…

02-25-1996

…

Kansuke had been tied to his chair ever since his initial arrest. He was still restrained with little care to what the law would allow in the situation. He had realised that the law would be taken into little consideration over the outward façade in the moment he had been tackled and arrested on false accusations. He rubbed his chin, which could use a shave, into his shoulder to wake himself. He did not know how much was there to be endured and his friend had little to tell in that matter.

Komei had wormed into the midst of those bastards and had been a lifeline until his newfound friends would resolve the situation somehow – so, he did not complain. It could have been worse and he knew who was to be thanked for that. He did not show much, but he was thankful on the inside.

He expected him to come into the room. He expected some news or a meal at last, but received neither. He was shocked to see his other childhood friend who aided their ambitions and considered herself a detective despite her status as a housewife on paper walk into the room. He disciplined his surprise once the bastard responsible for his arrest accompanied her into the room. He did not know what to make of the scene. He hissed low at the chance the others were smoked out. He sure did not talk about them, so their own carelessness could have been blamed. However, she was treated like a visitor – which made him fear that this was a deal that should never have been made.

He watched as she was escorted to the table, where the two of them could hear each other. His supervisor settled into a seat on her side – not a private conversation. He did not know what this could mean, but focused in case whatever hints from her was an elaborate plan somehow.

"Yamato-keibu, it looks like a miracle has come to earth and someone offered to take defence in the case." Kano chuckled. He should have looked at least a bit bothered at the fact that someone tried to throw a wrench into their plans, but instead, his confidence increased. It was beneficial to them to have an actual defence make the case more normal. "This woman claims to be a childhood acquaintance and is convinced about your innocence. You knew her, do you not?"

He looked into her eyes, and saw confirmation.

"I know her."

His attention was drawn to the tap, tap, tap on the table.

His brow raised at the unusual tic that did not raise concerns from the traitor besides them. He realised the reason for that and was thankful that there was a method to somewhat have a conversation, even if one-sided. He decided not to risk an answer to avoid notice.

"Kansuke-kun, do not tell a word. You are innocent no matter what evidence was uncovered. I believe in that." Her words were filled with emotion and served to curtain the subtle communication led under it, but was honest nonetheless. He did know that, there was no reason to tell him but then, she needed to talk to him or the silence would draw attention. His attention flickered between her face and her hand. "I believe in that. I will stand between you and the world for that."

Oh.

He understood the words told in morse code on the table. Kudo was on the case and the idea was to unveil the woodpecker on the trial and therefore, discredit the evidence stacked to send him to a life sentence. He blinked once, twice – made sense, the court could initiate a takedown in case the detectives who handed over the case were unreliable. He would be proven innocent and the traitors on the inside would be arrested in turn – sounded like a nice end on his side.

He did not look forwards to, but would consent to a trial in that case.

"I have not found a lawyer, but make no worries." Her voice switched from the sentimentalism to a normal one, which meant that what would be told was not filler to save time to send the essence in code. "I will have one on the case before the pre-trial procedures, that is a promise."

He exhaled with concern. He knew that no one within their mind would take his case, which meant that unless his allies out there could catch someone to be trusted and convinced them to collaborate in face of the uncertain outcome, he would be stuck with a state-appointed one. It would also mean that outsiders would have a hard time to make an influence on the course the case would take, not to mention induct an insane scheme like the one that had been decided on.

He looked at his childhood friend. Her vow to find someone to stand on his side at the court carried a blunt determination, and that kindled the smallest warmth inside him. He had never met someone as stubborn as her. He would bet his life on her no matter where fate led them.

He smiled at that. He was not a lost cause.

…

Kano did not like that smile.

…

…

Morofushi had had a lot on his hands in the timeframe between the arrest and now. He would have never believed that once, the taint on his name as a detective would be a mean to undermine the evil within. He would have never believed that his situation would be heard and somewhat understood, not to mention used to further the aims of the side where his heart laid. He had considered himself as a two-timer burden on the law, but that burden was about to save the law from the traitors inside.

