Day 56: Lil' Tyke Toys (Noon)

[tasteoftruth]

Badd had always cautioned younger detectives not to be so open-minded that their brains fell out. It was good to allow for unexpected possibilities but some things were just plain insane and should be ignored in the interests of time. But now the entire world was insane and Badd found himself having to believe nine impossible things before

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[tasteoftruth]

Just looking at the spread, after days in Landel's and weeks in prison, was making Badd unconsciously lick his lips. If he'd thought he could have gotten away with it he'd have distracted the clerk and stolen an entire jar, but if the guards were that tough on food-fighters they probably cut fingers off shoplifters. The little gumball-shaped ones were a tiny bit cheaper, but he really liked having a lollipop stick to pull on. They did have peach but not strawberry peach and it might not be the exact same peach flavor, so probably getting a variety of his preferred flavors was a better gamble than getting a box of his preferred pinks the way he did back home--

Oh. Him. Of all the previously-dismissed perhaps-not-so-crazies he'd wanted to talk to again, Niikura was probably second to last on the list. Badd gave an annoyed grunt and only the barest of glances before turning back to sweeter matters. "Guess you were wrong. How's being a vigilante working out for you?"

He should probably still try and wring some information out of the kid. The world was different here--he might just be an assassin after all.

[oneman_onekill]

Okay, he hadn't answered the question at all, but the way Badd had licked his lips had done the trick. Niikura nearly sighed in relief: looked like he just had a sweet tooth--negative on the creeper.

"Hah! Ain't it bad form to assume things about people before ya really know them?" he retorted, likewise eying the candy. It looked good, and it was sugar, but he had to resist. Ten bucks could be better spent elsewhere; Niikura wasn't as starved for sugar as some people. No, he just wanted something that would hurt more than a flashlight. Like a hammer - or a knife, ideally, but what was the likelihood being able to get on the bus with one of those?

"And my night job's workin' out just fine, thanks--don't get your hopes up. I'm not plannin' on killin' anyone any time soon." Yes, 'just fine' worked. No need to mention the great time he'd had last night after being a Good Samaritan had backfired on him. "Ya find that girl you were lookin' for?"

[tasteoftruth]

Niikura had asked him what year he was from, Badd remembered. Another time-traveller, or at least someone who knew about it. And he'd also mentioned Gant that night but Gant wasn't dead yet...almost a shame. Almost.

"Eventually. Why the change of heart? I'm sure there's plenty of people here who could use a good killing." Badd kept up his conversational tone as he drummed his fingers on the counter, waiting for the clerk to show up. Five dollars wouldn't buy him very much, and while there were plenty of places one could find a nice shiv or a bludgeon the all-goo diet probably meant the sugar supply at Landel's was going to be pretty low for a while.

[oneman_onekill]

Maybe it was a good thing the clerk hadn't shown up yet: he might have been put off by their conversation. Niikura laughed and lounged against the counter. "Aye, but it's all about the logistics - it has to be right. I'm a guy who likes to stick to a routine, ya know. And here...I'm missin' a few key things." He shrugged. "So even though I could, I won't. 'Sides, can't be wastin' my time always goin' after the small fish."

He paused and added with a wicked grin, "Doesn't mean I can't scare 'em into line, though." And he'd certainly done that.

Niikura shot Badd a curious glance. "Interestin' that you should ask, come to think of it. What, were ya hopin' I'd have killed your bud Gant by now? Should still thank you 'cause your info bought me an interestin' conversation or two."

[tasteoftruth]

Ah, one of those kinds of serial killers, the neat and perfect kind. It seemed that Gant was saved by the murderous young man being unable to find the right kind of cord for his garrote.

Badd rolled his eyes. "I'm really doubting you gave Gant much intimidation. He's a hardened cop, and one that's not weighed down by moral qualms. Besides, he has bigger concerns here...people who have more personal grudges." He hadn't asked how Skye planned to handle Gant or if she planned to do anything at all about him. Revenge was a personal matter, if she wanted his help she'd ask for it. Badd's only interference was to cut down as many of Gant's deceptions as possible to break down any network of allies he might forge for himself...and that was just a Yatagarasu's job, to spread the truth.

Where was that clerk? His teeth were aching. "So what does it take for you to kill someone, then?" he asked, fingers tapping faster out of annoyance. "Specific location, special tools...mood music?"

