Requiem

VS Prodigy

Minoru sighed to himself, pressing a palm to his forehead. In all honesty, I would have done the very same thing in his position. “Of course, there could be a trap to lure you in. The whole Crime Scene thing is literally written out in black and white, deliberately leading you to this conclusion. Go to where the photographs lead to, and you could be the next said victim.” The detective mused casually, as if something like this was no different from the daily occurrence. “The picture itself seems to be taken at T Street, though.”

“Wait, then the German guy who dropped the pamphlet...” Mika gasped, finally putting things together and earning a glum nod from Akito.

“I'm going to kick his ass. Alright, we're going.” Akito gave Minoru a halfhearted wave as he headed towards the door in a manner that screamed his prolonged wanting to leave the place. Mika rolled her eyes, obviously dissatisfied at something that I failed to place my finger on.

“Stopping murders, finding a dude who dropped a pamphlet, dealing with the Yotsugi and finding the reason behind a 13 year old girl's suicide. This is chaotic as hell.” She muttered, running her hand through her dark brown hair in stress before leading me out of the room.

“Yeah,” I nodded at her offhandedly. “And between all that, trying not to get stabbed to death by a pair of scissors.” She gave me another one of her weird looks as we entered the elevator. Of course, she hadn't seen the whole event back at school and that type of thing was rather hard to picture. She walked up to the lift lobby and karate-chopped at the down button with style. It arrived after a short wait, and we wandered into the empty space.

“What's with the Yotsugi, Aki?” I abruptly asked, the doors sliding close. Since I first heard the word and especially after K made the point in telling me not to ask, I've wanted to know more about it. Akito seemed reluctant to answer at first, but eventually did so anyway.

“Traditionally, the Yotsugi is one of the many families that grew in and dominated Rimona. Their secrets are supposedly kept within the family and their loyalties lie by blood, but that is also why nobody's been really able to confirm this idea.” He dictated it like it was out of a textbook. I angled my gaze upwards to lie on the red numbers that slid by on the screen, marking each floor that we passed. The sound of Akito's voice echoing inside the small box, as well as the mirrors that lined three of the four sides anything but helped my claustrophobic nausea. Paranoid, I stared into the security camera that seemed to watch over all three of us. “'The' Yotsugi that everyone's on about nowadays is a title for the heir of the core, most powerful family branch. He or she is thought to be granted supernatural powers capable of supreme judgement, and is therefore treated as a deity.”

“A fearsome bunch,” Mika added. She was staring at an unseen point in the empty air, leaning against the opposite corner of the elevator from where I was. The bell rang once, and the doors began to open. With that, we filed out of the elevator and eventually the building, heading to T Street.

We kept walking until we came to a no U-turn sign, which seemed to match the one in the photograph.

“Here?” Mika asked, voicing the question in my own head.

“Looks like it.” I shrugged and took the pamphlet from Akito. “Maybe it's in one of those shops or residential buildings, I don't know.” I stood on the tips of my toes, holding onto the road-sign's pole for balance.

“We're assuming that the photographs lead us to murder scenes, you know. I mean, if we confirm this second one we might have a clue on how to stop the third one from happening.” Mika pointed out, scanning the crowd. “Not like I'm expecting the dude to have given us the hints before killing the second victim, but we have a tiny possibility of cracking that one, I guess.”

“Get real,” Akito chided. “Whatever, you're ranting.” He seemed to think that murderer-hunting was as shitty a plan as I did.

“...” Mika let out a heavy breath in response to that, crossing her arms over her chest. “I'm going to get a drink. Stay alive here for two minutes, would you?” She directed that mainly at me.

“Fine.” I tilted my head to the side. For one reason or another, it was like Mika treated me like a child. How many years older than me was she, anyway? Five? Fair enough. I waved as she left, and Akito mock saluted.

Why were we chasing shadows when it was hardly possible? It wasn't like I expected the answer to just fall from the sky. Maybe we should just give up and wait for the corpse to show up on its own, if it even was here in the first place. There was no point in sitting duck, waiting for someone to drop dead. I was about to say something to Akito in regards to this, then a shrill voice caught my attention.

“Sage~!”

I cringed. No, not her again. Not K. What the fuck is with me running into her and Hizumi all the freaking time? I whipped around and forced a smile.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“My family got a tip that someone's been killed so I'm here to check it out. What'ya doing, Sage?” Her overly playful tone made me shrink backwards. By then, I was almost a hundred person that she and Hizumi were from the Yotsugi clan at the very least, though she specifically told me not to ask.

“Hanging.” Akito replied to her in a half growl.

“You're such a scary upperclassman.” K huffed, putting her hands on her hips.

“You're one to talk...”

She cuffed him across the face.

“Hey, what was that for?” Akito protested, cupping a hand over his cheek. "My point, though. It's made and proven." He gave a smug grin.

"Whatever... I came here to talk." She shrugged, just as Mika emerged from the store then with her drink. 

"Oh, never thought I'd see you around here." Mika peered down at the younger girl, giving a small wave. "Where is... er, Hizumi? I sorta need a friendly catch-up conversation with that guy."

K averted her gaze for a moment, but I saw the stormy look on her face. “Elsewhere. He said that someone's been killed in their apartment, right in there." She pointed to the residential building that was nearest to us. "By the Verhon Organization. Specifically, we believe it's the doing of someone who goes by the name of the Prodigy.”

“...”

“Not the Executioner?” Akito asked. I assumed that was another person from the Verhon, who usually carried out the killings by the sound of it.

K shrugged. “Word is that he went underground,” she said with a smirk. “About six feet, so he won't be around to exterminate nobody any more.” She turned to walk into one of the residential buildings, beckoning for us to follow if we desired to. Taking the elevator right up to the twentieth floor, I found that the door had been conveniently left unlocked. Supposing that this was the place where the second victim has or would be killed, someone's taken the initiative to invite us inside.

There was no second thought to accepting the invitation. We entered the apartment and stood there for a moment, Mika's hand on her gun as she searched for anyone or anything that lingered in the apartment. Then, when not a single drop of blood was spotted, she started towards the only bedroom.

There we found the corpse. On the wall next to the body, scrawled in dripping blood was a single word. 

CHECKMATE.