The Shield of Miracles

by Sakon Kaidou

  “They’re more than just looks, I assure you. The café had some great pudding parfaits, too, but their doughnuts are just amazing.”

  Was she aware that I was suspicious of her? Was she trying to confuse and trick me? Her expression didn’t make it seem like it was so. Still, there was a hint of ulterior motive towards me.

  Did she actually assume that the cryptograms still weren’t solved? In fact, it almost felt like she wasn’t even aware that the cryptograms and this conversation could be linked.

  ...No, surely she couldn’t be that unobservant.

  It made me wonder if I was just misunderstanding things, and she was just a simple tian.

  “So, you wanted to talk about the serial burglaries?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”

  “Not at all.”

  And so, I began giving her the same questions I’d given the other employees.

  Ten minutes later, I had to struggle to keep my eye from twitching.

  Why? Because the thoughtlessness behind her answers was even greater than I’d expected.

  During the first half of the questioning, I asked, “Have you seen the blueprints of the two residences where the murders happened?” to which she replied with a “Yes.”

  But then, during the other half, I asked, “Have you shown any of the contractor’s blueprints to anyone not involved in the company?” to which she said, “No. I only recently became an employee, so I haven’t seen any of our previous blueprints.”

  She was blatantly contradicting herself. From what I could tell, she’d made the decision to act like she didn’t know the blueprints while I was still questioning her.

  It was common practice in police inquiries to ask a question, wait a while, then ask a similar question in order to see if the questionee slips up, but this was the first time I’d seen a person contradict herself so quickly. Not only that, but she didn’t even seem to realize she was doing it.

  She could’ve at least prepared a proper, polished cover-up story, I silently lamented.

  “Thank you for your time,” I said.

  “Oh, it’s nothing. I’m glad I could help,” she replied. “But... this is awfully troubling, isn’t it? I mean, this incident got the King of Destruction arrested.”

  “...Truly,” I said.

  Lo and behold — what a finishing blow.

  Once again, I momentarily thought that she was trying to trick me, but that didn’t show on her face.

  She actually, honestly believed that speaking of the KoD’s arrest — information currently unknown to anyone but a select few — was good small talk material. She obviously hadn’t even checked to see how the incident had been described to the public.

  This woman was thoroughly convinced that, because she framed and had him arrested, society surely knew about it already.

  It was only natural to expect the public to show a far stronger reaction if that had actually happened, yet she’d failed to even check, feeling absolutely nothing strange about the unchanged state of the city.

  I already knew from the cryptograms that the culprit lacked sincerity towards the mystery genre, but not even I could predict that the extent was this immense.

  My deductions were mistaken. I’d pictured the culprit as “an extremely rash, thoughtless, Superior-tier fool with a strong desire to stand out,” but it also turned out to be “a person so exceedingly careless that she constantly piled up mistake upon mistake, yet never recognized them as such.”

  Father... The situations you put me in during my detective training never had a criminal as hopeless as this. She’s a bit... beyond the boundaries of my hypothesizing.

  Nevertheless, it was settled — this person going by the name “Gerbera” was definitely the culprit.

  She didn’t have a crest and couldn’t be detected by Kasumi’s Taijitu, but that was probably just because her Embryo was specialized in concealment. All I had to do now was leave her flat and prepare to corner her, but...

  “To think that the King of Destruction would do such a thing...” she said.

  Those words compelled me to respond.

  “He’s not the culprit,” I said. Though my tone was plain, I probably wasn’t so composed on the inside.

  After all — I wasn’t ignoring what I probably should be.

  Careless as she was, this woman had definitely killed two tians and framed Shu for the crime, and the fact that she’d said such a thing as though she had nothing to do with it made me so vexed that I simply had to retort.

  As evidenced by her twitching cheek, she was displeased with my response, which probably didn’t fit her plot, so she asked, “Then, in your opinion, what kind of person is the culprit?”

  “An idiot.”

  There was no hesitation in my response. It came out reflexively, not giving me a single moment to consider my words.

  Apparently, this criminal’s insincerity towards the mystery genre had made me more irritated than I thought.

  My response was so unexpected that her eyes were wide in shock.

  However, I wasn’t able to take back what I’d said, so I chose to continue instead.

  “An idiot with a poor grasp of the personality of the person he’s trying to frame. An idiot whose whole ‘steal, murder, leave a card’ schtick is nothing but a ridiculous mess. An idiot who doesn’t even realize that even a child could understand that this is merely a plot to frame Shu. An idiot who ciphered some of the most immature text on the cards. An idiot who made mistakes in his ciphering, but didn’t even bother to check. An idiot whose crimes are so basic that even leaving cards doesn’t make him seem like any less of an idiot. An idiot who might actually be idiotic enough to believe that this was enough to successfully frame Shu. An idiot who considers other people idiots to a downright unbelievable extent. An idiot who thinks other people are idiots despite he himself being such an idiot that he doesn’t even notice his own mistakes. An idiot who — and this is just conjecture, by the way — despite having such strong convictions regarding other people, doesn’t understand why he’s being thought of as an idiot, is thoroughly convinced that none of it is his own fault, and thus ends up going around in circles like the idiot he is. To summarize: he’s an idiot.”

