v1c4 part1 (1/2)

Case Files of Blue by Miyazawa Tatsuki

Chapter 4 (part ½) (volume 1, pages 169-206)

The Proud Public Servants

Akiyama was waiting for his lawyer in the interview room. It was only half a day since he had been detained, but Akiyama’s countenance bore visible traces of haggardness. His eyes sunk in somewhat and there were signs of 5-o'clock shadow on his face.

In his high school days, Akiyama was a member of a kendo club known nation-wide for its rigorous training, and after he had graduated from high school, he tempered his mind and body thoroughly in the national defense force.

Beneath the serious and handsome exterior, the iron heart dwelt that wouldn’t be perturbed by the unexpected. Even if Akiyama were to face a wild beast baring its fangs at him or a criminal with a knife, he wouldn’t freeze in fear. He had no problem bearing physical pain and suffering for as long as it took for it to subdue.

But all of his training proved completely meaningless when it came to his current situation.

‘I, a member of Scepter 4 that’s supposed to uphold order and justice, got arrested… and on molestation charges, at that!’

Guilt was what wasted Akiyama so much.

Of course, he knew that he was innocent. Everything was 100% false accusations, and he had a vague feeling that he had been set up.

The question was how exactly…

'd.a.m.n…’

There was something that had him restless with worry. To what extend would his comrades believe in his innocence? Munakata and Awas.h.i.+ma aside, he had this feeling that the members of the Special Ops might be making some pretty absurd statements right about now.

“Haa,” he let out yet another sigh.

There was one thing he knew for sure, though. His partner, Benzai Yuujirou, would believe in him no matter what.

They’d known each other for a long time now. They had survived through life-threatening situations together.

Even after spending one’s whole life on the search, not everyone could find a person they could trust with their lives and be trusted in return. But Akiyama had such person - Benzai.

To Akiyama, Benzai really was everything you could ask of a partner. They had spent a very long time together, from the national defense force to Scepter 4. They were thoroughly familiar with each other’s habits and ways of thinking. They could trust each other.

'He…’ Akiyama mulled. 'He will believe in me and will do what needs to be done.’

Benzai knew Akiyama’s desires and wishes.

Miraculously, thinking about his partner solidified Akiyama’s resolve. For now, there was only one thing he needed to do. And that was to clear his name of false charges no matter what.

In order to do that, he would need…

A knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. His lawyer seemed to have arrived.

Akiyama rose to greet him, “Please come in.”

For now, he would start with discussing his situation with the law expert, he thought.

†

Meanwhile, Akiyama’s partner, Benzai, was packing his things in their room in Scepter 4’s dorm.

After a knock for the sake of politeness on the door that Benzai left wide open, Hidaka’s voice came, “Excuse me, Benzai-san?”

“Hm? What is it, Hidaka?” Benzai responded, putting a towel and toiletries into his travel bag with a brisk motion.

“Um,” Hidaka started shyly, “I thought if you need help with anything, I could help.”

Benzai was scheduled to go to Hokkaido. Although such occurrences were rare, a strain escapee from Tokyo was sighted in Kus.h.i.+ro, Hokkaido, and Benzai was going there to confirm it.

In this kind of cases, usually, Akiyama and Benzai were dispatched to deal with it as the Special Ops representatives. But right now, Benzai’s partner couldn’t very well go anywhere, having his freedom restrained. For that reason, for a while, Benzai would have to deal with those cases on his own.

“Oh?” Benzai turned to Hidaka and gave him a smile. “Are you being considerate because Akiyama’s not here at the moment?”

“Well, yes, maybe.”

The reason that was to blame for Akiyama’s absence made even Hidaka strangely hesitant in his wordings.

Benzai, possibly seeing through Hidaka’s doubts, a.s.serted, “Don’t worry. Akiyama is 100% not guilty.”

At first, Hidaka was visibly surprised, but only a moment later he was already hopefully asking, “R-Really, Benzai-san?”

