Don't use Type-Moon references in Oregairu!

The two of them gasped the moment they opened the body bag.

168. Dead Apostle (5K3)

Although Yamamoto Maru looks like a lazy middle-aged policeman, he has seen quite a few corpses. Even when he witnessed the corpse of a giant who had been rotting and stinking for several days, he would at most frown but would not be surprised.

But the corpse in front of them was too unusual.

It looked as if it had just been torn from a human body, still retaining a fresh, bloody red appearance.

Even if this analogy is inappropriate, even the middle-aged women buying groceries know that pork that has just been slaughtered in the morning will lose its vitality after being left for a period of time due to the cessation of its functions.

This is because cells, organs, and tissues lose the oxygen transported by the blood and succumb to decomposers such as bacteria. Normally, even broken limbs will form livor mortis within 3 hours due to blood coagulation.

But the severed limbs in front of them remained unchanged.

"...Because we responded quickly, arriving at the crime scene within an hour and recovering the body parts for safekeeping, could it be because we preserved them properly?"

Yamamoto muttered to himself, but immediately dismissed his guess: "How could such technology exist? Even with professional preservation conditions, a limb that has been accidentally severed would most likely die within a day. Could a mere morgue really serve such a purpose?"

He roughly examined the severed limbs again and again, even thinking that these things could be given to others for transplantation.

Fujimaru Ritsuka silently opened her [Eye of Karma], then quickly closed it again, and said to Yamamoto Maru with a strange expression, "These limbs... seem to still be alive."

Yamamoto Maru froze, putting the items down, his expression filled with disbelief: "Wait... have your supernatural abilities reached this level? These things are reduced to pieces and you're still considered alive? Can you revive people later?"

“No, when did you start thinking these were people?” Fujimaru Ritsuka calmly pointed to everything in the bag. “I suspect we’ve encountered monsters before they’ve fully matured.”

"You mean the monsters you encountered?"

To be honest, Yamamoto Maru had some doubts about whether the information provided by Chaldea was fabricated.

Or perhaps, he was simply instinctively trying to question Fujimaru Ritsuka and the others' descriptions of the monsters' power.

Based on the results of his and his colleagues' hard work last night, more than 6000 of the registered homeless individuals alone were suspected of being missing. Just thinking about the possible hidden truths behind these cases filled Yamamoto Maru with dread. But now, it seemed he was about to witness the truth.

“Inferior Dead Apostles…or vampires.” Fujimaru Ritsuka had barely uttered her first sentence when she noticed the officer’s bewildered look, so she added a more approximate concept.

He recalled the memories he had finally managed to recall and began to lie, "The blonde girl you're after actually has a special mission. Her birth was, to some extent, to eliminate those blood-sucking monsters, and she has a natural hatred for them. After seeing the current state of these remaining limbs, I can rule out the possibility of that berserk girl."

"Wait...aren't those vampires supposed to turn to ashes after they die?"

To be honest, Fujimaru Ritsuka doesn't really remember the setting very well either. After all, he himself didn't even have a cloud back then, just waiting for Tsukihime R to be released. But, instead of getting hung up on the setting, he might as well just make it up—who knows what the Dead Apostles of this world will mutate into, and besides, his eyes seem to have glimpsed some secrets.

So he calmly said, "Firstly, that girl is not actually the real person, but an avatar that came to this area, so she was unable to completely kill and revive these degraded Dead Apostles; secondly, these guys also have a repulsive power within them."

Hmm... It's not just the taste of the attack on Itō Ryōta being destroyed by Artoria that's similar, but also the taste of the blood river rushing up to the blood moon in the dream.

So this was me killing my own subordinates?

Fujimaru Ritsuka skipped over these details, her face solemn: "Actually, what you should value most is nothing else, it's very simple, take these physical evidences and my words to the personnel from the Special Affairs Bureau. I still need to go back and check on Ito Reita's situation."

After speaking, he turned and walked back, ignoring Yamamoto Maru's attempts to stop him.

The side quests are all solved, why should I care what you do? Right now, all the clues seem to be with Ito Reita and Luna.

Yamamoto Maru watched his departing figure, his heart filled with complex emotions.

