Smooth Criminal

Written by Scherzkeks

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Chapter Two: Remember Me

If you play the game,
Know that every move has its consequence
.

Riiiiiiinnggg

The phone rang. I looked at my partner, Koko, and he pressed the speaker button. There was only a crumpling sound at the start. Soon, a more disturbing sound came up. It was someone groaning, someone struggling. Its desperate cries bothered me greatly. I started to panic.

"Hello?" I said. No one replied. The voice just kept on doing the same thing.

Something ticked a couple of times and a different – a much darker and deeper – voice finally spoke. My heart leapt unexpectedly. He said darkly, "You dared turn Ruka against me. And now you're paying for it."

"What?" I jumped to my feet.

But the phone call was already dropped. I was shaking, I was afraid. Ruka Nogi, he spoke of him. That could only mean that the mysterious caller was none other than Natsume Hyuuga. What was he planning to do? I looked at Koko in seek of comfort, but he was just a shocked as I was.

Aaahhhhh!

A shriek from outside turned up and died eventually. Everyone from the Police department rushed outside to see what was going on. People were whispering and gasping. Chief already called an investigatory team. As I stepped down at the pavements, my eyes widened at the scene. Holy…what the…? I saw a burnt body lying in front of our building.

And beside it was a pool of blood and from it were words drawn, "Remember me."

There was no culprit by the body, of course. But I knew who it did it. The man, whose face no one knew of – the Black Cat, Natsume Hyuuga. He was known for arson. He burnt houses and bodies. It was how he took vengeance against people. So this was what he was talking about. This was pure atrocity. He was challenging us.

Remember me.

The message scared crap out of me. Koko stood next to me. He was muttering, "You took my friend. You tried to use him against me. You sick bastards. I'm going to make you all miserable. You will never forget Natsume Hyuuga."

Something in me died. He was right. Those two words basically said it all. Natsume Hyuuga just declared war. If we didn't get to him soon, more and more innocent bystanders would lose their lives. Darn him.

"He'll get me out of here!" Nogi growled.

What did I just do?

"Hyuuga can't hide anymore. I've sent the body for autopsy and we have a couple of witnesses at hand. I think we've finally made a big step, now that you've gotten Ruka Nogi to our side as well. Job well done, officers," Chief congratulated me after I had reported all that had transpired during the transaction with Nogi. Relief and new found hope were evident in his formerly stressed out face. And after the incident a while ago, we definitely had to finally move and catch Hyuuga. The case had indeed been standing too long.

I forced a smile, which looked utterly constipated.

"So we're cutting off the deal, I suppose. Well, it's your loss," Nogi said casually. There went my last dot of hope. I felt irredeemable, a complete failure. What to do, Mikan? What to do? He walked to his bed and lay on it, facing the wall. With that, he dismissed us. "You can go, Officers."

What a troll! It couldn't just end it like this!

Officer Koko already held the door open and Mochu tapped my my back lightly, urging me to follow him, as he marched out. They were ready to give up. But my heart's directive told me to do otherwise. I didn't move a muscle.

"Come on, Mikan!" Koko called. Not just yet.

"Wait!" I spat out. Oh, dear me and my impetuous decision-making again. That was the second time today. At that moment, I was already regretting it.

Everyone froze, waiting for what I had to say. But I didn't know myself either. I didn't know what to say now. I beckoned the other officers to go ahead.

"Let's go," Mochu, already pissed, ordered me.

"We'll find another way, come on! We don't need that jerk," Koko hollered.

"Fine, if you want to stay with this psycho, then I don't care. But you better get something good out of this, Sakura," Mochu gritted his teeth and stomped away, Koko going after him. As soon as they reluctantly left, I sat at the edge of his bed. He didn't react, allowing us a few moments of silence.

I attempted to talk multiple times, but I always stopped myself at the last minute.

What do I say? How should I say it?

Ultimately, I only came up with, "Okay."

Ruka flipped over to face me. His lips widened to a half-smile.

There was something remarkable about that smile. One day, his charms would kill him.

He also shook Koko's and Mochu's hands. And we all saluted our senior before leaving the office.

The three of us walked in an uncomfortable silence. Koko was glaring at me. But I pretended as if I didn't feel anything. Mochu glanced at the both of us and crinkled his nose. He could sense the tensed aura around us. Koko came to a sudden halt. Uh-oh. That was a sign of a displeased Coconut Head.

"Dinner time!" Mochu declared, purposely interrupting the awkwardness, as he shuffled ahead of us and towards the cafeteria. Darn that idiot for leaving me alone with that other idiot. I also stopped a distance of three feet away from Yome.

Finally, Koko spoke. He accused, "You're planning on working alone on this, aren't you?"

"Working alone what?" I asked innocently.

"The case!" He exclaimed, his voice breaking, and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He advanced at me madly, "You're going to follow Nogi's terms. You lied to Chief! That's the reason why it happened, isn't it?"

He was right, though. He always was. Honestly, I didn't know what to feel about it. I did know that I was guilty for lying to my best friend, but I couldn't recognize the other emotions beating up my stomach. I patted him on the shoulder, but his expression remained unchanged. It was something rare with Koko – real affection. Normally, he would move and talk around like "serious" and "work" weren't in his vocabulary. This time, though, he looked genuinely worried.

