Vol 1 Chapter 5 (1/2)

Upheaval

April 11Yagokoro Police StationSpecial Forensics Division

The results of the autopsy concluded that Alex Brown’s cause of death was loss of blood due to a stab wound to the chest areaTheto Alex Brown himself

Furthermore, inspection of the scene in the back alley where Alex Brown had died had found traces of a struggle against the person believed to be the murdererHowever, there was none of the evidence necessary to specifically identify the cri we knew froht had taken no more than a moment

He had ionnaire, all by hie man over two meters tallThat was the hard-to-s truth

Just as I anticipated, the search of his apartment confirmed that the late Alex Brown had been TajikaraoUpon accessing the Midnight Site from Alex Brown’s hoh drafts of posts Tajikarao had written on the Midnight Site were saved on the computer

From e could deduce from our interactions, Alex Brown did not seem to hold a favorable ierent, and his furious eyes, which seemed to view every person in the world as an enemy, were burned into my memory

However, hearing his circumstances left room for sympathy

Froe, Alex Brown had not been able to effectively co dark brown skinAs Alex Brown aged and his body grew larger, he resorted to violent means to resolve that frictionAs a result, he had had countless run-ins with the police, creating a feeling of distrust towards them that continued until today

He one to France, his father’s native country, in search of a place to belongHowever, in reality, there may not have been a place for Alex Brown in France eitherThat he was a ular arain to japan, could not be entirely unrelated

By chance, he had been born into the gap between two cultures, and unfortunately, it had ruined his lifeI was saddened when I considered what could have been had he been born under normal circumstancesEven so, I wanted to tell him clearly

“You are mistaken”

It was coe influence on the development of one’s personalityHowever, there were rowth even in an unfavorable environ of respectI could only conclude that the main cause lay within Alex Brown himself

He should have fought without yielding to his environled so as to ht to have taken the narrow- others as ahimself

For exa on his own, if he had had even one trustworthy person who could set hiret

Siht fruitlessly that this sad incident may not have occurred if Kyouhei Hioka had also had such a person

In truth, the night that Alex Brown passed away, a post went up on the “Midnight Site” that threw the Internet into an uproar

“MY NAME IS – KAGU-TSUCHI MY GRUDGE IS BORN FROM THOSE WHO HAVE BEEN CONDEMNED TODAY I HAVE PassED DOWN ‘CONDEMNATION’ UPON ‘TAJIKARAO’, OF THE EVIL GROUP THAT CALLS THEMSELVES TOGAKUshi+ OMOIKANE, SARUTAHIKO, FUTODAMA, YOU THREE WHO REMAIN, MY REVENGE SHALL CONTINUE AS PROCLAIMED UNTIL ALL FIVE HAVE BEEN CONSIGNED TO OBLIVION BY MY HANDS LET US BEGIN THE COUNTDOWN TO YOUR LAST BREATHS IN NO WAY WILL I FORGIVE YOU”

He had declared his intent to kill and followed through with itThe u-tsuchi” was now a hot topic on the InternetThe backlash at Kagu-tsuchi over his actions was already approaching the level of a social movement On the other hand, there was a siokoro police, ere letting the u-tsuchi do as he pleased

Aes”, two of them, Uzume and Tajikarao, had been h Osa sheltered by the police, if they were unable to protect the re members, Sarutahiko and Futodama, their reputation would be ruinedThere was the possibility that nu the police would be fired

I did not hold much interest in that bureaucratic aspect, but I felt that allowing a criht under my nose was shameful for me as a detective

Sousei-san and I detected the past conversations at the place where Alex Brown’s corpse had been discovered, as we had done for Miyuki Midorikawa

“You?Kill me?Ha!See the difference between my body and yours?You think you can win?”

