19 / 03 / 2019 - Daito, Prefecture Osaka, Japan.
Two days after the investigation, 9 AM, Tuesday.
"And then for the next case of the missing report." The calm voice of the female news anchor resounded through the screen, echoing across the living room.
His feet instinctively stopped in their steps, turning his body for a bit, listening to the broadcast of the female anchor on the screen.
"According to the Osaka Prefectural Police, the number of missing persons fluctuated between 25 and 75 last week."
Eyes narrowed as a strong light falls into the living room through the big open window behind the television; at its depth, bloody-ashen is luminous as if responding.
Lowering her head to read the card in her hands, she stops for a moment, a bit short of breath, but still, she is calm enough. Why? Is it fear? Anxiety? Or surprise?
All of this is caught by mere Analysis, a casual observation on its own, his gaze thoughtful, but it can't hide some scowls that flash by.
Thus she continues to bring the news despite its contradiction to her own self, pathetic maybe? Heh, he wonders why this thought appears, or these particular words appear.
"But this week, it has risen to 45 and 102. A rapid increase has been observed this week, and the Osaka Prefectural Police are still investigating intensively."
Only now, then, he knows the reason, as the corner of his eyes twitched. He underestimated the situation itself; somehow, it is justified for her to be surprised.
'Am I running out of time?' Even if he has been investigating this lately? And even if he has understood some pattern of movement? Did he arrive late to the party?
And as he is thinking absentmindedly, he also seems to have heard a short gasp in front of him, and in reflex, his hands clenched in his pocket.
Waking from reverie, "This is clearly abnormal, right?" It is a soft and gentle voice.
Lowering his head, the figure of his aunt came into view, her hands holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a tablet in the other, reading some message or news perhaps?
'Hmmmm…' She wears a pale gray oversized, loose, soft long-sleeve shirt; her neckline is relaxed, and the light blue cardigan is slipping off one shoulder, truly careless, nee-chan.
Furrowing his eyebrows. The bottom is a pair of beige light cotton shorts, her feet atop the sofa, knees crossed, her back fully leaning against the backrest.
Her face is looking upwards at him, small and delicate. Eyes half-lidded, calm, or maybe not there yet? A faint blush on her cheeks, and her lips flat.
Facing those gazes, those sky-blue eyes are clearly still sleepy, as her hair is messy and unbrushed, with a few bangs covering her left eye and strands sticking out.
"Yeah… did you just wake up now?"
Saying this, though his face is the usual plain of a meadow, the corner of his mouth twitched. Is she low on blood or something? Rise and shine, Auntie!
This is 9 AM, and the sun has climbed up; feeling his sore legs and hands from the workout, comparing that sleepy demeanor that threatens to wander to dreamland once more.
Once again, the urge to complain is as strong as ever, but then again, what right does he have to complain? Well, whatever, it is people's right to sleep after all.
The thought of the spiking missing report is stuffed back to the corner of his mind, not that he didn't care, but he is in the process of taking care of it, though.
All thoughts and wanderings completed in a second as he is brought back to Reality, focusing on the matter of his aunt, 'As if he could do something about this,' shaking his head.
"Hmmm, Ah… No, it's just I'm tired." As she said this, her eyes were further moving down, and she covered her mouth as a yawn escaped; her head hung low, facing the tablet once again.
Hearing this and looking at the figure of his aunt just now, 'it's quite pitiful,' he's quite touched; he slowly took his hands out of his pocket and touched his beating chest, pressing it.
His plain face became solemn as he made up his mind,
'Just you wait, nee-chan, all I do now is to create a capital for the new world that is about to come! Just wait!' He is admiring her hard work for their sake.
Striving to work as hard as her, a light of wisdom flashed at the depths of his eyes, 'Although it is not much, it is time to go fishing, right?' With this thought in mind, he put his hands back down.
"Rest well, nee-chan, don't overwork yourself! You know." After paying the silent tribute, he turns his body, intending to wash himself and go back to his room after the long jog.
But—
Stopping in his steps, "Also, don't wander around if there aren't any urgent things, as you said it yourself, all of this is abnormal after all." Saying an implicit notice, he looks back for a bit.
