold sharp eyes, "I was starting to think that you might've croaked from just a slap in the head. That would've been pathetic, to be honest." He said.
I could clearly see the bloodied mask that was hiding the nose I broke after punching repeatedly. The clothes over the spot where he got pierced were torn. No doubt about it, it was the gray hooded figure who I'd been chasing earlier.
I've heard of that voice before. A number of faces came to my mind. But the most likely one..
"You... Who the hell are you?" I asked in a glacial tone.
"Still haven't realized it yet? Tch, that's no good, I expected better from you, Levent... or should I say-"
With the knife in his hand, he cut the mask off his face, revealing his features in the dim orange light. But that was enough to confirm his identity. My eyes widened after the revelation.
Honestly, I had my suspicions from the moment his name got involved. I was unintentionally praying for it to be a miscalculation.. But after seeing it with my own eyes, there was no denying how cruel reality can be..
After all, it was someone I knew really well.
"Good evening, offspring of the Headhunter."
He said, with his trademark smile that actually met his eyes for the first time.
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
A few hours ago, I was sitting in front of a mirror, blankly staring at my own reflection. It felt strange, to see myself in suits and ties. I was never a fashionable guy, to begin with, and I don't think I like the idea of being a formal guy either. Had not Touko forced me into buying this, I never would've even thought about brushing my hands against it.
It was my first time attending someone else's wedding, the instructor who was in charge of my internship. Some of my fellow interns who were being trained there wondered if it was too early for him. After all, regardless of his position, the guy was only two years older than us.
Though, there was still this thing called 'Social Acceptability', technically, it wasn't anything illegal for him to get married at this point.. It seems, both the groom nor the bride didn't particularly mind any of that either. Love marriage, apparently.
Kiiiiek!
Suddenly, the door creaked open with a loud noise. I turned around to see a tall man standing at the entrance, clad in all whites. A silly smile plastered on his face.
"Yo, how'd I look?" he enthusiastically asked.
"Like a groom, obviously."
"That's not what I meant," He sighed. "Say, do I look dashing, or handsome, or charming, something like that?'
So, he was fishing for compliments?
"Other than the tie being a bit loose, and the handkerchief being out of place, you look pretty normal, set aside the usual weirdness," I replied, objectively.
"What? Really?" He suddenly rushed toward the mirror, pushing me out of the way to see himself, "Ugh.. you're right. Now that you mention it, red doesn't suit with this.. hm?"
He suddenly propped his head toward the mirror, as if he noticed something in the reflection. The next second, he turned around and looked around my chest. Without saying anything, he just raised his palm at me.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Your handkerchief. Give it to me." He half rolled his fingers, prompting me to hand it over. So that's why he was staring at my chest.
I placed my hands on top of my dark-colored handkerchief, to protect it from his greedy gaze. "Why should I give my handkerchief? Go buy one yourself."
"Dude, you totally don't get the bro code." He let out a sigh as he rubbed the temple of his forehead as if he were a disappointed parent. Since when did this idiot instructor become my bro, to begin with?
"Listen, Levent. If you don't give it to me now, I'll push more work on your ass."
"As if you don't already do that," I deadpanned.
"Uhm.. Err, then I'll put in even more work! Seriously, just listen to your senior, you damn intern." He sweatdropped.
It was all a joke. He'd push all his work on me, regardless I listened to him or not.
"Have you no shame, Igarashi-senpai? Bullying your underling like this," despite my words, I begrudgingly exchanged handkerchiefs with him. That was my favorite handkerchief. I rarely used it. It was like a luck charm to me and he took it, just like that.
"Hmhm.. Do not misunderstand, Levent. I'm not bullying you. I'm simply giving you a live example of how unfair this society is. The world is controlled by the motherfucking superiors." with a triumphant smile, he chuckled as he tucked it inside his breast pocket. On the bright side, it did suit him better than the red one he previously had.
"Didn't you promise her that you weren't going to swear the entire day?"
"Oh, shit!" He swore again. I silently shook my head in disappointment.
Then again, it was hard to imagine a 'Igarashi' who didn't swear like a sailor. The whole department knew him for this. Even the senior officers gave up fixing that rotten mouth of his. The fact that he managed to speak three sentences without cursing was a miracle in itself.
