Outrun – Cyberpunk LitRPG

Chapter 416

AN: I just realized I skipped a chapter here. It should be fixed now, but I skipped over chapter 414. If you haven’t read that, probably should? So sorry. During a murder mystery is, like, the worst time for that kind of mistake.— — —

Akane wasn’t at the cat-maid cafe like we thought she was. According to one of the catgirls working there, this one with just simple fabric ears, Akane left shortly after hearing Hiiro was captured.

We rerouted back toward the precinct we just left. The first floors were a joy den, but the top floors were where the entire street’s security was run out of. We passed through without much trouble, and entered the cell hall.

”—stop thinking with your dick, Hiiro! Is this really worth it?” Akane stood just outside of Hiiro’s cell with her arms crossed. Her hips jutted out to the side slightly, and her foot tapped with obvious irritation.

“Of course it is.” Hiiro held onto the bars with both hands, and pressed closer to her. He glanced back toward Mira and I. “We have eavesdroppers.”

Akane glanced over her shoulder toward us. Her irritation and anger faded into a calm and collected mask. “So we do.”

”I prefer to be called a guest.” Mira strode toward them without much care for what we just interrupted. “I’ve got some questions.”

“‘Course you do. Questions, questions, questions—it’s all you people ever think of.” Akane backed away from Hiiro and sat down on a bench that ran along the opposite wall.

“Well go ahead then. Not like I have anywhere else I can be.” The chief of security backed away from the bars, and stood in the middle of the cell.

I subtly backed away, and melted into the shadows to avoid attention. This was all Mira now. I felt a little weird using her as a puppet once more, but it was the position I’d put us in. It was way too late to change it up now.

“I guess we’ll start with you?” Mira nodded to Hiiro. “Why’d you shoot him?”

”I didn’t—“

“There’s no point in lying now, is there?” My mikata cut him off. “I know full well that you shot him post-mortem. It’s such a slag move, though, that I just can’t figure out why you’d do such a thing to a respected elder.”

“I…” Hiiro frowned, and sat back on the cell’s cot. “I killed him? Might as well tell you. It’s only a matter of time until you figure it out.”

Akane sat up straighter on the bench. ”Hiiro—“

“Was it revenge for your brother?” Mira asked. “He died not that long ago while working under Elder Toro, didn’t he?”

”I see you’ve done your research.” Hiiro’s eyebrow twitched at the mention of his deceased brother. “Yeah, yeah that’s right. It was a revenge killing.”

Except it wasn’t. Anyone else could say they killed Toro, and I’d believe them. Just not Hiiro. Whether it was his cues, his actions since we arrived, or even his motivations—I didn’t think he did it. It just didn’t add up. The fact that he shot the elder post-mortem, oddly enough, was enough to clear him in my eyes.

“So you suffocated him? How’d you do it? With your hands, or did you use a pillow?” Mira laced a trap into her words all the while looking just as serious as she had this entire time.

“He wasn’t—!” Akane tried to warn the man, but it was already far too late. Especially when Mira shot her a deadly glare and smoothly stepped in front of her to cut her off.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” Hiiro laughed, and laid down on the cot while staring at the ceiling. “It wasn’t that hard. He was a weak, older man. I watched the life drain from his eyes, just as he did my brother.”

He didn’t know the old man was poisoned. That alone was enough to fully clear him. He genuinely thought Elder Toro had been suffocated. ‘Course, he still shot the elder which had its own issues. “Why shoot, though?”

”Isn’t it obvious?” Mira glanced back toward me like I was an idiot.

”I mean… no? Not really?” I must’ve been missing something.

Instead of answering me, Mira turned toward Akane. “You brought the wine bottle for dinner, didn't you?”

The older woman flinched. Her seductive mannerisms were entirely gone by this point, and she just stared at the floor. “Yes.”

“Are you aware the bottle was the source of the poison?” Mira asked. “Oh, right, Hiiro, the elder was poisoned. ‘Course, you would’ve known that had you actually been the killer.”

”I… I put it together when I was brought the antidote.” Akane’s hands clenched, and she looked toward Hiiro. “I poisoned the bottle. It was me, not him.”

Did she think she was actually fooling anyone? Claiming to be the poisoner directly contrasted with what she just said about putting together where the poison came from.

”I figured,” Mira said deadpan. Neither of these two idiots were the poisoners, and yet they were so desperate to take the fall for this.

“Right, the elder beat one too many of my girls, and I couldn’t just sit around and not do anything anymore.” Akane stood up and stuck out her hands toward us like we were about to cuff her. “I’m sorry, Hiiro.”

“You guys are fucking idiots.” Mira sighed, and dragged her hand down her face. “Do you seriously not still see it, Shiro?”

”Um, no?” She asked me aloud, which brought me back into the spotlight. Both Hiiro and Akane glanced back toward me with surprise.

