Twenty-Nine Degrees
Part III: Darkness
By Pata
Taichi Kamiya was never much of a sleuth – but with the disappearance of Yamato he had set about figuring everything he could to discover the lost boy. Hikari was puzzled by Taichi's new behavior; likewise him to her, he couldn't comprehend her oblivion to Yamato's disappearance. Though more than several things linked Hikari to Yamato's vanishing, Taichi was hesitant to convict her, which was the only thing that saved Hikari from police interrogation; they were suspicious of her as well.
Hikari knew that her crime had not gone as well as she had planned, but things were still going smoothly enough. One thing she regretted was leaving the knife – but she couldn't bring it home, her fingerprints were all over it and the police had already searched her house twice. She could have, of course, brought it back to it's original owner, but that would have meant a long trip coupled with having to see him again, the man who had gotten her into all of this.
She could turn him in, which would avert suspicions from her, but he was an experienced criminal as well as a child genius, and there was little to no evidence to convict him.
Hikari took part in Taichi's searches and desperate phone calls, but her heart was never in it. Half the time she would say she was making phone calls to find Yamato, and really order a pizza or prank-call Takeru. She knew that Taichi thought she might have something to do with the crime, so she did everything she could to be 'helpful' in finding him.
It was quite brilliant, really. Hikari and her master had planned the scheme out so well that Hikari even found ways to justify it in her mind. It wasn't over, of course; murdering Yamato had only been the beginning. The next step, naturally, had been to frame someone else.
That was where Hikari had messed up. She'd left too much evidence to convict herself. She knew it could be a fatal mistake, but she'd already set about correcting it. It would be hard work – it would take time and delicacy and much help from the man with the icy eyes who had taught her this life – but she was certain that she could accomplish it.
Hikari was going to frame Taichi.
*
News of Yamato's murder (police had declared him legally dead after searching for him for three days with no luck), which had now come to be known as the Twenty-Nine Degree Murder due to the temperature in Odaiba at the time, had reached America. The good old US of A didn't care a whole lot about one insignificant murder in Japan, but one pink-haired teenager in New York sure gave a damn.
"It has to be another Yamato Ishida," Mimi told herself, upon hearing the news of his death. "There has to be more than one Yamato Ishida in Japan."
She knew, of course, that it was the Yamato Ishida, lead singer of the Teenage Wolves, local hottie bad-boy. She'd cried for nearly a week straight over his death and phoned Taichi and Sora almost every night to keep close tabs on any leads that might suggest Yamato was still alive.
There were none, of course.
Mimi didn't worry much about any murderers coming after her in America, so she wasn't extra careful or alert. In fact, when she received news that Ken Ichijouji was coming to America for the winter holidays she was overjoyed.
He was staying in Massachusetts, but that wasn't far from New York – a three-hour drive, to be precise. He had phoned Mimi a few nights before confirming that he knew where her house so he could visit if he wanted. Mimi had given him exact directions, wanting a visit from the boy desperately. Her heart ached for Yamato, but Ken would have to do.
The day that Ken was scheduled to arrive in America, Mimi's father suffered a massive heart attack. Mimi found it hard to see this as a coincidence, but there was no way to convict anyone of causing a heart attack – according to doctors, it was "medically impossible." She spent the day in the hospital with her dad, and was told that he would recover completely.
Mimi's mother was away on a business trip, so Mimi, who was eighteen, had the house to herself for the night. She phoned Ken's hotel but was told that no one by the name Ichijouji was staying there, which puzzled her greatly.
Nevertheless, Mimi didn't let it bother her. Perhaps the hotel had been full and the Ichijoujis had to stay somewhere else; there were a million possibilities. She slept easy, completely worry-free.
She awoke much later that night to a tapping noise. Her senses immediately shot into hyper-alert mode and adrenaline pumped through her body. She lay in bed, eyes wide open, unmoving.
Another tapping noise caused her eyes to fly to the window, but no one was there. She was sure the sound of her heart pounding was enough to wake anyone. A tinkling noise caught her attention. Mimi looked over at the window again, and a golden locket with a picture of all eight Digidestined, one of her favorite keepsakes, had fallen from the desk to the floor. "Odd…" she said.
She threw the covers off and climbed out of bed, kneeling down on the floor to examine the locket. She flipped it open. Along with her picture there was an ordinary piece of notebook paper, with one word scrawled on it:
KAISER
Suddenly, the window imploded, and glass shattered everywhere. Mimi screamed, but of course, there was no one to hear her. She gripped the locket tightly in her hand.
The man who had broken into her house saw her on the floor with the locket, and his icy eyes seemed almost to glow with hunger for it. She clutched it with a deathgrip in her left hand. Angrily, he ground his booted heel into her hand. She screamed louder, still no one heard; muscles and tendons tore, blood stained her carpet.
But still she held. Eventually, her assassin grew tired of fighting and reached into his pocket, bringing out a long, shining pistol. Mimi screamed again, but it was cut short.
No one heard the gunshot nor saw the broken window.
News was later received that Mimi's father had mysteriously died abruptly at the hospital just hours after apparently stabilizing completely.
And so the Twenty-Nine Degree Murders achieved international fame.
*
A madman staring at the perpetual night,
A spirit raging at the visible.
I breathe alone until my dark is bright.
Dawn's where the white is. Who would know the dawn
When there's a dazzling dark behind the sun?
*
The Eclipse is Upon Us