Suddenly, his phone rang from an incoming call. It was a video call from his soon-to-be wife. His already smiling face brightened even more when he accepted the call...
[ "Hey, honey! How's it going?" ] a soothing feminine voice came from the other side.
"Doing good, as you can see." He lifted the camera to show his entire frame. I silently moved away so I didn't appear in their feed. It would be awkward if they tried to pull me into their lovey-dovey video chat.
[ "Oh...! You look so handsome!" ]
"You look beautiful too, babe! Who helped you do the makeup? They really did a good job."
[ "I called Irine here. She actually left a minute ago to bring her boyfriend." ]
"Is that so? Ah, I really can't wait to go from being your 'boyfriend' to your 'bae!"
Bzzt!
As I was getting bored and embarrassed from watching their over-the-top cutesy chattering, I felt a vibration from the pocket. I quickly fished my phone out only to see an unknown number burning over the display. It was none of the numbers I could recognize, but I picked it up anyway..
"Hello"
[ "It's me." ]
Had I not recognized his tone, I would've immediately cut the call thinking it was a prank call. He changed the number again. This guy swapped numbers so many times that I didn't bother saving anymore. I threw a brief glance at the lover boy immersed in his video call before silently walking out of the room.
"Did you get something?"
[ "Depends." ]
"What do you mean?" I asked.
[ "I managed to set a meeting with the doctor. The one who ran the post-mortem. Be there in fifteen minutes." ]
Fifteen min-
"You do realize that I'm supposed to attend Igarashi's wedding today, right?"
[ "Can't help it. It's the best I can do." ]
"Can you not postpone it to tomorrow? Or, at the very least this evening?"
[ "I can. But that's going to complicate things." ]
"Why?"
[ "Well, the family wants to give their daughter a proper funeral, so..." ]
"Ah, that'd indeed be a problem."
As long as the corpse was within the possession of the morgue, we were free to investigate. But once the funeral was over, we'd have no choice but to rely on the documented information. There'd be no chance of verifying anymore.
[ "It's now, or never. What will you do?" ]
I thought about his question for a moment.. What was more important? Attending my instructor's wedding, or catching that bastard psycho before he produces more victims?
"I'll be there in fifteen."
[ "Roger that." ]
With that, I cut the call. Shortly after, I received a message from him in 'Secret'. An address, with the time limit. I looked through the map to see that it was only a half an hour walk from here. I could make it in time if I run for it.
With that in mind, I wrote a short apology note and ditched Igarashi in his apartment.
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
While scanning the area, we stepped inside the hospital. Hoards of people going in and going out. Everything seemed peaceful whenever I entered the hospital. But deep inside, I always knew how many cries it produces every day. In reality, a hospital is anything but peaceful.
"She's probably waiting for us in front of the morgue?" said the guy behind me.
"Didn't you personally talk to her?"
"Of course not. I had to set an appointment through the phone. Even then, she was too pissed about it. If I didn't use my investigator background, she would've cut the call on my face."
"Wait. Are you seriou- hah~ " I sighed as I facepalmed. "Shuuji, you..."
"What?" he asked, confusedly.
He literally used a false identity without permission from the department. In reality, we were just interns receiving our supplementary training from the local Wakayama Police Department for our final semester of criminal studies.
Wakayama city, Wakayama prefecture. A considerably large island connected to the mainland by the Nakajima underwater tunnel.
With a generous population of twenty-five thousand, it was one of the most urban islands in the Kitan Strait archipelago.
Touko sent me here when she was told about my internship assignment. Apparently, she had a good business relationship with the department head. The guy next to me, Shuuji was a local here, coincidentally. He also had a bit complicated relationship with the head officer, which could potentially help us if we got into trouble.
"Nothing. Let's just go."
I'll just have to play along.
When I arrived, a lone figure was standing in front of the door. A young woman clad in a long white coat. If I were to guess her age, she didn't seem to be much older than us, a young woman in her mid-twenties. Her face wasn't the one you'd ever imagine to see inside a morgue, dismantling corpses for post-mortem. Unlike the stereotypical image of a doctor, she didn't have a stethoscope hanging on her neck. Rather, she was holding what appeared to be a scalpel. A rather fitting sight for a morgue doctor.
