A Core Ship From The Start
/ A Core Ship From The Start Chapter 1194
Chapter 1194: Chapter 812: Endless Troubles Chapter 1194: Chapter 812: Endless Troubles For Duanmu Ai, the biggest benefit of this cleaning duty was making a new friend, at least in her view, Yoko Hasezawa was an interesting girl, certainly not as gossipy as those idiots in her class. She had heard that Yoko Hasezawa was also a gymnast who had to train every day.
Hmm, Duanmu Ai once again confirmed that the main reason bullying occurred was because there was too little homework.
They should really pile on the students' homework until they can't fall asleep before midnight. Then they wouldn't have time to bully others.
However, it seemed Duanmu Ai's luck had run out there.
She had just returned to the office, her butt hadn't even warmed the chair, when the telephone rang, and Dort's voice came through the receiver.
“Quick, Duanmu, there's a case!”
“At least let me take a sip of water, I just finished picking up trash from that damned park!”
“Homicide.”
“I'm on my way.”
Duanmu Ai had intended to complain some more, but upon hearing it was a homicide, she immediately held back her words, and left the office without even drinking the coffee that Lumiaire had brought over.
After all, no matter where, a homicide was always a troublesome matter.
And generally, the homicides that needed her help were related to Electronic Demons.
When Duanmu Ai arrived at the scene, police tape had already been cordoned off, and there were crowds of onlookers everywhere. Police officers with their backs to the scene were watching the bystanders closely. Duanmu Ai showed her ID to the officer on duty at the perimeter, who then led her into the crime scene, where she immediately saw…
“Wow.”
Looking at the utility pole before her, Duanmu Ai was speechless.
“Although I admit Electronic Demons have flair in their killings, isn't this a bit too creative?”
No wonder Duanmu Ai felt this way. The body hanging upside down from the utility pole had its arms spread as if they were wrapped around the wires, and its legs were split wide apart, maintaining this head-down, feet-up inverted pose. Moreover, the entire body was in a state of decay, as if it had been mauled by some large animal.
“Yo, you're here.”
At this moment, Dort also walked over, deliberately avoiding the blood-drenched utility pole. He watched several Electronic Demons carefully pull the body down from the pole… Well, the thing was essentially falling apart.
“What's the situation?”
“Currently unclear, but what we do know is that the victim died horribly.”
“You don't say.”
Duanmu Ai remarked sardonically.
“Tell me something useful, like, why did you call me here?”
“Do you recognize that uniform?”
Dort pointed to the body, then to the uniform Duanmu Ai was wearing. She looked up from the body and glanced back and forth between the corpse and her own attire a few times.
“Don't tell me this is a Shoujin student?”
“Unfortunately, you guessed right.”
As he said this, Dort passed over a bloodstained student ID.
“The deceased is named Koji Nishi, a third-year student at Shoujin. We've just contacted her family; they didn't even know she was missing. According to them, Koji Nishi came home normally last night, with nothing amiss. Her family woke up this morning and found that she was not in her bedroom, but they didn't think much of it, thinking Koji Nishi had gone to a school-sanctioned community service event at the park, as she said the day before.”
“That idiot principal will be thrilled to hear this news.”
Duanmu Ai muttered to herself, then scanned the area.
“This is a redevelopment zone, isn't it? So did someone abduct Koji Nishi in the middle of the night, kill her, and then dump her here? Or was she killed right on the spot?”
The so-called redevelopment zones refer to the outskirts of the city. After all, due to the Day of Destruction, the human population in this world had drastically reduced; a city that could accommodate millions of people now had at most a few hundred thousand. In this case, massive urban areas lay abandoned and were temporarily sealed off for development and relocation when the population increased.
That's also why this place was nearly deserted, which might be why the body was only discovered now.
“Wait, who reported the incident?”
“Over there, you can go and ask yourself.”
Dort gestured with his mouth toward the river, and Duanmu Ai turned to look, seeing a few girls with dark green long hair in the river, anxiously staring from atop the stones. Their fishtails paddled and splashed in the water, drifting with the waves.
“…Mermaids.”
Duanmu Ai sighed quietly, then stood and walked to the riverbank. Seeing her approach, the mermaids gathered around like carp.
“Did you report this?”
