rents led me to the empty girl’s room. It seemed the report of her having gone missing in April was accurate. The room was attentively cleaned, but showed no sign of being lived in.

“It may be a problem to hear this, but we are not all that worried,” said Tsumada Mio’s father with a slightly sad smile. “She has always been good at grasping how things work. She is probably making use of some structure of society to provide herself with a new place to live.”

“...Do you mind if I look through any notes or memos of hers?”

“No, but the...what was it? Life safety? Anyway, the group that deals with children already went over it.”

“Just to be sure.”

I looked around the room while taking a mental note to ask Toujou-san or someone else from the Life Safety Division for the data later.

It was a stereotypical room with a desk, a bed, and a bookshelf. But it seemed lacking in entertainment. I could see almost no electronics. Not only did it not have a TV, but it had no audio equipment either.

When I pointed that out, the father scratched his head and said, “I do not know what it is called, but she had one of those things that is about the size of a notebook. The ones you use your fingers directly on the screen with.”

“A tablet computer?”

“Yes, that’s it. She used it for both movies and manga.”

“Do you know where that tablet is?”

“Mio-chan took it with her.”

That was too bad.

That may have been why I could not find a school bag despite seeing plenty of textbooks.

If she used it that heavily, it was probably filled with personal information and information on her friends.

If she kept her data on the cloud, I might be able to access it via the internet provider, but teenagers like her tended to be more sensitive about personal information than adults. If she had kept the cloud setting off, it would be impossible to reach the tablet’s data.

I ended up just checking through what was in the room.

I found a notepad with a ton of small photo stickers on it, but I doubted it would help me find where she had gone. I could check who the people in the photos were, but the Life Safety Division would have already done that. And they were probably just friends from school.

There were a lot of the photo stickers and she was photographed with both boys and girls. Given how many of them there were, I doubted they were all from just one class. Either her social network extended beyond just her class or she was involved in clubs or the student council.

From what I could see, I doubted she had made some huge mistake during the class change in April like the mystery freak had suggested. She seemed like the type who would make herself the center of the class wherever she ended up.

“Okay, this might be painful to think back on, but did anything about your daughter change just before she disappeared?”

“What?”

“For example, did she suddenly start wearing stockings or tights as if to hide her skin?”

“Now that you mention it,” muttered Tsumada Mio’s father.

For the convenience store robbery girl, it had been on the thigh. Even so, it was too soon to assume it always appeared on the thigh. But still...

“She started wearing the bottom of a track suit below the skirt of her school uniform. I told her to stop because it was indecent, but she said it was popular in her class.”

It seemed I needed to check the school she went to.

“By any chance did you ever see below those pants?”

“Of course not. That would be below her skirt. She is hardly the age to be bathing with her father. I doubt even my wife would know.”

In the end, all I knew was that Tsumada Mio had started to hide her legs before she went missing. The situation would change greatly depending on whether there had actually been a Jinmensou there or not.

“No, wait a second,” said the father suddenly.

“What is it?”

“I never saw Mio-chan’s legs, but I know someone who might have.”

“Who is that?”

Someone who would have seen her thighs below a miniskirt? Her boyfriend maybe?

However, my guess was wrong.

“Her school had a physical examination just before she went missing. It is possible the health teacher saw her legs.”

I used my cell phone to call Tsumada Mio’s school.

Given the time, most of the faculty had left the school already, but when I explained this was related to a police investigation, I was eventually connected to the teacher in question.

The middle-aged female voice told me, “Y-yes. Tsumada Mio-san had a large tumor in the shape of a human face on her right thigh.”

Part 15

“Bingo.” I met up with the mystery freak after leaving the apartment. “In April, before the SNS murders in May, Tsumada Mio already had a Jinmensou.”

“Just to be sure, is it possible the health teacher was lying?”

“It’s possible, but this makes sense.”

“What do you mean?”

“Her personal notepad was covered in small photo stickers, so she must have had a lot of friends. She was popular. So why did she disappear in April during the class change? She wouldn’t have had any complaints about her school life.”

“What if she did not disappear of her own free will?”

“Or her position in the school changed once the Jinmensou was discovered during the physical examination in April.”

Enbi frowned slightly.

“But she defended against it by wearing the track suit pants below her skirt, right? I doubt she would have let it be revealed so easily. Couldn’t she have come up with a reason to delay her examination until after school when everyone else was gone?”

