Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World-Chapter 324: Arc 5, - 18: Paranormal Activity

"Okay, we understand that we’ll have to take caution; with that in mind, what’s the actual case going on?" Hotaru leaned forward from the chair a smidgen.

"Yeah, if you don’t have concrete evidence it’s the cult, then something must lead you to believe that. Is it just the fire and the two cultists?" Jotou added on.

"Who gave you that tip-off anyway?" Fumeko’s gaze fell upon the envelope. "I’m guessing it’s whoever this Alicia woman is—the one that can get a jump on dad?" she smirked.

"She-" Kazuo stopped himself to refute that... His face fell in defeat for a mere second before he sighed out, "Regardless, yes. She has many sources of intel and people she can get to."

"Doesn’t that seem, suspicious...?" Asobi scrunched her face with pure concentration across her visage.

The redhead’s ears pricked, "What do you mean?"

"I think she means, if this Alicia got intel on potential cult activity and you’ve just said that they can’t possibly have moles, how did she ever get this information, unless they wanted you to get it?" Jotou figured the possibility.

Kazuo furrowed his brows, "That’s a... bit of a paranoid jump there."

"I just meant the first part really; how did she get the super-duper secrets like that?" Asobi poked a wand under her chin.

"She’s just that good," Morgana replied.

"That’s not really a good explanation," the blonde retorted.

"This is my fault, I should clarify," Kazuo put a hand up to ease Jotou. "The true time the cult operated is unknown, but they only came into the light completely, nearly eighteen years ago with the great fire.

Then they were exposed and put on trial nearly fourteen years ago, which is also around the same time they went into hiding—scattering’s a better word.

At that point, many cultists could escape, get out from the cult, you get the idea. Nobody’s going to willingly confess to the police after all this time to being in the cult. Especially, lower ranking members.

That sort of thing still carries heavy sentences that can take away a lot of someone’s life. Meaning, information from low ranking members will not only not be much, it’ll also be shared very privately, to places and people I can’t really reach."

"Ooo, you’re talking about things like illegal drug rings and murder gangs!" Asobi giddied.

"I... well, yes."

"And shady pubs, brothels, stuff like that," Fumeko held a hand to her chin.

Kazuo simply held the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as he heard her say that.

"Don’t act like you’re disappointed, you know it’s a possibility," Fumeko sneered. "Anyway, that’s what you mean by she has many sources and people she can get to."

"And higher ranking members wouldn’t even break in the first place," Jotou dropped her suspicions... for now.

"I get that it sounds like someone’s deliberately setting up the detective here to get intel from Alicia to lead him on—something like a revenge for the detective who brought down the cult’s operations?

To get the jump on him? Give him a trail of sweets and clues to follow? That your thought process?" Morgana gave a glance to the blonde.

’How did she...’ Jotou knitted her brows to the detective woman.

Morgana had the faintest of smiles, "Right on the mark then." Kira made a guttural croak towards Jotou, turning the entire room’s attention to the bird.

Jotou’s eyes sparked a bit, "Something like that, yeah."

"As I said, she’s just that good. Realistically, she’d be the one to get the jump on the cult’s operations and get something out of them," a green ring circled in her eyes for a second.

"Anyone else, I would’ve suspected that too. But coming from her... I know that’s not the case—she can tell what’s bait and not," Kazuo affirmed.

"Besides that, a lot of suspicious activity’s also alerted the government. We’ve theorized cult activity and coming from this detective agency, they were quick to put it under wraps since last year.

There’s one thing that can be concrete evidence, since we got it at around November last year, but," Morgana scowled, "It’s not concrete till he confesses it or we get him to talk."

"He has to be," Kazuo said with a sharp look.

"I agree with you, but we don’t have enough evidence or a testimony to back it. Torture’s not an option either without proper proof."

"Not like torture should be our method regardless..." Kazuo muttered.

"Okay then, let’s get to the point. We’re missing context. Something about ghosts in the case?" Jotou moved along.

"Alright. The day before yesterday, we got an interesting report. An anonymous call stated seeing a ghost fly away into an abandoned apartment.

At first, it was dismissed as a prank call. But then a separate call with a different voice said they smelled something rotten coming from the door down the hall—same apartment building from the first call.

They were only about two and a half hours apart. So, I went to investigate. Right now, the apartment down in Mandrake Borough is being quarantined by the authorities.

What I found, was a corpse hammered with nails onto a circular wooden board. It was a man, at least four days old."

Asobi gasped and her eyes widened, "Only four days old...? So young..."

"The corpse, not the age..." Fumeko clarified.

Hotaru’s ears folded, "Hammered with nails...? That’s, horrible... Why?"

"Serial killer?" Jotou guessed.

"Sounds like it," the brunette crossed her arms. "It’s a weird way to find a body."

"It’s the first of anything like this. I doubt this won’t be some serial case," Kazuo hypothesized. "It won’t be, if we can do something about it."

"I’m surprised no one’s vomited or chilled to the bone," Morgana scanned their expressions with folded arms. "Then again, I guess you know death all too well."

"I’ve had my dealings with blood and injuries to a point I can stomach it really well actually," Hotaru admitted with a pout and her brilliant blue eyes took a glance to her own fingers. "Doesn’t mean it gets easier."

"And it doesn’t make it any less scary," Asobi shivered.

