Differing Paths...
Chapter Seven
Tomo stormed into the police station, wearing red, thick-lensed aviator sunglasses and a long, dusty brown jacket. The receptionist asked her, "What are you here abou-", but was cut off with a revolver pressed against her forehead. Fortunately, the receptionist's office was quiet, with little in the way of security. "Let me through.", Tomo said, wearing a facial expression that fit somewhere between "smirk" and "glare" on the spectrum of sardonic expressions. "I'm involved in the case.". She put the guns into their holsters, hidden under the jacket. She ran through the main police office, and went to the forensics laboratory. She had only been in there once of her many cases, in the case of a serial killer she was tracking. Good days. She knew she had little in the way of time, and went to the evidence records. Tomo had read the police report in the weeks of her recovery, and learned about the presence of a second offender. However, unlike the report, she held the theory that the second offender might still be alive, and that she could kill them as the first part of her multi-tiered plan of revenge, and get the identity of the wakizashi-wielding burglar. She pulled out the evidence file marked "Blood Sample, Offender B, MIA, Presumed Dead.". She performed as many tests on the file as she possibly could, and ran home with it to perform the few tests she could without supplies. The genetic-decoder at the station matched the basic information to a list of five-hundred her own personal research, she had gotten the list down to five, and used a similar tactic at a municipal information hall as she did at the police station to retrieve their addresses. She arrived at the home of the first, a tiny apartment near Akihabara. She knocked on the door, her glasses reflecting sunlight into her eyes, her hands on her guns. Inside was a strange looking girl, with sharply-done, blue-dyed hair. "Hmm?", she said, staring at Tomo. "Do I know you?". "I don't assume so.", Tomo rebutted. "Are you sure? I feel like I've seen you before...", the strange person answered, yawning slightly. Tomo looked over a the girl's shelves, covered in anime, manga, H-games, and figures. "Aw, man!", Tomo shouted, all pretense of seriousness removed, "This collection is killer! What's thi-". The girl pushed the book, called "Azu-"something, though Tomo couldn't see it. "That,", the girl said, "would could irrevicable damage to the universe in which we exist.". Tomo was slightly irked at her inability to look at the book, and decided that she should get to business. She looked at the card on which she wrote all the people's names and addresses, as to remember this one's name. "Konata Izumi!", Tomo shouted, as dramatically as possible, "Do you have affiliations with one wakizashi-using cat burglar!". She pulled both her guns, and pointed them straight at the girl's eyes. "What?", the girl answered, confused. "That sounds like something out of some ridiculous piece of pulp trash. Well, I suppose it is though...". Tomo stared at the girl, confused, knowing that something deeply strange, potentially paradoxical was taking place inside this apartment. "And you're sure you've never been on TV?", the girl asked. "No! No! Gotta run! Bye!", Tomo shouted. As she ran, she thought that perhaps she had seen that strange otaku on TV as well. Weird. She proceeded to go through each of the others on the list, until there was only one. Kaori Aida, living in an apartment in a non-descript suburb. Tomo thought she may have heard of the name, but she had no idea. What she did know was that she was going to kill Kaori Aida, having been able to tell from the others' reactions to the question and through subtle body language being able to tell they were telling the truth. She knocked on the door. She opened it, and saw a familiar face. "Kaorin?", Tomo shouted. "Tomo?", Kaorin shouted in reply. They stood there, staring at each other, for a few seconds. "But... Kaorin? What a disappointment! This was supposed to be my first kill! The first on the ladder of bad guys that led to my final revenge! But... Kaorin? She's absolutely harmless! Maybe the otaku's negative vibes were a sign...", Tomo thought. "Tomo? And now? Why would she be here?". Tomo decided to hell with it that she was just going to start this. She jumped, spun herself to a half-vertical position in midair, and kicked Kaorin, causing her to fly into her apartment, crashing through a (to be fair, fairly weak) wooden table. Kaorin began to heave and weep on the ground, "But... why?". Tomo wondered why heroism didn't feel good as it should. She shot next to Kaorin's head, to give her a shock. "You associated with the one who scarred my face, ruined my career, and insulted my honour!", she yelled. Kaorin screamed, "What? Please don't kill me...". Tomo smacked her in the back of the head, whispering, "Keep it down. Don't want it to look like there's something horrible going on here. But, you have to die. Simply as a message to that damned wakizashi-wielding burglar.". Kaorin froze. She realized what it was that prompted this arrival. Tomo had made it to ICPO, and she was the one who Sakaki struck down. Kaorin said, "I know what you're talking about! But... I don't remember it too well...". Tomo cocked the guns simultaneously, and pressed them both against Kaorin's forehead. "Okay! Okay! Here's what happened...". Kaorin explained how she was involved. As the story continued, Tomo's face drooped, realizing that there was no "second offender". The only difference between what happened and what Kaorin said was that Sakaki's name was never mentioned. "Alright...", Tomo said, spinning her gold revolver, which reflected light coming in from the blinded apartment window. "I'll spare you.". Kaorin began laughing. "But,", Tomo said, in a slightly darker tone, "what was the burglar's name?". Kaorin considered refusing the information and taking death as an alternative to letting Sakaki be caught, but her thoughts were cut off by Tomo losing patience. Tomo walked towards Kaorin, who had been cowering on the floor since she was kicked, bleeding slightly, and pointed her gun down at her. "Tell me, or I shoot.". She had learned this trick from a spy movie. "N-no. I don't want them caught. They're too dear to me.". "Alright...", Tomo said, with a casual tone of voice, "I guess I'll have to shoot.". Kaorin began sweating. She looked into the barrel of the gold revolver pointed at her, took a gulp, and prepared for death, thinking of Sakaki. Tomo pulled the trigger. Kaorin felt the whiteness come over her, sucking her into death. In a few seconds, she awoke to a horrible, burning pain. She looked down, and saw that Tomo had shot, and blown off the top half of her pinkie finger. Tomo saw this, and realized the screaming was about to begin. She grabbed a rag of of the stove and put it in Kaorin's mouth. She kneeled down and looked into Kaorin's eyes. "Now, you're injured. Only someone with professional-level medical expericnce, such as myself, would be able to save you at this point. Now, tell me the offender's name, or I'm going to do the same to your thumb, lock you in, and let you bleed out. And let me tell you, that is not a pleasant experience. I have a high-power painkiller here with me, as well as a prosthetic. I'm offering to end the pain. Now, what was the burglar's name?". The pain surging through Kaorin's body was worse than she could possibly imagine, and she did what all people do in situations such as this- succumb to the temporary demands of the body, sacrificing all previous plans. "It...", she said, removing the rag, and trying not to scream, "Wa-Auuugh! It was... Sakaki.". Tomo's eyes widened. "Sakaki... Like, from school?". "Aaaahhh! Yes! Pain! Killer! Now!", Kaorin responded. "Ah, yes.". Tomo spun out her medical kit. She brought this just in case she wanted to pull some Audition stuff on them, were they deserving enough. The painkiller was just in case they were sympathetic. Tomo had prepared, but unfortunately, all of her preperations were based on exploitation movies. Fortunately, on the other hand, she did get herself in a very exploitation-movie-esque situation, and patted herself on the back for that. She stabbed the much-longer-than-it-probably-should-be needle into Kaorin's wrist as she squirmed. Kaorin let out one last yelp of agony, before falling immediately to sleep. Tomo stood above her.
"Goodnight, sweet prince. Y'know, I almost feel bad for you."
Tomo dropped the prosthetic pinkie finger next to Kaorin, and left.