[oneman_onekill]

"Ha ha, well, even if I didn't, it was fun while it lasted," Niikura said, eyes glazing over a bit from the nostalgia. He had managed to get himself sedated at the very end, yes, but that had been totally worth it. "I'll keep them guessin' if they want."

No, the point wasn't to scare them up front, but to just sew that little seed of doubt: were his threats valid or not? Was he speaking the truth or not? So long as they knew he was there, that he was around, that he was watching carefully, they would keep wondering, whoever they were, and by doing so, they would never be able to forget him.

"What does it take?" He chuckled. "Sometimes all of those things. I tailor each one to the individual: setting, method, music if I feel it's appropriate - I'm pretty particular. No, there's somethin' else I'm missin', somethin' that I won't find here." Niikura framed his face with his fingers. "A man of justice should have a dashin' uniform to match, dontcha think? The ones we got 'round here - even the new ones - just don't cut it, I'm afraid."

[tasteoftruth]

Badd scowled, his low growl becoming even rougher. "A man of real justice can do his job without a fancy suit. Not that I don't appreciate you keeping your urges to yourself, but the better vigilantes aren't so prissy. I work in what I've got, with what I've got, and I don't hold off because I don't have the right look." Who did he think Niikura was, a superhero? Badd did well enough with his trenchcoat, which was function and meaningful without being gaudy.

It was easy to feel good about himself standing next to a man who made such claims, whether or not he'd ever carried them through. "But then again I never stole lives." As Byrne said, it was the one burden too heavy to be carried away.

[oneman_onekill]

At first, Niikura just froze and stared: he'd been expecting Badd to laugh him off, but instead, the detective had...taken him seriously -- or maybe this really was his way of laughing him off, except, why did he have to sound like he wasn't? Eh, either way, he wasn't going to pass this by.

"Wait, did you seriously--pfft--haaaahahahaha! Man, Badd-san, you are really just too much sometimes." Niikura wiped the corners of his eyes. "...'prissy'? I'll have to remember that one." He'd never really gotten comments on the Official Akumetsu Uniform (Usually, the people who saw it were too busy screaming or trying to kill him.), so he was pretty sure that if he ever donned it again, that word - prissy - would be in his head forever.

"Ah, and then of course ya have to pull a low blow like that," he said, pouting. "It's not stealin' if you're payin' too."

[tasteoftruth]

"You can't pay back a human life," Badd said firmly, right as the clerk finally made his lazy way back to the desk. Finally. They were the only ones here, exactly what was keeping the idiot so busy? He handed over his debit card and commenced with a very specific variety pack order. And no lemon. Lemon was disgusting.

The total was a depressing thirty-two lollipops. He'd need to keep it to less than five a day even if he wasn't using them to bribe the other prisoners. But it was still what he needed, and the normally curt man offered the clerk a quiet 'thank you' as he left the store with his treasures in hand.

"Unless you're throwing time travel into the mix, dead's still dead and theft's still theft," he said, picking up the conversation thread again. One hand unwrapped a cherry lollipop without Badd needing to look at what he was doing. "If I thought killing a few bad guys balanced the cosmic books and brought justice to the innocent I'd have turned into a murderer a long time ago."

Clones. That was the other thing. Badd had forgotten in the the mass of utter nonsense Niikura seemed to spew. "And if you're the murderer you can't exactly kill yourself afterwards to even it out," he added as a lure for the braggart vigilante. A lot of odd things seemed possible now. Perhaps he could.

[oneman_onekill]

Niikura was about to rap out a response when the clerk finally showed up; thinking it prudent to keep their little discussion mostly to themselves, he also clammed up until they were walking out of the toy store, Badd now thirty-two lollipops the richer, whatever that meant.

He shook his head. "That's not why I do it at all. It's..." --oops, he didn't need to be telling this guy about that. Katsuragi -- his promise to Katsuragi was personal. He'd never mentioned him to anyone, not to Yamada, not to Bloody Mary, no one. "...more than just revenge. People like me" - Niikura jabbed a thumb at his chest - "will definitely show up if people like you" - and then prodded Badd in the shoulder with his index finger - "don't do their job right. And if our justice is too brutal, well, then the people who're supposed to handle that kinda stuff need to step up, don'tcha think?"

