Unsolved
Case #21: His Impending Death
"Ms. Lily has some minor internal injuries but is overall fine," the doctor said, then Rin and Kaito heaved a sigh of relief. "She needs some rest now so please visit her later on. Thank you."
"Thank you, Doctor!"
He smiled warmly and walked away with other nurses. Lily was lucky that she only suffered from bruises, cuts and some broken blood vessels inside her abdomen. Everyone thought she might die, especially from Miku Hatsune's curse.
"Do you think Big Al was behind this?" Kaito asked Rin with a serious look.
Rin just shrugged and replied, "I don't know, but he seemed to be the culprit just by his looks and behaviour. Just like what Utatane had mentioned during the Chemistry Challenge, nobody laughs at one's death or misfortune unless he or she has ill feelings towards that person. If a person has ill feelings towards someone, it is likely that he or she has the intention to hurt or harm that someone."
"Are you trying to say that he might be the one who killed Dell Honne and the rest?"
"Yeah."
Kaito inched closer and whispered, "What if... Big Al wasn't the one, but instead the ghost of Miku Hatsune?"
"I don't know." Rin groaned and rubbed her temples. "I've been debating with myself if all of these deaths that took place were murders or caused by the curse. This whole thing has been making me so confused that I don't know what to believe."
"Then, you should believe me." Kaito smiled and placed his hand on Rin's stiff shoulder. "Lady Miku Hatsune is the one who took their lives to glorify her godly existence. Kami approves her holy being and allows her to take control of us. Those who oppose her will die. Those who obey her will be honoured in her grace. Those who were chosen will stay by her side for eternity. Then, what about you, Len? Which category are you in?"
Rin shuddered for a second as she saw a light glint in his eyes. His face was so close that she could feel his breath brushed against her right cheek. His gentle smiled turned into a smirk which she had never seen before. This was getting intimidating with him staring at her weirdly.
"Ka... Kaito, I don't want to... to be labeled... as... ga... gay," she stammered and gently pushed him away from her.
However, he grabbed hold of her hands and whispered in a low voice, "You were supposed to glorify her as you were the chosen one out of the whole lot of us, but you didn't fulfill her wish. So, which category do you think you belong to?"
"Stop it, Kaito. It's not funny..."
Kaito interrupted her and placed his hand on her cheek. "Who... are you?"
Rin held her breath and stared at him in horror. Did he find out her identity? This was definitely not good at all. His fingers were stroking her cheek as if he already knew that she was a girl. What was she going to do?
His fingers slowly traveled up her face to her forehead and flicked it hard, causing Rin to yelp in fright and covered her forehead in response.
"Got you, Len!" Kaito laughed and moved back to his original position. "What's with that scared look? Do you seriously think that I will mistake you for some serial killer?"
"Serial killer?"
"Yeah. Aren't we talking about that earlier? You thought Big Al is the murderer while I disagree." Kaito was back to his cheery self again. "You should have seen your own face. You looked as if you were going to be eaten by me. Ha! I know! I looked like a zombie!"
"So, it was a joke!" Rin shook her head and sighed.
Kaito blinked and stared at her confusedly. Rin tousled her fringe and leaned against the wall in relief.
"What if... it wasn't a joke?"
Upon hearing that, it was her turn to stare at him questionably.
-:-:-:-
"We must kill Big Al!" a boy shouted hysterically. "Because of him, we are dying mercilessly!"
"I knew it! Miku Hatsune is a fake! A dead is a dead. There is no way she can rule our lives!"
"I saw Big Al doing something to the shelves! He must have the intention to kill Ms. Lily!"
"He must have taken Leon's life by adding poison into his cup of tea!"
"We must get rid of him before we die! He is a devil! Devils should die mercilessly!"
It was another unexpected turn of events. The boys from all the classes ganged up together and created lots of banners stating to kill Big Al before more people were being killed by him. It was scary. There was no solid evidence to show that Big Al was really the murderer. Even if he was, it was still unreasonable to take his life away like that. He should be handed over to the police immediately.
However, who was the one who started this nonsense that Big Al was the one behind all the death cases?
Piko clenched his fists and smirked when he saw the banners. He inwardly supported them for the sake of Leon. As for Rin and Kaito, they were very against this activity. It was very barbaric.
"Look what I have," a boy announced and took out a kitchen knife from his bag. "I will ensure you that this knife will slice his limbs off!"
"If that's the case, I will use a chopper to chop his arms off so he won't be able to kill us anymore!" Another boy snickered.
"How about an axe to chop his head off so that we can hang it over Miku Hatsune's statue at our school gates?"
"I think a driller would be more interesting. Let's drill into his belly till his detestable guts come flying out!"
"Gross!"
Rin wrinkled her nose in disgust. How could they do that? What if Big Al was innocent? Didn't that make them killers instead?
