CHAPTER FOUR…
Killing and It's Consequences
(Tamperer: someone who participates in meddling, especially for the purpose of altering, damaging, or misusing.)
October 12th.
Takeshi Sato was no fool. Well, that's what he thought. And given that, he was determined not to act like one.
Those twins next door were infamous for their oddity, but he knew well there was more to it than that.
When the parents of a missing civilian girl, Ume Tanaka, showed up on his doorstep with a poster and a sob story, a fatal realization formed within him.
The night before the girl disappeared, his lovely neighbors had been out, doing god knows what. The missing girl was their classmate, so they would've known her.
With that moment of remembrance, Takeshi was set off. Like a lunatic, his mind raced.
"I know those demons had somethin', to do with all works too damn well." He muttered to himself, staring out at the sun which seemed to lower by the minute.
Years ago, Takeshi Sato had been a detective. He'd worked alongside the Uchiha Police Force, all the way up until the force was dissolved after the massacre.
After that, his life had been nothing but downhill.
His wife had left, taking the kids with her. All Takeshi had now was this shack of an apartment and opiates to numb the pain.
But this? This could be his big break. If he solved the murder of a young girl, locked away the demon twins, he'd be a hero.
Women would love him. The reward money would let him live lofty for the rest of his life, enjoying the finest of pills and liquor alongside the greatest.
And so, Takeshi settled. He'd solve this case.
Taking a long sip of his gin, he grinned as he heard the neighbor's door open and close.
No one else lived on this floor, he was entirely certain that was the twins headed out. He sat his glass on the counter, waiting a few minutes until he was certain they were gone.
He shoveled around his drawer, grabbing a lock-pick he hadn't used in years. Closing his hand tight around it, he walked out of his apartment with no further hesitation.
The hallways of the complex were gray, with plaster walls and cement floors that made the place positively eerie. The loud buzzing of the lights overhead was no aid to that. Vaguely, he thought this was the perfect place for two evil children.
But not for him, he internally reiterated.
Crouching at the door only a few feet from his own, he inserted the silver lockpick in with a slight grin.
Fiddling with the knob for a few minutes eventually yielded results, but not before a large horsefly flew into the side of his face.
Swatting the insect dead, he grimaced. "Ain't that a bad omen?" He grumbled to himself, before forcing the door open fully.
Dark eyes scanned the newly revealed home with calculation, it looked far too normal to him. There was a crocheted teddy bear on a raggedy couch, which almost made him feel guilty. Something in his head screamed they were just innocent children, but he shoved it away in no time.
Fabric and large craft scissors sat on the kitchen counter, a wooden chair next to them. He took a deep breath, and set forward.
He didn't know what he expected walking into the sole bedroom, but it wasn't what he saw.
A poster on the wall with the periodic table, charts and passages pinned to one half of the wall. Textbooks were stacked neatly along the wall, with assorted beakers and droppers near them. And on the other half, even more fabric and scraps of cloth strewn about messily. Gray plaster fit right in with the monochrome hues of everything else in their house.
None of that drew his attention, though. It was the closet, with the door left ajar. Something, call it intuition, was calling him to that closet. With years spent as a detective, Takeshi knew better than to ever ignore intuition.
Time seemed to slow. For whatever reason, a light sheen of sweat began to gloss his forehead, a lump in his throat.
He pulled the wooden door open, taking in the scent of mothballs and… Pennies? Or iron? His near black iris looked over fine gowns, elegant kimonos and other such items, all the way until he settled on something suspicious.
A black trash bag.
Namiko waltzed up the hallway, her brother waiting down in the stairway. She'd forgotten her wallet back in their apartment, and hence, needed to return.
She froze in her tracks when she saw their apartment door hanging wide open, lolling her head to the side.
Takeshi threw bloodied garments out of the bag wildly, knowing that he'd been right. Feeling around the bag, he snatched out something damning.
A slip of paper, one slip of paper addressed to Ume Tanaka.
With silent steps, Namiko reentered their apartment, failing to hesitate in grabbing her scissors from the counter.
Her scissors were always sharp, always, and thus the perfect weapon for meddling intruders.
She practically skipped into the bedroom she shared with her brother, right in front of the man who'd broken into her home.
He was turned to face her, clutching a note and a bloody shirt in his hands.
Ah. So that's what he was here for.
"Heh. I knew you kids were monsters, and now, I can prove it." Said a gruff voice, clearly belonging to the man towering over her.
With dark hair and eyes, contrasting starkly with scarred olive skin, he looked far more intimidating than her. Which he felt like pointing out, apparently.
"Now, what exactly are you gonna do with a little pair of scissors? You may as well give up, girl, you and that brother of yours are done for." He goaded, clearly intent on upsetting her.
