Author Notes: In case no one's realized it by now, Keane Schwartz is German. Neuro's little spontaneous piece was inspired by a mixture of Salute d'amour and The Flight of the Bumble Bee. And in case everyone's forgotten her name, Shizuka is the later addition to Sasazuka's team, you know; the police girl who's always competing against Ishigaki? Yeah, her.
Disclaimer: I don't own Majin Tantei Nougami Neuro or anything related to it.
Turning around so he sat facing the intruders, the mystery eating demon's eyes flared fluorescent green as his smile widened, "Pianos with shorter and thicker strings have more inharmonicity. The longer strings on a concert grand can vibrate more accurately than the shorter, thicker strings on a baby grand, which means that a concert grand's strings will have truer overtones," Neuro crossed his long legs and said in that deep velvet coated voice of his, "This concert grand doesn't sound the same – what are you hiding inside?"
..::ЯR::..
Immediately after announcing the name of the world famous detective Katsuragi Yako, the crew glanced at each other hesitantly, their eyes daring each other to reply to the assistant's question. A brave soul stood forward with furrowed eyebrows although he was obviously slightly intimidated by the pair, "What do you mean by hiding something inside? It might just be a problem with the piano strings."
"And Mr Schwartz would practice in a room with a damaged piano before his performance because?" Neuro raised his eyebrows in interest.
The group of staff shuffled their feet nervously. Yako's amber eyes flickered over to the grand piano and suddenly memories of a red box resurfaced. She shivered.
"Shall we take a look?" The tall man stood and rested a hand on the piano's lid, his gloved fingers curling over the edge of the glossy black wood. The men at the door stood unblinking as Neuro lifted up the hefty piano lid with ease and held it in position with the lid prop. He narrowed his eyes at the discovery he made with a smirk, "My, my."
Yako stepped towards the concert grand and her eyes widened in disbelief. Inside the piano lying above a network of piano strings was a thirteen year old child. He was still completely dressed in casual wear from head to toe. His arms were stick thin, fragile looking like the taut strings he lay on. The boy's pale skin only made the dark purple bruise on his neck more visible, the large bruise shaped like two hands wrapped itself around the boy's neck. There were no visible injuries apart from his bruised neck.
"So it wasn't that Klavieres didn't want to perform, it was because he couldn't…" Yako murmured to herself whilst frowning at the corpse. Who would hold a grudge against the genius pianist? She had the chance to catch a glimpse of him before during Violette's case and if she could describe him, Klavieres was the sweetest and most innocent child she had ever met.
Pulling her over roughly to stand before him, Neuro rested his hands on the blonde's shoulders. He could feel the muscles under his hand tense as her eyes kept straying to the body in the piano. The dichromatic haired demon addressed the team of pale faced crew with a slight smile that probably scared them more than ease them, "Teacher would like to hear more on the death of Klavieres."
"Oi, go call the police now!" After a nudge, one of the staff bolted out of the practice room to call the police, leaving the rest still rooted to the floor.
The man who spoke earlier raised his head to face the detective. He said, "We actually found him in the piano several hours before the concert. Mr Schwartz told us that something was wrong with the piano and requested a room change. We all thought it was odd since the piano still functioned properly prior the concert day. After he left the room, we checked the piano to find the body in there. Because we didn't want to disrupt the concert since it celebrates the hundredth anniversary of the music college, we didn't tell anyone. We notified everyone that this room was strictly out of bounds. We were going to call the police after the concert was over but you discovered the corpse before we called them."
Later that night when the police arrived and took charge of the crime scene, they managed to talk to Shizuka who agreed to fax over the information over to the office as soon the information had been processed, much to Ishigaki's dismay. It was late and no one apart from the backstage staff cleaning up after the concert were present, so the evidence extracted from interrogation was limited. For the second time that day, Neuro acted unlike his usual self and decided that they would excuse themselves since they would only get in the way of the police. As he walked along the street with the busy night traffic of Ikebukuro whisking past him, Yako trailed behind, trying to piece what little knowledge they had on this case together. "Why didn't you stay like usual and use one of your 777 tools?" She asked. When he didn't reply, she voiced her thoughts, "The murderer has to be Keane Schwartz."
"Oh? What makes you so certain?" Neuro stopped to look at the blonde.
The detective blinked and forced a smile, "Instinct… I guess?"
The sadistic demon stepped towards her until he had to look down at her in a superior way, his hands squeezing her shoulders. Then his lips curved in a dangerous grin and a small drip of saliva escaped his mouth, narrowly missing Yako's face and dripping onto the cement. The ground hissed and gave off a putrid smell of cement being eaten away by the acidic substance. The blonde froze. After a few more plays with threatening to drip his saliva onto her, Neuro got bored of it much to Yako's relief.
"You must not always rely on me and my tools, Yako," the demon replied as he resumed his walking pace, "You're returning to your primitive stages of evolution."
..::ЯR::..
Yawning as she pushed the door open, Yako stumbled into the office whilst rubbing her eye sleepily. She had been waking up extra early to make sure she was on time to work but of course, Neuro always found the excuse to punish her for being late – most of the time with stupid excuses like the clock was wrong or he was testing to see if she was awake or not. Today, she walked in to find her demonic boss seated at Troy, his back facing her. The blinds of the window were pulled up, letting the early morning sunlight to flood into the office. Closing the door behind her and dropping her bag onto the couch then wandering over to Troy, she wondered if the demon was still sleeping. Then suddenly, the chair swivelled around and with an unceremonious toss, papers were flying everywhere. "The police haven't revealed anything that I don't know already," the man said as the sheets of paper drifted to the ground, "We need more evidence."
