She was surrounded by various hands. None of them quite matched each other— each one one belonged to a different person. Tan hands, slender hands, wrinkly hands, even heavily calloused hands, swam within what felt like an empty void in her direction. They'd all been after one thing; her neck. No matter how much effort she put into scrambling to something, anything, as there was no surface to this endless space, [name] was fixated in place. She was a doll on a shelf just waiting to be played with, to be destroyed, to be picked apart into tiny fragments by careless children. A twisted, personal version of an old nursery rhyme.
The hands fed into each other until they became a giant pair: light ivory skin and masculine fingers, but each with their own personality. They were to carry out the final goal of cutting off the air swelling in her lungs, inching closer by the second, all before she woke up in an unbearable sweat. She'd managed to beat the ownerless hands to the punch this time.
[name] got up and drew the thick curtains shut; despite it being morning, she had no desire to interact with the real world at this time. She'd soaked straight through the shirt she had thrown on before bed– and she was already removing it in order to shower the sticky sweat away from her back.
The shower ran perfectly normal, but it's uninteresting and completely usual behavior did nothing to keep her mind from wandering back to her worrying, if not prophetic dream. She stood with her arms crossed over her chest in the shower and began to lose herself in thought again. She decided to distract herself by creating an agenda for the day rather than persistently over-analyzing her dream death by strangulation.
Background check on Rohan Kishibe.
Meet Rohan Kishibe at written address in purse.
Get evidence of the supernatural's existence.
Begin investigation on disappearances.
She didn't know what else to list in her mind; Maybe check out a few books on the local history of Morioh from the library, or even stop for a few drinks alone at one of the bars in town. It depended on her mood, which was frequently more sour than not. Typically she found herself shutting herself up at home to sleep, but given the circumstances, that wouldn't be an option for a while.
The hot water began to feel suffocating after spending too long in its heat, and it always made her more tired afterwards. It didn't take much to exhaust her stamina. In that sense, it was sort of like she was in a video game— and her limited energy was always spent on pointless things, leaving her unsatisfied with the day's results. The missing persons case was definitely one of them. Rule of thumb left many M.I.A. people dead after a few days, so the majority of her efforts now would be done in vain as nearly all the victims disappeared weeks, even months ago. While she could arrest the perpetrator and they could be charged with their crimes, there wouldn't be any actual justice or results for dead victims. That's how she saw it.
[name] shut off the pounding hot water and stirred around her room for a bit, before officially beginning her first day of investigation.
•••
The Morioh Police Department's bullpen was far more unimpressive and boring than what she'd grown used to in S-City. At her department there was always a throng of people; a wild hustle and bustle that she thrived on, opposed to these few officers within bland olive green walls that made her feel uncomfortably queasy. [name] was used to wading through seas of officers, detectives and their paperwork, but now, all she fought through was the urge to vomit at the disorganized records room.
Everything here in Morioh, despite being significantly smaller, was in incredible disarray. She could excuse the huge lack of technology, but the mess that she stared upon now; file boxes stacked to the ceiling with no alphabetical or numerical order was a horrific sight, especially at a government building.
She pondered for a moment. Reorganizing the records room would take an entire day, if not two. [name] didn't want to waste her time doing that, but working on a case while this room sat in a disorderly chaos seemed unfair to not only herself but the few officers that worked here. They were the ones who made it this way, though.
Moving a few containers around didn't take too much effort, but finding a clear spot for the heavy cardboard boxes to sit was another story. She went ahead and kept stacking them up sloppily, just like everyone else had been doing, and stopped once she had spotted the 'Ki' box she'd been looking for.
"Kima, Kimura, Kira— ha! Kishibe." She whipped the aged folder out a bit too carelessly, and the tired crease that held it together began to tear after viciously taking a beating in this box after several years. [name] returned the folder and took out the paperwork inside, one by one, drudging through the meaningless task.
Rohan Kishibe as of Spring 1999
Gender: Male
Age: 20 – born in 1979
Occupation: Manga artist
Blood Type: B
Surgical history: none reported
All irrelevant. The real background check began when she flipped the page to his criminal background—
Criminal history: none reported
"Fuck." It's not that [name] was truly disappointed with the fact that her new acquaintance wasn't a felon, it was the anticipation that killed her mood immediately after seeing nothing noteworthy. She looked over his record one more time, and something caught her eye.
Criminal history: none reported
–Witness in Sugimoto Family homicide (1983), age 4. Deemed too young to testify.
"1983... I would've been eight then. But I can't remember seeing anything about this. Probably because I didn't care then." [Name] scanned the records room for an unused folder to stuff Rohan Kishibe's record inside, and tucked in under her arm for safekeeping. She had begun searching for the 'Su' box when a sharp turn of the doorknob frightened her.
"Ah, [name], what're you doing?" The chief stood in the doorframe, looking as gloomy as ever. His eyes were too easy to notice his stares as she frightenedly fumbled around the room, caught red-handed where she shouldn't have been. Like a guilty child trying not to cry after being scolded for their behavior.
"I was just, uh, looking into some of the victims' histories." She nonchalantly pulled Rohan's folder out from under her arm and held it behind her back. [Name] was bound to seem suspicious with a technically unrelated man's file, and she was already starting to get too deep into this case to just drop everything and go home for insubordination.
