Right, Ren here! Just to let you know OC don't really appear here, but trust me in future chapters they will feature heavily. Have fun reading! :3
In a world of millions…
In a city of thousands…
In a crowd of hundreds…
There is no place for a single voice. There is no time for tears and silent screams. Those who are small, who are disposable and unnoticeable don't matter. No one cares for the invisible, and in a world like this the invisible are plentiful. The perfect pray to hunt, I should know, I have done. But only because I was deluded into thinking by praying on the weaker I may think myself better, more important. What a silly illusion, I now know the TRUTH of course, down to the last, single LETTER.
… I am invisible too, and soon I shall pass into DEATH.
But I am happy. I am happy beyond belief because now I KNOW. I know the truth, I haven seen it with my own and other EYES. I know what lies in wait, what the meaning of everything is. Every hardship, every hurdle, I know why they are there. Whether there be a GOD or not does not matter. And in a twisted sought of way I have my killer to thank for this peaceful knowledge. Through death my killer has given me sight, and in addition tranquillity.
… Rue. Do not be sad, this was my own doing. You must know though, you must know before I pass that everything is CONNECTED, everything will be alright. You were always too good, too bright for my world. So I trust you to bring the truth to LIGHT, and that truth lies in my papers and NOTES.
Yours now and forever even in DEATH, a man of queen, country and future KING,
Will
The train left promptly at 7:30 am precisely. It was never late.
Rue Conroy on the other hand, was.
She arrived just in time to the see the train zip out of the station, plastic bags and wrappers flying high, twisting and turning in the sudden disturbance of air. Rue stood transfixed, staring at a dog across the railway tracks. It had thick, shaggy hair, and stared back at Rue with a knowing wisdom. A shiny tag hung from a red collar around its neck, swinging in unison with every tick of the second hand working around the platform clock imbedded in the wall.
Rue took a deep breath, turned, walked over to the bin and-
BANG!-
kicked it with all of her might.
Kicking a solid metal bin is a silly thing to do in any circumstance.
"Oh hell!" she groaned, clutching at her sore foot. She whirled around to find the dog still looking at her, now with a disapproving tilt to his sagely head. This only made Rue angrier.
"Oh what do you know?" she demanded of the dog. "Dogs have it easy," she continued hysterically. "They don't have to buy tickets- or get through traffic- or suffer the torture of public transport! You know I'd give anything to just lie about all day and chase the occasional cat, so quite staring and leave me alone in pain and in peace!" she shrieked.
The dog was taken quickly away by a worried owner. In fact the whole platform emptied in a mere matter of seconds, leaving Rue with no company save an empty can rolling around the floor.
She watched it miserably.
"Why," she wondered aloud. "Oh why is Japan such a god damned efficient country? Do they have no pity on me?" she cried, woefully.
Rue, you see, had just arrived in Tokyo, the outskirts mind, but to a foreigner the system and sheer number of people using trains was still staggering. Of course Rue knew stations could get busy. Lord knew how many times she had cursed the tubes in London, but right now, the tube seemed like a walk in the park compared to these eerily flawless Japanese trains.
"I'll never get there," Rue muttered pathetically. "I'll never get there, I'll go back to the hotel, trip on the front step, smash my head and probably die before my eighteenth birthday." She picked the can up and stared at it solemnly. "I don't suppose you could grow wings could you? It'd sure solve my problem of a lack of transport."
The can, predictably, said nothing.
Rue threw it with a sigh.
"I'm delirious," she decided, and with that, sank to the floor.
Rue's hand wound its way into her beige shoulder bag, unclipped the fastenings, and drew out a piece of folded paper. It was a list of names, a list of private detective agencies to be exact. All of which had been crossed out… save the last one.
A single name, a single chance left.
All of the other agencies had turned their backs on Rue and her cause, despite her offer of payment. They muttered angry things under their breaths.
"Too busy!"
"Don't have time for little girls."
"You're chasing dreams!"
"I can't deal with things like this, not with that maniac on the loose!"
