Chapter 06: "Snakes and Ladders"

It was a peaceful morning. The skies were clear, the sun was out, and a gentle breeze flitted through the air. It was a perfect time to go out for a drive and I was trying to fill up my car with some fuel for such a task.

"OH MY GOD!" Screamed a juvenile voice throughout the gas station. "IS THAT AN ASTON MARTIN!?"

Aaaaanndd there goes the tranquility I was appreciating.

I turned my head to see a middle school boy in the midst of puberty staring out of the window of an average looking sedan. His eyes were bulging and his pupils traced every panel line and wheel arch of my wine red vehicle. What I could only describe as the purest of romances appeared in his eyes.

"ITSUKI, CHECK IT OUT!"

"WOAH!" Another childish voice from inside the car shared a similar reaction. "IT'S A VANTAGE!"

"HEY MISTER! YOU GONNA TAKE THAT OUT TO WANGAN?" [1]

"YEAH! IT WOULD TOTALLY BEAT THE DEVIL-Z!"

"NO WAY! THE DEVIL-Z IS UNBEATABLE! ONLY THE BLACKBIRD CAN MATCH IT!"

"SHUT UP, ITSUKI! YOU COULDN'T TELL A CARRERA FROM A BEETLE!"

"NO, YOU SHUT UP TOUMA! YOU SAID YOUR DAD DRIVES AN STI, BUT IT WAS JUST A NORMAL WRX!"

"POOPY HEAD!"

"FATTY!"

"BOTH OF YOU!" Roared an enraged older female voice slamming the boot of the car shut. "ITSUKI, YOU AND YOUR COUSIN NEED TO BE QUIET OR YOU'LL BOTH BE SLURPING TOFU MILK SHAKES FOR THE NEXT WEEK!"

That seemed to be the trick, and the two children quickly silenced themselves as if they were meerkats with a cheetah on the prowl.

I took that as an opportunity for a tactical retreat, and quickly ran inside my car. The plush leather interior became a quiet haven when I shut the door and only the muffled sound of the outside world penetrated through. I had an epiphany and faced my passenger who sat grumpily with a black seat-belt wrapped around her.

"You were right, Rumi. It does attract too much attention."

"I'm going to be late for school. Hurry it up." She responded despondently.

I rolled my eyes and pressed my foot down on the clutch before pressing the ignition button. The V8-engine beneath my car's front bonnet burbled to life and I see the revs climb on my tachometer until it stables around 1100 RPM. I slip the shifter into gear before swapping the clutch for the gas with the opposite foot. A soft grind could be heard as the clutch-plate makes contact with the engine's flywheel and power is sent to my back wheels. I let my foot off the brake and the car started off smoothly. I drove off of the gas station lot and enter a clear road.

We drove for a few minutes at a moderate speed, the suburban Shibuya whizzing by and giving way to the concrete towers and highways of Tokyo city proper. I make my wait onto the main thoroughfare before asking Rumi for directions.

"Is this the exit?"

"Yeah‒ no! The next one, sorry."

"It's fine."

My car blazed through traffic as I signaled my lane changes to enter an exit ramp that placed me back onto residential streets with the roads flanked on either side by private houses. I winced at the loud pops and bangs from my car's exhaust as I downshifted to decelerate enough so I could come to a stop at a red light. The people around here were not going to be happy with my presence, most likely.

Rumi had woken up late today and nearly had a heart-attack, apparently having accidentally forgot to set her alarm last night (she was reading manga). Unfortunately for her, Chief Tsurumi was already at work and Shizuka had taken her car earlier than usual due to a meeting. Rumi rushed over to my apartment complex with barely 20 minutes until the start of the school day and asked for a favor. And by 'asking' I mean poking a hole in my kidneys, screaming at me to wake up, and dragging me out of bed.

Cute kid.

"Can you drop me off here?"

"Huh?" I looked at Rumi in confusion. "Isn't the school a few blocks up?"

"Yes. Which is exactly why I want you to let me off here." Her voice took a similar steeliness that Shizuka's did. The two were rubbing off on one another. Great.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Alright then..."

