***
Reiko was not fond of the idea of bringing three strangers from school to her house. Noda reassured her that they would understand if she said no. Eiichi followed up that it would be a good idea if they saw the letters, but didn’t push any further. However, Reiko’s knowledge that the stalker already knew where she lived, and had intruded on her living space once already, made her reason that even if any one of these people were the criminal, it wouldn’t matter if they entered her house now. Plus, she seemed to trust Ryoko to a degree. Ryoko’s favorable standing with most of the girls on campus, and her aggressive protectiveness, allowed Reiko to confide in her some. Sumi’s presence aided this a lot as well, along with the fact that their group was predominantly female.
However, Reiko seemed to be at odds with herself the entire way. One side accused her of allowing too much deviation from her own precautions, while the other pleaded that it wanted answers, and this was the only opportunity presenting itself. This inner conflict reminded Eiichi of his own thoughts over the past few weeks, but it wasn’t making things any easier.
Reiko and Sumi took the lead, while Eiichi walked between Noda and Ryoko, feeling like a damned spectacle. He would hate to feel the envious outputs of any males who noticed them, and the curious ones of any of the girls.
“So now we’re headed to her house,” Ryoko groaned. “What’ll he think of next?”
“You can leave any time you like,” Eiichi retorted.
“Oh no, I’m still in. Using a creep to catch a creep, I suppose that makes sense.”
“Would you like to take the lead, Takahashi? I’m sure you absorbed a lot of information on criminals from those fun after-school specials.”
More guilt and shame quashed over by anger. “I-I don’t have time to watch those,” she said smugly, “I’m simply too busy with studies...”
“Well, your grades are in the top ten percentile, so why wouldn’t I be inclined to believe you?”
This just confused her, and she suddenly felt like she had become defensive for nothing. Eiichi loved messing with her. She was revving up to retaliate in some way, but probably couldn’t think of anything to say that she hadn’t already. She huffed and did her mental best to let it go.
The sad thing, to Eiichi, was that Ryoko was a very intelligent and elegant girl to pretty much everyone. Noda certainly thought so. But whenever Ryoko was around him, wires got crossed, mechanisms seized up, and things just didn’t seem to function right. He just got under her skin and she couldn’t help but keep making one failed attempt at ridiculing him after another. He brought that temper out of her and made her feel stupid as a result. The girl with stellar grades and a fantastic record felt like a moron up against the renowned lowlife. Even now, it seemed she had lost sight of her original goal, like she was just taking up space, and no longer wanted to be around him. Maybe if only she knew she was playing cards against someone with an unfair analytical ability, she might toss her hand up and give herself the benefit of the doubt.
He decided he should let up on her. He hadn’t had a smoke in four or five hours, and the cravings, coupled with the outputs of this pseudo-harem that surrounded him, were making things just a little difficult. He figured this cruelty of his was subconsciously directed at Ryoko because she was the very reason why he couldn’t smoke. It was either crush the popular girl’s feelings and make her run away in tears, just so he could breathe sweet, sweet nicotine spirits, or hold out until she left. He looked forward to the delicious first light, once the day was over.
They took the same route as before – market, train station, another market, and then neighborhood.
Soon they were at her house again.
Reiko opened the front door and let them all in. Eiichi again observed his situation as though from the perspective of an onlooker, and had to hold in a laugh. A guy entering an empty house with four beautiful girls. Yep, nothing strange about this picture.
“Oh wow! You have such a beautiful home!” Noda marveled.
“What a nice layout,” Ryoko noted.
The interior was artfully designed, simple and spacious. Her family definitely had money. Most of the doors were on hinges, so the house had more of a western appeal.
The staircase was visible from the doorway, and angled left, up to the second floor. Reiko led them to the dining room beyond it. The kitchen was broad, and almost like part of the same space as the dining room.
“Would you like some tea?” Reiko muttered.
“Thank you very much,” Noda said.
The girls found spots on the large couch and around the dining table to sit, while Eiichi walked past them, and up to the back door.
This was the door he had seen in Reiko’s thoughts. They had replaced the pane long ago, and it stood there looking good as new. If the person had broken in through the back, it was still possible they knew Reiko, but were not close enough visit to have been able to obtain a copy of her house key. But then again, if someone very close to her wanted to steal a hair brush from her, or anything with her scent on it, they would only need to visit sometime and swipe it when she wasn’t looking…
“Eiichi, would you like tea?”
