[Deniker]
by verloren1983
The Devil You Know
"Here's your desk..."
Hikaru stared. What was described as a "desk" was in fact a small folded table and a chair shoved into a cramped, dusty corner.
"This is a joke, right?"
Morishita raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't bitch, kid, the only reason you even got this much is because Touya Kouyo has taken an interest in you for whatever reason. You newbies usually don't get a desk till you prove you're worth the space."
He clapped an oversized but friendly hand over Hikaru's shoulder. "Don't fuck it up."
---
"So what do we know?" Hikaru asked, tapping the end of his pencil impatiently on the table. Meetings were boring as hell, especially when they were headed by the prodigal son himself, who went on forever about stuff nobody but him cared about.
"I'm getting to that, Shindou," Touya snapped. "Maybe if you would stop interrupting me every five seconds, we would be there by now."
"Maybe if you would just quit it with the boring crap and get to the point, I wouldn't interrupt," Hikaru shot back. It was only fair, really.
"I sincerely doubt that," Touya rolled his eyes, but he did turn ahead a few pages in his notes.
"The body was found around 5:30 this morning. It's the same as the last three- young woman, throat slit, signs of sexual assualt but no DNA. No prints, no weapon, nothing that could ID the murderer. The actual murder happened offsite and she was transported to the crime scene after the fact. The kanji for grave was painted on her left hip."
"What about a copy cat?"
Touya gave him a look. "It's too precise. The press doesn't have all of the details, especially not the kanji, so someone just trying to copy would've made a mistake somewhere." The implied 'And I would've caught it' hung in the air unsaid, not needing to be voiced.
"How do you know he didn't?" Hikaru asked anyway.
"I think I know how to examine a crime scene, Shindou."
"Yeah, but what if you missed something?"
The room was deathly silent as Touya gave Hikaru his best 'I'm going to destroy you for that' look. "I didn't."
"But-"
"That's enough, Shindou. I trust there aren't any other inane questions before I continue."
Touya was answered with more silence, so he continued on, something about how all of the murders were within a certain radius of each other or something, Hikaru was no longer listening. Touya looked like hell. He was still neater than most of the guys at the station, but his normally crisp clothes looked rumpled as if he'd slept in them and there were dark circles under his eyes. Touya may have known how to examine a crime scene, but everybody could see that he was exhausted. An exhausted Touya was bound to be a sloppy Touya, not to mention an utterly unbearable to work with Touya.
"Shindou."
Hikaru snapped out of his thoughts to realize that everyone else had left except him and Touya.
"I don't understand you," Touya said, pausing in gathering his paperwork to stare at him. "You bitch because I'm taking too long, but then when I oblige you, you space out for the rest of the meeting."
"Was it really that obvious?"
Another Touya look. "You're always that obvious."
"Am not."
"Are. Why do you think you never get any undercover assignments?"
"I could do it!"
"Right. Don't you have work to do? And a desk to get back to?" Touya asked, smirking a bit. Touya, of course, had a REAL desk, being the Chief's son and a genius and all. Hikaru's biggest comfort was that at least he didn't have an office.
"Shut up."
"You have other cases, Shindou. There are many capable detectives working on this in the meantime. I assure you that you will know if something happens."
"Are you sure you can handle this, Touya?"
Touya bristled. "Of course I can."
"Because you look like shit," Hikaru continued. "I know this is the first big case you've been totally responsible for, but maybe this is too much-"
"It is not too much!"
"No offense, but we're up to four dead girls now."
Touya very visibly flinched. "I know that! I know that the longer it takes to find this guy, the more innocent people are going to die. All the more reason for you to get off your ass and finish your other work so you can help. Unless a few missing pets are too complicated for you?"
"Like hell," Hikaru answered, standing up. "We'll see who solves this thing first!"
"You're on."
---
Hikaru needed to seriously unwind after he got out of work- he often did, recently. It had been a very long week since that meeting, a week which had brought yet another murder. The public was freaking out and things at work were stressed to the max. They were all under pressure to catch the culprit, or else.
He walked into the familiar gay club and sighed in relief. This was exactly what he needed, a few drinks just to take the edge off. It was crowded, not unusual for a Saturday night, and when he finally got a beer he gravitated to the side. Hikaru suddenly wished Waya was along, just for the company, but he knew it was better that he was alone. They tended to fool around when drunk, and now that Waya and Isumi had finally gotten a clue, well... Hikaru had no desire to screw that up, that was for sure.
After getting progressively more beer, he started looking around. Not that it did much good, really, it was darker than hell and the strobe lights didn't help. He was surprised, therefore, when he felt someone brush up against his side. Usually standing against the wall prevented such things. Still, he put it off as an accident and didn't think any more about it.
And then there was a mouth on his neck and a hand on his chest. Well then.
He still couldn't see a damn thing, especially with the alcohol in his system, but it felt nice, so did it really matter? It had been a long time since he'd been with someone. Ridiculously long. Hikaru grabbed where he thought an arm was and pulled, forcing the other person to fall against him. Slim, Hikaru noted, and definitely male, which was always good to know, as there was no shortage of straight women there. He was maybe slightly taller than Hikaru was. He put a hand at the back of the his neck. Pony tail. He used the hand at the man's neck to pull him in for a kiss. Hikaru loved kissing. It was kind of weird, but awesome at the same time. He could taste alcohol, some kind of fruity thing, which wasn't really that big of a surprise somehow. The music was so loud you couldn't even hear it that well, you just felt the beats thumping through your body. Hikaru went along with it, grinding against answering hips. After a few moments he pulled on the rubber band holding back the other man's hair and slid his fingers through it. Like this, Hikaru could almost pretend...
Hikaru moaned and arched his back. That was a dangerous train of thought, right there.
The stranger was relentless, though. His head had fallen forward to lean on Hikaru's shoulder, but sideways to suck on his neck. Hikaru thought he should probably tell him to stop, but he couldn't really bring himself to care. Maybe Touya would see the mark in the morning, and...
And what, be jealous? Berate him for getting laid instead of working 24/7, more like. He shook his head at himself and renewed his efforts, and he felt rather than heard the other man cry out in response, shuddering against him. Then he was coming too, and before he could even regain his bearings, the other man was gone, like he'd never been there at all.
Hikaru shook his head. "I'm going insane."
---
When Hikaru woke up, the sun was shining cheerfully through his window, laser beaming directly into his eyes. He groaned and threw one of his pillows at it. Then he realized his phone was ringing.
"What?" he grumbled in answer. His voice was thick and scratchy with sleep.
"Where the hell are you?" Waya yelled. Hikaru groaned again, wincing, and held the phone away from his ear a bit.
"Sleeping like a normal person, where the hell do you think I am first thing in the morning?"
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HERE A HALF HOUR AGO, YOU ASSHOLE!"
"What?!" he shrieked and looked at the clock- sure enough, it was just after 8:30. He sprang out of bed and rooted around for clothes that were halfway clean. "Shit!"
"Morishita-sensei is pissed. Come in with coffee. And donuts."
"I'm not your errand boy, Waya."
"Do you want to get fired or not? Just saying. Take some aspirin and get your ass here."
Hikaru blinked at the phone. "How did you-"
"You only oversleep after you were drinking," Waya responded. Hikaru could've sworn he heard a smile in there. "Get in here. Don't forget the coffee and donuts."
"Yeah, yeah."
---
Pissed, as it turned out, didn't even begin to cover it. Hikaru came in juggling coffee and donuts and Morishita simply scowled at him.
"If you're trying to butter me up, kid, it's not going to work," he growled, though notably he did take a cup of coffee out of the tray. "I'll yell at you later, we've been waiting. Get your ass in the meeting room. Now."
Hikaru scurried in and put the goodies on the table, where it was promptly decended upon by the vultures already sitting there.
"It's about time," Touya snorted.
Hikaru turned to look at him and he rolled his eyes. "Morning, Touya."
Touya had looked a little green, but he paled when he saw Hikaru, eyes wide.
"You okay, Touya?"
"I... I'm fine," he said, not quite looking at Hikaru.
"Uh, okay..." Hikaru frowned, but let it go. What else was he supposed to say, really?
Of course, that was when Waya, whining about there not being any more jelly donuts, looked up at Hikaru and started cracking up.
"What?" he asked, startled. To his horror, this brought everyone else's attention to him, and after startled moments of their own, they all seemed to give him a knowing grin. It creeped him the hell out.
"So that's why you were late," Waya snickered.
"What are you on about?"
"You know, I'm glad you've finally gotten laid, but can't you set an alarm for the morning or something? Sitting here waiting kinda sucked, and Touya insisted we couldn't start without you."
"Wh--" Hikaru started, but then quite suddenly remembered about the hickey and flushed. Oh, shit.
"Speaking of which, we need to start," Touya said. "It's gotten late enough as it is, and Shindou's love life is not an appropriate discussion topic."
Hikaru snorted. No, of course it wasn't, for Touya. Still, he appreciated not being questioned about it right then. While there were a few people who knew about his preferences, he certainly wasn't out and proud at work, and he kind of wanted to avoid talking about it altogether.
Touya launched into the meeting, and from what Hikaru could figure, nothing had changed in the case.
"So basically," he interrupted. "Nothing's changed."
"Shindou!"
"He's right," Waya said. "Why did the village idiot have to be here if you don't have anything new to tell us?"
Touya flushed. "It's proper procedure!"
"We could've been done with this meeting forever ago," Waya snorted. "Jeez, Touya. Get the stick out of your ass, will you? Some of us have jobs to do."
Touya's eyes flashed, and he was clearly about to say something scathing in exchange, except the door opened. A middle aged man Hikaru didn't know by name poked his head in, and everyone turned toward him.
"We've got another one."
---
He and Touya shared a car on the way to the crime scene. It felt awkward, somehow, and Hikaru wasn't sure how to fix it. The ride was spent in silence.
Once they arrived at the park, though, it was game on. Touya instantly went into take charge mode and started ordering people around, so Hikaru figured he could look for actual clues, starting on the fringes and working his way in towards where the body was. This wasn't where the girl died. There were tire marks that needed to be analyzed, though they were definitely tires from a small car; foot prints from rubber boots, probably size 26 or so. When Hikaru was taking a closer look at the trail of blood marking the trip from the car to where the body ended up, he felt someone stand next to him.
"Morning, Shindou."
Hikaru smiled. "Hey, Isumi-san."
"So what do you think?"
"I've only been here a few minutes, but..." he paused, frowning, and stood up from where he'd been squatting. "It's sloppy."
"Sloppy?"
"Yeah. This isn't how our guy works. I mean, it is, but it isn't. He normally has a lot more control over his crime scenes than this."
Isumi was looking at him thoughtfully. "Hmm. Probably not the same person then, or a bad copy cat."
"No, it's definitely the same guy," Hikaru said, trying to muddle through his confused thoughts. "I don't know why. Just a feeling, I guess. I think we found the bodies out of order."
"You think this is the first one?" Isumi concluded.
"Maybe. We'll have to see what the coroner says, though."
"Fair enough."
They continued to examine the scene, only talking when case specific, otherwise they were comfortably quiet. It used to unnerve Hikaru, quiet like this, but it was nice sometimes. Isumi didn't feel the need to fill the air with words. He spent a lot of time in his own head, which Hikaru could understand. He pointed some things out, too, that Hikaru had overlooked.
It was a small area, as it was just the dropping off site, so it didn't take long for them to reach the body.
"So?" Hikaru asked Touya.
"Time of death is impossible to tell without an autopsy, but I'd guess she's been here a while. It's been so cold that people haven't really been coming here, and even if they did, they wouldn't notice a smell. Obviously strangled. There's signs of sexual assault. We can't find prints, hair, anything," Touya said, then paused. "The kanji was on her hip."
The wheels in Hikaru's mind were working furiously. "It wasn't planned," he said, and Touya stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Look. It's the same guy, right? It has to be."
Touya nodded. "Agreed."
"Knew you would," Hikaru smiled. "But this is different. I was telling Isumi before that it was sloppy. Maybe it was the first one. It seems like it was an impulsive thing, it's not as controlled as the others."
"He probably knew her."
"Maybe a girlfriend or a co-worker?" Hikaru said. "We got an ID?"
"Nakasato Kumiko. 19 years old."
"Or a classmate. If she's 19, she's probably in college," Isumi pointed out.
Touya shook his head. "There's a school ID in her wallet, but she went to Otsuma."
"Whoever said the perp was a man?" Isumi continued. "Yeah, it's rare, but women can be serial killers. We've never found any kind of DNA. The rapes could've happened with some kind of implement."
"...point," Touya conceeded, looking a bit impressed despite himself. "Fine, we'll look into it. In the meantime, someone needs to inform the family and ask them some questions. Isumi, you should probably do that, you're more sensitive to those things."
Isumi grinned. "Sure."
