Volume 2, 3: Uchimaku Hayabusa @ Shibuya Girl A(2/7)
We left the station and headed to a plaza surrounded by countless buildings. The plaza doubled as a large bus roundabout and was often used as a meeting point.
I beg you, Mr. Uniformed Police Officer. I’m one of you. Just because I have a girl clinging to my side doesn’t mean you need to glare at me with such suspicion.
“But this Jinmensou issue has a delicate side to it, right? Will she really open up to someone like me? I’m a guy, I’m an adult, and I’m with the police. That’s three distinct boundaries.”
“I’d say it depends on the person. Some girls might want to ask for help from someone larger than themselves.”
“But that girl at your school held some pretty blatant hostility towards me. What was her name? Tomoe-chan?”
“Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. Her situation is a bit unique.”
“No, people like you who can talk to a police officer so cheerfully are the exception.”
“Oh, c’mon, detective. Surely you don’t think you’re a whisky-drinking, trench coat-wearing, tough-looking nice guy who lives in a hard boiled world. You’re more like a cute little animal.”
“I’ll have to disagree if you’re trying to say I fill the role of a mascot. But anyway...”
I trailed off before I could continue.
I sharpened my senses and checked my surroundings again.
The mystery freak called out, “Oh, it’s Tomoe.”
“...”
The same Hachikawa Tomoe-chan from before was glaring our way from in front of a convenience store at the base of one of the large buildings surrounding the plaza.
I suddenly recalled that she had said she would “do this on her own”.
“Hey, mystery freak. She isn’t the high school girl afflicted with a Jinmensou you were talking about, is she?”
I received a blatant click of the tongue in response.
But from Tomoe-chan rather than the mystery freak.
“If that was the case, I wouldn’t use such a roundabout method. It would have been simpler just to talk with you at school.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“...You’re such an idiot. You had enough information to figure that out. If you had thought about it at all, you would have known right away.”
Yes, but it’s my job to ask those things you can “know right away” dozens or even hundreds of times while watching the reaction of the people I ask.
Hachikawa Tomoe-chan pointed at my nose.
“Anyway, I don’t need anyone as useless as you here. If this Shibuya high school girl learns a policeman is here, she might turn right around and run away. Then we will lose any hint we might have gotten.”
“So you’re saying...um...”
“Hachikawa. Hachikawa Tomoe.”
I of course already knew that, but calling her by her name before she had introduced herself would only have increased her distrust of me. Playing dumb could be a real pain.
“Hachikawa-san, are you here to contact the same person as the mystery frea-...I mean, as Hishigami-san?”
“That’s right. I was the one that asked Enbi for help after meeting this girl online. If I had known that would lead to someone as troublesome as you tagging along, I never would have done so!”
I felt a bit bad for the mystery freak, but this was the normal reaction.
It would have been stranger if some boring man wearing a suit was not rejected upon trying to join a group of sensitive adolescent girls.
However...
“We can talk about this later.” I said.
“...What?”
“Move away from the entrance to that convenient store. Pay attention while walking through the city. The siren attached under the eaves is on.”
That was an SOS indicating a robbery.
It had been this I had initially noticed, not Tomoe-chan.
I turned to the mystery freak and said, “I’m going in. You take Hachikawa-san away from here. The robber might try to flee. Stay away from any obvious paths and wait. Understand?”
“Detective, did you bring your handgun?”
“Don’t underestimate me.”
I was of course going to handle this unarmed.
I was a police officer. I would have a chance to be of some use outside of extreme exceptions like Zashou Island where every single villager was guilty and armed with hunting weaponry.
But I frowned in confusion upon subduing the culprit who was shouting while threatening the cashier with something like an awl.
The criminal was a high school girl.
And when her skirt flipped up, I caught a glimpse of something on her thigh.
“...A Jinmensou?”
Part 7
A report had to be submitted in the process of handing the criminal over to the local police station, so my department chief naturally learned of what happened. He shouted angrily at me with incredible force over the phone, but even he seemed hesitant to be too angry since no one was hurt, no damage was done, and the (attempted) robber had been arrested.
As I killed time in the police station’s standard waiting room, a young detective from the station approached me with a clipboard in hand.
“I am Inoue.”
“Hi, I am Uchimaku.”
“Thank you for your help. We will handle investigation if you do not mind.”
“Sure, sure. Um, do I need to sign this?”
