Jounouchi hissed as he climbed out of the police car. The flashlight's lambent beam wasn't enough to illuminate much, but the ugly drying maroon, splattered over the one exterior wall, seemed to glow. Almost unwillingly, Jounouchi's gaze followed it up to a window. Yuugi's window.
From the other side of the car, Jounouchi heard Kaiba finish talking on his walkie-talkie (though "being talked at" was more accurate a description than "talking") and slam the door. Soft footsteps announced Kaiba's way around the car, but as they continued, Jounouchi found he had to strain to hear them.
"Ready?" Kaiba asked when he was standing in front of Jounouchi.
Hesitantly, Jounouchi nodded, feeling a bit ill.
Kaiba noticed, and shrugged. "We're the first ones on the scene after the crime. Don't expect it to be pretty." He looked up at the window, and then looked back at Jounouchi. "You shouldn't even be here. This is official police business. You wouldn't be here at all, except I know that you're aspiring to become a field investigator, and I've persuaded the forces above to let me show you how dangerous it is. In hopes of dissuading you, of course."
"Wait, what?" Jounouchi sputtered, looking bewildered. "I am? You did?"
Kaiba met Jounouchi's evenly. "Of course. Why else would you be here?"
Seconds whizzed by with almost audible ticks. Kaiba was about to give Jounouchi up as a hopeless case and simply bid him goodnight when comprehension dawned.
"Oh, I get it!" Jounouchi exclaimed mouth tugging into a knowing smirk. "Oh yeah, that's right. Want to be a police officer, me. But I'm too naïve to know what it's really like, though, so I guess you'll have to show me. …But don't you know that being nudged away only makes people more eager to do whatever they want?"
"Of course. Just want to give it a shot." When Jounouchi showed no signs of moving, Kaiba sighed. "Come on, hurry up." He walked briskly to the front door of the Kame Game Shop and inspected it under flashlight. "And stop acting so suspicious. For all I know, I'm still under surveillance."
"…You are?" Jounouchi, made suddenly somber as he remembered why he was really there, followed. "Why?"
"An outburst," Kaiba said. He was now scrutinizing the doorknob. "Last year."
"What happened?"
Kaiba selected a small gun from his arsenal and passed it to Jounouchi. Then he took another for himself, and aimed it at the door. He knocked, announcing that it was the police and would you please come out? There was no response, and Kaiba's words, if not eyes, turned to Jounouchi. "Big murder case. No clues whatsoever. None of the other dimwits could figure it out. Omnipotent police chief assigned the brilliance known as Kaiba Seto to the case. His exact words: 'You're the best we've got. I hope you won't let us down.'"
Though he'd only known Kaiba for their three minute introduction and the ten minutes it took to drive from the police station to the Game Shop, Jounouchi had already figured out that the shorter his sentences, the angrier he was getting. He wisely stayed quiet as Kaiba pulled out a thin piece of metal and inserted it into the keyhole.
"Turns out Chief didn't want to choose me. Reluctant. Personal issues. Was afraid I'd go ballistic. And I did, when I found out."
"Found out what?"
Jounouchi was suddenly subjected to the all-consuming terror that was Kaiba's glare. "Found out who got murdered. Found three suspects. Killed them all."
A shiver ran down Jounouchi's spine. "…who… who got murdered?"
"By me?"
"No, the original victims."
"My parents."
With a click, the lock gave. Kaiba pushed the door open and stepped inside. Jounouchi wanted less than ever to follow, but he did. His best friend was probably in there somewhere, hurt.
The shop was meticulously clean, everything in its place. It looked undisturbed, sleeping until Mutoh-san would come downstairs and open it for business once more. Jounouchi felt the need to speak only in whispers and walk on tiptoe, at least until they made it to another room, hopefully one in which merely breathing didn't feel like sacrilege. Kaiba quickly took pictures of the room, then walked to the door at the back. With all the care due, he again leveled his gun at it, and pushed it open.
