Case. Someone tried to kill the client.
Characters. Kyuu and Ryuu talked about their feelings towards the case and towards being a detective.
*Note. To avoid language confusion, dialogues in English will be in italic.
Chapter 3. The Attempt
Kyuu's eyes cracked open. He was shivering from the low temperature and he had a bowel movement. He panicked and rushed to the bathroom, failing to notice the absence of his roommate on the bed or even the spraying sound from inside the bathroom. Kyuu opened the bathroom door brusquely.
From behind the transparent glass of the shower room, black eyes of a half soaked violet blue haired man turned his way. The movement from looking at the bathroom door created the perfect angle for Kyuu to witness a delicate lean body, and the steam did not help much in covering the intimate part.
Kyuu was bright red and his heart thumped loudly. "Sorry!" He shut the door close and leaned his body to it, trying to calm his heavy breathing.
The sound of the water stopped. "Kyuu, it's totally fine if you want to use the toilet. It's not good holding it up."
Kyuu had forgotten about his nature call, but Ryuu's words raised the need again. "No, I'll be fine, really," he forced a laugh.
"I will look the other way around if it bothers you," Ryuu said.
Now the picture of a naked Ryuu flashed back into Kyuu's brain. He squeezed his head with both hands, "That's not it!" Kyuu would have to make an excuse, "I-It will stink!"
Ryuu's chuckle sent chills to Kyuu's groin, "Well, if it doesn't stink, then there's a problem with you."
Kyuu could not think of a counterargument. Defeated, he stood tall in front of the door, "Okay, I'm going in."
True, Ryuu was facing the other way, but that way Kyuu was exposed with-
Kyuu shook his head, grabbed a towel nearby and sat at the toilet. He felt great being able to empty his bowel and he closed his eyes. Moments later, the water stopped spraying and there were sounds of Ryuu grabbing a towel. Kyuu lowered his head and waited until the bathroom door was closed before opening his eyes again. He released a relieved sigh.
Kyuu got out of the bathroom and found Ryuu drying his hair on the edge of the bed. Ryuu already wore his sweatpants but was still topless. The wall mounted bed light gave warm light to the room and Kyuu was glad it was dim enough so Ryuu would not have to see his pink cheeks.
Kyuu sat beside the taller man and asked, "What are you doing, taking a bath this early?"
"I woke up about half an hour ago and I can't sleep anymore, so I thought I would take a bath and freshen myself up," Ryuu answered honestly. "Is it weird?"
"Quite so." They both laughed. Then, Ryuu stood up to take a long sleeve shirt and put it on before sitting beside Kyuu again.
After some moments, Kyuu broke the silence, "Hey Ryuu, what do you think about this case?"
Ryuu leaned forward, "I think the mystery lies deeper and honestly we're still far from it."
"Yeah, I think so too," Kyuu nodded. "Actually, I never thought we'd run into big cases again after we defeated Meiosei. But as time went by, we ran into more and more cases and now we're in New York doing a real case. I'm really excited!" His enthusiastic voice brightened the dim room.
"Me too," Ryuu answered. "I remembered the first time I was involved in solving a case, it was when I was here in New York. I stumbled upon a crime scene and noticed something was off. I told the officer but he hesitated at first. Turned out, it led to solid evidence to capture the culprit."
Kyuu's face was full of fascination. Ryuu continued, "After that, the officer asked my opinion for some cases, and I met Joseph in the last one. Joseph was the one who solved the murder weapon, a customized drug, and therefore they could catch the culprit. After that, Joseph invited me to look around his company. But before that happened, I flew to Japan to participate in the last entrance exam for DDS."
"That's so cool, you worked real cases even before you went to DDS!" Kyuu said, "I never got into a real case before getting into DDS. I watched and deduced mysteries from the TV. Oh, I was involved in a case where I was kidnapped, but I was the one kidnapped, not the one who solved it."
"There were other small cases like when I first met Megu. A man accused me of stealing his money. I solved that one, the money slipped into his umbrella!" Kyuu chuckled. "Yeah, I really do like solving cases on site. I hope we can have more cases like this."
Ryuu knew Kyuu always loved mysteries, but he was interested whether Kyuu realized the consequences of choosing the path of working in the frontline. He wanted to ask Kyuu-
when they heard a loud thud.
Both the young men stood and faced each other. They simultaneously nodded and ran to the source of the sound, Joseph's and Kinta's room.
They barged inside the room and Ryuu turned the lights on. Beside the bed near the bathroom door, Joseph gripped a hand and his knee slammed the back of the body, effectively pinning the person in the burglar mask. Kinta was sitting on the other bed, shocked with the terrifying scene.
Megu came behind Kyuu and gasped in horror. Kyuu immediately turned and blocked Megu's sight, "Megu, call the police now!" The firm voice brought Megu to vigilance. She nodded and ran back to her room for the phone.
"Who are you?" Joseph tightened his grip. "Who sent you?" He altered the question.
They could still see the culprit's eyes and mouth from the side. They saw gritted teeth before foam came out and the body weakened. "Hey!" Joseph shook the languid body. Kinta had regained composure and was now looking at the subject in question, "No use, it's probably carfentanil." Joseph looked at Kinta and then to the probably dead body by then. He did not feel the pulse on the wrist he was gripping, so he put it down and stood up.
"The police will be here in 10 minutes," Megu came back to the room. Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth upon seeing the unmoving body beside Joseph, "Is he..."