And it worked, because no one ever threatened her brother. "Shut up you hog bastard." She retorted eloquently, clutching her scissors even tighter.
She could easily use her chains here she mused, trying to think of a plan. She could always fake him out, like Iruka-sensei taught. To lead with a fake-attack, and catch them off guard with a real one.
She grinned, which only made the man chuckle darkly.
"You think you're scaring me, kid? Well get this, that grin of yours isn't nearly sharp, nor deadly enough to make a guy like me tremble. Put those down before you get hurt."
Namiko only growled.
Naruto decided his sister was taking far too long by now, and realized he'd have to be the one to retrieve both her, and her wallet.
He sighed, slowly dragging himself back up the steps. He just hoped it wasn't one of those crazy religious women keeping her back, they always went door to door, trying to, "bless them," and whatnot.
It always made his skin burn for some reason.
Namiko launched herself at the man, who clearly hadn't expected a head-on attack.
She drew back her arm, and heaved the scissors forward with every ounce of her strength.
The blade didn't stall. It carved into his skin, tearing through flesh and epidermis until nestling into an organ.
Adrenaline must've rushed the man's veins, because he only took a minute to process before he punched her square in the head.
Much to her relief, he didn't hit any of her beautiful features, just the side of her cranium. Namiko hit the ground hard, her scissors still embedded into his side as she raised both empty hands.
Golden chains shot through her palms, wrapping up and binding the man tight.
Which was, for all intents and purposes- pointless, because her brother was already running up behind the man with a cast-iron skillet in hand.
With one swing, he cracked the man's skull, a loud bang ringing in their ears. The chains held the man up, suspended over Namiko's prone form
Namiko wasn't really upset about the fact her brother had killed someone, but there was one glaring issue. "Naruto! Now his brain-juice is all over me!" She whined loudly, and with a glance, Naruto verified that was true.
Well, it wasn't THAT bad, but there was certainly blood. A lot of it. Getting hit by a twenty pound pan with a full-force swing would do that to you.
"I guess that means we won't be getting any ramen for dinner, will we?" He added, equally whiny.
The girl scrambled onto her feet, taking a second to look at the blood covering her hands. With that, Namiko released her chains, letting the presumed corpse hit the ground.
Huffing petulantly, she bent over his body, tightening both hands around her scissors to rip them out.
When the scissors were dragged free, the man fucking groaned, and Namiko nearly leapt from her skin. Well, it was more like she fell from her skin, because she dropped right onto her ass.
"He's alive!" She cried, raising her arms defensively.
Naruto flinched, wasting no time to panic. Instead, heaving his pan up and beating the man over the head with it.
Repeatedly.
Until the man's head was nothing more than a smashed tomato on their grainy cement floor.
And Namiko was actually covered in brain-juice this time, as was he. Actually, just about everything was splattered with goop of some kind
"THERE'S BRAIN GOOP IN MY EYES!" She cried, and Naruto was quick to retort. "IF YOU KNEW HOW TO BLINK, THAT WOULDN'T BE A PROBLEM!"
He was lucky that Namiko didn't like getting her hands dirty, because she seriously considered smearing brain goop into HIS eyes.
Instead, she wailed, loud and angry and childishly. "IT BURRRNSSS!"
At least no one else lived nearby to hear it.
After cleaning themselves up, Namiko plucking gray brain matter from her flaxen hair, and Naruto using peroxide and various other chemicals to scrub their walls and floor.
Then, the two of them had to take a trip to the local department store to pick up… Disposal items..
"Your total is 3,000 ryo.." The young cashier said, looking over the items the odd-pair of twins had bought. Anything to avoid looking at them.
She'd just started working here, and she'd already started dealing with weirdos, she thought as she looked over the bottles of bleach, hydrogen peroxide, the large buckets... Various other bottles of chemicals, scrub brushes.. Goggles, a box of gloves, trashbags, air freshener, an industrial strength fan….
Loud licking noises drew her attention back up to her customers.
Ah yes, and a lollipop, how could she have forgotten. The girl who was thoroughly enjoying her treat didn't seem to notice the way the cashier's breath hitched. The girl's violet eyes stood out starkly against bloodshot sclera, pinprick size pupils staring at nothing in particular.
The girl caught her stare, giving a toothy grin.
The cashier immediately averted her eyes, instead choosing to look at the brother who'd been counting money from both their wallets.
That boy was no less unsettling, to be frank. Dark indigo eyes sat half-lidded, glazed and focused on the coins he was counting. Those iris of his seemed to suck her in, like black holes that swallowed more than just light. She had to force her eyes away from his, lest she feared her soul would be stolen.
His hair was a lighter shade than that of his sisters, scruffy blonde parted to the side, reaching past his jaw.