  With that, I released all of the frustration that’d been building up since I’d solved the cryptograms.

  And yes... not even I had realized I was this upset.

  Still, it was too late for me to take back what I said, so I just prepared to take my leave, leaving behind the culprit — who looked shocked beyond words.

  “Apologies for the intrusion,” I said. “I have to continue the investigation, so I will be leaving now. Thank you for the doughnuts and tea.”

  And so, I walked out of Gerbera’s flat.

  Right after I left, I heard an enraged scream and the sound of porcelain being shattered in a fit of rage.

  Hearing that made me assume that, if I’d taken just a few moments longer to leave, she’d have attacked me regardless of the fact that it would’ve exposed her.

  When I entered an alley that couldn’t be seen through the apartment building’s windows, I was approached by Kasumi and Babi.

  “H-How was it?” asked Kasumi.

  “If that’s not the culprit, I’ll give up on being a detective.”

  She was just that undeserving of any sort of investigative deduction.

  “Also, I’ll probably be attacked tonight,” I added.

  “Eh? W-Will you be all right?!”

  “I should prepare for it, at least... She might prove to be troublesome.”

  “Ehhh?” Babi voiced her confusion. “But she’s sooo hopeless that you easily found out that she’s the criminal, right?”

  Indeed — Gerbera truly wasn’t suited for crime. Not because of her disposition as a person, but because she was just that inept.

  “Even so, she made it past the alarm systems unnoticed and fooled the sense skills of ma
ny investigators,” I said. “She herself isn’t fit for crime in the least, but... I think that her Embryo is an entirely different story.”

  Its category was most likely in the Guardian series.

  Other categories would’ve probably had her going out to the scenes herself, so there would’ve been even more mistakes on her part.

  And assuming it was a Guardian, its current form would be...

  “The situation could become even more dangerous than the night Franklin’s Game happened.”

  Worst case scenario, we might’ve been dealing with someone on the level of a Superior... or an actual Superior.

  “Still, it isn’t like we don’t have ways of dealing with her,” I muttered. “Babi.”

  “What is it?” she replied with a smile. I couldn’t tell why, but it looked like she was having fun.

  “There’s something I’d like you to do...” I said.

  And I named two things I wanted done.

  ◆◆◆

  Dead Hand, Gerbera

  “THAT SHITTY WEAKLIIIIING!” I shouted as I threw the cup with tea in it towards the wall. “That non-Superior weakling thinks he can say whatever he wants just because he has a pretty face!”

  I really liked that part of him — he was a total freakin’ cutie-pie — but everything else was a “no” from me.

  I’d tried to soften him up with doughnuts and tea to casually seduce him, but no — he was no good.

  I’d wanted to make him fall for me, but now, I just wanted to tear his insides apart.

  “Heh heh,” I giggled. “He said he’s investigating it, but he still doesn’t know that it’s me.”

  If he had, he never could have said all those insults straight to my face. But he could still get in my way and stop me from cornering the King of Destruction.

  “I would be done with that in just a few more days, so I’ll give him the death penalty to take him out long enough for that.”

  I’ll make him regret saying those baseless insults about the true culprit: me.

  Of course, he would never know why he’d even gotten the death penalty. No one knew what my Embryo was, and no one could kill it.

  “My Embryo... is the strongest,” I said before looking to my side.

  Common people wouldn’t see anything there, but I did.

  It had a body covered in hard leather. A set of bull-like horns. The teeth of carnivorous beasts. A head without any eyes. An arm similar to that of a praying mantis. A human-like, bipedal lower body.

  It looked like a monster from a horror film, but that was very fitting for what it was.

  This was my Superior Embryo.

  Only I could see it. Only I could hear it. Only I could smell it. Only I could taste it. Only I could feel it. Only I could realize it was even there.

  It was my very own “Ego Sublime, Alhazred” — the strongest Embryo that wouldn’t lose to anyone.

  “Ahahahahahahahah! I’ll rip you to pieces, you shitty weakling!” I yelled.

  Tonight, I would repay him for that humiliation, and imagining the moment made me laugh out loud.

  Side Story: The Case of the Unknown Murders — The Solution

  Lost Heart, Rook Holmes

  A few hours had now passed. I was having dinner at a popular restaurant. There were many customers here, but I was eating alone.

  Kasumi and I had parted ways soon after I’d found the culprit, while Babi was out following my orders.

  On top of that, Marilyn and Audrey were in my Jewel, so the only company I had right now was Liz, who, as usual, I wore as an article of clothing. Since it had gotten warmer over the previous month, she was a jacket, rather than a coat.

  Ever since leaving the apartment building, I’d purposely stayed exclusively in crowded places. No matter how hopeless she was, Gerbera had powerful concealment abilities, and I wasn’t neglecting to be wary of them.

  Given that, I figured she wouldn’t attack me if I was in an area with many Masters. After all, things would become quite dire for her if someone had an Embryo that could trace her.

  I assumed she’d wait for when I was all by myself, and since I hadn’t been attacked yet, I was probably correct about that.

