Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Haima ❯ Chapter 17: Closer to You ( Chapter 17 )
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Mystery / Police / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 05.23.2005 | Pages: 4 | Words: 4.1K | Visits: 214 | Status: Completed
Haima
Author: Nekocin
Genres: Action, slight Drama
Warnings: OOC, possible cliché ~_~
Rated: PG13
Disclaimer: see previous chapter
Author's notes: Sorry for being late! I couldn't get this chapter out quickly since school's 3rd semester is now a racetrack and this chapter has a lot of loose ends. :cries: And I just realize I've stretched one day in several chapters :shifty eyes:
Side note: My computer is acting 'sick', so I might not be able to update some time this year.
Never in his life had he faced such a threatening approach. He'd prided himself for being the most fearless one at his post--the prettiest one, the coolest—but never the most attractive one to become a corpse in twenty-four hours.
Whoever the serial killer was, Otogi had a feeling he had met the man before. Anyone he knew could've been the killer—or maybe not just everyone.
There's still that retarded rookie from station 6.
Otogi was very sure Jounouchi couldn't have been the serial killer—he's far too gloomy and less bright to even think up such a wonderful trap or even make such an incredibly-structured poem.
He threw open the window in front of him and leaned on the windowsill to see how farther from the ground he was. Hopefully not too far, he did not like heights. That's when a sudden big hand pushed him over the window, sending Otogi to his death...
Chapter 17: Closer to you
Yugi gasped, his eyes widening in horror.
"Shizuka-chan? What are you doing?"
Shizuka didn't answer immediately for she was leaning dangerously over the window, trying to pull up something—or rather someone.
"Can you give me a hand here, please?"
"Ah, okay!"
For someone like Shizuka, Yugi was quite impressed when she'd solved the riddle in the poem and dragged him along 'to investigate'. She was after all not really experienced in the homicide business.
So how exactly did she solve the poem? Where did she get the clues?
Yugi could only bet that officer Jounouchi's sister loved reading mysterious books—but that didn't make her an immediate female Sherlock Holmes, right?
"Wa~, finally!" Shizuka sighed out of relied and gave Yugi a sheepish grin as she gently laid an unconscious officer under the window.
Yugi grabbed hold of the officer's wrist and felt for a pulse. Still alive. He then looked expectantly at Shizuka.
"Shizuka-chan—can you explain to me how you got it right?"
----- Flashback start -----
12:30 PM – Hospital
Shizuka took a deep breath before entering the hospital room and opened the door. Her smile was automatically back on her face as she stepped in, saying, "I'm back" cheerfully. It didn't take long before her smile wavered for no one had responded to her greeting.
The patient wasn't in bed.
"Ryuuji-kun?" She checked the bathroom and then the room closet. He wasn't present. Silent worry overcame her as Shizuka checked the corridors near Otogi's room. Maybe he went for a cold beverage. Maybe the doctor was re-checking the shot wound. Maybe he was off flirting with the nurses of the lower floors—Shizuka couldn't help but worry about Otogi and stopped one of the passing nurses to inquire.
"Uhm—excuse me, miss—do you know where the patient of room 503 has gone?"
The nurse blinked, looking lost at first but quickly schooled her befuddled face behind a bland face and then narrowed her eyes at the ceiling in thought. "Humm—around 11 or 12, a doctor came to check on the patient and then took him to the garden,"
"Which doctor? In the garden?"
"Yes, yes--I believe it's the newly-stationed doctor, Ogata-sensei," the nurse's eyes brightened instantly as she'd finally remembered the name.
"I see. How long will this walk going to take?"
The nurse laughed suddenly, making Shizuka wonder if she'd said something very wrong.
"Patient 503 doesn't like straining himself much, always complaining about needing his rest—as if he didn't get enough! Ogata-sensei must be forcing him to walk now,"
"Oh. Well, thank you for giving me your time. I'll go look for him," Shizuka nodded politely and received a similar nod in return.
After that she searched the Hospital's garden for the injured officer Otogi only to find out from nurses who were on watch that there was no Ogata-sensei assisting patient 503 to walk. It's by then Shizuka's worries gave room to her fears and made her fingers itch in anticipation. She felt pressured as soon as she thought of the two poems the police had received.
What if Otogi was kidnapped again? In this case, he's either with the doctor or the doctor has kidnapped him. To make things even worse, that Ogata-sensei was a suspicious character from what she'd heard from the nurses on garden watch.
The guy had been working at the hospital for about 3 months and even though he's well liked by the nurses, he was acting slightly strange around the other doctors--as if he was afraid they would criticize him. A week or two to adjust to a new environment is understandable but 3 months?