The woman was impatiently tapping her foot and would frequently check her wristwatch. She was definitely pissed.
"Good Morning." I greeted, though it was a stretch to call it a morning anymore.
"Morning." she gave us a mechanical reply. "Are you the ones who asked for an appointment?"
"Yes," I reached for my pocket and pulled something out.
"Wh-" Shuuji gasped under his breath when he saw it. It was the official badge for the Japanese Police Force, not the intern ID Shuuji and I both possessed. Shuuji quickly stopped himself from reacting any further.
That's right. If we're going to do this, then we're going ALL out!
"I'm detective Igarashi Yamada from Wakayama Police Department." I introduced 'myself'. "This is Miyamura Shuuji; he's an intern accompanying me." Shuuji reluctantly bowed after I pointed at him.
She checked the badge, her eyes narrowed when trying to verify our identities.
"You look a bit like those foreigners from the mainland."
"I get that a lot," I replied, flatly.
Shuuji sweatdropped, but there was nothing to worry about.
Because of the facial hairs poking out of my skin, I looked at least five years older than my actual age. And it was only coincidence that Igarashi and I both had aquamarine eyes. In a way, I could be described as an older and more mature version of Igarashi, much to the original's frustration.
The woman sighed after failing to point out any irregularities. "Kirisaki Yasumi; I cut dead bodies."
"..."
My world, what an honest person!
"We're here to ask a few questions regarding Miss-" Shuuji couldn't finish his sentence before Kirisaki talked over him.
"I already wrote a detailed post-mortem report of the deceased a week ago. What else is there to talk about?"
Apparently, she was already informed about our intentions. That saves a few seconds of explaining things.
"A few questions regarding medical terminologies," I said,
"Does the Police force lack experts on human anatomy?"
Shuuji let out a nervous chuckle, "Ahaha, well, this is Wakayama, miss. Do you expect the police force to be as advanced as the mainland?"
"Ah, of course. Most certainly not." She sighed while rubbing the temple of her forehead and shaking her head. "I apologize for having expectations to begin with."
I sharpened my gaze on her and glared deeply into her pupils.
"Take this seriously," I began my cold lecture.
"...!!" Her eyes suddenly widened at the sudden change in my body language. It was high time I put an end to this woman's nonchalant sarcasm.
"We're not playing a quiz game, we're trying to hunt down a serial murderer. People's lives are in question here. You decide whether you should answer questions, or wait for more bodies to pile up in the morgue."
Shuuji was taken aback by my cold outburst. I rarely showed this side of me to anyone, but when I did, it was always out of necessity. Kirisaki momentarily glared at me for lecturing her, but then closed her eyes and bowed her head. "I apologize. That was unprofessional of me." She said.
Finally, we can continue with our search.
"Let's talk about Miss Touyama."
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
We were standing inside the cold room of the morgue, where the corpses were kept to be preserved until they were sent to the flame house.
I brought my rough hands close to my mouth, rubbed them against each other, and blew on them to generate heat.
As expected of a cold room, it was cold.
Thanks to the suit, it was bearable for me, unlike Shuuji who was trembling because he only wore a thin layer of sweater.
"We've conducted a thorough investigation on her respiratory system," Kirisaki entered the room, her eyes glued to a report file. It was most likely the draft report she had previously written before sending it to the police department, or more specifically, Igarashi who later duked it onto me.
"Feint traces of Aceton were detected in her internal cellular wall, causing burn marks to appear on multiple spots in her throat."
Aceton.
"Wait, you said you found traces of Aceton?"
"What is it?" being clueless, Shuuji asked.
"Aceton is a chemical that evaporates rapidly and it can start a fire even with a small spark. It's not dangerous, like Hydrochloric Acid, which is why it's easy to purchase in bulk." I replied.
Kirisaki put down the file on a nearby operation table, a bit taken aback by my knowledge of that aspect. "I'm impressed. It is as you said. Touyama-san was reported to be a heavy smoker. It wouldn't be odd if she accidentally inhaled some Aceton before smoking, causing her to suffocate to death. Potential causes, lung failure due to burn in bronchitis."
"Wasn't the cause of death strangulation?" Shuuji asked, which in reply, Kirisaki nodded sideways. She walked near a box with the number 402 marked on it, most likely Touyama Kaoru's.