“Yes.”
I spoke to Inoue-san while using a ballpoint pen to sign my name on the paperwork on the clipboard.
“I would like to hear her motive if that’s okay.”
“That is fine, but isn’t this more a job for the Life Safety Division than Department 1?”
“...? Has she already said something?”
“A bit.” Inoue-san lowered his voice to a whisper. “This was an attempted robbery, so she was of course after money. However, the main issue is why she wanted that money.”
“...Have you confirmed that she has a Jinmensou?”
“She showed it to us,” replied Inoue-san. “She has a tumor about 5 cm across resembling a human face on her right thigh. It looks similar to the bump left by a bug bite.”
According to the mystery freak, someone could freely cause these Jinmensou to appear or disappear and could therefore threaten the targeted girls. But for a simple robbery?
As I thought, Inoue-san said something I did not expect.
“The girl...Her name is Sayama Yae by the way. She says she needs the money to pay an exorbitant medical fee to treat the Jinmensou.”
“To treat it?”
“Yes.” Inoue-san paused for a beat. “With cosmetic surgery.”
After hearing what I needed to hear, I left the police station. It was already evening. The mystery freak had been troubling the uniformed police officer at the entrance with a barrage of curious questions, but now she ran over to me.
I looked around and asked, “Hey, where’s Hachikawa-san?”
“She left. It looked like this was quite a shock to her.”
“Had it been a shock for a violent crime to occur so nearby or for the person with a hint to the Jinmensou incident to be taken in by the police?”
“More importantly, detective, what did the high school girl who committed that attempted robbery say?”
“I can’t reveal information on an ongoing investigation.”
“Is she in debt over cosmetic surgery that insurance won’t cover?”
“...”
I quickly checked over my suit for any listening devices.
The mystery freak shook her index finger and said, “Tsk tsk. If you think about it, you will come across several odd points, Uchimaku-kun.”
“Oh, is that so.”
“Don’t ignore me!!”
I started to walk to the subway station, but the mystery freak ran up and latched onto my back.
Stop that! That police officer is getting a dangerous look in his eyes!!
“For one thing, it doesn’t make sense to commit a crime after promising to meet with me or Tomoe. I can only think she was planning to get arrested from the beginning. But what would leave her with so few options? I can’t think of very many situations.”
“What if the person who gave her the Jinmensou demanded she bring them money?”
“Then she would have tried to make sure the robbery succeeded.” The mystery freak moved from my back and circled around in front of me. “That high school girl might have been thinking of opposing the person behind the Jinmensou from the moment she initially contacted Tomoe to meet her. But she must have reached some sort of limit in the time between then and now. Since it was a robbery, it must have to do with money. And if the girl was trying to oppose the Jinmensou, then it isn’t hard to guess how she would do so.”
If the Jinmensou disappeared, she would have nothing more to fear.
So she would remove it by force.
But it was a giant tumor 5 cm across on her thigh. This was different from healing a pimple. If she used a blade to cut it off, she would need to call an ambulance.
In that case, it would be quickest to leave it to a professional.
But...
“What good would it do to have the Jinmensou surgically removed? I thought you suspected the criminal could somehow cause the Jinmensou to appear and disappear. And this is a Youkai that appears as a symbol of lies and sins. Won’t it just appear again if you try to forcibly remove it?”
“Perhaps. But how is that a problem for the clinic being paid to remove it?”
“...”
“If a Jinmensou appears, they can surgically remove it. If it appears again, they can surgically remove it again. ...That cycle is perfect for them. It ensures repeat customers, so the clinic probably loves it. It’s entirely possible they have been whispering something about these Jinmensou just like they use the characteristics of obesity and acne to their advantage in their advertisements.”
We had been assuming the criminal was using the isolated system of a school, but cosmetic surgery did seem to provide the criminal with more to gain.
No matter how deeply the cosmetic surgery clinic was related to this as a whole, it seemed we needed to look into it.
Part 8
At 11:30 that night, I finished my work for the day and decided to leave the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. When I reached the first floor lobby, Toujou-san from the Life Safety Division entered with a lot of subordinates in tow.
“Huh? Were you out for a nighttime raid?” I asked.
“Yes. In fact, you’re the one that gave us this extra work.”
“?”
“We stopped by the cosmetic surgery clinic related to the Jinmensou. We checked any places that had received an unnatural number of new patients recently and found it right away. It was Kaguya Beauty Clinic in Harajuku. It was a stereotypical ‘pitfall’.”
