Kamen Rider Kuuga Chapter 2

Chapter 2 - Illusion

 

Sooner than Ichijou had expected, a call came in from Sugita right as July had entered, asking Ichijou to meet up with him. They met up at the JR Akihabara Station, eventually reaching an old down-to-earth looking bar not too far from the entrance to Showa-doori.

“Is this the place…?”
 

“What, did you expect something different?”

“No, that’s not it.”

“Back then, I didn’t care what kind of place it was, as long as I could drink. So I always ended going for the cheapest places but...well, you get my point.”

Ichijou, imagining their younger days where Sugita would drag him around all kinds of unpleasant places downtown, felt a bit surprised at the outcome. Back then, Sugita would be taking him to places like bars where coquettish mistresses in kimonos would walk around recommending drinks, or women dressed as nurses going around with alcohol in medical beakers, and so on. Basically, they were all places that Ichijou couldn’t stand. There was a time where Ichijou was brought to a store where women would sit next to him, rarely ever giving him a chance to talk. He tried to distract them with a simple magic trick he learned in high school, but that proved to be of no avail as well.

Why did I even bother to give those women money and encourage their fun…

Entering the bar’s first floor which only had barstools, they climbed a well-worn wooden staircase that made groans as they made their way up, reaching the 2nd floor with a recessed sofa laying in the back. It felt like a private room, the silence allowing for uninterrupted comfortable conversation. The room was often used by couples, but there have been many cases where businesses hosted parties and such.　

Ichijou toasted with a cup of Yebisu Creamy Top Stout, while Sugita immediately switched to some diluted shochu.

“My daughter made me take a look at my health diagnosis. She wouldn’t be quiet over how I should be drinking diluted alcohol if I was gonna be drinking at all.”

Enjoying himself at the charming sight of the grumbling man keeping true to his promise, Ichijou continued to slowly sip his ginjo sake. The smoked cheese grilling on a small charcoal stove gave off a foreign atmosphere.

“How’s your mom doing?”

“Great, thanks to you. She’s stopped working at the hospital, but like always, she’s the type of person who can’t stop moving, so she’s working as a district welfare officer right now.”

“Go take her to an onsen sometime. You’ve probably got a s.h.i.+t ton of money saved up, so get a room with a cypress bath or something.”

“I really don’t have that much saved up.”

“You liar. You always try to find your way out of romantic conversations, just what are you planning to do with all that money?”

“I’ve been funding my own personal fitness.”

“Dammit man, that’s what you’ve been using it on? C’mon, I don’t care if it’s just a little, just use your money on some woman already! No, in fact, just find yourself a woman already!”

“No, really, I’m fine.”

“No, it’s not fine! When you’re as old as someone like me, having someone there for you to protect serves as a lot of motivation, you know. That’s why you need to…”

Sugita trailed off for a moment.

“...Wait, were those rumors about you seriously true?

“Huh?”

“The rumors that you still haven’t gotten a girlfriend since you already have a man…?”

“What!?”

In the face of Ichijou’s dumbfoundedness, Sugita laughed it off with a “Nah, there’s no way”, and changed the subject. Ichijou, having no interest in finding a woman, often gets bombarded with questions such as “When are you getting married?”. Of course, Ichijou was already used to such probing, but he never expected the conversation to go in that direction. It is not as if Ichijou had never dated with other women before. Of course he would have feelings for them. It was just that he had never gone very far with any one individual.

Ever since around high school, Ichijou began to avoid involving himself with such relations.h.i.+ps. He grew to be timid and cautious over developing intimate feelings towards women. It all started during Ichijou’s 10th birthday, where events not too different from a tragedy unfolded.

 

April 18th, 1984, the weather in Nagoya had been great since the previous day, with a clear blue beautiful sky. The rain from the day before yesterday had increased the atmospheric temperature to 20 degrees, allowing j.a.pan to experience some hot weather. Young Kaoru had come back from school, only to go “Huh?” from not seeing his mother, Tamiko, anywhere. Mother, who worked at the Nagoya West Hospital, should have been home relaxing from her night s.h.i.+ft. Kaoru then noticed a note laying on the kotatsu in the living room.

“Dad got into a little accident and was brought to the hospital I’m working at, so I’ll be out for a while.”

Upon reading the note, Kaoru felt his heart tighten up. What did she mean by...accident? Is he injured!? He began to break into a sweat. But after deciding to continue reading the rest of the note, he felt a bit relieved.

“I don’t know all the details yet but, Dad is tough so I know he’ll be okay! I made you your favorite chicken curry, so eat up whenever you get hungry. There’s a cake in the fridge too. I’ll call once I figure out more about the situation.”

The end of the note was accompanied with Tamiko’s cla.s.sic smiling self-portrait, which helped Kaoru relax after seeing it. Upon entering his room, he looked at his father’s portrait displayed on his bookshelf, thinking to himself, “It’s no big deal, right?”. The picture was taken when Kaoru visited his father’s work place for a social studies a.s.signment, with Kaoru in the front and his father’s hands on his shoulders.

