Internet Shrine Maiden Tsugumi-chan:Volume1 Chapter6

Chapter 6: NIO;ENB;LKNB;DFYGA;EIFHA;FDYIOCWE @ Location Data Unreadable

Part 1

The Terminal Float acted as the starting point of the megafloats spread out like a fan.

Directly below the giant bridge that connected the city to the outside world, the rain had finally let up.

It was 8 PM. A small car was stopped on the artificial wharf engulfed in the shadows of night and the suspension was creaking unnaturally.

Hisame Kouga spoke quietly while facing forward in the driver’s seat.

“Struggling won’t accomplish anything. It won’t come undone that easily.”

“~ ~ ~!!??”

The middle-aged man in the passenger seat was soaked with sweat. His hands were tied using the seat belt. That tool was designed to protect lives, so it took a lot to break.

Anyone would have worked.

As long as it was one of the pieces of shit who had done things like press a hot iron against a child’s back at the Apartment of Many Deaths.

(Her father, hm? That makes him relatively notable in the faceless crowd of abusers.)

The detective began speaking from the driver’s seat, still facing forward.

“I want to confirm a few things first to avoid any misunderstandings. …So can I accept the stories of abuse as the truth? I do hope your answer here can greatly shorten the rest of our interaction.”

“What, are you going to torture me into talking? That’s meaningless!!”

“See? We’ve already found a misunderstanding, so let me be clear.”

The detective wasn’t looking at him.

He didn’t even glance toward his target as a living being.

“I’m not the one who will get you to talk.”

“?”

“She is.”

Creep…

Two overly long and slender hands reached in from the back seat as if to embrace the passenger seat headrest.

As one of those bizarre hands silenced the subsequent scream, Hisame Kouga opened the door and quietly left the vehicle.

He lit a cigarette with a retro matchbook from a company that had apparently already ended production within the country.

He had an AED ready. He blew out some smoke and spoke calmly.

“Enjoy your date.”

Part 2

The space was deserted.

The Hisame Detective Agency was empty and the air inside was dead. Her social media messages received no response.

The online shrine maiden used the nap room to change into her shrine maiden outfit.

Once back in the office, she found the old oil lighter sitting on the shelf. For some reason, it wasn’t locked up.

The Imperial Exorcism Igniter.

“…”

She said nothing.

Yahirodono Tsumugi took the lighter.

“That idiot…”

A deep male voice came from the laptop on the desk. The call through a free talk app was apparently from a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department detective back on Honshu.

“If you want to play the hero in tights, then don’t quit your civil servant job. Thinking the ends justify the means isn’t the logic of a private detective – it’s the logic of a terrorist.”

“How far do you think he will go if he really has snapped?”

“As far as it takes.”

That was so exactly the answer she expected it gave her a headache.

That detective was such a good detective he could easily determine what secrets people most treasured just by observing them.

That led him to empathize with people on the verge of breaking and he would solve their problem no matter how much it cost him.

“I assume you would know that better than anyone since he took you in after your shrine burned down.”

“What about the Nagatacho Leaders Case!? He left the police to pursue it, but he’s just going to abandon it now?”

“He was solving that to save someone. Sacrificing another life to focus on it wouldn’t make sense.”

“You mean he can make detours?”

“There was a hostage situation a few years ago. They couldn’t gather the ransom money and it wasn’t looking good for rescuing the hostage. …But the kidnapped child was saved. By amazing good luck? By a whim of the hostage taker? No. Because one detective obsessively tracked down and arrested the hostage taker before anyone died. He really did force it to work.”

“…”

“That’s how Kouga saves people. Including all the low-level officers, how many hundreds of thousands of people do you think work for Japan’s National Police Agency? Kouga outdid that colossal organization all on his own. He is a pure tracking expert. So he doesn’t judge things like a mercenary or a bodyguard. He judges them like a detective.”

Hisame Kouga gained nothing by doing all that.

Civil servants earned a set monthly salary. And because he had shamed the higher ups who had quickly deemed it impossible to rescue the hostage, making them look like coldhearted bastards, it actually worked against him in less tangible ways.

But he didn’t care.

Because he could make that kind of decision without hesitation, he had gone a step further and quit his job to free himself from its shackles.

“This is my first time speaking with you, isn’t it?” said the man. “I’d love to help if I could, but I’m 500 kilometers away. Even if I hopped on a train now, I still might be too late. Young lady, can I leave that idiot to you?”

“Yes.”

The online shrine maiden turned toward the detective agency’s exit with the old oil lighter in hand.

She didn’t look back.

“I will settle this before it’s too late.”

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.”

Part 4

The detective had to be acting rationally.

Tsumugi wouldn’t catch up if she simply followed his trail.

She had to work out what he was thinking and try to get ahead of him.

She knew she could do it. Because she had been watching him closer than anyone for quite a while now!!

“I’m back.”

