Getting from Bunkyo Ward, where her school was, to Ginza in Chuo Ward was a little awkward by subway. By surface roads, though, it was surprisingly close.
From Ochanomizu, they headed south through Chiyoda. After passing the Imperial Palace, the car slowed to a safe, frustrating crawl along Uchibori-dori, the avenue running beside the palace moat.
Even so, Shino had the strange feeling that whenever Satoru saw a car blocking the lane ahead, a trace of impatience crossed his eyes. Something fierce stirred in him, as if some reckless part of him wanted to slam the accelerator down and he was barely holding it back.
Fortunately, the day was unseasonably warm. The breeze coming through the open window felt good. They passed Otemon Gate, followed the road by the moat, turned left onto Harumi-dori, passed under the JR overpass, and entered Ginza 4-chome.
Compared with the motorcycle ride when they had fled Death Gun, their current speed was a crawl. Even so, it took only fifteen minutes to reach their destination. Satoru parked neatly, and with him behind the wheel of that car, the ordinary traffic around them seemed to make the sensible choice and give way.
After they got out, Satoru led the way.
Shino had never been inside such an expensive-looking cafe before. People nearby seemed surprised that someone so young was driving such a flashy car, and the moment he pushed open the door, waiters in white shirts and black bow ties bowed deeply. Shino flinched a little, thrown off balance.
"Table for two?"
The waiter had barely said it when a voice from inside the cafe cut through the elegant atmosphere.
"Hey, Suzuki! Over here!"
"He's with us."
The waiter's expression did not change. He simply said, "Of course," bowed, and stepped away.
A high school girl in uniform felt painfully out of place in a cafe full of women taking a break from shopping. Shino tucked her chin down and followed Satoru across the polished floor.
Standing beside the round table was a tall man in a dark blue suit and a regimental-striped tie, with glasses on his face. She had heard he was a government official, and he did have a crisp, bureaucratic air about him. At the same time, there was something scholarly there too.
The man gestured to a chair.
Shino sat by the window, and a waiter immediately brought a steaming hot towel and a leather-bound menu.
"Order whatever you like."
Prompted by him, Shino opened the menu and stared.
Aside from light meals like sandwiches and pasta, even the desserts were all in the four-digit yen range.
Shino froze.
Beside her, Satoru snorted.
"Don't worry about it. It's coming out of taxpayer money anyway."
Shino looked up, only to see the man in glasses nod without the slightest shame.
"Th-then... I'll have this cranberry cheesecake... and Earl Grey tea."
That was 2,200 yen.
Shino was still reeling inwardly when Satoru spoke.
"Black coffee."
For all his earlier talk, he had ordered something plain. It did not feel like consideration for anyone's wallet so much as simple preference.
After the waiter bowed and left, the man in glasses took a black case from the inner pocket of his suit. He pulled out a business card and offered it to Shino.
"Nice to meet you. I'm Kikuoka, from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' Virtual Division."
He introduced himself in an even voice. Shino hurriedly accepted the card.
"N-nice to meet you. I'm Asada... Shino."
The moment she finished, Kikuoka's mouth tightened, and he lowered his head.
"Because we failed to do our job properly, we placed you in serious danger, Shino-san. I'm truly sorry."
"N-no, it's..."
Shino hurriedly bowed as well, but Satoru cut in as if he had been waiting for the chance.
"You should apologize. If you'd investigated the case properly, Kikuoka-san, Death Gun could've been stopped before it got this far."
"...When you put it like that, I can't argue."
Kikuoka lowered his head like a scolded child.
"But Suzuki-kun, you didn't tell us anything at the start either. If you'd noticed something and contacted us sooner, this might not have gone so far."
"Don't give me that. If you need the public to hand you everything, I start questioning your competence."
Satoru leaned back in the wooden chair, making it creak.
"Anyway, tell me everything you know so far."
"About that... it's only been two days since the case came to light. It will still take time before we can say we know the full truth."
Kikuoka picked up the coffee in front of him, took a sip, and continued.
"Earlier, I said they were a team, but in reality there were only three of them. At least, that is what we've determined from the testimony of their leader, Shouichi Shinkawa."
"...He confessed?"
At Satoru's question, Kikuoka nodded.
"Without a doubt. And according to the login records on the AmuSphere confiscated from his apartment, he was already logged into GGO at the time."
"..."