Kaoru’s father, Tasuku, worked at the Nagoya West Department, and that was the first time Kaoru had experienced what his father actually did for a living. After being enthralled from his father’s colleagues’ story of how he remained brave and strong during a crisis and acted as a leader for everyone, Kaoru began to truly respect Tasuku from the bottom of his heart. Tasuku had a saying, “Dont do things half-baked”, and as such, he was often very harsh on Kaoru when he slacked off on his studies or exercise. But when it came to special occasions, such as wedding anniversaries or birthdays, much like a Nagoya citizen, he would go all out on exorbitant presents. His relations.h.i.+p with Tamiko was fantastic as well, and whenever they went out on a family trip, they’d be sure to take a picture together with Kaoru, not to mention they’d always take one of just the two of them as well. For example, Tamiko would be embracing one of Tasuku’s arms, or Tasuku showing off his well trained muscles by carrying Tamiko in a princess-like manner, basically they retained the lovey-dovey feeling they had back when they were just boyfriend-girlfriend. Even when it came to being a husband, Tasuku would make sure not to do things half-baked. Kaoru was often embarra.s.sed by their antics, but at the same time he felt very happy, and was very proud of what his father did for the family.

This morning, while Tasuku was making a cheese and tomato omelette, he told Kaoru “It might be a bit hot today with long sleeves”. When Tamiko worked the night s.h.i.+ft, Tasuku handled Kaoru’s breakfast.

“Dad, you won’t come home late today, right?”

Right before he head out for cla.s.s, Kaoru slipped on his backpack and shot his father that question. Tasuku had been getting off work late lately, so Kaoru was a bit uneasy.

“Of course! Yesterday, Komatsu won the game, right? And today Genji Kaku is going to be up. I’ve got to get home before 6 to make sure Hans.h.i.+n doesn’t take another victory!”

“Eh? That’s not what I…”

“Hahahaha! I know, I know! Don’t worry, I got something good for you, so just wait for it.”

“Geez! See-ya, then!”

“Take care! Make sure to watch out for cars!”

Kaoru dashed off with a “I will!”, thinking “Gosh, he’s always like that” with a smile, as he headed towards his school’s roll-call area without turning back.

Those words were Kaoru and Tasuku’s final exchange.

Reaching evening, there still had been no contact from Tamiko. Just as Kaoru ran off towards the hospital out of overwhelming anxiety, Tamiko was just about to call the house from the nurse station. Seeing Tamiko’s exhausted expression, Kaoru’s heart rate escalated. Meeting eyes, Tamiko slowly approached the frozen Kaoru before suddenly embracing him. She then spoke to him.

“I’m sorry...we couldn’t do anything. We weren’t able to save Dad....”

“No...it can’t be… Why!? Why!?”

“I’m sorry...I’m sorry…”

That was all Tamiko could continue to say.

Walking on the cold, dark linoleum hallway into the mortuary, the silent remains of Tasuku laid in front of Kaoru. There was an accident at an excavation site causing a cave-in, causing the groundwater to erupt and flood the culvert, dragging in many of the workers there. Sugita had lost his life in attempt to rescue them. Located at Tasuku’s desk at the police station were 3 tickets to the Giants match to be taken place on June 5th at the Nagoya baseball stadium. They were backstop seats that were incredibly difficult to get one’s hands on.

Kaoru cried over the cold corpse of his father.

Tamiko continued to hold in her tears.

Perhaps because she wanted to stay strong for her child, she remained stoic-hearted throughout the preparations for the funeral, during the funeral ceremony, and towards the priest and those who attended the funeral. Seeing that his mother refrained from crying, Kaoru felt that he should do the same. But when it came to cremate the body and say farewell, Tamiko erupted into tears as if her inner dam was released. Paying no mind to the eyes of others, she clinged to the coffin, crying and shoving away any relatives who tried to console her. She even went as far as to demand that the cremation be cancelled. Eventually a relative managed to pull her away, allowing the cremation to continue. Throughout all of this, Kaoru stood frozen still in a daze. To see Tamiko let go of herself to such an extent…

Kaoru had never laid eyes to such a scene.

After those events, Tamiko continued to cry to herself throughout the night. Kaoru pretended that he did not notice and continued behaving in his everyday-manner, but seeing his strong mother cry like that had a huge impact on him.

Upon entering high school, Kaoru decided that he was going to carry on his father’s legacy and become a police officer. At the time, there was a girl he had his eyes on, but whenever he thought about deepening their relations.h.i.+p further, memories of his mother crying would resurface and cause him suffering. Perhaps he took it much too seriously, but Kaoru forever continued to avoid growing too fond of others, in fear of experiencing the pain that would come if he lost them. It grew to the point where the origins of that ideology became forgotten to him, and he would irrationally force himself away from others.

And upon finally becoming a police officer, he remained tied to that suffering, continuing to keep his distance away from other women. Behind his back, there were those who accused him of being pretentious or full of it, but he did not care, nor did he make any excuses.

To refrain from doing anything half-baked...that was Ichijou’s way of life.

 

As Ichijou asked for his 4th cup of sake, Sugita pondered over what brand to go with for his 8th cup of distilled shochu. He had always been strong against alcohol, but his pace was especially fast today. He had not gone red yet, but at the same it appeared that he was drinking for the sake of getting drunk, rather than to enjoy his alcohol. He also ended up ordering all the side dishes on the menu, and after he got to the end of it and ordered the highest-grade beef, he got up to go to the restroom. Upon his return, he let out a deep sigh and threw himself onto the sofa. Eventually, he looked at Ichijou and spoke to him.

“Someone with major ties to the oxygen cases got sent up by Buddha.”

So he’s finally gotten to the main subject, thought Ichijou. He had suspected that Sugita didn’t invite him just to chat about good times ever since the moment he invited him out to drink. He was not sure if it had to do with either a personal consultation or matters involving a case, with it ending up being the latter. But Ichijou had a bad feeling about those words.

