"Misane, why did you take this job," that person had asked.

Misane had been caught offguard by it. "Calling it a job...may not be quite right. I'm technically still a student. But..." She spoke with more conviction, every word she said: "There are many evil people in this world. I don't think I can catch all the evil people. But I want to make this world at least a little safer."

"That's a fine aspiration for your age."

"I'm mostly quoting my father."

That had been followed by Misane sharing in just a few words for dishearted she felt about the case she was working on seeming so hopeless.

The person said: "It's all because of an atrocious, vicious, awful person, who at this very moment still breathes easy. Misane Mikoto. How do you feel...about that person?"

"I-I...I..." Misane looked inside herself. How did she feel about the culprit, if this really was a murder case?

"The feeling whirling around in your chest. You know what it is."

"...if there is...a culprit like that, that person, I would..." Misane knew right away what the feeling inside her said. "I would never forgive them."

"Right. That 'unforgivable' feeling...that alone is plenty sufficient as a trigger."

Later, Misane knew that had been the moment in which it was made plenty clear she was just as vulnerable as everyone else. She, too, could be pushed to kill, without she realizing it.

But now she was here, in this island, with a goddess title, and a task at hand. She was nowhere near such influence, and she had no intentions to kill.

At least, that's how it would have been, if that tape recorder hadn't been delivered.

Everyone got 'a reminder of their home'. Some were reminders of somebody waiting for them back at home. Some were reminders of enemies that were doing whatever they wanted while the godlings hanged out on this island.

And Misane, too, got a reminder. She was puzzled when she saw the old-fashioned record tape. It was ancient! A cassette, in fact, double-sided. Misane sat down on her bed in her room and pressed the play button.

There was nothing, not a single sound. This side of the cassette tape was empty. "Unless this is telling me nothing is waiting me back home..." she said, taking out the tape and turning it over, to listen to the other side.

When she did, and pressed play, she heard a voice she hadn't expected to hear in a long while. The same voice that had proven she could kill, with a strong enough intention.

'Misane Mikoto. Where have you gone? You cannot back down now. If you are truly aspiring to be the detective you hope to be, you have to go back. Don't you remember? You want to make the world a little safer.'

She should have stopped listening the moment she recognized the voice...but the insidious thing about this person was how their voice was able to catch your attention, how they burrowed into your heart.

'No matter. Something can happen wherever you are. A detective works in any and all environments. How about you give it a try?

Unless you're not as much of a detective as you think you are. Have you done all you can, for those around you? Have you truly been of help?'

She hadn't. She had cooperated with others, relying on them as much as they relied on her.

'You're the detective. As long as you are, your duty is to make the world a little safer. But something gets in the way. You're not the kind of person who stands to a side to wait for obstacles to get out of your way.

What are you waiting for? If you want to catch me, come find me.

Take down whatever is in your way, and come get me.'

Something gets in the way indeed. This game. This uneasy feeling in her chest, this frustration of still being here, of not having been enough yet to really carry the duty of being a detective here, the slight envy she feels when someone else solves things better than she can. That's all in the way.

Misane put the tape recorder down, and threw herself backwards, staring at the ceiling.

This island, and Typhon, they're in her way. She can't stay here, she has to go back.

There's an atrocious, vicious, awful person out there. She must reach them, and capture them, because she can't forgive them.

-ooooo-

Thursday nights really felt like an easier time, somehow.

Misane acted fast. It was half-impulse, half-premeditated.

She encountered Mutsumi while she was practicing with her guitar. There are very few around here Misane would be able to kill, but Misane knew that, with the element of surprise, she could take anyone down. Or so she believed. Better safe than sorry, she judged, and instead aimed for Mutsumi.

But there was also how Mutsumi -- or Mortis, more like -- was so clever. So ready to find a culprit. Misane hadn't really minded; she respected that. But now, she could feel it, that slight envy having swollen the last couple days. In her head, the words from the tape recorder kept repeating, over and over, until that trickle of envy had turned into a tide. Seeing Mutsumi there, Misane took out her chosen weapon.

She had done her homework quite well: she had tested the tensile strength of the tape. How curious, it was abnormally strong. Perhaps this wasn't as ancient as she had thought -- it was as strong as garotte wire. Might even come from her world. And when she wrapped it around Mutsumi, making pressure immediately to silence her, and dragged her with her, towards Ai's room, Misane knew she had taken a good decision.

Nobody heard a thing. Mutsumi struggled, but Misane's pulling, spurred by the frustration she felt, was relentless. Even when they got to Ai's room, opened beforehand, she kept squeezing, over and over.

She had to go find that atrocious, vicious, awful person out there.

Unfortunately, Mutsumi was in the way.

-ooooo-

Misane had to get away with murder. That was why she used the tape.

The next morning, she prepared everything. She placed Mutsumi in the pantry, having been unable to drag her much. And when everyone inevitably began searching to see if anything happened, she made sure to be with someone else, as an alibi.

Then, in the distance, the sound of something falling down. The door of the pantry, previously locked, now was wide open, with so many things strewn over. The noise that made Misane and the convenient witnesses rush here proved it: this had just happened. There was a broom there that hadn't been here before, which seemed to have been placed to try to lock the door. But nobody had seen the broom here earlier, meaning it had just been placed!

"I can do this," Misane had said, approaching Mutsumi's prone body, and she began her job checking for the cause of death. And during that, she made sure to hide the tape recorder. Now both sides of the tape were full: the other side had the sound of the noise everyone had heard, at full volume.

Unfortunately, everyone was in the way. Misane had to defeat them during the trial.

She failed, though. She did her best, but it was difficult to lie convincingly when you were a generally earnest person. "Mutsumi died less than an hour before we found her," Misane had said, and had explained the reasons she thought that. She pointed out physical things that would hint it.

But Misane Mikoto wasn't the only one who knew about corpses. Others knew enough to disprove her findings. Even then, she had managed to deviate attention by leading them to figure out how the body had been tampered with to fool her examinations.

Too bad the pocket check was her undoing. She still had that tape recorder, and when it was played, the cavalcade of noises from that morning sounded loud and clear.

Misane had surrendered shortly after that.

After all, everyone could see now she was an atrocious, vicious, awful person, and therefore she had been caught.

The world was a little safer now.