A complicated look crossed Satoru's face.
"Strictly speaking, we would have to go back to 2022, before the SAO incident you lived through. But before that..."
Almost at that exact moment, a waiter pushed over an elaborate cart loaded with plates. Without making a sound, he arranged them on the table. Once he had left, Kikuoka gestured for Shino and Satoru to eat.
Shino had no appetite, but she decided she could at least try a small piece of cake.
Satoru only lifted his coffee in silence and took a sip.
Shino cut a bite from the milky white rectangle topped with vivid red sauce and put it in her mouth. The dense flavor of cheese spread across her tongue, but what surprised her more was how quickly the cake melted away. For an instant, she wondered what the recipe was, though even if she asked, they probably would not tell her.
Almost as if in a dream, she ate half the cake. Then she set her fork down, lifted her teacup, and took a small sip of warm tea scented with citrus.
Something frozen deep inside her seemed to loosen a little.
"...It's really good."
Shino looked up as she said it. Kikuoka smiled, apparently pleased.
"Good food should be enjoyed over cheerful conversation. Please join me again sometime."
"Mm. Sure."
As the golden-brown mound of chestnut cake gradually shrank, Satoru listened to the two of them talk and laugh, then frowned.
"Don't. This man's idea of cheerful conversation is either tedious or disgusting."
"How unfortunate. I'm quite confident in my knowledge of Southeast Asian food culture... Still, Suzuki-kun, you really have grown. That car made me rather jealous."
Kikuoka paused when Satoru looked at him.
"All right, all right. Don't look at me like that. Let's return to the subject. Before we go further, let me explain what happened after the incident."
Kikuoka took a thin touchscreen tablet from the briefcase beside him and tapped the screen with his long fingers.
Shino grew tense and waited for the man, who suddenly looked more like a teacher than a bureaucrat, to speak.
She wanted to know everything about the Death Gun case.
At the same time, some part of her did not want to hear any more of the truth.
Maybe some part of Shino still wanted to believe in Kyoji Shinkawa.
After Kyoji had attacked her with that terrifying injector, Shino had thrown away every kind feeling he had ever shown her and filled the empty space with hatred.
That could not have been him.
Someone must have invaded his mind and made him do it.
That wish was still inside her.
She could feel it.
...
About forty minutes had passed since the incident late Sunday night.
That night, after Satoru urged her to wash her face in the bathroom and change into a clean tracksuit, the police arrived at her apartment.
Kyoji, dazed and badly shaken, was arrested on the spot and taken to a police hospital. He had dislocated his arm while struggling.
Shino and Satoru were also taken to another hospital for examination, just in case.
Aside from a few minor scrapes, there was nothing seriously wrong with either of them. After the doctor on duty told them that, the police took her statement in the hospital room. Only then was Shino finally able to sit there and tell them what had happened in her apartment.
Shino herself had not realized it, but according to the doctor, the stress on her mind had reached its limit. The police ended the questioning at two in the morning.
She slept in the hospital room that night. At six-thirty, she woke up, turned down the doctor's offer to stay longer, and insisted on going back to her apartment so she could get ready for school.
She spent Monday's classes in a daze.
The incident caused by Kyoji, who had stopped coming to school but was still enrolled, should have spread through the school by then. At least, that was what Shino had thought.
But no one seemed to know anything.
She ignored Endou and the others completely when they called out to her and went back to her apartment. A police car was already waiting there. After changing clothes, she went to the same hospital as the day before. Following a brief examination, the second round of questioning began.
This time, Shino asked many questions too.
Most of them were about Kyoji.
Aside from telling her that his body was in no serious danger, the police gave almost no answers.
For security reasons, Shino stayed at the hospital again that night. After dinner and a shower, she made a short call to her grandparents and mother back home, then lay down in the hospital bed.
Before long, she sank into sleep, and her memory went blank.
It felt as if she had dreamed for a long time, but she could not remember a single thing.
The next day, Tuesday, a police car brought her back to her apartment again. When she got out, an officer told her, "That completes your statement."
She was relieved, but she still wanted to know what would happen next.
Those thoughts were still in her head as she got ready for school. She was slicing tomatoes for breakfast when her phone rang.
It was Satoru.
The first thing he asked was whether she had time after school. Shino answered yes without really thinking.
And that was how she ended up here, sitting across from a government official, waiting to hear what he had to say.
...