“Cases...you said? Weren’t those accidents?”

“That’s right. At this point, that’s as far as we can consider them as. But there’s some strange elements about them that make me feel like they have to be cases, and the news still haven’t caught on about them.”

“And what would those be?”

“...Take a look at these.”

Sugita handed over doc.u.ments labeled as top secret to Ichijou. The first thing written was a list of the victims. They were listed in chronological order in accordance to the accidents’ occurrences.

“...There are a lot of 0’s.”

That was the first thing that caught Ichijou’s eye. The times the accidents occurred were recorded, with those that have been confirmed by family who were there at the time being bolded. Outside of those, many were estimated times, leaving room for error. What was most surprising was that all of the bolded times had “00” within them. For accidents occurring in front of outsiders to the victim, no relations.h.i.+ps could be found between them and the victim, yet all of those accidents had occurred at “00”. And as for the accidents that did not contain “00” in their recorded time, they were times like “:57”, or “53”, basically either 10 minutes before or after the “00” mark.

“Sugita-san...do you think this could be....”

“That’s right. There’s a possibility that all of these accidents are occurring at the “00” minutes mark. Take a look at the next page.”

Turning the page, Ichijou saw a 24x7 grid chart with days of the week on the horizontal axis and hours of the day on the vertical axis. For example, if an accident occurred at 6:00 on a Monday, the unit following the 6:00 line and under the Monday column would be filled in. Times that did not fall on the “00” mark would be rounded to the closest “00” hour. With all the times filled into the chart, an astonis.h.i.+ng result came to light.

Not a single occurrence overlapped each other and about half of the units were filled in.

One would a.s.sume that the accidents would be less common during late hours of the night and that they’d be more frequent during the day, but the results did not match that judgement at all, not to mention that no accident overlapped each other’s day or time.

“It’s almost as if someone’s trying to fill in all the units in the fastest way possible…”

“...It can’t be...it’s as if the accidents are part of some game…”

Ichijou caught himself at those words.

“Game…!?”

“Yeah, a game.”

Unpleasant memories resurfaced. 13 years ago in the early summer, the words that Unidentified Lifeform 13 had thrown out.

“The game is a game. There isn’t anything else to it.”

It was the most straightforward explanation for the Grongi’s motives. Upon the consecutive accidents seemingly reproducing the idea behind those words, Sugita could smell the work of the Grongi.

“So you’re saying a Grongi has impersonated someone with major ties to the cases?”

“Right. There isn’t any hard proof, it’s just my intuition.”

“But Sugita, when G.o.dai defeated Unidentified Lifeform No. 0…”

“The Grongi should have gone extinct… For these incidents to simply be peculiar accidents wouldn’t exactly be impossible. There were even some people who thought it’d be fun to imitate their crimes afterwards after all. But if you check out these photos of the corpse of that guy who had major ties to the cases, I think you’ll get at what I’m thinking.”

Taking a look at the photo Sugita handed over, Ichijou could hardly believe his eyes. There was a large portion carved out of the abdomen, as if someone was trying to take that piece away with them.

“This is…!”

“There haven’t been any official autopsies, but no matter how you look at it, this seriously isn’t normal. There isn’t any logical reason why someone would go so far. However…”

“If we a.s.sume that they were trying to carve out a buried soul stone…”

“It sounds extremely unlikely, but there’s no chance that this is the work of someone just copying the Grongi for kicks.”

“But wasn’t there once a case where the genitals were carved out of a corpse? It was a bizarre case that caused as much disturbance as the Sada Abe case. However, it was eventually concluded that it was the work of a pet cat who had acted out of hunger…”

“Yeah. And I’m hoping that this case might end up with a just as anti-climatic conclusion.”

In order to prevent any naive judgements from being made, Ichijou carefully examined the contents of the doc.u.ments. The corpse discovered was of Kouichi Nakata(age 38), the president of Nakaken Valves manufacturing company. The Nakaken company had evolved from a small factory known as the Nakata Workshop that held top-rate technology. They were a major supplier for valves regarding the exhaust systems of the oxygen capsules, and as such, the major brand name oxygen capsules were made up of almost entirely Nakaken valves.

“Attention to this man was first called on half a year before the continuous incidents had started occurring. It was because he had ordered a recall for all the exhaust valves and offered free replacements.”

“You think he did something to them?”

“No, in the questionnaires sent out to owners of the capsules, answers to the questions regarding usage time were quite suspicious, but no signs of any peculiar changes could be found. In fact, about 80% of the oxygen capsules that had their exhaust valves changed were already functioning just fine. Oxygen capsules that caused accidents were directly examined as well, with no apparent wear or oddities to be found whatsoever.”

“If that’s the case, even if he was alive, it would be difficult to accuse him of the crime.”

“It may be outside of Nakata’s ability, but it may have been possible for him to rewrite the system’s programming, and then revert it back after the accidents occurred. I had planned to look more into that possibility.”

“And before any research could be performed, Nakata was murdered…”

“That’s right. And by completely unnatural means to boot..”

Ichijou went over his thoughts in silence. He then once again faced Sugita and spoke in a calm manner.

“No, in the end, it doesn’t match up. If this Grongi switched places with Nakata, sooner or later, I’m sure his close relatives or the people he works with would end up realizing something. And if it was a Grongi, they would carry out these crimes while in their monster form.”

“You’re exactly right...it’s those bits that I’ve been having trouble connecting together.”

Sugita spoke those words while slapping his skinhead.

“But…”

“But?”

