I'm 22 year-old Masashi Mayumi. Rank 2 Executioner for the Deceit Execution Squad. I've been in the game for a year, but I've been wondering for a while if the DES is something that can be looked up to here in Kyoto. Our boss is suspicious, our rules are questionable and absurd, and I despise the things we do.
I start making coffee and put on my DES uniform. It resembled a police uniform,
but it instead had a badge that with the abbreviation "DES" printed on it. Footsteps from above me slowly crept closer. I start to smell smoke mix with the aroma of my fresh coffee. I blankly stare to my left to see that my coffee was gone. Of course…
My girlfriend propped her head onto my shoulder with a mischievous grin. "Looks like my little lesson worked." She takes a sip before opening her mouth again. "Yeah, I'm totally drinking this all myself."
"W-wait! But I have to work toda—" She had already vanished as usual. A cigarette pops into my mouth before she runs back upstairs. "I don't even smoke!"
"Be thankful!" She exclaims from above. I let out a sigh before stepping out.
I arrive at DES Headquarters and swipe my card at the entrance. On this bottom floor were investigators that were researching strange cases, occurrences, and phenomena around the area. The dozens of them all worked inside of cubicles, which sounds depressing in practice, but they all were lively and chattering constantly.
One of the male investigators rose from his seat and signaled me over. "Welcome back, Mayumi-senpai! How was your break? Did you finally get to spend time with your chick?" His voice was electrified as always. Out of the many people who were scared to talk to me, he was always fearless and loved socializing with me. It would always put a smile on my face seeing him speak to others and help them out when they needed it most. A friend like that is one of the only things that brighten up this corrupt place.
"It was certainly something. The break ended up just being me working outside of the sight of the headquarters instead."
Yozuka rest his arm on the rim of the cubicle and leans in. "Aw man, what went down? An emotional argument? Dispute? Fight?"
"Those all mean the same thing. Anyway, me and Fumiko decided to blow off some steam at an amusement park, but we ended up having to deal with a deceit that went beserk. The same thing happened two more times at a store and a gas station."
Yozuka frowns. "Damn, man. I didn't think that the deceit outbreak was getting that bad out here. Was your entire break just a bummer?"
I give him a reassuring grin. "No need to sound so worried. The break wasn't that much of a letdown. After all, me and her made plenty of memories during my time off. She loved it, which is all that matters to me."
"That's certainly pleasing to hear. I had thought that I had wasted time talking it out with the boss about giving you a break." He lets out a relieved laugh.
"Nothing you ever do is a waste. If you didn't give me that break, I wouldn't have been able to hang out with my girl or have these." Smirking, I handed him two pictures. His expression lit up as he snatched them.
"Seriously!? No way, dude! Amanohashidate! You really snapped these pictures for me dude!?" Everyone drops their conversations to turn to the shouting. "Oop! Sorry everyone." An awkward silence spreads through the room before everyone shrugs it off and continue their conversations. Yozuka lowers his voice to a whisper despite the loud chatter, "Thanks dude."
I nod and grin as I make my way towards the elevator. Yozuka has always wanted to go to the bridge, but he is constantly working his ass off here without being able to leave. One day, we'll surely travel there in person together.
I make my way up to the 4th floor of the headquarters, the boss's office. The elevator stopped and opened up to the room of the boss. The room always gave me an uneasy feeling. It was like thousands of eyes were watching my every move. The air always felt heavy too. In front of me was a chair placed in front of the boss's semicircle desk. He sat behind his desk with this hands clasped together. He commands me to sit down so that we could talk.
"How was your brea—"
"What's the reason you brought me here?"
He sighs before questioning me. "You've heard about the recent incident, correct?"
"The random outage? Is it seriously that big of a deal?"
His tone grows aggressive. "I'm sure that an illegal executioner is a big deal!" Seriously? What's the point of you wanting them captured so bad if they are doing a good deed? That's what I wanted to ask of course, but I let him continue. "It's been rumored by our investigators that the origin of the outage was from a high school not too far from here."
"You want me to deal with a high schooler?" There is a rule that anyone with shinkuro, or in simpler terms, the power of an executioner, is required to join the DES and cannot do any executions outside of their control. I find the rule absurd, but who am I to argue? It's simply not in my control to change them.
The boss slams his desk. "An illegal executioner that could put us to harm! If they roam around, dangerous things will happen!"
"Oh nooooooo! Kyoto is gonna fall because of a high schooler that used their shinkuro! Boo-hoo."
The boss grits his teeth. He slams down pictures of brown school uniforms. "Look out for these uniforms and listen."
"Listening."
"Mayumi, you are probably the strongest executioner we have in the DES. Despite your low rank, you have far more power than any of the higher rank executioners could ever dream to accomplish. You know how serious this case is and you know how much your reputation at the DES will boost if you take up this offer."
"This is suppose to mean…?"
"You're different from all the others. You don't just want justice, but you also want power and you can gain so much more authority over the DES if you simply take up this special operation." He spoke every last word with motivation. Unfortunately for him, he failed miserably.
"Nice attempt to make me one of your high ranking slaves. I'll take this case, but don't expect it to be solved overnight. Also, I want my reward to be another week off."
The boss is shocked by my words. "But wouldn't a promotion be—"
"Blah, blah, blah! I'm gonna go get started! Byee!" I said in a cheery voice while entering the elevator. This new case is interesting, but I don't know how I'll be going about this. It would be contradictory to my ideals if I end up killing the kid. I let out a sigh as I exit the building. I stare at the clouds while the cold winds hit my face. "Can this job get any worse?"