Cop Craft – Dragnet Mirage Reloaded

「Hey. So not only do you discriminate against me by calling me an “alien” all the time, but now you’re going to discriminate against me for being a woman as well? Take it back」 「Huh?? So ultimately, you ended up becoming one of those “female liberation” warriors too, huh?」

Matoba wasn’t budging. He soaked the cherry tomatoes in the salad in balsamic, took them to his mouth, and seemed to be enjoying the taste happily. He then finally met her eyes and said in a low, muttered voice, almost complaining about having to reply at all

「What? Don’t say something annoying. Just eat. My specialty housewife-style spaghetti will get cold」 「This is not about the food. It’s just that you, saying that just because I’m a woman…」 「Okay, I get it. Eat.」 「…」

Matoba pushed the pasta dish with no hesitation towards her. Tilarna rolled the thin string-like strange food around the fork, and unwillingly put it in her mouth. It had the right amount of spice and garlic. The pleasant feeling of oil and the mellow umami of the onions spread through her mouth. Not only wasn’t there anything unpleasant about it, but it seemed that Kei Matoba actually had a talent for cooking.

「How is it?」 「… it’s delicious」 「I know it is, balance is key. Just by adding a few more capers, it would taste like shit, though. It’s surprisingly difficult. Don’t underestimate the skills of a single man. Leave your moral high ground for when you can cook a pasta even better than mine. That’s a must. This isn’t even an issue of discrimination to begin with. Even though I recognized a creature like you from another planet as a woman, you started taking that kind of attitude…」 「Wh…」 「Then I won’t cook for you anymore. I’ll just cook my dish when you’re not around, and eat it by myself.」 「How rude!」

Tilarna’s eyes were getting watery, but Matoba kept pushing.

「Before you worry about all that alien stuff, worry about how you’re ten years behind on housework. When I tried to teach you how to wash rice the other day, you went and did such a bad job, putting too much pressure into it, I couldn’t even call it “washing” but more like “smashing” the rice. And it was the good Koshihikari rice that I had brought from Japan. Apologize to the farmer!」

For some reason, Matoba had started to noisily and annoyingly pester her about food. Where had his generous and composed attitude gone? He was the kind of person that got impatient extremely easily. Maybe he had struggled with food a lot in his earlier years.

「Rakebye」¹

Tilarna looked up and muttered, as she stuffed her mouth with food. She had no choice but to give it to him. Kei’s Sbaghetti was delicious. This was the kind of guy that would someday be thrown out of the police, and be left out in the cold. Well, if that happened maybe he could just work for Norma’s parents at their diner. Surely both the master of the house and the sisters would be glad to have such an eccentric change of pace.

The two of them became silent for a while, as they kept eating. Kuroi the cat had eaten to his heart’s content earlier, so he had just rolled up on the living room’s sofa and fell asleep. He kept inflating and deflating quietly as he slept.

「Man I feel like having a drink」

Muttered Matoba to himself. He then went to the fridge, and came back with a glass and a bottle of wine.

「You want some? It’s the cheap one」 「No」

She replied bluntly. Tilarna wasn’t good for alcohol. Or rather, she had barely ever drank any at all. When she was back in Semani, a knight friend of hers had offered her to drink some fermented beverage made from Sehbe herbs, but with just a sip she had felt sick.

「Well, maybe I shouldn’t be offering it to high schoolers」

He laughed, then opened the bottle and started drinking it noisily. Tilarna was annoyed at him joking around and treating her like a child, but protesting about it would be even more annoying, so she didn’t say anything.

After dinner, Tilarna cleaned up the dishes, just like they had agreed as roommates. As she was washing the dishes in the sink, he sat on the sofa in the living room, and kept drinking wine while watching TV. After doing the dishes, she went to the bathroom, and took a shower.

She would occasionally look at her own naked body in the mirror while she dried herself. Her perfectly white skin was dripping with glistening water droplets. All over her long arms and legs, her slender body, and her small breasts was her wet golden hair, encompassing it all. She had an almost childish belly and navel.

Tilarna didn’t like her own naked body much. She thought it wasn’t illogical that people treated her like a child sometimes. Even at school that very day, nobody had suspected her being an undercover investigator, even after she had done something so troublesome during lunch. Perhaps it could be useful for her job, but if someone were to ask her if she enjoyed having those specific features, then she’d have to reply that she did not.

She changed into a baggy camisole and a pair of shorts, and returned to the living room. Matoba had opened his second wine bottle. It seemed to be fresh out of the fridge. He was watching a debate show with an expression of disinterest.

A Semani man was sitting deep into an armchair, he was cornering his debate partner and talking down to him. He had a calm smile, but for some reason his eyes were reminiscent of a mid-combat swordsman.

