CHAPTER 4: "My charade is the Event of the Season."
MONDAY. 5:27 P.M.
"Thank you for your time!" I said as I escorted the last of the teaching staff out of the room. I let out a sigh as soon as the door was closed. "Well that was a waste of time."
"They were all so tight lipped about everything," Rie agreed. "We didn't even get a name for that student..."
"Looks like we'll have to get Katawase to pull those strings, then," I grumbled.
"It's a shame that conspiracy seems to be the-" Kazamori was going to say more when Inga, who had been resting his head in his arms on the table, suddenly shot upright, eyes darting left to right in confusion. "Inga?" Kazamori asked, "Is everything alright?"
"I felt it," Inga said, limbs trembling, body suddenly shaking.
"Felt what?" I'm not liking the rather familiar shaking there. Please don't say what I think you're about to say...
"Someone just used my transformation powers," Inga said as he bolted for the door- suddenly filled with energy. "SHE'S HERE!"
Rie and Kazamori both nodded at me without saying a word- and I ran after Inga who was practically howling like a bloodhound.
"Stop."
Kodaka Hasegawa and Aoi Yusa stopped in their tracks in the hallway.
"You will not remember this encounter after I leave," said a woman who wore the same clothes as Inga's adult form as she slipped out from the shadows behind them- her bare feet slapping silently against the polished floor as she circled around, and knelled down in front of Yusa- meeting red eyes with green. "Now answer me, girl..." There was a faint glow of pink across both eyes. "What is your business with this boy? What makes you desire him?" That glow of violet light started to emanate from the Woman's mouth- "Tell me, what is it that you long to hide from him? What is-?"
"YUUKO!"
The connection between the woman and Yusa was broken- and the woman stood up in annoyance. "Why does that voice sound familiar?" She asked aloud- and then turned her head over her shoulder- letting that red hair fall to the side. "What...?"
There- standing at the end of the hallway- was Inga- arms to the side, panting heavily from the long run, hands clenched into fists, and eyes narrowed in anger.
And right behind him was me, scowling at her.
"Well well well," the woman said, "if it isn't the Defeated Detective and... is that me? How is that even possible?" She looked completely baffled.
"You mean you don't know?" I asked.
"You'll have to fill me in. I'm afraid my memories of the past two months have been quite jumbled up, for some reason..." Yuuko said with a nonchalant tone- although her eyes narrowed at Inga across the hallway. "Although, I'd think I'd remember something as strange as to split me into two bodies."
"First, you tell us what you were doing to that girl just now," I ordered.
"Oh, this li'l thing?" Yuuko smirked as she held a hand back to stroke at Yusa's chin. "I was getting hungry...also, I seem to have a thing against Red-heads now... Don't know why, but her hair absolutely pisses me off."
"So you were going to eat her entire soul, then?" Inga asked, growling slightly.
"You do seem testy, don't you," Yuuko narrowed her eyes. "What ever has gotten into you, Me?"
"It's what got out of me that you should be concerned about," Inga said. "Because you're going straight back to where you came from!"
"No," She said.
"What do you mean, 'no'?" I asked.
"That damned contract...being liberated from it through whatever means..." Yuuko continued on- "I'm never going back to that. The whole soul is just so much more satisfying!"
"You killed Atsuhiko, Hirokazu then," I deduced.
"If you mean that pervert from Friday?" Yuuko smirked, "Then yes. And he was delicious in every single aspect of himself...body and soul."
"First: Ew." Inga was quite visibly squicked out by that, and I was too, then said: "Second: Then that's exactly why you need to surrender now, or else I'm going to have to bring you back under control by force!"
"Like hell I'm going to be restrained by you anymore!" Yuuko snarled; and with that, she suddenly exploded into a burst of violet light and dark purple butterflies- dashing down the hallway straight towards Shinjuurou and Inga.
"RRAAAAAAAH!" Inga leaped through the cloud of butterflies- managing to snag one by the wings with his teeth even as I ducked to the side.
The cloud of Butterflies yelled out in surprised pain as Inga sucked the captured butterfly into his mouth and bit down on it hard.
The cloud- having lost some vital piece of itself- exploded into various directions.
Several large chunks flew into the ventilation systems- others escaped through the windows- and the remaining pieces vanished into the cracks in the walls and floors.
I looked to Inga and asked- "Did you get her?"
Inga swallowed the butterfly down- and scowled- "No. I just spooked her for a bit. That wasn't enough to pull her back inside...but..." He growled- "I got the name of one of Her next targets." He turned to run- "We've gotta get going- Watanabi-chan's in trouble!"
"What?!" I followed after Inga.
As they left the line-of-sight of Kodaka and Yusa, the two students suddenly resumed walking without realizing that something strange had just happened.
And then Yusa opened her mouth.
6:14 P.M.
There had been a loud slamming sound and then Kodaka-sempai had appeared in the brilliant light of a Teleport! BUT! So strained from his sudden technological feat was he that Kodaka-sempai fell asleep!
So the Brave Scientist Rika took him to the back room and left him lying on the floor- for there were no beds, and it was really the best she could do due to the fact that he was quite heavy and Rika could not carry him to the Nurse's office like he once had...
