Chapter 11
Mr. Sakakibara calls me once we’re in his house. I’ve just got back from the hospital along with Yuuto and Hayato. The rest of us are taking a rest after we have accomplished our mission to rescue Ms. Mikitani. “What’s wrong, Mr. Sakakibara?” I ask him. Mr. Sakakibara begins to talk to me as I come to him. “Ms. Mikitani wants to see you. It seems like she doesn’t want to speak to anyone other than you.”
I understand why she’s behaving like that. She doesn’t know anyone here besides me. So, she feels a lot more comfortable to talk to me since she had seen how much I have risked my life just to save her. I guess I should build rapport with her so then other people can talk to her just fine. It could be problematic if I were the only person she prefers to talk to.
As I enter the room, Ms. Mikitani is sitting on the bed, gazing at the window. The outside must have looked different than the scene she always sees all the time. Ms. Mikitani notices me as I enter the room. “I’m so glad to see you’re okay, Touka. I’m so worried that I won’t be able to see you again,” she says to me. Despite only knowing each other for a short while, I’m happy to know that she cares about my safety. She really is a nice person after all.
“Thanks for your concern. And I’m glad that you reach here safely,” I say to her. She smiles at me and then turning away from me. She looks hesitant to tell me what’s on her mind right now. “Ms. Mikitani, are you alright? Or is it because you don’t feel comfortable staying in this room?” She smiles at me and convinces me that she’s alright. But she still feels reluctant to tell me.
“I need to ask you a favor,” she says to me, “Please save my boyfriend. I’m pretty sure that he’s in danger right now because of me. I can only ask you to save him on my behalf.” She cries after she begs me to save her boyfriend. Well, saving Mr. Ninomiya is also our mission. But I don’t know if I should tell her about Mr. Ninomiya’s real identity. I feel that she deserves to know the truth.
Before I can say anything, Ms. Mikitani stops me for a moment. “Just call me Nanase. You don’t have to be so formal to me. You also don’t have to add the prefix too,” she says to me. I smile at her when she wants me to call her by her name. “Okay, I’ll call you Nanase from now onward.”
I begin to grab a chair as I’m about to give her my answer. “Nanase, we will indeed save your boyfriend. We don’t know his current location yet, so we’ll go there once we already identify his exact location. But he’s alright for the time being. We’ll let you know if we receive any news about him. So, please be patient and hope for the best,” I say to her.
Nanase smiles when I tell her that we do have a plan to save her boyfriend. “Nanase, I know that you may not want to talk about this, but why do you want to commit suicide? Does it have anything to do with Mr. Ayatsuji? You don’t look like someone who will do such thing.” Nanase’s expression changes when I ask her that. Maybe I shouldn’t ask her about this. “It’s okay if you don’t want to tell me about this if it makes you feel uncomfortable,” I say to her.
She shakes her head. “It’s okay. You deserve to know why since you came all the way just to save me. On top of that, you also agree to save my boyfriend too.” She then begins to tell me why she wants to commit suicide. “To be honest, I don’t even know why I was doing it. I only knew about it when I realized that I was in the hospital. My manager told me that she found me in the bathroom, with my wrist bleeding in a hot tub.”
When I hear this story, I find it weird that she has no recollection of why she wanted to commit suicide. It’s like there’s some kind of force, telling her to do so. Don’t tell me it has something to do with the microchip implant? It’s nothing surprising if that’s the reason why she committed suicide. But there must be an incident which triggers her to have a suicidal thought. And I think the trigger may have something to do with Mr. Ninomiya.
“Do you have any idea what happened to you before that?” I ask her. She pauses for a moment, trying to recall what happened to her before that. “As far as I remember, there were a bunch of guys who came to my house. They were threatening me that they already knew about my relationship with Kei. I have no idea who they were, but I assumed that they must be the guys from Awatori Group. It must be Shinya Fukuyama who instructed them to come,” she says.
I wonder how many idols are aware of Shinya Fukuyama’s connection with Awatori Group. But it seems to me that Nanase already knows about this. “How do you know about Shinya Fukuyama’s relationship with Awatori Group?” I ask her. “Kei was the one who told me,” she answers. Judging by her answer, I guess none of the idols are aware of this.
“So, they were threatening you because of your boyfriend?” I ask her again. She remains silent for a while and starts to speak again after that. “That was what I thought at first. But it seemed like they threatened me for another reason. They were saying that I already knew that he was an undercover from Public Security Bureau. To be honest, that was news to me. I kept on telling them that I didn’t know anything about that, but they refused to believe me.”
