*** So, does anyone pay attention to Prisoner / Paperplane's novel or manga? I just found out Kaimural/Kaito is actually girl over the fence / Rin's brother. And I was like "YOU'RE TOO MUCH OF A DEMON TO BE ANYWHERE NEAR RINNY", 'cause he tortures 420/Len in prison. Then again, Rin's dad sentenced Len to death... Wow Rin nice family you have there.***
Chapter 11: A Dinner for Four
Day 9, 12:25 AM
'Day nine: My condition has worsened today, I'm not sure if the poison has anything to do with it; because I'm sure even without the poison I'd still feel weak. I'm not dying, but something that could help me calm my thirst and hunger would be nice. Yesterday Kaito didn't drop a visit to my cell, so… Ah, it's no good writing about hunger and thirst like this. In the end I'll just keep on thinking more and more about it.
Turning the subject around, I tried to decipher her diary entry again. I tried practically everything. They're written in plain "words", only the letters of the alphabets are just... They look like complete gibberish. For example, the first line to the entry is: "!Declare define k = Char('Mih',) define m = Char('Em',)" Nothing made sense in that sentence, at least, for the time being. It looked like some sort of code to me so there must be some sort of method in her writing that I haven't figured out yet. Maybe that sentence is a small part of a whole and I didn't copy the important parts of it? Declare and define... Do they symbolize something? A synonym of something? An antonym to the real meaning?
My headache is acting up again, it's no good to force myself to think endlessly like this, and I've been thinking about this riddle for hours now. It's hard to tell time, though I'm good at estimating. The stress is probably the source of my headache, I'm not blaming the riddle because I'm a detective; I'm supposed to think like this. Now that I think about it though it's been a while since I dealt with a normal case, dealing with cases that wouldn't risk my own life so much, I consider that "normal". I don't count the "case" of the "missing" cat a normal case because... It led me "here". It led both me and Rin here and both of us are at the tip of the iceberg. Rin should be fine, and something tells me Kaito'll take good care of her. It's weird, I didn't trust him a few days ago, and I still have my doubts. If I had any other choice, I wonder if I'll still trust him with Rin?'
Len ended his entry there and read through it again, then he flipped the page and reviewed Mayu's entry. He only copied one sentence (it looked like one sentence to him), just in case he would somehow lost the diary when he first stole it. He felt like he was missing something... That "sentence" was just one piece of a big jigsaw puzzle, he kept telling himself it was better than nothing but what's so good about having one piece of a puzzle, not knowing any other pieces there? In the end, you still couldn't get the bigger picture to it. Len put his notebook back on his pocket, and closed his eyes. His head was throbbing, it was getting annoying.
'Why do I have such a big headache on something like this?' Len thought to himself, his hand touched his forehead and later to his throat; it shouldn't be a fever. 'Maybe if I sleep the headache will go away.'
Just then he heard footsteps, headed to his cell. No one ever passes the corridors down the cell aside from Mayu or Kaito, and since the footsteps were not heels, Len knew who was behind the door, clicking the knob open.
"Hey, Len." Like it's a given, Kaito had food with him. "I'll sneak in a drink later, it's just impossible to sneak in to the kitchen." And that was something Len had to agree on.
"I have a headache though, it'd be nice to drink more water." Len ripped his loaf of bread and began eating it. "Why didn't you visit yesterday?"
"Busy." Kaito answered bluntly. "You should get lots of sleep, you have a headache, right?"
"I was planning to, on the other hand it's not good to have too much sleep either; it'll give you some headache as well." He could see Kaito's eyelids were heavy, he knew he wouldn't be in the mood to talk, but Len can't hold his curiosity in... Ever since Mayu came in and told him Kaito's story, he was curious on what would happen next. So Mayu left the candy shop, and, what? Did she meet Kaito on the way out for ice cream? "Can I ask you a question?"
"You can. Doesn't mean I'll answer though, it depends."
"What do you think is the easiest way to rule the world?" Kaito's face stiffened as soon as he heard that, and he had no intention of hiding that face either. Len was using Mayu to his advantage in that situation, if Kaito doesn't tell him the answer he could just say Mayu would finish him on the spot, and that was the truth. "The hint is, a way to make people think day is night, and night is day."
