“So you talked to them.”

“Unlucky kids, considering what’s going on with their beloved big brother Sota.”

“You told them?”

“You tried to handle it but there they were, laughing as if there’s nothing happening. They didn’t care, did they? That’s how it’s always been. You told them years after years about your sufferings but they never cared about it even a single bit.”

“That’s not—” I stopped myself mid-sentence.

“You were full of rage, weren’t you? How did it sound in your head? How dare they laugh in front of me? They’re the ones who did this to me. It is all their fault. Is it like that? That’s why you took the knife from the kitchen, right?”

His tone went deeper than before. It rang in my head as if it was a gong persistently banging itself in the center of my brain. The dim light that entered my vision started to get pretty dark, pushing me to a threshold I didn’t usually have.

“Shut up.”

“I understand, Kagura. They’re scums. They robbed you of your happiness. They forced you to live years and years of your life to think that it’s your fault. Two decades of being overshadowed by a prodigy of a brother. You held them in as much as you could but they didn’t care.” 

“Shut the fuck up! That is not who they are!”

“In fact, that wasn’t all.” He stood back up, walking to my back. He had both of his hands on my shoulders, pressuring me down. “They’re happy. Despite everything that they have done to you, the sufferings they’ve given you, they had the audacity to expect you to be happy with them. You can’t have it. I get it. They deserved to die—”

“Stop!”

I bashed his chin with the top of my head as I stood swiftly. I turned around and pushed him to the wall behind me. Everything was clear and red as blood. My free hand grappled his collar. The only thing stopping me from pinning him onto the wall was the shackles that constrained me to the table bolted to the floor.

“They’re not— they are not like that.”

Wilson grabbed my arm and pushed it to the side. He patted both of my shoulders as he stepped to the right. He walked back to the other chair in the room. The detective sat across from me with the expression on his face getting darker.

“You’re damn right! Your brother tried so hard to apologize. Maria went her way to talk to you. Your parents stayed for months risking getting into trouble with the prime fucking minister just for you because of the incident. The negotiation with Italy had to be delayed just because the diplomat’s son needed some time to cry his eyes off. All for a petty heartbroken child. Every step along the way, they stood by your side.”

“You don’t think I know that?”

“Of course you do! You know full well what they have done and what they have given for you! Unfortunate? Unlucky? You’re just an ungrateful child throwing tantrums.”

“Stop!”

“Kagura Sota, why did you kill them?”

“I didn’t!” My fist flew to the table, creating a dent on its metal surface without me realizing. I slammed my whole body to the chair, losing all will. “I came back home and they’re all dead. No, Akira was alive and the killer was there. He knew me. I was the target. Might as well say I killed them all.”

“Why didn’t you explain it to Fleming?”

“He wouldn’t understand. None of you will believe me.”

“Try me.”

“What good will that do? My statements won’t do anything. It’s proof for insanity defense at best.”

“That’s the reason you’re not lawyered up?”

“No. I was—” I looked at him as my blood compelled me to— no, forced me to say it, “scared.” What is happening?

“Kagura,” Wilson swept off the documents from the table. He put everything together and slipped them into the yellow paper folder. “Try me. Explain everything that happened inside the boundary.”

I could hear the clicking sounds of gears turning in my head. My eyes widened as I looked at Gawain Wilson. I clenched my fist, shaken. My head was down taking in the fact, analyzing everything.

“Zero division?”

“Exactly, Kagura.” He took out a cup and poured water in it. He then pushed it to me gently. “Sorry, I needed to push you for that statement.”

“Beelzebub. That’s what he called himself.”

“He utilized his power to create boundaries to get out of normal surveillance.”

“So he's a Chronicle?”

“A twisted one,” Wilson nudged the cup he offered. “Kagura, what did he say?”

“It—” I drank the water he offered. “It was vague. Something about waste and potential and—” my voice wouldn’t come out. It was stuck between the threshold of my vocal cords.

“How you have to be thankful for what he did?”

His voice released the block inside my throat. I tried my best to regulate my breathing but Wilson seemed to notice that very thing.

“You’re not the first victim of Beelzebub’s.”

“And he’s still around killing families?”

“He doesn’t always kill. He does what he thinks to be the most motivating for his targets. Trust me, Kagura,” Wilson pulled his collar down, revealing a scar across his neck. A cybernetic device was attached at the base of his neck. It vibrated as he moved his mouth, creating the voice that had been talking to me. “I want to make him pay as much as you do.”

I could only look down to the table. There wasn’t really that much thing unraveling in my head. Wilson took a deep breath and stood up. He tapped on the table three times as he walked to the door. He leaned on it.

“Whoever he is, he has access to my history. He must be someone close to put that huge of a target on me like that, right?”

“This is beyond normal reasoning. As far as we know, collecting such information can be his actual Diegesis.”

“I see.”

“You’re free to go, Kagura.”

“Just like that? You’re sure I’m not lying or making things up?”

Snap. He snapped his finger. The handcuff around my left wrist suddenly vanished to thin air. “The shackles of truth, Justitia. You’re not the only one with Diegesis here.” His steps outward took all the tension away from my chest. The slammed door and the echoes that followed felt like a gentle push. It forced my tears to come out but as always, I held it down.

That was the only thing I could do.

***

“Wilson! What the hell, man? You sent him home?”

“I released an innocent man.”

“It was an open and shut case. We caught him red-handed.”

“You saw the surveillance footage, Fleming. He’s innocent.”

“But-”

“Look here, Detective Adam Fleming. Even without me meddling, you brought this upon yourself! Lack of evidence? Roughing up a twenty-one year old? You’re lucky he’s not pressing any charges. It’s not my fault you’re losing your cases.”