“At the very least, the health teacher knew about the Jinmensou,” I said calmly. “But people are not perfect. The teacher might have told someone.”

“...That would have been terrible,” groaned the mystery freak in a low voice.

As someone at the same sensitive age, she may have been able to more clearly imagine what a tragedy that would have been.

“We still do not know if this Jinmensou is the same as the ones related to the incident connecting back to the SNS murders. But we can explain it if it is.”

“How?”

“As a test case. The criminals are trying to ostracize any child from their school with a Jinmensou. That way they can manipulate their parents who are managers or large shareholders. If they fail, they make an enemy of adults with a lot of power. In that case, they would want to test it out beforehand. They would want to prove they could ostracize even the most popular kid in a class.”

“The SNS murders did not come to light until May, but the trouble that prevented them from manipulating the adults must have happened before that. And once the SNS plan failed, the criminal group would have prepared for their next project.”

“And after they proved they could ostracize a popular kid with a Jinmensou, they prepared to use it on a larger scale...which is what we are seeing now.”

“Wait.” The mystery freak placed a hand on her chin. “So in Tsumada Mio’s case, they had yet to fully establish their Jinmensou Package, right? They would not have deemed it a success just by viewing her from a distance. They might have made a slight mistake and left some hint to the person behind all this.”

“Or Tsumada Mio might have seen something herself.”

Either way, it seemed Tsumada Mio’s circumstances were different from the other victims. And even if that was not the case, I still needed to find a way to protect her and soon. Given the circumstances, I was not easygoing enough to optimistically think she had simply run away from home and would be back eventually.

“I’m heading back into work. I want to go through the data the Life Safety Division gathered on her. Mystery freak, what will you do?”

“I want to go into the Metropolitan Police Department with you.”

“It’s too late for a field trip.”

“Then I will try to track down Tsumada Mio on my own. I don’t know how far I can get, though.”

“Do as you wish.”

“Don’t forget that you were attacked yesterday. Detective, you are probably still standing in a very hot position.”

And then we heard a footstep.

The mystery freak and I turned around to find Hachikawa Tomoe-chan. She was wearing stylish sportswear and spats, but I had no idea if that was the uniform of her school or a teen brand. I had forgotten she was Tsumada Mio’s neighbor. If she was out now, she may have moved her night jogs to the evening.

Or perhaps she was attempting to track down Tsumada Mio as well.

The mystery freak tried to keep her voice as tender as possible as she spoke.

“Tomoe.”

“I will not stop,” cut in Tomoe-chan. “I will not stop no matter what. ...Detective, do not become the same as that person.”

After spitting out that comment, she disappeared into the apartment building.

In the end, I forgot to ask Hachikawa Tomoe-chan who “that person” was.

Part 16

Fortunately, I was not beaten up on the streets two days in a row.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department was a government office, so it of course had set work hours. However, the type of work we did meant it had almost no limits on overtime. For serious cases such as serial killers, it was common to work 70 hours straight and seeing people napping with a blanket on the floor was not unusual.

But the place was still mostly empty in the middle of the night.

All of the lights were off in the building and it was covered in the same eeriness as a hospital after lights out.

Inside, Toujou-san from the Life Safety Division said, “It’s a good thing you caught me before I left.”

“Sorry about this.”

“You needed the investigation data on Tsumada Mio, right? That case is not being treated with any importance. We deemed it to be a girl running away from home of her own free will. We investigated the Tsumada household with the family’s consent, but we did not find much.”

“It seems she had quite a lot of friends, so could she have gone to a friend’s house when she ran away?”

“No. It seems something happened to Tsumada Mio just before she disappeared. We decided she ran away because her social standing in school collapsed. I doubt she would have relied on someone from school.”

“Um, I saw her notepad and it had quite a lot of photo stickers on it. Would all of those people really have turned against her?”

“Some people just want to see someone popular fall. Having a lot of friends does not say anything about the strength or depth of those friendships.”

“...”

Then where did Tsumada Mio disappear to?

Four months had passed since then. I doubted a kid could rent an apartment just by saving up her allowance. Not to mention that she would need a guarantor to sign the contract.

Was she using a facility like an internet café? Or had she pretended to be in high school to get a part-time job?