“Ah...”
So it was an illegal business that targeted minors. This was common with OB/GYN, cosmetic surgery, or other clinics that deal with delicate issues. They would charge exorbitant prices and then open up pathways to various underground means of earning money for those who could not pay. These “pitfalls” were designed so people would not be able to pay.
This had mostly started after all abortions in which the mother’s life was not threatened had been banned by the Newborn Protection Law meant to fight the tide of Japan’s low birthrate. These sorts of business had started appearing and spreading what fields they dealt in.
“So where did this pitfall lead? A subcontractor in charge of phone scams?”
“A group that stockpiles cell phones and resells them. It does not look suspicious if high school girls constantly buy the latest phones. This might be related to a large criminal organization. Now we need to meet with the Organized Crime Countermeasures Division. Thanks for the all-nighter you gave us, Uchimaku-kun. Maybe I’ll treat you to something later.”
“...Was the clinic involved in giving the girls the Jinmensou?”
If so, all the loose ends had been tied up.
Toujou-san shrugged and said, “We looked through everything, but that was probably done elsewhere.”
“Do you have proof of that?”
“The disturbance was too great. If Kaguya Beauty Clinic controlled everything, they would have kept it all on a lower scale that would have been harder to find.”
I see.
That meant the clinic was simply profiting off of something someone else was causing.
The true criminal behind it all was elsewhere.
“Understood. Call me if it looks like you’ll need Department 1 for anything.”
“It is our job in the Life Safety Division to ensure you are not needed.”
I parted ways with Toujou-san and left the building.
It was very late at night, but the roads still had cars on them. That said, there were not many options when it came to eating out. Bars would still be open, but they got expensive if you used them as a primary source of food.
I had no choice but to enter a nearby convenience store and put a microwaveable side dish into a shopping basket.
That was when I ran into the mystery freak.
“Detective.”
“I’m going to stop asking how you always show up like this. And I won’t tell you anything about the clinic. That’s police information.”
“I doubt you found anything. That clinic itself was nothing important.”
“The clinic itself?” I asked as the mystery freak grabbed a package of drinkable yogurt.
“I was able to get my hands on a list of people who used Kaguya Beauty Clinic. It wasn’t just high school girls. The list contains everyone from housewives to elementary school kids. But I recognized some of the names on the list.”
In this case, she did not simply mean she saw the names of some acquaintances.
She went on to say, “Detective, do you remember the SNS murders case you solved back in May?”
“What about it?”
“Go back over it again. That will tell you how deep this goes.”
How deep.
That was what the mystery freak said.
“Can I assume something dangerous is lurking down below all this?”
“If there was not, I would not give you such an unnatural warning. You were the one who directly solved that case even if I helped a bit. The ones behind the Jinmensou likely view you as the most dangerous person to them. So what if you do not stop at the beauty clinic and dig deeper? The odds are good the criminals will take direct action against you.”
“Understood.” I checked on the contents of my basket. “If they introduce themselves so obviously, I will have an easier time arresting them.”
The mystery freak smiled a bit and patted my shoulder.
“You’ll be fine with that mindset. ...But really be careful. If I’m right, these aren’t people who will hold back from attacking just because their enemy is a police officer.”
Enbi headed on to the register, paid for her drinkable yogurt, and left the store.
That mystery freak was accustomed to mysterious serial murders, so this must be truly dangerous if she felt the need to warn me so seriously.
I decided to remain focused as I paid at the register and left the convenience store.
But...
I never thought I would be taken out not even 50 meters from the convenience store.
A sudden blunt blow to the back of my head sent me to the ground where I was then assaulted by a storm of violent kicks and punches.
Part 9
When I came to, I was in the police hospital.
The sky outside the window was orange. I assumed it was dawn, but it turned out to be sunset. The electrodes attached to me and tube on my arm were enough to tell me something horrible had happened to me.
“You aren’t looking too good,” said Toujou-san of the Life Safety Division from where he sat on a folding chair.
I frowned in the hospital bed and asked, “Um, why are you here, Toujou-san?”
“The witness report said it was a group of boys. As a street fight, it was handed over to our division. ...I’m not sure how anyone could tell exactly how old they were since it was dark and they were wearing full face helmets, but people tend to assume late night attacks like that are the work of boys.” Toujou-san gave a slight smile. “But they have guts to attack and try to kill a police officer. We’ll make sure to find who did this.”