I pulled the car over to the curb in front of a small white house gently, and shift into neutral before engaging the parking brake. I patiently waited for Rumi to leave the car, but she doesn't. Instead, I caught her looking at me with sharp eyes. "Hey, Hachiman."

"Mmm?" I glanced at her.

"Are you…" She looked uneasy as she interlacec her fingers nervously "... going to go see that 'Yukinoshita Yukino'?"

"'That'?" I repeat. "You don't remember her?"

Rumi blinked at me owlishly. "Should I?"

I'm astounded. "Yes. From that time at camp back in Chiba. I think you should have been in grade school back then. We introduced ourselves to you at the same time, I'm pretty sure. Shizuka was there too."

"I see." Rumi's face darkened and I feel a sweat drop on my temple at the unease within the cabin of my car. "So it is the same person… are you going to see her today?"

"No..." I'm so off-put by this entire exchange I ended up trailing the last syllable. "We only need to see each other tomorrow for the trial. I'll be busy with work most of today."

"Oh!" Rumi's face brightened slightly. "So the only times you'll meet her are for lawyer stuff? That's it?"

"That's it. Why?"

Rumi shook her head with a small smile. "No reason."

I had no clue what improved her mood, but was thankful for it anyway. Rumi quickly removed the seat-belt and opened the car door gently, aware that there was a slight incline to the way the door hinges swiveled. I pressed the trunk release button and watch from the rear-view mirror as she grabbed her book bag from the boot. The teenager came up to the side of the car once more with that same smile. "Thanks, Hachiman."

I can't help but grin slightly. "No prob‒"

"Rumi!?" A shocked voice exclaimed down the sidewalk, causing the finches in the trees to fly away in fright.

"Haruko!?" The blood emptied from Rumi's face as she twisted her head towards the speaker. She turned back to me, agitated. "You have to go! NOW!"

"Wait, are those the friends you always talk about?" I tried to stick my head out the window to get a look.

"Hachiman!" She hissed, murder in her eyes. "GO! NOW!"

"Okay, okay…" I acquiesced and make a show of moving the shifter, which caused her to take a step back from the car as I started my mechanical chariot. Right before I rolled up the window I heard an absurdly loud shout.

"Who's that guy!? And why is his car so fancy!? OMG, IS HE YOUR BOYFRIEND!?"

"Shuddup, Haruko!" Shrieked Rumi and soon she was sprinting down the block with hands covering her ears, away from another girl in the same uniform, The other girl chased after her, laughing and shouting out apologies in a less-than honest tone filled with mirth.

Huh, so she did have fun at school then. That's a relief.

Δ▼Δ

The office had been a quiet and relaxing place for me with Shiba having been assigned to another department temporarily. I could actually make it through my entire podcast without a single interruption and was able to eat my meals (and go to the bathroom) in peace. Alas, this transfer so conveniently ended today.

And here he came now.

I watched the man who used to be my Vice President on the student council come running in through the door with tears streaming down his cheeks. "SENPAIIIIII!?"

Before I could even react, he had me engrossed in a bear hug and began to sob pathetically. "Senpaiiii! I heard the news. It can't be true right? You can't be sued right?! As your crime-stopping-partner, I'll be there for you!"

"Let me go, Shiba. Everyone's watching."

"Senpai, you must stay strong!"

"Piss off! You're annoying!" I gave him a solid right hook into his solar plexus.

I managed to extract myself from his grasp and grilled him. Apparently Secretary-chan informed him of the lawsuit, and he had taken it into his own hands to confirm it. As expected of the highest scorer in detective school, I could respect his process.

Just do it in a less embarrassing and shameful manner next time. I hope you reflect on this, Shiba. For the sake of avoiding bodily pain in the future.

"We'll be in room 12DF," Shiba said, rubbing his stomach.

"Meet back here in 5, then?"

"Sure thing, Senpai."

I gathered my things while Shiba submited the paperwork to the Chief. Hiura had contacted us beforehand to let us know that he had reserved an interrogation room today, and sent over the basic file of our detainee.

