Legendary Detective at the World's End (Volume 1) (3 page)

   “Two minutes.” Kirin said as he waited for him to finish his words.

     Meanwhile, Jake panicked at his counting down of the time. He looked at the hefty man in frustration. “Hurry it up fat man, we don’t have all day.”

   “I-I was… I was trying to save her.”

   “Save her?” Kirin said raising an eyebrow.”

   “Yes.” The hefty man lowered his head.

     Kirin looked over to Jake for a moment to see him burst out into laughter. “What?” Jake said through the laughter. “And you thought stripping down to your underwear and a night of fun was the best way of doing that.”

     The hefty man meekly lowered his head. “I loved her.”

   “Love is what you’re calling it.” Kirin said flipping the medallion he found in his hand. “That’s the sort of thing people sacrifice for, right? Even at the risk of excommunication from your tribe.”

  “H-How did you know?” the hefty man said.

  “The medallion.” He said flipping it over to hefty man who caught it. “It’s engraved with the symbol of the rat—something only the tribe of the excommunicated would hold.”

   “You’re right.” He said. “My name is Shin, of EX tribe.”

   “So you wanted to take her to the Grey Forest then, to your tribe.”

   “Yes.” Shin said definitely. “I wanted to take her back.”

   “Back? Tell me what you mean.” Kirin demanded, causing Shin to shutter.

   “Yes,” he said with an angry stare. “What? Are you surprised? These men of the city do more than poach the animals we care for—they take our women as well, and do the same thing they do to the animals on parade, having them dance for them on the streets, except it’s in these houses, where few eyes can see… They humiliate nature, so of course they humiliate women.”

   “Talk about having the worst of luck.” Jake said while holding the door as it shook from a steady attack. “How long did it take you to save enough money to afford the high-class suite? Sheesh, you must have worked twenty four hours a day for months.”

   “It took months of work at the mines to afford one stay with her. But now…” he said looking away sullen.

     Kirin ignored him, only nodding his head when pieces of the puzzle began to connect themselves in his mind. “Then why were you in the wall?” he asked.

   “Keiko put me there.” She said her enslaver was coming, and that I should hide in the walls. So I did, but then, as I waited, I heard nothing. Once inside, I could not hear anything until I came out and saw her bloodied body. As the door opened again, I hid backed inside the wall.”

   “Is that so…” Kirin said rubbing the bottom of his smooth chin. “Jake, let them in.”

     Shin looked on confused. “W-What? What are you doing?”

   “Letting them capture you, you are the killer after all.”

     Jake tilted his head in confusion. “Wait. What’s going on? Are you sure?”

   “It’s clear—he’s the killer, no doubt about it. I’m rather appalled that he tried to pass that story off as truth. I mean, just think about it, he was the only person in here during her death, so it’s obviously him.”

   “Yeah… I guess so.” Jake said hesitantly looking at Shin.

     Shin looked back in fear. “C’mon!” his voice trembled. “You can’t believe that.”

     All three of them stood still in the gathering symphony of noise around them, waiting for someone to break the heavy atmosphere building upon the already mounting sense of urgency flowing from the forceful bashing against the door.  

   “One minute…” Kirin said as he began to pace around the room. “Let’s just look at the facts and avoid the obvious lie that you weren’t the only other person in the room when Ms. Keiko was attacked. Let’s look past the medallion she was clutching. Let’s just…” Kirin smiled as he looked at the specs of blood on the man’s clothes. “Ignore the fact that your clothes are stained in blood and let’s forget about the tribal elder handing us the box with the murder weapon inside.”

   “Hey,” Jake said. “How about we don’t ignore any of that?”

