Chapter Forty-Five
heyheyheyheyHEY! I'M BACK BABY! (but not well I got a REALLY bad case of food poisoning) HOW'S LIFE FOR EVERYBODY? TELL ME WHAT YOU DID OVER THE WINTER. Anywho, going to get back into the swing of updatin' things so HERE WE GO!
HUSTLE, HUSTLE! MUSCLE, MUSCLE!
Ruri stopped running to catch her breath, checking to see if Kaito was following her.
"Why is he here?" she mumbled to herself.
She felt bad for leaving him like that, but she didn't know what else to do.
Footsteps behind her made Ruri jump and stiffen.
"Are you alright, miss?" a voice asked, seemingly worried.
"Yes, I'm fine, thank you," Ruri smiled at the stranger.
"Is that so? Well, I'm glad... after all..."
"...?"
"It wouldn't do to have you hurt..."
Ruri felt a sharp pain as the stranger thrust their arm forward into Ruri's stomach.
Her mouth was covered with a cloth that smelled faintly medicinal.
Then everything went black.
Ruri awoke to the sound of dripping water. She was gagged and tied to a bed. The mattress smelled and felt damp.
"Awake, are we?" a voice asked.
Ruri looked to where the voice was.
"It's nice to meet you, Yukihisa Ruri-chan. You may know me as The Angel Smile Slayer."
A figure dressed in black and wearing a Thalia mask. Using her tongue, Ruri managed to remove the gag from her mouth.
"Where am I?" she managed to ask.
"Somewhere convenient for me," the person chuckled.
Ruri didn't respond to that.
"Hey, could you do me a favor?"
The brunette looked up at the figure who stood in front of her.
"Could you smile a little?"
Trying her best, Ruri cracked a forced smile.
The person raised their hand to her cheek and stroked affectionately.
"Not good enough..." they mumbled.
Kaito stood still in the middle of the road, replaying his conversation with Ruri.
What went wrong? Why couldn't she look at me? 'Kuroba Kaito' isn't the one she has a problem with so why...
"Does she know?" he voiced his worst fear. "Is that why she won't look at me?"
"Um... excuse me?" a voice made Kaito turn.
A girl who looked shockingly like Aoko stood in front of him wearing a worried expression. She looked like she had just run a marathon.
"Can I help you?" Kaito asked, putting on one of his award-winning smiles.
"Ah...no... it's just- you look..." the girl trailed off.
"I look?" the magician offered.
"Um, did you see a girl, shorter than me, with brown hair go through here?"
Does she mean Ruri?
"I did, but why are you looking for her?"
"She's a friend and I wanted to make sure she was safe since there's all that stuff about a serial killer."
The serial killer!
Kaito recalled what Akako had told him.
"She is being stalked by the one who steals smiles. He plans to put his plan into action on the eve of the full moon."
"Thank you for your help!" the girl said, running off.
"The eve of the full moon..."
Ruri let out a soft "oof" as she made contact with the hard ground.
"NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" the person yelled, their voice becoming warbled.
They paced back and forth mumbling and holding their head.
"Not good enough not good enough not good enough- YOU! YOU'RE NOT HER!"
The person pointed angrily at Ruri and stalked over, making the girl attempt to back up.
They grabbed her arm and pulled her up, a sickening 'pop' coming from Ruri's arm.
Ruri bit her lip to stop from crying out, but wasn't able to stop the pained gasp in time.
A loud 'slap' resounded through the building.
"YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT IT BAD- I'm so so sorry," the person switched from being uncontrolled to being affectionate and stroking the cheek where they had hit Ruri.
"You poor thing," they cooed, stroking the red mark that began to appear.
Ruri bit the inside of her mouth to keep from crying. The pain was overwhelming.
She glanced down at her shoulder but was stopped by a gloved hand.
"Don't worry about it. Soon you won't feel any pain."
That wasn't a good sign.
"Someone as pure as you shouldn't be in this realm with all the filth. But don't worry, I'm here to release you from your mortal body."
The person pulled out a knife and placed it against Ruri's neck.
"It'll be quick, I promise. But you have to keep smiling so you can ascend to the Heavens."
They pulled the knife away from her neck as Ruri squeezed her eyes shut.
Short chapter, which REALLY does NOT make up for my unexcused absence. But in exchange, the 4th part will be coming out soon. We're coming to the end of the serial killer arc (but not the DC one). Hopefully, KID and Ruri will be able to make up, yeah? But it seems Kaito has already figured something is off.
NEXT TIME: THE ANGEL SMILE SLAYER (PART 4)
DFTBA