Tokyo Detective Chronicles

Around the third month after gaining her abilities, Fushimi Iori summarized some of the patterns regarding obsessions.

If you simply want to resolve your obsession and obtain the rewards from the orb of light, there are many ways to do so.

For example, suppose Fushimi's classmate, A, develops a strong obsession with defeating Fushimi after being beaten up by him.

The way to dispel this obsession is very simple.

It could be that you deliberately let A defeat you, so that the other party can vent their anger.

Alternatively, you could try to become friends with A and reconcile past grievances with a smile.

But there's an even simpler and more direct way... that is to beat A to the point where he can no longer have any obsession with it...

The perspective from which we view things and the way we handle problems determine that there are many options for eliminating obsessions.

Choosing to glorify violence will only fuel the power of that violence.

And also, the choice of habitual avoidance, the choice of hoping for peaceful resolution, the choice of acting irrationally and haphazardly, the choice of simply finding it interesting...

These different choices will ultimately lead to different outcomes from clinging to their beliefs.

The higher the level of participation, the greater the rewards tend to be.

At this moment, Fushimi Iori, who had finally calmed down, sat on the only metal stool in the operating room.

With his elbows propped on his knees and his fingers interlaced against his chin, his gaze fell on the slowly rotating black and red orb of obsession in front of him.

This was the largest sphere of light he had ever seen since he acquired this ability; it was a massive obsession formed by the collective souls of numerous prematurely deceased fetuses.

The rewards that can be obtained from this should also be unprecedented.

And just then...

A faint light shone from the dense pile of fetal remains, and soon tiny souls, like porcelain dolls, rose from it. They had no facial features, and their limbs were incomplete, with more or less defects or deformities. There were probably more than a dozen of them.

They just stared blankly at Fushimi.

Fushimi just watched them like that...

What should I do?

Go to the temple and find a few senior monks to chant sutras day and night, and send all these little guys to Yomotsu Hirasaka?

Or try to make a big fuss about this and report it to the "Special Cases Section," the official agency in Yingzhou that specializes in handling psychic cases, so they'll take it seriously?

Or...should I investigate myself?

"This is such a mess..."

He sighed and rubbed his temples.

Reason told him he should let go, because what was behind this was likely not an isolated, accidental event.

The existence that can raise and control such a monster and cover up its numerous evil deeds, whether human, ghost, organization, or cult, is by no means easy to deal with.

However, it is not a good option to simply delegate all the tasks to the Special Affairs Section.

Fushimi knew those guys' working habits very well. If he didn't make a big fuss about it, even if he presented them with all the existing evidence, it would be difficult to get them to concentrate a lot of resources on the investigation.

But if we really bring this matter out into the open, it might alert the murderer, giving them time to prepare or even escape.

It might sound like a bunch of damn tax evaders.

It's a rather inefficient and incompetent department...

But the Special Affairs Section is not the Public Security Bureau; ultimately, it is a special department created for high-risk incidents.

Judging by the attitude those cold-blooded guys should have, the current situation is nothing more than causing dozens of women to miscarry.

Such a level of harm would clearly not rank highly in the Special Affairs Section's internal rating system.

But it is precisely because of this that illegal black market dispatch services like the "Fushimi Detective Agency" are so prevalent in Tokyo.

This can be considered an inevitable result of the lack of a sense of responsibility in a society like Yingzhou, where there is collective indifference.

"Tsk..."

As the clock ticked forward, Fushimi's thoughts became increasingly chaotic and distant; the more he thought, the more concerns he seemed to have.

……

A few minutes later, Fushimi Iori rubbed his throbbing temples and exhaled a breath of stale air.

He decided to conduct a preliminary investigation first.

Once you have gathered sufficient intelligence, if things go wrong, you can simply slip away.

Then, the investigation results were anonymously communicated to the Special Affairs Section, and further plans were made after the other party intervened.

To go to such lengths is, of course, to fulfill this enormous obsession with red and black.

The rewards that such a strong obsession could yield were something even he had never seen before.

On the other hand, Fushimi is very likely already being watched... Even if he does nothing, there is a risk of being drawn into it. Rather than ending up in a passive situation, it is better to take the initiative to conduct some investigations.

