Chapter 5: the investigation, pt 2

Once we got off the bus, the scenery of the usual school reminded us of our daily lives; Takizawa High School. And as if nothing happened, Haru ignored us and immediately ran to her own set of friends.

From the station, the Natsuki Café could be seen during its operating hours.

“Come to speak of it, check that out” Daisuke suddenly interrupted and pointed back to the entrance of the school, “Check that out.”

Beside the road were a few too many police cars than the usual; 3. They were all parked just beside the school as if to infer that someone from there committed something suspicious recently… Oh, wait.

Daisuke turned around, his face was somewhat concerned this time, “Hey Sakuzaki… you didn’t actually do anything bad last night, did you?”

“Of course not,” I casually responded and briefly sighed “Unless you seriously don’t trust me, then you might as well report me right now.”

He swallowed a gulp, and took that leap of faith to believe me.

It was pretty impressive of him to be able to do that, really. If I were him, placed under the conditions of briefly knowing where I was and had probably did… I would, without a doubt, find myself guilty. After all, knowing what I have done in the past already…

My phone vibrated a bit and I pulled it out of my pocket. Oh, FREEDOM has a messaging option… but if it’s FREEDOM we’re talking about, then it would likely be not safe for him to see the contents.

[You have one unread message from JULIUS]

“Ah sorry, seems like I’ve got a message,” I clumsily urged Daisuke to go ahead, “This one seems urgent.”

Truth be told, it was somewhat unusual though. I didn’t realize FREEDOM had other functions such as messaging, but it was a game that covered enough functions of a regular RPG. So, I opened the message with no expectations I held in my mind.

[JULIUS: You were there last night, weren’t you?]

This time, it was a completely new player.

I… didn’t know what to say.

***

JULIUS’ POV

He sent the message straight after leaving the café. Just from reading the list of nearby players, there just wasn't enough information to assume that [REAPER] was involved at all. The only lead was that Ms. Sakue was likely involved. If she were to have any other accomplices then they could be from the school which she works for, with the age range of most FREEDOM players being placed into consideration. All Julius had for him was just a hunch, so he sent a message.

What he sent was a provocation, and depends on the response it would probably be a 50-50 chance of having a lead suspect.

He looked up, then surprised at three police vehicles stationed near Takizawa High School. He stomped his way there, towards the nearest car. He knocked on the windscreen twice and grabbed the attention from the police officer inside. Julius showed him the police badge he recently placed back into his pocket.

“Investigator Julius,” Julius flipped his badge backward, then proceeded to speak, “I’d like a word on what’s happening.”

The officer pulled down the windscreen, then responded, “Ah, we’re investigating the headless homicide case. There’s a potential suspect in this school.”

Julius became confused, as the case was originally his squad’s to investigate but instead another squad took the investigation. Before he could question any further, he was interrupted by a phone call from Faye.

“What is it now?” Julius responded, seemingly unamused.

“My bad…” Faye paused briefly before delivering the message, “I couldn’t secure your warrant to investigate. The higher-ups assigned the case to another investigation squad.”

“And…?” Julius responded, “I believed my rank should be enough to-“

“It’s the Detective Elite Unit this time; the one your father founded.”

The Detective Elite Unit, DEU, founded since 1990, was a special unit that specialises in investigating cases for criminals that could not be captured via normal means. The squad was said to be a mix of the brains of investigators and the brawn of the military SWAT police squad. Though, it was said to have disbanded half a decade ago. If there was a need to reform and have the squad back active, then it was likely the higher-ups had caught onto the recent trend of criminal activities.

That said, the squad takes higher priority when it comes to an investigation, so if the investigation if theirs now, Julius had no choice but to stop his own investigation. However, with factors with FREEDOM likely coming into play, he might as well be the only detective most aware of the current situation of the crime. So if he couldn’t continue the investigation now, then the obvious choice was for him to join the squad.

