Vol 6 Chapter 3 (1/2)

Chapter 3

The hospital ere looking was located in a corner of the buildings located in shi+njuku Hyakunincho The abandoned building was practically devoid of any huhts were , and entering my ears were the sounds of the people in the pachinko parlors by the roads, with so This place was a station away from shi+njuku, yet it felt so different

“Over here? Really? I don't see a hospital signboard here”

Tetsu-senpai was the first to get off the car, and said this as he lifted his head up to look at the building

“Most likely, he's without a license Of course he can't possibly hang his signoboard out there!”

Major said as he slipped to the side of the building's shutters, and scanned his surroundings before reaching his right arh there was a flash between his fingertips before the shutters opened with a clattering sound Major's a et creation and illegal intrusion Aency, he's the closest to being a criminal (or I'll say, he is a criminal) It's way too easy for hi

Inside the baseon car covered in blue vinyl sheet, and one could be certain of who the oithout looking at the license plate We lifted the sheet to look at the car, and found an entire black stain on the chair of the co-driver seat

Bloodfrom the bottom of the car door to the stairs

I gulped hard

“We'll stay put here Go upstairs to look”

Yondaiu at ain liftedthat was covered with black stains on the wall

Having obtained news of the escaped vehicle froumi and the network of the many female friends Hiro made, and spent two days to find this place Of course, locating the doctor would help improve efficency, but the scale of our netas still rather surprising

“Why choose such a nearby place? Even without us getting involved, if he's hiding here, he'll be found out iht?”

Tetsu-senpai muttered as ent up the stairs Actually, I was a little curious about that The place was a ten minute walk from Kabukicho in shi+njuku, and this place was really too dangerous a hiding place for so to hide from the Chinese mafia

“This place is Korea town, that's why The Huangs are fro, and they probably won't be able to take action too easily, right?”

Hiro said as he walked in front of us

The reason ere able to find this place was due to an eyewitness account froht of the incident, a car drove into this building, and on the third floor, that typically didn't have any lights on, there were a few shadows

The fireproof door on the third floor of the building was tightly shut, and Major spent a lot of work just to unlock it We entered the pitch dark floor, and i and narrow corridor was made even more narrow due to the crude black sofa and the stacked cardboard boxes Major entered the rooain

“nobody inside at all”

So, all ency entered at the same time

In front of us was a messy, filthy hospital room,and we couldn't tell where the clinic here the bed here the toilet was The fact that there was electricity and potable water available was surprising in itself The shelves, tables and desks were all covered in dust, but at the basin, there was clearly signs of blood that ashed away recently

“They dealt with the wounds here, and drove off in another vehicle?”

Tetsu-senpai flipped through what appeared to be a patient log as he asked this

“That should be the case, right? Now, the problem is, where's the doctor? Did he run away as well?” Major answered as he rued all over the tables

“Narumi, have you contacted the mafia?”

Hiro asked me, and I shook my head

“No I want to try finding all the beneficial evidence and hide theive a call”

We're only pretending to help the Huangs because we didn't want to help them, and that e asked about the escape vehicle Because of that, I hoped to use that little extra time we had

“It feels like you've been saying a lot of scary stuff recently, Narumi”

“Eh? R-really?”

“If theon your own like that, you'll definitely be killed”

“Ah, ye-yeah, but”

“Don't worry” Hiro s party this time, so I'll bear half of that price”

“Hiro” Even if that was a joke, this guy's really kindhearted

“I'll just take half of your chopped body then!” I'uy!

“Speaking of which, how did you know that the girl who should have been dead is still alive?”

