Kiyotaka Ishimaru had no idea how to deal with this situation.
He had been dating Touko Fukawa for a few months, and while they were on break from school, she had come to visit him at his house. His parents were working.
And Ishimaru had done something to turn Fukawa into a serial killer.
"Kiyo-taaan!"
Ishimaru flinched. He glanced around his room. He'd locked himself in after she'd turned, and now he was standing, surrounded by books and kendo equipment, blood from a gash on his hand dripping onto the wood floor.
His room joined with a bathroom, which was also adjoining with his parent's room. If he went through there, he could maybe get out and use the neighbor's phone to call the police and tell them that he had Genocider Syo at his house.
His doorknob was jiggling, so he grabbed a practice sword to defend himself if she got too close.
He edged the door to the bathroom open, silently thanking himself for oiling the hinges on the door every third Saturday. He went through the bathroom as quickly and quietly as he could. The doorknob had stopped jiggling, and that worried him quite a bit.
He threw open the door to his parents' room. Empty. Good. She was probably just listening for him; that's why she'd stopped trying to get the door open. She wasn't waiting around this corner. The only tricky part would be to get from his parents' room to the kitchen, and then outside, without her noticing.
It would be difficult, but not impossible.
He set his face into a frown of concentration and inched open the door. She wasn't there. He opened the door the rest of the way before he lost his nerve, and edged out from relative protection to relative danger.
The kitchen wasn't far. He could sprint it.
Halfway there, he realized that he hadn't taken into consideration how fast she might be. She was right behind him as soon as she heard him move, laughing her insane laugh, scissors reflecting light and making those little snipping, clicking noises as she opened and closed them, opened and closed them, opened and closed them.
"It is dangerous to run with scissors!" Ishimaru shouted. Syo laughed her high, pealing laugh.
"Ah, Kiyo-tan, you're so precious! I only knew you from her diary, how lame is that? We can have so much fun together! You can strip so I can see what the big deal was, and then I can maybe kill you!" she cheered. Ishimaru swallowed and kept running. He skidded across the kitchen floor, only being in his socks, and ran straight into the counter.
It drove the breath from him and knocked him backward. He landed on his hands and feet, in a sort of crabwalk, the practice sword clattering onto the ground.
She slowed, and then she was right in front of him, grinning, tongue out, holding her scissors dangerously.
He backed up. He had a few inhibitions about hurting her – mostly because, underneath all of that, was his girlfriend – but he would need to. Not only would he be bringing Genocider Syo to light, but otherwise he would probably die.
And Kiyotaka Ishimaru had no intention of dying.
So, he rose to his feet, still a bit shaky but managing to keep himself strong.
She was still grinning. "Ooh, we've got a tough guy here," she cawed, swiping her scissors at him half-heartedly. He scrambled backwards, feeling for something. His practice sword was still on the ground. She stepped over it carefully – "Didn't you know it's dangerous to leave things lying around, Kiyo-tan?" – and advanced.
His hand closed around the salt shaker and he threw it. She dodged and pouted. "C'mon, Kiyo-tan, just take off your clothes? For me? I'll be sure to take a picture or something so that Gloomy can appreciate it through her tears."
The pepper shaker was next. He threw it as hard as he could, straight at her midsection. She dodged again, and the pepper shaker broke against the floor and a cloud of pepper rose into the air.
Syo sneezed once… twice… three times before the pepper settled again.
Standing in front of him was Fukawa, looking dazed. She glanced around, saw the scissors in her hands, and shrieked.
"F-Fukawa-kun?" Ishimaru asked, reaching out to her. She shook her head and backed away, still making small squeaking noises. "Let's go to the living room."
She followed him wordlessly, shaking. She sat down on the couch, and he sat down on a chair.
"You're Genocider Syo," Ishimaru said, trying to process it. Fukawa nodded. She looked to be in tears. "I- I need to…"
"Please don't tell!" she said, lunging forward. He jumped, back pressing into his chair, and she knelt before him, holding one of his hands in both of her own. "I- I'll do anything, please, please don't tell. I can keep her under control! I can… I can…"
Ishimaru, wishing that he'd had the chance to bandage the wound on his left hand (thankfully, it wasn't the one that Fukawa was holding), swallowed. He was sweating, he could feel tears burning in his eyes and he was shaking. He didn't know what to do. His partner was a serial killer, and he should turn her into the police. He needed to. It… it was the law. He couldn't just let a serial killer go free, after he knew what she was.
He'd stall.
"Does anyone else know? Togami-kun, perhaps?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"M-maybe," she mumbled. "But… please…"
Ishimaru swallowed. She sighed and stood up, but he caught one of her hands in his and just looked at her.
"If I do," he said, mentally correcting the 'if' to 'when,' because he had to, he had to because there was no other thing to do, unless he was to discuss things with Togami and figure something out, she had tried to kill him and she had killed so many others before. "I apologize."
Hah… um, Syo is fun to write. I'm not too sure on this one, because, if there was no despair incident… would Ishimaru really let a serial killer go loose? Which is why I left it open-ended, actually, so it's up to interpretation.