level 17;

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"sir, we have narrowed it down to seven profiles", sugawara informed, bringing his computer over to sawamura's desk as he allowed the warden to scroll through them.

"have you looked through them already?", sawamura questioned, to which sugawara had nodded.

"indeed, and I think that profile #5 fits most with the requirements".

sawamura skimmed through the fifth profile: skuno chitose—disappeared at age six—blue eyes and blonde hair.

"disappeared?"

"mhm. apparently she had walked home with a friend on the eighteenth of september and disappeared. though the friend's father had claimed that he had only briefly saw her", sugawara reported.

     "and what about the girl's friend?"

     "she ended up in the hospital".

     "what?"

     sugawara nodded, agreeing that the plot didn't exactly line up.

"apparently her father had claimed that skuno chitose was about to get hit by a car but his daughter ended up saving her by pushing her out of the way, hence she ended up in the hospital".

"and skuno..."

"it's theorized that she ran away because of guilt", sugawara answered.

sawamura hummed, thinking through the story as he found something a bit strange.

"say, if your friend got hit by a car, would you just run away on the spot?", sawamura asked, to which sugawara had shook his head.

"I mean, as a six year-old, I'd definitely go check on my friend first if anything. however, maybe not everyone's the same".

     sawamura sighed.

     "do we know the name of the parents of skuno?", sawamura asked, to which sugawara had nodded, pulling up another document.

     "skuno (ramon) rei and skuno taijo are the biological parents of skuno chitose. they had originally wanted to file a complaint to the driver of the vehicle and had asked the police to help find their missing daughter, but it seems that before they could, they too disappeared", sugawara replied.

"disappeared? that's obviously not a coincidence. did the police find their bodies?"

sugawara nodded.

"somehow, their bodies had ended up at the boarder of osaka and kyoto, by the side of the road along with their missing daughter".

     "I assume that they had all died", sawamura commented.

     "indeed, but the scary thing about it is that the little girl had so many slashes and bruises on her body that it seemed like she was being thrown around like rag doll.

     and her parents weren't any better. they received the same treatment, if not, worse. hence it was deduced that the entire family was killed by the same person".

"did they ever find the killer?", sawamura asked, to which sugawara had dejectedly sighed.

"I'm afraid not".

"so skuno chitose along with her whole family died and we're assuming that the little girl's friend that took the hit is prisoner #520".

"right, but the thing is I tried finding out the hospital prisoner #520 resided in as a child, yet the hospital had shut down long ago from a wild fire that had supposedly appeared from one of the chemical rooms".

     sawamura closed his eyes in frustration as that had meant that all the records were also probably burnt.

     "it's like everything's a dead end", sawamura muttered, leaning back against his seat as there currently seemed to be no suspects except for shiori.

'but she was only six at the time. there's no way that she'd be able to kill two grown adults', the brown-haired male internally reasoned.

"we could always...just interrogate prisoner #520", sugawara suggested.

"her mouth is zipped shut. unless it's incentives, I don't think she'll speak, and punishment doesn't work on her.

     she willingly starved herself because she's as stubborn as a mule".

     sugawara hummed. "I can try to investigate some more before we make a decision", the gray-haired male offered, to which sawamura had given him a small smile.

     "that'd be great. thanks, kōshi".

♛

     "shit!", shiori cursed as she had just sneezed, which meant that she could feel her period soak into the thick pad that she had received from the medical ward.

apparently they were prepared for all kinds of emergencies.

"knock knock~ delivery for shiori!", a chirpy voice called out, to which shiori had risen from her uncomfortable bed and shedded off her blanket, meanwhile walking her way over to the edge of the cage.

"a glass of milk?", shiori questioned, as tendō had opened the cage to hand the plate of molten lava cake to the girl.

it was a petite bunt-like cake that had a crater in the middle, but once the girl had spooned out a small portion of it, a warm gooey strawberry filing had oozed out, mixing in with the soft spongy chocolate cake.

"it tastes better with milk, for me at least", tendō smiled as he gave the cold glass of white liquid to shiori, to which she had taken a sip, getting a milk mustache in the process.

     the redhead chuckled as he pointed to the area above his upper lip and below his nose.

     shiori raised a brow.

     "get it for me", the girl demanded, to which tendō had quickly wiped it away with his thumb.

     the male had invited himself into shiori's cage and onto the girl's bed as there was no place else to sit other than the toilet, and that was not the ideal seating.

     shiori promptly did the same as she continued enjoying her dessert, occasionally eyeing the glass of milk.

     "do you not like milk or something?", tendō asked, catching the girl's lingering gaze.

     "that's not it", shiori stated, giving the redhead a small smile. "it just reminds me of a friend..."

     "your friend looks like milk?"

     shiori let out a chuckle. "no, but he drinks a lot of it".

     "ah. how'd you meet him?", tendō asked, trying to make conversation as he liked talking to others, whether they be a criminal or not.

shiori widely grinned.

     "I bought him", shiori simply replied. "at an auction".

tendō slightly flinched at that, shifting a bit as he didn't expect the girl's answer to be so...direct.

"I bought him and a few others too. they're some of my favorites", shiori reminisced, swinging her legs as she has successfully finished her chocolate cake and milk.

"what do you me—"

"what's that song that you always sing?", shiori asked, changing the subject.

"huh?"

"you know! the one that you sing while baking", shiori explained, to which tendō had perked up at the mentioning of his famous little tune.

"you want me to sing it for you?", the redhead asked, to which the white-haired girl had nodded.

"baki baki ni ore, nani wo? kokoro wo da yo~ konagona ni kudake, nani wo?", tendō sang, pointing at the amused girl.

"seishin wo da yo~"

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author's note: whosjdkdn I love tendō's song and I love him.

periodt!