Chapter 1: Blood red sunset
"Crap! My train leaves in five minutes!" Rio cursed under her breath as she searched after her smartphone in her skirt pocket since it contained her train ticket.
She immediately found it and completed the last few meters to the station in a sprint.
Two minutes later she was bracing herself with her hands on her knees, desperately snapping for air as she stood on the almost empty train platform,only seconds to spare until the train would arrive.
"When did I get so out of shape?!" Rio thought with furrowed eyebrows as she wiped her sweaty forehead with the back of her hand.
She knew that ,in all honesty, she'd never been in a good shape thanks to her asthma, but when had it gotten so out of hand that even a short sprint like that was making her problems?
"No matter."She decided with a deep sigh as she let her eyelids flutter close and stood up to her full height of 166.5 cm, enjoying the cold wind that was now playing with the strands of her dark brown hair, cooling her overheated body down in the process.
Back in Brighton, where she and her little brother ,Byakuya Satoru, had been born, she used to just vanish in the masses of average people, seeing as that was exactly what she looked like- average- but that had changed since they'd moved to Japan all those years ago. It still creeped her out how used she'd become to people staring at her because of her foreign features, thanks to her fully european descend, and sometimes she tried to cover up her face as much as possible with her dorky,round reading glasses and a face mask of some sort just to...blend in with everyone.
Rio opened her eyes again when her ears detected the familiar noise of the train arriving at the station.
It came to a halt in front of her just a few seconds later and she got in as soon as the door had opened enough for her to squeeze through, wanting to get home as soon as possible.
A quick look around the train told he'd that it wasn't packed full, but it still was emptier than usually. Her big,brown eyes lit up when she found that there were more than just a few unoccupied window seats ,so she quickly plopped down onto one of them before pulling her blue in ear headphones from her bag and plugging them into her phone.
The train set in motion when the first notes of the song she was listening to filled her ears and she felt a feeling of absolute bliss bubble up in her chest as she lost herself in the music whilst watching the lights, buildings and people of Nijimori flash on by outside the window.
Sitting on the train like this whilst listening to her favourite songs had always been one of the more simple pleasures in life that she loved and longed for every day since it always managed to lift her mood, no matter how grumpy she was.
"Probably because it feels like I have no problems anymore and as if this train will just take me far ,far away without ever stopping as the whole world just silently slips on by to the rhythm of the music... Eh, why the heck am I so poetic today?!"
Rio mused silently and her own inner conversation brought a small smile onto her face that she quickly hid behind her hand.
She opened her petroleum green backpack and pulled out one of the manga volumes that she was currently re-reading.
It was the 58th manga in the Detective Conan series, which she'd been obsessed with ever since she was just nine years old after one of her sempais had introduced her to the masterwork of Gosho Aoyama.
She was leafing through said manga when her phone pinged suddenly, making the teenager jump a bit in surprise.
She quickly unlocked the screen and scanned through the message she had just received
`Looks like the release of your latest of your new book was a big success, Miyamoto- sensei.
You should really thank me, your wonderful publisher , for having your back during this.
But not with a necktie like last time...I know you picked out the ugliest one on purpose.
I really hated that yellow colour...and the bumblebees.
God no, not the bumblebees. (ノಥ,_」ಥ)ノ彡┻━┻
I'd accept a good word to my chef this time though!(˶′◡‵˶)
-R.M.´
A grin made it's way onto the girl's face as she typed out a reply.
'I liked the bumblebees. (´༎ຶ ͜ʖ ༎ຶ `)✧
And I already told Kaicho to finally give you a pay raise.
He said he'd do it. (*´∀)
Look at you go Mom-kun, finally getting your life together.(´◉◞౪◟◉)
-O.N.´
She loved exchanging those playful messages with her publisher ,Ryuzaki Momiji, whom had been the one to decide to put his money on her and allowed her to release her first crime novel publicly under the alias of Ota Nao,ignoring the fact that she had just turned fifteen at that time.
A nostalgic smile flitted across the brunettes face as she thought back to almost two years ago.
To say she'd been overjoyed then would be more than a simple understatement.
Time flew by quickly as she just stared out the window and soon the speakers crackled and a soothing female voice announced that the next stop would be Chibaji station.
Rio silently protested as she got up from her seat and walked towards the doors.
She braced herself by gripping onto one of the metal poles as the train came to a sudden stop with a loud screeching noise that always managed to irritate the brunette girls eardrums, a fact which was evident by the displeased grimace that had found its way onto her pale face.
She quickly jumped off the train and hastily ran down the steps of the platform.
She cast a look at her watch.
"21:23, huh." She muttered under her breath.
Her mom would most probably not be home yet so she was still in the "green-zone" as she and her brother had so lovingly christened the time where they could cover for each other's absence if their mother called to check on them whilst she was still working.
"Lucky ~"
The brunette author hummed in satisfaction as her steps became more bouncy and the young author soon started skipping downward the hill of Chibaji station that lay completely deserted.
Rio soon stopped at a small intersection that was only being illuminated by one single street lamp.
Others might've felt a bit paranoid but since the pale teen had taken the same route home the last eleven years she actually felt safe.
Completely and utterly safe.
Her lips quirked up into another small smile as her brown orbs followed the movements of a few moths that had been drawn in by the artificial light of the street lamp, though she found herself thinking that it actually was quite cruel to laugh at the phenomenon since the moths would probably soon drop dead, not being able to escape the blind sighting light that they desired do much.
She was unpleasantly ripped from her thoughts when her phone pinged, announcing another message.
The loud had clearly startled the curvy teen, seeing as she cursed loudly before unlocking her screen.
