373 – S7. The Fixers of Omelas – 4

[Assignment 2: Locate Mary’s lost necklace at “Harmony Club” and return it to its owner.]

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

The cacophony of music mingled with the press of bodies, men and women intermingling. They’d surrendered their minds to the swirling tide of alcohol, relying on instinct to sway and gyrate.

If the clothes they wore were any indication of their identities, then they were already beasts. Clad in barely-there attire, they brazenly flaunted their figures, searching for a mate.

“……..”

Finn’s eyes darted about.

He swore it wasn’t to ogle the female form. He was surveying the club’s internal structure. But a certain visual assault naturally commanded attention.

A woman, draped in nothing but fishnet, sashayed past, her hips swaying. It was impossible not to follow with one’s gaze!

Finn watched, almost hypnotized, as the fishnet woman disappeared into the throng. He snapped back to reality, glancing nervously at Vecchio. Obscenity filter… was it still functioning?

“Wow, that lady is wearing a fish caught in a net!”

“Y-yes, quite. For a moment, I almost mistook this place for the sea.”

Fishnet… therefore, fish.

It was working perfectly. Thank goodness.

To Vecchio, the club was nothing short of a miniature zoo. People dressed in gorilla costumes were the most abundant, with rabbit-suited figures weaving through them. A diverse array of disguises made for quite the spectacle.

Particularly fascinating was the sight of two people sharing a single, enormous costume. Combined, they formed a massive whale, lounging on a sofa!

Whales, being marine creatures, were known to spout water from their heads. Apparently, the whale costume had that feature built-in. The attention to detail was truly admirable.

Finn quietly covered Vecchio’s eyes.

“?”

“Perhaps we shouldn’t look at that…”

With the sightseeing and reconnaissance complete, it was time to begin the mission. Find Bunny Girl Mary’s necklace.

The objective was clear, but the means to achieve it were vague. How could they track down a plastic necklace without so much as a GPS chip?

Vecchio racked his brain, but the only idea that came to him was simple inquiry.

“What should we do, Finn? Should we ask the animal friends here if they’ve seen the necklace?”

“Approaching the club patrons might be risky, Your Holiness. Most of them are high as kites… er, I mean. They’re all here to have a good time, and they get quite upset if their fun is interrupted.”

“Ah, I understand how that feels.”

When he was having fun with Finn, and the assigned priest told him it was time to study, he couldn’t help but feel a pang of resentment.

The study time was an agreement Vecchio himself had made, so there was no reason to be upset, but he still felt disappointed. When a joyful time is abruptly cut short, that’s just how the human heart works. He could empathize…

Finn snapped his fingers. He knew this advanced city possessed eyes that never blinked.

“There’s a better way. This Omelas has magic sprites watching over almost every moment, you know. We should start with the CCTV.”

*Zhee-eeng.*

Throughout the building, several CCTV cameras were mounted, moving according to a fixed pattern, recording the interior. If we could check those recordings, there might be a clue, something.

“Follow me closely. Don’t let go of my hand, no matter what.”

“Yes, I understand, Finn!”

Finn grabbed Vecchio’s hand so she wouldn’t get swept away by the crowd and headed towards the server room he’d discovered a little while ago. A sign hung on the door: ‘Restricted Access.’

*Kee-eek.*

Upon opening the door, a club employee sat yawning, staring at the internal CCTV monitors. A skinny figure with glasses. He looked at Finn and Vecchio with a bewildered expression.

“…Who are you?”

“We’re from Solu–”

Finn cut off Vecchio before she could speak honestly. Sometimes, silence held a magic all its own. Acting confidently amplified the effect. He spoke with a touch of arrogance, in a commanding tone.

“Get out of your seat, we need to check the footage.”

“Ah, yes, sir.”

The employee politely stepped aside. See, it’s like this.

If you push forward boldly without being intimidated, they usually assume you’ve come on orders from someone high up. That you were commissioned by the club owner. They understand and let it slide.

It had been almost six months since he’d become a hero by accident, without actually having the skills for it. How much adulation and special treatment had he received during that time? Finn had, to some extent, mastered the art of acting confident.

Finn sat in the chair and scanned the monitors. The CCTV cameras were installed in the main hall and some of the rooms, and on several screens, scandalous things were happening.

