[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

[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?

[truthstranger]

I am not going to make thirty people fall in love with me.

[afailedmurder]

Not with that attitude.

[truthstranger]

[a vague strangled noise]

I-It's like... they wanted to give people even more expectations of me than 'Ultimate Detective' had in the first place. It's really... not like that...

[afailedmurder]

I wouldn't worry about it so much. I don't think anyone takes these silly titles seriously, and it's fairly clear they only put that in to tease you.

I am curious about the rest of it, though. How did you become a detective?

[truthstranger]

I...

[there is a long pause as he debates with himself and ultimately decides to go with the easier answer to that question]

...I started out just helping out my uncle. His work isn't usually very exciting, though. Mostly infidelity cases, runaways, that sort of thing. But one time he was working on a murder with the police, and I happened to find a piece of evidence they had missed. That solved the case, and so I got the title of Ultimate Detective.

[afailedmurder]

Ah, I... I can see what you mean about the title.

[some small amount of internal screaming over here, because what the hell, do they just give detective titles out like participation prizes? Why did I have to work so hard to get mine?]

But you solved the case. That's not nothing.

[truthstranger]

I know it's not all that impressive. There were... some circumstances, about all that...

[he trails off vaguely.]

Of course, then I was in a killing game like this with the title of Ultimate Detective. And that time, the rules were such that if we got the culprit wrong, the culprit would win and everyone else would be executed. My friends trusted in my reasoning, so, well... I did my best.

[afailedmurder]

[buddy, you should lead with that]

Everyone...?

That's horrifying. The pressure must have been overwhelming.

[truthstranger]

[look he's doing great at not talking about death and destruction]

M-Mm, it was at times. But I had people supporting me too.