《Freedom : shadow of sins》 one shot CHAPTER 0: Friends ¡®In the modern age, in the third battle, among all the sinner we chosen, one stood. He chooses the path of perpetual torment, in his heart is nothing but Revenge and despair, he seeks vengeance against the one who had wronged him. And those that tasted the bite of his blade named him¡­¡­'' " Ren¡­., there a letter that I wrote just for you, waiting in your ¡®special place''. When the time comes and by any chances you''re involved with that damn game, find it the letter because it contains valuable information about-" That was the only thing the boy remembers of his past but doesn''t know how it happened till then. Ren , a high school student in the city of Tokyo living a life with his family and having a luxurious life. But is this really life he is having right now? Ren Eiji is an average guy and a student in Takizawa University in Tokyo. He has a long hair and has an average build and quite confident in his studies and likes sports. He also has friends, to begin with, and also his two childhood friends. His energetic and dumb friend named Ken Akiba and the kind and caring Haru Uroshimiya, Both of them are Ren''s friends and also one of his closest. But aside from being friends Ren already have feelings to Haru but she doesn''t notice it. Haru on the other hand cares for both Ren and Ken because they''re also into stuff that is dangerous, walking in a bridge, hunting fireflies at evening , playing in the rain and most of all diving near port search for fish (lmao). In the absence of Ren''s parents on their business trip. Haru is the one taking care of Ren, She cares for him that much that even bugs won''t try to bite him. In Haru''s eyes, Ren and Ken are her beloved friends and she''s like a motherly type of girl. Ken, on the other hand, is just so energetic that even time won''t stop him or even the odds, He likes weird things especially science fiction and mostly of course nowadays, VIDEO GAMES. Ken''s favorite game is the mass effects trilogy and the famous JRPG Final Fantasy. He would invite Ren to play with him most of the times and ask Haru for food, Haru would most likely pinch his ears and tell him to do it himself . Even though they did have those rough times and sad times, still the happiness in their hearts and their memories remains as they grow up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - Monday, 7:00 Am. As Ren wakes up from his bed he heard someone from outside of his house saying " Hey, Ren! Wake up! We''re gonna be late! " Ren saw Ken and Haru outside his window and they were waving at him. " It''s okay Ren! Take your time we know you''re tired. " Haru spoke with a soft tone. " Oh come on! Are you gonna spoil him that much? What about me?! " Ken replied. " Actually¡­. You woke up early so¡­ " Haru replied " Oh really?.... Didn''t think of that much. " Ken replied. Ren hurriedly took a fast shower and brushed his teeth and took a bread from the Toaster and hurriedly ran out of the house. " Ah. Ah Ah. Phew¡­. I''m here now¡­.. wait a minute¡­ I can''t breathe¡­ " Ren spoke Ren was so tired since he had practiced all day long of being a top runner at school. Haru would always bring him food and towel, while Ken would bring drumsticks and junk foods for them to eat. " LOL, come on man somehow try to skip one of those practices and hang out with us. Well like we used to. " Ken spoke Haru pinches Ken''s ear. " You know it''s not a right thing to say. " Haru replies. " Ow! Ow! Ow! Stop it hurts my feelings- I mean my ear! Ow! " Ken replied with pain. " I will tell the coach about it. Don''t worry I got this since it''s really a while now has it¡­.. since that - - - " Somehow Ken triggered some kind of flashback and was in shock at the moment. " Where is the letter¡­ " An unknown person spoke " Huh?! What the?! " Ren replied with slight fear " ? Where¡­is.IT!" The unknown person replied " ARGH! What is this? " Ren saw traces of blood on his palm and collapse.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­.. " REN! ¨C REN!! REN! " REN returned to his consciousness. " Huh, what? " Ren replied " Dude you were like a Buddha on enlightenment mode there LOL! " Ken replied like a joke " Actually that''s not a joke if I was Chinese. " Haru replied. " Sheesh. What a turndown. " Ken replied with disappointment Ren was so flustered he couldn''t think of anything but that thing that just happened to him this morning, After what just happened. Ren try to forget about it and went to school While at school Ken and Ren would usually talk while Haru is reading a book of recipes rather than hanging out with other girls after school. She would rather hang out with these guys since they''re the only ones that understood and cared for her. But mostly Ren would look at her with beautiful eyes and be imagining some.. well you know¡­.. THINGS. " Hmmmmm. I wonder if I can add this in our menu this dinner. " Haru spoke while putting her finger onto her lips ( Haru¡­.. ) Ren spoke in his mind while looking at her face. " HEY! Stop daydreaming you harem king-a-ling " Ken spoke while pointing his hand on Ren so that he would get the bait. " Hey! Watch it! It could''ve hit my eye. " Ren replied " LOL. Who are you loo-¡­ OHHHHHH~ amore~.. " Ken replied with a French accent " What?! NO! NO! Don''t think about it! " Ren replied " Come on man! We''re buddies here! Why not share some of our¡­. SECRETS. " Ken replied with a suspicious look. Ren wouldn''t want to let both Ken and Haru know about his feelings for her since it might conflict their relationship, Instead Ren would deny the fact that he has a crush on Haru. His long-time support friend and the one that cares for him since childhood. " You know what¡­. " ( Ren whispered ) ( Looked at the other girl near Haru ) " I like that girl near Haru. " " What? Really? Geez, dude you''re into that kind of girl! " Ken replied with a surprise " Wait what? Why ? She''s cute and small so¡­. " Ren replied with a question on his face " Dude¡­.. She''s an introvert and only likes 2D men with glasses like Kishou Arima in Tokyo Ghoul. I mean seriously her? " Ken replied with a disappointed look " So what? I can become like that guy¡­ what was his name again? Kick-Arima? " Zen replied " You know what. Forget about it. I wouldn''t wanna know. LMAO " Ken replied ( FINALLY! He gave up! ) Ren thinking on his head The bell rang as their conversation end. A teacher wearing a black coat with a red tie carrying a book opens the door and introducing himself. " Hello class " started writing his name " M-y n-a-m-e i-s . . . . . Nem.. just call me Nem¡­ " The class started to mumble conversations about their teacher having a weird name and outfit. Professor Nem has a short hair and having a half part of the hair to the left and mostly to the right, He''s very not well build of a person and has a thin arms and legs, His eyes are red as scarlet and his lips are a bit shiny and his fashion is most likely outdated since he liked fashion that is a bit of a luxurious old type. He wears a red necktie and wears a glove on his left hand only. " I''m going to be your¡­ Mathematics teacher since Miss Luna is on leave for having a marriage over a wealthy businessman and well so common this day of age. However, I want you guys to know more about me. Does anyone care to ask? " Professor Nem asked A student raised his hands up " Yes, my dear? " Professor Nem replied " Why is your name weird? " The class started to laugh and having conversations over to each other. " Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! " Professor Nem smacked the table " DON''T EVER MAKE FUN OF YOUR TEACHERS NAMES! IS THAT CLEAR? MY DEAR? " The student shook silently when Professor Nem smacked the table with great force. " You there! " Professor Nem pointed at Ren " Who.. me? " Ren replied " Yes! Who might be the other guy that is a fast popular runner like you? " Professor Nem replied " Oh well sir.. I uhhhhh¡­ Thank you for noticing me¡­. That much. Ehehehehehe¡­ " Ren replied " What do you expect to me as your teacher? " Professor Nem asked with a glare " I expect you to be uhh uhh¡­ not strict perhaps? " Ren replied with a question on his face " Strict is a word commonly for teachers. Anything else? " Professor Nem replied and smiled like an innocent person " Nothing sir¡­. " Ren replied " ANYTHING ELSE?! " Professor Nem looked at Ren with his deadly eyes. " I have nothing to say sir¡­. " Ren replied " Yes¡­¡­¡­¡­. You are. " Professor Nem was about to smack his fingers, the bell rings and it ended homeroom. " Oh! Is it time already? Well, that''s for today now¡­. CLASS.. " Professor Nem looked at Ren with suspicious eyes. " Phew¡­ that guy.. he gives me the creep " Ren spoke " Dude he nearly got you ! Hahahaha! " Ken laughed while saying it " Oh come on, he''s just a new teacher nothing new about that Ken. " Haru replied " There really is. Have you guys not even feel weird of him wearing a black coat with a red necktie on it. He looks like that Hitman: Agent 47 I just played last night! " Ken replied with enthusiasm " Not in your gaming world Kenny. " Haru replied ( His eyes sure was red, I wonder if there''s something about him we don''t know yet of. ) Ren asked himself " Hey, dude! Stop daydreaming! Let''s go! Did you tell your coach about resting for now? " Ken spoke " Yeah all right all right. " Ren replied Ren visited his coach and asked for permission to halt his practices for a while because of his condition and also he needs time with his friends, the coach did agree but he warned Zen about the consequences but Ren still insists and agreed to those terms. " Did it go well? " says Haru " Yeah, it did. It''s fine I can take care of it " Ren replies with determination " Yeah dude! You can do it! Skipping practices won''t kill you that much " says Ken " You only say that because you don''t enter competitions like him. " " Oh come on! I do too you know! " Ken replied " What? Call of Duty Multiplayer? DOTA 2? League of Legends?. That''s not a physical competition and I''m worried about it. " Haru replied with sarcasm and care " Yeah whatever. At least I enjoy what I do. " Ken replied with a bit of an anger " Guys I''ve just got out from practice I don''t want any of you here to start a bloody war now. " Ren replied " He / She started it! " Haru and Ken replied Zen slightly smacked their heads with a chop " You guys are all the same " Zen replied with a smile Zen laugh and remembered the last time they fought over an ice cream flavor at the convenient store and it was summer back then. __________________________________________________________________________________ Afterschool, Ren, and his friends went shopping at the mall buying some stuff they need for their dinner and for tomorrow''s breakfast. Ren decided to walk by himself and take some time to rest easy while Ken is escorting Haru like a gentleman back home. END ------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks for reading Prolog Remake and Chapter one, two chapters in one special! I don''t remember when, but I somehow remember it again. Prolog: The beginning of the end. On that night it was raining, so I could not sleep easily. I remained on my bed, but I heard whispers that scared me. Despite that, I stepped out of my room. Down the stairs, to the left was the toilet. Though a light leaked some another room and I peeked through the door. There, I see my father and another man, and they were both conversing with one another. "The key is ready; just give it some time I promise." The bell rings and hits me back to my current self; previously asleep but still in my classroom. As the bell continued to ring, the other students had packed their ways out of the classroom. Confused, I checked my phone, which it replied with a time after school hours and that the school just ended for today. That being said, I am Sakuzaki Natsuki, a high school student of Takizawa high school. I''m just one of those average male high schoolers that you would find almost anywhere; average build, glasses and messy hair, you can see my design on the cover photo. "Sakuzaki, how long are you going to stay here for?" Something left with a gentle pat on my back, and I turned to Daisuke Kiriyama. Daisuke was just a childhood friend of mine who happened to be in my class. He''s a pretty cheerful man in general, but sometimes, he is just too positive for situations. Because