"If roses are red, bathed in fear, covered in sweat," Shizuka cited to herself and cupped her chin thoughtfully between here thumb and index finger.
"Onii-chan said that 'roses' can represent the Japanese roses—and they meant 'fading away from existence'. 'covered in sweat' are linked to death—fear for dying, sweat from fearing. Bath—sweat—covered—fear. Hummm," she mumbled under her breath, narrowing her eyes while forcing herself to grasp the faint connection between the words. The answer seemed to be dangling right in front of her eyes and yet—she couldn't catch it.
'If I were a serial killer with such high intelligence, what exactly will these words mean to me?—Kidnapping the victim, I'll tie him up before he could escape. If I don't want him to see my face, I'll blindfold him. But then again, I can kill him instantly too without a blindfold. If I were kidnapped, I would get the privilege to see the killer, if not, I would feel his intention—through torture,' Shizuka felt her face pale and her heart hammer inside her ribcage, as she imagined unintentionally what kind of torture a victim could be put through when a serial killer's at work.
'what's the only thing in mind that makes me this hard to find?' The riddle and the clues of course! 'as for the resr of the sweet phrase, don't worry it will come'—,' Shizuka answered out loud. "—The overused love poem—roses are red, violets are blue—,"
Roses are red. Violets are blue.
Roses... red... violets ... blue... something...
She blinked twice as she scrunched her face in thought, while glaring at an unseen spot behind a tree. Something was familiar. Something she hadn't paid much attention to while Onii-chan had driven around his area—
Roses... violets... red... blue... flowers... colors...
"AH! It's already begun!" she gasped out suddenly, surprising nearby patients who were trying to enjoy the fresh air and the nature, and headed straight to station 6.
Once arrived at the station and without much explanation, she'd dragged agent Mutou along the way, ordering him to drive them to area F.
And at last, she'd decoded the rest of the poem.
----- Flashback end ----
"-when I burst in here, I saw him leaning over the window and because I thought Otogi-san's kept somewhere, I mistook him for the killer and knocked him out cold. Only--I'd forgotten he was leaning over the window and miscalculated that. I didn't have the faintest idea how the killer actually looks like. I doubt he has Otogi-san's beautiful long, black hair, or wear a hospital gown, right?" Shizuka babbled breathlessly and sent a sheepish smile to the agent, while thinking what an idiot she'd been to mistake Otogi's back for the serial killer's.
Agent Mutou's face looked serious as he let everything dawned upon him. It seemed like an hour before he'd finally grasped the actual truth behind the long explanation and exclaimed as his eyes twinkled, "Now, I see how everything is put together! Such a complicated man. I'm impressed how your brains work, you'll make a fine Detective, or maybe a Mystery Novelist"
"I'll contact agent Ishtar and Yami for backup. Now that we have Otogi-san here, let's search the room for anything useful that might tell us where our man is," He suggested before punching the air.
"You're very energetic today, Yugi-san," Shizuka grinned-
Click. Click. The sound of a gun being cocked from its safety interrupted their conversation coldly, followed by and ear piecing BANG!!
"Oya-oya, it seems like some mice decided to drop by,"
He frowned lightly at both and dropped his smile.
"Are you two on a date?" He wondered innocently while still sounding serious at the same time.
Jounouchi sputtered.
The inspector's right eye twitched.
"If not, why are you hanging out with Mr. Kaiba, officer? Shouldn't agent Yuuki be tailing you?"
The chief looked thoughtful and ignored Jounouchi's attempts to clear the misunderstanding.
"Oh, I see--you both dumped Yuuki on the sidelines and decided that both of you are meant to work together. That doesn't sound right. I mean, Yuuki is actually far better than Kaiba –no offense, Kaiba– and far more experienced in –that- field, if you know what I mean, " He continued off handedly and twirled his right hand wrist dramatically.
"Wha-? Sir! It's a misunderstanding! It's nothing like that, sir!" Jounouchi had finally interrupted as the chief noticed his rigid stance ease into a defensive one.
"Is that so? Explain yourself, officer. I don't have time to link your murmurings,"
After dropping Officer Jounouchi, Yami went back to station with the intention of approaching his former partner just once. He felt his impending death nearing as he stepped out of the car.
How should he tell him? How should he ask him? How should he corner Yugi without scaring him? How? So many questions to worry about!
AAARGH! For the first time Yuuki Yami felt shy about his intentions—usually he didn't hide his intentions behind a nervous face whether they were bad or not. He swallowed unconsciously, while climbing the stairs to Chief Crawford's floor of offices. Some younger officers passed him polite bowing, but he paid them no heed.
