Akiyama Suzuki II: Epilogue of Volume 1

After 20 minutes, three officers in blue arrived at the scene and started to barricade the area. They diligently inspected and collected the evidence. Subsequently, Suzuki stepped aside to let them work more freely.

The beautiful officer strolled along the main aisle, looking for potential clues. Perhaps it would be best if I could talk to the people who saw the fire ceremony yesterday, there was a possibility that they might have noticed something strange, she contemplated. 

Suzuki started to question the shopowners lingering around the centre of the temple grounds. Despite their busy work with demolition, they were inclined to answer. To no avail, most shopowners claimed that last night they were too occupied selling and serving their customers, they hadn't seen anything. 

"Eh? Yesterday. Sorry, I didn't watch it..." One of the shopowners answered eagerly. She was a bewitching lady in a black dress with graphite black hair, probably in her mid-20s. Her striking brown eyes stared at Suzuki puzzledly. 

"Sigh…" Suzuki exhaled, desperate for details, and then slid her notebook into her vest pocket, 

"Is it true, Officer Akiyama?" The lovely owner asked her softly. She was quite a tender and kind lady, Suzuki observed.

"Yes… we've found human remains in the ashes," She said with a steady voice. "There are two likely possibilities: either someone dumped the bodies into the bonfire during the fire ceremony, or the bodies were already hidden beneath the logs prior." Crossing her arms, she fell silent, her brow furrowed as she pondered relentlessly.

"Look like you need a cup of coffee, officer. Or would you like tea?" The kind shop owner asked. 

"Oh, is your shop open?" Suzuki asked, a hint of surprise in her voice as she took a few steps back to glance at the shop's nameplate. It read 'Yoko Sweet Shop', with a "Closed" sign hanging just beneath it.

"Fufufu, you really look like you could use a cup or two, officer. That's fine... I'll make one just for you," the shop lady cooed, her voice as sweet and gentle as a lullaby.

It wasn't as if much persuasion was needed — Suzuki's resolve had already crumbled. The desperate longing for a hot drink to chase away her fatigue had been written all over her face. 

"If that's not bothering you too much, may I have a cup of hot green tea?" Suzuki asked politely and smiled as she felt as though her fuzziness had already dissipated.

The officer was sitting in the closed shop at one of the empty tables. She casually sipped a hot of sweet green tea while staring at her crimson notebook.

"There was no point in racking my brains about it now, I need to talk to people more, more evidence, more description, anything..."

"Maybe the monks and their abbot need to be reeled for questioning. How do we do this again? Do we need a warrant for this? I might need to ask Senior Nagoya for permission." Her murmuring was quite buzzing around her like flying mosquitos. 

"Yoko-san! Good morning!" The young boy greeted the owner, stepping into the store. He was a fit young boy in a white tee shirt and jeans. His cinnamon-brown eyes met with the female officer's when she was enjoying her tea. "Eh? Are we open today?" Shouichi turned to ask the shop lady, Yoko. 

"Good morning, Shouichi-kun. Actually no, but I offered the officer some tea and a place to rest for now," Yoko answered gleefully.

"Haha, got it, got it." Shouichi started to stack multiple cartons and carried them out with ease. Suzuki was still adsorbed in her thoughts, not noticing a kid. 

After a while, the boy came back to pick up the chairs and tables next to her, it looked like they were demobilising the stall. 

"Oh, sorry. I'll finish my tea now." Suzuki considerately told the boy, her tone softened.

"Umm... I can do that one last. So no worry, officer." Shouichi answered with a smile, "Enjoy your drink, officer!"

That was when Suzuki finally got a clear look at his face, framed by the kindest smile she had seen in a while. The boy bore a striking resemblance to the shop owner, Yoko. His graphite-black hair fell in soft, long bangs, perfectly complementing his pretty, almost feminine features. But it was his eyes that truly captivated her — dazzling cinnamon-brown, framed by long lashes and delicate double eyelids, like the crown jewel of his visage.

They were full of life and an undeniable gentleness, radiating warmth. Suzuki felt her heart skip a beat, an unexpected flutter rising in her chest as she stared into those gorgeous, enchanting eyes.

"Oh… My… God…" Suzuki murmured softly, her voice barely audible as if the words had slipped out on their own. One hand instinctively rested on her chest, her fingers grazing over her uniform, rubbing at the faint, burning sensation that seemed to blossom there.

"Are you alright, Officer?" Shouichi asked her, worried. 

"Oh, sorry. Hahaha." Suzuki chuckled sheepishly like a little girl who just met her sweetheart for the first time. Soon, she shook the thought out of her head, this didn't seem ethical. 

