Unexpected Truths (Part 1) For Amber!
Title: Unexpected Truths
Recipient: Amber / monarchist
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: This is 19k words. No kidding. The longest fic I’ve ever written. I’d suggest getting a drink and a snack before you start reading.
Summary: Young doctor Yagyuu Hiroshi expects a normal shift at the ER that night. By morning, he is embroiled in the deepest sides of an organization he doesn't fully want to confront nor does he know how to solve the mess that Niou has dragged him in.
Notes: I wanted to give you something plot-heavy and it got lengthy. I truly hope you enjoy this!
Yagyuu Hiroshi closed his eyes for a moment as he drank down the bitter coffee from his flask. He had almost drunk it all already, yet it wouldn’t be enough to keep him aware and alert for the rest of the night. Still, he preferred being a little drowsy in the morning than having to resort to the hospital coffee, which he was sure would keep him awake, for all the wrong reasons. He looked at the clock on the wall of his office. There was still plenty of time before sunrise and therefore for stupid people to embroil themselves in dangerous situations that could result in needing medical assistance. Yagyuu wished for an easy night shift but with a short-staffed ER, that was being too optimistic.
He placed the flask on his desk again, as he pulled some reports that were yet to be filled out, to check and revise those that already were. Interns tried to fill them out right, or so they claimed, and it took time to revise them and write the necessary corrections for the morning shift.
‘30 years old female in labor, dilation 4cm, oxytocin 2ml….’
There was an urgent knock on his door before it was slammed open by one of the nurses.
“Doctor, we need you at the OR.” Ah, yes. It had been naïve of him to think it was going to be an easy night, then.
“I didn’t hear any siren,” Yagyuu said arching an eyebrow as he rose up from his chair. Even if the ambulance needed to turn it off, once they reach the hospital, it would always give him some time to prepare himself for urgent cases.
“This one came in by foot,” she said. Well, that was an uncommon one. Yagyuu hurried to the preparation room, taking his robe off and picking a surgery gown before washing his hands thoroughly as required by protocol. The nurses kept on filling him in as he did this. “Male, probably on his mid 20s, several stab wounds on upper torso, excessive bleeding, walked in, presented resistance to being treated, in and out of consciousness. Already canalized and the anesthesiologist is on her way. Shall we start without her?”
“Yes, set the anesthetic tower up.” Yagyuu frowned; the deputy director would hear about this. There was only so much Yagyuu could handle on his own, he was not going to compromise his practise over other people’s ineptitude. As for now, the tower and his own skills would have to suffice.
Yagyuu opened the door to the OR, to see that two nurses were cutting up the clothes of the subject, preparing him for the procedure. Surprisingly, the man was still struggling against them. Yagyuu sighed internally, “Tie him up if you need to, we don’t have time to-“
“Fuck… off…”
The worst fear of most doctors was seeing someone they loved being wheeled through the glass doors on a stretcher, suddenly facing the responsibility of having their lives in their hands. Yagyuu was not afraid of this, he had never had to be. His family came from a very well-known, well-respected family line of doctors, and if they ever were in need of the slightest medical care, they would go to the best private hospitals in the country. Not the small overworked clinic in the middle of the city, where Yagyuu worked at. With no loved ones to worry about, he never really cared to form an emotional bond with his patients, because it wasn’t needed and could interfere with his objectivity and concentration.
Maybe that was why seeing Niou covered in blood and at the verge of death, felt like being rolled over by a truck.
He rushed to the table. Niou’s eyes were glazed and out of focus but sharpened at the sight of Yagyuu. He knew Niou recognized him by how his lips curved slightly upwards after seeing him. Yagyuu started shouting directions to the nurses as he placed a hand on Niou’s forehead. It’s alright, I’ve got this.
“Puri.” I know you do.
Niou closed his eyes and became slack as the anesthesia kicked in.
-·-
Click.
The sky was tinged with pale grey with the break of dawn. It was cloudy and the humidity was high and suffocating, oppressing. It would feel cold later, after the skies had emptied and the water ran across the street, but now it was just an annoyance.
Click.
If the rain didn’t stop by the time Yagyuu needed to leave work, he would get wet in his way to the parking lot. How inconvenient. He should start bringing an umbrella if this was going to be the beginning of the rainy season.
“Doctor Yagyuu Hiroshi?”
Click.
Yagyuu flipped the silver lighter closed once more and turned away from the window. A police officer was standing at the door frame, of course. “Good morning, how can I help you?”
The fact that he knew why the officer was here, didn’t mean he should make his job easier. It was the faulty police system that had caused this mess in the first place, wasn’t it?
“I’m Inspector Sanada Genichirou, in charge of the case of the murder of…” The officer looked down at the folder on his hands, “…young male, identity currently unknown. Report goes that you were the doctor in charge when he arrived to get medical attention. I would like to have a word with you, if possible.”
They didn’t know Niou’s name. It made sense, Niou hand’t been carrying a wallet when he came in so there wasn’t a way to identify him. Yagyuu didn’t feel like correcting Officer Sanada, as if he would have the right to Niou’s name once voiced aloud. Instead, Yagyuu waved at the spare chair in the small office.
“Of course, please take a seat.” Because all he wanted to talk about it was how Niou died on the operation table because of blood loss and how all his desperate efforts to keep him alive had been useless in the end. Such a lovely way to finish this shift from hell, absolutely. “I see you have my report already, is there anything else you need further knowledge of?”
“Did the subject said anything about his attacker? About the circumstances that caused his injuries?”
Niou’s voice still resonated in Yagyuu’s mind, crystal clear.
“No, he didn’t. He was already suffering the side effect of blood loss and his speech was incoherent.” The fact that one nonsensical world had meant everything between them, was a different matter. Officer Sanada frowned, displeased, but nodded nonetheless.
“Nurses recall the subject showed violent behavior and reluctance to get medical attention. Would you suggest he was under the influences of drugs?”
“It would be hard to tell. Pain, blood loss, emotional trauma can affect someone’s behavior. I’m sure you can agree with me that being stabbed five times and walking to a hospital for help, might be quite stressful. I believe the analysis your medical examiner will most certainly run, will offer you a more accurate answer to that question,” Yagyuu answered and pushed his glasses up, annoyed. It would be easily mistaken by tiredness, he was sure. He had to remind himself that Niou was gone and that was just a body, so whatever happened to it was none of his business.
“Alright. I won’t take any more of your time, doctor.” The officer stood up and offered Yagyuu a hand. Yagyuu stood up to take it, after placing the lighter safely inside his pocket. “Have a good day.”
Right.
“You too, Inspector.”
-·-
Cold. Yagyuu decided he was cold. His body was shaking uncontrollably and in the dim light that the closed curtains allowed, his fingertips looked slightly blue. Probably, because he was lying on the bare floor of his living room, staring at the ceiling. Perhaps, the fact he had gotten soaked on his way to his car in the morning and hadn’t bothered to change his clothes once he arrived home, had something to do with it. Maybe it was because he was dead already, as much as Niou was.
Niou had been in his life since forever, in and out, disappearing and coming back, but always there. A constant solid chaos that brought life to his over-organized life, a breeze of joy and wildness that was always there when he needed to be cheered up and was too proud to admit it. In return, Yagyuu paid for the bar bills and strip clubs, traveled half the country to see a music band he didn’t know anything about and once, Yagyuu had even bailed him out of jail. He would complain about Niou’s recklessness and insist Niou should get a real job and settle down, but he hardly saw their friendship as an unequal agreement. If anything, he always got more out of Niou than he did from himself. But now, Niou was no more and it was his fault. At failing to save him, he had killed Niou.
Yagyuu curled up on his side and stared at nothing, mind blank and empty.
He pulled Niou’s silver lighter out of his pocket and pretended to examine it closely. His glasses were long gone and tears wouldn’t let see much anyway. Niou had carried almost nothing with him at the moment of his death, minus some worthless trash like bubblegum wrappers, a ticket bus, some spare change and the lighter. Well, the latter couldn’t be considered as completely worthless, since it was made of solid silver. Yagyuu knew that, since he had been the one that had stolen it from his own father to give Niou as present, when they graduated middle school together. Yagyuu couldn’t have let the police keep this, the last thing that bonded him to Niou, so he had stole it again before Niou’s possessions were handed over to them.
Click.
He flicked it once and the flame’s light hurt his eyes. It felt good, real, so he did it again. And again. And again. Yagyuu flicked the lighter on and off and eventually it started to become too hot to hold it anymore. He dropped it to the floor and even in the poor lightening, he could see something scribbled on it. He frowned and rubbed his eyes, expecting it to disappear, but the scribbling was still there. Heat-activated ink? Yagyuu frowned and reached blindly for his glasses. With the world coming back into focus and his breath caught in his throat, Yagyuu read Niou’s handwriting.
goo.gl/jp4AEe
c0yt3
pss: 45j28
Switch
---♦---♦---
“Morning, Sanada. You look like you could use some sleep. Did you have a rough night?” Yukimura Seiichi said, leaning against the door frame, and Sanada took a deep breath. Usually, he wouldn’t mind Yukimu-- Chief Inspector Yukimura’s idea of sharing a cup of coffee in the police headquarters office. Even if that involved using the little time off they had to discuss cases, it was refreshing and even challenging, with Yukimura’s passion for justice. But on a night like this one, where people had died and there were still cases unsolved, Yukimura’s company made Sanada edgy. Yukimura’s flawless police career, with one of the highest productivity rates, was a reminder of what Sanada had yet to achieve, of how he had failed the people he had sworn to protect and serve.
He grunted in affirmation, before taking a long sip of his coffee. Yukimura sat on the chair in front of him and absently opened a folder, checking what Sanada could assume were the morning reports. Sanada tried unsuccessfully to not stare but it was hard, when he was aching to ask how the other was doing, when the desire of reaching forward and touching him was still there. Yet, that wasn’t work related, thus entirely forbidden by their mutual agreement after things had gotten complicated two months ago. Instead, Sanada looked away and took another drink of his bitter coffee.
They stayed in silence, as Yukimura went through several sheets of paper and Sanada resisted the urge to rub his eyes. He couldn’t remember when the last time he had gone home was. The day before yesterday, maybe?
“A new murder case,” Yukimura said, “A messy one. It’s probably a robbery gone wrong by the look of things...”
“Yes, I thought so too. Yanagi is already examining the body,” Sanada replied to the implied question. “I was about to go down to--”
“How long has he had the body?” Yukimura interrupted him and Sanada blinked a few times, a little confused at the question. He looked at the clock on the wall, a chill settling in his gut as the realization set in. He knew where this was heading.
“I think… two hours…” Sanada replied, with barely contained frustration. Yanagi was one of the best medical examiners out there and his work was known for being precise and fast. On average, he had a report ready in an hour and a half and that meant Sanada was already late. Granted, Sanada had acted as a reinforcement in a combini robbery case on his way to the station that had taken longer than expected, and at his arrival, he had corrected some young officer’s mistakes here and there. Still, he knew that wasn’t an excuse for not being at the morgue on time.
“And you are still here because…?” Yukimura didn’t look up from where he was scribbling notes and Sanada was grateful because he could feel his cheeks burning in shame. He tugged his police cap down and stood up.
