Onihunter Yuna 2

126 Cover up (Present)

Kyo Watanabe drove his car to the side of the road. He stared into his rear view mirror and looked at himself. "You can do this. It's just another case." He nodded again, then got out of the car and followed the path before descending a bank. After a few bushes, he reached a place. The old tar had some cracks and at different places weeds were pushing upwards. He thought he saw something, so he pulled a flashlight from his pocket and flipped it on. "Masuda-san!" The-high school student knelt beside a blood-spattered girl and stared at her. She didn't respond to the call in the least. The police chief approached. "Masuda-san. It's me, Watanabe. Narusegawa-sama sends me."

"I know. I heard the phone call." He shone at the dead girl, and Yuna flinched. She looked up at him. "What do we have to do?"

Kyo noticed another girl at the canal entrance. He shone over. "Your sister?" Yuna nodded. "You have to tell me what happened. I have to know all the facts before I can plan how to cover this up."

"Did you cover up the death of my family too?"

He clenched his left hand into a fist. "Yes."

"Hm." Slowly the girl got up, then told him from the moment when Yukiko had called her. Kyo listened attentively, nodded from time to time, or asked questions about more details. She omitted that Yui had murdered the oni, but blamed herself instead. If he knew about the tension between her and Yukiko, it wouldn't surprise him. And if someone was going to be punished for Yukiko's death, it wouldn't be Yui. She may have failed to save Yui from being transformed, but she would never stop protecting her sister.

"Okay. I'll take a quick look at the scene of the fight. You can wait here if you want."

Yuna nodded, so Kyo went alone. From her story, he knew that he couldn't miss the room. After a few minutes, he stood in the entrance of the vault. All around were lights on the walls, which donated a little light. Immediately, he noticed a school uniform and a Katana scabbard on the ground. He put on a pair of white cloth gloves and fished a laundry bag from the inside of his jacket. He shook it open and let the uniform disappear into it. The Katana was also somewhere, but he wanted to take both together when going out.

With the flashlight in one hand and the laundry bag in the other, he marched into the center of the room, constantly checking his surroundings. He noticed the slowly melting ice, which was an indication of oni involvement. Between the rubble, he discovered another school uniform, which he bagged. Also a Katana, which belonged, judging from the color of the grip band, to the scabbard at the entrance. Yuna had said that she had used it to kill Yukiko. From experience, Kyo knew that there was no evidence left to verify her testimony. He also found a damaged handgun, which Yuna had used according to her report. Of course he could have fingerprints taken, but what for? The goal was to blur tracks.

In the further search, he stumbled over a few cut ropes. Since Yui Masuda was held hostage, they probably belonged to her. He also stuffed them in the bag and again made a round through the room, before he collected the Katana and went to the exit. The bloodstains had to be eliminated, but he had his people for that. He brought the Katana together with its scabbard, then marched outside.

Yuna Masuda had knelt again next to her dead friend and waited. She had to go through a lot. His forehead wrinkled. He had seen how much Yukiko had raged in there. Yuna seemed uninjured, but how could that be possible? He would have understood if she had killed the oni in surprise. Most oni died either because they were killed by another oni or because of accidents. That a human kills an oni was extremely rare. Especially in a direct fight.

Also in other aspects, the course of this cleaning mission was unusual. Narusegawa-san had said nothing about how he should deal with Masuda-san. Usually he only had to help coordinate the testimonies, but right now he was thinking about keeping her out of the picture at all. He only needed an explanation for the dead girl and Yui Masuda.