---
It turned out that they were right- the body had been there a while, chronologically the first of the string of murders that had hit Tokyo. The public was in a panic. All of the victims were young women, so girls were encouraged to stay home whenever possible and to travel in large groups when it wasn't. Nakasato Kumiko turned out to be a dead end. They couldn't figure out what linked her to the killer, or why he would've chosen to strangle her instead of slicing her neck open like the others. Hikaru didn't even know WHY he was so convinced that it was the same person, except for a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. None of it made any sense and Hikaru felt utterly lost.
Which was how he ended up back at the bar a couple of nights later.
Hikaru leaned against the dark corner he'd chosen with a sigh, taking a drink out of his beer happily. Oh, alcohol. He was starting to understand how alcoholism was so rampant at the station. He always knew it was a difficult line of work, but somehow he'd never expected this. Things like this didn't really happen in Japan.
Many beers later, he was eventually distracted from those dark thoughts by a body leaning against his. He knew right away it was the same man from before, though again, he couldn't make anything else out through the darkness and the haze of alcohol. The man didn't do anything much at first, just wrapped his arms around Hikaru's neck and leaned against him for a few moments, his face buried into Hikaru's shoulder. It was almost as if he just needed a hug or something. Then he moved to Hikaru's side and Hikaru felt the hand rubbing against the front of his jeans.
"Yes," he hissed, arching his hips forward.
The stranger could take a hint, at least. Hikaru was suddenly very appreciative of the fact that he wore his jeans a little big, because that meant that the hand slid inside them easily, which meant that the long fingers wrapped around his cock all that much sooner. It started slow, exploring almost tentatively. Hikaru had no patience for that kind of thing. He bit at where the other man's neck met his jaw to demonstrate his frustration, and he heard a groan and the hand started jerking him off roughly.
"Fuck yeah," Hikaru moaned, which seemed to be adequate encouragement. There was a hardness at his hip where the guy was thrusting against him and panting on his neck, and that was kind of hot. He did a sort of twisting motion that had Hikaru seeing stars. He cried out as he came, vaguely hearing the other man let out a cry of his own seconds later, and then they clung to each other like they were holding each other up. They may have been.
"Come home with me," Hikaru murmured. He didn't know why he said it, really, he didn't even know this guy. Maybe he could blame it on the alcohol later.
The stranger pulled away a fraction. Hikaru had the impression of dark, frightened eyes, like the proverbial deer in headlights. Then he was gone.
Hikaru moaned, and this time not in pleasure. "Fuck."
---
He woke up, once again, to his phone ringing. Hikaru hissed at it and grabbed the offending object.
"Fuck you, Waya, I have the day off," he growled into the phone.
Waya laughed on the other end of the line. "I know, which is why I'm calling you. Keeping you up to date on the station gossip and all."
"It couldn't wait?" Hikaru whined.
"It's almost noon, you lazy ass."
"...oh."
"Get the hell out of bed, Shindou. God. Do Isumi and I need to stage an intervention?"
"No. Jeez."
"Anyway," Waya said, barely even listening to the answer. "Guess who came into work this morning with a bite on his jaw?"
"Waya, I really don't care."
"You sure~?"
"Should I?"
"You always have when it came to annoying, self centered, egotistical prettyboys."
Hikaru blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Touya, you idiot!"
More blinking. "What?"
Waya sighed heavily into Hikaru's ear. "Jesus, Shindou, this is dumb even for you. Touya came in today with a love bite on him."
"That's..." Hikaru started. His stomach rolled with jealousy. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Yeah, that was kind of my reaction too. Who wants to think about Touya having sex?" Hikaru could almost hear the shudder over the phone. "Except you. Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah. I mean. He's an adult, right? He can do what he wants."
"Or who he wants."
"Shut up, Waya."
"Sorry."
There were a few seconds of silence. Then-
"But you're getting laid now, right? What's he like, by the way? I didn't get to ask you before."
"He's nobody. Some guy at a club."
Some guy that he could pretend was Touya, Hikaru's brain mentally added. He cringed at the thought.
"Huh. That's not like you."
"Maybe I'm tired of waiting. Maybe I want what you and Isumi have."
"Only thing you're going to get that way is an STD," Waya murmured. "Just saying."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Mom."
"Asshole. Anytime."
---
Hikaru thought about going back to the bar, but eventually decided against it. He'd probably chased the mystery guy away anyway. What the hell had he been thinking? It was, therefore, bright and early the next morning that it was back to work as usual. He didn't see Touya at first. It was just as well, as he was still a low level lackey, despite whatever opinion anyone else had of him, and so he had other really boring stuff on his "desk" to work on before he got involved in anything else. Eventually, though, the inevitable happened, and when it did, Hikaru stopped dead in his tracks.
"Shindou?" Touya asked, looking wide eyed and confused. "Are you alright?"
Hikaru continued to stare. Right there, EXACTLY where Hikaru knew for a fact he bit the guy at the bar, was a bite mark. "No way."
"Shindou. Is there a problem?"
"Er. No."
Touya looked like he didn't quite believe him. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah. It's fine."
"Alright," he said. Touya shook his head at him and walked away.
Hikaru's head spun. There was no way. Was there?
'Why not?' a voice in his head asked. It sounded suspiciously like Waya. Except it was ridiculous, wasn't it? He'd know if it was Touya, right? And if it was Touya, why the hell did he keep running off? It didn't make any sense. Then again, very little in his life made sense these days.
He sighed and got back to work.
---
Later that day, they were in yet another meeting. This time it wasn't so much looking for clues per se as trying to figure out what the killer was like. A more in depth profile, Touya said, would help them catch him. Hikaru thought it was a waste of time. They'd already been through all this.
"He could be out there killing some other girl RIGHT NOW while we're in here trying to figure out what his damn blood type is," he growled.
"Don't be ridiculous, Shindou, we can't possibly get that detailed. We're just trying to maybe find a pattern. Maybe we can get to him before he kills someone else."
"Because we haven't already gone over all this a million times already? We KNOW what he's like. He's a psychopathic control freak with serious issues."
"Shindou. Sit down," Touya snapped.
Hikaru stuck his tongue out, but sat down anyway. They proceeded to go over the same crap they'd been going over for weeks. Ad nauseum. Organized, intelligent, really anal about his crime scenes, motivation probably having something to do with control or domination, probably had killed before and seemed normal enough to slide under the radar. Hikaru was banging his head on the table by the time they were halfway through, despite the fact that Touya kept shooting death glares in his direction. A brutal hour and a half later, they were interupted by the door opening.
"Thank god," Hikaru said to the table. He heard Waya chuckle next to him.
"Do you mind if I sit in for a while?" a voice asked, and Hikaru immediately recognized it as belonging to Touya Kouyo. His head shot up.
"Of course not," the younger Touya said. "By all means."
Touya Kouyo nodded and sat down. His presence seemed to unnerve everyone a bit, except for Isumi who appeared calmly unaffected by it all as usual, and of course the man himself.
Sometime later, they were looking at a map with bright yellow marks (on Hikaru's insistence) showing where the bodies had been found. Touya Koyou frowned at it, tracing over them with a finger. He looked contemplative as he did this, and no one spoke, no one daring to interupt that train of thought.
"Have you come up with a pattern?" the man asked.
Touya sighed. "We're sure there is one, we're just unaware of what it is at this point."
His father picked up the yellow highlighter off the table and started drawing on the map. Had it been anyone else, there would've been a lot of yelling, but Touya Kouyo could naturally do whatever he wanted. When he was done, he put the highlighter down, and everyone crowded around to look.
"It doesn't mean anything," Waya scowled, clearly disappointed. Hikaru couldn't make heads or tails of it, either, but Touya had gone white.
"Shit," he breathed.
"What?" Hikaru demanded.
"It's an incomplete kanji," Touya said. He picked up the highlighter his father had abandoned and put a final mark on the top. Hikaru mentally kicked himself. It was so obvious now- the kanji for grave that they'd been seeing over and over again. "That's either the next area we'll find a body, or it's where the perp's been setting up. I can't believe we didn't see it before, he's been telling us all along."
"It's like he wants to get caught," Hikaru snorted.
"What criminal wants to get caught?" Isumi asked. "Maybe he's bored and he's playing some kind of game. He thinks he's smarter than we are. He's testing us."
---
Unfortunately, the area that they were watching was still fairly large. Unless they got extraordinarily lucky, they weren't going to find what they were looking for right away. Also unfortunate was the fact that Hikaru was becoming more and more curious about this Touya at the bar thing. He didn't think that the mystery man/maybe possibly Touya would show up again, but it was worth a shot. Even if he made a total ass out of himself.
Right?
At least, that's what he kept telling himself when he walked into the bar yet again. He got a beer like always, but he was determined. He would only have one this time, and he would actually keep his wits about him if or when-
Oh, who the hell was he even kidding? Like his brain wouldn't short circuit with Touya touching him, drunk or not. Hikaru leaned against the wall, nursing the beer, but trying to keep a lookout at the same time.
Clubs were a lot less entertaining when you were sober, he discovered. He didn't even have anybody with him to laugh with about how lame it was, which was even more lame. There were a few people who touched him in passing- funny how he'd never noticed that before- but no one of interest, and no one lingered. After almost an hour, he sighed. He'd obviously scared the guy off and he wasn't coming back.
Damn it.
---
Despite knowing that it was pointless, he couldn't help himself- he kept going back. Morbid curiosity, he supposed, or perhaps he was just a masochist. He stayed on the sidelines as usual. He thought maybe he should give it up and join in, maybe MEET someone, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It hurt to even think about giving up on Touya, even if it might not actually be Touya.
It was a few nights later that Hikaru started making his way back towards the door, having had enough of waiting for the night. A door to his right opened that he'd never actually realized was there, and then...
Touya.
Touya's eyes widened almost comically, clearly knowing he was caught. He moved to lose himself in the crowd again, but Hikaru growled and grabbed his arm, not exactly gently, and then took out his handcuffs and slapped one on Touya before he could squirm out of his grasp. He put the other cuff on his own wrist.
"Outside."
Touya huffed and glowered a bit, but started stalking out, painfully yanking Hikaru forward with him in the process. They got a few looks, but really, it wasn't anything that out of the ordinary in the big scheme of things. Once outside, Touya crossed his arms prissily over his chest.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what? What the fuck, Touya?"
"What the... what?" Touya blinked. "Have you totally lost what little brains you have? What are you even dragging me out here for?"
"You know why!" Hikaru flailed.
"If you don't unlock these handcuffs now, Shindou, I swear to god, I will make sure you're partnered with Ochi for the rest of your life."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I can handle Ochi."
"SHINDOU!"
"What are you doing here, Touya?"
"Wha?" Touya blinked, flushing a little. "I... I wanted a drink. I'm well over the legal age, as you know, so what exactly is the problem?"
"You do know it's gay bar, right?"
The flush deepened, but Touya's eyes narrowed in self defense. "No, Shindou, I somehow missed the multitude of clues along the way," he said flatly. "Of course I know, you idiot. Are you trying to make something of it? Because you're here too, in case that fact hasn't sunk into your thick head yet."
"Oh, screw you. I'm gay, I've never pretended to be anything else."
"You have-- what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Quite suddenly, Hikaru realized this was most definitely not going to plan, and in fact was going to hell really quickly. "Nothing. It didn't mean anything. Look, this isn't why I brought you out here, if you'd calm the fuck down for two seconds."
Touya bristled even further, if it was possible, and he yanked on the handcuffs roughly. "Let me go, Shindou."
"I will, just answer one question. Did you come here for me?"
"What?" Touya's eyes widened. "Of course not."
"You know, that's funny, because someone that's an awful lot like you was really into me on a couple of different nights."
Touya paled a little and closed his eyes. "Let me out of these cuffs right now, Shindou."
"No."
Hikaru waited. Touya finally shook his head. "You weren't supposed to remember."
"I was drunk, Touya, I wasn't unconscious."
"Fine. I'm sorry. That's what this is about, isn't it? We can erase it. It never happened, if it bothers you so much."
"Why?
"Why what?"
"Why wasn't I supposed to remember? And why'd you keep running away from me?"
"Really, Shindou?" Touya snorted. It was a moment before he spoke again, and he was back to not looking at Hikaru. "Because you didn't seem to mind when you were drunk, and that was obviously the best I was going to get, so..."
"And you keep calling me the idiot," Hikaru rolled his eyes.
That got Touya looking at him again, anger in his eyes, and then Hikaru pulled on the handcuffs, pulling Touya forward towards him. The anger turned into confusion.
Hikaru kissed him.
Then it was like everything was happening at once. Somehow they ended up at Hikaru's apartment, even though he had no memory of making the trip there. Oh well. He'd figure it out later. Just then he was a little busy pressing Touya back into the mattress and pushing his shirt up. He hadn't gotten to touch, last time, it was such a rush and everything had happened so fast. He wanted to touch now.
