Psychic Detective Yakumo / Shinrei Tantei Yakumo

File 02: Curse

1

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'Old man, you here?'

Gotou opened the door by force.

He found the person he was looking for right away. He was sipping tea at his desk by the wall in the room of about four and a half tatami in size.

He was Hata Hideyoshi, the perverted old man whose job as a coroner was his hobby.

Once Hata looked at Gotou's face, he let out an ostentatious sigh.

Gotou was surrounded by guys like this. Wasn't there anyone who was more honest and serious?

Ishii's face showed up in Gotou's grumbling mind. He was no good. Though he was serious, there was a problem with his level of it.

After shaking his head, Gotou sat on the round chair opposite Hata.

'What do you need from me this early in the morning? I don't have the time to babysit you,' said Hata, a frown on his wrinkled face.

This guy was annoying. Gotou didn't have the time to drink tea with a demon either.

'There's something I want you to look into.'

'If it's an investigation, make a request through the proper channels. Last time I went in on my own, yes? I got quite a talking to for that.'

Hata let out a high-pitched giggle that didn't sound human at all.

We don't have the time to be laughing. It's really creepy, so could you stop, you demonic old man -

'But I came all this way because it isn't a request that I could make through the proper channels.'

'You like picking up trouble too, don't you?'

Of course he didn't pick up trouble because he wanted to.

Restraining his irritation, Gotou put a plastic bag with the mobile phone inside on Hata's desk. It was their only clue right now.

The blood-stained mobile phone that had been left in Asami's room.

'What's this?'

'A mobile phone.'

'I can tell that by looking. I'm asking what the details behind it are. You really are an idiot.'

This old man just went and said whatever he liked. Gotou was at the point where he wanted to break his neck, but he didn't have the time for that now.

'Yesterday, a woman living in an apartment suddenly disappeared.'

'A disappearance? Then why don't you just investigate it normally?'

'It's a bit of a messy situation.'

'Messy?'

'Yeah. Seems like Ishii had been at the scene too. That woman had been talking on that mobile until right before they got to the room, but the door was locked.

'Meaning...'

'It was a locked room.'

If he told someone else that somebody had disappeared from a locked room, they'd probably laugh at him, but this old man - just him - was different.

This subject made Hata's eyes sparkle like a child's.

'Oh! Then this mobile phone was left at the scene. That is interesting.'

'Don't get so happy, old man. It's indiscreet.'

'But isn't it interesting? I rarely see things like this.'