"As a follow up news to the recent building collapse in Ginga, Cotona, investigations have confirmed that it went down on its own due to exposed structural support from being not maintained for several years now.
As for the earlier reported injured armed individuals found in the collapse site, their identities are still being investigated along with if there were attempts of foul play in the building-"
The television's volume lowered.
"Hear that?" Kuroko asked as he placed a tray of newly cooked food from the door's accessible flap to the inside of the isolation room.
15 hours have passed since Gin woke up, and he was only yet to speak.
"You better eat that even if you can't, even if you throw it up afterwards. The others made that for you once they heard you were showing signs of… life, let's just say.
So? How much do you remember?"
He tried to let out a small voice, but more than a vibration of his throat, only air has left him from his lungs. But after a bit of effort, a voice finally came out.
"B-Building… Ho-Horach… s-spy…"
Kuroko loudly scoffed.
Gin's throat had definitely lost its voice. Meanwhile, Kuroko passed through a jug with two liters of water to the isolation room, making a loud noise, as though there was considerable force behind it.
Even the still disoriented Gin realized that Kuroko was exasperated.
"Should I take that as lie?
Thus far, I think that's the worst distortion we've ever seen. Knowing you, you're easy to recall things even if you weren't in the right state of mind. More than a blessing, it's simply a curse."
He was right, Gin thought. As much as he wanted to forget the sin he had committed as a child, he couldn't. As much as he wanted to forget the origin of the scar in his torso, he couldn't.
"H-Hhhh-How much… of it… was true…"
Kuroko guessed that he was talking about the story he had heard two hours ago.
"Of course, I just made up the future events. Beyond that, you didn't kill 399 people.
But most importantly, Ringo is still alive. We received word from the spy that absolutely nothing happened to Mykes. Horach really knows how to provoke people especially with that head of his.
Speaking of… he's no longer with us."
Gin suddenly perked up slightly. His eyes raised towards the large window only to look away as he hasn't adjusted to the sudden brightness.
"Don't worry, it wasn't your fault. Apparently, he died even before the collapse. His body was recovered, but information hasn't been out yet.
And just if I need to make this very clear…" Kuroko approached the glass window until his head has basically touched the cold surface, leaving only his silhouette visible as he was against the light. Whether or not he was seen on the other side, he still bent a faint smile.
"You killed no one."
At that moment, Gin had suddenly lost all balance and fell flat to the floor, his body finally relaxed with the relief making his entirety feeling light as a feather.
He knew what he had done, although the recollection was still foggy inside his mind. His actions were not to be taken lightly, especially when rough images of people's facial expressions appeared, and the hideous laughter has still been grating in his mind.
"You okay there? It seemed like you had broken ribs, though. Did it heal already?"
With Kuroko pointing it out, Gin put his hand towards his left rib cage and immediately felt a stinging pain from there and his feet that had been bandaged, now that the adrenaline has subsided. It however felt as though things are in place and he assumed that his skeletal regeneration did its work.
"Anyway, if I'm going to be frank with you, I am very surprised that it was the end of it, aside from Horach. I've only heard of small details, but my goodness… it was a mess out there trying to bring you in."
Suddenly from the other side of the door, several knocks sounded.
"Oh shoot, almost forgot," with the signal heard Kuroko frantically rummaged through his pockets, grabbed a white handkerchief that snapped as a mask, and pulled his hood up.
"It's a pain that even as an Exile, you still stand out when you have this hair…
I have to reserve my frustrations on you for next time. Your actions may have been cleared on the outside world… but I don't know about your inaction towards your family. The story I told you was purely fiction, but nonetheless it was a story I wrote that I wanted you to hear… because I wanted you to visualize the future that you must avoid at all cost.
Enough of that, someone wants to talk to you about what happened that night so I hope you'll be able to speak to him at a minimum.
Please enter!"
▪ ▪ ▪
The night of the collapse.
Gin smiled, and followed with an excruciating laugh that echoed inside the abandoned building.
That distraction was enough to pull away from the gun that the spy held to Horach's head, as though it was calculated. The steel hidden on his shoes rapidly carved on the spy's abdomen subsequently letting out blood from his mouth. Ignoring the pain, a smoke bomb left his fingertips and the space was immediately enveloped with a smoke screen.
Before his own vision was obscured, the spy quickly ran towards Gin, still laughing.
"Are you okay? Just hang in there while they make their wa-"
.
.
.
The spy saw two things.
He first caught a glimpse of Gin's face. He wore an ear-to-ear smile while his eyes uncontrollably streamed out tears that mixed with his blood. The spy shuddered, and the next thing he saw was himself outside of the building as the pain from a broken right arm and hyper-extended knee crept up to him.
