"Is anybody going to bother to tell me what's going on around here?" Gurski said loudly after Jonathan had been tightly handcuffed to one of the fold-out chairs in his father's study.
Jonathan stopped trying to pick the lock with his nail (Detective Gurski had noticed, and was letting him do his darnedest. It wasn't going to work) long enough to blink at the detective. "You don't even know? Why are you going around handcuffing people without knowing why?"
Detective Gurski frowned. "I understand enough to know that you needed to be dealt with. Whatever you are," he added in a mutter. "But as far as why Aki had me wait in the hallway and restrain you if you tried to escape... that I can't say I understand." Detective Gurski glared at Aki. Jonathan grinned. It seemed that even if the twins had sorted out Jonathan's deliberate misinformation with each other, Aki's and Detective Gurski's ends still hadn't been tied up.
Aki was looking at Naoki intently, and he was looking back at her. The silence stretched. Kangai guessed she was telling him something with her brain-voice.
Finally Naoki gave her an encouraging nod. She sighed, letting her eyes flutter shut for a moment. Then she looked Detective Gurski straight in the eye and said point-blank, "Kangai has been possessed by Jonathan's ghost."
He stared at her for several long moments, perhaps waiting for her to say, "Psyyyyych!" When she simply looked back at him, Detective Gurski began to flounder.
"He – the – ghost possessions exist?" he asked, then stopped. "Ghosts exist?"
"Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say ghost possessions exist," said Aki carefully, "as much as that Kangai may be a special case."
"What?" the detective said, obviously horribly confused and not appreciating Aki's crypticness.
She shook her head in a nonverbal 'never mind.' He glared at her.
"So what you're telling me," he said slowly, measuring out each word, "is that the person we have in front of us is none other than Jonathan Hade, the murder victim himself?"
"It makes a bizarre sort of sense, doesn't it, Detective?" Naoki asked with a slight smile.
Gurski ran a hand through his hair and huffed out a frustrated sigh. "I suppose it does." Jonathan noticed with surprise that he didn't even bother to ask how the twins had come to know this information. "So how do we fix it?"
Right to the point, Jonathan thought wryly. "There is no way to 'fix' it, Detective," he answered with a sneer. "Kangai's soul has been inhabiting a long-dead body for hours. He's most likely dead at this point. And even on the odd chance that he isn't, there is nothing you can say or do to make me get out of this body. Death didn't really agree with me, see, and I don't intend to go back there, ever."
Li Mei surprised them all by speaking then, in a voice that contained the frustration of all of them: "You are dead. Move on."
He grinned wickedly at her. "Make me."
"You may find that I'm able to make a compelling argument," Gurski muttered next to him. There was a loud click by his ear, and Jonathan turned, both eyebrows rising as he came eye to eye with Detective Gurski's handgun.
Jonathan's grin only widened further. "Not a bad bluff, Miko. Unfortunately, there's one very important problem with your plan – yes, shooting me will force me out, but it will also kill Kangai's body. Are prepared to be responsible for taking the life of an innocent boy just to get to me?" The man's steely look wavered. Jonathan allowed his own voice to go hard. "And if you don't get these handcuffs off me right now, then I might just take your advice and leave this body."
Naoki looked upset and confused. "But that's what we want you to do!"
"No, you want me to go to the forest and then leave Kangai's body, allowing his original soul to come back in. If I leave this body here and now, it will be left without a soul. And do you know what a body without a soul is called?"
Nobody answered, but their chagrined expressions indicated that they seemed to see where Jonathan was headed.
"It's called death," said Jonathan.
For a few tense moments there was nothing but the sound of the old kitchen clock. Then Aki said, "Take the handcuffs off, Miko."
Detective Gurski, Naoki, and even Li Mei looked at her in shock. "But - " Naoki started, and was cut off by Aki saying again, this time louder and less controlled, "I said take them off."
"Oh, Aki," said Jonathan sweetly. "Are you falling for me after all?"
"As if," said Aki and Miko in unison.
Jonathan studied Aki's face. She seemed to be blinking more than usual...and then all of the sudden Li Mei and Naoki looked much more relaxed than they had been. Jonathan frowned. Was that another one of her powers?
