On A Standstill – x03x– And Then Open Your Hands.
A/N: Thank you very much for all of the reviews! Apologies for the late update from the promised dates, days, time. My PR got kidnapped by school (literally); meanwhile my µ's died for this story, because I was too lazy to update long stuff then. Anyway, here's the conclusion to the first case! But, but, but! We're far from the end! Ah~ NicoMaki's relationship makes me really curious~ you too, right?
Disclaimers: Applies forever, and I will throw in different dates (with no years, because I can) because we need that to determine time of date, and alibis and shit stuff.
Note: This work has not undergo proofreading yet, if there are any mistakes, please overlook it and enjoy the chapter. I will replace this chapter with a PR'd version soon enough with the next chapter. Thank you!
Hoshizora Kenjiro ruffled his long hair and attempted to move his left arm but noticed a weight on it. He looked to his side and smiled at the sleeping woman in his arms. He removed a stray strand from the pretty face and kissed the engagement ring the female wore.
"Shizuka," He spoke with his deep voice and softly shook the female. "Shizuka, wake up."
"Mmm… Ken-kun, what is it?" The female turned around, spooning herself onto his body. "I'm sleepy."
"I need to call my dentist. We'll miss the appointment."
"Oh. That was today?" Shizuka opened her eyes and turned around to hug him. "Will she allow you to adjust the time? Maybe just move it to another day?"
"I don't have any other free days. I do think Yazawa-san will allow it, if she doesn't have a schedule after me." He sat up from his bed and put his feet on the ground. He accidentally hit the side of the small table beside his bed, two glasses clang on it. He ignored the noise and took his phone from the table. "Hello, Yazawa-san?"
"Yes? Who is this?"
"It's Hoshizora."
"Oh. What is it, Hoshizora-san?"
Kenjiro looked at the clock. It was 1:08PM.
"I don't think I'll be able to make it on to our 3PM appointment." He said. "Is it okay if I ask to move it at a later time? Is 6PM okay?" He heard rummaging and papers being turned onto the phone and silently prayed.
"Yeah. 6PM is fine."
"Thanks! I will be there!"
"That was my last encounter with him." Shizuka, a long haired brunette wearing an all-white one piece dress clutched the cloth of her skirt on her lap. "I… I didn't expect…"
Nozomi frowned and walked over to her side and rubbed her back. She looked across the table, towards Eri who was typing all of her statements into a laptop.
"Do you know any friends? Anyone that could have a grudge on him?" Nozomi asked calmly.
"There's no one! He's a kind man! He never made enemies." Shizuka answered in distress. "Although… h- his best friend, Ichioji Kou-kun, might know someone."
"I'm sorry you have to tell us these." Eri pressed enter on the laptop to produce a new line. "His neighbors told us that he doesn't usually talk to them so they don't know a lot about him. Rin… Hoshizora only knew you because you're his fiancée. He's a very private person even to his family, ever since he started living alone six years ago. All of these are helpful."
"Please… can I go home now?" Shizuka sobbed into her hands, her shoulders moving up and down continuously. Nozomi rubbed her shoulders to relax her.
"Yes. If you…" Eri hesitated, but Nozomi looked at her and nodded. "If you remember anything, anything at all that could help us. Don't hesitate to call me." She gave her a calling card.
Tanba Shizuka nodded and immediately put the card in her purse. She looked behind her and tried her best to smile at Nozomi, who smiled back at her.
"I'll take her to the front door." Nozomi said and the two left the interrogation room.
Eri watched the laptop's letter cursor blink onto an empty line. She propped both of her elbows onto the table, then adjoined her hands together. She leaned her forehead on her hands and sighed.
Hanayo placed a cup of tea on Rin's table. "Kayo-chin. Thank you."
"Rin-chan... Why don't you take a break for a while?" Hanayo placed her hands onto her shoulder. "I'll take over."
"No, it's fine. I have nine lives!" She joked and put up both her hands in cat-like paws. Hanayo smiled at her and held onto those 'paws' with both of her hands.
