This chapter is dedicated to Anubissaga4 and Jackie Wepps for the amazing words of support!
"We're here today with Takeshi Ryou at Todoroki Valley, the site of the latest murder in the Prefecture Case.
" Takeshi-san, nice to meet you! How are you? " The reporter beamed.
"I'm good, thank you." He replied, nervously fidgeting.
"Good, good. So seeing the dead body didn't affect you at all? You're perfectly fine, just going about your everyday life like everything's normal?" The reporter questioned, leaning towards Takeshi and pushing her microphone towards him.
"Well I can't pretend that it didn't affect me at all, sometimes I get nightmares about it, just seeing his blank face, staring up at me..."
"Oh that's horrible!" She cooed. "Do you want to tell us about the day you found the body?"
He bit his lip, thinking.
"Well, I was walking with my girlfriend, Akina through Todoroki, when we decided to go through one of the trails in the woods. The woods were right next to the valley, and normally had quite a lot people walking through it so we didn't think twice before going to the woods. " He took a deep breath, before continuing. "We were at the start of the trail when we found the body. Akina fainted when she saw the corpse, and I had to put her to one side while I checked for the body for a pulse. There was none. I'm pretty sure he bled to death before we came, because he was lying in a pool of blood, with a few bandages on his stomach that were completely soaked with the liquid. We actually knew who he was, Officer Aomine Daiki since we'd seen him patrolling around that area before and we read his name tag."
"Ah." The reporter hummed in understanding. "So the body disappeared after you went to call the police didn't it?"
"Yes, I went to the main area of Todoroki Valley and I got some medical help from a doctor who was on holiday that managed to wake up Akina up. While he was waking her up, I was calling the emergency number, and the police came 2 hours later."
"Oh, I see. Thank you so much for participating in this interview, but before you leave we have one more question for you! Why do you think the Prefecture Case killer is killing all these people?"
"That's... a hard question. I think the killer might be insane. Maybe they're clinically insane and kill people for the hell of it or something. Maybe something like that."
Kuroko let the TV blare in the background as he made made fried eggs, listening intently to the interview. Clinically insane huh? Takeshi might just be on to something. He was next on his list of people to interview, although with all the media coverage he was getting now it would be hard to actually get him alone.
Kagami had gone to Midorima's apartment to interview the doctor after dropping the shadow home with Kuroko's car, and because he drove Kuroko's car he had to walk home to his house, shower and change, before driving his own car to Midorima's apartment.
It was a rather long process, but he should be done interviewing Midorima by now, Kuroko thought, looking up at the clock.
He turned the stove off and settled down with his phone, dialling Kagami's number.
'... Hello?'
"Kagami-kun, have you finished the interview yet?"
'No, I took a really long shower so I've only just arrived at his apartment. It smells really weird... almost like... give me one second I need to check something.'
There was a long moment of silence before Kagami's voice returned on the line.
'What the- ... Kuroko get your ass over here now, and call 119! NOW!'
#
"Aomine!" Midorima hissed, fists clenched in anger. "What are you doing here nanodayo? Coming to kill some more people?"
Aomine snorted, taking his wig off. "Nice to see you too Midorima. It's been a while."
"Well I was rather hoping I wouldn't see you again at all at least until you were safely behind bars." He retorted. "I don't understand how you even made it halfway across Tokyo in that half-dead state in any case, you should've bled to death by now."
"Nah these bandages don't let much past them, she wrapped them around pretty tight."
"She?" Midorima questioned, eyes narrowing. It seemed that there was an accomplice behind the scenes that was helping Aomine, providing him with medical care. But who would- Oh. Oh. Now it made sense.
"Well Sherlock-Fucking-Homes for someone who's meant to be smart you're a bit slow sometimes nanodayo." Aomine mocked Midorima's verbal tic.
Midorima bristled in controlled rage. "I have figured out what happened in Todoroki Valley, I'm not an idiot nanodayo. After your bodyguard mission with Akashi you got hurt and asked Momoi to come pick you up at Todoroki Valley, but before she arrived a young couple found you, dead on the wood trails. Just minutes after, she found you and performed CPR/mouth to mouth on you, getting your heart beating again. Then Momoi stole supplies from my hospital where she works as a nurse and took them to her house where she was keeping you and treated your blood loss and stabilised your condition. Correct?" He explained, angered by Aomine's disregard for his deductive skills.
"And exactly how long did it take you to realise that? I mean the medical equipment stopped disappearing right after Momoi's death."
"I was just a tiny bit preoccupied with trying to put my Teiko teammate behind bars and administering justice," He defended indignantly, "Speaking of which, give me one reason why I shouldn't call 119 right now and tell them all about you and your deeds."
Aomine's eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't."
"Try me."
"I'm not the one you should be putting behind bars, you think you've got it all figured when in reality-" Aomine was cut off by the sound of someone knocking on the door.
"Uncle? Mama said to check if you were in here, you know we spent so long trying to find we had to go to like, the other side of Tokyo and we only found you cause we saw you by the window! So, are you in here? If you're not that's kind of embarrassing cause then I've been talking to the door the entire time."
