Twenty-Nine Degrees
Part VI: Iodine
By Pata
Takeru called an hour or so later to confirm his date with Hikari. He was suspicious of her still, but he couldn't say no to her for a date. He'd loved her for a long, long time. It was like a dream come true.
His love for her overrode all his reason and knowledge and blinded him with affection. It left him helpless and babbling. He wished he didn't have to love her; she was such a tease sometimes. But she was, nonetheless, his best friend. Even though he suspected her of triple murder.
He didn't tell Hikari that he suspected she had killed her brother. He knew that she was already angry with him for thinking she may have played a roll in Yamato's death, and possibly Mimi's as well.
He put on a nice suit and a tie and tried to do his unruly hair into a fairly decent style. He wet it and combed it back against his head, but it wouldn't stay; in the end he settled for a toned-down version of his normal mane. He sprayed on some cologne and swallowed a breathmint. He had just turned sixteen and gotten his driver's license, so he was picking her up.
*
Hikari checked the clock. 6:51. Takeru was picking her up at seven. She put on a nice dress and combed her hair, spritzing some perfume on. As she replaced the perfume on the bathroom shelf, a bottle of iodine caught her eye.
Iodine is a deadly poison that kills painfully and slowly when ingested in even small amounts. Iodine is nearly odorless, tastes like nothing when dissolved in another drink, and completely invisible as well. Iodine poisoning takes place instantly, is irreversible and incurable.
She put the bottle in her purse and sat down by the front door.
After a short time, Takeru pulled up in his late brother's red coupe, the one Hikari had stolen (but had later returned anonymously, because it was much to suspicious to keep parked in her yard). That car brought back a lot of bad memories, but she kept a perfectly straight face as she got into the passenger's seat. The murderer, riding shotgun...she chuckled.
"What?" Takeru asked.
"Nothing, Takeru-sama," she assured him.
He smiled mysteriously. "I brought you something."
Her eyes lit up. She asked eagerly, "What? Oh, Takeru, you didn't have to -"
He pulled out a single red rose, fragrant and fresh and beautiful. "Red roses for love," he said romantically. She took the rose and inhaled its sweet scent.
"Arigatou Takeru-sempai! That's so sweet of you..."
He smiled as they pulled in their parking space at Odaiba Inn. Hikari tucked the rose into her breastpocket.
Hikari and Takeru picked out a nice table in the corner of the restaurant and ordered two wineglasses of water - neither was old enough to drink alcohol. They spent precious minutes talking and joking, but all the while Hikari was aware of the time, waiting for the perfect moment to slip the poison into Takeru's drink.
He was turned away, looking out the window and explaining something about the stars to Hikari when she reached into her purse and extracted the bottle of iodine. She murmured a sound of agreement as Takeru talked, opening the bottle and pouring out a small amount of the clear liquid into Takeru's glass.
He turned back and grasped the wineglass in his hand. Hikari's heart quickened. She almost wished he wouldn't drink it...she loved Takeru. But at least this way there was no blood, and the guilt of his death would not rest entirely on her.
He lifted the glass to his lips, but set it down again without taking a drink. Hikari was sure he could hear her heart beating.
"Do you like chocolate strawberries?" he asked.
"Do I!" she cried, clasping her hands. "Mm... chocolate strawberries..."
"Me too," he said. "We should order some for dessert."
Hikari looked at the floor uncomfortably. "Yes," she mumbled. There would be no dessert for Takeru, she knew.
This time the glass touched his lips and he took a long, refreshing sip. Hikari stared. She didn't speak. He moved to set the glass down and opened his mouth as though to speak, but neither action happened. His hand began to shake, and he dropped the glass; it shattered into a thousand pieces on the floor, causing several people to turn and look. Realizing that she was under the scrutinizing eyes of tons of people, Hikari began to feign concern.
"Takeru?" she asked. "Takeru, are you okay?"
His eyes went unfocused, as though he were staring at something a great distance away. His mouth hung open, and he choked, "Hikari...I think..." but he couldn't finish. He clutched his stomach in agony and toppled out of the chair. Hikari leapt up from her chair. This time her concern was at least partially real. She hadn't expected it to take so long for him to die.
She cradled his head in her arms. "Hikari," he breathed, his hand still pressed over his navel as though trying to extract the poison from it. "Hikari, I love you. Aishiteru..."
She could feel him quaking. She didn't say anything. After a minute, she bent down and kissed his lips, and he returned the kiss; for a moment they were locked. She pulled back and felt him go limp in her arms, almost dead.
She leaned down until her lips were nearly touching his ear and whispered, "I hope the irony's not lost on you, Takeru."
His eyes went wide with shock, but he couldn't say anything, for he was dead. Hikari reached over to the shattered glass and slit her finger deeply with one piece of it, causing tears to come to her eyes. "Someone poisoned him!" she yelled, so the whole restaurant could hear it. "I'll find whoever did this and kill them!"
She gathered her dress around her knees and ran out of Odaiba Inn. She took the red coupe and drove to the Takaishi's and give Takeru's mother the news. Then she went home and buried the bottle of iodine with her fingerprints all over it in her backyard.
There was no evidence to convict her.
*
One problem with Hikari's plan was that now she had all night to think about what she was doing. She had heard that snipers sometimes go mad thinking about what they do to people, because they have so much time to contemplate it.
She lay in bed, staring at the ceiling. She couldn't believe Takeru was gone. At her hand. She twirled the rose he had given her around in her hand, and then replaced it in the vase next to her bed. She felt so horrible about Takeru's death. She just couldn't take it.
Eventually, she phoned Ken. He picked up the phone. "Ichijouji residence."
"Ken?" she asked.
"Kari," he said in recognition. "Did you take care of Takeru?"
"It is all over the news," she said. "This brings the total of the deaths in the Twenty-Nine Degree Murders to four."
"I already have a plan to take out Miyako," he informed her. "She and I are going for a walk down at the beach in a couple days."
Hikari murmured in agreement. She coughed nervously. "Listen, Ken-kun...I'm just not sure I can go on like this. All this killing - I'm starting to have doubts."
He voice grew cold and angry. "You don't have to. Fine. I'll do it myself."
"Ken -" she began, but her protests fell on the dialtone. He had hung up.
She replaced the phone on the hook and stared stolidly at Takeru's rose. A single red petal floated from the flower to her desk and rested there.
The rose was beginning to whither.
*
That I could think there trembled through
His happy good-night air
Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew
And I was unaware.
*
Bleed Just To Know You're Alive