[FFML] [yyh][ry][xover] Demon Sword Chapter 24: Smile Bomb (Part 6)

[Chester Castañeda]

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Demon Sword
A Yuyu Hakusho/Rurouni Kenshin Crossover Fan Fiction
By Chester Castañeda
chester.castaneda at gmail.com
gabriel_gabdiel at yahoo.com
Original concept by Chad Yang
chadjill at ms3.hinet.net
http://www.fanfiction.net/~abdiel

Everything is about to come together.


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Chapter 24: Smile Bomb (Part 6)

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Two weeks after the attack at Genkai's temple, inside the Shinjuku
Police Station...

"You're insane, lady. Like I said, there's no way that that overgrown
mama's boy is going to be raping anybody, not the least of which someone
who's already rejected him countless times before. He, like, Akahito, is
more concerned about collecting anime videotapes and model kits than
having relations with women. He's completely harmless. Stop this
nonsense," Ippei Shimamura, the eldest of all the brothers, admonished
Detective Aiko Tsunemoto.

"I like how you conveniently left out the point that he's been stalking
Kishida-shi all this time. How well do you know your brother, Ippei-kun?
Let me remind you that as recently as four years ago, the Little Girl
Murders took place. The Otaku Murderer was also an avid collector of the
things you describe. Many known criminals and sexual predators are
loners and social misfits."

"You're clueless. Ennosuke is not the otaku in the family! That's
Akahito! Ennosuke's obsessed about cartoons, but I'm seriously not
buying your bullshit that cartoon obsession can cause people to rape
and murder others! By your logic, Akahito's the likelier suspect than
Ennosuke, which isn't saying much because even if you can link the
nerdy tendencies of those two to a murderer who also happened to be a
nerd, it still doesn't prove shit!"

"Oh really? While correlation doesn't necessarily equal causation, in
order for something to be the cause of another thing, correlation
remains essential. I have reasonable doubt to believe that Ennosuke-kun
is guilty of the crimes committed against Kishida Miki-shi in terms of
motivation. You say that Akahito-kun is more entrenched in otaku culture
than Ennosuke-kun? Then that means that he, more than anyone else in
this room,  understands Ennosuke-kun's neurotic, obsessive tendencies in
terms of an otaku's unfulfilled sexual longings."

"You're walking on thin ice, detective. No one... not _one_ of my sons
had sexual relations with that girl!" Kunihiko blustered while Ippei
glanced towards Akahito's direction with bulging eyes, as if to mime,
'Defend yourself, dumbass!'

Alas, the fourth brother and third quintuplet of the Shimamura family
found himself at a loss for words, his indignation battling with his own
shame at being labeled a freak by society ever since Tsutomu Miyazaki...
also known as Dracula, the Otaku Murderer, and the Little Girl
Murderer... made the headlines nationwide. If anything, Akahito was also
quite aware that Miki rejected Ennosuke specifically because of the
infamy of otaku.

Detective Aiko worked herself up to a storm, delivering her conclusion
with the same zeal as a prosecutor would when presenting his closing
argument, which naturally impressed Katsumi Kishida's lady lawyer.

"Besides which, had Ennosuke-kun perpetrated the two crimes, then he'd
merely be acting on the compulsive, antisocial behavior of otaku;
revenge of a stalker who is incapable of handling rejection like a
mature individual. The puzzle pieces fit together perfectly. I wouldn't
be surprised if Ennosuke-kun began blaming some sort of 'Rat Man' for
his actions during his actual court hearing."

>From behind the eye-rolling Natsuki Shinkai, Likka inquired, "What the
hell is Detective Lovechild talking about? The 'Rat Man' quip, I mean."

The half-Chinese girl clarified, "'Rat Man' is the alter ego that the
Otaku Murderer claimed to have during his trial. He claims that Rat Man
was the one who forced him to do his atrocities against his four young
victims, the damn pedophile."

"In accordance to police procedure and your own deductions regarding
Oogata-shi's testimony, I think you'll agree with me that Ennosuke-kun
is beyond the shadow of a doubt the murderer of Kishida Miki-shi."
Detective Tsunemoto made her way beside the trembling and tearful
Katsumi. "Isn't that right, Katsumi-san?"

"M-My sister had mentioned to me that one of the Shimamura quintuplets
who has been harassing her has betrayed her, and if anything were to
happen to her, I should go to the police and tell you people everything
she's told me." The shaken Kishida daughter withheld a sob, covering
her face with her hands.

To everyone's surprise and Detective Aiko's smug satisfaction, the
listless Ennosuke cracked at long last, dropping to his knees and
screaming till his voice became ragged. "Take me away. I don't care
anymore. Just take me away, dammit. I wasn't there for her when she
needed me the most."

"Yes, yes. You weren't there for Kishida-shi when your alter ego did
those horrible, unspeakable things to her. I'm sure an insanity plea is
your best bet at the moment, scumbag" Tsunemoto declared as she whipped
out her handcuffs and motioned for both Officers Takumi Hamada and
Shigetaka Uye to assist her in arresting Ennosuke.

"Ennosuke-niichan!" Bunjiro cried out in despair and disbelief as even
Ennosuke's main accuser, Akahito, almost went ahead and broke formation
in order to protect his brother from an otaku-based witch hunt of sorts.
However, the brothers all went back to their places once Natsuki started
speaking.

"I'm afraid you fell into the same trap as Officer Uye did, Detective
Tsunemoto. Look at the lineup again. You'll see that there are more than
three people who are telling the truth if it were Ennosuke-kun who did."

"Oh, here you go again. Your lineup of the Shimamura brothers perfectly
shows that there are three people who are pointing their fingers at
Ennosuke-kun, and they're Ennosuke-kun himself, Akahito-kun, and Houjo-
kun because he's saying that it was neither Katsuhiko-kun or himself, so
that means he's implying that Ennosuke-kun did it."