He reached towards the handcuffs, intending to unlock them before they got too far with anything, but Touya gave him a small smile and shook his head.
"Leave it."
---
Waya was grinning at him when he came in the next morning. "They got him. Least, they think it's him."
"What, really?"
"Yep. Brought him in about four this morning. Small time guy that's no stranger to the system."
"Huh. Go figure," Hikaru said thoughtfully. "You think they'll let me see who it is?"
"Probably not."
"Where is he?"
Waya sighed. "I probably shouldn't tell you, but you'll just bitch at me till I do. Interrogation room four."
"Thanks," Hikaru grinned, already heading to interrogation room four. When he opened the door, his jaw dropped.
"Kaga?
Kaga looked up and smiled. "Hey, Shindou! How's it hangin'?"
"Pretty okay. Looks like you've been better, though," Hikaru said. Understatement of the century, probably. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised- Kaga had been getting into trouble practically his whole life, though back in junior high when they'd met it was minor stuff. Shoplifting, smoking in school, that sort of thing. Somehow the charges never seemed to stick, though. But this...
"I know, right?" he leaned back in his chair, frowning. He looked a little thinner than Hikaru remembered, and his hair maybe a touch longer, but otherwise he hadn't changed a bit. Same old Kaga. "They think I'm this Tokyo Slasher asshole. Crazy."
"So you didn't..."
"No!"
"Sorry, had to ask," Hikaru said, holding his hands up.
Kaga shrugged. "I guess. Look, we all know I'm not an upstanding citizen or anything. But I wouldn't kill anybody."
"Maim them, maybe. After you've drained their bank accounts."
"Yeah, well," Kaga smirked. "You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, you get me? I always feel bad after."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "No you don't."
"Okay, I don't. But I don't enjoy hurting people. It's not fun for me."
"I can't believe they haven't been able to keep you in prison."
Kaga laughed. "I'm just that good."
"So why do they think you're a murderer, anyway? What were you doing?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?"
"Kaga."
"Okay, okay, fine, I might've been poking around. Looking into investing in some real estate."
"At 4 am?"
"I'm a busy guy. I happened to be free at 4 am."
"I can't help you if you keep jerking me around."
"I don't remember you being this much of a pain in the ass."
"You weren't suspected of being a serial killer before, either."
"You know, this dickhead is making it a lot harder for me to work, with everyone so god damn suspicious. Now I'm taking the rap for him, too? This is bullshit."
"Then level with me."
"I was meeting a distributor, okay?"
"Drugs? Jesus, Kaga, I thought you got out of that. You said it was easier to fool little old ladies out of their retirement money."
"What can I say?" Kaga grinned. "It's what the people want, and I'm all about giving people what they want."
Hikaru snorted. "Riiight. So you were meeting this distributor. Then what?"
"Then nothing, before the guy even got there some cops jumped out of nowhere and fuckin' arrested me. At first I thought I'd been set up, but nothing happened so they can't do shit anyway."
"They arrested you just for being there?"
"They're fuckin' morons, Shindou, I'm telling you. So hey, you can talk to these idiots, right? You believe me. I know you do."
"Yeah, I do," Hikaru sighed. "But I'm just a rookie. Nobody's going to listen to me."
"I thought your boyfriend was some kind of big shot."
"He's not my--" Hikaru started, but then cut himself off when Kaga raised an eyebrow. Damn. "It's complicated."
"It always is."
"I'm not going to promise anything, but I'll try."
---
"Okay, so why the hell is Kaga Tetsuo a murder suspect? Seriously?"
"Good morning, Shindou," Touya said dryly. "For your information, we were just discussing that."
"You were?" Hikaru asked, a little thrown off by this. He'd totally expected to have to argue his way through everything and had charged into Touya Kouyo's office, guns blazing. Whoops.
"Yes. Sit down."
Hikaru sat. Along with Touya, there was also Ogata-sensei and Touya Kouyo, of course, all of whom looked rather serious.
"Like I was saying," Ogata said, glowering in Hikaru's direction. "We found him outside a warehouse that shut down a couple of years ago, right in the danger zone. We brought him in for questioning. We didn't actually arrest him. Yet."
"He says you did," Hikaru pointed out.
"We've dealt with this jerk-off before, Shindou, we all know he's a pathological liar."
"Then why are you still holding him? He didn't do it."
"He has a criminal record. The guy has more arrests than any of us can even keep track of, for god sakes."
"He's a con man and he loves what he does," Hikaru agreed. "No one's saying he's not. But he's not a killer."
"He hasn't hesitated to hurt people before. Often people who kill start off small. Who knows what he's really capbable of?"
"I know him. He's the complete oppposite of type. He's impulsive and loud and has one hell of a temper, for starters. And he's a show off. If he was our guy, he probably would've displayed the bodies right in front of the station or something. Besides, he doesn't think things through, he would've left clues all over the place."
"Are you sure you're not just seeing what you want to see because he's your friend?"
"Friend is a little bit of a strong word," Hikaru said defensively. "I went to school with him. We were friends then, but it's different now."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"Yeah, I'm sure. It's not him. The only thing he has in common with the profile is that his ego's the size of China."
"I have to agree," Touya finally said.
Hikaru snorted. "It's about damn time."
"Excuse me?" Ogata growled.
"If nothing else, we know that our killer is highly intelligent. Kaga is... clever in his own way, yes, but he's really not terribly bright. He wouldn't have been able to escape us for so long."
"His involvement in the underworld being what it is, maybe he knows something useful," Ogata responded.
"Nah. He says the murders are messing with business, he's pissed. If he knew anything, he'd tell us," Hikaru said.
Touya rolled his eyes. "For a price."
"For a price," Hikaru agreed. "But he wants this guy off the streets just as much as we do. He would've made the offer already if he had anything."
Touya Kouyo was watching them thoughtfully. "So we do not have a suspect or a witness?"
"No. But I have an idea."
---
It had been a long time since Hikaru had been in one of these places. He stood outside the door, hesitating for just a moment before pulling it open. The smell of cigarrette smoke and beer assaulted him first thing. Then, of course, there was the expected clicking of Go stones on wooden boards, not to mention the grumbling of those who'd lost. Money was exchanged- quite a bit, by the look of it. Still, that wasn't what he was there for.
"1,000 yen to play," the man at the counter said without bothering to look up. He seemed to be engrossed in something he was reading on the laptop he had set on the counter.
"Not here to play, actually. You got a minute?"
That forced him to look up out of curiosity. ".........Shindou-kun?"
Hikaru grinned. "Hey, Tsutsui-san."
Tsutsui smiled back, but it was guarded and not a little nervous. "Is this... official business or a personal visit?"
"A little of both. Can we talk here?"
The older man nodded, closing the lid of his laptop. He took a cigarette out of a pocket in his shirt and took a deep breath from it once it was lit. Hikaru hadn't known that Tsutsui smoked, though in all fairness he hadn't seen him in years. A lot had happened since then. "Yeah. The benefits of being your own boss. What can I help you with?"
"You hear about these murders lately?"
"Who hasn't?"
"They brought in Kaga last night."
Tsutsui paled, but looked away from Hikaru pointedly. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Another puff of the cigarette. "Huh."
"That's it?" Hikaru asked. "That's all you're gonna say?"
Tsutsui gave him a sideways glance. "Am I supposed to say something else?"
"I don't know. You're the one sleeping with the guy. I talked them out of arresting him, but I thought I could get some insight from you."
"That's over, Shindou-kun. It's been over. I haven't seen Kaga in over a year."
Hikaru gaped. "Seriously? You guys have been together forever, what happened?"
Tsutsui snorted and took a drag off his cigarette. "What didn't happen? I... I care about him, but I can't keep picking up the pieces over and over again. He's never going to change."
"He doesn't have anyone else."
"Why am I always the one who's supposed to feel bad?"
"Because you're the one with a conscience."
"Yeah, and that's just the problem, isn't it? I've had my conscience exploited enough for one lifetime, thanks."
"You're not an innocent either," Hikaru reminded him.
"What I do is minor in the big scheme of things. I'm not going to get executed for dabbling in some bookmaking."
Hikaru paused, looking at him seriously. He was willing enough to overlook a few things for his friends, as long as nobody got hurt, but something that serious? "...executed? Is there something I should know about, Tsutsui-san?"
"You know more than I do. If he's getting involved in these murders..."
"Nah, he's not involved. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Tsutsui snorted. "Funny how that always seems to happen."
"Do you think he would?"
"I didn't used to think so. Now... I don't know. Maybe. You said it yourself, he has no conscience."
Hikaru sighed. "Never thought you'd say something like that about anybody, much less Kaga."
"Yeah, well. You can only have your heart broken so many times before it stays broken. Right before I left, he'd gotten arrested again. It looked really serious then, like he might actually go to jail for a long time. I was so worried about him, and he didn't even... he didn't care, one way or another. He never noticed how it tore me up every time I got a phone call from him to pick him up from jail, again. I couldn't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore."
"You're still bookkeping, though."
A shrug. "Apartments in Tokyo are expensive. Besides, that's where most of my customers come from. If I stopped, I'd lose the Salon. It doesn't matter that I started because of him, it doesn't matter how I feel about it personally, I need the income."
It was a fair point. Most of Hikaru's paycheck went directly to his landlord for what was more or less a closet.
"Was that it?" Tsutsui continued. "I need to close soon."
"Just one more thing... have you noticed anything weird?"
"Weird like what?"
"Rumors, new people coming in spending a lot of money, anything. We're dying here, Tsutsui-san. We've got some clues, but it's not enough. If we don't catch this asshole soon... I don't even want to think about what's going to happen."
The entire force would be wiped out and replaced, probably. Aside from girls continuing to die. Tsutsui frowned thoughtfully as he went through memories, trying to think of anything that could be useful.
"I don't know, not a lot of that kind of thing goes on here, it's not that kind of place. I get a lot of small time types in here, but nothing like what you're looking for," he said. He paused, thinking some more. "The only thing I can think of that's weird is this old office building. It's been abandoned for ages. There's rumors it's haunted and they can't sell it."
"What about it?"
"I've heard that the lights have been on some nights lately. People attribute it to the ghosts. It's probably just kids or something, but... maybe it's something you can use?"
Hikaru grinned. "Worth a shot. Got an address?"
---
He had every intention of following through with that lead later on that night- especially after discovering that the office was definitely within the bounds of the search area- but first he had to eat, and it felt like it had been forever since he'd gotten to hang out with Waya and Isumi. The lights only came on late at night, anyway. He had time.
"So, you and Touya, huh?" Waya asked before plopping himself on the floor cushion next to Hikaru, ruffling his hair as he went. Waya didn't have furniture, he had strategically placed cushions. Not that Hikaru could really talk, his place was only marginally better, and even that was because his mother had donated a few pieces. "It's about damn time."
"I thought you hated him?"
"I do. But you don't. You're my best friend, I want you to be happy, and if it has to be him, well... then that's great," Waya said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.
Maybe it was. Hikaru smiled. "Thanks."
"I guess this means I have to start being nice to the guy."
"Nobody expects that much from you."
Waya snorted and flung a spare cushion at him. "Like you should talk. You and Touya use fighting as some kind of weird foreplay."
"We do not."
Waya gave him a look.
"Okay, maybe we do, a little."
Hikaru, thankfully, was spared Waya's response by Isumi walking in with several bags. Waya instantly lit up and stood to relieve his boyfriend of some of the weight, kissing him as he did so.
"Hey. Smells good, what did you get?"
"Little bit of everything for the two bottomless pits," Isumi smiled. There wasn't a kitchen or anything in Waya's tiny apartment, so they just dropped the bags on the floor.
They promptly dug into the bags, finding that as promised, there were all varieties of delicious sushi. Waya grinned.
"You're the best," he told Isumi, and kissed him again. This time, it lingered a little too long for Hikaru's comfort. Hikaru cleared his throat loudly.
"Uh, guys? Still here."
Waya at least had the decency to blush. "Er. Sorry, Shindou." Isumi's expression was unreadable, but he nodded in agreement.
"Okay, so you and Touya finally, finally got your shit together. What else has been going on?"
"Wait, what?" Isumi interrupted, giving Hikaru a thoughtful look. "Really? When did that happen?"
"Last night."
"Hmm. Well, good for you. We were starting to wonder if it was ever going to happen."
Hikaru smiled. "Thanks, Isumi-san."
"So? What else did I miss?" Waya asked in between bites of sushi.
"Not much, you know none of us really have time for much besides work right now."
"Oh yeah, speaking of which, so what happened to that old friend of yours from this morning, that Kaga guy?"
Word had gotten around the station about Kaga being an old friend, apparently. Bunch of gossips. Hikaru sighed. "False alarm. Not him."
