The Police Reaction

"Beast."

The moment he woke up, his sister hit him with that out of nowhere, leaving Akihi Yu completely baffled.

"Your sleeping posture was awful. Your arm was pressing on me all night."

"Oh. Sorry."

As he got out of bed and started changing clothes in the face of Akiyu Sora's angry glare, he received this in return:

"You're worse than a beast!"

The girl slammed the door and left, leaving Akihi Yu with a face full of question marks.

What the hell?

Yesterday had been his first time killing someone, his first time using ninjutsu, and his first time pretending to be some supernatural being. Although it had not consumed much mana, Akihi Yu had been tense the entire time and collapsed into sleep the moment he returned. Naturally, nothing extra had happened, which made Akiyu Sora, who had been nervous for half the night, very angry!

Still, her anger came quickly and went quickly.

"Let's leave the country."

While they were eating breakfast, Akiyu Sora made a suggestion.

"Using the family tragedy as an excuse, I can apply for a refund of half a semester's tuition."

"Together with the compensation from Mom and Dad, it'll be enough for us to use smuggling channels to get to America. My English is good enough for daily life."

"Four people have gone missing. The police will definitely open an investigation."

Taking a bite of bread, Akiyu Sora analyzed the situation calmly.

"Although I don't know how you dealt with those people, Brother, if the police find any clues..."

They would not escape ten years in prison, even with the advantage of their age.

"Don't worry."

Akihi Yu raised a hand to interrupt his sister.

"What police officer has that much free time to care about a few pieces of social trash?"

"Come on, let's go to school."

Of course, Akihi Yu was confident enough to say that.

Yesterday, he had put on quite a performance at the Broken Tooth Gang's headquarters. If that still could not draw Tokyo's police force over, then he would admit defeat.

Takenotsuka Town, Second Block.

Waa-oo, waa-oo, waa-oo~~

Police cars blaring piercing sirens stopped around the building bearing the sign "Broken Tooth Finance." Officers in crisp uniforms stood guard all around it. Even the road in front of the building had been temporarily placed under traffic control, with yellow police tape already strung up.

Pedestrians who normally needed to pass through this area were told to take a detour.

Reporters who had rushed over upon hearing the news were also stopped outside the police line.

All they could do was watch from afar as police cars arrived one after another and uniformed and plainclothes personnel got out, giving everyone the vague sense that a horrifying major case had occurred here. Under the police's orders to disperse, most people chose to leave. No matter what had happened here, ordinary people still had to go on with their lives.

Only the reporters lingered, trying to obtain the first scoop.

Inside the building, police officers kept walking out with faces ashen, or with expressions so drastically changed that they looked ready to vomit.

The entire building was filled with corpses.

More than fifty members of the Broken Tooth Gang had all died in their own headquarters!

Every one of them had their eyes wide open and mouths agape, terror frozen on their faces, with filth spilling from their bodies. It was as though they had seen the most terrifying sight of their lives. At the same time, they bore no external injuries and showed no obvious signs of poisoning. Their limbs were stiff like frozen pork, proving that their muscles had undergone intense exertion before death.

In fact, most of those Broken Tooth Gang members had weapons clenched tightly in their hands: daggers, baseball bats, handguns!

Judging from their postures, they really did seem to have been fighting something.

Yet no matter who they were, they had all become corpses now.

"Urgh."

Retreating to the building entrance,

A newly recruited officer dry-heaved, his face pale as if he were about to throw up.

"You all right?"

An older officer walked over and patted his shoulder.

"I'm fine, Senior."

"Do you think it could have been mass food poisoning, or maybe they got high?"

"Possible, but there are too many suspicious points."

The older officer turned to look into the building. Judging from the distribution of the gangsters' bodies, it looked exactly like they had encountered a large number of enemies, fighting and retreating until they were wiped out. But the problem was that there was no trace of anything else at the scene. It was as if they had merely been fighting the air. What had killed these Broken Tooth Gang members?

"Hm?"

"The Organized Crime Division is here too. Leave it to them."

As the older officer spoke, a car with no police markings came speeding over, drifting into a sideways stop.

Before the car had even fully stopped, its doors were kicked open, and a group of men and women in studded leather jackets, Black Suits, and floral shirts jumped out.

