Chapter 1

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Prologue A: Your Neighborhood Informant

"Really, I have the chance to kill him, right?"

The one who was saying such absurd words on the phone was a salary-like man wearing a worn out business shirt.

[Yes, for certain he will remain in the company office alone. There is no mistake on the pa.s.sword cord for the safe. I guarantee it.]

"Is that so…….I don"t get it why he would be at the company during break when even security isn"t there, but that"s fine."

[I"m making sure, but will you really do it? Murder.]

The man replied back in anger towards the voice on the other side of the cell phone.

"Of course I will! What are you saying now?! We shared both good times and bad when we launched the company. And he completely discarded me, a joint manager! He"s monopolizing all the research results to himself!"

[Now look, there are people with personal information. Why not give up on revenge and begin to walk on a new path?]

"There"s no way! He was my best friend…..No, I was supposed to be his friend! But I was just a stepping stone to him! Everything was taken from me! I have a family to support…..Even though I still had debt…..Even though he knew that! I"d only be left out in the cold with my family! This time it"s my turn to steal everything from him. Right!"

The man continued to raise his voice as though to persuade himself. Perhaps he wanted an agreement from the person on the other side of the phone.

[This killing intent is just] he said.

[I think even if you don"t choose another job you"d still be able to support your family though. Well, even so, if you say that then I"ll respect it. No matter what end you"ll meet with.]

"That"s none of your business! When I succeed I"ll give you half the pay! You better run far away the best you can!"

The man sternly yelled and cut the call having nothing else to say.

The question "will you really do it?" repeated in his head numerous times.

– d.a.m.n that informant. Right until the end he weakens my determination…….

After slapping his cheeks, the man set his resolve from the sharp pain.

This is a just revenge, he says to cheer himself up- he concealed the knife into his pocket and took a step out into the night.

Believing that step would be the first step towards his new life.

"d.a.m.n……why…….why did it get like this……"

Having finished with the clean up safely a few hours later, the man fell to his knees crestfallen behind the alleyway.

The spurt of blood stuck thickly to his business shirt, and fresh blood clung to the folded knife kept in his breast pocket.

"Aaah……what will happen…….? Why…….would that"

The man shook his head, and the ringtone of his cell phone went off in his breast pocket. Without checking the screen, he answered the call with a hallow expression.

And then a pleasant voice unsuitable to the man"s current situation came from the receiver.

[Hey, congratulations! Being able to answer the phone like this means you ended it without any problems and without having the tables turned on you!]

"Without…..problems, you say?"

After grinding his teeth, the man stated with a shaking voice.

"I-…….in the safe……..there was hardly any money. Instead…..there was the t.i.tle certificate of the company under my name ……A-…..a-, a-a-, after I killed him, when I looked at his laptop he had been writing his indictment to the company….."

[Yeah, that would be about right.]

"Ha…..?"

[He remained at the company to write that today.]

The man on the other side of the call laughed at the dumbfounded man.

[The president, realizing the large scale injustice the company"s workers were doing, tried to protect you, his joint manager. You, his best friend.]

[Thinking of your personality, he probably thought if he told you of the illegal activities you would try to take responsibility together. But on top of you having a family and unavoidable debt he couldn"t let you be burdened by it. Wouldn"t the president have thought that? So you two had a splitting up and then he pretended to have stolen the rights for management. Once fired, it would have made it unrelated to the company.]

Indeed, there was a confession like statement written for the media on the laptop: "Before the illegal activities are made public, I discarded my joint manager who had the possibility of noticing."

[Seems he already wrote instructions. It seems after the settlement finished, the company"s stock and benefits from the research results would automatically have become yours.]

"That"s a lie!"

[If you saw the inside of the safe then you should already know that this isn"t a lie, right?]

The man inquired with chattering teeth harder than before to the voice saying that simply.

"You…..knew……..this? On top of knowing everything, you didn"t try to stop me!?"

[You say some rather strange accusations. Didn"t I just try to stop you not too long ago? If you like, shall I have you listen to the recording?]

"You"re…….you"re screw-….."

[The one who is s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g around is you, isn"t it?]

The person on the other end distinctly stated with the force to interrupt his yelling.

