By the Light of Day - Chapter 2 - Part 1

If you haven't read parts 1-3 of Chapter 1, please read those first.

This chapter is rated 18+ due to some stronger language than in other chapters.

The first part of this is written in third-person, and the rest is from Naminai's point of view.



By the Light of Day

"Questions" Chapter

Part 1



"Officer Tanaka-san, what did your team find out?"

Takashi Tanaka sighed. "I'm sorry sir, but we failed to locate the killer."

"Killer? You were there because a woman heard some screaming."

"When we arrived..." Tanaka paused, "there were four bodies."

"Where? On the road?"

"No, sir. In the house."

"What house?"

"The house Kato lived in."

There was only one man named Kato who had ever lived in Meikaze, and that had been Jirou Kato, the man who had founded and built the first houses in Meikaze hundreds of years ago. His house was a tiny house, made of now mostly-decayed wood.

"That house has been abandoned for years! Nobody could've been in there! It's unsafe!" The chief officer boomed.

"I know it's abandoned, but that's where we found them."

"Do you have any suspects?"

"No, but we believe the killer is a female. We heard laughing--"

"Laughing? Someone was in there with a bunch of dead bodies laughing?"

"Many people who butcher their victims to a state of... what we saw in that house..." Tanaka paused, trying to push the gory images out of his memory before continuing. "Many of those people are mad, sir."

"I know that! If you heard her in there, why the hell didn't you find her?"

"We searched all over the house--"

"Did she just vanish into thin air?" The police chief interrupted.

"No, sir."

"Then get off your ass and find the damn woman, for God's sakes!"

"It's been almost a week; she could be anywhere within--"

"I don't care if she's halfway across the globe, you're gonna find her, got it?"

Officer Tanaka sighed, then headed to his awaiting patrol car, the engine idling in the driveway.



* * *



I wanted to walk to school alone this morning, not because I was still angry with Yuichi but because I was afraid he'd be angry with me. I wouldn't blame him if he was.

Despite my efforts to avoid him--which weren't very drastic, as I only left a few minutes earlier--had completely failed. Not only was Yuichi waiting for me, but he was waiting for me just outside my front door, smiling as if nothing had happened. He was never anything but kind to me. Just once, I wished he'd scream at me or insult me or hit me just so I wouldn't feel like the worst person in the world... but Yuichi would never even think of doing something like that.

"Hi, Nami-san! Are you more awake this morning?" He asked, apparently believing my lie from yesterday that I was only tired instead of upset.

"Yes, thanks." I tried to sound happy, but I don't know whether or not I succeeded.

"Did you think the math was hard yesterday?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Oh, good." I must have looked confused, because he explained: "I didn't want to be the only person who didn't understand it." We both laughed, then I asked if he'd check my homework before class started, and he said he would, but he couldn't guarantee that his answers were right, either.

"Class, please rise." Aiko-sensei spoke as she entered the classroom at eight A.M. sharp. All the students did so as we greeted Sensei, then we were told to be seated again, and we did as we were told. The morning classes were rather simple today, which was surprising. I wasn't usually very good at academic things. I mean, once I practiced them enough, and I understood them, I could do pretty well, and I was near the top of the class and all, but it took me a while to fully understand what Sensei was teaching. Yui-kun usually helped me with new stuff the first few days, but I didn't really want to bother him much today. I really hoped he wasn't mad about yesterday.

We had lunch early today, because Sensei said we had a lot to do in the afternoon, which was strange because we usually didn't do much in the afternoon.

"I'm so glad we get to eat now. I'm hungry." Yuichi said as he pushed some desks around to form a cluster of tables in the center of the room. There were six desks: Yuichi's, Kaiya's, Hiroshi's, Izumi's, Kagami's, and mine. We all sat together at lunch every day and talked. Some of the other students went outside to eat lunch, which was allowed because Sensei sat down by the tree outside and faced the school, so she could see everyone outside and had a clear view of the classroom inside through the window.

"Do you want some of my lunch, Yui-kun?" Kagami asked, pushing her bento box closer to Yuichi.

"You can have some of mine, too!" Izumi moved her bento box past Kagami's.

"Don't you want to eat your lunch?" Yuichi asked, pulling his chopsticks out of a black and gold floral-printed bag.

"You can have mine, Yuichi. I don't feel well." I said, then handed him my box.

"What's wrong?" Hiroshi asked, and I just shrugged. I didn't want to talk to Hiroshi; I wanted to talk to Yuichi--but at the same time I didn't.

Nobody said anything to me after that, except for Yuichi telling me I could just go sit back down in my normal school desk instead of helping him move the desks back since I wasn't feeling good. I said okay and then sat down and rested my head on the stack of books on my desk.

After everyone ate lunch, we did some math and then Sensei asked us to help clean up the room so she wouldn't do so much when summer came in a few weeks. I wanted to help clean so I could distract myself, but Sensei walked over to me after a few minutes and told me I should sit down and rest; she had heard I was sick. Kagami was all over Yui-kun, though I wasn't surprised. What did surprise me was how much Izumi was with him, too. Usually Izumi only imitated her sister, but today she was saying all kinds of things. The worst part was, I think Yuichi actually liked it.

No, that was impossible.

...Right?

"Izumi-chan, you've always acted so shy! I didn't know there was another side of you." Yuichi said dramatically and grabbed her hand, which made her blush.

"Yui-kun, I..." She giggled, then blushed even more.

I dug my fingernails into the pages of one of my textbooks, not caring about the pages I crumpled or tore as I did so. I squeezed my eyes shut, but hot tears ran down my face anyway. "Damn you, Yui." I whispered through clenched teeth, then walked out of the classroom, leaving all of my belongings behind.

I doubted anybody even noticed.