He didn’t once mention the Towa Organization, or that he had been assassinated.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi ran to the phone to call an ambulance.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder slipped out, leaving as unobtrusively as he had entered. As he walked away, he could hear the commotion starting.
✦ ✦ ✦
If Kirima Seiichi had said so much as a word about him to his daughter, or even told her to run, he would have killed Nagi, too. But that had not happened.
✦ ✦ ✦
That man had conquered his own fear of death, protecting his daughter to the bitter end.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder had his orders, and did not feel any remorse over killing him. . .but he secretly respected the man’s strength of will.
✦ ✦ ✦
And now, Nagi, spared by the flow of events, stood before him again.
✦ ✦ ✦
Like some twist of fate...
✦ ✦ ✦
What else could he think?
✦ ✦ ✦
“Um, Kirima-san?” he said.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi was on all fours, inspecting the ground. She looked up at his voice. “What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
They were at the second scene now. The body had been found in a heap below a bridge, cars zipping by on the road overhead.
✦ ✦ ✦
Unlike the first scene, Where only luck had kept the murderer and the victim from being seen, this place was almost always deserted.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi had paid for a cab to bring them as close to the site as possible. They had walked the rest of the way.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I don’t think there’s any evidence left. The police must’ve collected all of it. That’s why the crime scene tape was gone.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi didn’t answer. Instead, she looked around her, muttering, “What could it be?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Sasaki-san, you can imagine the killer’s state of mind, right? This place is nothing like the first one, but can you sense anything it has in common?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Well. . .” Mo Murder said, looking around. What Nagi was doing was exactly the same thing he had been planning on doing.
✦ ✦ ✦
“This place seems like a much better choice than the last one...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes. But why?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why what?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“The murder itself was exactly the same. Why would they do exactly the same thing first in a place where they might be seen, and then in a place where they can take their time?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder fell silent. That was exactly what he had been thinking.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Why do you think?” Nagi asked again, standing up and turning toward him.
✦ ✦ ✦
the killer just didn’t care?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Didn’t care if someone saw him?” Nagi asked, looking right at him. “You mean he paid no attention to who was around?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Maybe he thinks he’s a god? That he’s untouch-able. Still, he seems to have rather advanced medical knowledge to believe something that crazy. This killer is very well educated, like a doctor. Then again, it’s not as though elitism hasn’t produced some distorted ways of thinking.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What about you, Sasaki-san? If you had a reason to extract the contents of someone’s skull, would you care if someone saw you?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mmm. . .” he started to think about it, and then it hit him. Nagi was glaring at him. Mo Murder finally realized what she was driving at.
✦ ✦ ✦
She suspected him, too. She was interrogating him.
✦ ✦ ✦
Her reasoning might’ve been based on the no-
✦ ✦ ✦
tion that the killer always returned to the scene of the crime, but either way, she clearly suspected that Mo Murder might well be a killer himself. And she was bringing him with her. Watching him, to see if he would slip up.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...I doubt it. I said earlier that I might understand, but if it were me, I’d hide the body somewhere and take my time. I’d be afraid of getting noticed. Afraid of the trouble that would cause.”
✦ ✦ ✦
He answered honestly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Afraid. ..?” Nagi whispered, looking away.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Afraid. . .” she said, looking around. “The killer wasn’t afraid at all, you mean? Not. . .afraid. Not scared. No fear. Fear? Where have I heard that before.
✦ ✦ ✦
She was muttering to herself now. She folded her arms, thinking hard.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Are you onto something?” Mo Murder
✦ ✦ ✦
asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
But she shook her head. “. . .nah. Next one?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...guess we can’t get in,” Mo Murder said, watching them from a distance.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...Sasaki-san,” Nagi said suddenly. “You ever pick up a girl?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Huh?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“You know, start flirting with a complete
✦ ✦ ✦
stranger.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“N-no, not. . .never.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“There’s a first time for everything. See that girl standing over there? Talk to her,” Nagi said, pointing at a high school girl standing perfectly still outside the police blockade.
✦ ✦ ✦
“What about?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Just do it. Tell her you want to talk, bring her this way.”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...huh.” He didn’t know what she was up to, but Mo Murder did as Nagi asked, and went over to the girl. “Um, are you...?
✦ ✦ ✦
The girl jumped, and spun around.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Wh-what?!”
✦ ✦ ✦
“No, 1...” Mo Murder stammered. She looked
✦ ✦ ✦
like a frightened rabbit, and he had no idea what to say to her. But he awkwardly managed to ask, “Why are you standing here?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
The girl didn’t answer. She looked tense.
✦ ✦ ✦
“D-do you have something to do with the girl who was killed here?” he tried.
