Editing Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter6 (section)

===Part 3===

It’s all because I am the Threat Scapegoat.

My birth was a mistake.



“…”

Hisame Kouga parked the small car on the curb and shut the driver’s door from the outside.

He pressed the key button to lock it.

…That girl had to view this shitty world with utter despair.

Mocking voices, too many wounds to hide below her clothing, even a hot iron to the back. It wasn’t just at the apartment building. The signs of abuse were impossible to miss, but everyone at her school and on the way there and back turned a blind eye to avoid any trouble for themselves. In that world of gray, she would have seen just how ugly adults could be.

Her cries for help had been thoroughly rejected and she had been betrayed by all the supposed goodness and righteousness out there, so asking her to trust just once more may have been a foolish notion.

But he still wanted to say it.

He wanted to tell her not to take adults so lightly.

“Now, then.”

The detective looked up at a building wall.

The window he wanted was thirty meters up.

He didn’t even need ''her'' help for this. A professional bouldering athlete could scale that barehanded in less than a minute.

He did it faster. Despite how filthy the wall was.

The multi-tenant building’s ninth and tenth floors were combined into a single double-height space. A clay pigeon shooting practice ground had been built there as something like a sports gym. They used real guns there. That would break the law back on Honshu, but this was New Sea City. In the name of researching methods of resisting drones illegally trespassing from the sky, this sport had spread as a form of entertainment just like darts and bowling.

As soon as the detective entered the floor through the elevated window, his eyes met someone else’s.

“Uh!?”

The middle-aged woman had already finished her work for the day. Specifically, she was a year head at a certain high school.

Her name was Haramori Yoshiko and she was the detective’s next target.

He spoke quietly.

“You can shout if you want, or not. You’re an adult, so you can make your own decisions.”

The year head’s eyes trembled with terror and glanced over to the side.

Where a clay pigeon shooting gun was sitting on a table.

The guns used by New Sea City’s leisure industry were sporting shotguns that fired sand-like shot over a wide area. They were known as Drone Killers and originally designed for hunting wildlife…but they were deadly enough to blast a human being a few meters back if fired at close range.

Hisame Kouga knew this, but he didn’t bat an eye.

“Take it.”

Not even this was enough for him to ''bring her out''.

He suppressed her as a human.

“I don’t care, so go ahead and take the gun. Then I’ll kill you in self defense.”

Her rational mind had faded away.

Drowned out by simpler and more animalistic instinct.

By terror.

The year head’s hips gave out and she fell down onto her rear. She knew a piece of modern technology was within arm’s reach, but Haramori Yoshiko couldn’t do anything at all.

“Wh-what did I ever do? What are you going to do to me?”

“Taking your phone would be quickest. More than that, you can remain a victim that way.”

“What are you-?”

“The Threat Scapegoat. A child is being abused in the apartment you jointly run. I want to put a stop to that, but if you assist me, you might be charged with a crime too.”

“…”

She gasped.

Apparently she really hadn’t known. Not that ignorance absolved her of all guilt.

“An apartment jointly run by a group of high school teachers who each supply a share of the funding, huh? A bit of a gray zone for a public worker who isn’t allowed a second job. And the tax incentives in New Sea City made it all the more lucrative. I get the investment reasons, but you created a blind spot in the city. People assume nothing too bad can happen in an apartment managed by a group of schoolteachers and that presumption drowned out a small voice.”

The detective slowly reached out a hand.

He had known what he wanted from the start.

“Give me your phone. If I steal it, you can remain a victim to the end.”

“…What can I do?”

“I believe I already explained the social risks here.”

“I am a teacher. It is my responsibility to look after the children’s lives.”

“In that sense, I’m a criminal who quit that sort of public job.”

Hisame smiled in self-deprecation.

Then he raised a finger.

“Even if the actual work is handled by a management company, a joint owner like you should still be able to access the plans to the apartment. That’s why I wanted your phone. More specifically, I want the map of the building’s wind effects and the ordinary routes for the police patrol drones. You must have had all that explained to you when you had a tall building constructed in this city full of prototypes. And you would have been given the relevant documents.”

“Hm? I thought you were talking about stopping child abuse? What do you need all that for?”

“I need it to solve everything.”