The online shrine maiden left the building containing the detective agency and regrouped with the gyaru sister and straitlaced sister in the shadowy streets. The sisters were both dressed and geared up for a trip to a haunted location. They appeared to be carrying a large quantity of fireworks.

They would begin soon.

None of them said it aloud, but the tension in the air said it for them.

“We will stop Hisame Kouga here,” began Tsumugi. “We can’t ignore the Threat Scapegoat either, but that’s no excuse for allowing a Malign Spirit to indiscriminately attack living people. We will stop him before this gets any more complicated. Do you two agree with that goal?”

In other words, they were going to save the lives of all the abusers in the Apartment of Many Deaths even if it meant attacking the detective who was trying to protect a child he had never met before all this.

That was the choice they were making.

“Yes,” agreed Yuhi. “A decent guy like Hisame-san doesn’t need to ruin his life for human garbage like them. So let’s go knock some sense into him. Saving that child and committing crimes aren’t the same thing.”

Yes, they couldn’t let the simple emotion of it delude them.

Emotions had the strange power to forcibly bridge the gaps in flawed logical connections.

Tsumugi had one main concern.

(I don’t actually know if Hisame Kouga is pretending to be Hasshaku-sama to threaten the extras, or if he’s taken an even larger step into this side of things. I can’t just hope for the best here.)

The gyaru sister frantically spoke up.

“B-but New Sea City’s crazy big, right? It’s a metropolis with tens of millions of people if you include the tourists, each megafloat is kilometers long, and there’s so many of those crammed together. There’s no way we can search the entire city by foot. How are we supposed to find Kouga-san!?”

“He’s a detective – an expert at finding things – but that means he can also become an expert at severing the thread of information and covering his tracks. If you ask me, finding him is going to be a challenge if he’s abusing his well-honed skills.”

Tsumugi listened to both sisters’ thoughts in silence.

The variety show calling itself a documentary had been forced to stop filming when the extras – who were the least strictly guarded of the cast and crew – had been threatened. Searching out new extras probably wouldn’t work. At the very least, filming would not continue for the sketchy reenactment drama that would further attack the Threat Scapegoat.

The detective had started by preventing that TV program from airing and increasing the number of people who feared or found amusement in the Threat Scapegoat.

So that part of his plan had ended.

Hisame Kouga was no longer targeting anyone connected to the TV program.

If he had already set up his hunting ground, then he only had to enter it and go wild.

So what would his next priority be?

The online shrine maiden raised a shout.

“The Apartment of Many Deaths. …He plans to attack the residents who are directly harming that child!!”

Part 5

The trio boarded public rental aquamobiles and drove full speed down the sea waterway.

The fact that traffic congestion caused differences in the appearance times meant the detective was using a car.

Would they make it in time?

New Sea City was made from dozens of megafloats.

The residential float in question was an above average one. It wasn’t a float a student like the online shrine maiden would have reason to visit often.

Several high-rise apartments with 20 or more floors stood in a row.

The farthest to the right was the Apartment of Many Deaths.

They all looked exactly the same, but it was obvious at a glance which one it was. That one clearly had more weight to it.

The design and construction were identical, but for whatever reason thieves only broke into one of them. People would jump from its roof. And not just the residents who lived within the auto-locking entrance. There were people who came from afar to curl up on the emergency stairs and die of old age.

Something like a giant jungle gym made of steel beams was located next door. The density of beams changed in places and meandered in S-shapes in other places, giving it too distorted a look to be seen as an actual jungle gym.

“My aquamobile just jerked. Is the water jet having trouble?”

“Or machines are starting to malfunction.”

They couldn’t bring the aquamobiles on land, so they parked them at a nearby docking zone and set foot on the ground.

“Those beams are really close together,” said the gyaru sister. “Are they going to put something heavy on there?”

“Some kind of pathway weaves through it, so they may be building an aquarium.”

While the sisters discussed that, Tsumugi tried to check her map app and found her trifold phone had frozen.

A faint shrill sound rang in her ear.

A Malign Spirit’s Groan.

(It isn’t a conference room jammer or damage to the antennas this time.)

“He’s here.”

“You!!”

Someone called out to her.

…It was the boy she had saved from the Forbidden Hands.

“That detective guy was here. Mom said he was here to help that girl!”

Based on what the boy said, he and his parents hadn’t laid a hand on the Threat Scapegoat. They even felt shame that they had known her pain and not done anything about it all this time.

Tsumugi was now even more convinced she needed to stop Hisame Kouga.

His methods were wrong.

“I’ve made up my mind. If that detective guy can help her, than I can hide her at our place!”

“Yes, but you won’t have to. …We will settle this before it’s too late,” said Tsumugi, looking up.

Someone stood at the top of the steel beams. A shadow in the moonlight.

Why was he there?

Was the apartment’s auto-lock too much for him? So he was planning to break in through a window higher up? When Tsumugi came here before, she had managed to sneak in fairly easily (thanks to the Groan’s effects).

