Chapter 13:

Park

MinDivers


“Hisoka-kun, we have a stroll to take.” was the first thing Sute said when she arrived at the kitchen where Hisoka and the old lady Sasaki-san were sipping tea.

“Oh, no!” Hisoka had a grin on his face. He looked at the woman beside him and said: “I’d love to keep talking to you Sasaki-chan, but I have to go with them now.”

“Oh! You have to go already, Hisoka-kun?” the lady replied.

“Sadly, yes.” the man stood up, “But what do you think of making a small memory of this conversation…” he rummaged in his pockets, “...with this?” Hisoka showed the mind eraser to the woman.

“A picture?” the lady squinted her eyes at the device. “Of course! Let's take one!”

“Great!” Hisoka smiled. As the old woman was standing up he turned to Kazashi: “Why don't you take a family photo first?”

“Not necessary, Hisoka-kun.” Sute replied for Kazashi, “I'd like for you to talk to her about our job.” she said while closing her eyes.

“I see…” Hisoka glanced at a frowning Kazashi and then returned his attention to the old woman: “I guess it's just us friends, Sasaki-chan.”

“Oh! You keep flattering this old woman! I don’t deserve it” she smiled and looked at Hisoka.

“Well then, why don't you do the honors, Masuyo?” Hisoka said while handing him the mind eraser.

“Me...?” the boy hesitated before accepting the device.

“Yep, just press this button here.” Hisoka indicated the button and then stood beside the old woman, smiling.

“Okay…” Masuyo pointed the thing at the. and pressed the button.

Meanwhile, Sute had put her notepad on top of the table and was trying to take pictures of it. "Crap, this one is no good." she murmured from time to time.

“Okay! Thank you very much, man!” Hisoka reached for the device after the sharp noise was over, he then turned to Sute: “I don’t get why you always use the notepad first. Wouldn’t it be easier if you just used your phone?”

“Nothing can really replace paper.” was Sute’s reply.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s what you always say!” Hisoka smiled and turned to Kazashi’s grandmother: “How are you feeling, Sasaki-chan?”

“Hmm…” the old lady was swaying left and right, barely standing still, “Maybe I should…” she yawned, “...take a little nap.” and started to make her way to the stairs.

“Yes, you should rest now, Sasaki-chan!”

“What did you do to my grandma??” Kazashi observed the woman open-mouthed.

“We’ll talk about everything during the stroll.” Hisoka smiled at the girl. “By the way, my name is Hisoka Kubo.”



While they were being ushered to the park of the framed picture by Kazashi, Hisoka talked about his trivial conversations with “Sasaki-chan” until the girl interrupted him:

“Okay, okay!” she scowled at Hisoka, “That short girl promised me to explain what’s going on.” Kazashi pointed at Sute

“Yes, Hisoka-kun.” Sute looked at him, “Maybe it would be better if you explained everything to Sasaki-san now.” she glanced at Kazashi, “Just so you know, neither the card nor the photo worked on her.”

“Yeah…” Hisoka held his chin and looked at Kazashi, “I figured that much…”

“What?” Kazashi raised an eyebrow.

“I’m actually a bit curious as well.” Masuyo chimed in, “What is the card supposed to do?”

“Oh! We haven’t explained it to you yet, have we?” Hisoka grinned.

“The card is used for persuasion. He usually helps us get in the target’s house without causing any disorder.” Sute started to explain, “It changes our identification in the person’s eyes to do so.”

“What… it works like a police id card?”

“It can be one if the situation requires it.” Sute looked at Masuyo, “But didn’t you see that Sasaki-san’s grandmother mentioned the television when Hisoka-kun showed his card?”

“Yeah… and something happened to her eyes.”

“Yes, since she wanted someone to fix the television, she saw someone that could do so in Hisoka-kun’s identification.”

“So if the situation required a police officer, she would have seen Hisoka as a police officer, huh…”

“That’s right!” Hisoka stretched his hands, “And this little trick works better on people without MR, so…”

“Kazashi should have it as well…” Masuyo looked at the girl.

“Yep.” Hisoka did the same.

“We’re here.” Kazashi stopped, “Now do you mind explaining what you are talking about to me?” she crossed her arms and stared at Hisoka.

“I’ll tell you everything!” Hisoka smiled at the girl, “Just come seat with me at that bench over there and let them do their job.” he pointed at a bench a couple of meters from them.

“Hmm.” Kazashi started to walk towards the bench and was followed by Hisoka.

