A/N- Okay, half of this was written while I was sick and the other half while I wasn't exactly sure what the hell I should be writing. Of all the files, this was the biggest bitch to write… -- So please enjoy!
The Anime Murder Files
Case No. 11- What's worse, the car or the darts?
Investigating Detectives- Mainly Flame with Kaige dragging herself along behind her.
The Victim- Natsuki Mogi, a young college student, was found bleeding and broken on Akina's downhill run. It's possible that she was beaten to death, but it looks far too much like a hit and run.
The Suspects:
Takumi Fujiwara- He's a legend around the area for being the best on Akina's downhill. He's driven the route so frequently he could do it in his sleep. It wouldn't make sense for him to get in accident… unless that's what he wanted you to think. He and the victim were involved at one time, who's to say he didn't harbor some sort of grudge against the girl?
Bunta Fujiwara- Reports all say that he's retired from racing, but that doesn't necessarily mean he wasn't out delivering tofu. What's a little murder with your tofu? It gives it flavor… yeah… flavor… of death!
Itsuki Takeuchi- A youth inspired to become a racer. It'll take years before he becomes good enough, years of hard practice with a place that's familiar to him. Nothing more familiar than your home turf…
Ryosuke Takahashi- He seems to know something… okay, perhaps he knows everything, but he's keeping a tight lid on what he does know.
Kouichiro Iketani, Keisuke Takahashi, Kyoko Iwase, and Kenji- All racers with some ties to the area, any of them could have been driving on that road. In fact, it could just as easily been any of the other person… but where would the fun be in that?
Cough… cough…
The phone rang and rang insistently. Kaige stared blankly at it, not quite comprehending what it wanted her to do. It stopped abruptly and she turned back over in bed, setting off a fresh wave of coughing that continued until she stood up and made her way to the bathroom. "Can't sleep… better go to work and make someone else sick. Otherwise the germs will never leave me."
An hour later…
Kaige heaved a sigh of relief as she opened the front door of her apartment building. The trip from her apartment on the 3rd floor should have taken all of a few minutes, unless a person was sick and was seeing double. In trying to choose the right stair image to walk down, she'd chosen poorly and ended up hanging from the railing. Had Flame not taken the time to stop in on her way to a crime scene, it would have been days before anyone noticed.
"Are you really sure you should be going to work?" This was the third time Flame had asked the question. "Yeah, yeah… you asked that already. I'm fine… really." Kaige lied easily enough, but the fact that she crawled into the back seat and curled into a ball said otherwise.
Ignoring the occasional cough and moan from Kaige, Flame drove to the crime scene that awaited her. It was crawling with the usual array of cops, investigators, media and gawkers. In the middle of it all was the body of a young girl. Heaving an irritated sigh upon recognizing the girl, Flame went to do her job.
The detective closest to the body let out a sigh similar to the one Flame had let out. He'd been at one of the previous crime scenes involving Flame and Kaige. Flame watched the man walk towards her, very aware of the hostility coming from him. He stopped a few steps away and leveled a glare at her. "I don't want you or your partner near my scene."
Flame's eyes narrowed angrily. "It's far too late for that." Flame made a motion to where the body was laying, the detective turned to find Kaige leaning over the body. "God damn it!"
As the man turned to walk toward Kaige, Flame lunged forward, stabbing a pen into the man's throat. He made a move towards his gun, which was already being held by Flame. "Think you're safe in the middle of this crowd? I think not…" The pen sank deeper, pushing into a major artery. She left him bleeding in the road.
"Doesn't look like a hit and run to me." Kaige shook her head and wobbled slightly. "But, I'll take care of that." She drew a piece of chalk from her pocket and began drawing skid marks on the victim.
Flame continued to ignore her partner's actions, choosing instead to look for suspects in the gathered crowd. It was most likely that the person would return to check out the job he'd done on the girl. One man stood apart from the group, Ryosuke Takahashi.
He watched the scene very closely and seemed to take in every detail. Yet he looked bored, as if he knew all of this already and was only there for show. She caught his eye and held it. Ryosuke knew… he broke the contact to look over at the closest group to him. It must be a hint!
Flame crossed the road, leaving Kaige drawing what looked to be a horse's ass coming out of the side of Natsuki. The group consisted of racers, which was quite handy considering that's who she was looking for. The group had been talking candidly about the death, but had fallen silent at her arrival. "Oh no, don't shut up just for me! I'd rather you continue your conversation and give me the clues for your downfalls."
One look at her deadly serious face was enough for one of the men to try to make a break for it. "Itsuki, why the hell are you running?" Takumi asked his friend who'd only made it a few steps before being brought down by a mysterious suction cup dart.
Flame gasped in shock. "That's poisonous! Quick! Tell me what you know before you die!" Itsuki grasped desperately at the offending dart, but couldn't budge it from his arm. "I saw it… saw everything… it was…" Another suction cup dart hit dead center of his forehead; he gave one more fetal gasp, "…blue car…" and died.