Only to see a drooping figure, hanging low, already asleep. His mouth twitched, and in the end, Akane sighed softly, "Well…" and in the end, resumed his steps.
Then again, as he disappeared and his steps faded away to the top of the stairs after a while, Riscia's eyes, which were actually closed, blinked, obscured by her hair; her eyes were full of clarity and focus.
"Yeah, you too, little Akane." Whispering lightly, she ponders the meaning of his words, which keep repeating in her mind along with the scene of the past, abnormal indeed.
….
After a while, Akane's room.
"Haahhhh…" Sighing lightly, the body felt fresh after a bath as he leaned on the chair's backrest lazily, hands on his stomach, dark hair a bit wet, slicked to the back.
Light entered through the open window along with echoes of busyness, pedestrians, and vehicles along the side of the road, and the park side of the apartment.
Eyes half-lidded as he rested his tired body, the casual black and white shirt crumpled, and short black pants, drowning in this tranquility and comfort.
Breathing softly, his relaxed mind wanders regarding the earlier news of the missing report,
"Can't they resist it anymore? What do they actually want to do with that many people?" thinking about it.
Sacrifice? Cannibalism? Experiment? Or what? Possibilities bloom in his mind, reminding him of Ayato's sentence of that day,
"Scream? A loud scream? Are they tortured? Well, not my problem."
If he thinks about it again, after knowing about the extraordinary things, matters like this are not his concern,
"There will be tall people who hold the sky." It is a saying from the cultivation novel he reads.
And anyway, he had delayed it long enough, "It's time, right?"
As he promised his siblings, he slowly opened his eyes, facing the ceiling, 'I'll turn this information into something more useful.'
And he knows how to do it, a half-smile then slowly carved on his face,
"Of course, there's no free meal in this world…" pushing his chair forwards and lowering his face, straightening his body.
Waiting a while to boot up, his hands moved to the keyboard, and a few seconds later, the white screen of the operating system appeared, humming lightly. One of his hands moved to the drawer below.
Pulling out the notebook and placing it on the left side, he opened it, right hand on the mouse, and he was ready. "Then, let's begin."
….
His hands are dancing above the keyboard, eyes on the screen, scanning every bit of keyword that has been typed, flicking lightly to the left occasionally, reading the notes.
Eyes back on the screen, and with the last keys pressed, the email has been sent. Silence for a moment, two to five seconds, as he gazes intently at the screen, awaiting something.
And after a while, as he expected, a notification rings up, and he slowly clicks the reply that floated up,
"Thank you for your email and for providing the information. We have received your report and will review it as part of our ongoing investigation. If necessary, we may contact you for further clarification. We appreciate your cooperation."
As he read the brief, formal, and rigid reply, he nodded knowingly; at least he just needed a fish to bite the hook now.
Turning the chair and facing the window on the left, he left the bright screen open.
"In this pond, there are many kinds of fish. I hope I'm lucky." Muttering under his breath, his heart is as light as a feather, or maybe relieved?
As for what fish will bite the bait later, he doesn't care; the handle is in his hands after all.
Eyes reflecting the passing cars and people who are stopping at the shop at the side of the road, while his hands are placed on the armrest.
He can't help but think of these investigations in the past two days. Well, it is not long enough, but is the gain sufficient or plentiful? 'Yeah, it is enough.'
Though it pales in comparison to the time when he struck a deal with The Serpent. "Please don't smite me, I don't talk ill about you, right?"
Clasping his hands, he winked at the space playfully, but he was afraid of the ancient beings.
Then, placing down his hands and rotating his chair in play, he feels a bit of joy now pulsating through the void in his heart,
"Two days is two days." Now it is Tuesday since the investigation was on Sunday.
Stopping the spinning chair, this time, he is facing the newly bought whiteboard, and even if it's new, it is filled with various linked patterns and printed photos of various places.
'You are so close to danger, Irina.' Looking back at it, and the various links he discerns, his heart cooled down, albeit a bit; it is on the edge. What saves her is her instinct for danger.
Discerning the pattern that is not so obvious, he can somehow understand some characteristics from this "cult" that stole people.
