[Epilogue] From The Shadow

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force.

It’s a place of safety, peace and order. The pride and joy of Tokyo and Japan alike. But right now, the symbol of peace and order was in great turmoil.

“Sir, what is the meaning of this?” Inside the chief’s office, a voice yelled. “We’ve lost two important personnels; the perpetrator even confessed! Why are we letting him go after just a single day of questioning?”

It was a rather young officer, only in his early twenties. Some might say that it took a lot of guts for him and his lean build, rather scrawny even, to dare raise his voice against his superior almost twice his size.

Meanwhile, said giant was still lounging in his chair without a care in the world. In fact, he was smiling the entire time, as if his subordinate had just told him a funny joke.

“What are you talking about, Kirisaki?” The chief raised his brows. “Everyone knows Mr. K. He’s a well-known philanthropist and millionaire researcher! His reported case was in completely just self-defense too; we scanned the fingerprints in the scene of the crime and everything matched his testimony.”

“Sir, with all due respect, don’t you think everything is just a little bit too suspicious?” The officer named Kirisaki continued his questioning. “These are children! Children! Six dead at the scene, along with one of our own officers! And you’re telling me that the children killed the officer, then fought amongst one another, until eventually one won, then that one tried to kill our suspect so he had to defend himself!? Tell me, how is any of this believable to you?”

“Eh, you know how it goes with children nowadays,” the chief only shrugged. “Always get into the nastiest things.”

“You… You… Argh! Excuse me for a moment!”

Kirisaki stormed off the office. If he had stayed any longer, he was sure that he’d have punched that idiotic chief in the face right then and there.

Without anyone to vent his anger on, however, he could only let it out on the wall next to him.

“Imbecile!” Delivering a full-force punch, Kirisaki screamed. “It has to be an inside job! There is no way that…”

As he was venting out his soul, however, Kirisaki saw a familiar figure. A middle-aged man in a purple vest, his hair tied into a ponytail, and even in a building, he was still wearing a pair of sunglasses. The only difference between his usual getup and now was the fact that he was putting his hands together, and they were draped over with a white cloth – a classic case of being cuffed. Behind him was another much shorter officer, but they weren’t going deeper into a prison cell or at least outside in a police car.

“Alright, that should be the end of everything,” the officer behind Kageyama said with an awkward smile, a set of keys dangling in his hands. “My apologies, Mr. K, but you know the procedures. You can…”

“Kageyama!” Before he could finish his words, Kirisaki had already jumped at the pair, pushing Kageyama at the wall and grabbing him by the collar. “You bastard, what did you do?”

Even faced with a clear threat, the man only answered with a grin. “Pardon, but do I know you?”

“Yeah, I know that you don’t know me,” Kirisaki hissed. “You snakes have never paid attention to the people you murder, huh? My respected senior died at your hands! And you’re telling me that you got away with everything scot-free? Not on my watch!”

“Ah, yes, now I remember,” answered Kageyama. “Officer Kidou Shinsuke, isn’t it? He was a good man. Had a kid and everything. My condolences for your loss.”

“It was you who robbed him from his life, you fiend!”

Kirisaki, in his rage, loaded his gun. Firing at someone, even a criminal, was the ultimate taboo for a policeman, only attempted during an unavoidable confrontation. This situation was nothing like that – even if Kageyama was the true perpetrator behind such incidents, he made no attempt in provoking or goading Kirisaki to act, and as such…

“I see it now,” Kageyama grinned. “The conditions have been fulfilled.”

As the words left his mouth, Kirisaki suddenly felt a sharp pain on his neck. Without him even noticing once, the officer that once stood aside Kageyama had moved behind him, and with equally quick hand movement, had plunged a syringe right into his nape.

“What the hell did you–”

Kirisaki stopped halfway through the sentence. Or rather, he was forced to stop. The officer could feel it – the muscles in his mouth suddenly contorting and stretching in an unnatural pattern, preventing him from even speaking a word. They stretched and stretched, so much that Kirisaki thought that they were tearing off his face.

But a few seconds later, it stopped. There was no pain anymore. In fact, he had never felt better in his life.

“What the hell did you do?” He asked once more. But even he himself didn’t notice – he wasn’t pressing against Kageyama anymore.

“Observe,” Kageyama snapped his fingers. The officer from before, quick as the wind, moved forward in front of Kirisaki and showed him a hand mirror.

Kirisaki was horrified. However, his face had no way to portray it anymore.

For it was smiling from ear to ear, revealing a set of artificially white teeth.

“What… happened to me? What did you do? Kageyama!” He screamed. But his face just wouldn’t change anymore.

“Just adding a little bit of laughter to your life,” the man in question only smirked. “Your chief loves it, and I’m sure you will too. Rokuro?”

“Of course, Commander.” The officer answered, tossing his hat away. Kirisaki’s eyes widened in shock as he learned the face behind the disguise.

He had seen it exactly once. It was in the very same files that was with Kageyama’s case. One of the six supposed dead children. To be exact, he was the tied second youngest, only at ten years old when he allegedly passed away. He had no special condition or fame, unlike the other children of the case, but ironically enough, that fact made him the most memorable of them all.

The boy known as Satou Fukei was standing there, alive and well, bearing a grin from ear to ear just like Kirisaki himself.

But more importantly, that same boy was pointing a gun straight at Kirisaki’s head.

“Now, be reborn!” Fukei shouted with glee. And with it, he pulled the trigger.

Kirisaki didn’t know what happened afterward. He didn’t hear a sound – it must be a silencer. All he could see was the scene becoming blurrier by the second, before plunging himself into darkness.

“... D’aww, a dud?” Meanwhile, Fukei was kicking the newly-created corpse on the floor. “I thought the formula was perfected!”

“Well, it happens sometimes,” Kageyama shrugged. “This one hasn’t had enough of a fall yet, I bet. Not everyone is special like you.”

“Naturally,” the boy chuckled. “I am your greatest masterpiece after all.”

“Indeed, Rokuro,” the man smirked. “But still, the Police Force is under our control now. That’s one less nuisance in the way.”

“That does remind me, Commander,” Fukei asked. “What do you actually plan to do now that Smile World is complete?”

“Why, what else?” With a grin on his face, Kageyama answered. “To spread joy across the world.”