“Good evening. My name is Detective Kita Jubei. You’re going to need to provide in your own words your account of the events.”

YF looked up at the middle aged looking detective with a badge for the national police on his lapel. From the man’s long fangs and deep black hair he seemed to be from an old family.

“Sakai Hiroyuki is in critical condition,” said the detective. “Should he not make it, the consequences could be more severe.”

“We had evidence that my brother, Sakai Hiroyuki, was working on a project involving live subjects. He kidnapped and murdered many individuals to sustain it,” said YF.

The detective narrowed his eyes. “Do you have any proof of this?”

“It will be on the news soon, just wait,” said YF.

Kita spread his arms, his palms facing upward. “I can’t ‘just wait’, Mr. Sakai. And in the meantime there is recovered camera footage of you entering the top floor of the Aritomo building and assaulting your brother. We found multiple bodies throughout the lower floors of the building, and though somebody — perhaps you — wiped out much of that footage, ballistic analysis connects you with at least two deaths and there are bolts in the bodies of other victims that belong to rifles we never recovered from the scene of the crime.”

“I will answer for my crimes…” YF whispered, still thinking about the man in the basement. “I just hope my brother answers for his. In this world or the next.”

“You aren’t being asked to speak on his crimes, Mr. Sakai. You’re being questioned on yours. If and only if whoever is assigned to Hiroyuki’s case deems it necessary, perhaps you can be questioned on those details. That is not in my control and that is not why I am here. Did you shoot those men?”

YF remained silent. He knew how this system worked: twenty five days of detention and interrogation without contact with a lawyer or family members. He would be indignant if he didn’t know in his heart that he was at least guilty of shooting one defenseless man. Still, he had to think of how best to proceed. He figured he could put up with verbal harassment and constant sleep deprivation for at least five days. Should be enough to form a plan.

“What’s more disappointing Mr. Sakai is you are a man of the law. A bit odd that someone of your talents and age hasn’t been put through the Ward Academy yet. Still, you knew what would happen, and yet you did it.”

“I didn’t enlist,” said YF.

“Which would’ve set you back about three years at worst, one at best,” said the detective. “But eight years a Sentinel, very unusual. Perhaps there’s something in your record we don’t know about.”

YF looked around the room.

The detective smirked. “What, you want a lawyer? Like they do in Ardan dramas?”

“I know I won’t be granted one for twenty five days,” said YF. “I was more thinking if I could have something to eat, or some coffee.”

The detective breathed out. “That much we can’t deny you. Think about your confession Sakai. I’ll tell you now that no matter what your brother has done, you’re talking about life imprisonment or a death penalty for you. What you say is the only thing that will decide between the two.”

“Death penalty doesn’t seem so bad,” said YF. He looked Kita in the eyes, the latter’s condescending tone and gaze switching to silence and a frown. “I can assure you, detective. Whatever I say won’t be to escape that.”

“Then we can make sure you rot in a cell,” said Kita.

“Nah, I’ll just die from a shank or something. Let’s say I take it up with someone who looks at me the wrong way. One of us will go to see our ancestors.”

The detective averted his eyes.

“Yeah that’s what I thought,” said YF. “You don’t know anything about the world we live in. Go back to your manor or something.”

“By law I need to provide you with sustenance at set hours of the day. I will be back,” the detective grumbled.

YF chuckled and leaned back in his chair.

When the detective came back with the food, YF was surprised that it looked like legitimate takoyaki from some place down the street.

“Please eat,” said the detective. “Hopefully it jogs your memory of what happened.”

But when YF looked down at the food, he could not bring himself to eat anything. His only thoughts were of the man in the basement, the image of Fujii laying motionless in a pool of blood through the camera, and the crazed look on Hiroyuki’s face.

“I killed the man in the reactor control room…” YF whispered.

“What?”

“I killed the man in the reactor control room,” YF repeated.

Kita placed his receiver on the table after turning on the recording function. “Please provide your full statement on the matter.”

“I entered the Aritomo building to stop my brother from the crimes he was committing,” YF started. “The entrances could be locked longer if power to the whole building was shut down. Would also delay any potential alarm systems without backup. So I went to the basement to disable the reactors.”

Kita folded his arms.

YF continued. “I was fired upon from multiple directions on the first floor before I made it to the reactor room in the basement. The fear and the adrenaline made it hard to focus. When I saw him sitting at the control panel I couldn’t make out whether he was a threat or not, and just squeezed the trigger.”

“What threatening gestures did he use? Did he have a weapon?” asked Kita.

YF lowered his head. “None that I can think of. To either question.”