If it was none other than Benzai, who was saying that, Benzai, who knew Akiyama the longest, then Hidaka felt he could trust his words above everything.

But then Benzai continued with a deadly serious face, “Of course he’s innocent. After all, he’s a hardcore MILF lover.”

“Huh?”

“If he wanted to molest someone, there is no way it would be a high school girl, right? Don’t you agree?”

Only after seeing Benzai chuckle Hidakafigured that he was being teased. “B-Benzai-san!”

Benzai let out an abrupt sigh, gazing at Hidaka. “Hidaka. Akiyama is not someone to ever do something like that. Isn’t knowing that enough? Or do the relations.h.i.+p between all of us as the members of the Special Ops not enough for you and you want some other proof?”

It was said in a low and calm voice, but it did convey surging anger nonetheless.

Hidaka immediately strengthened himself. “O-Of course not! It’s more than enough. You’re absolutely right. I agree with you thoroughly!”

He had a feeling that he had rudely insulted Benzai somehow. But strangely enough, when Akiyama’s innocence was a.s.serted to his face like that, he felt like his own doubts got cleared away.

Benzai smiled with a cool smile again. “I’m glad you understand, Hidaka. And now that you do, I have a favor I need to ask of you.”

“Yes, what is it, Benzai-san? As long as it’s something I can do, I’ll do anything!” Hidaka exclaimed readily.

“If, by any chance, Akiyama’s detention drags out, could you give that to him?” Benzai pointed to Akiyama’s bed. On it, a small backpack sat. “I packed up a few necessities for him like some clothes and toiletries. With that, he shouldn’t be too inconvenienced for another month.”

“!” Hidaka was clearly surprised. So Benzai prepared some necessities for Akiyama even as he was packing for his own official trip?

Seeing Hidaka’s reaction, Benzai only shrugged his shoulders. “It’s no big deal. We were on the national defense force previously, as you know, and there, you had to pack your things in 10 minutes flat, no matter what remote place you were getting sent to, or you’d get shouted at by the instructor.”

“—I see.”

That made Hidaka realize something all over again: they may have been equally members of the Special Ops squad now, all serving under Munakata Reis.h.i.+, but Akiyama and Benzai were clearly different from him, Enomoto, Fuse and the others as far as skills and preparedness was concerned.

'We’re really no match for them; we gotta do our best and catch up to them, then,’ Hidaka thought to himself, as he asked out loud, “Should I go deliver that bag right now?”

“—No,” Benzai answered after a brief consideration. “Let it sit here for a while and deliver it after the situation with Akiyama gets clear.”

“Understood.”

“Also, if possible, could you put chocolate or little something like that in there, too? He tends to crave sweet things when he’s tired.”

“I will!” Hidaka immediately a.s.sured him. “I happened to keep a few in reserve in my room! I’ll go get it right away!”

With this, Hidaka scurried out the room.

Benzai smiled, watching him rush, then resumed packing. He knew beyond doubt what he needed to do right now. That was also what Akiyama wanted him to do the most at the moment. Meaning…

…to smoothly fulfill his professional duties as a member of Scepter 4.

What Akiyama, being a somewhat awkward man with a strong sense of responsibility, was concerned about the most was not his reputation or his fate. He was worried that his absence might impede Scepter 4’s work. Only that.

Akiyama was the essential core of the Special Ops squad, both when it came to abilities and to spirit.

'For being such a capable guy, he sure has weak defense.’ Benzai smiled bitterly.

Until now it was Benzai, even more composed than Akiyama himself and able to see the whole picture, who covered for that weakness of his partner.

Even if no one else could understand Akiyama, as his partner, Benzai had to know his intentions. And when Akiyama’s innocence was proven and he was back to the squad, Benzai would have to be the one to say to him lightly, “Oh well, we had no trouble at all during your absence.” For that, he needed to come back from the trip as fast as possible and fill the hole left by Akiyama.