And yes, he defines this missing case as a "cult" perpetrated by the culprit.
One hand on his chin and the other on his chest, he nods,
"As Irina said, they are disgusting, their nature must be off from humans themselves? Meaning that being eaten or sacrificed is highly possible."
Well, this is one, and again, he hums thoughtfully, as to why he can gather so many things in these two days that those police bums cannot do? He doesn't know, though, since this is also his point of curiosity.
"They should have many people, proven that they can hunt that crocodile-man, meaning they know what's going on… but how could they let this run rampant?"
It is his point of puzzlement.
Tilting his head slightly, the plain face a bit confused, even if there's no change at all; his eyes are drooping, lowered.
Humming once again, in thought, he seems to understand something.
While his legs are pushing the chair left and right, he thought of a reason, "Is it possible that they know but are overwhelmed? If so, then…"
Biting his fingers, the pain kept him awake.
Osaka is in very big trouble if this is true; this assumption is also supported by the missing report spiking abnormally, overall,
"…enemies in the dark are hard enough to counter after all."
With this assumption, the chair stops, 'I'll expect more rewards to come from later, hahahah.' A bit elated at their suffering and the prospect of what is to come.
Turning his chair back to face the window, his hands crossed above his chest, his gaze is frozen on the scenery outside the open window, enjoying the chilly breeze it brought and the scenery of blooming trees.
"For a while, it is not bad to be like this."
Mumbling, his excitement had gradually died down as time went on, leaving a blank, grey world once again, though he did not doubt that it would come again.
"Ayato is close to graduation, huh, and Irina will be a 6th grader this year."
Reminded of the empty apartment, they are going to school after all, since it is Tuesday; he will catch up to Junior High School later with him.
Thus, leaving him alone to act, without the help of his siblings, unless he waits for them this evening,
'Then again, it is mostly done, and…'
The corner of his mouth upturned a bit. Having anticipated this, he had instructed Irina a day before to mark out all possible "out of tune" locations on the map by going for a walk.
"Is this what wisdom feels like?"
Heh, it couldn't be better. To act with wisdom and navigate the world is truly something that he enjoys, pressing on the backrest and swaying the chair left and right.
Then, all he has to do is just wait.
————
One day forward, Wednesday, the same morning.
"Look whose bite took the bait, fish is hooked," stating the obvious, eyes reflected the white screen with a simple reply of what he considers the starting point,
"Thank you for your report, Sakamaki-san. Your information is proven to be helpful for the investigation of the current disappearance."
Reading it between the lines, a half-smile is carved upon his face, eyes gleaming with red as the grey world bleeds, continuing to read,
"For this, we would like to thank you formally at the Higashika Park at 9 AM tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Department of Special Security
Amakusa Mikoto / Captain of the First Division."
After reading this, he is silent for a moment, just gazing at it intently, with a blazing, bloody-red that overshadowed the grey; it is so… so… 'funny.' Bad impression, bad impression.
Struggling to contain himself, his lips trembled as a small chuckle, then turned into laughter that escaped from his mouth, 'Oh, oh, the irony!' lamenting their fate over the wrong choice.
"Hahhhh… It's quite funny and rude at the same time."
After a while, the laughter gradually died down to a smirk as he wiped the tears from the corner of his eyes and let out a sigh at their stupidity.
The jumping emotion comes and goes as it pleases, as he is to be, but it is as if he wants this itself.
"You are mistaken if I need you, the one who needs me now is you… tut, tut, what a wrong choice!"
Back to his usual calmness and half a smile, even if he uses a fake identity and a layer of protection.
'I'm not someone you can bully and step on as you please.'
His eyes are cold as he ignores the reply and closes the laptop slowly; he is not in a hurry, the one who is in a hurry is them after all.
With this thought in mind, the laughter threatens to spill out once more, as he estimates when they will give up and contact him again.
"Probably, two days? One week, at the very last."
Turning his chair to the window, his mood seems brighter than ever despite the bleakness of the world to come.
When you fight over a person who cares for nothing, you'll maybe end up punching the air after all….. Hahhahhahah.