And so Rika waited for Kodaka-sempai to wake up, and then he did! "What happened?" Rika asked of him.
"Yusa 'confessed' to me out of nowhere," Kodaka-sempai said with much concern! Or was it confusion? Rika couldn't tell!
"Confessed?" Rika asked Kodaka-sempai, "Confessed what?"
"She wanted me to...ah...well..." Kodaka-Sempai then said exactly what happened in such a concise way that Rika could never quote it properly! Rika was so caught off guard by this sudden revelation of another girl's heart that she...she...! Oh screw it!
Do you know how hard it is to think in third person all the time!? GOD, how in-character can a girl get trying to do a running narration of her thoughts and then scramble them all to bits by tripping over one damned word!?
"Hello? Earth to Rika?" And there goes Kodaka-Sempai waving his hand in front of my face. "I didn't break your brain or anything, did I?"
"No, I'm just..." Stumbling for words inside my head, "processing it all.."
I wasn't sure what to say after that. I'm not sure Kodaka-sempai knew either.
"It seems our everyday lives aren't quite stable yet, are they?"
I wasn't sure which of us said it- but it summarized everything nicely.
"So where's Yukimura?" Kodaka-sempai asked, much to my confusion.
"Hah? Yukimura left with you, Sempai," I told him.
"No, she stayed behind in here," Kodaka frowned- and I did too.
"Yukimura definitely left with you," I insisted. "I remember you two stepping out of the room together and Yukimura bowing as you closed the door."
"Eh?" I didn't like that sound- "I left the lab alone. Yukimura said she was staying behind to help...with..." Kodaka-sempai's frown got deeper, "That's weird... I can't remember what it was she said she was staying behind to help with. But I definitely remember her saying she was staying, and then...I closed the door and I think the next thing I remember was running into Yusa-san. But that was half-way to the school entrance!"
What could cause such a large discrepancy of memory?
"This is quite worrying, Kodaka-sempai!" I said as I thought it over, "We've lost track of Yukimura and you've got a memory problem!"
6:30 P.M.
Just outside the school gates, Watanabi frowned as footsteps echoed her own- and then stopped at the same moment she stopped walking.
With a sudden twist around- Watanabi turned on her follower... "Alright- what's the bright idea-!?"
It was Yuuko- licking her lips.
"Wh-Wha'd'ya want, lady!?"
"You talked to Shinjuurou earlier," Yuuko said as a matter of fact.
"Eh? The detective?" Watanabi asked, "What about him!?"
"Tell me...Exactly everything that you told Him."
The brilliant flash of purple light briefly turned the orange sky of the setting sun on its head.
Shinjuurou growled- "Damn it, we're too late...!"
We ran to the main gate, and then...came crashing to a halt as we found a small crowd some students helping up the girl who was lying on the ground, looking to all the world as if she had just suffered a fainting spell- but they way her eyes looked...
"Wh...who am I?" Watanabi asked of everyone around her.
It was as if a large portion of her memories had been stolen away.
"Damn it..." I breathed heavily- "DAMN IT!"
This was not good. Not good at all.
"Matsuda-kun?" asked an unfamiliar voice not moments later.
Matsuda, Buriki turned around in his apartment bedroom in surprise and horror- "What the?!" he gasped "You!"
The woman before him was the same one who had killed Hirokazu!
"Me," She said with a devilish smile.
"You're the witch!" He declared loudly, trying to distract from his reaching for his cellphone.
"Witch?" Yuuko pouted somewhat- "Sorry, but that's not quite the right term."
"W-what are you then!?" Matsuda yelled as he hit the speed dial for the Police- "How did you get inside my apartment!?"
"I'm a Demon," She smirked- "And you don't have any Devil's Traps or Salt..."
"So what...you killed Kazu. Now you're coming to kill me?" He asked.
"Oh, I wouldn't have thought of it had I not learned something interesting today..." Yuuko smirked evily- "Sadly, you're never going to find out what that is."
Shinjuurou's Cellphone rang as we walked up the hallway towards the office that we'd been running questionings in.
"Yeah!?" Shinjuurou answered in a tired voice.
"Matsuda just called," Katawase said in an reversely hurried voice. "Yuuko was in his apartment- we've got squad cars and an ambulance on dispatch, but going by the sounds we just heard...!"
"Damn it- So she was distracting us!" Shinjuurou growled.
"What?" Katawase asked.
"Yuuko! We just ran into her trying to eat some kid's soul out of the middle of the hallway-" Shinjuurou explained- "Inga managed to get the name of one of her targets, and we tried to stop her, but... a girl just got her memories eaten at the main gate."
"Wait- this just happened?" Katawase asked.
"Yeah," Shinjuurou replied.
"How the hell did she get across town so fast?"
"She could split up into this big cloud of butterflies-" Shinjuurou remarked even as we entered the room and he closed the door behind us, "I'm not surprised she didn't just split herself up into those to teleport there instantly after she ate our witness' memories."
"I'm really starting to hate it when my own powers are being used against me!" I yelled out in frustration.
