Around that time, there were rumors of a highly competent bodyguard in Yokohama. Give him a sword, and he could kill a hundred villains. Give him a spear, and he could take on an entire army. An all-rounder when it came to martial arts, he had a mastery of everything from iaido to jujutsu. The man was also well educated, spending his days off either reading or playing Go. Levelheaded and calm when it came to work, he always took pains to protect his client with a sort of lupine composure. If one had to name a flaw, it would be that he never worked with others on the job and trusted no one.
In short, a lone wolf.
He kept to himself to such an extreme degree that it made people think, That guy doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of ever working with a partner, much less as their boss.
An untamable wolf with silver hair...
His name—Yukichi Fukuzawa.
This brief tale is a record of one man's struggle, of his growth—
—and of parenting.
Fukuzawa looked extremely surly that day. The weekend crowd rolled back like the tide as he strode down the avenue. Even cars stopped as he walked across the pedestrian crossing, even though their light was green. All of this was due to the sullen aura radiating from his expression.
However, he wasn't exactly in a bad mood. He was drowning in self-loathing. His client had been assassinated, and it was all very sudden. As a bodyguard, Fukuzawa had two main types of work: contract jobs where he would provide safe guidance during times of peace while rushing over to help during emergencies, and one-off bodyguard gigs protecting someone or something for a day. The client killed this morning was from a regular contract deal. She was a certain company's president who he'd sworn to guard only a few days prior.
They had never talked outside of work. Fukuzawa made it a point to avoid getting personally involved with his clients, so he didn't know anything about her as an individual, nor did he have any inclination to. However, he was once asked if he wanted to become a full-time guard. Hating the idea of working for a specific company and having subordinates and colleagues made it easy for Fukuzawa to instantly decline the offer. Nevertheless, if he had stayed by her side as her personal guard, then perhaps he could have changed her fate.
From what he heard, the assassin pushed the president out of her office window earlier that morning. There was already proof who did it, which led to the perpetrator's swift arrest.
Fukuzawa arrived at said location, a reddish-brown brick building relatively close to the harbor. The structure stood on top of a slope and seemed fairly sturdy for such an old building. As he entered, he saw yellow crime-scene tape surrounding the ground right under the president's office.
The wind was strong that day, causing the tape to flutter in the wind. Fukuzawa averted his gaze. While the victim's body had already been taken away for examination, there was no hiding the enormous bloodstain on the ground. Fukuzawa checked his emotions at the door, then passed by the crime scene, walking under a sign that said S&K CORPORATION. Following that, he got on the elevator to the president's room.
/> "Hey, thanks for coming all this way. If you could give me just a minute, I'll be finished here shortly."
In the president's office was the secretary wrestling what appeared to be a pile of documents—not something one would expect to see where a murder just took place. The office was big enough to fit around thirty people if they were squeezed in tight. But instead of people, the place was crammed with documents. The desk and floor were drowning in a sea of paper with almost no sign of what they once were. They all appeared to be important documents as well. The secretary, a sickly-looking man dressed in a black coat and a crimson necktie, was lining up some of the papers across the room. He stared at the field of paper, pulled a few files out, and returned them to the bookshelf before lining up some more documents.
"What are you doing?" Fukuzawa naturally asked.
"See these documents here? I'm sorting them," the pallid man replied. "Because I'm the only one familiar with them."
It was hardly a serviceable explanation, and Fukuzawa was not any closer to understanding. But, well, he figured it had something to do with the man's job. Whether sorting documents on the day your boss was killed was disrespectful or simply good work ethic was something Fukuzawa couldn't decide, but it reminded him that a horrific event had just occurred.
"I am terribly sorry for your loss." Fukuzawa bowed. "We lost a great person today... I heard she was pushed out this window here?"
The president's office boasted views of the city of Yokohama. The wide window she was allegedly pushed out of was currently closed.
"It was a professional hit." The secretary's gloomy expression turned even more fraught. "The president's sudden death is a matter of great regret for the company. She was something of a mentor or a governess to me, having plucked me from my former job and made me who I am today. I believe the best we could do for her is uncover the truth and bring the criminal to justice."
The secretary indicated the room next door with his gaze.
"The assassin has already been captured. He was caught by one of the guards on the first floor when trying to escape after the murder and is currently being held in the room next door. Forensics checked his fingerprints against the criminal database and discovered they matched those found on the back of the president's clothes."
"What?" Fukuzawa uttered in astonishment. "Is the suspect still next door?"
"He's very quiet, so quiet you might think he was sleeping. Almost as if he's given up."
There was a reason why Fukuzawa was so surprised. Yokohama assassins were extremely dangerous compared with other cities. Yokohama, the city of demons, had an influx of military parties from around the world working together after the previous war. In the name of governance, they waved around their extraterritorial rights, and each created their own autonomous region as they slowly encroached on Yokohama territory. Therefore, Yokohama was gradually turning into a lawless district even worse than it had been during wartime. The security forces—the so-called city police—were somehow still functioning, but the military police and coast guard, among others, were essentially inoperative. Yokohama was now a lawbreaker's paradise and a melting pot for criminals, murderers, illegal foreign capital, and rival underground organizations.