Today's 'guest' was 18 year old Fujiwara Eiichiro. A boy who graduated from high school and opted to skip out on higher education. He lived with his parents and had worked many part-time jobs. The standout example was one where he was a part-timer on a fishing boat based in Tokyo Bay. One of the places where Ouma Daichi had been known to frequent. Witness testimony and security camera footage confirmed their association.

Now normally, we couldn't detain someone for just being loosely associated with a criminal. People are innocent before being proven guilty, after all. But Fujiwara had actually ran away from police orders on two separate occasions, which was now grounds for getting him arrested.

Funny how things worked out.

"When we cuffed him we found these after a pat down." Hiura gestured to a table filled with items. "A knife, a wad of paper yen, and a cellphone."

The knife was definitely a red flag, but the amount of physical money was suspicious for entirely different reasons.

I pressed the power button on the cellphone and am disappointed to be met with a lock screen and some text prompting for a password.

"Because of privacy laws, we can't ask for back-doors from the cell-phone manufacturers." Hiura explained defeatedly after seeing me frown. "We could wait until we find a hacker, but we can't keep the kid in police custody for that long without justification."

"A shame we didn't find any drugs on him." I mentioned offhandedly.

"That would be the silver bullet, but where's the fun in straightforward investigations?" Joked Hiura as he sat on a stool in front of the one-way mirror. "We know for a fact that he and Ouma knew each other. Witnesses say that they would see the two handing things to one another. I also looked into the fishing boat he worked on for those few months, since it would be the most obvious method to smuggle drugs in under the cover of a legitimate business.

"The boat he was on was run by Japanese companies, but helmed by Chinese sailors and laborers from other countries. We don't have enough to warrant an investigation into the boat for suspected drug trafficking, and the kid won't talk."

"To you." Shiba added with emphasis as he looked at Fujiwara through the window.

"To me." Agreed Hiura, nodding sagely.

I scratched my chin as I processed the information at hand. What were we trying to get out of Fujiwara Eiichirou? Why did we want this intel? What did his situation have to do with it? What type of info did I need or should I look for? What might he know? What tools did I have to work with?

Before long, my course of action became clear.

"I think I have a plan," I said as I left the room. "Give me half an hour, I'll see what I can do."

Δ▼Δ

Fujiwara was your typical delinquent in terms of appearance. He wore ragged jeans, black sneakers, and a white t-shirt with a blue tennis jacket on top. His hair was cropped short, with a bit of it highlighted blonde near the front. His eyes snap to mine as soon as I enter the interrogation room. I can see defiance in them, almost like a wild animal.

"Like I told the other guy!" Fujiwara sneered. "I ain't tellin' you nothin'!"

I ignored his outburst, instead followed my usual routine of taking off my jacket and disarming on to a table far away from him. I took a chair and spun it around, so the back was facing him as I sat down with my chest against the headrest.

"I'm Detective Hikigaya Hachiman." I introduced myself cordially.

"I don't care, shithead." He practically spat at me.

Hoooh, a feisty one. Haven't had someone like this in ages.

"Anyway, I'm your interrogator for this afternoon. Do you know why you were arrested?"

His lips curled back over his teeth as he gave me an expression of pure fury. "Arrested?! That asshole cop shows up at my house and wants to take me in, and then when I say 'no', I'm arrested? What type of bullshit is this!?"

Ah, he's an idiot. Fantastic, this is going to require far less effort than I expected. I laid my chin down on the headrest of the chair and tilted my head, giving him an inquisitive stare.

"You see..." I gave him a polite smile, to show him his outburst did little to rattle my cage. After that one year spent abroad, I doubt anything could intimidate me. Things tend to lose their edge when you actually experienced fearing for your life. "... from what I can tell, Detective Hiura had given you the explicit order to STOP and respond to his request for questioning… Slamming the front door in his face and then running out the back window isn't exactly saying 'no.' Is it? That's an actual crime that we can arrest you for."

My rebuttal flustered the teenager, whose caught off guard by my breakdown. I just needed to establish from the get go that he has everything to lose here, and very little to gain by being belligerent. Time to use the age old office promotion technique: offer two choices, one to accept and one to reject.