“Why’d you shoot then?”

“I don’t know,” said YF.

“And what about the second body with wounds that match your rifle’s bolts?” asked Kita.

“I might’ve shot at a few guys in self defense. Like I said, I was getting hit from all sides. I can’t say much about them, but I did murder the operator. And I deserve at least whatever consequences result from that,” said YF.

Though there was some fear from the inevitable jail time that would ensue, a wave of relief washed over YF.

Kita shut off the recording. “You’re a careful man, Mr. Sakai.”

“What do you mean?”

“This entire time you made sure not to indicate there was anybody else with you on this operation. But as I’ve said before, the evidence points overwhelmingly to multiple individuals breaking into the Aritomo building. You have no real firearms training, except perhaps the minimal that Sentinels provide. You never enlisted. It seems improbable that you would have time to ascend eighty flights of stairs and still have the time to wipe out all the surveillance footage of the incident. Who was with you?” asked Kita.

YF tried to think of a more probable lie than that he had done the whole thing by himself. “I don’t know who they were,” he said. “There were some other places interested in bringing Hiroyuki to justice and they provided a few guys to help out.”

“Sectarians, Mr. Sakai?” Kita smirked. “You know when you joined the Sentinels there was a note made that you might have a vendetta against them due to the incident in your childhood,” said Kita. “If there was somebody who wouldn’t strike me as enlisting sectarian help, it would be you.”

“What Hiroyuki did was bad enough,” said YF.

“We’ll see if any evidence turns up to implicate him,” said Kita.

YF thought he could see a strange expression on Kita’s face. “Detective Kita,” YF grinned. “Do you have a sister?”

Kita frowned, his entire composure seeming to disintegrate by the second.

“I think I got the answer I wanted,” said YF. “I’m positive there won’t be any evidence left to implicate Hiroyuki. Then I hope Lord Enma takes him soon. His victims won’t receive any justice in this world.”

Kita turned quickly and left the room, slamming the door.

The next three weeks passed in a blur. YF was not permitted from leaving the interrogation room, being asked repeatedly by Kita and then other detectives to recount the events of that day. The goal was obviously to get him to admit more and more of what he had done and give up the names of those he was with. But YF continued to stick to his story: that Hiroyuki had kidnapped and murdered innocents for some sort of experiments, that he had gone to bring him to justice with a plan to shut down the reactors, and had murdered the operator out of panic but was not guilty of any other crimes. As to who the others were, who wiped the surveillance data or how it was done, he did not reveal anything. He continued to insist he did not know who the other infiltrators were and could not remember how many of them there were.

YF tried to focus on meal times to keep himself sane. One positive thing was that by law all detainees had to receive properly prepared food with sufficient nutrition, making it so the meals he would eat were better than most of the restaurants in Itsugo. It definitely helped the time pass a bit quicker.

But when the twenty five days were about to end, something rather unexpected happened. Kita walked in with a somber look, fighting very hard to keep his composure. “You’re free to go,” he said in a soft voice.

“What?” asked YF.

“You’re free to go. And someone is here to pick you up.”

“I killed a man,” said YF.

“On further inspection there was no evidence of any man in the reactor room” said Kita. “The reactor is automatically controlled during the day shift. There was nobody there.”

“Yes, there was,” said YF.

“Unfortunately all evidence points to the contrary,” said Kita in a strained voice. “Please just leave, I won’t repeat myself.”

YF rose and walked through the door, following the signs to the exit. As he did, the other personnel in the National Bureau of Public Safety seemed to actively avoid eye contact with him. Upon reaching the entrance of the building, the door opened to reveal Hiroyuki standing in front of his limousine in a three-piece suit, a thick bandage wrapped around the top left of his head.

“I came as soon as I could,” said Hiroyuki. “I was unconscious for a few weeks, unfortunately.”

YF made as if to speak, but Hiroyuki held a finger to his lips. “We’ll speak at home, not here.”

“I’m not going with you,” said YF. “I deserve to be in prison. If the National Bureau won’t take my confession, I will go to jail in Nishida Ward. I’m sure Uraga wouldn’t mind such an arrangement.”

“There is no evidence you did anything wrong,” said Hiroyuki. “Uraga can think what he wants about you but he can’t detain you for no reason. Stop being difficult little brother and get in the car.”

“I murdered a man!” YF shouted.

Hiroyuki made a hissing sound through his teeth and shook his fists. “May the flames consume me YF, shut the fuck up and get in the car.”

“What are you going to do if I don’t?” asked YF.