“Yes, sir.”
-·-
There was something eerily about the morgue that always made Sanada frown in unveiled disgust. People were more than the individual parts of biological composition that defined them as humans. Even though he could understand how useful tagging people with case numbers was, and how cutting them open helped to better understand what happened to them, it still felt like a violation to the lives they had once had.
Sanada cringed slightly as the smell of chemicals and death hit him, once he entered the morgue, so he applied some menthol salve to ward from it.
“I have your report already, Genichirou,” Yanagi said, not looking up from where he was examining one of the tattoos on the corpse’s arm. “It’s on the table over there.”
“Thank you, Renji.” Sanada nodded and ignored the folder for the time being, and came closer to the examination table instead. The report would be necessary for the administrative part of the work, but everything he needed to know he would hear it from Yanagi himself. “I’m sorry that I took longer to come down this time…”
“We’ve had some quite eventful nights lately, haven’t we?” Yanagi said, tracing the tattoo with his gloved index finger once more, before finally looking up and taking his protective goggles off. “I understand. May I offer you a flask of tea? I know you will decline, yet I decide to trust the slight possibility one day you will accept my request.”
Sanada shook his head no, a small smile forming on his face. People tended to label Yanagi as a scary unreachable genius. They were partially right, but that wasn’t the whole picture. If you treated him with respect and kindness, you got the same in return. “I don’t mind if you do, though.”
Yanagi nodded gratefully, before discarding his gloves and standing up to pick up a flask on his desk. He took a couple of small sips, with his eyes closed as if he was centering himself, and put it away afterwards. Then, he opened his eyes and looked past Sanada and straight to the body. “Let’s start now, shall we?”
For the next ten minutes, Sanada listened intently at every word that came from Yanagi’s mouth. Smoothly, as if he was reciting ancient poetry, Yanagi told him all you could learn from a dead body. From broken bones back in childhood and testifying proof of a recovering addiction to smoking, to the cause of death of the young man: blood loss caused by stabbing wounds in several parts of his body, mostly soft tissue and organs. If it hadn’t been stabbed to death, he would have lived a very healthy life, according to Yanagi. There weren’t any DNA matches with police registers, no birthmarks either but for a mole in the chin, no missing person report for a man with his complexion. The identity of the silver-haired young man was still unknown.
“I know you are thinking that it matches the profile of robbery gone wrong, and you might be right. Still…” Yanagi picked up a new glove and touched one of the wounds, “This bothers me. This is uncommon and an oddity. Can you tell me why, Genichirou?”
Sanada stared intently at the wound and shrugged after a while.
“Not really, it looks like a clean stab to me.”
“Exactly. It is too clean. The person who stabbed Case 23AY4 knew how to do it --they had a sharp tool too,” Yanagi said and then grabbed one of the subject’s hand to show his fingers. “This is important too. He has no fingerprints, they’ve been burned off. The scarring tissue suggest this occurred at least one to two years ago.”
Sanada frowned. Someone that willingly burned their fingerprints off were never up to any good. Was the man in front of them a criminal as well?
“Anything else, Renji?”
“His tattoos are quite unique…” Yanagi said, and he raised the arm for Sanada to see.
“Is that a fox?”
“No, it’s a coyote. The coyotes differ from foxes on--”
“Do you think they could mean something to the investigation?”
“Not really, I just thought they were beautiful,” Yanagi sighed and carefully placed the young man’s arm on the table.
“Now, I believe you should get some rest, Genichirou. Judging by the paleness and dehydration of your skin, and your pupils going in and out of focus unintentionally, you’ve spent at least forty four hours without sleep. You usually resort to stimulants to avoid the symptoms of sleep deprivation, by drinking coffee. Black, no cream, two spoons of sugar. Taking into account that caffeine starts working after the first ten minutes of ingestion and we’ve been together over half an hour, the chances that Seii- Chief Inspector Yukimura sent you here before you even finished your coffee are 97%.”
Sanada said nothing. He pulled his hat off, smoothed his hair down and put it back on, frowning.
“Crime never sleeps or stops, why would I?”
Yanagi sighed and Sanada had the impression he was refraining from saying something. Sanada wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what.
“Seiichi will get over it with time, Genichirou. Don’t be too hard on him… or yourself.”
“Right. I’ll go now.”
---♦---♦---
“Do you realize this endoscopy was due two days ago?” Yagyuu raised an eyebrow as he skipped over the medical note the patient had handed over to the desk nurse. They had called Yagyuu when they had refused him the service and the man had become obnoxiously stubborn. Even if the procedure was not complicated and could be done in half an hour, it involved at least two specialists and the use of an OR.
“Well yes, but I didn’t have time two days ago!” The man snapped back, his face turning red in anger. Yagyuu remained unfazed. This wasn’t an uncommon happening --people lacking common sense. He wished he could attribute it to the fact it was past midnight, but in reality, people were rather stupid on a regular basis, regardless of the time. “It’s your job! You can’t deny me medical attention!”
“Would you be so kind to read the sign over there, sir?” Yagyuu said and wondered if he had ever thought about this side of practicing medicine, of having to deal with this nonsense, when he was a student.
“Eh? Which one?” The man looked around, confused, but finally doing what he was told to do. That was indeed progress.
“The one with bright, large red letters, if you may.” No, he had never thought about this part of being a doctor, he had been too invested in being the top of the class, and having perfect marks in every assignment. Naively, he had thought that would guarantee saving every life he held in his hands.
“Emergency Room?”
“Very good. Now, what do you think we do in here?” That, of course, was far from the reality. It didn’t guarantee anything in the end, neither having a place in large hospitals nor doing medical investigations and making breakthrough discoveries. Nor saving the life of your best friend.
“You cure people. That’s why you need to do this procedure now!”
Ah, so much for progress. Yagyuu threw a side glance to the security guard next the glass doors.
“No, we treat medical situations that endanger a patient’s life. If you can wait two days to seek medical attention, and I don’t see you bleeding to death, I assume you went to a lowly qualified doctor because of its cheapness and have you a wrong diagnosis. If you truly wish to submit yourself to an unnecessary procedure involving shoving a metal tube down your throat for whatever reason -we don’t really judge how people’s direct their lives, you can certainly wait another six hours and get it done properly by the clinic downst--”
Yagyuu calmly moved to the side to dodge the fist directed at his face. The security guard was already there, manhandling the man out the Emergency Room. Unorthodox but a useful way to get rid of undesirable people and getting them banned from the ER: trying to get some common sense into them.
“Doctor! Are you alright?!”The nurse was next to him, in an instant and Yagyuu moved away from her as well, startled.
“Don’t touch me,” Yagyuu hissed and the nursed looked at him, worried. Yagyuu coughed to clear his throat and gave her one of his well-practiced, charming smiles. “I’m alright. I’ll be in my office if anything comes up, I’m sure Kanata-san will take care of not letting that man back in, so you shouldn’t worry about that.”
He didn’t wait for answer and hurried back to his office.
“Yagyuu-san, do you have a moment?” Yagyuu stopped dead in his tracks when his name was called, and recognizing the voice he knew he couldn’t get away with ignoring. He turned around and bowed down politely.
“Deputy Director Abukara-san, it’s a surprise seeing you here at this hour. Is something the matter?”
“Not tonight, not tonight,” The man said and smiled slightly. “I’ve heard you’ve been having some lively nights lately and thought of visiting you and see how things are doing myself.”
“As you can see there is nothing for you to worry about,” Yagyuu said, pushing his glasses up. “We are always overworked, of course. Even more so when our staff is lacking in the responsibility department.”
“Ah yes, I reviewed your complaint. I shall take disciplinary actions as according. It’s unacceptable to not be at work during work hours.” Abukara said and Yagyuu nodded, pleased.
“Those are mistakes that can’t be tolerated, they put people’s lives in danger,” Yagyuu said, bowing again. The memories of Niou’s blood-covered body flashed through his mind and for a moment, he wondered if having an anesthesiologist instead of the anesthetic tower would have made a difference for Niou. He shook his head ‘no’, Niou had long since passed the point where he could have been saved, that moment had been long before he’d arrived.
“Yes, they do. We can’t let our system to be as faulty as the police, can we? I can’t believe this is turning into such a dangerous area for gang members and robbers to be roaming around. What if had been a civilian?”
“Excuse me?”
“The man that died? The nurses’ report suggest he looked like a thug,” the man shrugged it off and Yagyuu felt too dumbstruck for words. “I trust that you took care of handing over all the paperwork, Yagyuu. We don’t want a problem with the police for something like this.”
Yagyuu nodded, numbly. Gang members and robbers.
“Ah I know my ER is in perfect care if you are around, Hiroshi. You are as good as your father was, in his times of glory.”
“Thank you, sir. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do still,” Yagyuu rasped out and bowed before passing past Abukara. It wasn’t until Yagyuu’s office door was firmly shut and he was leaning heavily onto it, that he realized he was shaking. A thug.
It was probably the adrenaline of almost being hit and hearing someone dismissing someone’s life worth because of prejudice. Maybe it was the questionable amount of stimulants he had taken to overcome his insomnia. Funny, because he had never suffered from it in the past. Apparently, having flashes of how your best friend had died in your hands could provoke it. Yagyuu ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Thirty six hours without sleep. He had done it before but it wasn’t the best state to practice medicine, to say the least.
Niou.
He wondered if attending a proper funeral would make it ache less. It was a selfish thought, but he didn’t really care. Niou wouldn’t have wanted the polite hypocrisy of the attendees, and he didn’t have any family left that Yagyuu had known of. Niou was just gone and nothing was going to change that. Yagyuu pulled the silver lighter out his robe pocket and clutched it tightly.
From the moment he had seen the letters appear, he hadn’t lit it up. There was a chance the words hadn’t been there at all. Doubt was better than a disappointing certainty, wasn’t it?
“Puri.”
No, he needed to know.
Yagyuu lit it up and let it heat, until the nonsensical scribblings appeared once more. No, they couldn’t be nonsensical, Niou never did anything lightly. They were a domain and a password and were clearly meant to be on there. The real question was why? Memories flashed through Yagyuu’s mind, of the last brief moments he shared with Niou. The nurse had called him because a severely wounded patient had arrived.
“…excessive bleeding, walked in, presented resistance to being treated, in and out of consciousness...”
The OR, Niou fighting off the nurses, Yagyuu had suggested tying him down but Niou had recognized him and stopped struggling.
Yagyuu opened his eyes wide, his breath caught in his throat as realization hit him hard. Niou hadn’t walked to the ER to get medical attention, he had come to see him.
“Switch.”
The metal clashed against the floor, breaking the silence, as it turned too hot for Yagyuu to hold it anymore.
Whatever Niou had started, Yagyuu was supposed to finish it off.
-·-
Yagyuu rubbed his eyes from under his glasses and yawned. Tiredness and lack of sleep was finally taking its toll on him. He searched blindly for his coffee, only to find the cup empty. Yagyuu checked the time on his wristwatch -it was well past noon- and sighed heavily. His kitchen table was completely covered by sheets of papers and after three hours of reviewing and analyzing them one by one, they were finally in order.