"Let me level with you." I leaned forward and make direct eye contact with him. "You running away from the cops doesn't really mean much, but it can lead to an actual investigation if a judge thinks its suspicious enough. Me? I just think you got spooked, which is completely understandable."

I scooched my chair closer to the desk he was sitting behind. By reducing the space between us while staying within his range of vision, I could artificially build intimacy and trust. A little trick I learned from Shizuka, when she was explaining some counseling methods she was taught in school.

"I'm trying to bust a drug ring here in Tokyo. Stuff's been on the streets in bigger quantities than ever before. Crimes starting to go up in the city and we coppers just want to give an office worker the peace of mind that they can walk home safely. But I need your help, all you have to do is answer some questions. If you don't like it, you can ignore it. Sound fair?"

I played the empathy card, bait upon a trap I laid that would lead down the rabbit hole should he choose to take it. And of course he would. As far as he was concerned he doesn't have any other viable option.

"I… I… uh…" I could see the gears spinning in his head.

He's considering whether he can believe my words or not. Which is the normal reaction I'd expect. Rather than think about the things he can do, I focused his attention on what I wanted from him. I planted the subconscious idea that I was the sole keyholder to the doors, but only one led to freedom.

Heh, playing by my rules and whims when he doesn't even know it. Welcome, mongrel, to my Reality Marble: 'Unlimited Ploy Works.' [2]

"I guess… I can answer a few…" Fujiwara reluctantly agreed.

This was so easy, it physically hurt.

"Well, let's start with introductions. I already said I was Detective Hikigaya Hachiman. What's your name?" I reset the conversation, erasing any unease he may have felt after his previous questioning. It would also make him temporarily forget what he had said beforehand, which was the far more useful consequence for this technique.

"Fujiwara." He looked away from me, still clearly trying to put up resistance of some sort. Doesn't he know that we probably already know his full name, address, phone number, and most recent debit card purchase? It was a R18+ magazine by the way. "How did you know Ouma Daichi?"

"I should have known it was about that guy," Fujiwara said in frustration as he scratches his head. "I didn't KNOW know him. We just... talked a few times."

"Would you say you were… acquaintances?" I offer a possible word that he was looking for.

"Yeah. Sounds about right?"

Okay kid, answering a question with a question is the pinnacle of uselessness. I quelled my irritation, telling myself that patience was key. He was already strung along, I just had to keep that rope out.

"Were you aware of Ouma Daichi's involvement with drugs?"

The kid opened his mouth to answer before his brain caught up, understanding the implied severity of the question. I can see his mind churning for an answer.

"Kinda… but I was never really sure." His voice got quieter as he spoke, the latter half almost a whisper.

"I see." I reached over and grabbed my folder, taking out some witness testimonials that were prepared by Hiura. I placed it before the teenager, letting his eyes trace over the typed words. "I have some testimonies from witnesses who say that they saw you having hand-offs with Daichi that included money. What do you have to say to that?"

"I didn't sell him anything! Honest!" His voice had a hint of panic to it. "We just talked once in a while. I don't even have his cell phone number. That's just a place lots of people hang out."

And he's right. It was a known drug den, frequented by junkies all over town.

"'Hanging out,' huh?" I rhetorically repeated. "You still have friends like that? I heard you didn't go to college, went straight into the workforce."

"H-how did you-"

"Kid." I interrupted him. "We're the police, come on."

My admonishment had him looking sheepish. Did he honestly forget where he was?

"College isn't for everyone." He mutterd, flexing his forearms. "And it definitely wasn't for me. I went straight to work." It was obviously a sore topic for him, one that probably many people asked without understanding his perspective.

An insecurity. A chink in the armor. And I'm not enough of a good guy to let it slip.

"I can agree with you on that, college wasn't for me at first either." My chuckle has him looking up at me in surprise. I notice the tension in his arms disappearing. "I get where you're coming from, Fujiwara. I joined the JSDF straight out of high school."

That seemed to do the trick, and he slowly opened up to me. The next ten minutes or so had me learning more about his family life and economic status.

