p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The sound of laughter is so startling at first – so out of place – that Adachi wonders if it's just the usual unsettling ambiance of the TV world around them./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It takes him a few moments more to fully understand that it's the boy who is laughing./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"A reaction born of panic? Adachi wonders idly, the shock wearing off. After all, Adachi emhas/em just fired a bullet past the dumbass's ear. A little panic is certainly natural – though truth be told, Adachi wouldn't have expected Narukami Yu, of all people, to panic./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It's the clapping – applause? – that emreally/em throws him off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu wipes away tears, still laughing as he leans against the window, right next to the new bullet hole in the glass. "Oh," he says, and then cuts himself off as more laughter escapes him, "Oh God, you emactually believe/em… haha… that you're the only one emwatching/em people?" As Adachi's expression grows more perplexed – and more irritable – Yu's laughter only increases. "That you're the only one hiding your hand until the right moment?" The boy shakes his head, putting a hand to his stomach. "Whew… thanks for that, I haven't let loose like that in emyears/em." He slides his hands into his pockets, taking a more casual stance against the window, and smiles at Adachi. "You really believe you're the only one who can play a fool?" The smile on his lips is one of the biggest Adachi's ever seen him wear./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The look in his eyes reads like a monster regarding its prey./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"If Adachi has long since forgotten what fear feels like, he certainly remembers now./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"After a moment's consideration, Yu straightens, taking a couple of steps toward Adachi as casually as though he's in the middle of an evening stroll. Adachi adjusts his aim – surely the kid's not emthat /emstupid – but Yu only pauses and smiles again, this time entirely patronizing. "Get it out of your system, if it will make you feel better," he remarks, shrugging his shoulders languidly./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi feels another wave of fear trickle down his spine. If this is a bluff, it's a damn good one. There's not an ounce of fear reflected in Yu's eyes; he's either not in his right mind, or Adachi's bullets won't have any effect on him. Despite currently being able to make a pretty good case for the former, Adachi's instincts say it's the latter. He decides against shooting; the gun falls to his side. Yu shrugs again and takes another step toward him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Honestly, I think the best part of all this is that deep down, you emwanted/em to be caught."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi takes an unconscious step back. "That may be the dumbest thing you've said yet, dumbass," he sneers./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Is it?" Yu smiles placidly at him, his voice light and mild. "Even though it was driving you just a little mad that there was no one but you to appreciate your handiwork? To admire the fact that you'd gotten away with murder not once, but twice, with no trace to ever lead the police to you?" Yu pauses. One of his hands shifts slightly in his pocket, and Adachi can hear the crinkle of paper as Yu amends, "Well. Almost no trace."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi's blood runs cold as he realizes that the brat has his warning letter. Well, his mistake – Adachi just has to find a foothold in this conversation, make the boy drop his guard. There'll be nothing to stop him from taking the letter back and destroying it. He almost smirks, but Yu continues./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""And on top of all that, you worked the strings to give yourself a long-running game of cat-and-mouse. A chase that wouldn't end, and us after the wrong guy to begin with… You were pretty damn proud of your handiwork. Felt like some kind of genius." It's Yu who smirks now; the sight is jarring. "An evil mastermind, maybe?" Adachi scowls at him. It's a hit too close to home. The detective is annoyed to find he's temporarily out of retorts./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu keeps his hands in his pockets, treading in a lazy circle around Adachi. It's such an uncanny imitation of a shark that Adachi feels as though there should be an ominous movie track in the background. "I really was impressed, you know." The smile he gives Adachi this time is bizarrely affectionate – fond, even – and Adachi feels his spine stiffen. "You were right under the nose of the man hardest at work on the case the whole time. Keeping a straight face all day at work must be a challenge." He pauses, bends over Adachi's shoulder to his ear, warm breath tickling the older man's skin. "But you let your mask slip, you know." Adachi jumps when he feels Yu's fingers at his wrist – a gentle touch, feather-light, but somehow laced with an unspoken threat that prevents the man from yanking his arm away. "Dinners at the Dojima's – especially on nights when Dojima-san was drunk. It's no wonder you only pretended to be drunk – couldn't afford to let anything slip, could you? Even still, you would, sometimes, when you thought none of us were looking. You'd get this emamazing/em look on your face -," Adachi glances at Narukami sharply, suspecting sarcasm and instead finding genuine pleasure in his eyes, "-the one that clearly said you thought we were all sentimental idiots, that you were above us, above all of it. It's a shame you have to spend all your time wearing that dorky smile of yours instead… the arrogant look really suits you."