Chapter 52 - Bad Luck

"Mister. Hold on for a moment!" Gin calls out, actually making the man pause his actions.

"I'm just a petty thief. When I saw your expensive clothes, I thought you were rich, so I tailed you, trying to get an opportunity to pick your pockets." He explains himself.

"Oh?"

Gin then sees that the man is taken aback.

'Did it work?' Hope rises in his heart.

"Y-yes! I thought you were an easy target, but it turns out, you're a powerful superioris." Gin imitates a cat's body language of submission.

"So, even though I did no harm, I'm sorry! If you let me go just this once? I promise I'll get my shit together! I'll live a better life!" He pleads.

*clap* *clap* *clap* Suddenly the tall man starts clapping, puzzling Gin. "Ah… Ain't that nice?" He asks.

Gin knows that the question is rhetorical and he gets nervous.

"Too bad, I don't care."

As soon as Gin heard the man's words, he jumps away and tries to squeeze through the ice bars. 

Realizing he cannot escape, "WAIT!", he demands at the man.

"What? Any last words?" The man asks.

"YES! Last words?! So, you really was about to kill me?" Gin is more than resentful.

The man shrugs as if it is obvious making Gin want to curse the him to hell. Unfortunately for Gin, he is in no position to.

"THIS AIN'T FAIR! I just attempted to rob you, and you want to kill me?" He tries to reason instead.

"Uhuh…" The man rubs his chin, before wearing a grin again, "… but I don't care about fairness."

"Okay. You don't care? How about this? Why don't we make this fun, huh?" Gin asks.

"Fun?" The man retrieves his tentacles a few inches away from the cage.

Gin knows he got the man's interest judging on the man's face.

"Yes. Isn't it boring to just kill me like this? Why don't you give me another try to run away?" Gin proposes.

"It's not about whether you can catch me, because we both know I'm gonna get caught anyways. It's about how long before you can catch me. Also, I want to find out if someone weak like me can pose a challenge to someone like you. Let this be an opportunity for a useless man like me to try to achieve something." He does not forget to stroke the man's ego too.

"Heheh…" The man suddenly chuckles, "You're alright." and nods.

"Your idea sounds fun." He then melts away the cage and retrieves his tentacles to his body.

Gin does not want to cheat the man by running without warning, wanting to have the man keep his guard down out of arrogance.

His decision is rewarded, to his relief.

"Huh… Why aren't you running already?" The man asks.

"Because I want you to be ready." Gin proudly says.

"Oho… For a thief, you're rather honest." The man chuckles in amusement.

"Of course! I'm just a thief, not a cheater!" Gin declares.

"B-But… Can you give me five seconds for a head start?" He suddenly requests as he swallows his saliva.

He knows that he is treading the line by such request.

"I-I mean, you caught me easily just now. So, where's the challenge if you don't give me extra time?" He asks.

"…" The man simply stares at him.

"T-Three! Three seconds!" Gin amends immediately.

"What? You don't think I can't do five?" The man scoffs. "Let's do five!"

"Okay!" Gin can barely stop himself from transforming back to his human form just to do a fist pump.

"Dear sir. Just give your signal to start." He then asks.

"Run on three." The man starts.

"One…"

Gin starts reviewing the plan in his head as he assumes the cat version of a running start.

"Two…"

Gin sneakily looks around using his peripheral vision, and he spots a potential path.

"Three!"

Gin kicks off his legs and runs past the man.

"One!" Gin then hears the man start to count again.

He is more than relieved that the serial killer actually is honoring their agreement.

After running 30 meters away, Gin suddenly jumps off the main path, and dives to the bushes.

'I was such a fool… Why escape like a human when I have a cat's body?'

With this method, Gin wishes that him using the cover of the bushes will make it harder for the serial killer to catch him.

'Now… let's find more bushes.' He continues on his run.

Five seconds later, "Kitty! Where are you?", Gin hears the man's almost unintelligible call from quite a distance from behind him.

'Phew… He's pretty far. But I have to be careful.'

While he is feeling safe among the bushes, he slows down a bit and controls his movements more carefully, not wanting to disturb the shrubbery.

He knows that hiding among the bushes is only safe when he is hiding. But when he is moving, the plants he disturbs will give away his position. His careful movements also calm his mind down.

'Wait. He definitely knows I'm heading for the city.' 

He suddenly realizes that while he can hide, he still has one destination in mind; the city. The serial killer, he figures, is smart enough to figure out where he would flee. After all, the serial killer would not have evaded the police, Nikko City's Kumagai Clan, and some volunteer heroes, if he does not have the talents of hiding, fleeing, and seeking refuge.

'It doesn't matter.'

Gin realizes that he lost his sense of direction after straying off the main path of the forest, therefore he does not know which way the city is. So, he decides that for now, he should get away as far as possible from where he was caught.

After few minutes of trying to move around from shrub to shrub and tree root to tree root soundlessly, *burble**burble* Gin hears the sound of flowing water from a distance.

Recognizing the sound it as a stream or a river, he gets his hopes up of finding a way out of the forest, and makes his way noiselessly to the source of the sound.

Soon enough, he reaches a small river.

'I can finally find my way back.' He sighs.