His parents didn't mind that he didn't go to college, since he worked and contributed his share towards the family income. His mother owned a small convenience store near the wharf. His father was also a fisherman, and was the one who lined up Fujiwara's first job on that fishing boat.

Fujiwara was currently a delivery truck driver, a job that was easy and paid better than being on a boat. One of his coworkers had suggested it to him, seeing as how Fujiwara had a Tokyo driver's license. The boy loved to swim, and was part of the swim team in his high school. His best friend, Hideaki Arata, was also on the team and the two had a lot of fun. They still communicate occasionally.

"Did you ever have a pet?" I asked, seeing how comfortable Fujiwara was becoming.

"Yeah, I did. A cat about yea big." He gestured with his hands the size of the feline. "We called him 'Ebisu'."

Ebisu? Like, after the deity of fishing and luck? That's actually kinda cute.

"I had a cat too, some fat furball named Kamakura. It seemed like you have a pretty decent life then, how good are you with technology?"

"Decent, I guess." He shrugged. "I'm no tech wizard, I just use my smartphone like everyone else. Listen to music, browse the web a bit, play games."

"You know, I'm curious. What email service do you use? Just want to know what the youth are communicating with now a days. Maybe I can keep up with my younger sister for once." I tried to keep the atmosphere light and as far away from accusatory as possible.

"I use Vodafone, it came with my cell phone plan."

"I see." Okay, I think I got all the information I needed for my plan to work. My strategy is in place, I just needed to set up the board to corner Fujiwara. "Is this email how you got into the drug business?"

"Didn't I say I wasn't involved in that?" He frowned unsurely at the sudden shift in tone.

"Is it because you live near the coast with your folks? You have easy access to the docks, and easy access to foreign shipments. The first one to each shipment, if you time it right."

Fujiwara's shoulders tensed up out of nervousness. He gives away his tell: rubbing his index finger along the top of his thumb. I could tell by how polished his thumb nail was compared the rest of his fingers. "I haven't been to the docks in a bit…"

"Oh yeah?" I folded my arms and leaned back. "You started work as a part-time delivery driver just last year. I'm gonna take a stab at it and say that one of the crewmembers at your fishing boat job was also your 'in' to the drug trade. Maybe it's the one who lead you to your latest job?"

Fujiwara's hands clenched, his knuckles turned white and I saw his eyes buckle. "I-I don't feel like answering… this one."

Smart move, but it was already too late. He only delayed being put into checkmate

"Look, I can just let you go," I said, offering a false olive branch. "Then all I have to do is drag every single member of that crew in one-by-one and interrogate them until I get what I want."

Fujiwara immediately began to shudder and sweat, realizing he just compromised some secret no one was supposed to know about. He wasn't even trying to hide his fear now.

"O-okay!" He shouted nervously. "I-i-it was me! I was slinging drugs. I got them myself off the streets and I sold em to Ouma. Nothing else!"

"... I see…," I said carefully.

I placed a hand on the desk and begin tapping my fingers against the surface rhythmically. From the corner of my eye, Fujiwara stared at the point of impact of my fingers against the top fixedly. His Adam's apple bobbed with every sound my digits made. He was on the verge of cracking, I just needed to push a little more. But how?

Δ▼Δ

"He's lying through his teeth." I declared as I come bursting into the adjacent room inhabited by Shiba and Hiura. "He never sold drugs."

I explained that Fujiwara Eiichirou wass aware of something going down at the docks, something illegal. But he's afraid of whatever it is, to the point that he would rather sacrifice himself and go to prison over a false crime than risk being out-and-about with this information being leaked.

"Kid's traumatized." I pointed to my throat. "His neck starts going crazy at sudden staccato noises. Evidence of physical abuse if I've ever seen it. I doubt it's childhood, I'm thinking he was beaten up by a person or a group."

"So organized crime." Shiba concluded. "They have a system for finding holes and sealing them before law enforcement can get to them. Fujiwara fears retribution."

"It could be anything, though." Hiura added. "With the docks involved we might be searching for a gang, the Yakuza, even a new crime family."

