Chapter 6 - Bang

Tokyo's cold evening wind blew Jason's hair back as he moved from building to building, free running and performing acrobatic moves with masterful grace and agility. He kept track of the old man's location using the WayneTech phone in his hand. On its screen, a map showed him the old man's location in real time, and according to the phone, he would reach the old man in half a minute if stayed at this speed.

Moments later, Jason reached the building across from the old man's five-story apartment complex. Opposite to him were the balconies of the building, and one of them was the old man's. Based on the phone's readings on his screen, it was the one directly in front of him on the fourth floor.

He surveyed the area, concentrated on his senses, making sure no people were nearby. Having enhanced senses was far more useful than he thought. After a thorough search using his enhanced senses, he confirmed that the only people nearby were inside their homes.

Jason went down from the roof of the eight-story building he was on with the flair of a master acrobat, grabbing onto ledges to descend closer to the ground, and kicking off of the building's wall before twisting his body mid-air, perfectly landing on the ground in a crouch. From an outside perspective, it looked excessive, but this was his normal way of traversing Gotham City.

The balconies were conveniently layered on top of each other, so he climbed and jumped onto the old man's balcony with no issue. Lights were off, and he couldn't sense anyone inside the room. Both only pointed out the old man's absence.

'Convenient. I could gather information and see if he has more footage saved in his devices here.'

Jason brought out and wore a pair of black gloves composed of a material that would leave no trace behind.

Carefully, he nudged the balcony sliding door to see if it was locked. It wasn't, which gave him free entry into the messy apartment. But because of his height, he had to duck his head quite a bit to avoid hitting his head.

'I definitely need to measure how tall I am when I get the chance. It feels like I grew a few inches.'

Unwashed dishes piled up, random pieces of garbage scattered on the ground, and some articles of clothing were haphazardly placed around the small, one person apartment. Multiple repulsive stenches forced him to bring out and wear his mask from the ring.

'This room is so unhygienic. That guy will need to hire a janitor at this rate.'

However, one area was suspiciously cleaner than everywhere else in the room. It was the area closest to the right wall. A laptop was set on a small table, along with a box of tissue beside a pillow in front of it. A garbage bin filled with rolled up tissue paper was next to it.

After booting up the laptop, he wirelessly connected it to his phone, which allowed him to see everything stored inside, including the footage he's saved up and it was worse than what Jason expected. The earliest footage dated back to the last week of February, and because it was almost April, that meant he had been spying and recording footage of the girls for a month. Maybe more. Based on the data his phone displayed, gigabytes of data were transferred into another device a month before the oldest current footage was saved.

Jason immediately deleted every single current video footage in the device. Including the ones stored in the cloud, because there would be no point in reprogramming this laptop after he was done.

'Yoshihiro Shimoda...' He searched the name on the government database he hacked into, which showed him everything about him the government recorded. 'That pervert's actually the uncle of Shiori Futsuki and Yui Nakaizumi, the two girls from the store.' Jason narrowed his eyes at the government photo of the old man on the phone screen. 'He's dead meat.'

-===-

Yoshihiro Shimoda's POV:

Standing in the elevator of his apartment building, Yoshihiro waited for it to reach his apartment's floor, carrying a plastic bag filled with instant ramen and microwave meals. He didn't think it would work, but he convinced the manager to let him have a day off tomorrow. He really needed to thank Yui-chan for giving him the excuse he needed. Unlike that blonde-haired bitch, she at least had good qualities. She was kind, polite, and thoughtful.

The elevator stopped, a chime sounded out in tandem with the elevator doors opening, and he stepped out.

Grinning, he thought back to his plan. A plan which would give him the opportunity to make that blonde-haired bitch his. He'd plant an item from the store inside her bag, and blackmail her with the risk of expulsion from her school. And without her scholarship, how was she going to help her mother? Oh, he could only imagine the look of despair on her face.

Entering his apartment, he kicked off his shoes and turned on the lights. While walking to his table, he opened his plastic bag filled with food, stepping over the

His plan was foolproof! If all goes well, by the end of it, he'd have her kneeling in front him, sucking his—

A loud click from behind interrupted his thoughts. He whipped his head to turn around, only for his mouth to be covered by a hand that forced him back until his head hit the wall behind him with a painful thud. He shook like a leaf, eyes watering, as he came face-to-face with a man that towered over him, covered by a red mask that hid his eyes and lower face.

The man's voice was deep and distorted, like something out of a sci-fi flick. "Make a single sound, and I will kill you immediately." Looking down, a pistol fit with a suppressor was aimed up, right under his jaw.

'Oh my god, I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die. I'm gonna die…' Yoshihiro repeated to himself, his heart thumped in his chest like a drum.

"Now, I'm gonna be asking you some questions and you will either nod or shake your head. Nod if you understand."