Every one of them looked vicious, with their outerwear hanging loosely from their shoulders. They looked exactly like yakuza.

"I heard all the trash here is dead?"

Leading them was a rough-looking woman in a biker jacket, with a belt buckle at her waist. Her heavy combat boots and that thoroughly punchable expression made the officers who did not know her frown.

"Good riddance!"

"If I hadn't been demoted, I would've killed this trash myself sooner or later!"

"Senior, are they...?"

The young officer had a guess, but he still quietly asked the older officer beside him.

"Yeah. They're from the Violent Crime Countermeasures Division."

You could tell what this division handled just from its name. How could people who dealt with yakuza members every day possibly be gentle and friendly?

These men and women, who looked more like yakuza than actual yakuza, were the elite officers of the Violent Crime Countermeasures Division, commonly known as the Organized Crime Division.

They were the most dangerous division in the police system, and their investigative methods were also the most aggressive in the entire force.

Many times, they could even be said to operate on the edge of the law.

"Move it! If you're going to puke, go puke outside!"

"A few corpses scared you all this badly? What kind of body haven't I seen?"

The plainclothes Organized Crime Division officers surged into the building. A few minutes later:

"...I really haven't seen this before."

Wearing gloves as she examined a corpse on the floor, the rough-looking policewoman frowned.

"These people have no fatal external injuries and no common signs of poisoning. Don't tell me they did so much evil that they were scared to death?"

Scared to death?

The other Organized Crime Division members looked at one another.

They dealt with yakuza organizations every day and had seen corpses in every miserable state imaginable, but they had truly never seen anyone scared to death.

"Is that your assessment, Ichika?"

As everyone examined the bodies, a stern middle-aged man in an expensive suit and tie, wearing rimless glasses, walked in surrounded by several officers.

"Director Takeya?!"

The others immediately put down their work, rose to their feet, and stood straight.

This man was the Superintendent General of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Superintendent General was not merely a job title; it was also the highest rank in the Island Nation's police force.

"...Ahaha."

"What brings the Superintendent General to the front lines?"

The rough-looking policewoman gave an awkward laugh. Saying people had been scared to death was one thing in private, but letting her superior hear it would only worsen her already negative impression—

"Come with me."

He did not take issue with her words. Instead, he gestured for her to follow.

"They really were scared to death?!"

The rough-looking policewoman—no, rather, the deputy chief of the Violent Crime Countermeasures Division's Fourth Section, Iori Ichika.

After watching the surveillance footage before her, her face was full of an expression that said, Are you fucking kidding me?

This was the surveillance room of the Broken Tooth Building. Several technicians were busy dismantling computers. Every computer in the surveillance room would be packed up and taken away, because the footage captured by these machines was so horrifying that it had surpassed common sense.

"What do the others think?"

The Superintendent General ignored Ichika's shock and turned to ask the other section chiefs.

What did they think?

They were watching while standing!

The section chiefs all exchanged looks.

If they had not personally seen those terrified corpses, if they were not certain that the surveillance equipment had not been altered or damaged, if not for...

In short, someone had already begun rubbing his temples furiously, suspecting that he was hallucinating.

"Superintendent General, why think so much about it?"

The rough-looking Ichika snapped back to her senses, that punchable expression returning to her face.

"Isn't there still one 'survivor' in this case?"

"Tanimura Wataru!"

Ichika pointed at the image on the monitor.

"Just bring him in, and what happened last night will become clear."

"You have a lead?"

In response to the Superintendent General's question, Ichika, with both hands in her pockets, nodded.

"Of course."

"Contact the coroner, Superintendent General."

"If I'm not mistaken, we'll have results very soon."

Looking at the Werewolf on the surveillance footage, who had gotten back to his feet after rolling all over the floor, Ichika wore a villainous smile. She knew Tanimura Wataru far too well. The only reason he had lived this long was because she had secretly protected him.

Unfortunately, Ichika had angered her superiors recently and had nearly been stripped of her position entirely.

Who would have thought that this guy...

Would encounter such an opportunity? How enviable.

Unable to stop herself from licking her lips, Ichika jerked her thumb behind her amid the disgusted looks from the other section chiefs.

"Superintendent General, I'll take some people to find Tanimura Wataru first."

PS: Please give me some recommendation votes. At least let me know I'm not the only reader here. (Sad)