Shiba nodded. "If this is all that we have on him, we have to let him go. We don't have enough as is to even keep him in custody long enough to start an investigation."

"Who says we don't?" Shiba and Hiura turned towards me with questioning looks. A chilling grin adorned my face as I asked for Fujiwara's phone. I wake the device and check the notification bar, the icon in the top right indicating it used Vodafone.

"Shiba open up your laptop and go to the Vodafone email login website."

"Sure Senpai, but why?"

"I'm 100% sure the smoking gun is on his phone."

My partner looked at me as if I've finally gone off the deep end. "But we don't have access to his phone."

"Don't need it. We just need to access his email."

Fujiwara admitted to being technologically illiterate: he was a casual user. I doubt he was even aware of the modern feature on smartphones and email services where they would auto-sync messages across platforms. Which would mean that text messages and emails would be stored to the same email address. Even if he deleted the emails from his phone, they would still be on his email account.

"So we just need to get into his email. We might not know the password, but we can use the password reset wizard." I concluded.

"We don't have access to his phone, so won't that mean we have to answer security questions to change the password?" Asked Hiura.

I gave him a look, surprised he hadn't figured it out yet. "Didn't I just get him to do that?"

Several seconds before Hiura and Shiba's eyes widened as the realization dawned on them.

"W-wait!" Hiura questioned, rubbing his eyes. "S-so all those weird questions…?"

"I just asked Fujiwara some common security questions under the guise of small talk." I nodded to myself. "Worked pretty well, if I do say so myself."

Shiba's laptop opens up the page and we begin the process. As expected, the security questions were the usual suspects: What was the name of your first pet? What was your mother's maiden name? What was the name of your best friend?

It only took Shiba a few minutes to retrieve Fujiwara's mother's full name, and within moments we have a new temporary password that gave us access to his email. Jack pot.

"... this is... something else..." Hiura looked on in wonderment as we sifted through Fujiwara's inbox. "That was genius."

My suspicions were substantiated when we came across a series of messages that had Fujiwara and the receiver agree to locations and times to meet, as well as containing negotiations over prices for something they referred to in vague terms. Shiba was able to confirm that the number that was saved belonged to Ouma Daichi. The one asking for price, however, was Fujiwara. It turns out that Daichi was in fact the one selling.

Well, well, well...

There were also some interesting messages about Fujiwara's delivery job. Orders coming in and telling him when and where to get them, and how to drive to the destination. It was oddly meticulous, which makes the lack of a provided map all the more strange. And then he was told to delete these messages after memorizing them.

If that isn't a bad omen, then nothing is.

"Get the DA in here ASAP." I ordered Shiba, a bit of an edge to my voice. We were at the endgame, but it was one built on a fragile foundation. I needed my opponent to surrender completely, rather than allow me to defeat him. I would need some help, the kind only Yukinoshita Haruno could provide.

It seems I've been making a whole lot of deals with various devils lately.

Δ▼Δ

I strode back into the interrogation room and cut to the chase, slamming my hands down on the table to his fright and pinning him with a glare.

"You lied to me." My voice emitted flat as I accused Fujiwara with a pointed finger.

"W-w-what?" He stuttered in nervousness and claimed ignorance. To his growing panic, I recited back to him the messages he had with Ouma Daichi.

I leaned in and whispered to Fujiwara. "You were just found guilty of lying to law enforcement. I can slap you with obstruction of justice and have you thrown in prison for a while. Not only that, you actually did know Ouma. This isn't looking too good for you. You can get charged with being an accomplice. Imagine getting more years in jail for being an accessory to a crime. Half your life, gone. Just like that."

"I-I-I‒"

"I'll make it simple for you." I broke off his response, intent on maintaining my position of power. I was the one speaking, he was listening. Our relationship had to devolve to such binaries. "You've been directly connected with possible drug trafficking. Along with your previous mistakes, I'll have no trouble getting a warrant to investigate the deliveries at the docks. And when 'they' try and understand how this happened, 'they're' going to figure that it was you who lead us there. Directly or not."