"Mayu... Told you that? Why would she do that?" His voice low, in a whisper kind of level. There was no use of speaking in such of whispery tone, as he said earlier no one ever passes the corridors there except Mayu or Kaito. "..How much do you know?"
"A few minutes after she started the story she ended it there, she didn't even get to the part where you two met, only to the part where she exited a candy shop." From the looks of it, Kaito seemed to recognize the "candy shop", so they must've met somewhere there. "She said if you don't speak up you'll be in big trouble."
"The candy shop, huh..." He gave a sad smile. "If I hadn't answered that stupid question correctly we wouldn't be stuck in this situation."
## ## 1885
"Acchoo!" Kaito sneezed and tightened his grip on his muffler. Just when he thought he could survive winter without catching a cold, he was feeling somewhat uneasy. Spring should be within a month or so, the snow on the streets would be gone... He'd never been too fond of winter.
It's the only season where he can't eat ice cream.
He was walking through the cold streets, his grocery list carved on his mind. He had to make everything perfect. His parents and sister would be visiting his house and he couldn't leave a bad impression to them there. It's been five months ever since he entered university, and they were just worried how he was doing with everything.
As soon as he heard the news from his parents, he had to do some spring cleaning; laundry, mopping up and sweeping the floors, everything dust free. The worst case scenario was, "or else he couldn't continue studying there". His parents have always thought Kaito wasn't the college type and he'd always treated him like a little kid. For goodness sake he was eighteen, he could take care of himself.
'The bakery, maybe I'll pay a visit to the butcher too. Ah, let's see, what's the fastest route there? I'll just take the carriage.' Kaito stopped walking, just in front of the candy store, and asked himself whether his sister would want some sweets. So many things to prepare...
"Of course, the only reason why no one can answer my question is because everyone else is just stupid." A girl walked out of the candy store; Kaito watched as she mumbled to herself. Holding a bag full of sweets she pulled out a gum and started to chew. "I'm surrounded with stupid people."
"Somehow I feel offended to hear that." Kaito commented, she took a glance at him, still chewing her gum.
"Oh, don't feel that way! Doesn't your mother ever teach you anything about loving who you truly are? There's nothing wrong with being so stupid." She shrugged off with a smile. Kaito knew he should just ignore that girl, but if he walks away it'll just look like he's trying to run away from an argument with some fifteen year old girl. "I asked so many people the same question and none of them got it right."
"In this world anything that isn't normal, something that isn't like majority, we call them "strange". So since majority couldn't answer, don't you think there's something wrong with whoever asked the question in the first place?" Kaito added a grin, seeing that little girl startled with the comeback. From that reaction, he thought that girl must be some sort of arrogant princess who doesn't like to get stand corrected. "Try me."
"If you can't answer, you need to treat me all the lollipops that candy store have." She pointed at the candy store, as if the bag of sweets she had on her hands wasn't enough. "If you can answer, I'll give you a prize."
"Sure thing~" Kaito hid his grin, her words echoed in his head. 'If you can answer'. Well, of course he can answer the question! The problem was whether his answer is right or wrong, and that girl said nothing about it.
"What do you think is the easiest way to rule the world?" Mayu added a pause to her sentence, and added her hint. "A clue to waste less of our valuable time: A way to make people think day is night, and night is day."
It was more or less a logic question, he was expecting a general knowledge question. The annoying with logic question to him was, usually the question itself isn't specific. An example of a common logic question is the "logic boat". You have a cabbage, a goat, and a wolf with you and you have to cross a river. You can only bring one of them to the other side, and if left alone, the goat will eat the cabbage, and the wolf will eat the goat. It didn't make any sense to him because a cabbage doesn't weigh a ton. Logic questions... The answers, to him, were up to everyone's own interpretation and on some cases you have to expand the situation / question to answer it.
He crossed his arms and began to think. How was the hint and the question related? So, "a way to make people think day is night, and night is day." in other words, it had to do something about people's mind... Well, if you teach a child that a day is night and vice versa, that child will forever think that way, right?
"The easiest way to rule the world, is by making people think you're the leader. Hypnotism, maybe?" He answered. "If this is the right answer then you are surrounded by stupid people, because that's a real easy question when the hint is involved."
"Close, but that answer is acceptable." That girl seemed satisfied. "Should I say congratulations?"
"So, the prize?" It's acceptable, so it shouldn't be wrong.