He had been recoiled when he was notified of the unfair arrest of his childhood friend. He had felt that the situation was somewhat his fault. He had known that the idiot had kindled their interest and that there was a chance that measures would be taken to either draw him in or remove him and should have drawn more attention to that fact – however, it was too late when that realisation reached his mind. He had been instructed to watch over him, which eased him to some extent. However, to be unable to set him free without serious retaliation towards both of them infuriated him nonetheless. He did not show much, but he cared on the inside.

He felt sick to witness the unfair, and rather unlawful, treatment his friend received. His attitude mixed in the situation moderated the violence towards the innocent man restrained in the room, but did not allow him more meals and the chance to move from that damned chair.

He needed to fool them.

He needed to be seen as their member. He motivated himself with the fact that the lifeline his friend had in him would be cut once his ruse was discovered. He had earned himself stares nonetheless, but his situation was known to fool them. He had faced a threat once, when his connection had been doubted and needed confirmation from the bosses. He still could not decide what the fact that that claim had been confirmed meant. It was true in the strictest technical sense, so his friend could have a visit from him without a brow raised around. He could still not talk his mind because of the hidden cameras and recorders all over inside the room.

He found it ironic that the countermeasure also included such means. He had been told about the final scheme to take down the woodpecker, which included clean cut evidence on them to convince the court. It was better to collect the most material even with unconventional means. He knew that their main communication channel was online, but the contents were almost useless as evidence due to the codenames used to curtain the actual individuals in the conversations. It had been considered once to obtain the information the victim had been killed for, but since the former associates had vanished at the murder, that was a lost cause.

Yui had the official issues on her hands.

He hated to load the lion share onto her shoulders, but there was no other choice. He could not vouch for his friend and himself at the same time. Kudo and the rest could not leave a paper trail to avoid their enemies that increased in number with each move. Yui knew the defendant and was not associated to the law enforcement at the moment, because her status as a detective had not been revoked even if her decision to return to the force had been made. Her situation was ideal.

However, not even a contact that no one would think twice about could solve the hottest issue under their feet, which was the lawyer. He had counted with hardship and wished to aid the woman who was alone in the mission, but there was a reason no one would take the case. He would not take it either had he been one and not known the defendant on an intimate level that was needed to overlook the evidence tower stacked on the other side, unless there was another tower that stacked on their side too. He did his best to contribute to that with the recorders set at all potential locations where woodpecker members could discuss important information.

He walked around the halls and collected their contents with discreet moves. His social skills could make a face-to-face conversation between the star-crossed lovers happen, even if that conversation was monitored from all sides. He was certain that those two would know how to communicate without read from the outside. He was about to walk next to the room when the door revealed a familiar woman with an unreadable expression etched into her face walk outside.

His own forced indifference towards her hurt him. He did not want to dismiss her like someone never seen before, but had no other choice than to send a haste look in her direction and break even that a moment later. He could not have someone sniff out the connection between them.

He would meet with her in a café to hand over the recorded files.

…

…

Aburakawa had noticed several weird details about a certain detective. Morofushi had never been interested in the traitors, due to which he had never considered that the tactician-like detective could be in their ranks. He had liked his calm and collected attitude and even entertained the idea to make him the one to arrest him once the traitors were eradicated on his own accords. It was a shock to find out that that calm and collected detective knew about and was involved in the same darkness.

He had stalked the detective and noticed that several details were, as mentioned, weird. He allowed himself to be recruited to learn about the exact members but otherwise, hated to be associated with them and eased his mind with their soon-to-come deaths. His attitude would never be the same and somehow, the tactician had that vibe too. He realised in that moment: the man was a tactician. He could have noticed and went undercover to take down the traitors from the inside too.

He would aid him in his mission in that case. He had realised the idea in outlines. It was obvious that the innocent detective arrested in the recent times was a friend to him, whom he would want to save somehow. He would also not condone an innocent taken to trial. He decided to take action.

…

…

Later.

…

Yui stood in the shower cabin. Her soul found reassurance in the cold water that streamed down on her face and made her hair on the front stick to her cheeks – and reminded her to maintain a collected and focused mind until the case was over. Her concentration was allowed to have a flicker in the moments that the occasional shower took from the valuable time that could be used to find evidence and clues and touchable material to have a chance faced with the unbeatable odds.