I acted as if I didn't notice this and merely chuckled, "You're not called the Mind Reader for nothing. I wonder why they didn't assign you my job."

"That's easy," he shrugged, loosening off a bit. "You appeal more to criminals."

We both laughed. But then he frowned again. "You do know what you're doing, don't you? You're married to the law, Mikan. You can't do this."

"You actually think I'll do it?" I was totally flabbergasted that he honestly thought I would murder a person.

"Of course not!" He reacted defensively. "I was just making sure. What I'm actually afraid of is your plan. I hate your plans."

"I'll be careful then," I promised him. When I uttered those words, I had no idea if I could guarantee its fulfillment. For all I knew, it could be the death of me.

"That's what they all say," he snorted, rolling eyes. Then he said, "I'm coming with you."

"I don't know, Koko," I said slowly. "It might divert the operation."

"Hello? We're partners, remember? And you need me to predict their moves," he said. I raised my brow at him. And then he added, "For example, I think Nogi still has contact with this Hyuuga and they're planning something. His conditions had more depth, so it's pretty much obvious."

"In that case, we have an extremely poor security," I answered nonchalantly.

"I can't argue that, but that's not the point. You're running right into pandemonium…" He was warning me.

Kitsuneme, the station guard, passed by us, typing on some kind of a phone – something similar to an iPhone. Well, speaking of poor security.

"… know what this could do to you? Mikan, are you still listening?" I heard Koko was still talking.

He was cut off when I called Kitsu, my attention still locked on Kitsu's phone, "Hey, Kitsu. Nice phone! Where'd you get it?"

The boy turned and raised his device in confirmation. I nodded. "It's a LOLphone. I bought it from the main shop downtown."

He showed me the logo behind the phone as he knocked at Chief's door. When he entered, I came to think out loud, "How come I've never heard of it?"

"Well, I did," Koko said. "It was even on the news last week – hey, wait! Don't change the topic!"

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," I brushed aside and said instead, "I want to see the LOLphone!"

Together, we headed to the station's TV room. He searched for VTRs of last week's news, while mumbling words along the lines of "such a waste of time" and "we have much more important things to do". After watching video after video, the right news cut finally came.

"We're live at the LOL, Gan Street Branch. Today, a franchise of the LOL Incorporated is opening in Seoul. It's the first shop that was opened abroad, aside from the one in Berlin…," the reporter was saying. Then it showed clips of the shop and its products, people buying them and commenting on how much they loved the new trend. So far, it has become more popular than Apple Inc.'s products, well, that was in Japan.

Suddenly, something caught my attention on TV again. A woman was being interviewed; who I assumed was the CEO of the company. She had ebony black hair, pixie cut. Her eyes were bright purple. She was slim and wore a business attire; black vest, white blouse underneath, and pencil cut skirt. And then her name flashed on the screen.

It was Hotaru Imai.

Holy irony…

"Uhh, Mikan," Koko tapped me, his eyes still glued onto to the screen of the television.

"I know," I told him, still awed at our discovery.

Where did Nogi get the audacity to request the death of such a big person? I mean, Hotaru Imai, the CEO of the famous company. Why did he want her dead anyway? Did he even know her personally?

"Here, look at what I found," Koko tapped me and pointed at the computer screen. I bent over, supporting myself with an arm on his shoulder, and squinted at the text.

Hotaru Imai is flying to Seoul in three days. 15 hrs.

Again, all hope was lost. What chance did we have now to fix things with her?

As if hearing my thoughts, he rolled his eyes and explained, "Imai will be leaving for Seoul in three days. That means we have three days to negotiate with her."

Oh, how could I have not thought of that?

"You saw how she was at the Gan Street Branch a while ago," he continued. "It must only mean she hangs around her shops much. Now look here."

He scrolled down Imai's Twitter page and stopped at a point, allowing me to read.

Hotaru Imai Exhausted. At Feltson Avenue Branch. 7 days.

Hotaru Imai Elmer Alley. Stupid customers. Wtf. If they didn't give me cash, I'd probably kill them all now. April 2.

Hotaru Imai Dach Street is too messy. Good thing it earns me the most. You're lucky, Dach. Very lucky. March 26.

Alright, so she did a couple of visits. But I didn't get how relevant that was to our problem now. Koko smiled and enlightened me, "As you can see, from bottom to top, she visits her branches in alphabetical order."

Dach, Elmer, Feltson, and Gan – how could I have missed that? Koko always noticed such literal things in every situation and I never saw any use to that. Now, I recognized the relevance of his talents to his job. I was so glad he was my partner.

"So the next and the last branch is Hijiri," he said. "Her interval of shop hopping is every 7 days, according to her Tweets. Hence, the next is on her last day in Tokyo."

"Koko, you're a genius! I don't know what to do without you!"

"I know, no need to flatter me. I told you, you need me!" He joked.

Alright, there was only one thing to do. Hotaru Imai, here we come.

A/N: Woops, I'm a slow updater, haha. I'm not used to writing long stuff, you know! And this chapter was really hard to write D: Weelll, I do promise I'll be faster with the next chapters (hopefully). Sorry, I had to insert a tad bit of KokoxMikan here. XD

Oh! And I changed my pen name to Scherzkeks. Whee~ :D

I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading! Review please? ;)