Not a detective

Page 87

The girl raised her head.

Although her smile was still a little forced, she managed to suppress the trembling in her palms.

“I’ve made up my mind… Since I’m leaving that warm little house and venturing into the wind and snow, I have to bear the consequences of my choices.”

"Brother, you can't always treat me like a child. I need to grow up too."

Her smile was like a snowflake—fragile, yet crystal clear and incomparably beautiful.

"Well done." Asakawa Riku patted her head and gave Chizuko a look: "Let's go."

"To me, there are only two words... How heartless."

Chizuko called out to Kiku, who enveloped everyone and used her ghostly power to pass through the door, slowly seeping into the room inside.

In that instant, I saw a woman with a terrified expression, constantly backing away in an attempt to avoid me.

"Ugh... Ahhhhh!!"

She screamed, almost vomiting, her face contorted in an abstract painting.

It's not hard to tell that the woman is Yukie's biological mother.

The two look very alike. Although she is much taller and obviously older, the resemblance in their eyes and eyebrows is still noticeable.

She was also wearing a white lab coat, probably the uniform here. Her face showed signs of aging, with dark circles under her eyes and dry, split hair. She looked very haggard.

When she saw the person walking out of the door, her expression was terrified, but the moment she saw Yukie, her terrification instantly transformed into something deeper.

Pupils contracted violently...

"How can it be……"

Her voice was hoarse, perhaps she was wondering if she was dreaming.

"Mother." Having prepared herself mentally, Yukie managed to remain calm as she slowly spoke, "...Perhaps I can no longer call you that."

"Ms. Fujishima Misuzu, I didn't expect to meet you here."

Chizuko supported her younger sister's back.

Riku Asakawa remembered that the woman, Yuki's biological mother, was named Fujishima Misuzu.

Fujishima Misuzu, however, did not seem to have any intention of giving a proper greeting.

She reached into the drawer behind her and suddenly pulled out a pistol:

"Don't come any closer! Don't come any closer! I don't want to say anything, just get out of here!"

In that instant, Chizuko's eyes turned cold, and her lips moved slightly, as if she were reciting something.

Asakawa Riku reached out and covered her mouth, and then the next second, his body disappeared.

When she found him again, he was already standing in front of Fujishima Misuzu. Under the terrified woman's eyes, he gently took the pistol, broke it in half, and threw it aside.

The sound of metal hitting the ground seemed to come a beat late, and the pistol was bent and twisted in an unscientific way, as if it had been hit by hydraulic clamps.

"This isn't how a mother and daughter should act when they meet, is it?"

Not just anyone would be afraid of a gun; in the hands of an amateur like him, firearms are nothing more than meaningless objects.

Fujishima Misuzu stumbled backward, bumping into the table behind her. A sharp pain shot through her waist, and she fell to the ground in a disheveled state.

"I...I have nothing to say!"

But her attitude was the best testimony, especially since she didn't dare to look Yuki in the eye.

It looked as if it were hiding from a monster.

Asakawa Riku realized that his worst guess was being proven true little by little, and he was in a bad mood because of that "reasoning".

He grabbed Fujishima Misuzu by the neck, maintaining a tight grip to prevent her from suffocating, and threw her onto a swivel chair that spun around twice before stopping.

"Next, I will propose a presumption of guilt. You are free to refute my inference. If it is ultimately proven that I have wronged you, I will apologize sincerely. But if it is ultimately proven that you are indeed guilty, then please bear the responsibility and consequences. Of course, in addition to words, you also have the freedom to resist."

Asakawa Riku clenched his fist and said something he hadn't said in a long time: "That's what fists are. If you can beat me, then I will naturally lose my right to be the Punisher."

Actually, after saying it out loud, I didn't feel as ashamed or embarrassed as I had expected. Instead, I felt a long-dormant sense of mission welling up inside me.

It was as if he was born for this purpose.

"...I...I don't understand what you're saying! This is trespassing! This is a private property! This is a crime!!"

Fujishima Misuzu screamed shrilly, her voice becoming increasingly strained and desperate as she grew more terrified.

"It seems you chose the first option." Asakawa Riku waited for thirty seconds, but the other person still did not stand up from the chair.