He had logged into the account scribbled on the lighter, as soon as he arrived home. Yagyuu hadn’t known what to expect. It had been foolish of him to secretly hope for a video explaining an elaborate joke of some kind. Instead, he got hundreds of bank states, invoices for medical supplies and equipment and receipts for honorary fees. Most of them were vague about what they referred to, but after a decade of working in hospitals, and a lifetime of dealing with his father’s business, Yagyuu could elucidate this mess. It was the balance of a health institution of some kind, and a shady one if they needed to resort to these schemes to avoid paying taxes. False names, inflated expenses and deductible fees, most likely false charity affiliates…
Yagyuu sighed. He knew that Niou had worked in information trafficking from time to time, with how gifted he was at IT and his ridiculous fascination with danger. Yagyuu didn’t know the details, because he had refused to listen to them, so he could pledge plausible deniability in a court. Now, he wished he knew more. Why would Niou want him to know about this?
If Niou wanted the police to know about this, he could have handed over the information himself. Why would Niou drag him into this? Yagyuu groaned loudly, in frustration.
The lighter was heavy in this hand. Yagyuu flicked it open and lit it.
Niou had sacrificed his precious last minutes which could have saved his life to reach Yagyuu, and had made sure to keep the message a secret from all but him.
Yagyuu flicked it off and on again.
Niou wanted them to switch, so Niou wanted Yagyuu to act like Niou, just like when they had been teenagers. The question was for what.
Standing up, Yagyuu walked to his room and opened his closet. Roads of clothes and shoes lay there neatly folded and in perfect order by style and color. It wasn’t hard for Yagyuu to reach a medium sized box in the back. Kneeling on the floor, he took a deep breath before opening it. As he expected, the contents were still there.
Yagyuu knew that there was only one way to find out the truth behind Niou’s murder. The silver wig and the set of small, shiny keys glinted from the inside of the box and Yagyuu swallowed heavily as he realized exactly what he was going to have to do to get to the bottom of this.
---♦---♦---
Sanada looked down at the photography set on his desk and frowned. There wasn’t any significant progress to find the culprit from the Case 23AY4. He had followed the blood trail left by the deceased subject, up to three blocks away from the hospital but any other clue had been washed away by the rain that had fallen shortly after. The scene investigation team had been efficient, he couldn’t tolerate any less, but still they were at a loss, without a trail to follow. Since the subject didn’t have any fingerprints, the search for the man’s identity had to be done using other physical features. It took longer and it was prone to error, but it was all they had.
It did look like a robbery gone wrong and Sanada was sure the most sensible thing to do was to just close the case and increase the patrols on the zone to prevent something like this from happening again. If they didn’t get a lead to follow soon, Yukimura would demand to leave it for other cases that could be actually solved. Sanada couldn’t agree with that, everyone deserved justice, but still, he realized that wasted time could result in less cases solved in the long run.
“Inspector Sanada-san, I got what you asked for!” Officer Kirihara Akaya said, rushing through Sanada’s door without knocking. He was new, young and reckless but he had potential. Or so Yukimura said; Sanada was mostly annoyed at him. Young people shouldn’t join the forces for fame or for prestige. It was about protecting and serving, about proving something to oneself instead of proving it to another. Kirihara was bratty and had problems following orders if they weren’t Yukimura’s. Come to think about it, Sanada was starting to believe that had been the exact reason why Yukimura had put him under Sanada’s care.
“You found out our subject’s identity?”
Kirihara shifted on his spot and looked away.
“Well, not exactly. I got an address. You see there is a tattoo parlor like five blocks away from here? The guy knows this other guy that has this rad shop across the city and…” Kirihara continued and Sanada glared at him. This was what annoyed him, the lack of discipline. Duty was duty and shouldn’t be mixed with informality or that carefree attitude. Kirihara cringed a little from the weight of the stare. “Anyway, that other guy knows our guy. He said his name was Trickster, which totally is a nickname of some kind, and that’s useless to us. But, he said he had gone to our guy’s flat a few times, to have some beer and stuff. He looked really freaked out to find out he was dead.”
Sanada outstretched his hand and Akaya handed over the notebook. Finally they were heading somewhere. Trails and clues were just suppositions until proven to be true, still it was a good start.
“Great. I’ll go now and check this place,” Sanada said standing up and grabbing his coat. It was still daylight and it would be an easy recognition visit. As Kirihara made attempt to follow, Sanada arched an eyebrow at him.
“What?” Kirihara asked at the sudden stop.
Sanada frowned.
“Shit. What, sir?”
“Where are you going?”
“With you…” Kirihara said but he caught up quickly, “…not. But Sanada-san! I was the one that found about the place, I deserve to go!”
“This is not a competition, this is teamwork. You are going to the morgue and tell Yanagi about this. He is the one helping me digging information from the police old records by the subject’s tattoos. Maybe the name will help him to speed things up,” Sanada deadpanned and for a moment it looked like Kirihara was about to protest, but decided against it in the end. Doing community service and supervising traffic at school zones the last time he had back-talked had worked into making him a more reasonable young man. Good, he was a fast learner.
“Yes, sir,” Kirihara grumbled and Sanada nodded, looking pleased. “You’ll report to me what you learned from Yanagi today.”
Kirihara nodded, looking wary but Sanada didn’t pay mind to it. He finally had a trail to follow and he didn’t have time to waste.
-·-
The building looked like it was about to crumble around him and with each step Sanada took, the staircase cracked and crunched dangerously. He tried to keep his feet as light as he could, to avoid disturbing the other occupants of the apartment complex. Even if his police badge was not visible under his coat, Sanada knew his presence would stand out in a place like this, complicating his mission. The only ones that liked police were the ones that needed them, and only in those occasions.
When he reached the number that was scribbled on the paper, he tried to knock on the door but it was already open. Sanada frowned slightly, all of his senses tingling at the possibility of danger.
“Hello?” he called before pushing the door open with care and stepping in. Sanada took a good look at the place. It would have looked like a one-person apartment with only the basics to get by daily, if it wasn’t for all computers along one of the farthest walls. Sanada felt a shiver down his spine, this wasn’t a good omen. Neither was the state of the the small living room, a mess of papers and furniture all over the place. Something had happened in here, not so long ago, judging by the lack of dust on most of the things. Silently, he reached for his gun on his belt and his torch, and took a defensive stance.
Even though the sky outside was bright grey, with the heavy curtains blocking out the light, the darkness covered everything. There was something rustling, near him, and he aimed his gun at the thing without a second thought but when he turned around, there was nothing there. Sanada could hear his heartbeat in his ears, loud and clear.
Something fell over in the next room and someone cursed under his breath.
“This is the police! Come out with your hands in the air, that is an order!” Sanada shouted, his voice was like thunder resonating through the thin walls and breaking the eerie silence. Sanada’s hand didn’t shake when he pointed towards where the sound had emerged. If there was someone there, he would need to come out from that door. Sanada was covered. “Now!”
Suddenly, there was movement from behind him and Sanada turned around but he saw nothing there. At the same time, a shadow moved from the darkened room where he had been aiming a gun at before, and Sanada cursed at the moment of distraction. “Stop where you are! Put your hands where I can see them!”
As the light of the lantern hit the man’s back, Sanada saw a strike of silver hair. The man’s back stayed facing Sanada and he started to walk, slowly, near one of the windows.
“I said stop!”
The figure stopped.
“Raise your hands!”
And the man did so.
Without dropping his gun, Sanada came forwards, already reaching for a pair of handcuffs. Just as he was about to grab the man’s arm to twist it behind his back, the man looked over his shoulder and Sanada took a look at his face.
Sanada gasped and staggered back. This couldn’t be real. He had seen this man dead, cut open on Yanagi’s table. A ghost.
“Puri,” the ghost said with a smirk and ran towards one of curtain covered windows. The sound of crystal shattering filled the room and the man was gone. Sanada ran after him, trying to stop him but the man had jumped down the street below. It was just one story down and the man was already staggering to his feet and running away.
Without a second thought, Sanada sprang into action, but before he could climb over the window frame to give chase, the window next to it shattered. He covered his face with his arms to protect it from harm. What the…?
A shadow was shooting at him from the hallway. Sanada hurried to take cover behind one of the ruined couches, so he could return fire. He felt one of his knees heavily impacting the floor. Shit. The shadow kept on shooting without giving him an opening, and Sanada could feel it approaching his hiding place. Sanada pulled out another of his guns and with both weapons aimed at the door, he returned fire; his stare fierce and fearless as the adrenaline of the crossfire fueled his veins. He heard a cry of pain and the bullets stopped, the figure choosing to flee rather than finish him.
Sanada ran after it, as fast as he could with his injured knee, until he felt the light of the day hit him hard on the face. The street was deserted.
The shadow and the ghost were gone.
“Goddamit!”
-·-
Sanada took a deep breath and leant against the police infirmary wall. It felt cold and refreshing against his back. Despite the soothing sensation, he felt no comfort. He was wasting really important time. Yes, Sanada had several scratches and cuts on his face and hands, and he had pulled a ligament on his knee, but he was alright. That was nothing, he could be back in duty already. Nor there was any need for a full checkup, yet, the doctor had insisted, and when Sanada resisted, he had called Yukimura and informed him of the situation. Such a low move. Sanada couldn’t disobey a direct order, so he gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure it, hoping it would end soon. He just needed to wait for another twenty minutes for the rest of the medications to kick in, and he would be ready to leave. Or maybe less; with the doctor gone, he could sneak his way back to his office and revise the evidence they had.
“Are you alright, Genichirou?” came Yanagi’s worried voice from the other side of room, and Sanada opened his eyes.
“Renji.”
“I came as soon as I knew. What happened?” Yanagi said and Sanada groan inwardly at the whole police station finding out he was injured. At least Kirihara hadn’t tagged along, so maybe there was hope that the news had stayed within the upper circles.
“Went to check one of the leads of the case, the subject’s house. It was compromised,” Sanada fell silent there. There wasn’t much he could say about the incident, he hadn’t seen the face of his attacker, after all. As for the other part, it was better if Sanada kept it to himself. He didn’t need to add he was crazy, to the rumors that were circulating already.
“You are not telling me something,” Yanagi said quietly, as he casually sat next to him and Sanada realized how awkward the other looked outside of his examination room. “Is it because you don’t trust me to not tell Seiichi? It’s alright, you know I won’t tell him anything. It’s been awhile since you were in a shooting. Three hundred and four days, since what happened to Seiichi. It’s alright to be upset. Situations like this can successfully trigger painful memories…”
“No… it’s…” Sanada bit his lip; if there was someone safe to speak his mind to, it was Yanagi. He could tell him what happened and he wouldn’t be judged for it. It was better to chase other people’s ghosts than his own. “I saw him, our subject. He was there, alive.”
“He is dead, Genichirou,” Yanagi deadpanned, looking serious all of sudden. “I cleaned the body myself. People don’t come back from death. It’s not possible. Maybe a twin? It’s a slight chance, but still a possibility.”
Sanada shook his head. “It was him, Renji, I’m sure. I didn’t see him alive before, but it felt like this was our subject. I... don’t know. It happened before the shooting, I couldn’t chase him.”