“Faye, hook me up to Chief Kibobashi. I’ll request a meeting with him.”

“Sure.”

10 am, Chief Kibobashi’s office.

“Here are the reports I’ve gathered in regards to the homicide case. I’ll presume that you would pass them to DEU?”

To no avail, Julius first handed the documents to the chief. The glaring sunlight of the monotone sky cast a silhouette of the two. There was a brief silence, to which the outdoor traffic became the only sound between the two. Before Julius was Chief Kibobashi on his seat, who just received the documents from him; His father and founder of DEU.

“I see,” Kibobashi responded, then lightly placed the documents on the desk, “So, what are you here for?”

Of the few people who understood Julius’ intentions, the father easily realized the implications of Julius’ arrival. As crude as Julius is, their father-son relationship was closer to a business relationship that a familiar one; every interaction they had to each other carried an ulterior intention of some sort. They carried no blood relation, just the relation printed on a family document and amongst the ranks of the police force.

“Let me lead the DEU.”

“Your reason being?”

Julius sighed briefly, then gathered his breath to show his phone to the chief. Amongst all the police force, only Kibobashi was aware of Julius’ situation and the game FREEDOM itself and only Kibobashi had Julius under monitor as a player and potential criminal. The chief vaguely knew Julius’ reason behind the game, though, he found Julius’ reason of revenge would remain unsatisfied.

“I see,” The chief nodded before Julius could utter anymore, “So you want to lead it?”

“If you want my one lead.”

“I understand. I’ll put your proposal into consideration.”

Julius’ lips turned up briefly, but he returned to the poker face, “Thank you very much.”

“Oh right, one more thing…” Julius suddenly spoke just as he was about to leave as if reminded of another topic, “I’d like to request you to…”

***

SAKUZAKI’S POV

12:30 pm, Takizawa High School

I couldn’t comprehend what the message was from, so I left it unanswered. It was somewhat clear someone has me on their watch, so it could be easy to assume [JULIUS] to be an enemy.

“What’s wrong, Natsuki?” Daisuke suddenly interrupted my train of thought, “Are your results seriously bad?”

Currently, it was lunch, but it was just the period before when our class received test results for Maths, though I was just spacing out during then and hadn’t shared results with Daisuke. We were in the hallway of the school, and the wall before us had all the test results of all the students marked and ranked from best to worse. I searched for my name quickly, and instead found Haru’s name amongst the top 5 of the grade. It was almost impressive, considering her daily schedule of Kendo, part-time jobs, and school. From her name, I tried to skim downwards to find my name and found it. My results weren't all bad, perhaps amongst the top 40 amongst the grade.

“Ah, nothing much. I’ve got above average,” I casually lied, though that somehow boosted Daisuke’s confidence, “How’d you go?”

“Geez, at least make your lies believable,” Daisuke pointed back at the board where my name was written, “Sakuzaki Natsuki, 89 points. Didn’t realize what was your standard of ‘average’. That all said, want to guess what I got?”

“Eh, not interested,” I ran off towards the classroom.

“Oi!, what the hell.” Daisuke stood still, like an abandoned side character.

Once I entered the classroom, I stopped.

“Have you heard, PE seemed to be…” “Ah right, that detective…” “Ms. Sakue’s busy? I thought I saw her earlier…” “Aren’t there police at school earlier today?” “Oh nice, self-study period!” “No PE? Damn, I was looking forward to…”

Just from hearing the rough gossips going by within the classroom, I could pick up enough information to rush straight to her office. It was just on the other side of the school, so I could barely catch my breath by the time I arrived. The door there was closed and seemed to have people there, so I instead decided to eavesdrop inside.

From the other side of the door, I could barely hear her voice, but clear enough to know the contents of the conversation.

“Investigator Julius, you’re-!“

Her voice was suddenly silenced. Just hearing the name, it evoked a sense of dread that froze me on the spot.

Julius and [JULIUS]… without a doubt, they are the same.