The summit was being held at a traditional Japanese restaurant in Shishibone City.

When a black car stopped in front of it, three burly cops got out of it, followed by Ooishi.

They were welcomed by Sonozaki Corps members in equally black suits.

It was something you didn't see every day.

"Thank you for having us.

We apologize for being late."

"...I'll take you to the room.

Please follow me."

There was a sign saying "reserved" at the entrance.

Ooishi and his subordinates were taken inside.

They walked through the restaurant's pretentious landscaped garden, and they came to the gorgeous Japanese-style entrance.

A woman in a kimono was waiting at the entrance, as was Kasai.

Upon seeing the police officers, they stopped chatting and bowed deeply.

...The woman in the kimono was Mion's mother, Akane.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Sonozaki.

Thank you for having us today."

"It's a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you for coming all the way here, despite your busy schedule."

"Not at all. I've been looking forward to the feast I'm going to have today.

Kiyomizutei is famous for its dried beancurd, right?

Na ha ha ha!

I can't wait."

"....................."

"Long time no see, Kasai-san.

It's been forever since we last met in person."

"Yes, it has been a while..."

"Well, we seem to be at war, but I'm hoping we can settle this like adults.

Although, we're ready for an all-out war whenever you are."

"No... we have no desire to fight."

"Na ha ha ha!

Neither do we.

Everybody knows how messy things get when you get involved.

But I'd like to avoid that as much as possible, since I'm not that young anymore."

Obviously, this was a meeting between people who hated each other.

The tension in their words indicated that it wasn't likely to be a friendly meeting.

"I'll take you to the room.

Please follow me."

"I feel bad that our host is taking us to the table."

"...Well.

I know we sent you the invitation under my name, but actually, today's host is the Sonozaki main family.

I'm sorry for the confusion."

"...I see.

...Can I go back and get my bulletproof jacket?

Na ha ha ha."

On the other side of the door, there were several tables... and Mion was sitting at one of them.

Since Mion was still young, her school uniform functioned as her formal dress.

Still, it looked strange with both the police and the Corps members in black suits.

"Hello. You must be the successor to the head of the Sonozaki family.

Thank you for having us today."

"Thank you very much for coming.

Please take a seat."

Mion politely welcomed the police, undaunted even though they were older than her parents.

Mion gave Kasai a look, and he tapped on the door.

The waitresses, who had been waiting behind the door, started bringing out drinks.

"...Ooishi-san... what's going on here...?"

"I'm not sure...

Well, let's enjoy the meal first.

Their dried beancurd is really famous, you know?"

They started drinking, but the tension continued for a while.

Mion made the waitresses and the other members of the Sonozaki Corps leave the room, and soon only Ooishi and his subordinates, Mion, Akane, and Kasai were left in the room.

"Well.

...Let's start talking about why we're here today."

Akane nodded and began speaking.

"We're having this meeting today so we can resolve our misunderstandings."

"...Such as?"

"Kasai wanted to talk to you about Rena Ryuugu for personal reasons.

Therefore, this meeting is about the private circumstances between Tatsuyoshi Kasai and Rena Ryuugu.

The Sonozaki family has nothing to do with this."

"Na ha ha ha...

What are these private circumstances?

Ryuugu-san lives an honest life. How can she have any kind of private connection with Kasai-san from the yakuza?"

"Kasai."

"Yes.

Allow me to explain."

Kasai told the police officers that he happened to meet Rena at a coffee house in Okinomiya.

He explained that Rena found something he lost there, and that she offered to bring it back to him.

"...That doesn't sound right.

But for argument's sake, why don't we assume what you're telling us is true?

What happened after that doesn't make any sense.

I heard that you told your members to find Rena Ryuugu."

"That is actually my fault.

...Rena-san's father was worried about her because she didn't come home after dark. So, I sent my men to ask if anyone had seen her downtown, but I made a small mistake..."

"Wait a second.

You made us come all the way here, and now you're telling us to believe this bullshit?

Could it be that you're making fun of us?

Hmmm?!"

Ooishi looked a lot more like a member of the yakuza than the real yakuza did.

...Ooishi threatened them with a nasty smile, and it piled all the more tension onto the atmosphere in the room.

"Ooishi-san... please don't..."