"You're forgetting that Oogata-shi said that only three of them were
telling the truth, so if it was Ennosuke-kun who did it, then four
people are confirming that allegation this time around. Houjo-kun says
it was neither Katsuhiko-kun or himself, Goemon-kun says it was not
Katsuhiko-kun, Ennosuke-kun says that Bunjiro-kun isn't telling the
truth and that he did it, and Akahito-kun says that Ennosuke-kun is
guilty. All these statements are true if Ennosuke were guilty."

"I knew you'd pull something like this, you little brat." Detective Aiko
hissed as she faced off with the amateur schoolgirl detective. "Didn't
you just hear what I said? Motivation, opportunity, and evidence
establishing these two are all essential in finding out the true perp.
We now have two confessions in our hands now, and I've already presented
my case in regards to Ennosuke-kun. If the only thing you have is
Oogata-shi's vague testimony, then your dubious argument hasn't got a
leg to stand on."

Ignoring Tsunemoto's remarks and the worried tug Likka gave her outfit's
sleeve, Natsuki continued. "The suspect isn't that hard to figure out.
Out of the five suspects, the brothers only pointed fingers at three of
them. In reality, you only have three suspects. You shouldn't be
distracted by red herrings like Ippei-san essentially saying that all
three are innocent by backing up Houjo-kun's testimony or Ennosuke-kun
claiming that a brother of his is lying. By the process of elimination
and from Oogata-shi's hint, we can conclude that Houjo-kun is the one
who did it."

Houjo shrunk back and looked uncomfortably at the curious eyes that
suddenly surrounded him, but a reassuring nod from Katsuhiko kept him
from slinking back. "I-I don't know why you're letting that girl derail
this investigation of yours, but my statement before is still the same.
Neither Katsuhiko-niichan nor I committed those crimes. I'm not sure
about Ennosuke-kun because of the stalking thing, but I'm only going
with what I know, man."

"Now you're just being ridiculous, young lady. The pattern I've noticed
throughout this back and forth is that every time we think up a suspect,
there are always quite a lot of people who's telling the truth because
of all the contradictory statements. If anything, we may have used the
process of elimination, but what if our star witness, Oogata-shi, made a
mistake and not one of the conditions produces only three people who are
telling the truth?" Officer Shigetaka questioned.

Flatly, Natsuki replied as she shot back a glare at Uye, "Check them.
You'll see that only three of them are telling the truth if it were
Houjo-kun who's the suspect."

Hearing Uye's lack of a response, the gi-wearing Likka supplied the
answer for him. "Let's see, there's Doi-kun who's saying that it was
either Katsuhiko-kun or Houjo-kun, there's Bunjiro-kun who's saying that
it wasn't Ennosuke-kun, and there's Goemon-kun who's saying that it
wasn't Katsuhiko-kun. All the rest of them aren't telling the truth, or
are at least mistaken."

"I-Is this true, Houjo-kun? D-Did you really rape and kill Kishi-san?"
the slack-jawed Ennosuke queried in such a way that made it seem like he
was pleading for a denial. Meanwhile, Katsumi's ears perked up after
hearing Ennnosuke's pet name for her sister.

"O-Of course not! Don't believe what that bitch is saying! She came out
of nowhere with that karate chick or whoever like some sort of damn
clowns from the circus!" Houjo stated, his hands and eyebrows raised way
up in seeming surrender. "A-And what about you? Maybe you did it! You're
the only one of us quintuplets who actually stalked whoever that dead
chick was!"

Ennosuke fell silent once more after hearing his fellow quintuplet's
words, his mind abuzz and stymied from the recent turn of events as he
questioned his own memories of "Kishi-san".

"I'm afraid that this time around, you are out of line, miss. Not only
is your forceful entry into this investigation highly... unprofessional,
your deductions are also suspect." The head of the Shimamuras' team of
lawyers adjusted his glasses.

"While it is our legal firm's belief that none of the brothers are
guilty of anything, your allegations that it was Shimamura Houjo whom
Oogata-shi is accusing is preposterous at best. You have no evidence to
back that up save for the off-chance that Oogata-shi actually knew what
he was talking about when he claimed that only three of the nine
brothers were telling the truth."

"Not only that, but Houjo-kun has a girlfriend and probably never met
the girl." Officer Uye interjected, happy that people were finally
putting the upstart amateur detective in her place by ganging up on
her. "I've interviewed students around campus, and the main rumor
surrounding Kishida-shi is that she was able to date one of the
Shimamura quintuplets. In light of evidence that Ennosuke-kun couldn't
possibly have the social maturity to date Kishida-shi, the most likely
suspect remains Katsuhiko-kun, regardless of what Oogata-shi may or may
not have said."

Detective Tsunemoto joined in on absolutely destroying Natsuki's one
deduction as well. "Motivation-wise, Houjo-kun is a blank slate. In
terms of the sheer number of people testifying against him, the fact
that there are only three people who _inadvertently_ pointed their
fingers at him... Bunjiro-kun, Goemon-kun, and Doi-kun... means that the
argument of him being the rapist and murderer of Kishida-shi is quite
spurious, to say the least. Also, even though Katsuhiko-kun may have the
most accusations of the bunch, Ennosuke-kun had better opportunity to
perpetrate the crime since the victim herself knew him."

"Looks like they got you there, Natsuki-chan," came Inspector Masaya
Taniguchi's take on the matter as he gave the short-haired girl of
mixed heritage a fatherly pat on the shoulder. "At best, the only thing
you've really proven today is that you've established who Oogata-shi
was attempting to accuse and possibly blackmail before he was killed.
You're a very smart girl, and you'd make a fine detective in the force
one day. However, solving a brain teaser alone isn't enough to help
catch the true perpetrator of this crime."

Her eyes hidden by the shadows of her bangs, Natsuki put her hands on
the pistol grip of her cane and held it tight as she resisted the urge
to tremble in frustration. Nevertheless, this was the exact scenario she
envisioned to happen as soon as she solved the mystery behind Akio
Oogata's testimony.

"Tsuki-chan..." Likka called out after a minute of stillness on
Natsuki's part.

