Right after meeting Director Takatani, we headed straight to the Ogawa Investigation Agency. We had an important job to discuss today.
"We're cutting it close," the Master said, walking with fast, heavy strides. My own footsteps felt sluggish trailing behind him. After all, the other party was the yakuza.
"What's wrong, you look down. If you don't want to come, you don't have to be here today, you know."
"I can't just do that."
"Well, it's fine by me either way."
Oh, is that so? Then I'll stick to you out of sheer spite.
As we approached the multi-tenant building and I spotted the sign for Coffee Boston, I scanned our surroundings for any suspicious-looking cars. They usually rolled up in heavy, black-painted sedans. But for now, nothing of the sort was in sight.
I climbed the building's stairs and opened the door to the Ogawa Investigation Agency on the third floor.
"You're late. They'll be here any minute," Director Ogawa said. He was the only one in the office today; Hattori wasn't around. Given the recent suspicions of Hattori acting as a spy, it probably would've been awkward if he *had* been here.
A moment later, there was a knock at the door. I hadn't heard the sound of any flashy cars outside.
"Come in."
The man who stepped inside wore a black double-breasted suit, with a pale face and glasses. It was Matsuura, the assistant wakagashira of the Ishida gang—a man we’d had far too much history with lately. He tucked a black leather briefcase under his arm.
"Finally decided to take the job?"
Matsuura walked in with sharp, rigid posture, taking a seat on the visitor's sofa without waiting for the director's permission.
"Just you?" The Master dropped heavily into the chair across from him.
"We're busy right now, you see."
Matsuura replied with his legs crossed. I remembered reading an article in yesterday's newspaper about a yakuza gang war. It reported that gunshots had been fired at the entrance of a branch office belonging to the Ritsumitsu-kai, a secondary yakuza organization in the city. Just the other day, Director Ogawa had told us about the underground turf war between the regional Hishikawa gang and the Ritsumitsu-kai. I couldn't just skim past the news as if it had nothing to do with me.
"I appreciate you taking the time to come all this way despite being so busy. So, what's the job?"
As usual, the Master didn't bother changing his tone when speaking to Matsuura. Listening from the side, even though I was somewhat used to it by now, it still made my heart race.
Matsuura glanced briefly at Director Ogawa, who was still standing nearby. The director spoke up.
"I've left this matter to Nakaoka. She will be the one to decide whether or not we take it on. After that, as the head of this agency, I'll make the final call on whether to give it a green light or stop it."
Nakaoka was the Master's alias as an investigator. However, some people, like Mr. Nishina, had grown close enough to call her by her real name without hesitation, making it feel more like an open secret. Matsuura surely knew the Master's real name too, but he didn't say anything about it.
Since Director Ogawa was standing, I hesitated whether I should sit next to the Master. But hoping to act as even a minor human shield, I quietly sat down beside her. *It's fine. I'm her assistant,* I told myself.
"We're busy, so I'll keep the explanation brief."
Matsuura pulled a small glass bottle from his briefcase and placed it on the table in front of the sofa.
"What's this?"
Judging from the casual way Matsuura had been holding it with his bare hands, the Master must have figured it wasn't a dangerous substance; she immediately picked it up.
It was a clear glass vial, about the size of a bottle of over-the-counter cold medicine tablets. The glass was transparent with no label at all, and the white cap was just as plain. There was liquid inside, which was also completely colorless and transparent. It looked like mere water, but was it some kind of medicine?
"What is this?"
"It's a drug. It's been making the rounds among the kids in this town lately."
"A drug?"
The Master held the bottle up again, peering through it toward the ceiling lights, before tilting her head and setting it back on the table. I picked it up too, but nothing stood out. It was just a bottle filled with clear liquid.
"Is it an illegal drug?"
Hearing the Master say that startled me. I instinctively set the bottle back down on the table. Drugs—such terrifying things—were something I had never laid eyes on, not even once.
"I don't know. Finding that out is the job I'm hiring you for."
"Huh? There's no way I'd know. You guys are the experts, aren't you?"
At the Master's words, Matsuura's eyebrow twitched slightly. It seemed he had taken some offense.
"The 8th Ritsumitsu-kai strictly forbids drugs. No speed, no marijuana, and of course, no heroin or cocaine."
"Are you saying you aren't involved in drug trafficking? Then who's selling drugs in this town?"
"Punks from other, smaller gangs. They don't have any legitimate rackets, so they resort to drugs."
"As if the yakuza have any legitimate rackets to begin with."
"Hey, Master."
Her remarks were becoming far too provocative, so I panicked and stopped her. Matsuura stayed silent for about ten seconds before speaking, his expression unchanged.
"Aside from them, you've got former bosozoku punks playing at being half-gangsters and dabbling in stimulant deals. Lately, foreigners have been increasing a bit too—Chinese, Iranians. Because they're all small organizations, they can't deal directly with bulk brokers, so there are middlemen at every step, and their profit margins seem small. The going rate for a single packet of stimulants is 10,000 yen, or 13,000 yen with a syringe. That hasn't changed since the old days. Rumor has it that half-gangsters looking to make a bigger profit are cutting it with fillers. That's why people say the stuff imported by foreigners is higher quality. Marijuana, meaning cannabis, can apparently be picked up at clubs in the entertainment district. Cocaine and heroin are barely traded at all because the unit price is too high; smaller organizations have a hard time moving them. And then there are hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and MDMA—so-called psychedelics—that were recently classified as narcotics, and those are on the rise too. Ever tried any?"