"Even if you have like ten or twelve lives, you have to rest too." She told her with certainty. "Come on. Have a short break, or a nap. You won't be able to catch the suspect if we have to chase them." Against her will, she pulled Rin from in-front of the multi-playing camera footages from the day of her brother's death and sits her on a makeshift bed not far from the computer table.
"Ka- Kayo-chin…" Rin looked at her and tried to sneak a yawn. "Only 20 minutes then."
"I'll wake you!" Hanayo gave her a salute. She sat in front of the playing video tapes. They were a security camera that covered Kenjiro's side of the apartment. It caught all the activities of people going in and out of his house.
Hanayo fixed her eye glasses into place and stared blankly on the screen. After obtaining these security footages, around four to six in the afternoon, a mass black out occurred around the area, and it took the security company put back up the cameras after an hour.
It was a clincher, but they didn't think that something important might have happened during that time. It's been three days, and they still haven't seen anything important. It's always just Kenjiro, his fiancée, the landlady who enters his room.
Umi and Kotori walked two blocks from the victim's apartment. It was a comfortable silence they have. They've been staking out the location at night, and doing rounds in the morning. Although with the two of them dressed in formal outfits, they'd be looking like sellers than police officers.
The tone of a slow melody suddenly rang around them. Umi picked up her phone immediately. "Yes?"
"Umi, could you go to this address?" Eri spoke from the other line. Kotori looked at her wondering of what they're talking about. She couldn't see Umi writing in anything, but she only kept on nodding. Then she put down the phone, back to her pocket.
"Let's go back to the station." Umi told her with firmness and a hint of protectiveness.
"Eh? But we just started making roun—"
"It's fine." Umi smiled at her warmly. "Let's go."
Eri handed Kotori with a plastic bag with a paper cup inside it. "I got Tanba Shizuka's DNA in this cup. Please test it." Kotori nods and immediately leaves the room to start the research. "We've got intel of an Ichioji Kou. They've been friends for a long time. Hanayo already ran him on our database. He doesn't have any police records. He's eventually someone who usually helps people out in the streets."
Nozomi handed out papers to everyone. A sleepy Rin accepted the paper and nodded with a smile that she's going to be fine.
"It seems like no one has been able to get a hold of him recently. Did you find the victim's phone?" Eri asked Umi who shook her head.
"We even tried to search the nearby trash bins, just in case the perpetrator threw it away. I do have a hunch that they might have it instead." Umi answered with affirmation.
"We already tried contacting it but it's been turned off. We couldn't track it." Hanayo answered.
"Alright. Let's investigate Ichioji Kou for now." Eri said. All of them nodded at each other. She grabbed Nozomi's hand, and turned to look at her. "Stay here."
"But—"
"Please."
"Boo. Fine." Nozomi answered with a tongue out. "You owe me something."
Eri blushed and looked around, thankful that no one is around anymore. "I—uh—you can claim it at a later time." She tried to lean in for a kiss, but Nozomi covered her face with a hand.
"Go on." Nozomi told her calmly. "I know."
"Okay." Eri left the office and Nozomi sighed with a smile.
Eri, Umi, Rin and Hanayo looked up at the three storey building. The four of them split up into two groups with Umi and Eri going up to see if Ichioji Kou is in his room, while Hanayo and Rin stays at the ground surveying the surroundings.
Eri knocked onto the leasing office that was in the ground floor. The door opened and revealed a female of almost the same height with black hair. She looked like she's currently in her early forties.
The blonde female briefly fixed her necktie then took her police badge from a breast pocket, the female nodded in understanding. "We'd like to ask for Ichioji Kou-san's whereabouts." The attendant moved to one side, silently asking Umi and Eri to enter the room.
Rin looked to her left and to her right. Not too far from the downward side of the slope, there was a man walking. He was wearing a shabby blue jean jacket and his hair was all over the place. He seemed to be a little out of it, and his walking seemed like of a drunken man's. Out of concern, Rin tells Hanayo that she's going check out on the man to see if he needed any help.
"Sir, are you alright?" Rin asked with energy as to brighten this man's day if it things weren't going well. She smiled at him. "Would you need some assistance? You seem to be having troubles in walking."