(I can find out his plan later. For now, I just need to stop him! Besides, he might not be acting entirely logically at the moment!!)

That was a construction site, so it was surrounded by metal walls.

The online shrine maiden and the other two girls left the boy for now. It was time to get started.

“H-how do we get in? Damn, there’s annoying barbed wire at the top, but we might be able to climb over if there’s a bump in the wall…”

“Move, Onee-chan.”

Yuhi carried over a folded ladder that must have been somewhere around the construction site. She fully extended it and leaned it diagonally against the wall. The top pushed down the barbed wire, eliminating that problem.

“Did you learn this at the TV station too?” asked the exasperated online shrine maiden.

“Time saves and shortcuts are lifesavers at shooting locations.”

The trio climbed over and dropped down on the other side.

The figure was up top. Tsumugi kept her voice low.

“Be careful.”

“R-right.”

“We’re up against a human this time, not a dead Malign Spirit. So he’s going to be more clever.”

The online shrine maiden took the lead up the steep scaffolding stairs.

And as soon as she did, they were suddenly split up.

“Whoa!”

Hearing a shout and a metallic crash behind her, Tsumugi spun around.

The stairs ended partway down.

A steel beam had fallen from above to crush and pierce the stairs made of thin metal panels, leaving no way for the sisters to follow the online shrine maiden.

“Shrine Maiden-san!”

“Don’t try to clear it with a running jump! This was no accident! You’d be in serious danger if he predicted that move!!”

Tsumugi felt the need to quickly stop them because she could imagine the gyaru sister actually trying it.

The stairs groaned, threatening to completely collapse.

But as frightening as it was to have the metal stairs torn through, another risk occurred to the online shrine maiden. Each steel beams weighed more than a ton. How exactly had the figure above dropped one of them? An ordinary human wouldn’t be able to lift one. Even if they shoved on it with their feet, they wouldn’t be able to budge it…

The mysterious Malign Spirit didn’t scare her.

It was the familiar person doing things that shouldn’t be humanly possible that scared her.

(It doesn’t look like this is just a trick or an empty threat.)

“What do we do!?” shouted the gyaru sister from the other side of the gap.

“I can reach him, so I’ll just have to settle this myself.”

Only the online shrine maiden remained on the part of the stars above the break.

“I will settle this before it’s too late.”

She continued up and up and up to reach the equivalent of the seventh floor.

So she could reach the same world as him.

“Detective…”

“Didn’t you realize this would happen if you pursued me?”

His voice was icy.

It was Hisame Kouga.

She realized this was her first time ever facing him as an enemy.

“The professional thing to do would have been to come alone. Then I wouldn’t have had to do that.”

She restrained her heart as it threatened to be overwhelmed.

The online shrine maiden lit a bundle of incense sticks with the oil lighter and waved them.

The detective didn’t bat an eye.

He must not have felt a need to hide it anymore.

With a “vrum!!!!”, space itself distorted and a woman nearly 250cm tall appeared next to him.

She had long black hair and pale skin.

“Po.”

Her hands were unnaturally long and skinny.

“…………Po…………….po…………………………”

She wore a long white dress and a large hat.

“……………………………………Po po po………po.”

Her head was lowered, but a pair of eyeballs glared out from below the brim of the hat.

“Po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po po.”

A Malign Spirit.

Hasshaku-sama.

“So it really is her…”

“You didn’t actually think it was all an act, did you?”

When Hasshaku-sama took a liking to a child, she would capture and kill the child. The distance between them was irrelevant.

Yes, she would capture them. Possess them. Which meant someone could get close to her as long as they accepted the considerable risk.

Crawl, crawl, crawl, crawl, crawl.

There was a darkness. The detective’s entire right arm was bound by pitch black hair. That was something even more unclean than the hair clogging the bath drain. His palm was covered and stained so badly no sign of its original color remained. Dragging him toward a distorted and broken soul different again from simple death. His fingers all looked different lengths with the black hair tangled around them.

They were twenty meters from the ground, at a height of more than seven floors.

The straitlaced sister who frequently visited the TV studio might have been able to expand the scaffolding using wires and metal panels lying around, but she wasn’t up here.

Falling from here would mean death. Tsumugi had no choice but to fight up here with only the thin steel beams for footing.

“I will save that girl, even if it means relying on a Malign Spirit. As long as it lets me ensure no one ever calls her the Threat Scapegoat again.”

“So what exactly are you going to do? Slaughter everyone in the apartment? You’re letting Hasshaku-sama influence you. Although you probably could easily accomplish that using the Malign Spirit’s power.”

Hisame Kouga didn’t respond.

He never strayed for his own sake.

That was the kind of person he was.

He had been pursuing a case with his own life on the line, but he had taken an unnecessary detour to give Yahirodono Tsumugi a home after finding her staring blankly at the ashen remnants of the shrine.