of that, I would usually find myself dragged into one of his hobbies helplessly, even if sometimes they would be dangerous. That being said, today the two of us were planning to- "Come on, Haru-chan''s going to be left waiting again if you stay like that!" He stays silent for a short while, "You want her to tag along, don''t you?" "Hey come on," I replied, soon began to pack up to leave while left too embarrassed to reply anymore though. We hadn''t originally planned to include her, but if he said so, then maybe. "Hey, Haru!" "Hey!" She turned and waved towards our ways before joining us. Akitsuki Haru, just a childhood friend of ours who just happened to be a mother-like figure for us. Because of all Daisuke''s hobbies, she just happened to always lecture us to not do so. Over the past decade we''ve known one another for, we pretty much know each other''s strengths and weaknesses. "Yo Haru-chan," Daisuke took the first move today, somehow, "You want to go to a cafe?" "Sorry, I''ll pass. I got to go to the dojo today." Honestly, I had hoped to have dragged her in with a bait like this, though it did not work this time. Kendo was her specialty, though it became a convenient excuse because she does not tend to stick with hanging out with us. "I see, see you then." We waved our departures and Daisuke and I parted with her. It was just a 5 minutes trip towards the station, to an alleyway almost unnoticeable, we arrived at the gaming arcade. "Just making it clear, we''re not spending any more than 2,000 yen this time." "Speak for yourself, Daisuke. You always end up paying more than you wanted." As we looked around the arcade area, we stumbled ourselves into an excitement to just play. "Want to try racing this time?" he invited me, and we did the usual. We jumped ourselves onto the platform. The virtual engines roared, and we pushed our accelerators into the tracks against each other... though, I lost again. "Man, that was fun!" I could almost hear the satisfaction from him. To have beaten me for almost countless times, I wondered why I still continue to tag along. Though, it was slightly better than the usual, as he always engages in dangerous hobbies every other day, usually with me dragged along. Usually, it was urbex, but this time it was a change for the better, at least for me. "Com''on Sakuzaki, let''s try out that one again!" He would point to another station and drag me along there. After some repeated losses across several, he started to get bored. "Dude, you wanna try something new this time?" His eyes lit. Though, I carried almost no interest in his hobbies despite the fact I was his victim, "Wanna visit her?" I nodded, slowly. Haru has training on this day, on a weekly basis. At no point in time, she started training, we were not bothered to pay a visit and I was somewhat surprised by his suggestion. "That settles it then! Sakuzaki, y''know where the dojo is?" Then I remembered the main reason why we never paid a visit prior; we do not know where she does it. "Oh." ... After a quick message from her parents telling us where she is, we immediately caught ourselves on the next train to a neighboring town from here. The district seemed more modern than compared to where we live and was full of department stores, office buildings and the such though that being said, in the far corner of this new town, was the dojo. "God, how does she travel this far weekly?" Even Daisuke started to pant, "This distance is almost too far to walk for a day." "Calm down, just focus on keeping your breath or something," I replied, "It is summer today after all. Ah, look we''re almost there." He somehow gave his final pants and began running there, like a finish line of a race or something. I remained walking slowly, slightly amused by the sight of this person finally struggling with something. Guess he should have seen it coming back at him. Then up beyond the stairs, we waited around the entrance. The place was almost a traditional mansion of sorts and like a maze we got ourselves lost. It left us all the more in awe of her. "Excuse me, who might you two be?" A young woman asked from not a distance away. She was obviously older and wore a yukata with a jacket. Her formal yet casual style of fashion almost made us forget that we weren''t in a local shrine of any sorts, but instead a dojo with trained people. "Uh..." I stuttered to find an answer as she lightly smiled whilst waiting for our answer. "Wow she''s hot!" he whispered to me and we lost a good first impression. If I recall correctly from what Haru mentioned, the sessions were split into gender groups... so today was female only. Maybe that''s why this girl scorned us slightly and wondering our intentions of being here. "You do realize that I could hear you, right?" "AH! We were just passing by and thought we could come here and pick up a friend from here. You know Haru Akitsuki, right?" "Oh, I see." She nodded in an understanding, "If that''s the case then-then try not to enter from the back entrance then. Shall I guide you to the dojo?" "Thanks. Come to speak of it, I don''t know your name yet," I tried to stick out my hand for a handshake as I introduce myself, "I''m Sakuzaki Natsuki, nice to meet you." "I know, your father used to be a big shot here," She sighed, "The name''s Hanae Haruko. Also, don''t let that pervert tag along." I tried to hold my laughter. Serves that bastard right. She soon led me there, left Daisuke behind. Though, Hanae really just walked a few steps down and showed me the entrance to the door. Around there, I could already hear the session soon to be over. "Ah, didn''t realize you were here," Haru said as she packed her bags and saw me. "Sup, let''s go." "Come to speak of it," she asked, "if you''re here, where''s Daisuke?" "Back at the entrance, he pissed a girl we met earlier. You probably know her; Hanae Haruko. Besides, we just came here cuz we got bored by ourselves." "Weird to see you acquainted with a girl like her," She sighed, "But thanks, didn''t know you two would go so far to pick me up from this far... Oh, I see him now."The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. It was sort of impressive for a person like Haru to hang around with a bastard like me, someone impressive like her occasionally shines among us. Though that being said, Daisuke likewise is overly optimistic as a person. I... am just here, just acting upon what I perceive as normal. Before I long knew it, I had already developed a thing for her. So, I smiled helplessly as Haru ran towards Daisuke and greeted him, turned around and waved back. "Com''on, Sakuzaki" "Sign" I whispered to myself, and lightly jogged to chase up to them. I really wanted to preserve moments like this... I think. ... Down an alleyway lit by streaks of blue and red, the sirens echoed loudly and endlessly. Among there, two people stood. "What do you think we''d make out of this," The male one spoke, asked for the female''s opinion on the corpse before them. Just between the two of them and the corpse, they were separated by several ''Police: do not cross'' tapes. "Too much of a pain. The victim''s beheaded with the head gone and there''s nothing helping us to get her identity. Also..." The woman bends down, picked up the bloodied cell phone the corpse held on to, "Investigator Julius, this message is too damned vague." On the phone notepad, there was a simple message written there that showed words so simple that it becomes confusing. ''The key is near.'' Chapter 1 : Bonds Beyond the police tapes, two people observed the corpse. One was an investigator, named Julius. The other was female forensic scientist named Faye. A headless corpse, needless to say; a beheading. And on top of that, the torso seems to split apart, as if torn. It was almost impossible to figure out the gender of the victim, even more so of her identity. All the corpse had was a phone and its clothing. ''The key is near'', was the note left on the phone. "In the end, this is just too much of a pain," Faye said, with disgust, "Too damn vague." ... It was the next morning, at least since when we first checked out the dojo. It was a pretty tiring day back then, so I felt almost unwilling to wake up. "Oni-chan!" Oh yeah, we''re set in Japan, just to make it clear, so don''t cringe and enjoy the chapter! As my little sister shouts to wake me up, she bounces up towards me. Like a tiger... but you get the point. She flies, like almost literally, across the room from the door up to my bed blanket. She''s almost always carefree at home. But I guess that may be fun in itself. After landing on the blanket flat, she sits herself up in a provocative manner. "Good morn-! Eh?" Feeling a bit unusual, she figured she sat on something weird. "Oh... hehe..." she smirked in a weird manner. Then she crushed me painfully with her rate. Then, she twists it, grinds it slowly. "Wait wait stop it Nozomi! Any more and I won''t be able to reproduce!" "Ohoho... I thought you''d like it like this." I really wished I didn''t enjoy the situation the least bit, honestly. My gentleman down there says otherwise, though. I could do nothing but to keep the situation like this. Then the alarm rings, and I woke up from my dream. "What." The alarm rings, pretty loudly. For the nth time it was being played, it annoyed the hell out of me so I shut it for the day. Though, the dream... it was too weird to be true anyways. If anything, Nozomi would be closer to an M than an S, after all. Well, it was a new day again today. Halfway dressing into the school uniform, I see myself in the mirror. Reflected there was your average high school boy, just except the stitch across my right arm. I almost felt like a zombie upon looking that scene, but it didn''t matter because I''m not. Then my sister, Nozomi, interrupted me after a prepared for the morning. "Morning, nii." "Yo, Nozomi. You finally woke up early for once unless..." I drew a conclusion which a kind, positive girl like her would reach to. But she wasn''t entirely just energetic, so knowing her, the reason why she would wake up early was... "Uncle''s breakfasts are too plain again," She pouted. "I see..." I lightly smiled and sighed, "Want me to help?" As I said so, her face brightened a bit. It''s been a while like this I think. Under the Natsuki household, only the three of us lived together. My uncle, sister and I; Natsuki Tenya, Natsuki Nozomi, and Natsuki Sakuzaki. I''ve been told that our parents were working overseas, so our uncle took care of us in their stead. Because of that, our daily lives were void of our parents but full of this useless uncle of ours. For a guy his age, it''s almost impressive how he was still single. "Oh, you guys already prepared breakfast already?" my uncle exclaimed in surprise at the sight of my sister and I eating the omelet rice we prepared. "Yeah," Nozomi replied as she shoved another spoonful of the meal into her mouth, "It''s only our shares though. There are some cup noodles up the cupboard for you I''m pretty sure." "Hey isn''t that too cruel..." "Go find yourself a girlfriend to make you one if you can''t prepare something decent yourself," Nozomi smirked. "Jokes aside," I cut their banter as I passed another plate of the meal to him, "Here''s your share." I think our uncle almost cried. ''Today on news, a corpse has been found in an alleyway in X city. The investigation is currently undergoing and it is...'' "X city huh..." Uncle sighed as we saw the new announcement from the television, "isn''t that pretty close from here?" "Guess so..." I looked down at my watch, "Guess I gotta go now. Let''s go, Nozomi." "Have a safe trip!" uncle waved his farewell. My sister and I studied at separate schools, so we departed by the bus station. From there, I meet up with Daisuke. Usually, we''d also meet up along with Haru but perhaps today she was late or something. "Mornin'' Sakuzaki!" "Morning," I casually replied, briefly looked around then asked, "Have you seen Haru around?" "Nah, totes not. You really interested in her though?" "Not that way, really. Chill." "Ah yeah come to speak of it," Daisuke suddenly changed the subject, "You know that game that''s coming soon?" That is to say, the game which he was mentioning was a mobile game named ''Freedom''. It''s turn-based RPG game that''s been gathering quite some hype around this area. Though, currently, the beta version has been via subscription. "Yeah, what about it?" "The