So he began to reason:

"After hearing Yukie's story, I've always had a question in my mind."

"So, judging from the behavior of that family before you left, you didn't actually like your child, Yuki. But why did you unusually receive her when she came to you and leave her in the research institute? This is clearly a secluded facility where outsiders are not allowed to enter, yet your colleagues didn't object and all received her with the same enthusiasm."

“I thought before that perhaps a mother will always be a mother, and no matter what, there will always be love in her heart. The research institute here is the same; it may have warmth and tolerance towards children.”

"But I saw fully armed soldiers who would fire ruthlessly at intruders, and I also learned that far away in Tokyo, you had your organ trafficking network that disposed of corpses."

"...If I'm not mistaken, the Ryugu Palace is probably an organization that researches superpowers, right?"

Winter of the Demons: Chapter Thirty-Five - Human Experimentation

"It seems I guessed it right."

When Asakawa Riku saw Fujishima Misuzu's expression change in that instant, he knew he had hit the bullseye.

Although he couldn't understand the research equipment and the English reports outside, he knew one thing: what the Dongyun family was trying so hard to hide was definitely not ordinary research.

If the goal is simply to prevent corporate espionage or research theft, there is absolutely no need to escalate the defenses to this level.

In this world, what a tycoon values ​​so highly is no longer simply making money, but something that symbolizes "power".

That is to say... extraordinary power, which is clearly not something related to monsters and onmyoji.

To put it simply, only those with superpowers qualify.

"Once you learned of this condition, everything else became much simpler, including you and your colleagues. That's why you were so welcoming to Yuki..."

At this point, Asakawa Riku paused unnaturally.

He looked at Yukie, who was standing beside him.

What follows must be very cruel to her. Normally, Asakawa Riku would definitely ask her to leave first.

But Yukiko's words just now... and at this moment, she still nodded firmly.

So Asakawa Riku hardened his heart, turned around, and said:

"You, Fujishima Misuzu, you used your own daughter, treating her as your 'experimental subject,' to create the 'Yuki-onna' superpowered being."

“…!” The light in Fujishima Misuzu’s eyes completely disappeared. She lost the strength to argue, as if her body had been drained, and she could only make groaning sounds.

Asakawa Riku continued:

"When Yukie came to our door, you were surprised, weren't you? You didn't know why she could come all the way here alone in Tokyo, or even how she found such a secluded research institute in the mountains. But at the time, you didn't think too much about it. You just thought it was a gift from God, a divine inspiration, which made you have an unforgivable thought."

"You must have started human experimentation a long time ago. Our school doctor, Suzuki Sho, is the best proof. He was the one you used to dispose of corpses and organs. By the way, the Spider Woman who escaped to Tokyo was probably also one of your experimental subjects. That explains why she was so afraid of the so-called 'mechanisms' and 'experiments'."

"It's just that she happens to have the ability to teleport, so she managed to escape and you couldn't control her."

"You don't lack human subjects for experimentation. With the Dongyun family's wealth, they can simply spend a lot of money to recruit from the public. Those who sell their bodies are usually people on the verge of desperation due to debt. Even if they disappear, it's not difficult to deal with them. But you lack a crucial type of experimental subject, which is [minors] or even [children]."

“You definitely can’t recruit anyone, and kidnapping is too risky for you. It’s not that you can’t do it, or that you’re unwilling to do it. I don’t want to impose a non-existent ‘bottom line’ on you. If you could, you would have already been staking out the area near the elementary school to kidnap people. You just don’t want this facility to be exposed.”

"At this time, Yuki's appearance probably delighted you and your colleagues... You proposed to 'sacrifice for the greater good' and offer up your daughter. At that time, you had only recently joined this research institute and lacked research experience. Being divorced halfway through your career, you probably didn't receive good treatment here, so you urgently needed an opportunity to climb up."

"Fujishima Misuzu, you took advantage of Yukie. Remember you fed her a meal, I think it was cola and fried chicken? She said she was very happy at the time, but she didn't expect there should be sleeping pills or something in it. She quickly fell asleep, and you carried her into the operating room... How could you be so heartless!"

Asakawa Riku could no longer maintain his composure. He roared furiously and stomped on the floor next to Fujishima Misuzu's seat, shattering it!