“...Um, what exactly is the situation? My memories are hazy after the first hit, so I don’t really know what happened.”
I doubted I had been able to escape in that situation.
Had this enemy simply been giving me a warning instead of trying to kill me?
Or had something caused them to stop before they finished the job?
“Oh, is that so? The attack occurred in the early morning last night near a convenience store in Ochanomizu. A group of four or five helmeted males – well, technically we don’t know for sure they were male, but that’s what the witness said – beat you to a pulp on the side of the road. But the attackers ran off when the witness screamed. It seems the attackers were speaking Japanese.”
“I see. Good....”
It was not my survival I was glad of.
It was that this witness had not been hurt after letting out that scream.
And if I was the only victim, that meant the mystery freak had not been involved despite being nearby.
Toujou-san toyed with the remote to the room’s TV.
“What do you think of the situation, Uchimaku?”
“I don’t like it.”
I had been injured just after receiving a warning.
Unless some unrelated group of boys had coincidentally decided to attack me at that moment, the attacker’s intent might very well have been to assassinate me.
In this country, not many deadly weapons were easily obtained.
But it took skill to sneak up behind a detective who had some knowledge of judo and kendo.
Had the attackers run away when the witness screamed because they had decided killing the witness as well would make the attack stand out too much?
If that was the case...
Whoever was behind the attack had not given up on taking my life. The odds were good they would try to use some other method of eliminating me.
“Don’t look so grim. I don’t know who did this, but they can’t do anything while you are here in the police hospital. You can stay here until I put an end to this.”
“I can’t do that.”
If my opponent saw street violence as but one card among many options with which to kill me, they might be a highly skilled specialist.
It was possible they possessed a card that allowed them to kill a target in a police hospital while making it look like the target’s condition merely took a turn for the worse.
The police hospital may have been secure, but my location could not be hidden while I was hospitalized.
If the enemy arrived to kill me, my safety was not guaranteed.
I gathered my strength to sit up and felt a dull pain in my head and across the rest of my upper body. I grimaced, but ignored with the pain. I could not remain on the defensive. To survive, I had to go on the offensive and hunt down the identity of my enemy.
“Wait, wait. Aren’t you getting a little too hot-blooded? Are you okay?”
“No. It’s because I’m a coward that I feel the need to go on the offensive here.”
Merely changing from the hospital gown and into my suit was enough to make me want to scream, but I had to bear with it.
“I want to talk with the person who saved my life. Can you get me that information?”
“I can, but you explain this to your department chief. I’m not going to save you from him.” Toujou-san pulled out a notepad and flipped through the pages. “Let’s see, it was a student from Ochanomizu. Her name is Hachikawa Tomoe-san. She is a minor in middle school, so be careful with how you handle this. At her age, the people around her will probably make a bigger deal out of this than she will.”
Part 10
Hachikawa Tomoe-chan, the witness of the attack, lived in a family-oriented apartment in Ochanomizu. It was seven in the evening, so I was not sure if the pillar of the family, the father, would be home yet. I could smell the scents of dinner being prepared.
...What a pain.
The situation would be a lot easier to handle if both parents were home. I did not want the father thinking I had intentionally come by while he was away.
The front entrance automatically locked, so I could not even enter the apartment building. I entered the room number to call them over the intercom. As expected, Hachikawa Tomoe-chan’s mother sounded displeased when I said I was a police detective. Although she did not start talking about warrants and lawyers based on what she had seen on TV dramas, so it could have been worse.
But I needed her consent. If she refused to let me in, there was nothing I could do. If I abused my power and claimed she was obstructing the duties of a public servant, I would be stuck writing an apology in the seiza position by the end of the day. I would probably have my pay reduced for a week as well.
What is she going to do?
Just as I started wondering that, I heard footsteps belonging to someone other than the mother. The mother then called out the name Tomoe. The speaker then produced the sound of a door opening. I tilted my head in puzzlement and Hachikawa Tomoe-chan came running out to the front of the apartment building before long.
“D-dete-detective!? What are you doing out of the hospital!? You were bleeding so much!”
“My injuries were not life threatening. And even if I am a police officer, I am still a working member of society. Everyone knows you have to work if you are able.”
“Everyone knows that...?”