beta players of the game so far have given it quite a lot of good reviews regarding the game. With all that being said, there still seems to be room for more people to try out the beta." "Your point being...?" Daisuke pulled off a cheeky smile, then announced, "I went ahead and entered your name into the subscription into the beta version test! So once you get it, mind letting me have a try at the game?" "You do realize exam week is coming soon, right?" I sighed, this guy was almost helpless in his dedication for entertainment, "But geez sure, I''ll pass it to you when I receive the beta." Surely he could have been patient enough to wait months for a real deal rather than a fragment of the game... Though I think it was around this point that I made a mistake too major to be dismissed. "Oi Natsuki," Daisuke pointed out, "We''re about to miss the school mate." And in a hurry, we got off the bus. "That being said," Daisuke suddenly continued as soon as we got off and about to enter school, "Seems like we have a new substitute teacher for P.E. today." "Heh..." Seemed like he just wanted to chat til class starts, not that I cared. "Com''on, at least try to sound interested!" "Yeah Nah, not today," I sighed as I passed through the overwhelming gate. Not long after, school started. We attend in Takizawa High Not that you would be interested, but until lunch, it was all discussion and notes varying from Maths to Traditional Japanese history. Same with lunch and recess times; just bento and casual banter amongst mates. Today couldn''t be any more mediocre. It was until the last period when P.E. was about the begin soon; that''s when we left to change for sports uniform. Oh yeah come to speak of it, wasn''t there a new teacher today? Oh well... After I changed, the class moved to the indoor gym. "Yo, I''m the new teacher, Ms. Hanae. Please look after m- oh," the new teacher paused once we met eye contact. "Eh?" "oh." Yeah, Ms. Hanae, Hanae Haruko, was an acquaintance whom both Daisuke and I encountered not long ago. She seemed to be affiliated with the dojo which Haru also attends. "A-anyways," she stuttered to continue, "Let''s all play a game of dodgeball or something." Wow, so casual. I would say I''m not the sports guy, but I''m not really that unfit to a certain extent. Though that being said, I couldn''t give any excuses of being struck out early in the game. But seriously though, I''d say I''m a fast guy though! While I was at it, I just felt like conversing with Ms. Hanae. "What a coincidence to have you as our teacher eh..." "Nice to see you here. Not sure about that idiot though..." She looks back to Daisuke. Daisuke sure loved to be immersed in sports and almost shouted every time. Looking at this from the sidelines, it was pretty entertaining and almost laughable at times. I lightly laughed and agreed with her. "I guess you can say that. He''s a bit of a pain sometimes so sorry about that." "No worries, not your fault anyways." "Oh yeah come to speak of it, don''t you also work for the dojo as well?" "Yeah. It''s kind of like a part-time job; not so special. I''m just here to satisfy myself financially." "Wow isn''t that a very adult-like excuse..." She briefly laughed a bit, then replied, "Trust me, the adult world''s a sadder place compared to high school; cherish now a bit more." "You sure sound older that I expected... I actually once thought you were younger when we met yesterday." "As if, I''m pretty much an auntie with this age." "Bull, you''re like 24-26 years old aren''t you?" "Yeah..." "SEE! You''re pretty young for a teacher..." Ms. Hanae gave a sigh in annoyance and then ended our conversation, "This is really unnecessary... but thanks for the compliment." She''s pretty cold eh. Class ended not long after so we changed back to our usual uniforms. On the way to exit the school, the phone rang. "hm?", I pondered before opening the mail. "Ah, you received it?" Daisuke popped up suddenly. "OH geez don''t just scare me like that!" I briefly glanced back at the phone that Daisuke snatched from me and took it back, "also, I''ll hold on my phone for now. You get your share of the game once the exam week is over." "eeh... I''ll be going first then. Cyas." "Cyas." I looked back at my desk, to my bag. I packed everything for the day and soon left the classroom too. Whilst walking down the corridor, I began to read the mail sent. [Congratulations on becoming a beta tester of the RPG game, FREEDOM-] "Ouch!" "Ah- Sorry... " I looked up at the person I accidentally walked into; Ms. Hanae. "Natsuki, try not to walked and look at your phone at the same time too," she pulled me up, "What''s that you looking at?" "Ah, a friend recommended me it," I replied hastily, "Seems like the beta version of the game named ''FREEDOM''." Her face changed slightly, though she gave a farewell, "I see. At least be careful next time then." I guessed it was nothing special, so I went back to reading the mail. "kya!" Twice the bad luck, it turned out I fell off some stairs. Instead of the cold hard surface, I was supposed to land on. I found myself on something warm... pretty warm and soft too. My hands moved on its own to try to push myself back up but found something softer around the center. It was surprisingly squishy that it made it a bit fun to play with. I should seriously get myself back up though. Then I opened up my eyes. Ah....this cliche..... END Chapter 2 welcome to freedom To sum it up, I fell down the stairs and ended up groping a girl. Actually, it couldn¡¯t really be helped, could it? I mean, prior to falling I was just reading my phone and happened to clumsily slip down onto the stairs. It just so happens that I would bump into someone else during that moment. That being said, I believe I¡¯m clearly innocent in that case. Well, I looked up. I take that all back. Under me was a blonde girl with blue eyes, pretty much a foreigner. Her uniform from this school though. But the way her face looked¡­ that bob-cut hair with bangs makes her look like one of those ¡®yariman¡¯, no offense. TL note: Yariman means bimbo/bitch in colloquial Japanese ¡°eh¡­I¡¯m guilty aren¡¯t I?¡± Her face reddens quite a bit, ¡°For the moment being, would you mind getting- eh!¡° My hands accidentally squeezed something soft. Her face completely changed. Ah. Shoot. This happens in anime a lot, doesn¡¯t it? She lifts her palm, then slapped me. *SLAP* ¡°Wait I seriously didn¡¯t feel that one at all! You sure that was a slap?¡± ¡°huh?¡± She asked in confusion. I sat up, the pointed up to my cheek, ¡°There¡¯s nothing here! Look, nothing red!¡± Oh what am I even doing, I¡¯ve already started talking without thinking again. Sitting up like an idiot I am, I bullshitted my way out towards innocence. ¡°Yare Yare Daze¡­You call that a slap?¡± I lectured her. ¡°That was pathetically weak! That¡¯s just a disgrace to all the bitchslaps out there. Listen here, if you¡¯re gonna slap me embarrassed, you do it like how a real girl would do it! Do it from the start again!¡± Ok, maybe I spoke a bit too much. I pulled my face closer to her and shut my eyes, prepared for impact. ¡°Pft-¡± Then I heard a giggle, the slowly opened my eyes to a girl laughing lightly. She sat back up, then smirked. ¡°Heh, I didn¡¯t realize Sakuzaki-san would be like this¡­ It¡¯s kind of a surprise, to be honest.¡± This time, I was a bit confused. But hey, I¡¯m probably innocent. ¡°Um, have we met before?¡± ¡°Geez, we¡¯re in the same class. I¡¯m Hoshino Ai, I suppose this might be our first legit meeting haha¡­¡± She spoke in a somewhat small voice, but extended her hand for a handshake, ¡°Nice to meet you.¡± ¡°Likewise,¡± I responded and shook her hand, ¡°it was somewhat brief, but I got to go now.¡± ¡°See you then,¡± She smiled Then we went back to our own businesses and left. I really judged her too much by her own looks¡­ damn. I continued my way around the stairs leaving back to my home. I checked the clock on my phone: 4:13 pm. Whilst waiting for the bus back home, I spent my time reading the rules. ¡®FREEDOM¡¯ really didn¡¯t seem that much of a deal to play with, just except for the fact that it was mainly AR; Augmented reality. Mobile games like this have been a trend for sure, but the pain going outside it far too different from the daily lifestyle I preferred. The game format was almost too standard¡­ in-game currency and store, PVP options and quests. There wasn¡¯t much to really pay attention to when reading most of the rules as it was probably just as long as the terms and conditions. So I scrolled to the bottom, where the [Let¡¯s start!] button showed, and I pressed it. For a brief moment, I felt a minor sting on the back of my neck. Then I looked up by instinct. But saw something else instead; from the other side of the road, I saw Haru. Then my bus arrived, blocking the view just so she disappeared from my vision. I hesitated for a moment on what to do, but I ditched the bus stop to cross the road. As I from the bus stop, the sight of her somehow relieved me. Well, it was already weird for a model student like her to suddenly stop going to school. ¡°Hey, Haru!¡± I called, and from a few meters away she turned around and saw me. I ran across the road, almost carelessly and hit by a car or two on the way, and I stopped, panting in front of her. ¡°Gee, You weren¡¯t at school today, weren¡¯t you?¡± I could barely hold my breath from continuously panting, ¡°Something happened today?¡± Her face looked honestly surprised to see my existence. But she then looked down, seemingly not really comforted by the moment ¡°Oh uh, sorry for suddenly asking. Daisuke and the bunch were pretty worried about you and all¡­¡± I sighed and gave another consideration from her behavior, ¡°... But I guess you¡¯re at least doing fine and all, so that¡¯s nice to see.¡± She really didn¡¯t respond this time too. To be honest, it¡¯s really disheartening to see her troubled, but if she¡¯s avoiding us¡­ then probably we¡¯re not the right people to help her. With a thought like this in me, I just gave up on comforting her. ¡°Uh¡­ I guess I gotta go now then. I mean my bus is here and all so see you tomorrow!¡± I looked back at my bus stop. Obviously, my bus wasn¡¯t really waiting for me and already left, but I thought I should leave now. So that¡¯s what I did; I went back home. ¡°I¡¯m home¡­¡± I called out as I entered the Natsuki household. ¡°Welcome home, Nii-san.¡± ¡°Where¡¯s uncle?¡± ¡°He¡¯s at the lounge with a creepy face,¡± she pointed back, ¡°he thinks he¡¯s got a chance at it this time.¡± Speaking of a chance when it comes to him, it¡¯s certain he wants to have a relationship. Good luck on ya, you 29-year-old old geezer. Congratulations, the earth now celebrates that Natsuki Tenya may be broken from his curse of being single, not that we care. Then I ignored him for the rest of the day. Nothing much happened after, so the next day comes. Because Daisuke and I haven¡¯t seen Haru at this us, we assumed that Haru wasn¡¯t attending school again. Either that, or she¡¯s seriously sick or something. But even so, it was to some degree a bit worrying. That¡¯s why during today¡¯s school lunch, I went to meet Ms. Hanae. ¡°...so that¡¯s why you came here?¡± She almost laughed, ¡°Oh you guys are so youthful.¡± Wow, so casual. ¡°Um, I really wanted to know if there¡¯s anything you know that happened recently on the dojo side of things.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t think there¡¯s much I know there. I¡¯m just a bodyguard there after all.¡± I guess my time here was productive. ¡°Wait are you leaving on me!¡± She cried out, not that I cared. So as I prepared to leave the teacher¡¯s office, I turned back and noticed something. She¡¯s sitting there, carrying a creepily happy face that I had not noticed until now. ¡°You seem¡­ different today. Did something good happen recently?¡± ¡°Ehhh, are you worried?¡± She teased me a bit, ¡°Well I think I have a chance at- Wait give me a chance! There¡¯s really something I wanted to talk about- THE GAME!! THE GAME!¡± Since she sounded too annoying, I shut the door behind me as I left. It wasn¡¯t long later when I received another message from my phone. When I read it, I could only just frown upon it. ¡°That bastard¡­¡± ¡­ ¡°Sorry! I really hope you don¡¯t mind tagging along like this!¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Kneeling before me in dogeza position was Daisuke, begging me to help him with class duty. Cleaning the class¡­ I thought to myself as I looked around the class ¡­More like cleaning his mess. ¡°Ah right,¡± the teacher supervising us, Ms. Hanae, spoke to us, ¡°not that I care, but please do complete the duty before sunset. It¡¯s a pain for both me and you, after all.¡± Wow, so casual. Daisuke and I did a fair share of cleaning of the class. ¡°Hey Daisuke,¡± I briefly struck a conversation whilst doing the task at hand. I couldn¡¯t ask him yesterday, I asked him today. ¡°What now?¡± ¡°You know a girl named uh¡­ ¡®Hoshino Ai¡¯?¡± ¡°Yeah, what about her?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve just met her the other day,¡± I replied, ¡°She just seems somewhat interesting. Is she transfer student?¡± Daisuke pulled a face of disappointment. ¡°You know; you can get really dense sometimes¡­ She¡¯s been in our class since the start of the year¡­ sits in front of you in class I think.¡± ¡°eh?¡± ¡°uh okay, whatever you believe in¡­¡± He responded disinterested, ¡°whatever floats your boat¡­¡± We were pretty much done now; all that¡¯s left were just packing up the equipment. ¡°Sakuzaki-san, might I have a moment with you?¡± Ms. Hanae suddenly asked me, ¡°Daisuke can just do the packing up by himself anyways.¡± ¡°huh¡­¡± He glared at me, whispered ¡°teacher¡¯s pet¡­¡± Ms. Hanae dragged me outside and left me no time to respond. She shut the door behind us and pointed her phone screen at me. ¡°You didn¡¯t give me a chance to tell you this, but,¡± she paused for a second, ¡°the game you mentioned, ¡®FREEDOM¡¯. I don¡¯t think it¡¯s safe to play that.¡± I think had a good idea what she was saying though. Games like this¡­ they tend to turn out to be scams, either that or the addiction would affect my lifestyle; typical teacher talk. Though kind of ironic really, since from her screen I could see the exact same icon of the game. Isn¡¯t she a player too? Oh well. ¡°Yeah I see, I¡¯ll keep that in mind,¡± I then pointed at her phone, ¡°By the way Ms, you¡¯re a player aren¡¯t you?¡± ¡°I can¡¯t¡­ uninstall it,¡± she replied slowly, her head down that I could barely see her face. ¡°Eh?¡± If anything, that¡¯s the sign of a pretty crappy game. Then the door behind both of us opened on itself, showing Daisuke right behind us. ¡°Done with all the silly chat yet? Com¡¯on Natsuki, let¡¯s hit the train before it gets dark!¡± ¡°I guess that¡¯s concludes everything today. I¡¯ll see you guys at class tomorrow,¡± Ms. Hanae smiled, before walking away down the corridor. ¡°Gee,¡± I told Daisuke, ¡°more like it is dark now.¡± The bus we took going back wasn¡¯t any different from the usual bus we took anyways. It was just the usual same route, at a different time. Sitting in here looking out, I really could feel pretty relaxed. The bus trip only took a 5 minute run to the stop which we part. But before I really could say my farewells at the bus stop¡­ I spotted her; Hoshino Ai. Again. I was sure it was her¡­ after all, not many of the locals even look close to a foreigner like her. As if groping her on the other day was not enough, fate decided to bump me into seeing her today. Somehow, she was acting weird, walking around in the streets not far from here, as if searching for someone around the area. But if anything, I think I owe her a proper apology for then. ¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡± Daisuke asked. ¡°Ah, don¡¯t mind me. Just gimme a sec, I¡¯ll just greet an acquaintance soon.¡± His face changed to serious for a bit, ¡°you do realize it¡¯s dark. Not the best time to hang around for you¡­¡± As if he has the right to say anything! ¡°¡­but,¡± he continued, ¡°I¡¯ll tag along too.¡± I smiled¡­ I think. ¡°Let¡¯s go then,¡± I said, pointing towards where I last saw her, ¡°she should be around there¡­¡° As I turned back, I saw her almost disappearing into another street. I followed to where I thought she was, only too see her from the edge of the street quickly disappearing to another intersection. Curiously, I immediately set chase towards the roads and down the alleyways of the suburb and eventually I started panicking. Even after all this chase, I still ended up losing sight of her. On top of that, I was now lost in this maze of an alleyway. I stopped to catch a breath. Daisuke wasn¡¯t far behind and caught up to me at that moment. ¡°The hell¡¯s with you, please don¡¯t just start running like that.¡± I didn¡¯t answer him back, even though I mainly couldn¡¯t anyways because of the sound of my pants. I was tired as hell and lost among here. In an evening like this, anything could happen here. If there was anything we could prevent¡­ then we needed to at least guarantee Hoshino Ai is safe. I pulled out my phone, I had to call her¡­ something was seriously off. I scrolled to the contacts, desperately as I searched for her name there. But she did not exist there. ...Of course not, I have only really known her since yesterday. How stupid am I? ¡°Ok, I¡¯m assuming whatever you tried didn¡¯t work,¡± Daisuke suddenly started talking, ¡°Look, I¡¯ll try calling¡­ what¡¯s the number?¡± I turned around, slightly relieved. ¡°¡®Hoshino Ai¡¯, got her number?¡± ¡°Ah, no not really.¡± I turned back, slightly disappointed. My phone vibrated a bit, an app opened on itself. On that black display screen, displayed some words. [A player nearby is engaged in PVP] What? AUTHOR NOTE: try this song for reference https://youtu.be/oiLI9KcAytk Not long later, we heard a scream not far from here. No please, we can¡¯t be too late¡­ Daisuke and I looked at each other. Perhaps we had looks that showed our thoughts opposing each other; Daisuke wanting us to be safe¡­ I wanted to make sure Hoshino Ai is safe. He really didn¡¯t want to be here, so I left with him an option to opt out. ¡°I¡¯ll check out what¡¯s wrong, you try to call the police or something.¡± ¡°Gotcha.¡± On instinct, I had to go towards the sound. After all, there was a chance she would be there and because of that fact, I just couldn¡¯t abandon a person who could be in danger if I could do something about it. ¡°Hoshino-san!¡± I called out, hopefully not disturbing locals and loud enough for her to hear. [Distance from PVP zone: 10m] Then around the corner, I saw her there. She was there, she really was. In one piece and all, safe and on the ground. I saw her stumbling backward on the ground, so I tried to get a bit closer. But she gritted her teeth and looked barely able to prevent herself from nausea. It was a face of disgust, perhaps from something we shouldn¡¯t see. Then I realized, I took a step too many. ¡°Hoshino-san, are you al-¡± Hoshino saw me but to a degree of shock. From the side of the face, I saw an eyepiece on her ears. ¡®I¡¯m on my way there. Just stall.¡¯ From the corner of my eyes, I noticed something almost unnoticeable. The purple moonlight and the brown of corpses reflected a woman there, sitting care-freely on the small mountain of corpse. ¡®She¡¯ was, without a doubt, a monster. The woman licked the tip of her already bloodied knife and smiled this way. It was an empty smile¡­ full of the greed, lust, and desire for killing. ¡­Shit. I could hear almost breath I take in that moment. I wanted to do something, yet my shaking legs forbid me to do so. It was probably because¡­ I don¡¯t know what to do to start off with. Maybe I should start off with running away. But she¡¯ll be left behind. What¡¯s the right choice? Just like that, I was frozen from doing anything. No¡­, not just me, but also her; we were frightened by what could happen to us. It was too obvious for the two of us to notice what was to happen. Then in that instant- ¡®She¡¯ threw a knife towards Hoshino. Hoshino stayed still and pointed her arms towards the knife and chanted, ¡°Shop item: barrier¡± The knife hit blunt into a blue field that appeared right in front of her arm. It did not penetrate further, nor did it leave a scratch on her in the end. Then the knife dropped to the ground and the blue glow of the field dissolved away. Just what on earth¡­ I turned back to where I thought the woman was¡­ but before I knew it, ¡®she¡¯ charged in towards me and strangled me. ¡°Natsuki-san!¡± Hoshino yelled, struggling to do anything. I tried to resist, but her grip was beyond stronger than my attempts to stop her. On top of that, I was losing my strength along with my breath. Hoshino looked to the side and spoke to her earpiece, ¡°Sensei, this is getting pretty bad¡­¡± It took a while for me to understand what was happening to this situation. Ah¡­ I¡¯ve become that woman¡¯s hostage so Hoshino couldn¡¯t do anything. My presence here was just not needed for her safety. ¡°Hoshino-san¡­¡± I barely squeezed out of my mouth, ¡°You¡­ should run too.¡± Then I overheard the whisper from her earpiece. ¡®Ah, just give me a second, Hoshino.¡¯ A bag was thrown out of nowhere, but towards us. ¡®She¡¯ dodged a couple of the books that fell from the bag, but that was enough to keep her distracted for the moment. ¡®She¡¯ looked up, this time there was another person besides Hoshino this time. I peeked from the corner from my eyes, and I could only register one person who fitted that look¡­ The one wearing the yukata with a jacket on top, without a doubt, it was her. ¡°Tch,¡± ¡®She¡¯ scowled, stabbed me in the stomach and dropped me on the ground, ¡°There¡¯s no help to it then.¡± Because she was outnumbered, ¡®She¡¯ left almost immediately. But those two did not chase after ¡®her¡¯¡­ after all, they couldn¡¯t risk engaging in a fight while an injured person was nearby. And from the edge of my field of vision, there was a blurry Hoshino rushing to my end. ¡°Sensei! Natsuki-san is-¡° Then everything turned black. It was then when I lost consciousness, so I had no idea what happened after. *** Then I woke up. I had a nauseating headache, yet made me barely remembered what happened not long ago. I checked my torso, which only showed a minor scar from then. At least I was alive. Come to speak of it, how long has it been since I collapsed? As I wonder such question, I realized that I was in a place unfamiliar. This is a bedroom really unfamiliar to me, and to think that there exists a bedroom as yellow and girlish like this actually frightened me. That too, but on top of that it was the size of the room was somewhat large¡­ kinda like as if the person who lives in this household was rich to some extent. Holy shit a girly room exists¡­ ¡°You woke up,¡± Hoshino said as she entered the room, ¡°Congratulations.¡± ¡°WOAH WHO WHAT THE SHIT THE WHO?¡± I panicked a bit, maybe too much. But holy shit, I didn¡¯t really expect a girl to come in to this girlish room. This place is really full of surprises¡­ Damn. Well, that was just me being sarcastic earlier. ¡°Um,¡± she replied to my unique response, ¡°I¡¯m taking it that I haven¡¯t healed your head enough. Give me a sec, bring it closer I need to dissect-¡° She leaned over, eagerly as if she really wants to cut my thing apart. That¡¯s going to cost my life, you know! ¡°PAUSE! I was just joking!¡± I raised my arm to defend myself, ¡°Just surprised earlier. I¡¯m all healed and all from what I could see. That being said¡­¡± ¡°Eh¡­?¡± She looked a bit disappointed, but then pulled a joking face, ¡°teehee~¡± I recalled the events that happened then. ¡°This¡­ it¡¯s your room isn¡¯t it?" ¡°Well duh.¡± Wow, so casual- wait that line was like supposed to be reserved for someone else. ¡°Got anything to explain what happened earlier¡­ some time ago?¡± ¡°It¡¯s still the same day,¡± Hoshino sighed as she replied, ¡°but yeah, you might want to check this out.¡± She pointed to my phone, which was lying on the bed. On the screen on the phone, displayed these words: [WELCOME TO FREEDOM] Chapter 3 : rules and all, in general. The investigator looked down at the two papers he was handed by Faye, from the forensic team. ¡°What¡¯s this,¡± He asked, ¡°Julius¡­ this is the crime scene investigation report just then; The headless case. Also, you should check on this report too.¡± ¡°Hm?¡± Julius looked up from his cup of coffee, ¡°what about it?¡± ¡°Thought you¡¯d be interested in it,¡± Faye responded, ¡°there seems to be another incident. Three corpses, piled at one of the local streets of 9th ward last night. It¡¯s been confirmed that there were four other people at the scene, though their involvement is still uncertain.¡± ¡°So, what¡¯s the relation then?¡± Julian looked at the photos of the report, ¡°Oh that¡¯s nasty.