「That’s Moda Norbam. Norune’s father」

Said Matoba, as he was taking a sip of wine from his glass

「I tried looking him up, and sure enough, there he was doing a debate show. And he’s even saying some good stuff. And there’s the moderator pressing annoyingly again. He’s getting provoked all over, but he won’t budge. He’s swaying neatly, and aiming for a good chance, he will dash the moment he thinks is just right. And he’ll dash and dash. Just like a boxer’s good technique. He’s a pretty big deal, that old man.」

Seemed like he was starting to take a liking to Moda Norbam. It was the same as cheering for the rookies at a baseball match. Tilarna took a seat beside Matoba, while she was wiping her hair with a towel. Kuroi jumped up right away on her bare thighs and rolled up his own body.

「You met up with this guy, right? How was it?」

Matoba stopped his hand as he was about to serve more wine

「How…? It was just the same as the written report by the guys from the 18th. There was nothing particularly new」 「I’m not talking about your questions or the investigation. I’m asking about the guy. After his daughter died in such a way, I just got curious about what kind of father he was」 「He was a normal father」 「Normal?」 「A grieving father. He just has a lot of stuff going on. He’s always looking out for the refugees and… both that old man and Norune came from a refugee camp. After getting out of such a dumpster, and now that he’s just one step from the city mayor elections, I guess you could say he’s making a huge effort.」 「Such a dumpster?」 「Do you know what life was like for refugees ten years ago? There wasn’t anything like today’s old town district or the Semani project around. It was just terrible」

Matoba took a deep breath that reeked of alcohol. For some reason Tilarna wasn’t disgusted by it.

「Back then, San Teresa was in the middle of its construction rush, and waste was being produced left and right. The UN’s refugee camp had reached its capacity, so the ones that were left out went on to live within a mountain made of waste. A mountain of car junk and building materials… They would gather all of that stuff and try to make a daily living」 「…」 「Back when I was in the army, we were tasked with something called the “public order measures”, so we patrolled the camps for about a month. Children were sleeping packed like sardines by the dozen in small makeshift board houses, while cockroaches ran around all over. Maybe their parents had died or something, who knows… they would crowd around us “Jehkan, Jehkan!” they would scream」 「Jehkan?」 「Jay-kan. Japanese soldiers. They were nice to the refugees, so they were popular. The Chinese and Korean armies were scarier, but they weren’t able to tell them apart just from their faces, so they would run up to them screaming “Jehkan, jehkan”.」 「Hm…」 「There were girls even as young as 10 who were prostituted. Even when we told them to stop it, they would still surround us… but even if we had gotten them to stop, then what? It’s not like we could just guarantee a better life for them starting the next day. Drugs from earth were also seen all over the place, but even the very soldiers supposed to catch the dealers would end up becoming frequent users… well, it was just all a mess. There are several special departments in the San Teresa police department, but the very first one to be created was the “Special Vice Squad”. I’m sure you can probably easily imagine the sorry state it was in. 」

Tilarna had somewhat studied San Teresa City’s history, but this was the first time she had ever heard of that.

「That’s unforgivable. Why did you treat them so horribly…?」 「That’s the real problem. It wasn’t just a matter of discrimination. People got fed up with the powerful countries’ egos and bureaucracy. Try to imagine it, though. Think about the other side of the story. If a large amount of people from Earth suddenly flooded into the other side as refugees, then what kind of reaction would the Kingdom of Farbani even have?」 「W-well that’s…」

Probably something similar. They would provide assistance to a group of refugees only to keep appearances, and then ignore the existence of the other refugees. Tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people are not easy to take care of. Food, welfare, there’s a lot to consider.

「Someone who was attacked by thieves and forced to leave and flee the place they had always called home… is not going to be nice forever. If someone is wronged by truly evil people, they won’t be worrying about everybody else in the world.」

Matoba shrugged.

「It’s not as bad as before, but refugees still live in distress. Norune’s father is trying to do something about it and… well, his efforts are not just a lie. Just saying, but I think Norune just let her father’s efforts go to waste」 「So you’re saying it’s her fault that she died like that?」 「I’m not saying that. I’m not saying that, but…」

Matoba gulped down his wine, and looked down, reflecting deep in thought. But in the end, it seemed like he didn’t reach any conclusion.

「Nah, I’m talking shit. When something this awful happens, it’s easy to think stuff like “it’s that girl’s fault”, or “you reap what you sow”. People think it’s easy to blame the victims because it helps them ignore the raw cruelty of reality.」 「Is that so? I don’t believe I can think about it like that at all.」 「When a relative suffers a death like that」

Matoba reclined on the back of the seat, and looked up

「Blaming the one who did it is obvious, but at the same time one of the following two patterns takes place. Either you blame yourself, or you blame the victim. It’s not about what is right or what is wrong. Normally people fluctuate between both while they grieve. It’s a never ending conflict.」 「Have you had that kind of experience?」 「Never. Haha… never」

Matoba let out a dry laugh.

1. Farbani for idiot