“Well, I know I look pretty pathetic with all these bandages, but I’m doing fine. You don’t need to worry about me. More importantly, do you mind if I ask some questions about last night? The attack might have been related to the Jinmensou incident.”
“...”
Tomoe-chan fell silent.
Finally, she opened her mouth to speak.
“Why are you pursuing this so seriously? This is just another job to you. Unlike me, you have plenty of other incidents to worry about.”
I decided it was best to hide the fact that I wanted a chance to strike back before the enemy could make their next move. It was likely out of guilt over not being able to save me that she was actually speaking with me and being fairly polite.
“I can’t say this is the job I want to work on most, but it comes in second. I do my job because I want to, so I am willing to risk my life for it. Is that so strange?”
“...You’re an idiot,” muttered Tomoe-chan. “But you might have more guts than that person.”
...That person?
She may have been referring to the person that had caused her dislike of the police.
But gathering information about the attack came first.
“It would be a huge help if you could go through everything you know about last night’s attack. First of all, what were you doing there?”
“That convenience store may be a good distance from here, but it is a convenient place for reading magazines without buying them. I use it as a destination when I go jogging.”
“...You jog that late at night?”
“I do it just before going to bed. My mom-...My parents let me as long as I keep my cell phone’s GPS on.”
Hachikawa Tomoe-chan had a nice figure wrapped in supple muscles, so she did seem the type who would be mindful of such things.
“Okay, about the attackers then. I remember nothing beyond the first strike from behind. Do you know where they came from or where they went when they left?”
“...? It wasn’t toward the subway station. I think they ran off in the direction of some convoluted back alleys.”
“Were they on foot or did they have a vehicle?”
“I don’t know. They ran away on foot, but they might have had a vehicle waiting further on.”
“I was attacked with blunt weapons, but did do you remember what those were?”
“Hmm... I think one guy had some kind of stick. And one had a sock.”
“A sock?”
“It was long and stretched out. It was swollen like something was stuffed inside. Something to weigh down one end.”
This was going to be difficult. If they did not all use the same sort of weapon, I had less of a hint for my investigation.
If they had used weapons that not many people have such as stun guns or a special sort of baton, I might have been able to hunt them down based on the information alone.
I asked a few more questions, but did not receive much useful information. Partway through, I changed my tactic to seeing if Tomoe-chan was lying, but I saw nothing suspicious in her words or eye movements.
“Thank you very much.”
“...You’re welcome.”
“Just to be safe, you should probably stop your nighttime jogs for the time being. Do you mind if I tell your parents that as well?”
“Tell them whatever you want,” said Tomoe-chan while averting her gaze. She then added, “But I will not stop pursuing this Jinmensou incident.”
“...”
Oh, come on.
Don’t you know that is much more dangerous than your nighttime jogs?
You’re looking right at a man who was beaten to a pulp over it.
“I can’t leave it to that person. I would just get an arbitrary promise and nothing would ever actually be done about it.”
“Um, you mentioned ‘that person’ before as well. Do you mean Hishigami Enbi-san?”
At their school, Tomoe-chan had told the mystery freak she would do this on her own because she could not trust a police detective.
But...
“Eh? Oh. No, no. It isn’t her. I have no reason to blame Enbi.”
“Then...”
“It doesn’t matter who it is,” cut in Tomoe-chan sharply. “But if you don’t know, that means Enbi really did keep quiet about it.”
“...”
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
This is starting to sound dangerous.
Not only was Hachikawa Tomoe-chan hiding something, but the mystery freak knew what it was. I had a feeling it would be dangerous to not get the information out of her here, but she was not a suspect. I could not forcibly interrogate her, so there was nothing I could do if she was not willing to tell me.
...I’ll get it out of the mystery freak later.
“Anyway, I will pursue this Jinmensou incident no matter what happens. Detective, you should not be wandering around with your injuries. You should get back to the hospital. Good night.”
Tomoe-chan then ran back into the apartment building. The lock activated, so I could not pursue her further.
“...Now then.”
What could I do now besides asking the mystery freak for information related to Hachikawa Tomoe?
The day before, the mystery freak had told me to check the list of people who used Kaguya Beauty Clinic and to look for a connection to the SNS murders from May.
It pained me to simply do what the mystery freak told me to do, but it was my best bet.
Part 11
But despite my attempt to look cool, the real world was not the same as a police drama-->>