A/N: Bah, I always get into bad habits of starting something and never finishing them up. Hope this won't be the case.
Someone asked if there'd be romance…well, let's just say I feel silly writing those kinds of things.
Disclaimer: Nah, why would I own any of these characters?
-- Chapter 1: Disprove --
Yako turned towards the voice. It was dark, so she couldn't make out much, but it was definitely a man, who sitting quite comfortably on her couch, fiddling with something in his hands. Yako ran to the lights and switched them on to get a better view.
The man was very, err…eccentric looking to say the least. For one thing, he was in a full suit, a fancy scarf and all. Not even a black one either; it was a freaking, bright blue. And his hair was a split with yellow in the back and black bangs. Not to mention he seemed to have attached triangles to them.
With a shake, Yako managed to stop staring at the man's strange appearance. "How the heck did you get into my house?!" she demanded.
The man gave a shrug and casually replied, "Your lock was extremely easy to pick. Go get a better one."
Yako turned red in the face. This guy had just broken into her house, and now he was telling her to get a better lock?! "Do you want me to go call the police for breaking entering?!"
He turned to face her, looking truly innocent. "Eh? You would do something like that to a person who is only trying to help? And I thought you were a nice person, Yako."
"Wh-what? How do you know my name?" Yako backed up a bit, with only one thought in mind: This guy is a stalker!
"You are asking so many questions. But, I suppose I'll answer. I was at your hearing this afternoon."
"At my hearing...?" Yako tried to remember a man that looked like him. Was he really? She couldn't recall a bright blue suit...wait, nope. There was a flash of it buried in the crowds. "Fine, just…tell me what you want and get out of here."
"Tch, how cold; all I want is for you to fire your lawyer."
Yako gaped disbelievingly at the man. "Did the prosecution set you up to this, to make sure that I'd lose the case?"
The man's face changed from pure innocence to deeply offended. "How could you think that?! I just meant for you to fire your lawyer so that I could take his place."
"In that case, no."
It was truly a shock to Yako how fast this man's expressions could shift, which was now that of confusion. "Ehh? You don't agree?"
"Of course not," Yako crossed her arms, "I bet you don't even have any experience in law!"
The man looked towards the ceiling and appeared to think. "Hmm, you know, I don't have any experience in being a lawyer."
With a double take, Yako stuttered out, "E-exactly! So give me one good reason I should let you be my lawyer!"
This did not seem to faze the man at all. No, in fact, he smirked. "One good reason, eh? Well then, what if I say it's because I can do one thing that your lawyer can't."
"And what's that?"
His smirk widened. "I can prove that you are innocent."
--x--x--x--x--x--x--
Somehow, Yako found herself sitting across from that strange man, who apparently, had been fiddling with (AKA taking apart) some poor guy's cell phone.
"My! You became quiet so suddenly," the man commented.
Silence.
"Is the floor really so interesting that you are staring at it?"
Yako looked up. "So, Mr…?"
"Nougami. Nougami Neuro, but please, just Neuro will do."
"Alright then, Neuro. How are you so sure that I'm innocent?" she said slowly.
"Simply put, I just don't feel as though you're the murderer."
"What?"
"Your brain must be defective. I meant what I just said: you just don't have the air or feel of a murderer."
"My brain works fine, thank you," Yako said icily.
"Ha ha! Oh, your disillusion of reality makes me laugh!" Neuro replied, completely unfazed.
Every second, Yako could feel her hate of the man growing. "That's beside the point. You said that you could prove that I'm innocent, how can I be sure of that? I mean, I wouldn't want to fire my lawyer, and then have you takeover, but end up losing and dragging me into the deepest pits of a prison."
Neuro laughed. A laugh that reminded Yako of a torturer enjoying the pain of his prisoner. Someone who was looking down on another as if the person was a mere bug. "It would seem insults make you talk, eh? I'm someone who has solved many mysteries; the mystery of your father won't be hard at all, you can believe that I'll find the real murderer."
"If you've solved so many mysteries, then why have I never heard of you?"
"I like to keep a low profile."
"And what if your 'feeling' is wrong? What if I am the murderer, so you do end up looking for the wrong person?" she urged, determined to get him off his little pedestal.
"It's never wrong."
Yako rolled her eyes, 'What an arrogant prick.' Of course, she couldn't say that out loud, instead, "So then, prove it. Prove that I can trust you to take the place of my lawyer."
