Just keep pushing it SL, I know where you live. Now that that's done with I present the next chapter. Enjoy.
Chapter 8
Why . . . Why . . . Why . . . Why Tatsumi? Was the only thing going through Shou's mind, and everything else had taken a back seat. He didn't exactly recall how he got there, but the next thing he knew, he was at the police station, legs aching and out of breath from his mad dash towards there. He didn't register or go through the necessary procedures, but instead he ran deep inside the building, and took the elevator down to the morgue accompanied by an officer, and eventually he was looking down onto a table at Tatsumi's dead body. His skin still held some color and his eyes had been closed, giving him a peaceful sleeping look. As he looked down full awareness came flooding back into him and he quickly ran to a distant sink, hurling into the wide metal thing.
One of the officers covered the body again as the other walked over and rubbed Shou's back more of in pity than anything else. After he was done they escorted him outside to the elevator. Everything was quiet and Shou couldn't help feeling oppressed by the silent atmosphere, something just didn't feel real about what was happening.
"Shou." came a familiar voice, and Shou looked up to see Tatsumi's father walking out of the elevator towards him. As they headed for each other Shou started to notice some littlethings about him,the large bags under his eyes, the small wrinkles setting in all over his face, and a walk that didn't have the energy of youth to it. As they stood in front of each other, Shou finally noticed how he seemed so much older than the detective from seven years ago.
"H-hi." Shou said, unsure of what to say, "I'm sorry for coming down here but I just had to see for myself-"
"Don't worry about it." the man replied a little sadly as he nodded to the officers, who walked by and into the elevator, and left the two alone "Tatsumi was your friend so it's only natural you'd want to be sure."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't start that again, I already told you it's natural-"
"That's not what I meant!" Shou shouted, anguish and self-loathing dripping from every word, "This is my fault, and I'm sorry for it!"
"Don't blame yourself Shou." he said sorrowfully, putting his hand on Shou's shoulder as he stepped closer to the grieving boy. "I know you wouldn't have done anything that would have put Tatsumi in danger." And he escorted Shou to the elevator"Oh, and Shou..." he called, and Shou stopped to look at the detective "Sakura and her mother are back at the house. Could you go and stay with them? I'm gonna be here for a while."
Shou didn't look back as he stepped in the elevator and pushed the button to take him up to the ground floor. He left as quickly as he could and made his way through the streets until he he walked into a back alley, abandoned except for piles of trash and himself.
Aren't you gonna go to the guy's house?- Taruke asked
"I have other business to attend to." Shou said, changing into his signature black coat and jumping between the buildings and landing on the roof.
What business, Shou? Wait, you're not saying-! You don't even know who the murderer is!- Murai exclaimed as Shou started looking around.
"I do. When I saw his body there was a bite mark on the back of his neck. And the file that was just lying around said it was a type of poison that killed him."
Ah, put two and two together and we have our answer.
"Right, now will you shut the hell up and tell me where I can find the bastard?!"
Straight ahead.- Murai said after a few moments, though he sounded a little annoyed.
In a flash Shou was running over rooftops and jumping from building to building and in a few minutes he was looking at one of the most famous hotels in the city. It stood eighty stories high and he was sensing something from the seventieth floor. Shou's eyes started glowing red and he jumped up to the highest floor he could then started jumping up to the seventieth floor.
When he got there he looked around, it was a luxurious penthouse with a view of the city. It was seemingly empty except for a few pieces of clothing lying around. As he walked around slowly he noticed several things out of place, almost like a fight had happened. Suddenly his senses screamed out a warning and he dodged as three figures fell from the ceiling onto the spot where he had just been standing.
It was the three girls from the night before. They were still wearing the same clothes except he could clearly see the holes in their palms and the web tattoos on their arms. They had changed into their demon forms and they each had six insect legs sprouting from their backs and their teeth had changed to reveal fangs.
"I should have known." Shou hissed drawing his sword and gun as the demon's surrounded him "You just needed to get me alone and with my guard down to you could do it quick. But in the end you ended up having to deal with Tatsumi instead."
"Of course." the demon with green hair said, crouching down with all six bladed insect legs pointed at Shou "We would've let your friend live if you had come with us, but it was too annoying when you walked away and we had to let off some steam."
"You killed him because I frustrated you?" Shou snarled gripping his sword tighter.
