Karasu no Tengoku

Chapter Ten: Artificial Lineage

(The blood in her veins was sweet, and it tasted good, but, when it was over, I almost cried…I didn’t want to shoot her at first, but then my master said, it just had to be done, that it was necessary so that she could stop moving and enjoy the moment of her death, but her face wasn’t exactly a smiling one when she died, but who am I to judge her emotions, I just follow the orders of my master…)

“Hello??”
“Kaito?...we found another body…”
“Yeah I know…a girl this time…”
“Yeah…I’ll send some photos to your mail…maybe it’s what you could be looking for…”
“Yeah thanks…”
(He hung up)
“Who was it??”
“Ryuuichi…”
“Oh…news??”
“Yeah…the same we already know…the body of the girl, he said he’ll send some photos…”
“Wow…was it again in Shinjuku??”
“Yep…”
“Damn…”
“Ah…and it was near that sushi bar you like…”
“No way…”
“It was…”
“No….”
“Yeah…”
“Mmm…that gives me an idea…”
“You could go ask Hideo about it…”
“Yeah…maybe I should go now??”
“Sounds good…I’ll stay here to receive the photos…”
“O~~k….”

(Hideki took the metro and reached Shinjuku, looked quickly for the said sushi bar, he really didn’t recognize Shinjuku under the daylight, when he found it, he asked a waitress for Hideo, said guy, came out of the back of the store and told Hideki to come inside with him, when they where inside…)
“Hideki…it’s been quite a while since the last time you came…what’s up??”
“We~~ll, surely you’ve heard of the murders that’ve been occurring here lately??”
“Of course, ’The Vampire of Shinjuku’, yeah…don’t tell me you’re investigating all on your own??”
“…kind of...well anyway, you know that the last murder was committed near your sushi bar, don’t you??”
(Hideo didn’t seem surprised to hear this…)
“No I didn’t…but I don’t know how will this be of any importance…”
“Well I do…the murder was committed approximately 3 days ago, and I was wondering if you saw anyone suspicious here that day?? Or if you saw the victim??”
“The victim?? I don’t know who was it…”
“It was a girl…maybe of 14 or 16 years old…straight hair, not black, more like, reddish brown, light brown, she was actually a foreigner…not very tall, green eyes, and about how she was dressed I don’t know…”
“I would certainly remember someone like that…and I don’t…no one with those characteristics has come here in the whole week!”
“Damn…ok, then I’m leaving…”
“Hey sorry for not being of any help…jeje”
“It’s ok…bye Hideo…”
(Hideki turned and didn’t see the weird smile on Hideo’s face when he’d said he wasn’t of much help, Hideo laughed when Hideki was gone….)

“He said he didn’t know anything at all…”
“Isn’t that a bit too suspicious??”
“Why do you say so??”
“Because I’ve always thought that Hideo knows more than what he lets know…”
“You’re badmouthing Hideo again Kaito…”
“I am not…I’m just stating the obvious truth…”
“Anyway…has your friend sent you the photos already??”
“Yeah…want to see them??”
“Yeah…”

(Kaito opened his mail and opened the first photo, it was a close-up of the point from which all the blood had been extracted, twin scars in the form of deep, not very big holes on the left inner elbow, at first they must have been reddened a bit, but now they were bluish on the edges and the skin was obviously pale, they seemed deep, seriously deep…but what made them a bit suspicious…)
“There’s no way…”
(Kaito turned and saw Hideki staring at the holes a bit confused…then Hideki sat on the chair next to Kaito…)
“There’s no way…”
“What are you talking about??”
“You can’t tell me you don’t see it yourself…”
“What?? That it’s not the carotid artery??”
“And? Yes, what else?”
“It’s practically impossible to take out ALL of the blood from the body if not through said artery…”
“Exactly…I mean…it IS possible, certainly! But it will take hours!!”
“That would mean the murderer had plenty of time to do it…”
“Not only that…what I think, is that the victims are not only been murdered but also kidnapped and then murdered…”
“But there’ve not been any reports of disappearances…and personally, I think that’s going a bit too far for what we have now…”
“Yeah…maybe…but it fits because they are choosing people who no one would notice if they aren’t there anymore…”
“But then we still have the problem that it’s been completely random…”
“How many until now??”
“Six…and none of them had the carotid artery cut...four girls, and two guys…the girls were all between the ages of 12 and 18 and the guys between 20 and 30…the guys all lived alone and didn’t have any job or studied…the girls were runaway girls or orphans…none of them seemed to have any friends or acquaintances…no boyfriends, no girlfriends, no jobs or their families seemed not to care…”
“A bunch of zeros to the left…”
“Yep…completely…ah! And something else…”
“What??”
“They were all foreigners…”
“Different nationalities??”
“No…all Russian…”
“Russian?!?!?!?!?!?!?”
“Yeah…”
“mein Gott…this just can’t be…”
“What??”
“Don’t you remember?? The Russian girl back in Moscow that I suspect poured some drug in my coffee??”
“…ah right…but I don’t think it’s her…”
“Why not?! It fits!! And when I say it fits, you know that 9 out of 10 times I’m completely right!!”
“Yeah, yeah…but anyway, let’s look for more leads and then decide if it’s the Russian girl or not, ok??”
“Yeah…”
“Good…”