The changing room used by the bunny girls, including Mary, also had CCTV. A bunny girl was in the middle of changing.

Due to the obscenity-prevention filter, she appeared to be wearing thermal underwear, but even that clearly outlined the curves of her body, making him feel embarrassed. Vecchio gasped and covered her eyes with both hands.

“…I-Is it okay to watch even in a changing room like this?!”

“Being robbed is scarier than showing your body. It’s good for us. I was worried there wouldn’t be CCTV… This way, we can easily find out who the thief is.”

“F-Finn… Aren’t you… embarrassed?”

“… …Um, well. Yes.”

When he first arrived in this strange world, he was shocked by the fashion of the people passing by on the street, but now he was somewhat used to it.

He had managed to survive in Omelas for a full two weeks, after all. The hero Finn, who blushed and made a fuss over audiovisual material on a screen, was no more—at least, not like when he was face to face with it.

Vecchio was shocked by that subtle reaction.

“…”

Could it be that Finn had climbed so far up the ladder of adulthood that he didn’t consider something like this a big deal anymore…?

No. Something was wrong. Vecchio recalled what happened at ‘Drunken Mama’s’ bar. Finn had blushed when he saw Mary in her bunny pajamas. She definitely saw it.

Moreover, Finn said it was something strange, bad for Mary’s education, and then asked her to describe her appearance in detail. Which meant one of two things. Either Finn liked a lot of hair…or he was quite literally ‘seeing things wrong.’

Could it be that the world Finn saw was… different from the one she saw?

Just as Vecchio was getting closer to the truth about the filter, Finn, reviewing CCTV footage from the time of the presumed theft, exclaimed in dismay.”No, this can’t be…!”

“Wh-what happened, Finn?”

“Nothing. There’s no footage! It’s like someone tampered with it…”

The footage for that time period was entirely replaced with a black screen. Not all of it, though, only the CCTV in the changing room.

Finn asked a staff member who was standing blankly,

“What happened here?”

“I don’t know either. I was here back then…it just suddenly disappeared. I reported it to the boss, but he didn’t say much. Just figured it was a glitch.”

A glitch, was it. It was a machine, so it could happen, but it was awfully coincidental that it malfunctioned precisely at that time. It wasn’t that the file was corrupted, but rather a black screen was recorded back then, so there was no way to recover it.

Finn found a workaround. Instead of the CCTV inside the changing room, he decided to analyze the footage showing the area near the changing room to narrow down the suspects.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t a security camera that directly captured the changing room door in its field of view, but the hallway near the changing room was caught on camera. From now on, it would be pure grunt work.

“So, according to Mary’s testimony…”

“I’ll help too, Finn!”

They would check everyone who loitered near the changing room while Mary was working. And prioritize those who seemed suspicious. Those with bad reputations, or those with the technical skills to hack CCTV.

In that way, Finn and Vecchio were able to narrow down three suspects. The list was as follows:Alex. A club rat. Someone with notoriously sticky fingers. Involved in several theft incidents within the club.

Brian. A promising mercenary. Replaced his left arm with a mechanical prosthesis. Seemed to spend most of his earnings at entertainment establishments.

Kasha. A freelance hacker. Had an antenna implanted in her head. A lesbian who had a history of being overly flirtatious with Mary.

“Hmm.”

“Hmmmmmmm.”

No one stood out immediately. It didn’t seem like they could glean any more information from the CCTV. If so, now it was time to hit the pavement.

—

[Request 2-1: Verify Alex, the club rat, for his involvement.]

Alex was drinking cheap liquor with a woman in tow. He was thoroughly drunk and rambling about his exploits, each one involving stealing something from someone.

“If I exchange the gold ring I stole this time, I can come here for a few more days. So don’t look at your lord and master with that expression, and serve him well. Huh?”

“Alex, when have I ever done that? You know I’ve been trusting you, right? When the money comes in, can’t you buy me a proper drink? Not something made with industrial alcohol.”

“That depends on how much service you provide… huh?”

Finn and Vecchio appeared before him. Vecchio, with her hands demurely folded, said,

“Stealing is a foul deed. If you do not acquire your possessions honestly, that sin will one day return to you.”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

Not the sort of words you’d hear in Omelas. Finn expected Alex to spew a torrent of abuse, maybe even some curses. Judging by the shape of his mouth, his first word would be ‘mother’.