Tetsu-senpai asked, I want to know too, and Hiro gavearound over the past two days, so I didn't have the time to explain the details to them

“It's not that I'm completely certain she's still alive, but,”

I turned to look out of the dim

“It's just that Xiao Ling-san definitely lied”

Back then, what she told us was this,

Hong Lei's fiancee, Huang Xiang Yu was staying in the house of the siblings Huang Hong Lei, Huang Xiao Ling in shi+ed by the ChineseYu had another boyfriend, and a few days ago, that boyfriend, the ed into the shi+uard to Xiang Yu, killed theot up to protect Umeda Kouji He then loaded their corpses onto the car and drove off, and these events itnessed by the helper in the house

“I heard that too” Tetsu-senpai nodded

“But the probles don't have a helper in their house”

“Hm?”

“So in fact, the real witness of the incident was Xiao Ling-san Hong Lei only returned ho-san's call, so back when the incident happened, she was at home”

“The why did she have to lie that a helper saw it?”

“Because she's a fan of Ichihara Etsuko[1]?”

“Major, stop interrupting!” This is serious business I' about!

“You really like humor like usual, Vice-Admiral Fujishi+ma You just shot down this deliberate joke fro I guess I shouldn't bother with him

“As for the reason why Xiao Ling-san would lie, it's still a guess for now” actually, everything after this was just a guess, “Hanada Masaru killing Xiang Yu ”

“Lying? Then, that guy with the slick hair was fooled as well? Tetsu-senpai said as he folded his arms in front of his chest

“That's likely the case But Alice is a detective If Xiao Ling-san has to lie about a witness in front of her, it'll be troublesoh or suspected That's why she went ahead to create a fake witness

“No, but”

Hiro lifted his head and stared into space

“But this lie can only work once, right? If her explanation doesn't tally hat her older brother said, it'll be seen through In fact, you saw through it, Narumi That person doesn't look stupid, and probably won't be so careless as to believe such words, right?”

“I'rabbed my hair messily “That person's words and actions were really too weird Even till now, I still can't figure out why she came to look for Alice, and I don't knohat she hoped for us at the NEET detective agency to accomplish She said that she's very close to Hanada Masaru, but she didn't look as though she orried about hi for hi Lei without hesitation”

“But Naruht?”

“Huess” I really had no confidence at all, and could only look down at my toes

“As Hiro said, that lie could only work once I guess this -san's real objective is? In fact, she remains in contact with Hanada Masaru, and even knows his whereabouts, and assisted him fully The reason why she came to the office was to let us knohat happened, and for us to do whatever anted I guess that's to buy soot the ti was seen through now”

“Buy time? For what?”

“Probably—to get Xiang Yu as far away as possible”

Hiro remained rooted, Tetsu-senpai's h the patient log, stopped

“Eh? Eh? Erm?”

The first to recover was Hiro

“So it's the fiancee who escaped willingly?”

“That should be the case She probably doesn't want to ht?”

“Were Masaru-san and that wo?”

Tetsu-senpai asked, and I nodded

Xiao Ling-san and Hanada Masaru-san collaborated in establishi+ng a lie that Huang Xiang Yu was killed, and other than that reason, I couldn't think of anything else Xiao Ling-san probably hated such politicalof the tiot married with Min-san's s' pickiness

“You too are really so like that, as if it's the real thing” Tetsu-senpai seeiven up

“Erm, no, that's”

“Do you guys really think Narumi's smart now? What he said were all my hypothesis”

Suddenly, I heard Alice's voice, and literally jolted

“Ahh, sorry that I didn't mention it to you I'ency”

Major pointed at theat his waist as he said this Eh? Th-thatI just said?

“Stop wasting ti the truth based on facts isyou see as fact Also, ith that explanation, Narumi? Couldn't you have been more orderly hat you said? Your points are as erratic as thearound, and you even put your hypothesis up front as though it really happened—”

Alice continued to rattle on, but we still had to continue work The sound of exhaust gases from the cars could be heard outside, followed by so up the stairs

The boors to the clinic was slaed in

“Huang Hong Lei found us! They're here!”

