Ryōgi Shiki's serene face showed a hint of panic.
Her mouth was slightly agape, unsure what to say.
"I..."
Fortunately, Makima didn't press her, straightening her back again: "I'll consider Ryōgi-san a friend of Tsuki-kun for now. Please follow me~" Makima walked ahead with her hands clasped behind her back, leading Ryōgi Shiki through the emergency exit to the third floor.
She brought her before the [Kira] written in red paint.
"Ryōgi-san, what do you think?"
Ryōgi Shiki's gaze was drawn to the malice and anger in the [Kira] writing. Her shaken inner world, caused by Makima's words, gradually firmed, and with unprecedented solemnity, she raised her hand to touch the wall.
Behind her, Himeno was about to step forward to stop this act of destroying the scene, but Makima (Makima) stopped her with a cold look that seemed to say,
"Let her do it."
"Makima~" Ryōgi Shiki murmured.
Ryōgi Shiki subconsciously reached for the short blade tucked behind her waist; this was her instinctive reaction to crisis. The pressure from this wall was simply too overwhelming; the evil emanating from it felt as if it were solidifying and spilling out from the wall.
The person who wrote these characters was absolutely a complete lunatic. Ryōgi Shiki had never seen such profound evil in a person before.
"Hmm?"
"Perhaps, the meaning of M refers to you, Makima-san. And Kira, the murderer, left this message to provoke you." Ryōgi Shiki voiced her thoughts. Then she shook her head, refuting herself: "No, that can't be right; it wouldn't be such a coincidence."
"Perhaps?" Makima, with her hands clasped behind her back, walked to stand beside Ryōgi Shiki. Instead, she agreed with Ryōgi Shiki's point: "Perhaps that criminal gentleman is using this method to provoke me, the section chief of the Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4~"
Ryōgi Shiki's mouth was slightly agape. She was still a bit confused...
Such top-secret information, just said in front of me?
Absurd...
"In that case, the culprit is someone close to you, Makima-san," Ryōgi Shiki composed herself and made her judgment.
Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4 was quite mysterious. The public only knew of its existence but not its specific head. If the painted M was meant to provoke Makima, then the perpetrator must know her identity.
"No, my position is confidential; even those close to me don't know," Makima shook her head, a hint of confusion in the depths of her eyes.
There's no Tsuki-kun's scent...
It's not Tsuki-kun.
The air fell silent for a moment until Sergeant Hayakawa Aki entered the office. His face was grim as he reported: "Ladies and gentlemen, the autopsy results are in. Including the issue with the surveillance footage."
Makima crossed her arms and said, "Speak."
Hayakawa Aki took a deep breath and stated the chilling facts: "First, the surveillance. After repeated confirmation by technicians, there are no issues with the surveillance. There's no trace of alteration; it's been like this since it was first recorded."
"What did you say?!"
Himeno's cigarette slipped silently from between her fingers and fell to the floor: "No issues? Are you saying those people were talking to thin air?"
"Currently... it seems that way." Hayakawa Aki's voice was stiff, but it was the truth. He had reacted more agitatedly than Himeno when he first received the news, initially thinking the forensic pathologist responsible for the autopsy had betrayed them.
Makima raised her hand to stop Himeno, who was about to burst out, and gestured with her eyes: "Continue."
"Of the ten bodies, nine died of cardiac arrest, not blunt force trauma. As for the charred body in the lobby... the cause of death was spontaneous combustion, but before that, they likely suffered extremely severe knife wounds and impacts. Traces of knife abrasions and bone fractures were found in the bones."
"Cardiac arrest?"
"Absurd—" Himeno instinctively prepared to refute, but she suddenly remembered Tsuruta Kusuko, who had drowned herself a few days prior; her cause of death was not drowning, but also cardiac arrest.
What exactly was going on?!
Everyone connected to this case died of cardiac arrest?!
A massive sense of suffocation swept over everyone present.
If the information currently gathered was all true, then it meant...
"The culprit has the ability to manipulate cardiac arrest and human spontaneous combustion, and can also shield themselves from surveillance footage."
"Perhaps they create illusions and kill people within those illusions," Himeno forced a strained smile. "Everyone in this building saw a person named Kira, but the surveillance didn't capture any footage."
"Can we assume that Kira has an ability similar to creating illusions, pulling people into them, and wantonly slaughtering them in a dream?"
"Ha." Himeno threw her hands up, her tone full of helplessness. If that were the case, this case wouldn't be something she could solve.
It would have to be handled by the section chief of the Public Safety Devil Extermination Special Division 4, which was—Makima.
"How interesting, Kira," Makima sighed softly. "Himeno, what you said might be the most ideal situation."
"Huh? Most ideal? Isn't an ability like that bad enough?" Himeno couldn't understand the meaning of Makima's words.
"What if Kira's (Kira) ability is—"
"To control the cause of death?"
Ryōgi Shiki had quietly activated her Magan (Mystic Eyes) to observe the lingering aura at the scene, speaking with a clear and serious voice as Makima's proxy.
Being the same kind was no empty talk.
Her intuition told her that Kira's ability was definitely not about creating illusions to pull people into them for combat. Instead, it was like her own, possessing the ability to forcibly erase.
[Mystic Eyes of Death Perception]
All things originate from the Root; if there is birth, there must be an end. We call the end of things death. A person who awakens the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can see dark lines, like cracks, on the surface of most objects, which are called—lines of death.
If a blade is used to cut along these lines of death, it will cause unpreventable, incurable damage to the object.
Perhaps that Kira is also like this.
Seeing the cause of death of all things and manipulating it in advance?
"Himeno~" Makima said, "Go investigate recent criminals who died of cardiac arrest. Those who died in prison, those who died during pursuit. Categorize and compile them."
"Eh?" Himeno's heart sank, and she quickly reacted: "I understand."
Makima muttered to herself, "Since the criminal used this method to proclaim their existence as Kira, they probably tested it before. Today's incident won't be the beginning, nor will it be the end."
"Rather..."
"Kira's ability has improved in some way, inflating their ego enough to attempt to expose themselves to the police."
"In that case, we must properly meet their challenge~"
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