"Figures. Not that I want it to be a buddy of yours, but... oh, you know what I mean. It would've been nice if it was over."
"Waya," Isumi chided softly, but he was smiling.
"I'm working on it," Hikaru promised. He was tempted to tell them about the tip Tsutsui had given him, but he thought he might keep that one to himself for now. There would be no harm in checking it out first, just in case it really was some kids or something. The last thing they all needed was yet another dead end.
"Oh god, please don't tell me you and Touya haven't turned this into one of your rivalry things?" Waya groaned.
"We... haven't turned this into one of our rivalry things?" Hikaru parroted back dutifully.
Waya rolled his eyes. "Typical."
"What? We get things done faster that way. We motivate each other."
"Shindou, it's not a game."
There was a small noise from Isumi at this, like he'd started to add something and decided not to.
"I know that!" Hikaru flushed. "I never said it was!"
"Look, just... people are going to think we're not taking it seriously if you guys are betting on it and shit, and we're in enough hot water as it is. Just don't do anything stupid."
"It's fine, I've got this."
Waya gave him a look that quite clearly said exactly what he thought of that, but he sighed and appeared to let it go for the time being. "Hey, can you pass me that salmon?"
---
After spending a pleasant evening with his two best friends, going through the ten tons of sushi and watching terribly written zombie movies, he went home. Hikaru settled on the couch for a nap- who knows how late he'd be out. When he woke up, though, he discovered it was to light streaming through the window. He swore and jumped off the couch, then swore again as his back screamed in protest from having slept on the too soft surface. He looked at the time. Just after six. He had two hours... maybe he could scope the place out, right? He'd try again later to investigate the light-in-the-windows thing.
It took some time to find the place, purely because it was surrounded by a bunch of other buildings that looked exactly the freaking same. He stared at it for several long minutes. Nothing distinguished it from the other offices around it. Except... was that a light on the fifth floor? It was hard to tell. Maybe he was just imagining it. He hesitated briefly, habitually double checking that his gun was on him, before trying the door to the building.
It was unlocked.
Hikaru let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.
The place was totally gutted. Anything of even the smallest value had been taken a long time ago, leaving behind a whole lot of empty space on the ground floor. Finding nothing of interest, he went up the stairs to investigate the other floors. Two, three, and four were more of the same, though there were some offices to explore there. Hikaru found himself peering around corners, gun in hand, heart pounding in anticipation. It was maybe a waste of time, but he had to be sure, and he didn't really feel like getting shot this early in the morning.
His excitement grew as he climbed the stairs to the fifth floor, finally. This was what he lived for. This was what had lured him to the force, aside from Touya. Even though he hadn't been so interested in it at first when Sai had insisted on catching every bad guy ever, he soon got hooked on the adrenaline rush of it all. Was this it? He didn't know, but he couldn't wait to find out.
The top of the stairs, unfortunately, provided no cover, and the first thing that greeted him was the sound of a gunshot.
Hikaru instantly dropped to the floor on instinct, not that it would've done him much good anyway, really. When he looked up at the doorframe, he discovered the bullet lodged into the wall next to him, about five centimeters where his head had previously been. His mind reeled. Pistol. Civilians weren't allowed to carry pistols. Not that this necessarily meant that it wasn't a civvie, it just made it a whole lot harder. As far as he knew, the police didn't have this place staked out. It wasn't even on their radar. So either it was something unrelated to the case and he'd accidently stumbled on some kind of yakuza thing- it would figure- or...
Fuck.
"The next one is going to be in your skull if you don't get the fuck out of here in the next five seconds," a voice said. Male. Something about it pinged his memory, but it was a little too far away for him to be sure. "One. Two. Thr--"
"Shindou," the voice said, a touch surprised and significantly closer this time. Hikaru's head jerked up. It was a good thing he was still on the floor, because he wasn't totally sure he would've stayed that way.
"No way," he gasped. He felt like his brain had been put in a blender and turned on high. What was... what? This made no sense.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever figure it out, with you and Touya too busy panting after each other to see what's right in front of you."
Hikaru scrambled to his feet and reached for his gun. There was another gunshot, this one at Hikaru's feet.
"Don't even think about it. You don't want anyone to get hurt, do you?"
He frowned. Out of all the possible scenarios he could've thought about ahead of time, this hadn't been one of them.
"What's going on? I don't understand. Isumi-san..."
A sigh. "Oh, I see. You haven't figured anything out, you just stumbled into this accidentally. Well, that's a disappointment."
"Isumi-san! Please tell me this isn't what it looks like."
"You tell me. Take a look around. I'll wait," Isumi said. He lowered his gun, but didn't put it away.
Hikaru gave him a suspicious look, eyeing the gun, but he had to admit he was curious, though perhaps a bit sick to his stomach at this whole thing. Still, morbid curosity won out. This part of the building was cleaner than the rest. A space that saw regular use, then. Clean it may have been, but the smell of the place really got your attention. It was so strong, Hikaru wondered at the fact that he hadn't noticed it right away.
Blood. Definitely blood.
He looked back at Isumi, who was smirking at him, and moved forward. Nothing was going to happen with him just standing here. This floor actually only had one office from the look of it, so after a quick lookaround, Hikaru figured there wasn't really much of anywhere else to go. That must've been where Isumi intended him to go. As soon as he opened the door, the blood smell intensified, and Hikaru thought he was going to throw up. Laying there on the floor was a girl, probably about 20 or so, eyes open and unblinking. There was a huge dark slash across her pale throat.
"God," Hikaru murmured, swallowing thickly. There was blood everywhere, as one would expect from a crime scene like that. On a folding chair was a large knife with dried blood on it, and he wondered vaguely whether there would be any fingerprints on it to bother with. Probably not. There was an electric lamp on the same chair. So that's where the light was coming from.
"So what do you think of my project?"
Hikaru jumped, not expecting Isumi's voice so suddenly, and so close. He could feel Isumi's breath on the back of his neck.
"It's not quite done yet, but almost," Isumi continued. He obviously wasn't terribly worried about the windows with the way his gun was nudging the side of Hikaru's head. Hikaru yelped and jumped away, nearly tripping over the poor girl on the floor in the process. He turned to face Isumi, who looked almost amused as he pointed his gun at Hikaru's face.
"You're crazy," Hikaru stared. "Don't they screen people before they give them guns?"
"I'm well aware of my condition. I'm also well aware of how to hide it. You never suspected anything, did you?"
"That's sick, you know that, right?"
Isumi shrugged. "Call me names all you want, Shindou, I really couldn't care less. The real question here is, now what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't think I'm going to let you leave, do you?" Isumi smiled then, and it was nothing short of predatory. "It was stupid to come here by yourself, Shindou. Really stupid."
"But... we're friends!"
"Friends? No. I'm your friend, I suppose, if you insist. Vast and crucial difference."
Hikaru couldn't help but feel stung by this. "After all this time?"
"It was convenient."
"What about Waya?"
"You won't like what I have to say about Waya."
"Try me."
Isumi shrugged. "A means to an end. Everyone seemed to expect us to hook up, and he's attractive and I like sex, so why not? Besides. If I'm gay, then I'm not raping women, am I? It was a great cover."
"So you never really loved him?" Hikaru asked. He felt like his stomach was twisted in knots. Waya was his best friend, and this was... he could be a real jerk sometimes, but he never in a million years deserved this. No one deserved this.
"Love? Why would I love him? He's been an amusing plaything, that's all."
"He's a person, not a thing!"
"Same difference," Isumi shrugged again. "Are you done trying to distract me? I know what you're doing, Shindou. I don't know why, though, you probably didn't call for backup, so there's no one coming."
Hikaru gaped at him. "How did you-"
"I know you. You're all impulse. You thought something was wrong here, so you thought you'd just check it out quickly. You didn't even consider that you were throwing yourself into a dangerous situation."
"Besides, I'm not really trying to distract you. I'm just trying to figure out why. And how. And why."
Isumi stared at him for a few long moments. It felt like an eternity. Finally, he rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm an organized type serial killer with a control motivation brought on by childhood abuse. I killed my father when I was eleven trying to defend myself. I liked the feeling of having complete control over someone, especially since feeling something was kind of weird for me, so I continued to kill periodically when I felt that itch, needing that domination over somebody else. I've never been evaluated because I've learned how to emulate normal people, but I definitely have some level of psychopathy. Like I said, I'm well aware of my condition. Also pretty much everything you know about me before now is something I've made up. Any other questions?"
It wasn't the words that bothered Hikaru so much. Well, it was partially that, but it was mostly the deadpan of Isumi's voice, the absolute lack of emotion, that disturbed him on so deep a level he couldn't even explain it. Everything in his body was saying RUN.
"The first girl. Nakasato Kumiko. Why was she different?"
"Waya and I had just had a fight, sort of," Isumi explained. "It had been a while since I'd killed anyone and I needed the control back. I was off balance that night."
"And the rapes?"
"What I initially suggested to Touya was right. I used an implement. It was never really about the sex, that was just another form of domination. The two of you were so lost I thought I'd throw you a bone."
"We would've figured it out."
"When? You were both too involved in your eternal love rivalry bullshit to pay attention to anything else."
"Well... now."
Isumi smiled. "Now doesn't do you any good, Shindou. You're not leaving here alive and I'm bored of playing games with you. It's time to wrap this up."
Hikaru's breathing stopped as Isumi's finger started to squeeze the trigger. This was it, he was going to die here and nobody was going to know....
His heart stopped as the gun went off.
---
It took a few seconds for Hikaru to realize that in fact he was breathing now, albeit faster than was probably healthy, along with his heart beating hard in his chest. So he was alive. So what... he looked around to discover that there was a bullet sized hole in the window. Except Isumi was an excellent shot, so how...
"Shindou!"
And the voice couldn't have been anybody but Touya. Hikaru's head whipped around and there was his rival, a gun pointed at Isumi, who was in turn still pointing his at Hikaru.
"What are you.." Hikaru stared. "How did you..."
"Nevermind that," Touya rolled his eyes. His attention went back to Isumi.
"Put down the weapon or I'll shoot."
"The problem with that is that you're assuming I care," Isumi said. He sounded a little bored now. "If you shoot me, I shoot him in the head, game over."
Touya's eyes narrowed. "Not if I kill you first."
"Really? That's the best you can come up with?" Isumi asked. "How boring. I don't know why I ever thought you two might give me a run for my money."
"Or maybe I should just shoot you anyway," Touya continued.
"In that case, just do it. I could stand here all day, but I'd rather not."
"If you insist," Touya said.
"Touya!" Hikaru yelped in protest. He didn't want to be shot, dammit!
Touya pulled the trigger, and Hikaru's stomach dropped. Isumi screamed and dropped his gun- Touya had aimed at Isumi's hand, and Hikaru felt a sudden burst of gratitude for the genius that was Touya Akira. He kicked Isumi's gun away before the older man recovered and trained his own on Isumi in addition to Touya's. The knife was still within reaching distance, but Isumi couldn't really do a whole lot with that at this point.
Isumi smirked at them. "I guess the game is over, then."
---
Isumi was surprisingly subdued on the way to the station. Hikaru had been expecting... well, he didn't know, exactly, something else, but it didn't come. He'd allowed himself to be cuffed and put into the car, and when they arrived, people stared and whispered as they walked in. They probably wondered what was going on, but they'd find out sooner or later anyway. After a brief explanation, they turned him over for processing. The work was far from over, and Hikaru really, really didn't want to have the inevitable conversation with Waya, oh god, but for now, they could breathe for a minute.
"Are you okay?" Touya asked.
"Not really," Hikaru answered. "I think I would've rather had it been Kaga."
Touya snorted. "Nothing is ever that simple."
"Sometimes it is."
"....sometimes," Touya allowed after a moment.
"How'd you know, anyway?" Hikaru asked. "It's been bugging me."
"I've been following the lines of the kanji on my way to and from the station. I was going home when I saw you go in, so I followed you."
"Why didn't you tell me if you were behind me the whole time? And you almost let me get killed!"
"I didn't know what I was walking into. It was a delicate situation. Besides, you got a full confession out of him."
"You were gonna let me get shot for a confession?"
"Of course not. Everything was under control the whole time."
Hikaru snorted. "Riiight."
"In any case, you weren't shot and it turned out fine."
"I guess. Thanks for stalking me."
"I do not stalk you, Shindou!" Touya huffed indignantly.
"Sure. That's why you knew when I was at the club, that's why you knew where I was this morning even though I didn't tell anybody. I buy that. Stalker."
"Shindou!"
Hikaru's laughter echoed off of the walls of the hallway. Maybe he would be okay after all.
The Devil You Know
"Here's your desk..."
Hikaru stared. What was described as a "desk" was in fact a small folded table and a chair shoved into a cramped, dusty corner.
"This is a joke, right?"
