Chapter 1: Yes Or No
"Inspector Sato, I couldn't hear you very clearly over the phone. You said you were here to see Kaito Shirogane about…?"
The school counselor, a Ms. Tanaka in her late thirties, was visibly nervous. The stuffy, humid weather caused beads of sweat to cut embarrassing trails through her foundation.
She wiped at her face absentmindedly. In her heart, she had always expected her student would face a situation like this sooner or later. But now… wasn't it a little too soon?
She thought, at the very least, it would have waited until after he graduated.
The man called Inspector Sato appeared to be in his forties. His dark, tanned skin suggested he spent a lot of time on fieldwork, a stark contrast to the fair-skinned, perfectly made-up female officer behind him.
"Tanaka-sensei, please, relax," he said. "We're just here to ask a few questions."
Counselor Tanaka offered a weak smile, not feeling relaxed at all. She led the way down the hall, speaking as she walked.
"Kaito is a good kid, fundamentally."
"Well… although he doesn't get along very well with his classmates, and his personality can be a bit challenging, and there are some… unsettling rumors about him around the college town…"
The counselor realized she was making things worse and quickly cut herself off.
"But overall, he's a great student. Heh heh…"
The pretty female officer, Mizuki, realized it was the first time she had ever heard a teacher use so many qualifiers while trying to praise a student.
Tanaka-sensei led them to Dorm Room 1314 at the very end of the corridor. She knocked, waited for a response from within, and then opened the door, guiding the two officers inside.
It was a four-person dorm, but three of the beds were completely empty. The room was sparsely furnished, but everything was meticulously organized. It was so clean that Mizuki found it hard to believe a male student lived here.
The room's occupant was standing by the window. Hearing them enter, he turned around.
A gentle breeze from the open window rustled his short black hair. He wore a crisp white shirt, and the sunlight streaming in from outside seemed to give his features a natural halo. He had sharp, handsome brows and dark, star-like eyes.
He was a vision of masculine grace, sharp and almost divine.
Mizuki, who was beautiful herself, had never thought a man's appearance would unexpectedly bring such a poetic phrase to her mind. This student named Kaito Shirogane was undeniably captivating.
Inspector Sato raised an eyebrow but, having seen all sorts of people, his expression quickly returned to normal. He glanced at the book on the desk: a hardcover edition of The Complete Laws of Japan: Criminal Code.
"You're Kaito Shirogane, correct? I'm from the Umikaze City Police Department. We have a few questions, and we hope you'll cooperate."
Kaito nodded, a gentle smile on his face that Counselor Tanaka found deeply unfamiliar. He pulled chairs over from the other empty bunks for his guests.
"Please, ask away. I'll tell you everything I know."
Inspector Sato gestured for the evidence, but got no response. He turned to see his apprentice still staring at the student's face. He cleared his throat, and a flustered Officer Mizuki quickly pulled a photograph from her bag.
Sato handed the photo to Kaito. "You know this person, right?"
The photo showed a young man with a baby face and black-framed glasses. His lips were pressed into a thin line, his expression cold and detached, which clashed with his youthful features.
Kaito looked at the picture and nodded. "Yeah, I know him. Ryo. We grew up together. We used to be pretty close."
Sato nodded, carefully watching Kaito's expression. He felt that while the young man was handsome, his smile was missing something essential.
"He died yesterday. Did you know?"
Counselor Tanaka let out a short, sharp gasp.
Kaito sighed and shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose as if in sorrow.
"Is that so… He's dead…"
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, Mizuki spoke up to change the subject.
"Did Ryo contact you at all before this? Recently, I mean."
Kaito looked up and gave the kind-hearted female officer a small smile, shaking his head.
"He transferred to a different school in our third year of middle school. I haven't heard from him since."
Mizuki nodded, jotting the information down in her notebook. As far as she was concerned, the case was clear.
Inspector Sato, however, was looking around the dorm. He had never expected a boy's room to be so neat and tidy. Glancing at the empty beds, he asked, "Why are three beds empty? You live in this huge room all by yourself?"
Counselor Tanaka's eyes darted around nervously. She wrung her hands, trying to figure out how to phrase her answer.
It was Kaito who answered, scratching his head with a natural laugh. "Heh, they're all locals, you know? Wealthy families, all have girlfriends. It's normal they wouldn't want to share a dorm with a single guy like me."
Mizuki put her notebook away, smiling at Kaito's self-deprecating humor. Counselor Tanaka coughed and mumbled something in agreement.
Sato smiled as well. He put on his hat and stood up to leave, but just as he reached the door, an idea struck him. He turned back.