I could come up with a few ideas, but none of them seemed realistic. She was a middle school girl. At that age, she was supposed to be protected by her parents or another guardian. If she was forcing herself to live independently, she would stand out enough for a uniformed police officer or someone else to notice.

“I heard Tsumada Mio disappeared with her tablet computer. Did you check the GPS?”

“All of those obvious functions were turned off. She hasn’t been communicating using it at all. We have been sharing information with other police stations, but have found nothing. Okay, I’ve sent the data related to Tsumada Mio to your computer. If you want more accurate data, head to the archives room. The number is...”

After jotting down the number, I bowed in thanks to Toujou-san once more.

“Sorry about keeping you for so long.”

“It’s fine, it’s fine. I can still just barely make the last train. Tell me now if you need anything else. If I have to turn around again, you’re paying for my taxi. Got it?”

Toujou-san then quickly left the dimly lit floor.

Now that I was truly alone, I turned toward my computer.

I did not care how trivial it was.

I just wanted any kind of hint I could find that would lead me to Tsumada Mio.

“...”

I scrolled through the information for a bit, but none of it stood out to me. It included some personal information I had not known, but I could have found any of it on my own if I had taken the time.

But...

“...Huh?”

After a bit of scrolling, the text grew corrupted. The attached image files were so corrupted I could not tell what they were supposed to show.

Had they been damaged during the transmission process?

I turned toward the hallway, but Toujou-san had likely already left the building. And he had said he would just barely make the last train. I could not bring myself to call him back now.

Fortunately, he had told me the file number ahead of time.

“I guess I have to check the paper files in the archives room...”

I walked down the hallway and put some change into a vending machine selling breads with different foods inside. Food and drink were not allowed in the archives room, so I ate a korokke bread before continuing on my way.

The building was empty enough in the middle of the night, but I truly was the only person in the archives room. I walked along the metal shelves lined up like in a library and pulled out the clear file folder I needed. I carried that giant folder with me and sat down at a reading desk.

I used the narrow field of light from a desk lamp to read through the text.

It detailed the information regarding the investigation of Tsumada Mio’s disappearance. It listed the date of her disappearance as well as various details about her before and after her disappearance: what she had said and done, her relationship with her friends, any sightings of her, how much money she was thought to have, etc. However, none of it seemed it would help me.

How had she lived during the four months since her disappearance?

And where was she now?

“I guess this is all they’ll have for a disappearance with no hint of foul play,” I muttered out loud.

The police would not treat a simple disappearance as an important incident. And when it looked so much like she had voluntarily run away from home due to her personal circumstances, not much would be done. Her information would be sent to the police around the country and we would hope one of them would find her.

“Hm?”

As I reflected on that fact, something seemed off to me.

I lifted the thick file folder up a bit. It was quite heavy. The report was at least as thick as a dictionary.

But why?

Cases of runaway girls were fairly common, so why had such a thick folder been created for Tsumada Mio’s case?

I was confused.

But I was not given enough time to find an answer.

With a loud zapping noise, an arm circled around from behind and pressed a torn electric cord against the center of my chest.

“Gah...gh...!?”

I heard a loud thud. It was the sound I made when I collapsed from my chair. My vision had been turned sideways, but I could see someone looking down at me from above.

Is this person...insane? Murdering someone...inside the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department...!?

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s fairly common for police officers to kill themselves inside the police department. Although they almost always use a handgun.” The speaker seemed to be grinning. “Also, I doubt this will be enough to kill you. Most people who try to commit suicide outside of their home will prepare multiple tools in case the first one does not finish the job properly. ...And sometimes they will persuade a decent normal person to help.”

When I heard the person’s voice, I finally figured out what was going on.

The corrupted information...on Tsumada Mio...was not a mistake... It was a trap...to lure me...out to the archives room...!!

“Tou...jou... Toujou...!!”

Strength was gradually returning to my arms and legs, but would he give me the few minutes I needed to recover? Toujou pulled something out of his suit pocket. It was a fruit knife inside a plastic sheath. It was neatly packaged in a plastic bag to keep it from catching on the fabric of his clothes.

“When making a murder look like suicide, it’s important not to make any wounds on the hands that look like they were made in defense. But don’t worry. The investigation will show you stabbed yourself in the throat after the electric cord did not kill you.”

