fic for clipsie (2/2)

[nino-mod.livejournal.com]

For: clipsie
From: wendyjoly

Part 1


=+=

“Nino? We have a problem…”

Ikuta’s voice disturbs my work session. I’ve not been very assiduous lately and the companies I’m working with begin to freak out, I have to reassure them.

“We?”
This little game of Ping-Pong between us begins to amuse me, he’s not the cheerful man he pretends to be and I’m not the human being I pretend to be either. The image of Yuriko barges into my mind importunately. “I’m not totally honest,” she told me and I can only admit we’re alike. The nausea won’t leave me alone now.

“Inohara just called me, can I pick you up?” I hear the engine and I could bet he’s already on his way.

“When?”

“Ten minutes.”

“Okay.”

He has already hung up, I have no choice but to shower and dress up or he’ll find me in T-shirt and trunk in the middle of my living room. I chose an outfit and I can’t help but think that it’s kind of exciting to have an appointment, to feel needed even if I will never admit it. I’m still in my bedroom when Ikuta calls me to tell me he’s waiting for me outside in the car.

“Where are we going?” I put on my safety belt and he tousles my hair.

“Hello, Ninomiya-kun, glad you came.”

“As if I can refuse,” Call me Mister bad faith… “So where?”

“To Inohara's gallery. Something happened,” his smile doesn’t fool me anymore but I remain silent all along the road.

When we’re entering the gallery for the second time, I’m not that surprised and I take advantage of Inohara’s absence to look around. Now I’ve seen Okada’s garden and this tender morning they spent together, I notice a lot of hints in her paintings I didn’t see the first time. I was too affected at that time, not her enough.

“You okay?” Ikuta is staring at me with a concerned look and I shrug.

“Yeah, sure, why?”

“You’re smiling,” Ikuta comes close to me, whispering as if we are in a library.

“Is it so unusual?”

“It is. But it fits you well, you should do it more often.”

“Fuck you, Ikuta,” I hiss but I feel the flush of my face cursing the romantic heart of Aoi for making me so emotional. He laughs out loud and tousles my hair once again “I’m not a frigging pet!” I groan but he keeps on and I have to push him to protect myself. That’s the moment the owner of the gallery chose to join us.

“Ikuta-san, Ninomiya-san,” his lips are adorned with a smile which doesn’t reach his eyes.

“Inohara-san, good evening. You asked us to come, so here we are,” Ikuta bows at him and I feel out of place, I don’t even get why he asked me to come.

“I have good news for you. An errand boy brought me a painting this morning. Wait.”

He walks through the hall and fetches a canvas in the next room. He puts on gloves and raises the veil, displaying a splendid and colorful painting, in the most pure Miyazaki-sensei’s style. I can’t believe my eyes.

“Is it what I think it is?” Ikuta says bending forward to detail the piece of art.

“It is, Ikuta-san. And you can see Miyazaki-sensei’s fingerprint. Look. This characteristic heart’s shape.”

“When did she paint it?”

“I received it this morning, I guess she achieved it yesterday or the day before. Anyway, you can be reassured, she’s perfectly fine. She’ll probably reappear anytime soon. By the way…”

I’m too astonished to answer but Ikuta is better to hide his feelings than I am.

“Yes?”

“Okada-san told me you paid him a visit. Did you learn something about your painting?”

“Nothing,” Ikuta chuckles like an idiot would do, apologizing for bothering him.

=+=

“I swear to you she’s dead! I don’t know how he obtained this painting and I can’t explain why it’s authenticated but~,” I plead as soon as we’re in the car, inexplicably anxious to be rejected and called crazy or a liar.

“I believe you, Nino. But him…I don’t know. This story is fishy, right?”

He looks directly at the road and he’s telling the truth, I’m sure of it, he didn’t doubt me. I’m out of words, I’m not used to have someone believing in me, it’s troubling. What a sappy guy I can be…

“Right?” he repeats and I nod in agreement.

“Do you think she painted it before her death?” I try to find something plausible but I can’t.

“But why would he received it now? It doesn’t make sense.”

He stops the car on along a sidewalk and I get out, surprised to find myself in an unknown area.

“Hm…how should I put it…it’s not my home.”

“I’m hungry, let’s eat, I’ll treat you.”

He opens the door of the restaurant and I really, really think about a way to escape at first, but I finally follow him. There are people inside, I stand still, trying to spot Ikuta and I notice him on the other side of the room, waving at me from a bench. It’s protected from view by a high back-rest, at least I won’t have to cross people’s gaze. I hang the head and stride through the room, but surprisingly no one pays attention to me or to my fancy companion. He orders two beers from a pretty waitress bearing a big belly proudly, some snacks and he put back his detective face. We’re elaborating the silliest theories about the why and what of this case, unable to find a satisfying answer. I’m not that comfortable, especially because I have in my hands a lot of elements which can help us. Yet, I can’t tell him, fearing the moment he will evoke the Okada husband & wife’s subject.

