Fate: Hammer Time

Chapter 20: Administrative Business

Osaki Koyo was in a foul mood.

Not because of Rakurai this time, surprisingly, but because of a much older issue, one that was inherent for his line of work and would continue long after Rakurai had disappeared. The bane of his life and that of so many others.

Humanity's evil.

Yesterday, Osaki had once more witnessed the cruelties that mankind was capable of. He had seen a poor teenage girl break down in front of him, crying bitter tears of grief over her friend, all because some punk had decided to set fire to a residence for reasons Osaki couldn't even begin to guess at.

He truly pitied that girl, who had lost her friend at so young an age, and that wasn't even mentioning the people trapped inside that residence. Osaki had burned himself many times while cooking and thus knew very well just how painful even tiny first-degree burns could be. He actually felt queasy when he tried to imagine how it must feel to be burned alive, how insanely torturous that had to be.

This kind of evil, the kind that burned people alive for no reason at all, couldn't be permitted to exist. The perpetrator had to be caught before they did something similar again.

Which was why he was currently sitting on a chair on the second floor of the precinct, waiting to be called into the nearby office, to give a witness statement about the arson committed on the Matou-estate.

Shimada Kyuwa, an old friend of his, was the one overseeing the investigation. He was a good man, intelligent and driven, one of the few that Osaki would trust with his life in the Fuyuki-City Law Enforcement. He was confident that Kyuwa would work on this investigation with everything he had, either until he caught the perpetrator or until the trail went cold. He too understood the importance of stopping such evil in its tracks before it could do too much damage.

But the arson wasn't the only reason for Osaki's foul mood. He had a second problem, a far more personal one, concerning his faithful partner, Yomaura Taya.

He sat back in his chair with a deep sigh, thinking back on the past evening, when he had discovered his partner's problems ran far deeper than he had ever anticipated.

After having finished helping out as much as he could at the wreckage that used to be the Matou-estate, Osaki tried to call Taya again. She hadn't been at the office today, and neither had she called or responded to any of his calls or messages. He hadn't thought too much of it at first, but now that a housefire had been thrown in his face like this, he couldn't help but worry.

He only got the voicemail again however, and after a moment of thinking, decided to visit her at home, if only to settle his nerves.

He had visited her apartment complex before, so it didn't take him very long to drive there. Then, using the spare key she'd given him, he entered the complex and made his way over to her apartment. When he rang the doorbell however, nobody answered.

Now actually getting worried, he opened the door with the spare key, before rushing inside and looking around for her. To his immense relief, he found her on her bed, fast asleep, her chest rising and falling evenly.

That relief turned into shock and horror however when he noticed the sloppy bandages on her fingers and wrists, still bloody, some reaching all the way up to her elbows, clearly not replaced even once after they had been applied on the wounds.

Worse, he could see bloody needles, knives, and... stones even, in the closet. The door hadn't been entirely closed, allowing him to see the macabre contents poorly hidden behind it.

Had Taya tried to...?

No, no, certainly she wouldn't have...? There had been nothing to indicate that she would...