For those who didn't realise it in the first chapter, Joey was Joey Wheeler from Yu-Gi-Oh!
Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblades, its characters, or anything else related to it, nor do I own any mentioned Yu-Gi-Oh! characters in this story. –River Rae
Recollection
It was mid-morning by the time Detective Rei Kon had arrived at the crime scene. It had been four and a half hours since the body had been found outside the National Tokyo Museum by two teens at some ungodly hour of the morning, something around 4:30 am. Nobody had claimed to have seen the body killed; somebody had only thought to have rung the police about an hour ago. Rei sighed as he pulled on his cap. This was going to be another tough case on his hands.
"Here we are," announced the officer driving the police vehicle.
"Thanks, Bryan," Rei sighed again. As Rei opened the door of the car, he put on his pair of Oakleys sunglasses to hide his yellow slitted eyes; it usually wasn't a good idea to have an easily identifiable feature in his profession. Thank God he didn't need to wear the uniform; it was stinking hot today. Rei stretched around the passenger seat and grabbed a large black body-bag from the back seat.
"Crowd Control?" the lavender-haired officer asked.
"Yeah," Rei grinned, "Crowd Control."
"You want me to wait around or come with you, Rei?" Bryan asked.
"No, I'll be fine, thanks Bryan," Rei smiled as he left the car.
Bryan chuckled as he drove away. Rei often liked to do his work solo. Strange, but Bryan could see the logic in it; no one was there to distract your thoughts.
Rei waved to Bryan as he drove away. Bryan was a nice guy, but he didn't want anyone helping him on this case. It involved Rei in more ways than one. Turning around, Rei headed off towards the large gaggle of hypochondriac group of people who were being madly opposed by two stout policemen, which he suspected was the crime scene. He had to push and shove (and claw) his way towards the centre of the group where a small area was squared off by orange tape that read 'Police Area, Please Do Not Cross, Please Do Not Panic'. It seemed that these people were doing the exact opposite of the recommendation of not panicking. Rei was almost to the tape with but one obstacle blocking his way; a large woman of gigantic proportion who was madly waving her hands about as if attempting to fly.
Flying quite unsuccessfully too, by the way, Rei thought as he poked her in the middle of her flabby back with his cat-like nails.
The huge woman paused as she felt a slight tingle in her back. Rei seized his chance and slipped past her Godzilla-sized behind and limboed under the orange tape.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but you'll have to get back under that tape!" a much stressed officer practically screamed into Rei's neck.
"I'm Detective Kon from the Japanese Investigations and Services Squad. I'm here to report on the body?" Rei flashed his ID card for the officer to see.
"Oh, thank God for that! I'm John Kavosky. Is there anyone else here with you? This crowd is really getting out of control…" the stout officer looked hopefully around Rei's muscular build.
Rei laughed. "Don't worry, John. I got all the Crowd Control we need right here," Rei patted the body-bag hung like a normal bag over his chest.
John looked quizzically at the detective. What the hell was he gonna do with a … body bag?!?!? "B-b-b-but, sir! I've got enough to handle already without a couple of more corpses…"
"It's alright, John," Rei said as he laid the bag on the ground and unzipped it. "I'm taking charge here, just stand by and take note for next time, OK?" Rei casually pulled out a double barrelled shotgun from the bag and calmly loaded the ammunition with great care. Standing up straight, Rei pulled the trigger and fired several shots into the air.
"PEOPLE!"
The crowd immediately fell silent. They gaped in fright at the young man who now held a fully loaded shotgun aimed at the crowd.
From his hastened position on the ground with his hands over his head, John Kavosky could only wonder at why the crowd hadn't panicked even more at the gunfire and run for the hills (or for a six inch steel bunker). But then again, thought John, I wouldn't be making any sudden movements with this guy firing shots so randomly. Oh, God, how much worse can my day get?
Now that the crowd was under control, Rei took a deep breath so that all could hear.
