A little introduction for this fic: This is an A/U Yaten/Minako fic. The chapters are probably going to be shorter than the ones I usually write so that I can get them out more quickly. I realized my free time growing increasingly shorter while writing 'Part of Me' and didn't want to leave gaping holes of time between chapters again. So gomen and please forgive me.
'How Far…'
Part I
The road was almost completely blocked, an unusual sight for such an early hour of the morning. Daylight had not yet broken over the tops of the city buildings allowing just enough darkness for the flashes of the police and ambulance lights to dance along the adjacent walls. This, unfortunately, was a sight Yaten was too familiar with.
"Yaten!" A surly voice called from behind one of the city patrol cars. "Over here!" A large hand followed the voice, waving high above the heads of the people scurrying about.
Still with his hands in his pockets, Yaten casually made his way through the maze of police and press. As he drew nearer to the man who had been calling him before he noticed the dark stain of blood near his feet. The object his eyes sought for came clearly into view as he rounded the police car, removing one hand from his pocket he withdrew a clean white handkerchief.
"Poor bastard's been laying here since well past midnight." The man spoke again, this time a little more quietly. He was a portly man, by far too short for the weight he carried, with a thick mustache. "Ming's shop owner found him this way and notified us."
Yaten's jade green eyes darted around from the faces of the on-lookers. None of them were drawn too close to the body, which he could only assume was giving off one hell of a stench, hence his handkerchief. "A mugging to draw the attention of so many…" Yaten trailed off.
This was Tokyo, and muggings ending in death were not too entirely uncommon. To draw such a crowd of people usually meant that the death had been so savage and brutal or that the victim was some one of great importance. The crowd that gathered here today was here for exactly one of those reasons.
A few flashes from a news reporter illuminated the mangled body, casting odd shadows amongst it. A grimacing moan escaped the larger man's mouth as he watched Yaten encircle the body. "Do you think there's even enough left for you to see?" He asked of Yaten, a skeptical expression masking his features.
Both feet of the victim had been bound, one shoe was missing. There were strips of cloth missing from his trousers, and his shirt had all but been clean ripped from his body. His arms were bent upwards allowing his hands to fall into the vacant cavity that used to be his midsection. It appeared as though the man had been gutted, with no signs of what his torso used to contain anywhere near the premise.
Kneeling down, Yaten's hand fell slowly down towards the victim's face. Clear brown eyes stared straight back at him, now void of their sight. Using his index and pinky finger, the still calm man drew the eyelids down to conceal the orbs. "There's plenty here." Yaten responded as he shifted his hand up to rest on the victim's forehead.
The people around the scene stayed silent, all seemingly no longer busy with their task, stopped and watched Yaten as he closed his eyes. Knelt down on one knee, resting his left arm on it, while still holding the handkerchief to his face, his left hand pressed hard against the victim's forehead while he faced the ground with his eyes closed.
At first there was nothing, but then it came to him as though his vision was clearing from a dream. A picture of a man's face came to his mind. He had what appeared to be a simple butcher's meat cleaver in hand with an apron tied around his front. Below his eyes were marking made in red paint… no blood. The image flickered as a thought, one without an image to go with it passed through his mind. One of a happy family, a wife and children… waiting with open arms to welcome their hero home.
Yaten's eyes opened and his head came up. "Take him away." He said to the waiting paramedic.
"That was a quicker one." The fat man cheered. Yaten didn't respond and stood to walk away. "Hey! Wait up would ya?!" The man tried pathetically to jog up to Yaten's retreating form. "Give me a break, at least a ride to work would be nice."
"What happened to your car Jin?" Yaten asked flatly while glancing over his shoulder.
Jin's mood fell and so did his pace. "Repossessed."
"Again?" Yaten chuckled at that one as he reached his car. Opening his door that he had never bothered to lock, he motioned for Jin to get in also. "That's the third one this year. You'd think the bank would have learned their lesson by now."
Jin looked down to his belly in shame. "I think they cut me a break because of who I am."
"Is that how you expect to get through life? Making excuses and waiting for people to cut you a break because you're a cop?" Yaten snorted as he started the engine. "I see that jelly from those donuts is really going to your head, ne?"
Jin chuckled whole-heartedly and Yaten couldn't resist joining in. "You'd think you were the Sergeant around here. Come on, let's throw the lights on for fun!"
Yaten rolled his eyes as his light laughter subsided. It was like working for a toddler, but you wouldn't see him complaining about it any time soon. Whenever Jin would get criticized for his actions or off the wall commands, Yaten was always quick to back him giving rational excuses and reasons for his behavior.
This wasn't completely unwarranted though. The rest of the law enforcement community didn't exactly smile upon Yaten's line of work, they always had comments to make about his role in the force and could easily find holes in his work. And where wasn't there to find holes? Yaten had a gift, an extraordinary gift that set him apart from the rest of the officers.
When a person dies, regardless of the cause of death there is always something left behind. The human soul is like a blank slate when we are born, as we go through our lives we create images on this slate, but when we die… when we die it is different. Just the moment before your demise an image is imprinted on the soul.