   “No, no, no.  Let’s ignore it all.” Kirin said looking into the fireplace as he approached it. “Let’s just focus on the fact that you’re holding a knife under your clothes and itching to stab each and every one of us in the back the first chance you get.” Kirin said turning around and facing the stressed face of Shin. “By the way you’re trembling—I think this might be a simple hobby of yours. You know, I’ve read about the excommunicated from the Northern Tribes. They’re the worst of the worst from the tribes, abandoned in the bowels of the Grey Forest to be eaten by dangerous beasts or lost in its fogs of insanity. The few that survive such punishments come out deranged and with the taste of murder forever painted on their lips.” Kirin said walking over to Shin as he trembled over his words. Standing fearlessly in front of Shin, Kirin continued. “And you all have that same wild look in your eyes—a look that you can’t scrub away with a pleasant smile or meek posture. I see through you Shin. You can’t hide what you are from me.” He said giving him a stare that pierced through the thin pleasant veneer Shin had built for himself through his words and demeanor.

     Under the thumb of Kirin’s thorough investigation and knowing stare, Shin snapped.

   “Aaaaah!” Shin screamed, throwing his clothes to the ground, revealing a clean axe in hand. “Why can’t you just listen to me?! Stop trying to confuse me?!

   “What the hell?!” Jake said with a look of panic in his face. “So I was right!”

   “That’s beyond the matter.” Kirin said unmoving from his close distance to the deranged Shin and his sharp knife hovering just above his shoulder. “Who was this woman?” he asked the unnerved Shin. “You said you loved her, but do you even know her tribe’s name?”

   “Umm…” Shin muttered under his breath, unable to find words.

   “So she was just another girl for another night of murders…” Kirin shook his head in disappointment. “You know, I’ve studied your case.”

   “What case?” Jake asked.

   “The serial murders in the Red Sectors.”

   “What are you talking about?” There are no serial murders in the Red Sectors.”

   “That’s what the public thinks because they always arrest someone for the murder, usually some unknowing messenger boy Shin and the old man send in at the time of the victim’s death with a weapon in hand and an audience to persecute, much like our situation.”

     Jake gritted his teeth in frustration. “You planned this all out with that old man to frame us for murder?!”

   “Haha…” Kirin chuckled. “What’s even worse, he planned to watch through a few holes he poked through the walls the whole thing—what a creepy voyeur you are, Mr. Shin. We have a genuine sadistic murderer on our hands. So,” Kirin said looking over to Jake. “Do you understand now why I ask you to open the door?”

   “Y-Yeah.” Jake nodded.

     Kirin then turned his fearless gaze towards Shin. “Times up then.”

   “Shut up!” Shin shouted at him before turning away and charging towards Jake, his anger boiling over. As he did, Kirin took the opportunity to step back, quickly moving out of the range of Shin’s axe. With an urgent look on his face, he turned to Jake. “Let go of the dresser!” he shouted to the terrified Jake who did just that, slipping under the piercing blade of Shin, rolling onto the ground as he let the dresser collapse under the pressure from those outside banging on its oak build.

     Jake crawled on the ground towards Kirin as the makeshift barricade they made collapsed onto Shin while the house guard and muscle men swarmed inside, quickly grabbing onto the manic Shin as he swung his axe wildly at them before getting punched in the face and beaten to the ground. Watching as the muscle men beat Shin down—Kirin looked over to the confused Jake who watched the spectacle from the ground.

   “Jake…” he whispered. “Do as I say.”

   “What?”

   “Don’t resist, and let me do all the talking.”

     Jake looked at the confident and determined demeanor of Kirin that contradicted his almost baby like face and girlish features. Looking at him apprehensively, Jake nodded his head, not knowing what else he could do.

   “Hey!” a large muscle man wearing a grey tight shirt said approaching the boys along with two other men. “What are you doing here?! Who are you?!”

   “We’re the ones that saved this Courtesan’s life.” Kirin said.

     The grey shirt bouncer looked with concerned eyes towards Keiko as she breathed faintly through pained groans. He then looked back at Kirin. “Take them with the other guy and have them strung up along with him.”

     The two even larger men behind the grey shirt bouncer stormed in and grabbed hold of Jake.

   “Hey!” Jake shouted. “Didn’t you hear him?! We’re the ones who saved her!” he said as they started to pull him away.

