Warning: There's a bit of gore in this chapter. Probably more in the future.
You heard of reincarnation? What if you could purchase your next life? One particular girl decides the OP universe would be a great heaven. But what if it turned out to be...not so heavenly?
"I've already said I'm sorry Yommers. What else could I possibly say?"
Aniko and Yona walked together through the almost empty streets of Tanner Town, the largest populated area on Tandora Island, which still wasn't very large. The island itself wasn't awfully big, thus news would spread quickly. No doubt the reason there was no one out and about; they would have heard about the murders. It just shows how much faith the people have in their local Marine base... Not much.
"I just wish you would treat me seriously like you do with everyone else." The redhead sighed, passing her a small bread roll. "Here."
"Thanks. And you should feel privileged. Not many people get to see this side of me. Only a true friend can. That's you and my Papa." She tore off a strip of crust and popped it into her mouth.
"I'm honoured." He said dryly. "But you know the only reason you have just two friends, one of them being your Dad, is because you don't put in the effort to make more."
"I'm lazy..." She shrugged. "If the other person is either scared of me or doesn't make the effort then I won't make the effort. They're just not worth it."
"You're hypocritical... and no one's scared of you."
"Pfft! Please, can you say you weren't scared of me when we first met?"
"You were holding a gun to my head."
"Forget that bit for a minute." She stopped walking. "Look into my eyes. What do you see?"
Yona stopped a few paces ahead and then turned to stare questioningly at her. "Er... Pupils, tear ducts, veins, eyelashes-"
"No Yona!" She snapped. "I mean the colour... It's not normal. If you're not exactly like everyone else society holds it against you."
He took note of the fact she used his real name. "Our Imperfections are our perfections."
"Hey don't use that phrase on me! That's what I told you ages ago. I'm fine if people are going to be a little bit on edge around me, and only a few people in town are nowadays anyway. I'm not trying to be consoled. I'm just trying to prove a point. Oh, we're here..."
They stood outside a small but welcoming building. It had been built a few years back and the Garters had bought the place with the objective to set up shop. Apparently they had been travelling all around the Grand Line collecting and selling wares wherever they went however they grew tired of it. In the end they had just wanted to settle down. Now look what's happened to them.
A marine Aniko recognised but couldn't quite generate a name for was standing guard at entrance of the house. He saw them and stepped aside, saluting her. "Detective Rakii! Please, go right in."
She was slightly surprised by the level of formality nevertheless she took it in her stride, nodding and then going into the shop. Yona followed her in.
The two stopped once inside the threshold and took a moment to observe their surroundings. The first thing that stuck out to Aniko when she walked in was how neat everything looked. Like no murder had taken place. She had only ever been in here once or twice before but she knew that nothing big had changed from when she had. All sorts of knickknacks, trash and treasures hung on the walls or were displayed in large glass cabinets.
Marines were patrolling around the room, some chatting, and some looking around. Aniko tapped the nearest one on the shoulder. She gasped and nearly knocked over the antique china figure she had been examining. She caught it just before it could hit the ground and let out a sigh of relief. "D-dective! You startled me..."
Aniko could remember this lady. Her bosses right-hand woman and explosives expert, Pepper the klutz. She was both pretty and young, not to mention she got good pay. From afar you may think she would have the men flocking to her. That may have been the case if it wasn't for a few certain quirks of hers, such as: clumsiness, occasional introversion and a really creepy infatuation with their Captain.
"Pepper, can you give me the details of the situation?"
"Um... W-well, a resident of Tanner Town informed us this morning of the d-de-de-"
"Deaths." Yona supplied helpfully.
"Yes. And well, we questioned the resident. She seemed pretty unsuspicious, she was just badly shaken. Then we came here and found nothing out of the ordinary except for when we went upstairs and found... you know."
"Has anything been moved? Is everything the same as when you arrived?" Aniko asked.
"I t-told the men not to touch anything until y-you got here."
"Good. Please keep it that way Pepper. Yommers, with me." She and her partner left Pepper to continue probing the strange figurine. They passed through to the back of the house into a kitchen which once again looked perfectly normal. However when Aniko turned to the stairs she got a very bad feeling.
"We better go up." She told Yona, who nodded and gulped loudly. They proceeded cautiously, even though Aniko was pretty sure there would be no threat waiting for them.
Upstairs was quiet. Perfectly still. The air was thick with tension, making it hard to breath. There were two doors. They both stood slightly ajar.