The shattered tiles and concrete, with a deep hole and cracks spreading outwards, were enough to prove his anger.

Fujishima Misuzu trembled, unable to flinch or even stand up; fear had completely overwhelmed her.

Asakawa Riku took two breaths to calm himself, and said his last words:

"Look around you. Your current status, your private office, such luxurious decorations, and spacious room—is this what you wanted, Fujishima Misuzu? You sold your own daughter to the devil, and this is what you got in return. Should I applaud and congratulate you, or did you never expect this day of 'retribution'?"

"So..." Yukie covered her mouth, uncontrollably kneeling on the ground, tears streaming down her face: "Is this how it is?"

No matter how much you prepare yourself mentally, you'll probably break down the moment you hear the truth.

Logically speaking, as a firsthand witness to that incident, Yukie should have sensed the truth of the matter faster than anyone else, but she didn't have that intention when she recounted it.

Perhaps it's "selective ignoring".

Just like the reason for the birth of [Kuroyuki], Kuroyuki is indeed pure evil, but it also represents hatred and anger, which should be the hidden side of Yukie's heart.

She was a kind child who didn't want to believe her mother would do such a thing, so she forcibly separated that feeling, but unexpectedly, the personality of "Black Snow" was born.

Chizuko squatted down, took out a handkerchief, and wiped away her sister's tears.

She didn't say anything, but her eyes and expression gradually turned cold, as if an invisible chill had blown in.

"Let's end all of this, Asakawa-kun."

"what."

Asakawa Riku revealed the truth this time not to hurt Yukie again, but to give her the courage to "face the past".

Without complete rebirth, one can never attain Nirvana. It's like mashing and sifting boiled chestnuts, adding sugar, and simmering them over low heat, relying solely on the moisture in the chestnuts themselves to make them sticky. You then use a tea towel to twist them into this shape. Only after such painful "refinement" can they become a beautiful dessert. This is the hurdle we are facing now.

He slowly walked over, while Fujishima Misuzu pushed her chair backward, constantly trying to escape.

He struggled and shouted:

"You're talking nonsense...! You have no evidence! You're making baseless accusations...! This is just your conjecture and speculation!!"

"There is evidence."

Suddenly, Shinonome Suetsuki, who had been silent all along, spoke up.

I hadn't seen her go anywhere just a moment ago, but now I find her behind me, sitting at Fujishima Misuzu's computer desk, typing on the keyboard.

"These are... research records, surgical experiments, and results reports, right? Yukie-chan's name is on them, so this should count as evidence, right?"

Those eyes looked over.

Winter of the Demons: Chapter Thirty-Six - Reunion at Last

"Uh……!"

Fujishima Misuzu felt as if she had been punched hard: "How is that possible? I clearly encrypted and hid it. You couldn't possibly have opened that computer..."

“I’m a detective, you know,” the detective said haughtily, raising her head. “A detective can do anything.”

Shinonome Suetsuki pressed the Enter key, and the desktop printer immediately started running, feeding out sheets of paper one after another.

Not only are there records related to Yuki, but also files of many other test subjects, all very clear.

"Now, the evidence is irrefutable."

Asakawa Riku calmly announced the verdict.

He approached step by step, and Fujishima Misuzu suddenly took action. She took a test tube from the shelf on the table, pulled out the cork, and poured it into her mouth.

Of course, it was impossible for him to succeed, because Asakawa Riku had already grabbed her wrist one step ahead and easily knocked the test tube away.

This is a very difficult dynamic to understand. It is absolutely impossible to do without precise force control. The test tube is flying in the air, and the liquid inside does not even splash out.

Then it stopped in mid-air.

Grasped by some unseen hand, it was slowly handed to Chizuko; it must have been Kiku who received the test tube out of thin air.

The moment Chizuko received it, she frowned deeply:

"Such a dangerous aura... If I'm not mistaken, this must be the dangerous poison you mentioned."

She didn't actually smell it; instead, she held it very far away from the front, handling it with great care and caution.

It was probably not detected using scientific methods; the "aura" here was likely observed from other angles.

"Then you'd better be careful."

Asakawa Riku gave him a word of caution, not forgetting that this poison had once made him fall into a deep sleep for two days, making it a rather dangerous substance.