Yoshiro shakily nodded his head, tears now running down his face.

"Do you know what this is?" The pistol in the man's hand disappeared and was replaced by a familiar black camera. His eyes widened with recognition in response, and that was enough of an affirmation to the man.

"So you DO know what this is." The man hummed, then crushed the camera as if it was made of paper. He opened his hand and the tiny bits of metal and glass, along with the wires, dropped like powder.

Yoshihiro gulped and his body shook even more. 'Magically making things disappear and crushing a metal camera with one hand… What the hell is this monster?!'

The masked man gave Yoshihiro a glowering glare that almost made him piss himself. "Here's the deal. I know you have more footage than the ones on your laptop, so you either tell me where the rest of the footage is, or I will twist every limb in your body. I'll give you three seconds, and by the time I lift my hand, you better have an answer. And let me remind you again that if you try anything, you're dead. Nod if you understand."

Yoshihiro rapidly nodded his head in response. He didn't know how the man knew about his cameras or about the extra footage he deleted, but his life was on the line.

After three seconds, the man let go and Yoshihiro dropped to his knees, forming a dogeza. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you." He whimpered. "All the other video footage is all on someone else's computer! An acquaintance of mine who helped me. I told him about what I wanted to do, and told me that he'd help as long as I send some of the footage to him. He's the one who gave me the cameras! H-his name is Tsunetaka Kareki. If you want, I can give you his address!" He raised his torso up and looked at the man with tears and desperation on his face. "Just please don't k—"

A bullet tore through his head, blowing it to bits. Pieces of skin and bone, as well as brain matter, scattered along the ground and the wall. And his lifeless body fell forward with a thud.

-===-

Jason's POV:

Lowering his pistol, Jason stared at the body with cold eyes. He felt no remorse or guilt for killing Yoshihiro. Besides, he got the info he wanted, and that was enough.

This waste of human life was eventually going to do something to the girls in the store sooner or later. From what Yoshihiro's body language told Jason when he hid from him, Yoshihiro was excited in more ways than one. And when he saw that grin on the man's face, his intuition and experience told him it was the grin of a man planning to do something criminal.

It didn't help that when he asked Jas for confirmation of his speculations, Jas told him he was right. The day after tomorrow, he would blackmail the blonde girl and would start assaulting the other girl as well. It would all happen within a few days, so he pulled the trigger in advance.

After all, Jason's motto was, 'Let the punishment fit the crime.' And wasn't prevention better than a cure?

The Yoshihiro from a minute ago didn't commit a crime heinous enough to deserve death, in his opinion. But in this case, he could make an exception.

Returning the pistol into the ring, Jason asked, 'What happens now, Jas?' A blue sphere suddenly emerged from his chest, surprising him. It slowly positioned itself until it hovered over the body of Yoshihiro.

[Commencing absorption of the root existence.]

Absorption?

Yoshihiro's dead body suddenly glowed blue, including the bits of him that got torn off his body, gaining the curious raise of an eyebrow from Jason. Strands of energy rose from his body and connected to Jas. A few moments later, it was as if his body never existed. All of it was absorbed into Jas' spherical body composed of light.

Jas returned inside Jason's body once again. And even though he didn't physically feel anything, inside his mind, he felt a connection.

[Absorption complete.] Jas' posh voice echoed inside his mind.

'Anything useful you want to relay to me?'

[Negative. Energy sample size and quality are poor. It is necessary for us to gather more energy for my ability to pinpoint the cause or location of the Core Anomaly accurately.]

'How much more are we talking about?' He had a feeling that it was gonna be a lot.

[Approximately four thousand times more energy of similar quality to begin a scan of adequate accuracy. If you find a source of energy of higher quality, you will only need to eliminate fewer beings, which is why I encourage you to find higher quality energy sources.]

Jason massaged his forehead in irritation. 'I don't even know HOW I'll be able to do that.'

[Do not worry. With my assistance, it will not take long for us to locate a higher energy source.]

'I hope so, cause if I have to kill four thousand more Yoshihiros, I might as well create a virus that only targets a specific group of people. At least that way is more efficient than wasting bullets.'

[That would be ideal.]

'… I was *joking*.' He *could* do it, but he didn't have the resources or the capital to actually execute the plan. Might as well save it as a Plan B or C, then.

Looking around the room with a glint in his eyes, Jason quickly spotted the most valuable items in the apartment.

Hmm.

No one else was going to use them, so he might as well take them. They'll be put to better use in his hands.

-===-

Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay. Here is another chapter. This time, it's only slightly under 2k words.

I'm probably gonna rewrite this chapter sometime in the future since I don't feel like it's as good as it can be. Tell me what you think in the comments. Is it good? Bad? Meh? You decide.