After observing the two sitting on the bench and start talking, Masuyo turned to the park: it was a somewhat odd space, covered by grass and having trees and playground toys scattered all over it. It had a bunch of different playground toys like Teeter-Tooters, Slides, Swings, Still rings, and many others, all in more than one unity and various colors.

“It’s the same you saw on our way here?” Sute asked Masuyo.

“Hmm… if it is, that’s definitely not the part I saw.” Masuyo searched the place with his eyes. When he first glanced at the park while being in the car he could see some kids playing near a blue swing and a red slide, but now neither the kids nor the toys were there, in fact, the place looked much less crowded than earlier, having, besides Sute, Kazashi, Hisoka, and Masuyo, only a couple enjoying a meal underneath a tree, a boy leaving the park with his mother, and a little boy playing with who was presumably his father.

“Oh…” Sute let a sound out.

“Huh?” Masuyo looked at her face. Although she was wearing her usual hood, he could see her now trembling eyes, “What is this about?” he followed her gaze to the little boy playing with his father.

After an instant, the girl shook her head and uttered: “Let’s go Masuyo… we have to find the first place you saw.” she started walking, but still glanced a few times at the little boy and his father.

“Okay…” Masuyo followed her, “But are you sure you’re alright?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

“Hmm…” Masuyo looked around him. His eyes stopped at the two playing some meters from them, “By any chance have you been here before, or somewhere similar…?”

“Hmm…”

“Maybe with your parents?”

The girl suddenly stopped, she stared at the ground and replied: “If I came to this one specifically I don’t remember, but my parents used to take me to places like this. Especially my father…” she lowered her voice, “...he always played with me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry if I touched something delicate, it wasn’t my intention.”

“No need to worry about that. I don’t mind if it’s you, Masuyo.” Sute glanced at Masuyo and started to walk again, murmuring: “It’d only be fair since I already have some knowledge about you…” 

“What?” Masuyo gave the little boy and the man a last look before following the short girl through the park.




“If you find that place, tell me.” Sute uttered while frantically looking to the sides. It could just be that she wanted to do her job quickly, but for Masuyo she seemed like a kid wanting to play on the playground toys and looking for the better one to do so.

“Okay…” Masuyo looked to his sides, “But are you sure you don’t want to take a break and go to that slide?” he pointed at a yellow slide a few meters from them.

“O-Of course not!” the girl stuttered, “W-We can’t just take a break on a time like this!”

“Why not? We’ve been working since the morning, and I’m the one who knows where those kids were playing, right?”

“Although that’s true, it’s not necessarily correct!”

“Huh?” Masuyo raised an eyebrow.

“It’s because if you felt like something was familiar with that place, I might feel it too. So it doesn’t matter if you saw it when we were in the car...” Sute tried to explain, “...but if you want so much to go on that slide, we can do it after we found ‘the familiar place.’” she made quotation marks with her hands and then put them back in her pockets, starting to walk hurriedly.

“Okay…” Masuyo had to speed up to accompany her.

The two kept walking through the park for a few more minutes, Sute distracted and Masuyo not giving much effort to find what they were looking for. Either way, he was the one to do it:

“Over there.” Masuyo pointed at it: from their position the red slide and blue swing were behind a short tree. “That’s where those kids were playing earlier.”

“Hmm…” Sute observed the place from afar and then started to make her way there.

“So, what now?” Masuyo asked when they arrived at the place.

“Hmm…” Sute ignored the boy for a moment and observed the red slide, she quickly lost interest in it and started to stare at the blue swing.

“Sute?” Masuyo called for her.

“I see…” she looked at the swing one more time and then turned to Masuyo: “Do you understand now?”

“Understand what?”

“That this is what you found to be familiar about this place, not the kids nor the red slide.”

“Hmm?” Masuyo looked at the blue swing she was indicating, “Yeah… now that you say it, there’s something odd about this swing, right?”

“It’s because you’ve seen it before.”

“Yeah, when we were going to the Sasaki house.”

“No, before that you dummy.”

“Wow, okay, let me see…” Masuyo observed the swing and started to wonder where he had seen it before. “Hmm… I’m sure I haven’t been here before… what is the most notable thing about this swing? I’m sure that I, for some reason, have never played in a blue swing… so that might be the important part… no, it must be.” he looked at it: the blue seat tied with ropes to a metallic and apparently old support… “Wait, that’s weird.”

“Did you finally manage to find out what it is?” Sute’s voice came from the red slide, she slid through it and then looked at Masuyo.