Morishita raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't bitch, kid, the only reason you even got this much is because Touya Kouyo has taken an interest in you for whatever reason. You newbies usually don't get a desk till you prove you're worth the space."
He clapped an oversized but friendly hand over Hikaru's shoulder. "Don't fuck it up."
---
"So what do we know?" Hikaru asked, tapping the end of his pencil impatiently on the table. Meetings were boring as hell, especially when they were headed by the prodigal son himself, who went on forever about stuff nobody but him cared about.
"I'm getting to that, Shindou," Touya snapped. "Maybe if you would stop interrupting me every five seconds, we would be there by now."
"Maybe if you would just quit it with the boring crap and get to the point, I wouldn't interrupt," Hikaru shot back. It was only fair, really.
"I sincerely doubt that," Touya rolled his eyes, but he did turn ahead a few pages in his notes.
"The body was found around 5:30 this morning. It's the same as the last three- young woman, throat slit, signs of sexual assualt but no DNA. No prints, no weapon, nothing that could ID the murderer. The actual murder happened offsite and she was transported to the crime scene after the fact. The kanji for grave was painted on her left hip."
"What about a copy cat?"
Touya gave him a look. "It's too precise. The press doesn't have all of the details, especially not the kanji, so someone just trying to copy would've made a mistake somewhere." The implied 'And I would've caught it' hung in the air unsaid, not needing to be voiced.
"How do you know he didn't?" Hikaru asked anyway.
"I think I know how to examine a crime scene, Shindou."
"Yeah, but what if you missed something?"
The room was deathly silent as Touya gave Hikaru his best 'I'm going to destroy you for that' look. "I didn't."
"But-"
"That's enough, Shindou. I trust there aren't any other inane questions before I continue."
Touya was answered with more silence, so he continued on, something about how all of the murders were within a certain radius of each other or something, Hikaru was no longer listening. Touya looked like hell. He was still neater than most of the guys at the station, but his normally crisp clothes looked rumpled as if he'd slept in them and there were dark circles under his eyes. Touya may have known how to examine a crime scene, but everybody could see that he was exhausted. An exhausted Touya was bound to be a sloppy Touya, not to mention an utterly unbearable to work with Touya.
"Shindou."
Hikaru snapped out of his thoughts to realize that everyone else had left except him and Touya.
"I don't understand you," Touya said, pausing in gathering his paperwork to stare at him. "You bitch because I'm taking too long, but then when I oblige you, you space out for the rest of the meeting."
"Was it really that obvious?"
Another Touya look. "You're always that obvious."
"Am not."
"Are. Why do you think you never get any undercover assignments?"
"I could do it!"
"Right. Don't you have work to do? And a desk to get back to?" Touya asked, smirking a bit. Touya, of course, had a REAL desk, being the Chief's son and a genius and all. Hikaru's biggest comfort was that at least he didn't have an office.
"Shut up."
"You have other cases, Shindou. There are many capable detectives working on this in the meantime. I assure you that you will know if something happens."
"Are you sure you can handle this, Touya?"
Touya bristled. "Of course I can."
"Because you look like shit," Hikaru continued. "I know this is the first big case you've been totally responsible for, but maybe this is too much-"
"It is not too much!"
"No offense, but we're up to four dead girls now."
Touya very visibly flinched. "I know that! I know that the longer it takes to find this guy, the more innocent people are going to die. All the more reason for you to get off your ass and finish your other work so you can help. Unless a few missing pets are too complicated for you?"
"Like hell," Hikaru answered, standing up. "We'll see who solves this thing first!"
"You're on."
---
Hikaru needed to seriously unwind after he got out of work- he often did, recently. It had been a very long week since that meeting, a week which had brought yet another murder. The public was freaking out and things at work were stressed to the max. They were all under pressure to catch the culprit, or else.
He walked into the familiar gay club and sighed in relief. This was exactly what he needed, a few drinks just to take the edge off. It was crowded, not unusual for a Saturday night, and when he finally got a beer he gravitated to the side. Hikaru suddenly wished Waya was along, just for the company, but he knew it was better that he was alone. They tended to fool around when drunk, and now that Waya and Isumi had finally gotten a clue, well... Hikaru had no desire to screw that up, that was for sure.
After getting progressively more beer, he started looking around. Not that it did much good, really, it was darker than hell and the strobe lights didn't help. He was surprised, therefore, when he felt someone brush up against his side. Usually standing against the wall prevented such things. Still, he put it off as an accident and didn't think any more about it.
And then there was a mouth on his neck and a hand on his chest. Well then.
He still couldn't see a damn thing, especially with the alcohol in his system, but it felt nice, so did it really matter? It had been a long time since he'd been with someone. Ridiculously long. Hikaru grabbed where he thought an arm was and pulled, forcing the other person to fall against him. Slim, Hikaru noted, and definitely male, which was always good to know, as there was no shortage of straight women there. He was maybe slightly taller than Hikaru was. He put a hand at the back of the his neck. Pony tail. He used the hand at the man's neck to pull him in for a kiss. Hikaru loved kissing. It was kind of weird, but awesome at the same time. He could taste alcohol, some kind of fruity thing, which wasn't really that big of a surprise somehow. The music was so loud you couldn't even hear it that well, you just felt the beats thumping through your body. Hikaru went along with it, grinding against answering hips. After a few moments he pulled on the rubber band holding back the other man's hair and slid his fingers through it. Like this, Hikaru could almost pretend...
Hikaru moaned and arched his back. That was a dangerous train of thought, right there.
The stranger was relentless, though. His head had fallen forward to lean on Hikaru's shoulder, but sideways to suck on his neck. Hikaru thought he should probably tell him to stop, but he couldn't really bring himself to care. Maybe Touya would see the mark in the morning, and...
And what, be jealous? Berate him for getting laid instead of working 24/7, more like. He shook his head at himself and renewed his efforts, and he felt rather than heard the other man cry out in response, shuddering against him. Then he was coming too, and before he could even regain his bearings, the other man was gone, like he'd never been there at all.
Hikaru shook his head. "I'm going insane."
---
When Hikaru woke up, the sun was shining cheerfully through his window, laser beaming directly into his eyes. He groaned and threw one of his pillows at it. Then he realized his phone was ringing.
"What?" he grumbled in answer. His voice was thick and scratchy with sleep.
"Where the hell are you?" Waya yelled. Hikaru groaned again, wincing, and held the phone away from his ear a bit.
"Sleeping like a normal person, where the hell do you think I am first thing in the morning?"
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE HERE A HALF HOUR AGO, YOU ASSHOLE!"
"What?!" he shrieked and looked at the clock- sure enough, it was just after 8:30. He sprang out of bed and rooted around for clothes that were halfway clean. "Shit!"
"Morishita-sensei is pissed. Come in with coffee. And donuts."
"I'm not your errand boy, Waya."
"Do you want to get fired or not? Just saying. Take some aspirin and get your ass here."
Hikaru blinked at the phone. "How did you-"
"You only oversleep after you were drinking," Waya responded. Hikaru could've sworn he heard a smile in there. "Get in here. Don't forget the coffee and donuts."
"Yeah, yeah."
---
Pissed, as it turned out, didn't even begin to cover it. Hikaru came in juggling coffee and donuts and Morishita simply scowled at him.
"If you're trying to butter me up, kid, it's not going to work," he growled, though notably he did take a cup of coffee out of the tray. "I'll yell at you later, we've been waiting. Get your ass in the meeting room. Now."
Hikaru scurried in and put the goodies on the table, where it was promptly decended upon by the vultures already sitting there.
"It's about time," Touya snorted.
Hikaru turned to look at him and he rolled his eyes. "Morning, Touya."
Touya had looked a little green, but he paled when he saw Hikaru, eyes wide.
"You okay, Touya?"
"I... I'm fine," he said, not quite looking at Hikaru.
"Uh, okay..." Hikaru frowned, but let it go. What else was he supposed to say, really?
Of course, that was when Waya, whining about there not being any more jelly donuts, looked up at Hikaru and started cracking up.
"What?" he asked, startled. To his horror, this brought everyone else's attention to him, and after startled moments of their own, they all seemed to give him a knowing grin. It creeped him the hell out.
"So that's why you were late," Waya snickered.
"What are you on about?"
"You know, I'm glad you've finally gotten laid, but can't you set an alarm for the morning or something? Sitting here waiting kinda sucked, and Touya insisted we couldn't start without you."
"Wh--" Hikaru started, but then quite suddenly remembered about the hickey and flushed. Oh, shit.
"Speaking of which, we need to start," Touya said. "It's gotten late enough as it is, and Shindou's love life is not an appropriate discussion topic."
Hikaru snorted. No, of course it wasn't, for Touya. Still, he appreciated not being questioned about it right then. While there were a few people who knew about his preferences, he certainly wasn't out and proud at work, and he kind of wanted to avoid talking about it altogether.
Touya launched into the meeting, and from what Hikaru could figure, nothing had changed in the case.
"So basically," he interrupted. "Nothing's changed."
"Shindou!"
"He's right," Waya said. "Why did the village idiot have to be here if you don't have anything new to tell us?"
Touya flushed. "It's proper procedure!"
"We could've been done with this meeting forever ago," Waya snorted. "Jeez, Touya. Get the stick out of your ass, will you? Some of us have jobs to do."
Touya's eyes flashed, and he was clearly about to say something scathing in exchange, except the door opened. A middle aged man Hikaru didn't know by name poked his head in, and everyone turned toward him.
"We've got another one."
---
He and Touya shared a car on the way to the crime scene. It felt awkward, somehow, and Hikaru wasn't sure how to fix it. The ride was spent in silence.
Once they arrived at the park, though, it was game on. Touya instantly went into take charge mode and started ordering people around, so Hikaru figured he could look for actual clues, starting on the fringes and working his way in towards where the body was. This wasn't where the girl died. There were tire marks that needed to be analyzed, though they were definitely tires from a small car; foot prints from rubber boots, probably size 26 or so. When Hikaru was taking a closer look at the trail of blood marking the trip from the car to where the body ended up, he felt someone stand next to him.
"Morning, Shindou."
Hikaru smiled. "Hey, Isumi-san."
"So what do you think?"
"I've only been here a few minutes, but..." he paused, frowning, and stood up from where he'd been squatting. "It's sloppy."
"Sloppy?"
"Yeah. This isn't how our guy works. I mean, it is, but it isn't. He normally has a lot more control over his crime scenes than this."
Isumi was looking at him thoughtfully. "Hmm. Probably not the same person then, or a bad copy cat."
"No, it's definitely the same guy," Hikaru said, trying to muddle through his confused thoughts. "I don't know why. Just a feeling, I guess. I think we found the bodies out of order."
"You think this is the first one?" Isumi concluded.
"Maybe. We'll have to see what the coroner says, though."
"Fair enough."
They continued to examine the scene, only talking when case specific, otherwise they were comfortably quiet. It used to unnerve Hikaru, quiet like this, but it was nice sometimes. Isumi didn't feel the need to fill the air with words. He spent a lot of time in his own head, which Hikaru could understand. He pointed some things out, too, that Hikaru had overlooked.
It was a small area, as it was just the dropping off site, so it didn't take long for them to reach the body.
"So?" Hikaru asked Touya.
"Time of death is impossible to tell without an autopsy, but I'd guess she's been here a while. It's been so cold that people haven't really been coming here, and even if they did, they wouldn't notice a smell. Obviously strangled. There's signs of sexual assault. We can't find prints, hair, anything," Touya said, then paused. "The kanji was on her hip."
The wheels in Hikaru's mind were working furiously. "It wasn't planned," he said, and Touya stared at him.
"What do you mean?"
"Look. It's the same guy, right? It has to be."
Touya nodded. "Agreed."
"Knew you would," Hikaru smiled. "But this is different. I was telling Isumi before that it was sloppy. Maybe it was the first one. It seems like it was an impulsive thing, it's not as controlled as the others."
"He probably knew her."
"Maybe a girlfriend or a co-worker?" Hikaru said. "We got an ID?"
"Nakasato Kumiko. 19 years old."
"Or a classmate. If she's 19, she's probably in college," Isumi pointed out.
Touya shook his head. "There's a school ID in her wallet, but she went to Otsuma."
"Whoever said the perp was a man?" Isumi continued. "Yeah, it's rare, but women can be serial killers. We've never found any kind of DNA. The rapes could've happened with some kind of implement."
"...point," Touya conceeded, looking a bit impressed despite himself. "Fine, we'll look into it. In the meantime, someone needs to inform the family and ask them some questions. Isumi, you should probably do that, you're more sensitive to those things."
Isumi grinned. "Sure."