He is more relieved however that the sound of the river will mask any noise he makes as he moves, making him no longer worry about exposing his location to his pursuer through sound.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the forest. The serial killer, after losing sight of Gin, decides to simply wait at the entrance of the forest, as Gin predicted.

A few minutes has passed since however, and, "Damn human. I've been had.", the man realizes that his prey has gotten away.

"Oh well… He seemed to have only been E Class." He shrugs off his disappointment quickly, and goes back to hunt for a new prey. 

-The next morning.-

Nikko Police Department, 6AM

After finding his way back to the city, Gin took a shower and a short nap in his inn to refill his energy for what he expects to be a good day. Having had his morning coffee and toast, he heads to the Nikko Police.

"Good morning officer." Gin immediately greets the first police officer he sees in the police station at this early hour in the morning.

"OH? Aren't you that reporter from THK? You're still in town?" The police officer is familiar with Gin.

"You know me? That's good then. Can you bring me to Adachi-san?"

"The Captain? He's not accepting any interviews. He pulled an all-nighter." The officer refuses.

"No, I'm here to report something about the Ice Coffin Killer." Gin says.

The police officer wears a face of skepticism at Gin's words.

"Come on. I'm not like those fake witnesses." Gin insists and he leans in closer. "I might have just encountered the killer last night." He says in a hushed tone to the officer.

"Alright. You seem invested in this case. But if I get chewed out for this, I'm calling your superiors." The police officer leads the way to the Captain's office.

"Captain, good morning." Gin, looking at Captain Adachi, would not have entered the office had he not have something important to report.

Captain Adachi, currently, looks pale with dark circles around his eyes; obvious signs of stress and lack of sleep.

"Officer, who's this?" Captain Adachi gives the officer a stern look.

"Captain, I'm Morimoto Gin. One of the first reporters who camped here in Nikko. You might not remember me, but I've attended all of the press conferences about the recent menace." Gin introduces himself.

"Ah… Come to think of it, you look familiar." The captain nods.

"But that's not the point. I'm not giving interviews."

"Captain. I think I encountered the serial killer last night." Gin reports.

"Oh?" Captain Adachi gestures Gin to sit down on the office couch.

"It started…" Gin happily starts to recount his adventure. 

…

A few minutes later, the police officer that escorted Gin enters Captain Adachi's office once again, to find Gin and Captain Adachi still sitting across each other over the coffee table.

"Did you check everything?" Captain Adachi asks. He just asked the officer for some errands.

"Yes, sir." The officer then passes photos of the CCTV footage to the captain with an awkward expression.

"This…" The captain, seeing the photos, looks at the officer in confusion.

"Captain, I didn't know. Mr. Reporter here sounded so sure. We're hungry for leads too. So…" The officer says in excuse.

"Wha-?" Gin, listening to the two, is out of the loop.

"Officer, did you just throw me under the bus? And for what?" He feels like he just became a scapegoat.

"Why are you here?" Captain Adachi suddenly asks Gin.

"What?" Gin is confused at the question.

"Why are you really here? Did someone send you?" Captain Adachi asks as he signals the officer to lock the door of his office.

"What's going on, captain?" Gin, while not afraid, gets cautious.

The captain however does not respond and looks something up in his phone.

"Morimoto Gin… So, you're a really a reporter from TNK." The captain ponders after checking the background of Gin.

"Of course." Gin nods, his conscience is clear.

"Do you think this situation is a game? A joke?" The captain's already dark expression darkens further.

"I don't get what you mean, sir. What's really going on here?" Gin asks.

"What? Because we can't find the killer, you want to frame someone so that you can report something?" The captain accuses.

"I'm not framing anyone! I've not lied since I entered this office, captain!" Gin gets defensive immediately, offended that his integrity is suddenly being openly questioned.

"Yeah? Talk all you want. Is this the guy you were talking about?" The captain slams the CCTV photos, on the coffee table.

"Yes! Yes! This is him!" Gin excitedly points at the photos, seeing that the man he encountered the previous night is in it.

"Yeah? Well. This guy, is Hideki Hasegawa. Heir of the Hasegawa Clan." The captain says, stunning Gin.

"W-what? Hasegawa? That samurai clan in Sagamihara?"

"Yes. He was initially one of our suspects as he moved in to town a week before the first victim was killed. But we scratched his name off the list after we found out that he suffered an unfortunate event that cost him his superioris powers.

"Do you think a now non-superioris can beat any of the victims?

"Even if his powers weren't crippled, it wouldn't be possible for it to be him as he is a physically enhanced type superioris, not an elemental manipulator." Captain Adachi rants in one breath.

"…" Gin's mind at this point is spinning.

"So… You're either a dishonest reporter, which I don't mind, or someone who was sent here by the rivals of the Hasegawa, which I'm hoping that you are not. Which one are you?" Captain Adachi continues his questioning.

"N-neither." Gin is feeling wronged at the accusations. "I really encountered him last night! I followed him because he smelt weird! Smelling exactly like how one of the witnesses told me…" But he does not know how to defend himself.

"Mr. Morimoto. You are in the turf of Kumagai Clan, a close friend of the Hasegawa Clan. You better come clean now, or you'll stay here in Nikko forever." Captain Adachi has long lost his patience.

"I-I really don't…" 

Gin does not know how to get out of this very complicated misunderstanding.