✦ ✦ ✦
"........."
✦ ✦ ✦
“Look, I’m not anyone to be afraid of...”
✦ ✦ ✦
That was a complete lie, but Mo Murder said it anyway, all the while wondering just what in the hell he was doing.
✦ ✦ ✦
"...what do you want?” the girl asked, at last.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Er, um.
✦ ✦ ✦
“We’re looking for the killer too. Mind talking to us?” Nagi’s voice came suddenly from behind him. Mo Murder jumped. How long had she been there?
✦ ✦ ✦
But the girl’s eyes brightened at once. “The killer?” she asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder was even more surprised.
✦ ✦ ✦
the girl who’d been killed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“How old are you?” Rika asked Nagi, as they sat down in a nearby cafe.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Twenty-six,” Nagi said without a moment’s
✦ ✦ ✦
hesitation. Mo Murder almost fell out of his chair.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You look so young...less than twenty,” Rika said, not doubting her in the slightest.
✦ ✦ ✦
“I get that all the time,” the fourteen-year-old lied, smoothly.
✦ ✦ ✦
Once again, Mo Murder was amazed by Nagi’s
✦ ✦ ✦
self-possession.
✦ ✦ ✦
“You said you’re an...insurance investigator?
✦ ✦ ✦
Investigating. . .what?” Rika asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi turned to Mo Murder expectantly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Uh, um. Well, how can I say this. . .the amount of insurance money we have to pay changes if the murders were random, or if the victims were pre-selected targets...if the motive was a deep-seated grudge, for example.”
✦ ✦ ✦
These were not words his false identity was likely to say. He was making it all up.
✦ ✦ ✦
“A grudge? Shizue would never...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“That’s what we’re investigating. It was an example, just an example. It is possible one of the other Victim’s families is trying to make it look like the killings are indiscriminate.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“That’s just...” Rika gasped.
✦ ✦ ✦
“If that were true, it’d be unforgivable, right?”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi added. “So...could you tell us what you know?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“But I don’t know...”
✦ ✦ ✦
“What kind of person was Shizue-san? You sounded like you couldn’t imagine anyone hating her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, right. She wasn’t the type to make enemies.
✦ ✦ ✦
Really.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“She was outgoing?” Mo Murder asked.
✦ ✦ ✦
Rika nodded. “Cheerful, considerate. . .occasionally a little strict, but that was just because Shizue was so strong.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Nagi frowned.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Strong? Strong how?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Oh. . .I don’t mean she had a lot of muscles or got in a lot of fights. Just. . .how can I describe it. . .her feelings were very direct?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“She was strong mentally? She could be relied upon?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Yes, that’s right.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“Strong...strong...” Nagi muttered, lost in
✦ ✦ ✦
thought.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder had no idea what she was think-
✦ ✦ ✦
ing, so he continued to question Rika on his own.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Did she spend much time alone?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“No. No more than anyone else, at least.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“So she just happened to be alone the day she was attacked?”
✦ ✦ ✦
"...I guess,” Rika said, tearing up a little. If she’d been with her friend, she believed, she might still be alive.
✦ ✦ ✦
This flustered Mo Murder. He had no idea what to do with a crying girl. When someone died, the people left behind would cry, so he tried not to think about it. Knowing this, as an assassin, was a constant source of pain. He quickly changed the subject.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Was she a leader? Did a lot of folks follow her?” he asked, glancing at Nagi. He was certainly following her.
✦ ✦ ✦
“No, she wasn’t like that. It was more like...if everyone was planning on going to one place, and she wasn’t interested, she would say, ‘I’m out,’ and head home on her own. Like that.”
✦ ✦ ✦
“I see.”
✦ ✦ ✦
That sounded like something Nagi would do.
✦ ✦ ✦
Were all the Victims the same type as Nagi?
✦ ✦ ✦
If that's true...then Nagi might be on the killer's list too.
✦ ✦ ✦
Mo Murder found the thought made his blood
✦ ✦ ✦
boil. He could not bear to think it.
✦ ✦ ✦
Why? Do I think Shes my prey? Do I not want
✦ ✦ ✦
anyone else to have her?
✦ ✦ ✦
It baflled him.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Something wrong?” Rika asked. Before he could even shake his head, Nagi jumped in.
✦ ✦ ✦
“So, Shizue was not the type to be easily scared?”
✦ ✦ ✦
she asked, pointedly.
✦ ✦ ✦
“N-no,” Rika said, a little overwhelmed.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Did you ever see,her scared?”
✦ ✦ ✦
“N-no. . .now that you mention it, never.”
✦ ✦ ✦
What is she asking?