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"There's a pause, a strange sense that Yu is savoring his next words before allowing them to roll off his tongue. "But I have to say… I especially like the way you look at emme./em" Adachi finally does jerk away at this, stepping out of the perfect circle Yu's been walking. The toes of Yu's school shoes swivel as he gracefully rotates to follow, allowing Adachi to back himself into the wall. "You have a very love-hate relationship with me," Yu comments, still smiling, the little prick. "I have everything you want, so you hate me." He pauses, and the corners of his mouth curl almost ferally. "But I emam/em everything you want, so you -"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Oi, gimme a break, you brat!" Adachi snarls derisively. "Calling me the arrogant one, while deluding yourself into thinking, what, I got some kinda sick crush on you? Don't make me laugh!" But by this point, all he's got left is false bravado, and they both know it./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu ducks his head for a moment, shaking it as he chuckles, before tilting it at that angle to look at Adachi from under his bangs. "The reflections in kitchen windows at night are surprisingly revealing," he says, and Adachi wonders if his canines always looked as sharp as they do at this moment. "It turns out, doing the dishes after dinner gives me quite a view."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It all comes rushing back to Adachi, then: all those nights of Dojima bringing him home like some stray animal to take pity on, Nanako's reticence in the presence of a man she must instinctively know is not quite right, Dojima being alternately far too loud or far too quiet, depending on how much booze he's had. Plenty of pre-made Junes meals, in the beginning, until Narukami takes up dinner duties. It pisses Adachi off, what a goody-two shoes Dojima's nephew is. Dojima seems to think he might be getting up to some trouble, but even before Adachi has fully realized what Yu is actually up to, he knows better. The kid's collar is always perfectly starched, his shoes neatly lined up in perfect order at the door, his coat always on the hook - never tossed over a chair or the arm of the sofa - and Adachi knows from Dojima himself that the kid is getting apparently near-perfect grades in school. To say nothing of how the house appears to be cleaner than he's ever seen it, Nanako actually looks like she has some life to her again, and apparently the boy can even cook well enough to put any housewife to shame. There's no way in emhell/em Narukami is on the wrong side of the law./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"And then Adachi gets to watch as all of the victims of Namatame's savior-complex gather around the boy, one by one, and it's not just the experience that draws them together, it's Yu himself - handsome, charismatic, just enough of a mysterious aura to suit a transfer student from the city, quiet and seemingly wise enough to shoulder everyone's problems./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It makes Adachi sick. Another city brat, transferred out into the middle of fucking nowhere, and yet the little prick is somehow emthriving/em out here, while Adachi feels like he's a nobody who's fallen off the face of the goddamn planet. He knows that the Hanamura kid has suffered similarly - at least, he had, until he buddied up to Yu./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The most annoying thing, the piece of the puzzle he hasn't been able to figure out, is the fact that the longer the mystery goes on, the more victims Namatame pushes into the television - the more emreal /emand emalive/em Yu looks. Despite the fact that the TV world seems to drain most people, make them sickly, send them into bedrest... it seems to be giving Narukami emsubstance./em /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"All of this seeps into that space behind his eyes, spinning and burning and giving him a headache he can't quite shake. The worst part is that Yu's magnetism is effective on emeveryone/em - including Adachi. Even as he hates the kid's guts for defying his small town fate with seeming effortlessness while Adachi wastes away under a hardass boss with barely any paycheck to show for it - even as he hates him, he can't help but follow those silver eyes with his own, can't help the smile that sometimes sneaks across his