The Curtain Falls - 4th Angle

Confusion and terror spread throughout the skeleton of the building. Finally, I had Negai Hoshino where I wanted. He stood before me, confused, trying to cover Myra. I stood in front of the door, blocking the only exit to this building.

“What is happening?” Myra voiced her confusion. “Yua, what are you doing?”

“Myra, get away from him.” I said, trying to not get her involved. This was a feud between wishers and Myra had no reason to get caught up in the crossfire.

“You tricked us into coming here,” finally Negai spoke like a person who knew what was happening. He was doing his thing to try and over explain a situation while molding it into something he wanted us to hear. But, since I knew about his tactics, I felt no threat.

“I tricked you? I just gave you leads. You are the one who came here on your own accord.”

“You say that, but those leads were exactly what you used to manipulate us.”

“Care to explain.”

“Like, when you told us that he had to have gone to a hospital or some slum to get his wound treated. Why would you give us exactly two options when there could’ve been a plethora of different possibilities,” he made it sound like I was controlling things from the start. Which was true no doubt. Normally people would get shaken up, and not question the loop hole in his logic. But I knew what I was doing.

“That was your own doing” I replied, “You chose to check the slums instead of going to the hospital. Even though a wealthy and arrogant man like him would’ve definitely chosen a hospital.”

“Because he is a cautious criminal. He won’t risk going to a hospital that would keep him on record,” he argued back.

“I don’t see why that is a problem. It’s not like he ever left any blood on the crime scenes.”

“But-”

“And I think we both know the blood in that building was not his,” I shot his argument before he even made it.

“True, but rape cases are different. You can’t have anymore DNA evidence than in a rape case. And if the authorities had not identified him, it meant that his DNA had not been in any public record. So, there was no way he would risk it.”

There it was. Everything he says, he tries to make it sound like common knowledge to him due to his high intelligence. Which would lead people to overlook this fact. And this was where I was going to box him in.

“How did you know that he is a rapist. None of his murders ever mentions raping anybody.” The slight twitch in his eyebrows made it clear that he had not expected to be cross questioned. “And I know that for a fact because the only person he ever assaulted was my daughter. And I made sure no news article would say so. Also, I don’t think anybody at the hospital would’ve told you either when you paid Mia a visit. So, let me ask again. How did you know?”

Negai Hoshino was speechless and Myra standing behind him was only starting to look more confused.

“Be-because,” he tried to come up with an explanation but,

“Because you know the killer. You interacted with him at Junkyard and you are still in contact with him.”

“This is bullshit Yua.” finally he stooped down to illogical denials. But I wasn’t done. I retrieved an item from my pocket and showed it to him.

“Recognize this?”

“That’s my phone,” he said.

“You mean the one you lost at the candy store?” Myra confirmed as well.

“Yes, the phone that you left at a certain construction site.”

“I lost my phone there. I didn’t leave it,” he tried to deny my accusation but I did not care about that.

“When I thought about how you were staying in touch with Ika all this time. He couldn’t be using a public phone. And you clearly couldn’t buy him a new one. Then the safest option would’ve been to use your own phone. And this here, is your phone too. Despite the fact that you brought a new phone and suspended the service on this one, it was no difficulty for a police network to reestablish the service,” I could see the colour drain from his face as he tried to act calm and tough. “I was tapping into all those conversations you were having with him through Myra’s phone. And you may have deleted the texts from Myra’s phone, I still have them. Everytime I gave you a lead, you went straight to him to ask him what he would do all the while making sure you were avoiding him. So, it made you look unsuspicious. Tell me, are you still going to deny this proof?”

“I don’t think I can,” he finally began to crack. “But even if I did what I said, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to tell you his whereabouts?”

“Don’t play dumb. We both know why you did that, Eleventh wisher, the Jack of All Trades,” I called out to him openly.

“What did you say?” and he played dumb.

“Are you still going to deny the fact you are a wisher. And everything you did was a plot to eliminate me.”

“Like I said, I don’t understand what you have been saying. Wisher? Jack? What kind of nonsense is this?”

“(What kind of nonsense is this, he asks,) Very well, Auz.” Upon my command, the shinigami appeared in all his glory. And no matter what he did, Negai could not ignore him. His gaze was fixed at him and he trembled slightly as Auz appeared.

“You can see him, can’t you?” my words brought his attention back to me.

“Se-See what?” his facade was falling apart. Yet he insisted on acting dumb. It was starting to get annoying. So I decided to end it once and for all,

“Fine then. Act like that all you want. But everything would be clear after this,” I declared as I took out a knife and cut my hand.

“Yua, you’re hurting yourself,” amidst all this Myra had no role to play and was just confused.

“Myra, I already told you to step away from him.”

“But why?” Myra asked but I didn’t wait to answer as I made my wish.

“I wish that the person standing before me would die.” I made the most foolproof wish against someone as cunning as Negai. Despite everything, he could’ve been using a false name for the wish game. But I was sure the person before me was the real deal. And if I wished to kill him, it would obviously be against the rule of the game to involve another wisher. And once my wish is rejected, it would be clear that he is a wisher.

And just when he thinks his life is spared by the rules, I would shoot him with my gun.

I took out my gun and aimed it at him.

“(Did you feel good when you saw me frustrating. Giving me hope and then taking it away from me. Well I am going to do the same to you. Giving you false hope of life and then taking it from you.)”

I was just waiting for that one moment to appear, when I knew my wish was rejected. And there it came almost instantly after I made my wish. A boy wearing clothes spun out of fire appeared over his head. It was the same Jinn I had seen in Hoshino Machi on the day the bridge collapsed. And it meant that it was time for me to pull the trigger.

“(Goodbye. Sucke-)”

“Wish accepted. Bound,” just when I was about to pull the trigger, Auz’s mechanical words not only stopped me but froze my mind for a moment.

The Jinn present over his head, vanished into thin air like dust. And the next moment, “Argh,” Negai Hoshino fell on the ground with his body jerking in agony.

“Negai!” Myra shouted as she caught him in her arms. And all I could do was observe in shock. He was dying. He was most definitely dying.

“(But why? Wouldn’t that mean that he really was not a wisher. Wouldn’t that mean that I was wrong. Wouldn’t that mean that I had just killed an innocent boy.)” My mind retraced all of my decisions that led me here.

And it ultimately came down to why I thought that he was a wisher in the first place.

“(It was due to the can experiment. The can that crushed itself when I Jinn came in a certain radius. And when did it crush? When Negai walked in? No! When Negai and Myra walked in.)”

Before I knew it I had my gun aiming at Myra who was in tears by now.

“What did you just do Yua?” But instead of answering her, I had fears of my own.

“Myra, don’t tell me. You are the wisher?”

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