Tea with a bunch of beautiful girls. How could he say no?
After Reiko poured their cups, and the group exchanged a few short words over sipping, she led them upstairs and to her room. The door was already open and the room was dim, though her bed was visible. A black ball of fur with a tail, triangles for ears and two large, green eyes, awaited them at the foot of it. To Eiichi, it awaited her more than any of them, though it had been aware of their presence since before they even set foot in the door.
“Wow, your room is kind of what I thought it would look like,” Ryoko marveled. “But, I imagined more lab stuff.”
Reiko clasped her hands behind her skirt, “Oh, I keep all of that under my bed.”
“Naturally...”
The black curtains of her window were closed, sunlight from outside just peeking through the edges. Reiko was an introvert, but Eiichi knew it had not always been like this for her. She once enjoyed leaving those curtains open. Despite her affinity for dark shades, she enjoyed the sunlight, and she enjoyed going out, her life once having been a perfect harmony of dancing between active days and calming periods of rest and solitude.
Reiko approached the cat and it stood eagerly, brushing up against her hand.
“Ohhh!” Noda swooned. “Who is this?”
“This is Cypress.” Reiko couldn’t help but smile at the adoration of her furry best friend, the first time Eiichi saw her smile since meeting her.
“He looks so majestic, what a strong face.” Noda inched closer. “M-May I pet him?”
“Of course,” Reiko invited. “He usually takes well to strangers.”
Eiichi was now thoroughly entertained with Noda’s somewhat needy reaction to the feline. Remembering that she mentioned they didn’t have animals at her home, she had also fed him a sensation of sadness over this matter.
The black cat mewed as Noda’s hand drifted over his head, and she erupted with a series of hums, ‘aww’s and giggles. Eiichi had to touch the wall behind him to make sure he wouldn’t tip over from her euphoric joy.
“Takahashi, you have to meet him!” Noda cried.
“Uh, no thank you. Cats and I don’t get along...”
Noda’s face turned toward Eiichi and looked like it would be stuck that way for hours, “Eiichi, Eiichi, come look at him! He’s so cute n’ handsome!”
“Cute and handsome? Only you would put those two together...”
He thought he would humor her and stepped forward. Upon extending his hand, something went horribly wrong.
Eiichi was suddenly underneath Reiko’s bed, and most of the color had been stripped from his vision, everything now in a desaturated hue. Reiko’s room was dark, but he could still see perfectly.
There was a figure crouched on the floor in front of him, but it wasn’t Reiko. This figu
re was unfamiliar to him. Reiko, the one who cared for him, who loved him more than he could know, was not home, and neither were her masters, the two older ones. This other being had invaded his and Reiko’s territory, and he hated it. Its hand stretched out to him and he shrieked at it, batting his paw as fast as he could. It did not belong here and it should leave.
His claws made contact and the creature cried out as it retracted. Eiichi could just barely see its face. It was male and had fair hair with locks floating over its eyes. However, the vision was Cypress’ and not Eiichi’s. As hard as he tried, he could not get a clear look at the face…
“Cypress!”
The cat had been hissing and spitting at him with all the ferocity he could muster before Reiko cried out. Eiichi noticed his hand had been outstretched just like the figure’s was.
Reiko scooped Cypress off the bed, “I’m so sorry, he’s never acted like that around people before.”
“Guess animals really can sense evil,” Ryoko smirked.
“Kozuka, are you alright?” Sumi asked.
Eiichi had been staring at his hand.
“Yeah...” he looked up. “I own a dog, so I guess Cypress could smell him.”
“Odd, our friend Yoko owns a dog and he’s never reacted that way around her...”
“I guess it depends on the dog,” Noda said.
After smoothing his fur and calming him down, Reiko set Cypress back on the bed. He found a spot near the back corner, and curled up there.
“So what was all this talk about letters?” Ryoko leaned next to Reiko’s closet with her arms crossed.
“Yes, right...” Reiko hesitated.
She had originally imagined only showing Eiichi the letters, but with so many people in here now, she was feeling put on the spot. She hadn’t even shown them to Sumi, who was equally curious. Understandably, she felt like she was about to expose a very private part of her life.
Her output kept flitting over toward her bed.