As much as she wanted to let her frustration loose on her friends that the evidence on their hands was circumstantial at best and the case needed more, more, more, she was not much better in her own task. Her awake hours had been a rush to lawyer to lawyer, fruitless as it was.

However, there was no time to fall into despair.

…

…

Kogoro looked at the darkness that started to loom over the outside world. It had been forever since his foot was set outside the room rented in the motel. He had listened to hours of recorded material, eaten a meal, listened for more hours, taken a shower, listened a little more, crashed into his futon and once awake, he started over. He had envied the teens who could walk to the nearest store for food, since house order for five people into one room was too suspicious.

He was about to near the end of that routine, the crash into the futon part. He did not think that such a mundane action could exhaust him more than an excursion in the mountains without the shortest rest. He worked to find evidence in the recorded data from the devices created to catch even the smallest sentences uttered near their location. He heard that the other detective, that one who had been involved in the darker side albeit not on his free will was the one who chose the locations and collected the recoded material once work hours were over. It amounted to an amount that rivalled the files connected to the most wide-spread cases, which was hell to listen to.

He had heard an occasional unrelated word most times. He had listened to endless silence on some lines, while others lent him an earful about actual cases discussed over a casual coffee. He had, however, never encountered the faintest clue that would move them from their current ditch.

He wondered how – to call it, white this was. It was a detective who installed the devices and had a valid reason to do so, so he assumed that it was. He concluded that it must be, since there was no reason to collect evidence that would not be useful in the court. However, was fruitless to count on evidence that could and would be tinkered, so their sole shot was to catch their communication somehow. There were numerous devices that recorded the conversations between those on the case and to add, there was someone on the inside to aid them – a traitor in the traitors, how ironic. It sounded ideal without the fact that the material was almost useless.

He decided that the most recent car crash did not interest him that much and fell onto his futon. He stretched his arms above his head and realised that dinner had been skimmed over. He wondered where the teens had been, not that the two ladies were bad to be around. He could hear the shower that reminded him about the vow that bound him to control himself. He still felt offended at that. He loved the nice, but that made him sound like a man without honour.

Akemi still listened to the records. He was in awe at her work ethics.

He decided that a moment of rest could not hurt…

…

…

Shinichi walked into the nearest store with a casual look on his face. He took a moment to familiarize with the illuminated interior in contrast to the darkness outside. He noticed a woman behind the counter and no one else inside the store other than him – and her. He strolled to the shelves.

Ran followed him around all the time. He would have sworn that fear had motivated that behaviour due to the sudden turns in the case. He would not have minded to offer comfort should that be her desire, but that conclusion shook in their time around each other. He noticed that she was not skittish at all, that she was not like someone scared at the world but like someone that had seen a friend taken and wanted to hold those in her reach closer and closer, himself included. He found that reaction alike her, a more chivalrous version to his former deduction. He also felt a hint nurture in the meanwhile that her desire to be near him stemmed from another reason too.

He had to admit that confinement into a room took a toll on the nerves. He could name no other reason his mind would wander into territories that were no-no in a case. He ruled those ideas out whenever his concentration was needed, because with those on his mind, his concentration was nonexistent. He looked downwards and saw her hand that brushed to his on accident. His mind remembered all the times that had come to his notice. He wanted to hold it.

He could not. He could not afford the distraction now.

He stacked some instant noodles into the basket instead. He found the needed food in moments and headed over to the toiletries section. He did not waste much attention to the other items on sale, there was no need to and their finances were not the best either. He chose to observe the street outside, which was visible between two items on the shelves next to the window. He stared at the street, distraction vanished from his mind. He could not shake the oddness that came from there.

He almost had a heart attack when a hand touched his shoulder.

"Shinichi."

Ran. He exhaled at the revelation.

"We have all we need, so we should head back soon."

"Yeah."

He looked outside once more as she decided to take matters into her hands and handled the transaction at the counter without him. He trailed the darkness, tried to find whatever caused him unease without success. He concluded that his mind screwed with him and followed her to the door.

