Trigger Locked: The Mind Control Assassins

Chapter 11

Mr. Sakakibara calls me once we're in his house. I've just got back from the hospital along with Yuuto and Hayato. The rest of us are taking a rest after we have accomplished our mission to rescue Ms. Mikitani. "What's wrong, Mr. Sakakibara?" I ask him. Mr. Sakakibara begins to talk to me as I come to him. "Ms. Mikitani wants to see you. It seems like she doesn't want to speak to anyone other than you."

I understand why she's behaving like that. She doesn't know anyone here besides me. So, she feels a lot more comfortable to talk to me since she had seen how much I have risked my life just to save her. I guess I should build rapport with her so then other people can talk to her just fine. It could be problematic if I were the only person she prefers to talk to.

As I enter the room, Ms. Mikitani is sitting on the bed, gazing at the window. The outside must have looked different than the scene she always sees all the time. Ms. Mikitani notices me as I enter the room. "I'm so glad to see you're okay, Touka. I'm so worried that I won't be able to see you again," she says to me. Despite only knowing each other for a short while, I'm happy to know that she cares about my safety. She really is a nice person after all.

"Thanks for your concern. And I'm glad that you reach here safely," I say to her. She smiles at me and then turning away from me. She looks hesitant to tell me what's on her mind right now. "Ms. Mikitani, are you alright? Or is it because you don't feel comfortable staying in this room?" She smiles at me and convinces me that she's alright. But she still feels reluctant to tell me.

"I need to ask you a favor," she says to me, "Please save my boyfriend. I'm pretty sure that he's in danger right now because of me. I can only ask you to save him on my behalf." She cries after she begs me to save her boyfriend. Well, saving Mr. Ninomiya is also our mission. But I don't know if I should tell her about Mr. Ninomiya's real identity. I feel that she deserves to know the truth.

Before I can say anything, Ms. Mikitani stops me for a moment. "Just call me Nanase. You don't have to be so formal to me. You also don't have to add the prefix too," she says to me. I smile at her when she wants me to call her by her name. "Okay, I'll call you Nanase from now onward."

I begin to grab a chair as I'm about to give her my answer. "Nanase, we will indeed save your boyfriend. We don't know his current location yet, so we'll go there once we already identify his exact location. But he's alright for the time being. We'll let you know if we receive any news about him. So, please be patient and hope for the best," I say to her.

Nanase smiles when I tell her that we do have a plan to save her boyfriend. "Nanase, I know that you may not want to talk about this, but why do you want to commit suicide? Does it have anything to do with Mr. Ayatsuji? You don't look like someone who will do such thing." Nanase's expression changes when I ask her that. Maybe I shouldn't ask her about this. "It's okay if you don't want to tell me about this if it makes you feel uncomfortable," I say to her.

She shakes her head. "It's okay. You deserve to know why since you came all the way just to save me. On top of that, you also agree to save my boyfriend too." She then begins to tell me why she wants to commit suicide. "To be honest, I don't even know why I was doing it. I only knew about it when I realized that I was in the hospital. My manager told me that she found me in the bathroom, with my wrist bleeding in a hot tub."

When I hear this story, I find it weird that she has no recollection of why she wanted to commit suicide. It's like there's some kind of force, telling her to do so. Don't tell me it has something to do with the microchip implant? It's nothing surprising if that's the reason why she committed suicide. But there must be an incident which triggers her to have a suicidal thought. And I think the trigger may have something to do with Mr. Ninomiya.