Reiko fought her nervous cautions and approached her mattress. She tucked her hand under, and lifted the corner closest to her door. Underneath was a scattered spread of white envelopes, most facing upward, with the characters of her name inscribed in a very artful fashion. There were at least a dozen of them.
Eiichi felt the astonished emotions unfold from the other three.
“What the...” Noda breathed.
Ryoko murmured, “Sick, son of a...”
Reiko picked up three, and lowered the mattress. She presented them to Eiichi.
He looked over the text on all three envelopes. The writer had very carefully written her name in the most precise and artful font, not too flaunting, but simple enough to create a sense of care. It looked as if the text had been printed on, but all three had been written by hand, with minor flaws that stood out if they were viewed right next to each other. They each smelled the same. It was faint, because she had possessed them for a long time, but it was very captivating.
“Did you find out what this smell was?”
“Yes...” Reiko immediately turned to open the drawer of her desk.
She carefully brought out a small, withered group of flowers, with petals that had once been vibrant purple, now tinted by decay.
“They’re called wisterias...”
The scent of the letters must have also been their method of marking her. They placed a scent with their image of her and continued to attribute it. She herself had attributed the scent to her very fears.
Eiichi looked back at the letters. “May I open one?”
This made Reiko considerably more uneasy, and Eiichi held back a painful groan, the inside of his throat clicking.
“Yes...”
He approached the desk with Reiko, and she drew out a pair of scissors. He tore the top and removed a delicately folded set of fine papers.
He felt Reiko’s tension building up more and more before he even got to unfolding them.
“If you don’t want to see this, it’s okay.”
His concern was received with silent gratitude, and Reiko left to stand by Sumi.
He unfolded the sheets, and his eyes beheld the inscribed ramblings of an obsessed lunatic. Her name was used in just about every sentence. The writer spoke a lot, without saying much at all. To be fairly honest, the class of his literature did not identify with his handwriting. Word choice was very simple, and repetitive. No real contemplative thought had been put into what was said. More thought had been placed in the appearance of the characters. The paper had no lines, and yet the parallel verses were almost flawlessly straight. The characters themselves were all written in the same, simple format, by an artisan hand. This person clearly relied on appearances to cover up their inner ugliness.
“Morita, where did you receive these, normally?”
“Um...” Reiko took a moment. “My shoe locker...my doorstep, inside my desk...a few times inside my bag...”
“Never inside your house? Was there one when they broke in?”
“No...I never saw it at least.”
This brought a chilling theory to Eiichi’s mind, but he kept it to himself for the sake of Reiko’s sanity.
“Obviously we’re dealing with a fellow student,” he said, and left the desk. “Only a student could get close enough to plant these. Morita, this is someone that you know. You probably see them every day. You may not have the same classes as them, but they can get close enough to plant these when you’re not around.”
He was scaring her, he knew it, but she had to hear this.
“This person, they’re very conscientious when they’re around others. They’re good at keeping up appearances and blending in to appear normal. On the outside, their ruse may seem flawless, and you could never guess who it is, unless you had these letters. We’re looking at someone with superior handwriting skills. This handwriting is well above standard, even for someone who’s a perfectionist. They took their time writing these, but the actual writing itself was not much of a challenge. They’re very practiced, they’ve been doing this for a while, long before they began writing the letters.”
“So, someone into calligraphy?” Noda asked.
“Yes.” Eiichi pointed to her. “Morita, do you know of anyone who is a member of the calligraphy club?”
Reiko’s desperation peeked through her fear, and she looked like she was contemplating this as accurately as she could.
“No...” she muttered somberly. “No, I don’t think I do...what about you, Sumi?”
“No one comes to mind, that I know of. I wonder if Akane or Moeko would.”
“That’s okay. We simply need to set our eyes on the calligraphy club.”
All Eiichi needed was to be around the person. He needed just a few moments around Reiko’s other friends, so he could paint their target.
“Morita, I think it would be best if you introduced Noda and myself to your other friends.”
“O-Okay...”
Vnnnn!
Just then, Reiko’s eyes popped wide open as a buzzing erupted from her skirt pocket.
Vnnnn!...Vnnnn!
She withdrew her phone and stared at it for a long time, a tremor of fear washing over her output.
Eiichi stepped forward, before she could press ignore, and snatched the phone from her hand.
