Chapter 23 (continued)

"Authentication successful."

The display changed to show Ango Sakaguchi's identification. A moment later, files began popping up on the screen one after another.

Kamiki Yūhaku opened the video file on the screen, and the footage appeared.

Watching Dr. Kōbe in the video, Kamiki Yūhaku's fingers trembled slightly. He couldn't help placing them against the screen, but all he felt was its icy surface.

The video recorded the happiest time Kamiki Yūhaku had spent in this world. It was a nightmare he still couldn't let go of, even now. But why was it among the things Ango Sakaguchi had given him? Or rather, why had the Number Seven Agency possessed it?

That fire had burned everything, including Chiba Kōbe's body and some related belongings. In a place like Suribachi City, never mind putting out the fire—it was good enough that the onlookers hadn't taken advantage of it to loot.

Kamiki Yūhaku had always believed nothing remained after the fire, yet today he had heard that audio and seen this video.

After closing the video, Kamiki Yūhaku continued opening the remaining files. A moment later, he saw a series of messages resembling emails.

[To Director Taneda of the Armed Detective Agency: As a doctor, I have always believed that such inhumane human experimentation should be stopped. Children are the future of the world, and even ordinary people are a part of it. Why must you force the creation of a world of ability users?]

[I understand that everyone in our defeated nation wants to move forward after the Great War, but there is no need to be so fixated on abilities. Often, abilities are not the best answer to every problem. Ordinary people can achieve more than ability users, too.]

[Please stop trying to explain it away with excuses. The children are innocent.]

[You contacted me, but not to do anything for the injured child. You even wanted to do further harm. A group of adults bullying a child—don't you feel ashamed?]

[I know Yūhaku has never been able to let it go. Because of this, he will remain trapped in the past, unable to move forward. This is not a problem that can be solved by fighting a prolonged battle. So I hope the government can apologize to him and tell him you were wrong.]

[All it takes is an apology, and he can truly move toward the future.]

Kamiki Yūhaku stared at the screen. He leaned against the wall, struggling to support himself, his red eyes fixed on the small display.

So Chiba Kōbe had been in contact with the government all along. Even though Chiba Kōbe had taken Kamiki Yūhaku to Suribachi City and lived there under assumed names, the government had found him. But during those five years, the government had never shown itself, communicating with Chiba Kōbe only over the internet.

That had made Chiba Kōbe lower his guard. Soon afterward, he began trying to persuade the government to apologize to Kamiki Yūhaku.

No one knew better than he did what kind of child Kamiki Yūhaku was.

He was only ten, yet more stubborn than an adult. His world was complicated and full of pain. He stood in place, clutching a dagger with an expressionless face, looking ahead but never taking a single step. Chiba Kōbe knew he was unwilling to move forward.

All it might take was one apology from the government for him to step toward the light.

Chiba Kōbe had been working toward that all along.

The Armed Detective Agency had concealed the discovery of Chiba Kōbe and Kamiki Yūhaku. As the head of the government's special agency for managing abilities, Taneda had kept the information completely secret. The Armed Detective Agency had not participated in the artificial ability experiments back then, and Taneda had not approved of them either.

But the Number Seven Agency later found out anyway.

The Number Seven Agency operated differently from the Armed Detective Agency. Its job was to destroy evidence detrimental to the government. To them, both Chiba Kōbe and Kamiki Yūhaku were liabilities to the government, people who needed to be eliminated completely.

Without consulting the Armed Detective Agency, the Number Seven Agency took extreme measures. A hidden sniper shot a Kōrai-kai executive, drawing him to Chiba Kōbe's residence.

A government agent planted in the Kōrai-kai was ordered to stir up emotions. In the end, the Kōrai-kai committed murder and arson, erasing the last traces of evidence concerning the French Concession's artificial ability test subjects.

Later, the Number Seven Agency captured Mushitarō Oguri, the evidence destroyer. Every piece of evidence was obliterated, including the records kept when the Armed Detective Agency communicated with Chiba Kōbe. In the end, only a blank resignation letter remained. Even Taneda was left with nothing but the impression that the French Concession's artificial ability experiments had all been destroyed in an accident.

Had Chiba Kōbe not known that contact with the government was dangerous?

He had. He knew it better than anyone. He was a doctor, so he could understand the data amid the ruins and knew what the child had suffered.

But he hadn't run away. He had wanted to win a future back for Kamiki Yūhaku.

Kamiki Yūhaku slowly slid down the wall, staring expressionlessly at the display in his hand. His vision felt a little blurry, and drops of water fell onto the screen, but he was in no mood to wipe them away.

