Chapter 14 - Run

Early noon. In a tall apartment within Tokyo, a certain idol lived with her two managers and her children.

"Ai, Miyako, come look at the TV! Quick!"

Ai, a beautiful girl with gradient colored eyes and blue-purplish hair, stopped playing with her children and turned around, curious about the fuss. "Huh? What's got you so worked up, Satou-san?"

"Close. It's Saitou. Nevermind, forget that! Just look at the TV and you'll see why."

Because her mother stopped playing with her, the four-year-old child with blonde hair and ruby eyes pouted, crossing her arms. "What's showing on the TV that's so interesting, anyway? I wanna be pampered by Mama more!"

The boy with blonde hair and aquamarine eyes beside her indifferently replied, "With how interested Saitou-san is, it might be related to her work."

"In that case, I wanna see! Come on!" The little girl jumped off the bed and followed her mother out of the bedroom. Since he had nothing better to do, the boy shrugged and followed as well.

Within the living room, the mother sat on the sofa, patting the head of her daughter on her lap and her son next to her. Meanwhile, Saitou-san, her manager, sat on the mat with a beer in hand. His wife, Miyako, stood close by.

All of them were unnerved by the news on the TV.

[Today, police are investigating a shocking double murder that was discovered yesterday evening. Authorities responded to an anonymous tip that led them to an underground bar within Roppongi. Upon arrival, police found the bodies of two individuals, both of whom had been shot once in the head with what seems to be an unidentified handgun. The victims have been identified as Hayato Noboyuki and Masaru Obata, both males in their mid-twenties. At this time, authorities have not released any further details about the victims.

Within the bar, police found a pile of illegal drugs including cocaine, heroin, ecstasy, and multiple bottles of the new aphrodisiac drug that has been circulating worldwide gathered on a table. It is unknown how the drugs are related to the suspect and the victims.

Furthermore, a hard drive labelled as "Evidence" has been found on the site, and is the only thing police have found that may lead them to a suspect. Aside from the hard drive, police are currently combing the scene for more evidence that may lead them to a suspect or suspects. They are currently checking the surveillance camera within the area to determine a potential lead on the suspect. So far, no weapon has been recovered, and no motive for the crime has been determined.

People in the area were shaken by the news, with some expressing concerns for their safety. "It's just scary to think that something like this could happen so close to home," said one resident.

Anyone with information about this crime is urged to come forward and contact the authorities.

We will continue to bring you updates on this developing story as more information becomes available. Reporting for Tokyo Today News, I'm Noriko Sato. Back to you in the studio.]

They all stayed silent for a moment and digested the news.

"Man, a double murder. That's the first time I've ever heard of one happening in Tokyo." Saitou-san commented with raised eyebrows. He was surprised since a lot of the crimes that happen in Tokyo are either small ones like theft or scams. Crimes like the double murder are rarely featured in the news.

"This just means we have to be more careful." Ai said with a bright, reassuring smile on her face. She hugged her children tight. "Don't worry, Ruby, Aquamarine. Mama will protect you both."

Miyako raised her hand to her cheek and sighed. "And just as I was about to go night-shopping, too." She turned to her husband. "Is this gonna affect any of B Komachi's or Ai's work? You know they have Tokyo Dome in a few days."

Saitou waved his hand back and forth nonchalantly. "Don't worry, don't worry. Their work might get affected, but not that much. More precautions and a couple of schedule adjustments might be necessary, though. For now, just as Ai said, everyone should be more cautious."

Next to Ai, her toddler's face was tense, his brow furrowed in contemplation. He was glad that the area of the crime wasn't anywhere near their apartment, but the knowledge that someone had killed two people in cold blood and was still at large was a concerning thought.

"What are you thinking so hard about?" his sister asked while receiving head pats from their mother.

He paused and shook his head.

"It's nothing."

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Jason used the data extracted from the phones to locate and gather information on anyone Hayato or Obata associated with. For 36 hours, he used the data and dedicated himself to taking down the drug ring, travelling from district to district.

Before he travelled, he had memorized the entire city's layout after looking at its map on the internet. It was far bigger than Gotham City, but he had no issue memorizing each district, all the street addresses, and the important landmarks. The actual process of moving around Tokyo City only let him further get a lay of the land.

As Jason dealt with the drug ring, he killed the ones who dealt with kids and inflicted such severe torture on the others, they can never function as normal members of society ever again. Regrettably, some of the drug dealers were just teenagers who got roped into it or were coerced into doing it by someone older than them.

There were many instances where Wheatley would detect Anomalies related to the dark energy as they travelled. In those instances, they'd always track it down and fix the source. So far, he's dealt with phantoms, *******, blackmailers, and child *******. In many of the cases, blackmailers used their blackmail to force the women to comply with their demands like non-consensual sex.

He killed every single one of them without mercy.

Many of them were obese men with horrendous appearances, and he'd taken a liking to calling them ugly bastards. Jason was sickened because some of them were even related to the ones they targeted.

However, sometimes, he was already too late. Majority of the targets were female, and when he got to the ones who had already become victims, they had already been possessed by the energy, turning them into sex-crazed maniacs who could only think of sex. Of course, Wheatley had would extract the energy, but the damage had already been done to their bodies and minds.

Filled with rage and frustration, he lamented the fact that he was powerless to help them. All he could do was call the proper authorities and let them handle the situation afterwards.