'Really?!
That old geezer really agreed?!Σ(゚Д゚;)
Thank you so much Nao-Sensei!o(≧∇≦o)
And why do you always have to use the weird kaomojis?!ಠ_ಠ
-R.M.'
"Geez Mom-kun, you scared the crap out of me…" Rio huffed, pocketing her phone without replying.
When she looked up again her eyes came to rest on the three different paths once more.
"Either the quick way or the well lit way..."she thought, habitually tapping her fingers against her chin, as she looked at the two optional ways, a few cars and even an occasional person passing on by on either paved ways.
"Or the shortcut!" She suddenly realised as her eyes fell onto a small path that led straight through a forested area that was completely shrouded in darkness.
"It's not like there'll be ghosts there." Rio joked ,trying to give herself a pep-talk as she took a few determined steps forward and stepped onto the dark trail.
The darkness seemed to swallow her up whole as soon as she stepped foot into the forest, though she figured that this would be quite the advantage since nobody would be able to see her.
She soon discarded that thought after a while though when she came to realise that she too wouldn't be able to see anything, so she quickly pushed the flashlight button on her phone and breathed a small sigh of relief as soon as the white light forced its way through the inky blackness of this summer night.
Her breath stopped short when she heard a muffled scream.
So did her body.
"Move .Run. This is your overactive imagination, you're a crime-novel author for god's sake!"Rio thought, her mind running at an incredibly fast rate as adrenaline was being distributed all throughout her curvy body- making it a shaking mess.
But as much as she would've liked to continue lying to herself she knew at the same time... It hadn't been her imagination at all that had produced that sound of complete desperation and helplessness.
"Just run! Get help from someone,Call Mom-kun and the Police! What can a teen like you do if this is something serious?"
Rio scolded herself as she painfully clenched shut her eyes, wanting to shut out the sound of the scream that kept on replaying over and over in her panicked mind.
"That sounds pathetic coming from a future homicide officer like you... Shouldn't you try to protect and save other citizens, no matter how afraid you are?"a small voice told her at the back of her head and Rio had, putting it truthfully, no freaking idea from which corner of her brain it had been born or crawled from- since she was one of those people that always talk big but freak when something scary actually happens.
She also had a strong sense of self preservation.
Her close friend Miyazaki Kanon had once gotten Bluestone William ,her childhood best friend, and her to watch "The ring" with them, but had soon regretted it, seeing as both teens had started bawling in fright after the first five minutes.
A determined scowl settled on Rio's face as she adjusted her flashlight so that it was now shining towards the direction that the scream had hailed from.
She decided that instead of stupidly calling out to alert a maybe-perpetrator to her presence she'd try and scare them off with her flashlight since there'd be no indication as to how many people were actually approaching.
After fighting through the thick forestry and beating through the bushes, continuously scratching herself in the process, Rio arrived at a small clearing.
Her blood ran cold as the white light of her flashlight sliced through the darkness and fell onto something that made her realise that she'd never escape.
It was over for her.
She'd only leave this forest in a casket- if they ever found her body.
Or the body of the woman that lay in front of her.
A scarlet liquid was oozing out of the battered woman's mouth and out of the stab wounds that were littered her whole body, dying it a brilliant red that glistened eerily in the artificial light of Rio's flashlight.
She felt like throwing up and running away as fast as her out of shape body could carry her.
Though she knew.
She knew already.
She knew the moment she had laid eyes onto the shallowly breathing woman that now wasn't among the living anymore.
She knew that he was standing behind her.
"Plea-" she whimpered as soon as she felt the cold metal of presumably a knife bite harshly into the pinkish white skin of her throat above the sailor collar of her uniform.
It moved across it in a flash,too fast for to even register the blinding,hot pain that made everything in her vision explode into flashing white light.
Rio crumpled to the floor as the world swam before her eyes.
Her catlike, brown eyes brimmed with anger and hatred as a few tears slipped out of them when her killer crouched down to push a few strands of her golden brown hair out of her face.
She could feel his breath fanning onto her cheeks as she etched every last detail of his face into her brain.
Vowing that she'd one day be reborn and take revenge.
Vowing that he'd pay for taking her away from her friends and family.
Vowing to find out who the other victim was and bringing peace to her family.
Vowing to put him either in hell or behind bars.
"That's if I'm not reborn as a slug... Why am I even so strange on my deathbed? Well I guess I've always had a peculiar sense of gallows humour."
Rio let out a bitter laugh that sounded more like a gurgle through her slit throat as she heard steps moving away from her. That was when her crime-obsessed brain kicked into high gear, or would've if it wasn't for the blood loss making her go all woozy.
"Slit throat. I've got about fifteen seconds until I pass out. Need to press down on wound." She quickly assessed in her sluggish mind as she pressed her shaky hands to her throat as best as she could whilst slowly inching closer to the lifeless body by her side.
Rio gripped onto one of the woman's still warm hands and closed her eyes.
If she strained her ears now she could hear the sirens of an ambulance screaming loudly in the distance... Screaming for her to hold on maybe?
No, It was probably just wishful thinking.. And she was just so tired.
She let the darkness of the forest swallow her up completely as her now empty brown orbs fell onto her wrist watch.
She let out a gurgling chuckle when she realised that its battery had just died.
Her watch had stopped at the same time as the last shred of consciousness left her bloodied body that lay sprawled on the forest ground beside an already dead stranger.
At least she wasn't completely alone.
The last sarcastic thought on Rio's mind was how the one that had taken away her young life had been drawn to the light of her flashlight like a moth in the darkness.
" Death has a strange sense of humour...Or was it fate?"