"Oh?" Aomine smirked at Midorima's horrified expression. "Who's that Uncle?"
"Chizuru? Chizuru listen to me, go back to for mother and tell her that uncle is in the toilet, go right now and tell her that." Midorima glanced worriedly at Aomine, who was still holding that infuriating smirk.
"Mama's buying something." Came the muffled reply. "She said she just wanted to buy some coffee or something."
"Just go and tell her that I'm coming!" Midorima barked.
"Now now, Midorima," Aomine drawled, "Don't be so hard on the poor child, if her mother's busy why don't we keep her company. "
He rushed to the door, dodging Midorima's lunge, and swept Chizuru up into his arms, firmly shutting the door behind him.
Big blue eyes looked up at him in surprise, blinking in curiosity. "Are you uncle's friend?" She asked.
"Absolutely not, Aomine drop her."
"Aw Midorima you wound me." The doctor rushed at him, only to be sidestepped from at the last second.
"I wish I could wound you." Midorima spat.
"Hmm, well consider your niece consolation for my horrible wound then."
"What?" Midorima spluttered. "Get consolation from the person who actually stabbed you!"
"I don't know his name! We were in the middle of the return flight and the dude just got up and stabbed me! Well, he didn't mean to stab me, his target was Akashi but I had to take the damn blade being his bodyguard. Last time I agree to a bodyguard job." Aomine grumbled, spinning Chizuru around as Midorima made a grab for her. She started sniffling, wondering why her uncle was so worried.
"I mean, it was bad enough that Kise had to go to some photo shoot halfway through the trip so he flew back in the private jet, leaving us to go in the public aeroplane because Akashi didn't want to 'impose' on his relatives by borrowing their private aeroplane. Then to put the cherry on the cake some random guy got up and stabbed me in the first class."
Aomine finished his rant and looked down at his former teammate. He was standing hunched before him, hands on his knees panting with exertion of trying to catch Aomine.
"Oi Midorima, let's make a deal."
He looked up.
"How about this; you walk out of here with Chizuru, and pretend that nothing ever happened, you will not tell anybody about this incident... and you'll tell me where Kuroko lives. Or else."
"Or else what?"
Aomine looked down at the pink mop of hair in his arms who was now fighting to get to Midorima, having figured out that something was wrong.
"Sweetie, do you know what your address is?" He asked.
"W-will you let me go if I tell you?"
He nodded coaxingly and Midorima shouted. "No Chizuru don't-"
"S-sixty four Akiye Road."
Aomine smirked and tripped Midorima up as he rushed towards him. "Well there we are. Now I know where you live, where your sister and niece lives and just about all of your friends. Which of them will you choose to die? That is of course if you don't accept my offer."
Midorima fell to the ground with a thud, smacking his head against the linoleum floor as his glasses shattered. Aomine was a coward. A bloody coward.
He blindly reached among the pieces of glass for his glasses, giving up in dismay in the realisation that they were broken beyond repair. Grabbing the edge of the sink, he slowly got back up onto his feet.
Aomine was a bloody coward. But so was he.
Midorima held out his arms and with a sigh Aomine dropped Chizuru into his waiting arms.
"Good. Now tell me where Kuroko lives and you can walk away like this never happened." Aomine reassured.
Midorima stepped back, increasing the distance between the two carefully. He may be a coward. But he wasn't that much of a coward.
"Never."
He ran for the door, dodging the knife in Aomine's hand and swung the door open, wincing when the pieces of glass in his hand cut deeper into his skin.
Aomine cursed as the door swung shut closed in front of him and threw the knife into the door. Now how was he supposed to find Kuroko? He could always follow through with his threats to Midorima as payback, but was the point of that? That's not what he questioned Midorima for.
He pulled his wig back on and pocketed his knife. He would have to find out where Kuroko lived a different way it seemed.
#
"I have no interest in talking about this any further." Akashi explained. "If you really want to solve this case, speak to Midorima."
So both Midorima and Akashi know who the murderer is, Kuroko recalled, hands tightening slowly on the steering wheel. That was not a memory that he particularly enjoyed to bring up for various reasons, but it was necessary to do so if he wanted his plan to succeed. He needed every last bit of information he could get to solve the mystery of Aomine's murder.
Kuroko was not a genius like Midorima and Akashi but he was scarily observant and based his plans around the information that he had gathered to trap his opponents. He stopped the car in front of Midorima's apartment, narrowly avoiding Kagami who was sitting on the street corner as he parked.
"Oi Kuroko!" Kagami cried indignantly. "I'd like to live thank you very much!"
Kuroko sighed, stepping out the car. "I'm sorry Kagami-kun, I was trying to hurry here as fast as I could. You sounded quite frantic in the phone call." He explained, brushing past Kagami.
"Yeah well, it was an emergency. But even if it's an emergency, I don't expect you to drive close enough to my face that I could smell your car! No one should ever be close enough to smell your car!"
