NORMAL SPEAKING /
READING THINGS /
Thoughts
Flashback
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CHAPTER START
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"Ah, Hideo," A cheerful voice called out, "How've you been?"
023 turned around and saw one his 'friends' waving at him. It was Daisuke Shinohara. One of the more popular kids in school. He was an above average boy, with curly brown hair and black eyes. He was standing at 5'11. He also had a bigger body compared to most of their classmates.
Despite his average height, he had a bulky bone structure and body, something Hideo chalked up to his family genes.
"Dai," Hideo greeted back, "I have been good. What about you? How were your holidays?"
"You know? same old same old," Daisuke commented offhandedly, "You know my father, trying to get me interested in the clan as much as he can,"
"Hm," Hideo replied, of course, this was no surprise to the young assassin. Shinohara, Daisuke's family or clan were one of the oldest families in Tokyo. Even today, they were among the high society of Japan, both on the political and power side.
And with power comes enemies. Daisuke's family had a lot of enemies. Daisuke himself was naive to the ways of the world and for that reason, he still didn't know that his family wasn't all good. Yeah, Hideo thought, The Shinohara family had a lot of illegal business in Japan, ranging from drug trades to weapon trafficking.
And being the only son of the head of the clan, he had many people who would love to kill him and for that reason alone, not many people were aware of who his family actually was. Not to mention, there were at least 3 people in and around the school Hideo knew were his bodyguards, undercover and without his knowledge of course.
"How was your break, Hideo?" Daisuke inquired, "Anything interesting?"
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"Stop, who are you?" An older looking security guard asked walking towards Hideo.
"I am new, My name is Suzaku, I was supposed to be working with party staff but I can't seem to find the party," Hideo said in clumsy voice while holding his card up.
"How did you get up here?" The guard asked suspiciously, "This floor is restricted without security clearance,"
"Really?" Hideo chuckled nervously, "Sorry, I didn't know, I just got into the lift and pressed the first floor my hand hit,"
"You are gonna have to come with me," The guard said with a little hostility.
"L-lead the way p-please," Hideo replied with a stutter. He was a pretty good actor, hell he even convinced himself that he was just a harmless young waiter, let alone the security guard.
Hideo and the guard made their way to the security room where the guard mentioned Hideo to stand back as he opened the door with his card.
Hideo's eyes scanned the room, he saw two guards in the room watching over the party through security monitors.
"After you," Hideo said to the guard and as soon as he The guard moved in Hideo quickly snapped his neck killing him instantly, The other two guards heard this started to turn away but Hideo with lighting speed threw a knife at one of the guard's head and closed the distance and hit the other guard on with a quick punch to the skull followed by a kick to his knee bringing him down.
Hideo quickly wrapped his arm around the poor guard in an iron clutch intent on finishing him soon, "Please, I have a daughter," The guard begged in a hoarse whisper.
"I am sorry," Hideo replied as he snapped his neck, killing him instantly, "But no one can know my secret," he muttered as he realized he just killed three adults in 20 seconds.
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"Me?" Hideo asked absentmindedly as he thought of the people he assassinated over the course of a 2-month break, "No, nothing very interesting,"
"Ah, c'mon man," Daisuke began, "You oughta enjoy yourself more,"
"I enjoy myself plenty," Hideo replied curtly, "Thank you, and you should watch yourself more than me. Or your not-girlfriend would make a fuss as she always does,"
"How many times have I told you that Mai and I are not dating," Daisuke denied, although his flustered expression told Hideo otherwise.
Honestly, even if he didn't have extensive knowledge of human psychology, Hideo still would have figured out. Those two were inseparable and so hopelessly in love with one another.
The only reason they didn't get together was that their families didn't like one another or that is what they believed but Hideo knew better. Shinohara and Hiroshi family's dislike for one another wasn't just petty, no, they were rivals in the underworld. In many ways, Mai and Daisuke were similar, both of them unaware of their families truth.
Hideo chuckled, the Heir to two of the biggest rival criminal clans in Tokyo fell in love, it was a disaster waiting to happen.
"Sure, sure," Hideo replied clearly not believing him.
"Oh really," Daisuke spoke challengingly, "Then what about Aiko? You two clearly have feelings for each other," Daisuke began triumphantly but stopped when he noticed Hideo's deadpan look.
Love, eh, something Hideo understood all too well but never quite felt it, at least not in the way normal people do.
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POLICE HEADQUARTERS:-
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"Doesn't make sense," Shizuku huffed in annoyance from her location.
"Why?" A gruff voice asked from beside her, "He's insane, he doesn't reason to do what he does,"
"It's just..... why would someone commit such a daring murder during a party?" Shizuku asked, "I don't think it was random either. Just think about it, he left a message, clearly, there was a reason for it, don't you think Marude?"
