[nope] Killing Night #1 - Shuichi

[afailedmurder]

[Akechi has cleaned up since his misguided morning antics, though it's plainly obvious from his bruised up face and faintly singed hair. Still, his demeanor is no more threatening than before. Actually, he's almost a little bashful.]

Saihara-kun, are you busy tonight? I could use some company...

[Should you spend time with Akechi?]

Comments

[afailedmurder]

I suppose it's better you hear it from me...

[ssssigh. WHATEVER LET'S JUST GO]

To tell you the truth, I've been a mess ever since I arrived here. I put on a brave front, but it's hard not to feel like everything I do here is pointless. Still, someone told me something that resonated with me. He said, there's always a point in fighting for one's own justice. So I've been thinking about that a lot lately— what justice means to me, and why I became a detective in the first place. More and more, I'm sure he's right. The one meaningful thing I can do right now is to find my justice and fight for it.

[a pause]

...Sorry, I'm rambling. What I'm trying to say is, I set the library on fire.

[truthstranger]

...A-Ah.

[...]

I understand the feeling, I think, but I'm not sure doing something like that by yourself was the best approach...

[afailedmurder]

[matter-of-factly]

I do everything by myself.

[truthstranger]

Aren’t you doing something with me right now?

[afailedmurder]

Truthfully, I probably would be exploring on my own if the raccoons had allowed it...

Please don't take that personally, though. I did want to spend some time with you. I think you have a lot of insight on what's going on, and I'm not used to being able to talk to people my own age about my work.

[truthstranger]

Then I hope you’ll take my insight that acting alone is a bad idea here. It’s more likely to end up with people dead out of misunderstandings than anything.

[afailedmurder]

I suppose you're right...

[seems real bummed about it, though]

[truthstranger]

...And I would rather not see you die.

[afailedmurder]

...You've seen a lot of death, haven't you?

[truthstranger]

That is one way to put it.

[afailedmurder]

I can empathize. That kind of thing is hard to get used to.

[Pauses and leans against the wall, because it is casual chatting time and not at all because he his tired.]

...We don't have to talk about death and destruction, you know. I'm interested in your story, but it can wait.

[truthstranger]

[Shuichi briefly wonders if he even has anything not death and destruction related to talk about.]

...Then, how about you? How did you become a detective?

[afailedmurder]

I'd always liked mystery stories growing up, and as I was finishing middle school, I became very interested in the Tokyo rampage incidents — have you heard of them? People suddenly go completely psychotic, acting out with no sense of inhibition or consequence. After a few hours, they snap out of it and can't remember what they did.

[yup. looks like we're still on death and destruction.]

[truthstranger]

No, I haven't heard about anything like that. This happened a lot?

[afailedmurder]

Quite frequently, yes. It never stopped happening.

[truthstranger]

And there was no clear cause...?

[afailedmurder]

The root cause has yet to be determined, but I managed to solve a few of the incidents themselves. Since then I've been a regular consultant with the police department.

[truthstranger]

You solved them when you were finishing middle school?

[afailedmurder]

I did. Anything to avoid studying for high school exams, right?

[laughs his well-rehearsed talk show laugh after telling his well-rehearsed talk show joke]

[truthstranger]

Mm.

[it's acknowledging the joke, but mostly Shuichi just looks uncomfortable]

That's amazing. So you've been working with the police for years?

[afailedmurder]

Almost three years now, yes. it's a little embarrassing, but they call me the "second coming of the Detective Prince," after a high school detective who appeared a few years previously. Though it would seem that I've been recently downgraded by our ring-tailed headmasters.

[truthstranger]

Ah, that's right... there were three Ultimate Detective titles on the list, and they didn't even give you one of them. I have to wonder how they decided these things.

[afailedmurder]

I wasn't going to ask, but since you bring that up...

[truthstranger]

I don't know why mine is that! T-That is... I was just the Ultimate Detective before. I don't know about... the other part.

[afailedmurder]

There's no need to be modest. Are you going to bring us all together with the power of love?