face, unbidden, as he takes a bite from a hot bowl of food that Narukami's just handed him, can't help stealing glances at the strong, steady hands that cook and pour the drinks and wipe the table and ruffle Nanako's hair - and what does that feel like ? - can't help noticing that underneath the soft fabric of the boy's more fitted shirts lies a surprising amount of muscle, certainly moreso than your average teenage manchild./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Can't help staring holes between Yu's shoulder blades as he stands at the kitchen sink, innocently doing dishes, simultaneously wanting to destroy him and hoard him away like a stolen treasure, far away from the greedy town that's come to love him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi abruptly jerks back to the present. He realizes that Yu is simply watching him quietly, that unsettlingly fond expression on his face once again, and swallows. Hard. It's now that he finally understands Narukami really emhas/em seen it all - his arrogance, his hatred, his longing - and the thought makes bile rise in his throat. What a laugh. What a emjoke/em. Adachi's assumed for most of this past year that he's at the top of this totem pole, looking down on everyone else, twisting the game to make it go as he pleases - the only one with all the information. He's assumed wrong./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi truly is the fool he was pretending to be all along./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""The difference between us, Adachi-san," Yu finally speaks again, and Adachi is silent, sullen, "is that you have no patience. You like to play but you don't like to wait. When you get bored, you break your toys." For the first time, Yu looks remorseful, shaking his head. "Such a waste. Toys will serve you much better when you take good care of them." He quirks an eyebrow at Adachi. "Really, there are much better ways to vent your frustrations than murdering people." He makes a small 'tsk' of disapproval. "And why risk permanently ending your own game for such a brief thrill? Sure, it'll be a wilder thrill than most... but then what? Rot away in prison for life, as stiflingly bored there as you were here? Will that have been worth it?" He laughs, again, and the genuine pleasure in the sound, free of malice, causes Adachi's stomach to roil. "I do have to thank you, though, for giving me the best year of my life. I think you should have done without the killing, there's really no escaping the consequences for that, but the results weren't bad at all." He leans back slightly, tilts his head. "Tell me, did you speak with Igor and Margaret, back when you were first awakened?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi snorts derisively. "Those goons in blue? Long enough to ask them the way out, sure."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu grins crookedly at this, laughs again. "Thought as much. emReally/em, Adachi-san, so impatient. Did you at least hear them out long enough for them to speak of the power of bonds?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi's lip curls in a sneer, and he waves his gun in a haphazard gesture. "The power of bonds, my ass. Relationships tie you down - people emexpect/em things from you, and you get what in return - a smile? A thank you? A wrapped present at Christmas? Bullshit."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The boy shakes his head, sighing. "It's no wonder you decided not to play by the rules - you didn't really understand them in the first place. They weren't lying to you, you know." He lifts a hand idly, palm up, and a blue flame emerges in the air above his palm like a lighter being flicked open. A tarot card materializes, hovers, spinning in place at the center of that blue flame. "If only you'd listened - you might actually stand a chance against me when I fight you." Yu stares at the tarot card, and this time the smile on his face is both eerily hungry and obscenely pleased. "How many bonds do you think I've formed by now, Adachi-san?" His silver eyes flicker up towards the detective for a moment, an azure glow reflected in them. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi thinks of the town of Inaba, thinks of how many people know the name Narukami Yu, thinks of the fruit baskets and flowers he's seen just sitting on the Dojima's doorstep, thinks of the peculiar number of part-time jobs the boy seems to juggle. He doesn't like where this is headed. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Certainly, you've gotten a little boost from the shadows in here - and from our mutual 'benefactor,' it would seem," Yu muses. "But I can assure you, that won't be enough. Not nearly." He closes his eyes, almost seeming to inhale some of the blue flames he continues to maintain. "After all, I can sense you, much like you can sense me. Your aura tells me all I need to know." He opens his eyes, and Adachi thinks, fleetingly, that they seem almost feline. Then the corners crinkle in amusement, and the illusion is gone. "Just like it told me that you wanted me to visit you alone." He laughs softly. "Though your call was so strong that even some of the more sensitive among the others sensed it - Rise and Naoto especially." Narukami looks just as affectionate talking about them as he had only a short while ago looking at Adachi, and Adachi isn't sure what the feeling is that twists inside his stomach as he realizes it's the same expression. "And Yosuke - well, his senses aren't particularly heightened in the same respect as theirs, but he's got good instinct. I know he'll be waiting for me when I leave tonight, even though I never let on I was coming." He finally closes his hand, dousing the flame. "Really, Adachi-san... you're not very honest. You could have just told me how much you wanted me to come." He turns his amused gaze back on the detective. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The older man wants to retort - wants to pistol-whip this kid upside the head, in fact. The thought that any of the other brats noticed a call he hadn't even really emmeant/em to make is utterly humiliating. After all, when he realized Narukami would show up, his only plan was to throw the betrayal in his face, maybe break his spirit, and then scare him off with the gun. Not to have all of his secrets - secrets he'd been purposely keeping even from himself - aired out like so much dirty laundry. But he's got nothing to say, and the fact that his silence is as good as admitting Narukami is right absolutely infuriates him. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu, having paced a short distance away in the course of the conversation - if such a one-sided dialogue could be called a conversation - now shifts closer again. Adachi tenses almost immediately this time, alarm bells sounding in his head. "Really, you're over-complicating things for yourself," the boy remarks, hands in his pockets once more. "You think that some people are pawns and some aren't, and you think you aren't. But we're all pawns to somebody. We're all a part in someone's game. We're all toys. And I was being quite serious before." He smiles, leans in slightly. "I take emvery/em good care of my toys. You should see the first model I ever built - still in mint condition, beautifully displayed in a case at home." The sheer pride he emanates at this about a model - a fucking model! - and its bizarre contrast to the context makes Adachi almost want to laugh. He might, too, if the rest of the conversation weren't so fucking disturbing./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""So what," he snorts, trying again to get a grip, "you gonna put your little friends in a glass case, too? And they all thought emI/em was the sicko."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""No," says Yu, his tone indulgent, and Adachi grimaces. "I enjoy watching them live their lives, play their roles. They're fun. What good would they be to me in a glass case? No, I'll keep them happy, the way they do for me." He grins again, here, and Adachi finds this just as unsettling the second or third time around. "Besides... how many of them do you think would take a bullet for me?" He pauses, though not long enough to let Adachi come up with a snide answer. "All of them. Every single one." He reaches out, slides the tip of his index finger down the top ridge of Adachi's gun. "Not that I'd let them, of course - I don't let anyone emelse/em break my toys, either." At this, he looks very pointedly at Adachi, and for the briefest moment, his eyes flicker a golden yellow. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"This time, Adachi's unable to hold back a shiver, and he regrets it the moment he sees the grin reappear on Narukami's face. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Don't worry," says the boy with silver hair, leaning in further still. "I have my eye on you, too. You've given me such a grand adventure, after all. Besides, it's nice to find a kindred spirit." He tips his head, pauses. "Still... we can't really avoid the mess you've gotten yourself into. My friends will come back with me, and we emwill/em win." He looks amused at the thought. "But if you were to send one of your little doppelganger Shadows in your place... make a good illusion out of it..." He shrugs, smirks. "Who's to say anyone but the two of us would know the difference? My friends will be satisfied, the case will be closed, and then all we have to do is smuggle you out of Inaba. Such a shame, I know how much you love it here."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"He reaches out with a strange kind of reverence, gently lifting the end of Adachi's red tie in his fingers, bending down toward it even as his head tilts back to look up at Adachi./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""What do you say? Would you like to be my toy... Tohru?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi makes a strangled noise somewhere between fury and defeat. Yu seems to take this as acceptance. He rubs his thumb gently over the tie in circles that are almost hypnotic, then lifts the fabric to his lips and kisses it. And somehow, despite the fact that the tie still hangs as carelessly loose from Adachi's neck as he's always worn it, it suddenly feels like a collar. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The most irritating part is that he can't figure out whether or not he actually minds. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It takes him a few moments more to fully understand that it's the boy who is laughing./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"A reaction born of panic? Adachi wonders idly, the shock wearing off. After all, Adachi emhas/em just fired a bullet past the dumbass's ear. A little panic is certainly natural – though truth be told, Adachi wouldn't have expected Narukami Yu, of all people, to panic./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It's the clapping – applause? – that emreally/em throws him off./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu wipes away tears, still laughing as he leans against the window, right next to the new bullet hole in the glass. "Oh," he says, and then cuts himself off as more laughter escapes him, "Oh God, you emactually believe/em… haha… that you're the only one emwatching/em people?" As Adachi's expression grows more perplexed – and more irritable – Yu's laughter only increases. "That you're the only one hiding your hand until the right moment?" The boy shakes his head, putting a hand to his stomach. "Whew… thanks for that, I haven't let loose like that in emyears/em." He slides his hands into his pockets, taking a more casual stance against the window, and smiles at Adachi. "You really believe you're the only one who can play a fool?" The smile on his lips is one of the biggest Adachi's ever seen him wear./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The look in his eyes reads like a monster regarding its prey./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"If Adachi has long since forgotten what fear feels like, he certainly remembers now./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"After a moment's consideration, Yu straightens, taking a couple of steps toward Adachi as casually as though he's in the middle of an evening stroll. Adachi adjusts his aim – surely the kid's not emthat /emstupid – but Yu only pauses and smiles again, this time entirely patronizing. "Get it out of your system, if it will make you feel better," he remarks, shrugging his shoulders languidly./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi feels another wave of fear trickle down his spine. If this is a bluff, it's a damn good one. There's not an ounce of fear reflected in Yu's eyes; he's either not in his right mind, or Adachi's bullets won't have any effect on him. Despite currently being able to make a pretty good case for the former, Adachi's instincts say it's the latter. He decides against shooting; the gun falls to his side. Yu shrugs again and takes another step toward him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Honestly, I think the best part of all this is that deep down, you emwanted/em to be caught."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi takes an unconscious step back. "That may be the dumbest thing you've said yet, dumbass," he sneers./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Is it?" Yu smiles placidly at him, his voice light and mild. "Even though it was driving you just a little mad that there was no one but you to appreciate your handiwork? To admire the fact that you'd gotten away with murder not once, but twice, with no trace to ever lead the police to you?" Yu pauses. One of his hands shifts slightly in his pocket, and Adachi can hear the crinkle of paper as Yu amends, "Well. Almost no trace."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi's blood runs cold as he realizes that the brat has his warning letter. Well, his mistake – Adachi just has to find a foothold in this conversation, make the boy drop his guard. There'll be nothing to stop him from taking the letter back and destroying it. He almost smirks, but Yu continues./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""And on top of all that, you worked the strings to give yourself a long-running game of cat-and-mouse. A chase that wouldn't end, and us after the wrong guy to begin with… You were pretty damn proud of your handiwork. Felt like some kind of genius." It's Yu who smirks now; the sight is jarring. "An evil mastermind, maybe?" Adachi scowls at him. It's a hit too close to home. The detective is annoyed to find he's temporarily out of retorts./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu keeps his hands in his pockets, treading in a lazy circle around Adachi. It's such an uncanny imitation of a shark that Adachi feels as though there should be an ominous movie track in the background. "I really was impressed, you know." The smile he gives Adachi this time is bizarrely affectionate – fond, even – and Adachi feels his spine stiffen. "You were right under the nose of the man hardest at work on the case the whole time. Keeping a straight face all day at work must be a challenge." He pauses, bends over Adachi's shoulder to his ear, warm breath tickling the older man's skin. "But you let your mask slip, you know." Adachi jumps when he feels Yu's fingers at his wrist – a gentle touch, feather-light, but somehow laced with an unspoken threat that prevents the man from yanking his arm away. "Dinners at the Dojima's – especially on nights when Dojima-san was drunk. It's no wonder you only pretended to be drunk – couldn't afford to let anything slip, could you? Even still, you would, sometimes, when you thought none of us were looking. You'd get this emamazing/em look on your face -," Adachi glances at Narukami sharply, suspecting sarcasm and instead finding genuine pleasure in his eyes, "-the one that clearly said you thought we were all sentimental idiots, that you were above us, above all of it. It's a shame you have to spend all your time wearing that dorky smile of yours instead… the arrogant look really suits you."