The Song of Fractured Light (Love Live Superstar x Lantern Male Reader)

Chapter 7 - My New Normal

I gave her a small, reassuring smile and said "Is anybody who was there during the incident here right now? The one with Kaen I mean."

She nodded and said "I'll go get the doctor who was there right away."

She ran off, and as she went to get him, I asked the ring to try and see if it could find out anything about Kaen's past online. With this thing being what is probably one of the strongest supercomputers on Earth at the moment, it wasn't any trouble to connect wirelessly to the web and start searching as the doctor arrived, a woman who indignantly came up to me and slapped me as she said "Do you have any idea what you did doing whatever you did to him?"

"I was just trying to make it so the cops could charge him sooner." I said

"No, first off you had nearly paralyzed him from the waist down, and then when we had lowered our guard enough, you somehow fixed that, giving him hope that he could escape. You could have done what you did to anyone, anyone would have been more deserving, and you did it to the one person who could cause the most harm." She snapped "One of the officers is in the ICU after that, and the other passed away due to his injuries, and it's entirely on you"

Oh god, I thought I was fixing my mistake, but what I ended up doing is so much worse than what I thought it was even last night. "I see, I know that I screwed up, but please, if I'm going to fix this, I need to find out what I can."

She sighed and said "Look, none of us were paying the most attention, we thought the officers had him under control, but the next thing we knew his hospital room was filled with a hissing sound and a huge blue flame. I rushed in afterwards, and saw him jumping down on the roof of the building below."

"Alright, thanks" I said. Truth be told, I had been wondering about why the blue flames since our last encounter "Hey Ring, any ideas?"

Searching for answers conforming to witness testimony... The answer that closest follows is that the flame's concentration of oxygen was high enough to create an oxidizing flame. Confirmation possible by checking exposed sites for oxidation.

"Alright, thanks ring." I said, leaving it back to its search for info as I headed back into the hospital room. Oxidation is rusting, right? That shouldn't be too hard to check for, well as long as they had things in here that could rust...

I headed around the room, rummaging through the cinder and scraps left from his escape. There was so much destroyed to the point that it's kind of hard to tell what's what, but I slowly started to put things together, and I underneath the pieces of melted plastic that used to be the bedframe, I finally found something: a rusted piece of metal I can only assume is one piece of the handcuffs he had been in.

I picked up and muttered to myself "Well there's my confirmation..." Now that I have this info, if there are any sudden fires before I catch him, I can check to see if it's really him.

Background details on culprit located

Alright, awesome, for now I ought to start the flight back towards Yuigaoka while reading over his criminal record. I don't know if I'm going to get anymore info here after all. I gave one last apology to the nurse for my screw up, and left the hospital, flying higher than usual so I don't need to worry about turning to avoid buildings.

I used the ring to make a construct of a file from the info it gathered and started to go over it, my ring taking the wheel when it came to flight.

"Let's see... age 23... date of birth was June 23rd... ah, a psychological profile." I muttered as I went over it.

The patient exhibits extreme sociopathic and pyromaniacal tendencies. Most likely cause as to why is due to being the sole survivor of a tragic accident at his elementary school. As he describes it, at age 8, a gas main had burst above his classroom as his teacher gave a science demonstration, seeping into the room and suffocating everybody there, causing them to slowly lose consciousness. As he slowly started to fade, he saw his teacher collapse, accidentally turning back on the bunsen burner, igniting the flammable gas in the air. He seemed almost nostalgic as he described his final sight before losing consciousness being the sudden and rapidly growing flame.

That incident had reportedly resulted in the destruction of nearly half of the school and the death of everyone there. However, he somehow survived through luck or unstated circumstances, however, are unknown.

It seems that a major motive for his crimes is to relive the perceived beauty of that fire, mainly targeting larger buildings such as businesses and apartment complexes where such an incident can cause more people to live through his fantasy.

"And this is the guy who I accidentally helped get free..." I muttered, frustrated as I landed in an alley near the school's entrance. I took off the ring and headed into Yuigaoka again as I thought about how one single event changed things for him so irrevocably. One single spark even. Then again, I'm the guy who went from nobody to somebody just because a ring slipped on my finger after I got stabbed, so who am I to judge?

I know I promised Kazushi to not throw my life away over this, but I can't just sit back and do nothing while this lunatic is out and about.

As I passed through the halls towards the roof, I was stopped when I felt somebody gently tap on my shoulder. I turned to see who it was, and saw that it was Ren.

"Oh, hey. What's up?" I said

"Hey Y/n, I'm glad to see you back. I noticed you went missing, and I have been worried something happened to you as a result of... you know" Ren said, alluding to my stabbing

I gave her a reassuring smile and said "That? Don't worry about it, I'm fine. I've just been out of town due to an incident with my family."

"I see. Well I'm glad you're okay. And I can tell something is the matter, so if you ever want to talk about it, I'd be more than willing to at least hear you out." Ren said

"Right, thanks Ren." I said. Still, I don't really think I can tell her that I'm frustrated and upset that a crazy arsonist is out on the loose hurting people and it's my fault. Still, seeing her is at least proof that I can do some good, so while I can't forgive myself for my mistake, I won't let it stop me from making up for it. I will find him, and I'll make him pay for what he did.

Ren and I headed our separate ways, and I headed towards the roof, hoping to get a pick me up from hanging out with those girls, and to start plotting how to deal with Kaen.