Entrusted by Inspector Gori, we returned to the office and immediately began our strategy meeting. Well, I say strategy, but basically it’s Koyomin’s job to come up with ideas.
I dragged a whiteboard from the back of the office, grabbed a pen, and braced myself to write down my sister’s brilliant ideas.
“Now, let’s come up with a miraculous plan to save Naomi-san and Ugo-honjo-sensei! I’ll write down every single word!”
Koyomin looked exasperated and said, “They don’t come that quickly.”
“To expose the identity of the mastermind who was secretly operating behind Hijikata, let’s first review the case that Naomi-san was pursuing. It was about collusion between major corporations like Logic and police executives, wasn’t it?”
“They would get dirt on people and instead of overlooking it, they’d have money and information leaked to them, then use that material to blackmail other companies──was that it?”
That’s a really nasty crime… Even though they’re the police who are supposed to crack down on this stuff.
“And just when she was getting close to the heart of the matter, related parties started disappearing one after another… Finally, even Naomi-san was suspended…”
“Hmm,” Koyomin pondered. I decided to try wracking my own brain too.
“Naomi-san said it too, but why the suspension at this timing?”
“Indeed, if they considered her dangerous, they could have had her dismissed from the beginning, even if they didn’t go as far as killing her.”
I groaned at Koyomin’s persuasive deduction.
“There was a reason they couldn’t kill her or have her dismissed… maybe?”
The mystery of the mastermind only deepens. Koyomin pressed her temples with a serious expression and continued groaning “Hmm.”
“In the first place, why do they want money so badly?”
“Because they want to eat delicious food every day… probably not, surely.”
“Even if you ate sushi in Ginza for three hundred sixty-five days, you’d still have change left over.”
“Eh? That much!?” As I expressed the most surprise I’d shown all day, Koyomin scratched her cheek.
“Hmm, it would be good if we could know the details of the case Naomi-san was investigating.”
“The case Naomi-san was pursuing──ah.”
That’s when I remembered what she had told me to “keep safe.”
“Wait, I was keeping a strange box from Naomi-san.”
“A box? Pushing extra luggage onto the office is her usual thing, isn’t it?”
“But she said something like ‘if something happens to me,’ so maybe it’s related to this case.”
“Hmm, we’re at a dead end, so it’s worth taking a look. Where is this box?”
“I put it under the kitchen sink. It was a liquor box… Oh, and she said the passcode is ‘the usual.’ Do you know what that means?”
“The usual? Ah, probably that—the frequency of the wiretapping microphone, I think.”
Koyomin retrieved the whiskey box from under the sink and skillfully turned the lock’s numbers. With a loud clack, the lock came undone.
“It’s open.”
“Oh, it opened? What’s inside? What’s inside?”
“Calm down, Kanako. This is…”
Inside were materials and various confiscated items I didn’t recognize, packed so tightly it was impressive how much she’d managed to cram in.
“There are paper documents, an SD card, silver accessories, and various other things.”
“I see… Wait, accessories? Really?”
At this out-of-place item that made me tilt my head, Koyomin held out a cross on a chain.
“It really is an accessory. But why a silver cross?”
“This must also be evidence from some case, but… oh?”
Koyomin twisted and pulled at the cross she was holding, examining it.
“This cross seems to have some kind of mechanism built in. Maybe it’s actually a USB drive?”
“Well, let’s put the puzzle aside for now and look through the documents first.”
So we looked at the cover of the documents, where these words were printed in faded letters:
“Serial Abduction of Individuals with Special Abilities?”
At the case name I spoke aloud, Koyomin’s body twitched in reaction.
“…Serial Abduction of Individuals with Special Abilities?”
“Do you know about it, Koyomin?”
“Know about it? More than that──”
She paused and pointed alternately at me and herself.
“──Isn’t this the case where we were kidnapped?”
“Little girl, if you come with me, I’ll give you some fresh caramel.”
“Yeah! I’ll come with you!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT LOCALIZERMEERKAT.GITHUB.IO
(And so I was kidnapped by the evil scientist “Dr. Ataoka” and turned into a cyborg.)