Everyone present was startled by those words, and the files, notes and patient records in our hands nearly fell to the floor I didn't contact them

I heard the voices of the Hirasaka-gumi members downstairs, and this ti up the stairs Sla aside Yondai coat Thebehind had either shaved eyebrows or bald heads, and clearly, they were not decent people

The long narrow eyes under the slick head scanned the roo sword, and stopped the e strides towards me, and I shrank back in fear

“Hey, wait—”

Tetsu-senpai noticed that so was amiss, and wanted to shi+eld hi lei to knock him aside with his shoulder as he closed in in my Sparks seemed to fly in my vision, and my back was slammed into the wall as I was unable to breathe There was a scorching burn on my face, followed by pain, and my brain finally understood that I was beaten up

“You bastard!”

Tetsu-senpai yelled, but I hurriedly reached out to stop him

“Wait, stop, calm down, senpai!”

So seemed to be busted inmy mouth Tetsu-senpai frowned, and I cautiously turned to look at Huang Hong Lei

“Since you found this place, why didn't you contact me immediately?”

Hong Lei's words seeans I could only look away, because there was no point in giving any excuses

“Hey! Drop everything you have in your hands!”

Hong Lei turned to yell at Major and Hiro, and the latter silently put the info they had in their hands onto the table and shelf respectfully Hong Lei then turned tohis head with a stoic look

“I told you that if I'll kill you if you dare do anything funny, right?”

He grabbed my shoulder

“Hey!” “You bastard!”

Tetsu-senpai and Yondaiirl suddenly came from Major's waist

“Huang Hong Lei”

The shoulders under the longcoat reacched After calling hi a bunch of words, but I could not understand anything at all She was (probably) speaking in Chinese

Alice's voice continued for a while, and the co Lei immediately lifted his head to look at Major

“What was that?”

Major leaned on the wall, reaching for the equip on his waist

“That's our coht now, only connected with us through voice”

Hong Lei frowned

“Is that the kid hacker Xiao Ling mentioned?”

Major nodded Hong Lei spoke a feords of Chinese to the co Lei shoved me to the wall, and turned to leave

“I won't kill you yet Now scram”

“—You idiots! Do you have to understand only when you're killed?”

We returned to the detective agency;I was caught by Min-san at the e from her

“Didn't I warn you that they're !”

“Sorry, erm”

It appeared that Min-san already knehere I came back from, and what I encountered too I was shaken by her by the collar, and suddenly heard a rattling of the eency staircase as footsteps came downstairs

“Narumi!”

I turned back to look, and found a figure dressed in blue pajaht behind her

“You were beaten? Did you suffer any fracture? Do you need the hospital?”

Alice hugged my waist, and asked with a teary look on her face I was taken aback, and for so ridiculous Hasn't she been running outside for a while recently?

“Alice, ca-calm down! I haven't had any major injuries, just another cracked skin in my mouth”

“I was careless of our actions! I didn't notice that Huang Hong Lei already knew of our actions! I won't be sending you over to such dangerous places again Stay inside the ICU obediently for the rest of your life!”

“What are you thinking of my life as!?”

“You two idiots Now's the time for idle chit-chat, huh?”

Min-san proceeded to exertboth Alice and me on her shoulders

“Woah!” “Wahhh!”

And just like that, ere carried off into the agency, and thrown onto the bed With Min-san's anger showing no signs of subsiding, Alice and I iot to our knees

“What about the other idiots? Didn't you coether?”

Min-san went straight to the point and asked that She clenched her fist as she asked, and I could only pull my head back in as I answered obediently

“Well, we'll definitely get scolded by you e return to 'Hanaht ho scolded to me”

“I see!” Following that was another punch The wound in ain

“Master, if you have to beat him up, please beat the stoain? It'll be troublesome when he has to order full packs of Dr Pepper!” “There's ht?”

“And then? What were you investigating thatfor my dad?”

“Actually, that's right”

The moment I said it, I instinctively cupped hed

“And even if you did find himwhat can you do?”