“3 years ago, Nakata suffered extreme burns to his face from a traffic accident and underwent surgery to fix those wounds. Afterwards, he apparently became mute for a while. It may have been due to shock from the accident, or maybe he was just taking the chance to observe his surroundings…”

“If a Grongi with similar body or face structure took the chance to switch places with him at that time, and focused on studying his environment and situation…”

The two of them fell into a grim silence, with Sugita slos.h.i.+ng down the last bit of his distilled shochu.

“Whatever the case is, Nakata is no longer with us. I feel bad for the victim, but my real concern is somewhere else.”

“Yes...my words exactly.”

Ichijou had already progressed his train of thought elsewhere.

“If this were a Grongi game, that would mean that there wouldn’t just be one player…”

“You got it.”

 

That night, Ichijou returned to his 2 bedroom apartment in Sendagi at just past 2 AM. It was a 4-floored low-cla.s.s apartment building with an elevator installed, but Ichijou always used the stairs. He wasn’t doing well from the alcohol, feeling as if his whole body was heavy with his head being the only functional unit, so the journey towards his room felt much longer than usual.

Entering the apartment, Ichijou immediately plopped himself onto the living room sofa, but then got up and headed for the shower mere moments afterwards. He then entered his study with his hair wet and started up his computer.

When Ichijou was heading back to his apartment via taxi, he got a call saying “Sorry to bother you so soon, but I just got some interesting information. I’ll be sending it to you so make sure to check it out.”

Opening his email, Ichijou loaded up Sugita’s message. It was top-secret information regarding the hornet uproar that occurred a couple days ago. It originally started in Kyoto, before spreading to Mie, Aichi, and Gifu, injecting toxins that caused a plethora of allergic reactions. Many people suffered anaphylactic shock, with as much as 9 people dying within one day. The average number of casualties from hornets per year for the last 10 years was around 20, so it would be fair to say that the resulting numbers were outrageous. What was even more surprising was that while hornet casualties consisted of only about 5% of people age 30 and younger, this time around they consisted of about 80%. Even the local munic.i.p.alities had expressed their concern over such events. As if spurred by this news, Sugita immediately went to file a request at the jurisdiction department, asking to reevaluate for any suspicious elements.

Doing so, a call came in from a doctor of the Nagoya Meito Department who had examined one of the victims. His small discovery led to quite the unexpected development. The victim was left with only one wound on the front of the right arm, with tissue of some animal being attached to the opening. Generally speaking, hornets do not leave behind their stingers after their attacks. If that was the case, just what was it then? After receiving that report, Sugita managed to track down 4 other victims before they got cremated. After investigating, the same tissue was found on every one of them. Samples of the tissue was brought to the Aichi Research Facility to be studied on, and the results were more mysterious than anything that had come beforehand.

“Jellyfish…?”

Ichijou unconsciously let out his voice. He then read over what lead to the victim’s death.

It was far from the right season to go swimming out in the ocean, Ichijou had no recollection of anybody going to the beach. It should be impossible for poison of an underwater creature to be detected here.

Suddenly, Ichijou’s phone rang. It was from Sugita.

“Did you read it?”

“Yes. Although, I’m still not sure how I should be processing all of this…”

“There’s no way there’d be a jellyfish that would be hanging out outside the ocean...right?”

“Jellyfish are known to occasionally drift around the mouths of rivers, but there shouldn’t be such case in Gifu as far as I know.”

“Hold on a sec.”

Sugita responded in a sharp manner.

“One time when I stayed over at an onsen at Takayama, they brought me something called “mountain jellyfish” for dinner.”

He was talking about a special type of lettuce that is first dried and then brought back to moisture and pickled, a delicacy in those parts.

“...This isn’t the time for jokes!”

“Sorry, I just felt like lightening the mood a bit.”

“I know what you’re getting at.”

“...At first it was just a hunch but, now I can’t help but be sure. It was just hard to face that truth…”

“.........”

The cold smile of a certain woman suddenly resurfaced in the back of Ichijou’s head.

Bearing a tattoo of a rose on her forehead, she was designated Unidentified Lifeform No. B-1. She never actually partic.i.p.ated in any of the Grongi games, and was always observing them, at times sentencing them to trials. Catching sight of Ichijou and his comrades firing on the Grongi with their guns, she spoke the following words to them in j.a.panese.

“The Linto have changed.”

They were words implying that the current human race were descendants of the Linto. And towards the end, she mentioned that humans had grown to be the same as the Grongi. It was the same as saying that humans had grown to partic.i.p.ate in games of slaughter. Ichijou felt wrath grow inside him towards No. B-1, who spoke those words as if they were matter-of-fact. At the same time however, Ichijou realized the weight behind those words, the possibility of those words being an accurate depiction of the world’s future. And as if to blow away that uncertainty, Ichijou shot No. B-1. Suffering the impact of Ichijou’s nerve-breaking bullet, No. B-1 sunk into the depths of the ocean. Her face was in a wicked smile, murmuring inaudibly as she slowly disappeared from sight. To this day, the question of what exactly she was saying at that moment still troubled Ichijou, along with the fact that her body was never found.

Afterwards, evidence of her death was discovered in the form of pieces of rose vines scattered about in the Tokyo Bay area, however the remains did not even account for ⅓ of No. B-1’s body ma.s.s. Despite her death’s confirmation, concern never left Ichijou’s heart over the last 13 years. He suspected that perhaps she was still hiding somewhere out there, waiting to see if humans would fall into the conclusion that she had predicted with her own eyes.