So he subtly reached out and grabbed Alex’s shoulder.

*KWA-aaaK.*

“Agh, a-aghh! It hurts, it hurts, hyung-nim…!”

“Good, Alex, my little brother. I came because I have a few questions I want to ask.”

*Thump.* Finn plopped down next to Alex and draped an arm around his shoulders. The strength he felt was… considerable. Beneath Finn’s ordinary face lay muscles honed for real combat.

The ‘respect’ inoculation had been successfully administered. Unless you had an iron arm grafted on, or had undergone cyborg enhancements, Finn’s physique was something to behold, purely in terms of physical prowess.

He was, after all, a mercenary who threw himself into bloody battlefields, before he became a Warrior.

Though compared to the truly monstrous beings who’d achieved apotheosis… he was practically an infant.

Finn hated intimidating or browbeating anyone, but he knew some males only understood the logic of force. With that, through sheer physical power, they instantly became close ‘hyung-nim’ and ‘dongsaeng’.

Finn asked point-blank,

“Did you take Mary’s necklace? Was that you?”

“⋯⋯Huh? No, heavens no. It wasn’t!”

Alex recoiled as if struck, waving his hands wildly. The gestures were too big, too theatrical. Finn suspected he was hiding something and ratcheted up the intensity of their ‘friendship’.

*KWuuuK.*

“It’s a fist now, next it’ll be a knife. Think carefully before you answer. Did you take the necklace, or not?”

“⋯⋯A-aik, I-I swear, no! I didn’t take the necklace. Really!”

“The necklace ‘wasn’t’?”

“Well, the thing is… it wasn’t the necklace, it was stockings…”

Alex’s eyes darted back and forth before he confessed. He admitted to sneaking into the changing room while the surveillance cameras were down, and stealing Mary’s stockings. Bethio voiced his confusion.

“Huh? But Mary-ssi said nothing was missing besides the necklace.”

“That’s… because I replaced them with new stockings.”

“⋯⋯Oh, then isn’t that not stealing? Finn, perhaps this gentleman is a good person. He replaced the old stockings with new ones!”

“⋯⋯⋯⋯.”

Because of you, I’ve been asked a question I don’t know how to answer. Finn squeezed Alex’s shoulder with all the resentment he felt. As if interpreting the action, he gave additional information.

“A, A request! I only did it as a request! I have no interest in that Mary b*tch!”

…A request?

“That, that hacker girl with the weird stuff on her head paid me. Said the CCTV was down, so just to bring her the stockings. The pay was good, so I did it. I have no ulterior motives towards Mary, hyung-nim…!”

“Thanks for the reply. Let’s go, Pope.”

“Sorry for misunderstanding, Alex!”

Finn and Vecchio rose from their seats and headed towards the next suspect. If the hacker’s story is Kasha’s, according to her words, she knew the CCTV was turned off.

If she was the one who disabled the surveillance inside the changing room, could she be the culprit?

—

[Request 2-2: Confirm whether freelance hacker Kasha is the culprit.]

Hacker Kasha was sitting at the bar inside the club, nursing a drink. She constantly flirted with the female bartender, who looked like a cyborg in part.

Kasha’s outfit was rather vintage. Ripped jeans, a tank top with stretched shoulder straps. It was a look where she had put her own sense of fashion to the fullest.

Thunk.

Finn and Vecchio joined her side-by-side. Kasha moved her whirring prosthetic eye to look at Finn.

“Who are you, mister? If you’re hitting on me, I’m not interested in men. Especially married ones.”

“Don’t worry about that, just answer straight. You took Mary’s stockings, right? Did you turn off the changing room CCTV?”

“You’re very direct. But I’m not going to tell you.”

Bleeh.

Kasha stuck out her tongue and sneered.

“Have you ever seen a freelancer work without getting paid? Even a cheap whore gets her price, but you’re asking questions without any cash changing hands, so it’s a bit much.”

“A thief should be coughing up money, not receiving it. Stop talking nonsense and just tell the truth. And if you return the necklace, I won’t make a big deal out of it.”

“What, gonna use your fists? Huh?”

She thrust her face forward as if daring him. Finn put on a grim expression and applied pressure, but it didn’t seem to work. Truthfully, there wasn’t much he could do in this situation.