"H-Huhh…? Aaaahhh… AAAHHHHH…!!!!"
He did not know what happened in-between, but he could feel the ground vibrating at intervals of mere milliseconds along with gunshots and looping laughter heard inside regardless of his screams of pain.
From the inside, people were dropping like flies. Bullets were either bouncing off the armor or being avoided. The smoke has not yet cleared up, but many ears could pick up heavy collisions and pained grunts, until they feel the sensation of being hit by a speeding truck and catch an instant of the sound of laughter in and out of their senses.
Arms and heads are being grabbed and thrown immediately. Punches and kicks only collide once and only once, until none remained in Gin's proximity.
Suddenly, cries of fear added to the still echoing laughter.
Horach had retreated to a floor above and observed through a hole where the ceiling had long collapsed until the smoke cleared out, but the lights had gone out once the first impact started. Tens of armed men lied on the walls of the building. Some of them were unresponsive, while the others are begging for their lives. And standing in the middle of them is a man of endless laughter appearing under the very faint moonlight as the skies have cleared up.
An aide beside Horach had taken a step backward and grunted:
"B-Boss… I think he'd gone ins-"
A blink and the laughing man disappeared from his sight, and so was his aide, that followed a distant cry of pain in the darkness.
The scenario below ascended and had resumed on the second floor.
As though instinctively, Horach desperately searched for the dark to hide as sounds of crunches and collisions continued.
Joseph Horach is a sociopath. Even when young, he did not feel any remorse when friend or enemy died. Something had always been wrong in his brain, and it was as though he was completely devoid of guilt and conscience. It was the reason why he was feared underground. He was the only one that would not hesitate whatever the situation. He would act as an ally and betray people all the same—which was the reason why he became a senator that stole the people's votes.
He always calculates perfectly to instill the most fear to others, and asserts strength above else.
He is, so to speak, the strongest man with no emotions.
Until he witnessed who could be the strongest man driven by emotions.
He covered his ears. It was to the point that the laughter had got to him and did not want to hear anything anymore.
The space had gotten considerably quieter, which made the sound even more unbearable. Horach felt as though his mind was going to places wanting to be rid of the sound, but then he heard footsteps closing in to him, which made him more desperate.
He once again saw the unrelenting smile. Once, he wanted to hear the laughter no more, but now he closed his eyes, not wanting to see the smiling face again.
He felt disoriented—he can't articulate or think straight, and all he wanted to do was to run away.
Finally, the feared one has felt what his victims have also felt.
Then, a stun grenade set off.
Several ropes made from steel wires went off on all directions and spun around Gin. Sudden electric currents coursed through the wires in an attempt to immobilize him.
Without any second wasted once confirmed that he had stopped moving, Makoto, Ken, Ryota, Ginji Juno, and other Exiles all fully clad with armors jumped in to restrain him more securely.
"We're already too late! The distortion has already begun long before we arrived…!"
"Cotona is not that big but you're still really hard to… find…!" Makoto grunted as he tightened additional restraints.
However, the steel ropes and shock only bought them less than 30 seconds of time as the ropes began to slowly snap until Gin completely broke away.
"Why did we think this is going to work…?!"
Before they were even able to distance themselves, Juno and Ken were caught and tossed down to the first floor, while the other three took on concentrated gusts of wind strong enough to penetrate their skin and pushed them far back.
"I sure didn't miss seeing this, and it's much stronger…!" Ryota thought to himself, as his maskless face received several cuts.
A second wave of stun began while a group of spies led by Ban Tobei initiated a second round of restraints.
"Expose a part of his skin away from his clothes as much as possible! Even a little bit would do!"
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Quick to be back on his feet, Ginji ran as fast as he can and clung as tightly as he can to Gin while he pulled down his hood and attempted to remove his AMM jacket.
With his neck expose Tobei jumped on him to inject a heavy dose of tranquilizer, and Gin's movements slowed down.
"So this is the 'berserker' you warned us back then… Just… not in the way we could expect or comprehend…
I hope that you are in there somewhere listening to this."
"Tobei, Oregano, or whatever… We've made a massive blunder," Ginji asserted, preparing to let go from Gin.
"What do you mean…?"
"He has immunity to certain foreign drugs entering his body."
"Say what now?!"
"Get away from here as fast as you- GHAK…?!"
In an instant, a heel had met on Ginji's abdomen. His sight blurred for a moment, but even before another kick ruptures his stomach, he returned to his senses to step back. His armor cloth was however caught in the next strike which nevertheless still sent him away.
"Thank goodness AMM absorbs a lot of the shock…!"