The corpse hit the floor with a thud.
Yuuko licked her lips absently as she surveyed the soulless husk of a man before her- she would have preferred it if she had the time to properly enjoy her meal, but, sadly...
"Beggars can't be choosers," She lamented- and burst away into a shower of butterflies as police sirens began to be audible.
Not a minute later, the door to the apartment was kicked inwards- and police swarmed into the apartment.
"...We just got to Matsuda's apartment," Katawase said with a grim tone, as she looked down upon the dead body on the floor. "He's toasted like Atsuhiko."
"Damn it," Shinjuurou swore over the line.
"That's two bodies, now," Katawase asked, "what about the other kids?"
"Watanabi's lost her entire life memories- I think Yuuko was in a rush to find something out, and didn't eat her whole soul," Shinjuurou said, "but the other kids are fine. We interrupted Yuuko's first attempt."
"So I write that off as Attempted Murder," Katawase said, then said, "hold for a sec'," before switching to an all important Police Dispatch Number, and began speaking. "This is Chief Katawase, Mayoi, ordering a change on the all points bulletin on the suspect we only know by name of "Yuuko", Y, U, U, K, O. She's to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Suspect has committed two murders with an unknown technique so far, and is to be charged with Attempted Murder of two more high school students if she can be apprehended. Do not, I repeat DO NOT confront if spotted!"
With that, she switched back to Shinjuurou's line.
"I've put an A.P.B. out on her. If Yuuko shows her face, we'll know."
"Somehow," I said with a frown as I stared at a growling Inga, "I have the feeling that Yuuko won't display that face unless she wants us to find her."
7:09 P.M.
We'd spent the last half hour searching the school, only to return to the lab to find Yukimura in the back room, sleeping soundly as if she'd been there the entire time...
Which she had been.
"How did we miss that she was here?" I asked.
"I..." Rika frowned- "Rika doesn't know, Sempai. It's a mystery! Maybe we were just caught up in that whole Yusa-Confession thing?"
"Probably," I said.
7:51 P.M.
The Drive back to the new apartment was a long and silent one.
Kazamori and Inga sat in the back seat as I pulled up to the parking lot and turned the car off with a sigh.
"Well, today went just about as well as I could've thought it might have," I said after a moment.
"We'll need to go over what Watanabi-chan said again," Rie said softly, "maybe we missed something..."
"Kazamori recorded everything, right?" I asked as I went to get out of the car.
"I did," Kazamori spoke up- "it's on the laptop."
"Great," I waited for everyone else to get out so I could lock the car up. "And Inga, maybe something in that memory fragment you got off of her might shed some light on this..."
Inga said nothing as he got out of the car.
Kazamori looked over at Inga in surprise, "Inga?"
Inga grit his teeth, but refused to say anything, instead opting to angrily slam the car door shut behind him.
I think even Rie felt that there was something off about this, "Hey, Inga, is everything...?"
"NO! EVERYTHING IS NOT ALRIGHT!" Inga snapped right at that moment, pointing at his chest as he yelled, "A PIECE of me is out there killing people! No...Not even a piece. The REAL ME who I used to be is out there KILLING again! And here I am- just the restraint without anything to hold back!"
"Inga?" My eyes widened slightly at that remark.
"I'm COMPLETELY USELESS anymore!" Inga continued on- "I lost my powers- No, I never even had them to begin with! I'm just a shell that was made to hold someone else back and now I don't even have THAT anymore because that person is out there causing chaos everywhere!" And then a thought hit him then, and he then yelled: "Bettenou!? I had the wrong idea about that! She never laid a trap for me to give up my powers. *I* Laid a FUCKING TRAP for *ME* to give up my powers so that they could go on and get a life of their own!" and then he ran his hands through his hair as he yelled: "AND I FELL FOR IT LIKE AN *IDIOT!*"
"What...?" Kazamori took a step backwards, her eyes widening and watering as he said that.
"I tricked myself into thinking that I had different powers- I deluded myself into thinking I needed to get those powers under control...!" Inga continued on ranting, crying even as he said these things, "I KNEW THAT I'D CAUSE TROUBLE JUST BY DOING THAT VERY THING!"
"That's..." Rie frowned- something about the way he was talking now just didn't sound right.
"I INTENTIONALLY HANDICAPPED US BY LOCKING ME OUT OF MY POWERS AND TURNING KAZAMORI HUMAN!" Inga seemed to conclude with that point.
Everything went silent for a few moments- and then Kazamori sniffed loudly.
Al of our attention went towards Kazamori as she slid to her knees and began to wail.
"Y...You Big IDIOT!" Kazamori yelled at him.
As Rie started to move over towards Kazamori, Inga realized in that moment what he'd done. I'd never seen him look so confused and hurt than in that moment.
"Inga...!" Rie called out and reached for his shoulder.
But by then it was too late.
Inga was already running off into the distance, crying himself as he continued to berate himself.
"I am! I'm such a fucking IDIOT!"
I moved to chase after him, but Rie just grabbed my arm and said, "We need to get Kazamori inside..."
"Right..."
Inga was already gone. There was no way I could catch him now anyways...