I… didn’t know what to do.

Beyond the door was a mystery to me, but from what I heard… it was enough. Yet standing still here proved to me that I was already no more than a coward. My legs wouldn’t move, and my fingers would not twitch in fear. If anything, I was perhaps not even fearful of what would happen in the slightest beyond the door, my curiosity found itself to be prioritized higher than my fear, so I remained still and listened.

‘Investigator Julius’… was definitely the one who has messaged me.

It was probably a provocation message, but perhaps it just couldn’t be as simple as that. Haru mentioned it on the bus earlier today as well, that based on the photos it was clear that I have a stalker… or someone who is keeping me under watch. But if anyone were to keep me under watch, the only thing that came to mind was the serial killer I encountered the night before…

Wait, Haru was missing for at least two days prior when she noticed the stalker issue, so the investigator still is not out of the picture.

But while I stood still to listen more, there suddenly was no sound on the other side of the door.

And by instinct, I decided to play a risky move. And after releasing a breath I didn’t know I was holding until now, I began to notice that my own heart had been beating wildly. I

I softly placed my hand on the handle of the door.

“Hey Ms. Hanae I’ve heard that class was-“

I opened the door, trying the feign ignorance of what I had eavesdropped. What I saw instead, was an unknown man, presumably the investigator, holding Ms. Hanae against the wall by the collar. She was struggling a fair bit of the man, but he had pinned her against the wall as if to interrogate her.

“What are you doing,” I couldn’t help but to immediately question him the moment I saw.

Obviously, he noticed my entrance and briefly smiled… as if this was all part of a plan.

***

JULIUS’ POV

Around two hours prior to Sakuzaki’s entrance, Julius was granted the permission to participate along with the DEU.

“Oh right, one more thing…” Julius suddenly spoke as he was about to leave as if reminded of another topic, “I’d like to request you to share reports of any progress the DEU has made.”

“Sure thing,” The chief handed him the documents without any resistance, “this is all Akira has collected as of far.”

“Thanks,” Julius held onto it, “I’ll pay my lead a visit. I’d want that squad to back away from the school. Thanks.”

Those were his last words he informed the chief before leaving the office.

As he left the office, Julius immediately opened the document to see its contents. After briefly skimming through, it was clear that the DEU had drawn to a different conclusion. Though the version of the truth displayed in the report varied differently from the one Julius himself reached to, the squad had also been in their early stages of the investigation and their current truth seemed plausible.

And this is their version of the truth:

The suspect is Tsukuyo Kana, a former teacher of Takizawa High School and currently 27 years of age. She had been reported to be missing for at least a week as of now and traces of her DNA has been found on the crime scene. Furthermore, two of the victims of the serial murder case last night had revealed to be a former co-worker of her, so the motive behind the crime would likely be some sort of grudge.

With all of that being placed into consideration, she has recently listed as a suspect of a similar serial murder case in Osaka months ago. Both methods of murder carry extremely similar characteristics; being all female victims displayed along with severed limbs. And as they have it, during that time period, Tsukuyo Kana had seemed to have had a stay at her family’s place in the region as well.

The contradicting truth. Julius read it and sighed, impressed by the investigations conducted by Lieutenant Akira.

But… the main difference here was Julius’ prior belief of Tsukuyo being the headless victim he had investigated. The case of the headless victim was not mentioned in the research but however, it was that moment when he came to a realization that…

His own theory was too flawed to be conclusive.

He had only identified the victim based off a membership card which the victim was carrying, but the crucial evidence such as face identity of fingerprints was too damaged to use for investigation. It may as well be that Tsukuyo Kana was not even the victim, to begin with.

And so after coming to the realization of his own mistakes, Julius decided to set off to pay a visit to his one lead.

…

12:20 pm, Takizawa High School

It wasn’t even close to a 20 minutes’ drive, but due to a detour to get the sale discount on doughnuts, Julius took 2 hours longer than he expected.

Maybe it’s the thing with doughnuts and police, perhaps enough applied to Julius too.

But now that he was there, sitting there before Ms. Hanae, his supposed interrogation had changed its plans to ask for co-operation. The teacher sat silent, and amongst all the world… for a brief moment, the world turned silent.

The nervousness clenched unto her and rendered her unable to speak anything. And paying note to this, Julius engaged the conversation.

“So, I’ve been just informed earlier, seems like our circumstances have now changed,” Julius pulled out the same photo from before, “But about what happened here, I would ask you of that in the near future.”

“What is it now… er…”

“Inspector Julius.”

“So Juliu-“

“The ‘inspector’ is pretty important there.”

“So Inspector Julius…” Ms. Hana planned to pose a question, but the ruined moment told her otherwise, “No never mind just continue.”

“To cut it short, I’m informing you of our current situation and asking for your cooperation,” Julius pulled out his phone, but still continued, “There was a serial murder case last night, three victims. My squad is currently having it under investigations.”

“I don’t see why that’s related to me,” She gave back a delayed response as if to conceal a façade.

Julius looked away instead, aware of her situation though not paying mind to her temporal deception. But instead, he turned on the application and sent something. Ms. Hanae noticed something on her phone and saw the display of her own FREEDOM game.

“Because,” he muttered, “I think I could understand what kind of situation you are currently in.”

She saw the display on the screen and immediately turned hostile.

[JULIUS have sent you a friend request.]

[USER: JULIUS (?)