Kumagai tried to make him stand down.

Officers with hot tempers pair with others who are good at calming them down, just like how yakuza do.

Ooishi backed off with a grin.

Kumagai took over, continuing from there.

"So, what're you trying to say?

Do you not want us to intervene, because this is a civil matter between Rena Ryuugu and Tatsuyoshi Kasai?

That's not going to happen.

We're going to give her protection."

Mion opened her mouth for the first time in a while.

"...You need to explain to me why the police have to protect Rena Ryuugu to begin with."

"Why?

Because you guys are after her."

Ooishi answered bluntly,

but Mion remained nonchalant.

...That must have made him all the more annoyed.

"What makes you think we're after her?"

"Why don't you ask what's in your chest?

It might know something."

"...Ooishi-san.

We're here to resolve our misunderstandings.

It's your choice not to listen to us, but I think it's better that you do."

"Oh, and what are we misunderstanding, exactly?"

"Your misunderstanding concerns the scrapbooks of Miyo Takano that Rena Ryuugu is in possession of."

The officers' expressions grew stern all at once.

...All of a sudden, she had gotten straight to the point.

"You want to protect Rena Ryuugu because she has the scrapbooks... Isn't that right?"

".................."

Ooishi and his subordinates glared back at her without saying a word, making it obvious that her guess was right.

"Kasai."

Akane gave him a look, and he left the room.

However, he shortly returned...

carrying a black suitcase.

Every one of the officers assumed that there was a tremendous amount of money in the suitcase, and that the Sonozaki family was trying to buy them off.

Kasai opened the suitcase and showed the contents to the police.

".........A-Are these...?"

"These are Miyo Takano's scrapbooks.

I'm afraid we don't have the ones she gave to Rena Ryuugu.

This is going to be our main course for today."

"...Do you mind if I take a look?"

"No, feel free.

We can talk after you read them.

I'll make my people leave if you like."

"Oh, no. You don't have to do that."

The cops produced latex gloves from their pockets, put them on, and took one of the scrapbooks out of the suitcase. There were more than ten of them in there.

"We found them in Miyo Takano's house in Okinomiya after she passed away."

Ooishi and the others desperately turned the pages of the well-thumbed scrapbooks.

"...Are you sure... these are real?"

"Without a doubt."

"...Ooishi-san... if Rena Ryuugu has the other scrapbooks... that means..."

"Maybe the ones she has have the same kind of stuff in them."

".................."

Ooishi looked stunned by the contents of the scrapbooks.

...He started turning the pages faster, then closed the scrapbook roughly.

"...Do all of these have the same kind of contents as this one?"

"Yes, they do.

Feel free to take the time to look at them until you're fully satisfied."

The other officers also rapidly turned through pages. They weren't reading them, just flipping through.

They took one scrapbook from the suitcase after another, and flipped through the pages roughly.

"......Ooishi-san...

this is absurd.

These are just crappy occult novels!

This one says that the netherworld collided with this world, and that dead souls flowed across the gap...

How are we going to use this as proof?"

"......Well,

yours says something about the netherworld?

Mine is about creatures from the bottom of the ocean..."

This one is about classified weapons of the Nazis.

This one is about the legacy of the Mu continent.

That one is about Ossie, the mysterious creature in Onigafuchi Swamp...

"We can surmise that Rena Ryuugu most likely has the scrapbook about the 'parasite theory' we've all heard of."

"....................."

The police were dumbfounded. They couldn't believe what they were seeing.

The other officers were shooting glances at Ooishi.

...They hadn't said anything to him, but they never really believed in the story of the parasite, let alone the bioterrorism.

But Ooishi had believed it and told them he had proof.

...None of the scrapbooks in front of them said anything about parasites, but it was easy to assume the contents of one scrapbook were no different in nature from another.

In other words...

all of them were just crappy occult novels...

"............Well..."

Ooishi appeared unable to accept the fact that was facing him.

...But now that he was actually looking at it, it was too difficult to ignore.

Miyo Takano was an occult geek who had laughable ideas about the legend of Onigafuchi!

But Rena took them seriously... and so had Ooishi.

The other officers could no longer stop themselves from laughing at the ridiculous scrapbooks.

...Ooishi glared at them, and they stopped laughing.