To make matters worse, there were even skill users, whom Fukuzawa dealt with on a daily basis. Nevertheless, if there was a hit man who killed the president of a major corporation in Yokohama, anyone would naturally consider the possibility of it being a skill user.
A small number of people existed in this world with unusual, paranormal abilities.
The average person would typically never even come into contact with a skill user, hence why such individuals were considered nothing more than rumors or urban legends. However, bodyguards for important people, such as Fukuzawa, were very familiar with them, along with the crimes they committed. While Fukuzawa was a master of the martial arts, he was not a skill user. Whether he would be able to defeat a professional assassin unscathed would be solely dependent on the flow of battle. What alarmed him, though, was the thought that the assassin might be a skill user. If he was, then tying him up with a little rope in the room next door would hardly be of any use. It would be like storing a highly powerful explosive.
"I would like to see the assassin."
"Of course. Be my guest."
Right as Fukuzawa was about to take a step toward the room next door...
"You say, 'Be my guest,' but..."
There was no path forward—literally. Around 95 percent of the ground leading to the room next door was monopolized by the neatly stacked, organized documents. No human would be able to walk through this. This was a job for some sort of eight-legged rescue-bot.
"Mind if I move some of these?" Fukuzawa asked, pointing at the documents.
"Oh! Stop! Don't touch them!"
But he was immediately denied by the secretary, who raised his voice for the first time since they had met.
"The future of the company depends on these extremely important documents! A single print streak could hurt the company down the line. I don't even want to think about losing any of them! Please find a way past them without touching or shifting them! I know someone as talented as you can do it!"
Fukuzawa stopped just short of uttering, "Uh... Excuse me?" It wasn't a matter of whether he could do it. Fukuzawa was a martial artist, not an acrobat. The only open spots on the floor were narrower than the width of his foot.
"Out of curiosity...why are you stacking the papers all around the room like this?"
"A legitimate question. Allow me to answer. I believe that the assassin's objective was to steal or perhaps destroy these important documents. My theory is that some criminals sneaked in to get their hands on these files and put us out of business, but someone caught them—the president. Therefore, they had to kill her to keep her quiet. That's why I have to check everything."
It made sense. The president's office wouldn't be a very convenient place to assassinate the company's boss. There were guards, and the assassin would draw suspicion. But it would make logical sense if the objective was not the president's life but the documents in her office. It would only be natural for the secretary to want to look over the documents immediately if they were actually the motive.
"How about returning some of the files to the shelf for a moment so I can get by?"
"I'm afraid I can't do that." The secretary shook his head. "Every file you see here was purposely lined up in a specific way, which is important in finding out what the criminal was after. By date, by department, by importance... The room itself is a part of the puzzle as well. I learned this technique before the president took me in, and I am the only one in the company who can do this. There are rules for putting the documents back on the shelf as well, and if we break those rules even once, it takes us one step further from the truth behind the president's murder."
Understandable—but at the same time, incomprehensible. Regardless, the secretary's expression was dead serious, so Fukuzawa was more worried about causing trouble by moving the documents, rather than the reasoning behind it. He felt like an amateur, knowing nothing about how companies worked. He couldn't even imagine becoming the president of an organization and putting so much effort into paperwork, human affairs, and contracts. But if a specialist in the field claimed that this was how things had to be done, then perhaps he was right.
Fukuzawa was never even planning on objecting. He was the one at fault, after all. Had he known his client was in danger and protected her, then this tragedy would have never occurred, and the secretary would have never been painstakingly lining up documents and looking through them with such desperation. The secretary was fulfilling his duty, and therefore, Fukuzawa had no choice but to keep his mouth shut and fulfill his own.
It was around five steps to the door to the adjacent room by Fukuzawa's quick eyeball estimation. Given all the legwork he was used to, he could perhaps make it in two steps. One step would be halfway to the door, while the other one would have him landing right in front of it. Unfortunately, he would undoubtedly trample some life-changing documents this way. His first step would most likely rip the paper in half, which would only serve as another blot on his record as a bodyguard.
Fukuzawa decided to first retreat to the office entrance before tensing his muscles and leaping forward. His first step landed him on a decoration on the bookshelf lined up against the wall. From there, he used the vaguely dome-shaped ornament along with his momentum to leap once more. He landed with only his hands on the guest chair slightly away from the door before coming to a complete stop. He was holding himself with only his arms and keeping his trunk from even slightly shaking, which displayed a sense of balance that even masters of the martial arts rarely possessed. From there, Fukuzawa slowly stretched out, placing his toes in the space between the nearby piles of documents. After that, he used one leg and one arm to keep balance while he stretched for the door. When he grabbed on to the doorknob, he held it like a jujutsu practitioner reaching around his opponent to grip the back of his collar. He then turned the knob with only the strength of his fingers. After making sure the door was just barely open, he used the doorknob to support himself before lunging off the chair. Fukuzawa swiftly landed with both feet on the floor in the room next door so he could slide in through the slight crack he created, and he hooked a finger on the door frame to keep himself from falling over backward. And like that, he retired from the office while not even moving a single document.
