Chapter 4: Truth

She looks like an angel.

He has thought that since he first met her but for the last couple of weeks, her angelic face had been filled with grief, worry, and sadness. It's been a long time since Serizawa has seen Shiori-san look so peaceful and carefree.

He gently tucked a strand of stray hair from her face behind her ear. He smiled at her and promised himself that he will never cause her any pain ever again.

In the quietness of the hospital room, Serizawa silently goes over all that has happened in the last 24 hours. His older brother dying in the interrogation room, his father dying of a broken heart, trying to kill Naruse himself, finding out the true motives to Naruse's plan, begging him for forgiveness for a stupid act years ago, getting Shiori-san hurt, and now sitting in the hospital waiting for both Naruse and Shiori to wake up from a near fatal injury.

Serizawa sighed, This was not how I pictured this evening to be.

A light knock at the door drew Serizawa out from this reverie. He quietly got up and went to open the door, surprised to see the Chief at the other side.

The Chief did not look happy and beckoned Serizawa to follow him outside. Serizawa warily followed the older gentlemen through the hallways and up the stairs when finally his boss's footsteps slowed as they reached the door to the roof of the hospital.

Suddenly the Chief spun around and slapped Serizawa hard against the back of his head. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? ARE YOU CRAZY? NOW LOOK AT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?!"

Serizawa was astonished. He has seen the Chief mad before but not to this degree and he has definitely never gotten hit before.

"DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW WORRIED WE WERE ABOUT YOU? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"

Serizawa gulped and took a deep breath before answering the fuming Chief.

"I'm sorry. I know my actions were impulsive and irrational. I wasn't thinking straight. It won't happen again," Serizawa said as he bowed his head.

Nakanishi seemed to have relaxed and soften at Serizawa's apology, but the tense look on his face did not falter. "Why do you always make such reckless decisions? Were you really going to kill Naruse? Do you have any idea what this can do to your career now with Shiori-san hurt? We had to send multiple teams out searching for you!"

"It's not looking good. I think they are going to have a review for you soon," he sighed.

Serizawa looked out at the city lights down below him as he walked further to the ledge of the balcony. "I know. I hurt Shiori-san and that's something that I'll never forgive myself for. I dragged an innocent person into a feud that was started long ago by my careless mistake. Although I didn't hurt physically Naruse-san, I did have the intention to do so", Serizawa said quietly. "I don't think I qualify to be a law enforcer anymore."

"Well I don't think Shiori-san's going to blame you and the doctors said that Naruse-san is going to be okay," the Chief replied. "Although your intentions were not right, the most important thing is that nobody was fatally injured and nobody is certain who it is to blame for those who are hurt."

At this, Serizawa suddenly remembered something and quickly turned to Nakanishi. "Why was Naruse-san hurt? I'm sure that there was only one shot fired and that hit Shiori-san, so why was Naruse-san bleeding so much?"

The Chief looked away from the eager eyes of the young officer and turned to face the open night sky. Serizawa saw that the Chief begun to shuffle his feet lightly and was fidgeting with his hands. This was a sign that he was hiding something and it was not good.

Serizawa lightly probed again, "Why was Naruse-san injured?"

The Chief exhaled visibly but didn't turn to Serizawa. He didn't want to see the look on his face when he broke the news to him.

"As you know, Naruse-san had an accomplice. That's who we think stabbed him?"

"Why would Yamao hurt Naruse-san when they are partners?" Serizawa asked.

"Well we don't know the truth to it all yet, but from what we deduce, they may have had a disagreement."

"Disagreement? Their plan was perfect and it was all going to meet their desired end soon, what kind of arguement would they have at a crucial time like this?" Serizawa asked again.

"Maybe Naruse-san wanted Yamano to stop but he didn't want to and ended up stabbing him," Nakanishi replied. He stole a glance to the younger officer and at seeing his confused look, knew that he had to continue the story.

"How do you know that?" Serizawa asked after moments of pondering the Chief's suggestion.

The Chief took a deep breath again and looked Serizawa straight in the eye. "Because we know what they may have been arguing about."

"And what is that?"

"Kasai Hitoshi"

Serizawa was confused to why the pair would fight about his friend when the Chief began to speak again. "Naruse-san paid for Kasai's bail this morning and I guess Yamano didn't like that very much."

"I guess it makes sense that they would quarrel over it especially if Naruse-san didn't consult Yamano ahead of time," Serizawa said. Feeling that the Chief still hid something from him, he asked again, "But how do you know that that's the reason why they fought?"

"Because Kasai was found dead an hour ago. The main suspect is Yamano."

Serizawa's heart stopped upon hearing this revelation.

Dead? How can he be dead? No, this can't be happening! He should've been safe, happy now that he's gotten a second chance. How can he die too? Did Naruse kill him too? But I don't understand, Chief said the main suspect was Yamano! What happened?!

As thoughts were flying through Serizawa's head, Nakanishi continued to talk. "We know that Naruse-san didn't kill him. Kasai was found very far away from your school and according to what you told us, Kasai was killed only minutes before you met up with Naruse, so we ruled him out as a suspect. Also, I have a feeling that Naruse wanted to give Kasai another chance or else he wouldn't have bailed him out. If Naruse deemed it not necessary to condemn Kasai and Yamano didn't agree with his decision, the two could have argued, resulting in Naruse getting stabbed and Yamano carrying out the task of bringing Kasai to justice himself."

As the Chief shared his thoughts with Serizawa, everything seemed to make sense. There were times when he begged Naruse to stop and he would seem to ponder the suggestion and struggle to keep up his stoic façade. Yamano did have as much reason to hate him and his friends as Naruse did seeing as how they used to bullying him extensively in school. But why couldn't he just have come after me like Naruse did and leave my friend alone?

Sensing that Serizawa need time to think everything over and absorb all things that he has just heard, Nakanishi began to head down to the stairway. Pausing only a second to look back at the young detective crouched down on his knees; he says quietly, "By the way, Naruse-san is awake."