"The next one to even so much as sneeze without being asked by me will end up with a gaping hole in them. I've got a body bag here, so don't make me use it, OK?" Rei relaxed.
The crowd was stunned, to say the least.
Thinking that everything was going great, Rei continued. "Great. 'Morning everyone, my name is Detective Rei Kon, and I work for the Japanese Investigations and Services Squad. I am here to investigate the corpse found here this morning and I would appreciate it if you would all just shut your mouths for a few minutes while my fellow officers and I sort the situation out. Everything is under control as the situation is in the hands of JISS. Those who do have information that would be of value to me and the officers, please stay behind. Everybody else, please do go about your business".
As there was a murmur of discontentment from those who wished to stay and watch the body be investigated, Rei cocked the shotgun again, loudly. "I don't want to fill up the other spare bags in the car either," he warned.
At that, everyone got the hint and left rather hurriedly. The only ones who remained was the large woman who had blocked Rei's path, a rather bald and short man in a suit and tie with shifty nervous eyes, a small five-year-old with cute blonde ringlets sucking on an oversized lollypop, a skinny guy with greasy dark hair and a hooked nose wearing a milkman's uniform and a young woman wearing a corporate executive suit.
Rei casually slung the shotgun over his shoulder and walked towards the two officers, noticing the two teens who were well within the orange tape, one of which was undergoing serious calming therapy, the other was angrily waving his fists and shouting while trying to calm down his blonde boyfriend. They look familiar, no, is that Max and Tyson…? It's been a while…
Rei beckoned to John Kavosky.
"Walk with me, John," Rei said, starting to pace around the crime scene. "How is it that a body can not be noticed until 9 am with a stench that bad?"
"Our experts say that the body's been there for several hours already, most likely four and a half, found by two teens around 4:30 am this morning. From what we could make out, the two boys had been taking a nice stroll before sunrise when the body just dropped from above. Traumatised the youngest blonde boy and alerted his boyfriend to the body. Then the midnight-blue-haired boy called for help, but as you'd expect, found no one around at that early hour. Wasn't until an hour later that some milkman, doing his early rounds, caught the older boy's attention. He didn't want to leave the other kid alone, who was now in hysterical tears, so he threw the nearest thing he could at the milk truck-"
"And I suppose that was the brick embedded in the truck over there?" Rei nodded towards the milk truck with an orange brick embedded in its side.
"-yeah, he got a pretty good shot," John said in awe. "Anyway, the milko got real angry at the blue-haired kid and that started an argument that lasted for half an hour."
Sounds like Tyson, just the way he used to argue with… Rei mused.
"So then it was 6am when the large woman over there-"
Godzilla, Rei thought.
"-happened to come by on her way back from the bakery. She was carrying so many pastries and bags that she didn't see the milko and almost crushed the poor bloke to death as she tripped on him. Well, that got her fired up because she'd just squashed about half a week's pay in pastries. So then there's a three-way argument going on for another hour," John sighed. "I can't believe these peoples' stupidity sometimes…"
"I try my best to forgive them…" Rei commented.
"By 7am that little girl came by with her mother, some big corporate executive, who absolutely freaked when she saw this corpse in the middle of a flower bed outside the museum. Anyway, she demanded an explanation and that took another hour. Then the little girl had the brilliant idea to use her mother's mobile to call the cops. So, from 8 am till now, I guess we blame it on the bloody communications system at JISS office, eh?" John laughed.
"Oh, I'm partly to blame for that, it took me a while to get ready and drag my arse out of bed. Had a pretty late night last night," Rei laughed, scratching the back of his head.
"Must have been a late night. What, a party or something?"
"Yeah, just a catch-up that me and my mate were having. He was going through some career issues in his life, so I gave him a push in the right direction," Rei laughed.
"Must have been one hell of a party, then," Kavosky said. "So, I guess you get the great pleasure of questioning the witnesses then? Man, I pity you…"
Rei sighed. "Yeah, but first I want to talk to the two teens who first found the body".