"Wow!" exclaimed the secretary in the background.
That wasn't "wow"-worthy, Fukuzawa thought; he'd felt a slight tingle go down his spine when he landed on the chair. Despite being indifferent to what others thought of him, it would still be somewhat frustrating to mess up and ruin one's reputation due to something so ridiculous. At any rate, he was able to make it to the next room over.
After throwing open the door, he found the assassin. The man was sitting, and he was of a smaller stature than Fukuzawa had imagined. The assassin's hands and feet were bound, and the thick, dark sack over his head prevented Fukuzawa from being able to see his face. The man wouldn't be able to escape like this, let alone even scratch his nose. Tied around his arms and legs was iron wire in addition to the rope. It would be nearly impossible to snap no matter how monstrously strong the person. Needless to say, a smaller hit man like this wouldn't have a chance. The assassin wore an extremely ordinary navy shirt with work pants and leather shoes. There was no indication they ever saw combat. He didn't appear to be any more than a run-of-the-mill bandit who was good at sneaking into buildings.
Any ordinary guard would think that...but Fukuzawa held a different impression. This was the reception room. The only items in the room were a simple bookshelf, a table to discuss business, and a painting. Fukuzawa walked around, purposely making sure his footsteps were heard. The moment he'd entered, the assassin's head had twitched slightly. In other words, he wasn't sleeping.
Fukuzawa made his way to the wall behind the hit man before immediately slamming his palm against it. BAM! An explosive roar echoed throughout the room, but the assassin didn't even react. Neither did he flinch nor turn around. He was serenity itself. He wouldn't be able to see Fukuzawa, either, due to the sack on his head. Fukuzawa could instantly tell this guy was no amateur. He knew more about assassins than the average person, since they were also his business competitors as a bodyguard. Unlike Fukuzawa, whose job was to protect, those who killed were ever changing. Their attacks and weapons were unpredictable. Therefore, he had to make sure his information—the MOs of well-known dangerous hit men—was up-to-date at all times so that he could quickly respond to a sudden attack, even during times of peace.
Fukuzawa observed the hit man. He wouldn't be able to guess at his name or ability based on what he could observe in that moment. There was nothing especially peculiar about the man's appearance that would hint that he was a skill user. However...
Fukuzawa turned his gaze to a small desk in the corner of the room. There lay what appeared to be the assassin's tools of the trade.
There were two old pistols and holsters, which were worn but nicely taken care of. Along with the guns sat some change and a piece of wire to pick locks. That was it. Fukuzawa looked back at the diminutive assassin once more. As suspected, he was still as motionless as ever. Normally, people wouldn't be able to sit still without fidgeting even a little, but this man was different. He was extremely relaxed, despite being tied up and unable to see.
Fukuzawa picked up the fountain pen that was on the desk. After removing the cap, he began lightly drawing lines on a notebook that was there. It still had ink. Fukuzawa lightly pressed the pen against his left hip. Then he grabbed the pen with the fingers of his right hand while holding the cap in his left hand against his hip. After that, he spread his left leg shoulder width apart and got into a stance as if he were wielding a sword. Both arms were tucked in while he took an oblique stance. From then on, there was only silence.
The once unmoving assassin stiffened up. After steadying his breath, Fukuzawa took a big step forward with his right foot, unsheathing the fountain pen with a fury.
A single step, a single beat.
Still tied to the chair, the assassin hopped to his side in an attempt to dodge Fukuzawa's strike. The chair slammed against the ground with the hit man, making a dull echo. After witnessing the event, Fukuzawa brought his right foot back as if he were drawing an arc, then began sheathing the fountain pen while straightening his back.
"Don't worry. It's just a pen."
Fukuzawa capped the pen and returned it to the table. Now it was clear. The hit man really couldn't see what was happening around him. If he could see through the sack, he wouldn't have jumped to the floor to dodge Fukuzawa's pen strike. But he didn't even flinch a moment ago when Fukuzawa slapped the wall right behind him.
What was the difference? Could he sense the bloodlust? Fukuzawa made sure to strike with an intent to kill, something the assassin must have felt on his skin before throwing his body to the ground to dodge. He wouldn't be any ordinary assassin if that were the case. He must have survived countless bloodbaths to react like that. Surely only a select few could hire such a talented assassin, even in Yokohama, a city rife with unusual skills and schemes since the war's end. Under no circumstances would he ever fail to kill his target, which was like breathing to him; thus, payment would have to be eye-poppingly high.
But if that were true, that would still leave one question unanswered. An assassin killed his target the moment he was discovered by pushing her out the window with his bare hands, and yet he was caught by the guards as he attempted to escape? Was such a thing even plausible?
"What happened? Is everything okay?" the secretary asked from the office next door.
"Everything's fine," answered Fukuzawa. "So... You asked me here because of this man?"
"I would like you to accompany me as we take him to the police," replied the secretary. "As you can see, he is not being compliant. He has been keeping his silence the entire time. I want to bring him to the police station, but they are apparently short on manpower at the moment, so they said they could only send two officers over. What do you think? Would two officers be enough to escort him back to the station?"
