For a change, take a peek! Not “H”.
Gintaichi Junior Notebook (Vol. 08 ～CURSE～)
Characters: Please refer to Vol. 01-07.
Stage. 01
Koukou…
“Excuse me, is Mr. Ito home?” Shiori, dressed in a narrow red skirt suit, knocked lightly on the door of the psychic Ito’s residence.
Koukou…
“I have a few questions for you…”
“Kir…” when Shiori knocked on the door for the second time, the door opened automatically.
“Ito-san…!?”
When Shiori stepped carefully into Ito’s house, she was shocked to find Ito collapsed in the foyer, his face twisted and contorted, as if he was in great shock.
(There’s no heartbeat…)
Shiori knelt down to explore Ito’s carotid artery with her right index finger.
(There are no visible traumas, and there are no signs of a fight around, so who really did this?) Shiori, who stood up, began to raise her guard.
(The body is still warm. The killer could still be in the house.)
Shiori’s left hand moved up to her waistline and gently flicked open the holster clasp hidden within the red suit’s tunic.
(There’s someone in the living room…)
Shiori, who was slowly moving towards the living room, heard a small sound in the living room.
(Who could it be?)
The woman with long black hair appeared to be in profile, wearing a white one-piece nightgown… As Shiori walked to the entrance of the living room, the other party seemed to have noticed her as well, and thus turned around slowly.
“It’s you!!!” When the front of the long-haired woman appeared to 13, Shiori, whose blood all over her body felt like it had frozen, shrieked out in shock.
Shiori’s quickly lifted her coat with her left hand, her right hand then drew the Beret 92F in her holster.
Within less than two seconds, the first round was fired from the chamber. Shiori, who was frantically snapping the trigger, had no feeling for the reaction force of the slide’s backward movement, and the brass 9MM shell casings fell to the ground like beads on a platter.
After the last round was fired, the slide of the gun was then secured in the rear, and the chamber was permeated with the burning odor of nitrous smoke.
The woman with long black hair slowly raised her head…
“BEEP BEEP BEEP…” The alarm clock kept ringing.
“Why am I having flashbacks of that case from a year ago…” Shiori muttered, realizing that she was dreaming.
“Cut!” She reached over and flicked off the alarm clock switch.
People with truly special abilities are often unable to follow a normal life’s journey. Shiori Fujiki, a school idol who graduated from high school two years ago, nominally enrolled in a two-year short-term women’s college, but actually joined Z, a multinational organization specializing in investigating mysterious events.
However, Shiori had always had a hidden idea that she wanted to live a normal life and marry her childhood friend “Ginta Ichiji”… Unfortunately, that was already a distant dream.
Shiori, who missed the chance to confess her love on the graduation day of her high school, had the courage to meet up with Gintaichi again under the tree of her high school a year later, ready to express her longing for him, but unfortunately, she missed the chance again due to the CURESE case.
As a matter of fact, Gintamaichi also endured the loss of his appointment for reasons that could not be avoided, and thus both parties felt that they owed it to the other and were secretly saddened.
Stage. 02 Dance of Death
Yokohama City, Higashi-ku, AM11:00
A sizable crowd of onlookers had gathered outside an abandoned building in the city’s east end, and the criminal police inside the yellow line were struggling to maintain order.
“This is the first time I have seen such a tragic case where the victim was gutted.” The senior police officer of the local ward sighed.
“Her parents will be devastated when they find out.” Criminal Oda, nicknamed the police department’s trouble maker, said.
“Team Leader, I’ll be back at the station later.” Oda’s attention was suddenly drawn across the street, and he hurriedly bid farewell to the team leader and ran in that direction.
“Ms. Shiori! Please wait!” Oda, who was running over, called out to Shiori, who was about to leave.
“You are?” Shiori, who had stopped walking, looked at him with a puzzled look.
“I’m Criminal Oda, we met a year ago in Tokyo.”
“I see…” replied Shiori with a bitter smile.
“Can we find a place to sit down and talk?” Oda offered in mid-sentence.
“Will you arrest me if I refuse?” Shiori replied unkindly.
“It’s…” the unfriendly reply made Oda feel embarrassed.
“Okay… let’s go to that coffee shop.” Shiori indicated a coffee shop across the street.
“What do you want to ask?” Shiori, who had reached into her coffee cup with the stirring spoon and stirred it, took the initiative to ask Oda.
