"No, no, it's not my fault!"
"I was just paid to do it. Please, let me go! Let me go—ah!"
The scream abruptly cut off. The member of the Taoka Gang stared wide-eyed as he collapsed stiffly in his rental apartment. His features were twisted, as if he had witnessed some unspeakable horror.
He had died in the locked room in a bizarre pose.
"Still no progress?"
As the gangster's vital signs vanished, Iori Ichika spoke.
Dozens of cameras had recorded the entire process of his death from every angle.
The "experts" in front of the monitors were all drenched in cold sweat, afraid they would meet the same fate as this "volunteer."
"No."
"No,"
The "experts" present were all experienced detectives.
But they had never dealt with such a bizarre case. This was clearly the work of an Evil Spirit. How were they supposed to investigate it?
Were they supposed to take out the Criminal Code and read it to "Mrs. Inoue," informing her that her actions violated the law?
Or put on garlic and try to exorcise her with a cross and Buddhist prayer beads?
"Chief, if you don't mind my saying so..."
"These experiments are pointless."
One detective couldn't hold back any longer. The "volunteers" were all criminals,
but putting them on trial according to the law was one thing. Using them to test an "Evil Spirit" was another.
And if they kept testing "Mrs. Inoue" like this, what if they angered her or caused her to "mutate" or "evolve"? The first ones to suffer would be the police who had taken part from start to finish.
An Evil Spirit crawling out of a monitor—that was practically a national specialty.
"Mm, you're right."
"Seiko, write me a report saying the experiments have yielded no progress. Apply to have the Inoue residence sealed off."
Fuji Seiko, standing behind Iori Ichika, paused briefly before answering.
"Yes!"
?
"Seiko, is something on your mind?"
In response to her superior's question, the mature policewoman shook her head.
"No,"
"I just... heard Kawai Mai woke up. I want to go see her."
Kawai Mai had been her partner. Then she had the bad luck to encounter the "Earthquake Catfish" on the road and was struck on the head by the rocks and dirt it sent flying. She had spent several days in the hospital before waking up.
Fuji Seiko should have visited her long ago, but she had been caught up in a "supernatural incident" and assigned to work under Iori Ichika.
She had been running all over the place these past few days, so busy she barely had time to sleep, let alone visit her junior.
"I see..."
After glancing at the corpse on the screen, even Iori Ichika felt a little uneasy.
"I'll drive you there."
"Huh?"
"Come on—"
Iori Ichika patted her subordinate on the shoulder and headed outside.
"Mrs. Inoue" appeared without warning, but any volunteer she "latched onto" was doomed.
Before they died, they would pass through stages of "talking to themselves," "growing anxious and terrified," and "destroying things in a frenzy" before finally being scared to death!
Just like the members of the Broken Tooth Gang.
Except the process was slower—and even more terrifying!
As a police officer, Iori Ichika could at least claim to have a clear conscience. But if she really had to face an Evil Spirit, she would be helpless.
She couldn't exactly wait until she died, turn into an Evil Spirit herself, and take revenge, could she?
Tokyo Women's Medical University, Adachi Medical Center.
The hospital's name made it clear that it belonged to a university.
Of course, the school behind the hospital was in no way comparable to Todai. And although the hospital in Adachi Ward wasn't poorly equipped, it certainly wasn't "high-end" in the slightest.
Even so, it was one of the best hospitals in Adachi Ward.
After all, being backed by a university gave it access to resources that private clinics couldn't match.
A black-and-white police car drove into the hospital parking lot. Iori Ichika stepped out, dressed in an open studded leather jacket with her shirt tucked into her belt. She looked every bit the leader of a biker gang.
The people nearby took one look at her and immediately went out of their way to avoid her.
"Chief, you..."
Fuji Seiko had no idea how to describe her superior's "intimidating presence."
"Don't sweat the small stuff."
Iori Ichika walked to the back of the car, opened the trunk, and took out a fruit basket for the patient. Then she waved cheerfully.
"Come on, let's go see our lovely junior."
But when they reached the hospital room, they realized something was wrong—
"You're Mai's colleagues?"
"Please, come in. Have a seat."
A weary-looking middle-aged woman forced a smile and stood to greet them.
"Auntie, you don't need to go to any trouble."
"I should have come to see Mai sooner, but I've been so busy lately..."
When she noticed Kawai Mai awake in bed, Fuji Seiko smiled sincerely. Although her junior was a little scatterbrained and timid, she was still a diligent, capable officer who worked hard to do her job well.
She was also an important friend.
"Mai, I'm so glad you're all right!"
?
"Officer..."
"You still don't know about Mai..."
As the middle-aged woman's expression darkened, Kawai Mai, lying motionless in bed, interrupted her.
"Mom,"
"Could you let me talk with my seniors alone?"
"What?!"
Fuji Seiko swayed so suddenly that she nearly fell, but Iori Ichika reached out and caught her.
"Mai, you..."
The mature policewoman stared at her junior in bed, shock, heartache, and guilt filling her eyes.
"Damage to my spinal nerves has left me paralyzed from the neck down."
The young policewoman, unable even to turn her head, grinned from her bed.
"Well,"
"I won't have to hand in my resignation now."
"How could this happen...? How could this happen?"
All the strength left her. She sank into the chair Iori Ichika had hooked over with her foot, then pressed a hand to her forehead. Fuji Seiko still couldn't accept it.
"Aw, I'm just lucky to be alive."
Unlike Fuji Seiko, who refused to believe it, Kawai Mai seemed to have taken it in stride.
"Actually, I was never cut out to be a police officer."
The young short-haired policewoman, paralyzed in her hospital bed, thought back to graduating from high school and filling out her "career aspirations survey."
"...My grades were average, and I wasn't ambitious."
