Drowning
It was eight o'clock in the evening, and it was already dark in late autumn. But the night in Tokyo was not dark, and the bright lights illuminated this filthy city with a variety of colors.
The wind blew slowly, bringing a fresh breath, just like a girl's slender fingers caressing her cheek, soft and gentle.
There were not many pedestrians coming and going at the entrance of Beikacho Park. Some men and women walked hand in hand, and some young and old walked slowly forward. Everyone had a happy and sweet smile on their face. It looked calm and peaceful.
The evening breeze blew through the trees on the street, causing the leaves to rustle. After a moment, the clouds blown by the wind blocked the moonlight, and then quickly left, allowing the light to fall on the earth again.
The curly-haired young man had been waiting here for a long time. He changed out of his work uniform and rushed here as soon as he got off work, but he was still wearing a formal black suit. The young man had an upright figure and sharp eyes, but the loose tie around his neck slightly added a bit of rebellious temperament, making him seem not so serious at the moment.
...In other words, he doesn't look like a policeman, but rather has a gangster temperament.
He had a computer on his lap and was typing away on the keyboard, seemingly recording something. His blue eyes revealed seriousness, and his pupils reflected dense Japanese characters.
【Chenxi Pharmaceutical Company】.
The device with Kenji Hagiwara's name on it that he found at the explosion site was most likely related to this company.
He turned his attention to the partners with whom the company had the closest relationship.
——[IT industry giant Schindler Corporation, and Baijiu Pharmaceutical, also in the biopharmaceutical field].
To be honest, these two companies have little to do with electronic equipment. Baijiu Pharmaceuticals is not to be mentioned, and Schindler's company is more focused on software applications rather than hardware development.
Through a simple search, Jinpei Matsuda quickly ruled out the other possibilities. In other words, the device that was discovered at that time could only be related to Chenxi Pharmaceutical, Baijiu Pharmaceutical and Schindler Company.
When Hagiwara Kenji arrived, it was just past eight o'clock. He walked to the bench where Matsuda Jinping was sitting, almost on time, under the moonlight.
"I didn't expect that the first time Kenji-chan and I met on the bench at the entrance of Beika Town Park, it turned out that the person we met was a man." The young man with semi-long hair said in a joking tone and patted his friend's shoulder.
Matsuda Jinpei also hit the other person's shoulder without hesitation: "Come on, stop talking nonsense."
The young man who arrived later almost immediately saw the content displayed on his childhood friend's computer, and a hint of surprise flashed across his purple eyes.
"Chenxi Pharmaceuticals... I remember it was a fairly well-known pharmaceutical company, right? It seems that the parents of Kawakami-chan from the Ministry of Transportation four years ago were researchers there?"
Matsuda Jinpei: ...?
There was surprise in his eyes: "Hagi, you... even know what Xiao Xunran does at home? You and that Kawashita..."
"It's Kawakami." Hagiwara Kenji corrected, "And I don't have any special relationship with her. I know a few pretty girls in the Ministry of Transportation at that time."
He blinked his beautiful purple droopy eyes and said, "A lot of things can be known through chatting. For example, Officer Sato who is very close to Jinpei-chan, I heard that her father is also a policeman."
Matsuda Jinpei: ...?
His childhood education was somewhat unnatural.
as well as……
"What do you mean I'm close to her?" Matsuda Jinpei crossed his arms unhappily and waved his fist, "Be careful or I'll beat you up."
Kenji Hagiwara raised his hands to indicate his surrender.
"Alright, alright, now - you tell me first, why do you ask where Toki was found?" The curly-haired young man operated the computer on his lap nimbly for a few times, shut it down, and looked at his best friend seriously.
Sitting next to Matsuda Jinpei, Hagiwara Kenji directly stated his two conclusions: "I suspect that Toki was an experimental subject of the organization before he met us, and now he has been brainwashed by the organization."
The curly-haired young man suddenly paused: "Brainwashing?"
The young man with semi-long hair nodded and softly stated the facts he already knew.
"One of the aftereffects of the organization's brainwashing method is amnesia. I've only heard a little about this, but it fits Toki's situation very well." Hagiwara Kenji said briefly. He knew that his longtime friend wanted to hear the conclusion directly.
"...Wait, when did you know that Toki had undergone experiments before he met us?" After a pause, Kenji Hagiwara turned his gaze to his own childhood friend.
He was very familiar with the other party. After Matsuda Jinpei made his guess, he had no intention of asking about his previous guess. He went straight to the point of "brainwashing" and asked - this showed that he had known about this for a long time.