“Um… Did you know the victim?”
“Not recognizable.”
“So… were you commissioned to investigate?”
“You could say that.” Shiori’s answer was straightforward.
Embarrassment once again befell Oda.
“How about we make a deal?” Shiori, who had stopped stirring her coffee, suggested.
“Go ahead.” Oda’s hope arrived.
“How about you manage to get me into the scene tonight and I’ll tell you what I know?”
“Deal!” Oda agreed without saying a word, his sixth sense as a detective told him that the young and beautiful female detective in front of him held an important key to solving the case.
10:00 p.m. at the scene of the murder.
Oda Iyo slipped into the scene of the murder with Shiori in tow.
“It’s cold…” shivered Oda as he walked into the place where the body was found.
“Murder victims usually stay at the scene of the crime, and when they’re agitated, the temperature around them drops.” Shiori said to Oda as she looked around her surroundings.
“Hoo… is she here now?” Oda, who had been feeling cold, asked after exhaling a mouthful of foggy water.
“Don’t ask me, it’s not like I can see them.” Not like she was joking Shiori handed Oda a very thick kraft paper bag.
“Seven pieces!?” The face of Oda, who drew out the information in the kraft paper bag, looked as if he had seen a ghost.
“In seven months, there were seven cases of the same pattern of body-splitting all over the country… Oda, are you a religious man?”
“?” Oda was confused for a moment.
“There are seven major sins in Catholicism, namely, overeating, greed, sloth, fornication, ignorance, envy, and anger…”
“I have heard that.”
“It’s ‘Rage’.” Shiori focused the light from her flashlight on the west side of the corner.
“Is this the totem?” Oda looked at the strange dark brown drawing on the corner of the wall with little understanding.
“It is impossible for ordinary people to know what these seven totems really look like… shh, quiet…” Shiori signaled Oda to stop moving as she heard an unusual sound coming out.
“Upstairs!” Shiori, who had discerned that the unknown visitor was on the upper floor, sprinted violently for the stairs.
“Dum-dum-dum-dum…” Oda ran after him, out of breath.
The distance between the two grew farther and farther, and by the time Oda finally ran to the rooftop of the top floor, he had chased him until his legs went weak, and the unbelievable scene happened in front of Oda’s eyes.
The figure Shiori was chasing leapt 50 meters to the roof of the building across the street with no way in front of her! Then came Shiori, who surprisingly jumped the same distance without hesitation!
The sight of Shiori, with her long, fiery red hair, leaping through the air was as mesmerizing as that of the legendary elves of Norse mythology. As a matter of fact, Shiori’s own feelings were not wasted at all. When she was doing her extreme exercise, the air would become relatively sluggish, making it difficult to inhale into her lungs.
Jumping across the building Shiori instantly dodged into the back of a set of ventilation ducts, her curvaceous, seductive Su breasts heaving violently against her white shirt, her face bloodless and oxygen-deprived as she tried to keep her gasping breaths as quiet as possible.
After taking a few deep breaths, Shiori pulled out the 9MM semi-automatic pistol strapped to her waistline and stepped out carefully.
“!” A shattering movement from somewhere woke the sleeping dove.
Shiori fired in the direction of the commotion without giving it much thought, pulling the trigger five times in a row before stopping.
(Back!)
The rattling sound of the raw iron door swinging made Shiori turn urgently to take aim, and this time she did not fire a shot.
（”I’ve been tricked…)
The target took advantage of the fact that Shiori’s hearing was temporarily shielded by the sound of gunfire to open the iron door and escape. Shiori wearily ruffled the loose bangs on her forehead with her left hand and sighed softly.
Oda, who was waiting for Shiori downstairs, was staring at Shiori, who was walking downstairs, with an incredulous look of horror.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Shiori’s mood was at its worst.
“It was so unbelievable just now… Ms. Shiori! Where are you going?”
“A place away from the crowd…”
Stage. 03 Seventh Victim
The next day at 9:30 a.m. at the residence of the victim, Tomoko Oishi.
When Oda arrived at the residence of the murder victim, Tomoko Oishi, a silver and white two-door impreza was already parked ahead of him to the left of the front door, with a very familiar beauty leaning on the door.
“You’re late.” Shiori, who was leaning on the car door, said.
“Good… good morning!” Oda smiled awkwardly.
Tomoko’s bedroom remained the same as it had been when she was alive, with half-read magazines on the bed.
