Justice at Delphi - The Fall of Sibyl

Chapter 33

Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.

-Mineko Iwasaki

So this is how it ends for me? At the hands of a crazed stalker?

A strange sense of calm had settled over Mika as she lay on the couch in a semi-paralyzed state. Of all the ways she could die, this one had never crossed her mind. Not in the world run by the infallible Sibyl. Not so infallible now. Mika thought darkly. The longer she thought about it, the more useless Sibyl became in her eyes. Instead of directing its efforts to improving the system and eliminating crime, it was more concerned with maintaining its power base.

Is this all my life has amounted to? I joined the MWPSB to protect people from criminals...but I failed to protect people from the greatest criminal of all.

"Are you even listening to me?!" Nana Shimizu's killer raged at her, waving his strait razor. He'd been raving about love and betrayal. Mika had mostly tuned him out.

"Not...really." Her voice came out barely above a whisper. The drugs were starting to wear off. Not that it did much good for her at this point. She leveled a hard stare at her would-be killer. If he was going to kill her, she'd rather he get to it than talk her to death.

"How dare you!? I loved you and this is how you treat me?" He shrieked.

Mika felt her eyebrows raise slightly. He was completely unraveling. She wasn't even sure if he was talking to her. "How dare I? Easy. You don't know me. How could you possibly love me? If anything, that's a greater betrayal of love." It was a bad idea to bait him, but she couldn't stop the words from tumbling out. "Do you think ending the lives of women is loving them?"

He loomed over her, strait razor glinting in the light. Mika squinted. Was that an engraving on the handle? His initials? "Have you ever been in love? Do you know how it feels to have that love thrown back in your face?!" He shouted.

"No." She whispered. The lie rolled off her tongue easily. She'd never had her love thrown in her face. Mostly because her love had never been acknowledged. Never even spoken out loud. "Who threw your love in your face? Was it the woman who gave you that razor?"

It was a shot in the dark. Something Inspector Tsunemori would have tried. At this point, Mika was done with Sibyl's war on Akane. She was done picking apart her senior inspector. She was tired and was probably about to die. Why not try something new before the final curtain fell?

"It was gift, wasn't it? A gift from her?" She pressed.

He nodded slowly, his eyes glassy. Mika thought it was chemically induced at first, then tears started to course down his face. He hung his head, his bangs nearly brushing her shoulder. "Sakura." He whispered. "Her name was Sakura."

"What happened to her? Did you kill her too?" Mika asked dispassionately. 

"I loved her!" He roared, gripping her shirt and yanking her up. "She was the most important person in my life! We were going to get married. Then, she decided to try Sibyl's compatibility scale. Two weeks before the wedding she called it off! Over some computer!" He flung her back down on the couch and started pacing the room. 

Mika looked down in surprise at her right arm. She'd caught herself when he'd thrown her back down. Leaning back, she slowly flexed her hand. Better, but it wasn't enough. At least, not to take him on.

"A stupid computer didn't think we were compatible!"

She regarded him coolly. "I can't imagine why...is that why you killed her?"