Memory Reaper's Ascension - Chapter 231: Investigation (I)

Chapter 231: Investigation (I)

Seki Street in Ward 9 had the quality of a street that was made for commerce and in over forty years when it was first established… it had become very good at the same thing.

Here the buildings were mainly three to four storied, made up of wood and concrete frames to give them stability.

The street itself was wide enough for two vehicles and a pedestrian lane on each side, with the overhead cable network for the delivery system stringing between the rooflines in organized parallel runs.

The Dusk event last night had happened in the middle of this street.

“Saito’s Quality Meat”

Ishiki looked up at the sign of the building and the corner of his mouth twitched. Its frontage was clean, the signage bright and arrangements neat behind the glass.

All of the meat behind the glass was artificial of course. They were made in the factory located in the Ward 11 and Ward 3. There were only these 2 factories all across the country so, meat was rather was expensive.

It was fine in all they cared… after all none of them had ever seen a real cow. And after the fall… animals had almost gone extinct. Cats and Dogs being the exception.

The meat was nutritious and reasonably textured.

It was also, and had always been, not quite the same as the real thing. Ishiki knew this the way he knew several things about the world before the Fall — from the memory of a meal his mother had cooked when he was twelve that he could still recall if he thought about it directly, which he generally tried not to.

All he knew was that it was a lot better than the Withering beast meat he had eaten for almost 2 years in the Scenario.

Real meat was the thing of dreams for most of people born after the Fall… well it was the same back then for him. Just the difference is that he had a chance at eating it once in a while, whereas these people did not.

He filed this in the not useful right now

folder and looked to the west.

Nina’s school was just around a kilometer from here. Uninvited a look of worry found its way to his face.

Noticing the sudden changes in his expression, the new attendant chuckled and asked. “Are you worried about Miss Nina. Her school is close by isn’t it?”

Ishiki looked at him sideways.

“She’s fine,” he said.

“Of course.” A brief pause. “The school change is coming up soon as well, isn’t it. If you need that handled I can manage it through my government channels, it would take considerably less paperwork on your end.”

Ishiki stopped walking and turned to look at Shiro, no it was as if he was glaring at him.

“How do you know about the school changes,” the sentence escaped his mouth before he could calm himself down.

Shiro took an involuntarily step back and hesitantly answered. “It…it was in the briefing file, sir. The one that the Registry Office prepared.”

Ishiki clicked his tongue without even him noticing. The school changes that he used to do for Nina were handled through a private channel and by a single person. The Information shouldn’t be given to anyone else…. that was the agreement that he had made.

Shiro said nothing.

Ishiki exhaled through his nose… he was very, very angry and irritated for the fact that he always knew how the government was, but he didn’t expect all of it sitting in a file that got handed to a stranger on his first morning.

’Government dogs,’ he thought. ’You give them one thread and they pull until they have the whole fabric.’

He looked at the man standing in front of him and took a step forward with narrowed eyes, then quietly said. “Keep your nose out of anything related to my daughter. Her school, her schedule, her life… None of it is your scope.”

He paused for a second. Nina was not his biological daughter… but he had given her name, he had looked as she grew up.

If the government were to know that she is a dragon, they would most likely take her away and experiment on her in the name of understanding the System. That was the last thing he wanted to happen.

She was his daughter after all.

He sighed. “She has a developmental condition,” he said in a level tone, to make it sound like an explanation. “She responds better to smaller class environments. The optimal student-to-teacher ratio shifts as she progresses and her doctor recommended six months as the reassessment window before the next transfer.”

“I see.” Shiro nodded. “That makes sense.”

“…” A brief silence. ’Did he… really just believe my bullshit? ’

“It must be a difficult condition to manage,” Shiro added with a look of concern.

“She manages fine,” Ishiki said. “She’s very adaptable.”

“She sounds remarkable.”

’She is,’ Ishiki thought immediately… but then chose not to speak it out. The explanation was just to make him not seem like a shady guy who was hiding something heinous.

He coughed and added as he turned.

“That message goes to whoever gave you the file and the one whom you report to as well. They can keep their records up their asses… But I don’t want to see them anywhere near Nina.”

Shiro blinked a couple of times… before speaking. “Understood, sir. But… uh, I don’t report to anyone but you.”

“…”

Ishiki was taken aback by the last statement. “COUGH! COUGH!”

“Check around the buildings in this area, check the route the Xenons took and look for anything unusual you might find. Talk to the neighboring shop and house owners, ask if they heard or experienced anything unusual in the hour before and after the Event — vibrations, pressure, anything they can be described.”

“Of course,” Shiro said, and moved off without another word.

Ishiki looked at the guy leave and sighed secretly. Then he turned back towards the main shop in question and entered inside through the gate that had been propped open.