(Tomoko was called out by a phone call at 9:00 PM and never came back…) Shiori stood in the middle of Tomoko’s room, simulating in her mind the last moments of Tomoko’s life.
A certain object placed on the vanity table aborted Shiori’s thoughts. A wooden music box with a beautifully carved antique pattern.
As far as Shiori could remember, she had one when she was a child. Shiori reached out and turned it on… The crisp metallic percussive music was familiar…
（？）
There was a small line on the edge of the lid that made Shiori feel the temperature around her drop to freezing point. Closing the lid of the box, Shiori silently walked towards the bed, kneeled down and put her hand under the bed to feel around. Feeling around, Shiori’s fingertips suddenly came across something that was tied to the bottom of the bed.
(I found it…)
Shiori closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“My sister will never come back here again…” said Yoko, Tomoko’s younger sister, standing forlornly in the entrance hall.
“I’ll catch the murderer.” Shiori, who had put on her sunglasses, said.
12:00 Noon Ramen Shop
“Any ideas?” Oda, who had ordered a bowl of flavored ramen, asked, noting that Shiori hadn’t said a word since she left Tomoko’s house.
“There’s only one thing…” said Shiori as she pushed the small, dark-colored bag she had taken from under Tomoko’s bed onto the table toward Oda.
“It’s…”
“This is what I took out from under Tomoko’s bed.”
“！！！！！！！！！”
Oda had just uncovered the corner of the small, dark colored bag and immediately covered it back up, deeply afraid of being discovered by someone else.
In the small dark colored bag was a holster and a small black semi-automatic pistol.
“German-made HKP7 semi-automatic 9mm pistol, this is the standard issue gun for our agents, every agent attached to Z is issued with one…” said Shiori slowly.
“You mean…”
“Tomoko isn’t an ordinary girl high school student, she’s just like me…” Shiori spoke in a diminishing voice.
Stage. 04 Skewed Fate
The 850-horsepower impreza roared with a low engine sound as it sped through a deep mountainous road, and then suddenly, without warning, the red-haired beauty driving it switched clutches and pressed the brake pedal to the floor. The silver-white bodywork made a few sharp turns in the same place and then stopped moving, holding the steering wheel tightly and reading Shiori’s blank stare at the end of the road hidden in the mountains and forests.
Shiori opened the small bag placed on the side seat and took out the music box she had taken from Tomoko’s bedroom, “Forgive me for not being able to protect your sister in such a situation…” Shiori, who had lifted the lid of the music box, gently touched the small letters along the edge of the lid with her fingertips: “The Place of Deep Sleep “.
Listening to the music Shiori subconsciously stroked the women’s watch she wore on her right arm, which Gintaichi had given her as a birthday present three years ago.
Birthday? Shiori, who didn’t know why she thought of that phrase, raised her right arm slightly to look at the small column of dates on this watch.
(It’s been three days… three days ago… that’s when Tomoko was killed?) Shiori took out the cell phone in her purse and after a moment’s hesitation, she pressed Tatebayashi Miharu’s number.
“Doo… Hello, this is See Haru on the phone, may I ask who you are?”
“I’m Shiori…”
“Something wrong?” The conversation suddenly chilled.
“I need your assistance…” whispered Shiori.
“Is it about that thing?”
“You’re pursuing the same case?”
“Where are you going with this? I’m talking about that time a week ago when I went back to the old mansion and found your grave dug up and the remains already taken!”
“What!?” Shiori exclaimed.
“You didn’t dig it yourself, did you?” An unimpressed See Haru said.
“I’ll call you later, bye!”
Shiori, who suddenly realized that her previous guess was completely wrong, panicked and redialed Oda’s phone number instead.
“Hello, this is Oda, may I ask if you’re… ah, one moment please… Shiori, you… duh…” the cell phone disconnected a few seconds after it was connected.
Shiori is at Oda’s side! That was something that couldn’t happen! Unless… Putting away her cell phone Shiori slammed on the gas and sped off.
Stage. 05 Consideration
A high-rise building in Higashi-ku, Yokohama City, 8:00 p.m.
“Have you ever had the experience of gazing at the starry lights of the metropolis from a tall building late at night?” The beautiful young girl with long reddish-red hair, sitting diagonally by the window of the tall building, said to Criminal Oda and Yoko, who had been kidnapped by her.