“It’s so obvious…” Mira jacked a thumb toward the other two. “They’re both trying to confess to a crime they didn’t commit.”

“So?” Where was she going with this?

”So either they’re both idiots, or protecting each other.” Mira rolled her eyes. “I bet you five thousand they’re boning.”

”It’s so much more than just that!” Hiiro righteously called from the cells.

“Oh…” No way it was that simple, right? I glanced toward the two with wide eyes. Right, I’d accounted for a lot, but not emotion. The poisoning and everything was just so methodical that I’d assumed everything was cold and methodical.

“This absolute slag thought she killed him, so he shot the elder to try to cover it up and take the fall for her.” She chuckled, and shook her head.

So it was a love story? I blinked, and looked around the room. I so didn’t see this coming. It made sense in a twisted sort of way. He must’ve arrived on the scene just after Akane left and found the elder dead.

”Did you actually not kill him?” Hiiro looked surprised, though didn’t deny Mira’s words.

”’Course I didn’t! Why the hell did you shoot him?” Akane looked furious.

”I couldn’t just let them take you.” Hiiro sighed, and moved toward the bars once more. “All the clues pointed right to you. If I could figure it out, then so could anyone else.”

”Except it wasn’t me!” Akane moved up to the bars across from him and grabbed his hand. “Even if it was, I would want you to take the fall for me.”

Mira backed away from them while they broke into a quiet argument, and came back to me. “Ah, love.”

It did indeed make people do stupid things. In what world did the chief of security think he could derail the entire investigation like that—actually, nevermind. His plan worked. He was currently locked up under suspicion of killing the elder. If he would’ve played his cards slightly better, he could’ve taken the fall and no one would’ve looked at Akane.

This wasn’t the court system or the Crusade. There was no need for hard evidence. If everyone thought that he was the killer, and he himself admitted that he killed the elder, then that was that. The real killer would get away, and Hiiro’s goal would’ve been accomplished.

”Who do you think it is, then, Mira?” I had my own suspicions, but I wasn’t a hundred percent sure yet. This whole red herring with the gun had thrown me off way too much.

”Otori… is out, I think. He seems like a case of wrong place, wrong time. Seth, whenever he finally decides to drop by, will probably be able to clear him.” Mira shrugged. “It’s between Makoto Takahashi and Fugen. Unless this was all some elaborate ploy by a third party that isn’t even on our suspect list.”

I wasn’t so sure about a third party. There hadn’t even been any evidence of one yet. Not to mention the methodology of the killer pointed toward a long-con style, which most third party killers wouldn't employ. Then there was the open safe, which felt like an integral clue. If only we knew what was in there, we’d probably find our killer.

“Still could’ve been anyone else on Kake Street.” I pointed out. It wasn’t all that impossible to crack a safe. I used to make a living off of such a thing. The safe the elder had also wasn’t super impressive.

”Or even the two of them.” Mira nodded to the two still talking quietly together. “This could all still be an extremely convoluted method to get us to clear them.”

”Maybe.” She had a point. We wouldn’t know for sure until we fully found the killer. It also felt like a lie? I dunno. Love like that, where one was willing to take the fall for the other, was just way too rare in this day and age. It felt weird actually seeing it.

“Okay, enough, lovebirds. I still have some questions,” Mira finally spoke up after we waited a while. “Assuming the both of you want to be cleared of this murder?”

The two looked at each other for a few moments longer, and then backed away. Hiiro coughed lightly. “Ask away.”

”So you got to the scene just after the elder died?”

”Yosh. I found him collapsed on the floor twenty minutes after Akane came down. We were going to have an important chat, but the elder never called for me like he was supposed to.” Hiiro sighed. “I figured she got him drunk, and then choked him to death. The elder had a famously low tolerance for alcohol."

Mira nodded. “And you, Akane, where did you get the bottle from? How did the actual killer get access to it?”

“I got it a few days ago from a vendor. I left it in the cat-maid cafe’s kitchen.” Akane frowned and rubbed at her head. “Anyone could’ve gotten access to it.”

And, with the security feeds all down thanks to the constant power outages, there was nothing we could use to figure out who did it. Finding them through that would be difficult if not nearly impossible.

Mira asked a few more questions to get a better understanding of the timing, and then we left the cells behind. The two of us were silent until we got back out onto the foggy streets.

”What now?” Mira pulled her poncho up to better block the rain.

”We hope one of the others has found a clue.” And if they hadn’t… I didn’t even know where to start looking, to be honest. No, wait, maybe we didn’t need to find evidence in the first place?

Mira gave me some inspiration—we just needed to set a trap. Whatever was in the safe was important enough to kill an elder of the Jade Fang over. I doubted it was rayn or just common valuables. It didn’t really matter. What mattered was that the killer knew what it was. Maybe we could use that?

For now, though, that idea was on the back burner. It was risky without a bit more information. “Let’s go meet up with the others.”