Chapter 14: Silencing Witnesses

Jingniao stepped out of the Ikeda home. The oppressive atmosphere inside made him reluctant to stay a second longer.

“Hello, Jingniao here… Mm… Yes… I've found a male corpse. Preliminary assessment is suicide. There's also a mentally disturbed high-school student, the deceased's son… Yes… That's right… Send an ambulance and Homicide… The address is…”

He briefly explained the situation to the station. He had just hung up when a gun barrel pressed against the back of his head.

Tian Yi's voice came from behind him. “We meet again, Officer Jingniao.”

“So you're finally going to do it yourself?” Jingniao didn't turn around or move his neck. He didn't even dare twitch a finger. He knew perfectly well that the man holding the gun behind him regarded human life as worthless.

In that brief instant, Jingniao reasoned that since the man hadn't shot him outright, he must have something to say. Perhaps he wanted to gloat, perhaps to make a deal. Whatever it was, there had to be a reason for this. So he tried to negotiate with Tian Yi, hoping to find a way out of certain death.

“Turn around,” Tian Yi said.

Jingniao obeyed. Facing Tian Yi without a trace of fear on his face, he asked, “You have something to say to me, don't you?”

Tian Yi lifted his head and looked around as though considering something. He went through the motions for just three seconds before saying, “Mm… I thought I did, but now that I think about it, apparently not.”

The next second, the gun went off.

A scorched bullet hole appeared in Jingniao's astonished face. The bullet entered between his eyebrows and blew the entire back of his head apart, spraying blood and brains several meters away.

A few seconds later, the body toppled backward.

Tian Yi wiped the muzzle with a thick tissue, tossed the tissue to the ground, and shrugged. “Good. At least you'll look reasonably presentable lying in your coffin this way. They'll just need to give you a slightly higher pillow.” He seemed to be telling Jingniao's corpse a joke.

After putting away the gun, Tian Yi crouched down and took the identification from Jingniao's pocket. Then he stood and walked away, humming a tune.

Half an hour later, in the police station morgue.

Kuwabara Junichi's immediate superior, Major Shimaki, called his mobile.

“What are your orders, sir?” Seeing the number, Kuwabara dispensed with pleasantries and got straight to business.

Shimaki said, “Kuwabara-kun, something unusual has happened with C Squad.”

Kuwabara replied, “Has the target spotted them? Were there casualties in a fight?”

Shimaki's tone grew strange. “Kuwabara-kun, your earlier request described a serial killer whose abilities you provisionally assessed as Paper rank. Could that assessment have been too low?”

Kuwabara caught the implication and grew nervous himself. “That's unlikely… If anyone of Strong rank or above had entered Sakura Prefecture, they should have been put under surveillance long ago. There couldn't be anyone like that in our jurisdiction… You know that too, sir. That man… is Normal rank at most.”

Shimaki said, “Quite right. But can you explain why all four members of C Squad lost contact with headquarters about an hour ago…? At first I thought it was an equipment failure or communications interference, something of that sort. But as things stand, there can be no mistake.”

Kuwabara's expression changed. “Could… all of C Squad have defected?”

Shimaki said coldly, “Kuwabara-kun, have you spent so long with the dead that your brain has gone stiff too? Stop answering my questions with questions, and stop giving me unconfirmed information.”

Kuwabara's Adam's apple bobbed, his face ashen. “Understood, sir. I'll go and confirm it at once…”

Shimaki said, “Hmph… Cyborgs are only cyborgs, after all. They're classified as Normal rank, but everyone knows they're in a different category altogether from genuine Normal-rank fighters, so it doesn't matter how many die. But you, Kuwabara-kun, I hope you'll come back alive with results that satisfy me.”

“Yes, sir!” Kuwabara answered firmly.

The other man hung up.

Kuwabara put away his phone. The look in his eyes made him seem a different person from his usual smiling self. He threw away the lunch he had been about to enjoy and strode toward the morgue door, bristling with murderous intent.