Hiroyuki calmed down for a moment, his breathing growing slower. “Fine, we won't go home. But I want you to come with me somewhere first.”

“I said I’m not going with you, I’m going to jail,” said YF.

“You can go to jail after if you want. Just come with me right now.”

YF’s eyes narrowed. “You swear we’re not going to your house?”

“People have said many things about me,” said Hiroyuki. “Not keeping my promises or not following through on my threats is not one of them. We’re not going home. I’m taking you somewhere else for just a moment.”

“Fine,” said YF.

YF brushed passed Hiroyuki and waved to Sakurai, who had come out from the driver’s seat and started to go to the back seats. “I’ll get the door myself, Sakurai, thanks.”

The older man bowed. “As you wish Mr. Sakai.”

YF opened the door and climbed in, slamming the door behind him. Seconds later, Hiroyuki opened the same door and climbed in behind him, sitting down across from YF. “Go where I usually go in a few days,” Hiroyuki said to Sakurai.

“Yes sir,” Sakurai replied.

Driving from the center of the nation’s capital, Akeha, all the way to where Hiroyuki lived on the edge of the capital would have taken a while in and of itself. But true to his word they passed that area and continued on toward Nishida. And then after much time, they finally reached Itsugo. About forty minutes into the village, they finally stopped at Kamakura Boulevard.

“Please stay in the car Sakurai, I need a moment with my brother,” said Hiroyuki.

“Yes sir,” Sakurai replied.

The two of them got out of the limousine and Hiroyuki led YF up to the roof of the street’s paid parking structure, which had a direct view of where their father’s appliance shop used to be. The warm evening air blew in their faces, and the slow moving people along the road below provided a very peaceful image contrasted to what YF was sure both he and Hiroyuki were thinking about.

“I’m not sure what you’re going to say,” said YF. “But I don’t think it’s going to change my mind.”

“You remember the group of guys who rolled up here in a nice big van when you were in third or fourth grade?” asked Hiroyuki.

“Vaguely. Got beat up. Why?”

“I’m assuming you’ve been to Higashi manor. What did you notice about its location?”

“It’s remote,” said YF. “Don’t get where you’re going with this.”

“Just think for a second,” said Hiroyuki.

YF had gone to the manor straight from Nishida and didn’t think much about what direction they were taking. It took him a bit longer to understand what Hiroyuki was getting at. “It’s not that far from here.”

“Precisely,” said Hiroyuki. “That group of guys that came and harassed us was led by Higashi Ryoji. Problem is they terrorized all the kids on this street so I’m sure he doesn’t even remember you. He probably didn’t strike you as the sort who thought too much about people like you and me.”

“So you stole fiance and got her addicted to drugs as revenge for something he did in middle school?” asked YF.

“Your problem is your scope of thinking is much too narrow,” said Hiroyuki. “It wasn’t the problem of him messing with us. Lots of other gangs of boys did and you don’t see me going after them. So why did I go after him?”

“I don’t care,” said YF, turning to him.

Hiroyuki flinched, perhaps sensing that this would be the time YF threw his first punch. But he didn’t. Hiroyuki continued. “He messed with us simply because we could. We were vulnerable and it was hard for us to fight back from our position. I just wanted him to feel what it felt like to be us: to be vulnerable, to be helpless.”

YF sighed. “What’s the point of that? You’ve escalated the conflict far beyond what it was.”

Hiroyuki shook his head. “Wrong again. It was the only way to get someone like Ryoji to take me seriously. People can say and think what they want about me and my position, the status of Yui, whatever,” said Hiroyuki. “But I am still an Itsugo boy. I really am. The work I’m doing will provide power to all of us. And I do the tough, hard things to remind the old families that they are not any better than us.”

YF clenched his fists. “If I didn’t think it’d be futile I would run you through where you stood right now,” said YF. “I’m not going to be a part of whatever it is you’re doing. I never will. Unfortunately it seems like whatever work you’ve been doing you used on yourself as well. Otherwise you’d be dead.”

“Is that what you want, little bro?” asked Hiroyuki. “Me dead?”

“Yes,” said YF.

“That hurts, but I’m sure you’ll soon see things my way. Think it over,” said Hiroyuki. “You know where to find me. And you can just come up through the elevator next time. Save me from having to call off all the troops on you and your friends.” He turned and walked back toward the limousine, seeming to accept that YF would not follow. “By the way,” said Hiroyuki. “Be careful of Reina’s charms. One Sakai fell for those techniques already. It was once too many.”

YF frowned as Hiroyuki climbed into the limousine and Sakurai drove off into the night.