"Kaito, I'm going to look for Big Al," she whispered and immediately stood up from her seat.
Kaito stood up too and warned, "It's dangerous to get close to him. Even if he is not a killer, you can't change the fact that he is a gang leader."
"They are going to kill him," Rin snapped. "I have to at least find out the truth and he can't just die like that."
"Have you ever thought which insane fellow told the whole school that Big Al is the serial killer?"
Rin remained silent and thought hard.
"It's useless, Len. I think Miku Hatsune is the one who spread this rumour. She must have used some sort of a way to influence everyone," Kaito dissuaded and patted her back. "He is destinied to die this way."
Rin angrily slapped his hand away and ran out of the hall. If nobody was supporting her, then she should do everything by herself. This time, her goal was to protect Big Al at all cost no matter what happened.
If she could remember correctly, Big Al was from Class 3D. So, she headed to his classroom but he was not in there. She went around the school, entering into every restroom, searching every classroom just to look for this infamous gang leader.
But he was nowhere to be found.
-:-:-:-
Piko had a dream. It was a nightmare about a blonde girl being killed. Though the image of the person was hazy, he identified her as Rin Kagamine, his acquaintance. Her body was hanging upside down with a tormented smile drawn on her face. He was horrified by the 'scene' before him.
"Rin, don't die!"
He immediately jerked awake and stared at his outreached arm with wide eyes. After gaining back his composure, he got out of bed and scanned his room.
How worried he was when he realised that Rin was nowhere to be found. He ran out of his room and went to look for her.
After pouncing on a few groups of students along the way, he asked them instead, "Excuse me, have you seen Len Kagamine?"
"You mean the blonde ex-sacrifice?"
Piko nodded.
"He's in the hospital because I heard that something happened to him in the library."
"What is he doing in the library?" he yelled impatiently.
"I don't know." The boys shrugged. "Apparently, he was with Kaito Shion and... wait, I think Big Al was there too."
Piko was flabbergasted. Rin might be in a possible danger. What if Big Al tried to harm Rin? Was that the reason why she was in the hospital?
Before they could say anymore, Piko had already ran ahead and went to a nearby hospital where Rin could possibly be.
However, Rin was no longer in the hospital for she had left together with Kaito after knowing that Lily was all right. Piko walked past Len's ward and took a peek inside the room for no particular reason. Len was still in a coma and had showed no signs of recovery. Just when Piko was about to leave the place, he noticed Len's weak fingers twitched a little. Piko held his breathe in anticipation and walked inside the room.
"Len Kagamine, are you... awake?" he asked softly as he walked to the side of his bed.
It was not because he was concerned about Len, but because he wanted to ask him many questions if he was really awake. Len let out a soft groan and his eyes was slightly opened. They were facing towards Piko's direction.
Len opened his mouth and a soft sound escaped from it, "Kaito..."
"I'm Piko Utatane," Piko corrected.
"Beware... of..."
Piko stared at Len with many question marks drawn on his face. He wondered if Len was sleep-talking or really conscious. What he had just said did not make sense at all.
"... him."
"Who is he?" Piko asked.
Without replying to his question, Len's eyes closed and he fell unconscious again.
Annoyed, Piko gritted his teeth and slammed his fist on the bed. He shook Len's shoulders hard, trying to wake him up again but failed. Everything had returned back to square one. Having no choice, Piko walked out of the room and continued his search for Rin.
The following day, he heard that Lily was injured in the library and was sent to the hospital while Rin was fine. After knowing that Rin was as fine as ever, he heaved a sigh of relief. Furthermore, he had not told anyone about Len's condition either.
On his way to the restroom before lessons started, he saw a crowd of students gathering in front of a banner. It had cursive handwritings on it. The handwriting looked exactly the same as the handwriting on the small pieces of paper found in the mysterious soft toys and the ink colour was the same as well.
It was written like this: 'Al is the murderer. He killed Dell Honne, Lui Hibiki, Oliver, Ms. Lily and Leon. I am innocent. -Miku Hatsune'
Upon reading this, Piko's heart cringed with joy and relief. He knew it. He knew Miku Hatsune was not behind all of these from the start. Science could explain these murders. He also knew Big Al was the murderer after Leon's death. It was so obvious.
Hence, justice must be made.
"So, Ryuto's and that Hiyama guy's deaths were unavoidable, right?" a student asked his friend while pointing at the banner.
His friend nodded with a short reply, "Yes."
The following day which was already Friday, Piko saw Rin looking very down with Kaito sitting next to her while staring at the floor with a frown. He approached them and greeted them as usual. However, Rin looked up with a worried look.
"Big Al is in a big trouble," she forced her words out of her mouth.
"Why is that so?" Piko queried with a slight triumph in his heart.
Rin gripped onto his hand and began dragging him out of the classroom with Kaito tagging behind. When they entered into the hall, Rin pointed at a large banner with many students gathering around it.