As detected, that line was the most worrisomeI could recall Alex Brown’s behavior within the station corridor as he snorted at my small stature and dismissed me as a little foolI sur Kyouhei Hioka

At 172 centiht for a man, but there was more than thirty centiht surpassed two metersFrom Alex Brown’s viewpoint, everyone except Sousei-san must have seemed like a child

I postulated that Alex Broho fought on the same level as Sousei-san, had been so easily uard around his opponentNaturally, this much of the analysis I could deduce from the information available at the crime scene

Before I realized it, three days’ idleness had passed without obtaining any useful information

We repeated our appeals in the chatrooakushi+ Five Judges”, Sarutahiko and Futodama

Did they not notice the appeals the?From the personality of shi+rou Konno, known as Sarutohiko, was it correct to assu?

He was such an exemplary student that he was chosen as student council president, but on the other hand, he was a coldhearted person who objectively judged others as a es”He was able to wear those two faces without those around hi onIt was not as simple as Tajikarao’s case

Taking that into account,was that shi+rou Konno’s disappearance was not involved with the case, but rather because he sensed danger and chose to conceal himself of his oill

However, concerning the other person, Futodama, it would have been preferable to receive a replyAccording to Osamu Haida, known as Omoikane, Futoda with curiosityPutting aside the question of whether or not he would cooperate with our proposal, I expected it would not have been strange for him to show himself in the chatroom, but I may have miscalculated

Regarding the whereabouts of Kyouhei Hioka, the person of interest, Touko-san was playing a leading role in the investigation, but there was no particular progress

Each day, wild speculation ran ra the illusory Kyouhei Hioka: perhaps he was disguising hiery and wasas a different person, perhaps he had an accomplice

With no progress being an to perators were slowly becoue

It happened on April 11, as we drifted in that sea of helplessnessSo happened that should not have been allowed to happen

Osamu Haida, called Omoikane – was murdered by someone

Osamu Haida had been sheltered inside one room of the police dorenerally kept secret and were treated as top-secret infor those associated with the police

The first to discover the body was the dormitory caretakerIncidentally, the caretaker had not known that Osamu Haida was OmoikaneIt seemed she had been told that he was a new police officer

As always, after eight AM on the eleventh, the caretaker made breakfast and waited for Osa she waited, he did not comeWhen, worried, she went to his roo on the bedIt seemed the door had been unlocked

Immediately after it was deemed a crime scene, traces of an outside trespasser were foundThe autopsy results confiric shockThe unMost likely it had had a silencer attachedHe had been shot only once, but the carotid artery had been precisely hit through the back of the neck

In addition, froh the bed and re Sauer P230However, it see marks were not consistent with those found in Miyuki Midorikawa’s case

The results of a full day’s investigation revealed that an unregistered gun had been stolenIn other words, Osa Sauer P230

How he had come to know of Osamu Haida’s whereabouts was a mystery; however, most were of the opinion that it was a crime that could only have been cos of the police, and the coators indicated the reality that we had once again been outwitted by Kyouhei Hioka

Sousei-san and I used our Personas and searched the scene for past conversations, but ere unable to detect any conversations from the time of the un as he sleptHewhen he had died

In the u-tsuchi went up on the Midnight Site

“TWO REMAIN MY FLAME OF RESENTMENT HAS NOT YET FADED”

It was brief compared to the previous postsNevertheless, the one-sided situation had us at wits’ end; frou-tsuchi’s strong detern the five of thereater despair than ever before

At present, we could see no future besides the one proceeding just as Kyouhei Hioka had foretold

“Even if it’s because he regrets his sister’s death, for Kyouhei to go this far…”

As expected, Tsuge-san wore a grim expression, and he had little to say

It was the same for Touko-sanShe was not nor unnecessary, butThat she had been appointed to an important position in the Kyouhei Hioka disappearance casefactor, but she or because she did not want to harbor unnecessary thoughts

I chose a time when it was just the two of us in the supervisor’s office

“Touko-san, what do you think of Kyouhei Hioka?”

I ca back until now

Touko-san gazed at aze under the peculiar air of inti off

“Will you not tell me?”

