Hoshi's POV
"I would say that you guys did a good job on handling those monsters," Croix said to us, "if I were to believe those articles."
We then snapped out.
"Oh! Yeah, we did, sir…"
"Thanks…"
But deep down in my heart, I cannot believe that Kuya Manuel, who had helped in our search for our hotel in this city, had died at the hands of a criminal literally straight from that Filipino thriller movie. I felt that my emotions were going out of control by now…
"Can't believe that would manifest in real life…" Kuro said to me in my subconscious.
"Yeah…luckily I didn't jinx it," I replied through an internal voice.
"Yes, indeed."
But I also wanted to do something in this investigation so that I can join in as well.
Kuro agreed with me almost immediately.
A bit later, we arrived at the NBI's main headquarters, and we all immediately got off and went inside. Inside it, Bokuto and I, as well as Taro and Sha, were stunned by how it looked, as well as what its operations looked like in this building. Croix was leading the way until we arrived at what seemed to be a meeting room, where a middle-aged man and a few of his subordinates were awaiting our arrival.
"Sir, I had Manuel's friend here," Croix said to him.
That man then glanced at me. "Hello there, bata."
"Oh! Um…" I responded back while trying to gather my words, "…hi po, ako po si Hoshi Santos, from Nara City, Japan po."
That man then shook my left hand fast and let go of it. "Nice to meet you po, I'm Mario Esteban, and I am one of the chiefs here."
So, his name was Mario Esteban…
The rest of my group introduced themselves to him and Croix.
A while later, we were still in that room, and Mr. Mario and Tito Croix showed some files to us. Sha was included on our side, too. These files appeared to be a list of missing people that, according to their gathering and theory, might be the victims of the criminal lurking in the LRT Depot. This was accompanied by long lines details about them, as well as when they went missing and where they were seen last.
The starting date was 2 months ago, and the last time was just last night.
"All of them took the LRT line, mostly from Baclaran station northward," Mario said to us, "all at night."
As noted by us, 10 of the victims were children between the ages of 9 and 15 and were mostly accompanied either by their parents or legal guardians, or even by their yayas (nannies in Filipino).
Croix then nodded, and one of his coworkers added, "Their bodies were dumped all over Metro Manila and its surrounding provinces, and all had their hearts ripped off, as some sort of silly sacrifice."
"Who was the suspect?" Sha asked.
"Apparently, the disfigured son of one Quezon City official named Eduardo Chanchal," Croix responded, "as confirmed by one of our agents who was among the latest victims in his recording sent to us before he died."
He then pulled out his smartphone and played the recording.
We listened to it and were horrified by the external noises it had, before the recording ended abruptly.
"Also, it is very important that the police in that area covered it up in exchange for bribes paid to Eduardo," Mario responded.
We were shocked and horrified, while I became more and more emotionally unstable as I remembered that terrible Filipino movie in my mind.
"How many victims again?" I asked.
"About 75 as of now," Croix replied, "but we believed that this number might be more."
And then…I snapped and slammed my right fist on the table, causing everyone in the room to be taken aback by my sudden outburst. "That number…" I responded coldly like Kuro, "…made my blood boil…"
"Woah!" Taro was surprised.
"Okay lang ikaw, Mr. Hoshi?" one of Croix's coworkers asked.
"Hindi po," I replied more coldly. "I can't flippin' believe this…They literally copied it out of that Filipino movie that I hated so much…"
"You watched that movie?" Mario asked.
I nodded. "Yes, and I hated it so, so much."
I then slammed my fist on the table for the second time.
"Woah! You never liked this before, didn't you?" Bokuto asked.
I then calmed down and replied, "Yes, to be honest, I was too soft to even snap like that."
Yes, I was too soft as a pillow to be that angry.
"Sounds like a character development for you, Hoshi-kun," Sha said to me.
"Much like that, Sha-sensei…" I responded back.