The man who was previously boring holes at the ground, turned to slightly look at her. "…R- Rin…-chan?" He mentioned in almost a whisper. Rin looked at him questioningly.
"Um, do I know you?" She asked.
"K—" He looked far ahead onto the street and noticed the police cars. He then stared at Rin, his eyes widening.
"Rin-cha—" Hanayo walked over to them, the man's gazes moved towards her.
"Are you okay, S—" Rin looked at his face and recognized it. "K- Kou-nii—"
"I—I didn't mean it!" He suddenly shouted and ran the way he came from.
"Kou-nii!" Rin shouted after him. She took a step forward to run after him, but Hanayo quickly pulled her shirt. "Kayo-chi—"
"We need to call for back-up!" Hanayo told her with worry.
"He's getting away!"
"Rin-chan!" Hanayo tried to stop her but she was already running after him. She sighed and pressed the intercom button on her sleeves. "Calling for back-up. Officer Hoshizora is in pursuit."
Almost immediately a reply came in. "Roger. Block Route C. We'll be blocking route A and E."
Hanayo nodded and pinged in a "Roger!" Before running onto a different direction.
"Kou-nii!" Rin shouted, running about 100 meters behind her brother's best friend. "Kou-nii! Why are you running!?"
"I didn't do it! It wasn't me!" He shouted back, speeding up his running as if it was his second nature.
Rin continued running at her max speed, sweat trickling down her temples. She watched Kou turn at a corner. "Suspect turned into Route A." She spoke into the transmitter on her watch.
"Roger." It was Umi's voice.
Rin attempted to run faster, but her heavy coat was proving to be a nuisance. Without hesitation she removed her coat and threw it at the street corner and started to dash faster.
"Hanayo, run through Route B." Eri spoke through the intercom, Hanayo replied with a 'Roger.'
Rin smiled as she started to see Kou's back again. She noticed that the next corner is going to be a highway. If he turns through the highway, it'll be harder to chase him with all the on-going cars than the skimpy neighborhood.
She brushed up her bangs from in front of her and started sprinting faster, her body forward. She unhooked the shackles from her belt together with the rest of her items such as a safety-locked pistol and spare bullets, letting them fall into the ground.
"KOU-NII!" Rin shouted as she kept on running closer and closer to his speed. She pushed her limit and ran even faster, almost about two or three steps behind him. "Stop! Kou-nii!"
"It's not me!" He shouted back at her.
"I said stop!" She shouted at him and took a gamble. She moved her body forward, and flung her arm towards his hand, perfectly tangling his wrist onto the open shackle she was holding. Feeling her legs gave out forward, she pushed the other part of the shackles towards the direction of a nearby thin pole. She silently prayed that it would lock with the thin pole. As if all of her energy were drained, she walked forward two or three steps and fell forward.
Umi immediately rushed to her and caught her right before she fell onto the ground. A loud clang rang around the neighborhood as the shackled pole pulled Ichioji Kou onto it hard because of the force and velocity of his running.
Eri came up to see him unconsciously lying nearby the pole, a red mark on his left wrist that bound itself with the thin pole. Not far from them Hanayo ran slowly towards them, with Rin's coat and gun holster in hand.
Umi fanned Rin with her hand, keeping her air flow consistent as she heaved and sighed on the cemented ground, half lying down on Umi's arms, with her lower body down on the ground.
"I might have… pulled a lot of muscle… nya…" Then she closed her eyes to rest.
"Good work." Blue eyes looked at her with worry. "You've been hanging in there, Rin."
Later in the evening after an appointment from the Dentist, Hoshizora Kenjiro walked in fright around his apartment's street. It seems like the whole district had gotten caught into a wide blackout due to a faulty wiring around the time he left for his dentist.
"Kenjiro." A husky voice from what seemed to be a light post called onto him. He jumped comically, doing a fighting stance at the darkness. "Ken, it's me."
"Oh, it was just you." Kenjiro breathed a sigh of relief and took out his phone from his pocket, lighting up their surroundings with his phone's flashlight. "'sup?"
"I was thinking, a little beer to my almost married best man?" He said while holding a few small bottles of whiskey. "Come on~ it's been long since we've drunk anything together."