He shrugged. "But call it what ya like. I don't expect people to always agree with me. As for the murderer killin' himself afterward, though, ain't that what people want when they ask for the death penalty?" Niikura might seem loud and showy, but that didn't mean he was going to take every carrot that got dangled in front of him. "Or were ya suggestin' in a nice, roundabout way that I actually do that next time?" He smiled and and pointed a finger at Badd again. "Because there is an interestin' idea."

His favorite technique: feigning ignorance.

"Oh! And before I forget...speakin' of time travel, Badd-san, I heard somethin' cool not too long ago. A bird called Byrne Faraday told me ya actually believe in that kinda stuff now. He must have the magic touch or somethin', although he wasn't kind enough to reveal his secret to gettin' through to ya. Shame, ain't it? Really need to work on my welcomin' techniques, myself. Anyway, just wanted to congratulate ya for convertin' to crazy like the rest of us. About time, right?"

[tasteoftruth]

Badd had been enjoying his first lollipop in several weeks when Niikura started mouthing off. The taste, the feel, the shape, that little sensory comfort that had been up with him until the end of his career, that had really been what he was missing to get the job done properly. He reveled in the simple taste while the teenage 'vigilante' continued to make his grand claims.

Then Niikura got to the end of his rambles. Badd's face betrayed no emotion but there was a soft crunch as he bit a crack down the center of his lollipop.

You stay away from Byrne Faraday. You come within five hundred feet of him with your smarmy grin and your murderous urges and I'll snap your neck in full view of the guards.

Stone face. No reaction, that would only let Niikura know he'd found a weak spot. Badd would need to corner Byrne later and make sure he knew what a monster Niikura thought he was, and that it just wasn't safe to go throwing his name and profession at every person who wandered along. Hadn't trust been what got them into this mess? They'd let in one person, just one young woman with a tragic loss and pouty lips, and it had destroyed them.

He'd called Byrne a bird. Was it coincidence or a veiled threat? Besides Gant, who didn't seem to care, nobody else should know the Yatagarasu's secret (and he'd been an idiot to just drop it like that even if Gant was just completely insane instead of time displaced). If Niikura really was taunting him he wouldn't rise to the bait. "Well...it's kinda hard to believe...without a little proof," Badd said, sucking on the half-severed lollipop stick. "Can you blame me?"

[oneman_onekill]

Niikura's smile wouldn't have faded even if he could have heard what Badd was thinking about him, maybe saluted and said, will do in that breezy way of his. As it was, though, he didn't suspect a thing.

"Nah, I really can't. Complete stranger tellin' ya that kind of stuff...wouldn't have believed it either if somethin' hadn't gone down, in hindsight." The teen glanced at Badd. "And you two go far back, so that must've helped."

He yawned and suddenly remembered that he was supposed to be getting lunch this instant...how had he managed to get caught up in this for so long? "Anyway, enjoy your candy, Badd-san. Nice talkin' again -- who knows? Maybe the next time we run into each other, I'll have somethin' more excitin' to tell you about, seein' as how ya seem so interested in my line of work..."

[tasteoftruth]

Stone face. Blank face. Keep sucking that lollipop and don't meet his eyes.

What had Byrne told him? If Niikura got it into his twisted little mind that Badd was somehow a rival, or an enemy, that made everyone connected to Badd a potential victim. And what if he'd let slip something about the Yatagarasu--what if Gant had exposed the secret, to distract Niikura from his own crimes? It wasn't something Badd would put past him. He was an idiot to have let the corrupt chief know his secret just so he could get in a little knowing smugness. Prison really had made his mind soft.

Badd gave a slight nod as he turned to go the opposite way. "Lemme know how it goes. Just don't get too cocky with your target...lot of people here have friends, and a lot of those friends have weapons."

[oneman_onekill]

Badd sure knew how to play it cool and humor people, but maybe that was just part of his technique. He wasn't even looking at him, now that he thought about it...maybe he'd hit a nerve? Or did Badd just not like his face.

Knowing the guy, that actually could make sense.

"Right, right," the teenager called over his shoulder with a short laugh and a wave. "I'll keep those things in mind. Thanks for lookin' out for me, Badd-san. Take care now."

Time to go find lunch. His stomach was growling.