"Probably not," Fukuzawa replied without missing a beat.
The secretary's concerns were valid. The assassin may not pose any threat since he was tied up, but the moment the police untied him to transport him, he could kill one or maybe both of them in the blink of an eye. Calling Fukuzawa for help was a wise move. Fukuzawa personally felt guilty for the president's death. While far from an act of vengeance, he felt that bringing the criminal to justice was the least he could do.
"This man is waiting for his chance to escape. It'd be wise to transport him before he tries anything," mentioned Fukuzawa. "Mind if I take him out of the room?"
"Of course," the secretary said with a smile. "Just please make sure not to step on any documents."
"..."
"..."
That wasn't happening. Fukuzawa anguished over how he was going to convince the secretary until...
"Greetings!"
It was an energetic voice, reminiscent of a clucking chicken. Fukuzawa turned around to find a boy standing in the entrance to the office. He appeared to be around fourteen to fifteen years old with long eyelashes and almond-shaped eyes. He wore a rustic cape with a schoolboy cap, while an old-fashioned flat satchel hung around his waist. His short hair was scraggly and uneven; he must not have had a mirror handy when he cut it.
"Whew. Some crazy wind we're having today, huh? I know some people say go where the wind blows, but don't you think this company could've chosen a better place to build their office? It reeks of salt from the ocean, it's all the way up on a hill, and it feels like you have to go through a maze just to get here! What was the president thinking?! This is exactly why Yokohama's no place to live. Oh! Also, I ran into a seagull on the way here. Good thing they're so nasty, huh? It grossed me out so much I ended up giving it one of my rice balls before I could stop myself."
The mysterious boy said all of that in one breath.
With a big smile on his face.
Right in front of the president's office.
"...Huh?" the secretary inanely spluttered.
There was perhaps no better way to sum up everyone's feelings than that one single utterance.
"You've seriously never heard of a seagull before? Freaky-looking rats with wings, those things. They must've done something real horrible in a past life. I mean, have you ever actually taken a deep look at their eyes? You can literally see the madness! Anyway, not to change the subject, but I'm one rice ball down, so I'm getting pretty hungry. Got anything I could eat?"
"Excuse me? Uh, um... Excuse me?" The secretary was absolutely baffled.
It stood to reason. The young boy was mirthfully rambling on until he suddenly saw something in the room and shut his mouth. His almond eyes surveyed his surroundings before creasing even further.
"Hmm... Looks like you've got your hands full."
Fukuzawa came back to his senses. Who was this boy? He seemed like nothing but trouble.
"Eh, not that it's any of my business. Anyway, could you give me the paper? Oh, is it somewhere in the pile? You expect me to find it? Sounds like a real pain in the neck. Hey, Mr. Secretary, how about you find it for me while you're busy killing time? Besides, I'm not interested in the fingerprints in this room."
Each thing he said was more bewildering than the last, and some things didn't make sense at all. "Killing time"? "Fingerprints"? The boy began to walk, heading toward the center of the room—toward the center of the ocean of documents. Right as the bottom of his foot was about to step on the first wave of papers—multiple documents with the company seal that looked like contracts with other companies...
"Ack! Wait, wait, wait! Stop right there! Do you have any idea how many years it took to close those contracts?!"
...the secretary grabbed the boy by the shoulder, barely stopping him in time. The boy stared at him, puzzled, then took a moment to deliberate.
"Nope," the boy replied before beginning to walk once more.
"Ahhh! Stop that!" the secretary shrieked as he desperately snatched up the documents. The boy's foot landed right where the documents once lay.
"See? You can do it if you really put your mind to it," the boy said with a smirk.
"What is wrong with you?! Regardless of the tragedy that occurred here today, this is still the president's office! Authorized personnel only!"
"I know," the boy admitted nonchalantly. "But I've been authorized. I was told to come in for an interview today. Isn't it obvious?"
An interview?
"O-oh... You're the applicant. I do remember the president mentioning something about conducting an interview for an apprentice office clerk..."
An apprentice office clerk? This destructively disobedient kid?
The boy claimed it was obvious he came in for an interview, but Fukuzawa was taken by complete surprise. He simply figured it was some sort of gremlin or troll who had shown up to make some demands now that the president had passed. The kid stood out like a sore thumb.
Fukuzawa turned his gaze to the secretary, who was still arguing back and forth with the boy near the entrance. He wanted to help, but he was standing by the door to the adjacent room, far from the entrance. The sea of paper on the floor blocked his path, making his only option to observe the proceedings.
"Sheesh, just look at the mess you made here. I get that you didn't want anyone to search the room, but...this? Adults puzzle me. What a puzzling world we live in!"
"P-please stop talking nonsense!" the secretary screamed in falsetto.
Fukuzawa's curiosity was sparked, for he saw a hint of dismay in the secretary's pale expression.
"I understand why you're here," the secretary continued, "but our company has no time for that right now! The president was assassinated. Therefore, your interview must be postponed. I have to find which documents are missing and report it to the authorities before the suspect is turned in to the police—before they hook 'em and book 'em! Now please just go. Run along, now."