"Righto, I'll just be over here if you need me," John said with a nod.
Rei made his way over to the couple who were seated on a bench well within the orange tape, but out of range of the stink that the body was now giving off. Tyson was rubbing his boyfriend on the back, trying to calm down a sobbing Max while shouting at the top of his voice, demanding answers as to what the hell was happening and why a body just dropped out of the sky in front of them. The blonde-haired boy next to Tyson had always been a sensitive child ever since his mother had officially left him to work for Biovolt.
Rei cleared his throat.
Tyson looked up angrily, expecting to see Kavosky with another excuse as to why the detective wasn't here yet, but instead saw:
"Rei!"
Max looked up from crying. He blinked his bloodshot eyes, trying to bring his last image of Rei to his mind so that he could compare it to the older teen that he now saw before him. Rei had changed a lot since the Bladebreakers had last been together. He had grown so much taller and looked to be in his twenties, even though Max knew he should be about nineteen. He had gained much more muscle tone, although he wasn't huge. The Neko-Jin still kept his hair long and in a cat-like plait down his back tied with a Chinese-style white ribbon. Behind his dark Oakleys sunglasses Max could just make out Rei's treasured yellow eyes. They seemed to faintly glow from behind their dark shady screen. The next thing to catch Max's eye was Rei's choice of clothing these days. In place of his traditional Chinese garments the Neko-Jin had chosen a 'Billabong' T-shirt with the kanji for nekojin across the top left-hand side of his shirt, much resembling a splash of paint. Dark blue denim jeans went with the outfit, frayed at the ankles. All of this was covered by a large black trench coat. Rei's entire appearance simply oozed confidence, and perhaps, if not for the same heart-warming smile that he flashed Max, intimidation.
"Last time I take the late-night tourist trip," Rei joked in an attempt to cheer Max up.
Max sniffed and let out a small hiccup followed by a smile. Typical Rei, he can always find a way to make you smile when you're feeling down… Max laughed.
"You wanted a detective, Tyson? Well, here you are," Rei slapped Tyson playfully on the shoulder.
"So, you've gonna try to figure this one out, Rei? Hey- since when have you been a cop, let alone a detective! How'd you get through Uni in the short time since we last met-, " Tyson burst out.
"Tyson, it doesn't always take half of your life at University to become a detective!" Rei laughed, "Especially when JISS saw talents such as mine, they simply begged me to join"
"Do you know who did this, Rei?" Max asked in a small voice.
"Sorry, Max," Rei apologised, "we don't yet know who the killer is. It'll probably take a couple of days to find any indication of who it might be."
"So it was a homicide, then?" Max sniffled.
"It looks that way, Max. Of course we've still got to question the other witnesses, well-," Rei glanced over his shoulder, rolling his eyes, "-the 'so-called' witnesses, anyway. Are you guys feeling up to it yet, or do you want to wait until after these guys for the questions?"
"If it's alright with you, Rei, I'd prefer to wait until after. What about you, Maxie?" Tyson rubbed Max on the back, trying to calm away the hiccups now coming from Max's chest.
"OK, hey, why don't we meet up later tonight at a café or some place nicer than here? Then we can talk freely and catch up on a heap of things, what do you think?"
"Yeah, that'd be great!" Tyson said, thinking of the café-quality food already.
"OK, yeah," Max said, trying to give Rei his happiest smile.
"Good. Here, I'll give you guys a note to give to Officer Kavosky to let you out. You guys know the Sakura Kissaten (Cherry Blossom Café)? Let's meet up there at 4pm or something?" Rei smiled.
As the two teens left Rei made his way over to the group of witnesses whom he now had the gruelling task of extracting blood from a couple of stones…
A/N: I wrote this second chapter two years ago and thought I should post it… might be good to stick with oneshots from now on, huh?