CHAPTER 2: Our Little Secret
Like expected, she had gotten very little sleep. She had went through too much tossing and turning then she expected. The teenager was sure she did not get even the smallest amount of sleep like many restless nights before. This time, she felt her body paying the toll. She wasn't in the brightest mood, not that she was a friendly person.
She rather stayed to herself. She usually put herself in a state where she can contain herself from snapping an aggravating person's neck that she would bump into on occasional days.
Today, she wasn't quite sure if she could stop herself from ending an angering situations with violence.
Blindly, the exhausted young woman walked through the elongated narrow halls of her house and went straight into the living room. Upon entering the room, she frowned when her eyes settled to the warm colored walls. She remembered how she was talked into making her home look more welcoming and happy.
She will never get why decorating her house was so important. She would never come to understand her partner's joy for painting the walls. That burning joyfulness also made it harder for the dark haired teenager to hide her dislike for the choice of colors. These shades and tints all over her house were more of an eyesore than an accomplishment, but a certain person who was stationed into the middle of a black leather couch thought otherwise.
The girl sitting comfortably into the couch was attentively watching the flickering squared TV centered in the middle of the room. The taller young woman locked eyes with the pigtailed girl as she made her way toward the kitchen entrance.
“You're up early. Don't you have work at five?” The pigtailed-woman spoke.
She noticed the younger girl's change of clothes, ready to leave.
She watched her tall doe-eyed girlfriend navigate herself through the living room with groggy half closed eyes. Her mouth opened and her hand covered the yawn that slowly seeped its way out, while she entered the kitchen.
“I'm coming in early today. I forgot to do some work yesterday.” She lied.
The pigtailed-girl frowned. “When will you be back this time?”
The taller girl shrugged, unaware of her girlfriend's visible pout of disapproval. Before she could pour herself a cup of cold orange juice, her eyes went to the flickering TV once again. She raised a brow in curiosity to her partner.
“You're watching the news?” She lightly questioned.
“Yeah, there's been a massacre in a warehouse just eight blocks from here can you believe it? Nine men were found dead.” The procaine-skinned girl replied, terror shivering in her voice.
The other girl was however, unaffected. Her face held not even the slightest emotion as she stood processing the new found data.
“Hm, really?” She muttered.
The lean girl turned back around to pour herself a cup of cold orange juice. With her back turned, she saw this as her chance to smile, amused at her own fake act of surprise. She spun back around, her smirk gone, and took a sip of the yellow tinted juice before exiting the kitchen. She stood to the armrest of the couch and pointed a finger at girlfriend with the hand that held the cold cup.
“Wait, that isn't why you don't want me to go to work late today, is it?” She asked.
The smaller girl slouched in her seat. “No.” She shook her head to her lie, making her curly pigtails bounce in her action.
“Sayumi.” The younger girl scolded.
“Okay, yes, but it's only because I care about you! I don't want you to end up dead if there is some crazy killer out on the loose.” Sayumi admitted. “I'm your girlfriend. Shouldn't I show some sort of affection or care towards you? We do live in the same house you know?”
The other girl stood silent, taking in Sayumi's words of truth. She wasn't quite sure what was going through her, but if she had to name this emotion turning inside her it would have to be guilt and she didn't enjoy guilt.
A deep sigh escaped her mouth and her still full cup was placed to the side table near the couch. “I have to go. We'll talk about this later if I'm not back too late.” She replied.
The taller dark haired girl raced to the front door for safety, knowing Sayumi wouldn't be able to follow.
“Koharu, wait!” Sayumi yelled, but Koharu was already gone.
The small bunny shut off the television and sulked into the couch with her arms crossed over her chest. Her mind was too worked on her girlfriend's sudden escape during the start of a very serious conversation. She also couldn't stand how Koharu brought her job as an excuse to hightail out the door. It was time as a couple they had such a conversation to clear many uncertain issues that was rapidly building around their relationship.
Sayumi wasn't even sure if their relationship would be able to stand another year yet alone another month or day. The highly upset rabbit could not be sure about their foggy future herself and it scared her. In need to wash away all the doubts, Sayumi decided to take a bath to relax until Koharu had returned home. Only then will their conversation continue. Sayu would wait as long as she needed to.
She was going to have that talk even if she had to trap Koharu into a room with her to speak for longer than just a minute. The twenty year-old was determined.
