A Case Waiting To Be Resolved

The days after Samai and Akira’s first date passed calmly, without any event of particular relevance: Akira returned to his normal routine, training Priscilla like he did before, but this time with the problem that, when he saw Samai, he had to behave and not act like the two of them had engaged in a relationship. That was because the two of them decided to hide their relationship at work, fearing that it could have affected their job, even though they had few doubts about that. Still, three or so days after the fact, while Akira was greeting Samai, who was waiting for Priscilla to end her training so that they could go on with their day, Priscilla looked at the two of them, conversing like they were used to, and just exclaimed:

“Oh, please, for the mother of god, kiss her, Akira”. 

That exit startled both Akira and Samai, but then Priscilla laughed. “What, you expected me not to notice that the two of you were going out? Please, I grew up together with Samai, and I have never seen her as happy as she is when she is near you. It is obvious that there is something going on between the two, and I am not the only one to know this. Did you really think hiding a relationship was so easy?” Since then, the two of them didn’t hide it anymore and acted like a couple even in public, also because, as Priscilla said, practically all the people in the villa knew that they were dating, so much that Kjeo, the same evening Akira returned from their first date, after seeing him walking happily in the corridor, just greeted him, put a hand on his shoulder and said “I am proud of you, bro. Good luck with your life”, which made Akira look at him in confusion. Apparently, there were many servants who saw the signals between the two of them – even before at what happened between them at the party for Akira’s return -, so what they did was a useless precaution to hide Pulcinella’s secret. Still, days succeeded pretty uneventful for a week or so: Akira’s routine was training Priscilla for some hours per day, then going around the city making commissions or just enjoying himself and then passing some time with Samai before the evening, when the two of them weren’t in service. Then, after a week or so, after he had finished training with Priscilla, another person was waiting for him, apart from another of Priscilla’s personal maids: that person was Giorgio. He first talked a bit with his daughter, greeting her with the eyes of a loving father but the personality of a monolith of stone, then, when he saw him, Giorgio invited Akira over and they went to an empty part of the garden, where no one was to be seen.

“Are they letting us take a peek into the case, then?” asked Akira, immediately understanding why Giorgio was there: not to check on his daughter’s training, not to see if he was good enough to be her teacher, but to discuss with him about his request. And, from his expression, Akira deduced that the answer was a positive one.

“It is your lucky day, Akira: I had to do a lot in order to make us see the case over, but finally they are making us – or better, you – take a look. I didn’t remember how much bureaucracy there was in that environment, it is even more than I normally have to do for my business” replied him, then added “After lunch I am going to make a servant see you to the guard post, and from there on you will be on your own, unless you need a hand in this”.

“Nah, I don’t need any: maybe if I will get stuck, I will ask someone to help me at least for having a different point of view on the matter, but I work better alone”.

“Ah, the more I talk to you, the more I like you: you remember me when I was younger, just that you fight way better than me” said Giorgio, laughing with his iconic laugh that made his head go back a bit and turn up to laugh. Then, returning serious, he looked at Akira right in the eyes, like he needed to confirm something. “Listen: please keep me updated on any new lead you have. If you need something, just ask me, okay? We are going to catch that bastard together, like a team, even though I will not be present, okay?”

Then, he made as if to leave, but, before he did that, he turned a last time towards Akira with another serious look on his face and said him “Oh, and another thing: treat Samai well, okay? Even though she is not biologically nor officially, she is like a daughter to me, so try to harm her and you will have to face my wrath, which, trust me, made a lot of criminals back in the days beg for their life. Understood?”

After Akira wholeheartedly agreed to that statement, Giorgio left, satisfied by what he heard, leaving Akira alone in that garden. He looked a bit around, especially up to the sky, which was promising to start raining in any moment, and then his eyes fixated themselves on a window, where a lonely figure was standing, examining a book: that was the figure of Leon. When he noticed Akira, he made a slight nod in his direction, before moving away from the window. While going towards the exit of the villa, wanting to take a stroll around, not minding the possible rain that could have come, Akira thought about a subject he left in the back of his mind for too much time: what Leon said to him. Their way of being reincarnated in that world was different, yet somewhat similar: both of them were welcomed by a being that proclaimed to be a god, both of them appeared in a space created by that entity and, at the end of their discussion, both of them were teleported to a specific place. However, those were the similarities, apart from that their stories diverged a lot: Leon had been killed in his reality and had been reincarnated as a child, living a completely new life, something that seemed more impossible to Akira the more he thought about it. Akira, instead, ended up in that world after entering a strange door that appeared out of nowhere and was teleported there exactly as he was in his world, so much that he even had his wallet with some yen bills in it. Plus, the both of them were welcomed by a different god: he was welcomed by Meilìs, a presumably female deity, while Leon had encountered someone named Ealaìn E Builè – or was it Ealainèbulè, or something like that? Did that mean that there were multiple gods in that world that no one knew the existence of? That also led him to another thought: were there also other people like him and Leon who got teleported to that world? And, if yes, how many were they? Were they one for every god existing, or more? If the gods existing were like the Eight Million Gods of the Shintoism, then that could have meant that practically that world was made only of people like them, but he quickly discarded that theory, judging it only a joke, and suspected that not so many gods existed. It was just a gut feeling, but he felt that. Or maybe they were millions of millions and his instinct was just playing with him, it was totally possible. Still, there was something that he wondered: why were he and Leon chosen to be teleported in that world? What did they do to deserve that? Or were they just the lucky winners of a second chance in life? Without having a clue about why they were chosen, it was even impossible to make a theory, as everything could have been one, so Akira stopped thinking about that and, while walking under the trees of the city, looking at the perfect fusion of nature and human civilization that that path was, asked if there was a deeper meaning in he being there, or if he was there just by chance. Still, many pieces of the puzzle were missing, too many to even try and understand the situation he was in, so he gave up and decided to live and see what would have happened: maybe that would have given him answers to his unasked questions.