“Ah!”
“Kozuka, what the hell are you doing!?” Ryoko flared.
Without a reply, he pressed answer and lifted the phone against his cheek.
The girls fell silent as he stood there. He didn’t say anything, and just stared ahead at the lighthouse painting above Reiko’s desk.
The voice on the other line was silent as well. Not a sound was made on his side or theirs.
Eiichi kept his breathing steady, but with every expulsion of air, he made it more intense, so that it was noticeable to the party on the other line that someone was listening. He was temping them. Every time Reiko had answered the phone before, it was likely in timid greeting. He could play the silent
game as well.
‘Come on, come out to play. I’m right here...’
What he would give to be able to read emotions through electronic devices right now. Mood changes and hidden meanings could be detected through text, speech patterns and tones, but it would not be enough for him to identify a particular output. An output was also one’s identification. All he would need was one whiff of their pattern, and he would focus on it, memorize it. Then he would be hot on their trail.
‘I saw you with her...’ the voice shuddered, and sounded like it was nearly in tears. It was masculine, but whispered.
So they knew it was him on the other line. Very peculiar.
‘I’ll be seeing you very soon...’
A few seconds passed, and the other line cut off, Reiko’s phone playing a short jingle in his ear to signal the call had ended.
“What did they say?” Noda asked, once Eiichi had lowered the phone.
“Apparently, he saw us sometime today.”
Reiko’s phone toppled to the floor. He had been handing it back, but his statement caused her to drop it.
“He!?” Sumi panicked.
“What the hell!” Ryoko stormed over to Reiko’s curtains and peeked through them.
“It’s unlikely he’s here. He said he would be ‘seeing me soon’.”
The guy must have made a smart decision to keep his distance while Eiichi had been with the girls. If they had passed him at any time, Eiichi would have sensed it.
“He knew it was me. His obsessions for Morita cause him to be extremely possessive, so seeing her with any other male for a given amount of time would cause a violent reaction.”
“So, what’re we supposed to do now?” Sumi asked.
“There’s nothing we can do right now. We’ll just have to wait for another time to speak with your other friends.” Eiichi bent down and picked up Reiko’s phone.
He presented it, and didn’t break from her frightened gaze while he spoke. “It should be apparent to you now that we are not here to harm you. There is a chance he will come after me as well, so we’re in this together. This isn’t some elaborate prank. I am asking you, please trust us. You’re going to have to reach out sooner or later. You will have to act, if you ever want this to go away.”
It was her lack of trust that had backed her into a corner. He could tell she had the will to do something about this, or else she would never have kept the letters. She would never have bothered investigating the scent.
Reiko took her phone.
“If he calls again, answer and do exactly as I did. Don’t say anything, don’t give him the satisfaction. If he says anything to you, ignore it. Try answering and just letting your phone sit until the call ends. If you receive any texts, just delete them.”
“What will she do until Monday?” Ryoko sounded frustrated.
Eiichi took a minute to think.
They would have to put off looking into this further, unless Reiko felt like calling everyone together somewhere, so he could get a good feel for everyone, but that may or may not prove beneficial. Being in school gave him the more likely chance of spotting her stalker, if he was indeed a fellow student.
Reiko could hold out until next week, and there was a chance things would be fine, but the wait wouldn’t be without its share of scares. It pained him to imagine a girl like her clinging to thoughts of seeing them again, just so they could get back on top of this. She wanted answers, and had received a few, but was well aware that they were far from out of the woods. And then...what if something did happen? She had available means to protect herself, but the thought may have never crossed her mind. She was not a girl of immediate action, and even an analysis of her friend Sumi showed she would be reluctant to cause harm to another person, even if they were an enemy.
“Morita...” Eiichi lifted from his thoughts. “When was the last time you had a sleepover with some new friends?”
Ryoko was thrown off. “Sleepover?”
“That’s out of left field,” Noda remarked.
Then Ryoko grimaced. “Kozuka, if you want the police to find your body, you had better not be suggesting that you be included.”
Eiichi shut his eyes. “Please don’t include me...I mean just you four. Morita, you’ve had a lot to deal with over the past several months, I’m sure. After what’s been happening recently, and what you witnessed today, it can put a lot of weight on the mind. I don’t think any of us could rest easy knowing you spent this entire weekend in dread, at least not without a few friends to keep you company. Asako is very observant, and she was with me when we stumbled on your situation. I can guess that you and Tamuro have been friends for a very long time, she seems to know you better than all of us. And Takahashi, she...well, she’s just a very angry person.”