While still airborne, he was caught by Makoto from behind and still skidded regardless of the resistance to the force. Recovering immediately thanks to that, Ginji felt a stinging pain coming from his right middle finger.
A glimpsed from his hand revealed that cause of the wound, being a thin strand of black string, which end he could not find.
"So he mistakenly took the only sample we had…?" noticing his hand, Makoto breathed out a sigh.
"Listen, Ginji… this is probably our only way to actually immobilize Gin, so we better make this count. What you're holding is a thread from the cloth type AMMs.
Do you follow?"
"I got it."
"Good. Glad that you think quick.
Tobei! Give us an opening!"
It has only been a few minutes of struggle, but it had felt like an eternity had passed trying to put down an unbreakable wall.
As the two approached back with their new initiative, Ryota regrouped with Juno and Ken who had climbed back up for another attempt of apprehension.
"I'm sorry, Gin…"
With hesitations thrown away, as though Ryota called back the Teardrop persona he had thrown away, he charged towards the action and had stabbed both of Gin's feet realizing a vulnerability he could only exploit from someone clothed with AMM and put some distance away once more.
Appearing to be successful, Gin staggered for a moment. That single moment was enough for Ginji and Ryota to close in, but before they were able to put their plan to action, Ban Tobei assumed a stance, and accurately hit the vital points of a human body, rendering Gin's limbs paralyzed.
With the opportunity opening to them, Makoto had opened the zipper of Gin's jacket, searched for a ring attached to a thread and pulled it away as the jacket began to very slowly unravel from being a cloth. Meanwhile, Ginji had separated, taking big and quick steps as he circled around Gin. Having a maintained momentum as he propelled himself, he added more force to his legs while taking lesser steps and letting the centrifugal force move him and the thread connecting to the jacket he had been holding, little by little wrapping around Gin.
A hundred or so revolutions from Makoto and Ginji, Gin had finally stopped moving.
Ken, as second to Gin from having experienced and trained from the gravity of the White Room, held him down while the tension finally began to subside.
"We're finally getting some quiet…"
Juno then peeked below to check on his hand-picked police staff for this emergency operation. They had in one breath confirmed the evacuation of the wounded armed men in the ground floor, and will proceed to displace the other men from the second floor once the only ones authorized to ascend to where Gin at was done.
"You really gave us a hard time finding you, Eiji…"
"Can you carry him (Ken)?"
"I can."
"I really need to do a reassessment once this is all done…" Tobei mumbled as he rubbed his face with his hand, somewhat in a frustrated way.
"Let's get him out of here before the outside notices something str-"
"Hahahahaha…"
A shudder had invaded their bodies. In the midst of lifting Gin, Ken and the others heard a laugh that made the former's knees falter and drop Gin.
"…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…!"
Another endless laughter had resounded.
"A-Are you serious…?!"
Gin once again began to move. The AMM thread wrapped all around him however was successful in stopping his movements. But in his unending resistance, the threads began to slowly stretch but still able to limit him.
Tobei immediately took another stance in an attempt to immobilize him again, but he felt himself losing his balance as he found a blur coming in from the nearest window.
The laughter had suddenly stopped, and next thing they saw was a gray-haired young man assuming the form of a cat connected a punch to Gin's ribs that had been exposed due to the unraveling of his armor. An audible crack was picked up by their ears, and before they could even react, Gin was struck on his face, effectively bringing him down to the floor.
"Please… just wake up… Aruji…!!"
His hood was grabbed as Haku knelt over him. He looked him in the eye and now saw that the smile had disappeared, and his wide open blue and black eyes stared back, but Gin did not make a reaction.
With it, Gin Sakato was finally secured.
…
The extreme stress that was inflicted on the building made its structural integrity significantly worse than it had already been, and after exiting the premises by a hair, the five-floor building began to collapse into complete rubble.
To avoid suspicions, the armed men presumed to be members of the underworld was left to be taken by the police in the pretext that one of Juno's men were patrolling and they happened to see the building going down.
While it was an operation led by Juno, it was independent and off the record with the exception of the building's collapse and what follows next.
Strawman, one of Tobei's subordinates that infiltrated Horach's men, confirmed that Joseph Horach was found dead outside of the abandoned building. As he suddenly found himself outside, he reported that he saw him jump from a window with a gun on his head, and fell down with no more pulse.
Being transported, Ban Tobei asserted that being undercover hundreds of times did not mean that it was all just for show; in which in this instance, being a doctor. First aid was immediately administered especially to those that did not wear a mask, and he treated Gin's stab wounds on his feet and stitched the openings back as he was unconscious.