***
Unfortunately, after Koharu's hasty exist she couldn't drive to make a quick visit to a mutual friend and did not feel like going back inside to retrieve the ring of keys. Not wanting to take responsibility, Koharu was left with no other choice, but to take the train. A form of public transportation she did not enjoy, but she needed to make this visit for urgent matters. Koharu wasn't exactly a talkative type of person and could not deal well with large crowds, but she was hoping her new job offered some type of improvement to her social skills.
The progress was slow, but she noticed her change in communication during the day, though at night she became a much different person. She didn't see that as much of a problem, being that at night she had other things in mind and was not trying to make friends in her work. The job required an emotionless face and quick almost thoughtless impulses.
During her wait on her thirty minute train ride, she realized the glove department to the dashboard of her car needed to be cleaned thoroughly of the various weapons nestled into the hidden compartment.
The more she thought about the contains hidden inside, the more she remembered that she would have to dispose not only the weapons, but the entire car itself, which is a large amount of evidence to revealing her secret. There was no way she could get rid of the blood stains seeped into the rug or the splotches stuck into the cloth of her driver seat either.
Her safest choice would be to trash it. Until then, she had three hours to kill and why not spend it in an all too familiar yet risky place? Maybe she could locate her latest target and after, with any time left over before work, she could get rid of her car. She knew a friend at the junkyard that could get the job done with no questions asked.
Looking through the front door windows, she made her way inside, marching through the rows of desk and busy working officers to one place in mind out of hundreds of rooms in the many leveled police station.
Her eyes scanned for the certain person she's spoken to many times before. Spotting the cop speaking with another worker at his desk, Koharu quickened her pace less than twelve steps away. The brown haired female police looked from the desk and spotted Koharu easily.
“Koha, what a pleasant surprise.” The officer whispered.
“Shut it Takahashi.” Koharu snapped, stomping her way passed her friend and straight into Ai's office, hinting for her to follow.
The short woman excused herself from her co-worker and placed a stack of papers in her hand back to the desk then made her way to the open office door with a much more serious expression. She knew Koharu was having one of her moments and at a time like this getting on her bad said would not be the brightest idea. Ai scanned the area around her before closing the door and shut the shades. The young officer's attention went back to the young girl standing at the foot of her desk.
“So, do you have a reason why you're walking into this station like you're about to kill someone?” Ai watched Koharu flinch at the word “kill” That was more than enough for her to piece everything together. “You've seen the news I'm assuming?”
Koharu let out a small chuckle. “I've seen it alright.” She confirmed. “I was there wasn't I?”
Ai went over to her desk and took a seat. “You're just here because you want to know if you've done a good job at clean up, right?” The young woman nodded. Ai leaned back into the chair. “Considering how messy you've made that place I would say you're in the clearing. No finger prints or survivors, but Jesus Koharu, did you have to turn it into a slaughter house? You only needed to kill one person.”
She watched Koharu's stance change again to a more stiff pose and the aura around her darken. The line of her control was thin.
“I did what I had to. I've done my side of the deal now you need to do yours.” Koharu spat.
Her voice was stern, no room for arguments and Ai did not want to pick a fight with a psychopath, but she also knew making a deal with one was just as dangerous and against her code as a fellow police officer. A large amount of her wanted to back out, but another part of her wanted to get the people who have slipped away from the court's punishment and spotted loopholes in their poorly run justice system.
It might have not been fair, but these people were low life scum no one would care much about if they were to die tomorrow or any other day. Ai considered this a favor to cleaning up the mess this city was covered in and even if she had to start small it wouldn't matter. There were no more changes of words, Ai opened the last draw to her desk and flopped a stack of files right on top into a tan folder.
Her gaze still locked on to the unstable young woman in front of her, she slide the file to the front of her desk. Koharu took the folder into her hands to give the contains inside a brief look.
“Feel free to pick who you want to target next. You can keep that folder too. It's a copy of the original files no one will suspect a thing. Just next time try to be less messy will you?” Ai asked. “Don't worry about the investigation I'll handle it.”
Koharu closed the folder, pleased with her vast variety of criminals she can extinguish. They exchanged a stern glance and Koharu turned back towards the door to make her way out. She still had one more thing to attend before work. If she hurried now she could get her car taken care of then stuff the files into her hidden box back at home.
Sayumi should be out by now either working or shopping. Koharu let out a deep sigh. She was going to have a long day ahead of her.