“Now tell me about this Yuriko,” Bingo. He’s sipping his beer, pushing mine to place it before me and I drink a bit, choosing carefully what I’m about to say. “You know her.”

“Yes, we briefly met when I was in high school…we made out a bit during my prom night .”

“She was with you in high school?!”

“No, she just appeared during the ball.”

“She’s beautiful,” he says appreciatively and I can’t deny the obviousness.

“She is.”

“But you don’t trust her, right?”

I sigh, picking up food to give me time to reflect. “No I don’t. After all she’s Okada’s wife, a cheated woman. In every crime’s story she would be the number one suspect.”

“My former partner used to say if it looks like a duck, flies like a duck, smells like a duck, it is a duck.”

“Which means?”

“That most of the time, the culprit is the most suspicious person, no need to complicate a very simple case. Taste that, it’s delicious.”

The waitress brings us two big plates of omurice and he pushes one to me. It’s been ages since I ate omurice. He’s right it tastes delicious.

“So…you mean she’s the culprit?”

“I don’t know.”

“You’re hard to follow, Ikuta-kun,” I feel so hungry, the more I eat, the more I’m hungry and not for brain. Aoi probably loved omurice, the nausea leaves me finally. “So, the gallery’s owner?”

“Perhaps Okada. Crime of passion, she was about to leave him he killed her.”

“In my vision they loved each other,” I object.

“Perhaps did you miss the vision when they fought?”

“Possible, but I tend to think that visions are important moments for the dead person, like messages. If Aoi wanted to show me Okada as the murderer she would have shown me a fight.”

“Or perhaps she was used to seeing the bright side of things, she remembered only the good parts of the relationship. How long does these visions work usually?”

As long as there is slices of brain left? “It’s short.” Yeah, safer.

“So we better be fast.”

The waitress approaches us and I can’t help but stare at her round belly. “Is it good?” She asks gently.

“It’s delicious. For when is it due?”

I’m unable to understand why this pregnancy matters to me but she answers with a wide smile, “In three months. It’s a girl.”

She leaves us and Ikuta mocks me. “Are you pregnant, Nino?”

And bam!

I’m in a bathroom, sitting on the toilet with a blue stick in the hand, observing it as if it was the most important thing of the world. Taking the small rectangular box to read the back I hear Aoi sighing. She touches her flat belly and she’s overwhelmed by a burst of happiness. The nausea, the sudden disgust for cigarette and starving for meal I don’t particularly like…everything makes sense.

“She was pregnant. Aoi was pregnant.”

Ikuta stares at me seriously and takes out his notebook, once again noting the new element zealously.

“What does it change?” I ask after a while. “True. She was the mistress. He didn’t want an illegitimate child, he kills her. She didn’t want a permanent mistress or a child since she didn’t give one to her husband, she kills the mistress.”

“And the gallery owner?” Ikuta asks, taking another sip of beer.

“Don’t know. Let’s say he’s not a duck.”

“He will call you. This Inohara guy, he will call you. He asked me if you were single earlier. Would you be…interested?” he smirks and digs into the snack bowl, sending me a look I can’t decipher.

“I’m not.”

“Because you don’t like him or because you don’t like men? Generally speaking.”

“I’m not that decided,” I say honestly. “Actually as long as my brain will be partly haunted by a girl, I can’t decide.”

He laughs and I move back avoiding a new hair tousling.

“I see. I just wanted to warn you about this Inohara guy.”

This time I’m the one who laughs.

“You said it twice, this Inohara guy, guess you don’t like him either.”

“It’s physical. You know like animals, you can “smell” some people. In other circumstances, I’d say this guy is the culprit because I don’t like him but I have to base my opinion on solid proofs, I can’t simply follow a mere hunch, right?”

He sounds to be trying to convince himself. This man is such a mystery and not only because I suck at understanding people. I really don’t get him but it’s…interesting. Perhaps because he doesn’t judge me, because he cares about what I think or who I am. No, it’s not. He’s not interesting only because he finds me interesting, I’m not that egotist, as far as I know.

“I know what you mean,” I simply mutter after a long silence. “Shall we go?”

“I’ll drive you back.”

He escorts me to my door and it’s strange closing it as he’s still standing on my doormat, a seductive smirk curving a side of his lips.

=+=

Being here is the very last place I thought I’d be. The “Monster Club” is an overcrowded nightclub full of heteroclite people that I can’t describe. Men, women, transgender people, I can’t really zero in on someone in particular, there are too many dancers on the dance floor to notice one in particular.