"Ahem... I'm Officer Akiyama Suzuki, batch 077… Nice to meet you!" Suzuki introduced herself out of nowhere, slightly hot on her face. "What am I doing? Why did I just introduce myself to him? Ugh, I got no tact at all." She cursed at herself, and embarrassment rose in her mind.

"Oh, my name is Seito Shouichi. It's nice to meet you, officer," Shouichi said with a polite bow before turning his attention back to his task. He began stacking the chairs methodically, arranging them into a neat, organised pile.

Suzuki gathered herself, getting back to her main objective, "Excuse me? May I ask if you watched the fire ceremony last night? Especially, when they lit the bonfire?"

Meanwhile, Yoko was packing items on the counter, eavesdropping them attentively.

"Oh, yes. I have actually. What happened?" Shouichi replied, returning a clueless, blank stare.

"So we found human remains in the ashes this morning…" Suzuki clarified, consistent in her tone.

"Human remains?! B~bone?" Shouichi stammered, disbelief in his eyes.

"Mmm, mmm... Did you happen to see anything strange at all?" 

"W~well... Let me think… Oh! I think after about an hour into the ceremony, we saw the monks dumping large bags into the flame," He answered nonchalantly as if the last night's memory had come to him vividly.

"Really?" 

"Really, we thought they were bags of charcoal at first but they were really long. Like cadaver pouches." He added. 

"You said "we", so there was someone else with you?" She questioned intriguingly and stepped closer to him.

"Despite those sweats from labouring, he smells really nice..." Her intrusive thought slipped out after she caught a good whiff of his aroma. 

"Yes! It's my friends. Morimura Ayane and Ishikawa Misaki…" He answered earnestly.

"Ayane-chan?" Suzuki repeated, raising an eyebrow in surprise. 

"Yes, you know her?" Shouichi asked, cocking his head to the side. 

"Kind of, she's my distant relative," Suzuki explained with her hands. 

"Hahaha, what a coincidence!" He giggled cheerfully. 

"Well, mind if I get your contact details? I might need to call you in later for the statement." Suzuki requested firmly, maintaining her authoritative stance. 

"I guess that's fine…" He pulled out his phone and showed his numbers. Naturally, Suzuki scribbled it down into her notebook. 

"Thank you! I'll ask Ayane-chan to confirm the details of the event." Her black eyes brightened up with hope yet again. The officer shuffled about like she was ready to leave. 

"Thank you for your kind hospitality, Seito-san and Yamamoto-san." She bowed gracefully before exiting the store. 

"My, my... That Officer is quite a lewd lady, the way she looked at Shou-kun…" Yoko, who had been speculating the whole conversation, kneaded her own cheeks with both palms. 

"Yoko-san, this needs to go where?" Her son turned to ask her while packing the supplies. "Huh?... Oh, that just went into that box over there." Yoko snapped back to reality and smiled at her helper.

"Thank you so much, Shou-kun. You are a big help!" Yoko praised the boy loudly. 

***

 "What!? We can't get the warrant to search the temple? Are you kidding me?" Suzuki was screaming through her phone, with pure exasperation in her tone.

"What do you mean the higher-ups said no!?" She lay on her single bed tiringly while keeping the phone tucked in her ear. 

"...Understood, Officer Nagoya." After a while, she hung up the call and tossed it gently on her bed. 

"Useless… In the end, the police couldn't do anything!" Suzuki grumbled and buried her face in her pillow and screamed out of desperation. She had never felt so powerless until today.

"The abbot of Kagehiro-jinja temple must have a really big tie to the police force… Another case left unsolved… It seems to stack up to the moon and no one cares!" She complained aloud, mostly to herself. Her volume turned out more booming than she intended.

"Shouichi… Seito…" The female officer put the back of her hand against her forehead, now wearing nothing but a white tee and black panties.

"What a beautiful boy…" She began to fantasise, her lustful thoughts ran wild as her lower abdomens felt warm and tingling hot.

"Ah… ha.... ah... " She tenderly rubbed her own thighs, caressing them erotically. The lady felt some warm thick liquid leaking out. Her fingers instinctively fondled the wonderful folds while another hand creepingly rubbed her pink nipple, it stiffened in response. The simultaneous motions gave her much greater pleasure, causing her body to tremble and squirm. 

The libido and the primal urges had taken full control, Suzuki was no longer a master of her own body for a brief intense moment.

The louder she gasped and moaned, the greater she was to the peak of Mt. Everest of pure indulgent euphoria. 

"Ahhhhhhhhh..." Her body shuddered vigorously as the dopamine flooded her system, filling her mind with incredible ecstasy and fulfilment. The warm desirous nectar dripped out of her private part below, straining her pastel pink bedsheet.

"Geez… I must have lost my mind…" She whispered as she wrapped her arms around her knees into a self-embrace. No matter what she did, she couldn't stop shaking out the boy she met on that day.