---
It turned out that they were right- the body had been there a while, chronologically the first of the string of murders that had hit Tokyo. The public was in a panic. All of the victims were young women, so girls were encouraged to stay home whenever possible and to travel in large groups when it wasn't. Nakasato Kumiko turned out to be a dead end. They couldn't figure out what linked her to the killer, or why he would've chosen to strangle her instead of slicing her neck open like the others. Hikaru didn't even know WHY he was so convinced that it was the same person, except for a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach. None of it made any sense and Hikaru felt utterly lost.
Which was how he ended up back at the bar a couple of nights later.
Hikaru leaned against the dark corner he'd chosen with a sigh, taking a drink out of his beer happily. Oh, alcohol. He was starting to understand how alcoholism was so rampant at the station. He always knew it was a difficult line of work, but somehow he'd never expected this. Things like this didn't really happen in Japan.
Many beers later, he was eventually distracted from those dark thoughts by a body leaning against his. He knew right away it was the same man from before, though again, he couldn't make anything else out through the darkness and the haze of alcohol. The man didn't do anything much at first, just wrapped his arms around Hikaru's neck and leaned against him for a few moments, his face buried into Hikaru's shoulder. It was almost as if he just needed a hug or something. Then he moved to Hikaru's side and Hikaru felt the hand rubbing against the front of his jeans.
"Yes," he hissed, arching his hips forward.
The stranger could take a hint, at least. Hikaru was suddenly very appreciative of the fact that he wore his jeans a little big, because that meant that the hand slid inside them easily, which meant that the long fingers wrapped around his cock all that much sooner. It started slow, exploring almost tentatively. Hikaru had no patience for that kind of thing. He bit at where the other man's neck met his jaw to demonstrate his frustration, and he heard a groan and the hand started jerking him off roughly.
"Fuck yeah," Hikaru moaned, which seemed to be adequate encouragement. There was a hardness at his hip where the guy was thrusting against him and panting on his neck, and that was kind of hot. He did a sort of twisting motion that had Hikaru seeing stars. He cried out as he came, vaguely hearing the other man let out a cry of his own seconds later, and then they clung to each other like they were holding each other up. They may have been.
"Come home with me," Hikaru murmured. He didn't know why he said it, really, he didn't even know this guy. Maybe he could blame it on the alcohol later.
The stranger pulled away a fraction. Hikaru had the impression of dark, frightened eyes, like the proverbial deer in headlights. Then he was gone.
Hikaru moaned, and this time not in pleasure. "Fuck."
---
He woke up, once again, to his phone ringing. Hikaru hissed at it and grabbed the offending object.
"Fuck you, Waya, I have the day off," he growled into the phone.
Waya laughed on the other end of the line. "I know, which is why I'm calling you. Keeping you up to date on the station gossip and all."
"It couldn't wait?" Hikaru whined.
"It's almost noon, you lazy ass."
"...oh."
"Get the hell out of bed, Shindou. God. Do Isumi and I need to stage an intervention?"
"No. Jeez."
"Anyway," Waya said, barely even listening to the answer. "Guess who came into work this morning with a bite on his jaw?"
"Waya, I really don't care."
"You sure~?"
"Should I?"
"You always have when it came to annoying, self centered, egotistical prettyboys."
Hikaru blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Touya, you idiot!"
More blinking. "What?"
Waya sighed heavily into Hikaru's ear. "Jesus, Shindou, this is dumb even for you. Touya came in today with a love bite on him."
"That's..." Hikaru started. His stomach rolled with jealousy. "I think I'm gonna be sick."
"Yeah, that was kind of my reaction too. Who wants to think about Touya having sex?" Hikaru could almost hear the shudder over the phone. "Except you. Hey, you okay?"
"Yeah. I mean. He's an adult, right? He can do what he wants."
"Or who he wants."
"Shut up, Waya."
"Sorry."
There were a few seconds of silence. Then-
"But you're getting laid now, right? What's he like, by the way? I didn't get to ask you before."
"He's nobody. Some guy at a club."
Some guy that he could pretend was Touya, Hikaru's brain mentally added. He cringed at the thought.
"Huh. That's not like you."
"Maybe I'm tired of waiting. Maybe I want what you and Isumi have."
"Only thing you're going to get that way is an STD," Waya murmured. "Just saying."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Thanks, Mom."
"Asshole. Anytime."
---
Hikaru thought about going back to the bar, but eventually decided against it. He'd probably chased the mystery guy away anyway. What the hell had he been thinking? It was, therefore, bright and early the next morning that it was back to work as usual. He didn't see Touya at first. It was just as well, as he was still a low level lackey, despite whatever opinion anyone else had of him, and so he had other really boring stuff on his "desk" to work on before he got involved in anything else. Eventually, though, the inevitable happened, and when it did, Hikaru stopped dead in his tracks.
"Shindou?" Touya asked, looking wide eyed and confused. "Are you alright?"
Hikaru continued to stare. Right there, EXACTLY where Hikaru knew for a fact he bit the guy at the bar, was a bite mark. "No way."
"Shindou. Is there a problem?"
"Er. No."
Touya looked like he didn't quite believe him. "Are you sure about that?"
"Yeah. It's fine."
"Alright," he said. Touya shook his head at him and walked away.
Hikaru's head spun. There was no way. Was there?
'Why not?' a voice in his head asked. It sounded suspiciously like Waya. Except it was ridiculous, wasn't it? He'd know if it was Touya, right? And if it was Touya, why the hell did he keep running off? It didn't make any sense. Then again, very little in his life made sense these days.
He sighed and got back to work.
---
Later that day, they were in yet another meeting. This time it wasn't so much looking for clues per se as trying to figure out what the killer was like. A more in depth profile, Touya said, would help them catch him. Hikaru thought it was a waste of time. They'd already been through all this.
"He could be out there killing some other girl RIGHT NOW while we're in here trying to figure out what his damn blood type is," he growled.
"Don't be ridiculous, Shindou, we can't possibly get that detailed. We're just trying to maybe find a pattern. Maybe we can get to him before he kills someone else."
"Because we haven't already gone over all this a million times already? We KNOW what he's like. He's a psychopathic control freak with serious issues."
"Shindou. Sit down," Touya snapped.
Hikaru stuck his tongue out, but sat down anyway. They proceeded to go over the same crap they'd been going over for weeks. Ad nauseum. Organized, intelligent, really anal about his crime scenes, motivation probably having something to do with control or domination, probably had killed before and seemed normal enough to slide under the radar. Hikaru was banging his head on the table by the time they were halfway through, despite the fact that Touya kept shooting death glares in his direction. A brutal hour and a half later, they were interupted by the door opening.
"Thank god," Hikaru said to the table. He heard Waya chuckle next to him.
"Do you mind if I sit in for a while?" a voice asked, and Hikaru immediately recognized it as belonging to Touya Kouyo. His head shot up.
"Of course not," the younger Touya said. "By all means."
Touya Kouyo nodded and sat down. His presence seemed to unnerve everyone a bit, except for Isumi who appeared calmly unaffected by it all as usual, and of course the man himself.
Sometime later, they were looking at a map with bright yellow marks (on Hikaru's insistence) showing where the bodies had been found. Touya Koyou frowned at it, tracing over them with a finger. He looked contemplative as he did this, and no one spoke, no one daring to interupt that train of thought.
"Have you come up with a pattern?" the man asked.
Touya sighed. "We're sure there is one, we're just unaware of what it is at this point."
His father picked up the yellow highlighter off the table and started drawing on the map. Had it been anyone else, there would've been a lot of yelling, but Touya Kouyo could naturally do whatever he wanted. When he was done, he put the highlighter down, and everyone crowded around to look.
"It doesn't mean anything," Waya scowled, clearly disappointed. Hikaru couldn't make heads or tails of it, either, but Touya had gone white.
"Shit," he breathed.
"What?" Hikaru demanded.
"It's an incomplete kanji," Touya said. He picked up the highlighter his father had abandoned and put a final mark on the top. Hikaru mentally kicked himself. It was so obvious now- the kanji for grave that they'd been seeing over and over again. "That's either the next area we'll find a body, or it's where the perp's been setting up. I can't believe we didn't see it before, he's been telling us all along."
"It's like he wants to get caught," Hikaru snorted.
"What criminal wants to get caught?" Isumi asked. "Maybe he's bored and he's playing some kind of game. He thinks he's smarter than we are. He's testing us."
---
Unfortunately, the area that they were watching was still fairly large. Unless they got extraordinarily lucky, they weren't going to find what they were looking for right away. Also unfortunate was the fact that Hikaru was becoming more and more curious about this Touya at the bar thing. He didn't think that the mystery man/maybe possibly Touya would show up again, but it was worth a shot. Even if he made a total ass out of himself.
Right?
At least, that's what he kept telling himself when he walked into the bar yet again. He got a beer like always, but he was determined. He would only have one this time, and he would actually keep his wits about him if or when-
Oh, who the hell was he even kidding? Like his brain wouldn't short circuit with Touya touching him, drunk or not. Hikaru leaned against the wall, nursing the beer, but trying to keep a lookout at the same time.
Clubs were a lot less entertaining when you were sober, he discovered. He didn't even have anybody with him to laugh with about how lame it was, which was even more lame. There were a few people who touched him in passing- funny how he'd never noticed that before- but no one of interest, and no one lingered. After almost an hour, he sighed. He'd obviously scared the guy off and he wasn't coming back.
Damn it.
---
Despite knowing that it was pointless, he couldn't help himself- he kept going back. Morbid curiosity, he supposed, or perhaps he was just a masochist. He stayed on the sidelines as usual. He thought maybe he should give it up and join in, maybe MEET someone, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. It hurt to even think about giving up on Touya, even if it might not actually be Touya.
It was a few nights later that Hikaru started making his way back towards the door, having had enough of waiting for the night. A door to his right opened that he'd never actually realized was there, and then...
Touya.
Touya's eyes widened almost comically, clearly knowing he was caught. He moved to lose himself in the crowd again, but Hikaru growled and grabbed his arm, not exactly gently, and then took out his handcuffs and slapped one on Touya before he could squirm out of his grasp. He put the other cuff on his own wrist.
"Outside."
Touya huffed and glowered a bit, but started stalking out, painfully yanking Hikaru forward with him in the process. They got a few looks, but really, it wasn't anything that out of the ordinary in the big scheme of things. Once outside, Touya crossed his arms prissily over his chest.
"What?"
"What do you mean, what? What the fuck, Touya?"
"What the... what?" Touya blinked. "Have you totally lost what little brains you have? What are you even dragging me out here for?"
"You know why!" Hikaru flailed.
"If you don't unlock these handcuffs now, Shindou, I swear to god, I will make sure you're partnered with Ochi for the rest of your life."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I can handle Ochi."
"SHINDOU!"
"What are you doing here, Touya?"
"Wha?" Touya blinked, flushing a little. "I... I wanted a drink. I'm well over the legal age, as you know, so what exactly is the problem?"
"You do know it's gay bar, right?"
The flush deepened, but Touya's eyes narrowed in self defense. "No, Shindou, I somehow missed the multitude of clues along the way," he said flatly. "Of course I know, you idiot. Are you trying to make something of it? Because you're here too, in case that fact hasn't sunk into your thick head yet."
"Oh, screw you. I'm gay, I've never pretended to be anything else."
"You have-- what the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Quite suddenly, Hikaru realized this was most definitely not going to plan, and in fact was going to hell really quickly. "Nothing. It didn't mean anything. Look, this isn't why I brought you out here, if you'd calm the fuck down for two seconds."
Touya bristled even further, if it was possible, and he yanked on the handcuffs roughly. "Let me go, Shindou."
"I will, just answer one question. Did you come here for me?"
"What?" Touya's eyes widened. "Of course not."
"You know, that's funny, because someone that's an awful lot like you was really into me on a couple of different nights."
Touya paled a little and closed his eyes. "Let me out of these cuffs right now, Shindou."
"No."
Hikaru waited. Touya finally shook his head. "You weren't supposed to remember."
"I was drunk, Touya, I wasn't unconscious."
"Fine. I'm sorry. That's what this is about, isn't it? We can erase it. It never happened, if it bothers you so much."
"Why?
"Why what?"
"Why wasn't I supposed to remember? And why'd you keep running away from me?"
"Really, Shindou?" Touya snorted. It was a moment before he spoke again, and he was back to not looking at Hikaru. "Because you didn't seem to mind when you were drunk, and that was obviously the best I was going to get, so..."
"And you keep calling me the idiot," Hikaru rolled his eyes.
That got Touya looking at him again, anger in his eyes, and then Hikaru pulled on the handcuffs, pulling Touya forward towards him. The anger turned into confusion.
Hikaru kissed him.
Then it was like everything was happening at once. Somehow they ended up at Hikaru's apartment, even though he had no memory of making the trip there. Oh well. He'd figure it out later. Just then he was a little busy pressing Touya back into the mattress and pushing his shirt up. He hadn't gotten to touch, last time, it was such a rush and everything had happened so fast. He wanted to touch now.