"For the last time already—I know," the boy complained with a pout. "Do you enjoy stating the obvious? I came to get my certification. You know what I'm talking about, right?"
"'Certification'?" the secretary repeated. "Oh, that government-issued document for job searching, yes?"
So this young man was probably receiving government aid to find employment. Ever since the end of the war, unemployment and juvenile delinquency continued to be a pressing issue even in this major city. Therefore, the government had a system to fight back against unemployment through aiding minors who wanted to work. The boy must have been using the program. In other words, he needed a piece of paper issued from the company's president to prove he'd come there for a job interview, and then he had to turn that in to the government so he could keep receiving financial aid and information.
"I'm sure it's somewhere in here, but..." The boy glanced around the room. "Look, I don't have time for this. Hey, Mr. Paper Pusher, can I just shove these useless documents out of the way already?"
"You may not," the secretary firmly declared. "The very way in which the documents are lined up is part of a crucial methodology for determining the perpetrator's motive, and I am the only one in this company who can—"
"Uh-huh."
The boy wasn't listening. Instead, he nodded as if in understanding and began rapidly picking up the documents around his feet. But before long, he got sick of it and decided to start randomly knocking the papers out of the way with his fingers to clear a path.
"Ahhh!" the secretary screamed in agony. "S-stop that this instant! I—I forbid you to touch even a single page more! It took me five hours to line up those documents!"
"Sure, but I still need to find my document."
"Then be quiet, go downstairs, and wait! I'll search for it later."
"Yet another obvious lie," declared the boy, albeit for reasons unknown. "It's fine. I'll find it myself. It won't even take a second."
Not even a second? Around a hundred documents were systematically lined up in the room. It would take more than a quick glance to check them all, so how was he planning on finding one specific sheet of paper so quickly?
"The president was pushed out this window, huh?"
Before anyone even realized it, the boy was standing by the large-framed window and inspecting it with a discerning eye. The secretary was frantically lining up the documents once more. Thanks to the kid's rash behavior, around a tenth of all the documents in the room were now scattered about without a shred of sympathy for the one who had to clean them up. Reorganizing everything was undoubtedly going to be a painstaking task.
"Kid." Fukuzawa couldn't help but speak up. "How do you plan on finding a single sheet of paper in this mess?"
"Wow, old guy. Didn't think you could talk." He cheekily raised his eyebrows. "You've been so quiet the entire time I've been here; I thought you were a statue... Anyway, it's a government certification, so it has a seal on it, and the special paper they use is thicker than your normal official document."
"Old guy"...
Fukuzawa was about to counter with "I'm only thirty-two years old!" but he furrowed his brows, more curious about the last part of the boy's sentence.
The paper's thickness? So that was why it would be easy to pick out? But would someone even be able to spot it? It seemed as if it would still take a lot of hard work and patience to find a sheet of paper with such a small difference if it was still buried underneath all these documents. However...
That was when it hit Fukuzawa. The boy had a hand on the window—the wide casement window the president was pushed out of. Outside, the sky was blue. Weren't there supposed to be strong winds today?
"Oh, look! A parade!" the young boy cheerfully yelled as he flung the sash all the way up.
All at once, the documents began to take flight as if they had come to life.
"Ahhhhhh?!"
A white bird spreading its wings; the cool, fresh air forming a vortex—it was like something out of a fairy tale.
...Unless you were the secretary.
"Wh-wh-wh-what do you think you're doing?!"
"Aha, here it is!"
The boy grabbed a document lying on the desk. It was the only one barely fluttering in the whirlwind that came in through the window. The paper being relatively thick, its weight kept it from really going anywhere. It was clear why he opened the window now. Fukuzawa was impressed by just how stubbornly he refused to do anything the situation demanded of him.
"What do you mean, 'Here it is'?! Arghhh! I'm going to have to start all over again!"
The secretary tore at his hair, almost on the verge of losing his mind, but the boy showed no remorse. In fact, he was smiling.
"It's not a big deal. All the documents are still here, after all."
The air in the room instantly grew tense.
"...What?" The secretary looked back at the boy.
"None of the documents were stolen. The president wasn't even killed by a hit man. I mean, you know that. After all, you're the one who killed her, Mr. Secretary."
"...What?"
The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape.
"...What?"
The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape.
"...What?"
The secretary tilted his head to the side, mouth agape. His head was almost completely perpendicular to the floor.
"Why did you just say the same thing three times in a row? I swear, adults make absolutely no sense sometimes. It's painfully obvious that the one behind this was the secretary and that he framed the hit man, but the old guy over there won't even do anything. A neglect of duty is what that is. If my mother were here, she'd already have the criminal tied up and tossed out the window!"
Fukuzawa was unable to keep up with the kaleidoscopic changes and too bewildered to even change his expression. The president wasn't killed by the assassin? The secretary standing in front of them was the real culprit?
"That's ridicu—"
Fukuzawa was barely even able to begin the retort before stopping himself. There was something bothering him—a feeling deep inside him. The assassin's weapon was a pistol. He was a seasoned hit man who could sense bloodlust even without being able to see. Would someone this skilled use his bare hands to push the president out the window and leave fingerprints on her clothes? And how would he have been caught by one of the guards?