(I get it.)

So he had reached out a hand to the Threat Scapegoat in the same way.

Without hesitation or thought to the burden it would place on him.

(I do get it…)

He knew exactly what Malign Spirits were.

No matter who you were or how young you were, a soul that had reached that point was beyond saving.

But.

That was why.

He would do everything he could to save a life before it reached that point.

He understood he couldn’t let that child die while carrying so much resentment in her heart and he understood saying “I did my best” wasn’t enough here.

(But you can’t give yourself over to a Malign Spirit to do it, detective!!!)

Tsumugi could no longer rely on the gyaru sister or the straitlaced sister.

She would have to settle this on her own.

The two who had worked together for so long were finally glaring sharply at each other.

It was one against one.

Online Shrine Maiden Yahirodono Tsumugi and Detective Hisame Kouga.

The time had come for them to battle.

Part 6

The first one to act was the detective.

He didn’t hesitate.

“…”

Trying to count his actions using his breaths or steps was a mistake.

He seemed to slide right on up to her.

Could you intentionally hide the timing of your actions if you mastered the basic action of sliding your feet?

Something loudly struck at the air.

The online shrine maiden grimaced and backed away.

She felt a throbbing pain in her right wrist and side. As she had suspected, the biggest threat was the long black hair wrapped around his right arm. It made his fingers unnaturally long. The actual extension couldn’t have been more than 10cm, but that slight change could be the difference between life and death.

But. This hadn’t even been a physical blow.

His finishing blow took a different form.

“Kh!!”

“You can’t win.”

Hisame Kouga’s martial arts were based on the combination of karate, judo, and kendo taught to the police. If she hadn’t known that, he would have grabbed her by the sleeve and collar and thrown her.

Tsumugi was short. Her small body meant her arms and legs had a shorter reach. And her long hair and her shrine maiden sleeves and hakama gave an opponent plenty to grasp.

Her outfit simply wasn’t designed for fighting living humans.

“Tsumugi, you can’t beat me. This isn’t just a matter of logic. Your fight is to take revenge on Hibashi-sama and rebuild your shrine. But that fight won’t save anyone other than yourself.”

“Shut up…”

They were atop a construction site made from steel beams connected like a jungle gym, but that didn’t mean they had to travel along a grid. There was a passage that meandered in an S-shape and a lot of areas where the beams were positioned more densely. Those were probably where a giant water tank would go, but by running through those areas, it was possible to jump diagonally between the lengthwise and widthwise beams that were close enough together.

She had to stay on the move. And never let him predict her next action.

His punches and kicks were flashy, but they were no more than the groundwork for ensuring he could grab her. Maybe he would punch her in the nose to make her see stars, or maybe he would kick her in the side to knock the breath out of her. Once she had stopped, he would immediately grab her and pin her down.

“If you want to fight the Malign Spirits who exist outside this world’s rules, then become someone who can save people. Police martial arts let you fight without shedding any blood. That way you can even save the criminal. You’re no match for me as long as you get that very first step wrong.”

“Don’t lecture me when you’re the one who’s gone astray!!”

Tsumugi wasn’t used to dealing with a living person possessed by a spirit.

Was the detective being influenced by Hasshaku-sama?

If so, it meant he had sympathized with her reasons.

He didn’t seem to be a puppet. She could sense his own will here. Strongly.

And his strength was extraordinary.

The physical blows were less a concern than the grabs. And worse than that would be the choke holds and joint locks. In judo and wrestling, there was a time limit after someone was pinned down. That was because everyone the world over accepted that you couldn’t break free afterwards.

She blocked another hit.

She swept it aside to ensure she didn’t freeze up and get caught. The throbbing pain refused to fade.

Was that really a human fist? She was amazed the flesh hadn’t been torn from her arm.

But the detective actually seemed a little impressed.

“You escaped the chest piercer? That was supposed to hit the center of your chest instead of your arm. The quick blow to the heart causes the mind and body to freeze up with fear.”

“You would attack a girl’s chest?”

“It is one of your many weak points.”

It was best not to trust him about that chest piercer or whatever. She couldn’t say for sure if that attack had really been aimed at her chest. And the detective wouldn’t foolishly make the same attack over and over, risking the possibility of a cross counter.

Hisame Kouga had far more cards in his deck, so she would remain at a disadvantage like this.

The online shrine maiden bit her lip. Hard.

It was time to steel herself.

(I know I can’t defeat him unharmed. I can take a hit or two. As long as he doesn’t actually grab me, I just have to rush in and knock him out.)

“Are you underestimating me because my martial arts aren’t meant to kill, Tsumugi?”

Thud.

It wasn’t possible, but Tsumugi imagined the steel beam bent below the detective’s foot as he stepped toward her.

That was just how great the weight, presence, and pressure he gave off were.

An unpleasant sweat covered the online shrine maiden’s brow. Her feet were pinned before he even made his move.