"Indulge me for a couple of minutes," Natsuki requested after bracing
herself for a spell, paying no heed to the wordless, cross-armed poses
of defiance offered to her by the Shimamura lawyers, Katsumi's legal
representative, Officer Uye, Detective Tsunemoto, and Inspector
Taniguchi.

"Although it appears that Houjo-kun has the least likely motivation and
opportunity to do what he allegedly did to Kishida Miki-shi, that's not
necessarily true. From what I heard earlier, Missus Shimamura is quite
disdainful of the quintuplets because they're essentially bastards. An
allegation of rape by an illegitimate child would mean getting disowned
and cut off from the will regardless of Mister Shimamura's protests. I
imagine that's the prevailing motivation behind the second crime, at the
very least."

"Well, so? If that's the primary motivation for the murder, then any
one of us five would fit the description. Try again. Also, where's the
proof for all that?" were Houjo's rapid-fire contentions that were
reasonable enough to get nods of agreement from the surrounding
officers.

"The best place to hide a tree is in a forest. You had a couple of your
brothers choose to use the method of providing contradictory answers to
keep yourselves from implicating anyone. Then again, several of them had
no idea what was going on, but those who did intentionally gave
contradicting testimonies to hide the real suspect."

"THAT'S EVEN MORE PREPOSTEROUS! Are you calling my brothers liars, you
little poser?" Houjo snarled while Katsuhiko, who was just a brother
away from Houjo, acted out shushing signals to his impetuous quintuplet.
"If we really did meet together and plan our testimonies out, wouldn't
it make better sense for us to make a unified and consistent testimony
so that none of us will get the chance of being implicated? Please,
tell me you've thought this through."

Natsuki resumed presenting her argument. "Had the police caught the
wrong quintuplet, the Shimamura lawyers would've been able to take care
of freeing him due to lack of evidence while keeping the real
perpetrator from even standing trial... at least, that was the plan.
Judging by the back-and-forth accusations of gold digging and sexual
promiscuity on Kishida-shi's part, I suspect that _that_ was the story
you fed your brothers when pleading to them to go along with your plan."

In a softer yet firmer tone, Houjo asserted, "Again, you don't have any
proof of what you're saying. These are fascinating rationalizations and
speculations, but if I or any one of my brothers is going to be
arrested, it would be in the hands of actual law enforcement, thank you
very much."

This time around, Natsuki backed up, turned, and addressed the rest of
the mesmerized brothers. "Quite a lot of you must have gone along with
this scheme in the hopes of protecting your brother from going to jail.
But don't you realize that he's the very same brother who's willing to
let Katsuhiko-kun or Ennosuke-kun take the blame for his wrongdoings? He
was more than willing to throw Ennosuke-kun under the bridge when he
himself was accused of this crime. Do you really want to choose this one
brother over two others who are probably innocent?"

Just as it looked like Akahito and Fumio were about to say something in
response to Natsuki's guesswork, Katsuhiko stepped forward and said,
"That's enough, Natsuki-san! You have no proof behind your accusations
and I sincerely doubt you even have any idea of what you're saying.
Let's end this nonsense. I'm the one who killed Miki-san. There are no
ifs or buts about it."

Natsuki could only raise an eyebrow at that. "Hmmm? You allege to have
had relations with the victim before murdering her, right? Can you tell
us more about her? Her favorite color? Her favorite band? Her
mannerisms? Feel free to tell us, because her sister is here to confirm
your answers. I want to know how well you knew your alleged victim
before you supposedly killed her."

Katsuhiko glanced to the side and his eyes darted back and forth between
the floor and Natsuki. "I... I don't need to answer any of your
questions. She's a liar who wants to claim I raped her and that she has
my child, so I had no choice but to kill her b-because of the motive
you've just presented. I didn't want to be disowned."

Natsuki shook her head. "Please, don't lie anymore. You're terrible at
it, and you'll end up contradicting yourself if you continue. Actually,
I doubt you've ever even met Kishida-shi, especially when considering
your lack of a pet name for her. Don't tell me you randomly killed a
stranger for no apparent reason. In fact, you look more like someone
who's trying to cover up for your brother's misdeeds. Believe me, it's
not worth it, and I sincerely doubt that Kishida-shi is as evil as
Houjo-kun portrayed her."

"You know who else might know Kishida-shi's favorite color or band? Her
stalker," Detective Tsunemoto interpolated, but her insinuation was then
countered by a timely rebuttal of "You do realize that Ennosuke-kun
never confessed, right? I'll further postulate that both Bunjiro-kun and
Ennosuke-kun had talked about the latter's crush on Kishida-san, which
was known to them by the name 'Kishi'."

"That doesn't disprove that it might have been Ennosuke-kun who did it,"
the detective contended, to which Natsuki replied, "It does explain why
Ennosuke-kun claims that Bunjiro-kun is lying even before knowing
Bunjiro-kun's testimony; he had an idea what it was going to be and, in
a fit of guilt, contradicted it."

"So you're agreeing with me? Doing something in a fit of guilt sounds
more like a confession to me than anything else," the adamant Tsunemoto
challenged.

"Didn't you hear what I said? He contradicted the _truth_ in a fit of
guilt. He's blaming himself for Kishida-shi's death and he wants to
take the blame, perhaps believing that his stalking has driven the girl
to frame either him or one of his fellow quintuplets for her death. The
love of his life is dead and he doesn't want any of his family members
to suffer because of what he believes to be his failures; damn the
consequences. He wasn't even aware that a brother of his betrayed him,
and this betrayal may be too much for his mind to take at the moment
because of his severe trauma."

Natsuki put her hands on her back, her cane slung over her forearms, as
she paced back and forth the room while all eyes were on her. "In any
case, once Oogata-shi took a look at the brothers' testimonies,
it was easy to see who among them were telling the truth in his eyes.
There was zero chance for confusion if you already know the answer. I'm
guessing that Kishida-shi's ex-boyfriend stalked her as well, to the
point of perhaps even witnessing the murder take place. Because he's a
scumbag, instead of going to the police, he waited for it to unfold
because he deemed this as a moneymaking opportunity."