"Get it now, old guy?" The boy smirked with satisfaction as if he could read Fukuzawa's mind.
"Wh-why do you look so serious, Fukuzawa? Just get rid of the boy! I'll raise your payment, so please don't let him mess things up more than he already has. The fate of the company—"
"Kid, I understand why you doubt that the hit man over there is the culprit." Fukuzawa had already regained his composure. His expression was like a waxed mirror without a single ripple or smudge. "But the victim's clothes had the assassin's fingerprints on them. All ten fingerprints are there in a position as if he pushed her. How would you explain that? You may be just a child, but I won't allow you to call the secretary a murderer without sufficient evidence."
"You're joking, right? What is this? A test? Do I get points for every obvious detail I list in the end? Sigh. The city really is a mystery to me."
"Let's hear the evidence," said Fukuzawa with a little force.
From his point of view, he was simply trying to express a little sincerity. However, the air in the room instantly grew tense, and it felt as if the temperature had dropped a few degrees. Any ordinary street thug would have cried and run off if they heard that voice.
"Oh... Yeah, okay." The boy's expression turned solemn, and he closed the window. "The first thing the secretary did was innocently tell the president to look outside in order to lure her to the front of the window. Once she let her guard down, he pushed her out."
"Absurd..."
"This place is authorized personnel only, right?" continued the boy while ignoring the secretary seething with anger. "No matter how good of a hit man he might be, it would be impossible for him to reach the window without the president noticing. I mean, the desk has a clear view of the entrance. Plus, if the president fought back, the fingerprints wouldn't be positioned as if he pushed her out the window but rather as if he threw her out. Otherwise, it would be unnatural. But there were ten fingerprints on her clothes, right? I heard you two talking while I waited outside the room. That means the president didn't feel like she was in any danger until the moment she was pushed. In other words—"
"It was someone she knew." Fukuzawa finished his sentence.
Just who was this boy? He was very observant. While he flouted every behavioral norm imaginable, he could process all the necessary information. But that alone...
"Your argument could be more convincing," claimed Fukuzawa. "The president could've coincidentally been standing in front of the open window when the assassin sneaked in."
"So she had it open on such a windy day?" The boy furrowed his brows. He had a point.
"Even then, that isn't enough to prove it was someone she knew," asserted Fukuzawa. "There's something called common courtesy in the adult world. Mistakenly treating someone you just met as a criminal has consequences, even if you are joking."
"Yeah, I get it! I get it! Enough." The boy puffed out his cheeks. "Come on, who cares about manners? I'm telling the truth, and that's all that should matter. Anyway, as I was saying... The reason why the hit man's fingerprints are on her clothes is because the secretary forged the evidence. My father once told me that fingerprints were easy to falsify. Mr. Secretary, you used to be a public prosecutor or something, weren't you? After all, 'hook 'em and book 'em' is actually popular jargon among police, surprisingly enough."
Now that he mentioned it, the secretary did say something about being scouted by the president at his last job.
"Look at how easy it is: You make a mold of the hit man's fingerprints with putty or something, then just put it in a plastic—"
"P-preposterous!" Spit flew out of his mouth as the secretary yelled in rage. "Even if I did know how to fake fingerprints, I couldn't possibly take a mold of the hit man's fingers without being killed! Fukuzawa, I've heard enough. Just get rid of this brat for me."
But Fukuzawa didn't say a word. He silently stared at the boy across from him, who then smiled back.
"You're kinda sharp, old guy. Anyway, how the secretary got the mold of the hit man's fingers was simple. He was the one who hired the assassin."
The employer?
The one who hired the hit man wasn't a third party interested in overturning the company? Then why is the hit man even here?
"The assassin won't listen to anyone unless it's an order from his employer. Plus, the employer would be able to get his fingerprints without even rubbing putty on his fingers. He could get the hit man to hold something made of a soft material and have him come to the building at a specified time."
"Wait. This hit man isn't your usual street thug. He'd need to be paid an obscene amount of money. Your average office worker wouldn't be able to afford him."
"Then don't pay," the boy said impatiently. "You could just tell the hit man to come here for a meeting or to discuss payment. Then all you need to do is get his fingerprints and make up some sort of excuse to get him to come on another day. After that, you can have your guards catch the hit man once he figures out it's a trap and tries to escape. Then, bam. Saved yourself some money. You can't beat free. Even cheaper than the boxed lunches they sell at the train station... Man, all this talk about food is making me hungry. Can I go grab something to eat?"
"I'll treat you to whatever you want after this, but finish talking first," Fukuzawa replied patiently.
"Tch. Fiiine. The reason he hired a high-level hit man was probably because they're tight-lipped. I mean, as you can see, he isn't telling us who hired him, and he probably still hasn't even figured out he was set up."
It made sense. The more qualified and expensive the hit man, the harder it would be to get him to sell out their employer. That was what made them so expensive, after all. On the job, Fukuzawa had crossed blades with a few assassins before, but the highly skilled ones never betrayed their employer. There were even some who, after being captured, committed suicide with poison that they had hidden on their person.