After lunch, Akira waited in the hall the servant that was to conduct him to the guard post, wondering who would have taken up that task. So he was surprised when he saw Samai coming towards him, greeting him with a kiss on the cheek.

“What are you doing here, Samai?” asked Akira, after replying to that kiss with a sweet and happy smile.

“What do you think I am doing, Akira? I am here greeting my sweetheart before he sets off, of course” replied her with an entertained smile.

“So, in a few words, you are the one that will bring me to the guard post?”

“Exactly” replied her, bending over, her hand behind her back. “So, follow me: I will be your guide today”.

Then, the two of them started making their way towards the guards’ headquarters, while chatting, seeming more like a couple that was on a date more than two persons who were going to visit a public security place. During the trip, Akira asked Samai how she succeeded in staying between other people, being afraid of strangers, but Samai replied that she didn’t feel them as a threat if they ignored her and didn’t talk to her, which was what normally happened when she had to go around. Plus, that city wasn’t that big, so she knew the people in the shops, which meant that she could easily do commissions without any fear. Moreover, she said, with a hint of embarrassment, that now she was with a person that gave her security, so she had fear of nothing and no one, a phrase that made Akira internally happy, knowing that he was helping Samai in more than a way by just being near her. Then, they arrived in front of an apparently anonymous building, except for its bigness, which made it occupy a big chunk of territory, and Samai announced that they had arrived to his destination. That building, so anonymous between the others, was probably the best place to hide a terroristic organisation, more than a police force: there were literally no signs of their presence, except for a little sign that served to the mailman to understand where to deliver letters. What if someone needed them, but they were new to the city? That was still a frontier town, but more than so they should have been more visible, not trying to hide their presence behind a normal façade. Akira at least hoped that the people inside where a little competent, because, if they were like the bureaucracy he knew in his world, that trip would have been a unique pain.

“Are you going to come with me?” asked Akira to Samai.

“Hm, me? No, I’m going to return to the villa: I have to go with Priscilla to some places. I think that Giorgio just send me instead of another servant because… because he probably thought it would have been good for us to have a moment of intimacy, you know…”

“Well, if that was the case, then I have to thank Giorgio another time” replied with a laugh Akira, before suddenly getting near Samai and giving her a passionate goodbye kiss that pleasantly surprised her, even though, when they separated, she said, pouting, “That is unfair! I wanted to do it…”.

“Are you free this evening” asked then Samai, with a still little pouting face, “If you are, want to pass a bit of time together?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t think I will. I first need to see how much information have the guards really gathered and then I have to start brainstorming a bit in order to see if they left something out of their investigation. Still, I will try and do my best to finish before: if you see me coming for dinner, then I am free”.

“Oh, what a pity… And I even prepared something for you…”

“Oh, you are tilting my curiosity. Is it something you can say?”

“More than say…” started replying Samai, before lowering her voice “…It is something to see”. Then, with a malicious smile, crowned by her blushing cheeks that reminded her shyness in being the active one, she said her farewell and left Akira alone, in front of probably a lot of work to do, his mind now wandering into territories that he had still not crossed too much with Samai. Then, he sighted, knowing that he would have probably to miss that opportunity – something he would have gladly liked to take up even in that moment – and went inside, getting his mind ready for the work he had to do.

When he got inside, the place showed to be anonymous only on the outside: the interiors were like an old Italian building, full of columns, with two big sets of stairs that went up and down, making a turn when they started going down towards an underground floor. All of this was rigorously white and probably made in marble, making things look more luxurious than what they needed to be. While the floor had a simple block motive that alternated grey and white, the ceiling was decorated by a fresco that represented a young girl, with a white dress and a crown on her head, looking down at a series of undistinctive black figures that were trying to go up but that were stopped by a barrier of light guarded by what seemed to be angels, if not that they hadn’t wings and had an helmet on their head. Then, over the head of the young girl, there was a light that directly illuminated her face, like it was putting a spotlight on her, and that light came down from a sky full of white clouds that seemed to hide a golden sky. The fresco was impressive both for dimensions and artistic value, so Akira remained some minutes there, looking up like an idiot, until a voice in front of him said something.