"All right, _fuck_ this cunt; why are you police officers even allowing
this bitch to speak? Is this 'show and tell' time at the local
kindergarten? Fuck you, you unprofessional pieces of shit," Houjo
objected, pointing out the Shinjuku Police's blatant disregard for
S.O.P.

"Proof please. I want proof. You have no proof. All you have are half-
assed guesses and hearsay. They all sound intelligent and shit, but they
aren't any more convincing than all the other arguments presented
earlier."

Houjo broke from the Likka-imposed lineup and further exposed, "What I
said earlier, I'm sticking with it. I don't know about Ennosuke-kun, but
I'm sure that I didn't do nothing to Mikan-san or whoever, and neither
did a boy scout like Katsuhiko-niichan. In fact, you even proved that
point by exposing his lack of familiarity with the whore. That's good.
Hooray for you. But all that shit about us orchestrating our testimonies
to contradict? Come on. Get real. The one witness that the victim's
sister had is dead anyway. As long as you don't have any solid proof
against us, nothing you say will hold any water. Not in this police
station, and certainly not in court."

"For someone who has very little proof on hand save for a dead witness's
testimony, she actually had a lot of spot-on deductions," assessed a
sultry voice from the interrogation room's entrance. As everyone turned,
they were greeted with the trench-coated vision of a tall, raven-haired
detective with green eyes and sharp spikes for bangs.

Respective greetings of "Uncle Jiji!" and "Sempai!" were uttered by
Likka and Natsuki.

"Matsudaira-kun! You son of a bitch; I was just about to fire you for
being M.I.A. for days-on-end and making this teenage girl serve as your
messenger," the voluptuous inspector hailed his favorite detective with
half-serious rage and half-hopeful anticipation. "Please tell me you
didn't waste your time hunting for that Kanji Killer and kept your
investigation strictly on this case."

Daiji Matsudaira shrugged. "Didn't you get my message? Oogata-shi's one
testimony before he got killed checks out. He has been aiming his finger
at Shimamura Houjo all along; he might as well said it was him straight
out."

"PROOF! You still don't have any proof, coppers! Give me your evidence,
or let's see each other in court!" Houjo felt the rest of his legal
threats die out upon seeing the emotionless glare from Daiji's eyes; it
was as though part of his soul got sucked into an endless void.

"Natsuki-kun already discussed your possible motives, so let's take a
look at the facts regarding this case, shall we? You're a ladies man
despite having settled down with a girlfriend from a rich and
influential family only last year, and you're even one of five identical
quintuplets to boot. There's ample opportunity and extra motives for
your crimes right there."

"What the hell are you implying, man?" Houjo barked. "Are you trying to
cover for your underage girlfriend's questionable conclusions or
something? So what if we're quintuplets? What's your point? What does
that have to do with anything?"

"Like Natsuki said, the best place to hide a tree is in a forest. You
didn't merely use this tactic when you convinced Katsuhiko, Akahito, and
Fumio into giving false testimonies that directly contradicted with the
rest of your brothers' confessions. You also used it to perpetrate the
grievous crime of passion that forced you to murder Kishida-shi in the
first place."

"Wait a second. You aren't honestly suggesting...?" Tsunemoto managed to
interpose before Matsudaira interrupted her interruption, the male
detective knowing too all well his colleague's penchant for derailing a
conversation.

"The best way for you to protect yourself from getting caught while
cheating is through your own quintuplet. Who's to say that the person
who stalked Kishida-shi was Ennosuke and Ennosuke alone? What if you,
knowing what you knew of the girl, decided to take advantage of your
brother's unwillingness to contact her normally and used his identity to
win her over?"

"You don't have any proof of that! Fuck, why would you even think that?
This isn't some sort of movie about twins switching places, this is a
rape-slay case!" Houjo ground his teeth, his eyes circular and wide as
his volatile temper flared. "Besides, we're quintuplets; why are you
pinning this preposterous allegation on me when there are four others
who look just like me?"

"That was a nice attempt at using the 'Appeal to Ridicule' fallacy, but
that won't work in light of all the facts I've gathered. Also, let me
remind you, I'm pinning this on you because our first real lead on the
case indicated you as the perp." The six-feet-two detective pulled a
chair and sat on it with the backrest in front of him, his elbows
resting on top of it while he interlaced his fingers together.

"Anyway, I've been interviewing your friends, colleagues, teachers, and
schoolmates for the past week since I figured out Oogata-shi's hint.
>From January to February of this year, your friends and even your
girlfriend have noticed that you had a tendency to take regular toilet
breaks and rain checks ever since your brother started bothering the
deceased Kishida Miki. One of them even joked that you were acting like
Clark Kent or Bruce Wayne in the middle of a crisis because of your
regular absences from club duty and whatnot."

"That still doesn't prove anything." Houjo huffed as he tossed his head
back and let out a chuckle. "It doesn't matter where I went and it has
nothing to do with this case."

"Actually, it establishes quite a lot. To further check my theory, I
also interviewed various staff and crew from the Shimamura mansion on
the west side of Shinjuku, near the Park Hyatt Hotel. Here are the
tapes, statements, and interviews I've collected throughout my
investigation," Matsudaira declared as he took out the miscellaneous
pieces of evidence from his trench coat and handed them over to
Inspector Taniguchi.

"Curiously enough, the maid responsible for your laundry noticed that
you have less amounts of laundry than before during the date range I
indicated, which is strange because you're supposedly the one who
changes out of your outfits most often because you're as big of a social
butterfly as Ippei is. What's more, she noted that for some reason,
Ennosuke has double the laundry. She also once observed that a whole
wardrobe of Ennosuke's is still missing, and she found piece of
Ennosuke's clothing in your pile and vice-versa."

This time around, Houjo shrunk back as he felt the eyes of four
policemen, many lawyers, his brothers, his parents (or his father
and stepmother), the victim's sister, and several other people bore
right into him. "D-Do you have anything that's not just circumstantial?
Don't you realize how ridiculous your theories sound? If you want to
know why Ennosuke-kun has more laundry nowadays, then ask him, dammit!
He's become almost as much of an otaku slob as Akahito-kun that even he
hasn't been able to keep track of what he's wearing."