“You are thinking it was his ghost, don’t you?”
“I already know how silly it sounds, you don’t need to point it out,” Sanada snapped back.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to antagonize you. Thank you for trusting me.” Yanagi’s lips curved slightly upwards and Sanada had a hard time thinking he was not being made fun of.
“It was probably just a trick of the light, I was biased.” Sanada shook his head. He needed to get rid of that thought and focus and finding the culprit, and the one that had shot him. He didn’t have time for silly things like this.
“I thought of making your stay more tolerable. So I brought you what I found out,” Yanagi said, trying to lift the mood, and handed over Sanada a folder. Sanada’s face lit up at that.
“So do we have a name?”
“Two actually; he was arrested twice, or at least that we have registered because of his tattoos, and he signed by a different name each time. They were minor offenses, once for drunk driving without a license and once for damaging public property -he wrote “fuck the police” under a bridge,” Yanagi seemed amused by that. Sanada couldn’t really tell why, but he had long forsaken the futile attempt to try and figure Yanagi out completely.
Sanada opened the folder and looked down at it. “So which ones are they?”
“Niou Masaharu and Yagyuu Hiroshi”
“Yagyuu Hir--?”
“Sanada, Yanagi…”
Sanada looked up and saw Yukimura standing there in the infirmary. Yukimura looked back at him and the silence was heavy between them. Yanagi had pulled away when Yukimura had come in and Sanada felt naked in front of Yukimura’s powerful piercing stare. “I’m glad you are alright. Stop getting foolishly injured, it’s unsightly.”
Sanada swallowed hard, and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
For a moment, it looked like Yukimura was about to take a step forward and say something more. Sanada tensed and could feel how Yanagi held his breath next to him. Finally, Yukimura turned his back at them.
“Ah, Yuki-Chief Inspector Yukimura, we have a lead on the murder case.”
“You had. We caught the murderer already, an hour ago. Atobe’s team. The culprit tried to pawn a golden chain from the victim. He already confessed, this case is closed now. You got uselessly hurt for nothing, Sanada,” Yukimura said, and Sanada was sure the strong disappointment in Yukimura’s voice hurt more than any injury in his knee.
Or taking a bullet to the chest.
“I…”
“You two get back to work, cases won’t get solved by their own.”
And then Yukimura left without looking back.
---♦---♦---
Yagyuu held his breath as he pulled the small fragments of glass out of his left forearm with tweezers. Apparently, Yagyuu had forgotten how painful being Niou could turn out to be. It wasn’t like Niou was purposely reckless; he just happened to assume he could always get away from the consequences of his actions. It hadn’t been the smartest decision to just jump out of a window when the police had come to Niou’s house, but it was definitely better than being found there impersonating his dead best friend.
The last piece of glass clattered on the metal plate and Yagyuu sighed, relieved. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief, then poured antiseptic on the whole arm. Yagyuu hissed in pain, as he scrubbed with a gauze on the cuts and scratches. Thankfully, most of them were small, and butterfly bandages would suffice but there were at least three that would need some stitches.
Applying some local anesthesia, he bit his lip down as he worked the cuts over, regretting doing it with only one hand. The stitches wouldn’t be at the level of finesse he was used to and that was annoying. Still, it wasn’t like he could go and ask a colleague for assistance without raising suspicions and questions he didn’t want to give an answer to. After finishing with his arm, he covered it all with a simple bandage.
Yagyuu took his glasses off and put them on the table so he could drop his head back and stare blindly at the empty ceiling of his small living room. He was tired, exhausted. He closed his eyes for a moment, as he let the mix of sensations and feelings wash over him. Yagyuu wasn’t sure what ached and what was being numbed by the painkillers and anesthesia. He knew there should be pain, both emotional and physical, but the signal wasn’t being recognized by his brain. If the pain couldn’t be felt, was it even real?
He opened his eyes, slowly, letting them adjust to the light. With his wounds tended, it was time for Yagyuu to check the information he had found in Niou’s house.
It had been a surprise to say in the least, to come and find the apartment turned upside down. Whoever had killed Niou was probably trying to get back the information Niou had gotten on them, or to make it disappear. Of course, it had been useless. Niou didn’t think like most people, and they had searched in the wrong places.
For Yagyuu, though, it had been easy to knock on the tiles in the bathroom until he found the hollowed one. Inside, there had been a USB drive and the feeling of success was mixed with the utmost frustration by the lack of an explanatory note or something that could give Yagyuu a clue.
The screen blinked in front of him, reading the information. Yagyuu scrolled through the several folders and files, most of them were a recovery copy from what he had found in Niou’s account. There were some new folders with similar information and some compressed files as well; he would check them later, when he had rested some and could process it better. He was about to take a break and maybe get some sleep before having to wake up to work, Yagyuu reached a video file.
He pushed his glasses up and pushed play.
There was a table full of documents and sheets, the lighting was poor but enough to figure it out they were the same kind of documents Yagyuu had revised before.
“So yeah…”
Yagyuu’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of Niou’s voice.
“This is what I got so far. It’s fucked up, man, really fucked up.” The camera came closer to the documents and as Niou’s hand got into focus and moved the first layer of sheets, Yagyuu saw some pictures underneath. There was picture of a group of kids, of different ages, posing as if it was a class picture. Then, Niou’s hand opened a folder and there was file, a medical note and another a profile picture of one of the kids from before, clearly after his death.
“They pose as goodwill organizations, then they fucking kill them. Who is going to miss a sick orphan or a homeless woman in an asylum? Just that they aren’t sick, they are being kept healthy to trade their organs later on,” Even though Niou’s voice was low, as if he was whispering, the contempt in his voice was palpable. “They are making fucking millions out of ripping apart people and giving their organs for the rich fucks who can pay. This is a whole market system; they are organized, they have all the facilities to do the whole process, orphanages, shelters, asylums, hospitals, crematories, they are even working overseas.…”
Niou’s hand crumbled a piece of paper, until his knuckles were white. The camera focused in every progressing sicker picture. “I’m trying to save as much info as I get and I’m meeting someone today. I don’t know if he’s legit or not. Police are fucked up too. They have to be too because they are letting this happen.”
There was some silence then, but for Niou’s quiet breathing. “I gotta stop this… this is sick.”
The video went off. Yagyuu felt like he was going to throw up.
-·-
“Doctor?” The desk nurse came over Yagyuu as soon as he entered the ER.
“Good evening,” Yagyuu bowed politely, regretting it immediately as he saw white for a moment. Nothing like a complicated, busy shift, for a migraine to start developing. “Is there a problem, Nanami-san?”
“There is a police officer waiting for you,” Nanami said as she handed Yagyuu the reports from the day shift. Yagyuu immediately started to shuffle between them, giving them an overall check. “I asked about the incidents of the day shift and Haruka-san told me there was a rape case earlier in the morning, maybe it’s related to that.”
“Ah, I see. Thank you, Nanami-san, I’ll take it over from here,” Yagyuu said, forcing a polite smile to his face as he started to walk to his office. Indeed, there was a police officer there looking with interest at the documents on Yagyuu’s desk. Arching an eyebrow, Yagyuu cleared his throat.
“May I help you with something Officer…?”
“Inspector Sanada. I believe we’ve met already, Doctor Yagyuu?” The officer said, turning around to face him. Yagyuu was taken aback for a moment at the sound of the voice, it felt familiar. Was he the policeman that had raided Niou’s day earlier that day? Yagyuu’s face was impassive and calm. He couldn’t prove anything so Yagyuu had nothing to worry about.
“Is that so?” Yagyuu said, without moving from his spot on the door.
“I’m the Inspector in charge of investigating the murder of…” Sanada started and Yagyuu swallowed hard. Even if the memories of that morning were a bit blurry in his memory, he easily recalled the face of the police officer now. That could mean that he was the police at Niou’s house too. This was probably just a routine checkup in the case. There was no way the police officer had managed to identify him as Niou’s doppelganger.
“Niou Masaharu, yes. Is there something do you need regarding the case, Inspector?” Yagyuu replied nonchalantly, “I believe my report was in order?”
“Oh it was, and actually legible.” Sanada leaned onto the desk, crossing his arms over his chest and making himself at home. Yagyuu looked at him expectantly, pretending that he couldn’t hear his own heartbeat in his ears. “I was wondering if you knew anything else about the case.”
“I’m afraid not,” Yagyuu said, trying to sound apologetic. “Wouldn’t that be your job, Sanada-san?”
“It is, indeed. That’s why I’m here.” Sanada said, looking rather intimidating as he looked down at Yagyuu. Not that it was going to work, of course. Yagyuu straightened his back and raised his chin. “He was stabbed, right?”
“Yes, I wrote it in the report.”
“What would you think would be the murderer weapon?”
“I wouldn’t know --I was too preoccupied with stopping the internal bleeding,” Yagyuu deadpanned.
“Our medical examiner presumed it to be a sharp, thin blade; like one of those used by surgeons in operation rooms. He said that the one that committed the crime knew how to use it, as if he had great domain over it,” Sanada continued, not looking away from Yagyuu, as he wanted to pierce him with his stare. Yagyuu was starting to feel really uncomfortable with the whole situation, for both coldly discussing Niou’s death and the fact that it felt like he was being interrogated as a suspect.
“And the point you are trying to make is….?”
“Do you know anyone that could have something against him? One that has access to medical instruments and tools like those?”
“Are you sure you are asking the right person, Inspector? There is no way I would know that, I was just the doctor in charge when Niou came in,” Yagyuu said, trying to shrug it off. Sanada looked like Yagyuu had personally offended him.
“Well, you were his friend.” Yagyuu felt like the earth under his feet was crumbling, making him feel like he had fallen into a void. On the outside, the only emotion he displayed was his hand tightening its hold on the clipboard.
“Maybe you two fought?” Sanada continued and pushed himself off the desk, coming closer to Yagyuu with every word he said. “Do you two have a disagreement? You weren’t on board in keep on doing illegal activities maybe, too risky for you. So you wanted him out of the picture?”
Yagyuu refused to take a step back and show he was being intimidated by the man, even if Sanada was just a few inches away from him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“If that’s true, you won’t mind me taking your fingerprints now. They won’t match with the ones we found in his apartment,” Sanada reached for Yagyuu’s arm, gripping it tightly. Yagyuu winced and gritted his teeth as Sanada pressed on his recent injuries, before he roughly pulled his arm out of Sanada’s grasp.
“This is overruled and I could sue you for what you just did.” Yagyuu’s voice was low and dangerous. “Next time you come here, you’d better come with a warrant and solid proof of what you are saying, Inspector. Otherwise you won’t be any better than the criminals on the streets.”
“Oh believe me, I will return. I won’t stop until justice is served.”
“I’ll be here, saving the lives you failed to protect, then. Good evening, Inspector,” Yagyuu said, pointing at the door with his hand.
Sanada glared but did walk toward the exit. When Sanada came to Yagyuu, he tensed, expecting another aggression but instead the police officer chuckled slightly.
“You know, I never mentioned the case victim’s name. You did. You knew who I was talking about and lied about not knowing anything about this. We’ll definitely see each other again, doctor. Good evening.”