"After everything we’ve been through..." Fumeko gave a sigh. "We were in a damn war even."

"I think with the amount of injuries I’ve had..." the blonde pursed her lips. ’Huh...’ She blankly stared to the floor with bubbled eyes as every injury passed her memory... A haunting chuckle left her lips, "And that was after I already died once..."

"You, okay kid...?"

"Yeah," Jotou snapped back to reality, "Serial killer in the making, I’m still on topic," her voice creaked. Asobi soothed her back and Hotaru pulled Jotou’s hand down to hold softly.

"So, did you find a ghost?" the brunette kept an eye on Jotou, but still asked.

"No. Though I didn’t consider that a prank call anymore. Thinking about it, with the bizarre way the corpse was, there must be a plausible explanation.

I did some digging and as much as horror and ghost stories are based in a lot of fiction these days, they are real things. Now, I can’t confirm it till I see them for myself, but I have to at least regard it as some evidence.

And if I’m doing that; something this odd, could it be connected to the cult? New gods, the signs of return and abnormal situations?" even though his tone suggested he was questioning it, somehow it sounded like he was sure of it.

Jotou took a deep breath and shivered it out, "So, how does this add up to this one possible concrete evidence? What is it?"

"A ’he’ apparently. Must be someone from the cult," Fumeko figured.

"Must be... The problem is, we can’t be sure," he almost looked feverish as he said. He shook his head, "Regardless, last November, a case in South End finally came to a close.

A town terrorized by something that would come out at night. Some townsfolk would notice a brief shadow, that was it. At first it was livestock disappearing—then it became people.

One by one, they’d go missing and never seen again. They were all adults and one thing in common is that they were all above forty in age.

Supposedly, under the claim of someone by the title of the Scorching Inferno and his party of two others, they caught the culprit behind all of it.

Sources say, the culprit resided in an abandoned castle and the Scorching Inferno told stories of a fierce battle between them before the culprit’s capture.

This, Scorching Inferno is an adventurer with a lot of credible commissions and feats. Regardless, this disappearing people case started around the middle of June last year.

But even though the case was taking place over the course of five months with many disappearances, none of the bodies were ever found in the abandoned castle or anywhere nearby.

The culprit right now, is in custody in Dolpool. The issue right now, is that he’s refusing to give any information, because there’s not a lot of proof from a legal standpoint.

It’s the Scorching Inferno’s account and the fact that no more people have disappeared in that town. Which means, nothing concrete.

When magic was used to make him confess the truth... It didn’t work—just like something I witnessed fourteen years ago. He’s kept under an affinity-lock and has been in custody under suspicion of being a part of the cult.

It’s my intuition, but I think this is a high ranking member without a doubt. His demeanour, popping up right around the same time I found Kineko in that fire, the recent murder, it just—I’m missing pieces," he confessed.

"A lot of them," Morgana agreed. "And yet, I still believe it. The burden of proof falls on us; that’s the only issue."

"Can’t we go visit him in jail?" Asobi asked.

"We need a proper reason and right now we ain’t got nothing but a hunch," Morgana answered.

"Maybe torture’s not a bad idea? If he isn’t confessing and it hasn’t move forward since November..." Fumeko suggested. "We have someone’s who’s good at it," she shrugged.

"Not that I enjoy it," Jotou’s eyes glazed over.

"I know you wanna kid, but laws, sorry," Morgana petted Kira’s feathers gently. "It’s a last resort if anything."

"Regardless," he steeled himself. "I’ll have to focus on the case at hand. If you want to help with the cult, this might be a good lead to start on. I guess now, it starts with what Alicia brought," he flipped the envelope into his hand.

He opened up the envelope and what it had was a clear address and the homeowner’s details. Another paper written with blue ink sat within as well. Before scanning the documents, he first took the three photos that slid out.

Two of them were black and white, showing the scene at what seemed to be night. A four-storey building where two figures seemed to enter into.

From the angle, the photo was taken from what could be an alleyway on the opposite street, behind something she would probably prop her elbows on. The photo showed only their backs.

The next black and white image was much blurrier, but still at night. As if the light wasn’t bright enough to capture the scene. However, they could capture the height of the two figures exiting.

With the bodies, it was obvious it was two men in simple clothing and coats to stave off the cold. Kazuo gave the photo to his daughter, knowing nothing else could be gathered from it.

As Asobi hopped in to see the next photo, her eyes glittered with white light. Jotou leaned forward and Hotaru stood up to see. The third photograph, was coloured.

’Coloured? But, it looks faded a bit. Like, there’s little to no saturation—enough to make out the colours. Guess it’s ’old’, but... that’s not even the weirdest part.’

"It has colour!" Asobi giddied. Hotaru smiled as she marvelled while Fumeko blinked in from behind to see.

"Alicia would have the latest technology," Kazuo was more preoccupied with the odd blur in the image...

The photograph was of the same four-storey building and the doors were closed. However, something seemed to be exiting from the third floor’s window.

It wasn’t open nor was it broken. The yellow from the gothic streetlamps, the brownish bricks of the building, the grey pavements were normal for the most part.

Like a smudge or a stain on it, there was a small blur of red, green and blue—like the light didn’t hit it quite right despite all its surroundings being clear. It was amorphous and almost seemed like it was floating or even flying upwards.

"A ghost?" Jotou broke everyone’s silent staring.