He sounds so delighted!!

Since he was trying to kill me, Toujou was most certainly related to the SNS murders and the Jinmensou. When I thought back, I realized Toujou had been involved in the investigation of the “group of boys” who attacked me, the search of the beauty clinic, and the search for Tsumada Mio.

He had been in the perfect position to limit the information found to keep the investigations from getting anywhere.

The SNS murders had grown to such a large scale that Investigation Department 1 had been called in. They may have kept the Jinmensou incident on such a small scale to make sure it remained within Toujou’s Life Safety Division.

Yet I had taken action this time too.

And I was the one who had put an end to the SNS murders.

Was that why?

“...Toujou...kh...!!”

“You keep calling me Toujou, but who exactly do you mean by that?”

I did not know what he meant.

The person trying to kill me was most certainly the Toujou I knew.

“If you think I am Toujou Miyabi of the Life Safety Division, you are wrong. He happened to share the same family name as me, so it was easier to switch out with him. The real one is buried in a mountain somewhere.”

That bastard!!

“And if you think I am a pawn of those behind the SNS murders and the Jinmensou, you are wrong again. Do not put me in the same category as that pathetic organization that can’t even assemble one little Package. Did you really think I was a pawn of that insider group that thinks they’re such intellectuals? ...What I am interested in is the bug they accidentally created.” Toujou smiled while pulling the fruit knife out of its plastic sheath. “I will find Tsumada Mio. I will use her in a much more wonderful way than they would have. So, well, just give up. The pain will be gone soon.”

In the end...

His mistake was in crouching down so he could put the blade in my hand. He either failed to follow his duty as a police officer or had never been one to begin with, so he gave me what I needed for my counterattack.

I was able to move my arms and legs a bit, but I was still not strong enough to support my body’s weight and sit up.

I somehow managed to reach my arm out toward Toujou’s belt as he crouched down before me.

I found what I was looking for. It was near his right pants pocket.

Hey, Toujou. Real police detectives don’t carry their guns around everywhere like on TV.

If you acted more like the real deal, you wouldn’t have to worry about this!!

In the next instant, several dry gunshots rang out.

“...!!”

With the gun still in its holster, I had removed the safety and pulled the trigger. The bullets strayed too far to the side to injure Toujou, but it still gave him quite a shock. He had been kneeling down near me in order to safely falsify the evidence, but he suddenly moved away from me.

“Gh...!!” I groaned while still unable to stand up.

My face was covered in sweat, but I did not have time to wipe it away.

“O-oh, c’mon. Are you an idiot? At least use a.38.”

After making sure the gun was still in its holster, anger filled Toujou’s face.

He unhesitatingly held up the fruit knife.

“Uchimaku!!”

“If you’re gonna do it, then do it. But everyone in the building will have heard those gunshots. Whoever’s on guard duty will be here before long. 30 seconds maybe?” I sneered at him from the floor. “You can kill me easily enough, but can you dispose of the body? If you can’t, you’re going down with me.”

“Tch!!”

Toujou made up his mind quickly.

He turned back on the safety of his holstered handgun, kicked open the door to the archives room, and ran out. But even if it was the middle of the night, this was the headquarters of Tokyo’s law enforcement. He would not get away that easily.

Not long afterwards, a few uniformed police officers ran into the archives room.

“Hey, why did it take you three minutes to get here?”

“Wh-what happened?” asked the men while looking around at the obvious signs of a struggle and the walls with bullet holes in them.

It seemed I had put a large burden on myself by forcing myself to act as soon as I had. A wave of nausea belatedly hit me and I tried to force it down as I spoke to the men.

“Attempted murder is what happened. Put out a notification for the arrest of Toujou Miyabi...or someone using that name.”

Part 17

I went back over the information in my mind.

Someone was working behind the scenes of a single incident that connected the SNS murders and this Jinmensou incident. While investigating Tsumada Mio’s disappearance to uncover this person, the Life Safety Division detective named Toujou Miyabi had attacked me.

But it seemed he did not belong to the organization behind the Jinmensou.

When talking about Tsumada Mio, he had not been interested in the Youkai-related Package but in a bug created by an adjustment error. The details were unclear, but Toujou Miyabi saw some form of meaning in the bug that Tsumada Mio had become and had therefore taken her from the Jinmensou group.