Looking at the mermaids before her, Duanmu Ai asked– the reason Electronic Demons were called Electronic Demons was that their manifestations in this world almost always resembled the monsters from myth and legend. Whether they could only take on these forms or if that was their true nature was something for experts on Electronic Demons to study, and Duanmu Ai didn't really care about that.
Mermaids were relatively more amicable among the Electronic Demons, generally benign and unlikely to kill people without reason. For the most part, they were safe.
Hmm, of course, this affability was a conclusion you'd arrive at after comparing them to leopards and lions.
“Yes, yes.”
Hearing Duanmu Ai's question, the lead mermaid timidly nodded.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Of course I can…”
The lead mermaid exchanged glances with her companions, then turned to Duanmu Ai and began to speak.
“It actually wasn't anything major. Last night, my sisters and I went to sing in the nearby river…”
“Mm…”
It was no big deal that mermaids enjoyed singing, but the problem lay in the fact that their singing shouldn't be heard by humans–there were historical tales of sailors becoming enchanted by mermaid songs, leading to shipwrecks and loss of life. In reality, the group of Electronic Demons had classically replicated this trait; the mermaids' singing was indeed beautiful, but it all depended on whether you'd be alive to listen.
Hence, in human-populated areas, mermaids were strictly forbidden to sing. If they wanted to sing, they had to find some deserted place in the wilderness and have their own little rave.
“We all made noise throughout the night and didn't return to rest until the early morning. But at that time, the fog was incredibly thick–we couldn't see anything, so we all lay down by the riverbank and fell asleep. Then, I'm not sure how long we slept, but upon waking up, we felt water droplets hitting our heads. When we looked up…”
At this point, the mermaid turned pale as well.
Anyone would be terrified upon waking to find a mutilated corpse hanging above their head, and Electronic Demons were no exception.
“So you didn't hear anything? No sounds of a struggle? Or flapping wings? The sound of car tires?”
“Nothing.”
The mermaids shook their heads. Electronic Demons weren't human; if there had been any noise, they surely would have heard it. Although mermaids weren't a race with particularly sharp hearing, they were still much better than humans.
“Then last night when you came back, you didn't notice anything unusual?”
“Nothing, unless you count the extremely thick fog, but we've gotten used to it since it's always like this here recently.”
“Mm…”
Duanmu Ai glanced around. Even now, there was still a faint mist; she wondered if it had always been this way. After all, the area was mainly undeveloped, abandoned territory where only Electronic Demons lived. Occasionally, humans who got lost here would be escorted back by Electronic Demons.
Of course, that's only for those who followed the rules–those who didn't were long gone.
After all, this wasn't the chaotic era of the past.
Duanmu Ai shook her head helplessly and stood up. At that moment, she saw Dort walking toward her with a lion-like creature in tow–it was an Electronic Demon that looked like a living stone lion, quite friendly towards humans and comparable to a police dog version of an Electronic Demon.
“Did you find anything?”
“Lion says it found nothing–no footprints, no tire tracks, not a single clue about the victim.”
“So, was she brought here by a flying Electronic Demon?”
“I asked the nearby Pixies and Flower Souls, and they saw no Electronic Demons flying past here with anyone.”
As he spoke, Dort pointed not far away, and Duanmu Ai saw a group of tiny sprites, hardly the size of a palm with transparent insect-like wings, sticking out their heads curiously to peek at them.
By the way, don't think because they're small and cute that you could crush them with one hand; they are capable of striking you with lightning and barbecuing you on the spot.
Once again proving that no Electronic Demon is to be trifled with.
“What a troublesome case.”
“Yeah…”
Duanmu Ai lamented as well.
“So you're seeking me out because…”
“It's a school matter, and you're a student there. Could you investigate and see if there are any clues or rumors about Koji Nishi? Since you're a student, investigating this sort of thing should be more convenient for you than us police.”
“I can investigate, of course, but don't forget to settle the fee for my services–I'm not running a charity.”
“I know.”
Dort replied casually, then turned to Duanmu Ai.
“By the way, how's the case with the Gang of Thieves going?”
“There's some progress, just waiting for the right moment to catch them red-handed.”
“That's good.”
Dort nodded, his brow still furrowed with worry.
“Ah, there have been so many troubles lately… I have a bad feeling this might just be the beginning.”
“You better hope it's not, otherwise we're in big trouble.”
Hearing Dort's lament, Duanmu Ai retorted directly, practically setting herself up for a bad omen, as if they weren't already in enough of a dire situation.
Chapter end
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