"Yes," Ryuu lowered his head before looking at all the people seriously, "We should go to the living room and wait for the police there."
They went to the living room in silence, not touching anything along the way. After they all sat down at the circular sofa, Joseph pulled his contact lens and the skin on his face, revealing a slitted black eyed Kinta. Kinta also did the same, revealing a pale blue eyed brunette.
Kyuu gaped and pointed a finger towards Kinta and Joseph, "What! So you were..."
"Yeah," Ryuu answered, "The probability of this happening is not zero, so I asked them to switch last night. That's why I need them to sleep in one room. Kinta's body is more similar to Joseph's."
Joseph lowered his head, "I'm so grateful. I don't know what would have happened if we didn't switch." He covered his face with both his hands. He felt a pat on his shoulder, "It's okay man, we got your back," Kinta said softly but firmly. There was a faint smile when Joseph nodded.
Suddenly, the lift opened and two men in uniform came out, both armed with guns. The arrival was much faster than they anticipated, and the detectives got into a defense stance.
"Hey, are you guys alright?" The taller officer glanced at them while gesturing to the other to check the hallway. Ryuu nodded, "Our attacker is in the room on the left. He probably killed himself."
"Clear!" The other officer lowered his gun after checking all the rooms, "He's right. The perp is in that room." The officer near them also lowered his gun and walked towards the mentioned room. He then picked up the radio on his right shoulder, "Report. Suspect down, probably suicide. Five hostages are safe." "Copy," came a cracking sound from the radio.
The blond man with brown eyes looked gigantic compared to his blond partner in blue eyes. The taller officer was probably 6.2 feet tall, or about 190 centimeters. "You guys did the right thing. Let's wait for the other cops to arrive. I thought you were lucky because Doug and I were in the area, but it seems everything's fine even before we arrived. I'm Benjamin Brooks. Call me Ben," he offered his hand to Kinta, who stood in front of them all.
"That explains your quick arrival," Kinta shook his hand, "Kinta."
"Kinta?" The officer raised an eyebrow, "You're not from here, are you?"
"They're with me," Joseph walked past them to stand beside Kinta. "They just arrived from Japan yesterday."
Ben's wide eyes proved his recognition towards the brunette. "Joseph Rios! Oh my, it's really nice to meet you." He shook Joseph's hands eagerly. The other officer cleared his throat and Ben suddenly regained his composure, "Erm, I mean this is not the best situation to know you, but I'm really glad to have met you. I heard about you helping us out a lot from my seniors."
The lift opened again and both police officers raised their guard. There were four officers coming out from the lift and they all lowered their guns after recognizing each other.
After that, things went at lightning speed. Officers went into the rooms and checked the whole suit. Two coroners went into the room and out with the body on a stretcher. Officers gave them blankets and teas.
Within the chaos, Ben came to them and said, "How are you guys feeling? I'm sorry to say this but the whole suite is now a crime scene. Do you guys have any other place to stay?"
"I still have some hotels and apartments we could sleep in," Joseph's voice was a bit shaken when he answered. "I think that is out of choice," Ryuu countered. "If someone succeeded to snuck in here, that means they already knew your whereabouts. Maybe even all properties that you own. We should move somewhere which has no relation with you."
"That's true," Megu nervously agreed. "Hey," Kinta said suddenly, "I think we can stay in the police HQ, you have some vacant rooms, don't you?"
Ben blinked at the suggestion, "How do you know that?"
Kinta grinned at the response, "I stayed there a couple of times before. In fact, my dad always made us stay there every time we went here."
"Your dad?" Ben narrowed his eyes and inspected Kinta, "Wait! You're the son of Kin... Kinza...ro... Toyama?"
"It's... Kinzaburou Touyama," Kinta twitched a little when he corrected the native officer, "But yes, I'm Kintarou Touyama." His grin was back in place. Ben's face came to life as well, "Yes of course, you can live in the police HQ as long as you need. Let's go then!"
"Um, Ben," Ryuu interrupted, "I know we have to move fast, but can you let us gather evidence from here first?" He showed his DDS pocket book before Ben had the chance to ask.
"DDS?" Ben read the carved letters and touched his chin. "DDS... Where did I... Oh, you guys came from Japan, right? That means, DD-" He looked at them with a whole new respect, "You're from Dan Detective School. I don't think there will be a problem if you want to gather evidence! I'll inform the others right away." Ben moved away to the other officers.
"That's cool. DDS is really famous everywhere," Kyuu whispered to his detective friends.
"I think that's because Dan-sensei himself helped the US police once. I heard stories of it when I was here. I gambled when I was showing the pocket book," Ryuu chuckled.
Half an hour later, the faces of our detectives did not look any better. "The evidence is everywhere but none is helpful."
"Yeah," Ryuu agreed. "The culprit did not hide anything from us, but yet we are clueless about the real culprit, the mastermind."
"The only thing that isn't right is the card," Kyuu said.
"Yes," Megu replied, "The receptionist told me that no one else has the card except us."
"So, the culprit is a genius programmer that can control the lift?" Kinta suggested.
"That, or it was someone with power that has easy access to everything," Ryuu said.
"Okay, detectives, time's up. Let's move you guys to a safer place," Ben said to them. Joseph was already in front of the lift, waiting for them. Reluctantly, they took their belongings and walked towards the lift.