Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 9: Breaking (into) the Law

Inside the Fuyuki-City police-station, detective Osaki Koyo was just leaning back in his chair with a cup of tea, enjoying a small break from his work, when suddenly no less than fifteen reports were thrown onto his desk. Before he could protest or inquire what that was about, the perpetrator had already walked on.

On the pile, a note had been placed, displaying the words 'catalogue them, please'.

Osaki grumbled under his breath, but he couldn't bring himself to be truly upset anymore. This was hardly the first time such a thing had happened, or the second, or the tenth, or even the hundredth time. Complaining about it was just a waste of energy.

His colleagues, lazy as they were, were hard enough to convince to even write the reports. Having them also catalogue said reports was probably a step or two too far. They usually left that to Osaki, and he, knowing that if he didn't do it, no one would, had long since accepted it as part of his duties.

He wasn't going to do it now however. After his break was over, he had to meet with his partner, Yomaura, in a private room, to discuss the vigilante-case with her.

Technically speaking, he still had ten minutes of his break left, but he was no longer in the mood, so he quickly drank his cooling tea, returned the cup to the kitchen, and then made his way over to his Kouhai.

He found her inside one of the small, soundproof rooms that were scattered throughout the station, serving as spots where officers working on 'delicate' cases could get some privacy. Yomaura was standing in the middle of the room, busily writing away on a whiteboard, while on the table to her left all evidence they had collected over the past weeks was displayed in neat piles.

Stepping inside, the first thing Osaki did was lock the door and lower the lamellae, to make sure no one would see or hear a thing of the upcoming conversation. After that, he walked up to his partner and looked over her shoulder at the whiteboard.

There wasn't much writing on it yet, but Yomaura had summarized their main theories about the vigilante as well as the most important questions.

He was sad to say there were far more of the latter than the former. In fact, it could be said that they didn't have an actual theory at all yet, only guesses and hypotheticals.

The vigilante was like a ghost, entering and leaving places without leaving a single piece of evidence behind. Not a drop of blood, piece of fabric, or discarded weapon with fingerprints could be found at any of the crime-scenes.

With no physical evidence available, they had no choice but to resort to pattern-hunting. Pattern-hunting meant that they would look at all instances of the vigilante's crimes, so all the cases of the past weeks, and try to find a recurring factor that would perhaps grant them insight into who the vigilante was and what his motives were.

Before they could start with that however, there were several other things that needed to be done.

"How do things stand with the gang that the vigilante attacked a week ago?" Osaki asked, deciding to get that out of the way first. "Is their arrest guaranteed?"

He had only been able to follow the case peripherally, so he wasn't as informed as he should have been. From what he'd heard though, things weren't looking all that well for that gang.

"Yes, Senpai, they are definitely going behind bars." Yomaura confirmed, smiling victoriously. "With all of the drugs, illegal weapons, and information they had in their base, there was never any chance that they were going to get away."

"Excellent. It seems we can add a few dozen more to the massive list of arrests we've made over the past month." Osaki allowed himself a small smile as well. "I wish we could have made those arrests without the help of a vigilante, but I'll take what I can get."