  Of course, she might currently be observing me with her Guardian, but nevertheless, I was glad to know she wasn’t careless enough to attack with so many people... around... and...

  “...Huh?”

  The thought that “Gerbera wasn’t careless enough to X,” had just passed my mind, and now that I’d actually talked to her directly, it made me consider a question that had never came to mind before:

  Just how much of an idiot is she?

  Though it sounded like a casual insult, it was an actual question — I wanted to know the extent of her stupidity.

  What I’d said before leaving was the equivalent of telling her, “I already know that you’re the criminal.” And yet, although my words had greatly enraged her, she hadn’t chased after me when I left.

  It wouldn’t have been surprising for her to attack me in order to silence me, abate her anger, or because she believed I was already preparing to get her on the wanted list and to either arrest or defeat her.

  The fact that she hadn’t done that could only mean that she was trying to keep her identity as the culprit a secret.

  Indeed — she actually believed that she was still unexposed.

  It wasn’t logical for her to stay unaware despite all I’d said, but in all honesty, she certainly did seem like an idiot foolish enough to stay clueless.

  But now that I knew she had enough discretion to not attack me in public, it left me with a new question.

  “Did the extent of her stupidity change...?”

  She was certainly a careless idiot, and I was more than confident that the disgraceful behavior she’d shown me in person was no lie or act.

  However, that wasn’t quite enough to explain her excessive naïveté when it came to perceiving the situation as it was.

  There was also her Embryo to consider.

  The crimes committed made it safe to assume it was a Guardian specialized in concealment, and that was most likely based on the Master’s personality, as was the case with most Embryo abilities.

  Could the Embryo have truly developed into what it was if she was just an excessively careless idiot?

  Of course, the relationship between a Master’s personality and an Embryo’s powers wasn’t absolute, but considering the immense strength of her craving to stand out, it was pretty curious for her Embryo to have ended up having abilities that seemed like a direct opposite of that.

  “The result is the same... but the equation is different,” I muttered. “That’s the impression this is giving me.”

  Both “2 divided by 2” and “2 times 0.5” result in 1, but the nuance of those equations is entirely different.

  Her actions were careless and foolish — no doubt about that — and they brought about fitting results. However, I might’ve made a mistake while deducing her thought process leading to them.

  “Let’s think about this a little...”

  The case had already been solved. There was no need for me to make any further deductions about that, so this was nothing but a superfluous extra — a deduction for the sole purpose of understanding her character.

  Thankfully, I still had time until the moment she would attack me, so I immersed myself in thought and used all the information I’d gathered to re-assess the nature of the Master known as “Gerbera.”

  ◆◆◆

  Dead Hand, Gerbera

  It was a few hours after sunset. Through Alhazred, I watched that guy slowly walk over from the other end of the street.

  He was the dumb, shitty weakling whose only plus was his pretty face. He probably didn’t even realize it, but I’d known him before our meeting today.

  I’d seen him when I was investigating the KoD before starting the murders, so I knew the inn he was staying at, and could easily ambush him — like I was about to do
right now.

  Through Alhazred, I looked at him while standing in the middle of the road, and that shitty weakling didn’t even realize I was here.

  My Alhazred was the strongest Embryo, after all.

  Completely focused on concealment, he couldn’t be noticed by any of the five senses, and even skills like Danger Sense and Killing Intent Perception had no effect on him. He couldn’t be caught by machine or magic sensors, either.

  No one could ever know that Alhazred was there.

  He could sneak in anywhere and kill anyone, so, obviously, if he wasn’t the strongest — no one was. But for some reason, my clan members couldn’t see that. They really needed to have their eyes checked.

  Remembering them made me a bit angry, but whatever. I had a plan to get back at them.

  For now, I just had to wait for when the KoD left jail and then commit another murder. I’d keep framing him and lowering his reputation over and over until he became so angry that he’d stop caring about appearances and go out to search for the true culprit. And then, I’d gladly battle him.

  He’d be crazy with rage, so he wouldn’t care and would fight me here in the city — where he couldn’t use his full power.

  If my Alhazred had a flaw, it would be his weakness to random attacks that covered an area so wide that it didn’t matter if they knew where he was or not — and those were the KoD’s specialty. So, if I wanted my Alhazred to kill him, I had to limit his firepower.

  He couldn’t use his wide-area attacks in the city, because if he did, he’d get on the wanted list. I wouldn’t mind if that happened — it’d still be clear that I was the one who’d pushed him to that point.

  Anyway, if he wouldn’t use his firepower, he’d only have his stupidly high strength. He’d be useless, and I could easily kill him with my Alhazred. No matter which one of those happened — the fact would remain that the KoD would be defeated by my planning and my Embryo’s power. That would surely make my clan members rethink their opinion of me.

  “Before that, I have to crush this annoying, shitty weakling,” I muttered.

  My unnoticeable Alhazred started walking towards him.

  First, I’d slowly tear off his limbs, and when he started to bawl, I’d cut his face into pieces. My heart danced as I imagined that moment, and then I made my Embryo run forward.