Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

「Ny–」

Tilarna was about to scream, but she shut her mouth. Emma and the others noticed that and looked at her with suspicion.

「You gave me your number, remember? And well… I wanted to talk to you」 「Ah yeah, don’t hang up. Just wait a second」

She left her pouch on the table, and only took the case with her Krége with her on her shoulders, as she left.

「… sorry. I’ll be going somewhere else」

Emma and the others shrugged and gestured here to go ahead. Tilarna rushed out of the busy cafeteria.

She ran around the hallways for a bit, until she found a corner with no one around, and talked to the phone again

「Nyath. Where are you? I was worried about you」

The phone surely must have had a function to record incoming calls, but she had no idea how to do that. She cursed at herself for underestimating the usefulness of learning to use it properly.

「Thank you, thanks for worrying about me… you know about it as well, right?」 「Know? Know what?」 「The bomb incident in Corinthos. I have to tell you something about that」 「Yeah. I saw that… on the news. And also on the in– internet, and well, there’s a lot of rumors going around…」

There was no way she would tell him that she was a detective. She would test him by feigning ignorance on the subject.

「Oh, I see. I haven’t been able to use my phone. The police would probably find out where I am」 「Nyath. Did you… did you do it?」 「Yeah. I did it」

Oh dear Rubana. She closed her eyes tight and gritted her teeth.

「You see, there’s this Semanian drug called Ména Fiera¹. You don’t know it, right?」 「I don’t. I don’t care about that」

She actually did know it. It was a very volatile sleeping pill.

Even when properly dosed, just a cup of it could make about ten men fall asleep soundly. It was very common in Let Semani. But the drowsiness could be effectively fought off by consuming the extract of a plant very similar to Earth’s chili, so its use in military combat was very limited.

Nyath probably drenched his clothes or something in that drug, and consumed the plant himself. The men in that room would’ve lost their fight to sleep within less than five minutes.

And then he did as he wished.

He looked up Mendoza’s house, he investigated what he would need, put them to sleep and then he calmly sprinkled gasoline on top of them, set up his basic homemade detonator, and took care of the rest.

By the time Tilarna and Matoba saw the explosion, Nyath had already fled by the back door.

「You killed the drug dealers? You did that?」 「It was easy. Even though they were four typical macho men, it wasn’t scary at all」 「Why did you do something like that?! You can’t be connected to a violent incident like that!」

Said Tilarna half acting and half honestly. She still didn’t know if he had done it as a result of Norbam’s magic, but she still couldn’t believe the attitude he was taking.

「I thought so as well. Until yesterday, that is… I was born in Semani but my heart is that of an earthling. I was the son of the peaceful and happy Maybells. But, it really wasn’t like that at all.」 「Nyath. What are you saying?」 「Norune died」 「…」 「I wanted to introduce her to you, she was my friend. After I left you there yesterday, I talked to Norune’s dad. She hadn’t been going to school at all, and I got worried. And Mr. Norbam told me. Last week, she died in a horrible way. She was raped by several different men, overdosed with some drugs, and then was thrown naked on the street. That’s not something human beings do. Those guys were animals.」 「So you went and killed four people?」 「That’s right. But…」

Nyath hesitated

「No, let’s talk later… Tilarna, are you still my friend even now?」 「Yeah. So let’s think this through. There must be a way to fix this whole thing」

She was surprised to be saying these words herself.

Her normal self would surely say something along the lines of “You wish. A coward like you would never be my friend”. Scratch that, even without saying it in such a cruel way, she would have at least felt like that. That was the natural reaction for a noble Farbanian aristocrat like herself.

But that was not how she felt.

Nyath was her friend. And she had to help him somehow.

「Don’t do anything reckless, Nyath. I will do anything I can to help you. So please…」 「Thank you, Tilarna. In that case, won’t you meet up with me at the bus station? The one right in front of school」 「Are you in the area?」 「Yeah. Are you in school?」 「Okay, yes, I’ll come over right away. Wait for me」 「Thank you, well then, I’m hanging up」 「Wait, don’t–」

Nyath hung up.

Tilarna looked at her watch. It was about time for the afternoon classes to start. She walked along the several students who were heading towards their respective classrooms, and then headed straight to the front gate.

「Nyath…」

What should I do. He thinks I’m his only friend, the last person he can trust. But I’m also an officer, and I have to arrest him if I see him. Can I just pretend I didn’t see him and let him go, though? Or pretend I didn’t even get that call, and avoid meeting up with him so I don’t have to arrest him.

(No…)

What would even happen to him if I let him go? Would he just spend the rest of his life as a fugitive? Leaving aside the fact that his testimony would be useful to prove whether Moda Norbam actually manipulated him, I can also help him out. I could appeal to them –Kei and the others– and try to figure something out.

It’s not just about arresting him. He may think of it as nothing more than a dirty betrayal, but I will have to accept his hatred and resentment. No matter what insulting words he throws at me, I will have to bear with it.

「Kénishuba²」

She cursed her situation in Farbani, and while she was rushing to the school gate, her phone rang with a call from Kei Matoba.

~o~O~o~

Matoba heard the current turn of events from his partner, as he was standing outside of the interrogation room

「Okay. If you need to hold him down, you can do it on your own. I will have some patrol cars ready about a block away, so let us know when you secure him」 「… Understood」 「Don’t forget it. Don’t let your feelings interfere」 「I know that」

She answered brusquely, and then hung up.

