Chapter Fourteen

The Killer Revealed

I slammed the door to my apartment open, and hurtled in, eager to tell Hanako about my day. He materialized immediately, looking confused and slightly perturbed.

"Yashiro?"

"Hanako!" I ran to him, grabbing his hand in both of mine, he didn't pull it back, but his look of confusion deepened, "The Crimson Flower got vandalized, there was grafiti all over the wall, and…" I paused to catch my breath. "Oh, there's so much to tell you, it was incredible...but not like the good incredible, you know what I mean. Paint smeared all over the place, and when they opened my locker all of these cranes came out, and the name Asami was-"

"Wait, stop," Hanako grabbed my shoulders and shook me, gently, "stop Yashiro, I need you to repeat that last part."

"There were paper cranes in my locker?"

"No, after that,"

"The name Asami was-"

"Are you sure the name was 'Asami'?" He asked, his face was stone cold serious, his eyes wide and flat, betraying no emotion.

"I'm positive," I wrote the characters for the name in the air for him, "Asami." He dropped his eyes, staring at the floor for a few minutes, silent, completely withdrawn into himself. When he finally came back, it was like the previous conversation had never happened.

"I'm sorry about your work," he said, "but I've got good news,"

"What is it?" I asked, knowing that pushing the subject would do me no good.

"I found him, the perfect guy, 100% single, just waiting for you." He winked at me, but it came across as saccharine, not natural at all. I let it go though, concerned about the fear and hurt I had seen in his eyes.

"You're positive? I almost had to change my name and move away last time."

His face darkened for a moment, "maybe you should, Yashiro," he said, his voice barely above a whisper. "Just kidding!"

~oOoOoOo~

This "perfect man" turned out to be Teru Minamoto, Kou's older brother, so that was one set back. Though, if I was making a list of pros and cons, one of the pros would be that he was drop dead gorgeous. Kou was handsome, in a boyish sort of way, but Teru was exactly my type. I found that I was incapable of intelligent speech when he came into the cafe to pick up his baby brother.

"So you're Yashiro-san," he said with a polite nod, I felt my mouth drop open, and forced myself to close it again. "My brother has told me a lot about you, it's nice to finally meet you."

"N-nice to meet you too," I sounded like a school girl speaking to her favorite pop singer, I wanted to slap myself. Teru just smiled.

He was definitely a candidate for the perfect man, but how on earth was I supposed to ask him out? He was so obviously out of my league. So what if he was single? He'd be better off with someone like Aoi, or Sakura.

"Isn't she cute?" Kou asked him, giving him a playful nudge. My mouth dropped open again, and I buried my face in my hands.

"She's very cute, but I'd expect nothing less from an employee at The Crimson Flower."

"Thank you very much," I managed to sound somewhat human, but if he kept looking at me he'd certainly notice how nervous I was. I had been trying to avoid embarrassment since that last time…

"She's single too, isn't that lucky?" Kou nudged his older brother, and in that moment I wanted to strangle him. I hoped my malice didn't show on my face.

"Very lucky," Teru smiled at me, and my heart fluttered in my chest, this was going surprisingly well, and I didn't even need Hanako to give him a push, since Kou was more than willing.

But something seemed kind of off...not with Teru, but with me. Teru was everything a girl could want in a guy, tall, well built, handsome and kind, but my heart wasn't fully in it. Hanako's face kept flashing in my mind. His many expressions, the way he spoke, the way he comforted me, all of it had become very precious to me during my time here. Hanako had become my close friend, mysterious as he was, and maybe a part of me felt even...closer to him. I tried to shake the thoughts out of my mind, and smiled uneasily at Teru.

"How about you?"

~oOoOoOo~

The night was cool and refreshing as I left The Crimson Flower. I stretched for a minute, just enjoying the night air.

"Yashiro Nene?" I looked up to see a boy, perhaps a little bit older than me, with messy red-brown hair and an arrogant smile, "you're Yashiro Nene, right?" He took a step closer to me, and I took a step back, reaching into my pocket where I carried my pepper spray. "Oh good," his smile widened, "it is you, I got the wrong girl a couple of times." He looked me up and down, his mouth twisting into a frown for just a moment, "I have to admit, you're very ordinary though. At least compared to Sakura-chan."

Oh, so he was a customer from the Maid Cafe, not that that was much comfort to me at the moment.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Has anyone ever told you that you look cute when you're scared?" He leaned towards me and I held out my pepper spray. "There's no need for that." He produced a newspaper clipping from behind his back and offered it to me. "I was told to give this to you."

I hesitated to take it, but the Headline read "SERIAL KILLER FOUND DEAD IN VICTIM'S APARTMENT" and my curiosity won out. I took the paper and stuffed it into my pocket. The boy backed away from me, still smiling, then disappeared into the night.

~oOoOoOo~

"Shadow's reign of terror has come to a tragic end, as the killer was found dead following the slaying of his brother and his girlfriend. Post mortem finger prints put Amane Yugi at the scene of several of the murders. The killer evidently jumped from the roof top of an apartment building after murdering his brother Tsukasa Yugi (18 years old), and his long term girlfriend Asami Hirano. (19 years old). A devastating loss that will leave our community struggling to rebuild…"

There was a picture along side the text. I had been so absorbed in reading the story that I hadn't even noticed at first. I dropped the piece of paper when I saw it, the picture was Hanako, clear as day.

No wonder he had been so afraid of me reading it. He was the killer. He was Shadow.