She slid the corpse out of the box and pulled the blanket off, revealing the face of the victim.
"..."
Although Kirisaki was very much neutral to the sight because of years of experience, an inexperienced one like Shuuji's face contorted in displeasure as soon as he saw the post-mortem state of the victim.
The skin that was most likely snow white before, darkened to an unrecognizable state. Six to nine stitches were apparent on multiple areas of her face alone. The bone structure of her face seemingly shrunk after being in the freezer for a week. Her face was almost unrecognizable, compared to the beautiful one I saw in one of her pictures.
"If the victim was strangled in any way, the hyoid bone or the cartilage would've been fractured. But as you can see, that isn't the case." She poked her finger and lifted the corpse's chin up, causing a few outlines to appear in the underneck. She then pointed out the hyoid bone which was indeed stable, just like she had claimed.
"What if they used a wide object, like a towel? Nothing would've fractured if that's the case." Shuuji gave another plausible theory. But..
"You should really try it on yourself," Kirisaki smirked, jokingly responding to him in sarcasm.
I sighed, "It would be hard to strangle someone like that, especially harder if you're a murderer who's always in a rush, and always under the danger of getting caught."
It was still possible, though.. I mean, there was a small chance of it actually happening. But that'd still fracture the cartilage if the victim struggled.
"Did you check the bronchitis?" I asked.
"Detective, even though we cut corpses, we must make sure that the body remains as intact as possible. We can't just dissect anything and everything we wish. We must maintain a strict guideline to 'honor the dead' or something like that." She shrugged.
"Even then, it could've been such an important hint, no?" Shuuji crowed.
"No, she's not wrong in doing that, actually. Miss Touyama apparently had clogged blood in her nasal area when she was found. Lung damage was obvious."
Whoever killed her, must've made her inhale a good amount of Aceton before lighting up a cigarette. The fumes were probably enough to burn her lungs, which would explain the lung damage. As Kirisaki said, the death could be because of suffocation.
But what if everything was all just to create a diversion from the real MO?
Suffocation.. Strangulation...
Suddenly, a question appeared in my mind..
"Kirisaki-san, have you checked for congestion?" I asked.
Kirisaki's eyes widened when I brought this question up. "Now that you mention it, I haven't."
"Then could you perhaps check for congestion?"
Kirisaki bit her lips for a moment. The thought of running an operation on such short notice probably irritated her. But it was in fact her negligence that she forgot to do something so important.
"I'll do it immediately. You two wait outside."
She immediately began preparing for an operation. All that was left to do was to wait..
"Oh by the way.. about the other thing..."
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
"What was that, Levent?!" standing in front of me, Shuuji yelled with a suppressed voice, so that others wouldn't be disturbed by it.
"What was what?" I tilted my head.
"The badge! Where did you get it?!"
"Oh, the badge... I 'borrowed' it from Igarashi. He just doesn't know about it yet."
"WAIT, YOU STOLE IT?!" Shock and horror permeated all over his face while saying that.
No, I borrowed it.
"I left a note asking for its use. He wouldn't mind. Besides, at the end of the day, we're using it to do what he was supposed to do in the first place. Less work for him."
"Yeah, but still.. Isn't it a bit.. illegal?"
"Don't sweat it. You said we were investigators in the first place, didn't you? I just improvised it with a bit of ad-libbing."
"Hah~" Shuuji sighed.
"Dude, if old man gets a word of this..." A terrified expression formed on his face for some reason.. "He'll kill me!"
He'll be fine.
I stretched my back while walking toward a vending machine to buy a pack of cigarettes. The stress had been piling up for a while, so I needed something to vent.
"Oh, by the way.. Levent.." Shuuji called out to me.
"Speak.."
"This con.. uh, con-" He stammered, trying his best to pronounce the word correctly.
"Congestion?"
"Yeah, what is that?"
"It's something related to blood circulation."
"Eh.."
"Hah~... Stay still for a second." I sighed as I slowly pulled my hands up and gently wrapped around his neck. My grip tightened a little, causing Shuuji's eyes to widen in shock..
"Ugh..Uh..L-levent?"
"It's better to just show it rather than repeatedly saying it in words."
"Oh, um.. u-uhuh.." he let out as his face began going red.