Nanase continues with her story. “That was when they told me that they would kill him if they found him. At that given moment, I suddenly had thought to commit suicide. I knew that he was still alive. But somehow, the thought that he was still alive never seemed to cross my mind. Without realizing, I ended up in a hospital. It was my manager who saved me and brought me to the hospital. I would be dead by now if it’s not because of her.”
Nanase seems upset because she has no idea what caused her to behave like that. She doesn’t want Mr. Ninomiya to feel sad if he finds out about her reckless behavior. “I’m sorry if this makes you feel uncomfortable. But do you think what you’re going through is more or less the same as what happened to Sayaka Minami? From what I know, her behavior was rather unusual on the day she died,” I ask her.
Nanase doesn’t look hesitate at all to answer my question. “Now that you’ve mentioned it, I do realize that there is a slight similarity. I have no idea what caused her to feel depressed. But I know that she wasn’t the kind of person who would suffer from depression. And it was far from it that she would do something like committing suicide. I felt that something was not right when I found out about the news.”
She seems terrified when she realizes something. “Now I remember why something like this was happening to me. In fact, I kind of know why they wanted Sayaka to die in the first place,” she says to me, biting her thumb. She feels reluctant to say it at first, but she begins to tell me after that. “In my case, Shinya Fukuyama wants to kill me because he wants Kei to show himself. And he will kill him when they have the chance.”
Before Nanase can talk about the reason, she suddenly cups her head and starts to breathe hard. As I’m about to come near her, she suddenly pushes my hand away. After a while, she realizes what she did and looks calm again. “It’s okay. I’m alright,” she says to me.
Seeing her in a condition like this, I’m a bit worried that the microchip implant may still have an effect on her. She may no longer have a microchip implant within her. But we’ll never know if the suicidal program will still be etched into her brain. It seems less likely, but we have to be ready for any kind of consequences.
She then continues talking to me. “I remember a while back, Sayaka decided to run away from the agency. She said that she couldn’t take it anymore. She even persuaded me to do the same. At that time, both of us were the most preferred among the guests in the private party. We had no idea how we were able to have sex with them, but it was still too much for us to bear. Sayaka had enough with a condition like this, so she was willing to go against them even though it was risky.”
I think it must be the microchip implant that triggers the beta brainwave. This will allow them to dissociate themselves by force when they were having sex with these guests. It works even better if they have experienced sexual abuse in the past. Mr. Ninomiya and Ms. Shoko never mentioned anything about them. But I think both of them m
ust have suffered an extreme case of sexual abuse in the past. Otherwise, the agency won’t label them as a perfect sex slave. Theirs is the same as what Momoko Sugita and Shiori experienced in the past.
“Did you go along with her suggestion?” I ask her. Nanase shakes her head. “No, I was too scared to do something like that. It didn’t matter where we run; they would still be able to detect us because we have a microchip implant within us. I told Sayaka to leave here without me, but she refused to do that. She said it was meaningless for her to do this without me. In the end, she discarded the thought later on.”
It looks to me that they’re already aware that they have a microchip implant within them. It’s just that they don’t realize that it causes them to turn into a perfect sex slave. “So, what happened to her after that?” I ask her again. She looks sad when she answers my question. “I never met her again ever since then. A few months later, I found out that she had a depression and died when she left the hospital,” she replies.
Since this seems too much for her, I’ve decided just to let her rest. It’s getting late anyway, and I have to go home. As I’m about to leave, she grabs my arm. She looks like she has something to ask me. “I’m sorry if I look like a nuisance, but can you tell me the truth about Kei? I know that he’s doing this just to keep me safe. But I still want to know,” she says to me.
To be honest, I feel reluctant to tell her anything about Mr. Ninomiya. There must be a reason why he’s hiding his true identity. Since she’s pleading me to tell her, I guess I have no choice but to tell her about Mr. Ninomiya’s real identity. “Well, what those guys from Awatori Group told you was right. He is working for Public Security Bureau. He did this because he wanted to find proof to convict Shinya Fukuyama. In fact, his real name is Kei Ninomiya.”
Nanase seems in disbelief when I tell her about Mr. Ninomiya’s true identity. She cries when she finds out about the truth. “I know that I have no right to say this, but please understand that he did this because he didn’t want you to be in danger. You mean a lot to him, so he doesn’t want anything bad happened to you. I hope you don’t blame him for this,” I say to her.
