Prologue
When Neuro went to seal the gate to hell, I expected him to come back. Even if it wasn't right away, I knew that he'd come back. He had to, because… I was waiting for him. I'm waiting for him even now as I stare at the dusty red desk he used to always sit at with his legs crossed. I look at the ceiling for any hints that might still exist when he clung to it in the past, but the only remains of his existence now are my memories.
My memory has gotten somewhat hazy since that time though, and now I'm even wondering if he did exist. When I look back at the news articles that Sasazuka-san gave me, the only person I see in these pictures is me. Was it really me who solved all of these cases, or was there someone else? Was there someone important to me back then?
I want to ask someone if I'm sane, if there was someone like that in my past, but there's no one to ask anymore. Godai-san left without telling me where he was going the day that person disappeared and Sasazuka-san is retired now living somewhere… I never even bothered to ask where.
Looking out towards the graying sky I can only remember rapidly fading images of a man who had extraordinary powers who always ridiculed me at times like these. As if I were in a dream I stand at the window waiting for the downpour.
He's still not here even after five years of waiting.
Of course he wasn't a dream, Neuro was real. But now that he's gone it makes me feel like I'm in one. At first it was bearable, but as the months passed, and then the years went by I began to lose hope. I haven't solved a case since he's left. I couldn't, not without him. He changed the way I thought; he changed my very perspective on the world around me. I know things I wouldn't have ever known if I hadn't met him. He was what made me and guided me into this life.
The head of the police asked me several times if I would help with a case, but I refused all of them. I can't keep pretending to be something I'm not.
It's starting to rain now, just as I expected it would. Something about rainy days makes me feel peaceful on the inside. They make me think of him. I feel my pocket start to vibrate and I realize I'm getting a call. I take out my cell phone where a limp white braid hangs lifelessly as my phone strap.
"Hello?" I answer the phone unsure of the caller. No one calls me anymore since I've stopped doing investigations. No one answers so I try again. "Hello?"
I guess it's a wrong number. I clap my phone shut and shove it back into my pocket. I guess I'll stay here until it stops raining. I rest my head on the windowsill and begin to dream.
"Yako, you stupid girl, doesn't you're phone have any reception?" The deep voice taunts me, and yet it feels uplifting to hear. It's like finding something I've dropped on the ground after searching for it for hours, on the verge of hopelessness. "Did you lose something?" the voice asks almost as if the person behind the voice could hear me thinking.
"Just wait, sometimes you find things were you least suspect them."
to be continued...