This guy is so young, but he really knows how to handle people. He just handed this kind of thing over to me. Isn't that just giving me free credit? Maybe I can even turn this into a blessing in disguise and become a superintendent in another police station for fun.

If there's anything I can do to make things easier for them, I'll do it without hesitation.

He picked up the phone, ready to share the good news with his boss.

-------------------------------------

Fujimaru Ritsuka walked slowly back to the interrogation room, still having some questions in her mind.

Although some of the content was made up by himself, he felt it surprisingly matched. The only thing he couldn't figure out was where these inferior Dead Apostles' ability to gather and become stronger came from.

He remembered that in the Type-Moon concept, humans were fed blood by vampires, or if they had the aptitude, during the decomposition of their brains after death, their weak souls would control their bodies and transform into ghouls. Only after a spirit that could serve as a second brain took shape would they become true Dead Apostles.

Fujimaru Ritsuka called these monsters "inferior dead apostles" simply because ghouls exist in the world, and he also sensed that there were many mysteries surrounding these monsters, so he named them that for the time being.

The biggest question is where these defective products got such strong power, and how they were so uniform and neat, like man-made products coming off an assembly line.

"The power in Luna's dream is suspicious. However, based on previous clues, she shouldn't be able to operate in the real world yet. So, we need to find a way to catch those guys who are manipulating the low-quality Dead Apostles. Hopefully, the people at the Chiba Police Station are professional enough."

He sighed and pushed open the interrogation room door.

Everyone inside turned to look at him, and Ito Reita and the interrogating officers all showed expressions of relief.

Wait, why are the police officers in this state too?

Fujimaru Ritsuka was a little confused and asked, "What's going on? Your expressions are strange?"

The officers exchanged bewildered glances, then Ito Reita immediately cried out, "Boss, help me! They're all suspecting me!"

Fujimaru Ritsuka was utterly baffled: "Shouldn't you be suspected? Officers, don't hold back with me. Give me whatever you want: breast pads, phone book, hammer attack, hair clippings mixed with milk tea, or even a wet wipe face mask."

The officers gave awkward smiles and didn't dare to respond, especially the older one, who was practically dreaming back to the golden age of Hong Kong films in Japan.

"Boss, do you want me dead? Besides, isn't everyone using truth serum these days? I've already drunk several bottles."

"Tsk, no sentimentality." Fujimaru Ritsuka sat down leisurely, like a boss pretending to comfort a worker. "These two police officers, even after taking truth serum, still can't get anything out of me? I've been walking with Officer Yamamoto for almost an hour now."

The two officers felt a sense of déjà vu and said cautiously, "Actually, it's alright. We've only been here for 10 minutes."

Fujimaru Ritsuka looked at the question mark with a big question mark, and then the two police officers continued, "We are in the third batch; the first two batches have already been carried away."

"Artoria, seriously? You still can't control Ito Reita?"

Artoria snorted, completely uninvolved: "It's not my problem, it's that these people fainted as soon as they heard the name, without exception."

Fujimaru Ritsuka perked up: "What? Are you getting close to the truth? Whose name is so arrogant?"

"do not know."

Artoria, with her legs crossed, was also full of doubt: "To me, it sounded like a string of gibberish, but both groups of officers seemed to understand it at a glance, yelled, and collapsed."

"Is that so? Do you feel any signs of being mentally attacked again?"

"I felt nothing at all, not even a touch."

“Is that so…” Fujimaru Ritsuka nodded, turned to face the officer, “Then I’ll give it a try, you guys go to the door first.”

"Okay! We appreciate your understanding, sir. We'll go and keep watch at the door!"

Watching their retreating figures, Fujimaru Ritsuka carefully examined the interrogation records.

Ito Reita watched his actions with unease and quickly added, "Actually, I'm very honest. I told you everything truthfully, even my personal privacy."

He nodded noncommittally. Indeed, as Ito Reita said, he even kept a record of which girls he visited at brothels.

Next to the interrogation record was a document that the Chiba Police Department had specifically requested from the Special Affairs Bureau during their investigation. It contained details of the most recent organizational movements that could be detected, especially the activities of the Seven Deadly Sins organization.

In the interrogation records, several police officers in Chiba combined the two data points and almost locked down the list of members who came to hunt down Ito Reita, as well as their possible movements.

"Isn't this detailed enough? And whose name did you mention?"