Even so, I did not look awayI believed we could not beat around the bush if ished to break the current status quoEven if thatTouko-san a cruel question

“I don’t think this is the case, but… Do you suspect me?”

In the next aze had sharpened

“I’ because I do not wish to suspect you”

–Didn’t Kyouhei Hioka have an accomplice?

That was the suspicion harbored by many people, not just ation team, it would be corasp Kyouhei Hioka’s whereabouts and hoas always one step ahead of the investigation

“How much have you heard?”

“That the two of you were living together”

There were several people whoformer coworkers, but it was also true that there would be no one closer to Kyouhei Hioka than his former lover

“That old man’s such a blabbermouth”

Touko-san gave a shrug of her slender shoulders, wearing a complicated expression

“I told you before, NaotoIt was a long tier any special connection or special feelings between usBut Kyouhei is still an important person to ht, when all I had over everyone else was spirit, Kyouhei was the one who raised ed detectiveIf it wasn’t for Kyouhei, I wouldn’t be who I am today”

I caught a gliaze

“Did he speak to you at all concerning this case?”

Atand whispered, “He did

“Kyouhei said he wanted to know the truth of his sister’s death, and I told him to just let it beEven if we know the truth, it won’t bring back soave him more empty wordsBut Kyouhei didn’t listen to my adviceI decided to just keep an eye on hi the truth would fill the void left inside him by the death of his sisterFrankly, I was skeptical about howto find the truth within the anonymity of the Internet”

The corners of Touko-san’s mouth twisted in self-deprecation

“I rongOnce he went renegade, his excellence worked against hiht be more accurate to say that I underestimated Kyouhei’s tenacityNot only was he able to reach the truth of the ‘baseless slander on the Internet’ that caused his sister’s death, but he showed es’, ould not have been found with the organized power of the police”

“Could you be speaking of Miyuki Midorikawa?”

“Yes,all that has happened until now, it must be Miyuki Midorikawa, known as Uzune”

Touko-san nodded

“He continued to make inquiries of the students at his sister’s school every day, and he set his sights on one female student who behaved suspiciouslySoirl, Miyuki Midorikawa, and becaive those who had sent her to her deathIt was unlike him to be so obsessed”

Touko-san snorted slightly

“It’s not just the hatred a victi of worthlessness because he couldn’t protect her as her older brother, even though he was a detective… This may have been the result of such coerous, so I warned hi foolish’ But in the end, it’s as you seeI wasn’t able to stop Kyouhei”

Touko-san worried at her lower lip

“That s not on the straight and narrowHe would argue with so, even if they were his senpai or his bossBut strangely, everyone loved himHe was that kind of detective, like a hero of justiceIt’s different than with ined Kyouhei would go renegade like that…”

Touko-san casually brushed her bangs backHer eyes looked sad, peering out between the gaps in her soft hair as it fluttered gently downI thought that Touko-san ret over his sister as Kyouhei Hioka did, though she had failed to stop him

“–So, hoas it, Miss Detective?Did you find anything strange in my story?”

When next I realized, before my eyes was her usual fearless smile

“NoNothing” I slowly shook my head

“Huh?Is there a reason you trust me so easily?”

“At the very least, I am convinced there were no lies in what you just told me”

I could say so with confidenceTouko-san was not deceiving s from her honest tone and behavior

Touko-san laughed as if she found so humorous “In ‘what you just told me’, huhYou’re as shrewd as always”

Naturally, there was still much about Touko-san I had yet to know

“I have high hopes for you, NaotoYou ht be able to do what I could not”

Leaving behind those words, Touko-san jauntily left the roolance she sent me as she went left an impression on meThat hy I was convinced

–That Touko-san was hiding so from me

Sousei-san came and took Touko-san’s place in the director’s office “Oi, NaotoIs there any progress?” As usual, he conducted himself insolently

“Not in particular,” I answered coldly as I used the coation had reached a dead end, and I did not have the tiant attitude toward me

He did not take well to my behavior

“Hreat detective you are!”