[I"m an informant. If you had even asked, I would have told you everything I knew. I normally wouldn"t have given a warning, but this time I even gave a special hint with "there are people with personal information.""]

"That"s….."

[You refused to understand him on your own.]

"Th- There"s no way I could know! For something like that…….! How was I supposed to know?! Wouldn"t he be at fault for not even saying one word to me?!"

Suppressing the nauseous feeling rising up from his back, the man screamed like a child.

A clear sneer could be heard from the cellphone.

[No way. Wouldn"t the president also not expect you, his best friend, to resent him enough to think of murder? Well, you didn"t read his movements of what he was doing behind the scenes…….or actually, with you not even trying to do that, it seems the president was the only one to have thought you were friends.]

"I……That"s wrong! That"s a liiiiiiiieeeeee!"

[Don"t be so pessimistic. Didn"t I say? No matter what end you"ll meet with, I would respect your decision.]

[I think the action you took was very human like, you know?]

About the Same Time, A Certain Place in Kantou

He could hear the scream from the other side of the phone.

Immediately after the sound of a rough collision with something was heard and then the call completely cut off.

"Did he jump in front of a truck or something?"

The man who had the last conversation with the pitiful killer threw the cell phone he held into the trash.

"Now then, naturally when they get the cellphone the killer had they would look into the call history……so I guess it"s about time to go to another city."

He whispered to himself as the sound of wheels moving resounded in the room. The man sitting in the wheelchair turned his gaze to the ten-odd cell phones laid out on the desk.

"……I lost quite a few. I have to replenish the cellphones I threw away as well then."

The man squared his shoulders and while looking outside of the window with a self-ridiculing smile he whispered.

"Really, rehabilitation (human observation) is such a pain."

He was an informant.

There was one man who calls himself that.

Leaving aside if he should be called "informant" as his occupation, it was only certain that he had the power to acquire a lot of information.

He was never on the side of justice.

But neither was he a subordinate of evil.

Save the weak, crush the strong.

Trample the weak, flatter the strong.

Counsel the good, criticize the bad.

Ridicule the losers, rebuke the victors.

On one hand he lived like that; he would happily do the opposite too.

Save the strong, crush the weak.

Trample the strong, flatter the weak.

Counsel the bad, criticize the good.

Ridicule the victors, rebuke the losers.

It does not mean himself.

It was only that he is fair.

To his own desires, he was only honest about it.

"Humans."

For the ma.s.s of gems enveloped in such a word, he earnestly continued to love them.

He just loved humans.

No matter the result, even if the humans he loved broke.

The informant could equally love a broken human.Prologue B: Welcome to Bunokura

A three-lane prefectural road down-pouring with rain. On the pedestrian bridge of such a street, a banner reading ‘ahead is the mining town" was hung. Under that banner getting soaked by the onslaught of rain, countless cars pa.s.sed by.

There was a certain multi-tenant building downtown beside the road where there was not much traffic in terms of its width. On the roof top there was one man who symbolized the town getting pelted by the rain.

Ryuuichi Adamura.

He was the head of the mine managing the town, the eldest son of Jingorou Adamura, and the man promised to inherit the Bunokura mine and all the benefits of attached to the company.

Silver, copper, lead, and zinc are extracted from the Bunokura mine in abundance, and while not as active as a working gold mine, it is continuing to extract even a small sum of money as a mine frequent enough. From its small ratio it is called a "silver mine" instead of a "gold mine."

It was not just the mining though; it was also the attached business with the town revitalization accomplished by the Adamura family. It was said the total a.s.sets his family established was more than 15 billion yen.

Developing further a.s.sets, most of the town"s businesses were under the influence of the Adamura family making Bunokura, as it should be called the Adamura paradise, reign supreme in this region. The Adamura family was an existence that should be called even royalty in the limits of the town. Naturally with only 15 billion in a.s.sets it could not line up in the top ten of j.a.pan, nor could it reach the level of standing to influence the country in comparison to big corporations. But if it was within the restriction of Bunokura that was another matter.

It was not just with money. If the base of personal connections developed over several decades was included it was possible to say that they have behaved like proper kings, if exclusive to just this town.