¡± ¡°The culprit is likely to be the same, unknown methods and all beheaded. The other three¡­¡± ¡­ are either witnesses or accomplice, not that it mattered for the moment being. With an abnormal case like this, it would be faster to find the evidence through witnesses and also would serve a big role to the investigation. The risk may as well be big when it comes to finding anything useful, and he might lose his occupation. But even so, such a challenge was inviting him. That¡¯s the thrill of it, after all. ¡°heh¡­¡± He sighed, ¡°so we have to get either of those bunch then. Sure, pass me their report on the case, I¡¯ll take this investigation too.¡± ¡°Understood,¡± Faye then left the office. Then, Julius sighed again. He pulled out his phone from the pocket, which showed a message. He had checked the number it was from, but it was just from the number of the phone which the corpse had carried. Too bad there weren¡¯t any names attached to mobile service account it uses. But this type of information was already all too familiar to him. [WELCOME TO FREEDOM] ¡°¡­ what a joke,¡± Julius whispered to himself, then he just smiled. He chuckled to himself, once again, muttering, ¡°What a joke.¡± *** 18 hours before, [WELCOME TO FREEDOM] ¡°Yeah¡­ About that,¡± I showed Hoshina the screen of the phone, ¡°I¡¯d like an explanation on this¡­¡± ¡°I see, you just started the game recently haven¡¯t you?¡± ¡°well, more like I just started¡­ it¡¯s been nothing but reading and skipping the tutorials¡­ I¡¯m the type that really learns while I¡¯m at an actual game.¡± ¡°Skipping-¡± She looked surprised at first, then disappointed, ¡°You know¡­ that¡¯s gonna cost your life.¡± ¡°Well,¡± I gulped, nothing about earlier today made much sense, and even more so my phone¡¯s notifications of that time¡­ it was too obvious, ¡°I guess that¡¯s a given by now. So yeah, throw me an explanation.¡± But yeah, it was a pretty general explanation and bored the hell out of me so I might as well summarize it here. So, apparently, they call the players of this game ¡®sinners¡¯¡­ though specifically, it refers to players who are active/involved with the PVP function at one point. Since this game¡¯s functions of mini-quests and missions on the phone is really just a fa?ade to cover the PVP function, this game already stands somewhat dangerous. So say it simply, the game should be safe until you have been in a PVP state, whether you challenge or are challenged. That said, sinners¡­ that¡¯s a pretty harsh way to categorize us. Apparently, the game functions are made possible due to some sort of ¡®sting¡¯/injection¡¯ that Hoshino vaguely mentioned when she started the game. I haven¡¯t really experienced anything of the sort prior, so I guess there¡¯s an error or that I¡¯m special¡­ not possible though. ¡°By the way,¡± Hoshino suddenly asked so I forget to continue to explain to the audience, ¡°How¡¯d you get that scar? We saw it when I did the first aid on you.¡± ¡°Uh¡­¡± I looked down a bit at my bandaged body, there wasn¡¯t much about the wound near the right¡­ right, the stitches on my right arm, ¡°Yeah, I think that happened long ago. Don¡¯t worry too much about it.¡± ¡°Oh I see,¡± Anyways, back to explaining this. Please don''t sleep on me though. This game¡¯s got some interesting perks of its own that I¡¯d pay for if not for the ¡®death to all sinners and have them kill each other¡¯ random PVP function. This baby though, it¡¯s got a pretty sweet free data service just dedicated to this app, so lag isn¡¯t really an excuse. There¡¯s also a radar for detecting other nearby players so you can check info whether you want to or not, but the most you¡¯d receive you just be up to the date of birth, gender and ranking. So far there¡¯s also rankings in terms of PVP, but there seem to be a bit more than 10 with most people in unranked and not engaged in PVP as of yet¡­ so that¡¯s a good thing in itself I guess. Hoshino¡¯s currently rank 13, having only had two encounters, no victories but gained survival points. The point system is pretty much categorized into Attack Points (AP) and Survival Points (SP), obviously, AP would worth more than SP but that being said, that¡¯s how both Hoshino got our points from today. There¡¯s this A.I. system named [keeper] too, it really acts similar to a game manager to prevent broken rules and such and on top of that, could also be used for other purposes too, like leveling various statuses up and purchased in the game store.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Speaking of the game store, I think that purple thing that Hoshino used was from there, too. Anyways, it really works like any RPG game store with items like potions, buffs, barriers, bombs and gotcha machines. That being said, there are three titles only available; [young], [sinner] and [king]. These are only available through evolution, so players would by default starting from [young], which is my current title. According to her, there seemed to be a rank lower than [young] though almost impossible to achieve. So far Hoshino has only mentioned that Ms. Hanae is the only person of the [Sinner] stage we know as of so far. [USER: REAPER (Natsuki Sakuzaki) RANK: 15 ( 200+ unranked) TITLE: [Young] ABILITIES: none ITEMS: none POINTS EARNED: 0 (AP) & 1 (SP) KEEPER: Active FRIEND: 0 of 0 active] And to top it off, this is just the beta¡­ the beta of what ¡®they¡¯ probably have in plan. If there¡¯s any real threat now, it¡¯d be the people playing for real; those who currently rank high. I scrolled up to the names up on the top. [USER: QUEEN (???) RANK: 2 TITLE: [Sinner] POINTS EARNED: 4 (AP) & 0 (SP)] With only attack points and no survival points¡­ that player¡¯s definitely a straight-up murderer. Maybe that player was the one we had encountered, maybe not¡­ but even so, they¡¯re all the same types. If I¡¯m lucky enough, that would be ¡®her¡¯ real name. Anyways, Hoshino started speaking. ¡°Ms. Hanae, she mentioned there¡¯s a worse function later in the game,¡± She said, ¡°I¡¯m not sure what it is, though.¡± Figures, probably related to her experience, rank, and title. [USER: HANAKO (Hanae Haruko) RANK: 10 TITLE: [Sinner] POINTS EARNED: 1 (AP) & 7 (SP)] ¡°I see¡­ I guess it was foolish of me to even try to meet up with you,¡± I sighed, ¡°tonight¡¯s my fault anyways so I¡¯m sorry!¡± ¡°Eh¡­ you don¡¯t have to since we¡¯re fine and all,¡± She flustered a bit, ¡°wait, you tried to meet up with me?¡± ¡°Yeah, saw you near the station so I wanted to greet you¡­ not the best choice isn¡¯t it?¡± ¡°Pft, I guess you¡¯re right,¡± she paused for a moment, ¡°by the way, what¡¯s with the username?¡± [Reaper], that was the username I ended up choosing. I mean, in a game like this, this name already sounds pretty suspicious but eh, I thought it sounds cool so I went with it. And so that¡¯s how I responded. ¡°I thought it sounds cool.¡± ¡°What are you, 12?¡± She asked sarcastically. ¡°On a scale of one to ten, yeah.¡± Then we both chuckled a bit. *** It was the next day, and Hoshino and I had already had our farewells. There¡¯s no way I was to sleep at a girl¡¯s place that late into the night. Though, living alone probably has its own perks. Well, she probably had it easy living alone. That being said, it was until breakfast when I met up with everyone. Well, just My sister and uncle really. For some reason, Uncle Tenya had a pretty weird grin to his face. ¡°Hey Nozomi, what happened to uncle? He¡¯s got a pretty weird smile¡­¡± ¡°Eh, it¡¯s probably from that woman I mentioned before¡­ I think he¡¯s seriously got a chance at it.¡± ¡°Ah,¡± I responded in understanding, ¡°so that¡¯s why he¡¯s eating ramen like that too.¡± ¡°I could hear you,¡± Tenya responded, ¡°pretty clearly on top of that.¡± Nozomi and I looked at him briefly and decided that we didn¡¯t really care about his response. ¡°Apparently it this random woman that he met at the caf¨¦ he works at.¡± ¡°Eh¡­ Good on him I guess.¡± ¡°Ok, ok guys it¡¯s time for you to shut up,¡± Uncle Tenya cuts in, and reaches for the television remote. Once he got it, he switched on the television to distract us. Though, it just brought us to the morning news. ¡®Last night there has been an incident resulting in three casualties. The police are currently undergoing this investigation-¡® So much for the morning news. It killed our appetite to eat. ¡°That place¡­¡± Uncle Tenya spoke first, ¡°isn¡¯t that pretty close to your bus stop, Sakuzaki?¡± ¡°Yeah, it is¡­¡± I softly replied. This incident, without a doubt, was what Hoshino-san and I encountered the night before. Thinking of it still disgusts me, and I don¡¯t think I could do much about it. It was already pretty impressive for the police to even count all those severed limbs and body parts for the ¡®mountain of corpse¡¯. ¡°It¡¯s pretty unfortunate,¡± Nozomi quietly commented. ¡°Anyways, just make sure to be safe when you¡¯re on your way to school,¡± Uncle Tenya immediately turned off the television, seeing as that clearly killed our appetite. And then Nozomi and I soon packed up to leave for school. Tenya checked the time; 8:15 am. ¡°Guess it¡¯s time to go as well.¡± Tenya Natsuki, a single bloke in his late twenties and a useless uncle of mine, works at a caf¨¦ store not far from my school. But even so, he usually prefers to walk his way there instead of the bus. And so that¡¯s what he did. He checked on the counter of the caf¨¦, just minutes before the opening time. Usually, there¡¯s not much to do during the morning hours, but he looked forward to that moment. Because there was a certain customer that caught his eye, and it was an opportunity he had not want to let go. So he prepared the coffee beans into the machine, and let the machine do its job to prepare that certain order. ¡°One double espresso, please,¡± The store opened before he noticed, and Tenya immediately hands the prepared order to the customer. ¡°Here you go, Hanae-san,¡± Tenya gives his usual corporate smile to the customer, but sometimes he felt it be genuine. *** ¡°The hell¡¯s with you?¡± Daisuke exclaimed when we met on the way to the bus, ¡°That incident on the news, that¡¯s pretty much where you were last night¡­ Wait don¡¯t tell me you-¡° ¡°I didn¡¯t do it,¡± I responded, ¡°What¡­Do you not trust me?¡± ¡°To be honest, yeah,¡± That hurt me in more ways than it should. ¡°hah¡­¡± I sighed, ¡°Sorry to disappoint you then, but yeah she was there too.¡± ¡°You jumped into a crime scene for a girl?¡± Daisuke exclaimed just as we both reached to the bus stop. ¡°You what?¡± Haru suddenly intervened into our conversation from behind. ¡°OH WHAT?!¡± ¡°eh?!¡± ¡°What is it now,¡± Haru pouted, ¡°you guys hiding something from me again?¡± ¡°Heh¡­¡± I really could not explain my situation last night, after all. ¡°He jumped into a crime scene for a girl, you know, the one on the morning news.¡± DAISUKE YOU ASSHOL- I mean, excuse the language but Daisuke dogged me out. I guess he doesn¡¯t trust me at all. Gee that bastard seriously wants to ruin my chance with her. Hearing that obviously surprised Haru, to which she replied, ¡°I¡¯ve only been away for like 2-3 days and you get yourself involved with this? Can¡¯t you just be more mature or something, Natsuki?¡± Yeah um, that¡¯s the type of thing you say to Daisuke, not me. Of course, I didn¡¯t say that. ¡°¡­That being said,¡± She continued, showing me photos on her phone ¡°I was checking some stuff and saw this thing in a photo. There¡¯s this really creepy guy in the background.¡± She zooms in on a photo of the three of us, and in the background was a pretty mysterious figure, ¡°I thought it was a stalker of some sorts, so I tried to take some photos of you guys while I was ¡®away¡¯.¡± ¡°Hey,¡± Daisuke interrupted, ¡°Aren¡¯t you the stalker in that case?¡± Then Haru suddenly exclaimed in the bus. ¡°HELP ME THIS PERSON IS GROP-¡± I covered her mouth, but to that result, she already attracted the attention of everyone on the bus¡­ well, besides the driver. I quickly released it, panicking. ¡°Ah sorry, I think there¡¯s a misunderstanding,¡± Haru then calms the whole bus down and continues back at us, ¡°Sorry about earlier but um, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m the stalker in this case.