Fujimaru Ritsuka asked Ito Reita, puzzled.

He replied with a wry smile to Fujimaru Ritsuka, "Well, I'm just a tainted witness. Thinking I could make amends, I gave them the name of the Seven Deadly Sins leader I'd found out, hoping they'd investigate..."

"Wait, how did you find out about this?" Fujimaru Ritsuka exclaimed in surprise.

As a notorious underground organization, the Seven Deadly Sins have naturally cultivated deep roots in various countries for a long time and have a considerable foundation. Even some official organizations in small countries dare not say that they can deal with them.

How could such a mysterious organization allow its leader's name to be known by a mere underling?

It's important to understand that names in this era possess a certain magical power. While it's relatively easy to detect names of official organizations like Fujimaru Ritsuka's group, it's more likely that knowing the names of ringleaders in underground organizations will lead to predictions or similar outcomes.

Reita Ito shrugged: "At first, the police officers didn't believe it either. And it was only by chance that I learned the name. The leader of the Bamamen cult had secretly investigated the relevant information and identified a certain group of people. When I was being chased, I overheard some of their words, so I was able to confirm it with difficulty."

"tell me the story?"

"They are..."

Ito Reita uttered a few names, but what should have been definite names became fragmented in his mouth.

It's like the deep calls of dolphins or whales in the deep sea, or like a knife tip scraping against glass; beauty and noise coexist in his voice.

However, upon closer listening, it seemed as if countless people were calling out several names in overlapping syllables—sometimes old, sometimes young, sometimes woman, sometimes man. The numerous voices blended together, creating a strange effect.

Fujimaru Ritsuka seemed to see towering antlers slowly expanding above the heads of several overlapping synthetic beasts.

He shook his head, and the hallucinations he had seen came and went like the tide, leaving almost no trace in his brain.

He pondered for a moment, then asked Artoria, "What did you hear? What did you see?"

“I know what you mean. I also forgot what I saw, and I can confirm that I didn’t hear any coherent sounds at all.”

Fujimaru Ritsuka and Artoria both looked at Ito Reita, who shrank back in fear: "So, even you, boss, couldn't tell?"

"What about writing?" Fujimaru Ritsuka pressed on, unwilling to give up.

Ito Reita smiled wryly and pointed to the interrogation record. At the end of the record was a strange pattern, which looked like a meaningless pile of lines and geometric shapes.

"From my perspective, everything I say and write is something I know. But can you see it?"

"...What about phonetic symbols, riddles, or acrostic symbols?"

"It's the same meaningless thing in your eyes and ears."

Fujimaru Ritsuka exclaimed that she was an expert, saying that it was all about subjective judgment, right?

As Ito Reita was lamenting that he had lost another bargaining chip, he suddenly heard Fujimaru Ritsuka scoff, "Well, it seems you're quite valuable as a sacrifice..."

The tone sounded like a butcher telling a pig, "You're really big," full of boundless malice.

Ito Reita was dumbfounded: "What do you mean?"

"I'm just asking you, how many names do you know..."

"Six."

"When did you find out? Was it all after you were being hunted down?"

"Not entirely, but more or less..." Ito Reita finally emerged from the grief of losing five million yen and began to realize that something was wrong.

"Um... couldn't that thing in my hand be some kind of royal seal or something? Like a sacred object that commands the Seven Deadly Sins?" Ito Reita tried his best to escapist with his Ah Q spirit, but Fujimaru Ritsuka ruthlessly shattered his illusion.

"Let's not even talk about the fact that greed is the youngest of the Seven Deadly Sins, whether from the perspective of realistic theological theory or the shaping of religious culture. Do you think your former leader, that good-for-nothing, was worthy? But then think about it, compared to that person, are you worthy of knowing the true nature of the other leaders of the Seven Deadly Sins better than him?"

Ito Reita thought about it and realized that even though the reputation of the Bahamut Church and the Seven Deadly Sins was incredibly low compared to his own, they were still far more powerful. Where did he get the idea that he was more qualified than the previous leader to wield the mark and more capable of uncovering the true names of others?

One name could be considered a coincidence, but six can only be described as inevitable. Moreover, knowing this and being unable to utter it aloud—all these unusual phenomena can only mean...