Yet I spot her almost immediately waving at me from the bar. I make my way to her, my hands before me to protect myself from the dancers and the too curious gazes. I’ve never set a foot in a club and this first time is really frightening, especially because the clients of this club ARE frightening. Piercings, shaved hair and spiky necklaces, like dog leashes nothing missed to some of them. Other are so plainly random that I wonder if they lost their way by coming here or if they’re hiding some dirty little secret…
Yuriko grabs my wrist when I’m close enough and she puts a straw between my lips making me taste her cocktail. Then she puts her glass on the counter and without letting me saying a word, she drags me to the dance floor.

“Let’s dance,” she murmurs at my ear and I put my hands around her waist perfunctorily. “I was so glad you called me.”

“I’m not here to dance Yuriko. We have to talk about Aoi.”

She sighs and narrows her eyes, amused. “Why with me? After all this bitch slept with my husband. You can’t blame me for avoiding the subject.”

“Indeed you husband cheated on you with her. You’re the perfect suspect.”

“Come.”

She takes my hand and we’re going back to the bar. She calls the barman who serves her two cocktails. She hands one to me and takes hers, then I follow her to a couch set on a mezzanine two levels above the dance floor. She sits down and I choose an armchair, keeping my distance, I begin to know her.

“I was telling the truth earlier, I’m happy you called me. How do you like the place?”

I watch the crowd below and take a sip of the cocktail she offered me. “It’s nice despite its terrible name.”

She laughs and swallows an ice cube, munching it with a childish smile. “The Monster Club. It’s a funny name, right?”

“I don’t really care, Yuriko. I didn’t come for clubbing.”

“No, of course not. You came for her. What happened, Nino?”

“Inohara received a new painting, if she’s dead, how is this possible?” I finish my cocktail, giving her time to answer but she’s looking at me straightforwardly, gauging me.

“How naïve are you baby?” She stands up and sits down on my lap, caressing my face. “There are so many counterfeiters in Tokyo, so much money at stake, do you really think Inohara has no contingency plan in case…”

“In case of what?”

“If one day she decides to disappear for good. She was a fickle woman, he couldn’t trust her, no one could.”

“But I saw her mark on the painting…” I object, trying to keep my mind clear. Yet her caresses, her body on mine and perhaps the cocktail she made me drink are blurring my conscience. She laughs out loud, kissing my cheek amicably.

“He doesn’t need her for the mark, only…a part of her,” she points her index finger, caressing my mouth with it. Fuck, she’s right. “By the way, I asked for a divorce.”

“…Wh…what?!”

“To be with you! You sounded jealous so I told him I was leaving him. He doesn’t deserve me.”

I grab her shoulders forcing her to face me. “You knew she was pregnant, right?”

She smirks but doesn’t move “Oh, yes. Junichi told me. He was so proud…I didn’t tell him she won’t come back, I’m not that cruel whatever you can think about me.”

I squeeze her shoulders stronger, angry at her because she’s mocking me, she’s mocking Aoi too, because she’s so heartless that I’m afraid to become like her. I hiss between my clenched jaws. “Tell me the truth or~”

“Or?”

“Or I won’t ever meet you again and you’ll be all alone for good.”

“I could create someone else…”

“When you waited such a long time to find me.”

This is a bet I’m doing. If she lied to me when she swore to me I was the only one, I’m dead. Manner of speaking. She blanks and finally moves to the couch. She lights a cigarette and for the first time I have the feeling of facing the real Yuriko. Black circles are eating her little face and her lips are thin, curved in a bitter pout.

“I told you the truth. She was pregnant. He knew it and he was about to leave me, but I didn’t kill her. I asked for divorce before him that’s all. For the rest…I don’t know where Inohara found the painting, perhaps she painted it before her death, perhaps it was indeed a counterfeiter’s work. But he’s in deep shit, it’s true, since she was my husband’s mistress she didn’t paint. Believe me or not but her style isn’t that exceptional, it was very easy to replicate. The killer only had to put the fingertips at the bottom and it was done,” she drawls with her strange voice. “And for you, I told the truth too. We could be together, really together, I’ve been waiting for you, observing you for more than ten years.”

“So why did you appear now? Why did you come to me when I was at Okada’s house, you could have stayed hidden?”

“Because you were with Toma. Ikuta.”

“You know him?” My stomach twists painfully.

“He’s an old friend but I won’t leave you to him. Look, he’s looking for you.”

I watch the floor under us and Ikuta is climbing the stairs, very fast, his angry gaze upon us. I stand up and go to him, expecting an explanation.