Part 2
Recipient: Amber / monarchist
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: This is 19k words. No kidding. The longest fic I’ve ever written. I’d suggest getting a drink and a snack before you start reading.
Summary: Young doctor Yagyuu Hiroshi expects a normal shift at the ER that night. By morning, he is embroiled in the deepest sides of an organization he doesn't fully want to confront nor does he know how to solve the mess that Niou has dragged him in.
Notes: I wanted to give you something plot-heavy and it got lengthy. I truly hope you enjoy this!
Yagyuu Hiroshi closed his eyes for a moment as he drank down the bitter coffee from his flask. He had almost drunk it all already, yet it wouldn’t be enough to keep him aware and alert for the rest of the night. Still, he preferred being a little drowsy in the morning than having to resort to the hospital coffee, which he was sure would keep him awake, for all the wrong reasons. He looked at the clock on the wall of his office. There was still plenty of time before sunrise and therefore for stupid people to embroil themselves in dangerous situations that could result in needing medical assistance. Yagyuu wished for an easy night shift but with a short-staffed ER, that was being too optimistic.
He placed the flask on his desk again, as he pulled some reports that were yet to be filled out, to check and revise those that already were. Interns tried to fill them out right, or so they claimed, and it took time to revise them and write the necessary corrections for the morning shift.
‘30 years old female in labor, dilation 4cm, oxytocin 2ml….’
There was an urgent knock on his door before it was slammed open by one of the nurses.
“Doctor, we need you at the OR.” Ah, yes. It had been naïve of him to think it was going to be an easy night, then.
“I didn’t hear any siren,” Yagyuu said arching an eyebrow as he rose up from his chair. Even if the ambulance needed to turn it off, once they reach the hospital, it would always give him some time to prepare himself for urgent cases.
“This one came in by foot,” she said. Well, that was an uncommon one. Yagyuu hurried to the preparation room, taking his robe off and picking a surgery gown before washing his hands thoroughly as required by protocol. The nurses kept on filling him in as he did this. “Male, probably on his mid 20s, several stab wounds on upper torso, excessive bleeding, walked in, presented resistance to being treated, in and out of consciousness. Already canalized and the anesthesiologist is on her way. Shall we start without her?”
“Yes, set the anesthetic tower up.” Yagyuu frowned; the deputy director would hear about this. There was only so much Yagyuu could handle on his own, he was not going to compromise his practise over other people’s ineptitude. As for now, the tower and his own skills would have to suffice.
Yagyuu opened the door to the OR, to see that two nurses were cutting up the clothes of the subject, preparing him for the procedure. Surprisingly, the man was still struggling against them. Yagyuu sighed internally, “Tie him up if you need to, we don’t have time to-“
“Fuck… off…”
The worst fear of most doctors was seeing someone they loved being wheeled through the glass doors on a stretcher, suddenly facing the responsibility of having their lives in their hands. Yagyuu was not afraid of this, he had never had to be. His family came from a very well-known, well-respected family line of doctors, and if they ever were in need of the slightest medical care, they would go to the best private hospitals in the country. Not the small overworked clinic in the middle of the city, where Yagyuu worked at. With no loved ones to worry about, he never really cared to form an emotional bond with his patients, because it wasn’t needed and could interfere with his objectivity and concentration.
Maybe that was why seeing Niou covered in blood and at the verge of death, felt like being rolled over by a truck.
He rushed to the table. Niou’s eyes were glazed and out of focus but sharpened at the sight of Yagyuu. He knew Niou recognized him by how his lips curved slightly upwards after seeing him. Yagyuu started shouting directions to the nurses as he placed a hand on Niou’s forehead. It’s alright, I’ve got this.
“Puri.” I know you do.
Niou closed his eyes and became slack as the anesthesia kicked in.
-·-
Click.
The sky was tinged with pale grey with the break of dawn. It was cloudy and the humidity was high and suffocating, oppressing. It would feel cold later, after the skies had emptied and the water ran across the street, but now it was just an annoyance.
Click.
If the rain didn’t stop by the time Yagyuu needed to leave work, he would get wet in his way to the parking lot. How inconvenient. He should start bringing an umbrella if this was going to be the beginning of the rainy season.
“Doctor Yagyuu Hiroshi?”
Click.
Yagyuu flipped the silver lighter closed once more and turned away from the window. A police officer was standing at the door frame, of course. “Good morning, how can I help you?”
The fact that he knew why the officer was here, didn’t mean he should make his job easier. It was the faulty police system that had caused this mess in the first place, wasn’t it?
“I’m Inspector Sanada Genichirou, in charge of the case of the murder of…” The officer looked down at the folder on his hands, “…young male, identity currently unknown. Report goes that you were the doctor in charge when he arrived to get medical attention. I would like to have a word with you, if possible.”
They didn’t know Niou’s name. It made sense, Niou hand’t been carrying a wallet when he came in so there wasn’t a way to identify him. Yagyuu didn’t feel like correcting Officer Sanada, as if he would have the right to Niou’s name once voiced aloud. Instead, Yagyuu waved at the spare chair in the small office.
“Of course, please take a seat.” Because all he wanted to talk about it was how Niou died on the operation table because of blood loss and how all his desperate efforts to keep him alive had been useless in the end. Such a lovely way to finish this shift from hell, absolutely. “I see you have my report already, is there anything else you need further knowledge of?”
“Did the subject said anything about his attacker? About the circumstances that caused his injuries?”
Niou’s voice still resonated in Yagyuu’s mind, crystal clear.
“No, he didn’t. He was already suffering the side effect of blood loss and his speech was incoherent.” The fact that one nonsensical world had meant everything between them, was a different matter. Officer Sanada frowned, displeased, but nodded nonetheless.
“Nurses recall the subject showed violent behavior and reluctance to get medical attention. Would you suggest he was under the influences of drugs?”
“It would be hard to tell. Pain, blood loss, emotional trauma can affect someone’s behavior. I’m sure you can agree with me that being stabbed five times and walking to a hospital for help, might be quite stressful. I believe the analysis your medical examiner will most certainly run, will offer you a more accurate answer to that question,” Yagyuu answered and pushed his glasses up, annoyed. It would be easily mistaken by tiredness, he was sure. He had to remind himself that Niou was gone and that was just a body, so whatever happened to it was none of his business.
“Alright. I won’t take any more of your time, doctor.” The officer stood up and offered Yagyuu a hand. Yagyuu stood up to take it, after placing the lighter safely inside his pocket. “Have a good day.”
Right.
“You too, Inspector.”
-·-
Cold. Yagyuu decided he was cold. His body was shaking uncontrollably and in the dim light that the closed curtains allowed, his fingertips looked slightly blue. Probably, because he was lying on the bare floor of his living room, staring at the ceiling. Perhaps, the fact he had gotten soaked on his way to his car in the morning and hadn’t bothered to change his clothes once he arrived home, had something to do with it. Maybe it was because he was dead already, as much as Niou was.
Niou had been in his life since forever, in and out, disappearing and coming back, but always there. A constant solid chaos that brought life to his over-organized life, a breeze of joy and wildness that was always there when he needed to be cheered up and was too proud to admit it. In return, Yagyuu paid for the bar bills and strip clubs, traveled half the country to see a music band he didn’t know anything about and once, Yagyuu had even bailed him out of jail. He would complain about Niou’s recklessness and insist Niou should get a real job and settle down, but he hardly saw their friendship as an unequal agreement. If anything, he always got more out of Niou than he did from himself. But now, Niou was no more and it was his fault. At failing to save him, he had killed Niou.
Yagyuu curled up on his side and stared at nothing, mind blank and empty.
He pulled Niou’s silver lighter out of his pocket and pretended to examine it closely. His glasses were long gone and tears wouldn’t let see much anyway. Niou had carried almost nothing with him at the moment of his death, minus some worthless trash like bubblegum wrappers, a ticket bus, some spare change and the lighter. Well, the latter couldn’t be considered as completely worthless, since it was made of solid silver. Yagyuu knew that, since he had been the one that had stolen it from his own father to give Niou as present, when they graduated middle school together. Yagyuu couldn’t have let the police keep this, the last thing that bonded him to Niou, so he had stole it again before Niou’s possessions were handed over to them.
Click.
He flicked it once and the flame’s light hurt his eyes. It felt good, real, so he did it again. And again. And again. Yagyuu flicked the lighter on and off and eventually it started to become too hot to hold it anymore. He dropped it to the floor and even in the poor lightening, he could see something scribbled on it. He frowned and rubbed his eyes, expecting it to disappear, but the scribbling was still there. Heat-activated ink? Yagyuu frowned and reached blindly for his glasses. With the world coming back into focus and his breath caught in his throat, Yagyuu read Niou’s handwriting.
goo.gl/jp4AEe
c0yt3
pss: 45j28
Switch
---♦---♦---
“Morning, Sanada. You look like you could use some sleep. Did you have a rough night?” Yukimura Seiichi said, leaning against the door frame, and Sanada took a deep breath. Usually, he wouldn’t mind Yukimu-- Chief Inspector Yukimura’s idea of sharing a cup of coffee in the police headquarters office. Even if that involved using the little time off they had to discuss cases, it was refreshing and even challenging, with Yukimura’s passion for justice. But on a night like this one, where people had died and there were still cases unsolved, Yukimura’s company made Sanada edgy. Yukimura’s flawless police career, with one of the highest productivity rates, was a reminder of what Sanada had yet to achieve, of how he had failed the people he had sworn to protect and serve.
He grunted in affirmation, before taking a long sip of his coffee. Yukimura sat on the chair in front of him and absently opened a folder, checking what Sanada could assume were the morning reports. Sanada tried unsuccessfully to not stare but it was hard, when he was aching to ask how the other was doing, when the desire of reaching forward and touching him was still there. Yet, that wasn’t work related, thus entirely forbidden by their mutual agreement after things had gotten complicated two months ago. Instead, Sanada looked away and took another drink of his bitter coffee.
They stayed in silence, as Yukimura went through several sheets of paper and Sanada resisted the urge to rub his eyes. He couldn’t remember when the last time he had gone home was. The day before yesterday, maybe?
“A new murder case,” Yukimura said, “A messy one. It’s probably a robbery gone wrong by the look of things...”
“Yes, I thought so too. Yanagi is already examining the body,” Sanada replied to the implied question. “I was about to go down to--”
“How long has he had the body?” Yukimura interrupted him and Sanada blinked a few times, a little confused at the question. He looked at the clock on the wall, a chill settling in his gut as the realization set in. He knew where this was heading.
“I think… two hours…” Sanada replied, with barely contained frustration. Yanagi was one of the best medical examiners out there and his work was known for being precise and fast. On average, he had a report ready in an hour and a half and that meant Sanada was already late. Granted, Sanada had acted as a reinforcement in a combini robbery case on his way to the station that had taken longer than expected, and at his arrival, he had corrected some young officer’s mistakes here and there. Still, he knew that wasn’t an excuse for not being at the morgue on time.
“And you are still here because…?” Yukimura didn’t look up from where he was scribbling notes and Sanada was grateful because he could feel his cheeks burning in shame. He tugged his police cap down and stood up.
“Yes, sir.”