 

Several days later, Ichijou was casually jogging past the Hanzoumon police action in his sweats. As long as he had the time, he had a daily routine of stretching at Hibiya Park and then going on a jog. He would go around the Imperial Palace, head to Hanzoumon from Kudans.h.i.+ta, pa.s.s through Nagatacho and Kinokunizaka, around the Crown Prince’s Palace to the National Stadium, loop around the outer garden, make the return straight through Aoyama, go through Akahaka Mitsuke reaching the Sakuradamon Police Station, ending his 15 kilometer round trip. As he felt the adrenaline rush through his body, he remembered Sugita’s final words on the phone the other night.

“The investigation still isn’t officially recognized yet, but I want to start working on it. I’ll handle the arrangements, so do you think you could help me out? After all, you’re probably more familiar with the Unidentified Lifeforms than anyone else. Also…”

“Also?”

“I got the perfect partner for you. From the Nagano Department.”

Ichijou had not the faintest idea of who it could be. Sugita dodged his questions with a simple “Well, look forward to it.” When thinking of Nagano, the first person that came to mind for Ichijou was Ebisawa. Gradually cornering down numerous criminals, he came to be called “Silk Floss Ebi”. Regardless, considering how much of a senior Ichijou was to him, he had trouble considering him as the so-called “partner”. Ichijou recalled the many detectives he worked with back at Nagano, but he was always the type to distance himself from others, so there really was not anyone that was very close with him.

“Wait…”

Ichijou suddenly recalled one of his subordinate officers, Tsurumaru Kameyama. He was a bit of a strange one, but it was very possible that he had piled up experience and became a detective.

“...No, it couldn’t be.”

He would have sent an email or a call filled with excitement if he ended up getting that position. Ichijou gave up trying to figure out who it could be, and continued on his jog.

 

Ichijou returned to the police department and took a shower, arriving at the Public Welfare Office by 7:30 AM. He went over the information sent from the other departments and then headed for Section 1. There was a phantom killer case involving an illegal herb user the previous day at the s.h.i.+buya department, resulting in many detectives scrambling about on the floor where their main office was located.

Weaving through the crowd, Ichijou reached the Special Investigations Department 4th Office, surprised not only at Sugita’s absence, but the lack of a single person in the room. Special Investigations handled extreme cases such as corporate blackmail and explosives, and the 4th Office only consisted of investigations involving the most peculiar ones. That being the case, they often work with other departments in Section 1 when they lack an applicable case to work with.　Wondering if the members had been called out to help work with the phantom killer case, the words “Yo, Ichijou” rang out from Sugita, who had just came back from an emergency meeting from the grand conference room.

“Sorry about the commotion. The herb cases have been diminis.h.i.+ng around here lately, but this time it was that herb.”

“Ah, you mean Lionel?”

Lionel was a new medicine that helped relieved fatigue, approved by the Health and Welfare Department about half a year ago. With no addictive qualities while still providing a sense of elation, it quickly grew popular among the younger people. There existed conservative theories stating that it resembled methamphetamine, but many athletes and entertainers and such praised the medicine on television, along with many blog entries being written about it, and eventually official medical commercials began airing for it.

“My daughter told me to stay away from it since I’m a hardhead, though. Come on in.”

Sugita brought him into the small office, with steel bookshelves holding barely any folders, along with cardboard boxes filled with doc.u.ments laid about a long table haphazardly.

“Since this investigation started on just a hunch of mine, I’ll be funding it out of my pocket for now. I’m kind of broke, but I’m looking forward to working with you.”

“Then first things first, you should probably start with getting rid of your wasteful spending.”

“Ouch. That hit hard. But you’re exactly right.”

Upon Sugita actually laughing at one of Ichijou’s jokes for once, a knock came from the door with an “Excuse me”, as a young woman walked in carrying large cardboard boxes. To be more specific, it was a female detective with two boxes, but her face was covered by them, leaving Ichijou with not a clue as to who she was.

“This is your partner, Ichijou.”

“Huh?”

“No no no, that’s too impressive of a t.i.tle for me…….phew, there we go.”

The woman laid the boxes--that she impressively managed to carry, considering her stature--onto the table, then proceeded to hastily smooth out her wrinkled suit.

“She’s one of our star rookies. C’mon, hurry up and introduce yourself.”

“R-Right.”

The woman bashfully came out from behind the boxes and greeted Ichijou.

“You’re…!”

She had her hair cut short, but Ichijou had met with that face before.

“I’m Mika Natsume, a.s.signed to the Section 1 Special Investigations Department 4th Office! It’s a pleasure to be working with you!”

After nervously paying her respects, she spoke to Ichijou with a bit of unease.

“...Do you remember me?”

“Of course...I haven’t seen you since I came to tell you about the case’s resolution at your father’s grave.”

“Yes.”

“I see… So you’ve become a police officer!”

“Yes…”

Ichijou could see a myriad of different feelings mix together on her face as she was nodding.

“And I see you’ve grown…...by not very much, huh?”

“Ah, y-yes…”

“Oh, sorry about that.”

Perhaps it was because that she did not look much different from her 14-year old self, but for whatever reason, Ichijou was able to comfortably chat with her.

“It’s fine...I know myself that I haven’t even grown 2 centimeters since then, even though I’m 27 now.... If I hadn’t had chosen to join this line of work, I could’ve been able to wear some high heels.”

“No no, that’s not it at all. You’ve grown to look very mature. I was surprised.”

“I appreciate you telling me that. But, I want people to judge me by my ability and not my appearance.”