The detective unfastened the handcuffs, allowing Jonathan to rub his sore wrists.
"Great," said Aki, the cheer back in her voice. "Let's get cracking on this case."
Detective Gurski looked at her questioningly. She smirked back. "Weren't you just saying that this case would go cold if you couldn't find some major source of information soon?"
"Well, yes, but..."
She gestured grandly to Kangai. "What do you say to a first-hand witness?"
He looked halfway between flabbergasted and appalled. "You want the murder victim – the somewhat psychotic murder victim – to investigate his own murder?"
"Yeah," she replied shamelessly. "I like the irony of it."
Gurski slapped a hand to his forehead and muttered something, of which Kangai only heard the last few words (they were, "strange idea of fun").
"I would like to know," Li Mei interjected quietly, "if Jonathan is willing to assist us in the investigation at all." Her red eyes were as flat and cold as a slab of metal.
Jonathan shrugged. "Sure, seems like fun. I've got nothin' better to do."
"But we'll have to call him something!" Aki paused. "...Kanathan?" she said finally.
Naoki shook his head. "Aki..."
"Don't worry, I know we need to continue calling him Kangai in order to not arouse suspicion. I'll save Kanathan for special occasions," she said, grinning.
He grinned back. At least she was seeing the humor of the situation. Everyone else was still all upset that he had taken over their precious Kangai's body.
"It's funny, though..." She stopped, twirling a strand of hair thoughtfully around her finger, waiting for the words to come, "since we found out who you really are, I've just found you so much...hotter," Aki said, winking at Jonathan conspiratorially. "Maybe that's because I've always thought basketball players were extremely cool."
Jonathan preened, ignoring the glares from all of the other people in the room. It was just a matter of time until she succumbed to his charms, really. Now if only he could get Li Mei to follow suit.
She brought her face close to his, lowering her voice so only Jonathan could hear her next words. "I'm really glad that we're working together. I feel like you're going to figure out so much that we otherwise would never be able to figure out by ourselves. You know what I mean?"
He puffed out his chest proudly. "I bet my inside information ends up being the main thing that finds the killer."
"You know what, I wouldn't be surprised," Aki agreed. "Is there anything that comes to mind right away?"
He stopped, then deflated slightly. "Not really..."
She looked disappointed. "Not even right before you died?"
"I wasn't really paying attention," he admitted, scratching his head awkwardly.
"But you were alone in the forest," she frowned. "What could you have possibly been distracted by?"
Jonathan paused, caught between his earlier promise and his desire to prove to Aki how useful he would be to their investigation. But promises were only meant to be kept until the day you died, right? So really it was fine to tell them. "I wasn't alone, actually..." It was probably just fine. "I was talking to my dad." She tilted her head. "Your dad was with you in the forest?"
"Not most of the time," he said. "We were supposed to go camping – we go camping every summer – but then something came up in his work last minute, and he told me to go on ahead. He had only been there for a few minutes when I was killed, I guess."
"Did he see you get shot?" Detective Gurski asked, eyebrows rising.
Kangai thought for a moment, replaying the conversation in his head. "Yeah. I guess he must have," he said slowly.
"If he was in front of you, and the killer was behind you, your father must have seen the killer's face," Detective Gurski muttered, more to himself than anything. "So why didn't he come straight to the police?"
"Maybe he was killed as well," Naoki said, shoulder slumping. "A testimony from a witness like that would have the murderer in jail in no time."
"I was thinking about that," Detective Gurski said, turning to Naoki. "But it's clear that the murderer didn't mind leaving Jonathan's body in exactly the same spot, exactly the same position as when he was killed... Why should he care if we saw Mr Hade's body? I find it hard to believe that the killer would hide one body and not the other."
"Or maybe my dad was working with the murderer," Jonathan suggested, surprising all of them. "If that's the case, then when we find my dad we can have a whole Star Wars-type scene where I'm like, 'Father! How could you?' and he'll be all like, 'My son!' and stuff. That would be awesome."