“What I trained in didn’t draw on karate, kendo, judo, and other modern martial arts made safe enough to function as a sport. Department 1 continues to independently develop a more old-fashioned martial art that includes a few forms of truly martial arts that have been honed into something high-tech. If it will neutralize a dangerous criminal without killing them, we are willing to break their collarbone, rib, or even Achilles tendon. As long as they can still speak in court, we can break everything else. I was only a police detective for a few years, but you already know that there are criminal organizations in and outside the country that still tremble in their boots and freeze up if they run across Hisame Kouga, don’t you?”

“…”

“They say they’d prefer a painless death brought by a bullet.”

“Tch!!”

(How did he realize I was planning to charge him? This isn’t just an issue of speed or weight. Is he predicting my very thoughts?)

The detective used the ultimate form of modern martial arts that continued to evolve in its use against real criminals.

He was the polar opposite of Tsumugi and her battle against the paranormal. He was untouchable when up against a living human.

Tsumugi’s fighting style was adapted from the martial arts demonstrations used as divine offerings – where a single person would put on a performance of being defeated by the unseen god to make the god look powerful and provide that victory as an offering – so maybe her kata were simply too obvious. Not to mention that the martial arts used as an offering to a god didn’t take dirty tricks into account.

So a change of plans. If he could tell what she was gong to do, she just had to weave in some other attacks to throw him off. She took a quick glance around and noted the locations of a thick wire, a metal pipe, and so on.

And.

She saw something there.

“Tsu…mu…”

There was something there.

A voice. A voice calling her name. A familiar voice, but not the detective’s.

A female voice.

She gasped. From the inescapable guilt of having survived when no one else had.

Fire appeared in her mind’s eye.

She saw the blazing torii and the hellscape that lay beyond. Including the older shrine maiden who had vanished among the ash and char.

“Tsumugi. Oh, thank goodness. You’ve grown up so much.”

(No. Why-)

“L e t ’ s p l a y.”

A different voice drowned it out.

The cause of it all.

That sweetly alluring but thoroughly rotten female voice that caused her skin to crawl whenever it hit her eardrums.

“Cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle cackle CACKLE CACKLE CACKLE cackle cackle cackle cackle!!!”

Yes, a voice.

Hasshaku-sama could accurately mimic people’s voices.

She did so to confuse the living and drive them to self-destruction.

Tsumugi knew that, but still the rage rushed to her head. She couldn’t stop herself.

He would use this?

He would use the lowest of trump cards that was guaranteed to stir up her emotions whether she liked it or not?

“Detectiiiiiiiiiiive!!!”

The rage had faded by the time they clashed next.

He had lured her in.

She blocked a few blows and just barely avoided his grasping fingers by swinging her sleeve out of the way.

She gritted her teeth against the gouging pain. Did the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department really teach this?

Maybe it was meant to break bones or joints even through bulletproof gear.

If the blows meant as setup did this much damage when she blocked them, what would happen if he ever did actually grab her?

(Wait. Wait.)

An unpleasant sweat poured from the online shrine maiden’s body.

The detective looked unconcerned.

“You noticed?”

“You…”

“All you have are your small firework attacks, so you only have the setup. You don’t have any holds or locks that can end this.”

He had been the strongest of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s detectives.

Criminal organizations inside and outside the country trembled in fear at the mere mention of his name.

But after finding a case he couldn’t solve within the organization, he hadn’t hesitated to go private.

She was fundamentally not on his level.

“What’s wrong? Are you sure backing away from me is the best move?”

“…”

“The police don’t just use their bare hands and batons. We’re also trained to use this.”

(A handgun!?)

She didn’t even have time to breathe. Tsumugi rushed forward. If she didn’t stop him before he could reach into his suit, she would be killed.

But Hisame Kouga’s right hand simply clenched into a fist.

He had tricked her again.

“!?”

She immediately ducked low. She was already short, so this forced him to swung down toward her. Reducing his options had to increase her odds of successfully defending.

Stars danced before her eyes.

Her prediction, influenced by optimism and wishful thinking, was easily betrayed.

His fist hit her in the bridge of the nose.

She belatedly realized it had been a rising blow like an uppercut. Her equilibrium wavered. She tensed in fear of slipping off of the giant jungle gym.

Uh, oh.

She heard two things swishing through the air toward her starry vision.

The master of police martial arts was already reaching his arms toward her.

If he grabbed her, it was over.

(Aim low!!)

Her vision hadn’t returned, but she couldn’t wait for it to.

But he couldn’t use his hands to block an attack aimed below his knees.

After drawing his focus down with a whiplike kick, her red hakama fluttered up in a high roundhouse kick.

She froze in place.

The detective had caught her ankle.

She didn’t have time to feel the chill down her spine.

(Not even a kick is powerful enough!? Am I just too light? Argh, I should have taken his legs out from under him with a tackle!!)

“Kh!!”