"Not just that." the blue haired demon said "You should have expected to lose some friends when the other assassin came for you. As long as you keep dodging our attacks they'll only end up hitting those around you."
"Yeah, I know." Shou whispered quietly as the demons got closer "But that doesn't mean I'll just let the one's who kill them get away with it!" And with that, he jumped up as they pounced on him.
The blue and green haired demons crashed into each other with a sickening, yet oddly satisfying crunch, but the purple haired one saw through Shou's little trick and stuck herself on the ceiling. As he reached the highest point of his jump she shot out her insect legs at him. Shou dodged them,grabbed one and swung himself up, and pushed off the ceiling, firing off several shots at her as he landed on the other side of the room. The other two had recovered and shot out webs at him as he landed. Shou dodged those and fired several more shots at them, but they dodged them and charged at him. As he jumped over them the demon from above caught his left arm in one of her webs, then swung him around and slamming him into a wall.
"You should've just let yourself be killed." the purple haired demon said as she wrapped his right hand in webs and hung him from the ceiling "This way no one else will die because of you."
Damn it! Shou, you have to find out who they're working for, at least!-- Taruke ranted
Are you really just going to let yourself be killed here!?- Murai asked incredulously.
"Shut up!" Shou retorted as the demons got closer, baring their fangs in a hideous snarl for the kill.
When they were all less than a foot away he twisted his sword and cut through the webs holding his arms up. As he fell, he swung it around and cut the spider demons several times, forcing them to back away in pain. As they backed up he fired at the blue haired one and the shot nicked her on the head, which promptly exploded in a shower of gore. Without wasting any time he grabbed the remains of the webs from the ceiling and bound the other two, tying their arms back along with their insect legs in a single, fluid motion. After tying them back he kicked their feet out from under them and stabbed his sword into the shoulder of the green haired one, pinning her against the floor.
"Alright, you win. Kill us already." the purple haired onesighed, resigned as he walked over to her.
"You don't get to die so easily." Shou said sinisterly, and slowly pulled a knife out of his pocket "Not after what you've done." He then pulled the demon's face towards him and slowly brought the knife forward...
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"Here, detective." said an officer as he walked into a dark office and handed a manila envelope to Tatsumi's father.
He thanked the officer as he took the file and placed it on his desk.
"Detective?" the officer said before leaving, a pitying look etched deep into his face. "I want you to know we're doing everything we can to find your son's killer."
"I appreciate it." he replied, and the officer left, leaving him alone to look through the file.
As he opened it up the top of the first page showed the name "Shou Ichijo" along with his picture just below it to the right. As he looked through the file he went back and forth between the paper file and the information that was displayed on his computer screen. After several minutes of looking he sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"I'm sorry."
"Don't start that again, I already told you it's natural-"
"That's not what I meant!" Shou shouted, anguish and self-loathing dripping from every word, "This is my fault, and I'm sorry for it!"
"Don't blame yourself Shou." he said sorrowfully, putting his hand on Shou's shoulder as he stepped closer to the grieving boy. "I know you wouldn't have done anything that would have put Tatsumi in danger."
"What's going on with you, Shou?" he asked himself as he thought through things.
For the past weeks Tatsumi and Sakura had been pretty down because Shou had started to spend less and less time with them, starting just a while before the Black Coat serial murders started popping up. What also didn't help was the other file sitting in the bottom drawer of his desk, the one involving the murder of the man who had killed Shou's parents. There was a lack of evidence, but everything said the only person with a motive to kill him was Shou.
He leaned down and took the file from it's spot and opened it on his desk next to Shou's. After a few minutes he reached down again and pulled up a bottle of whiskey and a shot glass. He took several minutes to down several shots before he put the cap back on the bottle and set it and the shot glass back into his lockable drawer.
With a sigh he closed Shou's file and reached for his phone. After dialing a number and waiting several minutes he was connected to a secure line.
"Hello?" he said waiting for the response "Yeah, it's detective Saijo with the 9th precinct. I'm pretty sure I have some information about what I'm positive is Black Coat's first victim." he said solemnly as he looked at the open file on his desk. As he listened to the instructions over the phone he looked behind him as rain started to pelt down.
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Shou walked quietly through the rain and back alley's as the hotel became smaller in the distance, his emotions becoming distant and foreign once again as he distanced himself from the source of his hate and rage. His gun was holstered but he dragged his sword along the ground, the blade facing upward as a grinding sound mixed with the rain patter. What surprised Shou was that he was just simply walking away; he thought the screams would have at least drawn some attention from the police. Not that he was complaining.
