I don't own hana yori dango.

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Tsukushi and Doumyouji entered their office and a deafening silence surrounded them, as if they were observing each other's moves waiting for an attack. Tsukasa was the first one to say something.

"Look, I'm sorry about the outburst before, but I'm not particularly overjoyed about having a partner, especially a woman."

This guy is unbelievable!, she thought. "Just because I'm a woman does not mean I can't hold my own. I wasn't put on this case for nothing. So if you have a problem with that, then too bad. You can leave for all I care," she snapped back.

 Before she could say anything more the phone rang.

"Tsukushi, I've got some bad news. There was a body of a woman found near coney island. The police think it's one of our guy's handy work," the man on the other said.

"Dammit! I'll be right there," tsukushi said.

"What is it?" Tsukasa asked.

"There's been another victim found. We need to go upstairs. That's were the other people we'll be working with are."

They got off the elevator and headed towards three men talking to each other. A man with blonde hair turned to tsukushi first, followed by the others.

"Hey Rui, so tell me what's happened," tsukushi asked the man before her.

"The woman was found lying along the beach in coney island. Her body has been transferred to the morgue for inspection," Rui replied then turned his attention to Tsukasa.

"Oh, this jerk right here is Tsukusa Doumyouji. He'll be working with us on this case as my partner when we go undercover," Tsukushi replied and continued.

"What did you call me?!" Tsukasa exclaimed in anger.

Tsukushi ignored him and walked to read the files on the new victim found that morning. When Doumyouji turned to the three men, all of them had an amused expression on their faces.

"What did you do to her man? Usually tsukushi's the nicest person around here, except when she's angry then you better watch out," the guy who introduced himself as Akira asked him quietly while chuckling.

"Ah nothing, we just got started on the wrong foot. I just don't work well with people, especially women," Tsukasa said.

"Well, if you said that to her then your lucky she didn't knock you unconscious," Rui said.

"Yeah, Tsukushi once did that to a guy for feeling her up. He was out for an hour," Kazuya said nervously.

However Tsukasa couldn't imagine a small frame such as Tsukushi could have enough strength to do that. Before he could ask them more, Tsukushi finished reading the file of the victim and walked towards them.

"Our murderer is a bit of a unique one. He doesn't just pick any woman and kills them. There has to be something about the woman that intrigues him. All we know right now is that he hates women that reminds him anything of his mother."

"Yeah, I read about his history. Seems like he was traumatized as a child when his mother worked as a prostitute. She took her son with her sometimes and made him wait in the car while she does her business," Tsukasa added.

"Yeah, he eventually reached a breaking point and killed his own mother when he was fifteen. From the three women he killed so far, one of them was a prostitute. His style in killing her compared to the other two was different. It seemed brutal and too messy. The other two women who died, it seemed like he took special care in the way he killed them," Rui said and gave Tsukasa a few photos of the victims.

Tsukasa looked at the three pictures and indeed the pictures of the two women looked as if they were carefully cleaned from any blood. There hands were neatly placed together on their stomachs. It was as if they were merely sleeping. But the other picture of the prostitute was completely different. The woman had bruises all over her body and she blood on the corner of her mouth and head.

Tsukasa furrowed his forehead in disgust, "This guy is sick. It like he's obsessed with these women, dressing them up like that, like dolls."

"Yeah, and it's our job to stop him," Tsukushi said.

"Alright, so when do we go undercover," he asked her.

"Tomorrow. Our cover is that we just got married and we're supposed to be staying in a hotel for our honeymoon in Florida. Our guy is supposed to be staying in the hotel also."

"We'll be staying here in New York until both of you can identify him with enough evidence," Rui said.

As the day ended, Tsukushi headed home to her apartment. She didn't realize how tired she was until she sat down on her sofa and took off her shoes. Her phone rang and her friend Yuki was on the other line.

"Hey Tsukushi, I haven't seen you all day. Busy day, huh?" Yuki asked.

"Yeah definitely, and to top it off I was just given the rudest partner you could ever meet," Tsukushi said with a frown and told her everything that happened.

"Well he does sound like a jerk, but I have the perfect solution to cheer you up."

"What's that?"

"Well, Soujiro and I are going to have dinner tomorrow night and I was thinking what a wonderful idea it would be if you come along," Yuki said.

"Wouldn't I just be a bother to you two, being a third wheel?" Tsukushi asked, confused.

Yuki chuckled, "Well of course I wouldn't do that. Actually Soujiro's time was invited too, so we both thought that it would be a great idea for the two of you to meet each other."

Tsukushi's eyes narrowed in suspicion as she listened to her friend.

"You mean you and Soujiro want to set me up on a blind date with this guy," Tsukushi stated, not liking the idea at all.

"I know you've been over with your relationship with Rui and both of you have moved on. That's why we thought that since you've been single for so long, the more the reason it is for you to start dating again."

Tsukushi knew Yuki and Soujiro only meant well, but sometimes they meant too well. She had broken things off with Rui a year ago after seeing each other for two years. She found out that they were better off being close friends rather than a couple. She enjoyed being single and the freedom it gave her sometimes. But it did get lonely sometimes she had to admit.

Tsukushi sighed, "Alright, I guess one dinner wouldn't hurt," she replied.

"Great! Besides, you haven't gotten laid for a while anyways," Yuki said evily and laughed out loud.

"Yuki!!" Tsukushi screamed through the phone, but her friend had hung up before she could hear Tsukushi's colorful choice of words.