And with every mutter there would follow the shallow thud of a closed door, right in Rue's face. Her only option left, was this place in the Kanto region.
Suzuki Detective Agency.
Forty minutes later
Rue looked at her paper. She looked up. Down again. Up.
This couldn't be right, couldn't be. Yet… Rue checked the address again. It matched the building in front of her, this should be the place. But surely this couldn't be an agency.
The building was small, and fat. It was fitted snug between a pair of gigantic gleaming sky scrapers, squeezed so tightly in that it seemed to bulge outward. The windows were dark, dank and murky, drawn with moth eaten blinds. A shabby door glared a horrific shade of green, chipped and scuffed at the bottom. A tatty, rather optimistic welcome mat lay at Rue's feet, a wind chime tinkled above her head. Rue eyed the door bell hesitantly.
"Well," she muttered. "Nothing for it, I suppose."
She pressed it firmly.
Five seconds went by.
No one answered.
"Don't tell me it shut down," Rue exclaimed. "NARRRGH!" She pulled at her hair frantically, leaning forward to bang her head in despair against the old door. "Why does nothing go r- whoomf!" Rue fell with a thud through the door, landing face down on an unclean cream carpet.
"Blah, yuck!" Rue spat hairs from her mouth, before rubbing her tongue vigorously with a purple sleeve.
After her tongue cleaning session was finished, Rue stood up. She was in a hideously cream hall. Cream walls, cream carpet, a cream cabinet crammed with papers against the left wall, and cream tiles in the little area one was supposed to remove their shoes. But judging from the filth plastered everywhere; Rue guessed removing shoes wouldn't make a lick of difference.
Rue considered the possibilities. I could go in, she thought. Or go out. I f I go in I might meet an axe murderer and possibly end up splattered against a cream wall, I might find a dead body, if the smells anything to go by, or I might actually find a detective. She looked over her shoulder at the door. Going back sounds more safe, though I could miss my train or possibly be run over, but that's always a possibility. Then there's that weirdo killing people off, but I'm not a criminal so I should be safe.
Rue sighed.
I'm going in, she decided. Mum, please refrain from writing 'I told you so' on my grave stone if this ends up a dodgy situation. You always said my trouble magnet would kill me one day.
There were three doors leading out of the narrow hallway. Rue tried the first door on her left with a tentative hand. She poked her nose around the doorframe. Inside was a ridiculously green room. Much like the hall everything was colour coded to that particular colour. A sickly, lime green carpet, two dark green, dusty couches, a green lampshade hanging crookedly from the ceiling, and three walls of leaf green, patterned wallpaper. The fourth wall was covered with a long sheet of brown curtain, though Rue knew from the layout of the house that that wall had no window in it.
Curious.
She shut the door with an inaudible click. Rue then tried the second door, on her right. This one was pure white. Everything, everything was covered in dusty white sheets. The mantle piece, the dining table, the chandelier, and at the far end of the room, a grand piano. It must have been there for some time, for it was so thickly layered in dust that the sheet looked more grey than white now.
Even more curious.
Rue left that room, silent as a mouse. She took a deep breath.
"It's like a horror movie," she whispered. "And the last door always ends in certain death." She whined, sullenly.
She put her hand on the rusted doorknob nonetheless. "But I owe it you, so I'll do it. Bet your laughing your arse off wherever you are."
The handle turned, she stepped over the threshold… and all hell broke loose.
No sooner had Rue taken her second, tiny step, something round and furry descended upon her head.
"YAAAAAHHHH!"
Tiny claws dug through Rue's brown hair, into her scalp. Whiskers tickled her cheek, squeaks chirped in her ear. Rue saw blind panic, she flailed her arms and span around, trying to dislodge the fuzzy bomb from her head. "AHHHHHHH GET OFF!"
"Dai!"
Rue whizzed around, and suddenly there was a face looming over Rue.
"Don't. Move."
"GAH!" Rue fell back in shock, landing gracefully on her backside. She winced as a shock thundered up her coxic bone and spine. "Oh ooo-www!"
