site 27: MMG

The room was deep in the back of a long, long hallway in a sub-basement, a place where even people who were allowed to be there rarely went. In that windowless room, the men were sitting once more in a circle. The man across from them, the only one in the room who was standing, was wearing his usual dark crimson suit.

“Why were the police called?” Dr. Matoba, in his white lab coat, asked angrily. “Takasu, don’t you think that you were far too careless in this matter?”

Takasu, the man in the dark crimson suit, said nothing. Matoba tried to question him further, but Representative Hatoyama, who was sitting at his side, motioned for him to stop.

“There’s no need to worry about the police. I had a little chat with him.”

“But Mr. Hatoyama...”

“What’s more important is the fact that the list still hasn’t been found. What’s going on with that?” His voice was as calm as it was when he spoke at the Diet, but his eyes weren’t smiling at all.

Matoba interrupted before Takasu could answer. “You weren’t able to learn anything from that nuisance Dr. Hashigami, were you?”

“Correct. The professor didn’t say a word.”

“And in the end, you killed him. How could you be so careless? Don’t tell me it was just a simple mistake. I want explanations, and I want good ones—”

“There’s a chance that the list may no longer exist on paper or as data.” Takasu cut him off. “We ‘investigated’ Dr. Hashigami’s house, but we couldn’t find the list.” Everyone here understood instantly that the ‘investigation’ he referred to was an illegal one. And, of course, no one pointed that out.

“However...” Takasu turned around and took a document off a serving cart next to him. He held it up at head height so that everyone could see. “There was a single locked drawer in the professor’s desk. Inside, we found something interesting.”

The men eagerly waited for him to say he’d found the list, but he silently shook his head. “Unfortunately, it’s not the list. It’s a draft for an article he was writing for a certain magazine.”

“What of it? That sort of minor detail isn’t what we’re interested in.”

“Let me finish, Mr. Hatoyama. The title of this draft is something of extreme interest to us.”

“Extreme interest? You’re certainly building this up, aren’t you?”

“Hahaha, that wasn’t my intent. The title is... ‘Time and the Spiritualizing World.’”

But even after Takasu’s big reveal, the reaction of the listeners was less than positive. They were quiet, brows furrowed in confusion. The whole room was as silent and still as the surface of a placid lake.

What broke the silence wasn’t the men sitting. It was a voice from a dark room that was sealed off by curtains. “‘Spiritualizing,’ you said?” When they heard the flat, emotionless voice, all the sitting men froze in surprise. No one — Takasu excepted — expected the speaker to be here, let alone intervene in the discussion. “And you’re telling me that this is a clue to escaping the Prison of Time?”

Takasu turned towards the speaker. “Yes, most likely. I’ve already gathered RIKEN’s primary members and am preparing for clinical trials with the information we’ve gained.”

“The key to the prison, huh? Heheh...” There were no more words from behind the curtain.

“Eternal Life for the Bavarian Illuminati!”

“Eternal Life for the Bavarian Illuminati!”

Takasu spoke first and the men repeated after him, bowing their heads low.