5 seconds... 10 seconds... 15 seconds...
"O-okay okay.. You can let go now..." He began tapping his hand on my grip in surrender...
"...." My neck tilted.
I was just teaching him about the basics of congestion. In that case, this should be enough. But for some reason...
I didn't wanna let go.
"L-Le-Levent?"
[Don't let go...]
What am I doing?
I don't know, but I know, but I don't know. It looks like I want to do something else. But I couldn't precisely put 'what I want to do' in words..
[Just a little more and then...]
And then? And then what?
Let go, obviously.. Even if it's Shuuji, if I don't let go, he'll suffocate to death.
Hurry up.. Let go..
.....
"Aggh! Gck!" The grip in my hands tightened. Shuuji let out unintelligible sounds in pain.
[Who am I kidding? I know very well that's not what I want to do.]
I'm just.. curious.
I wanted to see what happens if I didn't let go. I wanted to see what expressions he will make if I didn't let go. I wanted to see how things would've played out if I didn't let go.
I wanted to him.
"Lev..et... et...go!" He was now beyond tapping on my hands, clawing and struggling to get out. But I didn't feel any pain.
Because, I didn't feel like I was in my own body anymore.
[Kill him!]
A dark vignette in my vision. It was as if I was watching it from someone else's first-person point of view, like a video game.
[Kill him!]
I couldn't think. The inside of my head was misted over, like a rain cloud.
[Kill him!]
Something inside me, like a voice.
[Kill him!]
A side of my brain kept telling me one thing.
[Kill him!]
Just one sentence repeating over and over again in my head.
[KillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillKillHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHimHim!!!!!!!!!!!!]
[Don't kill him!]
Huh?
[Don't kill him!]
"...! " I let go of my grip. Shuuji immediately collapsed on the floor when he was set free.
"*cough! *cough! *cough!"
I looked at the crouched figure of Shuuji who was a coughing and wheezing mess, trying his best to breathe. Because of my impulse, I almost killed him. This is slowly getting out of hand.
"Fer fuck's sake, Levent! Ye tryna kill me or somethin'?" he yelled in accent as he glared at me. He had a habit of switching to his local accent when riled up.
"..."
I needed to find an excuse to justify my attempted murder.
"Can you feel the blood flow now?" I spoke in a relaxed tone.
"Yeah, no thanks to you!" he sneered back as he stood up, trembling.
"Good. Now, as you could probably tell when you were strangled, pressure was applied on the jugular vein, which stopped the blood from being pumped to the heart. That's why your face turned red."
He raised an eye brow when I explained, trying to think from his experience of when he was strangled.
"The external carotid artery in your face and skull brings on a congestion in the face, which leads to one in the skull, which leads to one in the centrum." I pointed a pointer finger on the root of his jaw, then moved it in a line to his skull as I explained.
"So what you're trying to say is..."
I nodded. If the heart stops while being strangled, there'd be a congestion in these areas. In other words...
"Congestion is the undisputable red truth of strangulation."
"Whoa, I see." Shuuji nodded his head, impressed. The animosity from before seemed to have melted. Good.
But there was this other thing I asked Kirisaki to check. If my theory was confirmed when the post mortem got updated, then I may finally be able to connect it to the early murders of this piece of shit bastard.
"Levent, by any chance are you attending a med school as well?"
"What the hell are you on about?"
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
An hour and a half. We'd been waiting for that long.
'I hope the preparations for Igarashi's wedding is coming off well.' I wondered aloud as I snuffed the cigarette in the asphalt, and threw it in the trash can.
After returning in front of the morgue, I found Shuuji sitting in a bench. He had been mindlessly scrolling through YouTube shorts, probably for quite some time now. Having nothing else to do, I sat beside him and joined in watching the shorts. I even shared my thoughts on some of them from time to time. Don't blame me, I was bored.
At some point, I heard sounds of high heels approaching us. A pair of gray stockings came to my view... Have I seen them somewhere?
I perked my eyes forward. The purple shirt under the woman's doctor's uniform, matched her hair color. It was Kirisaki.
"It's done." she said while handing me the updated printout of the report. I took the report and placed it on my lap, not even sparing a glance at it.
"So?"
"Aren't you going to take a look at it?"