-·-
There was something eerily about the morgue that always made Sanada frown in unveiled disgust. People were more than the individual parts of biological composition that defined them as humans. Even though he could understand how useful tagging people with case numbers was, and how cutting them open helped to better understand what happened to them, it still felt like a violation to the lives they had once had.
Sanada cringed slightly as the smell of chemicals and death hit him, once he entered the morgue, so he applied some menthol salve to ward from it.
“I have your report already, Genichirou,” Yanagi said, not looking up from where he was examining one of the tattoos on the corpse’s arm. “It’s on the table over there.”
“Thank you, Renji.” Sanada nodded and ignored the folder for the time being, and came closer to the examination table instead. The report would be necessary for the administrative part of the work, but everything he needed to know he would hear it from Yanagi himself. “I’m sorry that I took longer to come down this time…”
“We’ve had some quite eventful nights lately, haven’t we?” Yanagi said, tracing the tattoo with his gloved index finger once more, before finally looking up and taking his protective goggles off. “I understand. May I offer you a flask of tea? I know you will decline, yet I decide to trust the slight possibility one day you will accept my request.”
Sanada shook his head no, a small smile forming on his face. People tended to label Yanagi as a scary unreachable genius. They were partially right, but that wasn’t the whole picture. If you treated him with respect and kindness, you got the same in return. “I don’t mind if you do, though.”
Yanagi nodded gratefully, before discarding his gloves and standing up to pick up a flask on his desk. He took a couple of small sips, with his eyes closed as if he was centering himself, and put it away afterwards. Then, he opened his eyes and looked past Sanada and straight to the body. “Let’s start now, shall we?”
For the next ten minutes, Sanada listened intently at every word that came from Yanagi’s mouth. Smoothly, as if he was reciting ancient poetry, Yanagi told him all you could learn from a dead body. From broken bones back in childhood and testifying proof of a recovering addiction to smoking, to the cause of death of the young man: blood loss caused by stabbing wounds in several parts of his body, mostly soft tissue and organs. If it hadn’t been stabbed to death, he would have lived a very healthy life, according to Yanagi. There weren’t any DNA matches with police registers, no birthmarks either but for a mole in the chin, no missing person report for a man with his complexion. The identity of the silver-haired young man was still unknown.
“I know you are thinking that it matches the profile of robbery gone wrong, and you might be right. Still…” Yanagi picked up a new glove and touched one of the wounds, “This bothers me. This is uncommon and an oddity. Can you tell me why, Genichirou?”
Sanada stared intently at the wound and shrugged after a while.
“Not really, it looks like a clean stab to me.”
“Exactly. It is too clean. The person who stabbed Case 23AY4 knew how to do it --they had a sharp tool too,” Yanagi said and then grabbed one of the subject’s hand to show his fingers. “This is important too. He has no fingerprints, they’ve been burned off. The scarring tissue suggest this occurred at least one to two years ago.”
Sanada frowned. Someone that willingly burned their fingerprints off were never up to any good. Was the man in front of them a criminal as well?
“Anything else, Renji?”
“His tattoos are quite unique…” Yanagi said, and he raised the arm for Sanada to see.
“Is that a fox?”
“No, it’s a coyote. The coyotes differ from foxes on--”
“Do you think they could mean something to the investigation?”
“Not really, I just thought they were beautiful,” Yanagi sighed and carefully placed the young man’s arm on the table.
“Now, I believe you should get some rest, Genichirou. Judging by the paleness and dehydration of your skin, and your pupils going in and out of focus unintentionally, you’ve spent at least forty four hours without sleep. You usually resort to stimulants to avoid the symptoms of sleep deprivation, by drinking coffee. Black, no cream, two spoons of sugar. Taking into account that caffeine starts working after the first ten minutes of ingestion and we’ve been together over half an hour, the chances that Seii- Chief Inspector Yukimura sent you here before you even finished your coffee are 97%.”
Sanada said nothing. He pulled his hat off, smoothed his hair down and put it back on, frowning.
“Crime never sleeps or stops, why would I?”
Yanagi sighed and Sanada had the impression he was refraining from saying something. Sanada wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what.
“Seiichi will get over it with time, Genichirou. Don’t be too hard on him… or yourself.”
“Right. I’ll go now.”
---♦---♦---
“Do you realize this endoscopy was due two days ago?” Yagyuu raised an eyebrow as he skipped over the medical note the patient had handed over to the desk nurse. They had called Yagyuu when they had refused him the service and the man had become obnoxiously stubborn. Even if the procedure was not complicated and could be done in half an hour, it involved at least two specialists and the use of an OR.
“Well yes, but I didn’t have time two days ago!” The man snapped back, his face turning red in anger. Yagyuu remained unfazed. This wasn’t an uncommon happening --people lacking common sense. He wished he could attribute it to the fact it was past midnight, but in reality, people were rather stupid on a regular basis, regardless of the time. “It’s your job! You can’t deny me medical attention!”
“Would you be so kind to read the sign over there, sir?” Yagyuu said and wondered if he had ever thought about this side of practicing medicine, of having to deal with this nonsense, when he was a student.
“Eh? Which one?” The man looked around, confused, but finally doing what he was told to do. That was indeed progress.
“The one with bright, large red letters, if you may.” No, he had never thought about this part of being a doctor, he had been too invested in being the top of the class, and having perfect marks in every assignment. Naively, he had thought that would guarantee saving every life he held in his hands.
“Emergency Room?”
“Very good. Now, what do you think we do in here?” That, of course, was far from the reality. It didn’t guarantee anything in the end, neither having a place in large hospitals nor doing medical investigations and making breakthrough discoveries. Nor saving the life of your best friend.
“You cure people. That’s why you need to do this procedure now!”
Ah, so much for progress. Yagyuu threw a side glance to the security guard next the glass doors.
“No, we treat medical situations that endanger a patient’s life. If you can wait two days to seek medical attention, and I don’t see you bleeding to death, I assume you went to a lowly qualified doctor because of its cheapness and have you a wrong diagnosis. If you truly wish to submit yourself to an unnecessary procedure involving shoving a metal tube down your throat for whatever reason -we don’t really judge how people’s direct their lives, you can certainly wait another six hours and get it done properly by the clinic downst--”
Yagyuu calmly moved to the side to dodge the fist directed at his face. The security guard was already there, manhandling the man out the Emergency Room. Unorthodox but a useful way to get rid of undesirable people and getting them banned from the ER: trying to get some common sense into them.
“Doctor! Are you alright?!”The nurse was next to him, in an instant and Yagyuu moved away from her as well, startled.
“Don’t touch me,” Yagyuu hissed and the nursed looked at him, worried. Yagyuu coughed to clear his throat and gave her one of his well-practiced, charming smiles. “I’m alright. I’ll be in my office if anything comes up, I’m sure Kanata-san will take care of not letting that man back in, so you shouldn’t worry about that.”
He didn’t wait for answer and hurried back to his office.
“Yagyuu-san, do you have a moment?” Yagyuu stopped dead in his tracks when his name was called, and recognizing the voice he knew he couldn’t get away with ignoring. He turned around and bowed down politely.
“Deputy Director Abukara-san, it’s a surprise seeing you here at this hour. Is something the matter?”
“Not tonight, not tonight,” The man said and smiled slightly. “I’ve heard you’ve been having some lively nights lately and thought of visiting you and see how things are doing myself.”
“As you can see there is nothing for you to worry about,” Yagyuu said, pushing his glasses up. “We are always overworked, of course. Even more so when our staff is lacking in the responsibility department.”
“Ah yes, I reviewed your complaint. I shall take disciplinary actions as according. It’s unacceptable to not be at work during work hours.” Abukara said and Yagyuu nodded, pleased.
“Those are mistakes that can’t be tolerated, they put people’s lives in danger,” Yagyuu said, bowing again. The memories of Niou’s blood-covered body flashed through his mind and for a moment, he wondered if having an anesthesiologist instead of the anesthetic tower would have made a difference for Niou. He shook his head ‘no’, Niou had long since passed the point where he could have been saved, that moment had been long before he’d arrived.
“Yes, they do. We can’t let our system to be as faulty as the police, can we? I can’t believe this is turning into such a dangerous area for gang members and robbers to be roaming around. What if had been a civilian?”
“Excuse me?”
“The man that died? The nurses’ report suggest he looked like a thug,” the man shrugged it off and Yagyuu felt too dumbstruck for words. “I trust that you took care of handing over all the paperwork, Yagyuu. We don’t want a problem with the police for something like this.”
Yagyuu nodded, numbly. Gang members and robbers.
“Ah I know my ER is in perfect care if you are around, Hiroshi. You are as good as your father was, in his times of glory.”
“Thank you, sir. If you’ll excuse me, I have work to do still,” Yagyuu rasped out and bowed before passing past Abukara. It wasn’t until Yagyuu’s office door was firmly shut and he was leaning heavily onto it, that he realized he was shaking. A thug.
It was probably the adrenaline of almost being hit and hearing someone dismissing someone’s life worth because of prejudice. Maybe it was the questionable amount of stimulants he had taken to overcome his insomnia. Funny, because he had never suffered from it in the past. Apparently, having flashes of how your best friend had died in your hands could provoke it. Yagyuu ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Thirty six hours without sleep. He had done it before but it wasn’t the best state to practice medicine, to say the least.
Niou.
He wondered if attending a proper funeral would make it ache less. It was a selfish thought, but he didn’t really care. Niou wouldn’t have wanted the polite hypocrisy of the attendees, and he didn’t have any family left that Yagyuu had known of. Niou was just gone and nothing was going to change that. Yagyuu pulled the silver lighter out his robe pocket and clutched it tightly.
From the moment he had seen the letters appear, he hadn’t lit it up. There was a chance the words hadn’t been there at all. Doubt was better than a disappointing certainty, wasn’t it?
“Puri.”
No, he needed to know.
Yagyuu lit it up and let it heat, until the nonsensical scribblings appeared once more. No, they couldn’t be nonsensical, Niou never did anything lightly. They were a domain and a password and were clearly meant to be on there. The real question was why? Memories flashed through Yagyuu’s mind, of the last brief moments he shared with Niou. The nurse had called him because a severely wounded patient had arrived.
“…excessive bleeding, walked in, presented resistance to being treated, in and out of consciousness...”
The OR, Niou fighting off the nurses, Yagyuu had suggested tying him down but Niou had recognized him and stopped struggling.
Yagyuu opened his eyes wide, his breath caught in his throat as realization hit him hard. Niou hadn’t walked to the ER to get medical attention, he had come to see him.
“Switch.”
The metal clashed against the floor, breaking the silence, as it turned too hot for Yagyuu to hold it anymore.
Whatever Niou had started, Yagyuu was supposed to finish it off.
-·-
Yagyuu rubbed his eyes from under his glasses and yawned. Tiredness and lack of sleep was finally taking its toll on him. He searched blindly for his coffee, only to find the cup empty. Yagyuu checked the time on his wristwatch -it was well past noon- and sighed heavily. His kitchen table was completely covered by sheets of papers and after three hours of reviewing and analyzing them one by one, they were finally in order.
