Shiena really wished she would stop trying to contact her. She had stopped for weeks but recently, the brunette woke up to her messages on social media every day. Shiena had considered simply blocking her but she couldn't bring herself to do so. So she simply chose to ignore her and hope she would eventually get tired and stop. Shiena thought she did but it seemed that it wasn't the case.
"Shiena-san? It's me again. I hope you are doing well. Please answer me when you can, ok?"
"Hey, me again. I miss you. I hope I'm not bothering you. Just let me know if everything is fine for you."
"I'm really starting to be worried… please just let me know if you are ok."
"Please, Shiena-san, just answer me. I need to know if you are ok. Please. I'm really worried."
"Can we meet? Please."
Shiena let out a deep sigh. Why was Haru so persistent? Why did she care so much about her? Why was she so nice to her? Shiena knew she didn't deserve her kindness. She had been awful to Haru ever since they met. She had looked down on Haru, had thought she was stupid, had been wary of her, all while Haru was nothing but kind and friendly to her. Haru was probably the most sincere friend she ever had- which she wasn't worthy of.
It would be for the best if Haru just forgot about her. She didn't need to carry the burden Shiena saw herself as. Haru's friendship was also a burden for Shiena- it was keeping her away from her goal. In order to accomplish what she was determined to do, Shiena needed to sever all links she had to this world. She couldn't miss anyone, and no one should miss her either.
Shiena rose up and headed for the kitchen. She made herself a cup of coffee, adding cream and milk. She sat down in the kitchen and started sipping her coffee, thinking about her internal conflicts regarding Haru.
The brunette pulled out her phone, rereading Haru's last message. With some hesitation, she finally replied to her for the first time in months.
"Sure. Where?"
Shiena was nervously tapping the table with her finger as her leg kept shaking. She tried to keep her mind busy and took a few sips of her coffee while looking at the hour on her phone.
"Sorry for being late! I'm not used to this part of town," Haru apologised as she sat down, putting her strawberry milkshake on the table. "I also had trouble recognizing you with your hood."
"Well, that's kind of the point. It'd be troublesome if people recognized me in the street. I was accused of murder, after, all and people don't forget that kind of stuff."
"But you were declared innocent…"
"True. I was seen as a martyr in the media for a while, but I don't really want to be recognized for that, either… I don't want that kind of attention."
"Ah, I understand…"
Shiena doubted that she could understand but let it go, taking another sip of her coffee.
"I was really worried when I learned you left AKA… I know you were injured but Chitaru-san wouldn't tell me which hospital you were at or even why you quit..."
Uh. So Chitaru said she "quit" instead of being fired. Make sense. Chitaru probably didn't want people to ask why she was fired given it would lead to them learning about her hiding Otoya's identity.
"Yeah… after getting stabbed, I just thought this kind of job wasn't for me anymore," Shiena said.
"Stabbed!? I… I didn't know it was that serious… are you okay?"
"I'm fine now. It just left a scar, nothing too dramatic."
"Phew, thank goodness!"
Haru nervously took a sip of her milkshake, looking like she was hesitating to continue.
"I… I actually… don't know exactly what happened. Chitaru-san didn't tell me all the details. All I know is that… Takechi-san is Jack the Ripper… and injured both you and Chitaru-san."
Chitaru really went out of her way to protect her. Shiena felt grateful towards her but also undeserving of this. She fucked up, and getting fired was nothing compared to the gravity of her crimes.
"Shiena-san… I'm so sorry. I wish I could have seen that… something was wrong with Takechi-san. I wish I would have noticed and warned you so you didn't have to go through this… It must have been awful to discover the truth, that the person you loved is a murderer… I'm really sorry."
Stop. Shiena wished she could have said that. She didn't want to hear Haru apologizing. Everything was her fault, not hers. Hearing those words just made her feel even more terrible.
"Please, don't apologize, Ichinose… You have nothing to blame yourself for. Trust me."
"Still… And I don't get why Chitaru-san acts so secretive about this whole thing… She's even been cold lately. Hitsugi-chan also doesn't seem to be feeling well… I wonder if something happened between them."
Shiena wondered too. She remembered Hitsugi's visit the other day and the fact that she asked her if she told the truth to Chitaru. Could it be related to that? Was Chitaru suspecting her dear wife of being an assassin? Or even her archenemy, Angel Trumpet? Somehow, Shiena wasn't sure if she wished for that or not.
"Shiena-san, do you know what's going on with Chitaru-san? Why is she acting that way?"
Shiena knew she couldn't answer. Yet at the same time, she had to find a way to discourage Haru from wanting to keep contact with her. And perhaps the truth was the best way to accomplish that.
"Namatame is covering for me," Shiena suddenly said.
"Huh? Covering… for what?"
"That I knew Otoya was Jackie for months and kept quiet about it," Shiena said bluntly.
Haru suddenly went quiet for a moment before she chuckled nervously.
"You… you're joking, right? Like at April's Fool-"
"No, I'm serious. I learned the truth on New Year's Eve."