Aniko picked the closest door. She pushed it open slowly, not ready for the sight inside. The whole room was painted red in blood. Entrails, organs and remainders of skin were smeared all over the bed and floors. Everything in the room had been pulverised. The bed, wardrobe, shelves and the bodies were all flattened, leaving splinters of wood scattered and feathers floating gracefully in the stagnate air. The only part of those people left identifiable were their skeletons (and even the bones were somewhat skewed.) The couple's deathly white skeletal hands were entwined together. They were with each other until the very end. Till death do us part...
Yona took one look and ran from the room. Aniko heard retching outside in the hallway.
She could hardly blame her assistant for not being able to stomach this. She hardly could. She had seen the dead before but it had never been as horrendous as this, not in her previous life, nor in the entirety of her detective career.
"Augh!" She clamped a hand over her nose. She had gotten a whiff of the rotting flesh. It was an insufferable smell. These deaths weren't too recent.
The nausea engulfed her until she could no longer bare being in there. She fled the room and shut the door firmly behind her. She took large gulps of fresh air, glad to be rid of the horror that lay behind that door.
Yona sat at the top of the stairs, ashen faced and shaken badly. He was trembling and his breathing was fast. "Yona?"
"I'm fine." He rasped. "Don't let me slow you down Aniko. Carry on without me."
"Alright." Aniko agreed. She ventured into the next room and to her relief it was not like the last. This room had been ransacked but remained free of dead bodies. The walls were an ocean blue colour and had an array of bright fish, sea kings and boats painted on to match. There was a small cot in the centre of the room shaped like a ship; it was covered in many stuffed toys and blankets. This looked very much like a child's bedroom.
Aniko felt something tugging at her top. "Aniko... Are you alright?"
Marica fluttered out from her hiding place and landed on her shoulder. "Of course I am." Aniko replied. "I can handle it."
"But this case... its serious right?"
"You're right about that. Nothing like this has ever happened before on Tandora. I've been called to investigate murders before but they've always been on neighbouring islands. It takes someone with a lot of balls to pull off a stunt like this right underneath the nose of a Marine base." Aniko began to search the room. She looked under the bed first.
"Or someone who's confident in their own abilities..."
She pulled back the curtains, letting the daylight stream in. "Yeah and by the looks of it they should be confident in their abilities. They've pulled off one heck of a murder here and so far they haven't been caught. But I'm going to change that."
Aniko opened the wardrobe and poked her head inside. There were toys, clothes and blankets in there; what's to be expected. However they were all piled up at the bottom of the large closet. Nothing was hung up on the clothing hooks above.
She knelt down and began to peel away the layers of material and objects. She striped everything away until only one blanket remained, covering an oddly shaped lump. She removed the cover. There lay at the bottom of the wardrobe a child. His eyes were closed and he was unmoving. She immediately scooped the tiny creature up into her arms, pressing two fingers to his neck.
"How is he?" Marica whispered.
"He's alive. Just." Aniko stood up. "He needs help and fast. Hide again. I'm going downstairs."
"Ok." The angel nodded, following the instructions.
"Out of the way Yommers!" Aniko ordered, charging down to the kitchen.
"Wha-!" He leapt out of the way just in time not to be knocked over. "Hey! Aniko!" He ran after the girl in confusion. He got back to the shop area where Aniko stood with Pepper, rushing through a set of instruction and holding a small sallow toddler.
"-don't stop for anybody, ok? And be careful not to trip or run into a wall. Keep this child safe, Pepper. If Papa isn't in the house he'll be out back picking herbs." As soon as Pepper took the child from Aniko she was off running down the street.
Yona approached Aniko who was leaning up against a wall, one hand massaging her brow. "Aniko? What-"
"A child. I found a child in a closet covered in sheets. I'm surprised he didn't die from suffocation or starvation in there. He must have been alone for days. My Pa is the best doctor on the island; he should be able to help but... It's weird. I never even knew the Garters had a kid." She answered his question before he could even ask it.
"I didn't know either... He must have been at least five if not older. How could we not have seen him before?"
"That would be because," a gruff voice spoke. "Their child was mad."
"Captain Joben!" Yona saluted the newcomer.
However Aniko did not salute, instead she merely nodded her head half-heartedly. "Boss."
Their local Marine Captain, commonly known as 'Bloodless Joben Bones', was a prim man. He took his job very seriously and hated pirates with a passion, simply because he saw them as the most vulgar creatures alive. His appearance was excessively formal as were his mannerisms. He was easily shocked by crude behaviour and language which often made Aniko wonder why he gave her so much slack. She treated him unceremoniously and had cursed in front of him on numerous occasions yet he treated her like any of his subordinates, maybe even better than some.