As she smiled, that innocence from back then floated up. If she were to put on a high school uniform, she could pa.s.s off as a high schooler without any trouble at all. It was difficult for Ichijou to believe that she was actually standing in front of him as a detective.

“Then, to introduce myself again, I’m Ichijou from the Public Welfare Department Section 3, pleased to be working with you.”

Ichijou took out his business card, causing Mika to hastily take out her own with a “Oh, y-yes, um…”, to which Sugita chided in.

“You idiot, you’re supposed to take yours out first!”

“Yes, sir…”

“Really now, just how many years has it been?”

“5 years, sir…”

She should have been already accustomed to the workplace by now, but it was apparent that she still wracked with nervousness. Ichijou took the chance to help her out.

“I’m guessing you started working here around the time I went to America?”

“Yes…actually, I’ve seen you a couple times since I joined here. It’s just that I never got a chance to greet you, so...I’m sorry for being so late.”

Responding to Mika, who bowed as low as possible to show her respect, Ichijou bowed as well.

“No no, it’s my fault for not noticing you.”

13 years ago, after the case involving the Unidentified Lifeforms was wrapped up, Ichijou returned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department from the Nagano department and became the Section 1 Chief. A couple years later, he transferred to the Anti-Organized Crime Department, then going overseas to study anti-international terrorism. He then returned to j.a.pan and moved to the position he is in now.

On the other hand, after graduating from college, Mika began her career as one of the few female officers, and joined the force as a member of the s.h.i.+buya Regional Division 1st Office. Her rank was of a lieutenant while gaining experience at the police box, transferring to the White-Collar Crime Department the following year. After studying information gathering at the Anti-Organized Crime Department Section 1 2nd Office, she chose on her own volition to transfer to the Nagano Security Department, and 3 years later returned to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

13 years ago, when Mika’s father was murdered by Unidentified Lifeform No. 0, frustrated at the case’s slow progress, Mika and her mother went to visit the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Unfortunately at that time, Unidentified Lifeform No. 14 attacked, upon which Ichijou had difficulty countering. To make things worse, when Mika visited Jounan University, she felt that her father’s death was being neglected and threatened to commit suicide. Her destination was the Futtsu coast of Chiba-ken. With the only clue to go off being a sh.e.l.l from her pendant, Yusuke managed to find her without any problem. As the sun set, Ichijou rushed towards Mika with a relieved “Thank goodness you’re safe”. Mika, who felt sure that he was going to scold her, had all of her tension melt away as she cried saying “I’m sorry”. The s.h.i.+ne of those tears remained in Ichijou’s memory to this very day. And at the same time, it reinforced the weight behind the position of being a police officer.

I wonder what feelings led her to end up taking the path of the police officer?

 

The following day, Ichijou and Mika headed for Gifu via the Nozomi line at about 6 o’clock. Right after their reunion yesterday, Sugita asked them to reinvestigate the victims of the hornet case. Surprisingly, it led to quite the unexpected development.

“Excuse me, do you mind if I ask you something?”

Mika straightforwardly approached Sugita.

“Hmm? What’s up.”

“The reason we’re investigating is due to the discovery of jellyfish tissue instead of hornet tissue in the victims of the anaphylactic shock, right?”

“That’s right. But none of the victims had visited the ocean. And jellyfish shouldn’t be popping up in areas not nearby the ocean…”

“That’s not entirely true.”

“Huh?”

“After looking into it, there are jellyfish in areas other than the ocean.”

“What!?”

“The Craspedacusta sowerbii, the only jellyfish that lives in freshwater in j.a.pan.”

Sugita was caught by surprise, turning to exchange faces with Ichijou. Within the 50 years of his life, he had never heard of such a thing. Seeing that the basis for all of his reasoning might just crumble apart right there, he felt his blood faintly begin to boil. He even went through all that trouble making arrangements at the Public Welfare Department. As Ichijou felt as if he was losing his way, Mika continued with a smile.

“But they’re extremely small, with an average length of 2 centimeters, meaning that people rarely ever see them. Their poison isn’t strong enough to have any significant effect on people either, so they’re pretty much unrelated to this case.”

“d.a.m.n it...don’t scare me like that!”

“I’m sorry, I just felt that it was important to be as thorough as possible regarding the details of the investigation.”

“...Alright, then. What a star officer you are!”

Sugita lightly slapped Mika’s shoulders, ending the light banter session as an interesting trivia lesson.

 

“According to the report we received last night…”

Arriving at the Tokyo Station the following morning, Mika went over their information with Ichijou.

“After re-examining the photos of the corpse, evidence of multiple points of filamentous contact dermat.i.tis was indeed discovered. This would most likely mean that the wounds were inflicted by some kind of thin tentacle wrapping around the victim for an instant. This is just my theory, but it might be that the poison was injected during the action of a handshake for an example.”

With an iPad in hand, Mika had been doing a wonderful job in organizing all the information they had gathered thus far. Ichijou, who had been watching Mika work on it while they were in the train, couldn’t help but be incredibly impressed. Her summary of the investigation was very accurate, along with updating any unanswered questions with new info. She had a straightforward att.i.tude with the strongest vigor she could muster. She’s really become a detective, thought Ichijou, gazing at her with immense pride. Mika then turned towards him.

“Did you need to look into something?”

“No, instead, how about you tell me your outlook on everything so far? Have you realized anything after organizing all the information together?”