Logic wasn’t enough. She just wasn’t used to fighting humans. At this point, she would accept even blinding him briefly. With her ankle still in his grasp, she pulled a firecracker from her sleeve, lit it with the oil lighter, and threw it.

Hisame Kouga said nothing.

His grip on her leg suddenly vanished.

A metallic “gong!!” as if from a Buddhist temple bell rang out.

He had kicked hard off the steel beam below their feet.

And leaped.

It was impossible.

With no running start and no tools, the detective had jumped well over 3 meters straight up!?

(Is he borrowing Hasshaku-sama’s pow-)

“Khahh!!”

It hit her in the top of the head.

His foot flew along a curving path to hit her.

The flavor of blood in her mouth scared her less than the sensation of solid ground vanishing below her feet.

She was falling.

Instead of trying to fight it, she dropped to the next level down on the jungle gym. As soon as she landed, she rolled forward to somehow avoid the detective’s feet as he jumped down after her.

Hisame Kouga was certainly strong.

(Kh, this is still better than a Malign Spirit since even a touch from them is usually deadly!!)

She had to focus on the positives.

Only professional martial artists could instantly knock someone out in a single blow. The actual problem was the less-than-a-second freeze after being hit. So even with her head feeling woozy, Tsumugi had no choice but to keep moving.

Besides, that hadn’t been normal.

Even if she was equipped with professional tools of the trade, they were really only firecrackers. If he were okay with some mild burns, he could have continued reaching out and grabbed her by the collar or sleeve.

Yet he hadn’t.

More than that, he had used Hasshaku-sama’s power to jump more than three meters straight up.

He had supposedly mastered high-speed movement without picking his feet up off the ground, but he had thrown all that out there. Jumping had become his top priority.

Which had to mean…

(He was avoiding the fireworks?)

Tsumugi’s eyes widened as she made fast but irregular movements to keep him from predicting her.

It couldn’t have been simple burns he feared.

It must have been an instinctual thing.

On a more fundamental level, Hisame Kouga had taken a step toward being a Malign Spirit. In payment for borrowing Hasshaku-sama’s power, the rules of the dead were beginning to apply to him.

Part 7

“That was way too close…”

“Onee-chan, are you hurt?”

After descending from the broken stairs, Betsuzaki Yuhi reached her hand out to her gyaru sister.

A heavy steel beam falling from above had broken through the steep construction scaffolding stairs, but neither of them had any obvious injuries. They were untouched to an unnatural extent.

Rainy refused to believe she had simply been lucky.

(But Kouga-san shouldn’t have any reason to hold back.)

Fireworks were burning around 20 meters above. For a building, that was around six or seven floors up. So too high to climb up without stairs.

“Are there any other stairs or a ladder? Yuhi, you search too.”

“Onee-chan, look at that.”

Lights were coming on in the apartment’s windows.

The residents must have noticed the commotion.

Their voices were plain to hear even down on the ground.

“What the hell!? Hello!? Damn, why can’t I get through to the police!?”

“My computer’s not working either…”

“But we need the cops. Oh, hell. Where did I shove that old landline phone!?”

Rainy looked up at the apartment.

“Of course they can’t call anyone. The Malign Spirit’s Groan or whatever is stopping it.”

That didn’t matter.

“They’re all afraid,” said the straitlaced sister.

“Yeah.”

“As if they know why someone might want to attack them.”

They had called an innocent child the Threat Scapegoat and attacked her violently. It had been so hellish that even her parents had been too afraid of the abuse to try and help her.

Now those abusers all wanted to rely on the police.

They were cursing as their emergency calls didn’t get through.

As if they were ordinary people.

“I think I kinda get why Kouga-san is so mad,” said the gyaru sister.

Part 8

He had heard her.

The detective had heard her voice.

“…It was my fault.”

The girl was hanging her head.

It was beyond the point that she could hide it below her clothing. Anyone could tell how battered she was, yet not a single person had stood up for her.

She was squeezing something tight in her little hands.

A headless plush toy.

If it was her favorite, she wouldn’t have done that herself.

Abusers always had a knack for knowing what people cared for the most.

“A Threat Scapegoat like me never should have asked for something to make her happy.”

This was a detour.

He knew that.

Hisame Kouga had dedicated his life to pursuing National Top Priority Case #015: The Nagatacho Leaders Case. Wasting time and bringing himself closer to death here wouldn’t provide any new hints there. He knew that.

But.

Was that any reason not to risk his life!?

Part 9

The adults inflicting abuse in the Apartment of Many Deaths were scum.

But the detective didn’t have to throw away his life for them.

The online shrine maiden gritted her teeth and forcibly regulated her breathing.

“!!”

She moved back.

She lit the oil lighter again.

She pulled several bottle rockets from the side of her hakama, aimed them directly at her target, and tossed a bundle of firecrackers like a long throw in baseball. The flames of Konohana-no-Sakuya-Bime spread out across the area.