So the secretary used this to his advantage?
"But, hey, I'm sure he'll talk once he knows he was tricked, so how about asking him yourself?"
Fukuzawa instinctively looked back. The hit man was on the other side of that closed door, still tied to that chair on the ground.
"L-lies! Everything you say is a lie!" screamed the secretary. "A murderer's confession is inadmissible! It would be no better than a delusion at worst and an assumption at best! If you truly believe I was behind this, then prove it!"
"Ha-haaa! I was waiting for you to say that." The boy's lips mischievously curled. "People who ask for evidence during a murder are usually the ones who did it. Hmm... If you need proof, then how about these piles of documents? The reason you've been lining up these papers was so that nobody could come in here. Why, though? Because there's something in here you don't want them to find. After all, you still have evidence to forge even after killing her. I mean, it would be unnatural if there were fingerprints on the president's clothes but nowhere else in the room, wouldn't it? You're doing this to buy time."
"That's your evidence?"
Fukuzawa placed a finger on his chin and began to ponder.
"That's a lie! I refuse to let someone call me a criminal for simply arranging some papers! I was organizing these! Or are you saying you can prove that wasn't what I was doing?"
"Sure am." The boy nodded as if it were obvious. "When I first walked in, I switched out one of the documents with a guide on pinworm removal when you weren't looking, but you didn't even notice. What happened to your special methodology with how you had to line up the documents in a certain way?"
"Wha—?"
The secretary couldn't even manage a single word; it got stuck in his throat. Fukuzawa's gaze turned sharp. "Is he right?"
"He, uh..."
/> Fueled by rage, Fukuzawa quietly took a few steps toward the secretary.
"Th-this is a misunderstanding!" the secretary cried. "I—I just didn't feel like bringing it up at the moment! I was planning on giving him a stern warning later for his prank, so I let it go for now, but—"
"See?" The boy ducked his head. "I didn't switch any of the documents."
The secretary instantly stopped breathing. His pale expression got even worse until he was as white as snow.
"What's the meaning of this?" Fukuzawa took another step forward.
"Th-this is, um..."
"I didn't know the late company president very well, but she really trusted you. Said you were a talented secretary, and she was so glad she hired you. Why did you do it?"
"N-no... I didn't. She..." The secretary took a step back, utterly overwhelmed. "I was nothing more than a capable secretary to her. That was it. But for me...that wasn't enough."
All of a sudden, Fukuzawa heard a thud from the room next door. He turned around in surprise and violently threw the door open. The room was empty. The chair was on the floor, but its legs where the rope tied around were snapped off. All that was left was the chair itself—the assassin was gone.
"Get down!" Fukuzawa screamed out as he took another step farther into the room. Lowering his hips, he slid a leg across the floor, drawing an arc to turn his body before ramming his shoulder into the opened door. There was some resistance. The assassin, who was hiding behind the door, let out a suppressed groan. Fukuzawa then pulled the door while reaching for the hit man, but nobody was there. The hit man wasn't on the floor, either. He had leaped into the air, almost touching the ceiling as he dodged Fukuzawa's grasp. Still in midair, he kicked off the wall and got far away from the door before kicking off the ground and creating even more distance between them. With the sack still on his head and his arms tied behind his back, the assassin lowered his stance as if he were a wild animal. All he could use freely were his legs, yet he was able to evade Fukuzawa's preemptive strike with no sight or hands. Fukuzawa unconsciously clenched his teeth.
"I don't want to fight you," said the assassin through the sack on his head. His voice was muffled; it was high for a man's voice but low for a woman's, and it projected well.
A boy.
Fukuzawa didn't reply. Hardly even leaning forward, he kicked off the floor and closed the distance with a technique known as shukuchi—a bit of footwork that used the martial artist's body weight to instantly bring them into range with their opponent. From an outsider's perspective, though, it would probably have appeared as if Fukuzawa disappeared and teleported in front of his opponent.
After covering several yards in the blink of an eye, Fukuzawa reached around and grabbed the back of his opponent's collar, but the assassin didn't even try to resist. Instead of fighting it, he jumped backward with it, pulling Fukuzawa and himself near the wall. By the wall was a desk with a fountain pen, a notepad...and the assassin's pistol. While being pushed, he reached back for his gun. That was his plan all along. However, it would be impossible for him to use it properly with his hands tied behind his back, Fukuzawa determined. He kept hold of the assassin's collar and decided to slam him against the wall. The desk was knocked over, sending stationery all over the room. With his opponent against the wall, Fukuzawa pressed his elbow against the assassin's chest, holding him in place like a thumbtack. The assassin's hand holding the gun creaked and cracked as it was smashed between his back and the wall. There was almost nothing he could do with the pistol in this position.
"Drop the gun," demanded Fukuzawa. "You may be my business rival, but you're only guilty of trespassing as of now. You'd get off easy."
"I don't need forgiveness." The hit man's voice was close to a murmur, since his lungs were being crushed. "There is no forgiveness in this world. There is only retaliation—revenge against those who betray you."