“I don’t know. I just think that this park is all over the place.” Masuyo looked around, “The playground toys’ colors don’t match, they are all scattered, and this thing here…” he pointed at the blue swing, “...is in clear need of maintenance.”

“Aaah.” Sute sighed, smacked her head, and then stood up, “You’re not wrong, this park is weird in that way, but that’s not the point.” she walked towards the blue swing and stopped before it, “Don’t you remember where you saw a rectangular blue thing like this…” she indicated the swing’s seat, “...and a metallic bar like these ones?” she pointed at the swing’s support.

“Hmm…” Masuyo searched through his memory, the only noticeable blue thing he had seen in the past few days was: “That thing in the dive? That always tries to fall on us?”

“Yes… so that thing must be important to understand what happened.” Sute concluded, “That’s it, we have to talk to Sasaki-san now. I have some questions for her.” and with that, she started to hurriedly make her way back to where they left Kazashi and Hisoka.

“Wait!” Masuyo tried to keep up with the girl, “I don’t get it!”

“It’s not always like this, but for this case, it looks like most of the things on the dive are important...” she kept taking strides towards Hisoka and Kazashi, “...we should compare what we found out today with what we see there.”

“Like the blue seat and the metallic thing?” Masuyo looked to the ground, “And maybe the grass?”

“Yes, you should try and remember if anything that you saw today resembled the dive.”

“Okay…” Masuyo said. Staying silent, he started to ponder about what he had seen on the dive and on their trip to the Sasaki household.

In their speed, it didn’t take long to reach the bench where Kazashi and Hisoka were sitting, the girl frowning at the man, and he, smiling:

“So, it’s a deal right?”

“As I just said: only if I see results, I still don’t believe you.” Kazashi crossed her arms.

“I get you. This stuff is pretty crazy!”

“Of course, it is. You should be glad that boy over there doesn’t look like a liar to me.” she pointed at Masuyo, drawing closer to them after Sute.

“What? They were talking about me?” Masuyo tilted his head when he saw Kazashi pointing at him.

“Sasaki-san, I have some more questions for you.” was the first thing Sute said when she stopped before the two on the bench.

“If it is to help my brother, just ask it already.”

“So, your brother has been acting weird since a few weeks, when your grandfather died…”

“Yes.”

“...he only wants to watch Heavy Meka Battles, keeps holding a little Syringa, and act in an aggressive way towards people who touches a picture of him with his grandfather.” she glanced at Masuyo while saying that.

“Yeah.”

“He was very close to your grandfather…”

“You already know that.” Kazashi frowned, “Can’t you just jump to the questions you need me to answer?”

“Okay…” Sute murmured.

“Now we’re getting to the good part!” Hisoka remarked and looked at Sute with anticipation.

“Hmm…” Sute gave Hisoka a quick look and then started: “Was it your grandfather who gave Hikaru that Syringa toy, Sasaki-san?”

“Hmm…” Kazashi pondered for a moment, “Yes.”

“And how did your grandfather die?”

“Well, he died in the hospital but…”

“It wasn’t due to some illness, right?”

“Yes…”

“Maybe an accident? Involving wheels?”

“What? Where is this coming from?” Masuyo looked at Sute.

“Yes! It was a car accident actually, but how did you know that?”

“I believe Hisoka-kun have already explained it to you.” Sute looked at Hisoka.

“Yep! I did my part, Sute-chan!” Hisoka grinned.

“So, I have one more question, Sasaki-san.” Sute turned to Kazashi, “When was your brother at this park? When your grandfather died or when he suffered the accident?”

“Hmm… I’m not so sure about that one. I didn’t see him coming here after the accident and I’m not sure if he was here when it happened.”

“I see…” Sute looked at the ground, “And do you think one of your relatives might have that information?”

“It might be possible.” Kazashi shrugged her shoulders.

“Uhum.” Hisoka nodded. “So that’s it! As your leader, I order you two to go back and dive again, while I’ll stay around here and chat with Sasaki-chan.” the man stood up with a smile.

“What?” the other three said at the same time.

“I mean, I’ll ask for information from Kazashi’s relatives.”

“It’s fine by me.” Sute uttered.

“What do you mean by ‘stay around here’?” Kazashi scowled at Hisoka.

Hisoka shrugged his shoulders: “Just stay here in town.” and then murmured: “Maybe I’ll buy something for Yoko…”

After observing the other three voice their opinions, Masuyo received the stares of them, and for that, he only sighed: “It’s not like I have an option anyway.”

Real Aire
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Kerry Kamiya
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