“Have I realized anything? Hmm…”

Mika appeared to be stuck. Well, it can’t be helped, thought Ichijou. For detectives, insight was something that had to be grown from experience. Putting aside being able to effectively organize information, detectives needed to develop hunches based on what they’ve already experienced. Without that, taking the next step in solving the case would prove to be very difficult. While Ichijou was thinking about that, Mika spoke to Ichijou with hesitance.

“...I can’t really say for sure…”

“Eh?”

“Oh, no, I just, somehow feel like something’s not right, like if a puzzle piece is missing or something…”

“What would that be? If there’s any specific element you feel concerned over, we should go over that.”

“No, I haven’t gone that far yet…”

Mika once again fell back into silence before suddenly making a face as if she’s remembered something. She looked around the train to make sure no one was listening, and carefully spoke to Ichijou.

“Um, I feel that we should go further back in investigating the victims’ whereabouts.”

“And why’s that?”

“The jurisdiction’s report only has information about the day the blanktims(victims) deceased. Generally speaking, that might be enough for a blanktim of anaphylactic shock. But if it was the work of a UL(Unidentified Lifeform), it wouldn’t be that unlikely that some kind of antigen substance was growing since a while back. For example, 13 years ago, blanktims that came into contact with UL41 would have a needle form within them after 4 days or so.”

In the off-chance that anyone would catch what Mika was saying, she intentionally spoke euphemistically. It was clear that she was referring to the incident involving the Yama Aras.h.i.+ Unidentified Lifeform No. 41. It would inject thin needles into its victims’ heads, and then alter its shape 4 days later without fail, leading the victims to their deaths.

“You have a point there… Why don’t we go see if we can figure out what they were doing a week beforehand then.”

 

The Nozomi train the two of them had boarded arrived at Nagoya right on time at 7:36. They would have to get on the Chuo Line before reaching their destination, Ena Yamaoka-cho, but the next train would take another 20 minutes to arrive.

“Ichijou-san, let’s run!”

“Eh?”

Before Ichijou even got a chance to ask her why, she ran off in an instant. He reluctantly chased after her, thinking Mika might have been planning to get on the Line 10 train that had stopped at the JR junction. However, she continued pa.s.sed Line 5 and 6, and then 3 and 4, and stopped at Line 1 and 2 which was heading for Tokyo.

“Natsume-kun! Just where are you going…!?”

She had stopped at a kis.h.i.+men noodle food stall.

“Haa…haa...when you’re in Nagoya, you just got to have some kis.h.i.+men noodles! After looking into it, this was the most highly recommend spot!”

“...I see.”

While Ichijou stood there blinking in surprise, Mika went ahead and ordered exactly what her research recommended her, fried kis.h.i.+men noodles. Apparently the main draw was that the dish was prepared on the spot, rather than it being pre-made. Thinking along the lines of “that’s a youngster for you” as he watched Mika chow down on tempura first thing in the morning, Ichijou went ahead and ordered some noodles that would be heavy on his stomach. After all, depending on how the investigation proceeds, he might not have time to eat lunch.

“This really is delicious! Ichijou-san, have you ever had kis.h.i.+men--Ah!!”

“What’s wrong!?”

“You grew up in Nagoya, didn’t you? I completely forgot! Yet I was acting all high and mighty…”

Mika’s devastation was easily apparent. Ichijou chugged down the remaining bonito soup, and spoke to Mika with a smile.

“No, it’s fine. I haven’t had this in years, so it was great that I got to try some again. I commuted to high school via bicycle, so I haven’t had kis.h.i.+men noodles by the station since I was in elementary school. It brought back memories of me eating with my father.”

“Really? Oh, thank goodness...wait, it’s already 7:54! We have to hurry! Oh, thank you for the meal! It was delicious!”

The energetic Mika flashed the stall attendant a smile. That brilliance that Ichigou had not been around this past couple years helped him forget about the heavy reality that awaited them, even if for just a moment.

 

Arriving at the Ena station, an officer from the Ena Police Department was waiting for them with a patrol car. They could have reached Yamaoka-cho by taking the Akechi Railway, but it would waste a lot of precious time. After 30 minutes of heading down the Yamaai Road, they had reached Yamaoka-cho. As of right now, they were here to investigate the home of the latest victim, Kiyo Watarai (74 years old). As they got out of the patrol car, they were greeted with freezing winds befitting those of the winter. This place was known as the number 1 manufacturer of cold breezes. Thus, even though it was the summer, many cold breezes could be felt due to active freezers. Kiyo Watari was part of that trade, and had lived in this city his whole life. Ichijou and Mika went to talk to Watarai’s son, Akio Watarai (55 years old), but it seemed like he was still having trouble accepting his mother’s death.

“I already spoke with the Ena Police Department, but I just still can’t believe it. It was just so sudden.”

“So, just to clarify, Kiyo did not go anywhere on the day she pa.s.sed away, correct?”

Mika was asking questions based off the report received from the Ena Police Department.

“Yep, nowhere. She did visit Nagoya to play some gate ball a couple days ago. That day and the previous, she just sat in the living room acting all distant. Then it happened out of nowhere, right when me and my mom came back to have lunch together, it really was out of nowhere. She kept saying it was cold, even though her grandson’s summer vacation was about to start soon, you know? Then hives began breaking out on her face, making it all red, and then she began having trouble breathing…”

At this point, Akio began breaking into tears of sorrow. Mika bit her lip, while Ichijou put on a solemn face.