He realised that his mind had not screwed with him once the store was behind their backs. He noticed a car behind a corner at the same time and held out his arm to halt her. He was faced with a decision – avoid the trouble and act oblivious to save themselves from the risks that came with a confrontation, or find out who that was and take the risks in the stride. He knew that obliviousness would dismiss the threat and not solve it. He could not risk the car tail them to the motel either, so there was no choice to make. He knew that his odds were bad should their enemies be behind the wheel over there, but his actions could draw the attention from the others at least.

"Ran." He tried to sound cheerful in his slower and slower walk that increased the distance between them. He knew better than to rouse her stubbornness or worse, have her notice his unease and find out the truth. "I have to check on stuff. I will be back in a minute, tell the others too!"

"Shinichi!"

…

He distanced himself from the shouts that tried to hold him back. His heart ached to ditch her another time. He stumbled into the ominous car at the corner – dark coloured, casual, could be mistaken as an addition to the street ambiance – and his concern was directed towards a new matter. A faint illumination that flickered on the contours showed a silhouette inside. He discerned a masculine form behind the wheel in an instant, who waited, no, dared him to make a move towards him. He exhaled. He inhaled and acted in accordance to how the individual wanted him to, with some natural reluctance. He still had to check the threat out, and the individual knew that too.

He stood next to the car and was welcomed with a lowered window. He was shocked at the reveal the individual did. He had not-so-nice ideas in the moments that were needed to close the distance as to who the individual was or what their intentions were, but the world was at last nice to him.

"Kuroda-san?"

His own alarmed mental state relaxed a bit. He would be alarmed around the man under other circumstances but then, the fact that the individual in the car was not an immediate threat to him was a reason to unwind. He became irritated soon – there was no reason to freak him out like that! He could have informed him that a conversation was due between them and he would have consented to it. He was curious too – there had to be a reason for his actions.

"Kudo Shinichi. I believe this is the first time we have talked to each other without distractions." His voice carried an uncharacteristic flair. He wondered what caused new mannerisms to take over his stoic attitude. "I think a discussion would be beneficial for us both. A minute or two."

He took the hint. He decided.

He would not have taken a seat in the car without time on his side. He would have missed the information offered to him rather than to stick his neck out, but with how the situation stood, that was different. He could do whatever would move the case forward. He smiled at that idea the smallest bit.

"I heard about the murder case." Kuroda cut to the point. "Yamato-keibu has been arrested as the bomber. I know him little due to the medical condition that forced him to take a break in his career to recover, but that little makes me doubt that he could have committed such a heinous act without a believable motive. However, the evidence shows otherwise. I arrived to the conclusion after careful consideration that someone wants him to take the fall for the case, the true bomber even."

"It means that for once, we are on the same page."

"I know that there are ambitions to undermine that. I noticed the small black devices under certain desks and how skittish that someone acted at that fact. Morofushi-kun is difficult to win over, but with some context in mind, this would be a small achievement compared to all the other occasions."

Kuroda knew who the other side in the conversation was. He did not. He was reminded about that fact once more. He watched the rain wash the road around them, which borrowed a wet and cold look to the houses and streets beneath the small rivulets that streamed down on the window. He was unfamiliar with the location around him. He wondered how far this ride would take him, in all sense of the sentence. He acted uninterested to make the imposter continue.

"You appear to have trouble, which confuses me."

"I doubt others would fare much better than me, either."

"Normal people, indeed. You are not a normal person." He felt that the true intentions behind the entire conversation was about to be revealed, and his hunch was correct. "I meant that how come this avoided detection. You would have known about the murder case, who would be framed, all the details in a normal case. You would not run in circles and would solve the problem with the fastest and most efficient method available instead. You have slipped up, prophet?"

He remained silent.

"You have created too much differences to keep track of, then?"

He was startled at the new, feminine voice from behind. He could not believe that there had been a woman behind him the whole time who tricked his sense somehow. His attention was hard to evade, which added to his shock. He looked back on instant, but the dimness meshed her details into a silhouette. His mind drew the connection a moment later, when the voice was matched with a woman's from another encounter. His words could not even form as the woman continued.

"I am not surprised. You retained ambition and determination to resist them even when that was unwise. You would be the first to bet on a second chance and would do more once the truth about time travel becomes evident. However, time travel is not for those who make ends meet with spontaneous decisions."