Asked that by Matsuura, the Master looked unimpressed.
"No way, never."
"Is that so?"
Following the Master, I shook my head as well.
"Lies. Actually, I have."
"You have?!" I blurted out in surprise.
"Back in the day, a little marijuana and hashish. Just out of curiosity. Pure curiosity. But stuff like that doesn't really work on me. Must be my body chemistry. Haven't touched it since."
The Master deliberately took her time emphasizing the "body chemistry" part.
"I see. How wise of you. Furthermore, lately in Europe and America, drugs known as designer drugs or legal highs seem to be trending—things like herbal ecstasy. They haven't made it to this town yet, but they will eventually. Unlike natural drugs derived from plants, these are chemical substances made synthetically. They're distributed either by spraying the chemicals directly onto herbs or in tablet form."
"You don't use them as a racket, yet you're awfully well-informed. Are you running a racket behind the scenes after all?"
"In our industry, if the boss says it's forbidden, it's forbidden. In our outfit, that's been the rule since the previous generation."
Matsuura spoke quietly, but perhaps feeling the subtle pressure bleeding through his calm demeanor, the Master fell silent.
"It's just my nature to investigate everything."
"So… what about this one that's trending among the kids?"
The Master pointed her chin at the small bottle on the table.
"Word has it that a strange drug has been circulating lately. Even after looking into it, it doesn't seem like other gangs, half-gangsters, or foreigners are involved. Apparently, it's only quietly making the rounds among high school and college students in the city. If it looks like it's going to become a major racket for someone, we have to keep an eye on it, so I managed to get my hands on one—but the thing is, it's weird."
"Weird, how?"
"Try opening the lid."
"Is it safe?"
Prompted like that, the Master frowned in slight disgust.
"It's safe. Go ahead."
"It's not going to vaporize or anything, is it?"
With that, the Master nudged me. It seemed she wanted me to open it.
*Eeeh,* I lost my nerve, but under the Master's glare, I reluctantly picked up the vial, feeling terrified.
Well, Matsuura—who apparently knew what was inside—was sitting right in front of us, so it couldn't be anything lethal. Telling myself that, I twisted the cap.
With a small *pop*, the lid came off easily. I removed it and set it aside. The Master peered into the opening of the vial in my hand and sniffed it, going *hmm*.
"Hmm?" she tilted her head.
I followed her lead and brought my face close to smell it, but no particular scent came off.
"When it comes to liquid drugs, you have liquid LSD, ketamine, and certain designer drugs, but this is different from any of them. Stimulants are sometimes distributed in liquid form, but this is already in a retail state. Here, let me borrow that."
Matsuura took the vial. Then, right in front of us, he casually brought it to his mouth and drank it down in one gulp.
"Ah."
The voices of the Master, myself, and Director Ogawa—who had been watching from a little further away—overlapped in unison.
"Hey, are you alright?"
Matsuura didn't change his expression at all as he placed the emptied vial on the table.
"Yes. Absolutely fine."
Then, he pulled another small bottle from his briefcase. It looked to be the exact same thing. The Master accepted it, observed it thoroughly, and then removed the cap. After sniffing it, she dipped her pinky finger into the mouth of the bottle. She brought the liquid on her fingertip close to her eyes to stare at it intently, then gave it a quick lick.
"Just… water?"
*Eh?* I borrowed the vial and licked it the same way. Tasteless and odorless. It was just water. It didn't have the chlorine smell of tap water at all. It tasted like mineral water.
"What is the meaning of this?"
"I'm baffled myself. Why would plain water be secretly bought and sold under the guise of being a drug?"
"Are you saying everyone's being fooled?"
"I find it hard to believe it would spread so widely by word of mouth if people knew it was just water. The kids don't seem to think it's just water."
"I mean, it *is* water. Is it one of those things? Like, it has ions in it, or tachyon fields doing their work, or something?"
"No. Rumor has it, though… that when you drink this, 'your dreams change.'"
"Your dreams… change?"
Hearing that, the Master's expression shifted. It was the face she made when she stumbled upon something interesting. I found the phrase intriguing myself.
"I hope you now understand why I went out of my way to hire you."
Matsuura let out a faint smile.
"Apparently, you start seeing dreams like nothing you've ever seen before."
"You didn't just drink that for the first time now, did you? Did your dreams change?"
"Well… I'm not the type to remember my dreams much to begin with."
After glaring at Matsuura with a look that said she didn't believe him, the Master picked up the vial.
"I only have three left in my possession. I'll provide two of them for this investigation."
Matsuura pulled another one from his briefcase and placed it on the table.
"Where did you get these? Who on earth is selling them?"