“I’ve never met anyone as energetic as her. She would say things like she’d be the next Kinsanginsan(a pair of elderly sisters who held the record for living the longest in j.a.pan)... We would say she’d definitely be able to do it…”

In place of Mika, who had lost her words, Ichijou came in with a “We’re truly sorry for your loss”, and continued the questioning.

“Do you know if Kiyo ever went anywhere outside of Nagoya? It could even be from a week before she pa.s.sed away.”

“I don’t think she did… Her daily routine would be to walk the dog, and then head 5 kilos down to the local cafe and have tea, and then come back home. Oh, and on Thursdays she would play gateball.”

“Did she ever say anything about getting stung by anything? Like after getting into a pond or the like?”

“She was a really energetic person, but not to the point where she’d go jumping into ponds, you know. Coming here all the way from Tokyo, you guys sure ask a lot of weird questions.”

“Well, the news hasn’t been able to do coverage on it yet, but we’re working on investigating if these cases were really caused by the hornets or not. We’re trying to look into all the possibilities we can find…”

Mika then opened her mouth once again.

“Um, do you think we could get some specifics on where she went in Nagoya?”

“She went to the castle, Tokyo Tower, and I believe she said that she visited the Oosu area as well.”

He was talking about one of j.a.pan’s most prominent shopping centers, centered around Oosu Kannon. It had maid cafes not unlike those of Akihabara’s, along with many arcades, attracting many young sightseers.

Akio Watari told them everything he knew, but there wasn’t any particularly helpful information.

“She sounded like quite the active lady.”

Mika spoke to herself on the subway on the way back.

“I suppose it would be unlikely that anyone would be able to accept the death of such a person without trouble.”

“Yeah…”

They began to think of their fathers, and spent a while just blankly watching the scenery fly past.

 

After getting back to the Nagoya Station just before noon, they immediately got onto the Kansai line, heading all the way towards Kuwana. After renting a car in front of the station, they continued their investigation of the remaining 8 victims, starting with visiting the 7th one’s living quarters. Only one of them was in the Kuwana city area, with the rest of them being in the Nagoya city area, but this way they could drive to the branch store in front of Nagoya Station and drop it off there, therefore being more cost-efficient.

So far out of the 5 hours spent in the investigation, there weren’t any significant common points the various testimonies shared. The remaining victims to be investigated were all male, with 4 being in their 20s, 2 in their 30s, and 1 in the 40s. The victims in their 20s and 30s were unmarried, along with their family members not being able to give specifics on their actions the last few days, meaning that a lot more time would be required if Ichijou were to investigate further into them.

Their last victim to investigate had lived in Kyoto, the very first victim of the case. In order to get there, they rushed to a bullet train that was heading for Kyoto. By the time they reached his house, which was about as far away as Yasaka Shrine, it was already 7 pm. The victim was Youichi Akas.h.i.+ (32 years old). As a system engineer working at one of the leading IT departments, he was on a business trip for 3 days at Tokyo, 4 days before his death. They investigated his room, but all they found were programming related material, along with what was supposed to be a hobby of collecting pictures of Buddha statues, standing out on the bookcase. Just like with the other victims, they were unable to find any common points, thus ending their search as they exited the house.

Tomorrow, they were to visit the Scientific Investigation Department in Kyoto. They wanted to get a thorough a.n.a.lysis of the information they had gathered so far. The hotel they were to stay at was about 2 kilometers away, so they decided to walk there via an uncrowded street, while going over the results of their investigation.

“There sure were a lot of Rin Togibe fans.”

“Eh?”

Ichijou unconsciously responded so. It was true that 2 of the victims appeared to be quite the fan of hers. One had posters sprawled out all over the walls in his room, while the other had a complete collection of all the CDs she had released so far. However, the investigations of the rooms belonging to all the other victims displayed no such interest.

“Oh, Rin Togibe is--”

“The idol girl who made the ‘Maid of 10,000 Announcement’, right? Dressing up as a maid, 10,000 people got the experience of being her ‘master’, or so I’ve heard.”

The conversation Ichijou had at Pore-Pore came in handy. Ever since then, Ichijou never gave the idol much thought, but he did began to notice the frequency of her appearance in advertis.e.m.e.nts and commercials all over the place, and the reality of her immense popularity set in.

“Even you know about Rin Togibe?”

Mika’s words felt a bit sharp, which was rare for her. It sounded almost as if she was slightly jealous. However, Ichijou simply pa.s.sed it off as a momentary instance of his imagination, and replied to her.

“But there were only 2 of the victims who were like that, right? I wouldn’t exactly call that a lot…”

“No, 4 of them were.”

“4?”

“The 6th victim we looked into, Aoyama, was one. And the Akas.h.i.+, the one we just investigated, was probably one too.”

“What makes you say that?”

“They had the same strap attached to their cell phones.”

“Strap?”

Mika showed Ichijou the pictures she took of their rooms. It was true that the victims shared the same strap on their cell phones, but there was no logo or design that implied they were a fan of Rin Togibe’s. There was a small bell decorating the inside of the ring.

“It’s a rare item that only members of the fan club who completed Rin Togibe’s national event could receive. For the average person, it doesn’t appear to be anything related to Rin. For people who didn’t want their status as a fan to be displayed outright, attaching this strap was actually very common.”

It was a world that Ichijou had no chance of comprehending. Perhaps it was Mika’s youth that allowed her to be more perceptive of such information.

“But even so, that’s only 4 people. It might seem to be too much for just a coincidence, but considering her popularity, it wouldn’t exactly be anything unnatural, don’t you think?”

“...I feel that if