Sousei-san stretched out on the sofa as he berated me rudely

Sousei-san did not have a shred of co even when people diedSousei-san had held no love for the , and when Omoikane had died, he had reacted indifferently “You reap what you sow”

I gazed at Sousei-san, reflected on the screen, as I pretended to ith the computer

The ht he was as different froenders to our personalitiesIt would not be an exaggeration to say that Sousei-san and I were exact opposites

Our respective beliefs were born from those differences, and up until now, I had come into frequent opposition with Sousei-san over our conflicting opinionsI thought it would be near-iood partnershi+p with such a personThe fact that our Persona abilities had good corace

However, it occasionally had its hts from someone as my complete opposite

“That Kyouhei Hioka’s host”

It was unmistakably one of Sousei-san’s offhand remarksHowever, in that moment, I whirled around

“–What did you say just now?”

“Huh?I said Kyouhei Hioka’s more slippery than a snake?”

“No, after that”

“Oh, the ‘he’s like a ghost’ part?”

Sousei-san looked displeased at my question

“What’s so funny?That’s how it is, right?Kyouhei Hioka’s na up, but we haven’t seen him even once”

My heartbeat accelerated and ht hope like a thread descending frorand scenery spread out underneathwas also possibleI had reached a neer

[Possibly a reference to Akutagawa Ryuunosuke’s The Spider’s Thread]

“It’s just as you say, Sousei-sanHe really is a ghost”

I repeated and nodded

“Oi, if you figured so out, just say it”

“No, it’s just that Kyouhei Hioka host”

“Huh?Naoto, you feeling okay?”

Sousei-san gavelook at my completely unexpected clai up in my seat, I addressed Sousei-san in a serious voice “What I’ is–

“–Perhaps Kyouhei Hioka is already dead”

With a surprised expression, Sousei-san raised his upper body fro on the sofa

“Well ell, isn’t that just ridiculous nooccult like the Five Togakushi+ Judges were killed by Kyouhei Hioka’s ghost, right?”

“If it really is the work of a ghost, I give upIt would be best to call in an exorcist to resolve the caseBut this is the work of a human, and that is my specialty”

“So then who killed Omoikane and them?”

“I wonderMost likely an accomplice is involved”

“An accomplice?Do you knoho it is, Naoto?”

Iaze from Sousei-san

“No, not yet”

In truth, I had an ideaI had just now connected the dotsHowever, I did not yet have enough proof to openly speak of it

And also, more importantly – I very much did not want to believe it

“Ah!Geez!I don’t get it!If Kyouhei Hioka isn’t alive anymore, then why?How did he die?Suicide?Or was he killed?And how long has he been dead?”

Agitated, Sousei-san babbled loudly

“P-please wait a et that this is merely my conjecture”

Sousei-san stood right in front of , and I pushed him aith both hands

“At ine that Kyouhei Hioka is deadEven though the le witness who has seen the criminalWe can assuinningKyouhei Hioka has experience with countless cases, and so I believe he will have a thorough knowledge concerning the possible in to surface when you consider that there are no traces at all of Kyouhei Hioka, despite the murders of Uzune, Tajikaro, and OmoikaneI also feel that his existence is like that of air”

Then I recalled Sousei-san’s “talk of ghosts” and a new idea eed

“Huh?No, it’s not like we haven’t seen any trace of hi marks on the bullets that killed her u-tsuchi on the Midnight Site’s forums a few times”

“It’s true that those are pro clues, but in the end the bullets and forum posts are merely tools, and he was not necessarily the one behind them”

Ata complicated expression

“But what about the info on Kyouhei Hioka we got with our Persona abilities?Didn’t we find traces of him in the past conversations with Miyuki Midorikawa and that former soldier?”

“But if we keep in mind the condition that ‘Kyouhei Hioka is not alive’ and once again review those past conversations, soht”

At my words, Sousei-san crossed his ar the contents of the various past conversations

“Take the case of Miyuki MidorikawaDo you remember hoe could not detect Kyouhei Hioka’s side of the past conversation?”