"There's no point in wasting time. Tell me the details yourself." I replied.
"Oh really? I spent some time and sweat writing that, you know?"
"What are the results?" I asked with a flat tone.
Kirisaki silently stared at me. Or more precisely, she was trying to glare at the depths of my soul, as if trying to read what I was trying to hide. My blank gaze was reflected on her eyes.
"...Hmh." After a moment, she smirked as if she was impressed.
"You were right." she said.
"Wait, really?" putting the phone down, Shuuji asked in surprise. So, he was listening to our conversation after all.
"Though it was feint, I've spotted congestion in the centrum. It's as you assumed, she was strangled to death." she said, thus confirming my suspicion.
"Due to the ash and burn marks found in her bronchial tubes, I had ruled strangulation out." She further added, then looked at me, "Had it not been for him, I would've completely missed it."
My suspicions were confirmed.
"So it's the same as the riverside murder? As well as the ones in the parlor, and the alleyway?" Shuuji pointed out.
The killer seemed to really enjoy strangling people and making it seem like accident. It was most likely his murder fetish. The only pattern to his crimes was simple so far..
"Seven victims, all women, strangled to death, more or less." I added.
But for some reason, I had a feeling that I was missing something.
"Are you really not going to check the reports?" Kirisaki again asked. I understood why she was saying that. Before leaving her in the morgue, I asked her to check another thing for me. It was most likely related to this.
"The DNA inside her..." Kirisaki smirked after hearing me mutter that.
I sighed and rubbed the rough surface of the report papers and flipped pages. I began speedily going through each and every sentence of the report.. until I saw what I wanted to see.
"Haaah~ " I sighed again.
"What is it?" Shuuji curiously asked.
The pattern, I was finally able to fully connect it this time..
"Apparently five different DNA's were found on her reproductive organ."
"Ah-ahh..Huh?" Shuuji gasped in surprise.
None of it were rape. None of it were done without consent. And none of it were done recently, but it wasn't done too long ago either.
...Though it may be disrespectful to say something like this for the deceased, this victim, Touyama Kaoru was a complete and utter..
...WHORE.
Just like the other ones.
"It's confirmed. We're now sure of the ideals he searches in his victims.." I said.
"Our killer buddy might have a thing for women who's had sexual relationships with multiple men." Kirisaki said.
"Sexual relati-.. Like Jack the Ripper?"
Jack the Ripper, the urban legend who apparently butchered prostitutes. Ours might be a copycat murderer taking inspirations from him, but they're probably doing this because they get orgasms from strangling people.
Women with a history of bad sexual habits... hmm?
Bzzt!
My phone suddenly vibrated again. I pulled it out to see an incoming call from a contact saved as, "Headache". It was Igarashi.
"Sorry, I have to take this one." I excused myself and walked to a private corner before answering...
"Hello?"
[ "Levent, where are you?" ] Igarashi asked, his voice a bit intense. Obviously he was pissed at me for stealing his badge and disappearing.
"I'm at the hospital. Like I said in the note, I'll be there after sorting a fe-"
[ "Which hospital?" ]
"...What do you mean which hospital?"
[ "Just answer!" ]
Hm.
He seemed a bit too excited there. To be angry over something like this, was very much uncharacteristic of him.
"Hashigata National Medical College and Hospital."
[ "Hashiga- ah, thank god! You're close!" ]
I'm close? Close to what?
Apparently, he was relieved that I was close to somewhere.
The venue? No, I don't think so. It'd take me half an hour of bike ride to get there.
Something's wrong.
"Senpai, what's wrong?"
[ "Levent, listen to me carefully. I'm sending you a location. Head there as fast as you can." ]
There was a great sense of urgency in his voice.
"Whoa, slow down. Go and do what exa-?"
[ "Just fucking do what I tell you to do!" ]
I pulled the ear piece out because of how loud his yell was. Shuuji and Kirisaki who were watching me from afar tilted their heads in confusion. After a second, I heard a sigh from the other side. I place the ear piece back on.
[ "I'm sorry, Levent. I'm just a bit stressed out and paranoid right now." ]
"Just tell me what happened."
[ "..." ]
He went silent for a while.
Listening to instructor Igarashi's depressed voice felt odd. Perhaps I was too distracted by him being an unreliable, happy-go-lucky fool; that I almost forgot that he was just a normal guy with life concerns as well.