As expected, the curly-haired police officer froze for a moment and looked away guiltily.
It was by chance that he discovered this matter. To be exact, Shi Ting Shu wanted to keep this matter secret forever so that no one would find out.
At that time, no one knew who donated money to their primary school, so the school opened swimming lessons, rented the cheapest swimming pool, and held classes once a month as a formality to show that they were using the donations in the right way.
As we all know, cold violence is very serious in primary schools in Japan. If you are slightly different from others, you will be ridiculed and your dignity and personality will be severely hit.
Tokiwa Hiiragi is not very popular in school. The four of them who play together rely on Hagiwara Kenji to get along with others. Matsuda Jinpei knows that he has a bad temper and can never listen to trivial and boring things with a smile like Kotsu-ran; Tsukizono Kiyoshi is unconsciously isolated because he is always ignored.
As for Tokiwa Hiiragi, the curly-haired boy was well aware that his friend was called a "monster".
Because somehow he could always tell exactly what other people were thinking, and sometimes he would say it bluntly without caring about other people's feelings.
But since he always behaved well, there was no reason for anyone to pick on him.
But it was different in swimming class. The group of kids found one of Tokiwa Hiiragi’s few weaknesses - water.
During the first class, when Tokiwa Hiiragi saw the swimming pool water tinged with blue due to the addition of a small amount of copper sulfate for disinfection, he gasped and took a step back unconsciously.
The chestnut-haired boy closed his eyes tightly as if to dispel something scary. Even though the pool looked deeper than it actually was due to refraction, the water in front of him was enough to make his lips turn white.
It seemed as if a terrifying monster was lurking beneath the calm water, waiting, ready to drag him in and devour him viciously. It was just like the feeling of suffocation when German beer pressed his head into the water again and again.
A voice that I haven't recalled for many years rang in my ears.
"Ninety seconds - tell the person in front of you what he is thinking, kid."
"Ninety, eighty-nine, eighty-eight..."
No, no, no, that was just an illusion, just my own flashback, it wasn't real at all...
etc?
Shi Ting Shu suddenly felt his whole body surrounded by slightly cool water, just like he was in the water tank in the laboratory before. A familiar yet unfamiliar feeling of suffocation came over him. His mouth and nose were filled with liquid and he couldn't breathe.
...Not an illusion...?
...He didn't escape and is still in the laboratory...?
Hagi, Kojinpei, Toki...are they all hallucinations...?
He had to hold back and not reveal his abilities. After so many years, this thought once again filled his mind.
He couldn't stick his head out. The German beer was so strong that he couldn't get up there...
In the hallucination, he unconsciously repeated the psychological suggestion to himself. Although the German beer was not around him, he really could not let his mouth and nose stick out of the water.
Despair and loss surged in his heart, darkness covered his eyes, and in front of him were white tiles distorted by water, which gradually became the pure white of the experimental area.
Shi Ting Shuu gave up struggling.
Kenji Hagiwara had a cold that day and didn't come to school. Jinpei Matsuda and Kiyoshi Tsukizono had some questions about mechanics and went to ask the science teacher, so they were a little late.
Thus, all of Shi Ting Shu's hesitation and fear were seen by a group of children who had long disliked him.
For children in the lower grades of elementary school, unconscious malice can cause the most harm.
After noticing that Tokiwa Hiiragi was not in the right state, the leading boy walked forward with a heroic look and shouted provocatively: "Hey! Are you scared?!"
Shi Ting Shu's indigo eyes were slightly dazed. He no longer responded to the words around him and was completely immersed in his own world.
But this reaction just angered the boy. He put his hands on his hips and said angrily, "Hey, are you ignoring me, monster?"
The children watching nearby were already chattering about it. The swimming teacher was hired at a low price, so he didn't take it seriously. He just watched from a distance and thought the children were just joking with each other.
The boy was angry. Children of this age, especially those spoiled by their parents, rarely consider the consequences of their actions. He walked around behind Shi Ting Shu and pushed hard in the direction of the pool.
The small swimming pool was reserved by the school. It was so remote that no one else came back to swim, so the ground was relatively dry. The little boy probably didn't expect that with just a gentle push, Shi Ting Shuu would obediently enter the water.
The chestnut-haired boy struggled a little at first, but soon he stopped moving as if he was begging for death. During this process, his mouth and nose never left the water.
At this time, Jinpei Matsuda and Kiyoshi Tsukizono finally changed their clothes and entered the swimming pool.
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