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VIDEO: Watanagashi-hen | TIP 22: Request Denied
BGM: Silence
SFX: Higurashi
...The officers shook their heads in disappointment.
Exhaustion was plainly showing on everyone's faces.
That was only natural. None of them had gotten a wink of sleep since the day of Watanagashi.
"Chief. Let the youngest of us take a nap, and then switch them out. We've got a long stretch ahead of us, after all. Let's not push ourselves too hard—rest up so we can take it easy as we go."
"I've been telling them to sleep in shifts. Nobody actually seems willing to sleep, though. ...Could you tell them yourself, Ooishi-san?"
"Oh my. You don't need to force yourselves. Komiyama-kun. Please let everyone sleep in shifts, starting with the youngest."
"Komiyama-san. Please do that."
After the chief told him as well, Komiyama-san left his seat.
"...It's just a rumor among the villagers in the first place, you know? It's going to be difficult without more concrete evidence."
"Even when that evidence might be tucked away in there?"
"We need evidence that evidence is tucked away in there...!"
"Chief~ Don't start speaking in riddles to me, now. We have witnesses that say four people, including the two who died, went into the forbidden ritual storehouse without permission! This is all reliable information."
"You might call it information, but they're really only rumors. They're not concrete evidence."
"Well, it's true that we don't have any pictures of the four of them sneaking in with cloth tied around their heads.
"Important enough that they'd be erased? What would that be, exactly?"
...That's why I'm asking for a warrant to go looking for it in the first place...!
"Anything pointing out the Sonozaki family's connections to violent organizations would be a major contender. Like a pile of Tokarevs, or a secret poppy production facility. The secret Sonozaki family fortune would also be pretty difficult to discard."
"...Look, Ooishi-san, I know how you feel! However, that storehouse is a sacred building belonging to the Furude Shrine, and we need to have proper consideration for the locals when dealing with it."
I heard that there was an hour long call made from Congressman Sonozaki to the big man. ...Chief, could he have nailed you back down?
“Especially considering that's the jurisdiction of both Section 4 and the prefectural police's crime prevention division. We need careful preparations first!"
"...If you say you need preparations, then why don't you just let me talk with them directly? Shige-chan is the head of Section 4, right? For crime prevention, it's Yamaumi-san. They seem like they'd be quicker to talk if I sat them down at a mahjong table."
"C-Chief, you have a visitor...! Um... yikes!"
Pushing the employee who guided him in right out of the way was an old man who looked like a yakuza member, given his crested kimono and hakama. ...Did he not get enough of this over the phone?
"H-Hello...! I am the division chief, Takasugi!!"
"I don't need YOUR name!! I could have you demoted on a whim! You wouldn't even be enough! Bring out the one called Ooishi or whatever!! He deserves punishment for requesting a search warrant on the sacred Furude Shrine!!!"
"I-I sincerely apologize...! O-Ooishi is currently out on investigation, and he's been difficult to contact... I'll take his place and hear you out...! S-So please, have a seat!"
The chief's eyes were telling me to get out of here.
...Perhaps I'll gratefully accept this favor... Maybe I'll go lay down in the nap room.
“The eight hundred thousand gods, Oyashiro-sama, and the spirits of our ancestors are enshrined there. The holy shrine protects Hinamizawa from when the sun comes up to when it sets, and from when the moon rises to when it falls. Who is the idiot who wanted to set foot in there?!?!”
“Besides, the right to religion is the most revered right of the people of this country in the constitution!!! You dare to be so bold as to sully that using your own investigation's negligence as pretext!!? I cannot—I will not allow it!!!”
“Are you listening, you lying scum?! I'm angry now, so you're not getting off the hook that easily!!!"