"Wait a minute," The boy said, before turning and walking off.
The cashier fidgeted aimlessly, thumbing the hem of her uniform to avoid staring at the little girl again.
The short girl hummed a merry tune, swaying to the sound of her own song. The cashier said a silent prayer, this was the sort of thing from horror movies.
Creepy twins, coming during the middle of the night to buy chemicals?! She was so dead, she just knew it.
"Aiko.. Sato, huh?" The girl said, and the cashier began sweating bullets, because how the hell did that girl know her name?!
Her eyes were starting to burn, because if she blinked she might shed some tears. Crying at her brand new job would be a terrible look, what would her mother think?!
The girl, with boney long fingers, jabbed something, right on the pocket of her shirt.
Her eyes slowly traveled down, to where her finger had jabbed.
Oh. Her name tag.
She almost groaned from sheer relief.
The girl hummed, and suddenly, grasped her by the face.
Thin fingers wrapped up one side of her face, her thumb pressing firmly by the edge of Aiko's mouth.
"So sweaty." The girl muttered softly, and Aiko was fully prepared to bow and beg for forgiveness. This girl looked like an evil little royal, would she have her beheaded for getting sweat on her fine lace gloves?!
"You know, you'd be such a pretty mannequin. Perfect for modelling, really, if you weren't so sickly-looking. What are you, dying? Chronically ill?" Asked the child, scrutinizing her with those terrifying, wide eyes of hers.
Before she could muster up the gall to reply, the brother had returned.
"Sister, please stop harassing the cashier. Cashier, I would like to add this to my purchase, how much extra?" He asked slowly, and the girl looked down to see a black half-mask respirator.
"Ah- I-it's on the house! You've already given me ryo for your existing purchase, so uh, just keep that!" She managed to squeak out, stammering the whole time.
"Oh." He replied simply, sliding her the coins and bills he'd already retracted from their wallets. His hand briefly touched Aiko's, and his skin was so cold it was like ice.
With that, he entwined one free hand with his sisters. He tucked away their wallets in his pouch, and they gathered their bags and left.
Aiko fainted as soon as they turned away. Neither noticed.
"You know, I think she liked me!" Chirped Namiko as they walked out the door. "It would seem so." He agreed breezily.
With her hand locked in his, she practically skipped home, dragging him along.
They passed telephone poles, storefronts and fences, all of which stapled with missing posters of the face of a girl gone too soon.
Namiko threw open the door, loudly singing, "We're hoooome!" Knowing full well that the only person who'd been waiting for them was a corpse.
"I'm sure our guest is very happy we've returned," Naruto replied snarkily, getting a harsh glare in reply. He carefully decided to bite his tongue, rather than push more buttons.
He locked the door behind them as Namiko marched off towards the bedroom. Belatedly, he figured they should probably purchase some new locks.
Oh well, a problem for another time.
"I hope you know that I'm taking him by the legs." Namiko piped from their bedroom, and he groaned, because he held no excitement about carrying a mashed up head.
Naruto and Namiko dropped the unclothed body into the bathtub, and thus left each other to their agreed upon jobs.
That being, Naruto was going to mix the chemicals for the body-dissolving acid, and Namiko was going to wait on standby like a good partner in crime.
He emptied chemicals into a blue bucket, clear goggles affixed over his curious eyes. He looked more like a kid with an alchemy set than a boy attempting to make a complicated acid for body disposal. And yet, Namiko smiled at him.
Which reminded her. She stole a look at that rancid body in their bath, already a day old, and looked back to the mirror.
"Your smile isn't nearly sharp enough, nearly deadly enough to scare a guy like me."
Well, she'd just have to make it that way, wouldn't she?
She opened the cabinet over their sink, snatching out a metal nail file.
Closing the cabinet, she stared at herself in the mirror, and immediately began filing her teeth.
The sound of metal scratching against teeth was enough to catch Naruto's momentary attention, and he gave her a very exasperated sigh. "You're lucky that chakra replenishes things like teeth enamel, otherwise, your teeth would fall out after this." He informed her, with absolutely zero amusement.
She shrugged, "Chakra shmakra. What's next, are you going to say chakra keeps all my arteries clean and my hair extravagantly luscious?" She asked, pointed the file at him accusingly.
He didn't mention how silly she looked with one shark tooth, out of fear she'd stab him with that pointy little file of hers. "Yes, actually." He replied with a deadpan expression.
"Feh." Namiko waved her hand, before returning to file her teeth.
When one side of her mouth was done, she moved onto the other half, just as Naruto began sorting and mixing chemicals in separate buckets. His sister hardly paid attention, up until her brother began hauling in fans, placing them in the one bathroom window, and one in the doorway.