I don't know who the hell the 'they' I'm referring to are, but by Fujiwara's reaction, 'they' certainly did exist. The blood drained from Fujiwara's face and he became as pale as a ghost. Sweat formed on his forehead and the lump on his throat began bobbing like an ocean buoy in the Pacific.

"I see that you understand what this means." I nodded to affirm Fujiwara's fears. "You're screwed no matter what. So how about we negotiate?"

I looked him in the eyes and spoke confidently, hoping my body language would show the honesty of my words. After all, I wasn't lying… I was just withholding some of the truth.

"You're young, you the rest of your life to look forward too... and you're going to throw it away for someone else? Take on the responsibility for a crime you never committed? I'm willing to hash out a deal, you give me information and I give you protection for you and your family from 'them'." My voice was drier than the Sahara Desert.

The mention of his parents made him flinch, and I knew it was over. After a few tense minutes of internal deliberation, Fujiwara accepted and said all that he knows.

I had him in check, and he surrendered.

Ouma Daichi was the one who was selling drugs to Fujiwara, and Fujiwara was introduced to this literature student-turned-dealer through his delivery job. His foreman had asked if Fujiwara needed something to 'relax.' Fujiwara had no idea where Daichi got his drugs from.

As a transporter, he was well liked by his coworkers because of his work ethic and the fact that he knew his way around Tokyo. The actual job was quite easy, he just had to drive a truck to certain locations on certain days and let a crew offload the supplies when he reached the destination.

At the docks a boat comes and unloads its cargo. Normal dock workers just load it into his truck. The only weird part was that didn't ask him for identification or any sort of checks with an itinerary when they let him off. The boat comes in at different times on alternating days: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. It never came on the weekends.

I asked him if he was ever attacked at his job. Hesitantly, Fujiwara described how he had accidentally had taken a look inside the truck once, and was beaten black and blue by the delivery crew. They said it was a warning to never do it again. He wasn't able to make out anything clearly, but it was unusually warm.

Δ▼Δ

"Impressive work as always." Haruno was the one to greet me when I return, in a black suit with a silken blue shirt beneath. She still had those suit trousers that housed her long legs. This new style of hers was actually kind of disconcerting with how appropriate it was.

"You heard the confession right?" I asked urgently. "I need you to get him and his family enrolled into the witness protection program as fast as possible."

Haruno blinked. "What makes you think I can do that?"

"Excuse me?" I was not expecting this answer. After all that work, I was going to fail because I overestimated our own capabilities? "Are you going to tell me you can't? You, Yukinoshita Haruno?"

"Just joking, just joking." Haruno brushed off my worries like a parent does to a child. "I'll have my office draft up a plea bargain immediately and contact the governmental office. He doesn't have an attorney so we need to get one for him for the paperwork."

My blood pressure dropped and I nodded to her before facing Hiura and Shiba.

"We have a lead, and we need to act quickly. They're going to know when Fujiwara doesn't come to pick up shipments. We can have the kid give us access to his phone so we can keep this charade going."

Shiba ran off to alert the Chief and get the Maritime Police out to keep watch on Tokyo Harbor and start planning around it. Hiura took our findings to Records and to his own department to inform them about the case's progression. We had a live case on our hands now.

Which left me alone with Haruno in the discussion room.

"Thanks." I blurted out. "... and sorry in advance."

Haruno looked at me with a confused face.

"Things are going to get messy in Tokyo soon." I explained apologetically. "Your office might be flooded with complaints."

"Hmm, I can handle that, but…" Her face turned somber as she began to think deeply about something. "The way you talked to this… Fujiwara. You threw in bits of your own past to spin a facade of empathy. Interesting tactic."

"I was just trying to lower the kid's guard so I could get a better grasp of his personality." I shrugged, answering off the cuff.

"That's not what I meant." She elaborated, and scrunched her delicate brows and gave me a hard look. "You… made yourself more empathetic to him. He thought he only had two solutions. One of which you painted as also being the best choice. He didn't know that you were leading him on. Quite… villainous."

I felt the muscles in my face spasm and freeze stiff at that final adjective.

I knew.

What I did was despicable and I could fully admit that.