"For so long…!? But… why haven't you told anyone?"
Shiena gave her a bitter smile.
"Does it even matter why? Regardless of my reasons, it doesn't change the fact I covered for a killer and people ended up dying."
Shiena hoped it was enough to disgust Haru, to make her want to be as far away from her.
Please, despise me as much as I despise myself, she thought.
Much to her surprise, Haru smiled softly.
"I have faith in you, Shiena-san. I'm sure you had your reasons. I know you aren't a bad person so I can't believe you did that out of malice. Regardless of why you did that, I trust you- and I forgive you."
It was the last thing Shiena wanted to hear. She felt anger rise inside of her and couldn't keep her thoughts to herself.
"Why… why are you being so nice to me!?" Shiena exclaimed.
"I… Because I'm your friend-"
"You're not my friend!"
Haru looked too shocked to even speak. Shiena took advantage of that to continue on her rant.
"Who decided that I was your friend? You did! Without my consent! You stuck around me like a leech whenever you felt like it without taking any consideration for if I wanted you to. But guess what? I never wanted to be friends with you! I always looked down on you; you naive, airheaded, and obnoxious moron! You were just too stupid to realize it! No matter how much I tried to show you how much I disliked your presence. Can't you take a hint? Why do you think I was ignoring you for months? I despise you, Ichinose!"
Haru was left speechless. Shiena didn't even give her time to answer as she rose up and rushed outside the café, leaving her half-empty coffee on the table.
Shiena felt terrible for what she had said to Haru. Even if she may have thought those awful things about her in the past, she did view Haru as a friend… but she didn't deserve to have her as a friend. It was for the best if Haru didn't care about her anymore. Haru didn't have to waste any more shreds of kindness for someone like her… Haru's friendship would only get in the way of her resolution anyway.
Days had passed and Haru didn't try to contact Shiena again. Haru must hate her now, Shiena thought. And it was fine. She wanted that. Hopefully Haru won't talk to Tokaku about what she told her, or confront Chitaru. Shiena doubted it. Haru must know that revealing the truth would only cause trouble for everyone.
Shiena took a bite of her instant noodles as she continued her research online. She had managed to extract a list of recently hired female florists across Japan. It was just a gut feeling, but Shiena thought that perhaps, wherever Otoya was hiding, she might have been hired as a florist, given it was her last job. So she tried looking for female florists who were hired recently, but she received way more results than expected. There must be at least a thousand names on the list. And it was unlikely that she would find Otoya's name given that she was on the run- she must be using an alias. It really didn't make things easier for Shiena at all… if Otoya was even on this list and didn't just find another job.
Shiena knew she shouldn't think in such a defeatist way. She had to try every lead she got. She was the one who knew and understood Otoya the best, so if she was using an alias, she should be able to find it- no matter how long it would take.
She started analyzing every single name on the list, trying to see if she could find any social media for those women. Those who had one and were clearly not Otoya could be removed from the list. It was most likely that she wouldn't even find any social media for Otoya's alias, so any of them who had none were the most suspicious ones.
By process of elimination, Shiena managed to get a much shorter list- around one hundred names. She was starting to get hopeful…
Knock knock knock
Shiena froze. After what happened with Hitsugi the other day, she was extremely wary of anyone knocking at her door. Could it be Hitsugi again? Shiena was tempted to just ignore it, but decided to get over with this. She took another bite of her lunch and went to the door, feeling her heart race with fear.
It wasn't Hitsugi. Or anyone she knew. There was an old man in her door frame, a little bit overweight, dressed well and smiling at her.
"Uh… may I help you?" Shiena asked.
The old man pulled out his wallet, showing his police badge.
"I'm inspector Kurodo. May I speak with you, Kenmochi Shiena-san?"
She dragged the corpse in the storehouse. Dead bodies felt heavier to carry than regular bodies, but it didn't bother her. She was used to it.
Otoya dropped the corpse on the floor. It belonged to what was previously a gorgeous woman. It was hard to tell with all the gruesome mutilations her body had- her face was completely disfigured. She had been viciously attacked, tortured, and killed.
But somehow, this murder didn't bring as much pleasure to Otoya as it used to before. No matter how cruel she was, it just didn't feel the same anymore. She kept going out of habit and hoping those senseless murders would make her feel something again, but it was all in vain. The pleasure was ephemeral and she was always left with the same feeling of emptiness right after.
She couldn't allow herself to be careless anymore. It was out of the question to let the police find the corpse. She needed to play safely and avoid attention for a while. So she had to dispose of the bodies- what a pain.
Otoya put on an apron and protective glasses before grabbing an electrical saw. It wasn't that hard to dismember the corpse, and she had to admit, the sounds of cutting through flesh, muscles, and bones were quite pleasant, as well as seeing the blood flow. But once again, when it was all done and her victim was carefully cut into pieces, she was back to feeling nothing.
She put each dismembered part in a different trash bag and carefully sealed them. She then looked at the bloody mess she made and sighed.
It will be a real pain in the ass to wash all this blood.
