Onna: *whispers* Standard disclaimers apply desu! Let me just hide from the people I completely upset.
*loud yelling from the background*
Onna: Oh great, they found me. *goes to hide again*
Hakkai: I think Yaone-san and I will take over for this chapter.
Yaone: Onna-san did not mean to upset anyone. Please read on. There are more twists in this story.
*****
Hakkai leaned against the tree that used to be their favorite meeting spot. Their own private little world, for him and Kanan. He sighed and leaned against the bark, fingering the sheet of paper in his hands.
Kanan's response to his first love letter to her.
He sighed again, wondering why his feet brought him there. Wondering why after so many months, he still could not get over her death. Almost a year... and yet the pain was fresh as if it was just yesterday that he lost her.
Then there's Yaone. Bright, beautiful, kind... everything that Kanan had been.
And more.
Yaone was also mysterious, surprising, remarkable. Not that Kanan wasn't, but Yaone shone in her own way.
He was attracted to her, he admitted to himself that much. He was supposed to be well past the stage of grieving and should be moving on with his life.
Then why did he feel so guilty?
His fingers worked to unfold the sheet he held, and read through it, again and again. His heart worked painfully as he read her expressions of hope. Her dreams, her plans, how she envisioned life.
Just then he caught a line along the middle, one that he had often overlooked every time.
Gonou, you and I both know that sometimes, life doesn't go the way we planned. As much as we would wish to be together there is that possibility that we could lose each other.
And if that does happen, promise me, Gonou, that you will live life to the fullest and reach for your dreams. That you will be happy, even if it's with another. That is my wish for you...
What if... he had been the one who was taken from her? Would he have liked it if Kanan mourned for him every single day, not wanting to live it up the way she had wanted to?
No... he answered mentally. He would not have liked that. He would have insisted that Kanan move on, and if she found another one to love, to make her happy, then he would be at peace.
Kanan, forgive me... he thought as he sank to his knees. I will fulfill my promise... just let me take care of the bastard's gang, that will be the last task I will do for you...
He did not know how long he stayed. Just knew that when he stood again, the burden was gone, and he smiled at the blue sky.
"Your badge, detective," Kougaiji snapped as he extended his hand. "I don't think you're fit enough to continue this case."
Yaone looked at him in surprise. "Am I being dismissed?"
"Yes, you are," he answered. "You are obviously not qualified to be a police officer. You couldn't even take in the murder of that young woman."
"Are you saying that we should be unfeeling robots when it comes to dealing with people?!"
"I'm saying that you lost your composure when a good officer wouldn't."
"Oh, so I'm not a good officer."
"Yes, I'm saying that."
Her anger nearly boiled over. "Then why the hell did you assign me to this case?!"
He stood up, facing her squarely. "I did it because I thought you had potential. I thought you could rise up and be one of the best. But, no! You defied orders, jeopardized the lives of ordinary citizens, and is now a potential suspect in the murder of that gangster!"
"That bastard killed an innocent girl, and he had a gun! Who knows that he could have turned it on Hakkai-san and me?!"
"Hakkai," he laughed sarcastically. "That's one more problem."
"What is that supposed to mean?""You're getting too close to him. Too close for comfort! Too close that you are attracted to him! Do you understand how getting emotionally involved could seriously cause you to overlook things and compromise a case?!"
"I only followed my judgment to the best of my abilities, Captain!"
He slammed his palms on his desk, violet eyes glinting at her. "Your badge, detective."
She flung it on his desk and turned to leave.
"And that gun you used!"
"Fine! Here!"
"How many bullets did Yaone fire that night?" Dokugakuji asked. "Aside from the first ones that missed."
"Let's see," Gojyo flipped the paperwork in his hands. "Not counting those first three shots, she fired about seven more."
Dokugakuji got up from examining the wall and removed his gloves. "That would mean that there should be at the most nine bullet marks here, assuming that one killed the gangster."
Gojyo knelt and counted, using tweezers to remove bullet fragments. "There are ten bullet marks here, and the same number of bullet fragments."
"What?"
"Ten," he repeated. "Funny how we were never told to fish the bullet out of the bastard's body."