~o~O~o~

The communications team checked the phones of the entire area, and located the exact payphone that Nyath had used. According to their intel, Nyath had indeed called Tilarna from a phone close to Sherwood High. The backup was contacted via the communication center, and a notice sent ripples through the entire dragnet, after boss Zimmer was notified.

After finishing this and that, Matoba went back to the interrogation room.

Matoba glanced quickly at Moda Norbam, who was swinging in his chair looking bored.

「We are going to arrest Nyath」

Said Matoba, hoping to get something out of Norbam’s reaction. But he remained expressionless as always. Matoba couldn’t even remember what his “grieving father” face even looked like anymore.

「Depending on his testimony, we may not be able to ignore your part in this whole thing anymore. What are you going to do? I’m sure the scandal loving newspapers won’t just leave it alone. And if that happens, then you can bid goodbye to our current complacency, and waiting for your lawyer and everything」

Norbam lowered his gaze, shrugged his shoulders and spoke in a self-deprecating manner

「Yet I keep telling you, I didn’t do anything」 「Say it. Even if there’s no way to prove that you can cast hypnotic magic, we have several other methods to make you talk」 「Well, that’s just the way the police works, isn’t it? You can do as you please. However….」 「However?」 「That’s right. I think I’m bored. So I’ll tell you a crazy thought I had」

Said Norbam with a challenging stare

「A crazy… thought?」 「Yes. Crazy… Let’s say, hypothetically, that I met up with this boy, Nyath, and that hypothetically, I told him about Norune’s death, and hypothetically, I told him that drug dealer, Mendoza’s address… And then let’s suppose, hypothetically, that I gave him all sorts of useful tools and drugs, and compelled that gentle boy to carry out a revenge plan… let’s imagine that」

That couldn’t count as a testimony. Norbam had been extremely careful to include the word “hypothetically” everywhere. It was an extremely annoying manner of speaking, but it seemed like Norbam was trying to tell Matoba the truth.

No, that would be way too suspicious…

「May I procede?」 「Do as you wish」

Without having particularly high expectations, Matoba jerked his chin.

「It’s a pretty interesting incident. Of course, then again, this is all just my imagination but… if that boy had been coerced by the “tongue of deception” or whatever you call it, then he would’ve gone to visit Mendoza a lot sooner. It would’ve been immediate. He wouldn’t have had any time to mull it over or to ask for any advice. So basically—」

Norbam put both his elbows on the table of the interrogation room, and raised his body very slightly.

「That boy carried out that revenge out of his own free will, officer Matoba」 「…」

Nyath killed Mendoza out of his own free will?

There’s no way, is he using his hypnotism again? Matoba remained silent. He was feeling overwhelmed by Norbam’s persuasiveness.

「Don’t worry about it. I am merely trying to have a conversation with you. This is just the natural flow of a completely hypothetical, and baseless scenario that we’re discussing」

This bastard. It’s almost like he can read my mind.

「In any case, that boy is not just a puppet victim of hypnotism like you guys think. He’s fighting with himself in solitude, trying to get in control. Though it may be a little too hard to understand. Ah… this delusion is of course just a result of the effects of boredom on my own mind. It’s nothing more than just a hypothesis. You have absolutely no need to believe any of it, so don’t worry about it」 「That’s okay. It is only hypothetically that Nyath decided to kill Mendoza and the others all by himself, and then run away…」 「That’s right, hypothetically」

Norbam was smiling, as if commending Matoba for finally understanding it.

「… So what do you think? You’re probably thinking that there’s no way a well mannered student with such a clean record would suddenly behave like that, right?」 「That’s a very earthlike way of thinking. But he was raised as a Semanian when he was young. And before he came here, he probably experienced something very emotional, right? That’s right, speaking in Earth’s terms, you would call it a psychologically traumatic experience. That could probably be locked up within him as he lived his regular life. But that lock probably broke after Norune’s death, carrying along with it passionate rage, and possibly some antisocial behavior. You could call it his soul’s own backlash. It grew and grew, living within him for over ten years. His médanni molarna³ came flowing out of him. It was the straw that broke the camel’s back」 「That’s a very in depth psychological analysis. Don’t you think you should dedicate yourself to that instead of politics?」 「Well I am also a priest. Reading people’s hearts correctly is also part of my mission. I think that a lot of interesting things have come to me thanks to that」 「Hm」

This time it was Matoba who pressed his elbows on the table and slightly pushed his body forward.

「What I really find interesting, Norbam. Is how you can be sitting here and laughing like that after your own daughter died like that merely a week ago」 「Each person shows sadness in their own way. I don’t think that’s something I need to tell you」 「I see」

He wasn’t planning on exchanging questions and answers with that man all day. He didn’t think that anything urgent was happening to Tilarna at the moment, but he still thought it would be better if he headed that way.

「Stay put right there」 「Your wish is my command」

He pissed him off. Norbam was almost nothing like the man he had met the first time he saw him.

1. Ména Fiera means Fairy Blanket
2. This is the worst
3. Médanni molarna translates literally to “bad colors”, but it’s used more like “true colors”

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