"I Lied," Marude read from a piece of paper, "What does that mean? Why go through all the trouble to carve that on the victim's chest when you could just write it on a wall or something and not to mention, dropping the body in the middle of a high-class party,"
"Could this be a revenge murder?" Shizuku wondered.
"No," Marude immediately replied, "The more that I think about it, the more your first theory makes sense,"
"Really?" Shizuku asked surprised.
"Yea," Marude yawned lazily, "Let's go talk to your father," the older Detective spoke and moved towards the chief's office.
Shizuku stiffened a bit and followed since she was the police chief's daughter, she had a chip on her shoulders. She had always wanted to prove herself to her father. Maybe it was because he wanted a boy or maybe it was because his work had kept him too busy during her childhood that she desperately wanted his attention.
"Report," The Chief asked while laying back in his chair.
"The investigation has not led us anywhere, there are no proofs and all the suspects have an Alibi that cannot be refuted," Shizuku began.
"There are no clues either and frankly speaking we are no closer to finding the culprit, Boss," Her partner interrupted, giving his own two cents and backing up a nervous daughter in front of her over expectant father.
"The only thing we have been able to find out if that the Murderer entered the building while pretending to be a waiter," Shizuku supplied.
"A waiter?" The Chief raised an eyebrow
"Yes, he knocked out a waiter in the back alley and took his identification card and made his to the 30th floor, where he knocked out most of the guards and killed 3 in the security room from where he shut down the camera feed," She explained.
"Somehow the culprit managed to hack the 30-floor camera feed otherwise maybe we could have seen his face while he was fighting the guards but remotely hacking the camera feed suggests that he had a partner," Marude chimed in, filling in the holes.
"After that, he made his way over to the party, slipped the victim into an empty room, murdered him and hung his corpse on the party floor from the ceiling," Shizuku finished. She herself had seen it first hand. It was a fundraiser party that most of the high class of Tokyo had been invited to, of course, being the daughter of the police chief she was also present and it hurt her pride that the Killer had struck on her watch.
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"As of now we have no direction to pursue the case, there were over 200 people in that party," Marude began, "Although there might be something,"
"What is it, Marude?" Chief Yoshi asked annoyed, he knew most of the people in the party and his reputation was at stake and that's why he put his best detective and his own daughter on the case, not getting any result was disappointing, to say the least.
"I think she better explain it, it is her theory after all," Marude spoke towards Detective Yoshi.
"Speak, Shizuku " The chief gestured his daughter to continue.
"Yes Chief, I believe that the Culprit could be a Hired Hitman, a - an assassin," She spoke a while stammering a little because her father never paid much attention to all her theories.
"The reason for me saying this would be first, most of the victim's enemies would be his Business Rivals or maybe partners and at most his jealous wife and those sort of people can never commit this kind of crime," She explained.
"What I mean is that this was brutal and the way the culprit made his way into the building and used the party as a cover to murder the victim. And not to mention the message, 'I lied' carved on the victim's chest. The cuts were straight and too clean, this sort of work can only be done by a professional or a seasoned killer. Secondly, the victim was tied by a polycarbonate rope which is a military grade grappling rope and I doubt some high-class businessmen would murder someone this brutally and not to mention they all have their Alibi and besides the carving on the victim's chest are too neat. The kill shot itself, one single bullet hole, right in the center of the skull, that kind of a shot takes precision, many people can't even make it point blank. And then there is the time frame for all of it, The victim was last seen about 15 minutes from the time his corpse fell onto the floor which means that the killer is also very time efficient," Shizuku continued while her father listened a bit amazed if he was being honest with himself.
"I don't have any proof and this is most likely my intuition but I believe that either his wife or Rivals or maybe Partners hired a professional Hitman for the job, If we wish to find the Hitman I think we should focus more on finding than who hired him rather than who pulled the trigger," She finished her explanation while her father looked at her with surprise, Marude, however, was proud, he was sort of a mentor to Shizuku, he taught her everything she knew ever since they became partners 3 years ago.
"That may make sense but we can't waste our time chasing theories, This case is too high profile thanks to the hanging Corpse," The Chief replied as he leaned back in his chair.
"B-but Father " Shizuku complained but was stopped by Marude.
"Chief I know that this case is high profile and also media is giving it too much hype but we are not making any progress, a different approach might help us," Marude explained in a calm manner, backing his partner up.
"I don't know if you have noticed but you should give more credit to your daughter, in the past 3 years most of the cases we solved were due to her theories and out of the box thinking, " He praised as Shizuku Blushed and turned her head away while folding her arms underneath her ample bosom.
"And besides if it doesn't help, we can always come back to the way we are working right now, No harm is done right chief?" Marude said while making weird gestures.
"Alright do what you will but only one week and if you cannot get any results," Chief warned as he stood up, he didn't speak a word further but the message was all too clear.
"Understood, Chief," she said as she bowed and left with Marude behind her.