"Awesome...?" Naoki repeated vaguely, seeming at a loss.
"Did your dad have a reason to kill you?" Aki asked.
Jonathan shrugged. "Not any more than normal."
"Then what makes you say that he'd work with the killer?" she said curiously.
"No reason," said Jonathan. "It'd just be a cool idea, that's all."
"Right, cool," Detective Gurski muttered, massaging the spot between his eyes. "That's the word for it."
Jonathan laughed. "By the way, did you get any more information out of Remy?"
"I didn't speak to him for very long," the detective sighed. "But, no, it didn't look like he was going to start spilling his deepest and darkest secrets."
"Hmm...maybe he needs a little...push," said Jonathan lightly. Li Mei shivered. "If you give me a few minutes with each of the members of my family, I bet I could have your killer within the hour."
Detective Gurski didn't argue with that, although he didn't look too pleased about it either.
"Let me give it a shot with Remy," Jonathan continued before Gurski could protest. "Let me prove to you that I can get you the information that you want."
The detective looked distinctly uncomfortable. "It's not about that. I have no doubt that you could find what we need. You've managed to tie us all up in knots within hours of knowing us, after all," he muttered.
"Thank you," Kangai demurred.
"It wasn't a compliment," he said flatly.
"It's all relative, my dear Miko," said Jonathan, enjoying the way the detective's eye twitched in response. "So if you agree that I could get them to talk, what's the problem?"
Li Mei frowned. "As of yet there has been no indication that you are trustworthy. In fact, there has been gratuitous evidence of the opposite."
"Anyway, you keep wildly accusing people without having any sort of factual basis for your accusations," Naoki added. "Even if you managed to get the information without breaking anyone's brain, who's to say you won't skew it and just incriminate whoever you feel like?"
"I think we can trust him," Aki declared, surprising everyone (including Jonathan). "Give him a partner if it makes you feel better, but I think if anyone is going to track down the killer, it's going to be Kanathan."
"Aki..." Naoki said quietly, a subtle warning in his voice.
She smiled at her brother, and a thread of understanding seemed to pass between them. This time, though, Naoki didn't relax. If anything, he seemed to tense up even more.
She turned back to the group, smiling – if that was possible – even brighter. "Why doesn't Li Mei go with him to interrogate Remy Hade, and she'll report back to us if there's any funny business. Are there any objections?"
Judging from the expressions of horrified disbelief on the faces of everyone present, there were quite a few objections.
"Can't I be paired with someone else?" Jonathan asked. He knew he sounded peevish, but if he had to spend the day dragging around the one person he couldn't make heads or tails of for the life of him, he thought he might tear his own – or, well, Kangai's own – hair out. Li Mei nodded emphatically. For once they were in agreement about something...
"Well..." Aki twirled a strand of white-streaked purple hair around a finger thoughtfully. "Naoki and me were going to check out the crime scene again, do some legwork around the village, see if we can find anyone who's seen your dad after he ran off. And I could say that Miko is preoccupied with a more important job, but really I just don't trust him to not do anything rash when baited." Detective Gurski looked affronted, but didn't say anything. "So that leaves Li Mei," Aki finished.
"I guess I don't really have a choice, do I," Jonathan sighed. "Fine, I'll go with Li Mei. But she'd better not get in my way."
"She is right here," Li Mei said, her usually expressionless voice tinged with dislike.
Aki smiled. "I think you'll find Li Mei to be very helpful. Right, Li Mei?"
Li Mei stopped. Slowly and gradually, the tension leaked out of her tiny shoulders. She let out a small breath and closed her eyes, seeming to concentrate on something only she could hear. "Of course."
Jonathan blinked. Odd. Very, very odd. Shame she was so very odd, with a face like that...
"Let us go." The white-haired girl turned on her heel and headed to the living room. "Your brother waits for us, correct?"
"Uh, yeah," Jonathan said, hurrying to keep up. "Are you - ?"
"I will help," she interrupted without breaking her pace. "But that does not mean that I approve of you."
"Hey, the feeling is mutual, Little Miss Psychic," said Jonathan under his breath.