Rue froze, there was someone on top of her. Her muscles locked into place.
"Love," a voice said from above suddenly. "I know this, err, position is probably, most likely, putting certain… ideas into your head but rest assured dear, you're not my type and I am only retrieving my," there was tug at Rue's head and whatever was lodged there came loose suddenly. "Friend, here. There we go, up we go."
And with that the person on top of Rue sat back on their heels, cradling a furry, ginger guinea pig against her bosom. It was a young woman, dressed in a an open, formal, green jacket, a crumpled purple shirt with a green bow tie at the neck, a matching green skirt, and a completely random purple button clipped into her classically black hair. Rue's greens eyes met dark brown, her mouth went slack. The woman lent forward, until her nose was a mere, uncomfortably few inches from Rue's.
"Why, Dai! The dear is a foreigner." She said to the guinea pig. Those dark brown eyes bore onto Rue's face, taking in every tiny detail. A grin stretched her lips suddenly, she looked practically giddy. "Are you, by chance, a customer?"
Rue gulped. "Are you Suzuki detective agency?" she squeaked.
The green clad lady jumped up in delight, poor Dai fell with a thud to the ground. He scurried off in an indignant huff to the desk at the back on the room, overridden in a sea of papers.
"Yes!" the lady sang. "A customer at last!" she set her eyes determinedly on Rue. "Oh do get up and have a seat! Sit, sit, oh dear let us clear a space." She swiped the rubbish from a dusty chair and all but shoved Rue down into it. "I am Suzuki by the way, Sumiko Suzuki, call me Sumi."
Rue could only watch in a daze as Sumi whizzed around the desk to sit opposite her, swiping papers, sticky notes, pens, pencils, mugs and other, various things off the desk. She jumped into her chair, but that turned out to be very broken indeed. THUD. Rue peered over the desk.
"Are you alright?" she asked, quietly.
Sumi sprang up, Rue recoiled. "Quite alright, peachy really!" Sumi squinted suddenly. "Oops, perhaps not peachy, my contact seems to have come dislodged."
Her head disappeared again, and it wasn't long before Rue was treated to the sight of Sumi crawling around on all fours in a hunt for the lost contact.
"Pay no attention to me, love. If you'd like to present the case you have for me then trust me when I say I'm all ears. A very good at multitasking as Dai will tell you."
Rue frowned, looked around nervously for the furry fiend, and found him sat quite comfortably on the arm of her chair. Staring.
Rue gulped, throat dry.
"Well, I'm here mainly cause of a murder." Rue said thickly.
Sumi continued her hunt. "Yes, yes, go on lovey."
Rue sobered as her mind flicked to the matter at hand. Suddenly it didn't matter anymore where Rue was. It didn't matter there was a young woman crawling around on all fours at her feet, it didn't matter there was an (in her opinion) evil guinea pig at her arm, all that mattered was that someone had trusted her with a task, someone dear to her, and she was going to complete it one way or another.
Rue opened her bag and pulled out a file. "The person murdered… he was my uncle. His name was William Parry, and he was a suspected murderer."
Sumi paused, and then carried on patting the floor. "Right, on, on. The sun doesn't stop shining and a story doesn't stop telling, onward." She cried.
Ignoring the strange metaphor Rue continued. "He killed over thirty people, admitted to it, would have gone down for life. But there was no proof, no one believed him so they charged him for wasting police time and let him go. Uncle Will came here, he was dead within two weeks, heart attack." she said, keeping her tone robotic and free of emotion.
Sumi sighed then, remorseful. "And I suppose you want the killer caught, fabulous, another straight arrow case."
Rue puckered her lips. "… No. I want to prove he did kill those people."
Sumi glanced at Rue then, a glint in her eye. "Do you now deary… why? Aren't you glad your uncle's not, sorry wasn't a merciless killer?" she asked, slyly.
In answer, Rue drew out a piece of paper covered in scrawled hand writing. "I knew my uncle Will, he wasn't… right. They called him a sociopath with misanthropic views and a gruesomely heightened imagination. I just think he was a nutter." Rue handed Sumi the paper. "That's a tally chart of all the people he killed, I found it under his bed. This," she handed Sumi a diary. "It a detailed account of every murder."