Y'know Shou, a name would have been helpful.- Taruke deadpanned as Shou walked away. -
Not that they could hear me or Murai asking over their screams, but you could have stopped for a second to let us find out.
Where are we going?- Murai asked
"I dunno. Shut up." Shou said barely above a whisper as he kept walking in the rain.
How are we supposed to find out who's after us now!?- Taruke asked, starting to get very annoyed with his host.
"Well find out from the next assasin." Shou answered
Next assasin? Not that we care Shou, but the next assasin could take out another one of your friends, than we'll go through all this again and still not get a name.- Murai calmly pointed out.
"Don't worry about that, I"ll take care of it." Shou replied.
Suddenly everything became blurry and Shou felt incredibly weak. It lasted for a second but he ended up falling to his side and leaning against a wall for support. He noticed a slight pain on his arm and looked to see a long cut in his coat along with his skin. Lining the cut was a clear liquid oozing from the wound.
Shit man, you got poisoned.- Taruke commented.
"Poisoned huh?" Shou said pushing off the wall as the sensation of blurriness and weakness came back. "Damn." And he fell face down onto the ground as the rain continued to fall on him.
As the poison began to take full effect all of Shou's senses started to fail. In the end all he was aware of was the cold, hard pavement he was lying on and the cold rain coming down on him. He closed his eyes slowly as he began to lose consciousness, but at least he wasn't going to suffer. As his eyes closed he slipped off, thinking of how his parents might be waiting for him.
Darkness started to give way to a dim light as Shou felt himself lying on his back on something soft. He started to feel again and opened his eyes to see a light hanging above him. He looked at it for a while as his other senses returned and he became more aware of his surroundings. A delicious smell hung in the air, there was the sound of something cooking in another room, and he could hear the rain outside as it hit against a window. He felt that he was lying on a futon under some soft covers. He blinked and felt more of his strength return.
"This is the afterlife, huh?" he mumbled to himself.
"No, it's not the afterlife." he heard a female voice and looked to his right to see a girl about his age with long black hair and deep green eyes under the covers with him "It's my apartment."
The girl slipped out from the covers and stood up, revealing that she was fully dressed in a white T-shirt and shorts.
"It's pretty strange to wake in bed with a girl after nearly dying." Shou commented as he tried to sit up.
"You were cold, so I thought it'd help." the girl answered, taking a seat beside Shou and staring at him. Sudenly Shou realized he had absolutely nothing on.
"Where are my clothes!?" He asked, pulling the up the covers around himself as the girl giggled.
"They should be done just about now." She stood up and walked into the kitchen where a pot of something was cooking on the stove "And there's no need to be embarrassed, I already saw everything when I took your clothes off, you've got nothing to be embarrassed about."
With a growl Shou stood up, holding the covers around him like a toga. He wandered through the apartment until he found a dryer with his clothes inside it. He quickly got dressed and walked into the kitchen where the girl had set two bowls of stew on the table along with bread and crackers. She finished pouring some tea into two cups and sat down, waiting for Shou.
"Who are you?" Shou asked standing behind his seat as the girl took hers.
"I'm Nami Shihiro, and you don't have to worry about the stew. If I wanted to kill I would've done it while you were asleep." she said taking a cracker as she ate a spoonful of stew.
Shou slowly took a seat and began eating, luckily his stomach hadn't betrayed that he was starving. They ate in silence until the meal was done. Nami took both bowls and set them in the sink then sat back down.
It seems okay Shou, I sense no intent to harm us from her.- Murai said
Yeah, like she said. If she wanted to kill us she could've done it while you were out. If anything we should be asking her why she helped us.- Taruke said
"Well that's because you're the first person I've met that's like me." Nami said "But you have two demons inside of you and I only have Gahenna."
"Gahenna?" Shou asked as Taruke and Murai remained quiet.
That would be me.- came a voice that Shou sensed was from Nami -I
am the demon that resides within Nami. It's been a while Taruke, Murai.
End
Lot's of credit goes to Cef who was kind enough to edit this for me. She made it even better. Thank her everyone.
but I'm sure Annoyance was only trying to help. So don't give up, Coldman, you hear me? 