     Just as the guards approached Kirin, he leaned over and picked up the wooden box the old man had handed him and raised it in the air. “It would be a great shame if the Madame’s secret pact with times forgotten were to ever be spoken of here.”

     As he whispered these words, the grey shirt man’s stoic face loosened with curiosity for a moment as he looked at the box. He then opened his mouth. “Wait.” He said halting the heavy-handed grips of the bouncers.

     The grey shirt man looked at the box for a moment before staring back at Kirin with a hesitant eye and eager voice. “Where did you get that?” he asked simply.

   “Where all secret things are buried, in the past.”

     The grey shirt bouncer narrowed his eyes at the accuracy of Kirin’s words before waving off the guards holding Jake. He then looked back at the bouncers holding down Shin. “All of you, bring that guy down, I’ll handle these two alone.” The grey shirt bouncer said to the other bouncers who apprehensively took Shin away and followed his orders. Kirin rubbed the bottom of his chin—impressed by the authority of the man they were speaking to, but also familiar with his voice. While the room cleared out, Kirin relaxed his stance as he stared down the grey shirt bouncer.

   “What is she to you?” Kirin asked, glancing at Keiko on the bed. “I mean, no man would shout so passionately for a prostitute in his charge.”

   “Courtesan.” The grey shirt guard said flinching in a brief moment of anger.

   “Sorry, Courtesan, I mean.” Kirin smirked. “So tell me, who is she to you?”

   “It doesn’t matter.”

   “Oh yes it does.” Kirin said kneeling beside Keiko as she breathed in quick gasps of breath, her body still trembling from the shock of the moment. “You see, the Madame—”

   “Does what she pleases.” An elderly woman said entering the room dressed in ruby red colored robes. “As with any other owner of property, whether that be the fine vases she purchases or the women she markets in, it’s her choice to do with them what she pleases.”

   “Madame.” The grey shirt bouncer said lowering his head towards her. “I’m sorry for this mix up—I’ll imprison these young boys right away.”

   “That won’t be necessary Luke.” The Madame said while giving a piercing look to Kirin for a moment before looking at the box in his hand. “Where did you get that?” She asked with great interest.

   “Oh,” Kirin said standing up. “From an old friend that misses you, oh so very much.”

     The Madame stared at the baby face of Kirin, giving him a steely-eyed look that softened the longer she looked at him. Suddenly, her stone like frown turned upward slightly as she chuckled under her breath. “Such cunning…” the Madame smiled to an uneasy Luke.

   “Luke.” She said giving a quick glance at his discomforting eyes. She then looked at the body of Keiko. “Take her to Dr. Freddy as quickly as possible.”

     Luke’s eyes sparkled upon hearing her words. “Thank you Madame.” He said quickly rushing over to Keiko, lifting her up with ease and rushing out the door with her in hand.

   “Young love.” The Madame said watching as Luke ran out of the room with a desperate look in his eyes. “If only a mother could choose who their children fall in love with. I feel sorry for Luke’s parents. For him to choose her of all people must be saddening.”

     Kirin smiled as he walked over to her. “Only if you could do like the Nobles and arrange marriages.”

   “I’m speaking of love, not marriage.” The Madame smiled. “They’re two different things—one can be arranged while the other can only be discovered. But I guess you’re too young to understand that.”

   “Maybe.” He said. “Anything that can drive a man to murder is something I find irresistibly intriguing.”

     Walking past the bewildered Jake who looked on in confusion at what was happening, Kirin approached the Madame with ease, handing her the box without fuss or bargain.

   “A gift from a father.” Kirin said.

     The Madame’s eyes lit up at the mention of the man.

   “Although he sent us to the wrong room, I think.” Kirin continued. “I think he wanted you to have this. Mind if I ask why?”

     The Madame held the wooden box close to her for a moment before opening to see its contents. “I have a set of eleven of these in my room, but I’m always missing the seventh one in the set, and here it is.”