Rather carelessly, Neuro shrugged. "Fine. Show me the room where your father was murdered."
--x--x--x--x--x--x--
"So, the rough outline of the case is this: Your father was murdered in a locked room, and the only one who he would've unlocked it for was you, the only other person in the house. Correct?"
"Yes." Why am I so nervous to go back to that room!? It's already been a week.
"You seem distracted."
"I'm fine."
Neuro gave a smile of all-knowing, "I think you're lying."
Yako ignored him, and continued down the corridor until she reached a room at the end of the hallway. Just open the door, Yako. Remember, you use to come in here all the time.
Not after he was murdered.
Shut up!
Click.
Yako felt around the wall until she came to a switch, and flicked the lights on. The police had done a good job of cleaning. Had an absolute stranger come in, they would never have guessed that a bloody murder had taken place here. It looked just like a normal architect's room, with a special table and lamps, even a few design plans laid around.
She knew better.
"Wow! You can definitely tell that there was a murder in here! Perhaps because it has that feel…?" With an unnaturally chipper attitude, Neuro walked right into that room not unlike that of a child walking into a candy store.
Immediately, he began to shuffle through papers, look through drawers, and examine this, or that. "How interesting!" Neuro said as he examined the doorknob, "It's the type that locks the handle itself, not the type that has an actual lock."
"Yeah, I wish it was the type with a lock instead. If it had been, it would've been impossible for me to relock it when I went back out."
"Did you really come into this room that night?"
"Mm, to give him a drink, I thought he would've been thirsty." Yako shifted uncomfortably; Neuro was right, it did have the feel of murder in this room.
Finished with the door, Neuro sprang over to the window instead. "If this window was unlocked, can it be opened from the outside?"
"I think…no, I'm pretty sure it can."
Neuro stopped and glanced at the ceiling. "There's a ventilation opening for a heater or air conditioning. Couldn't someone have gotten in that way?"
Yako shook her head. "No, there's one in every room, the sound of someone moving around would've been heard."
"Really now?" With that, he lost interest in the vent and began looking through her father's piles of equipment.
"Hey, Neuro."
"Hm," he answered without even bothering to look.
"Don't you feel, uncomfortable in here?" Yako said as she slowly glanced around the room.
"Eh? What do you mean by that?"
"This room has been part of a house that was lived in by a normal family. The family, my family, was happy. And even if someone told us that in the future, this room would be dyed red," she closed her eyes, "We would never have believed them." Yako opened her eyes again. Nothing had changed, the room still looked normal, just like it had always been. "Doesn't it just give you a…empty feeling?"
"Hmm," Neuro gave a thoughtful pause, "No, I don't think so."
"I guess you just don't understand." Well, I guess I shouldn't have expected him to.
After a few more moments of shuffling, Yako heard Neuro chuckle. "Well now, this really is too easy." He turned with a meter stick in hand. It looked normal enough, except for one thing; part of it had been cut off.
Skeptically, Yako tried to examine the meter stick closer. "Okay, that looks rather suspicious. But, what does it have to do with anything?"
"Hmm, well, I suppose an amoeba such as you can not be expected to comprehend. Watch." Once again, Neuro walked over to the window and pushed it open. Then, he set the meter stick slanted against the side that had been pushed, and shut the window. The meter stick fell into place, right between the sliding part of the window and the side attached to the wall.
"See? Now if you try to open the window, it will be caught by the cut off meter stick, creating the illusion that the room is locked." Neuro took the meter stick shoved it in front of Yako's face. "Perhaps it's a coincidence that the meter stick was cut off like this, but it's just too perfect, no? Also, compare the color of the stick and the window pane. The two colors are nearly the same. It would've blended in with the window pane, so nobody would've noticed when they first enter the room, especially not with a bloody body distracting them. Then when no one is watching, the criminal could have simply slipped the meter stick back into the pile of equipment."
Yako paused for a moment, putting together everything that had just happened. "So, that would mean through the window…"
"Anyone could have entered this room. The suspect list has widened, Yako, to any person who returned here before police investigations were conducted."
--x--x--x--x--x--
A/N: I'm sorry all my chappies are so short! And I will be using many manga elements in this story, like the meter stick thing. –sigh- I use their names waaaay too much.