"Is that an insult to my car? I can assure you it smells quite wonderful."
"That's not the point here Kuroko." Kagami groaned. "Speaking of which, where's the police?"
"Hm?" Kuroko innocently fiddled with his gloves. "I didn't call the police."
Kagami took a second to process what Kuroko had said before jumping at him. "You idiot, why didn't you call them?"
Kuroko jumped out the way of the enraged fireman. "I wanted to check out the crime scene before they arrived. As soon as I've seen it I'll call the police."
"You'll call them right after you see it right?" Kagami instructed. "And how did you know there was a crime scene?"
Kuroko rolled his eyes. "Logic."
Kagami frowned but didn't question it further. "And why are you dressed like you're here to murder someone?"
He followed Kuroko into the apartment, awaiting the shadow's answer. Kuroko surreptitiously fingered the dagger on his belt and glanced down as his attire. Gloves and black clothes. That wasn't overly suspicious was it? Maybe he should have gone with something else Kuroko reflected. Well, it was too late now.
"Self defence." He answered shortly, walking up the stairs. "In case there's something dangerous here."
The sharp, slightly tangy scent of blood filled his nose as he reached the top step. "Kagami-kun? Are you coming?"
Kagami was still standing at the foot of the stairs, frowning. "I... Kuroko- "
He was cut off by the sound of the doorbell. The shrill noise reverberated around the otherwise silent house until Kagami irritably yanked the door open.
"Who the hell- Akashi?"
"Kagami, Kuroko, I believe you have a situation that needs dealing with." Akashi explained his appearance, stepping into the apartment.
"How did you-"
"I called him." Kuroko explained, watching their exchange. "I believed we might need some back up."
Akashi smirked, walking towards the stairs. "Well it's not often that Tetsuya asks for my help so of course I rushed here as fast as I could."
"I called you to come about half an hour before I left, and you still arrived after me." Kuroko deadpanned.
"Details, details." Akashi waved it off. "Anyway, what's the situation?"
Kuroko inclined his head. "Follow me."
Akashi left his things in the TV room before joining Kuroko upstairs, leaving Kagami downstairs alone.
"Um guys I... Guys? They left me didn't they. I guess I'll make coffee or something." He asked the empty room. "Yeah, coffee it is."
With that he left in search of the kitchen, trying to remember what he had been about to say to Kuroko before Akashi had arrived.
#
Akashi slowly opened the door adjacent to the stairs, Kuroko trailing behind. "How did you know it was this room?" Akashi asked, stepping inside.
"The smell was strongest here." Kuroko entered after Akashi, closing the door behind him. "The smell of blood."
"The unbearable stench would be enough to lead you here anyway."
Kuroko hummed in agreement, leaning against the door. "It smells like a dead body."
"It probably is a dead body. Look." Akashi pointed towards the wall.
The normally pristine, manilla wall was stained red with blood, the high arches and low curves of the liquid forming a barely legible sentence on the wall.
"Curiosity killed the cat." Akashi breathed. "Why would someone do this?"
"To send a message. Someone didn't want Midorima interfering in their business." Kuroko explained walking towards the bed. He peered underneath it before reaching a hand out and dragging the body out from under the message.
Akashi's eyes widened in horror as Kuroko lifted the body onto the bed. "If the message was for Midorima, was the body drained of blood for the sole purpose of creating this message?"
"Probably." Kuroko answered. "That would explain all the blood under the bed." He adjusted his belt.
Akashi walked over to him, examining the body. "He looks like he was run over." He turned the body over, running a finger over the crushed face, half of the face was grotesquely flattened, parts of the features crushed beyond recognition.
He turned to Kuroko. "What do you think?"
Kuroko bit his lip, turning to face Akashi. Suddenly, he leaned forward and enveloped Akashi into a hug, wrapping his arms around the business man's back. "Akashi-kun... This is sick."
He awkwardly patted the shadow's back, trying to extricate himself from his arms. "Ah... Yes just breathe, it's okay."
Kuroko took a deep breath. "... Akashi-kun? I'm sorry."
"What, Kuroko why are you- "
Kuroko dug the dagger into Akashi's back, twisting it. "This had to be done."
Akashi fell to the floor with a thud and Kagami called up, asking if everything was alright.
"Yes Kagami-kun, we're fine." He called down, kicking the body underneath the bed.
"Alright, be careful." Kagami walked away from the stairs confusedly. He could have sworn he had heard somebody fall. Whatever, maybe Kuroko tripped or something. Speaking of Kuroko, he'd finally figured out what he'd wanted to ask him.
Why his car had smelled like- He walked into the kitchen, grabbing the two mugs and exiting the room again. It smelled like- he trotted upstairs, trying not to spill the coffee. It smelled like- Kuroko came out the bedroom with Akashi's limp body in his hands. Why his car had smelled like blood.
The mugs smashed against the floor, the porcelain pieces flying in the air.
"Kuroko?"
AN: Mwahaha bet none of you saw that coming!