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In an abandoned house on the outskirts of Tokyo, many unconscious bodies littered the floor. A few, however, had bullet holes in their head or in their chest.

"P-please! I have a family!" the thug begged on his knees with tearful eyes as he looked at the man standing in front of him, holding a gun to his head.

"Nice try. You're a decent actor, but you're not fooling me." Jason pulled the trigger, and the man fell forward, blood slowly pooling around his head.

The man's name was Isao Takano, a notorious drug dealer in this area. He had a wife and two kids, true, but it seemed like he forgot he killed them with his own hands. After killing his family and evading authorities, he began dealing drugs.

"And that's that." The handgun vanished from his hand, returning into the ring. "Wheatley. Calling card."

[Calling card, coming right up.] Wheatley manifested himself, projecting a hologram in the shape of a palm-sized card that quickly solidified.

Wheatley had a very useful function called "Material Forging", which allowed him to create anything up to a certain size as long as Jason gave him the required visual image and material and chemical composition/blueprint of the object he wanted. Weapons, ammunition, gadgets, protective equipment, or clothes can be made as long as they don't exceed the size limit. Theoretically, he could make his own custom vehicle using it.

'This is probably one of Wheatley's most useful functions. Now I won't have to find a supplier and manufacturer for all my equipment or have to make them myself, since Wheatley could just do it for me. It'll be efficient too since he could make anything with no mistakes or changes in quality.'

A second later, the card was finished, dropping into his hand. He placed it on the back of the man he just shot.

"I've placed one of these every time I cleared an area. The police and media must be going crazy over all these killings," he mused.

[I'd be terrified if I was in their position.]

"Well, they won't like it, but I know I've helped them confiscate at least 2500kg (5512 lbs in freedom units) worth of illegal drugs across all these solo operations. If anything, they should thank me. Then again, I did run out of leads to other drug dealers. They started hiding like rats because of me."

[Well, you can't blame them. If an assassin specifically targeting drug dealers was on the loose, what else could they do?]

Jason found no fault in that logic.

As he turned to the window he was about to jump out of, he heard the strange sounds of babies cheering.

"What's that?"

[What's what?]

Jason turned towards the sound and noticed a phone lying on the ground next to an unconscious man. Wheatley followed him as he went closer and picked it up.

"What the hell was this guy watching?"

It was a video of two babies with blonde hair. The one on the left had aquamarine eyes, while the one on the right had ruby eyes. Both babies were waving a pair of glowing sticks around in some sort of pattern — not unlike a dance — while making cheering sounds.

[Baby humans? Oh, let me see!] Wheatley hovered over his shoulder excitedly. [Ooh, they're absolutely adora — Oh. Oh wow…]

"What?" Jason asked, curious about why Wheatley would suddenly exclaim in surprise and before Wheatley could answer, the video showed how a beautiful girl with purplish-blue hair dressed in a colorful costume smiling at the babies' dance.

[Oh. Wow…] Wheatley exclaimed again. Jason's brow twitched in annoyance.

"Are you gonna explain why you're wowing or not?"

[Uh, how should I say this… I can see the dark energy, even through a video, and… The babies, they um… They are absolutely *covered* in dark energy. The girl is an even worse case. It's like she's wearing a cloak made of tar.]

"*What?*" Jason said with gritted teeth. If babies are being targeted by a ******, he'll find that bastard and skin him alive. "Are you sure?"

[It's true! Strangely, the energy seems to focus around their eyes. Also, is it normal for humans to have stars in their eyes?]

"No, it's not." But he didn't see any stars in their eyes, so it must be related to the dark energy and its effects on them.

Jason quickly pulled out his phone, checking the details of the video and found it's an old video from a few years ago that got viral on social media.

A few years ago… Was he already too late?

Next, he tried checking their identities, but he found not a single piece of information about the babies. Thankfully, the girl wasn't the same.

The girl's name was Ai Hoshino. She's currently turning 20 years old and was around 17 years old by the time the video was uploaded. She's a popular idol who's a part of the idol group called B-Komachi, which explains why she was in the video.

Relief flooded him. 'She's still alive. That's good. That means the babies… Wait, they're toddlers now. They're probably still alive as well.'

With his mind made up, Jason wasted no time. Wheatley returned to his soul, and he dialed the police, letting them know the address of the abandoned building, before he jumped out the window. From the second floor, he landed on the street below with no issue and rushed back towards the city at full speed, running at 129 km/h (80mph in freedom units). He was on the outskirts, which meant a long trip back.

Ai Hoshino's address was unknown. If people found out where she lived, fans and stalkers would hound her, but that also made it harder for him to know where she was.

'Wheatley, do you think you can detect the dark energy possessing them?'

[If you asked me this before you went on a killing spree, I would've said no. Now? Absolutely. I've acquired enough energy to be able to scan ten times more distance than before continuously. The density of the energy possessing them will probably help me find them as well.]

Jason's mind raced with ideas about where an idol like Ai might live based on several factors. In less than a second, he had narrowed it down to a few potential areas.

'Good. I'll run around the city. Tell me when you find their dense energy signatures.'

Jason hoped he wasn't too late.

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Author's Note: The freedom units thing is from another author, though I forgot who. Comment if you know. Sauce: Oshi no Ko