"I am responsible for the outcome. I have consented to that."

He heard a small chuckle.

"I knew that answer. However, that is a stretch from a newborn time traveller."

He frowned at the term used to describe him. He was called a newborn and sure, it had not been two months since his abilities as a time traveller revealed themselves. He wondered how much this woman lived between timelines when two months meant that he was a newborn.

"I have been around for almost two decades. I have laid in the shadows and interfered to a minimal amount. I have evaded detection to have a familiar timeline when the events start to turn serious. I have calculated how to tackle them with the aid from the reliable sources that the future revealed to me. You were also someone included in those calculations. You are talented with or without future memories. And then, someone with information on the future crossed those calculations."

"I have shot down several ideas that the first discussion." Kuroda took the word. "I did so because there was one reasonable conclusion to how someone could know about unrelated cases in the near future in detail, but that included a theme that would never be taken into consideration at all. I could not tell that a time traveller was at loose, nor that the time traveller was in the room without evidence. You were the most unnatural there and with context, it connected."

"However, we were not hundred-percent sure." He looked towards the woman, who continued. "I wanted to make an alliance in case our aims matched. I instructed him to weave the situation towards a direction that would reveal true character and observe the results, which were a confirmation."

"I should mention that that idea came from me, dear."

"Ara, ara."

He raised a brow. He could tell that the man and the woman were an item.

"I have one question left. Who are you?"

He received no answer and almost believed that would never when the car halted at the roadside. He noted the train station in the distance, which fact embedded into his mind in case the situation turned worse. He did not believe that these two were actual threat to him. His abilities were treated with seriousness and made them consider to form an alliance with him. He watched the man behind the wheel nonetheless. He watched him touch his face and tear at a mask that covered it. His mind flashed in a certain actress. He shook his head and reminded himself that latex masks were not that unusual above a level in skill. His true features were revealed soon.

He stared. He stared, reluctant to let in the truth. He could not even blame the dimness as a truck rattled next to them on the road and made the contours and details clearer with a small contribution to the illumination. He knew those facial features, but his mind still resisted.

His mind knew that that man had died almost two decades – oh.

"He is in shock, dear."

"I know. I have mentioned that in the world where we came from, the events back there had a much worse outcome." He swallowed and listened to the woman, whose voice and mannerisms seemed to take on a name too. "Your life worthed all the hellish deaths and retries."

It made sense. It all made sense.

"Akai Tsutomu."

"You are correct." Mary confirmed her husband's name. Her hat let a white curl loose from the strict hold. "I saved his life and decided to use time control to eliminate the enemies that threaten us and our children, not to mention the detestable future those enemies wanted to realise in the world. However, we had to wait until our children became adults and able to defend themselves. Masumi was born around that time. I could not initiate a widescale takedown with a toddler around me."

"Your children were still born, then."

"I would not trade them for the world. I know that our children have talents in their fields. I know that our children have been skilled in the old timeline, which would be invaluable for them this timeline too. I thus allowed them to make the decisions that made them skilled in the old timeline."

He hummed. He knew about families with immediate relations to authorities that were known from cinema screens to most. He knew about one that outshined the standards over and over and were rumoured to be invincible. He knew that the decision to let them earn their future skills created the absolute ultimate version to them, a version that stroke fear even in him. He valued the fact that their intentions were to form an alliance with him.

"However, not even we know where our children are in this moment, but the immediate situation does not concern them. There is another reason we are here now. You considered the murdered news director someone unrelated or unknown, but the case is that he was our informant and an old friend. Michitaka-san monitored certain individuals that could be involved with the organisation. Kato Mikami drew his interest to an extent that he informed us about his unnatural influence over the prefecture."

"He was killed for that."

"I know."

He could not understand the calmness on their side. He would be distressed should his friend die and would die without hesitation to save them from their death, but there was no trace in the answer that his sentiment was shared. His mindset was not the most common out there, it seemed.