He had logged into the account scribbled on the lighter, as soon as he arrived home. Yagyuu hadn’t known what to expect. It had been foolish of him to secretly hope for a video explaining an elaborate joke of some kind. Instead, he got hundreds of bank states, invoices for medical supplies and equipment and receipts for honorary fees. Most of them were vague about what they referred to, but after a decade of working in hospitals, and a lifetime of dealing with his father’s business, Yagyuu could elucidate this mess. It was the balance of a health institution of some kind, and a shady one if they needed to resort to these schemes to avoid paying taxes. False names, inflated expenses and deductible fees, most likely false charity affiliates…
Yagyuu sighed. He knew that Niou had worked in information trafficking from time to time, with how gifted he was at IT and his ridiculous fascination with danger. Yagyuu didn’t know the details, because he had refused to listen to them, so he could pledge plausible deniability in a court. Now, he wished he knew more. Why would Niou want him to know about this?
If Niou wanted the police to know about this, he could have handed over the information himself. Why would Niou drag him into this? Yagyuu groaned loudly, in frustration.
The lighter was heavy in this hand. Yagyuu flicked it open and lit it.
Niou had sacrificed his precious last minutes which could have saved his life to reach Yagyuu, and had made sure to keep the message a secret from all but him.
Yagyuu flicked it off and on again.
Niou wanted them to switch, so Niou wanted Yagyuu to act like Niou, just like when they had been teenagers. The question was for what.
Standing up, Yagyuu walked to his room and opened his closet. Roads of clothes and shoes lay there neatly folded and in perfect order by style and color. It wasn’t hard for Yagyuu to reach a medium sized box in the back. Kneeling on the floor, he took a deep breath before opening it. As he expected, the contents were still there.
Yagyuu knew that there was only one way to find out the truth behind Niou’s murder. The silver wig and the set of small, shiny keys glinted from the inside of the box and Yagyuu swallowed heavily as he realized exactly what he was going to have to do to get to the bottom of this.
---♦---♦---
Sanada looked down at the photography set on his desk and frowned. There wasn’t any significant progress to find the culprit from the Case 23AY4. He had followed the blood trail left by the deceased subject, up to three blocks away from the hospital but any other clue had been washed away by the rain that had fallen shortly after. The scene investigation team had been efficient, he couldn’t tolerate any less, but still they were at a loss, without a trail to follow. Since the subject didn’t have any fingerprints, the search for the man’s identity had to be done using other physical features. It took longer and it was prone to error, but it was all they had.
It did look like a robbery gone wrong and Sanada was sure the most sensible thing to do was to just close the case and increase the patrols on the zone to prevent something like this from happening again. If they didn’t get a lead to follow soon, Yukimura would demand to leave it for other cases that could be actually solved. Sanada couldn’t agree with that, everyone deserved justice, but still, he realized that wasted time could result in less cases solved in the long run.
“Inspector Sanada-san, I got what you asked for!” Officer Kirihara Akaya said, rushing through Sanada’s door without knocking. He was new, young and reckless but he had potential. Or so Yukimura said; Sanada was mostly annoyed at him. Young people shouldn’t join the forces for fame or for prestige. It was about protecting and serving, about proving something to oneself instead of proving it to another. Kirihara was bratty and had problems following orders if they weren’t Yukimura’s. Come to think about it, Sanada was starting to believe that had been the exact reason why Yukimura had put him under Sanada’s care.
“You found out our subject’s identity?”
Kirihara shifted on his spot and looked away.
“Well, not exactly. I got an address. You see there is a tattoo parlor like five blocks away from here? The guy knows this other guy that has this rad shop across the city and…” Kirihara continued and Sanada glared at him. This was what annoyed him, the lack of discipline. Duty was duty and shouldn’t be mixed with informality or that carefree attitude. Kirihara cringed a little from the weight of the stare. “Anyway, that other guy knows our guy. He said his name was Trickster, which totally is a nickname of some kind, and that’s useless to us. But, he said he had gone to our guy’s flat a few times, to have some beer and stuff. He looked really freaked out to find out he was dead.”
Sanada outstretched his hand and Akaya handed over the notebook. Finally they were heading somewhere. Trails and clues were just suppositions until proven to be true, still it was a good start.
“Great. I’ll go now and check this place,” Sanada said standing up and grabbing his coat. It was still daylight and it would be an easy recognition visit. As Kirihara made attempt to follow, Sanada arched an eyebrow at him.
“What?” Kirihara asked at the sudden stop.
Sanada frowned.
“Shit. What, sir?”
“Where are you going?”
“With you…” Kirihara said but he caught up quickly, “…not. But Sanada-san! I was the one that found about the place, I deserve to go!”
“This is not a competition, this is teamwork. You are going to the morgue and tell Yanagi about this. He is the one helping me digging information from the police old records by the subject’s tattoos. Maybe the name will help him to speed things up,” Sanada deadpanned and for a moment it looked like Kirihara was about to protest, but decided against it in the end. Doing community service and supervising traffic at school zones the last time he had back-talked had worked into making him a more reasonable young man. Good, he was a fast learner.
“Yes, sir,” Kirihara grumbled and Sanada nodded, looking pleased. “You’ll report to me what you learned from Yanagi today.”
Kirihara nodded, looking wary but Sanada didn’t pay mind to it. He finally had a trail to follow and he didn’t have time to waste.
-·-
The building looked like it was about to crumble around him and with each step Sanada took, the staircase cracked and crunched dangerously. He tried to keep his feet as light as he could, to avoid disturbing the other occupants of the apartment complex. Even if his police badge was not visible under his coat, Sanada knew his presence would stand out in a place like this, complicating his mission. The only ones that liked police were the ones that needed them, and only in those occasions.
When he reached the number that was scribbled on the paper, he tried to knock on the door but it was already open. Sanada frowned slightly, all of his senses tingling at the possibility of danger.
“Hello?” he called before pushing the door open with care and stepping in. Sanada took a good look at the place. It would have looked like a one-person apartment with only the basics to get by daily, if it wasn’t for all computers along one of the farthest walls. Sanada felt a shiver down his spine, this wasn’t a good omen. Neither was the state of the the small living room, a mess of papers and furniture all over the place. Something had happened in here, not so long ago, judging by the lack of dust on most of the things. Silently, he reached for his gun on his belt and his torch, and took a defensive stance.
Even though the sky outside was bright grey, with the heavy curtains blocking out the light, the darkness covered everything. There was something rustling, near him, and he aimed his gun at the thing without a second thought but when he turned around, there was nothing there. Sanada could hear his heartbeat in his ears, loud and clear.
Something fell over in the next room and someone cursed under his breath.
“This is the police! Come out with your hands in the air, that is an order!” Sanada shouted, his voice was like thunder resonating through the thin walls and breaking the eerie silence. Sanada’s hand didn’t shake when he pointed towards where the sound had emerged. If there was someone there, he would need to come out from that door. Sanada was covered. “Now!”
Suddenly, there was movement from behind him and Sanada turned around but he saw nothing there. At the same time, a shadow moved from the darkened room where he had been aiming a gun at before, and Sanada cursed at the moment of distraction. “Stop where you are! Put your hands where I can see them!”
As the light of the lantern hit the man’s back, Sanada saw a strike of silver hair. The man’s back stayed facing Sanada and he started to walk, slowly, near one of the windows.
“I said stop!”
The figure stopped.
“Raise your hands!”
And the man did so.
Without dropping his gun, Sanada came forwards, already reaching for a pair of handcuffs. Just as he was about to grab the man’s arm to twist it behind his back, the man looked over his shoulder and Sanada took a look at his face.
Sanada gasped and staggered back. This couldn’t be real. He had seen this man dead, cut open on Yanagi’s table. A ghost.
“Puri,” the ghost said with a smirk and ran towards one of curtain covered windows. The sound of crystal shattering filled the room and the man was gone. Sanada ran after him, trying to stop him but the man had jumped down the street below. It was just one story down and the man was already staggering to his feet and running away.
Without a second thought, Sanada sprang into action, but before he could climb over the window frame to give chase, the window next to it shattered. He covered his face with his arms to protect it from harm. What the…?
A shadow was shooting at him from the hallway. Sanada hurried to take cover behind one of the ruined couches, so he could return fire. He felt one of his knees heavily impacting the floor. Shit. The shadow kept on shooting without giving him an opening, and Sanada could feel it approaching his hiding place. Sanada pulled out another of his guns and with both weapons aimed at the door, he returned fire; his stare fierce and fearless as the adrenaline of the crossfire fueled his veins. He heard a cry of pain and the bullets stopped, the figure choosing to flee rather than finish him.
Sanada ran after it, as fast as he could with his injured knee, until he felt the light of the day hit him hard on the face. The street was deserted.
The shadow and the ghost were gone.
“Goddamit!”
-·-
Sanada took a deep breath and leant against the police infirmary wall. It felt cold and refreshing against his back. Despite the soothing sensation, he felt no comfort. He was wasting really important time. Yes, Sanada had several scratches and cuts on his face and hands, and he had pulled a ligament on his knee, but he was alright. That was nothing, he could be back in duty already. Nor there was any need for a full checkup, yet, the doctor had insisted, and when Sanada resisted, he had called Yukimura and informed him of the situation. Such a low move. Sanada couldn’t disobey a direct order, so he gritted his teeth and forced himself to endure it, hoping it would end soon. He just needed to wait for another twenty minutes for the rest of the medications to kick in, and he would be ready to leave. Or maybe less; with the doctor gone, he could sneak his way back to his office and revise the evidence they had.
“Are you alright, Genichirou?” came Yanagi’s worried voice from the other side of room, and Sanada opened his eyes.
“Renji.”
“I came as soon as I knew. What happened?” Yanagi said and Sanada groan inwardly at the whole police station finding out he was injured. At least Kirihara hadn’t tagged along, so maybe there was hope that the news had stayed within the upper circles.
“Went to check one of the leads of the case, the subject’s house. It was compromised,” Sanada fell silent there. There wasn’t much he could say about the incident, he hadn’t seen the face of his attacker, after all. As for the other part, it was better if Sanada kept it to himself. He didn’t need to add he was crazy, to the rumors that were circulating already.
“You are not telling me something,” Yanagi said quietly, as he casually sat next to him and Sanada realized how awkward the other looked outside of his examination room. “Is it because you don’t trust me to not tell Seiichi? It’s alright, you know I won’t tell him anything. It’s been awhile since you were in a shooting. Three hundred and four days, since what happened to Seiichi. It’s alright to be upset. Situations like this can successfully trigger painful memories…”
“No… it’s…” Sanada bit his lip; if there was someone safe to speak his mind to, it was Yanagi. He could tell him what happened and he wouldn’t be judged for it. It was better to chase other people’s ghosts than his own. “I saw him, our subject. He was there, alive.”
“He is dead, Genichirou,” Yanagi deadpanned, looking serious all of sudden. “I cleaned the body myself. People don’t come back from death. It’s not possible. Maybe a twin? It’s a slight chance, but still a possibility.”
Sanada shook his head. “It was him, Renji, I’m sure. I didn’t see him alive before, but it felt like this was our subject. I... don’t know. It happened before the shooting, I couldn’t chase him.”