This was Yaten's gift, to read the still souls of the dead. A soul leaves a piece behind to die in the mortal body, when the soul is reborn that small piece is regenerated in that new lifetime. This re-growth is what makes it difficult to read the souls of children. The missing piece hasn't been fully re-grown.
"There had better be food waiting for me when we get to the station, this is already shaping up to be a bad morning." Jin mumbled from the passenger seat with his arms folded and a look of distaste on his features.
Yaten let a light smirk cross his lips, he was not one to often smile, but there was something about Jin that he couldn't help but be amused by. "I suppose you're going to need a ride home today too, ne?" He lifted a silver eyebrow in Jin's direction as they rolled to a stop in front of Tenth Street Precinct. Jin's gracious smile was all the answer that he needed.
The sun had come up by now and allowed sunlight to stream in the windows of the precinct as the two men strolled casually in, the sight they had just seen nearly forgotten. It happened all to regularly to dwell on any one incident. "Good morning Sergeant…" A tall lanky man with a stack of paperwork in his hands greeted. "… Detective." He bowed to Yaten.
Yaten paid him no mind and walked past him as though he didn't exist. "You know, you'd think you'd be a little nicer to the people who do still like you here." Jin said in an exasperated tone as he watched the tall skinny man continue on with his business.
A grumbling murmur came in response from Yaten's perced lips. He was mocked and ridiculed as not being a true detective due to his unconventional methods, but he always got his man. There was skepticism as to whether or not his evidence could be trusted, after all, how could he prove the visions that he had? It wasn't as though he could plug his mind into a printer and put them on paper, now was it? Though the thought had crossed Jin's mind in a drunken stupor one day, but was quickly laid to rest when he fell over and passed out.
As they made their way further into the station a woman with long red hair done up in an unusual looped style atop her head weaved in and out to block their path. "Uh… Mr Kou… I… uh…" She stammered as she walked backwards in front of Yaten and Jin trying desperately to get the silver haired man's attention.
Jin sighed as he saw she was getting nowhere and stopped in his tracks. "What is it Kakyuu? Just spit it out!"
"Your office… she just came in and I… she said it was important." She looked nervous as she told Yaten her message as though she were frightened of his response.
Yaten picked his eyes up off the secretary and glanced to his office. There, between the mini-blinds that covered the glass window to his office, was a blond woman. "Usagi?" He questioned immediately as he went to push his way past Kakyuu once more.
"No Sir, it's…" Kakyuu tried to get out but Yaten was already out of her range, let alone patients.
Leaving Jin behind with Kakyuu Yaten made forceful strides towards his office. The one person that could change his demeanor and outlook on this already horrid day was standing now in his office. He felt his mood changing swiftly at the mere thought of her, his tenshi.
Swinging the door open wide, Yaten entered his office with a particularly large grin. It soon faded however as his guest swirled around. "Minako?" He questioned, paying no mind to covering his apparent disappointment.
Minako turned around, her long blond hair trailing down her back, the front cut into bangs, revealing her sore puffy eyes. "Oh Yaten!" She threw herself at him immediately and began to sob into his shoulder.
Yaten rolled his eyes and tried to pry her off of him. It wasn't highly unlike Minako to react to the smallest things in the most overly dramatic ways, and he doubted that her new bout of tears was for anything of importance. "What are you doing here? I'm working."
Minako sobbed and dried her tears on a small piece of fabric she was clutching onto. "I didn't want to be the one to tell you." She tried to calm herself down a bit, but just the effort of bringing the words to her mouth was threatening to send her into yet another fit of tears. "This morning Seiya called me…" She choked on her breath as though she didn't want to continue. "It's Usagi."
Yaten's attention was immediately peaked. Anything that had to do with Usagi was of interest to him. "What about Usagi?" He started to become worried and aggravated at her delay in relaying the message.
Bringing her face up, which appeared to have been studying the fabric in her hand, her bloodshot eyes met with his clear green ones. "She's dead." She said in a voice barely above a whisper.
"What?!" Yaten asked astonished. "Why wasn't I called?" He asked turning to take the knob of his office door into his hand.
"It was a suicide." Minako sniffled as she watched his hand drop from its task. Yaten wasn't called for suicides, the killer was already apparent.
Instead of sadness, anger and suspicion grew in this voice. "That's absurd!" He shouted. "I know Usagi, I know her well enough to know that she would never do something as stupid as that!" He was enraged, so much that he didn't notice how he was frightening Minako across from him.
Usagi had always been a carefree spirit with the most positively optimistic outlook on life that it was almost sickening. To her there was nothing wrong with the world, any problem could be solved if people just cared enough to solve them. Her arms were open to give her love to everyone equally. She would never dream of taking her own life…. Never.
"I'm just as shocked as you are." Minako managed to squeak out between his outbursts. "Seiya found her this morning…"
"She wouldn't do it Minako." Yaten said. "I know she wouldn't, she couldn't. You know Usagi as well as I do, even if she gave up on life completely, she wouldn't take her own life because she knows how much it would hurt the rest of us."
"I know."
Coming out of his thoughts Yaten turned once more to leave his office. "I don't believe it for a second!" He voiced before turning back round to address Minako. "She didn't kill herself… I have to find out for myself." And with that he left.