She shakes her head, telling me that she’s not blaming Mr. Ninomiya for what he does. “That’s alright, Touka. Thank you for telling me. To be honest, I know that he’s different than any other Muse Agency staffs. But I’ve never thought that he’s one of the officers from Public Security Bureau. It doesn’t matter who he is, I still love him. All I ever wish right now is for him to be safe.”
I leave the room so then Ms. Mikitani can rest. Dad and Mr. Sakakibara are waiting outside when I leave the room. “How is she?” Dad asks me. I shake my head. “It’s your typical mind control effect. She had no idea why she wanted to commit suicide. She was aware of the microchip implant in her body. But she didn’t know that it was the cause of her suicidal thought. She may not even realize that it can transform her into a perfect sex slave,” I answer.
“Speaking of Mr. Ninomiya,” Yuuto asks dad, “Does that mean he’ll be alright for the time being? I’m saying this because he used to be a PSIA officer before.” Dad nods. “Well, he knows how to handle things in a situation like this. But that doesn’t mean we can delay our rescue operation. I doubt that he can hang on much longer if he encounters someone like Momoko Sugita.”
Ms. Chiyo comes out of her room while we’re busy discussing about Kei Ninomiya. She looks frazzled when she comes out while holding a coffee mug. “Ms. Chiyo, are you alright? You seem like you’ve been burning the midnight oil,” I ask her. Ms. Chiyo smiles faintly when I ask her. “Well, I’ve been hacking through Muse Agency database the whole day. I’m trying to retrieve Kei Ninomiya’s profile information from their database,” she answers.
“So, did you find it?” Dad asks her. She nods while being busy with making coffee in the kitchen. “Yup, I did. Now, I’m trying to locate his current whereabouts. I can still detect his location even with just a phone number. I doubt that he’s using his actual phone number when he joined Muse Agency. This is why I’m digging their database just to retrieve his phone number. So far, I haven’t received any signal from him yet.”
Ms. Chiyo goes back into her room once she’s already done with making coffee. A few minutes after she enters her room, she busts out of her room. “Guys, I have good news. I already pick a signal which is most likely belongs to Kei,” she says to us. She looks joyful when she identifies that the signal does come from Mr. Ninomiya.
The rest of us go into her room to see where the signal is coming from. “According to the signal,” she explains, “It comes from the area somewhere in Odaiba. The signal only appears for a couple of moments only, so I presume that he’s still in the same area. I think we can catch up with him if we go to Odaiba now.” We examine the signals as Ms. Chiyo pulls out the information related to the signal she detects. She then transfers the location into our smart watch.
“I was wondering, why we’re only able to detect his signal now? Shouldn’t we be able to detect his whereabouts a few hours back?” I ask Ms. Chiyo. “Maybe he doesn’t want any of them to detect him. He doesn’t know how many people are pursuing him right now, so even a short burst of signal is enough to notify us. He knows that we’re paying attention to his signal all the time. And we’re the only one who can pick up the signal no matter how faint it is,” dad says to me.
Dad begins to brief us about our next mission after he’s done with analyzing the data that Ms. Chiyo provides. “Chiyo, I’d like to pinpoint Kei’s rough location so then we can go there and save him. Azuma, Touka, Yuuto and I will be heading to Odaiba based on the location Chiyo provides to us. And before we go, I want one of us to bring Ms. Mikitani to where Hayato is. At least Hayato can keep an eye on her.”
“I will bring her to where Hayato is,” I say, “But I need to put her in disguise. So then no one will know that she’s in our coffee shop. That should make Hayato’s job easier.” Dad approves my suggestion, and I go to Nanase’s room to tell her to get ready. Nanase is in bed, wrapping herself like a cocoon.
She turns her head when she realizes that I’m in her room. “I’m sorry, I don’t realize that you’re here,” she says to me. I just smile at her. “That’s okay. I’m sorry for just barging into the room.” I begin to tell her that we’re going to Odaiba to rescue Mr. Ninomiya. She looks happy when she knows that Mr. Ninomiya is still safe. She listens to every single thing I say. She even promises me that she won’t cause any problem to Hayato while waiting for him to return here.