Shiori? No, I should say a beautiful girl whose appearance is indistinguishable from Shiori’s.
“The extinguishing of any of these lights will not have any effect on the entire world…” the long-haired beauty said indifferently.
“Let them go or I’ll put a big hole in your head.” Shiori’s voice came from the other side.
“It’s been a long time waiting for you! Fujisaki Shiori.” The long-haired beauty slowly stood up.
Two spectators tied to chairs with their mouths taped shut looked dumbfounded.
“Oishi Tomoko, why are you doing this?”
Shiori raised her gun and aimed it at the long-haired beauty, stating the shocking truth.
Tomoko Oishi! Wasn’t she one of the victims!
“Why? Because of this…”
The scenery around them changed as Tomoko’s words ended.
Illusion?
“Familiar?” Tomoko said with deliberate gentleness.
“What do you want to do?”
Shiori’s face turned pale, and the scenery around her made her quite uneasy.
It was the view of Shiori moments before her fifth birthday and the time before the tragedy that changed her fate.
“You know, I have the power to bring you back to that moment…” murmured Tomoko, leaning in to Shiori’s ear.
“What are you hesitating for? We did everything we could to accomplish our mission, but we got nothing, and we were even ostracized and treated like monsters… Join us, Shiori, and then you can have everything you want, including going back to that moment to rewrite your destiny…” continued Tomoko.
“What about those people you killed?” Shiori, who had her back to Tomoko, said in a tiny voice.
“Looks like you need a little pain.” Tomoko, who saw that the seduction was not going to work, said wistfully.
In the scene, the doorbell rang and Shiori’s mother answered the door. It was the driver who had come to welcome Shiori as a child to her birthday party… Shiori was carried out the door… and then there was the sound of a bullet being fired through a silencer… and everything was silent again…
“As you said, I’ve been dead since that moment!!!”
Shiori, who remained silent at the last scene, finally spoke up, and with that, she threw off the semi-automatic 9MM pistol in her hand and pounced on Tomoko.
“It’s not good for you if you’re too stubborn.”
Tomoko, who was pinned to the ground by Shiori in a chokehold, took hold of Shiori’s handhold and pulled her hand away hard, then slammed her forehead into her. Shiori bounced off the ground from the blow, and Tomoko leapt up from the ground at a 90-degree angle.
The pain in her head hadn’t stopped yet Shiori didn’t think twice about it and swung at Tomoko with a skillful hook, but unfortunately it was blocked.
Tomoko countered with a vicious side-strike, Shiori barely tilted her weight and dodged out of the way, but the concrete wall behind her got a big hole in it from Tomoko’s right fist.
Shiori braced her hand on the ground and swept her left leg back at Tomoko, which was blocked, and at the same time she was kicked in the lower abdomen in a technique.
Shiori, who had been hit in the stomach by a horizontal kick, felt a sharp pain as if her internal organs had been slammed into the other side by an external force, and her body flew towards the ceiling in a smooth motion.
Shiori kicked at Tomoko once more, unfortunately, this time lacking in speed and force, her ankle was gripped and her entire body was ripped towards the ground and slammed.
“I’m not going to finish you off right now, I want you to see me grow into my full form with your own eyes, heh heh heh… Don’t be thankful to me, think of it as my fee for borrowing your old body!” After Tomoko’s cold wave of sarcasm towards Shiori, who had fallen to the floor, she grabbed the tied up Yoko and walked out the door.
Shiori struggled to try and get up, however she was greeted by darkness, and with that, she too lost consciousness.
Stage. 06 Nightfall
The next day, 6:00 PM, Second Precinct
“Ouch…” the stinging sensation coming from her forehead woke Shiori up.
“Where is this?” Shiori said as she wrenched her eyes open and looked around as her body ached all over.
“Don’t worry, this is the Department’s second precinct, you’ll be safe here.” A short-haired plainclothes policewoman holding a wet towel to the tip of Shiori’s forehead said, mistaking her for a single woman who had been brutalized on the street.
“How long was I out for?” Shiori asked.
“Almost a day.” Criminal Oda replied.
“There’s still time…” said Shiori, who struggled to get up.
PM8:00 Altar in the basement of a high-rise building in the eastern part of the city.
“Sister… Sister, is it really you?” Yoko, tied to the altar, asked fearfully.
“Not anymore… since I abandoned my body, Oishi Jiko has ceased to exist…”
Tomoko said with her back to her.
