Chapter 15: The Police Investigation

Having understood all this, a smile bloomed on Yuka's face. She affectionately linked her arm with Raven's, unwilling to separate from him.

She then pulled out her phone for the first time in a while and sent an email to an online acquaintance. The message essentially told him that she had found happiness.

The recipient of the email was a young man named Keitaro.

....

The following day, the horrific street murders of Michiko Osada and her boyfriend made the news.

With no identification on the bodies and Michiko's face grotesquely deformed, the police were baffled for a long time, unable to confirm the victims' identities.

It wasn't until Michiko's parents saw the news and tentatively identified the victims as their daughter, who hadn't returned home all night, based on their clothes and age, that they rushed to the police station to confirm.

After DNA matching confirmed the identity, the couple looked as if their world had collapsed. Michiko's mother nearly fainted from grief.

"Please accept our condolences. The police will do everything in our power to investigate this case thoroughly." Despite the assurance, the investigating detective sighed internally.

There were absolutely no clues on either victim that could lead to a breakthrough. Furthermore, there were no witnesses or cameras in the vicinity of the crime. Finding the killer felt nearly impossible. Given the recent spate of bizarre disappearances across Tokyo, the precinct simply didn't have the manpower to divert resources to an unsolvable case.

"Why are there so many cold cases lately? First, all these strange disappearances, and now this..."

An older and a younger detective, both scrambling within the police station, were overwhelmed by the continuous stream of events.

"This murder case is different from the usual, but one of the female victims seems to be connected to the disappearance case at Sakurabayashi Girls' High School Basketball Club from a few days ago."

"Oh? The disappearance case is linked to this murder?" Detective Sawamura, the younger one, asked.

"One of the murder victims was a classmate of the missing girls and often hung out with them. Plus, the two cases happened less than two days apart," the senior detective analyzed the connection between the two cases.

"In that case, Senior, what do you think the perpetrator is like?"

"In the earlier disappearance case, the victims' clothes and piles of unexplained sand were all that was left on the scene. The people vanished as if into thin air." The senior detective held a stack of files, his tone grave as he continued the analysis.

"As for this murder, the two victims don't look like they were simply killed by a person. Look at the forensic report: the female victim's entire skull was fractured. The indentations suggest palm prints, but unfortunately, we couldn't retrieve any fingerprints because the skin tissue was completely pulverized."

"The male victim, meanwhile, had the back of his head pierced by a high-velocity stone. According to the wound analysis, that stone traveled faster than a bullet."

"That's completely absurd! No human has that kind of strength..."

Detective Sawamura couldn't help but complain. To crush a skull with a slap was unthinkable; not even a heavyweight like Mike Tyson could manage that. This had to be the work of a monster...

A chilling realization crept into his mind. Could those urban legends be true? Was there really some kind of monster secretly lurking in Tokyo, constantly hunting humans?

"That's why I believe the killer... might not be human at all."

Despite how outlandish the conclusion was, the senior detective had to make this judgment. It was the only way to summarize and analyze the recent series of disappearances. He even had one prime suspect in mind: Yuji Kiba. It was just unfortunate that after the last time he escaped, it had been impossible to track him down.

....

Meanwhile, at an apartment provided by Smart Brain for Kiba and Kaido.

Yuji Kiba didn't leave immediately after waking up. He decided to stay for a while to let his injuries heal. During this time, Smart Lady, the secretary from Smart Brain, had visited him several times and even arranged for people to look after him. She also continuously tried to persuade him to attack humans.

"Say, Yuji, you really don't know where Yuka went, do you?" Smart Lady asked, resting her chin on her hand, trying to coax information out of Yuji Kiba.

Both Kiba and Yuka were rare Original Orphnochs, meaning they were among the type with extremely high potential. She wasn't willing to let either of them slip away.

"I told you, I don't know," Kiba firmly refused to disclose any information about Yuka.

"Yuji, you're not being a good boy. Lying isn't nice," Smart Lady said, using the same condescending tone she used with a child.