"I've been wondering why Sakura-san has been complaining about my
increased amount of laundry," Ennosuke deadpanned, which shut Houjo up
immediately. "I've been wondering why I've had less clothes to pick
through since two months ago. The fact that you a smaller pile of
laundry although you're always out of the house is also suspicious.
Please continue, Mister Detective."

"You have quite the interesting M.O., Shimamura Houjo. In order to
cover up Kishida-shi's murder, you made it look like she was killed by
the Kanji Killer or a Kanji Killer copycat. In order to cover up any
implicating accusation from your group testimony, you asked several of
your brothers to intentionally give contradictory statements. In order
to cover up your rape of Kishida-shi, you pretended to be one of your
quintuplet brothers."

"THOSE ARE LIES! You know what you sound like right now? You sound like
a deranged conspiracy theorist! You sound like my brother Akahito-kun
when he's talking about his collection of action figures! That's
complete and utter fucking BULLSHIT!"

"Valentine's Day."

"...What?"

"I discovered quite a lot of interesting things when I interviewed all
the people linked to you during Valentine's Day. For one thing, although
all the quintuplets were unaccounted for during the proposed date of
Kishida-shi's murder, February 28, you were the only one missing from
your home during the date of February 14."

"Of course. I was having a date with my girlfriend. Does this even have
a point?" Houjo brusquely cut Matsudaira off, but the detective didn't
even flinch as he resumed disclosing his findings.

"You say that you're with your girlfriend? Okay then. Each and every
last one of the quintuplets were back at the mansion for a single's
party of commiseration along with their little brothers after school."
Matsudaira then requested Taniguchi to flip through page 16 of one of
the folders.

"From what the hired help told me, Katsuhiko was having a hard time
getting over his gold digger girlfriend, nerdy Akahito never even had a
girlfriend, the ever-congenial Doi shared his collection of chocolates
from admirers and friends alike with his brothers, and Ennosuke had
recently been rejected by Kishida-shi after months of stalking."
Matsudaira cleared his throat.

"Ah, that reminds me. There's something you haven't told the police yet
in regards to Ennosuke's relationship with Kishida-shi. Perhaps it was
because of this incident that led him to believe he's responsible for
her rape and death... not necessarily murder," Matsudaira remarked.

Ennosuke stirred, but remained silent.

Matsudaira addressed Ennosuke directly. "It has something to do with
some of your classmates claiming that they saw Kishida-shi talk to you
in a friendlier manner in the last few weeks of her existence before she
dumped you. It may have been Houjo's doing, but certainly you would've
noticed something amiss when Kishida-shi actually began confirming your
existence even though your brother was posing as you all along."

The geeky quintuplet froze in doe-eyed horror upon hearing the horns of
the metaphoric eighteen-wheeler truck Matsudaira drove at him. Even
though he was at his wits' end and people probably wouldn't believe him
and his story, he confessed, "I... we had sex a week before Valentine's
Day. I don't know how, but for one reason or another, Kishi-san started
to return my feelings. Or maybe it was mixed signals and I
misunderstood? I don't know. I'm aware I'm a loser freak and a woman
falling in love with her stalker flies right in the face of logic,
but..."

The collective gasp of most of those present echoed inside the room.
>From beside Likka, Natsuki smilingly slammed her open palm with a fist,
to the gi-wearing girl's confusion.

"B-But... two days after that, she screamed at me and told me she never
wanted to see me again. Then, a few weeks later, I found out that she
was killed by the Kanji Killer. I was depressed enough as is when Kishi-
san's sister, Katsumi, accused all of us quintuplets for her rape and
murder. I had no idea how she got killed, but if she was forced into
suicide because of what we did, then I... I... I would've never forgiven
myself!"

"That's the reason why you believe that you may have raped Kishida-shi.
You've had sex with her two nights before Valentine's Day." Matsudaira
nodded before turning towards Katsuhiko. "As for Katsuhiko and the rest
of the brothers that Houjo managed to talk to before they offered their
testimonies with the rest of the Shimamura siblings, I imagine that
Houjo probably claimed Kishida-shi to be a gold digger who wanted to
blackmail him for money and ended up dead in the hands of her ex.
Katsuhiko was so taken by this story thanks to his past girlfriend's
betrayal that he himself volunteered to confess to the crime."

Matsudaira looked Akahito, Fumio, and Katsuhiko in the eyes as he
stressed, "Your plan to confuse the police so that all of you would get
off the hook from Kishida Katsumi's accusations won't work anymore. Do
you really want to protect a brother who'd just betrayed his fellow
quintuplet and the woman that he loved? Unless you really want either
Katsuhiko or Ennosuke to serve as scapegoats for crimes neither of them
committed, I suggest you come clean and let justice be served for that
poor, misunderstood girl."

"You are not going to tear our family apart with your lies, Detective!"
Houjo met Matsudaira head-on. "Weren't you just saying something about
Valentine's? February 14? You were claiming that I wasn't around for my
brothers' dumb singles party? Well, that's because I was doing my
girlfriend!"

"Please don't lie anymore, Houjo. I've investigated this case
thoroughly. There's no escape," Matsudaira warned. "Tell us what happened
on February 14 that compelled Kishida-shi to tell her sister that if
anything happened to her, she should go to the police and report her
rape."

"You've got nothing on me! Fuck you! I fucked my girlfriend on
Valentine's Day!"

"Our date was cut short, Houjo-kun. You threatened to break up with me
for a night of sex on Valentine's Day, and I refused. I'm not that kind
of woman, and we're not at that point in our relationship. You threw a
temper tantrum, forced yourself on me, got a face-full of mace, and
then left," Houjo's girlfriend declared from behind the door before
opening it and letting herself in the interrogation room. "What the hell
did you do after I threw you out of my house?"

"S-SET-SAN? What the fuck are you doing here? You have nothing to do
with this! Get out of here!" a flabbergasted Houjo exclaimed as he
grabbed hold of his hair and tore at it.