"I thought you've forgotten about it by now..." She looked at her watch. It didn't even take him a minute to answer, any normal person in his shoes wouldn't forget what she said a minute ago. "Let's just forget about the present, 'kay?"
"Oh, I'm a person who can't forget, you owe me something."
"A person who can't forget?" The girl copied his pose and crossed both arms on her chest, thinking hard. "It's on the tip of my tongue... Oh, that's right, eidetic memory, isn't it?"
"And that means, until I die, your face is written here." Kaito pointed at his head. "Forever. You owe me a present."
"What you should know is that, I'm just a little girl, and I shouldn't trust strangers." She blew a bubble with her gum and she examined him closely from head to toe. "The one hundredth digits of pi, what is it?." Later she took out a colorful small notebook, bound by a red thread, a pen ready on her hand.
"Would you even know the answer? When was the last time I looked up pi numbers? I'm pretty sure it's… Nine." She took notes of that, probably because she wasn't sure of the answer herself. "So, my present?" He asked again.
"Are you doing anything tomorrow?"
"I'm going on a little family trip tomorrow, I'll be at the station by nine in the morning so I don't think we'll have a time to chat." Kaito wasn't wearing a watch with him, and he figured he'd wasted some time already. "I need to go too, I have to learn how to cook a proper dinner. It's been nice talking to you though." Kaito was about to set off when she grabbed his arm and later grunted like a little kid.
"It's not every day that I meet someone special like you!" Oh, that was cute. "The present I was talking to you about, I just have a spot opened in a company of mine, and we pay really high wages!"
"I don't think I'm up for a job, I just starte-"
"You said you want the prize!"
"I can't, I h-"
"Come on, take it!"
"I'm telling you I-"
"Please! I've never begged anyone before!" For someone her age, and, for a girl, her grip on his arm was really strong. "If you refuse, then I'm going to have to make you forget about me!"
"The only way you can make me forget your face is by making me six feet under."
"Exactly!" That girl was freaking him out. She's just a little kid though, what's the worst she could do? She seemed wealthy, send her bodyguards at her or something? No, she looked like a spoiled one, she'd probably forget about him as soon as she gets home. Eventually her grip loosened, or maybe he was just lucky and her guard was down, either way, Kaito made a run for it.
Looking back, that fifteen year old girl put on a face, the same face a kid would put when their toys gets taken away, only, her face was ten times worse than all of them combined.
## ## 1885
'Did I get everything...?' Kaito was back at his "house", something he didn't ask for from his parents, but there's no use complaining. It was a bit too spacious for him, though not for long; they'd be there in a few hours. Parents could be bossy sometimes, then again, it is their job to be bossy, isn't it? 'Should I start with the vegetables first?' He had two hours to prepare everything and he was... Clueless, just, clueless. It's not that he'd never cooked before, it's just that, he prefers to eat outdoors in restaurants... Because sometimes he feels like... He's just in no mood for doing actual labor work that is cooking. He heard the bell rang not soon after and raced for the front door. The guest wasn't someone he was expecting to meet at all.
"What are you doing here?" Kaito asked as he let a girl, around three years younger than her, in. She frowned when she heard such a greeting, something Kaito noticed a second later. "I mean, sorry about that, just a little surprised. Welcome to my home dear sister!" She hugged her sister tightly, and lifted her up in the air.
"You look so... So... Not so different really. It's only been a few months so I wasn't expecting anything." Kaiko, his sister, returned the hug. "What I did expect was, you're not ready at all with dinner, huh?"
"So you came here to help me cook?" He led her to the kitchen, and Kaiko checked the shopping bags, the ingredients he bought, and one unopened cookbook. "Where's mom and dad?"
"I took an earlier train, they should be here around seven thirty. We need to pick them up by then, but right now, I'm going to help you cook." She took off her coat and tossed it to her brother. Kaiko rolled up her sleeves and was ready to replace his brother's place in cooking. "Look how considerate I am, I'm helping you cook! Right now just prepare the dinner table."
"Aye, aye." He saluted and took some silverware out from the drawer. Not good, he should polish them all up first too. According to his biological clock, he should have around two hours to prepare dinner, and he and his sister would leave to the station by then with dinner ready to serve.