¡± It was clearly a threat she said. If we disagree, she¡¯ll claim us to be groping her or something. Even someone like Daisuke was taken back in that instant. We were both reminded that Haru was obviously us all. This is seriously not fair though, how can a character like her, who only appeared in prologue and barely appeared in the last chapter, undergo so much character development?! It¡¯s like as if the character ¡®Haru¡¯ in the prologue is completely different from this one. ¡°I want you to look at this,¡± Haru then shows a series of photos of me, in different situations of my everyday life. I mean, having your crush having so many photos already gives me mixed feelings about this. Isn¡¯t she pretty much the ¡®stalker¡¯ who takes the photos? But then I noticed a common pattern amongst all of them. There was someone wearing a similar hooded outfit for most of them. If Haru¡¯s the one taking the photos¡­ does that mean I have an actual stalker? #probablyacliffhanger Chapter 3.5 ( Side chapter) : A reason to live. Urbex¡­ or ¡®Urban exploration¡¯ was a hobby he tends to drag me into. Well, there wasn¡¯t much of other things that thrilled Daisuke besides this dangerous form of exploration. And to put it bluntly, he¡¯s a haikyo-maniac. Anywhere and everywhere that was to be a mystery of this city would become subject to his own hobbies. Ruins, abandoned buildings, secret pathways¡­ he would be certain to aim to find them al In a certain sense, that was already pretty impressive in its own way. But to me, that was a huge pain to my daily lifestyle. At least, I¡¯d prefer to stay in a safer area. Since it was a weekend, this time we were climbing a nearby hill. It was a bit far off compared to the usual, but I still tagged along. Well, it¡¯s better for him to not die alone in a place like this. Apparently, there was an abandoned hospital he heard was near here, so he tried to scale the peak of this hill to find it easier. But the extreme lengths taken to travel to explore such places were still something I still don¡¯t understand. With him hurrying to scale the mountain, I could only barely keep up to 30 meters behind him. ¡°Natsuki Natsuki!¡± He turned back and called out to me, ¡°Check this out!¡± I preferred not to, but since it was him, I really had no choice to refuse. Also, I came here prepared to not let myself in danger. So I followed him up and gradually reached the peak. The hill wasn¡¯t really that high to climb, but it sure did give a sense of satisfaction. Though up here, the wind was somewhat strong enough for me to barely hear my surroundings. I shielded my face with my forearm from the wind, then took a step at a time. ¡°Com¡¯on! You¡¯re being a bit too slow aren¡¯t ya?¡± He gestured me over. Once I reach there, I dropped my arms to see the view from the peak. My eyes widened in surprise as I see the scenery of the city from here. And to be honest, it wasn¡¯t that impressive of a view. Almost too simple and clich¨¦, yet also maybe because there wasn¡¯t much in this city to start off with. Anyhow, I searched myself a spot to sit and pulled something from my bag.Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. ¡°We finally got here!¡± Daisuke declared satisfied, ¡°Now time for a break here- wait what¡¯s with that book, Natsuki?¡± ¡°eh?¡± I replied, ¡°Oh that. It¡¯s a light novel, the kinda stuff NEETs read, you know.¡± ¡°Yeah, I know what that is¡­¡± Daisuke said annoyingly, ¡°but why though? Seriously¡­¡± I guess his logic was somewhat sound since I wouldn¡¯t just climb a mountain just to read a light novel. But truth be told, I had nothing else to entertain me up here¡­ no reception, no wifi, no computer; not up here on this hill surrounded by its urban wildlife. ¡°Well, I just felt like it,¡± I replied, then I asked back, ¡°you want me to bring a handheld console along next time?¡± He pushed me slightly. I lost a bit of my balance but still managed to sit back up. But during that moment I just realized how close I was sitting near the edge, almost too close to falling off from the hill. It didn¡¯t seem like that great a fall but should be enough to kill. I looked back at him, and oh boy, I do hope that he knew I was pissed off that he did this to me. ¡°Well,¡± He responded to my annoyed face, ¡°I just felt like it.¡± And then there¡¯s this long conversation, which is just listed below. ¡°Damn, I feel like killing you here now.¡± - Natsuki ¡°Only if it¡¯s a double suicide.¡± ¨C Daisuke ¡°Well, you jump first then. I¡¯ll follow after.¡± ¨C Natsuki ¡°Seems like I forgot how to jump, mind showing me a demonstration first?¡± ¨C Daisuke ¡°Show me a small example first, I can¡¯t teach you without knowing how you want me to teach you.¡± ¨C Natsuki ¡°I¡¯ve just said that I forgot how to jump, I seriously need an example first.¡± ¨C Daisuke ¡°Then you jump down first; right here right now.¡± ¨C Natsuki ¡°Oi, I¡¯m not jumping if you don¡¯t jump at the same time!¡± ¨C Daisuke ¡°That¡¯s just rude, man. Don¡¯t you that they say ¡®ladies first¡¯?¡± ¨C Natsuki ¡°I¡¯m sorry but I¡¯m a man who believes in true gender equality, there¡¯s no way I would let- WAIT DID YOU JUST CALL ME A WOMAN?¡± ¨C Daisuke ¡°Then,¡± I sighed for a moment, then continued, ¡°I guess you can count me out.¡± We paused for a moment, then both burst into laughter. Till both of us calmed down, we were somewhat close mates, if not best mates. It was then that we had a lame excuse of keeping ourselves alive¡­ to not die before the other in vain. But still, it was a reason to live for. ¡°Oh hey, I found it!!¡± He pointed down the cliff, where there was an abandoned ruin of a shutdown hospital. It was the type of thing you would see from a horror film, and seeing it still gave me the chills. I shoved my light novel back into my bag to pack, then ran downhill to ditch him. ¡°COUNT ME OUT!¡± I shouted as I barely keep my feet balances while descending the hill at a fast rate. ¡°WAIT WHAT THE HELL, NATSUKI!¡± ¡­ I looked at the phone I was holding. On it was displaying white words on top of the blank black screen. [WELCOME TO FREEDOM] If I really was a beta player for such a game¡­ Then by default, I was a sinner. A sinner who could barely keep his reason to keep living. Chapter 4 : The investigation. He tapped on the desk three times whilst holding the documents. The first case, the headless case, had a beheaded female victim found amongst the alleys. The beheading was a rough cut, enough to say that it would be ¡®ripped¡¯ off. Furthermore, the location was within the residential areas, so the locals have also been required to participate in the investigation. The second case, a serial murder, had three female victims with severed limbs, but the cause of death was their punctured hearts. This time, the wound was clean yet the location of the corpses was also among the residential areas. It wasn¡¯t hard to rule these deaths as abnormal deaths, as it was perfectly possible to achieve so via normal means. But the one who read it was Julius, an investigator no more nor less. He switched on his phone, to which the screen shows the application icon for a beta version of the game, FREEDOM. Since the release of this game and his involvement as a player, he could not retract any possibilities that it may be the cause of a duel in the game. Under the surveillance of the current head of the office, Julius had the authority to hold an investigation in regards to the game. But even so, that was not enough reason yet assume it to be solely for the cause of FREEDOM. He sighed, and slowly attempted to profile the culprit based on these two cases. Based on the appearance of the wound and the potential methods that the culprit may have used, it¡¯s likely that he is a sociopath with a gender-aligned grudge to females, though the first one seems to be from a personal grudge. It¡¯s likely that he was also familiar with the residential area, whether he may be a local or just travels there often due to circumstances. The final crucial evidence was the membership card the first corpse had in her pocket. ¡°Julius, it¡¯s really miraculous how you even bother helping the forensics this time¡­ here,¡± Faye entered the room, calling out to Julius and offering another small report, ¡°We¡¯ve just checked the sports membership card with the sports club and it traces to the user Tsuyuko Kana. We¡¯ve checked scanned all the possible matches with the names on the census and had up to around 14 matches within this city.¡± ¡°Hey look,¡± Julius replied back, annoyed, ¡°if you narrow it properly down- ¡° ¡°If you narrow it down based to those who were reported missing recently,¡± Faye cuts in, pointing to the first page of the identity profile, ¡°27 years of age, formerly worked as a teacher for Takizawa High school.¡± Julius scanned the profile. It¡¯s somewhat certain by now that she was the victim, but there seemed to be a time gap of a week between her disappearance and the time of death. With all the information, he tried to create a hypothesis for the case. -The date of her disappearance was linked with her retirement from her teaching career, so the culprit could be a close relation to her ¡°Heh,¡± He flipped to the next page, then lightly smiled to Faye, ¡°thanks.¡± The two of them understood each other¡¯s thinking processes almost too well. Even if it may look one-sided instead, the information there were the list of the victim¡¯s fellow staff and students; just what he needed. If the culprit should be amongst the students, the chances of the culprit being a FREEDOM player would increase drastically. The main target market of FREEDOM players would be people from their teens to early 20¡¯s, being more popular towards the younger end of the age spectrum. Should that be the case, Julius was already prepared to arrest all FREEDOM players. If that was not possible, then he¡­ he will... ¡°Oh right Faye, I¡¯ll take a break outside. Mind getting me a warrant? Thanks.¡± Faye pouted briefly, ¡°does it seriously hurt you to call me ¡®Senior¡¯?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to pass on that; sounds ridiculous.¡± *** Natsuki Caf¨¦, 8:30 am He took a trip to a nearby caf¨¦. It was still early morning and not much had occurred as of far. But that being said, he thought On the way, he glanced to a nearby school; Takizawa High School.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Well, I¡¯ll look forward to paying a trip there I guess. He sighed, then it almost became his turn in the queue. ¡°One double espresso please,¡± the person before him placed her order. ¡°Here you go, Hanae-san,¡± The man at the counter quickly passed her a prepared drink, though recently made. Julius looked up briefly, the name caught his attention, after all. It rang a familiarity from earlier, and if he recalled correctly, she was one of the names mentioned amongst the fellow staff of Takizawa High School¡­ the substitute PE teacher that was to replace the victim; Hanae Haruko. Then it was his turn, but the man at the counter ignored Julius and escorted her aside to her desk. Frankly, he found it disturbing. Another waitress immediately rushed to the counter and quickly apologized, ¡°Sorry for the inconvenience about our boss just then, what would you like to order?¡± ¡°Just a caf¨¦ latte would do, regular sized,¡± Julius looked at the staff tag of the waitress whilst passing the money, ¡°Shiraimi-san, mind advising your boss to not flirt during business hours?¡± The waitress,Shiraimi, lightly laughed, ¡°sure.¡± Once he received the order, Julius went to sit at a nearby table alone. He glanced across the store and still saw the store owner with Hanae. This time,Shiraimitried to intervene briefly but somehow failed. Well, he couldn¡¯t really expect too much from an inexperienced employee like her. Though frankly, Julius started to find it annoying. Julius¡¯ phone vibrated a bit, showing him the message that came from the FREEDOM game. [USER: JULIUS (Julius) RANK: 6 ( 150+ unranked) TITLE: [Sinner] ABILITIES: None ITEMS: None POINTS EARNED: 0 (AP) & 12 (SP) KEEPER: Active FRIEND: 1 of 3 active] 12 were already captured by him, but more are joining the game. Despite being a somewhat simple game, Julius sighed when he read the name of the messenger; White Crown. As stupid as the name sounded, he did not think of the player too much. Even if they were to know each other in reality, Julius wouldn¡¯t hesitate to consider ¡®him¡¯ an enemy. Though he had a clear line that was drawn for the moment being, and that was that the player was his informant. White Crown: I¡¯ve come across this photo a couple of days ago, thought you might find it ¡®interesting¡¯ Julius opened the file attached to the message, though he was slightly confused for a brief moment. In the distant corner of the photo showed the one across the caf¨¦, Hanae Haruko, seen alongside with the victim of the case, Tsuyoko Kana, at a park. He had no issues of those two meeting up, though the main issue was when the photo was taken; between Tsuyuko¡¯s disappearance and her estimated time of death. That would be enough to guarantee a warrant, so he forwarded the photo to Faye. Now, just one more thing for him to do now that the photo was shown. He stood up and moved to the table where the store owner (NatsukiTenya) and Hanae Haruko. ¡°Sorry to disturb you two, but I have some business with Hanae-san over here, so if you don¡¯t mind,¡± Julius interrupted between the two and placed his drink on the table. The boss was both clueless and somewhat disappointed, but he left his seat and offered it to Julius. Hanae looked a bit hesitant though since she never met Julius prior. However, she remained silent once Julius briefly showed her his police badge. Once it¡¯s just the two of them, Hanae spoke first and the author got lazy. Hanae: ¡°How may I help you, Detective-san?