There was no foe waiting for them at the other side, and they both eased their way through. Jounouchi made to close the door so he wouldn't have to look at the shop, waiting for the next business day, one that would never come, but Kaiba caught his wrist and shook his head.
Silently, they made their way through the living quarters. "Which way to Yuugi's room?" Kaiba asked. His voice echoed.
Jounouchi pointed, and they went.
"Ugh," Jounouchi said on their way up the stairs. "More blood."
"It's not blood," Kaiba said.
"How do you know?"
"Blood doesn't fluoresce. This stuff does."
"…That's a good thing, then, right?"
Silence as they reached the top of the stairs. Then, "Which one is Yuugi's?"
Jounouchi motioned to the room they were standing in front of.
"You're sure the 'bloody' window was Yuugi's?"
Jounouchi nodded, so Kaiba began taking more pictures. When he finished, he tucked the camera away, and opened the door.
Yuugi was lying on the bed, eyes closed, neck and chin and face flawless under the moonlight. He looked arranged, position symmetrical, not one that any living person would ever choose to assume. The blankets covering his chest had bled through, and Kaiba knew that if they pulled the covers back, it would be to reveal the gaping maw of a wound probably still oozing blood.
"So if he's dead, who put him back into his bed?" Kaiba mused aloud, mostly for his own benefit, as Jounouchi was currently clutching the doorframe, looking pale and sick. Oddly, the first answer his subconscious gave him was, someone who doesn't sleep, and his subconscious was rarely wrong.
He looked back at Jounouchi pitilessly. "You wanted to come."
A thought occurred to Kaiba. Somewhere along the way, he'd vialed some of the not-blood. He pulled this out now and compared it to blood on Yuugi's bed. They didn't even look similar. Yuugi's, at least, looked like human blood.
"There's someone else in this house," Kaiba said, turning faster than people generally tended to when not caught in a tornado. He slapped Jounouchi's shoulder. "Shape up unless you want to join him," Kaiba said, jerking a head in Yuugi's direction. "Come on."
He left the room and looked at the reddish floor. That wasn't Yuugi's blood either, staining the carpet. That was the same as the stuff in his vial. He followed it down the hallway, then frowned as it doubled back. Someone, bleeding (?), had come along this way, found the dead end, and turned. It had then… moved back to Yuugi's room.
Kaiba's eyes widened. He couldn't care less about Yuugi, because he was dead already. But Jounouchi was still in there, and if Jounouchi, an innocent civilian, died while under Kaiba's responsibility…
He practically ran back, and burst through the doorway. Jounouchi was still leaning against the doorframe, still looking caught between crying and being sick. Kaiba followed the trail (there were two trails, now he saw it; one leading out and the other leading back in) to the window. Some sort of fight had taken place at the window, and it looked like the thing that bled not-blood had crawled out. Or something else had crawled in. Or both? Actually, the much-abused window bore signs of multiple entries and exits.
So why did Kaiba get the feeling that the bleeding thing had wound up somewhere inside the house? He turned around slowly, inspecting the room, and felt his heart give a jolt as he saw the suspicious amount of not-blood pooled around the closet door and its base.
A picture, half-hearted, since he knew that a picture wouldn't be enough. He needed to know what was in that closet.
Two long strides took him over to the door, and he paused, signaling at Jounouchi to take cover. After all, there was no guarantee that whatever was in the closet was dead. Or even could die. Surprisingly, Jounouchi noticed, and heeded, crouching by Yuugi's bed, though careful not to look at its occupant.
Taking a deep breath, steadying his gun (a rather pitiful weapon against something that might or might not be human, Kaiba noted grimly), Kaiba slid the closet door open, careful to shy away from it as a particularly bloody part folded out and towards Kaiba's body.
"Jounouchi?" Kaiba asked, after a few moments. "Do you know these two? Excuse me, did you know these two?"