Resolved, Benzai finished packing and left the room, having no way of knowing that his plans were not meant to be.

†

“…What? Alright. I see. It can’t be helped then. I ask you to deal with that next. Uh-huh. You don’t have to worry about things on our end. We’ll deal with them.”

Awas.h.i.+ma hung up and, turning to Munakata seated in the driver’s seat, reported, “Two more strain suspects were sighted in Miyagi and Okinawa, and Benzai will go there after finis.h.i.+ng his current mission.”

At that moment, her PDA rang again. Awas.h.i.+ma answered the call. “Awas.h.i.+ma listening. Mn-hm. Mn-hm… And then? Okay. What? Again? I see. No, we still have to send someone. Good job, but this will be your next task. Mn-hm. Don’t worry about Akiyama, we’re taking measures. Okay, got it. I’m counting on you.”

She hung up, immediately turning to Munakata once more, “More cases reported in Kouchi and f.u.kuoka.” Making a sour face, she added, “He will deal with them once he’s finished with the previous ones.”

Munakata’s lips curved in a wry smile. “So they keep causing incidents here and there, huh. What is it now? Benzai-kun will have to go from Miyagi to Okinawa to Kouchi to f.u.kuoka? By now, tt looks more like a suguroku using the whole of j.a.pan as the board than anything.”

“Well, I sent the ordinary troops to different regions, but it looks like they are not able to contain the situation unless someone of the Benzai cla.s.s gives directions on the scene personally.”

“Well, yes, I would expect that much.”

“Captain. All this…” Awas.h.i.+ma stared at Munakata.

Turning the steering wheel to make a left turn, he responded, “Yes, all this is being caused by the Kounomura group, there hardly can be any doubt about it anymore. I do know know the full particulars of how they managed to set up something so grand-scale, but their intention seems to be to lure our troops away from the capital by causing strain-related accidents all over the country.” He c.o.c.ked his head to the side slightly, “It could be that the string of those cases is a plan targeting Benzai-kun specifically, the same way as the false molestation accusations targeted Akiyama-kun.”

Taken aback, Awas.h.i.+ma stared at Munakata.

Seeing her reaction, Munakata nodded gravely. “It goes to show just how well they know our people’s peculiar traits and personality. Akiyama-kun is an excellent person in every aspect, be it his personal history, his personality or his ability, and he is the core of the Special Operations squad. And Benzai-kun, despite being content to play the role of his a.s.sistant sometimes, depending on the situation, can also be a capable leader in his own right. Kounomura-s.h.i.+ proclaimed that he will take everything from me, and surprisingly, this may be what he meant by that.”

Awas.h.i.+ma wore a conflicted look on her face. “…”

Her position was different from that of the Special Ops squad. First and foremost, she was Munakata’s aide. Despite fully realizing the fact, she couldn’t help feeling hurt. 'Could it be that Kounomura has a higher regard for Akiyama and Benzai than for me? Does he think that they are more useful to the Captain than I am?’

She wanted to think that wasn’t the case. She was still a higher ranking member even in the hierarchy of the Blue clan— but as she gazed at Munakata in the driver’s seat, her confidence began to dwindle.

Usually, whenever Munakata needed to go somewhere, Akiyama or Benzai, or, depending on circ.u.mstances, Hidaka or Enomoto served as his drivers. But today Munakawa was operating the car himself. The reason was simple: driving wasn’t Awas.h.i.+ma’s forte.

It wasn’t that she was downright awful at it. But her sense of direction wasn’t all that good and she had some problems with parking. Hence, Munakata took the steering wheel all too smoothly.

“…”

Munakata must have seen through Awas.h.i.+ma’s inner turmoil, because he smiled and said, “For that reason, Awas.h.i.+ma-kun, I’m afraid you will have to shoulder Akiyama-kun and Benzai-kun’s burden for the moment. I will be relying on you for that.”

