The time is five o' clock in the afternoon. The school day has just ended about two hours ago and now Sin is finally getting around to the task he has been meaning to do for a month now. He sits calmly inside of the police station's waiting room. He has been waiting for about an hour now, but that does not deter him from his current mission.
Soon after leaving the fall ceremony for the students of Unimori, Sin diverted himself from the crowd, leaving Yosin to deal with any questions that the students or faculty may have as he deals with a potentially more pressing matter.
Since he had gotten wind of the fact that the Orien kid was attacked by the Eldritch Rune Cult, he has started to get this odd feeling in his gut about Carie. It's not that he thinks that she is involved in this, that he already knows, he is instead worried for her life. He knows from all of the documents he has looked up that the Eldritch Rune Cult is extremely ruthless, and that if Carie jumps in the way to protect Jian that she will be cut down without a second thought. Please Carie, he thinks to himself as he stares at the floor. don't do anything rash. I know that you care about this Jian character like all of your other friends, but please do not put yourself in danger because of it.
As he is thinking this, a door opens that leads further inside of the police department. He hears his name being called out by a female police officer. “Sin Kasigara?” she asks before Sin gets up from his seat.
“Yes, that would be me.” Sin says while getting up from his seat.
“Normally, we wouldn't allow a minor with any political standing to come in here for this reason, but given that it has something to do with the safety of the students at Unimori and your a high standing member of the school's student council, we really couldn't say no. Now, please follow me to the morgue.” The police officer says before walking back through the door with Sin following close behind.
As they are walking through the building and down a few flights of stairs, the police officer starts up some minor conversation. “So, why do you think that these bodies have something to do with a student's safety?”
Without a second thought, Sin says “Do you remember the incident at the city's hospital a month back?”
“When a bunch of Eldritch Rune goons attacked the hospital and killed a bunch of people before we showed up? Yes, but why do you think that has something to do with Unimori?” The police officer says in response.
“If the news station's are correct, then all of the people killed during the assault on the hospital were victim's of a previous attack at a night bar. I have reason to believe that one of the student's that I think is in danger was attacked by an Eldritch Rune Cult member before they were shot down. If the cult is following the same traditions it was during the attack on the hospital, then this student is in danger, along with his friends.” Sin says adamantly.
“Hmm, they may be in danger if that's the case, but what are you going to do about that if it's true?” The police officer says in response.
“I also have reason to believe that some kind of military organization is protecting them. For what reasons, I don't know, but if they are being protected by them, I will figure out who these people are and whether or not it has anything to do with these cult lunatics.” Sin says back.
“That doesn't answer my question, but whatever, we're here anyway.” the police officer says before opening a door in the basement that leads into the building's morgue.
Sin takes a few steps in and examines the area for a few seconds. The room is quite large, and in the shape of a large rectangle. The entire room is made out of metal, which probably makes it easy to remove blood from the walls or floor. There are overhead lights, tables and drawers covering the entire area. There is also one very odd thing, however, and that is that there are about thirty to forty dead, autopsied bodies in the morgue, nearly filling up the entire room.
Upon closer inspection of the bodies, Sin can clearly make out the cult's sigil on the head of every body. “Are these... all-”
Before Sin can finish his sentence, he is cut off by another person coming into view. He is a rather old man, probably around sixty to sixty five years old. He is wearing a surgeon's outfit and wearing a surgical mask. “Here, son.” he says before reaching his arm out with a surgical mask in it over to Sin. “You're going to need this if you don't want to get sick! With all of the bodies we've been getting in, the smell in this room is nearly toxic.”
Sin agrees and puts on the surgical mask. After which, he begins asking his questions. “Alright, first off, what the hell is going on with all of the bodies? I've barely heard of any shootings and all of these guy's look like they are from the Eldritch Rune Cult. Is there somebody killing them off or something?”
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“Believe it or not, there is. Apparently, there is at least one sniper picking these individuals off one by one, and they apparently must have some other friend who is an archer of some kind. There is also, apparently, some other person going around and ripping people in half with bullets and a sword and another one who must be real damn good with a magnum.”
“The police department doesn't really keep any of us informed about this kind of stuff, but local legends speak of all of these people working together. They usually appear out of nowhere right at the last moment and stop these cultists from killing people and then they just disappear again. It is also rumored that they wear brown cloaks to hide their identities. Another rumor going around is that they are part of some kind of elite special ops team that has been tasked by the government with eradicating the Eldritch Rune Cult.”
