No Plausible Explanation

Shugo looked out through the car window from his side of the back seat as they drove down the city's near-deserted streets, contemplating how to tell the police chief about what had transpired earlier that night.

'What do I even say?'

Given the choice, Shugo personally preferred to tell the chief that he – and Ayato – had just happened to chance upon his boy's kidnappers. For one thing, the fact that none of the miscreants managed to see his face made it unlikely they'd be able to identify him. More importantly, there was also the question of just how they intended to explain how they'd been beaten by an unarmed teenager, assuming they even managed to shelve their pride long enough to come to grips with what had happened. And of course, they'd have an especially hard time explaining how the teenager in question was somehow able to survive being shot multiple times at close range.

'They probably won't be in a hurry to tell their buddies that some random teenager kicked their asses,' mused Shugo with a smirk. 'They've got an image to live up to, after all.'

"Put those miscreants from your mind for now," the spirit whispered in a voice only he, Shugo, could hear. "The lesson in fear that you imparted to them will not be easily forgotten."

On the other hand, thought Shugo, such a lie would be easily undermined by the faint smell of blood that still lingered about his person. If he himself smelled it despite not having a particularly keen sense of smell, it was fair to say that someone trained and experienced enough to serve as police chief would smell it too. More importantly, the bloodstains and bullet holes all over his clothes would put the final nails in the coffin as far as that feeble attempt at an alibi was concerned. While the spirit bonded to him may indeed have granted him regenerative powers, those powers evidently didn't extend to the clothes he wore, nor did they prevent him from bleeding in the first place.

'I'll just have to wing it, then,' he told himself mentally, before glancing at the child who sat between him and Ayato in the back. 'At least the kid seems to be doing fine.'

"And you have yourself to thank for that."

Shugo couldn't help but look up. 'Sorry, what?'

"While neither of us knows exactly what those miscreants had in store for him, the malice emanating from them is something no child his age should ever be exposed to," the spirit asserted. "Thus we can assume you spared this boy from a fate he did not deserve."

The spirit's reassurance helped ease Shugo's mind. It comforted him to know that exacting vengeance and inflicting punishment on the guilty wasn't the only thing that mattered to her, and that she wasn't incapable of caring for those who fell victim to the wicked deeds of those evildoers. At the same time, it only made him all the more curious and intrigued as to just who he'd contracted with. After all, a devil likely wouldn't be capable of caring about anything other than inflicting pain and suffering, nor would one normally expect an evil spirit to have a soft spot for children in particular.

'Huh,' he thought with a slight smile. 'Would you look at that. I guess calling this pact a deal with the devil isn't entirely accurate.'

However…

"Once again, do not misunderstand," she reiterated. "Children are simply much too young, and much too innocent, to harbor malice, let alone act on it in a manner that would warrant such acts to be visited upon them. Therefore, harming these little ones is something that merits vengeance of the purest kind."

'Hear, hear.'

Curiosity aside, Shugo fully agreed with the spirit's words, even though they only made him wonder all the more regarding the kind of person she was in life. Even so, he couldn't help but feel his curiosity and interest all the more piqued by her choice of words, nor was her unusual vehemence on the matter lost on him. For all her claims regarding her abandonment of humanity, and of her inability to understand human sentiment, it seemed as though-

"The person I may or may not have been in life is of no importance," the spirit repeated more forcefully, in the process reminding Shugo that she could read his mind through the mental link they shared. "You need only concern yourself with fulfilling your end of our contract, knowing that I will be with you every step of the way."

With that, the spirit fell silent for the rest of the drive, leaving Shugo to reflect on those words and wonder just who he had contracted with.

------

Minutes later, they finally arrived at the police station.

"Alright, boys, we're here!"

Entering the police department, Ayato's first impression was that it looked less like a police station and more like a museum or art gallery. At the center of the main hall was the statue of a blindfolded woman with a sword in one hand and a set of scales in the other. As Ryoma and his aide led the three boys past the statue, Ayato also noticed three silver medallions – a unicorn, a praying maiden, and a roaring lion – decorating the statue's base.

'And these are the kind of art pieces Ayaka's studying to create,' he thought. 'Knowing her, hers could be even better.'

"This place used to be the Rakuen Museum of Modern Art, until the mayor bought it off the original owners and gave it to the police," the chief explained to the two newcomers. "Now it's the headquarters of the Rakuen City Police Department. Though as you can see, there's still enough art works on display that this place could still pass for a museum or an art gallery," he added with a wry grin.