He slipped into the office and automatically let his eyes roam the room in search for his ex-partner.
About two-third of the officers in his division were absent, including Yugi. Yami realized he'd missed Yugi on the latter's way out to patrol in the city because of the Autumn festivals.
"I'm so pathetic," he muttered to himself and mentally hung his head in defeat as he made his way to the vacant seat where his ex-partner usually sits when writing reports. He absently touched the penholder with the childish Dark Magician (a guy with flowing black purple robes, complete with crooked hat and wand) stickers and smiled before instantly turning his head to look over his shoulder with a glare.
"What are you looking at?"
Some of his subordinates were hunched together behind him with the intention of finding out why the cold but mostly-admired Yuuki was touching agent Mutou's stuff, and perhaps using the information as black-mail material in the near future. It's too bad they'd been caught snoping behind agent Yuuki.
"Nothing—nothing!"
Yami glared. They flinched and shrunk away.
"You were the one who gave him that penholder on Valentine, weren't you?" A sad chuckle.
Yami glanced over at the officer sitting on his right, but did not comment for it was officer Mazaki who had chuckled sadly. She stopped writing her report and looked at him with her penetrating blue eyes. She chuckled sadly again.
"I thought I had a chance with you, you know? I thought I could break through your defenses—your mask and the thorns round your heart. You always looked so isolated and cold—until Yugi came along—You're always looking out for him—even when you know he's capable of holding his ground on his own... Why?" Mazaki sniffled softly and fisted her hands in frustration.
"I asked myself -why-. Why do you only let Yugi in and leave us—me out? Why? And then that penholder—you weren't too careful when you placed that gift on Yugi's desk while he's sent out to get some paper copies for you. You thought no one was looking but in fact, I was watching your every step-," she smiled fondly and quickly wiped her eyes. "Funny that Yugi never did find out who'd sent him such a generous gift,"
There was a tense silence between the two officers; Mazaki hid her face behind the curtain of her brown, chin-length hair while Yami looked away with dread written on his face.
"Why are you telling me this, Mazaki?"
"—because—I—," she paused and seemed to be having problems with formulating her sentence so she started playing nervously with her pen.
"—because—I—I—," she tried again and suddenly threw her pen with effortless ease at someone hovering behind Yami's shoulder.
Thud. "Ow!"
Her tears evaporated from the corners of her eyes and the healthy blush returned to her pale face.
"Because there's a rat sitting behind you right now," Officer Mazaki sneered in triumph, pushed her chair back and walked over to the fallen officer.
Resting her high-heeled foot on her fallen victim, she deliberately squatted to stare down at the unfortunate officer, who received the pen-alias-dart in the face.
"So~ Ishtar-kun, how do you like my aim?"
Officer Ishtar scowled while rubbing the sore cheek on which Mazaki's dart-pen had hit.
"A ten on my scale," he admitted and glared at Yami's blank face and then at Mazaki's smug one.
"Now pay up! I win. Don't underestimate the Power of Mazaki Anzu!"
The scowl deepened. "If I had known you were such a Drama Queen I wouldn't have started the bet in the first place,"
He roamed his pockets and slapped the money in Mazaki's open palm, before pushing himself up from the tiled floor and dusting his crumpled uniform.
Then they started to argue.
Yami realized that Mazaki had to do something daring in order to win a bet—and he was her pawn. For some reason he couldn't get angry at her using him for money—he didn't feel betrayed even. He felt oddly relieved thought. Without a word he slipped away from Yugi's desk, only to hear incoherent distressed message through the walkie-talkie.
His eyes widened when he recognized one of the voices—Yugi!
Suddenly Jounouchi stopped stammering and looked up over his shoulder in surprise.
"What was that?" he asked no one in particular.
"Have you acquired sonar senses this quickly, officer?" Chief Crawford remarked while arching his eyebrows in feigned surprise.
"Well—I—," Some crackling noises from Jounouchi's walkie-talkie interrupted him. All three looked at the object hanging on one side of the young officer's belt.
"You—why—d-?" An abrupt message was being sent through, unfortunately not in understandable sentences. The crackling continued interrupting the officer on the other side his speech and then a second voice got through-
"Who—you?—ONII-CHAN-," A thundering shot accompanied with a female scream cut off the connection between whoever was calling.
"What was that?" He muttered, frowning at both the Chief and Inspector as if they could explain such a strange message to him.
Something nagged at the back of his mind and it intensified its nagging as Jounouchi tried to orientate himself, something was way off with the message.
"Well, that must be something quite dangerous. I didn't expect my subordinates to be this childish," Chief Crawford commented nonchalantly as if it's a usual ever-day occurrence to receive such messages. He crossed his arms on top of his breast and slid on his famous thoughtful face.