Min-san's voice sounded like water that had accu from a crack

I glanced aside at Alice, and the petite detective nodded She lifted her head, and said to Min-san

“Master, actually, Hanada Masaru didn't kill Huang Xiang Yu”

Min-san widened her eyes slgihtly, and for a ulp for breath

“Hanada Masaru and Huang Xiao Ling put up an act to get Xiang Yu to escape fro to participate in”

“Why did he do such a stupid thing?”

“Because Hanada Masaru's wife too did the sas and her love You should know this better than anyone else, Master”

Min-san looked aside I stealthily peeked at Alice's sidelong face Didn't she tell h they're reality? Now she's concluding everything froht?

“And then? What can he acco this?”

Min-san spat

“Didn't he betray the Huangs again? He left his job and ran away, didn't he?”

“But Master, at the very least, you don't have to feel guilty over it, and you don't have to let Huang Hong Lei have his ith you”

“Stop acting like you knohat's going on”

She hissed her voice

“Do you knohy I'uilty? It's debt”

“Eh? Debt? I exchanged looks with Alice besideher lips It appeared she knew nothing, just like us

“When dad and mom opened 'Hanamaru', they took a loan from a creditor

“Creditor? What's that?”

“Chinese who caether to establish a credit association When the business first started out, or whenever there was any eency, they could borrow money from them I didn't know about this at all It was only recently that I learned about it fro Lei”

I was inadvertently speechless

“The one running that credit association is the Huang Coalition, which s money! That bastard went ahead and disappeared while hiding such an i!”

Saying of that, and it uess Hanada Masaru vanished and returned to the underworld because the ra uch money?

“B-but, recently, 'Hana well If you continue on, you should be able to pay back the debt, right?”

“The ter ti for uard there That's theas the Huangs had that intention, they could take back 'Hanamaru' as interest!”

I sighed weakly, and collapsed onto the bed I just felt that I had no strength to continue kneeling

“In other wordsMin-san, you can only let the Huangs do as they please/”

“Why do you say that?”

Min-san shrugged

“What do youLei hasn't asked for anything that outrageous I just need to dress foreneration! Since I have a debt with theht?”

“No, but that Hong Lei's actually—”

“Using this as an excuse to forceLei hasn't said that!”

Of course If the plan ell, he could marry her It would be too early to tell her that

“So stop being a busybody here!”

Min-san said these words, and was about to leave the office, only to be called by me

“What now?'

“Ehh, well”

I claspedmy words

“Just in caseif Huang Hong Lei really plans to marry you, what do you intend to do?”

Again, Min-san turned her face away and bit her lips, showingquite an adorable face Was she really being bashful?

“Hoould I know? Who'll really think of such wild guesses anyway?”

Min-san's back vanished outside the door of the agency, and I sluhed down by the cold air of the air conditioning Alice, who kept silent beside hed

“It's rare to see you being quiet for so long”

“Looks like I still can't imitate you”

Alice curled her legs, her chin leaned on her thighs as she said weakly

“I me?”

“Right? The 'story'”

“Oh, just now?”

What was Hanada Masaru trying to acco Yu really alive? These teren't confirh they were truth

They were not lies, but neither were they truths One they, they would beco's—mold, a mold of reality, happiness and despair Alice called it a 'story', a fragile dream that would break apart upon contact froraverobbing detective would be unable to deal with

“Once it comes out from my h at It's really strange What's the difference between you anda story?”

“Uh? Nothing?”

In fact, I really didn't get what Alice was trying to iue, casual replies

“Maybe it's because, I don't have a future in uess?”

I was shocked No future?

“A story needs an ending before it can be recited, but I can't write out that last page Do you know? Actually, I don't really have any hope on what Master would do I simply have an unmatched thirst for the truth, the water fro For this world, I'll probably forever be a reader”

Alice continued to stare atdown the besheet The air conditioning continued to breathe It appeared that she aiting for this foolish detective assistant to start talking, like before

“So, I'ht?”

The shoulders under the blue pajahtly, and a few strands of hair drooped upon them

“Back then, I was so terrified of being beaten up by Master, but now I' so boastful now, am I not?'