Ayato couldn't help but agree with that comment. Whether it was a deliberate nod to the compound's original owners, or the police simply couldn't be bothered to redecorate for some reason, enough traces remained to remind visitors of what the police station used to be. He briefly thought of asking the chief if they'd consider buying one of Ayaka's art pieces or commissioning one for her to make. Not only would the proceeds help them buy her medicines, it'd also give her another source of exposure.

'Next time, maybe.'

And when they arrived at the chief's office, Ayato got the impression that Chief Ryoma was a man of culture in his own right. Apart from the glass case with all kinds of plastic models and figures from various anime and manga on display, he also saw four life-sized statues, one standing at each corner of the office. Iron Man stood beside a door located along the corner just to the left of where they entered, while a statue of Batman stood across him at the opposite corner. Meanwhile, two heroes from the Kamen Rider franchise stood at the opposing corners behind the chief's desk. And on top of that, the coffee table at the center of the room.

"Oh, Riku," Ryoma said as he turned his attention momentarily toward his aide and son. "Could you take Taro to my quarters in the back room? It's past his bedtime, after all."

The chief then watched his aide and son leave the office through the door just beside the Iron Man statue, before turning back to the two young men in front of him.

"Alright, guys, have a seat," said the chief, gesturing toward the two seats located at either side of his desk.

And when the two had taken their seats, he took his place behind the desk.

"Now, would either of you be so kind as to tell me what happened?"

------

For the first several minutes, it was Ayato who did the talking.

Ayato talked about how his sister Ayaka was in dire need of medicines to keep her health in check, and about how he'd been forced to take all kinds of jobs just to make ends meet. He told the chief – and his aide Riku, who had returned after having put Taro to bed – about how his friend introduced him to one Asakura Dan. He told them how Dan gave him a job offer, before explaining what the job entailed.

"They told me they were hired to retrieve a package from your department and then deliver it to a client," he shared. "All I had to do was make sure they weren't being followed. I didn't know that the 'package' was your son," he finished as he bowed his head and dropped his gaze to his knees for a moment, before forcing himself to resume eye contact with the chief.

"I'll accept the consequences, but please, take care of my younger sister!"

Ryoma's face was impassive as he listened to the youth's account of what happened, though the faintest of creases appeared on his forehead at least once throughout the retelling. From where Ayato was sitting, it was hard to tell whether the chief would throw the book at him, or whether he'd somehow luck out and receive mercy instead. And though he at least took comfort that he hadn't been arrested on the spot, the thought of what could happen to him was almost too much to bear.

"…I see," Ryoma finally said, almost a minute after Ayato had finished talking. "And you, Shugo?"

Shugo told the chief about how he happened to be downtown when he ran into a black SUV driving at breakneck speed, and about how the vehicle's occupants got out to confront him after having stopped just short of running him over. He recounted how the confrontation quickly escalated into a physical altercation, albeit glossing over the more sensitive details of how things played out. Lastly, he told the chief how one of those gangsters told him about the child they'd locked in the trunk.

"Sure, but how'd you even survive?" Ryoma grilled him further. "I'm well-acquainted with the criminals you ran into, and you saw for yourself how they've got no problem harming kids."

Shugo grimaced. He wasn't surprised that the chief was clearly making an effort to question him thoroughly. It was standard procedure in their line of work, after all, and it'd be much weirder if the longtime lawman were to just take his word at face value. Even so, he also knew there was no plausible explanation for how he could've encountered a bunch of criminals and walked away alive. In this particular situation, it was preferable for him to just give the chief the truth - impossible as it was to believe - rather than needlessly complicating things by attempting to lie.

"It'd be in all our best interests if you told us the truth," added the longtime lawman, his tone making it clear to Shugo that any attempt at dissemblance or obfuscation wouldn't be tolerated, before his mouth curved upwards in a reassuring smile. "Honestly, kid. We're on the same side, aren't we?"

'I didn't want to do this, but…'

'…Oh well.'

"Sorry, sir," Shugo said apologetically. "I don't know how to tell you."

"But I can show you."

With that, Shugo instead got to his feet and walked away from the desk.

He slowly unzipped the borrowed jacket and folded it across his arm, before putting it down on the coffee table.

And then he turned around to face them, spreading his arms wide as he did so, all the better to give them a nice, long look at the bloodied and bullet-ridden clothes he'd been hiding underneath.