From a certain point, everyone that was not an Exile or a Subordinate was asked to leave the vehicle to maintain the concealment of the Exile's underground base. The masked people, being untrusting of the people of the surface, checked the entire vehicle for any devices that would leak their location with Marco Lugis's proprietary and state of the art detectors.
An hour upon arrival to the underground base, Gin woke up, finding himself on a bed as he faintly heard voices of concern towards him. Still not entirely to his senses while enduring a splitting headache and remembering hazy memories, he ran from the crowd and holed himself, locked up in the same room where he isolated himself from an earlier major mental distortion.
From then, Kuroko had watched over him until he once again returned to his consciousness, and told the reproaching story he wrote.
▪ ▪ ▪
"Detective Artecus, nice to meet you."
"Likewise…"
Entering the door escorted by other Exiles, Juno Artecus walked towards Kuroko, with the former patched up with bandages all over his body.
"It sure took you a while to wake up, huh."
"I understood that it was a requirement for me to be unconscious as I was on the way here. The sleeping drug was not an illegal dosage, but I suppose I was just so tired that I actually passed out."
Juno Artecus is part of the authorities. Obviously, the Exiles would not be trusting of his request to enter their underground base and talk to Gin. Hence, he went through a thorough check and everything apart from his clothes were confiscated. Electronic devices were disabled, and SIM cards were separately stored. To add another layer of cautiousness, they were put inside a faraday cage and under jamming with the same technology inside the earpieces that countered the soundwave incident from 2017.
"Well, I hope you had a good rest.
But before you can meet Gin, I ask you to patiently wait for him. It's been, what, more than a day after the incident and he hasn't moved at all. I was only able to convince him to eat and take a bath just now.
Please understand that he is not yet in the best of mental conditions. And most importantly, please be very careful with your words. We don't want him wreaking havoc here, to be honest."
"I will keep that in mind."
"Want some coffee while we wait?"
"I'll take you up on your offer.
…
Actually, there's one thing I've been meaning to ask."
"I'm pretty sure I hid my hair well…"
"Ah, you don't have a reason to answer, but how did you come in contact with spies when none of this country's police have?"
After placing down a tray with a cup together with cream and sugar, Kuroko sat back down.
"You have to take note of this, detective—the government and the society of Orio is not the only thing functioning here. Currently, I can cite three groups that chose to be independent from the country's standard.
First, us Exiles. We don't meddle with your things as long as you don't give us a reason to. We only honored this request of yours because you don't have a badge with you right now. We don't want any disputes against the outside world, but it's foolish of you to expect us to participate with, for example, courts. You, or at least the people from 70 years were the ones that drove us away. We found our own place, and we will never intend to return to the ways that abandoned us.
Next is the Underworld. Self-explanatory. It's a lawless collective of criminal organizations. They're only united with the purpose of chaos, and I suppose it was a mistake in your part that this all happened because you declared that the underworld is no more.
I'm sure you already know that Gin is an Exile. As much as we want to think in a levelheaded way, we are extremely frustrated. Truthfully, Exiles bear hatred towards humanity, but not in a way that would bring harm. We're also driven by emotions. And seeing what happened to one of our people just makes us want you to bear a part of the responsibility all the more, being one of the greatest of this nation's police force."
"…
I… I don't know if a simple apology will cut it…"
"Hahh… Back to the topic…
The last that I know of are the spies. They operate in the shadows more than the Underworld does. It goes without saying that there is the good and the bad, but those with good intentions just want no harm to come in this country.
They're also cleaners. They're the ones that take care of the scraps the police left or didn't notice. Simply put, they do the dirty work so the police won't have to. It's precisely why they don't want to get involved with anyone.
In my opinion, excluding the Underworld, as long there's a balance between the outside world, the Exiles, and the spies, nothing major would happen in this country. The same way we don't put our fingers on the outside's matters, we also don't with the spies. So I advice you to do the same thing."
With Kuroko's explanation ending, a dim light turned on from the isolation room, revealing Gin having cleaned up and wearing a white mask, nodding at Kuroko.
"Seems like he's ready. If he doesn't wish to speak, I'll try to talk in his behalf."
Kuroko then stood up and led the detective to the window separating them.
"I-I… I don't want you to see my face… r-right now…"
"Sorry, I forgot to tell you that he also lost his voice."
"I-I can understand why…
But his hair…"
"It's hard to explain. Let's just say that he was born with it."
Satisfied with the answer, he cleared his throat.
"I'm sorry for disturbing you, Gin. But I just want to tell you the what happened afterwards.