It amazes me when she begins to disguise herself. She looks totally different than the looks I always see in the magazine. “Kei was the one who taught me on how to disguise myself. That’s the reason why I can slip under the paparazzi’s radar without a problem. When I think about it now, I don’t feel surprised anymore that he’s from Public Security Bureau.” I bring her to our house after her disguise is complete.
“Hayato, please take care of her while we’re away,” I say to him. “Don’t worry,” he says, “I will take care of her. Be sure to bring Mr. Ninomiya back. I’m pretty sure that he wants to see Ms. Mikitani too.” I leave the house after leaving her to Hayato. We head to Odaiba after our preparation for this mission is complete. We still have to go to Odaiba even though it’s almost midnight. For them, killing him will be much easier when it’s approaching midnight.
As we get into the car, Mr. Sakakibara begins to speed up. He’s driving so fast that it makes me feels like the car is about to fly. It seems like he’s switching the car mode into a manual driving. “Is that okay for you to drive this fast, Mr. Sakakibara?” I ask him. “Don’t worry about it. Despite the speed, I’m a good driver.” I don’t have anything to say other than hoping that we reach our destination in one piece.
It doesn’t take that long for us to reach the area where Mr. Ninomiya is located. There’s no sign of bloodbath in this area, so I assume that he’s still fine for now. I just hope that they don’t kill him and dump his b
ody in the ocean. That’s going to be even more problematic if we have to retrieve his body from there. “We need to split ourselves. Please report back if you notice anything.” We head into the different direction after dad issues his order to us.
I run as fast as I can while looking for Mr. Ninomiya. It’s hard to look for him when everything seems fine to me. There’s no trace of someone who had a fight. And there’s no sign of blood splashing in any of the area around his supposed location. Well, it’s not that I’m hoping that he’s already dead by the time we’ve found him. It’s just that, there’s no clue that points out his current condition. Even a little clue is fine with me.
So far, there’s no report from any of us, which means that none of us have found him yet. Mr. Ninomiya, where in the world are you? Even Ms. Chiyo hasn’t found any new signal coming from him. Now, it’s up to us to find him by ourselves without relying on his signal. I don’t like to do a manual searching. But I don’t think I have much choice here if I’m looking for someone who is trying to disappear without a trace.
As I’m busy searching for the clue, I suddenly hear someone else’s breathing. It may only be a faint sound, but the sound seems like it’s coming from under the bridge. I don’t know whose breathing is that, but I’m hoping that it belongs to Mr. Ninomiya. I draw my gun just in case if I happen to come across an enemy while following the breathing trail.
The sound of the breathing becomes clearer as I’m getting closer. As I’m about to get closer, I notice there’s a trace of blood not far from where I hear the breathing sound. Once I’m under the bridge, I notice that Mr. Ninomiya is there. He’s already collapsed as soon as I’ve found him. “Mr. Ninomiya, are you alright?” I ask him as I approach him.
I’m glad that Mr. Ninomiya is still alive by the time I’ve found him, even though he’s slightly wounded. With this kind of injury, it can be hard for him to move around. But I guess his strong will to survive must have brought him here. Mr. Ninomiya opens up his eyes slowly when he notices me. “You are…” I stop him midway since this isn’t the time for me to introduce myself. “What happened to you?” I ask him.
He seems reluctant to tell me who did this. He looks more like he’s protecting the killer. “Just tell me who did this to you. There’s no point for you to hide it from me. The killer may come back here to kill you anytime,” I insist. He sighs before he begins to tell me the person who did this to him. “It was Shiori. I was hesitating to tell you because you’re Shiori’s best friend. I don’t want you to be mad for the thing she had done to me.”
I’m surprised to find out that Shiori is the one who tries to kill him. But, it shouldn’t be something surprising to me either. I should have known already that sooner or later, Shiori will be programmed to kill people. It’s hard for me to accept it, but there’s nothing I can do to change it.
“This is Touka. I’ve already found Mr. Ninomiya. He’s still alive, but he’s slightly wounded on his left waist. I need help here.” Mr. Sakakibara replies to me after a while. “Touka, please tell me your current location and we’ll pick you there.” I give him my current location and after a few minutes, everyone is here to treat Mr. Ninomiya’s injury.
Mr. Ninomiya seems surprised that I look calm even after knowing what Shiori did to him. But he doesn’t know how much it hurts me when I know that the mind control on Shiori is complete. I hate to say this, but maybe it’s my destiny to meet her again, not as a friend, but as her sworn enemy.