"I see..." He didn't seem keen on the idea of her wasting the day away in the records room just soaking up information like a sponge. "Don't hole yourself up in here too long. All the dust in here'll get you sick! We can't have you falling ill on us, alright?"
His skepticism was replaced by brief enthusiasm, and he laughed to himself gently before taking on a more serious attitude. "And don't stay in here all day just to avoid fieldwork. I'm your old boss [name], I know how you like to operate."
"Of course, sir. I won't be in here much longer." That was true, but not for the reasons her old chief would hope for. She had to follow this potentially pointless lead with Rohan Kishibe out first before officially starting on the actual case.
•••
The location her artist acquaintance had asked her to meet at was too... typical. The small separation between the Owson convenience store and a boutique [name] had never seen before was incredibly obvious, but as Rohan would state, it was unmarked on the map.
She was early by at least twenty minutes, so [name] elected to waste her lunch money on snacks. Owson was one of the few franchises that went all the way out to Morioh, along with Kameyu. These were 'luxuries' she'd missed; once living in the city, convenience stores were no longer such a treasure. She rung up at the register with a mini bag of chips, a soda, and a candy bar— king size, for extra energy and regret. She considered getting something for Rohan, but by what she could gather from his personality, he'd be an incredibly picky eater. That, or he'd be too good for junk food.
"You're here pretty early." [name] felt her heart stop as soon as she stepped out of Owson's, Rohan Kishibe leaning on the wall of the convenience store, perfectly hidden from anyone who stepped out. He had to know she was in there. Rohan had scared her completely on purpose.
"You scared the shit outta me." [name] watched Rohan grimace with disgust as she carelessly stuffed chips into her mouth, trying to balance the soda underneath her arm, along with the aforementioned man's background file. She stuffed the candy bar in her back pocket.
"Is that what you consider lunch?"
"Hmm... Yes. Why, were you expecting me to bring a four-course meal out of Owson? I mean, I can go check–"
"God. I'd hoped you'd be just an ounce more professional, but it seems my wishes fall on deaf ears." [Name] felt sheepish and awkward upon hearing that. She couldn't quite place the feeling, it was more than being scolded by her boss, but not quite the level she would take completely seriously. She ate a few more chips and tossed the half-eaten bag in the garbage, Rohan simply observing her without another word.
"So uh, are you gonna show me this supernatural thing?"
"I've been thinking. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see her." He held his chin in his hand, as if he was carefully pondering his next chess move.
"...Her?" Checkmate.
"Oh. I mean the supernatural being. The entity. It's of the... ghost variety." He remained calm and composed, despite the immediate obviousness of his error. Rohan was too good at staying unruffled and poised, all the while she was the one who threw away a bag of chips that cost more than a third of the cash she had on her because of one offhand comment. [name] wanted to crack that composedness over its metaphorical head with a baseball bat.
"Interesting. And you think I wouldn't be able the see the ghost?"
"Yes. I don't think you have the ability to do so."
[Name] scoffed. "Ability?"
Rohan frowned at the detective for the second time during their meet up. "It's not something I can just explain to someone without it."
The detective could feel her blood boiling almost immediately. This prick wasted her time for– for what? What could Rohan Kishibe possibly gain from throwing her off on the case except for the possibility to avert her attention? It was suspicious behavior, credulously so, and left [name] only to quick on her feet and assumptions.
"Rohan Kishibe, I'm arresting you for impeding a police investigation–" She readied her handcuffs and locked his wrists together in her grip.
"Ugh. I thought this would go in an entirely different direction. Heaven's Door!" With a burst of mental energy, [name] went limp. Rohan swung around with haste to catch her before she fell onto the hard concrete, but he managed to accidentally knock her head against the sidewalk anyways. He dragged her body cautiously out of immediate sight and into the shadow of Owson convenience store.
Her usual face was replaced by pages that flipped at his command. Rohan could literally read her like an open book, which felt incredibly satisfying knowing that she'd brought along a copy of his government records, which he glanced over briefly. "There's nothing interesting about me in there anyways," He noted in annoyance, and tossed the folder aside.
"What to write... 'I will believe Rohan'? 'I won't arrest Rohan'? There's just so many options I might need in the future if I intend to pursue her assistance. What do you think?" Rohan asked his stand, the manifestation of his mental strength; the white boyish figure shrugged its shoulders in response. "I guess that's the response I should expect from asking something that can't talk, huh?" No response.
"Well, whatever. I'll just write in everything. While I'm at it, though, I might as well do a background check of my own." Rohan perused each page with a half-hearted interest.
Born in 1975, former Morioh resident. Good-natured, but somewhat stubborn and uncouth. Quick to jump to conclusions.
"Tch. Yeah. That's why she was going to arrest me."
Admires Blondie, Tomoko Higashikata—
"Of course, she has to know Josuke. Those two idiots probably get along really well." Rohan paused for a moment, looking down at the page he stopped on. "Maybe I shouldn't put this in, but I really don't see the harm in messing around for a bit."
Admires Blondie, Tomoko Higashikata, and Rohan Kishibe.
A/N: I wanted Rohan to feel violated by the fact that detective reader here did a background check on him like he does with Heaven's Door on others, but I later realized he probably just wouldn't give a shit, so I wrote that instead.