Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

"Translator: ClefRunner"

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「Norune was the dealer! She was getting the drugs from that Mendoza guy or whatever! She would push me around, and make me close some deals for her! That woman made good use of me!」 「Stop fucking around. Not to mention… are you trying to blame her for everything?!」

Nyath grabbed Emma by the hair, and pointed the gun directly at her temple as he shouted. She groaned violently, and then opened and closed her mouth repeatedly, as if she were gasping for air. Then she mustered up all of her ill will and fought back against Nyath.

「If that’s what you want to believe then go ahead!! Blame it all on me. That’s what truly happened in your sickening world right?! Well unfortunately for you, it was Norune who was behind it all. No one knew. Not Ghili, or Mike, or Donna, or Jessica! They all thought I was the leader. But that was not true. I was merely Norune’s pawn, who was ordered around closing deals with some shady dealers! And she was quite a dealer at that!」 「Emma, stop it.」

Don’t encourage him even further. If you go around saying unnecessary stuff like that, he’ll suffer and then who knows what will happen? Do you want to die?!

「Shut up! … Ah, a detective? Don’t make me laugh. Even though I was being nice to you… what, you were just looking down at me from above? You surely know about all of what Norune was doing anyways, right?!」

She said spitefully, while looking at Tilarna with a messed up face that was half crying, half laughing.

Nyath was looking at her, still looking like he wasn’t completely convinced about it all.

And then Tilarna had no words…

「Wh….」

Norune was selling drugs. And that was probably the truth. She had just heard about it from Kei on the phone.

During the investigation that was being carried out by detective Tony McBee on some dirty money, they found a suspicious bank account. The name of the owner seemed to be unrelated to narcotics, but the one transferring money in and out of the account was Norune. She had been caught doing so by the security camera of an ATM.

If that money was related to Mendoza, then… now she knew that it had all been handled by Emma, probably. The large sum of Money that Norune had been saving had vanished without a trace. It was funneled into another account as part of a money laundering scheme, and was being passed off as honest money earned by someone else.

Why was an honest high school girl involved with a guy like Mendoza, and a quasi illegal account that had been used to deal with dirty money?

Norune had been trafficking drugs from the shadows. Emma’s own words of desperation also seemed to confirm that theory.

「Tilarna… do you know about this?」

Said Nyath with imploring eyes.

She couldn’t say it was a lie. But she couldn’t say it was the truth either.

But he took her silence as a confirmation.

「You’re lying, right…? Even Norune… no way.」 「She was one sly woman.」

Said Emma laughing with a voice that hinted at a complete loss of sanity.

The capacity to judge and act upon decisions like not making other people suffer, or to remain silent until the situation calms down, had been completely lost by her.

「She took a hold of my own weakness and had me run errands for those Colombians! And she had that calm look on her face… That’s why I wanted to get back at her! She deserved that!」 「Shut up…」

His hand holding the gun was trembling with energy

「Stop it, Nyath!」 「She was taking drugs nonstop, and it got out of hand. By the end she was asking for more, she was pleading. Well, I didn’t think she would actually die. No one did…」 「Shut your mouth!」

His index finger started moving energetically on top of the gun’s trigger.

「Sto—」

He was going to shoot. There was no doubt about it. For a second Tilarna hesitated.

It didn’t matter that she was about to witness a murder. A woman like this wouldn’t be missed by anybody.

If she just stayed put and saw it happen then that would be okay.

However, she couldn’t forgive that. For some reason she felt the obligation of following her duty as a Dorini officer who abided by the law. If she didn’t do that, she would be disrespecting the honor of the Milvoa knights, and the honor of her family name.

Nyath was too far. There was no way for her to get there and strike him. She had no time. She only had time to brandish her Krége and point it towards Nyath’s chest… that’s all she could afford to do. She had not been granted enough time to aim for his arms or shoulders.

Then I’ll go for his chest. I’ll go for his chest with my Krége and—

「…!」

A shot was fired.

It wasn’t Nyath’s gun. No smoke was coming out of it, and Emma hadn’t been killed. But something was spilling out of his hand, and falling on the floor with a plain sound.

「Ugh…」

Nyath moaned. He was holding his side, out of which blood was oozing, and looking towards the classroom’s door.

It was Kei Matoba who had fired his gun. He was holding his gun, breathing heavily, and aiming directly at Nyath, ready to fire more bullets at him if it was necessary.

「Kei…?」

Nyath collapsed. Slowly.

Blood was flowing out of his mouth, and he was bending, as life was draining from his face.

Emma was crawling towards Tilarna lost in thought. Matoba got closer while still looking carefully at Nyath from time to time, and he kicked his gun away.

Emma grabbed on to Tilarna’s hips, and kept repeating “Help me” over and over.

Nyath was lying on his side, motionless, with both his eyes open and empty.

Matoba put the tips of his fingers on his neck, and announced via his wireless earphones, the suspect’s death.

