Reincarnated Into A Dead Woman's Body In Another World Chapter 324: Arc 5, - 18: Paranormal Activity

"Okay, we understand that we’ll have to take caution; with that in mind, what’s the actual case going on?" Hotaru leaned forward from the chair a smidgen.

"Yeah, if you don’t have concrete evidence it’s the cult, then sothing must lead you to believe that. Is it just the fire and the two cultists?" Jotou added on.

"Who gave you that tip-off anyway?" Fuko’s gaze fell upon the envelope. "I’m guessing it’s whoever this Alicia woman is—the one that can get a jump on dad?" she smirked.

"She-" Kazuo stopped himself to refute that... His face fell in defeat for a re second before he sighed out, "Regardless, yes. She has many sources of intel and people she can get to."

"Doesn’t that seem, suspicious...?" Asobi scrunched her face with pure concentration across her visage.

The redhead’s ears pricked, "What do you an?"

"I think she ans, if this Alicia got intel on potential cult activity and you’ve just said that they can’t possibly have moles, how did she ever get this information, unless they wanted you to get it?" Jotou figured the possibility.

Kazuo furrowed his brows, "That’s a... bit of a paranoid jump there."

"I just ant the first part really; how did she get the super-duper secrets like that?" Asobi poked a wand under her chin.

"She’s just that good," Morgana replied.

"That’s not really a good explanation," the blonde retorted.

"This is my fault, I should clarify," Kazuo put a hand up to ease Jotou. "The true ti the cult operated is unknown, but they only ca into the light completely, nearly eighteen years ago with the great fire.

Then they were exposed and put on trial nearly fourteen years ago, which is also around the sa ti they went into hiding—scattering’s a better word.

At that point, many cultists could escape, get out from the cult, you get the idea. Nobody’s going to willingly confess to the police after all this ti to being in the cult. Especially, lower ranking mbers.

That sort of thing still carries heavy sentences that can take away a lot of soone’s life. aning, information from low ranking mbers will not only not be much, it’ll also be shared very privately, to places and people I can’t really reach."

"Ooo, you’re talking about things like illegal drug rings and murder gangs!" Asobi giddied.

"I... well, yes."

"And shady pubs, brothels, stuff like that," Fuko held a hand to her chin.

Kazuo simply held the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes as he heard her say that.

"Don’t act like you’re disappointed, you know it’s a possibility," Fuko sneered. "Anyway, that’s what you an by she has many sources and people she can get to."

"And higher ranking mbers wouldn’t even break in the first place," Jotou dropped her suspicions... for now.

"I get that it sounds like soone’s deliberately setting up the detective here to get intel from Alicia to lead him on—sothing like a revenge for the detective who brought down the cult’s operations?

To get the jump on him? Give him a trail of sweets and clues to follow? That your thought process?" Morgana gave a glance to the blonde.

’How did she...’ Jotou knitted her brows to the detective woman.

Morgana had the faintest of smiles, "Right on the mark then." Kira made a guttural croak towards Jotou, turning the entire room’s attention to the bird.

Jotou’s eyes sparked a bit, "Sothing like that, yeah."

"As I said, she’s just that good. Realistically, she’d be the one to get the jump on the cult’s operations and get sothing out of them," a green ring circled in her eyes for a second.

"Anyone else, I would’ve suspected that too. But coming from her... I know that’s not the case—she can tell what’s bait and not," Kazuo affird.

"Besides that, a lot of suspicious activity’s also alerted the governnt. We’ve theorized cult activity and coming from this detective agency, they were quick to put it under wraps since last year.

There’s one thing that can be concrete evidence, since we got it at around November last year, but," Morgana scowled, "It’s not concrete till he confesses it or we get him to talk."

"He has to be," Kazuo said with a sharp look.

"I agree with you, but we don’t have enough evidence or a testimony to back it. Torture’s not an option either without proper proof."

"Not like torture should be our thod regardless..." Kazuo muttered.

"Okay then, let’s get to the point. We’re missing context. Sothing about ghosts in the case?" Jotou moved along.

"Alright. The day before yesterday, we got an interesting report. An anonymous call stated seeing a ghost fly away into an abandoned apartnt.

At first, it was dismissed as a prank call. But then a separate call with a different voice said they slled sothing rotten coming from the door down the hall—sa apartnt building from the first call.

They were only about two and a half hours apart. So, I went to investigate. Right now, the apartnt down in Mandrake Borough is being quarantined by the authorities.

What I found, was a corpse hamred with nails onto a circular wooden board. It was a man, at least four days old."

Asobi gasped and her eyes widened, "Only four days old...? So young..."

"The corpse, not the age..." Fuko clarified.

Hotaru’s ears folded, "Hamred with nails...? That’s, horrible... Why?"

"Serial killer?" Jotou guessed.

"Sounds like it," the brunette crossed her arms. "It’s a weird way to find a body."

"It’s the first of anything like this. I doubt this won’t be so serial case," Kazuo hypothesized. "It won’t be, if we can do sothing about it."

"I’m surprised no one’s vomited or chilled to the bone," Morgana scanned their expressions with folded arms. "Then again, I guess you know death all too well."

"I’ve had my dealings with blood and injuries to a point I can stomach it really well actually," Hotaru admitted with a pout and her brilliant blue eyes took a glance to her own fingers. "Doesn’t an it gets easier."

"And it doesn’t make it any less scary," Asobi shivered.