Outside the building.
“Shiori-sama, are we… are we going to war?” Oda couldn’t help but ask Shiori.
“No, I’m just preparing a little gift to give her.”
Shiori said as she patted the M16A2 with the secondary grenade launcher hanging over her shoulder.
9:00 PM, basement of a high-rise building in the eastern part of the city, altar.
“Farewell, Yoko.” Tomoko raised her dagger high, ready to sacrifice Yoko.
“BANG!” A loud gunshot echoed through the expansive basement, a warning shot fired by Shiori.
“Don’t talk too soon, Tomoko. Oda, you go and untie the ropes binding Yoko.” Shiori said as she held up her automatic rifle.
“Do you think you can escape from here?” Tomoko intimidated menacingly.
“I guess you don’t want me to blast your sacrifice into a beehive, do you? The rules of the game are simple then, how about we run and you chase?” Shiori suggested.
“Very well, I’ll give you a minute then.” Tomoko said as she took a few steps back.
As Shiori covered Oda and Yoko as they backed away, the carved elephants set up around them suddenly moved as if they had come to life.
“Run!!!” After retreating to the door, Shiori called out, the M16A2 in her hand simultaneously spewing out dazzling gunfire.
Oda and Yoko ran forward lifelessly, and within seconds they were sprinting to the stairway.
“Go this way!” Shiori, who used the gap to change into a new magazine, pointed in another direction that wasn’t going up.
“Toward the ground?” Oda asked in a panic.
“Trust me.” Shiori said after tapping the gun’s jammed shoot and letting the bullet chamber.
Tomoko slowly walked along the path that Shiori and her group had taken to escape, the broken pieces of the statue that she stepped on making occasional “popping” noises underneath her feet.
Not far ahead there were violent gunshots from time to time.
“Game over, Fujisaki Shiori.” Tomoko muttered indifferently to herself.
Pieces of the statue that had been shattered by the grenade bounced in front of Tomoko’s feet.
Shiori and her group were caught up!
“I also have a special gift for you to give.” Shiori, who had thrown the gun away, said.
“What other tricks do you have up your sleeve?” Tomoko smiled horribly.
“Have you heard of the new pointing mines?”
“？”
“Get down!!!” Shiori lunged at Oda and Yoko.
After a burst of fire and a loud noise, what remained in the tunnel was a crater buried in rubble.
“Ahem… are you guys okay?”
Covered in dust and debris, Shiori climbed to her feet.
“I’m okay, where’s Yoko?” A woefully out of shape Oda replied.
“Ahem…” waved Yoko’s hand.
PM10:00, ground
“Oda, why don’t you take Yoko home first.” Shiori distracted herself from the hurt on her body by talking.
“Are you really okay?” Oda asked with concern, Shiori’s injuries weren’t as easy as she claimed.
Suddenly, the ground began to shake as a huge, heavily damaged beast crashed through the surface and scurried out.
“Shiori, don’t think you can kill me like that!!!” The behemoth-ized Tomoko roared.
“I don’t think so, all the time…” said Shiori, closing her eyes and slowly pressing a small transmitter strapped to her arm.
Yoko’s screamed as Oda shielded Yoko with his own body.
Losing her mind, Tomoko rushed towards Shiori, a blue light that shot out from the satellite’s focusing mirror in orbit high above the Earth.
It’s over… The nearly completely charred behemoth fell to the ground groaning.
“Shiori… you’ve been planning this from the beginning, right?…” said the dying Tomoko.
“I’m not sure the laser will be able to hit you accurately if it doesn’t make you lose your mind.” Shiori said as she half-kneeled in front of Tomoko.
“Are you really willing to risk your life… to save a stranger who has nothing to do with you?”
“A long time ago, the same man did this, and he risked his own life to save me…”
“Heh… perhaps it’s because I’m not as lucky as you are… someone who would even sacrifice his own sister’s life… isn’t in a position to judge that, is he…” said Tomo in a broken voice.
“Sister… Sister…” Yoko walked in front of Tomoko and knelt down, tears falling like broken pearls.
“Don’t cry… Yoko… forget all of this… forever…” Tomoko’s voice faded.
Yoko let out a loud cry, Oda choked and wiped her tears. Only Shiori, who showed no expression, the bright moonlight continued to reflect on Shiori’s pale face like fine snow.
THE END