¡± Julius: ¡°I¡¯m here to investigate a case that¡¯s been brought up recently to my division. I take it that you know Ms. Tsuyuko Kana?¡± Hanae: ¡°Yes, but briefly though. She¡¯s the teacher I have substituted¡­¡± Julius: ¡°Not sure if you¡¯re aware, but she had been missing since she resigned from her position. The main reason wasoriginallyto move to Osaka, but we¡¯ve found some interesting evidence here¡­ Oh right, she¡¯s dead now by the way.¡± Hanae: ¡°You sound awfully okay with the death of someone¡­¡± Julius: ¡°That¡¯s not the main issue here, I¡¯m only here to capture the culprit. Of course, my condolences goes victim, but I can¡¯t do much without catching the culprit. That being said¡­¡± Julius showed her the photo which he was handed earlier. ¡°This photo was taken between the time of her death and her resignation. I¡¯m just here to tell you that I might need to question you in the near future, whether it be an interview or an interrogation. Let¡¯s hope for the both of us that it doesn¡¯t lead to the latter, shall we?¡± Hanae: ¡°Is that a warning?¡± Julius: ¡°It¡¯s an advice.¡± And with all that being said, Julius left the table with a smile. Whilst leaving the caf¨¦, Julius switched on the FREEDOM app. [NEARBY ACTIVE PLAYERS: -CLOWN (20m) -REAPER (30m) -HANAKO (7m) -WHITE CROWN (43m)] Considering the current hundred players involved with the beta actively, this was a somewhat large number of players near him considering the size of this city. Well, he deduced it to be a hunch, but he still remained to think that the culprit is REAPER for that brief moment. Julius could only hope that it is so. So with arms clenched, he continued to investigate. Chapter 5 : The Investigation part 2 Chapter 5: the investigation, pt 2 Once we got off the bus, the scenery of the usual school reminded us of our daily lives; Takizawa High School. And as if nothing happened, Haru ignored us and immediately ran to her own set of friends. From the station, the Natsuki Caf¨¦ could be seen during its operating hours. ¡°Come to speak of it, check that out¡± Daisuke suddenly interrupted and pointed back to the entrance of the school, ¡°Check that out.¡± Beside the road were a few too many police cars than the usual; 3. They were all parked just beside the school as if to infer that someone from there committed something suspicious recently¡­ Oh, wait. Daisuke turned around, his face was somewhat concerned this time, ¡°Hey Sakuzaki¡­ you didn¡¯t actually do anything bad last night, did you?¡± ¡°Of course not,¡± I casually responded and briefly sighed ¡°Unless you seriously don¡¯t trust me, then you might as well report me right now.¡± He swallowed a gulp, and took that leap of faith to believe me. It was pretty impressive of him to be able to do that, really. If I were him, placed under the conditions of briefly knowing where I was and had probably did¡­ I would, without a doubt, find myself guilty. After all, knowing what I have done in the past already¡­ My phone vibrated a bit and I pulled it out of my pocket. Oh, FREEDOM has a messaging option¡­ but if it¡¯s FREEDOM we¡¯re talking about, then it would likely be not safe for him to see the contents. [You have one unread message from JULIUS] ¡°Ah sorry, seems like I¡¯ve got a message,¡± I clumsily urged Daisuke to go ahead, ¡°This one seems urgent.¡± Truth be told, it was somewhat unusual though. I didn¡¯t realize FREEDOM had other functions such as messaging, but it was a game that covered enough functions of a regular RPG. So, I opened the message with no expectations I held in my mind. [JULIUS: You were there last night, weren¡¯t you?] This time, it was a completely new player. I¡­ didn¡¯t know what to say. *** JULIUS¡¯ POV He sent the message straight after leaving the caf¨¦. Just from reading the list of nearby players, there just wasn''t enough information to assume that [REAPER] was involved at all. The only lead was that Ms. Sakue was likely involved. If she were to have any other accomplices then they could be from the school which she works for, with the age range of most FREEDOM players being placed into consideration. All Julius had for him was just a hunch, so he sent a message. What he sent was a provocation, and depends on the response it would probably be a 50-50 chance of having a lead suspect. He looked up, then surprised at three police vehicles stationed near Takizawa High School. He stomped his way there, towards the nearest car. He knocked on the windscreen twice and grabbed the attention from the police officer inside. Julius showed him the police badge he recently placed back into his pocket. ¡°Investigator Julius,¡± Julius flipped his badge backward, then proceeded to speak, ¡°I¡¯d like a word on what¡¯s happening.¡± The officer pulled down the windscreen, then responded, ¡°Ah, we¡¯re investigating the headless homicide case. There¡¯s a potential suspect in this school.¡± Julius became confused, as the case was originally his squad¡¯s to investigate but instead another squad took the investigation. Before he could question any further, he was interrupted by a phone call from Faye.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°What is it now?¡± Julius responded, seemingly unamused. ¡°My bad¡­¡± Faye paused briefly before delivering the message, ¡°I couldn¡¯t secure your warrant to investigate. The higher-ups assigned the case to another investigation squad.¡± ¡°And¡­?¡± Julius responded, ¡°I believed my rank should be enough to-¡° ¡°It¡¯s the Detective Elite Unit this time; the one your father founded.¡± The Detective Elite Unit, DEU, founded since 1990, was a special unit that specialises in investigating cases for criminals that could not be captured via normal means. The squad was said to be a mix of the brains of investigators and the brawn of the military SWAT police squad. Though, it was said to have disbanded half a decade ago. If there was a need to reform and have the squad back active, then it was likely the higher-ups had caught onto the recent trend of criminal activities. That said, the squad takes higher priority when it comes to an investigation, so if the investigation if theirs now, Julius had no choice but to stop his own investigation. However, with factors with FREEDOM likely coming into play, he might as well be the only detective most aware of the current situation of the crime. So if he couldn¡¯t continue the investigation now, then the obvious choice was for him to join the squad. ¡°Faye, hook me up to Chief Kibobashi. I¡¯ll request a meeting with him.¡± ¡°Sure.¡± 10 am, Chief Kibobashi¡¯s office. ¡°Here are the reports I¡¯ve gathered in regards to the homicide case. I¡¯ll presume that you would pass them to DEU?¡± To no avail, Julius first handed the documents to the chief. The glaring sunlight of the monotone sky cast a silhouette of the two. There was a brief silence, to which the outdoor traffic became the only sound between the two. Before Julius was Chief Kibobashi on his seat, who just received the documents from him; His father and founder of DEU. ¡°I see,¡± Kibobashi responded, then lightly placed the documents on the desk, ¡°So, what are you here for?¡± Of the few people who understood Julius¡¯ intentions, the father easily realized the implications of Julius¡¯ arrival. As crude as Julius is, their father-son relationship was closer to a business relationship that a familiar one; every interaction they had to each other carried an ulterior intention of some sort. They carried no blood relation, just the relation printed on a family document and amongst the ranks of the police force. ¡°Let me lead the DEU.¡± ¡°Your reason being?¡± Julius sighed briefly, then gathered his breath to show his phone to the chief. Amongst all the police force, only Kibobashi was aware of Julius¡¯ situation and the game FREEDOM itself and only Kibobashi had Julius under monitor as a player and potential criminal. The chief vaguely knew Julius¡¯ reason behind the game, though, he found Julius¡¯ reason of revenge would remain unsatisfied. ¡°I see,¡± The chief nodded before Julius could utter anymore, ¡°So you want to lead it?¡± ¡°If you want my one lead.¡± ¡°I understand. I¡¯ll put your proposal into consideration.¡± Julius¡¯ lips turned up briefly, but he returned to the poker face, ¡°Thank you very much.¡± ¡°Oh right, one more thing¡­¡± Julius suddenly spoke just as he was about to leave as if reminded of another topic, ¡°I¡¯d like to request you to¡­¡± *** SAKUZAKI¡¯S POV 12:30 pm, Takizawa High School I couldn¡¯t comprehend what the message was from, so I left it unanswered. It was somewhat clear someone has me on their watch, so it could be easy to assume [JULIUS] to be an enemy. ¡°What¡¯s wrong, Natsuki?¡± Daisuke suddenly interrupted my train of thought, ¡°Are your results seriously bad?¡± Currently, it was lunch, but it was just the period before when our class received test results for Maths, though I was just spacing out during then and hadn¡¯t shared results with Daisuke. We were in the hallway of the school, and the wall before us had all the test results of all the students marked and ranked from best to worse. I searched for my name quickly, and instead found Haru¡¯s name amongst the top 5 of the grade. It was almost impressive, considering her daily schedule of Kendo, part-time jobs, and school. From her name, I tried to skim downwards to find my name and found it. My results weren''t all bad, perhaps amongst the top 40 amongst the grade. ¡°Ah, nothing much. I¡¯ve got above average,¡± I casually lied, though that somehow boosted Daisuke¡¯s confidence, ¡°How¡¯d you go?¡± ¡°Geez, at least make your lies believable,¡± Daisuke pointed back at the board where my name was written, ¡°Sakuzaki Natsuki, 89 points. Didn¡¯t realize what was your standard of ¡®average¡¯. That all said, want to guess what I got?¡± ¡°Eh, not interested,¡± I ran off towards the classroom. ¡°Oi!, what the hell.¡± Daisuke stood still, like an abandoned side character. Once I entered the classroom, I stopped. ¡°Have you heard, PE seemed to be¡­¡± ¡°Ah right, that detective¡­¡± ¡°Ms. Sakue¡¯s busy? I thought I saw her earlier¡­¡± ¡°Aren¡¯t there police at school earlier today?¡± ¡°Oh nice, self-study period!¡± ¡°No PE? Damn, I was looking forward to¡­¡± Just from hearing the rough gossips going by within the classroom, I could pick up enough information to rush straight to her office. It was just on the other side of the school, so I could barely catch my breath by the time I arrived. The door there was closed and seemed to have people there, so I instead decided to eavesdrop inside. From the other side of the door, I could barely hear her voice, but clear enough to know the contents of the conversation. ¡°Investigator Julius, you¡¯re-!