[ "Natsuha... She's.. She's not picking up anyones calls anymore." ]
...
What?
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
Thud Thud Thud!
The sounds of my shoes crashing against the concrete treads of the stairway.
I was currently rushing to the fifth floor of the building. Apartment No. 503, the room where Igarashi's fiancé, Sawada Natsuha lived. Not because Igarashi told me to.
I realized something too late.
Shuuji was in the ground floor as lookout. He had already called for backup. Too exaggerating for a case of 'Runaway Bride' ?
The situation was complicated. It was easy to say things like, 'Oh, so she just dumped and ghosted him right before the wedding', or 'Alas, she played him!'; but things were much more complicated than that.
It would've been a thing if she'd just blocked him and his kin's numbers, but that wasn't the case. The call would connect, and she was receiving the call like always. She just wasn't picking up the calls, even from her best friend Irine's.
'Maybe she's ignoring the calls? Or, maybe she accidently left her phone on vibrate mode?'
Could be. But it was unlikely. I mean, it was her wedding day. Would she be this negligent?
If it was 'your' wedding what would you do?
*pant *pant *pant
I was winded from all the running. My throat was dry, and it burned every time I inhaled dry air. I looked at the door in front of me. 302. Two more floors above me.
Without taking even a short break, I ran up in extreme emergency.
There was nothing suspicious about their relationship. Anybody who'd hear their story would always comment the same thing. That they're a match made in heaven.
Both of them were orphans, they both grew up relying on themselves. They both met when they were in university and dated each other for three years before Igarashi took his shot. She said yes.
Typical love story.
But only a few people know this. Something Igarashi once told me when he was drunk.
...
Don't get me wrong. I know from the bottom of my heart that Sawada Natsuha was serious about Igarashi. But during her student years...
...she'd frequently go on compensated dates and sleep with strangers to survive.
*Haff! *Haff!
I'd arrived in front of door 503.
I wrapped my hands with surgical gloves, to prepare for the worst.
Just like Igarashi had said, there was a spare key tapped under the door leaf. I inserted the key through the keyhole and twisted it clockwise. The door lock made a click sound, meaning the door was unlocked. I twisted the door knob and silently tried to open the door.
*Thnng!
"Fuck." I swore under my breath.
The door got stuck on the way and made a loud metallic noise. Whoever was inside the room was now alert because of the sound.
From that point, it was a race against time.
Without wasting a second, I peeked through the gap inside. It was a security bar, much like security chains; but instead of chains it was a thin titanium bar set in an angle, to give enough space for the door leaf to peek. I tried lifting it by pushing my hand through the gap. But for some reason, it wouldn't budge. I had concluded that it couldn't be lifted unless the door was shut.
Seeing no way, I lifted both my hands, each growing warm from being concentrated with mana. I hated doing this, it contained risks of being under suspicion. But seeing no alternative...wait a second.
My hands cooled down as I turned backward. There was a large parcel in front of room 504. The box was sealed with long orange sealing tape. Seeing that gave me an idea.
I quickly vandalized room 504 owner's property and tore the tape off the parcel. It was about 10 feet long, long enough to reach the bar from the top head of the door leaf and come back again.
I pushed an end of the tape below the bar, wrapped it once and took it out through the top head of the door leaf. The idea was to use the head as the leverage point of a copical to lift the bar from the outside, the same system used by cranes to lift objects.
I closed the door while grabbing onto the edges. As it was a tape, the door leaf didn't get stuck because of it. Then I hoped for the best and pulled the tape down.
*Tssung!
The bar was lifted.
Sawada being outside was out of the question. The security bar was fastened before I unlocked it. It could only be done by someone inside. There was no sign of a break-in, as the key worked without any issues. It must've been a person Sawada trusted and willingly brought inside.
Bar being placed meant they couldn't leave. We were on the fifth floor, so unless they had an early game over in mind, they couldn't jump out the window. I was the one who unlocked the entrance and stood in front of it. Facts considered, it was a perfectly locked room before I opened it.
The assailant was still inside.
*BANG!!
I immediately kicked the door open, eliminating any chances of the assailant hiding behind the door. I went inside guns blazing.