"Here's the new rough timeline of events. I want everyone to see this,"
Matsudaira chirped as he handed his photocopied report even as Houjo
began to suffer from some sort of nervous breakdown.

"Set-san? Hmmm. That sounds a lot like 'Mikan', come to think of it.
It's funny how you were able to come up with a pet name for your
girlfriend that sounds quite like the made-up name you made for a girl
you supposedly never met," Natsuki wondered aloud.

At that point, Akahito came forward. "You're right, Detective. Houjo-kun
talked us into making those contradictory statements, assuring us that
it'd save us from going to jail. B-But... I don't want Ennosuke-kun or
Katsuhiko-kun to go to jail just because I went along with my asshole
brother's harebrained scheme."

"FUCK YOU, MAN! Don't you dare betray me like this! I never talked to
any of you! Fuck, Katsuhiko-niichan, you believe me, right? I never..."

"Man up, Houjo-kun," Katsuhiko told his brother. "It's over. We want to
know what the hell you did to that girl's sister. We aren't going to
cover your ass anymore. Tell us the whole truth right this instant."

The cornered Houjo backed himself to a bare wall and slowly slid down to
a crouch. "Fine. I'll tell you everything. Ennosuke-kun had been
stalking Mikan for quite some time, to the point that he almost got in
trouble. For the most part, he was an annoyance, and she was just about
to confront him when I decided to get into the fun and pretend to be my
own brother to show him off and demonstrate how to truly charm a lady. I
took his place in pursuing Mikan, but I then put the moves on her as
'Ennosuke' and before you know it, we had a casual fling going on. She's
been around the campus, if you know what I mean, and she was looking
into the compensated dating scene before I came around. She wanted my
money, I know, but then again, I was only leading the slut on.

"She was genuinely scared of Ennosuke-kun's otaku tendencies because of
the Otaku Murderer Case back in '89. However, during one of our
rendezvous, I wasn't able to show up because I had prior commitments
with my girlfriend who was getting suspicious of me and whoever I've
been spending my time with. One thing led to another, and Mikan ended up
making out with my virgin quintuplet, thinking he was me. Ennosuke was
ecstatic that the object of his pestering returned his feelings, but she
noticed the difference between him and me because of the pet name thing
as well. Like the slut that she was, she dated my clueless brother
behind my back while she started drifting away from me and our own
dates.

"She eventually confronted me, Ennosuke Number Two, about the situation
and how I've lied to her all this time, demanding to know which
quintuplet I really was. I didn't want the chick to blackmail me or
anything, so I said she should be happy to have two Shimamura brothers
after her instead of only one. She didn't like the implications of what
I said, of course, but I had no intention of leaving my girlfriend over
some bimbo who can't keep her skirt down. I left her, vowing never to
impersonate my brother again. In a comedy of errors, because she still
wasn't sure who the real 'Ennosuke' was, she ended up screaming at the
original Ennosuke who stalked her, which he eventually took to heart,
entering in a state of depression of sorts.

"Valentine's Day. My girlfriend was being a frigid bitch at the time and
wouldn't put out. Meanwhile, Ennosuke-kun was moping because of the
rejection he just took from Mikan rooting from a misunderstanding. I
had blue balls, man, and I found out that she fell for Ennosuke-kun bad
and wanted to make amends, so I decided to impersonate him for one last
time to... well, make amends for him in his place. I figured that
they'll get back together, and I'll get to have some pussy.

"It would've been a win-win proposition for everyone involved. When we
got together, she was more than willing to make up with 'Ennosuke'. It
was a foolproof plan, and I was doing my bro a favor, the way I saw it.
We went to a motel and did it. However, I called her the wrong name in
the middle of orgasm and she found out that I fooled her. She was
angrier than ever before. Unfortunately for me, she had put two-and-two
together and she'd been researching about us quintuplets many days
prior.

"She threatened to expose me to my girlfriend and the rest of the world
for rape and impersonating my brother if I didn't give in to her demands
for shush money. So no, I wasn't lying when I told my brothers that she
was a gold digger. Anyway, during one Sunday, while my brothers were off
doing their own thing, I met with the bitch and gave her what's coming
to her. I thought the whole thing would blow over once she was
classified as another Kanji Killer victim, but then _this_ shit
happened."

"MONSTER! You killed her! The only girl that ever really cared for me,
and you fucking RAPED her pretending you were me then KILLED her when
she threatened to go to the cops, you fucking coward!" Ennosuke raged as
his spittle and spite flew all over, the nearby Officer Hamada catching
him before he could strangle his traitorous quintuplet. "She probably
didn't ask for money; you made it up because you were afraid of going to
jail and getting disowned by Hikaru-san!"

"Mikan. She was called Mikan by her killer. Not Kishi-san. Not Miki-san.
MIKAN!"

Just then, from inside her sleeve, Katsumi brandished a homemade shiv
and charged at the defenseless Houjo. However, she was apprehended by a
hard strike on her wrist care of Natsuki's metal cane, the makeshift
weapon clattering on the tiled floor. "Don't do this. It's over. Let
justice be served, Katsumi-san. The last thing your sister would want is
to see your life ruined."

"Please don't judge my sister," Katsumi pleaded to no one in particular.
"She fell behind her studies because she had to work part-time to
support me. In order for her to not get kicked out, she did favors for
her perverted teachers and earned a reputation. She may be soiled and
dirty, but she did it because of me. Please don't judge my sister."

And just as everyone was distracted by the sudden turn of events, the
listless Houjo sprang back to life in order to finish himself off with
the fallen shiv. The blade was about to pierce into his jugular when he
got knocked out by the diminutive Likka's "FLYING KICK!"

>From there, the whole room felt dead silent as everyone stared at the
might of Daiji Matsudaira's sister-in-law. "What? Don't tell me none of
you wanted to do that to this scumbag." She shrugged.


===


Just outside the Metropolitan Police Department's Shinjuku Police
Station, in the evening...

