Surely I Won't Mess Up This Interview, Right?!

We made it back to Susaki in a hurry. With so much new information on hand, there was no doubt in either mine or Sakamoto's minds that this case was now blown wide open. The only problem? Magic was definitely, absolutely, no doubt whatsoever involved now. Our first stop was to the Journal to update Mr. Kaneko on our progress.

The only problem was getting his attention.

“Mr. Kaneko, your wife is on the phone,” the secretary told him as we entered the office, though neither of us heard the rest of what she said due to all the chatter elsewhere.

“Mr. Kaneko, we can't put this story on page six!” Masuda told him. “I worked my butt off for two weeks to get that scoop!”

“I have my hands tied here, Miss Masuda,” Kaneko replied. “Mr. Doro seems to think every little piece of gossip about the general election is more important than news that's happening right here in Susaki. I gotta twist his arm every time a new monster or a new witch appears in the city, let alone try to push for news about otters.”

“Mr. Kaneko,” the secretary cut in once again, “Pear and Hoshi's are bickering over the page seven ad space again!”

“I keep telling those nitwits that it's not my department!” Kaneko complained. “That's a Mr. Doro problem!”

“Mr. Kaneko?” I asked him.

“What do you two want?” Kaneko snapped. He clearly had way too much on his plate today.

“Mr. Kaneko, I think we've cracked the missing persons cases wide open,” I explained. “Check these out.” I then handed him the photo of Meteron and the photo of the last missing student. Even Mr. Kaneko could see the similarities in the two, so much so that the tufts in his hair perked up like cat ears. The big scoop.

“Where is he?” Kaneko asked.

•

Susaki's police station was small and rather cottage-like, just like nearly everything else in Susaki. The department had roughly thirty officers working there, but most were part-time as Susaki was usually very quiet. Today, however, it seemed as if the entire department was buzzing about. I wasn't sure if Meteron was involved in this busier-than-usual attitude, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask.

“Excuse me,” I began to talk to the receptionist. “I'm Ayame Tanaka, and this is Hiroki Sakamoto. We're with the Susaki Journal. We were wondering if someone could take us to where someone named… Meteron… is being held?”

The receptionist’s ears perked up at the sound of the name Meteron. It was almost as if they were waiting for us to ask where he was.

The receptionist answered, “One moment, please.” They then pressed a button on the intercom. “The press is here for the sorcerer.”

Almost immediately, two officers, one male and one female, wearing thick sunglasses, appeared to escort us to Meteron's cell.

•

“It's been a while since we've nabbed an actual sorcerer,” the male officer told us. The male officer spoke in a rather feminine voice that betrayed his gruff, rough and tumble exterior. “We thought they all went extinct during the Taishō era.”

“Extinct?” Sakamoto asked. “You say that as if magical people are a different species from non-magical people.”

“It's complicated,” the male officer continued. “We aren't exactly sure when sorcerers first arrived on Earth, but Japan has imperial records on them dating back to the Sengoku period.”

“Why does it always come back to the Sengoku period?” I asked. “So many shows have that as their backdrop or their excuse to dump lore, and I never understood why.”

“Now, to be clear,” the female officer elaborated on the male officer's explanation, “these sorcerers are very different from the onmyōji occasionally seen throughout Japan. These sorcerers have nothing but disrespect for our culture, and Oda decreed their practice of magic to be illegal in 1571. Ever since, there has been a crusade to cleanse our land of their evil.”

This revelation was certainly quite eye-opening for me. I never expected that regular people working for the police would know about evil magic users like Meteron. At the same time, I felt very afraid. My magic was likewise very different from the sacred divination practices of the onmyōji. I was technically the enemy of the people. Mr. Kaneko declaring me (even though he didn't know about my use of magic) as a witch was given an entirely new meaning. It was a declaration of war.

Oddly enough, though, that knowledge also strengthened my resolve to use my magic for good. I had to prove that this power could be used to help people.

“Miss Tanaka, are you alright?” Sakamoto asked me. Apparently, I was so lost in my own thoughts that I had completely frozen in my tracks and started making weird babbling noises.

As soon as I heard his question, I answered, “Yeah… I'll be fine.”

•

Eventually, we made our way to a special wing of the station designed to keep sorcerers locked away. Of course, Meteron was the only one actually in a cell. All of the other cells were empty. The officers explained that his cell had a special blessed barrier designed to prevent his magic from affecting anyone or anything beyond it. The officers left us alone with the magical maniac, though the male officer said he would keep an eye out for us just in case.

“I'll take the lead on this one,” Sakamoto told me. He then turned to face Meteron. “Mr. Meteron, Servant of the Dark Master, I presume?”

“Who's asking?” Meteron asked in response.

“I'm Hiroki Sakamoto, and this is my associate, Ayame Tanaka,” he introduced us. “We're with the Susaki Journal, and we'd like to ask you a few questions.”

“I invoke my right to remain silent,” Meteron answered. “I won't answer any questions related to my use of magic without my lawyer present.”

“Calm down, buddy,” Sakamoto attempted to ease the tension. “We're not here about that case.”

“You're not?” Meteron asked.

“We're not?” I asked.

Sakamoto then pulled a picture out of his coat and showed it to Meteron. It was the photo of the three missing college students, one of whom looked very suspiciously like Meteron.

“Do you recognize the people in this picture?” Sakamoto asked sternly. His words cut through Meteron like a hot knife through butter. He couldn't help but accidentally slip up and reveal hidden information about himself.

“Where did you get that picture of me?” Meteron asked, not to Sakamoto, but to me. He recognized me as the girl who defeated him in our fight the other night. He suddenly became very defensive and fearful. His fists clenched tightly, his teeth became bare. He wanted to lash out and attack, but thanks to the barrier, he couldn't. I saw he was trying desperately to come up with a plan. Something, anything, would have done for him.

“Thank you for identifying yourself as one of the people in that photo,” Sakamoto continued. “Judging from the similar appearance and your obviously buddy-buddy relationship with the other two students, you must be international student Johan de Groot and your two friends, both of whom are sadly deceased, are Ichigo Sawatari and Toshiki Yamamoto.” He then concealed the photo once again before adding, “I'm sorry for your loss.”

Meteron was now cornered. He had accidentally spilled the beans on himself and his connection to the missing people.

But oddly enough, instead of looking panicked as he did not too long ago, he looked unusually calm.

“Sakamoto, I think we might be done, here…” I tried to tell my coworker. I tried tugging at his arm gently. “I don't like the look of this…”

“What's the matter?” Meteron asked me. “You're totally not a magical girl, right?” He was teasing me. But I was not about to play into his trap.

“Of course not!” I shouted. “You must have confused me for someone else.”

“Then I suppose you won't mind if I try a little magic trick on your friend,” he then told me. Meteron, Johan de Groot, whatever he wanted to call himself, suddenly gave Sakamoto an intense glare. “Look into my eyes, Hiroki Sakamoto…”

Whatever Meteron was doing to him, Sakamoto's eyes suddenly turned a dull grey.

“What is your bidding, Meteron, Servant of the Dark Master?” Sakamoto asked him. He was now completely under Meteron's control.