"After everything we’ve been through..." Fuko gave a sigh. "We were in a damn war even."

"I think with the amount of injuries I’ve had..." the blonde pursed her lips. ’Huh...’ She blankly stared to the floor with bubbled eyes as every injury passed her mory... A haunting chuckle left her lips, "And that was after I already died once..."

"You, okay kid...?"

"Yeah," Jotou snapped back to reality, "Serial killer in the making, I’m still on topic," her voice creaked. Asobi soothed her back and Hotaru pulled Jotou’s hand down to hold softly.

"So, did you find a ghost?" the brunette kept an eye on Jotou, but still asked.

"No. Though I didn’t consider that a prank call anymore. Thinking about it, with the bizarre way the corpse was, there must be a plausible explanation.

I did so digging and as much as horror and ghost stories are based in a lot of fiction these days, they are real things. Now, I can’t confirm it till I see them for myself, but I have to at least regard it as so evidence.

And if I’m doing that; sothing this odd, could it be connected to the cult? New gods, the signs of return and abnormal situations?" even though his tone suggested he was questioning it, sohow it sounded like he was sure of it.

Jotou took a deep breath and shivered it out, "So, how does this add up to this one possible concrete evidence? What is it?"

"A ’he’ apparently. Must be soone from the cult," Fuko figured.

"Must be... The problem is, we can’t be sure," he almost looked feverish as he said. He shook his head, "Regardless, last November, a case in South End finally ca to a close.

A town terrorized by sothing that would co out at night. So townsfolk would notice a brief shadow, that was it. At first it was livestock disappearing—then it beca people.

One by one, they’d go missing and never seen again. They were all adults and one thing in common is that they were all above forty in age.

Supposedly, under the claim of soone by the title of the Scorching Inferno and his party of two others, they caught the culprit behind all of it.

Sources say, the culprit resided in an abandoned castle and the Scorching Inferno told stories of a fierce battle between them before the culprit’s capture.

This, Scorching Inferno is an adventurer with a lot of credible commissions and feats. Regardless, this disappearing people case started around the middle of June last year.

But even though the case was taking place over the course of five months with many disappearances, none of the bodies were ever found in the abandoned castle or anywhere nearby.

The culprit right now, is in custody in Dolpool. The issue right now, is that he’s refusing to give any information, because there’s not a lot of proof from a legal standpoint.

It’s the Scorching Inferno’s account and the fact that no more people have disappeared in that town. Which ans, nothing concrete.

When magic was used to make him confess the truth... It didn’t work—just like sothing I witnessed fourteen years ago. He’s kept under an affinity-lock and has been in custody under suspicion of being a part of the cult.

It’s my intuition, but I think this is a high ranking mber without a doubt. His deanour, popping up right around the sa ti I found Kineko in that fire, the recent murder, it just—I’m missing pieces," he confessed.

"A lot of them," Morgana agreed. "And yet, I still believe it. The burden of proof falls on us; that’s the only issue."

"Can’t we go visit him in jail?" Asobi asked.

"We need a proper reason and right now we ain’t got nothing but a hunch," Morgana answered.

"Maybe torture’s not a bad idea? If he isn’t confessing and it hasn’t move forward since November..." Fuko suggested. "We have soone’s who’s good at it," she shrugged.

"Not that I enjoy it," Jotou’s eyes glazed over.

"I know you wanna kid, but laws, sorry," Morgana petted Kira’s feathers gently. "It’s a last resort if anything."

"Regardless," he steeled himself. "I’ll have to focus on the case at hand. If you want to help with the cult, this might be a good lead to start on. I guess now, it starts with what Alicia brought," he flipped the envelope into his hand.

He opened up the envelope and what it had was a clear address and the hoowner’s details. Another paper written with blue ink sat within as well. Before scanning the docunts, he first took the three photos that slid out.

Two of them were black and white, showing the scene at what seed to be night. A four-storey building where two figures seed to enter into.

From the angle, the photo was taken from what could be an alleyway on the opposite street, behind sothing she would probably prop her elbows on. The photo showed only their backs.

The next black and white image was much blurrier, but still at night. As if the light wasn’t bright enough to capture the scene. However, they could capture the height of the two figures exiting.

With the bodies, it was obvious it was two n in simple clothing and coats to stave off the cold. Kazuo gave the photo to his daughter, knowing nothing else could be gathered from it.

As Asobi hopped in to see the next photo, her eyes glittered with white light. Jotou leaned forward and Hotaru stood up to see. The third photograph, was coloured.

’Coloured? But, it looks faded a bit. Like, there’s little to no saturation—enough to make out the colours. Guess it’s ’old’, but... that’s not even the weirdest part.’

"It has colour!" Asobi giddied. Hotaru smiled as she marvelled while Fuko blinked in from behind to see.

"Alicia would have the latest technology," Kazuo was more preoccupied with the odd blur in the image...

The photograph was of the sa four-storey building and the doors were closed. However, sothing seed to be exiting from the third floor’s window.

It wasn’t open nor was it broken. The yellow from the gothic streetlamps, the brownish bricks of the building, the grey pavents were normal for the most part.

Like a smudge or a stain on it, there was a small blur of red, green and blue—like the light didn’t hit it quite right despite all its surroundings being clear. It was amorphous and almost seed like it was floating or even flying upwards.

"A ghost?" Jotou broke everyone’s silent staring.