That was when I was in fourth or fifth grade… five or six years ago, wasn’t it?
A white-coated old man with Beethoven-style hair, but with the top completely shaved off… like a reverse two-block cut with fluffy white hair, approached me on a street corner.
I got in Dr. Ataoka’s car in a cheerful mood and was taken to a run-down mansion on the outskirts of town.
I thought it was suspicious, but I couldn’t resist the magic of fresh caramel… and then I was made to sit in a chair that was more like an examination table than a sofa. Like the kind at a dentist’s office.
Next to that examination table was Ando Koyomi──Koyomin.
She lay there like a doll, not moving at all. If I hadn’t seen her blinking, I might have mistaken her for a corpse and collapsed from shock.
That’s when the doctor brought the fresh caramel.
“Here, fresh caramel.”
“Yay!”
I became more absorbed in the fresh caramel than the girl next to me. While I was devouring it, something like a stainless steel bowl was put on my head, but I didn’t care at all, as I recall.
After putting it on, Dr. Ataoka muttered to himself:
“Koyomi and Kanako… hmm. Koyomi means ‘read the heart,’ so let’s make this one telepathic for clarity. And this one seems stupid, so let’s go with nanomachine physical modification──”
“What was that?”
“Ah, just talking to myself.”
Dr. Ataoka hurriedly went away.
Not caring, I stuffed the fresh caramel I’d received into my cheeks.
After finishing eating, I decided to talk to the girl who was still motionless, staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Hey.”
“……”
“Hey, I said.”
“……What is it?”
Oh, she responded. She’s alive, she’s alive.
Relieved, I asked the doll-like girl various things out of curiosity.
“Hey, hey, are you going to eat that fresh caramel?”
“……No.”
“Ah, then can I have it?”
Without hesitation, I took it. This world is survival of the fittest—if you’re being modest, you can’t do anything! “That’s surprisingly profound,” today’s Koyomin would probably quip.
I removed the stainless steel bowl from my head and sat on her examination table.
The doll-like girl had also removed the iron hat from her head and was looking at me with curiosity.
While stuffing fresh caramel in my cheeks, I introduced myself in chipmunk mode. Greetings and introductions are important, you know.
“I’m Oba Kanako.”
“……Introducing yourself as ‘Big Stupid Child’ is a first for me.”
“No, Kanako, Kanako! What about you?”
“……Ando Koyomi.”
“I see, Koyomi. Then you’re ‘Koyomin.'”
“Koyomin?”
“It’s a nickname, a nickname. So, was it really okay for me to take that fresh caramel?”
I felt like she gave me a look that said, “That’s not something to ask after eating it all.” Even back then, you could see hints of her talent for witty comebacks.
“Well, if it gets stuck in my teeth, it bothers me for about an hour.”
“Ah, I get that feeling.”
Such trivial conversation continued. Though Koyomin didn’t say much, she properly answered my questions. Even back then, I felt she was “a good kid.”
“──So, so, if it wasn’t for the fresh caramel, what did he say to get you to come? Oh, are you actually related to that person?”
“No, we’re not family or anything. I’m someone with no relatives, and I was brought here by force.”
“Relatives?”
“I don’t have family. I’m an orphan, understand?”
“I-I understand… sort of.”
“Maybe it’s because I naturally don’t show much emotion, or maybe I’m unfriendly, but they made up reasons to kick me out of the facility…”
That means she has no father or mother, right? That must be lonely… In that case.
“Alright, this is thanks for the fresh caramel!”
“Huh?”
“I’ll──”
My memory becomes vague from around this point, probably due to the effects of the modification surgery.
What faintly remains in my memory is Dr. Ataoka’s panicked voice:
“Why are the police here!? In that case, there’s no choice! I’m giving up being human!”
Crash! Smash!
“Hey! Police! Hey!”
Then the sound of a door being kicked down, probably Naomi-san’s voice, and a woman’s scream of “He’s dead!”──
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