¡° Her voice was suddenly silenced. Just hearing the name, it evoked a sense of dread that froze me on the spot. Julius and [JULIUS]¡­ without a doubt, they are the same. Chapter 6 : hesitation I¡­ didn¡¯t know what to do. Beyond the door was a mystery to me, but from what I heard¡­ it was enough. Yet standing still here proved to me that I was already no more than a coward. My legs wouldn¡¯t move, and my fingers would not twitch in fear. If anything, I was perhaps not even fearful of what would happen in the slightest beyond the door, my curiosity found itself to be prioritized higher than my fear, so I remained still and listened. ¡®Investigator Julius¡¯¡­ was definitely the one who has messaged me. It was probably a provocation message, but perhaps it just couldn¡¯t be as simple as that. Haru mentioned it on the bus earlier today as well, that based on the photos it was clear that I have a stalker¡­ or someone who is keeping me under watch. But if anyone were to keep me under watch, the only thing that came to mind was the serial killer I encountered the night before¡­ Wait, Haru was missing for at least two days prior when she noticed the stalker issue, so the investigator still is not out of the picture. But while I stood still to listen more, there suddenly was no sound on the other side of the door. And by instinct, I decided to play a risky move. And after releasing a breath I didn¡¯t know I was holding until now, I began to notice that my own heart had been beating wildly. I I softly placed my hand on the handle of the door. ¡°Hey Ms. Hanae I¡¯ve heard that class was-¡° I opened the door, trying the feign ignorance of what I had eavesdropped. What I saw instead, was an unknown man, presumably the investigator, holding Ms. Hanae against the wall by the collar. She was struggling a fair bit of the man, but he had pinned her against the wall as if to interrogate her. ¡°What are you doing,¡± I couldn¡¯t help but to immediately question him the moment I saw. Obviously, he noticed my entrance and briefly smiled¡­ as if this was all part of a plan. *** JULIUS¡¯ POV Around two hours prior toSakuzaki¡¯sentrance, Julius was granted the permission to participate along with the DEU. ¡°Oh right, one more thing¡­¡± Julius suddenly spoke as he was about to leave as if reminded of another topic, ¡°I¡¯d like to request you to share reports of any progress the DEU has made.¡± ¡°Sure thing,¡± The chief handed him the documents without any resistance, ¡°this is all Akira has collected as of far.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± Julius held onto it, ¡°I¡¯ll pay my lead a visit. I¡¯d want that squad to back away from the school. Thanks.¡± Those were his last words he informed the chief before leaving the office. As he left the office, Julius immediately opened the document to see its contents. After briefly skimming through, it was clear that the DEU had drawn to a different conclusion. Though the version of the truth displayed in the report varied differently from the one Julius himself reached to, the squad had also been in their early stages of the investigation and their current truth seemed plausible. And this is their version of the truth:
The suspect is Tsukuyo Kana, a former teacher of Takizawa High School and currently 27 years of age. She had been reported to be missing for at least a week as of now and traces of her DNA has been found on the crime scene. Furthermore, two of the victims of the serial murder case last night had revealed to be a former co-worker of her, so the motive behind the crime would likely be some sort of grudge. With all of that being placed into consideration, she has recently listed as a suspect of a similar serial murder case in Osaka months ago. Both methods of murder carry extremely similar characteristics; being all female victims displayed along with severed limbs. And as they have it, during that time period, Tsukuyo Kana had seemed to have had a stay at her family¡¯s place in the region as well.
The contradicting truth. Julius read it and sighed, impressed by the investigations conducted by Lieutenant Akira. But¡­ the main difference here was Julius¡¯ prior belief of Tsukuyo being the headless victim he had investigated. The case of the headless victim was not mentioned in the research but however, it was that moment when he came to a realization that¡­ His own theory was too flawed to be conclusive. He had only identified the victim based off a membership card which the victim was carrying, but the crucial evidence such as face identity of fingerprints was too damaged to use for investigation. It may as well be that Tsukuyo Kana was not even the victim, to begin with. And so after coming to the realization of his own mistakes, Julius decided to set off to pay a visit to his one lead. ¡­ 12:20 pm, Takizawa High School It wasn¡¯t even close to a 20 minutes¡¯ drive, but due to a detour to get the sale discount on doughnuts, Julius took 2 hours longer than he expected. Maybe it¡¯s the thing with doughnuts and police, perhaps enough applied to Julius too. But now that he was there, sitting there before Ms. Hanae, his supposed interrogation had changed its plans to ask forco-operation. The teacher sat silent, and amongst all the world¡­ for a brief moment, the world turned silent.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. The nervousness clenched unto her and rendered her unable to speak anything. And paying note to this, Julius engaged the conversation. ¡°So, I¡¯ve been just informed earlier, seems like our circumstances have now changed,¡± Julius pulled out the same photo from before, ¡°But about what happened here, I would ask you of that in the near future.¡± ¡°What is it now¡­ er¡­¡± ¡°Inspector Julius.¡± ¡°SoJuliu-¡° ¡°The ¡®inspector¡¯ is pretty important there.¡± ¡°SoInspectorJulius¡­¡± Ms. Hana planned to pose a question, but the ruined moment told her otherwise, ¡°No never mind just continue.¡± ¡°To cut it short, I¡¯m informing you of our current situation and asking for your cooperation,¡± Julius pulled out his phone, but still continued, ¡°There was a serial murder case last night, three victims. My squad is currently having it under investigations.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see why that¡¯s related to me,¡± She gave back a delayed response as if to conceal a fa?ade. Julius looked away instead, aware of her situation though not paying mind to her temporal deception. But instead, he turned on the application and sent something. Ms. Hanae noticed something on her phone and saw the displayofher own FREEDOM game. ¡°Because,¡± he muttered, ¡°I think I could understand what kind of situation you are currently in.¡± She saw the display on thescreen and immediately turned hostile. [JULIUS have sent you a friend request.] [USER: JULIUS (?) RANK: 7 ( 150+ unranked) TITLE: [Sinner] ABILITIES: none ITEMS: None KILLS: 0 SURVIVALS: 13 KEEPER: Active FRIEND: 1 of 3 active] He showed her his FREEDOM profile. There wasn¡¯t much of a change since the last time he checked it, but he knew it to be enough to make his point. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll keep in touch with you.¡± ¡°Investigator Julius, you¡¯re-¡± BeforeMs. Hanae could finish her sentence, Julius immediately signaled her to be silent. He then wiped to another section of the profile¡­ [NEARBY ACTIVE PLAYERS: -HANAKO (0.5m) -REAPER (3m) She read it, and took a moment to process what was happening; they were being eavesdropped. Julius pulled back the phone and switched to a separate notepad. From there, it contained his message. ¡®That should be enough for today. I¡¯llapologizelater.¡¯ He then lifted her up by the collar and pushed her against the wall. And just as he did so, the door of the office opened up. ¡°HeyMs. Hanae I¡¯ve heard that class was-¡° The sudden intruder then took notice of the scene. As if it was his purpose all along, the student asked, ¡°What are you doing.¡± Julius smirked, then nodded in his own understanding. Several pieces formed on its own to confirm his own inner theories. And enough was seen to prove them all, so Julius had enough for the day. And like that, Julius droppedMs. Hanae and walked away silently. *** SAKUZAKI¡¯SPOV ¡°Ms, are you alright-¡° I tried to call out to her, but she glared at me for a brief moment. During the brief moment, I was overwhelmed with the sensation of dread that paralyzed me. It made me unable to recognize her as the teacher I know¡­ But she soon sighed and retracted her glare before I noticed. ¡°What was the point of that?¡± those were the first words whichMs. Hanae immediately said when the inspector left the office, ¡°So, why¡¯d you come here?¡± Iturnedhead down, somewhat being in the guilty position all of a sudden. ¡°I thought¡­ you were in trouble. I wanted to help you.¡± ¡°Huh¡­¡± Ms. Hanae pondered for a while, somewhat troubled, ¡°You should have left it to my own business. There¡¯s no point in meddling in, it¡¯s too selfish; the same goes to your eavesdropping.¡± ¡°¡­¡± ¡°Ok, maybe I went too far, but this time it¡¯s my own business. Don¡¯t go cryingonme, please?¡± She reached for some cash notes from her wallet and pointed the 10000 yen to me, ¡°I¡¯ll offer you some money or something.¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m 16,¡± I say, as I take the free money. I had no idea what made her reach to a conclusion that I¡¯d cry of guilt or something, perhaps maybe she¡¯s dealt with younger kids a lot before. But still, free money is free; that alone speaks for itself. Money itself is the principle of this modern society and the foundations of most luxuries which are obtainable for an individual. Having snatched money from another person such as my dear teacher suddenly may seem briefly cruel, but she had offered such blessing to me and there was consent between the two of us. I was not guilty. I am not guilty. I was only given the honor to bear the responsibilityofmy newly obtained currency. And yet, that is perhaps why I could not comprehend why she was face-palming. Although given some time to think, she was right about the selfishness of my actions. Perhaps it was because I just wanted to meddle in. For this sake of self-satisfaction, I just wanted to help someone in need. And yet, having seen what I had seen just then, I could not pretend it wasn¡¯t there. Ms. Hanae, too, had been hiding something from me¡­ something crucial, perhaps after I had lost consciousness last night something important had happened. The man was most likely to be there as well, in cahoots with the serial killer from then, threatening Ms. Hanae to be silent. If that were to be the case, then it would make sense. If that¡¯s so, then he, who assisted the killer and keeps people under watch to find appropriate times threaten them for his own secret, I could not forgive him. He is nothing but the opposite of who I want to be. He may be a wolf hiding amongst the ranks of the police, yet he clearly exploits people through words of deceit and threat. And he was no less than the murderer himself, both exploiting and not even an attempt to stop a murder¡­ just for a mere sake of satisfaction. See, this is why my blood is starting to boil¡­ it¡¯s people like him. People like him should just go and rot in jail¡­ suffer from the harsh justice hepretendsto serve for and know it to be his own sin to carry the burden of. With that thought in mind, I suddenly found my fists clenched tightly and shaking nervously¡­ in excitement. ... ¡°Papa, look!¡± I pointed at the comic book with my own tiny hands. The panels drained of colors and yet entertained me so much. As a boy of 7 years old, I could not find myself stop being immersed into such a thing. ¡°Sure sure, I¡¯ll get here in a sec.¡± From across the kitchen, my father poked his head out from the kitchen. He placed down the kitchenware and ran over and around where I stood. When he saw it, he helplessly felt a bit disappointed, yet he sighed in relief. Where I pointed, was just a picture of my childhood hero depicted in this comic. I wasn¡¯t really good with names, but here I could instantly the hero, X, in this comic. It was a hero with a plain design with nothing that stood out from him; just an average joe. The concept of X being capable of being from different potential details was perhaps what captured me the most and drew me into his adventures of the comic ¡°Oh, if it isn¡¯t Action Kamen X!¡± My father¡¯s voice roared in laughter and his wide smile was somehow left a lingering imagery in me. ¡°Papa, look at that! Look!¡± I hurried and repeatedly pointed at that one monotone panel. This time, Action Kamen X was shown soaring across the skies and the scenery of the lively city painted across and underneath him. ¡°Heh, that¡¯s pretty cool! You want to be like him too, Sakuzaki?¡± ¡°Yeah yeah!¡± I nodded in that instant. ¡°Hm? Why?¡± ¡°Because he looks cool!¡± ¡­ Oh, if fate had ever allowed me to serve justice... then this would be the time.