Ever since they were kids, the two had always been close to each other. She's the only person he could open up to, and most siblings wouldn't do that, he figured. Sibling rivalry isn't uncommon and most of his friends would be annoyed by their own siblings, though he was just fine with his sister there. He had a little bit of sister complex and would beat up anyone who'd make her cry... Which lead to another memory he refused to recall regarding his sister and himself.
"So, I talked to this weird girl earlier." Kaito started the conversation, still polishing the silverware with a napkin on the dinner table, and his sister... He was chopping up some vegetables, he wasn't sure. "She asked me a weird question, and she said she wants me to work for her. A real good pay, but it's a bit suspicious to trust strangers out like that, right?"
"She was offering you a job, shouldn't that be a good thing? A high pay, that way it won't take you so long to find a good job when you've finished your study." She replied from the kitchen, there was no need to shout since the dinner table and kitchen wasn't all far apart.
"It's like... Let's put it this way. Suddenly a girl just waltz into your life and told you she'll give you a house, some diamonds, anything. If it's too good to be true, we shouldn't trust them, right? It's like saying they found a unicorn or something and you should follow them." It made no sense to him, but his sister laughed at it. "Anyway, anything new with you?"
"Not really, it's just weird not having you home."
"Awww..."
"I'm pretty sure you have your homesick moments!" He admitted he felt that way, just a little bit, on his first few days. "Let's just do everything quick and head to the station, we don't want to make them wait."
## ## 1885
It was around eight p.m. in the evening, both Kaito and Kaiko were standing just a few meters away from the rail. The train should come arrive any minute, and Kaito was freezing there. He walked back and forth and back and forth just to keep his mind off the weather. Or maybe, the weather wasn't the only problem bugging him.
"This is taking forever... I just want to start dinner already, I'm hungry!" Kaito grunted. "I'm pretty sure mom and dad are expecting me to cook this time though. Then again, I can't say no to a helping hand from you."
"Hah, you're going to take all the credit for tonight's dinner, don't worry about it. I have a plan." She grinned and stopped Kaito from his endless loop of back and forth. "Once the train's arrived I'm going to jump in and "pretend" I've just arrived. They know I took a different train, but if I leave the train, they're going to think I went on this one."
"Why would you want to do that?"
"It's just for fun, can't you imagine their faces seeing me off the train they've been riding for three hours?" The two could hear the train already, it was near. "They're in the front, so I'll take the back. Play along with me when mom and dad ask, okay?"
"Sure, there's nothing wrong with lying to your own parents for entertainment purposes." Kaito had nothing against his sister's little prank, it's just that he wanted her to think out her plan again. She's never been the best liar in the world. "You should head on to the south side, I'll play along."
She smiled upon hearing that and sprinted to the southern part of the station, ready to sneak into one of the doors. Kaito put both his hands on his pocket and headed for the opposite direction. He then figured, maybe he should put on a play on his own as well, take his parents by surprise, treasure their priceless reactions, and slowly lead them to where Kaiko should be on the back part.
'I should hide somewhere...'
The train hit it's break and slowly came to a stop, Kaito hurriedly distanced himself from the rail, wondering where to hide in the station. It'd be easy to blend in with the crowd, but it'd be too troublesome and he could get carried away. The trash can is out of the option even though it'd fit him well with the size, the toilet? He'd end up losing them and they'll think he's "irresponsible". Or maybe, the good old sturdy pillar. He shouldn't think so far, sometimes simple things could be effective as well, right?
He hid behind one of the Roman-esque pillars in the station and waited as the doors opened leading passengers out of the train. No signs of his parents' faces yet, he just can't wait to give a surprise... Which he hadn't figured out. Maybe a sudden bear hug, or he could act out like a thug and shout "give me your money!" out at them, that'd give a surprise.
The problem was, he was so focused on thinking of ways on how to surprise his parents, he ignored the possibility of him being the surprised one. Then, it started. Starting from the front, and to the back row, the roar of explosion burst out from each and every door. Kaito could feel the wind and force of the explosion and impact, his ears ringing as if a bee was stuck flying around his head. The pillars kept him safe, for a brief moment. Everyone who stood close to the rail was blown away and tossed like feathers, everyone who stood in a safer distance began running, panicking, surrounding the train that was already engulfed in fire.
Despite all the commotion, Kaito was still paralyzed behind the pillar; his parents, his sister… He couldn't move a muscle.