Although since they put too much investment into Bunokura if they took one step out of there their influence would weaken, and the Adamura group was not even a famous corporation with national const.i.tuencies either. If it was a person from the Tokyo area they would probably say, ‘Adamura? Who"s that?’ They were like a big fish in a little pond.

Influential people around the town have discussed about that behind their back. But in exchange for the Adamuras being the ‘big fish in the pond’ they saved up large amounts of treasure they find and have chosen the path to become the king fish for themselves. Bouncing back against the ocean"s waves and build up a sublime, tenacious pond. The name Adamura was deeply and strictly engraved into the minds of the people residing in the land Bunokura.

To remind them they were the rulers.

To remind them they were the protectors.

To remind them they were the dictators.

To make them believe they themselves were living in a pond bigger than the ocean.

Through such circ.u.mstances, in the twisted town in the local area a large family monopolizing the town was born.

The eldest son, the head of that family – Ryuuichi Adamura, called the son of a n.o.ble. He was currently confined to the roof of the building his family owned.

– Why me.

– As if that kind of stupid thing would happen.

– d.a.m.n him……I"ll kill him!

– And not just a normal murder! I"ll use plenty of money and time to kill him.

For half a day since he was confined, he yelled nothing but that. But accompanied by the starving feeling of his body, that abusive language steadily changed to that of anxiety.

– Why isn"t anybody noticing? d.a.m.n it.

– Even though a full day has pa.s.sed, what the h.e.l.l is dad doing?

He was left alone in a store house beside the water reservoir tank on the roof, and as a result of three full days of being there he was exposed to starvation and pain from his bound limbs.

This was an Adamura coordinated leisure building. It was the greatest large leisure establishment in the city built as a part to the town revitalization with game centers, batting centers, bowling places, karaoke boxes and restaurants directed to young people.

Even though there were tons of people crowded on the lower levels, no one noticed him confined on the rooftop. He flung his legs around and yelled out for this being so unreasonable, but there was no reply.

"Y-you b.a.s.t.a.r.d! It"s enough! Just take these handcuffs off already!"

Noticing the one who appeared was the person that trapped him here, he cursed it again, but his voice already did not have much strength.

"If it"s money I"ll give you any amount you want! Okay? Hey! Let"s rethink this! How much did you receive from that Kiyojima b.a.s.t.a.r.d? This isn"t anything petty like doubling or tripling it. I"ll give you as much until you"re satisfied, so come here, okay? Tell him I died. Call that Kiyojima out here and…….."

The captor quietly approached Ryuuichi, who was crying out for some kind of negotiation –

and whispered something into his ears.

At that moment, Ryuuichi"s face paled even more so than before. For a moment the starving feeling and the pain in his limbs were blown away.

The moment he heard that whisper he knew. That he would certainly be killed.

"W-wait! Please wait! Let"s ta-……gah"

Several thin papers were stuffed into his mouth when he tried to yell something.

Something like the tourist leaflets written with the same wording as the banner on the prefectural road the Adamura group made for the city hall.

Although Ryuuichi did not notice that.

Forever.

Something pierced into Ryuuichi"s face.

The blade of the cutter knife thrust in breaking Ryuuichi"s nose but not to instantly kill him. The scream could not be made into words with the leaflets packed into his mouth, the sound caught in his throat becoming a groan and a bit of it resounded in the storehouse on the rooftop.

A rolled-up leaflet fell out from his mouth by the impact and fell to Ryuuichi"s side.

[Ahead is the mining town]

Blood splashed fell onto the characters written on the leaflet.

Slash, slash.

Instead of a pickax, the cutter knife pierced Ryuuichi"s body multiple times. It made the body violently writhe causing more leaflets to fall out to his side.

[Let"s dig up your hopes]

Slash, slash.

Blood splashed on new characters. As though digging up something from the body wrapped in large amounts of flesh and greed.

[Let"s refine the town"s happiness]

Slash, slash.

The characters continued to be covered with blood, staining the leaflets in pure red.

Finally by the time the sound stopped most of the leaflet pa.s.sages were unreadable –

But one phrase arose barely readable between the bloodstains.

[Welcome to Bunokura!]Ill.u.s.trations provided by Soutenkyuu on Tumblr.

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