Flame growled and searched the crowd to see where the darts had come from. Everyone was pointedly looking in another direction. "Oh, come on! Someone must have seen who threw them!" The crowd began to disperse, fearing Flame's wrath. Kaige raised an arm and waved it in her general direction. "Oooh! Oooh! Call on me!"
Shaking her head in exasperation, she asked. "Okay, what did you see?" Kaige grinned from ear to ear and burst into a fit of coughing. Every time Kaige tried to tell Flame the identity of the suction cup murderer she just started coughing more and more. "Ah screw it, I didn't see anything." The coughs subsided and stopped altogether. "Son of a bitch!"
Confused by Kaige's outburst, Flame turned back to her suspects. Ryosuke was glaring at Takumi's father, who had a hand in his pocket and was grinning widely at the younger racer. Flame eyed the two men before shaking her head, probably just a pissing contest. But besides that, two other racers were mysteriously dead.
"I turn my back for one fucking minute and two people die! What the hell!" The two were identified by Takumi as Iketani and Kenji. The two had seen something they weren't supposed to, the point made by the suction cup darts sticking out of their eye sockets. "This is just getting ridiculous. Everyone empty their fucking pockets right now!"
Ryosuke was the first to comply, smugly glaring at Bunta who had paled at Flame's order. The other's followed suit, first Keisuke Takahashi, and the girl who was raping him with her eyes, and then Takumi. Bunta was the only person left. He pulled his right hand out of one pocket and held it behind his back, showing empty pockets with his left hand.
"Damn, thought it'd be so simple to catch them…" Pissed that the plan had failed, Flame randomly killed Kyoko Iwase for eye-raping Keisuke. Ryosuke watched for a moment before he finally snapped. "God damn it, it's so freaking simple! Why am I the only one who seems to figure everything out? Why must it always be me that explains the who, what, and why of every little thing? Bunta's the murderer! He's got the darts behind his back! He ran over the girl with his car and has been covering it up this whole time!"
Bunta looked nervously from Ryosuke to Flame. "I did no such thing! And I don't have any darts in my hand." A person standing a few feet behind him let out a scream and fell to the ground. "Oh my god! A poison suction cup dart! I'm doomed! Doomed to die! Why hasn't anyone made a antidote for such a horrible thing?"
Ryosuke smacked his forehead and walked away. "That's it, I can't take any more of this crap. I'm going to go get a job as a detective so this crap doesn't happen anymore." The assorted group watched him walk away. "Oh the agony! This poison is slowly working its way through my system! It's such a cruel, cruel fate for one such as I! Only yesterday I got a raise at my work and my wife is expecting my child! Now they must go on without me! For this is a cruel, cruel world!"
Flame turned her attention away from Ryosuke's receding back to pin Bunta with an assessing look. "You're acting very suspicious for someone who's supposedly innocent. What type of car are you driving now-a-days, since Takumi's driving your old 8-6?"
"Oh, that Impreza sitting over there on the side." He pointed over to an oddly painted purple car. Raising an eyebrow, Flame crossed over to the car and touched her hand to it. "What color was it before you painted it purple?" She wiped the purple paint on a random person and watched Bunta look about for means of escape.
"No, don't cry for me. For it is too late for tears, just let my family know that I love them! Let them know that in the end, I died with a smile on my face and a song in my heart." A growl sounded from Kaige and she was by the man's side with a shotgun. "What do you plan to do with that? Hey, hey… no!" The gun shot blast distracted everyone long enough for Bunta to try to make a break for it.
He was nearly inside one of the cop cars that littered the road when he fell to the ground. Stuck in a long line down his back were rows upon rows of suction cup darts. "Where the hell did those come from! Ah damn it, screw this, I don't care anymore!" Flame turned and hustled Kaige into her waiting car. "I hope whoever's doing it kills the whole lot of you!" She shut her door against a barrage of darts and drove off quickly, side-swiping a few people in her haste.
Kaige watched Flame closely as she drove down the hill at top speed. "Who in the world ever invented this poisonous suction cups? It doesn't even sound like a plausible weapon." Flame shook her head, half-annoyed at the question. "Isn't it obvious, it's the people at 4 Kids Entertainment that did that! They're evil incarnate and think that it makes sense for metal bullets to be made into poisonous suction cup darts."
Kaige nodded. "Ah, makes sense now. Do you think you could slow down? That's the fifth road sign you've run over." She held her hands up and backed further into her seat at the glare Flame angled at her. "But if they offend you that much, feel free to kill them all." Kaige settled back and closed her eyes, intent on blanking out the view of the passing landscape and to sleep over her lingering illness.
A/N- As I'm actually have quite a few things piling up on me, it's probably going to be awhile before the next file… so see ya next time! Oh and if you're wondering about my obsession of suction cup darts… it's because of the crap that 4 Kids did to One Piece… what the hell sort of crap is that anyway!
