The murder occurred nearby, and it happened to be in the location specified on the document. This overly strange coincidence made Lin's heart leap.
Forget-me-not... was that the name Seele just mentioned?
Lin struggled to push through the crowd to the very front. His eyebrows twitched when he saw the body lying on the ground, and he instinctively glanced at the surrounding people.
Someone was murdered in broad daylight. The police response was so fast that their tires must have been smoking. By the time the police arrived to cordon off the scene, two people, a man and a woman, had already begun investigating the corpse.
"Hey! Don't tamper with the scene! You two..."
"Excuse me, please allow us to investigate."
Hun took out her Moth of the Fire Chasers ID and adopted a professional demeanor, blocking the police officer. Upon seeing the insignia on the ID, the officer's initially firm attitude softened considerably. He turned to have others set up the caution tape and disperse the crowd.
Lin, ignoring everyone, knelt beside the body, checking the wounds and pockets.
After retrieving a standard-issue Moth of the Fire Chasers handgun and an identification card bearing the name Ibili from the body, Lin fell silent.
This corpse was the Cocoon killer, Ibili, he had been looking for.
The Moth of the Fire Chasers ID was missing. Was it taken?
"Squad Member Lin, did you find anything?" Seele walked up to Lin after communicating with the police. Lin had already slipped the gun and ID into his bag to avoid arousing suspicion in Hun.
"A few things." Lin gently lifted the body's head, exposing the neck. "The biggest issue is the fatal wound."
"This is..." Seele was also stunned by the sight.
There was a hairline red streak on the corpse's neck, so fine it was almost invisible. A closer look revealed a smooth horizontal cross-section where the subcutaneous muscle tissue was severed. Just seeing the wound, a sharp, cold intensity seemed to rush out.
"There are no other wounds on the entire body, only a fine cut across the neck. The strike nearly severed the entire head, but a thin layer of skin was left connecting the body and head." Lin moved to the side to observe. "Killed in one blow."
During the Japanese ritual of kaishakunin , a swordsman with extremely refined skill would often leave a thin layer of skin between the head and body to preserve the dignity of the deceased, similar to this situation.
But that was a ritual. This was a moving target, and a Cocoon killer at that. How incredibly fast must the speed and swordsmanship be to execute a lethal blow while leaving such a thin connection? It was as if time had stopped.
And that wasn't all. Due to the Fifth Branch incident, Lin hadn't told Hun that Ibili's hand was originally on the gun in his pocket. Judging by the front of the body, he was on high alert. He was killed while prepared, perhaps even ready to strike first.
Seele picked up the small blue flower from the corpse and looked at the blood-stained, beautiful petals with complexity: "And this flower. It's so sad. Why would a killer leave this kind of small flower?"
"A confirmation of identity, like a 'Kilroy was here'."
Lin took the flower, a forget-me-not. It was no different from others he had seen, except that this one was missing a petal, giving it a sense of incomplete beauty.
The police officer organizing the scene was tapped on the shoulder. He turned around to see Lin, wearing sunglasses, a mask, and a hood, standing behind him, holding a small flower, and asking, "Were the flowers beside the bodies before also missing a petal?"
"Huh? Forget-me-nots... Oh, that. Shh, keep your voice down."
The questioned police officer shushed Lin and pulled him aside.
"The forget-me-not hasn't been officially made public yet. Don't talk about it in public."
"...It's already been reported in the news."
"That's just being treated as a rumor. Tsk, this killer used to be covert. Why did they act in front of so many people this time..."
"Did the flowers before have a missing petal?"
"No, why would they leave a flower with a missing petal?"
"..."
Lin looked back at the body on the ground, then at the flower in his hand.
A sense of discrepancy quietly crept into his heart.
"Hoo, hoo, hoo..."
The pink-haired girl ran through the narrow alley. Her footsteps were so light they were barely audible. She moved through the streets and alleys like a phantom.
During her high-speed run, her breathing was even, only slightly heavier than usual.
Both the speed and the breathing technique were far beyond what an ordinary person could achieve.
After confirming no one was chasing or had spotted her, she put the uchigatana back into her tennis bag and slung it over her back. Then, she casually turned out of the alley and blended into the crowd.
She carefully opened her palm and looked at the object inside.
A silver badge, with a pattern that didn't belong to any organization she knew.
Was that a killer from another organization?
She would investigate it later. For now, she had to go home... Rin must have been waiting for a long time.
The last lead on the Cocoon was severed, possibly by coincidence. This was a completely unexpected turn of events that caught Lin off guard.
This meant the full picture of the Fifth Branch incident and the identity of the mastermind were all buried in a sea of data Lin couldn't access.
To end so abruptly...
Lin and Seele left after a brief examination of the body. Their official statement was that they would contact the Moth of the Fire Chasers for further handling if necessary. Of course, Lin wouldn't inform Hun when he contacted the Moth of the Fire Chasers. The scope of the Cocoon was too wide; the fewer people who knew, the better.
"Another person died..."
Seele looked down, walking forward while staring at her feet, her voice full of sorrow.
Even though she knew human death was inevitable, seeing a human, not a Zombie, die tragically in front of her once again pierced her recovering heart.
Lin heard her words and glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
It felt as though they had returned to when Seele first joined the squad: fragile, easily broken, like labels stuck to the girl.
"Squad Member Lin, you always manage to accept these things so calmly," Seele gave a self-deprecating smile. "Even though you went out of your way to look after me today, I still can't pull myself together."
"...Humans aren't able to immediately heal wounds just because they understand a principle."
"..."
Seele turned her head, her hair sweeping across her face.
"Some people only appear to have accepted it, hiding everything beneath their exterior, like the head of the R&D department ." Lin stopped at the entrance of an amusement park, pulling out some cash.
"What about you? Squad Member Lin, have you had that kind of experience?"
"Yes," Lin answered. "But..."
He said to Seele calmly: "If you don't want the same tragedy to repeat like a Mobius strip, then go fight."
"Fight, huh..." A flash of light crossed Seele eyes. She clenched her fist. "I understand."
"Also, if you can't abandon the past, then look around you and stop losing."
"Is that so..."
Lin walked to the ticket counter, handing over the cash: "Two tickets."
"Eh? Squad Member Lin?" Seele opened her mouth to speak. She watched Lin walk back with two tickets and hand one to her.
"I'm on vacation today, aren't I?"
Lin calmly nudged his sunglasses.