Vigilante

00 : 04 / Forgiveness.

"I have never seen anything like this before, ma'am," the coroner said to Emilia, while everyone else stared at the small flash drive that lay in a metal plate in front of them.

"The work done on the victim's body will put even the nation's finest medical professionals to utter shame. Whoever this perp is, they definitely have access to cutting-edge tech, the likes of which you or me can't even imagine exist. I'm not sure about their profession; believe me, I've tried to figure this out, so the closest educated guess I can give you is someone who knows how to handle high-tech implements or devices. The freak just removed every single organ except the brain without as much as a tiny cut to the side. I'm telling you that's outright impossible without the use of extremely advanced tech. In any case, this perp can be said to be extremely highly educated in medical studies and applications."

"So in a nutshell, he's like a super advanced version of you, Logan?"

At Emilia's dry response, Logan Williams, also the resident coroner of the Barnum Corps, smirked sarcastically.

"Chief, I'm flattered, but no, not exactly. This perp's beyond any human. For example..." Pointing to the gurney beside the autopsy table, he indicated several plastic bags filled with crimson liquid. "Now this is just a hypothesis, but I think our victim was killed by a sudden and swift removal of vital organs all at the same time, leading to massive shock and trauma and a very, very excruciating death. Even though it was incredibly fast, the victim suffered extremely for the entire duration, and that kind of pain even I shudder to imagine.

"Bloody brilliant..." Emilia muttered.

"The flash drive, what's on it?" Kei asked, indicating the object in front of them.

"No idea, I haven't sent that to Cyber yet. And curiously, that is something else that I found extremely bizarre," Logan said in a grim voice. "The flash drive was implanted inside the brain, right in the middle of the central lobe. Again, I've never seen anything like it before. Whoever or whatever this perp is, I would suggest you find them really, really fast. "

"Coroner, any other tells or signs on the body that might be helpful in locating and apprehending this bizarre killer?" Mori asked.

"Nothing on the body, so damned if I know that," Logan shrugged. "But then again, I'm not here to give you the how. You know that."

Emilia put her hands on her hips and sighed heavily.

The coroner was right. It had never been his job to hypothesise or theorise.

That had always been left up to people like her, Mori, Kai and the rest. For so many years they had worked together on cases that chilled them to the core, murders with the flare of the insane and bizarre.

She had thought that they had left it all behind.

But with the arrival of this strange new killer, their bizarre and untraceable methods, they would all have to pull up their sleeves once again.

"Well, I guess it's time to check the one damn lead in our hands," Emilia said, still not looking away from the flash drive.

"Oh right, I'll make a call to Cyber," Kai said, flipping out his cellphone and walking out of the room.

"Thank you, Sergeant," Emilia called behind him.

"And now, I believe our guest has something crucial to share with us."

She stared at Kei unflinchingly, who nodded.

"Right. I suppose I can share with you some of my insights."

"Insights?" Emilia said again, and Kei sighed. "Okay, my interests and insights. Will that do, Chief?"

"I guess we have time," Mori said, curious to know what information the Academy analyst held. "In a manner of speaking."