“What are you doing here?!” he explodes, pulling the rug from underneath my feet, taking my wrist to hide me behind his back. “What did she tell you?”

I clench my jaws and my fists, leaving the place without a look behind. I’m so angry, they really got me together. So they know each other…Is Ikuta part of her plan? I won’t even be surprised, this woman is so sneaky, so calculative. I’m on the street when a car stops by my side.

“Get into the car Nino, I’ll drive you home.” Ikuta leans towards the window and he seems to have his usual composure back.

“Go to hell.”

“I’m already in hell. Come on. Get into the car, we have to talk. I’ll explain it to you.”

“I warn you. This is the last time I’m involved in your stories,” I groan but get into the car nonetheless, I want to know the long and the short of the case and if Yuriko answered some questions, I’m not naïve enough to think she told me the entire truth.

“Now tell me.” I say once my security belt locked. “And stop lying to me. Aoi first.”

“Okay…She was pregnant, you were right and they decided to start a family. She told to Inohara she wanted to take a break, to devote herself to Okada and their child.”

“So… eventually he is a duck?”

“Yes, he killed her, keeping one or two fingers to authenticate the paintings a counterfeiter would paint for him.”

“How do you know?”

“I forced his confession. A bit.” He smiles so innocently that I could swear I misheard. Ikuta parked the car along the sidewalk and I got out, entering the house quickly, leaving the door open for him.

“What she made you drink,” he begins with no more preamble “Is a very special cocktail. It’s called a Zombie and it’s a kind of milkshake with a very unique ingredient. A mix of several brains together. You won’t have the visions linked to your diet but you’ll wake up with a major hangover tomorrow. Plus, this is powerful enough to get rid of the very last trace of Aoi’s memories in your body.”

“Did she…Did she do it on purpose? To make us lose her trace?” It’s vertiginous and I don’t know which is worst. To know that Ikuta fooled me, that Aoi fooled me, or that Ohno probably lied to me too? “Are you even a cop?” I slump down onto my couch, dumbfounded. Toma sits elegantly on a chair, too elegantly for a mere human being.

“I’m rather a kind of bounty hunter and I’m following Yuriko for a while, some decades to be accurate. We’re old buddies. To answer to your first question, yes she did it on purpose but not to protect herself. She didn’t kill Aoi, I’m sure of it. She was at the Monster Club the night of the murder. Yet she’s not an innocent person, she’s very dangerous. I sincerely feared for Aoi’s sake. Before I mean.”

“But you let her be killed atrociously.” It’s so revolting, I can’t believe that he’s so detached, so inhuman.

“I was watching over Yuriko not the gallery owner!” He answers as if I slapped him.

“Am I the only one who find this repulsing?!”

“God, you’re eating brains to survive, you’re a walking dead, it’s far more repulsing.”

“What are you Ikuta? Really. Ohno sent you?”

“Let’s say that I was looking for a new partner, this case was our chance to test our combination. I didn’t believe you would be human enough to help me to accomplish my duty, even if Ohno was convinced you were. And you were brilliant. I’d be glad to work with you from now.”

“I can’t believe you’re that crazy. You’re really lucky she fed me earlier because otherwise I’d jump to your throat and eat your brain in sashimi. How can you believe I would accept to work with you after this backstabbing?! I suffered for her, I cried for her, she was pregnant! Fuck!” I explode, grabbing his shirt to shake him like I never thought I’d be able to. I could really kill him or Yuriko. Or Ohno. Or the three of them, I feel so idiotic suddenly. “You toyed me and you knew from the beginning Inohara was guilty, you made me meet Yuriko.”

I don’t know why but I’m sure of it. Everything makes sense now. Ikuta grabs my wrist with a surprising strength, pushing me back to the couch. He doesn’t release me but waits for a long moment until I finally calm down. He’s serious and quiet, so unlike the man I met until now.

“I know it was hard but I had to test you. And you succeeded brilliantly. You resisted her, you resisted Inohara, and you resisted me too. You stayed true to yourself. Ohno was right. So…,” he finally releases my wrists and stands up. “I’m gonna leave you now. You’ll think about it and when you’re ready, you call me. I’ll wait for you, take your time, as long as you need. But…you won’t be alone anymore. Never.” He smiles and readjusts his wrinkled jacket. “See you soon,” he says and walks away.

“Ikuta?” I call him in an undertone but he turns back as if I had talked out loud.

“Yes?”

“What will you do to Inohara?”

“I already handed him over to the police, what else? So long.”

I chuckle hysterically and then I hear Ikuta closing the door quietly.

Becoming a detective, becoming part of a team, it’s a so strange idea, yet I can’t help but being curious and somehow, interested. Well…I’ll think about it tomorrow…