“What’d you say!?”
“With a mind for justice. If I could place you in anyone’s protective hands, it would be hers. She barely knows you, and I can already tell, she wants to catch this guy just as much as you do.”
Ryoko grinned while clenching her fingers. “And fuckin’ wring his scrawny neck, until his eyes pop out of their sockets...”
“Like I said...a very angry person. She makes for a good sheepdog though.”
“Are you implying that I’m a bi—”
Eiichi raised a hand in front of her face. “It’s probably been a while, hasn’t it?”
Reiko lifted a set of curved fingers to her lips as she pondered, and then nodded. Her forlorn emotions told him that during her time in seclusion, she had regular thoughts that she had been missing out on so much.
“You could probably see your way through the weekend and come out just fine with no incidents, but there would always be that underlying fear of a possible one. It would be better if you took some precautions. There is strength in numbers. However, this is also for your personal benefit, and not just your protection.”
Reiko’s expression dampened. “I...I don’t know...”
“This is just a thought, and I’m only suggesting it. You seem to make an effort to surround yourself with people when out in public, so why not at home?”
Sumi murmured, “But Eiichi, her parents will be home this weekend, that should be enough. I don’t think Rei-chan really wants company over...”
Whether she wanted company or not wasn’t the problem. Eiichi knew that Reiko had been trying to keep this to herself, for the sake of not getting her friends involved. Doing this would be allowing more space for new people in her life.
“That’s not true!” Reiko blurted and didn’t say any more.
“Rei-chan...”
She did want it, but her fear of change was holding her back.
“Morita, you don’t have to say yes.” He looked at the other three. “I’m sorry, I didn’t take any of you into consideration.”
“W-Well, I’m okay with it...” Sumi wanted to, but was more concerned for her friend’s wishes.
“I had some things I was gonna’ do, but this seems more important,” Ryoko said.
“This is gonna’ be sooo great! Alright!” Noda was already on board.
Reiko fidgeted and all at once, she froze up and adjusted her glasses. “Okay...”
“Yeah! This is gonna’ be awesome!” Noda was in full spaz mode now. She hadn’t done this in a while herself, and though Eiichi wouldn’t admit it, it would break his heart to see her come down. “I’m gonna’ take lots of pictures!”
“Don’t show them to him!” Ryoko shouted.
“I need to get my things!” Sumi’s excitement boiled over.
“Um...okay. I’ll contact my mom and ask.” Reiko began tapping on her phone.
Eiichi didn’t know Reiko’s parents, but he imagined this would be a welcome change in their daughter’s behavior.
Suddenly the room was filled with jovial emotions and bubbly hormones, and Eiichi realized he probably shouldn’t have expressed his idea in such close quarters.
While feminine voices tossed themselves back an
d forth, making plans, he wandered dizzily over to Reiko’s bed and sat down.
Cypress looked at him with calm, green eyes before his whiskers popped forward in a yawn. No longer aiming defensive emotions at him, the cat stood, stretched, and wandered over to his side. Eiichi lifted a hand and let him sniff. Cypress’ ears folded back as Eiichi smoothed his head.
“You and me both, buddy...”
Eiichi has seen that face in Cypress’ memory, and though it had not been clear, there were features he could use to paste on the real culprit. Sadly, he couldn’t tell anyone that he had received a facial profile of the stalker from a cat.
Just in this one day of being around Reiko, he had uncovered a mound of evidence that would help them at least identify her stalker. He could scan through the halls, simply brush by him, and know.
Noda approached him. “Eiichi, we’ve got a lot to pull together, so you should probably get going.”
“Actually, Morita,” he called. “If you’re okay with going out of your way, my house is maybe twenty minutes from here by train. I have something to give you, if you’ll accept.”
Ryoko whipped a worried look on Reiko. “Don’t accept gifts from strangers, Morita!”
“He’s hardly a stranger, now,” Sumi giggled.
Noda placed a questioning look on him. “Eiichi, what is it?”
“Something that could be useful to her, but we should wait until we get there.”
Eiichi P.I., Vol. 1 Page 33