RANK: 7 ( 150+ unranked)

TITLE: [Sinner]

ABILITIES: none

ITEMS: None

KILLS: 0

SURVIVALS: 13

KEEPER: Active

FRIEND: 1 of 3 active]

He showed her his FREEDOM profile.

There wasn’t much of a change since the last time he checked it, but he knew it to be enough to make his point.

“I guess I’ll keep in touch with you.”

“Investigator Julius, you’re-”

Before Ms. Hanae could finish her sentence, Julius immediately signaled her to be silent. He then wiped to another section of the profile…

[NEARBY ACTIVE PLAYERS:

-HANAKO (0.5m)

-REAPER (3m)

She read it, and took a moment to process what was happening; they were being eavesdropped. Julius pulled back the phone and switched to a separate notepad. From there, it contained his message.

‘That should be enough for today. I’ll apologize later.’

He then lifted her up by the collar and pushed her against the wall. And just as he did so, the door of the office opened up.

“Hey Ms. Hanae I’ve heard that class was-“

The sudden intruder then took notice of the scene. As if it was his purpose all along, the student asked,

“What are you doing.”

Julius smirked, then nodded in his own understanding. Several pieces formed on its own to confirm his own inner theories. And enough was seen to prove them all, so Julius had enough for the day.

And like that, Julius dropped Ms. Hanae and walked away silently.

***

SAKUZAKI’S POV

“Ms, are you alright-“ I tried to call out to her, but she glared at me for a brief moment. During the brief moment, I was overwhelmed with the sensation of dread that paralyzed me. It made me unable to recognize her as the teacher I know…

But she soon sighed and retracted her glare before I noticed.

“What was the point of that?” those were the first words which Ms. Hanae immediately said when the inspector left the office, “So, why’d you come here?”

I turned head down, somewhat being in the guilty position all of a sudden.

“I thought… you were in trouble. I wanted to help you.”

“Huh…” Ms. Hanae pondered for a while, somewhat troubled, “You should have left it to my own business. There’s no point in meddling in, it’s too selfish; the same goes to your eavesdropping.”

“…”

“Ok, maybe I went too far, but this time it’s my own business. Don’t go crying on me, please?” She reached for some cash notes from her wallet and pointed the 10000 yen to me, “I’ll offer you some money or something.”

“Hey, I’m 16,” I say, as I take the free money. I had no idea what made her reach to a conclusion that I’d cry of guilt or something, perhaps maybe she’s dealt with younger kids a lot before. But still, free money is free; that alone speaks for itself.

Money itself is the principle of this modern society and the foundations of most luxuries which are obtainable for an individual. Having snatched money from another person such as my dear teacher suddenly may seem briefly cruel, but she had offered such blessing to me and there was consent between the two of us. I was not guilty. I am not guilty. I was only given the honor to bear the responsibility of my newly obtained currency.

And yet, that is perhaps why I could not comprehend why she was face-palming.

Although given some time to think, she was right about the selfishness of my actions. Perhaps it was because I just wanted to meddle in.

For this sake of self-satisfaction, I just wanted to help someone in need.

And yet, having seen what I had seen just then, I could not pretend it wasn’t there. Ms. Hanae, too, had been hiding something from me… something crucial, perhaps after I had lost consciousness last night something important had happened. The man was most likely to be there as well, in cahoots with the serial killer from then, threatening Ms. Hanae to be silent. If that were to be the case, then it would make sense.

If that’s so, then he, who assisted the killer and keeps people under watch to find appropriate times threaten them for his own secret,

I could not forgive him.

He is nothing but the opposite of who I want to be. He may be a wolf hiding amongst the ranks of the police, yet he clearly exploits people through words of deceit and threat. And he was no less than the murderer himself, both exploiting and not even an attempt to stop a murder… just for a mere sake of satisfaction.

See, this is why my blood is starting to boil… it’s people like him.

People like him should just go and rot in jail… suffer from the harsh justice he pretends to serve for and know it to be his own sin to carry the burden of.

With that thought in mind, I suddenly found my fists clenched tightly and shaking nervously… in excitement.

...

“Papa, look!” I pointed at the comic book with my own tiny hands.

The panels drained of colors and yet entertained me so much. As a boy of 7 years old, I could not find myself stop being immersed into such a thing.

“Sure sure, I’ll get here in a sec.”

From across the kitchen, my father poked his head out from the kitchen. He placed down the kitchenware and ran over and around where I stood. When he saw it, he helplessly felt a bit disappointed, yet he sighed in relief.

Where I pointed, was just a picture of my childhood hero depicted in this comic. I wasn’t really good with names, but here I could instantly the hero, X, in this comic. It was a hero with a plain design with nothing that stood out from him; just an average joe. The concept of X being capable of being from different potential details was perhaps what captured me the most and drew me into his adventures of the comic

“Oh, if it isn’t Action Kamen X!” My father’s voice roared in laughter and his wide smile was somehow left a lingering imagery in me.

“Papa, look at that! Look!” I hurried and repeatedly pointed at that one monotone panel.

This time, Action Kamen X was shown soaring across the skies and the scenery of the lively city painted across and underneath him.

“Heh, that’s pretty cool! You want to be like him too, Sakuzaki?”

“Yeah yeah!” I nodded in that instant.

“Hm? Why?”

“Because he looks cool!”

…

Oh, if fate had ever allowed me to serve justice... then this would be the time.