"As long as I had a steady income, I didn't care what kind of work I did."
Then she took a whole bunch of civil service exams. By chance, the only one she passed was the police exam, so—
"After I became a police officer, I realized the work wasn't nearly as easy as I'd imagined, and I hardly ever got involved in any real 'cases.'"
People like her, who joined the police after graduating from high school, had to start at the bottom as patrol officers. That meant patrolling the streets, directing traffic, writing tickets—in short, running errands and doing odd jobs.
"You tax thief!"
"Damn it, you're writing me a ticket!"
"Hey, you're the police. People are supposed to come to you when they need help, aren't they?"
Almost every new officer had to deal with comments like those.
And on top of that:
"Turn in those overdue reports as soon as possible."
As the lowest-ranking newcomer at the police station, she had been saddled with all kinds of troublesome tasks.
"If I'd known the job would be this exhausting and thankless, I'd never have become a police officer. Hehehe..."
A sheepish smile appeared on Kawai Mai's young face.
"I even wrote my resignation letter,"
but she had never turned it in.
"But then..."
After she met her senior, Fuji Seiko, who had just transferred in, everything changed.
Under her guidance, Mai had stumbled through the early difficulties and eventually made it through.
She just hadn't expected that—
"I won't be able to go on patrol with you anymore, Senpai. I'm sorry."
She grinned without a care in the world. Normally, Kawai Mai would have bashfully scratched at the hair beside her ear with a finger. But now—
She would spend the rest of her life lying in a hospital bed.
Bam!
"Why did it have to happen like this?"
The mature policewoman slammed her fist into the hospital corridor wall.
She lowered her head so no one would see the tears in her eyes.
"Mai worked so hard and tried so earnestly to be a good police officer. Why did this have to happen to her?!"
"Calm down, Seiko."
Iori Ichika patted her on the shoulder.
"In our line of work, accidents are bound to happen sooner or later."
She sounded less like a police officer and more like some kind of battlefield mercenary.
"Chief,"
"Not every police officer has to deal with violent incidents."
Fuji Seiko didn't know what to say to her superior's attempt at comfort. Most police officers went their entire careers without ever firing a gun on the job.
Only someone like her superior, who had once been with the Organized Crime Division and now belonged to the Supernatural Countermeasures Division, would make such a blasé remark about life and death.
"It's all my fault."
"If I'd warned Mai sooner, or pushed her out of the way..."
"All right, all right. What good does it do to say that now?"
Iori Ichika spread her hands.
"Can you turn back time and save your junior?"
"Since you can't, you have to look ahead. Brain-computer interface technology has already made breakthroughs. Even paralyzed patients can play video games now. Maybe one day, she'll get back on her feet with a fully mechanical body."
"Chief,"
"Has anyone ever told you that you're terrible at comforting people?"
At Fuji Seiko's helpless remark, Iori Ichika merely shrugged.
"Plenty of people."
"Anyway, now... wait."
Suddenly thinking of something, Iori Ichika turned serious. She waved for Fuji Seiko to follow, and they returned to the police car. Once they were inside and had shut the doors—
"Seiko, if you had a chance to cure Kawai Mai, how far would you go for her?"
Before the puzzled Fuji Seiko could answer, Iori Ichika continued on her own.
"For example, would you risk your life?"
?!
"Chief, I don't understand what you mean."
Fuji Seiko couldn't make sense of her superior's out-of-the-blue question, but—
"If it could help Mai recover, I'd do anything that didn't break the law."
Mai wasn't just her junior. She was also her friend!
"Good."
"Then I'll tell you something:"
"The government has a supernatural being codenamed Miko. She can treat all kinds of injuries that science can't cure."
Medical Ninjutsu made no sense at all from a scientific perspective.
Genin Nohara Rin could easily perform eye-transplant surgery on a battlefield.
With modern medicine, there was nothing anyone could do for a severed optic nerve but shake their head and wave their hands.
"Really?!"
"That's wonderful—"
Joy flickered across Fuji Seiko's face, then faded.
She'd worked as a patrol officer for years, risen through the ranks on her own merits, and become an inspector. She knew how the world worked.
Would someone like Miko really treat a mere patrol officer?
Who did she think she was!
"You've figured it out too, haven't you?"
"The important people seeking treatment from Miko are already booked a week in advance."
"From here on, her schedule will only get more and more crowded."
Plenty of influential people were still skeptical, or hadn't yet reached the point where they needed surgery.
But as time went on, the price of getting Miko to treat someone—and the status required to secure her help—would only grow more unattainable!
"What should I do?"
Fuji Seiko knew that she and Kawai Mai's family were just ordinary people.
They had no way of getting Miko to treat her. In fact, if she hadn't joined the Supernatural Countermeasures Division, and if her kind superior hadn't been there beside her, she wouldn't even have known Miko existed.
Since her superior had brought it up, there had to be a solution.
"The government has started a Super Soldier program."
"The experimental risks are extremely high. Every animal test subject died!"
"The human trials... I hear they haven't gone well either. But if they succeed, the program's subjects will become the Metropolitan Police Department's trump card."
Rather than recruit "wild" superhumans, the government naturally preferred to create its own. Unfortunately, progress had been painfully slow, and many "volunteers" had been wasted.
The researchers believed the "volunteers" recruited from prisons lacked the physical fitness and mental fortitude to withstand the experiments. So—
"So you want me to take part in the experiment?"
Iori Ichika nodded at Fuji Seiko's question.
"Exactly."
"If you succeed, you'll qualify to ask Miko for help."
"If you fail, you could be left with a lifetime of injuries—or even die on the spot—"
"I agree!"
P.S. I've made it into the first round of recommendations! Please give me a follow, a recommendation ticket, or an investment~~