It was around 12 pm by the time she woke up. She pulled herself out of bed and straight back into depression when she realized that this wasn't a dream. It was real.
Akashi...was gone.
She sat by the couch, flopping on like a girl who had very little left to care about anymore, because in all honesty, maybe she did.
Her eyes slid to the table in front of her.
Her phone. It had been fixed.
And a note underneath it that read:
"Throw your phone into the wall again and you'll be next."
It was Yano who wrote it. She could tell by the weird way her 'T' looked like '7'. However, seeing the message made her smile a little. If only she could be normal like that face to face without sounding like a gentle mom trying to apologize for her actions.
She missed it. The way Yano would scream at her, her sharp teeth bared whenever she'd fight with her. She missed the Yano who simply didn't give a damn.
Till her phone rang.
The contact info was unknown. Strange.
"Hello?"
"Ms Hashinada?"
"Yes, that's me?"
"This is Detective Hirangi, from the Ayanaki Police Department. Do you remember me?" the voice on the other end said cooly, as if they'd recited this a million times.
Akira's heart sank. How could she not remember him? He was the first one to come to her aid when this mess started.
"Y-Yes, I remember you," she replied, voice shaking a little from the already rising emotion.
"Sorry to call you back like this, I know you're probably busy and all, but I simply have a matter I wanted to discuss..."
Her heart dropped to the floor.
This was about Akashi.
Oh god, please to confirm what Yoshida was saying yester—
"We found out that Akashi was actually assassinated."
...
"Hello? Ms Hashinada?"
The phone slipped from her fingers. Her eyes wide and dilated into pinpoints.
One word ricochetted within her skull:
'Assassinated'
"Ms Hashinada, I know this is all sudden, but we ran the forensics on the body and found a mark carved into his back that we believe to be the Insignia of a party within the 'Assassin's Association'," Mr Hirangi said as Akira did nothing but listen, "Of course, due to Ayanaki Law, and by the recent decree from the Federal Government and Her Supremacy, Yor Tokitoshi, we can't run any further tests on bodies that have such a significant amount of alarming Energicules. Basically making the investigation be at a standsti—"
The voice that Hirangi heard speak back to him...
...it wasn't human.
"—Who did it?..."
Her voice. It made Hirangi, who was eating a donut on the other end, pause for a moment and look out the window before his voice suddenly became less casual, "We...we don't know. We can't run further tests on his body since he harbours Hybrid DNA. I'm sorry ma'am, but this is the best we can—"
"—Did you just say...you can't because he was a Hybrid?"Her voice slipped in like a soft cold that could freeze anyone in place.
The detective's eyes narrowed as he leaned back on his chair, trying to remind himself that he was only doing what he could, "Yes, I did," he said, as if it were a matter of a fact, "I'm surprised you're acting this way considering that Hybrids usually don't get this much attention. You should be grateful I'm even urging my supervisor to allow me to do this."
Grateful?
"I see..." she said softly, "So that's how it is, huh? That's how it's always been. Hybrids don't get the attention that they should because they're curses, right?"
"I never said that, Miss. I'm just stating things the way they are. Look I know it might not be right, but..." the detective's eyes narrowed as his voice lowered to a deep whisper, a small chuckle escaping his lips, "... I'd be willing to bend the rules a little, for the right price of course."
That. That made her eyes sink into pinheads, her veins practically bursting like a dam as she grit her teeth, raw and hard, "A 'price'?!" she muttered beneath her breath, her hands gripping the phone a little bit too tightly, her voice dripping with venom, with anger—no, not just anger...
It was just anger...
It was Rage.
"Of course. I mean to be fair, these kinds of jobs take a lot of work and effort for me to do, so a little bit of motivation should help me find out which organization actually did." he said, his smug confidence returning.
"Screw you."
She said as she crushed her phone in her hands, her veins popping to the surface of her skin.
Her body shook with uncontrollable anger as she glared at the coat Akashi left behind as a gift for her.
Her tone was sharp, cold, precise.
It was deadly.
"I'm gonna find the bastard who took you away from me."
Her back teeth cracked a little under the pressure of her grinding them together.
"I swear. I'll be the last thing they see."