“…” Awas.h.i.+ma’s cheeks got dusted pink, but she gave her clear answer almost immediately, “Yes, sir. You can count on me, Captain.”

She wasn’t a child, so she understood that Munakata had guessed what she was thinking and thrown some soothing words her way. That left her feeling a bit embarra.s.sed but also pleased at the same time.

Her face clearing, she thought, 'That’s right. There is only one thing I need to do, and that is, to do my job thoroughly. If I start worrying about irrelevant things now, I will only end up playing into Kounomura’s hands.’

Watching with rea.s.sured approval Awas.h.i.+ma overcoming her mental disturbance, Munakata said, “a.s.suming that Kounomura-s.h.i.+ is behind this, the problem that arises is that such incidents will continue.”

Awas.h.i.+ma nodded, agreeing with her superior. Both of them foresaw that this was not an end but only a beginning.

†

Although Munakata was forced on the defensive, it wasn’t like he sat idly. He did attempt to seach for Kounomura, who was now in the country and hiding somewhere. But that endeavor, unusually for sharp and talented Munakata, had run into some tough waters.

The reason was simple: Munakata had no means at his disposal that he could put to effective use.

First of all, Scepter 4 that he commanded was an organization for controlling and policing strains and strain-related crimes.

Know-hows and techniques on how to search, manage, and, depending on the situation, battle and suppress strains had been acc.u.mulated starting with the rule of the previous Blue King, Habari Jin, but Scepter 4 hardly had any equipment, experience and simply personnel for effectively tracking down unremarkable ordinary people.

It wouldn’t be much of a problem in, for example, America that, in addition to the police, also had information gathering agencies like the FBI and CIA, but in this country the police was the main and biggest organ capable of search and investigation.

And Munakata, as the head of Scepter 4, had yet to acquire justifiable legal basis or gray zone connections that would allow him to make that police machine work for him for anything other than countering strain-related crimes.

If only Munakata had become the Blue King two years prior, the story would likely have been different. But as things stood now, although Munakata did have outstanding attributes going for him, his career as a king was way too short, and he simply had no time to gain social and personal clout to allow him to have an influence on anything except for Scepter 4.

He only could grant or gain favors that were beyond his organization’s duties from the very few politicians and businessmen whom he got acquainted with in the course of his work.

That was why when there arose the need to find Kounomura, Munakata chose to turn to private detective agencies. He selected a few reputed detective agencies and search services that had their own networks all across the country, and placed a search request for Kounomura Zenichi with them, spending quite a sizable portion of the budget on their fees.

Objectively speaking, the manhunt pros from the detective agencies did quite a fine job but in the end, failed to find any information on Kounomura Zenichi’s whereabouts.

†

“Awas.h.i.+ma-kun. Awas.h.i.+ma-kun.”

Feeling someone shake her by the shoulder gently, Awas.h.i.+ma awoke with a start. Still half-asleep, she surveyed her surroundings dazedly, and, realizing that it was her king who had woken her up, jumped to her feet, face beat-red.

So it appeared that she fell asleep in the data processing office while dealing with a few remaining things, demanding her attention. She wasn’t aware of it, but there was a very visible imprint of her sleeve’s furnish left on her cheek.

“M-My apologies, Captain!” She quickly apologized, bowing.

“Oh, no need to worry about it.” Munakata waved a careless hand. “It is already two in the morning. It is only natural for the human body to crave sleep at this time. There is nothing wrong with it. So please put your work on hold and return to the dormitory. Everybody else already did.”

Just like Munakata said, the s.p.a.cious data processing office was empty save for Awas.h.i.+ma. The room’s lighting was controlled via human presence sensors, so at the moment only the lights around her and Munakata, standing before her, were dimly illuminating the area.

“But…” Awas.h.i.+ma objected weakly.