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"There's a pause, a strange sense that Yu is savoring his next words before allowing them to roll off his tongue. "But I have to say… I especially like the way you look at emme./em" Adachi finally does jerk away at this, stepping out of the perfect circle Yu's been walking. The toes of Yu's school shoes swivel as he gracefully rotates to follow, allowing Adachi to back himself into the wall. "You have a very love-hate relationship with me," Yu comments, still smiling, the little prick. "I have everything you want, so you hate me." He pauses, and the corners of his mouth curl almost ferally. "But I emam/em everything you want, so you -"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Oi, gimme a break, you brat!" Adachi snarls derisively. "Calling me the arrogant one, while deluding yourself into thinking, what, I got some kinda sick crush on you? Don't make me laugh!" But by this point, all he's got left is false bravado, and they both know it./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu ducks his head for a moment, shaking it as he chuckles, before tilting it at that angle to look at Adachi from under his bangs. "The reflections in kitchen windows at night are surprisingly revealing," he says, and Adachi wonders if his canines always looked as sharp as they do at this moment. "It turns out, doing the dishes after dinner gives me quite a view."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It all comes rushing back to Adachi, then: all those nights of Dojima bringing him home like some stray animal to take pity on, Nanako's reticence in the presence of a man she must instinctively know is not quite right, Dojima being alternately far too loud or far too quiet, depending on how much booze he's had. Plenty of pre-made Junes meals, in the beginning, until Narukami takes up dinner duties. It pisses Adachi off, what a goody-two shoes Dojima's nephew is. Dojima seems to think he might be getting up to some trouble, but even before Adachi has fully realized what Yu is actually up to, he knows better. The kid's collar is always perfectly starched, his shoes neatly lined up in perfect order at the door, his coat always on the hook - never tossed over a chair or the arm of the sofa - and Adachi knows from Dojima himself that the kid is getting apparently near-perfect grades in school. To say nothing of how the house appears to be cleaner than he's ever seen it, Nanako actually looks like she has some life to her again, and apparently the boy can even cook well enough to put any housewife to shame. There's no way in emhell/em Narukami is on the wrong side of the law./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"And then Adachi gets to watch as all of the victims of Namatame's savior-complex gather around the boy, one by one, and it's not just the experience that draws them together, it's Yu himself - handsome, charismatic, just enough of a mysterious aura to suit a transfer student from the city, quiet and seemingly wise enough to shoulder everyone's problems./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"It makes Adachi sick. Another city brat, transferred out into the middle of fucking nowhere, and yet the little prick is somehow emthriving/em out here, while Adachi feels like he's a nobody who's fallen off the face of the goddamn planet. He knows that the Hanamura kid has suffered similarly - at least, he had, until he buddied up to Yu./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The most annoying thing, the piece of the puzzle he hasn't been able to figure out, is the fact that the longer the mystery goes on, the more victims Namatame pushes into the television - the more emreal /emand emalive/em Yu looks. Despite the fact that the TV world seems to drain most people, make them sickly, send them into bedrest... it seems to be giving Narukami emsubstance./em /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"All of this seeps into that space behind his eyes, spinning and burning and giving him a headache he can't quite shake. The worst part is that Yu's magnetism is effective on emeveryone/em - including Adachi. Even as he hates the kid's guts for defying his small town fate with seeming effortlessness while Adachi wastes away under a hardass boss with barely any paycheck to show for it - even as he hates him, he can't help but follow those silver eyes with his own, can't help the smile that sometimes sneaks across his face, unbidden, as he takes a bite from a hot bowl of food that Narukami's just handed him, can't help stealing glances at the