"Oh, right. I don't think I told you how Ryo died."
"He was in the middle of Umikaze City's busiest shopping district when he suddenly went berserk. He used a custom-forged, sharpened katana to kill eight people and seriously injure two more…"
"He was ultimately shot and killed by the special forces team that arrived on the scene after he refused to surrender."
Kaito seemed to freeze for a second. Then he rubbed his nose and said quietly, "Sounds like he got what he deserved."
Sato watched him, noting the lack of any significant emotional reaction to such a horrific story. The strange feeling he'd had earlier intensified. After a moment of thought, he suddenly asked, "Have you ever heard of something called 'Infinite Dimensional Adventure'?"
Sato stared directly into Kaito's eyes, but he saw no flicker of recognition, only a slight frown of confusion.
"What's that? A new video game?"
Sato's gaze shifted to the back of Kaito's hand. Seeing nothing, he finally relaxed and chuckled.
"Heh, I heard people talking about some popular game recently. I must have misremembered the name."
"Thank you for your time today, Kaito-kun, Tanaka-sensei. If you think of anything else, please give me a call."
With that, the inspector took out a business card and placed it on the desk.
It wasn't until Sato reached the ground floor that he finally identified the source of his strange feeling. That kid, Kaito Shirogane… wasn't his emotional state a little too stable? Even while being questioned by the police, he hadn't shown the slightest hint of nervousness or discomfort.
He turned to the counselor walking beside him with this question.
"Tanaka-sensei, Kaito seems incredibly calm and mentally stable. Why does his student file say otherwise?"
Even for a veteran detective like him, who had seen it all, it was hard to imagine that a student involved in over ten separate incidents of "justifiable self-defense" over four years could be so polite, clean-cut, and composed.
Counselor Tanaka thought to herself, That's exactly what I thought at first. She considered her words carefully before explaining.
"When Kaito is normal, he's very normal."
Mizuki frowned, looking at the counselor with a face full of question marks.
"And when he's not normal?" Sato pressed.
Tanaka opened her mouth, hesitated, and then closed it. Finally, her instinct to protect her student took over. She polished her words slightly.
"When he's not normal, he can seem a little… wild…"
"Wild?!" Mizuki couldn't connect that word with the clean-cut, gentle young man she had just met.
"What do you mean by 'wild'?"
Counselor Tanaka's expression shifted several times. At last, she raised her index finger and thumb, leaving a tiny gap between them.
"Just a tiiiny bit wild."
From his window, Kaito watched the group talking in the small plaza in front of the dorm. He even gave them a distant wave before closing the window and returning to his desk.
He took out his phone and looked again at the series of text messages, all from different numbers, but clearly from the same person.
[Kaito, I don't know if you ever got better, but I'm out of options. This game… maybe it was always meant to be a stage for lunatics like you…]
[I left something that a lot of people are after—a real hot potato—in that old spot only the two of us know about.]
[Go be crazy in that world, Kaito. Show those self-righteous bastards what a real monster looks like.]
[Haha, and when I'm gone, let the whole world burn for all I care…]
Heh, Ryo… you found such a fun game and you're only telling me about it now? See… without me, you went and got yourself killed, didn't you…
The smile on Kaito's face grew wider. He felt Ryo was still the same as always—lucky, but a bit of an idiot. Well, a dead idiot now.
And then there's this thing…
Kaito reached into his pocket and pulled out a black card. This was what he had retrieved from their "old spot."
One side of the card appeared to be pure, solid black. But when he held it up to the sunlight and tilted it, the character for [SIN] became visible.
The other side was covered in intricate, golden patterns that formed a symbol resembling an Ouroboros on the black surface.
At the very bottom, in white block letters, were two words: [INFINITE].
Prick.
As he ran his thumb over the card, his finger suddenly stopped. A cut had appeared from nowhere. He stared at the [SIN] character on the back of the card, and his pupils constricted. The character seemed to lift off the card and burn itself into the palm of his hand.
[Special Item has been bound]
[Activating Sin Sequence…]
[Activation Failed. Reincarnator ID not detected.]
[System correcting…]
Every muscle in Kaito's body tensed for a second before he forced himself to relax.
He reached out, trying to touch the text floating in front of his eyes, but his hand passed right through it.
Suddenly, the white text vanished and was replaced by words written in blood-red.
[You believe yourself to be extraordinary, a natural-born monster, out of place in this world. You have long grown tired of this mundane, mediocre reality.]
[Now, a new stage has been set for you.]
[Will you wager your life to begin the Infinite Dimensional Adventure?]
[Yes / No]