"My friend, if what happened in that interrogation room is any
indication, what we're witnessing right now is the destruction of
society. Decency is nonexistent and monsters are now feasting upon the
weak and helpless. I shall go back to my apartment, retire in my room,
get my Walkman, and reflect upon the collapse of civilization and the
end of the world," Likka summarized after she and Natsuki had given
their statements to the less-than-enthused Officer Uye and Detective
Tsunemoto.

"I'd say you're being melodramatic, Likka-tan, but from what I've
witnessed earlier, you might not be far off," Natsuki said, her head
still spinning from the grueling confrontation they all went through
earlier.

The half-Chinese girl smirked and sighed upon remembering that in the
end, Detective Matsudaira's brand of in-depth investigation won the day.
"We might as well have juggled and did magic tricks to distract the
people inside until sempai got there. He's still the one who ultimately
solved the case."

"Whatever, little girl; I told you you'd do better with your deductions
this time around than the last time. Heck, even Uncle Jiji thanked you
for assisting him with the investigation. Granted, Inspector Bulldog
wasn't as thankful, but he still let you help because he knew you had
the right stuff. You even stopped the victim's sister from committing a
crime and ruining her life! It's as if you were born to be a police
officer," Likka waxed lyrical even as her half-Chinese friend waved off
her praise.

As per the police's S.O.P., Houjo had been put on suicide watch while in
police custody. Instead of posting bail immediately, Mister Shimamura
decided to let his son stay in prison while he and his lawyers discussed
their present options, especially in light of the fact that the
protection of Family Court wasn't going to cut it this time for this
juvenile delinquent because of the gravity of his heinous crimes.

Furthermore, as the bruised and dizzied Houjo was taken away to jail,
his thoroughly embarrassed family members unable or unwilling to do much
of anything except promise to bail him out later on before his trial
started, the kowtowed Officer Uye switched from his "Katsuhiko is
guilty! This is an open-and-shut case!" stance and mocked the perp,
saying that he was probably the one responsible for the death of Akio
Oogata as well.

Houjo swore up and down that he had nothing to do with Oogata's murder
because he planned to instead pay off the goon. However, since he killed
the last person he promised a bribe to, it was only natural for the
police to take his statements with a grain of salt. Conversely, there
was still little to no solid evidence of him committing that particular
crime, so it probably would not become part of the charges used against
him by Katsumi's lawyer.

In the middle of Inspector Taniguchi wrapping everything up while half-
berating, half-congratulating Detective Matsudaira for his unorthodox
way of handling the case, Natsuki was able to pilfer some information
regarding the murder of Oogata-shi. The skill level used to kill him
definitely had the earmarks of the true Kanji Killer, but the deliberate
use of the "Hon" character was inconsistent with the usual Kanji Killer
cases.

"Between you and me, the first few murders of the Kanji Killer were
things he did to mock the police. The more I analyze his earliest
crimes, the more convinced I am that his M.O. roots from using the M.O.
of others to cover his own tracks," Matsudaira intimated before sorting
out his share of the paperwork.

'So this bizarre case ended up cluing me in on the whereabouts of the
real One-Eight-Ten Killer after all,' Natsuki considered as she thanked
her lucky stars for the inadvertent lead. As a favor for helping Daiji
solve the case, she requested Inspector Taniguchi to tell her the
details surrounding Akio Oogata's death just four days ago, on March
13.

Naturally, she got shouted down by the pear-shaped inspector right away.
However, like always, he was able to relay a couple of facts that he
could reveal to wannabe detectives and civilians like her. At the time
of Oogata-shi's murder, Officer Hamada was frozen down by an unknown
force before being ambushed by, for all intents and purposes, a kappa of
ancient Japanese mythology or Springheel Jack of western urban folklore.

Natsuki frowned as she reviewed the Kanji Killer description given to
her by the inspector in her mind. The attacker allegedly had eyes that
resembled smoldering coal, silver hair, a pallid complexion fit for a
corpse, a frightening Glasgow smile with a set of teeth as eerily
uniform as the ivory keys of a piano, and a tight black outfit that
covered most of his head except for his hair and face. 'He sounds
absolutely ridiculous.'

Nevertheless, Natsuki clutched her trusty cane tightly as she prepared
for the opportunity to face off with a man that, to her, was the very
personification of Mister Edward Hyde: The epitome of humanity's utmost
depravity and the basest of mankind's impulses.

"Are you sure you're fine going home by yourself? I get it, you can
handle yourself with that weird 'cane-style' kung fu of yours, but I
don't want you to again end up walking around in the rain without an
umbrella," said Likka as she pushed down the feeling of unplaceable
dread at the pit of her stomach over something she couldn't quite put
her finger on.

Natsuki gave Likka one of her smiles that didn't quite reach her eyes,
which worried the Matsudaira sister-in-law even more. "Don't worry your
pretty little head, Likka-tan. I have an escort waiting for me."


===


>From behind a confined alleyway concealed within the large shadows
cast by Kabukicho's monolithic structures, near Shinjuku's Skyscraper
District...

"We're almost at my apartment, Officer," revealed Natsuki as she rode
from behind the masked Officer Hamada on his custom-built, siren-fitted
Suzuki GSX-R750. "In fact, you can drop me off now. I can walk from
here on end."

"It would be rude for me to leave you here in the middle of an
alleyway, young lady. I've already had someone die in my watch, and I
wouldn't want you to be the next one to do so," Hamada mumbled from
behind his facemask, which prompted Natsuki to bizarrely declare, "Oh
grandma, what big eyes you have..."

To Officer Hamada's surprise, the young lady let go of her grip around
his waist and jumped off of the motorcycle before it could clear the
passage. The policeman ground the vehicle to a halt and called out,
"Have you gone mad, young woman? You would've been injured have we been
going any faster."

Natsuki merely responded, "Oh grandma, what big ears you have," as she
stood from her crouched landing position and dusted herself off.

"I'm not playing games here, Shinkai Natsuki-san. Let me get you back
to your apartment already."

"Oh grandma, what big teeth you have." She brandished her cane with her
left arm. "I have no intention of leading you back to my home. We're
going to face off right here and now. Why did you kill Oogata-shi?"