“Oi oi, there’s no way I’d forget thatBut that’s because ’ power only detects the conversations of the deadThen doesn’t it make sense that Kyouhei Hioka’s alive, because we didn’t detect his conversation?”

“It’s true that was the logical conclusion at the tiizeI was convinced that he must be alive because we did not detect his conversation”

I bowedsound “Heeh”

“However, if you consider the possibility that he is not alive, like we are noe can think, ‘Back then, we couldn’t detect Kyouhei Hioka’s conversations because he did not say anything in those places’”

“Huh?Is there anything in the past conversations that makes you think so?”

There was a noticeably deep furrow in Sousei-san’s browThat hy I slowly repeated verbatim the words Miyuki Midorikawa had left at the crime scene

“H-hey!I talked, right!Put that down!Are you listening to !Why ht Site’s fault that girl died!And anyway she was hit by a train!She shouldn’t have just gone and fallen from the platform!You reap what you sow!Ah–––––––”

“Are you kidding ot a better memory than meAre you really human?”

“I’ll turn those words back on youWhy is your memory so poor, Sousei-san?”

“Shut up!I’m a robot almost exactly like a human, not a computer!”

“It’s the saood memory is an essential skill for a detective”

I cleared uments, and I resumed my explanation “Take note of the first half

“Just before Miyuki Midorikawa died, she said ‘Are you listening to !’ in a harsh tone to the other personFollowing that, froine a scene where she faces ‘an opponent who does not say a word’, who is looking down on her with a cold gaze and has a gun right in front of her”

“Well, I can see it too, but why…”

Sousei-san’s eyes widened as he realized soh

“Oi oi, you don’t ht ent to the crime scene?”

“The possibility does exist” I nodded “What I propose is ‘we operate under the assumption that Kyouhei Hioka is dead’In the end it is merely a hypothesis, and you have voiced your doubts, Sousei-sanI cannot hazard a guess as to his time and cause of deathIn reality, I believe the probability that Kyouhei Hioka is alive to be roughly equal to the probability that he is dead”

“Huh?What the hell does that mean?Can’t you put it simply?So then what’re we supposed to do?I won’t stand for it if we just wasted our time after all that work”

Sousei-san shook his head in an exaggerated motion like a Westerner

“It’s true that it may have been a waste of timeBut since we don’t have any other clues at present, we absolutely htest suspicion”

“Yeah yeah, I’reat detective… I think I’onna throw up”

“Please don’t lared at Sousei-san reproachfully “Sousei-san, are you forgetting that there are things only we can do?”

“Yeah, I knowWe’ve got ‘Personas’”

Sousei-san grinned broadly

“ExactlySousei-san, if we have your Tsukuyo’, we can confir only we can do”

April 11Kyouhei Hioka’s apartment

It was inevitable that we chose Kyouhei Hioka’s own apartment as the place ent to determine whether he was alive or dead

We knew froation reports that Kyouhei Hioka’s apartokoro, and we traveled there at once, using Sousei-san’s bike form

We explained to the apartokoro Police Departain?” Perhaps it was because she had interacted with the police countless times, but she showed us to the landlord’s room, said “Drop the key in the roo us to our own devices

“The hell’s up with that old woman?” Sousei-san objected to the landlady’s rude behavior, but it was a great help, for it savedthe existence of our Personas

It was on the third floor of an apart in a sunny placeIt was a three-bedroo roo was done in the Western styleIt was quite an ordinary apartment

It seeether with Kaoru Hioka, his younger sister, who had h school in preparation for going to universityThere were traces of the police’s investigation everywhereBut the iether still lingered in the kitchen, washroo pain within me

“Well, it’s not a very big apartment, so I could do it onit all myselfNaoto, you’ll call out your Persona and power up ht?”

It was discoly used to Sousei-san’s arrogant behavior, when he had been disagreeable frorateful that his way of going about his business meant he did not feel inclined to have a serious discussion with me

“That wasme”

Naturally, I had co him