Firstly, when we arrived at the scene it felt like things have ended. Horach's men were all down, but they are all alive. That said… they're all at a hospital right now being treated. Their condition is… well… most of them are crippled. Tests told us that their bones were shattered to small pieces and can't be recovered anymore. Most of them are disabled now with some of their limbs no longer responding. Only a few of them can still walk."
"Q-Queen… St-Street…" Gin weakly mumbled.
"Are you sure you want to tell him?"
He nodded in response.
"I'll just make this quick, detective. Gin was the one that was hit by a truck in Queen Street five years ago. I feel like the reason he mentioned it was that he was reminded of the description you just said.
Shattered bones, crippled, non-functioning limbs… well, he survived as you can see. As to how he lived, I guess you could say that it was a miracle."
"I'll keep that information to myself.
But aside from that, they are also being mentally treated. It was somewhat strange that they unanimously have episodes describing hearing laughter. And when shown their armed uniforms, it appears that they were giving them post-traumatic stress disorder. When asked about the laughter, they always said that they didn't see anything, repeating those words several times, and they go into panic attacks.
All that being said, I just want to reassure you that you didn't kill anyone. As for Horach, he had ended himself for reasons we do not know yet.
And this man here just briefed about how independent groups function in this country. Laying a hand on you seems to be a bad idea. And even then, it just dawned on us, the police, that we are powerless above all else. Lastly, I also hope that Ms. Ringo would be saved in however way possible."
"Thank you… for telling… m-me…"
A few rapid knocks from the outside broke the silence, and without notice the door opened immediately afterwards.
"We're letting ourselves in."
Makoto, Ken, and Ginji entered all at once, similarly bandaged.
"Hey there. Just before you say anything, Eiji, we're all fine despite how we look, you got that? Don't feel sorry about what happened. If anything, this was all Horach's fault so don't blame yourself."
Despite Ken reassuring him, it only took one glance at Ginji whose face were full of healing wounds to bring his guilt up.
"Honestly, we just want to see how you're doing. Thankfully you've finally eaten and cleaned up. We'll be leaving Ginji on your side then. See you later, Eiji."
Like the wind, Ken and Makoto were gone from the room.
"Do we still have coffee (Kuroko)?"
"Help yourself."
"It seems you're well acquainted with the Exiles, Mr. Satoshi," the detective whispered.
"You could say that. I love these people although I'm from the outside.
It's has he (Ken) said. Don't blame yourself. It was a bout of distortion that made you like that. I don't regret getting hurt. It's all for the sake of bringing you back, anyway.
Oh, also, don't worry about Haku. He's safe and completely unhurt."
"So he really was… there…"
"Man, he punches hard though! Do you still feel it in your ribs? Hahaha. Still, what a courageous one he was.
Damn, this coffee is good.
You get some rest, okay? Ringo would be worried if you don't see her. Get new bandages and have your other wounds treated. If you feel ashamed and discouraged on meeting her, we'll come with you."
"Thanks for all the help, Ginji," Kuroko lowered his head.
"I should be the one thanking you. It seems you got him back to his senses.
Agh… my body still hurts… Can I lie down for a bit?"
"Go ahead."
As Ginji was walking towards the sofa, he stopped just by the door of the isolation room and subsequently peeked on the window.
"Almost forgot. I'm also to honor a favor."
Nonchalantly, he broke the locks of the isolation room with his bare hands and placed down the doorknob on the floor.
"Ane Yuna is quite mad, you know."
Juno thought to himself that he ought not to be surprised, seeing Gin's physical ability, but he still couldn't help but be surprised as he turned around to Kuroko who only gave him a shrug.
Then suddenly, a phone rang.
"Give me a break, I just lied down… I'm aching all over…"
As Ginji put his phone just by his face, his eyes widened as he saw the name of the caller.
"Hello, Dr. Nishina?! This is Ginji spesking."
"Hello, Mr. Satoshi. Thank you for answering my call.
I would like to inform you about the thing you asked me a few weeks back. It seems that I have some good news for you."
"Really?! Is it okay if I put this call on loudspeaker?"
"G-Go ahead?"
In no moments wasted, Ginji sprung up from the couch and landed just by the window as he set the call to the speaker of his phone.
"How should I go about this…
I looked into an 'archive' and compared to it to the data gathered from Ms. Akanami's condition, and I found something noteworthy."
Hearing Hātori Nishina and Rin's name in such an unusual call suddenly made Gin jolt and looked towards the window.
"Rather than a solution, it is a suggestion, since this will not have any precedence whatsoever. I don't know if I should call this a gamble because I do not know the chances yet…
But this could in theory eradicate BEF-1 from Ms. Akanami's body and future carriers of the bacteria."