"Good point, let's bring these fragments to forensics and set an appointment with the medical examiner."
The door slammed shut, loudly. Hakkai looked up from cutting vegetables to smile at his flatmate. "How was your day?"
"Don't ask," she muttered as she dropped her purse on the table. "They made me give up my badge."
"You were dismissed?"
"Yup, blacklisted, tainted, accused of police brutality and murder."
"Yaone-san..."
"Damn it! I should have known better than to take this case! I should have known better than to shoot at that dark wall! Houfa's dead because of my stupidity!"
"Shush..." he murmured as he moved to her side, pressing her cheek against his shoulder while stroking her back soothingly. She sobbed quietly, hands gripping his shirt front, slim shoulders shaking.
After a long moment she raised her head, her fingers brushing the tears away. "Gomen nasai... I..."
"Daijoubu," he murmured, keeping a firm hold on her. "You better sit down. I'll have some oolong tea ready for you."
She nodded mutely, gently plopping down on the sofa. The kettle whistled, and soon Hakkai was back with two small cups and a pot of tea.
"Arigatou..." she murmured when he handed her a cup. She took a sip as he settles himself beside her, a cup in his own hands.
Silence reigned for a moment, before she spoke. "Hakkai-san..."
"Nani?"
"What are we?"
He looked at her in confusion. "Sumimasen?"
"I mean... where do we stand? Am I your friend, who lives with you and cooks and cleans at times, or..."
"Or?"
"Are we... more than that?"
Hakkai didn't take his eyes off her face, gently gazing at her in silence for a while. "I did a lot of thinking today."
"About what?"
"About... me. About Kanan. About you."
"I... see."
"I was feeling guilty after we... kissed. I thought I was dishonoring her memory, was being disloyal. I was confused. Somehow you confused me."
"Sumimasen..."
"I went to our meeting place, where we used to see each other every night before we were married. Took a letter with me, the first one she ever gave me. Read a line I skipped so many times after her death."
She looked at him, silently asking him to continue.
"Got me thinking. If I was the one who was gone, would I want her to live the way I did? No, I didn't. I would have wanted her to move on, maybe find someone else to love. Be happy. I guess that's what she would have wanted for me."
"What are you trying to tell me?"
He took her hand in his. "I'm saying that... I really, really like you. I think you're a remarkable and amazing person. It will be a great pleasure to get to know you more."
She smiled at him softly as his fingers brushed her cheek. "I'd love that..."
He pressed a kiss on her forehead. "I'll get dinner ready. Oh, and I've prepared the bath tub for you."
"Hakkai-san!" Yaone protested. "I'm not someone to be pampered and petted!"
"Yes, ma'am," he grinned and took a sofa pillow to his face.
Hakkai guessed that he deserved that and chuckled.
"No match to the bullet found in the body," the forensics officer reported. "Detective Yaone did not kill the man."
"Then what?" Dokugakuji asked. "He took a pointed concrete slab to the head?"
The officer shook her head. "The bullet that was fished from the gangster's body matched with the gun in his hand."
"So you're saying he killed Houfa, then turned the gun on himself."
"That's exactly what I'm saying."
Dokugakuji was confused. "Why?"
"I'm guessing but, he was the only one in the alley right? No one else was there."
"Yes."
"And he didn't know that police were there."
"Affirmative. As far as I know that is."
She furrowed her brow at him. "Negative. He knew police were going to be there, detective. He was ready for them. There were canopies used to make the alley darker. The place was obviously once a rape site that they cleaned up. We found traces of skin, blood, which some matches the DNA of the blood of the already deceased victims, like Cho Kanan, and tons of seminal fluids there. And we intercepted some of the clean-up crew fleeing from the area."
"And this affects us how?"
"He had a radio set to the frequency police officers used."
"Damn it..." Dokugakuji cursed, eyes widening in surprise. "Someone in this station gave that to him."
"Someone sure did."
*****
Hakkai: Yare yare, Onna-san is still nowhere to be found.
Yaone: Not a lot of terms to translate. So I guess we'll just have to find her and get her started on the next chapter.