Sumi flicked through them. "Heavy stuff," she commented. "But it could just be apart of the poor soul's allusions, hun." she pointed out.
Rue nodded, glancing down at Dai suspiciously. The ginger fur ball appeared to be inching closer, as did Sumi, who now didn't seem to have any eye problems at all.
"I thought so too, at first." Rue answered. "The only reason I even went through his stuff was because of the note he left for me, that's in here too. What convinced me, though, was this." she handed Sumi a scrunched up piece of paper.
It read;
Keep the light on.
Illuminate the dark.
Run when the heart attacks begin.
Attack when the death bell tolls.
Sumi, looked up at Rue. "When, did you figure out the hidden message may I inquire?" she asked.
Rue settled into her chair more firmly, that guinea pig was defiantly getting closer. "When the news left Japan and reached England, that's when I noticed-"
Sumi stood up. "K, I, R, A, Kira. Now either it's a great coincidence or your uncle, predicted quite correctly a killer would soon appear." Sumi twirled. "Now this, love, is a case!"
Rue felt a faint flicker of hope stir inside her. "So you'll help me?" she asked. Or else throw me out onto the streets where Kira may or may not kill me since who knows what sort of spies he has around, she thought, but did not say. Being pessimistic has its moments after all.
Sumi glanced at Rue's shoulder. "Well Dai?"
Rue jumped, having realised there was now something heavy and furry on her shoulder. Dai nibbled at her purple jumper, sniffed her ear, nuzzled her neck, and then jumped from her shoulder to land with a plop on Sumi's desk. He stared solemnly at Rue for a full minute, then (and I kid you not) gave a slight nod in Sumi's direction. Sumi hopped for joy, literally.
"Oh yes! Sorry about the suspense dear, I only take on cases that Dai approves of. But he likes you, so now you are officially our new pet!"
Rue felt her lip twinge. "Pet?"
"Of course! Now we'll start work first thing tomorrow, can't tonight because my favourite show is on and it's the season final, so!" Sumi scribbled on a random bit of paper. "On your way to Nippon Railway cold you pick up these supplies? No money at the minute I'm afraid but I'll pay you back somehow," Sumi hurried Rue to the front door. "Come here at eight o'clock sharp, okay pet?"
Rue dug in her heels before she was thrown through the door. "Wait! Hold on a minute how did you know I'd come from Nippon station?" she demanded. "And what about your contact?"
Sumi waved her hand, flicking the question away. "Oh that hardly matters, but if you must know there was never a lost contact, I was just checking your shoes. Nippon station has a unique, dusty, dirty floor, and before you ask I was checking your shoes to see if that blasted loan company had sent you, I don't know why but they're always trying to shut me down. Now off you pop pet, and don't forget the pocky."
Rue whirled around desperately, only to catch a last glimpse of Sumi waving with a stotic looking Dai on her shoulder. Then the door slammed shut, leaving Rue clutching a list of things and feeling very much swindled.
"Trouble magnet indeed," Rue huffed, before trotting away with a heavy heart. "But at least I'm finally getting somewhere… I hope."
Sumi stood with her back against the door, Dai nibbled at her ear. She smiled and patted his reddish head.
"The threads, my old friend, are all coming together now."
Dai squeaked.
Sumi chuckled fondly. "The girl is an unexpected turn up, should be interesting to see this pan out. I finally have a challenge."
Dai squeaked again.
"Yes, a final challenge."
Meanwhile in an unknown hotel, a raven haired detective is pointing his fingers in a mock impression of a gun at a group of policemen and detectives.
He is L.
Kira is his enemy.
Let the weaving begin, for the threads are gathering.
Just to let you know, Dai means great one. XD
So what do ya think? Do you like poor old pessimistic Rue? I don't know why she turned out so glum, but it just seemed to fit. Personally I love Dai, but that's just me.
Like, hate? Review~