"Guess it's about time I scram, huh? She questioned, finishing the tooth she'd currently been working on.
"Yes. The fumes won't be pleasant, and you don't have a mask." The boy ended his sentence by affixing a gas-mask over the lower portion of his face.
She hummed. "Lovely! God knows I don't want to be in here playing scientist anyway!" She chirped politely, before outright skipping out of the bathroom.
Naruto's eyebrow twitched heinously, and he slapped the spot to make it stop. He knew she probably didn't know that was an insult. Probably.
He ignored the heinous giggle from their living room.
The fluorescent light in their bathroom buzzed louder, seeming to draw his attention from his sister and back to his project.
His mind buzzed, and not just because there was a creature in his head, but because he was excited.
He hadn't been able to think straight since their last murder, he was always lingering on the many ways it could've been done better. He'd spent so much time fantasizing about a moment like this, where he could put his brain to use. He loved science as long as he could remember and now was his chance.
Three buckets sat on their white tile floors, chemical cocktails waiting to be combined in their ceramic tub, all to eat away the flesh of their dead intruder.
With a grin beneath his mask, he lifted the first bucket of chemicals, giving the withering body another look. A fly buzzed over the man's skin, but flew away just as the sickly yellow fluid was emptied onto the body.
His head tilted slightly, remembering his goggles as a light yellow mist rose from the body. Grabbing the clear plastic goggles from their sink basin, he pulled them over his eyes and moved on.
Dumping both other buckets, he wasn't surprised when the body began to fizzle. Even with his respirator on, he could smell the rancid scent of a dead body coming into contact with acid.
The flesh began to bubble, mottled discoloration as acid corroded the skin and muscle.
He ticked off objectives on a list, all within his head. The vapor was expected, and the erosion of the body would take less and less time..
The glossy finish on the bathtub disappeared with the flesh, up until the tub itself was a tattered tub full of currant-red slush.
That was when Namiko decided to poke her head in.
Violet eyes stared in through the doorway, and he made sure to look around, most of the miss had cleared. What hadn't, rose to the ceiling and made the lights cast flourescent yellow rays down upon him.
Standing in the neon light his gardening gloves seemed fluorescent themself, as he pulled off the clear plastic goggles and tossed them aside.
His sister stared at him with wide eyes, seeming to take in the way he carried himself with so much more cockiness, all with a growing grin of her own. The gray sweater he wore, made by her, hadn't even been touched by a single drop.
And yet, the entire body was gone. He'd destroyed it, there was no evidence left to be found and she'd never even thought such a thing to be truly possible.
"You know, I never thought science could look so phantasmal. You belong in a movie, Brother." She noted, stepping over the box fan in the doorway.
He lid off his mask, a thin smile still on his face.
His sister stood over the bath, before stealing a glance back at her brother. She saw that grin, so rare on his often morose features.
She was determined to see more of it. Her brother was all she had, after all.
"T-this is art, foul, hideous art! But art nonetheless, I mean look! All that's left is this disgusting red goop, you turned his body into goop!" She cried out joyously, getting a close look at the remains of the body. All that was left was to rinse the sludge away, and her brother will have destroyed the entire body of a man.
His smile grew, revealing bone-white teeth, and she mirrored the expression. Her own teeth were more like razor blades now, but he was hardly perturbed.
"You- Are a genius!" She managed to decree, her hand going from him, and back to the tub.
His eyes flickered with her movements, and he felt a swell of pride in his chest.
"Of course," He confirmed. "We- the two of us,- we're so much better than everyone in this cesspool of a village. We're prodigies to them." He confirmed.
"Now you see!" Namiko returned, dancing around him with a gleeful expression. "I've been saying it, this world is our oyster! No one here is as great as we are, and you know it now! We'll keep getting better, you'll keep getting sciencey-er, and we'll outclass everyone."
He chuckled, and she took his hand into hers. Lifting the hand between them, she looked into his eyes.
Opalescent purple stared into bottomless blue eyes.
"We've murdered two people, and no one is the wiser. We are unstoppable, Naruto." She said, her voice thick with emotion.
"So long as we stay ahead." He amended, and she grinned much more deviously.
"Why, of course."
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Helloooo Readers! Here is chapter four, in all it's murderous glory.
I know I've been neglecting AMS, as a review kindly reminded me. But frankly, I'd like to have fun instead of forcing myself to write AMS. I'm still working on it, but it'll be a while, probably around the end of the month or in May. Besides, I've been pretty exhausted because of school lately. My GPA is a 1.6 and if that's not hilarious, I don't know what is. Writing is a LOT slower because of that, even though I still want to write, hell I even have more stories I want to make.
Anyway, thank you for reading! Much love!