The light intersected and wove itself together.

“Detective!!!”

Something audibly tore through the air.

The orange lines were unnaturally extinguished.

Hisame Kouga held his palm out toward empty air.

Something unseen and clearly superhuman had shot down the fireworks bombardment.

As if tearing through it.

Hasshaku-sama.

“She can capture and kill people over long distances, isn’t that right!?”

“Tch. Not a good sign if I’m entering your ring.”

That was true.

If relying on the Malign Spirit would let him win, the detective would have just done so in the first place. He could have stayed in hiding and knocked her out with a long-range attack before she even saw him.

But he wasn’t confident in a direct clash between the paranormal, so he had wanted to swiftly end this with the purely physical attacks of his police martial arts. He had even lured her up here where movement was limited to boost his odds as much as possible.

“But are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“?”

“She can capture and kill regardless of distance. …I can’t directly kill you, but this position does let me target those irresponsible apartment residents.”

Tension ran through Tsumugi, but rushing him would be too dangerous.

She couldn’t change the type of battle.

If she brought this back to a grab-or-be-grabbed martial arts battle, she couldn’t defeat him and his mastery of police martial arts.

That had to be what Hisame Kouga wanted her to do.

It had to be.

“Another bluff about a projectile attack? Like with the handgun?”

“Not this time.”

There was a wet sound, like a sticky blood bubble bursting.

“I could have done this from the start. Really, the handgun bluff was meant to hide it.”

“Detective!!”

“Also, I didn’t just start preparing it. Do you see Hasshaku-sama there? Her rank is Quadruple Dread Start. Capturing and killing every single one of the apartment’s residents will be a breeze with her.”

Every single one of them. Did that include the mother and child she had saved from the Forbidden Hands?

Fear and impatience clutched at the online shrine maiden’s heart.

Hasshaku-sama was a Malign Spirit, but come to think of it Tsumugi hadn’t looked up her rank before hand, had she!?

“Time’s up.”

“!!!”

The online shrine maiden pulled out all the firecrackers she had left.

She was out of time.

She had to rush in despite the risk.

As Tsumugi ran in with all her might, the detective’s words slipped into her ear.

He was right in front of her.

“I was bluffing.”

Part 10

They collided.

Part 11

A muddy sound.

A rusty scent.

Splattered red.

“…”

Hisame Kouga was doubled over. With a hand over his mouth.

He was coughing up blood.

Still, he moved back to avoid the many firecrackers Tsumugi threw.

“It was never going to work.”

It wasn’t over yet.

The online shrine maiden whispered as she pulled several more bottle rockets from her large sleeve.

“Malign Spirits are enemy’s of humanity. Simply touching them is harmful. Their specific origin doesn’t change that. Whatever Hasshaku-sama whispered in your ear and no matter how much she made it look like she was helping you, trying to take her in as your own power was a flawed idea from the start.”

“…So what?”

“Detective!!”

“A child is suffering. That’s a life I can save by no more than pushing myself hard and offering up pieces of my own life. So why should I hesitate here?”

They yelled.

Atop the steel beams, the online shrine maiden and the detective ran straight toward each other.

(I won’t let you.)

Tsumugi ignited all the bottle rockets she had left.

The space before her eyes wavered.

The tall woman by the detective’s side extended her unnaturally long arm toward her.

(I won’t let you trample on the justice you believed in!!!)

Was Hasshaku-sama the one he chose to rely on in the end?

Even though Tsumugi wouldn’t have stood a chance in a battle of pure martial arts?

Boom!!!

The bottle rockets pierced the air and stabbed into the center of the detective’s gut.

Part 12

The detective had collapsed.

He wasn’t moving.

A normal human wouldn’t have been damaged like that. He had taken a much deeper wound as the cost of welcoming in the Malign Spirit and accepting the rules of the dead.

The long, long black hair had already vanished from his right arm.

The night breeze tossed the girl’s black hair around.

The online shrine maiden, Yahirodono Tsumugi, stood alone up there.

It was all over.

There was movement in the all the apartment’s windows.

Something was flowing out.

“Gya ha ha ha ha ha!! So it was worth beating her with a mop every day!”

“We’re the victims here! Next time I’m using a razor!!”

“She needs to stop screaming from nothing but a hot iron to he back.”

“No one’s coming to save her.”

“That brat deserves a beating for being a snitch. This crowbar should do nicely.”

It was a flood.

A deluge of voices.

Why had she risked her life to battle that Malign Spirit? What had they been trying to protect here? This collection of malice tore all that down from the foundation. The online shrine maiden stood up there so high from the ground. The gyaru sister and straitlaced sister had to be experiencing the same thing while watching from the ground.

What?

What exactly did they think they had solved here?

And…

“By the way…”

Someone spoke.

From the construction site that looked like a giant twisted jungle gym made from steel beams.

Even though he lay on one of the beams, supposedly too weak to even get back up.