"You do not have to die to reset the timeline each time someone else does. You know that there would be no end like that. You can save one or two at a time but know that no one can be forced to save the world or to become a hero to all the millions in this land. You can thrive to become one but the motivation must be free will, not forced morals or remorse. It is fine to have selfish reasons too. It is fine, no, it is needed to have a favoured few who worth more than others. You need to know who that favoured few is, without whom the eventual win would be as hollow as a loss. You have to make that clear in the head to delve into the time travel absurdness."

He felt a touch brush to his head from the back, like in the elevator. He wondered what the fact that this had been told to him twice meant. His morals were not forced. He believed that no one deserved death with his whole heart – or not. He ventured into his darkest memories and asked himself whether the monsters that did that to innocents, to his friends, to his love, to him deserved death or not and arrived to an answer that contradicted his morals. He envisioned scenarios in which a choice had to be made between normal, innocent folks and realised that under his fair act, there was a favoured few who worthed more than others. He even had a favoured one.

"You have to know who is worth to die for and once that is clear, it is time to learn control."

He sank into his seat with the attention on him. He stuck on the word control.

"I have discovered the method with trial and error, which is difficult to use. It contradicts survival instinct." He heard a click behind his head. He knew that sound and his mind was flooded with fear and doubt and refusal. He saw mashed memories in a flash and then, remorse encircled him. "You mind was flooded with fear and doubt and refusal, which is the normal reaction. You even saw a mosaic from the memories sustained in other timelines, which is the reason time travel is so hard to control. It would have taken this bullet to be fired to distort the world into unfamiliar mess. You are sent into the memories recalled at the death moment, after all."

"You mean that the last moment determines the destination in time?"

"I have come to that conclusion. In order to control time travel, one has to control their mind, which comes hard around because when death is imminent, we are driven on instinct and have little control over our actions, much less our minds. However, a trained mind is able to understand the counterintuitive truth that death is a small inconvenience to access the new timeline, in which case it can remain collected and create the conditions to controlled time travel."

He did not even know what to do with the new information. He did not hold the idea unthinkable. It matched his own theories, with more deaths and retires invested into the result. He wondered whether his mind would ever learn to maintain that concentration. He considered himself a collected individual but still, to resist emotion and instinct at death needed an inhuman mindset. He looked towards the other time traveller with awe – it was another level to realise this rule.

"Your existence includes horror, fear and unknown in an intimate level. You must embrace the colder, darker nature in which this force resides and then, turn it into another chance to embrace the warmth, love and familiar home once more. You deserve a true second chance too, like me."

…

He knocked on the locked door. His own silhouette melted into the darkness in the corridor, which mirrored the darkness in the outside land far from the illuminated downtown. He remembered the concerned shout that had been dismissed in his rush into the unknown. He had taken a while. He would need an excuse because an hour alone could not sort out the information obtained on such a short notice. He waited and trusted to that she would understand him as all the other times.

He heard the lock turn. He saw her in the doorframe, waken from an innocent rest. He saw the moon outline the mess on her head and the tiredness on her face. He had burdened her once more. Her hand rubbed the blur from her vision and a moment later, she took in who was at the door.

"It took me a while. I – "

His words halted in his throat once an embrace collected him. Her arms sneaked around his waist and held him close and firm. Her face leaned into his chest and an almost inaudible mumble was lost into his coat. He smiled in return and returned the embrace. He took in the warmth and love in her.

He deserved her. He deserved his favoured one.

…

…

02-26-1996

…

"I have to refuse. You have to understand that this is business, not benevolence."

Yui left another law office with the usual success. Her heels hurt in the inconvenient shoes, but her research showed that a formal attire increased her chances with small amount. Her mindset was strict: should there be a method to increase her chances, inconvenience could be damned. Her childhood friend trusted her. His smile had screamed an unconditional trust without a sound. Her mind called forth that to harden her determination whenever that was needed.

It had been told that her road would be marred with refusal at each cobblestone and sometimes, she wished that her actions could do more to contribute to the case. Her will balled her hands into fists at a kindred determination to continue the search and stomach the cold refusal over and over. Her situation could not allow the truth to be admitted, which her mind started to break with the doubtful visions forced on her. It blamed her. Her decision to form an alliance with that teen detective and his friends had been the wisest one ever, but the results were her fault. It had stood her to a better start line and it was her that could not use the chance to the best.