“That fresco is incredible, isn’t it? It represents the victory of justice over every single crime, helped by those who administer the justice here and help her do her course, and the light that illuminates her serves to illustrate her dignity and beauty, as an ideal that has to be always preserved”.

That definition of the fresco came from a young man, shorter than Akira of some centimetres, probably in his thirties, not that well-built but with visible muscles that gave the idea of a man of action rather than the one of a man of words and thinking. He had brown hair that seemed to have passed better days, as they were all pointing towards the ceiling, looking like they were trying to reach the sky rather than stay attached to the head of their possessor. His face transmitted nothing to Akira: his red-rose eyes – what a strange colour for an iris – seemed like the one of a child, with a certain animosity in them that, in that moment, wasn’t directed at Akira but at the fresco, and the traits of his face, including his nose and mouth, reminded him of a child that didn’t grow when he was supposed to: in other words, they were childish, like they hadn’t still fully developed. Still, after looking at him, Akira returned looking at the fresco and gave his version of it.

“You think? What I see is only a tyrant, locking out the masses thanks to the power she has and the light that illuminates her just reflects how highly she thinks of herself”.

“Haha, who know? Maybe that is the true meaning behind it: this is the one they taught us. After all, we live under a monarchy” replied entertained the other guy. Then, he tended a hand towards him.

“Nice to meet you: you should be Akira Demoni, right? I am Heinrich Vahrlein, the higher ups instructed me to help you examine the proofs we have about the attempted murder of the daughter of Giorgio Natò. Hope my help will prove somewhat useful”.

He then shook his hand with energy, then showed him the way to the archive section, where the proofs of cases were stored. The room in which he brought Akira was on the second underground floor, after some flights of stairs, and it was a completely empty room, if not for a big table right in the centre of it, with two chairs and a not so big box on the desk. It seemed almost like an interrogation room. When they entered, Heinrich closed the door between them, then went to the box and started getting things out of it, until it was empty and so it finished on the ground, under the desk. Then, he turned towards Akira.

“I don’t know who you are or why you were assigned to this case” said him “but I have to presume that you are good, if Giorgio went through a lot of my superiors just to make you see the few proofs we have. I highly doubt that you can find something else that we ignored, but I hope you can”. Then, he added “Oh, I was the one that investigated this case, so, if you have any question regarding it, just ask me, I will be here, looking that you don’t mess with the proof – sorry, but those are the orders I have, I am just doing my job”. Then, Akira got near the table and sat down on a chair, looking at the few documents in front of him. There were the transcriptions of Priscilla and Samai’s deposition, which probably they took after they first intervened, and he laughed at the difference between the two statements: while Priscilla was full of words, occupying a lot of pages, Samai testimony literally reduced to a page and a half, probably because of her fear of strangers that made it hard for her to speak to a policeman she probably never saw before. What he read was just what he lived and the different points of view on the event, which unfortunately didn’t help him that much. Then, he looked over the other files that the box contained: the coroner’s medical report, the deposition of a citizen that said to have seen the assassin talk with a man during a night – even though there was a note that said that it was a dubious report, as it seemed like the guy was drunk when he saw that -, and then some other depositions that, after an in depth read that took him more than an hour to do, left Akira with a bitter feeling. Was it really possible that the assassin left no trace whatsoever? The only thing that the box had of interesting were the coroner’s report and the drunkard deposition. After finishing reviewing all the material that the box contained, he lifted his head and asked Heinrich if it was possible to see the corpse of the assassin, even though he was highly doubting it, as it should have started decomposing by now. However, when he made that stupid question, Heinrich replied affirmatively: he said that, they didn’t know how, but the body didn’t rot even a bit, so they kept it in the mortuary until the investigation was over, as they were sure that no one would have reclaimed the body. That gave chills to Akira: if that case was strange from the start, as he had doubt about the objective of that assassination plan, now it became even stranger. A body that didn’t decompose… how was it possible? After putting everything back in the box, they went together to the mortuary, where the coroner, after greeting the both of them, put the body of the assassin on the table and removed the white cloth that covered it. Then, Akira could see the body of a young girl, naked, with some scars around all of her corpse, in a perfect state of conservation, a thing that a corpse old of more than four weeks shouldn’t have been. However, most importantly, he wanted to have a look at the particular sign that he read on the medical report: she had a mark on one of her breasts, something that seemed to have been imprinted on her skin with fire. However, that mark was difficult to understand: it seemed like a mandala for how complicated it was. That was when the coroner said that the mark in her iris was much clearer than the one on her body, which seemed to have been done only to mark the possession of the girl, so Akira got near her face, while the coroner was trying to open the eye they were interested in. Then, he did it, and Akira could finally see what he wanted: however, there was no mark, instead only a reticulate of red circles sometimes met by some occasional lines showed itself to his eyes.

That was when the eye blinked.