“When the Malign Spirit’s Groan was still in effect, all their electronics were malfunctioning, so their phones, the security cameras, and the police patrol drones weren’t working.”

Nevertheless.

Detective Hisame Kouga still spoke.

“But that was all caused by Hasshaku-sama, so what happens to those drones now that she’s been defeated?”

Without a word, the online shrine maiden looked down at her trifold phone.

The map app opened like normal. The antenna indicator at the top was full.

(The drones couldn’t patrol around here before, but with the Groan gone…)

The sharp buzzing of a motor cut by overhead.

That had to be a police drone. With the effects of the Groan gone, it had resumed its ordinary patrol.

She suddenly recalled what the gyaru sister had said.

“I hate those patrol drones. I can’t relax with the way they fly by buildings and peek in through the windows. And unlike security cameras, I’ve heard they also _____ the _____ of people on the ground.”

(The police drones aren’t like the security cameras around town.)

“Come to think of it…don’t they record people’s voices along with the video?”

A slight change came over the drone’s movements. Had a manned operator taken over? Unlike a normal patrol, it hovered in the sky without leaving.

A young female voice played from its speaker.

It was addressing the giant apartment, not Tsumugi’s group.

“This is the New Sea City Police.”

“This drone’s recorded footage contains several vocal statements flagged for discussing the beating of a child and the burning of a child with an iron.”

“The video also shows the residents of several rooms tossing each other gloves and masks over the fire walls separating their rooms’ balconies. This qualifies as evidence of malicious intent and criminal conspiracy.”

“Officers have been dispatched to your location, so please remain where you are.”

“Any attempt to escape or resist arrest could mean further charges against you.”

“Your identities can be established with facial recognition and voiceprints, which can be used as legal evidence.”

The world’s spectrum of colors had entirely changed.

Tsumugi had indeed witnessed this moment.

The entire building fell silent. As if it had been pierced by a sharp blade. The abusers who had felt free to act with impunity in the safety of the apartment had ended up digging their own graves.

This wasn’t destruction or murder.

The person responsible for this had handed every last one of them over to the police.

Without any of the innocent people in the same apartment having their lives ruined in the process.

This had all been solved using the rules of living humans.

The oil lighter used by the online shrine maiden actually belonged to the detective.

He could have disposed of the exorcism lighter before going on his rampage, but he hadn’t. He had even left the cabinet open when he normally locked it.

(So…he never actually intended to win…)

He had accepted help from Hasshaku-sama’s great power, but he hadn’t let it consume him.

Using Hasshaku-sama’s ability to mimic voices, he might have been able to have her mimic the abusers to confess to the police through a patrol drone.

But he hadn’t done that.

Because he had known only an attack based on the actual truth would be rock solid.

This was a detective’s job.

It was Hisame Kouga’s pride.

(He made sure the abusers’ own confession and actions were recorded by the police to ensure it would count as evidence.)

“Was all if it to make this happen!?”

He was collapsed.

Bloody.

Unable to even get up.

Battered both inside and out, Hisame Kouga still managed a small smile.

“…Did I settle it before it was too late?”

Part 13

Flashing lights and sirens were everywhere.

The police apparently wanted as many cars as they could get tonight.

Small machines painted white and black were sharply flying every which way in the night sky. Instead of the usual patrol ones, these were pursuit drones used to crack down on reckless drivers. Using their rotors at full speed, they could apparently reach 400km/h, so even if someone tried to make a run for it, they wouldn’t make it far.

There was so much noise and light.

The night was swept away. It felt like the dark and heavy atmosphere hanging over the Apartment of Many Deaths had been blown away.

The online shrine maiden lent her shoulder to Hisame Kouga.

They had reached their limit after descending a different stairway that had just barely managed to survive.

They collapsed together.

They had to basically drag each other over and sit side by side.

Tsumugi sighed.

“Phew.”

Most of the apartment residents would get their comeuppance. Hundreds of lives had been ruined to save a single child. The numbers didn’t add up, but it had been the right thing to do. She felt like the world’s gears finally fit together correctly.

That child would now be a normal human living a normal life.

No one would call her the Threat Scapegoat anymore.

“I’m so, so sorry about all this.”

“I know you’re only saying that.”

Had he learned his lesson?

Not a chance.

This was who that detective was through and through.

(I should know after he didn’t hesitate to reach out and save me from the burned-down shrine.)

Tsumugi spoke while seated on the ground and looking up at the apartment.

“Honestly. And you claim to not be with the police anymore?”

She was thoroughly exasperated, but she wasn’t done complaining.

“You left me behind, you helped the suspects more than necessary, you acted alone without ensuring your own safety, and you even relied on a Malign Spirit!!”

Her complaints were punctuated by a dull “whump”.

That was the sound of her small fist lightly hitting him in the side where he sat next to her.

And she said one more thing without looking him in the eye.

“…You were cool, though.”

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