The main reason Ooishi took the story of the parasite seriously was because the Sonozaki family was apparently after Rena Ryuugu for the scrapbooks she had.

Plus, Takano, the owner of the scrapbooks, was killed!

...Because of these two reasons, he believed in that occult b-novel.

...Ooishi was frustrated without a doubt.

He has to accept that he was wrong.

Ooishi was eager for any information that could help him solve the series of mysterious deaths of Hinamizawa before he retired.

...A combination of a number of factors made Takano's ridiculous theory become highly creditable to him.

"Let me ask you something.

Why was Miyo Takano killed?"

"We have no idea what happened to Miyo Takano and Jirou Tomitake."

"Of course you don't.

...A liar doesn't call himself a liar."

"...Come on, Ooishi-san.

...Do you think we'd do such a lousy job as to let the police find the bodies...?"

Mion wore a cold smile.

...She had said too much.

Akane cleared her throat as if to condemn the statement, and that made Mion shut her mouth.

Ooishi glared at the young successor.

...But he knew she was right.

"...Then, why are you after Rena Ryuugu?"

"We're not.

I admit, it's our fault that we made it look like we were after her.

For that, we apologize."

"........................"

The reasons which made Ooishi take Rena's delusion seriously collapsed one by one...

Mion and Akane looked at each other.

...They must have decided to let Akane speak. She did so firmly.

"We'd like to ask you a favor.

We don't want to be involved with the police because of nonsense like this.

We heard that Sankai from the police headquarters started work with the Public Safety Division.

They're going to do simultaneous raids on our family using this case as their excuse, aren't they?"

That had been at Ooishi's request.

Ooishi took Rena's story seriously, and he wanted to find the research facility that was developing the "parasite". He was intending to use it as a proof of the potential bioterrorist attack.

...But as he had no idea where to start looking, he tried to conduct simultaneous raids on all the facilities the Sonozaki family owned in the entire prefecture, in cooperation with the task force for gang groups and Public Safety.

Normally, the circumstantial evidence he had wouldn't be enough to get their cooperation.

In fact, Public Safety doubted Ooishi's source, because they hadn't heard of any potential terrorist attacks. They trusted their information network.

But Ooishi took advantage of his long career and his old friends, and he managed to get them to cooperate.

Ooishi's face broke out in a nervous sweat... Needless to say, he realized he was completely wrong.

"We caused you some trouble during the dam conflict, but the era is reaching its end, and things have changed.

We're a yakuza group that sides with the weak and crushes the strong, but we're also trying to achieve peace and stability, in line with these changing times.

If we get raided now, we're going to lose face."

"Who cares about your face?

I know we'll find something with those raids.

We're going to go through with them."

"If you find something, good for you.

...But if you don't, you know it'll cause a big liability issue that even you won't escape lightly, Ooishi-san."

"All right, it sounds like you really do want an all-out war!

Huh?!"

"If that's what you want.

...Please carry out your job to your own satisfaction.

We'll take on the challenge anytime."

"...Wha..............."

...Akane Sonozaki didn't betray Ooishi's expectations.

...Although her right to become the successor was taken away, Akane had been through a lot more than Mion.

Ooishi couldn't back out now.

But he knew it was a fight he probably couldn't win.

...Kumagai butted in, and tried to calm him down.

"If we put a stop to the raids, what would we get in return...?"

Mion answered this time.

"We'll give you these scrapbooks as proof of our friendship.

I'm sure you can use them to cancel the raid attempts."

These scrapbooks proved how ridiculous Miyo Takano's theory was.

Takano was dead anyway.

Ooishi could show people these scrapbooks and say he was fooled. He could still pretend the whole raid thing never happened.

...He might have to take responsibility for it, but if he didn't back off now, there'd be no doubt that he'd face a hopeless mess.

If he was going to back off, it was now or never.

The administrative staff at his station weren't exactly fond of him.

...If he made such a huge mistake right before his retirement, people who'd been looking for a chance for revenge would cut his pension with glee.

His pension was decided by multiplying his base salary by a certain number.

...If they cut his base salary, there was no way he could avoid a big reduction...

"......Ooishi-san."

He decided to back off.

...It was hard for him to admit mistakes at his age. He grimaced with anger.

"...Kuma-chan, can you take over from here?