He reached towards the handcuffs, intending to unlock them before they got too far with anything, but Touya gave him a small smile and shook his head.
"Leave it."
---
Waya was grinning at him when he came in the next morning. "They got him. Least, they think it's him."
"What, really?"
"Yep. Brought him in about four this morning. Small time guy that's no stranger to the system."
"Huh. Go figure," Hikaru said thoughtfully. "You think they'll let me see who it is?"
"Probably not."
"Where is he?"
Waya sighed. "I probably shouldn't tell you, but you'll just bitch at me till I do. Interrogation room four."
"Thanks," Hikaru grinned, already heading to interrogation room four. When he opened the door, his jaw dropped.
"Kaga?
Kaga looked up and smiled. "Hey, Shindou! How's it hangin'?"
"Pretty okay. Looks like you've been better, though," Hikaru said. Understatement of the century, probably. He supposed he shouldn't have been surprised- Kaga had been getting into trouble practically his whole life, though back in junior high when they'd met it was minor stuff. Shoplifting, smoking in school, that sort of thing. Somehow the charges never seemed to stick, though. But this...
"I know, right?" he leaned back in his chair, frowning. He looked a little thinner than Hikaru remembered, and his hair maybe a touch longer, but otherwise he hadn't changed a bit. Same old Kaga. "They think I'm this Tokyo Slasher asshole. Crazy."
"So you didn't..."
"No!"
"Sorry, had to ask," Hikaru said, holding his hands up.
Kaga shrugged. "I guess. Look, we all know I'm not an upstanding citizen or anything. But I wouldn't kill anybody."
"Maim them, maybe. After you've drained their bank accounts."
"Yeah, well," Kaga smirked. "You gotta do what you gotta do sometimes, you get me? I always feel bad after."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "No you don't."
"Okay, I don't. But I don't enjoy hurting people. It's not fun for me."
"I can't believe they haven't been able to keep you in prison."
Kaga laughed. "I'm just that good."
"So why do they think you're a murderer, anyway? What were you doing?"
"How the hell am I supposed to know?"
"Kaga."
"Okay, okay, fine, I might've been poking around. Looking into investing in some real estate."
"At 4 am?"
"I'm a busy guy. I happened to be free at 4 am."
"I can't help you if you keep jerking me around."
"I don't remember you being this much of a pain in the ass."
"You weren't suspected of being a serial killer before, either."
"You know, this dickhead is making it a lot harder for me to work, with everyone so god damn suspicious. Now I'm taking the rap for him, too? This is bullshit."
"Then level with me."
"I was meeting a distributor, okay?"
"Drugs? Jesus, Kaga, I thought you got out of that. You said it was easier to fool little old ladies out of their retirement money."
"What can I say?" Kaga grinned. "It's what the people want, and I'm all about giving people what they want."
Hikaru snorted. "Riiight. So you were meeting this distributor. Then what?"
"Then nothing, before the guy even got there some cops jumped out of nowhere and fuckin' arrested me. At first I thought I'd been set up, but nothing happened so they can't do shit anyway."
"They arrested you just for being there?"
"They're fuckin' morons, Shindou, I'm telling you. So hey, you can talk to these idiots, right? You believe me. I know you do."
"Yeah, I do," Hikaru sighed. "But I'm just a rookie. Nobody's going to listen to me."
"I thought your boyfriend was some kind of big shot."
"He's not my--" Hikaru started, but then cut himself off when Kaga raised an eyebrow. Damn. "It's complicated."
"It always is."
"I'm not going to promise anything, but I'll try."
---
"Okay, so why the hell is Kaga Tetsuo a murder suspect? Seriously?"
"Good morning, Shindou," Touya said dryly. "For your information, we were just discussing that."
"You were?" Hikaru asked, a little thrown off by this. He'd totally expected to have to argue his way through everything and had charged into Touya Kouyo's office, guns blazing. Whoops.
"Yes. Sit down."
Hikaru sat. Along with Touya, there was also Ogata-sensei and Touya Kouyo, of course, all of whom looked rather serious.
"Like I was saying," Ogata said, glowering in Hikaru's direction. "We found him outside a warehouse that shut down a couple of years ago, right in the danger zone. We brought him in for questioning. We didn't actually arrest him. Yet."
"He says you did," Hikaru pointed out.
"We've dealt with this jerk-off before, Shindou, we all know he's a pathological liar."
"Then why are you still holding him? He didn't do it."
"He has a criminal record. The guy has more arrests than any of us can even keep track of, for god sakes."
"He's a con man and he loves what he does," Hikaru agreed. "No one's saying he's not. But he's not a killer."
"He hasn't hesitated to hurt people before. Often people who kill start off small. Who knows what he's really capbable of?"
"I know him. He's the complete oppposite of type. He's impulsive and loud and has one hell of a temper, for starters. And he's a show off. If he was our guy, he probably would've displayed the bodies right in front of the station or something. Besides, he doesn't think things through, he would've left clues all over the place."
"Are you sure you're not just seeing what you want to see because he's your friend?"
"Friend is a little bit of a strong word," Hikaru said defensively. "I went to school with him. We were friends then, but it's different now."
"That doesn't answer the question."
"Yeah, I'm sure. It's not him. The only thing he has in common with the profile is that his ego's the size of China."
"I have to agree," Touya finally said.
Hikaru snorted. "It's about damn time."
"Excuse me?" Ogata growled.
"If nothing else, we know that our killer is highly intelligent. Kaga is... clever in his own way, yes, but he's really not terribly bright. He wouldn't have been able to escape us for so long."
"His involvement in the underworld being what it is, maybe he knows something useful," Ogata responded.
"Nah. He says the murders are messing with business, he's pissed. If he knew anything, he'd tell us," Hikaru said.
Touya rolled his eyes. "For a price."
"For a price," Hikaru agreed. "But he wants this guy off the streets just as much as we do. He would've made the offer already if he had anything."
Touya Kouyo was watching them thoughtfully. "So we do not have a suspect or a witness?"
"No. But I have an idea."
---
It had been a long time since Hikaru had been in one of these places. He stood outside the door, hesitating for just a moment before pulling it open. The smell of cigarrette smoke and beer assaulted him first thing. Then, of course, there was the expected clicking of Go stones on wooden boards, not to mention the grumbling of those who'd lost. Money was exchanged- quite a bit, by the look of it. Still, that wasn't what he was there for.
"1,000 yen to play," the man at the counter said without bothering to look up. He seemed to be engrossed in something he was reading on the laptop he had set on the counter.
"Not here to play, actually. You got a minute?"
That forced him to look up out of curiosity. ".........Shindou-kun?"
Hikaru grinned. "Hey, Tsutsui-san."
Tsutsui smiled back, but it was guarded and not a little nervous. "Is this... official business or a personal visit?"
"A little of both. Can we talk here?"
The older man nodded, closing the lid of his laptop. He took a cigarette out of a pocket in his shirt and took a deep breath from it once it was lit. Hikaru hadn't known that Tsutsui smoked, though in all fairness he hadn't seen him in years. A lot had happened since then. "Yeah. The benefits of being your own boss. What can I help you with?"
"You hear about these murders lately?"
"Who hasn't?"
"They brought in Kaga last night."
Tsutsui paled, but looked away from Hikaru pointedly. "Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Another puff of the cigarette. "Huh."
"That's it?" Hikaru asked. "That's all you're gonna say?"
Tsutsui gave him a sideways glance. "Am I supposed to say something else?"
"I don't know. You're the one sleeping with the guy. I talked them out of arresting him, but I thought I could get some insight from you."
"That's over, Shindou-kun. It's been over. I haven't seen Kaga in over a year."
Hikaru gaped. "Seriously? You guys have been together forever, what happened?"
Tsutsui snorted and took a drag off his cigarette. "What didn't happen? I... I care about him, but I can't keep picking up the pieces over and over again. He's never going to change."
"He doesn't have anyone else."
"Why am I always the one who's supposed to feel bad?"
"Because you're the one with a conscience."
"Yeah, and that's just the problem, isn't it? I've had my conscience exploited enough for one lifetime, thanks."
"You're not an innocent either," Hikaru reminded him.
"What I do is minor in the big scheme of things. I'm not going to get executed for dabbling in some bookmaking."
Hikaru paused, looking at him seriously. He was willing enough to overlook a few things for his friends, as long as nobody got hurt, but something that serious? "...executed? Is there something I should know about, Tsutsui-san?"
"You know more than I do. If he's getting involved in these murders..."
"Nah, he's not involved. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Tsutsui snorted. "Funny how that always seems to happen."
"Do you think he would?"
"I didn't used to think so. Now... I don't know. Maybe. You said it yourself, he has no conscience."
Hikaru sighed. "Never thought you'd say something like that about anybody, much less Kaga."
"Yeah, well. You can only have your heart broken so many times before it stays broken. Right before I left, he'd gotten arrested again. It looked really serious then, like he might actually go to jail for a long time. I was so worried about him, and he didn't even... he didn't care, one way or another. He never noticed how it tore me up every time I got a phone call from him to pick him up from jail, again. I couldn't do it anymore. I can't do it anymore."
"You're still bookkeping, though."
A shrug. "Apartments in Tokyo are expensive. Besides, that's where most of my customers come from. If I stopped, I'd lose the Salon. It doesn't matter that I started because of him, it doesn't matter how I feel about it personally, I need the income."
It was a fair point. Most of Hikaru's paycheck went directly to his landlord for what was more or less a closet.
"Was that it?" Tsutsui continued. "I need to close soon."
"Just one more thing... have you noticed anything weird?"
"Weird like what?"
"Rumors, new people coming in spending a lot of money, anything. We're dying here, Tsutsui-san. We've got some clues, but it's not enough. If we don't catch this asshole soon... I don't even want to think about what's going to happen."
The entire force would be wiped out and replaced, probably. Aside from girls continuing to die. Tsutsui frowned thoughtfully as he went through memories, trying to think of anything that could be useful.
"I don't know, not a lot of that kind of thing goes on here, it's not that kind of place. I get a lot of small time types in here, but nothing like what you're looking for," he said. He paused, thinking some more. "The only thing I can think of that's weird is this old office building. It's been abandoned for ages. There's rumors it's haunted and they can't sell it."
"What about it?"
"I've heard that the lights have been on some nights lately. People attribute it to the ghosts. It's probably just kids or something, but... maybe it's something you can use?"
Hikaru grinned. "Worth a shot. Got an address?"
---
He had every intention of following through with that lead later on that night- especially after discovering that the office was definitely within the bounds of the search area- but first he had to eat, and it felt like it had been forever since he'd gotten to hang out with Waya and Isumi. The lights only came on late at night, anyway. He had time.
"So, you and Touya, huh?" Waya asked before plopping himself on the floor cushion next to Hikaru, ruffling his hair as he went. Waya didn't have furniture, he had strategically placed cushions. Not that Hikaru could really talk, his place was only marginally better, and even that was because his mother had donated a few pieces. "It's about damn time."
"I thought you hated him?"
"I do. But you don't. You're my best friend, I want you to be happy, and if it has to be him, well... then that's great," Waya said, like it was the simplest thing in the world.
Maybe it was. Hikaru smiled. "Thanks."
"I guess this means I have to start being nice to the guy."
"Nobody expects that much from you."
Waya snorted and flung a spare cushion at him. "Like you should talk. You and Touya use fighting as some kind of weird foreplay."
"We do not."
Waya gave him a look.
"Okay, maybe we do, a little."
Hikaru, thankfully, was spared Waya's response by Isumi walking in with several bags. Waya instantly lit up and stood to relieve his boyfriend of some of the weight, kissing him as he did so.
"Hey. Smells good, what did you get?"
"Little bit of everything for the two bottomless pits," Isumi smiled. There wasn't a kitchen or anything in Waya's tiny apartment, so they just dropped the bags on the floor.
They promptly dug into the bags, finding that as promised, there were all varieties of delicious sushi. Waya grinned.
"You're the best," he told Isumi, and kissed him again. This time, it lingered a little too long for Hikaru's comfort. Hikaru cleared his throat loudly.
"Uh, guys? Still here."
Waya at least had the decency to blush. "Er. Sorry, Shindou." Isumi's expression was unreadable, but he nodded in agreement.
"Okay, so you and Touya finally, finally got your shit together. What else has been going on?"
"Wait, what?" Isumi interrupted, giving Hikaru a thoughtful look. "Really? When did that happen?"
"Last night."
"Hmm. Well, good for you. We were starting to wonder if it was ever going to happen."
Hikaru smiled. "Thanks, Isumi-san."
"So? What else did I miss?" Waya asked in between bites of sushi.
"Not much, you know none of us really have time for much besides work right now."
"Oh yeah, speaking of which, so what happened to that old friend of yours from this morning, that Kaga guy?"