(The suspect is dead. I repeat. The suspect is dead.」

Almost as if she was watching a video from a far removed world, Tilarna put her sword down, and stood shocked.

~o~O~o~

「The conclusion was that you weren’t responsible for today’s incident.」

Said Officer Hart from HQ to Tilarna in the interrogation room.

「Predicting Nyath Maybell’s actions would have been highly unlikely, and your persuasion was of great help in buying officer Kei Matoba time to arrive on the scene. As for your results: you managed to save Emma Sehlam’s life.」 「Even though that’s a completely worthless life anyways.」

Tilarna muttered as she mindlessly looked at an empty spot on the table.

Officer Hart, who was sitting in front of her, acted as if he could not hear her words, and he kept operating a device that looked like a tablet.

「Officer Exedilika. There may not have been any problems about your actions this time around, but your regular speech and conduct has been questioned by several different people. And that wrist thing every time goes without saying, of course. Try to be more self aware from now on and behave appropriately for your job.」 「Is this some kind of warning?」 「I don’t mind if you take it that way.」

Officer Hart shrugged

「The city’s Police Department has been intending to start recruiting a lot more Semani officials. Your actions are serving as a case of study for this purpose, so understand that whatever you do will affect what is being asked of your juniors.」 「… I’ll keep it in mind.」 「I want you to respect the rules of a civilized society. If you don’t you’ll end up the same way as your fellow countryman Nyath Maybell.」

She instantly felt an incredible rage swelling up from within her.

She would have previously pulled out her Krége, and pointed it at his neck.

But she didn’t.

What that man was saying was correct. When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

Perhaps feeling her murderous intent vaguely, Officer Hart trembled slightly in place.

「Do you have any complaints?」 「Not at all. Can I go now?」 「Yeah, you can go.」

Tilarna stood up silently. She left the interrogation room and saw Kei Matoba who was waiting for her just downstairs.

He looked pretty carefree, resting his back against the wall, and reading some kind of paperback. As she got near, she realized that it was not a , but an Italian cooking guidebook.

「How was it?」 「Normal. He told me it wasn’t my fault.」 「I see.」

He closed the book, and started walking by Tilarna’s side.

「We haven’t been able to talk since all of that happened. Are you okay?」 「Why?」 「Because of Nyath.」

Asked Matoba in a grim tone. It was understandable. After all, he had been the one who killed Nyath. And he was only a sixteen year old kid. Even if there was nothing he could do, that one incident had cast a dark and heavy shadow on him without a doubt.

Even he himself had realized it.

「Hey. Do you resent me?」 「… No.」

Tilarna had absolutely no will to look down upon him.

「If you hadn’t shot back then, then I would have had to do it. I know that very well.」 「It felt awful.」 「I’m sorry.」 「You don’t have to apologize. It’s just that…」 「What?」

Matoba went silent for a while

「I was thinking that I’m glad that it wasn’t you who had to take him down.」 「…」

Tilarna looked down and remembered what had happened

「… You’re right. I think you’re right. I have to thank you for that.」 「Yeah.」

Matoba showed no surprise at her expression.

While they were heading towards the Vice office on the tenth floor, Matoba spoke in front of the elevator, as if he had just remembered something

「Now that I think about it, Norune’s case was left invalid.」 「I see.」

Nyath had died, and so had basically everybody else that was involved. Since there was no one who could provide testimony, it seemed like unfortunately it would be impossible to prosecute Moda Norbam, who had surrounded himself with attorneys.

「It’s an awful story. Even though we know all of what happened to Norune, we can’t follow up on it. Because they’re all dead. No matter how you look at it, it must have been that scumbag father of hers who forced Norune into the drug trading business.」

The context found by the investigation surrounding Norune’s case that was carried out by the Special Vice Squad, arrived at some fragmented conclusions.

Even though they contested it, there wasn’t enough proof, but it all led to the fact that her father, Moda Norbam, had been making her buy and sell drugs from Mendoza and his gang.

That was also the reason Norbam had relayed some info to Nyath. And he didn’t do it in order to get revenge or anything like that, but to shut their mouths.

「This may all be just my imagination, but…」 「What?」 「That Norune, what if she actually wasn’t Norbam’s real daughter?」 「Ah…」

Just like Nyath, she could’ve been a Semani refugee without parents, that Norbam had simply convinced of being his daughter using his “deceptive tongue”. And then he made her sell drugs in secret, and use the money he earned to fund his own political movement.

「It’s just an idea. That’s all.」 「Yeah. There’s no way he’ll ever testify. And if he refuses to take a DNA test, then that’s the end of it.」 「But someday I will make him pay. His tongue is dangerous.」

That was true. They couldn’t just let that man be with his power. He used those young kids as tools, preying on them, discarded them like nothing, and now he was playing victim.

Maybe it was all temporary, but still they couldn’t just forgive a man that had reacted in such an indifferent manner to his own daughter’s death.

「If we don’t make him pay, then…」 「In that case, we’ll have to take matters into our own hands.」