She hadn’t finished what she planned to finish today. There were still two doc.u.ments she needed to check and one she had to draw up. With Fus.h.i.+mi, Akiyama and Benzai all absent, almost all the matters that required a certain degree of advanced judgement ended up on Awas.h.i.+ma’s plate.

Munakata let out a little sigh. “Awas.h.i.+ma-kun. I often repeat that I do not approve of working outside of working hours unless at the time of emergency. Do you remember why?”

“—Yes, I do, sir.” Awas.h.i.+ma didn’t make him wait for her answer. “Because we would not be in our best condition if emergency did occur.”

“Yes, that is correct.” Munakata nodded. “Taking breaks and resting the body, as well as enjoying spare time and giving food to the mind is essential for people in our line of work. Even a machine will break if it tries to carry a load exceeding its maximum permitted weight limit, nothing to say of human beings. So I recommend - or rather, I shall make it a demand - to think in the long-term perspective and find ways to finish your work within the appropriate hours. Besides…” Munakata showed a tiny smile. “…at the time of real emergency, I will work you quite hard, I’m afraid.”

“…Of course, sir.” Awas.h.i.+ma was thinking Munakata’s words over for a while, and then, “I understand, sir. I will comply with your demand. But I would like to make a request, too.”

“Yes, what is it?”

“While I’m resting, I would like to ask you, sir—” Awas.h.i.+ma finally found her courage to express what she had wanted to for a while now, but as luck had it, her PDA rang at that moment, interrupting her.

Awas.h.i.+ma had no choice but to take it out. But seeing the caller’s name had her freeze momentarily. “…”

“Oya? Is something wrong?” Munakata addressed her. “I do not mind you answering it. It may be important. I will wait here, so please do not mind me and answer.”

Awas.h.i.+ma still hesitated. But now that she had Munakata’s explicit permission, ignoring the call would look very strange. That person called her at 2 a.m. in the morning. It had to be about something important. So Awas.h.i.+ma cautiously pressed the connect b.u.t.ton.

The caller was Kusanagi Izumo, the second-in-command of the Red clan, Homura.

“Ahh, h.e.l.lo, Seri-chan? Sorry for the late night call, but there is something I want to ask of you,” came Kusanagi’s voice speaking in Kansai dialect with his usual intonations that could be very well described as frivolous.

Awas.h.i.+ma frowned.

His voice sounded strange. Although it seemed to be more of a technical issue than something being wrong with Kusanagi.

“—Where are you now?” Awas.h.i.+ma asked, and Kusanagi cheerfully elaborated, “Oh, so you noticed? I’m currently in Las Vegas.”

“Huh? Las…Vegas…?”

Hearing Awas.h.i.+ma’s fl.u.s.tered tone made Munakata suspicious.

Trying to gain control of her voice, Awas.h.i.+ma asked, “Why are you in Las Vegas?”

“Ah well, things happened. The Homura guys are here with me, too.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’ll give you a detailed explanation when I’m back in j.a.pan. That aside, I really do need that favor, you know.”

At that moment Awas.h.i.+ma heard a voice saying Kusanagi’s name, “Izumo,” somewhere on the background. The voice definitely belonged to a young woman.

Kusanagi panicked. “Oh d.a.m.n! What do you think you’re wearing?! —Seri-chan, don’t hang up.”

For a while, Awas.h.i.+ma didn’t hear anything as he probably pressed a hand to the microphone, and then, at last, “Sorry, sorry. Things settled down just now finally.”

“—Well, you’re apparently in the middle of something and very busy from the sound of it. If you don’t have any business with me, I’m hanging up?” Awas.h.i.+ma informed him icily.

Kusanagi was clearly fl.u.s.tered, “It’s not what you think! It’s absolutely not, I’m telling you! Oh well, okay, I’ll just state my request then.”

It was a strange request. Kusanagi told her a name and asked her to check if that person was a strain or not.

Awas.h.i.+ma hesitated—