Finally, it's to make one's thoughts clearer.

If Fushimi had been unaware of this matter, or had not been involved in it from the beginning, he could have convinced himself not to get involved.

Even when he hears such news on television, he might only sigh a couple of times.

But once something like this happens in front of you, and he seems to have the ability to do something about it, it's hard to just sit idly by.

Thinking about this, it seemed that a decision had been made.

His gaze fell upon the tiny wandering souls sitting amidst the pile of bones, hugging their knees and staring blankly at him.

He got up, took a clean cotton bag from a shelf full of odds and ends, and walked over to them.

Fushimi crouched down, trying to make his voice sound calm, and said to the bewildered white orbs of light:

"I'm going to find the culprit who hurt you."

The wandering spirits did not react and continued to watch him silently.

"But I need your help."

Fushimi shook the cloth bag in his hand: "I need a small piece of your bone, just a very small piece will do."

The wandering spirits seemed to understand very slowly.

After a while, one of the little wandering spirits that was closest to him and whose form was slightly more solid slowly lowered its head and groped among the small bones at its feet with its indistinct little hands.

It picked up a small toe bone that it found smoothest and most pleasing to the eye, held it in its arms, and rubbed it, seemingly hesitant and reluctant to part with it.

They never truly lived...

Killed without consciousness, she didn't know how much time had passed. She finally developed a little intelligence, but then spent a long time inside the leech monster's body.

It cannot be completely eliminated, nor can it be reincarnated.

And these bones, which belong to them, are their only toys.

After a moment, it reluctantly kissed the bone and put it into the cloth bag that Fushimi had opened.

After doing all this, he raised his head and looked at Fushimi. The head, which was made of white light, tilted slightly, as if to confirm.

After receiving a nod of approval from Fushimi, he sat back down among the bones.

With it taking the lead, the other little spirits were also drawn along, slowly but orderly selecting their favorite piece from their own remains and placing it into Fushimi's pocket.

Soon, the bag was filled with a shallow layer of tiny bones.

Fushimi tightened the cloth bag and carefully placed it into his coat pocket.

In a typical detective novel, the protagonist would probably start by investigating Takeda-sensei and the people around her, searching for clues, and gradually arriving at the final answer.

There's nothing wrong with this line of thinking.

Fushimi is a psychic, and the incident is not an ordinary murder case.

Just minutes earlier, during that long, divergent period of thought, he had come up with the best entry point for investigating the case.

In Tokyo's psychic circles, there is an ancient family named Morikawa who once practiced an extremely ancient and secretive profession—the flower smoke master and the flower candle master.

Rumor has it that they possess a spiritual communication technique that dates back to the Heian period.

Plant the seeds of a flower on the recently deceased corpse, nourished by the body's nutrients and the soul that has not yet completely dissipated.

Seven days later, at night, clusters of strange flowers resembling hyacinths will grow on the corpse, their petals displaying a faint blue hue and emitting a hazy and eerie halo.

It will wither by dawn.

If fresh flowers are picked and made into incense or candles using special techniques, the aroma emitted when lit can allow ordinary people to briefly communicate with the soul of the deceased.

By utilizing various special flowers, the Morikawa family has long been active in the world of psychics, and now their businesses are spread throughout Japan and even the world.

The effect of "talking to the deceased" is not very useful to Fushimi, who has the ability to see ghosts.

What Fushimi valued was another, lesser-known skill of the flower candle maker...

They can create a special kind of candle from the bones, flesh, and hair of the deceased... and as the candlelight flickers, it can vaguely connect to the deceased's life trajectory.

Find the causal link that is closely related to his death.

If it were the cause-and-effect relationship of an ordinary person, it would inevitably be complex and complicated, with a lifetime of experiences leading to countless paths, only yielding a vague and ambiguous result.

Compared to modern criminal investigation methods, it is far inferior.

But these tiny, lost souls are different. They died before they were even born, so the causal link should only involve a handful of people, including their parents... and the common source that killed them...

It's the perfect solution for resolving the immediate situation.

Thinking of this, Fushimi Iori stopped lingering, stood up, and took one last look at the many wandering spirits.

Under their watchful eyes, I left the basement.