Inspector Kaiba did not comment. If he did understand the message he did not show it. Yet he wasted no time by pulling Jounouchi along. "Excuse us. We'll go back to our task,"
("Hey!") The officer squawk in protest and surprise.
"I didn't expect you to swing that way so openly in front of me, Kaiba-dear. Oh well, I guess it's all the better," Chief Crawford commented, using his most nonchalant voice and turned on his heels to return to the track stadium. "Ta~!"
"What's he talking about?" Officer Jounouchi looked over his shoulder with mild interest.
"Ignore him," was Kaiba's curt response as he stopped at the place where he'd parked the stolen car. He slid the ignition key into the keyhole and twisted it to open the front seat door.
"Officer Jounouchi! Do you copy me? Officer Jounouchi, do you copy? This is agent Kujaku," a clear female voice mixed with the walkie-talkie's crackling sounds came through.
Jounouchi pushed his respond button. "Yes, Jounouchi here,"
"Agent Yuuki has reported that both agent Mutou and your sister are missing,"
His heart shot up to his throat. He must have heard it wrong.
"What do you mean?" He pulled the walkie-talkie from the side of his belt and pressed his right ear against it.
"Agent Mazaki has reported that Shizuka-chan has acted strange upon towering over poor Yugi-,"
"What do you mean they're missing?!" He'd almost shrieked, before worriedly walking up and down in a straight line.
Katsuya then paused and looked up thoughtfully at the sky. "Shizuka's acting strange unless—,"
"Unless?" Kujaku wondered out of confusion.
Kaiba stepped into the front seat impatiently, securing his seatbelt and ignored the conversation.
"Unless—of course! I almost forgot she's very fond of mysteries! Thank you for informing, Kujaku-sempai!" He grinned.
"Please call me Mai—like everyone do,"
Kaiba rolled his eyes. "No need. No need. Hey! Have any of you sent me an incoherent message?"
"Uhm—yes, sort of. Most of us couldn't make sense out of it—though Yami started panicking and rushing off to who-knows-where,"
"I see-," Jounouchi turned just in time to see a frantic car passing by a mere few inches from his side in a screeching halt.
"What's that noise?"
He was about to curse at the driver when he recognized the latter stepping out of his car. His eyes widened in surprise.
"Hello? Jounouchi?"
"Look! I've got to go—I've just found Yuuki-sempai!"
End chapter 17
- Oya-oya -- it's supposed to be "Well, well, well,". If I'm wrong, I apologize for the bad translation.
End notes:
Thoughts of this chapter... not really that good. I've tried keep my exciting mood while writing this chapter, but sadly I got a bit distracted :sweatdrops: A bit distracted is an understatement indeed. :sighs: I apologize for the over-using things.
Thank you to those who'd reviewed the previous chapter:
- Beysie: I'm sorry for letting you wait. I think I just can't get everything faster while worrying about my school work and my older stories that need tending soon. <333 I'm glad you still like the story and I hope this chapter hasn't disappointed you--Thank you for still reading and reviewing this story.
- Kumori Sakusha formerly Saelbu: So happy you like the previous chapter. I hope I didn't disappoint you much with this chapter. Thank you for still reading and reviewing this story.
- CrossHunt-s: I'm glad you like the chapter and I hope this one didn't disappoint your expectations...if it did, I apologize for my suckiness. Thank you for still reading and reviewing this story.
- Misura: n.n;;; Ehehehe, maybe it's really in front of them, maybe it's not. It looks kind of obvious to work that way--but I hope I didn't disappoint you much when it comes to the character portrayals. Thank you for still reading and reviewing this story.
- Hazel-Beka: :blushes: Thank you. Sadly, I guess I'd this feeling all this time about the pairing thing :cries: It would probably not work in the usual HOP! POP! In Love! thing when I use this setting of story... how depressing. I'm glad you think this story is actually an all right story, considering that fact that I've been quite slow with the updates :sweatdrops:. :blush: Thanks... Wa~! :blush blush: on your list :blush: I hope this chapter isn't really that disappointing. Thank you for reading and reviewing this story
- Sukara-Nodori: I take it that you like the story as well =D. n.n I hope this chapter hasn't turned out disappointingly. Thank you for reading and reviewing this story.
- Shadowy Fluffball: I hope I didn't disappoint you. Thank you for still reading and reviewing this story.
Thank you for reading!!
.:Nekocin:. (I'm changing my signs at the end of my stories, because the usual smiley face and neko ears I'd signed in my earlier works cannot be used anymore and I find it silly every time I sign out with :smiley face:cin)