“Ah, erm”

“Well, whatever I have an endless curiosity, and this is Hiro's request I don't care howyou take, but we need to proceed with the investigation We got to the scene first, and there are a few useful bits of information we obtained”

“Really? We were chased out by Hong Lei after not too long We practically found nothing there, you know?”

Alice turned around to face theat the keyboard

“First, the obvious facts—the escape vehicle was certainly there, which means that Hanada Masaru once hid at that place The hospital phone still works, and I can begin tracking the records from here”

I see A phone can reveal the location, so it's not good to use for escape A fixed family phone wouldn't have such issues however It can be used to contact and make preparations for escape

“Who exactly is that doctor anyway?”

“A Korean called Choi, and if I uess, a doctor without a license It's just a rumor, but I heard that he handles some indecent work”

“Indecent work?”

“Wounds that can't be openly dealt with, like gunshot wounds, abortion, falsification of patient recrodsand even dealing with corpses”

I inadvertently frowned

“He's also someone of the underworld, and probably someone Hanada Masaru knehen he was a mercenary Anyway, his whereabouts now are unknown It's said that he's often not at home, and intel states that the last ti the weekend”

“This guyI guess it's better for those ht?”

It's a little strange to say such words now, but things seem to be perilous all around Alice nodded stoically

“What we investigated about this doctor won't be asCoalition knows, so it will be wiser for us to begin investigating in other areas Besides, I still have a foolish assistant who barges in without thinking of any possible dangers”

I inadvertently lowered my head

“Leaving that aside, the second ier seat only”

“Sowhat does that mean?”

“I saw, your brain is rees of vacuum! Can't you just think for youself?”

“Okayerm”

I sat on the bed, and folded my arms

“At the very least, I can be certain that Xiao Ling-san was lying when she said 'Hanada Masaru killed them both'”

“Right That's the first place There isn't a dummy in the world ould put a corpse, or even two into the co-passenger seat Thinking more about it, there should be 2 people on that car

“Why?”

“assu that there's 3 people on the car, and one of them is wounded, would anyone let the wounded sit in the co-passenger seat?”

“Ahyeah, I guess”

And also, Huang Xiang Yu and that thug whose naot onto the car, and one of theht? There's a need to stop the bleeding or obvious However, the co-passenger seat's the only one with blood on it, so this excludes the fact htat there were anyin the car

“But there's souess”

“Eh?”

“Even if there's only the wounded and the driver, it's ical to put the wounded in the back seat With that ht find out about them in their middle of the ride Furtherer seat of the car that the lie was seen through”

“Hm, that makes sense”

I putfor a while

“Is it possible that there were actually three people on the car, but they just pretended that there were two instead?”

“What's the point of pretending that ht of the incident, the nearby residents heard the growls of a youngin Was it really that thug called Umeda Kouji? What happened affter that? We don't know about that”

“Uu”

What exactly happened on that night? This doubt became the knot on our theories

“Looks like we can only get Huang Xiao Ling to tell us At this point, she should be willing to tell us a few things”

“Will she really tell us? That person doesn't trust us at all”

“That wo Hong Lei already has the information we found”

“Ah”

I see Huang Hong Lei isn't as stupid as -san was lying, just as Alice did

“Sowhy did she lie anyway? To hide the fact that Xiang Yu's still alive and make sure nobody looks for her?”

“That's the ht of immediately”

“But if Hong Lei knew that Xiang Yu isn't dead, he'll send in all his ht?”

“That's why Huang Xiao Ling really believes that her brother would help her let Huang Xiang Yu escape”

“Eh? Ehhhh?”

What does thatYu to escape? Wasn't she his fiancee—

“Ah!”

“I see

Hong Lei had been aiot killed—that situation was the perfect outco Lei

Thus, he would help out

In other words, Xiao Ling-san's lie was just to bluff the old randdad and such?

“That's just the 'story' in your heart, right?”

Alice turned back to look atat me

“What?”

“Then let's have it take shape now See, she came to look for us now”