Assassination

A week had passed since the indiscriminate mass murder on the subway that had shocked the entire nation. At a press conference, the top executives of the subway company and the transportation bureau had all prostrated themselves in apology.

As for firing people?

Well, they'd fired most of the security inspectors and, supposedly, the supervisor in charge of security.

After a few incidents in the previous couple of years, Tokyo's subway in this alternate world had security checks. They were all manual inspections, though, and not every station had them. Even at stations with security checks, they didn't inspect everyone.

Now that a heinous case like this had left more than ten injured and twenty dead, they had to replace the entire security force and bring in scanning equipment. Opportunities to make a hefty profit while winning taxpayers' approval didn't come along often.

The actual weapons had been the killer's bare hands. But there wasn't much footage of the slaughter, and all the phones left at the scene had been collected and destroyed. Anyone who tried to find them was referred to the subway company, which referred them to the transportation bureau, which in turn passed them to the Metropolitan Police Department. After that round of bureaucratic buck-passing, most people had no choice but to accept it.

Buried beneath this bombshell of a story, one official media outlet reported that a natural gas pipeline had leaked and exploded at the Metropolitan Police Department, causing several casualties. Unsurprisingly, the news made not the slightest ripple.

After a week of investigation, the task force had identified the Holy Infant Society and obtained a list of most of its members. Anyone they could locate was under round-the-clock surveillance, and the arrests were set to begin today.

In Yashio City, according to the intelligence they'd gathered, most of the known members had arrived two days earlier at a hot spring hotel. The company president, Nakai Hayato, had rented a conference room and several guest rooms under the pretense of a company outing. The task force suspected they might be holding some kind of event.

At present, the task force had even placed the Holy Infant Cult members who weren't attending the gathering under surveillance. With a single order, they could arrest everyone within five minutes.

The problem was that Nakai Hayato and the members who'd come to the event had only shown their faces on the first day. Since then, the hotel staff had only seen Nakai once. He'd told them not to disturb the rooms he'd rented over the next few days.

Noguchi Yuji suspected they had either already fled or were performing some kind of ritual.

"Move in!"

On the floor where the Holy Infant Society members' rooms were located, heavily armed personnel suddenly poured out of several rooms. Well-equipped and ready for a fight, they surrounded the target rooms.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, armed personnel also rushed out of hidden buildings near offices, small shops, and homes, arresting the Holy Infant Society suspects with swift, brutal force.

"Get down! Get down!"

"Hands behind your heads!"

"Target 25 apprehended."

"Target 34 apprehended."

"Target 40 resisted. Warning was ignored; target was shot dead on the spot."

Reports continued to come in. The team at the hotel had also breached the rooms.

"Room 616: no target."

"Room 617: no target."

"Room 618: there's a letter on the desk."

A letter?

Room 618 seemed to be the Holy Infant Society president's room.

That meant the other side had known about the task force's arrest plan all along. They'd even had time to lure their main force to Yashio City.

"Tell me what the letter says." Noguchi Yuji had a bad feeling and couldn't wait to open it himself.

There was a pause of several seconds before the voice on the other end replied, "Odagiri Masanobu. It's a name."

Noguchi Yuji's mouth fell open.

That was the name of the head of the Criminal Investigation Department.

"Contact Director Odagiri."

Kuroki Niizumi called him, but after waiting a while without getting through, she shook her head at Noguchi Yuji.

Noguchi Yuji took a deep breath and began contacting the headquarters staff. But deep down, he already suspected that it was too late.

Ten minutes earlier.

On the highway to Nagatacho, Odagiri Masanobu sat with his eyes closed in an inconspicuous black car. He was so exhausted he could have fallen asleep at any moment. If he hadn't been afraid of losing his train of thought before the upcoming briefing, he would have tried to catch a quick nap.

The subway mass murder, the attack on the Metropolitan Police Department, and the questioning from one senior official after another. His workload that week had been five to eight times heavier than usual—enough to nearly kill a man his age who was close to retirement.

And yet, part of him was looking forward to what lay ahead.

Would he get to witness, with his own eyes, an event that would change the course of human history during the final years of his life?

If it triggered a technological boom, perhaps his lifespan would be extended too, and he could enjoy a longer retirement.

It was a shame his daughter had no interest in marriage. It hadn't bothered him before, but the older he got, the more he regretted it. Still, there was nothing he could say. It was her life, after all. Maybe he could adopt an orphan instead.

"Director, there's a car that's been following us for a while." The driver's words interrupted Odagiri's daydream and brought him back to reality.

"Then let's get to the Prime Minister's Office quickly." Odagiri trusted the subordinates he'd chosen. If the driver said they were being followed, he must have tried measures like taking detours to confirm it before reporting back. That was one reason his subordinates respected him so much.

"Yes." The driver nodded.

There were two other detectives in the car. At the driver's words, they took out their guns and bulletproof briefcases, preparing to deal with any sudden trouble.

But the next second, the car behind them signaled to overtake. The driver hesitated, then slowed down to let it pass.

The car behind quickly pulled ahead of the black sedan, then sped off as if it were in a hurry.

Just as the driver thought he'd been mistaken and began to relax, the driver of the car ahead suddenly opened the door while it was moving and jumped out. With unbelievable strength, he crashed onto the hood of the black sedan with a thunderous bang.

The car immediately went out of control. The driver tried to steer toward the side and scrape against the guardrail to slow down, but the next instant, a hand punched through the windshield. Five fingers plunged straight into the driver's face. He let out a piercing scream as the assailant yanked backward and tore his head off with ease. The driver's headless corpse slumped forward, blood gushing from his neck and splashing across the roof.

After spinning around the highway several times, the car finally came to a stop.

Everything had happened in the blink of an eye. Even the detective in the passenger seat hadn't had time to raise his gun before another punch crushed his skull. His remaining limbs twitched faintly.

Odagiri, in the back seat, hadn't even seen what happened up front before the other detective in the back shoved him down and shielded him.

When the car stopped, the detective got up to check what was going on. All he saw was blood and wreckage.

He was about to check the front seats when, with a bang, the window beside him shattered. Before he could turn around, a huge hand seized the back of his clothes. Then, with irresistible Super Strength, it yanked him out. A man over five and a half feet tall was dragged through the window in a seated forward bend.

The crisp crack of breaking bones almost drowned out his screams.

The assailant raised a foot, about to kick the half-dead man in the head. But then he glanced at Odagiri, who had just sat up in the car, and seemed to decide to toy with him.

He easily ripped the car door off, letting Odagiri see everything clearly.

"It's you."