“You are thinking it was his ghost, don’t you?”
“I already know how silly it sounds, you don’t need to point it out,” Sanada snapped back.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to antagonize you. Thank you for trusting me.” Yanagi’s lips curved slightly upwards and Sanada had a hard time thinking he was not being made fun of.
“It was probably just a trick of the light, I was biased.” Sanada shook his head. He needed to get rid of that thought and focus and finding the culprit, and the one that had shot him. He didn’t have time for silly things like this.
“I thought of making your stay more tolerable. So I brought you what I found out,” Yanagi said, trying to lift the mood, and handed over Sanada a folder. Sanada’s face lit up at that.
“So do we have a name?”
“Two actually; he was arrested twice, or at least that we have registered because of his tattoos, and he signed by a different name each time. They were minor offenses, once for drunk driving without a license and once for damaging public property -he wrote “fuck the police” under a bridge,” Yanagi seemed amused by that. Sanada couldn’t really tell why, but he had long forsaken the futile attempt to try and figure Yanagi out completely.
Sanada opened the folder and looked down at it. “So which ones are they?”
“Niou Masaharu and Yagyuu Hiroshi”
“Yagyuu Hir--?”
“Sanada, Yanagi…”
Sanada looked up and saw Yukimura standing there in the infirmary. Yukimura looked back at him and the silence was heavy between them. Yanagi had pulled away when Yukimura had come in and Sanada felt naked in front of Yukimura’s powerful piercing stare. “I’m glad you are alright. Stop getting foolishly injured, it’s unsightly.”
Sanada swallowed hard, and nodded. “Yes, sir.”
For a moment, it looked like Yukimura was about to take a step forward and say something more. Sanada tensed and could feel how Yanagi held his breath next to him. Finally, Yukimura turned his back at them.
“Ah, Yuki-Chief Inspector Yukimura, we have a lead on the murder case.”
“You had. We caught the murderer already, an hour ago. Atobe’s team. The culprit tried to pawn a golden chain from the victim. He already confessed, this case is closed now. You got uselessly hurt for nothing, Sanada,” Yukimura said, and Sanada was sure the strong disappointment in Yukimura’s voice hurt more than any injury in his knee.
Or taking a bullet to the chest.
“I…”
“You two get back to work, cases won’t get solved by their own.”
And then Yukimura left without looking back.
---♦---♦---
Yagyuu held his breath as he pulled the small fragments of glass out of his left forearm with tweezers. Apparently, Yagyuu had forgotten how painful being Niou could turn out to be. It wasn’t like Niou was purposely reckless; he just happened to assume he could always get away from the consequences of his actions. It hadn’t been the smartest decision to just jump out of a window when the police had come to Niou’s house, but it was definitely better than being found there impersonating his dead best friend.
The last piece of glass clattered on the metal plate and Yagyuu sighed, relieved. He wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief, then poured antiseptic on the whole arm. Yagyuu hissed in pain, as he scrubbed with a gauze on the cuts and scratches. Thankfully, most of them were small, and butterfly bandages would suffice but there were at least three that would need some stitches.
Applying some local anesthesia, he bit his lip down as he worked the cuts over, regretting doing it with only one hand. The stitches wouldn’t be at the level of finesse he was used to and that was annoying. Still, it wasn’t like he could go and ask a colleague for assistance without raising suspicions and questions he didn’t want to give an answer to. After finishing with his arm, he covered it all with a simple bandage.
Yagyuu took his glasses off and put them on the table so he could drop his head back and stare blindly at the empty ceiling of his small living room. He was tired, exhausted. He closed his eyes for a moment, as he let the mix of sensations and feelings wash over him. Yagyuu wasn’t sure what ached and what was being numbed by the painkillers and anesthesia. He knew there should be pain, both emotional and physical, but the signal wasn’t being recognized by his brain. If the pain couldn’t be felt, was it even real?
He opened his eyes, slowly, letting them adjust to the light. With his wounds tended, it was time for Yagyuu to check the information he had found in Niou’s house.
It had been a surprise to say in the least, to come and find the apartment turned upside down. Whoever had killed Niou was probably trying to get back the information Niou had gotten on them, or to make it disappear. Of course, it had been useless. Niou didn’t think like most people, and they had searched in the wrong places.
For Yagyuu, though, it had been easy to knock on the tiles in the bathroom until he found the hollowed one. Inside, there had been a USB drive and the feeling of success was mixed with the utmost frustration by the lack of an explanatory note or something that could give Yagyuu a clue.
The screen blinked in front of him, reading the information. Yagyuu scrolled through the several folders and files, most of them were a recovery copy from what he had found in Niou’s account. There were some new folders with similar information and some compressed files as well; he would check them later, when he had rested some and could process it better. He was about to take a break and maybe get some sleep before having to wake up to work, Yagyuu reached a video file.
He pushed his glasses up and pushed play.
There was a table full of documents and sheets, the lighting was poor but enough to figure it out they were the same kind of documents Yagyuu had revised before.
“So yeah…”
Yagyuu’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of Niou’s voice.
“This is what I got so far. It’s fucked up, man, really fucked up.” The camera came closer to the documents and as Niou’s hand got into focus and moved the first layer of sheets, Yagyuu saw some pictures underneath. There was picture of a group of kids, of different ages, posing as if it was a class picture. Then, Niou’s hand opened a folder and there was file, a medical note and another a profile picture of one of the kids from before, clearly after his death.
“They pose as goodwill organizations, then they fucking kill them. Who is going to miss a sick orphan or a homeless woman in an asylum? Just that they aren’t sick, they are being kept healthy to trade their organs later on,” Even though Niou’s voice was low, as if he was whispering, the contempt in his voice was palpable. “They are making fucking millions out of ripping apart people and giving their organs for the rich fucks who can pay. This is a whole market system; they are organized, they have all the facilities to do the whole process, orphanages, shelters, asylums, hospitals, crematories, they are even working overseas.…”
Niou’s hand crumbled a piece of paper, until his knuckles were white. The camera focused in every progressing sicker picture. “I’m trying to save as much info as I get and I’m meeting someone today. I don’t know if he’s legit or not. Police are fucked up too. They have to be too because they are letting this happen.”
There was some silence then, but for Niou’s quiet breathing. “I gotta stop this… this is sick.”
The video went off. Yagyuu felt like he was going to throw up.
-·-
“Doctor?” The desk nurse came over Yagyuu as soon as he entered the ER.
“Good evening,” Yagyuu bowed politely, regretting it immediately as he saw white for a moment. Nothing like a complicated, busy shift, for a migraine to start developing. “Is there a problem, Nanami-san?”
“There is a police officer waiting for you,” Nanami said as she handed Yagyuu the reports from the day shift. Yagyuu immediately started to shuffle between them, giving them an overall check. “I asked about the incidents of the day shift and Haruka-san told me there was a rape case earlier in the morning, maybe it’s related to that.”
“Ah, I see. Thank you, Nanami-san, I’ll take it over from here,” Yagyuu said, forcing a polite smile to his face as he started to walk to his office. Indeed, there was a police officer there looking with interest at the documents on Yagyuu’s desk. Arching an eyebrow, Yagyuu cleared his throat.
“May I help you with something Officer…?”
“Inspector Sanada. I believe we’ve met already, Doctor Yagyuu?” The officer said, turning around to face him. Yagyuu was taken aback for a moment at the sound of the voice, it felt familiar. Was he the policeman that had raided Niou’s day earlier that day? Yagyuu’s face was impassive and calm. He couldn’t prove anything so Yagyuu had nothing to worry about.
“Is that so?” Yagyuu said, without moving from his spot on the door.
“I’m the Inspector in charge of investigating the murder of…” Sanada started and Yagyuu swallowed hard. Even if the memories of that morning were a bit blurry in his memory, he easily recalled the face of the police officer now. That could mean that he was the police at Niou’s house too. This was probably just a routine checkup in the case. There was no way the police officer had managed to identify him as Niou’s doppelganger.
“Niou Masaharu, yes. Is there something do you need regarding the case, Inspector?” Yagyuu replied nonchalantly, “I believe my report was in order?”
“Oh it was, and actually legible.” Sanada leaned onto the desk, crossing his arms over his chest and making himself at home. Yagyuu looked at him expectantly, pretending that he couldn’t hear his own heartbeat in his ears. “I was wondering if you knew anything else about the case.”
“I’m afraid not,” Yagyuu said, trying to sound apologetic. “Wouldn’t that be your job, Sanada-san?”
“It is, indeed. That’s why I’m here.” Sanada said, looking rather intimidating as he looked down at Yagyuu. Not that it was going to work, of course. Yagyuu straightened his back and raised his chin. “He was stabbed, right?”
“Yes, I wrote it in the report.”
“What would you think would be the murderer weapon?”
“I wouldn’t know --I was too preoccupied with stopping the internal bleeding,” Yagyuu deadpanned.
“Our medical examiner presumed it to be a sharp, thin blade; like one of those used by surgeons in operation rooms. He said that the one that committed the crime knew how to use it, as if he had great domain over it,” Sanada continued, not looking away from Yagyuu, as he wanted to pierce him with his stare. Yagyuu was starting to feel really uncomfortable with the whole situation, for both coldly discussing Niou’s death and the fact that it felt like he was being interrogated as a suspect.
“And the point you are trying to make is….?”
“Do you know anyone that could have something against him? One that has access to medical instruments and tools like those?”
“Are you sure you are asking the right person, Inspector? There is no way I would know that, I was just the doctor in charge when Niou came in,” Yagyuu said, trying to shrug it off. Sanada looked like Yagyuu had personally offended him.
“Well, you were his friend.” Yagyuu felt like the earth under his feet was crumbling, making him feel like he had fallen into a void. On the outside, the only emotion he displayed was his hand tightening its hold on the clipboard.
“Maybe you two fought?” Sanada continued and pushed himself off the desk, coming closer to Yagyuu with every word he said. “Do you two have a disagreement? You weren’t on board in keep on doing illegal activities maybe, too risky for you. So you wanted him out of the picture?”
Yagyuu refused to take a step back and show he was being intimidated by the man, even if Sanada was just a few inches away from him.
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“If that’s true, you won’t mind me taking your fingerprints now. They won’t match with the ones we found in his apartment,” Sanada reached for Yagyuu’s arm, gripping it tightly. Yagyuu winced and gritted his teeth as Sanada pressed on his recent injuries, before he roughly pulled his arm out of Sanada’s grasp.
“This is overruled and I could sue you for what you just did.” Yagyuu’s voice was low and dangerous. “Next time you come here, you’d better come with a warrant and solid proof of what you are saying, Inspector. Otherwise you won’t be any better than the criminals on the streets.”
“Oh believe me, I will return. I won’t stop until justice is served.”
“I’ll be here, saving the lives you failed to protect, then. Good evening, Inspector,” Yagyuu said, pointing at the door with his hand.
Sanada glared but did walk toward the exit. When Sanada came to Yagyuu, he tensed, expecting another aggression but instead the police officer chuckled slightly.
“You know, I never mentioned the case victim’s name. You did. You knew who I was talking about and lied about not knowing anything about this. We’ll definitely see each other again, doctor. Good evening.”
Part 2