...I think I had too much to drink.

I'm going to get some fresh air on the porch.

...Excuse me."

Ooishi stood up quickly and left the room, making a lot of noise as he walked.

Kasai closed the door Ooishi left open. The room was filled with silence again.

At that point, Kumagai opened his mouth.

"We understand your point.

Our intention isn't to cause trouble to all the organizations you own.

So, I want to confirm that the police and the Sonozaki family will help each other to maintain the peace of this city.

...Therefore, we're going to put off doing the simultaneous raids."

"Thank you very much.

I'm sure our leader, Oryou, appreciates your concern as well."

"As you promised, we'll take the scrapbooks.

And there are two more conditions."

"Go ahead."

"First, if you find the other missing scrapbooks, you must bring them to us immediately.

Second, if you find Rena Ryuugu, you must turn her over to us immediately as well."

"I'm afraid the second one is unacceptable.

Rena Ryuugu is in a state of delusion.

We'll make sure of her safety, and we'll find the best medical facility we can take her to.

She has the right to receive treatment."

"We can't accept that, either.

We have the right to question her about the murder of Takano

as a material witness,

not as a suspect."

Akane whispered to Mion.

Mion, in turn, nodded and began to speak.

"Very well,

we'll accept the second condition.

But let us add another condition on top of that.

We're going to send her a lawyer.

You will only question her in the lawyer's presence."

"Understood.

One more thing.

You aren't allowed to delay us by not sending the lawyer on purpose.

We'll start questioning right after we find her."

"We have no problem with that.

But you must contact us immediately after she's found."

"We will as soon as we can."

Akane cut in.

"You have to call us before you question her.

You must call us the very moment she's found.

...This agreement is made in good faith, founded on our mutual trust.

So please do be careful not to do anything that might waste it."

"...Understood.

You have my word on that.

We'll try to keep our promise with the best of intentions."

Akane and Kumagai glared at each other for a moment.

...Surprisingly, Kumagai was very calm.

...He was always in the shadow of Ooishi, who was loud and noisy, but he had as much guts as his superior did.

Ooishi was good at taking care of matters in a rough and threatening kind of way... but Kumagai was good at negotiations like this.

The meeting ended, and the police stood up from their seats. The tension in the room had finally ceased.

Kasai put the scrapbooks back in the suitcase and handed it to Kumagai.

Kumagai looked at Kasai, nodded lightly, and took what was offered him.

"This is a very expensive case made in Italy.

Please take it as a souvenir from us."

"No, we're only supposed to take the scrapbooks.

We'll return it to your office later.

...Thank you for your time.

...Please give my regards to the family head, Oryou-san."

The officers left after bowing to Mion...

After making sure that the police had left the hallway, Mion sighed heavily and finally let go of her tension.

She spread her feet on the floor, flapping the rim of her skirt.

"Oh, man... My shoulders hurt...

Why didn't you take care of this, Mom...?"

"Don't be silly. Your rank is higher than mine.

Rank is everything, not age.

Hey, Kasai, have a waitress bring me a beer.

Oh, and you can let the grunts in and give them something cold to drink, too."

"You want me to bring only beer?"

"Oh, she can't drink.

Bring some orange juice for her."

"Don't treat me like I'm a little kid.

I guess my rank doesn't matter to you, huh?"

"You'll always be a big baby to me.

Anyway,

your father pulled many strings for you this time.

You should thank him.

And you too, Kasai.

You have to play it smarter when meeting with the common man."

"I'm a little embarrassed..."

"By the way, I'm very impressed with Rena-chan for making a fool out of Ooishi.

You have many friends with good potential!

I'd like to meet her.

We can go to see a play together or something.

Kasai, whenever you see her next time, let her know I said that.

And don't tell her any more creepy stories, alright?"

"O-Of course, I'm well aware of that."

With that, they successfully dispelled the magical power of Takano's scrapbooks.

The whole mess shouldn't grow any larger.

The only remaining problem... was Rena.

Where could she be hiding...?

Before I went to bed, I headed to my window to close the curtain.

I saw the shadow of a person near the porch.

...Who could it be so late?

Well, I didn't have to guess who it was.

...There was only one person I knew who might come see me so late.

I opened the window and looked more carefully this time.

......I was right.