Word had gotten around the station about Kaga being an old friend, apparently. Bunch of gossips. Hikaru sighed. "False alarm. Not him."
"Figures. Not that I want it to be a buddy of yours, but... oh, you know what I mean. It would've been nice if it was over."
"Waya," Isumi chided softly, but he was smiling.
"I'm working on it," Hikaru promised. He was tempted to tell them about the tip Tsutsui had given him, but he thought he might keep that one to himself for now. There would be no harm in checking it out first, just in case it really was some kids or something. The last thing they all needed was yet another dead end.
"Oh god, please don't tell me you and Touya haven't turned this into one of your rivalry things?" Waya groaned.
"We... haven't turned this into one of our rivalry things?" Hikaru parroted back dutifully.
Waya rolled his eyes. "Typical."
"What? We get things done faster that way. We motivate each other."
"Shindou, it's not a game."
There was a small noise from Isumi at this, like he'd started to add something and decided not to.
"I know that!" Hikaru flushed. "I never said it was!"
"Look, just... people are going to think we're not taking it seriously if you guys are betting on it and shit, and we're in enough hot water as it is. Just don't do anything stupid."
"It's fine, I've got this."
Waya gave him a look that quite clearly said exactly what he thought of that, but he sighed and appeared to let it go for the time being. "Hey, can you pass me that salmon?"
---
After spending a pleasant evening with his two best friends, going through the ten tons of sushi and watching terribly written zombie movies, he went home. Hikaru settled on the couch for a nap- who knows how late he'd be out. When he woke up, though, he discovered it was to light streaming through the window. He swore and jumped off the couch, then swore again as his back screamed in protest from having slept on the too soft surface. He looked at the time. Just after six. He had two hours... maybe he could scope the place out, right? He'd try again later to investigate the light-in-the-windows thing.
It took some time to find the place, purely because it was surrounded by a bunch of other buildings that looked exactly the freaking same. He stared at it for several long minutes. Nothing distinguished it from the other offices around it. Except... was that a light on the fifth floor? It was hard to tell. Maybe he was just imagining it. He hesitated briefly, habitually double checking that his gun was on him, before trying the door to the building.
It was unlocked.
Hikaru let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding.
The place was totally gutted. Anything of even the smallest value had been taken a long time ago, leaving behind a whole lot of empty space on the ground floor. Finding nothing of interest, he went up the stairs to investigate the other floors. Two, three, and four were more of the same, though there were some offices to explore there. Hikaru found himself peering around corners, gun in hand, heart pounding in anticipation. It was maybe a waste of time, but he had to be sure, and he didn't really feel like getting shot this early in the morning.
His excitement grew as he climbed the stairs to the fifth floor, finally. This was what he lived for. This was what had lured him to the force, aside from Touya. Even though he hadn't been so interested in it at first when Sai had insisted on catching every bad guy ever, he soon got hooked on the adrenaline rush of it all. Was this it? He didn't know, but he couldn't wait to find out.
The top of the stairs, unfortunately, provided no cover, and the first thing that greeted him was the sound of a gunshot.
Hikaru instantly dropped to the floor on instinct, not that it would've done him much good anyway, really. When he looked up at the doorframe, he discovered the bullet lodged into the wall next to him, about five centimeters where his head had previously been. His mind reeled. Pistol. Civilians weren't allowed to carry pistols. Not that this necessarily meant that it wasn't a civvie, it just made it a whole lot harder. As far as he knew, the police didn't have this place staked out. It wasn't even on their radar. So either it was something unrelated to the case and he'd accidently stumbled on some kind of yakuza thing- it would figure- or...
Fuck.
"The next one is going to be in your skull if you don't get the fuck out of here in the next five seconds," a voice said. Male. Something about it pinged his memory, but it was a little too far away for him to be sure. "One. Two. Thr--"
"Shindou," the voice said, a touch surprised and significantly closer this time. Hikaru's head jerked up. It was a good thing he was still on the floor, because he wasn't totally sure he would've stayed that way.
"No way," he gasped. He felt like his brain had been put in a blender and turned on high. What was... what? This made no sense.
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever figure it out, with you and Touya too busy panting after each other to see what's right in front of you."
Hikaru scrambled to his feet and reached for his gun. There was another gunshot, this one at Hikaru's feet.
"Don't even think about it. You don't want anyone to get hurt, do you?"
He frowned. Out of all the possible scenarios he could've thought about ahead of time, this hadn't been one of them.
"What's going on? I don't understand. Isumi-san..."
A sigh. "Oh, I see. You haven't figured anything out, you just stumbled into this accidentally. Well, that's a disappointment."
"Isumi-san! Please tell me this isn't what it looks like."
"You tell me. Take a look around. I'll wait," Isumi said. He lowered his gun, but didn't put it away.
Hikaru gave him a suspicious look, eyeing the gun, but he had to admit he was curious, though perhaps a bit sick to his stomach at this whole thing. Still, morbid curosity won out. This part of the building was cleaner than the rest. A space that saw regular use, then. Clean it may have been, but the smell of the place really got your attention. It was so strong, Hikaru wondered at the fact that he hadn't noticed it right away.
Blood. Definitely blood.
He looked back at Isumi, who was smirking at him, and moved forward. Nothing was going to happen with him just standing here. This floor actually only had one office from the look of it, so after a quick lookaround, Hikaru figured there wasn't really much of anywhere else to go. That must've been where Isumi intended him to go. As soon as he opened the door, the blood smell intensified, and Hikaru thought he was going to throw up. Laying there on the floor was a girl, probably about 20 or so, eyes open and unblinking. There was a huge dark slash across her pale throat.
"God," Hikaru murmured, swallowing thickly. There was blood everywhere, as one would expect from a crime scene like that. On a folding chair was a large knife with dried blood on it, and he wondered vaguely whether there would be any fingerprints on it to bother with. Probably not. There was an electric lamp on the same chair. So that's where the light was coming from.
"So what do you think of my project?"
Hikaru jumped, not expecting Isumi's voice so suddenly, and so close. He could feel Isumi's breath on the back of his neck.
"It's not quite done yet, but almost," Isumi continued. He obviously wasn't terribly worried about the windows with the way his gun was nudging the side of Hikaru's head. Hikaru yelped and jumped away, nearly tripping over the poor girl on the floor in the process. He turned to face Isumi, who looked almost amused as he pointed his gun at Hikaru's face.
"You're crazy," Hikaru stared. "Don't they screen people before they give them guns?"
"I'm well aware of my condition. I'm also well aware of how to hide it. You never suspected anything, did you?"
"That's sick, you know that, right?"
Isumi shrugged. "Call me names all you want, Shindou, I really couldn't care less. The real question here is, now what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?"
"You don't think I'm going to let you leave, do you?" Isumi smiled then, and it was nothing short of predatory. "It was stupid to come here by yourself, Shindou. Really stupid."
"But... we're friends!"
"Friends? No. I'm your friend, I suppose, if you insist. Vast and crucial difference."
Hikaru couldn't help but feel stung by this. "After all this time?"
"It was convenient."
"What about Waya?"
"You won't like what I have to say about Waya."
"Try me."
Isumi shrugged. "A means to an end. Everyone seemed to expect us to hook up, and he's attractive and I like sex, so why not? Besides. If I'm gay, then I'm not raping women, am I? It was a great cover."
"So you never really loved him?" Hikaru asked. He felt like his stomach was twisted in knots. Waya was his best friend, and this was... he could be a real jerk sometimes, but he never in a million years deserved this. No one deserved this.
"Love? Why would I love him? He's been an amusing plaything, that's all."
"He's a person, not a thing!"
"Same difference," Isumi shrugged again. "Are you done trying to distract me? I know what you're doing, Shindou. I don't know why, though, you probably didn't call for backup, so there's no one coming."
Hikaru gaped at him. "How did you-"
"I know you. You're all impulse. You thought something was wrong here, so you thought you'd just check it out quickly. You didn't even consider that you were throwing yourself into a dangerous situation."
"Besides, I'm not really trying to distract you. I'm just trying to figure out why. And how. And why."
Isumi stared at him for a few long moments. It felt like an eternity. Finally, he rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm an organized type serial killer with a control motivation brought on by childhood abuse. I killed my father when I was eleven trying to defend myself. I liked the feeling of having complete control over someone, especially since feeling something was kind of weird for me, so I continued to kill periodically when I felt that itch, needing that domination over somebody else. I've never been evaluated because I've learned how to emulate normal people, but I definitely have some level of psychopathy. Like I said, I'm well aware of my condition. Also pretty much everything you know about me before now is something I've made up. Any other questions?"
It wasn't the words that bothered Hikaru so much. Well, it was partially that, but it was mostly the deadpan of Isumi's voice, the absolute lack of emotion, that disturbed him on so deep a level he couldn't even explain it. Everything in his body was saying RUN.
"The first girl. Nakasato Kumiko. Why was she different?"
"Waya and I had just had a fight, sort of," Isumi explained. "It had been a while since I'd killed anyone and I needed the control back. I was off balance that night."
"And the rapes?"
"What I initially suggested to Touya was right. I used an implement. It was never really about the sex, that was just another form of domination. The two of you were so lost I thought I'd throw you a bone."
"We would've figured it out."
"When? You were both too involved in your eternal love rivalry bullshit to pay attention to anything else."
"Well... now."
Isumi smiled. "Now doesn't do you any good, Shindou. You're not leaving here alive and I'm bored of playing games with you. It's time to wrap this up."
Hikaru's breathing stopped as Isumi's finger started to squeeze the trigger. This was it, he was going to die here and nobody was going to know....
His heart stopped as the gun went off.
---
It took a few seconds for Hikaru to realize that in fact he was breathing now, albeit faster than was probably healthy, along with his heart beating hard in his chest. So he was alive. So what... he looked around to discover that there was a bullet sized hole in the window. Except Isumi was an excellent shot, so how...
"Shindou!"
And the voice couldn't have been anybody but Touya. Hikaru's head whipped around and there was his rival, a gun pointed at Isumi, who was in turn still pointing his at Hikaru.
"What are you.." Hikaru stared. "How did you..."
"Nevermind that," Touya rolled his eyes. His attention went back to Isumi.
"Put down the weapon or I'll shoot."
"The problem with that is that you're assuming I care," Isumi said. He sounded a little bored now. "If you shoot me, I shoot him in the head, game over."
Touya's eyes narrowed. "Not if I kill you first."
"Really? That's the best you can come up with?" Isumi asked. "How boring. I don't know why I ever thought you two might give me a run for my money."
"Or maybe I should just shoot you anyway," Touya continued.
"In that case, just do it. I could stand here all day, but I'd rather not."
"If you insist," Touya said.
"Touya!" Hikaru yelped in protest. He didn't want to be shot, dammit!
Touya pulled the trigger, and Hikaru's stomach dropped. Isumi screamed and dropped his gun- Touya had aimed at Isumi's hand, and Hikaru felt a sudden burst of gratitude for the genius that was Touya Akira. He kicked Isumi's gun away before the older man recovered and trained his own on Isumi in addition to Touya's. The knife was still within reaching distance, but Isumi couldn't really do a whole lot with that at this point.
Isumi smirked at them. "I guess the game is over, then."
---
Isumi was surprisingly subdued on the way to the station. Hikaru had been expecting... well, he didn't know, exactly, something else, but it didn't come. He'd allowed himself to be cuffed and put into the car, and when they arrived, people stared and whispered as they walked in. They probably wondered what was going on, but they'd find out sooner or later anyway. After a brief explanation, they turned him over for processing. The work was far from over, and Hikaru really, really didn't want to have the inevitable conversation with Waya, oh god, but for now, they could breathe for a minute.
"Are you okay?" Touya asked.
"Not really," Hikaru answered. "I think I would've rather had it been Kaga."
Touya snorted. "Nothing is ever that simple."
"Sometimes it is."
"....sometimes," Touya allowed after a moment.
"How'd you know, anyway?" Hikaru asked. "It's been bugging me."
"I've been following the lines of the kanji on my way to and from the station. I was going home when I saw you go in, so I followed you."
"Why didn't you tell me if you were behind me the whole time? And you almost let me get killed!"
"I didn't know what I was walking into. It was a delicate situation. Besides, you got a full confession out of him."
"You were gonna let me get shot for a confession?"
"Of course not. Everything was under control the whole time."
Hikaru snorted. "Riiight."
"In any case, you weren't shot and it turned out fine."
"I guess. Thanks for stalking me."
"I do not stalk you, Shindou!" Touya huffed indignantly.
"Sure. That's why you knew when I was at the club, that's why you knew where I was this morning even though I didn't tell anybody. I buy that. Stalker."
"Shindou!"
Hikaru's laughter echoed off of the walls of the hallway. Maybe he would be okay after all.