He tilted his head back and slammed it hard against the wall with a thud.

He felt no pain, only a constant, stifling ache and bitterness in his heart. Kamiki Yūhaku could only keep going, tears sliding from the corners of his eyes.

"Today is your birthday, Yūhaku. You should smile."

At some point, Kamiki Yūhaku's finger had tapped the video again, and Chiba Kōbe's voice came from it once more.

"This isn't your fault. How can you hurt yourself? Roses have thorns to protect themselves, not to hurt you, right?" Kamiki Yūhaku raised his head. It was as though he could see Chiba Kōbe from all those years ago. "Come on, give me your hand. It's your birthday today. Cheer up."

The little child looked at him, then held out his hand after a moment. His palm was covered in blood and wounds, and blood dripped onto the floor, staining it red.

He said, "Don't cry. I'll always protect you."

"You didn't abandon me," Kamiki Yūhaku murmured.

"It was me. I couldn't hold on to anything."

The Number Seven Agency was a special agency established by the government. It answered to the government yet operated independently of it, tasked with erasing everything detrimental to the government. It was the darkest institution the government had created to protect its image.

The Number Seven Agency's headquarters was in an utterly ordinary office building. Upstairs were all sorts of employees posing as staff of a normal company, while their real base lay underground.

Like the work they did, they hid underground, never able to see the light of day.

"Is that really an Ability Beast?" a person in protective gear asked a companion.

"That's what the higher-ups said, so we'll take their word for it. If Ability Beasts really exist and we study them thoroughly, we can use them as a trump card. Then, no matter what war breaks out, we'll catch the enemy off guard. After all, no other country has used Ability Beasts in combat yet."

The person beside him nodded. "True. There are so few ability users now. If we can really make up the numbers with these, that would be great."

"But that crow is just too smart." The other person looked outside worriedly. "We've been lying in wait for so long, trying all kinds of ways to lure it in, but it just refuses to enter."

Certain people in the government knew perfectly well that artificial ability experiments were ethically unacceptable. Unlike fifteen years ago, newly appointed members of the government opposed them, even though most of them also believed the experiments were necessary.

Thus, these covert experiments gradually shifted from testing on living people to dissecting corpses to determine the differences between ability users and non-ability users.

But even that would draw criticism, and government personnel continued to agonize over it, until the Number Seven Agency discovered a suspected Ability Beast.

Their eyes lit up, and everyone cheered.

That was right. They couldn't experiment on humans or study the corpses of ability users, but surely animals were fine?

Not many people would care how many animals died in experiments. After all, they weren't human. As long as the government stepped forward and said a few words, the public would settle down in the face of the enormous temptation of everyone being able to have an ability.

Who wouldn't want to gain an ability safely?

So those people gave the Number Seven Agency an order: they had to capture this Ability Beast.

After receiving the order, the Number Seven Agency reopened files from over a decade ago. They brought out the old communications with Chiba Kōbe and looked for something they could use. In the end, they discovered in the video that whenever a game ended, the crow gave Chiba Kōbe a signal.

They clipped the audio from the video and processed it, then began using it as bait to capture the crow.

The crow had stayed by Kamiki Yūhaku's side for ten years after Chiba Kōbe's death and had seen far too much of the world with him. The crow came, but it wouldn't enter the trap, merely circling nearby. Yet no matter how clever the crow was, humans always had ways to deal with it.

The signal that ended the game sounded again. Little Crow poked his head out from a tree branch, and just then, he saw a familiar figure by a wall not far away.

The man wore a white coat, his short, curly black hair resting softly beside his ears. He looked gently at the crow, the same smile as always in his eyes, exactly as he had ten years ago. He waved to the crow and called his name.

"Little Crow, come back and eat."

The crow called twice, then spread his wings and flew toward him.

The person hiding behind the wall watched the monitor, his eyes gradually lighting up.

"I told you this would work," the person said quietly. "The sound of the ending signal alone wasn't enough. We needed a three-dimensional image of this man too. The crow would only take the bait if both appeared together."

"You're incredible!"

Little Crow flew through the air, calling as he went. Every cry sounded as though he were calling the man's name.

They had been apart for so very long, and Little Crow desperately hoped to return to Dr. Kōbe's side.

The people behind the wall watched excitedly as the crow flew toward them. Seeing that he was about to enter the trap, the person watching gripped its trigger tightly, ready to press it as soon as the crow flew in. Nets had already been set up all around, carrying an electric current and an anesthetic. Once the crow flew in, there would be no getting out.