Just then, the door opened from outside, and someone wheeled a corpse in.

“Ah, Mr. Kuwabara, just caught you. We've got another one.” The young officer pointed to the body bag on the trolley. “Careful when you unzip it. This one's a frightful sight.”

A sense of foreboding rose in Kuwabara. Instinct told him something was wrong. Why would a corpse be delivered at this particular moment? Could it be…

He grabbed a bone saw from a nearby tray and, with his other hand, slowly and cautiously unzipped the body bag.

“Hey… sir… What are you doing…?”

“Shut up… Stand back…” Kuwabara couldn't be bothered to explain. Without turning, he snapped at the officer beside him, his eyes fixed on the body bag as though a wild beast might suddenly leap out.

The corpse's head gradually emerged. The face was a bloody mess, and the smell of blood assailed his nostrils.

Kuwabara dared not let his guard down. If this was only makeup, the man could spring up and deliver a killing blow at any moment.

He kept pulling the zipper until the corpse's entire upper body was exposed. Only then did Kuwabara realize that the man was stark naked. How could a corpse that had just been brought in have no clothes at all? As the thought struck him, he suddenly noticed that the blood on the corpse's chest seemed to be… writing!

Leaning a little closer, Kuwabara made out the words scrawled indistinctly in blood: “You guessed wrong.”

His head rang. Only then did he notice that the corpse was still warm, and the blood hadn't even dried!

With a wet thud, a sharp blade broke through skin, tore through muscle, and pierced his internal organs. The entire scalpel, handle and all, was driven into Kuwabara's body with a smack. He staggered as he turned, his face filled with shock and regret.

The young officer tossed aside his cap, loosened the collar of his police uniform, then took the uniform off. Beneath it, he wore a black shirt and suit.

“Heh heh…” Tian Yi sneered. “I did ask you just now. What are you doing…?”

“You…” Kuwabara sank to the floor. A lobe of his lung had been cut, making both breathing and speaking extremely difficult.

“What's there to be wary of in a dead man? Don't you think the living are more frightening?” Tian Yi walked toward Kuwabara. “Your colleagues still think of you as… the coroner who cheerfully performs ‘Soba Noodles’ at every annual party. Who would have thought you were with HL?”

Kuwabara hadn't loosened his grip on the bone saw. He was waiting for the man to draw closer. Once Tian Yi came within reach, he would seize his chance to deliver the deadliest possible blow.

But Tian Yi stopped at a distance that left Kuwabara in a thoroughly awkward position. “At first I thought you were like Jingniao, and that having two people of Paper rank or above in this police station was merely a coincidence.

“Unfortunately, even my judgment was off. Jingniao drew so much attention that I overlooked what you might be.

“The morning before yesterday, less than five hours after the body was discovered, while a bunch of idiot policemen were still desperately gathering evidence at the scene of Matsuo's murder, Jingniao had already found my bookshop by following the traces left by Ikeda, Matsuo, Miura, and the others. I have to admit, his ability really was well suited to criminal investigation.

“By then I could confirm that this fellow whose thoughts I couldn't read was a Paper-rank fighter. But he chose not to enter my bookshop that day. Perhaps he intended to come back once he'd gathered more evidence.

“As for you, I never suspected your identity, right up until this morning. But then the Cleaners turned up.”

Tian Yi turned away and paced about casually, seemingly leaving himself open on purpose to tempt his opponent into attacking. “Then I understood. You're not only stronger than Jingniao, you're also an undercover HL operative.” He even took a leisurely stretch. “Don't worry. After you're dead, I'll write a report for you. I'm sure your superior will find it ‘satisfactory.’ Hahahahaha…”

Before Tian Yi's laughter had died away, Kuwabara moved. He shot up like a crossbow bolt, the bone saw in his hand aimed straight at Tian Yi's spine.