Dragging her to a secluded place and beating her up was out of the question. Even before getting into legality or anything, showing such a thing in front of a child was a problem. Finn himself didn’t want to use excessive violence over something he wasn’t even sure about.

As he was contemplating whether he should just pay to get information out of her.

“Finn. She’s the one who did it. I looked at the access logs, and there’s a trace of her turning off the CCTV and running away.”

“…Ha, kid. Are you perhaps pretending to be a hacker…”

“There’s more. She did it at a nail salon, and a host bar… I don’t know where that is, but there’s a record of her tampering with their network too. And also, Utopia──”

“Stop. I did it. So please just stop. I give up.”

Kasha, who had been so brazen, quickly turned pale and raised both hands in surrender. According to the genius hacker Vecchio, she had apparently even messed with Utopia’s servers.

Not only was her skill in instantly breaking through information without even touching a device frightening, but above all, she was afraid that the fact that she had messed with the giant corporation Utopia would spread.

If you touched them wrong, you could end up dead in less than half a day.

“…Still, I didn’t take the necklace. I didn’t even know it existed. I just hacked the CCTV at Brian’s request. If it’s gone, wouldn’t he know something about it?”

“What about the stockings?”

“It just so happened the changing room CCTV was down, see? So, I asked Alex as a favor, to indulge in a little collection gathering…”

“Then… this charity work, swapping the old for the new, that was all Kashia-nim’s doing!”

Eyes sparkling.

Vecchio stared as if Kashia were Santa Claus himself, and Kashia, flustered, just mumbled. Charity work?

“It seems the culprit is clear, Your Holiness. Let’s go.”

“Yes! We must get Mary’s necklace back! Kashia, and helping others is good, but taking care of yourself is also important. How about buying new clothes instead of those…holey ones?”

“……..”

With one word from the little Pope, vintage fashion instantly morphed into nothing but riddled hand-me-downs.

Stomp, stomp. Step, step. Kashia watched the retreating backs of the two hand-in-hand, utterly dumbfounded.

—

[Request 2-3: Confirm mercenary Brian’s involvement.]

The man who hired Kashia to disable the changing room CCTV, the mercenary Brian.

A prime suspect. But a question lingered.

Why steal a cheap plastic necklace of no real value? Especially going so far as to hire a hacker to cover his tracks.

No matter how much he pondered it, it made no sense. But the request wasn’t to uncover the truth, but to retrieve the necklace. Pin, shielding Vecchio behind him, approached Brian.

“… Be careful, Your Holiness.”

“……..?”

“He’s a savage.”

Pin could tell. Brian, sitting on the sofa sipping whiskey, was a man with a large scar across his face, built like a block. But it was the raw intimidation radiating from his eyes.

His veteran mercenary seniors, those who had been in the game for twenty years, they had eyes just like that. The kind who wouldn’t hesitate to swing a blade.

Wary, Pin advanced towards Brian, keeping a three-meter distance, and spoke.

“Hey. I need to talk to you about Mary’s necklace… Bloody hell! Get down!”

“Eek?!”

WHOOSH──!! BANG!!

Pin spun around, wrapped his arms around Vecchio, and threw himself to the ground. Where he had just stood, a steel arm had flown in, splintering the floor tiles and embedding itself deep.

A rocket punch.

“Kyaaa!”

Those nearby screamed, but the pounding music engulfing the club was too loud. Most paid no attention, lost in their revelry and pleasure.

Whirrrrr.

The mercenary had a wire crank attached to his shoulder. With a whirring sound, the wire attached to the steel arm rewound, retracting it immediately. And the mercenary Brian fled at once.

Clutching Vecchio, Finn assessed the situation, catching the retreating back of Brian as he fled. Why…?

He couldn’t understand attacking with a mere plastic necklace, ejecting his prosthetic arm to do so.

Nor could he understand attacking like that, only to run.

Finn frowned, scooping up Vecchio and rising to his feet. He vaulted over the furniture, chasing after Brian.

“Damn it, I’m going after him! Hold on tight, it might get bumpy!”

“Y-yes, Sir…!”

Running, he thought.

Something felt off. A whiff of something sinister.

Finn had a vague premonition that this whole thing was about to snowball.