The inside of the room was completely dark, unlike the time when I saw her in the video chat. I pushed the light switches. Nothing turned on. The lights were working fine in the lobby, so it wasn't an issue with electricity. Perhaps they cut the apartment's circuit breaker..
"Sawada-san! It's Levent! If you're able to hear me, make noise if you can!"
.....
Silence.
No response.
Taking a deep breath, I fired my phone's flashlight. The back of my eyes hurt, trying to adapt to the sudden brightness in this dark apartment. Blinking a few times around, I carefully treaded inside.
*Huff.. *Huff..
The sounds of my own breaths were ringing in my eardrums. Something ran down near my temple. Pain emerged from the back of my left eye. The [Eye Killer] sticking against my ears was heating up in exhaustion, trying to suppress it from mana consumption.
"..."
I knew what this feeling was. It was the same feeling I got every time before something went horribly wrong.
🄾🅄🅃🅂🄸🄳🄴🅁
The shoes made a muffled blunt noise every time I stepped on the tiles. It wasn't the time to show local manners by leaving the shoes in the foyer. However, something did catch my eye there.
I flashed the light on the shoe cabinet. Amidst all the female shoes and sneakers, there was this single shoe that was at least six sizes larger than the others.
Hiding the shoes behind the cabinet, I approached the living room attached to it. There was no sign of anyone there either. The bedroom door was unlocked, but it was empty. The bathroom was unoccupied as well. Just as I was about to skip to the balcony, I suddenly noticed a white fabric lying behind the kitchenette.
I quickly rushed to it.
"..."
It was Sawada. Her hands were tied in the back with a towel. A long piece of cloth was over her mouth, gagging her.
"Sawada-san." I quickly turned her around. There was no response from her. She was motionless.
I held my finger in front of her nose to check if she was breathing. She was not.
Then I frantically pushed my ears against her left chest to check her pulse.
".....It's there!" I sighed in relief. Though it was feint, I could still hear her blood pumping. She just wasn't breathing.
I quickly took off my [Eye Killer] glasses so it doesn't get in the way during the CPR procedure.
"Ugh..."
A dizzying pain emerged as soon as my eye received unfiltered light. My brain heated up, as if all the information from my surrounding world suddenly came rushing toward me. My mind was screaming in pain, as if my brain was convulsing under extreme strain, pounding and throbbing. Tears began running down my left cheek.
'Now's not the time for this.' I gritted my teeth and tried to endure the pain.
I laid her flat on the floor, positioning myself on top of her stomach. I quickly took the gag off her mouth and held her nose up. Then I licked my dry lips.
Igarashi may or may not kill me for kissing his bride before him in their wedding, but it can't be helped.
"Huup..." I sealed my lips against hers in a desperate attempt to supply air to her lungs. Some of her sticky lipsticks probably got stuck on my own lips, but I didn't care about that.
"Hah!" I broke from her lips and immediately placed both my arms a few inches above her cleavage. Then I began pushing repeatedly. It was to create artificial air circulation through external means, in hopes of her body recovering from its freeze state.
I checked her nose again. Still not breathing.
"Huup.." I did the procedure again.. Still not breathing.
"Huup.." and again..
"Huup!" and again...
"Huup!" and again...
It took me multiple desperate successions of CPR, until...
"Hwah! Hah! Hah!" Sawada began panting aggressively.
At the moment she was out of danger. She went unconscious again, but she was breathing. A wave of relief washed down my body thinking that I was able to save at least one person. A very important one at that.
Sawada willingly brought the person inside. That was proven by the neatly placed shoes on the shoe cabinet. She must've seen the killer's face clearly. Her testimony could finally put an end to this mind game of the serial killer.
I recollected myself and was about to reach for my glasses. But suddenly..
THUMP!
"...Ah."
My eye throbbed as it flared up and lost connection to the world, making me partially blind for two seconds. When my vision returned... I heard a chilling voice from behind.
[ Gandr ]
A high amount of concentrated mana approached me. The air whistled as something of high velocity brushed past my ears. Had I not tilted my head in time, even if I was late by a fragment of a second, that 'something' would've pierced me in the head. Thankfully, that didn't happen.
Instead, it pierced through Sawada, exactly in the center of her eyes.
*Splatter!
[Part 1/2]