Murders continued throughout the military base — no one knew who the killer could be or when they themselves might be killed. The brothers were walking through the halls, in a silence that was almost frightening, until the older brother spoke:
— Arold... I don't know if what I saw was real or not, but there's something wrong with Itadaki.
Because of his brother's tone, Arold turned his full attention to that statement. Kura simply kept talking:
— You know, when I went to thank Itadaki for helping me... I saw him injure his hand and then immediately regenerate — all of that with that nail in the cafeteria.
Arold kept looking at his brother, thinking calmly and analyzing all that information, then replied slowly and somewhat skeptically:
— Well... where are you going with this, brother?
Kura looked his brother in the eye, speaking very seriously and a bit annoyed, as if Arold should already know what he meant:
— Isn't it obvious?! Of course we're going to investigate him to see if there's something off... to see if he's not the killer himself!
Arold showed a face of disapproval at the idea, as if that couldn't possibly be true. It seemed like his brother was just throwing out baseless accusations against the friendly Itadaki, who likely wouldn't have the courage to do such a thing.
— Huh?! What do you mean investigate him, brother? He'd never do anything like that — he's a totally good person!
The only expression the short guy gave was a classic "wow, you're an idiot" face. Kura placed a hand on his face and furrowed his brow, letting out a long and irritated sigh before replying quickly:
— Alright, alright, alright... here's what we'll do: let's investigate the murders and see if we find anything connected to him. Just know that if we do find something linking him to the murders, you owe me a bottle of soda.
Arold simply agreed. After all, he was certain that Itadaki wasn't the terrible killer his brother suspected him to be.
Two days passed after that, and they were investigating as much as they could — even though they hadn't found any evidence pointing to Itadaki. The two were walking through the hallways during break when they ran into Itadaki himself. His hair looked a little different, specifically the color: a strand of it was blonde — a natural blonde. This was quite strange, since his hair was usually completely dark like the night. It immediately caught Kura's attention, and he pointed to it as he spoke:
— Hey, good morning Itadaki! What happened to your hair?
The man stayed silent for two seconds, brushing his right hand through his hair as he answered calmly and serenely:
— Oh, this? I just dyed it, nothing special really.
The brothers heard that — Arold accepted it without question, but our beloved short guy was a bit suspicious. He didn't think Itadaki would do something like that without a reason. Their conversation was interrupted by the arrival of two more people: Aki and his sister, Ali. Aki was a good friend of Itadaki's, while his sister, Ali, was completely indifferent toward him.
— Itadaki, cool hair!
Aki started talking to him, cutting off the conversation Kura and Arold were having. Well, that didn't matter to their objective, but the older brother kept the information about the hair in mind, thinking it might be useful later in the case.
Two more weeks went by. Kura had pretty much given up on finding the killer. He was walking to his classroom, having skipped class again — this time using a headache as an excuse. He still had that dead-fish look on his face, and you could feel his boredom from a mile away.
The young man heard a noise coming from one of the bathrooms — a scream of fear that caught everyone's attention. He was the first to arrive, being closest to the bathroom:
— Hey, what happened?!
He shouted as he entered the bathroom. His only sight upon doing so was a single hair falling as a shadow quickly leaped out the window. The short guy ran to the window to see who had jumped, but there was no one on the ground — as if they had just vanished into thin air. He quickly turned back to the body, analyzing it until he found that strand of hair: it was blonde, which only raised his suspicions of Itadaki even more.
— Now he won't escape me!
He presented that piece of evidence to his superiors, who had arrived at the bathroom, now granting him permission to take it for DNA testing and finally uncover who was killing all those people. He went to the lab and waited for the result, certain it would match the DNA of his biggest suspect — but then:
— Well, Mr. Kura, we analyzed the strand as you requested... but it didn't match Mr. Itadaki's DNA, nor that of anyone in the entire military.
This left the young man in shock. The only thought running through his head was, "So I suspected the wrong person this whole time??" But the bombshell wasn't over yet:
— Well, it seems... we may have an infiltrator in the base, even though that should be impossible with our DNA recognition security systems.
After that, Kura simply thanked them and left the room deep in thought. The killer wasn't Itadaki — he couldn't tell who it was. But even with that information, his subconscious kept whispering that it was Itadaki, leaving him in internal conflict. "Will I be able to find this killer?" he wondered.
Inside one of the facility's pipes, an eye watched him. In a completely dark place, a voice echoed:
— So he found my hair? What misfortune... I suppose he'll be my next target soon!
The person who said that, shrouded in shadows, revealed only vague details of their body: someone tall, with spiky hair, and one arm larger than the other — as if one were just an attachment. That arm was the right one, and it bore a mark: the mark of a time capsule.
Who is this person — and what are their goals?