I took advantage of the naivety of a teenager who was in distress. Fujiwara didn't know that he could have asked for a lawyer. He didn't know that if he had stayed silent we would have to let him go. I made him believe he only had the choices I offered, and I forced him to choose the option that best suited me. I used his insecurities and fears against him, to further burrow into his mind and break it apart from the inside out.

"Is that right? Didn't think about it that way until you mentioned it." I forced my body to relax, to be loose.

But my mouth tasted something foul as I said those words, like I just gargled with battery acid and then followed it up with an inhaler full of sulfur. I emotionally manipulated a young man to give me his secrets in the most evil and vile way possible: I pretended to become his savior. He placed his utmost trust in me, and I betrayed it. He didn't notice that I goaded him into lying, so I could have him trapped for obstruction of justice.

It was like I threw him into the pit of vipers and then offered him a rope. I didn't actually save him, I just ruined his life and gave him a bit of conciliation. He was my sacrifice, he just didn't realize it. And he never might. But I will, and I was perfectly aware of my actions.

"Besides… you can't save everyone."

"So you pick and choose who you help?" Haruno asked with steely eyes.

"As long as something good will come out of it… I'll compromise."

I've done this countless times. I was disingenuous to the core.

Did I like it? Did I hate it?

Does it matter?

My response caused Haruno to give a strange cold chuckle, a sound that only someone who recognizes the ludicrousness of it all can make. "Well, regardless you put on quite a show with that act of yours."

Acts?

I've dealt with enough acts throughout my life to tell you that I probably have seen them all. Haruno used to put an exquisite mask back when we first met, before her family situation changed her. I saw those false caricatures my classmates had worn on the daily. I saw the veneer that society had slept under. All of those fakes. A plastic world.

The greatest act I ever saw was someone pretending to be an ally just the day before. Then you unexpectedly woke up in the middle of the night and found yourself staring into a knife aimed for your heart.

All smiles and sugar, then suddenly dripping with so much malice it was practically physical.

Nietzsche once said: "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

I detest liars. I detest fake people. I detest acts. Somewhere along the way, probably in that jungle I spent a year in, I became all of those things.

It's a convenient thing, being great at all of the things that I hated.

Arc 1: "Detective Hikigaya Hachiman"

References:

[1] Wangan-sen is a scenic coastal highway that passes through Chiba and Tokyo. It is famous for its drag races that used to occur at night. The legendary "Midnight Club" was based here and entry into the club was exclusive. To get in you had to have a car fast enough to outrun the police. Some surgeon that was part of the club spent 1 million USD to modify a Porsche 911 (930) Turbo to some ridiculous extents (I think it was pushing 800 or more brake-horsepower at some point?). This car was known as the "Black Bird."

[2] Reference to Kinoko Nasu's "Fate" franchise. A Reality Marble is a forbidden spell that has the caster place their own mental landscape into the real world, rewriting reality for as long as they can power the bounded field of the spell. They basically make their own world according to their whims. Yes, I know I used Gilgamesh's iconic line, it's a joke.

Author's Note:

The next interrogation scene, as anticipated by some of you. Snakes and Ladders is a board-game I remember playing a lot as a child. It's a simple game about luck, where you roll the dice and see if you manage to avoid the snakes and get to a ladder, or if you had landed right on a serpent and eaten. The origin of this game is from a morality lesson: snakes are vices and ladders are virtues. I went for the double meaning myself.

This chapter explores the changes in Hachiman's morality, by way of how he approaches the interrogation. Hachiman is willing to compromise and do evil to gain the results he wants. It's less of a change of morality, and more of a logical extremity of previous behavior.

This chapter was inspired by the song "Robots can't Drink" by e-dubble. Unfortunately the artist has passed away, but his music lives on. I'll be doing a breakdown of how the lyrics of the song applies to the story on my SpaceBattles thread.

I promise we will see more of Rumi.

-SouBU
(Editor: XioKenji)
(BetaReader: Lord of Admirals 412)

Revision Log:
03/17/2020: Re-uploaded with overhaul of tenses and changes in word choice and sentence structure as well as major grammar fixes.