"A young guy from an affiliated gang got them from a bosozoku underclassman. That underclassman heard the rumors, went to buy some, and apparently found out he actually could. They say if you go down a certain alleyway at night on Shiramachi street in the entertainment district, there's a person wearing a mask, and if you hand them a thousand-yen bill, they trade you a single bottle like this."
"A mask?"
"A mask you say?"
My voice and the Master's overlapped. We hadn't expected *that* word to pop up here.
"A white, expressionless mask?"
"Who knows? Rumor has it they're wearing some kind of mask and refuse to show their real face—the ultimate elusive dealer. We've looked for them, but they never show up when we do. Are they just cautious, or what…"
"Is a thousand yen cheap?"
"I'd say so. Unheard-of for a drug. These days, if you buy from a dealer, even paint thinner costs more than that. But if the base is just water, then practically everything left over after subtracting the cost of the bottle is pure profit. By the way, the bottles are mass-produced commercial items. Tracing it through that angle will be difficult."
"Does it have a name?"
"Among the kids, it's called 'C'. C for ABC. The origin isn't clear."
"C…"
Watching the Master stare intently at the vial in her hand, Matsuura asked, "Care to drink it?"
"No, I'll investigate it first."
"Then you'll take the job?"
"Yeah. But how far do you want us to figure out? Just the identity of what's inside, or track down the person selling it too?"
"Let's set a reward upon success for both. Though I have a feeling those two things will end up being a package deal."
The Master looked over at Director Ogawa. The director nodded in response. Apparently, it was a green light.
"Okay. Then we'll get right to investigating. Hey, let's go."
The Master picked up the two vials, stood up, and jerked her chin toward me.
"Ah, right."
"As for the payment for this reward…"
Matsuura started to say, but the Master cut him off. "Work that out with the director. I only accept my standard wage."
"Still holding a grudge about last time?"
Matsuura tossed out a provocative remark. He was referring to the time when a large sum of money was crammed into her backpack during the psychic photo incident.
"Hmph."
Snorting her reply, the Master headed for the door. I hurried after her.
"Why did you decide to take the job?"
Matsuura's words were called out to our backs. The Master answered without turning around.
"Who knows? Just a whim."
Leaving the director and Matsuura behind, we left the office. Watching the Master's back as we walked down the stairs, I felt a complicated mix of emotions.
I couldn't help feeling that the whim the Master had given into was caused by the strange, magnetic allure possessed by the yakuza named Matsuura. Back during the psychic photo incident, he had ultimately brought them an occult mystery right up the Master's alley. Despite immersing himself in a world of pragmatic violence, Matsuura somehow seemed to share the exact same values as the Master.
*"Is the world I'm looking at similar to the world you're looking at?"*
Matsuura's past words brushed across my mind. And realizing I had remembered them, I felt a wave of irritation rise within me.
*To a guy like that…*
The same jealousy I felt toward the Master's former partner, Kuroya Natsuo, welled up in my chest. If I didn't prove what kind of person I was, I wouldn't even be able to stand on the same stage. Feeling as though my field of vision was growing dark, I realized this was probably an unhealthy emotion. Probably. I listened to my own irritation echo in my footsteps.
When we stepped out of the building, the Master suddenly stopped. Someone was standing in the shadows of the opposite building and a utility pole.
"Hey. What do you want?"
The Master called out. The man appeared, a cigarette pinched between the fingers of his right hand. It was him. Matsuura's subordinate—the guy who had dragged me into an empty room in a building and beat me up. A chill instantly ran down my spine.
"Oh man, just tagging along for Brother Matsuura."
The light-brown-haired man twisted his face, missing a front tooth, and grinned broadly. Then he casually brought the cigarette to his mouth.
I looked around, but there was still no car in sight. It didn't look like he had come as a driver.
"You betrayed Matsuura, didn't you?"
I shook off the memory of fear and threw those words at him.
"Hah? The one doing the betraying is him."
The light-brown-haired man said, looking up at the building.
"Messing around with all these weird little games when we're this damn busy."
*Games…* Did this guy know about the job too? I glanced sideways at the Master.
"Well, for now, I'll let him do as he pleases."
The man spat out his lit cigarette with a sharp *ptui*.
"Amateurs shouldn't go sticking their noses into our business too much. That's a warning."
"What kind of warning is that? I'm going to squeal to the cops that the yakuza are threatening me."
The man just laughed off my desperate defense, completely unfazed.
"Catch you later, kid and miss. The name's Nishina. Well, that name's gonna change eventually, though."
Laughing a raspy *heh-heh-heh*, the man turned on his heel and walked away. The Master watched his back and cursed under her breath.
"Tagger-on my ass. Was that toothless bastard keeping tabs on Matsuura?"
"That guy is seriously dangerous," I told the Master, speaking from the bottom of my heart after having been beaten to a pulp by him. He had pressed a knife to my back and tried to lure the Master out. What would have happened if Natsuo hadn't shown up to save me? Remembering it sent a chill down my spine.
"I hate the yakuza," the Master spat out as if clearing poison from her mouth.
To be continued in "Poison, Part 1: 3/5 – Trust Scientific Testing"