Chapter 48

The moment I picked up the phone, Detective Chikage skipped the greetings and began screaming loud enough to rupture my eardrums.

"Come to think of it, you said you wanted to tell me something about Miiko, right!?"

"Y-yeah, but... aren't you a little too worked up?"

"N-no, it just came back to me. I felt like I had to tell you right away... A super-famous detective named Azuma suddenly sent me a direct message—out of the blue—and told me to pass this on..."

"A-Azuma!? Azuma, you said!?"

Reacting to my shout, Detective Chikage asked an outrageous question about Azuma.

"That's right... Do you look up to Detective Azuma too?"

"L-look up to him!? Look up to that guy!? The one who beats people up during investigations, slams his thoughts into others, and in the end tries to twist the truth itself?"

"Hmm? Maybe you've got him mixed up with someone else?"

A chill wind blew down my spine.

No. I know. I know the police bow their heads to that detective. So I hurried to deny it.

"That can't be... If that were true, the police would have seen through a fake right away."

"But... I see. Maybe I got it wrong. That detective does have a pretty extreme side, I hear. Shows kids actual photos of corpses, asking, 'Do you recognize this body?' and stuff like that..."

"He goes that far...?"

"But, as a detective he's good—terribly good... Still, his methods are a bit unsavory, so to keep from causing trouble, he voluntarily left the Utopia Detective Agency... you know."

"Utopia Detective Agency." Those were the words Azuma flung at me when he attacked me. That which he worships. And then—one more thing. An organization so massive it feels like a religion capable of twisting a person's life.

What on earth is all this...?

Still left with doubts, I asked Detective Chikage. I didn't really think she'd have an answer.

"Then why... did that guy spout that wild deduction in front of us, claiming we're the culprits...?"

"...Maybe it was to test Hyoga-kun and the others. See if you could overturn it—gauge your abilities... or something."

"Which means, because Miiko and I denied his objection...!? That's why Miiko ended up like this...!?"

"That's how it would seem..."

Her voice trembled slightly. She's probably starting to distrust Azuma. One more push on Detective Chikage.

I'll tell her about what Azuma did to us, and what he did that night.

She'll be caught up in danger too... but I'll think about that. I swore in my heart I'd protect her from being attacked.

I won't let anyone else get hurt.

I clenched my fist and wished. I'll fight.

Probably, all kinds of detectives will come to the crime scene now. Because of the incident at lycanthrope academy, two suspects have died on the police. Their credibility is in shambles. And detectives will step into the crime scene playing the savior.

Before the world becomes one where the police rely entirely on detectives.

Before the world becomes one where detectives run rampant.

To save Miiko.

I'll keep being the anti-detective detective. And then, and then...

When the detectives are finished, I'll die. As a detective, that is.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.