Crouching down to pick up the paper, Yako skim read the information. According to the autopsy report, the victim had probably died a day before the concert; rigor mortis had settled on the body. The last time anyone had seen Klavieres was on the day of his death, during their final rehearsal. All musicians who performed at the concert were questioned and all of them have a perfect alibi for the time of death, including Keane Schwartz. Majority of the foot prints were found in the room belonged to Keane and his fingerprints were also found on the piano, but this was only natural since the crime scene was previously his practice room. All the evidence pointed away from the German pianist. The only thing that stood out amongst all the information was the indications of hypostasis on the victim's body. The blood had sunk to the back of the corpse and also the feet. But if the body had been kept there since the moment of death, the blood should only accumulate on the back.
After gathering all the scattered paper and setting them neatly back on Troy, Yako commented, "Well we can't do much if the police can't get any extra information and you're not willing to use your tools."
"I've said this before," Neuro put up his feet on Troy and clasped his hands over his stomach, "You can't rely on my tools all the time."
"I get the point! But there's no other way we can get more evidence if –" Yako started to say but then caught sight of the demon's blank face, "What are you planning?"
"Nothing."
..::ЯR::..
It was still in early summer when the last traces of spring still lingered in the air, a rejuvenating breeze weaving through the gaps of buildings and bringing a sense of freshness to the people living in the city of Tokyo. The sun was shining brightly high up in the sky and all creatures big and small basked in its warmth. With such fine weather, it was the perfect time to spend a day out just enjoying life. Keeping this in mind, Yako dressed herself in a feminine black top with an elaborate design of white embroidery around the collar matched with a semi-formal crosshatched skirt that reached mid thigh with a deep purple belt secured around the waist, clothes with a relaxed flair. Like this, she then took the train to Ikebukuro and walked to the Tokyo College of Music once again, this time finally taking in the modernity of the architectural style and all the details hidden by the night's game of light and shadows. Coming to a halt in the reception, she looked up and let her eyes glide over the hundreds of engraved names on metal plates that enumerated the musical excellence of the students of this music college. A few names clicked in her mind while the rest were completely unfamiliar.
"Why, it's the great detective Miss Yako," Keane Schwartz passed by, holding a stack of papers dotted and lined with music notation and scribbled writing, "Is there anything I can help you with?"
"Perfect timing Mr Schwartz! Are you free?" Said detective turned around with a smile, her handbag held in both hands like a basket. Her hands tightened. "I know of a fantastic place to have a nice afternoon tea. It'll be a waste to not go out in this weather!"
The pianist gratefully accepted her invitation and instructed a student conveniently walking by to take the papers to an office just further down the corridor which branched off from the reception. The youngster reluctantly agreed and set off to complete the task. Keane gestured for the detective to leave first politely before following behind. Along the way to their destination, they made small chit chat although the German did most of the talking. By the time they arrived at the café, he realized he was talking too much about himself, he profusely apologized and asked Yako to tell him about some of the cases which she had solved. After a moment's pondering, she began to narrate the beginning of a series of life turning events – her father's murder and consequently, her encounter with Neuro.
After a small interruption by the waiter who asked for their order whereupon Yako resisted the urge to order every single dish on the menu in super large portions and swallowed her desire to eat and simply asked for a cup of lemon tea. Her companion seated across from her ordered a cup of black coffee. The waiter left.
"Are you sure you won't feel uncomfortable retelling your father's death?" The older man asked in concern.
The blonde smiled, nodded and continued. She recalled every shocking detail of the crime scene where the body was found brutally torn with injuries on the ground in a sealed room painted crimson with her father's blood. And then she spoke of the funeral, how chaos started to plant its roots in her head and how there was this new alien feeling of doubt. It was then that she met Neuro, her current assistant. She didn't talk about how they met, when or where but carried on to talk about her conviction to solving her father's case and how she eventually made that reality after much hard work done by Neuro and herself.
Of course half of that was spontaneous impromptu storytelling that everyone believed. There was no way Yako could have revealed the truth about Neuro.
The waiter from before approached their table, set down a tall glass of lemon tea and a cup of aromatic coffee then departed again. Keane picked up the spoon and mixed the dark brown liquid, making a mini whirlpool before lifting the cup up, breathing in the bittersweet scent and sipping the hot liquid. Putting the beverage down on its saucer, he said, "That was quite the story. I'm amazed you've come so far, Miss Yako."
"Well, I really couldn't have done it without someone," The nineteen year old gently poked at the lemon inside the glass thoughtfully then sucked the chocolate brown fluid up through the thin black straw, "And just Yako is fine."
"This person must have a special place in your heart; who is it? Your mother?"
"My mother did support me a lot along the way but no, it's someone else. I suppose you could say that he's close to me and yet still rather distant? He's been with me through this entire time and yet, it feels like I know nothing about him." Yako laughed at the thought.
Picking up his cup and sipping from it again, Keane narrowed his eyes and let them wander elsewhere, watching a pigeon launch itself from the roof of a building and fly off with several flaps of its grey wings as a cloud drifted across the sun, casting a large shadow across the city. The warm glow that danced in his eyes before were now extinguished by heavy storm clouds that dulled his eyes into a heartless icy hue.
"I see. Do tell me more about this special person, Yako, he must be quite a mystery too, judging from how you describe him."