This time, it was written like this: 'Al must repent for his sins. -Miku Hatsune'
"Everyone is planning on taking revenge by killing Big Al," Rin explained with a hint of fear in her quivering voice. "They believe that Miku Hatsune was the one who wrote this!"
Kaito shook his head and commented, "It must be Miku Hatsune."
"What if it's not? You know, Miku Hatsune is dead! She cannot have written this! It might be a hoax!" Rin shot back angrily.
"Be quiet," Piko interrupted her. "In any case, Big Al is in the wrong. He must really repent for Leon's and the others' deaths."
"Utatane..."
"I don't care what will happen to him," Piko bellowed and clenched his fists. "He totally deserves it."
Because of his anger, Piko had failed to realise the simplest logic in life which Rin had just mentioned.
-:-:-:-
After the boys ran out of the hall to search for the gang leader, Piko turned around and noticed that Rin and Kaito had gone missing. However, he ignored that fact and joined the boys soon after. Some ran around the campus while the others left the school compound and went to the possible places where Big Al might be. Piko joined the latter.
As they continued to split further, Piko and three students were assigned to search for Big Al on the haunted hill where Lui Hibiki died.
Fortunately, the target was there.
Big Al was there, hanging around with his gang members.
Piko saw his 'teammates' smirked and charged towards Big Al without any warning. Of course, the gang was appalled at first but when his 'teammates' were within their reach, the gang attacked them without any effort. Piko who continued standing on the same spot just watched the free show.
"What do you want, weak boys?" one of the gang members said, smugging.
"We want Big Al! He must die!"
"Oh? I didn't know that I am on your wanted list... pretty fast." Big Al snickered and stepped in front. "Bring it on! Let's see who dies first!"
"You're so confident," a boy growled and took something out from his side pocket. "I will kill you this instant, just as Lady Miku Hatsune's wish!"
Everyone stared at that lad with wide eyes. He was carrying a pistol. Guns were banned in Japan and bringing them to school were obviously against the rules. How did he obtain a gun? Where did it come from?
"This gun... is given by Lady Miku Hatsune. It is holy and blessed. Those who are shot with this gun will be sent to the lowest and deepest level in hell," the lad said while aiming the gun at Big Al and pulling the trigger with his trembling fingers.
Big Al curled his lips and mocked, "You can't scare me with a toy gun, weakling. A real man will fight with combat moves, not weapons."
"Shut up, you murderer!"
Then, a loud bang was heard.
Big Al immediately closed his eyes and waited. Nothing happened. He laughed silently to himself as he knew that the gun was a fake. He slowly opened his eyes and smirked at the lad.
This was the moment when his victorious smirk vanished completely.
Standing in front of him was a panting short blonde whose hands were spread open as if trying to protect him.
"I've... found you, Big Al... Please... run," the blonde said in between pants.
Suddenly, the blonde collapsed onto the floor with blood oozing out of his chest.
"Kagamine!"
Big Al looked up and saw Piko running towards the blonde with horror painted on his face. How petrified Big Al was upon knowing that the gun could indeed harm people.
Within a split second, another loud bang was heard and before he knew it, his world went blank.
Hi guys, thanks for reading up to Chapter 21.
Next, I would like to thank those who had reviewed Chapter 20. Thanks for all those encouragements. Hope to hear more from you again! :D
Here are the reviewers:
- xSignal
- Beiowulf
- Tokioo
- Nintendofg4life
- theunhappytwins
- Guest (1)
- Yellow Ideya Hunter
- Honeycloud of RiverClan
- Jessi-chan9867
- guest-wHo
- booklover4evr13
- Guest (2)
Lastly, I would also like to thank those who had story alerted and favourited this story. Thank you!
For those who are confused about this chapter due to the sudden shift in time and why Piko and those boys were behaving irrationally:
Piko dreamt of a blonde (probably Rin) dying and he woke up immediately. Then, he saw two banners which were believed to be written by Miku Hatsune. It is common sense that a ghost cannot write something like this unless it has super divine powers. But he believed them. He and the others wanted to kill Big Al in order to stop the murders. Unfortunately, Rin objected this idea and tried to prevent Big Al from dying because there was no proofs that he was indeed the one who killed the boys. However, a boy claimed to have obtained a pistol from Miku Hatsune and wanted to use it to kill Big Al.
So, the question here is (food for thought)...
Was Miku Hatsune alive as a human?
Current suspects which were stated by the reviewers as of Chapter 19 and 20 (ranking from the top to the bottom):
1) Len
2) Piko
3) Meiko
4) Miku (by possessing people)
5) Big Al
6) Unknown stalker or childhood friend of Rin
7) Kaito
8) Rin
Before you leave this page, please don't forget to leave a review! Thank you! ;)