Kamisama no Memochou:Volume 7 Chapter 3

Chapter 3

When Tetsu-senpai was in his first two years of Middle School, he had a glorious record of attending more than 30 counseling sessions. He kept fighting every day until the president of the boxing club spotted his potential. He was already a legend by the time he was 15, and the legends got more exaggerated; for example, he single-handedly sent 50 people to the emergency ward, or that he crushed an entire school year of students. It got to a point that whenever there was a gang fight involving middle school students, the police would first haul him in for questioning. All in all, the total number of times he had been taken to the police station was more than 50.

Tetsu-senpai spent such a life unbefitting of a teenager, but he got a rare lead as a result--he became good friends with the local policemen.

Once, Pole of Hirasaka-gumi told me excitedly.

"Tetsu-aniki is really strong! He's able to knock down a bicyle just by breathing at it! I heard that the stripes would look for him whenever they had trouble."

I didn't know how much exaggeration there was, but it was certain that the police, especially the investigators, seemed to owe Tetsu-senpai a favor, His links with the police had come with handy in several cases for the NEET detective agency.

But this time, the situation was different.

"...The police aren't talking. It's a murder case after all..."

On the afternoon following the incident, a weary looking Tetsu-senpai was seated on a beer crate used as a chair, patting his shoulders. There was a rich stench of tobacco smoke coming from his shirt.

"You came back from the police station?"

At the same time, Hiro showed up. Tetsu-senpai nodded, saying,

"It's tense there, and I got chased out immediately."

After that, he turned to me.

"Narumi, you saw everything, didn't you?"

I nodded silently.

The previous morning, I was the first to respond to Major's call; Tetsu-senpai and Hiro only got there after the police cordoned off the scene completely, so Major and I were the only ones who got to see the corpse."

"...Was it really Ginji-san?"

The corpse was beheaded, but the clothes and body profile were familiar to me.

"Not sure. I'll try to get them to talk."

I rubbed my roughened face with my hands, still unable to digest the reality. What's going on? Why was Ginji-san murdered? How do I explain this to Yui-san?

"What's going on with Major now? I couldn't contact him on the phone." Hiro said worriedly.

The police took Major away afterwards. Major and I hardly spoke, so I wasn't too sure as to what was going on. I guessit was because he was the first one to discover the corpse, Also, I saw a few other homeless folk being pushed into the police cars.

"They're just being taken in for questioning, right? There's no need to detain them for investigations."

"Ahh, I heard of the reason why though." Tetsu-senpai answered, "There were some metal bullets found in the corpse's hand."

"Metal bullets?" Hiro frowned.

"Right, the investigator said those were metal BB bullets."

Hiro and I both gasped in unison. BB bullets?

"There are such things around?" Hiro asked. Tetsu-senpai grimaced, shaking his head,

"Of course, there aren't those kinds of BB bullets sold in the market. Maybe they were modified from ball bearings."

"Can they be fired from an air gun?"

"I don't know either. However, I guess Major should be able to figure out whether they can be shot. He's always modifying them."

"If those are metal bullets, they can kill."

Only after he said this did Hiro realize the gravity of the situation, and he hurriedly covered his mouth.

In fact, someone was killed. This wasn't to be taken as a joke.

"And that's why Major is a suspect here."

"Looks that way."

I felt a little intimidated as to how those two were able to continue with the conversation so jovially.

"I-isn:t there a group out there shooting at the homeless? They should be the ones who did that, right?"

But despite my interruption, Tetsu-senpai didn't react much, "Maybe." saying that,

"But there's another reason. The head was severed, right?"

Hiro said with a frozen look, and I gulped down the sour saliva.

"A human head isn't something that can be chopped off that easily. According to the investigators, it appeared the neck of the corpse was hit by a powerful trauma, and the severed part was worn out. Maybe it was done by a shovel car. Anyway, human strength alone isn't enough to do that, so Major might know something, I guess."

A shovel car? There wasn't any such giant machinery in the park. The construction company wanted to build up the foundation, but they had to stop work temporarily because of the civilian protests.

Why? Who did this, and for what reason?--And also, how?

"Even Major can't figure out how to bring a shovel car around in his pockets."

"That's what I said to the police too."

"..Still yet to find the head?"

"Nope."

The conversation between Hiro and Tetsu-senpai sounded vague, as though it came from the bottom of the water. Why could they both continue talking like this? Everyone knew Ginji-san. He's not dead, right? Just the head got lobbed off. My thoughts started to be mired in mud."

Suddenly, there was something hot on my shoulder.

I turned to look up, and found that it was Tetsu-senpai. I recovered, and found that it wasn't that hot. It's just human warmth, the warmth of flesh and blood.

"Narumi, it'll be fine once you calm down."

Tetsu-senpai said tenderly with a stoic look on his face.

"Just think of the client's matters, and don't think about anything else."

I was already worn out just trying to hold my lips from quivering.

"We too found it ridiculous, since this is the first time everyone encountered such a case."

I gulped.

As a detective assistant, I encountered several cases of death. Not the medical term of death, but actual deaths.

But this was the first time I personally witnessed a corpse.

I found myself to be--unexpectedly calm.

This calmness left me more terrified than anything. I guess I was deliberately trying to get myself to puke, giving that gaudy look. When Tetsu-senpai grabbed me by the shoulder, my body chilled. To be precise, I found out that my body wasn't being hot in the first place.

I took a deep breath, and exhaled all the air vented in my throat. Once my chest relaxed slightly, I started to think of the requestor. Right, I just needed to think about Yui-san's matters. What do I do? First off, we could only wait for the reports to come in. We can't be sure that it was Ginji-san's body. Maybe someone deliberately had his shawl and clothes placed on him, and chopped the head off so that nobody else would find out...

Who did it? And for what reason?

I buried my face in my hands; there were too many mysteries. There was nothing I could report to Yui-san, and since the matter did not appear on the news, I could only remain silent.

At this moment, I head little footsteps from between the buildings, and lifted my head.

"Yo? What happened to you? Scared out of your wits when the police detained you? Had a good night sleep at the detention cell?"

Tetsu-senpai asked,

"It's heaven compared to the camp at the foot of Mt. Fuji in the winter."

Major shrugged as he answered, and sat beside me. Like the day before, he was dressed in a trench coat and a Russian styled cap covering the ears, and the eyes under the goggles seemed to have thick black rings beneath them. Major put his hands in his pocket, and scanned out three.

"I have something to report to Alice. Come along."