Her mind cursed all the bastards who had thrown her out and the more visits had been made, the more those had turned into emotionless monsters who looked at others' miserable life from a cold distance and studied the details like a dead rat on the dissection table. Her irritation flamed with each word that made the fact that she was not considered a human who needed immediate aid but a nice wallet filled with banknotes that smelled rich for their noses.

Her ears fathomed the tick tock in the back, a constant reminder that their time was limited. Her irritation did not solve the case, which needed her dedication first and foremost. However, it was late. It was time to return to the motel and have a new start tomorrow.

It had seemed impossible that the solution would find her in that moment.

…

Later.

…

Kogoro threw himself to his futon exhausted from the fruitless work. He did not even care that this was their one chance to catch the woodpecker in action because a mistake from those who had the cautiousness to hide their identities under codenames on their online channel was in vain to await. He folded his arms behind his neck as the world outside the window became fancier and fancier to observe. He turned to his side and continued to listen to the recoded material in his rest because even if his faith lacked, someone out there counted on him to continue the task and catch words to be used as evidence in the unrelated mess that could be static at most.

He realised that rest and work was a bad combination because in minutes, his eyes felt heavy. He looked around. Akemi was in the shower and the others were out. He could take a break, a small one so that a much better, refreshed mind could continue where the exhausted one left off.

"It went as expected. Yamato-keibu had fallen into the trap." His exhaustion evaporated at those words. He listened closer and noted the time in the audio record when the awaited clue was told. He heard a short silence afterwards, as if the next sentences had been lost to the device. He deducted in a moment that this must have been a phone conversation and in that timeframe, the other side talked. "Michitaka. You mean that murder we framed him for. I understand that the situation needed a drastic solution. You should have done a less obvious work nonetheless, that damned mess caused a headache – wait a moment. I hear someone in the corridor."

He could envision a scene from the sounds where someone hid themselves in haste not to be discovered.

"Takeda-san awaits the next instructions as usual."

He heard a mechanical sound. He knew the conversation was over but also knew that that short conversation contained all the evidence needed. He heard mushed sounds and the door close further into the record. He was so shocked that his limbs did not even move as his mind tried to come to the conclusion that indeed, their work that had been considered fruitless came into fruition in a minute and as soon as that dawned on him, his loud cheer resounded in the corridor at his eureka moment.

Kudo had the best moment to arrive with the others in tow.

…

…

Shinichi went to bed with a cathartic sensation in his chest. He had learnt not to bet on luck and due to that, he did not believe that their efforts would come into fruition at all. He constructed the best tactic available in the situation and tried to execute that to his best abilities, but that seemed too weak to corner the cautious association in the week the trial allowed them to work in. He had believed that the traitors had less connections than in the future, which should have been the case. It turned out then that their influence was as extensive as ever. He had taken them as a fast case while their effectiveness could have been fearsome in his future too, no, it was like his future.

He had been told not to doom timelines on an envisioned failure, but his mind did not know how to trick their enemies. He had known that the chance that their records would have evidence on them or someone would take their side at the trial was next to none, but those odds were not unfamiliar to him. He had maintained his usual calm at the start, claimed to solve whatever would arise in some form. However, the situation reminded him about the times when he had forced himself to maintain his usual calm even when the outcome was impossible to avoid. He would have to deal with the shorter stick once more and luck would never favour his side.

It did.

In less than an hour, there was both a lawyer and evidence on their hands. Yui had run into a freelance lawyer who claimed to have been associated with the deceased victim and also found the circumstances dubious. He was convinced that someone with influence tried to hide the truth and offered aid in the trial to irritate the true murderers out there. His motive sounded honest and with no other choice, his services were accepted without a further ado. A moment later, the old man found evidence on the records. Clean cut evidence. It was short, but contained what was needed to catch the woodpecker: a confession and a name to validate the information.

It was a miracle. He could smoke out the traitors, which would turn the tides in his favour. He could launch a takedown that would trace the command chain to the boss. He would see the issue be tackled from the root. His teen self would be enthusiastic and relieved that the case would be over.

However, his adult self treated too much luck with suspicion.

…

Published: 13/05/2024

Notes under the next chapter.