Episode 38: Elimination
“Kill? That's not very nice.”
“Oh, no, of course I'm
not really asking you to kill him, because that would make me a criminal.”
Sasaki-san waved her
hands in front of her chest and denied it.
“I just want that man
to be socially wiped out.”
“...... I see.”
“Can you do that?”
Sasaki-san asked me as
she looked me in the eye.
“Socially wiped out……?”
I honestly don't know
what to say.
It might be possible to
use a clairvoyant spell and a mind-reading spell, but that would require Kengo
Kadokura to have done something behind the scenes that is socially punishable.
“I couldn't ask a
normal detective to do something like this. ...... Then, I was looking at a
forum on the Internet and happened to find out about Onizuka-san. I thought,
This is it.”
Perhaps it was a sign
of her determination, but Sasaki-san didn't look away from me.
I couldn't help but
glance away from her.
I spoke up, while stirring
my hot coffee with a spoon for no reason.
“Okay....... I'll just
give it a try.”
“Oh, thank you so much.”
“There's only one thing
I want you to promise me in return.”
“What's that?”
“If, hypothetically,
the media or the police ever question you about anything in the future, don't
ever talk about me.”
Just to be safe, keep
it to yourself.
“Media and police ...?”
“Okay”
I'm the one who has to
kill someone a week.
If someone is watching
me, I can't move.
It's literally fatal
for me.
The disappearance of
Hosoya-san and Saeki has led to the police and mass media crawling around me,
so please don't let that happen to me.
“It's okay. I won't
talk about it no matter what, so please don't worry.”
“I see. Then, can you
show me a picture of Kadokura?”
“Yes...... this is it.”
Sasaki-san took out a
photo from a company trip or something, from her bag and pointed at the man in
the front row with hateful eyes.
Hmm?
Hey, I think I saw this
guy somewhere .......
“Onizuka-san, is there
something wrong?”
“Eh, no, nothing.”
The man in the photo
looked familiar for a moment, but I couldn't remember.
It was probably just my
imagination.
Anyway, now that I knew
his face and name, I can activate the clairvoyance spell at any time.
“You can put the photo
away now.”
“Oh, yes...... and
about the request fee.........”
Sasaki-san looked a
little uncomfortable as she began her story.
“I don't know the
market price for this kind of work, how much is it?”
She asked fearfully.
“I've already withdrawn
one million yen from the bank, but I can't afford anything more right
now.......”
While saying this,
Sasaki-san gently placed a thick brown envelope on the table.
“Eh, a million yen?”
“Oh, isn't it enough?
I'm sorry, I'll definitely prepare the remaining, so please don’t abandon me.”
“Oh no, it's not. It's
enough, you’re fine.”
“That's right. I'm
glad.”
As a matter of fact, I
don't even know what the price of a detective's request fee is.
In fact, this is not the
kind of request that a detective would take.
As I listened to the
story, I was thinking that if I could get 200,000 yen, I would be doing well.
It's a million yen ... this
is bad, and if I take it easy, my cheeks will loosen which is holding my loose
tongue.
I kept my composure.
“That's not necessary
for now, as it's a contingency fee.”
I take a sip of hot
coffee.
“I-I understand.”
“Wait for the good news
then.”
I gulped down my hot
coffee and left my seat before Sasaki-san.
I put my mask back on, paid
for the drinks for both of us at the register, and left the coffee shop.
◇ ◇ ◇
On my way back to my
apartment, I immediately thought of Kengo Kadokura's face and mumbled “Ngarince”
in my mask.
Then I saw Kengo
Kadokura on the train behind the back of my eyelids.
I continued to walk
with only one eye closed, keeping an eye on Kadokura's movements.
I felt as if I knew
Kadokura's face when I saw him on the train.
Immediately after, the
train stops and Kadokura and the passengers go down to the platform.
The next moment,
Kadokura slipped his phone between the legs of the high school girl standing in
front of him as he got on the escalator, swamped by the waves of people.
“Ah, this guy ...!”
Then I finally
remembered.
Kengo Kadokura was the
man who had fallen under my radar when I had first used the spell to detect bad
guys.
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