“There has also been some really bizarre legends going around about these individuals as well, like their leader can use magic and fly and they can all magically heal their wounds. Do you remember that gang shooting a while back in the slums where that student girl got shot? It's been said that the group of people behind all of these dead cult members was the reason that all of the gang member's ended up dead and fleeing! And it was only two of them! Can you imagine that!?”
Wow, this guy really like's myths and rumors, doesn't he.... Sin thinks to himself before beginning his line of questions. “So, all of these bodies are cultists and they were killed by the same people?”
“Apparently so. Although I can't say that they were all killed by the same people, I do know that some of these wounds prove some of the rumors.” the mortician says before moving over to a body to his left. He points to the body's injury, a frostbitten hole in the body's center region. “As you can see from the injuries on the body, this man was stabbed with an extremely large and sharp object. The thing that you will also note is that area surrounding the injury is completely frostbitten and as hard as stone. What you may not know, however, is that when this man was brought in, there was an extremely sharp, incredibly cold icicle jutting out of his midriff. From it being summer, this is completely unheard off, so the only reason I can think of for why this person got stabbed with that is that some kind of magic or some otherwise unheard of thing created the icicle and then he was stabbed through the mid-riff with it.”
“Hmm, interesting....” Sin says while examining the Sigil on the body's head. His mind sifts over what the mortician has told him, and his thoughts go back to Raphael Danteo, perhaps, he believes, these murders and him could be connected. “E-Either way, we really should get back to the reason I am here. I have come looking for a person named Korin Tinami. Is his body still here?”
The police officer by the door of the morgue speaks up. “If I remember correctly, I was part of an investigation into the death of a cultist by that name. The evidence showed that man jumped off of a building in the city and fell to his death into the alleyway below. If the eyewitness reports are correct, bystanders saw a Unimori student leap off of the building right ahead of him, but the student was never identified.”
Sin's head shoots over to the police officer. “When was this and what did the student look like! Please, this is crucial!”
“Eyewitness reports state that he was about five foot four and that he wore glasses, but that's it. During initial investigations, we thought he was hiding out in the building he jumped to, but when we investigated inside, we found no one and the only evidence we had was a broken lock leading to the alleyway outside. We were judging all of our hopes of finding the suspect with him being in the building, but he wasn't there. It was also near the end of July, around the twentieth or nineteenth.”
Well shit, this is even worse for them, isn't it? They have been fighting to keep Jian safe for well over a month and I was thinking they were the bad guys this whole time. They also have Raphael Danteo and his group helping them too, and he seems to be trying to keep them safe, taking out one cultist at a time.... They are going to need some extra help. I'll find them tomorrow and tell them I'm more than willing to help them out. Sin thinks to himself.
Sin looks towards the mortician and says “Thank you for your time, sir, that is all I need to know.” He shakes the mortician's hand and Sin then turns around and says to the police officer “Can you please escort me out of the station? I've learned all that I need to know.”
“Alright, but I still don't like the fact that you used your one free pass for something so trivial.” the police officer says before opening the door of the morgue and allowing Sin to leave before her.
Sin arrives at the school about an hour later. He sees Yosin sitting at the center of the yard on one of the benches and talking to a girl in black clothing sitting exactly opposite of him. Yosin looks over towards Unimori's front gates and does a double-take when he realizes that Sin is walking straight towards him. He yells out “Oh Shit!!” before leaping up from his seat and running towards Sin. “Oh God, I'm sorry Sin! I know I shouldn't get involved with a student under investigation, but she wandered into the council room and I thought I should talk to her to get some information out of her and....”
Sin holds his open palm in the air. “Yosin... it's fine, really, it is. I think the investigation is over now. None of these people have done anything wrong, and in all honesty, they are more the hunted than the hunter. Who is it that you were talking to? Lera Fuin? Please tell her that I want to meet with her and her friend's tomorrow afternoon after school let's out, her friend Jian's room should be fine. After that, you can spend as much time talking to her as you want. It's really not my concern whether you want to talk to someone or not. As for what happened at the police station, let's just say that things are a lot more dire with the Eldritch Rune Cult than I thought, and I might be starting to figure out who Mr. Danteo is. I'm going to retire to my room for the evening, so have a good day, Yosin.”
Sin walks away from Yosin and towards the dormitories, not speaking another single word to him as he walks. He leaves Yosin to speak with Lera, as his work is done here for the night.