Like always, today he wore his 'Justice' coat draped over his shoulders and underneath he wore a freshly ironed suit accompanied by a daring red tie. His golden curls were swept back out of his sharp green eyes. "The boy is the reason they had wanted to settle down. If he had been sane maybe they wouldn't have come here. Maybe they would have continued travelling. But the boy... the boy..."
Joben stared directly at Aniko as he spoke. "He scared people. People didn't like what he talked about. Some thought he was possessed by the devil of the sea. They wanted him dead. So they brought their child here and kept him in hiding. Only a few select people knew about him, including me."
"What did he talk about?" Yona asked.
"He believes he is a fishman." The captain replied distastefully. "A member of the Sun Pirates. He always says 'Fisher Tiger was the greatest', 'Where are my gills?', 'I want to swim again.'..."
"Let him believe what he wants!" Aniko said. "He's not mad or possessed."
"Aniko?"
"Detective. Do not let yourself get carried away by your feelings. Don't mix personal issues up with work." Joben's gaze was stern while Yona's was that of bewilderment. What is he hinting at?
"I don't know what the fuck you're talking about! This is about someone's wellbeing. It isn't good for a child to be patronised for their differences! Life will be a struggle if he cannot touch the outside world before that world touches him. One day he will have to be independent. What happens then?"
She had seen enough of this before. Back when she was Hannah Holldear she had worked with autistic children. With just a glance you would think most of them were perfectly fine but their brains didn't function like everyone else's. She had been there to help them grow and learn how to become their own individual human beings. However some of the older ones would struggle in school. They would visit their club with stories of hardships and bullying from their peers and occasionally adults. The world was harsh on them.
"That will be decided at the time."
"And what about now? Where will he stay?"
"At the Marine base of course. Maybe we can even help him become a fine recruit if we try."
"Like hell he's going there!"
"Detective-"
"He'll be staying with me until we work something out alright. You can't force your beliefs on him!" Captain Joben narrowed his eyes at the albino girl. His green slits drilled holes into her own irises but she stood her ground, staring up at him determinedly. These were her values. She was going to get her way no matter what the cost. "I'll be going back to check on him now."
"Alright. He may stay with you however, before you leave... Tell me what you have noticed about this case so far."
Aniko smirked. Now he was talking her language. "It's already clear to me the murder has a devil fruit. It's not humanly possible to kill the way they have without some crazy-ass power. I still need to work out what type of power it is but it's bothersome to say the least. We can't look for clues on the victims' bodies now. I also noticed as soon as I walked in that the closed sign was up and all the blinds were down, meaning this is a cleverly staged crime, the criminal not being your average thug. He made it seemed like the store was closed to stop the authorities from being alerted to the deaths quickly. By the looks of the remains upstairs, I'd say they died over three days ago. And finally, do you find it strange that nothing in this shop is out of place? Nothing stolen? Yommers?"
She looked to her assistant waiting to see if he could find the answer. She waited a moment but he shook his head. He did not know.
She continued on. "This was not just somebody murdering for fun. They wanted something but that something is not a material position. I'd bet my right hand that they were after the kid. But they're obviously not as clever as you'd think. The kid's room was searched but not enough. Nobody even thought that he might be under the sheets in the wardrobe."
"Would you be prepared to lose that right hand if you were wrong?" Joben asked.
Aniko flashed her Captain an audacious grin. "When have I ever been wrong?"
Surprisingly Joben smiled back. "You are quite right detective. Well, I should be taking my leave. I wish you two luck on this case. I will be watching from the sidelines with the greatest of interest." And then he was gone.
"Really Aniko! If you're not careful with that tongue of yours one day you'll get it chopped off."
"Maybe so, maybe so..." Aniko stared blankly at the spot Captain Joben had been, lost in thought. She was beginning to question the choices she had made to come to this world while remembering her old life. Not to be brazen but before she had thought of herself as kind and calm person. She rarely lost her temper. But now she was swearing, drinking and purposefully making others uncomfortable before she could even stop herself. She felt quite guilty for being so disrespectful towards Joben but he irked her badly and she couldn't explain it. Maybe it would have been better if she had chosen not to remember Hannah. Then maybe she wouldn't have cared about it. How is her knowledge going to affect the future apposing to how it was before?
"Yommers, I want you to stay here and look around a bit more. I'll be at my house checking on the kid. If you find anything suspicious make sure to come and tell me."
"Alright, Aniko. I'll do my best."
I'm getting really into this detective stuff. Gosh!
Joben-Japanese male name; it means to 'enjoys cleanliness'