"Well… you know that I'm a bad drunk. So just a little, alright?" Ken said with laughter. "Let's hope that we won't have to wait long for the electricity to go back." As if magic, the moment they stepped inside his apartment, the power went back on conveniently.
A few bottles later, Kenjiro laughed as he downed a half-glass of whiskey and slammed it down his tiny table sounding like it would break.
"Hey man, calm down from the drinking." Ichioji Kou rubbed his back. "I thought you wouldn't get drunk."
"I felt like I needed that." Ken said drunkenly. "There are just times when I can't take Shizuka you know? She can be really bossy, and sometimes she has these tendencies to flirt with men. What a bitch, that one! Haha!"
Kou looked at him with a leer. He had always loved Shizuka. Way before they; he and Kenjiro, even met. But here he is, sitting one-sidedly in love with his best friend's fiancée. Then he calls her 'Bitch' in front of him?
"Oh, man. I'm really sorry." Kenjiro laughed. "I'm not drunk don't worry. I'm a little sober." He said then poured a little more whiskey in his glass. "Man, I'm really sorry."
"Haha! No worries! What are you sorry for?"
"I stole her away from you." Kenjiro spoke. "I was… really jealous of you two."
"… What?"
"I didn't mean to, you know. That she really did fell in love with me." Kenjiro answered then laughed. "I was playing around back then."
"You played around?" Kou leered at him. "You played around with Shizuka?" He asked with a deep voice.
"I used to!" Kenjiro defended. "I don't know. I genuinely love her now, man."
Without a second thought, Kou picked up the rope he had bought earlier to fix his clothes hanger, and angrily wrapped them around Kenjiro's neck.
"I loved her, Ken." He told him. "I loved her with all my heart. All these years. I couldn't let go of her, but I accepted the fact that the one she loved was you, but what did you do? You stole her. You stole her and played with her."
"K- Kou—I said it was in the pas—"
"That's painful for me, you know?" Kou told him, his grip with the ropes tangled around Kenjiro's neck tightening. "I would never do that to her. I would never!"
Ichioji Kou cried as he admitted to his sins inside the questioning room. Rin calmly typed each word he said as she and Nozomi sat across him.
"I didn't mean to kill him! It was all… it was all pent up anger!" Kou said and shed more tears. "He's my best friend! I have his back… and he has mine… what have I done…" He clasped his hands together and leaned his forehead onto it, propping his elbows onto the table. "I'm so sorry… Kenjiro…"
He lifted his head and looked at Rin who refused to look at him.
"I'm so sorry, Rin-chan…"
Nozomi turned around behind her and looked at the non-reflective glass. She knew behind those glass were Eri, Umi and Hanayo who had been recording the whole conversation. As if spiritually making eye contact with her favorite pair of blue eyes, she pointed towards the door as if silently telling her to go out.
From behind the glass, Eri tapped Umi's shoulder and the two of them went outside the room. Through the glass, Hanayo could see Nozomi tapping Rin to come with her outside.
"Umi, please go inside to guard the suspect." Eri told her. Umi nodded in affirmation and went inside the door Nozomi and Rin had just exited.
Rin looked at the ground as if it was its sole savior in this whole ordeal. Nozomi looked at Eri who only smiled at her wryly.
"Hoshizora. You've done well." Eri told Rin and patted her head. "You can go… and watch him rest now."
Rin closed her fists tightly, she then sobbed, unable to control her tears. Eri looked at her as if she didn't know how to deal with a crying lady. Nozomi looked at her and smiled.
Eri immediately wrapped an arm around Rin, and let her cry onto her shoulder. While Eri searched for Nozomi's hand and held it tightly.
The hallways were silent, except for the sole sobbing of a younger sister.
…Crying in peace and justice for her dearly beloved brother…
(And Then Open Your Hands/END – Rin Arc – END)
A/N: 10/10 sorry for the delay! I've closed Rin's arc! I have a lot of Rin feels right now. ;_; Everyone let's hug her. Papa-chika is the best. Also, I purposely didn't put the preview for the next chapter here because I didn't notice hitting 3k word mark oops.