After a minute's pause, the officer got off his motorcycle, pocketed his
keys, and unleashed an uneven cackle that bordered on throwing an
epileptic fit. "How did you know that I wasn't Officer Hamada?"

"Well, for one thing, even though you share the same build, you're
slightly more muscular than the Officer Hamada I know. I'm surprised the
other people in the station didn't notice it earlier and saw through
your awful disguise. In any case, for someone who had just gotten
through a terrible bout of colds, you look quite strong and sturdy."

The fake Hamada bellowed in cacophonic hilarity once more as he opened
"his" vehicle's trunk and took out his weapons of choice: a daisho,
otherwise known as a matching pair of an uchigatana and wakizashi. "Is
that it? It's amazing how you've lucked out with a mere hunch!" the
imposter lunged at Natsuki with his twin blades, but he was then caught
flatfooted by how easily the girl blocked and parried his strike.

"The second thing that clued me in is the fact that Officer Hamada was
spared by the Kanji Killer in the first place. Out of the Kanji Killer's
confirmed seven victims, only one survived; perhaps two if a suspected
escapee really is connected to the Kanji Killer case. Officer Hamada
wasn't even injured, only knocked out, from what his report suggests."

The Hamada impersonator increased the pressure of his attacks and varied
the angles of his slashes, but the athletic female was able to
compensate for his aggressiveness by increasing her feints and peppering
him with shuddering counterstrikes every so often he overcommitted to
any given offensive, which forced him to back off and ease up on his
intense onslaught.

"So I thought up two conclusions. One was that for whatever reason,
Officer Hamada took it upon himself to murder Oogata-shi in cold blood.
Or two, that Officer Hamada had ended up in cahoots with the Kanji
Killer and let him kill Oogata-shi. Whichever the case, I never expected
to actually be fighting _the_ Kanji Killer himself right now."

He was no match; after years of research on the Kanji Killer's modus
operandi, Natsuki had long ago figured out his moves. The horizontal
slash represented "Ichi"; the two slashes that diagonally pointed upward
represented "Hachi"; the cross slash represented "Ju"; any combination
of the three thereof resulted in the formation of the amalgamated "Ichi-
Hachi-Ju" characters. As far as she knew, there was nothing the Kanji
Killer could throw at her that she couldn't block or counter.

"But you're not the true Kanji Killer, are you? Or rather, you're not
the Kanji Killer that the police are looking for. Compared to you, that
Kanji Killer was sloppy with his work and left far too many proofs of
his existence. You're an expert assassin. You don't usually leave
witnesses; if there were any, they'd be injured or near dying. You
weren't exactly subtle with your killing tactics, but you would never
have left such obvious markings on your victims like some sort of
mindless, conceited fool pretending to be a villainous version of
Zorro."

'Looks like Daiji-sempai was right again.' Natsuki sighed inwardly as
she fell into her impregnable defensive stance and patiently waited
for her opponent to open up once more as she unleashed laser-like
potshots and counters in the meantime. "The Kanji Killer that the
police are searching for is your copycat. You're the original Kanji
Killer, a shadow assassin that was too skilled to even be caught by
local law enforcement."

The true Kanji Killer attempted employing his signature back-pass
technique that he used to catch his greatest opponent off-guard against
Natsuki. However, to his amazement and incredulity, the little girl
before him showed superior defense and reaction time than the man who
defeated him in his past life by ducking under his surprise attack and
stabbing the tip of her cane into his throat.

"When you killed Oogata-shi, you even showed off how much you disdained
your clone by using the 'Hon' character deliberately instead of the
'Ichi-Hachi-Ju' character he was known for. Now tell me; why did you
kill Oogata-shi? Are you attempting to clean up the mess of your own
doppelganger? Are you off to kill him instead?"

The Kanji Killer croaked and hacked, but instead of becoming unsettled,
he trembled and chortled with what appeared to be growing excitement.
"You've impressed me with your detective skills, young lady. You're a
very smart girl. You can even fight like a tigress. Xinhai was right
about you. You are a handful."

"Son of a...! How did you...?" Natsuki yelled, her perfect stance marred
by her own emotionality as she heard a name she thought she'd never hear
again. She recovered quickly enough to block fifty continuous slashes
from the revitalized serial killer before she suddenly froze in the
middle of countering the back-pass technique again as soon as her eyes
met his, his shades slipping on the bridge of his nose. 'What's going
on? I can't move! What...'

The back-pass slash landed hard on Natsuki's right side, tearing apart
her clothing and leaving a messy diagonal gash that went from her
lower right ribs, in between her breasts, and all the way to her left
shoulder.

"You're right. I am the one whom Xinhai copied. I heard from Hamada
that you and that tall detective were calling him the One-Eight-Ten
Killer. No, that is incorrect. The character you're referring to is Hei,
hence the name of my kenjutsu school, Nikaido Heiho."

Natsuki ended up prone on the ground. Unlike Kenshin Himura who actually
had an idea of what the Shin no Ippo was, she wasn't able to move
away in time as her opponent kept her paralyzed and stabbed her right
in the stomach with his wakizashi. She didn't scream, but her belabored
gasp as the air gushed forth her agape mouth spoke volumes.

"Such pain. Such suffering. Such anguish. I can see the lines of jaki
flowing out of you in plumes. No wonder he's so strong. No wonder he
kept you alive."

"W-What are you talking about?" Natsuki gurgled as she felt the sticky
red warmth spread across her undershirt in two different places, her
vision a haze of stinging tears and a vignette of creeping darkness.


===


To be Continued...

Next: The Kanji Killer versus the world.

Disclaimer: Yuyu Hakusho is the rightful property of Yoshihiro
Togashi, Shueisha, Fuji TV, and St. Pierrot. Rurouni Kenshin is
the rightful property of Nobuhiro Watsuki and Sony. This
disclaimer also covers all the other copyrighted material that
are far too many to mention here. Don't sue me please, I'm very
poor.

We're off to find our dreams,
Abdiel