Now then.

“I was the one who was attacked, so why am I the one in an interrogation room while that bastard Toujou is still walking free?”

I tried to remain calm, but it made no logical sense.

Just as I angrily kicked at the table screwed to the floor, the interrogation room door opened. Mezu Gen entered. He was the department chief for Investigation Department 1.

“You caused quite a commotion.”

“I think you mean I had one forced onto me.”

“I cannot believe there were gunshots in the middle of Tokyo’s law enforcement headquarters. And with a.45 caliber which is not the caliber of the handgun you are issued. ...We could not find the gun in question, so where did it go?”

“I was the one that fired it, but its owner left with it.”

Dammit, Toujou. How did you manage to escape from somewhere as strict as this?

The department chief sighed and his face grew even more wrinkled than usual.

“Investigator Toujou Miyabi left the building over 2 hours ago. And he was not found anywhere in the building at the time. Keep in mind that all of the entrances and exits were sealed the instant those gunshots were heard. What do you make of this situation?”

historical

“He told me the real Toujou Miyabi is buried in a mountain somewhere. What am I supposed to make of that?”

“Uchimaku.” The department chief spoke my name to cut me off. “Think about how I feel when I am woken up and have to head back into work after the last train to deal with a subordinate’s scandal. If you keep up this nonsense, I will snap your neck. Let us speak frankly. I have never liked your jokes. I was being honest with you. Now, be honest with me.”

“Do you think I snuck a.45 caliber handgun past the strict security here to fire wildly into the walls of the archives room? Why would I do that!? What do I gain from that!? Do you seriously believe I did that, department chief!?”

“That is not what I am talking about. No matter how unreasonable it seems, if the evidence at the scene says you are guilty, you are guilty. That is how the system works. So, Uchimaku, clearing your name will be quite difficult. Someone from Department 1 will not have a fun time in jail. Just because you are a former detective, does not mean you will be given a private room.”

“Toujou Miyabi – or someone using his name – used an electric cord to shock me in the archives room. He was about to stab me with a fruit knife to make it look like suicide. I fired the handgun in Toujou’s holster to escape my predicament. Toujou fled with the gun still in his possession. No matter what anyone says, that is the truth!!”

“Uchimaku.”

“He said something about finding special value in Tsumada Mio who he called a bug in a Package! The Jinmensou organization was trying to do something with her, but he said he would steal her from them!! We cannot waste time here. If you insist on restraining me, at least send someone else to search for Tsumada Mio!!”

“...Uchimaku.”

The department chief brought a hand to his forehead and let out a heavy sigh.

He then spoke to me in such a low voice that I could barely hear him.

“I do not often feel like this. It feels like I am rushing down a set of invisible rails. It feels like I am acting according to the plans of someone I have never seen. I am aware of that.”

“...?”

“But I have never seen anyone reach a happy ending when they try to force their way off of those rails. Some are unnaturally demoted, some are driven insane, and some suddenly disappear or commit suicide. This is not an interrogation room. It is a set of rails telling us to waste our time. Making a mistake here will lead to a horrible fate. You need to understand that first.”

“Department chief!! Do you really think I am someone who would back away from a case for my own saf-...!?”

I shouted back at the department chief, but he reached over the table and grabbed my collar.

He then pulled with tremendous strength.

But he then whispered in my ear so quietly that it could not be recorded or seen on a video.

“I am never able to reach the truth. I can only send people like you out to find it.”

“Wha-...?”

“So when I see people like you, I get the urge to tell you the following: whatever you choose, always weigh the risks before choosing.” He paused for a moment. “But your life belongs to you. How you act now is your own decision.”

Strength left the hands holding my collar.

I dropped back down into my seat.

A slight silence fell over the interrogation room.

I slowly placed my hands on the table.

And then I forcefully stood up.

“I have been telling you what I want to do this whole time.”

Some problems were beyond solving. For example, there had been an isolated island filled with hunting weaponry where every single one of the hundreds of villagers was the murderer. But I had a chance of resolving this before it reached that level.

I had always been afraid of the look in the department chief’s eyes, but now I stared him directly at him.

I could stare him in the eye now.

“There is still a lot I do not know about the goals of the Jinmensou organization or this person going by the name Toujou Miyabi. But the odds are very high that they intend to do harm to Tsumada -->>

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