The assassin then lifted his feet off the ground. Even Fukuzawa wouldn't be able to support the young man's weight with only one arm. The assassin's back slid against the wall to the floor before he suddenly twisted his body around completely, hips-first. He immediately fired his gun from behind his back. There were two shots.
"Guh..."
Fukuzawa turned around. Two bloody holes were carved in the secretary's chest in the next room over. Blood gushed out of the wounds, dyeing his chest crimson. The assassin had shot the secretary—with his hands tied behind his back.
The secretary looked at Fukuzawa one last time, his expression twisted in agony, before drawing his last breath and collapsing. The hit man's shots were unbelievably accurate. Despite not being able to see and having his hands tied, he was able to precisely hit his target. To top it all off, he paid no attention to Fukuzawa in spite of the fact that they were in the middle of battle.
"There is only retaliation—revenge against those who betray you."
Fukuzawa faced the assassin, then slammed him against the floor. He kicked the gun into the corner of the room.
"You bastard...!"
He ripped off the sack covering the assassin's face. He was young, with short hair that had a reddish tinge to it. The boy's dark-brown eyes were frighteningly vacant, void of even a fragment of emotion. The young assassin didn't say a word; he stared back at Fukuzawa.
Fukuzawa suddenly recalled a rumor he had heard about a young redheaded hit man who wielded two pistols and coldly killed his targets while never showing any emotion. His skill with a gun was supernatural, and he could fire from any position and still not miss. It was as if he could see the future. He was a living nightmare for people like Fukuzawa whose job was to protect others.
That young assassin's name was something like...Oda.
Fukuzawa grabbed the assassin's collar, then wrapped his other arm around the boy's neck and put him in a rear naked choke, restricting the blood flow to his brain via the carotid arteries. If this kid was that assassin, then leaving him conscious in this room was no different from letting a cat play on the control panel to a nuclear bomb. The boy looked back at Fukuzawa with lifeless eyes—not the way one would expect a boy to look at the person choking them unconscious. Before long, the assassin quickly passed out without even showing any signs of resistance. He probably wasn't interested in anything other than shooting the secretary. Only after making sure the assassin was unconscious could Fukuzawa finally let out a deep breath.
"So that's the hit man?"
Fukuzawa turned around toward the voice coming from the other room. "Call an ambulance. And the police," he ordered.
"Wouldn't the police be enough? I mean, the secretary's already dead. More importantly, I'm out of a job now, so could you help me out?"
Fukuzawa's head was spinning. What was wrong with this kid? What just happened?
"Call an ambulance first!" Fukuzawa stood up and began to walk away.
"Hey, don't just leave me here. What happened to taking me out to eat? You said it like I could go wherever I wanted and eat whatever as much as I wanted. That's what you meant, right? You meant we could talk about my situation while we eat, right? Right?"
Fukuzawa somehow managed to keep his legs from giving out from underneath him.
"You—"
The young man with cropped hair beamed, radiating innocence and mirth.
"The name's Ranpo Edogawa. Don't you forget it!"
Fukuzawa felt as if he were watching a nightmare play out before his eyes. The boy, who introduced himself as Ranpo Edogawa, was eating red bean porridge on his dime. And it wasn't just one or two bowls, either.
They'd stopped at an old-fashioned café relatively close to where the murder took place. There were a few other customers present, and they kept glancing in Fukuzawa and Ranpo's direction. Fukuzawa had to fight against the impulse to go around the shop explaining that this kid just followed him here for some reason. Ranpo had already finished his eighth bowl and was currently digging into his ninth. Fukuzawa was sitting in suspense, but not because he was worried about how much money he had left. He had enough. The problem was—
"Hey!" Fukuzawa just couldn't hold it in any longer. "Why aren't you eating the mochi?"
—in each finished bowl of Ranpo's porridge sat several white mochi, entirely untouched. He was eating only the red beans.
"Because they're not sweet."
Not sweet? It's red bean porridge. The stuff is more mochi than red bean.
If he were simply looking for a sugar rush, then he could have gotten sweet bean jelly, mashed sweet potatoes, or even a sweet bun. "Hear that? Those are the wails of the mochi you left behind" is what Fukuzawa wanted to say, but he held his tongue. There was nothing more meaningless than wagging one's finger at another's food preferences. It was hard to watch, but it wasn't as if Ranpo were committing any crimes. He didn't want things to get worse by saying anything, either. Just imagining Ranpo peeling off the bread of the sweet bun and eating only the red bean paste inside made him shudder. If Fukuzawa criticized him for being wasteful, the boy would call him a cranky old guy, he was sure.
When the police finally arrived at the crime scene, Fukuzawa and Ranpo explained the situation. It was a rather complicated statement, and having no interest in talking, Ranpo tried to casually leave. Nevertheless, Fukuzawa somehow convinced him to stay and explain what happened in the president's office. Fukuzawa and Ranpo would have been put in a bizarre position if they made one wrong move, but they ended up being let go almost immediately after telling their side of the story. One of the officers happened to know of Fukuzawa due to his being a well-known martial artist, which fortunately helped them receive the police officers' complete trust. One condition was that they would still have to come to the station to tell their story again, though.