strong, steady hands that cook and pour the drinks and wipe the table and ruffle Nanako's hair - and what does that feel like ? - can't help noticing that underneath the soft fabric of the boy's more fitted shirts lies a surprising amount of muscle, certainly moreso than your average teenage manchild./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Can't help staring holes between Yu's shoulder blades as he stands at the kitchen sink, innocently doing dishes, simultaneously wanting to destroy him and hoard him away like a stolen treasure, far away from the greedy town that's come to love him./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi abruptly jerks back to the present. He realizes that Yu is simply watching him quietly, that unsettlingly fond expression on his face once again, and swallows. Hard. It's now that he finally understands Narukami really emhas/em seen it all - his arrogance, his hatred, his longing - and the thought makes bile rise in his throat. What a laugh. What a emjoke/em. Adachi's assumed for most of this past year that he's at the top of this totem pole, looking down on everyone else, twisting the game to make it go as he pleases - the only one with all the information. He's assumed wrong./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi truly is the fool he was pretending to be all along./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""The difference between us, Adachi-san," Yu finally speaks again, and Adachi is silent, sullen, "is that you have no patience. You like to play but you don't like to wait. When you get bored, you break your toys." For the first time, Yu looks remorseful, shaking his head. "Such a waste. Toys will serve you much better when you take good care of them." He quirks an eyebrow at Adachi. "Really, there are much better ways to vent your frustrations than murdering people." He makes a small 'tsk' of disapproval. "And why risk permanently ending your own game for such a brief thrill? Sure, it'll be a wilder thrill than most... but then what? Rot away in prison for life, as stiflingly bored there as you were here? Will that have been worth it?" He laughs, again, and the genuine pleasure in the sound, free of malice, causes Adachi's stomach to roil. "I do have to thank you, though, for giving me the best year of my life. I think you should have done without the killing, there's really no escaping the consequences for that, but the results weren't bad at all." He leans back slightly, tilts his head. "Tell me, did you speak with Igor and Margaret, back when you were first awakened?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi snorts derisively. "Those goons in blue? Long enough to ask them the way out, sure."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu grins crookedly at this, laughs again. "Thought as much. emReally/em, Adachi-san, so impatient. Did you at least hear them out long enough for them to speak of the power of bonds?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi's lip curls in a sneer, and he waves his gun in a haphazard gesture. "The power of bonds, my ass. Relationships tie you down - people emexpect/em things from you, and you get what in return - a smile? A thank you? A wrapped present at Christmas? Bullshit."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The boy shakes his head, sighing. "It's no wonder you decided not to play by the rules - you didn't really understand them in the first place. They weren't lying to you, you know." He lifts a hand idly, palm up, and a blue flame emerges in the air above his palm like a lighter being flicked open. A tarot card materializes, hovers, spinning in place at the center of that blue flame. "If only you'd listened - you might actually stand a chance against me when I fight you." Yu stares at the tarot card, and this time the smile on his face is both eerily hungry and obscenely pleased. "How many bonds do you think I've formed by now, Adachi-san?" His silver eyes flicker up towards the detective for a moment, an azure glow reflected in them. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi thinks of the town of Inaba, thinks of how many people know the name Narukami Yu, thinks of the fruit baskets and flowers he's seen just sitting on the Dojima's doorstep, thinks of the peculiar number of part-time jobs the boy seems to juggle. He doesn't like where this is headed. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Certainly, you've gotten a little boost from the shadows in here - and from our mutual 'benefactor,' it would seem," Yu muses. "But I can assure you, that won't be enough. Not nearly." He closes his eyes, almost seeming to inhale some of the blue flames he continues to maintain. "After all, I can sense you, much like you can sense me. Your aura tells me all I need to know." He opens his eyes, and Adachi thinks, fleetingly, that they seem almost feline. Then the corners crinkle in amusement, and the illusion is gone. "Just like it told me that you wanted me to visit you alone." He laughs softly. "Though your call was so strong that even some of the more sensitive among the others sensed it - Rise and Naoto especially." Narukami looks just as affectionate talking about them as he had only a short while ago looking at Adachi, and Adachi isn't sure what the feeling is that twists inside his stomach as he realizes it's the same expression. "And Yosuke - well, his senses aren't particularly heightened in the same respect as theirs, but he's got good instinct. I know he'll be waiting for me when I leave tonight, even though I never let on I was coming." He finally closes his hand, dousing the flame. "Really, Adachi-san... you're not very honest. You could have just told me how much you wanted me to come." He turns his amused gaze back on the detective. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The older man wants to retort - wants to pistol-whip this kid upside the head, in fact. The thought that any of the other brats noticed a call he hadn't even really emmeant/em to make is utterly humiliating. After all, when he realized Narukami would show up, his only plan was to throw the betrayal in his face, maybe break his spirit, and then scare him off with the gun. Not to have all of his secrets - secrets he'd been purposely keeping even from himself - aired out like so much dirty laundry. But he's got nothing to say, and the fact that his silence is as good as admitting Narukami is right absolutely infuriates him. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Yu, having paced a short distance away in the course of the conversation - if such a one-sided dialogue could be called a conversation - now shifts closer again. Adachi tenses almost immediately this time, alarm bells sounding in his head. "Really, you're over-complicating things for yourself," the boy remarks, hands in his pockets once more. "You think that some people are pawns and some aren't, and you think you aren't. But we're all pawns to somebody. We're all a part in someone's game. We're all toys. And I was being quite serious before." He smiles, leans in slightly. "I take emvery/em good care of my toys. You should see the first model I ever built - still in mint condition, beautifully displayed in a case at home." The sheer pride he emanates at this about a model - a fucking model! - and its bizarre contrast to the context makes Adachi almost want to laugh. He might, too, if the rest of the conversation weren't so fucking disturbing./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""So what," he snorts, trying again to get a grip, "you gonna put your little friends in a glass case, too? And they all thought emI/em was the sicko."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""No," says Yu, his tone indulgent, and Adachi grimaces. "I enjoy watching them live their lives, play their roles. They're fun. What good would they be to me in a glass case? No, I'll keep them happy, the way they do for me." He grins again, here, and Adachi finds this just as unsettling the second or third time around. "Besides... how many of them do you think would take a bullet for me?" He pauses, though not long enough to let Adachi come up with a snide answer. "All of them. Every single one." He reaches out, slides the tip of his index finger down the top ridge of Adachi's gun. "Not that I'd let them, of course - I don't let anyone emelse/em break my toys, either." At this, he looks very pointedly at Adachi, and for the briefest moment, his eyes flicker a golden yellow. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"This time, Adachi's unable to hold back a shiver, and he regrets it the moment he sees the grin reappear on Narukami's face. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""Don't worry," says the boy with silver hair, leaning in further still. "I have my eye on you, too. You've given me such a grand adventure, after all. Besides, it's nice to find a kindred spirit." He tips his head, pauses. "Still... we can't really avoid the mess you've gotten yourself into. My friends will come back with me, and we emwill/em win." He looks amused at the thought. "But if you were to send one of your little doppelganger Shadows in your place... make a good illusion out of it..." He shrugs, smirks. "Who's to say anyone but the two of us would know the difference? My friends will be satisfied, the case will be closed, and then all we have to do is smuggle you out of Inaba. Such a shame, I know how much you love it here."/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"He reaches out with a strange kind of reverence, gently lifting the end of Adachi's red tie in his fingers, bending down toward it even as his head tilts back to look up at Adachi./p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;""What do you say? Would you like to be my toy... Tohru?"/p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"Adachi makes a strangled noise somewhere between fury and defeat. Yu seems to take this as acceptance. He rubs his thumb gently over the tie in circles that are almost hypnotic, then lifts the fabric to his lips and kisses it. And somehow, despite the fact that the tie still hangs as carelessly loose from Adachi's neck as he's always worn it, it suddenly feels like a collar. /p
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 14.3639993667603px;"The most irritating part is that he can't figure out whether or not he actually minds. /p