113 Karma II (2/2)

”Kouzuki Kazuya!” Suzaku threateningly grabbed Kazuya's clothes and tried to use his height advantage to pull him up from the ground.

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In a dark room located in an undisclosed location. A girl was locked inside a dark room whilst being strapped to a crude yet sturdy wooden chair. This was a special chair that not only bound her arms but every single finger of hers had a special slot. This chair had initially been for full grown adults but some of the strangers that took the girl had gone through the trouble of changing it to fit her especially.

She had been in this place for more than a day. The darkness made her lose all sense of time and she no longer looked like a spoiled and pampered princess of a large and illustrious corporation. This was the current situation Muimina Ringo was in.

Akabane Isshin had just arrived and entered the observation room and immediately frowned after seeing the current state Muimina Ringo was in. He was the only person who was allowed to bear witness to this because he was the only person who had a thorough understanding of how their world worked.

”This…” seeing the missing finger and the frostbitten hand of the girl. Even Isshin began to question his friend's sanity. ”Why is she still alive?”

Gakuto didn't speak but instead showed part of a replay when Ringo was being interrogated for killing his grandson. It was common for culprits to deny what they are being charged for so they made up several excuses. Ringo's excuses were even more absurd because she claimed that it was Kuuga himself who wanted to meet in their warehouse.

”Preposterous!” Isshin dismissed it immediately. ”I've seen both the autopsy and the forensic reports. Your grandson was even tightly grasping strands of that girl's hair. Though it may be true that she didn't pull the trigger, even the specialist said that it wouldn't have been possible for it to be planted on his body afterwards” Gakuto agreed with this because both of them had praised his grandson for being clever enough to lead them to the right person.

From the forensic report, Kuuga had suffered two gunshot wounds to the head. One was towards the side of his head which matched the splatters on the scene they found. The killing blow however had taken someplace else where the second shot had been fired directly in the middle of his head. From what they could tell, Kuuga had been taken from his office and then later killed off before he was dumped inside the Muimina family's warehouse to be disposed of when the commotion died down.

”I'm not naïve enough to believe a story made up by an immature brat that's as good as dead but you know as well as I do how it feels to have a feeling that something is wrong” Gakuto turned the replay off and turned towards his friend.

”Don't tell me your gut is still pointing towards your initial suspicion of old Kou's grandson?” Isshin understood what his friend meant but both of them knew that this feeling wasn't a hundred percent accurate. ”Jirou already told me about this and I share the same opinion as him. That is an absurd theory. Though they both harbored killing intent towards that grandson of yours, it had been the same killing intent which he projected towards all the members of Dokuro group yet only Dokuro Domon died in his hands”

”I know…” Gakuto knew all of it. He was only holding onto the theory because of his gut feeling because Kazuya's alibi had been perfect. Even the people he had at his command was limited to Jirou and Komori's people so he couldn't have asked anyone else to do it for him especially after only discovering his grandson's connection to him on the same day.

”Let me remind you. It was also due to Kou's grandson that you were able to take this girl into custody so easily. The devices that the Dokuro group used to block devices from sending any information out of a certain area were reproduced by the company he was protecting and given to your group. He may have had an ulterior motive of punishing the people behind the attack but he had no reason to help you for the cause you declared” Isshin lectured.

”Stop lecturing me about that. I know how much of a help that fierce boy has been!” Gakuto was irritated. It was even Kazuya who mostly formulated the plan to take Ringo without anyone noticing.

”Don't worry my friend. I think I understand” Isshin put a hand on his friend's shoulder to comfort him. ”You've been so proud of having all grandsons and looked down on us who had granddaughters so now we, having the perfect fierce candidate that we can leave our clans to makes you regret for being smug all these years right?” Isshin gave a smug look.

”BUZZ OFF!!” Gakuto swatted away the arrogant hand placed on his shoulder. Though his friend was fooling around, he actually took those words to heart and wondered. ”(Is my judgement really being clouded because of how I admire the boy?)” he couldn't completely deny it. If Kazuya were to lead a group that dabbled in the underworld, there was no doubt that even without their help, he would be a force to be reckoned with. His senses might have been acting up because of this so he was stuck deep in thought.

”Regardless… this girl might have been responsible for Kuuga-kun but you know as well as I do that she is still but a child. I advise you to put her out of her misery now so you can focus on finishing what you started” Isshin advised. No matter if Ringo was alive or not, their purpose of dealing a heavy blow to the Muimina Budou's mental state had already been effective. It was only a matter of time before the act moved on to the climax.

Ringo had already given up hope and had been muttering ”just kill me” to herself over and over again. It wasn't until Gakuto and Isshin entered that she started saying it in a weak yet loud enough voice for them to hear. She had enough and had given up on life. No matter how she denied it, she understood that she had been framed to the point that even her hair was somehow in Kuuga's possesion.

This was an elaborate trap that didn't allow her to have many options. It was her words against all the evidences that pointed towards her and her family. She didn't know who did it or why but none of that mattered anymore. She wanted to die, she wanted to become a ghost so that she could uncover this mystery herself and haunt whoever did this to her.

”Any last words, child?”

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