Double Trouble: Part 1

"Kurosaki speaking."

"Detective Kurosaki?"

"Yes. Who is this?"

"My name is Officer Hanataro Yamada and I wasn't sure who to call, so I radioed for assistance and told other officers to get to this crime scene and they've taken over-"

"Yamada."

"Yes sir?"

"Get to the point."

"Oh right. Well, when the other officers got here one of them said that I should call you and ask you to get down here right away."

"Oh, they did, did they? Who told you to call me, exactly?"

"Umm, Officer Abarai."

"I see. So Renji told you to call me just as I'm getting ready to clock out. Typical. Well, you can just go tell that conniving prankster baboon that he can go fly a kite."

"I'm sorry sir, I don't understand."

"Yamada, I'm going home. I've been working nearly 24 hours straight wrapping up some important cases and to be perfectly honest, right now I'm barely able to force myself to stay awake long enough to finish our conversation, so if you don't mind-"

"Wait Detective Kurosaki!"

"What?! Didn't I just say that I-"

"Officer Abarai said to tell you he's back."

"…What?"

"Umm, Officer Abarai said-"

"I heard you Yamada. Are you sure Renji said those exact words? 'He's back'."

"Yes. But he said to tell you something else."

"What else?"

"He's not alone."

"…Tell me where."

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While the drive from the station to the crime scene should have only taken fifteen minutes at most, Detective Ichigo Kurosaki arrived half an hour after his talk with Officer Yamada. Early morning rush hour was just getting under way and a number of drivers had been more than slightly reluctant to pull over like they were supposed to do when they heard police sirens. If he had cared to look, Ichigo would have seen several drivers giving him dirty looks as he was making them even more late to work…at least to their minds.

The moment he stepped out of his car, the only indication that Ichigo hadn't slept in a while was the fact that his clothes were creased and wrinkled from wearing them for a while, but they were still clean and neat looking otherwise. Officers and crime scene technicians who had been around for a while knew that Ichigo scowled a lot and could be borderline hostile in manner at times, but also knew that he was fair, honest and, most important, really good at his job. They knew that if he needed something, he'd let them know, but otherwise to just stay out of his way.

That is why they all held their breath as they saw the newbie, Officer Hanataro Yamada, step forward to greet the scowling detective.

Sticking out his hand, Hanataro said with a slight quaver in his voice, "You must be Detective Kurosaki. I'm Officer Yamada."

When Ichigo didn't react but merely stood there looking at Hanataro, the young officer started shifting his weight as he tried a different tact, "I'm the one who called you a little while back. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Ichigo continued to stare passively at the shorter officer for a few more seconds before he grunted, "Yeah, I figured as much," and then reached out to grasp Hanataro's hand very briefly. Inaudibly, everyone around sighed with relief.

After he let go of Hanataro's hand, Ichigo's eyes hardened and he said simply, "Show me."

Nodding furiously, Hanataro said, "Of course. Right this way."

They did not walk far, but the actual crime scene was located in an alleyway so the general public had no hope of seeing the gruesome scene. For one to think they have a strong stomach when they are able to watch all sorts of gory things happening in a movie or television show does not actually mean they do. Coming face to face with the reality of human depravity once in a lifetime is more than most people could handle…for Ichigo, this would be the third time he saw depravity of this sort.

As they rounded the corner, Ichigo's eyes focused almost entirely on taking in all information the scene had to offer at first glance, but he easily identified one man and greeted him coolly, "Renji."

Under different circumstances, Renji might have come up with a retort, but he simply said, "Hanataro told you he found the body, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he mentioned it," replied Ichigo as he carefully stepped around some technicians who were snapping final photos of the scene before he asked, "Where is it?"

Instead of answering Ichigo directly, Renji turned to one of the technicians and asked, "Where'd the letter go?"

Taking another photo, the technician then looked up at Renji before pointing to a box and saying, "I bagged it myself after I had photographed its position in the man's pocket. It should be in there now."

"Thanks," said Renji as he made his way over to the box and shuffled through a few other evidence bags before pulling out a letter and handing it to Ichigo, saying, "Here."

Ichigo took it without another word and read through the letter two or three times as he muttered incomprehensively to himself. Finally, he looked up and gave Renji a hard stare, which the other returned.

Finally, Ichigo broke the silence hanging between them by saying, "You told Yamada that he's not alone this time. What makes you think that? This letter sounds just like the others to me."

Crossing his arms, Renji blew out a long breath before he replied, "Last night there was another murder. A woman was stabbed through the heart."

Blinking in surprise, Ichigo replied flatly, "Not the same M.O. Not even close."

"Maybe not cause of death," conceded Renji, "but…"

"But?" inquired Ichigo.

"Same kind of strange knife or weapon was used. The woman's boyfriend is the prime suspect. He claims he didn't do it. And…"

"And?!" pressed Ichigo in a tone that said he really didn't want to play games right then.

"There was a letter. And it was signed by 'Nikuyoku'."

"What?!" exclaimed Ichigo before he ran his hand irritably through his hair and ground out, "Why wasn't I told sooner?"

"Hey, hey. Take it easy. I was only just called in because I happened to be in the area. Keep in mind that you, the chief and I are really the only ones who know what's going on. Everyone else has either transferred elsewhere, retired or is working other cases."

"Be that as it may," snapped Ichigo, "last time we were always two steps behind him. Now, it seems as though Nikuyoku isn't just a figment of his imagination, but someone who exists and wants to wreck just as much havoc as Kouman has before."

"And that brings me to something else I wanted to tell you."

Completely nonplussed by Ichigo's ever darkening scowl, Renji said, "Just before you got here, I got a call from a guy at the lab. One of the techs had already started uploading photos of the scene into the database, so this guy had started analyzing them along with the other crime scene photos from the day before."

Taking a second to sneeze, Renji then went on, "On a whim, the guy decided to dig around to see if he could find any unsolved murders with the same M.O.'s."

"He found something," cut in Ichigo.

"Of course he did," scoffed Renji before he asked, "but can you guess how long these two have been at it?"

When Ichigo merely stared at Renji, he sighed and said, "It seems as though Kouman and Nikuyoku have been happily murdering poor men and women in the name of love for the past thirteen years or so."

"What?! How come no one's ever pieced this together before?"

"Well," said Renji simply, "while most of them probably considered looking within their own country for similar murders, they never thought to piece the two crimes together and they certainly didn't consider the possibility of these two nuisances hop-skipping around the world to commit their crimes."

Before Ichigo could say anything, Renji went on, "Our guy in the lab was able to find some more interesting things we ought to know."

"Such as?"

"Kouman won't kill tonight because it's Nikuyoku's turn. They alternate nights and there will be four victims total before they disappear."

"Anything else?"

"A couple more things. This is the first time they are actually picking their victims in the same general vicinity as the other. Before, one might kill in Spain while the other would be in Brazil, however, they always managed to kill their victims on alternating days and time of death was around 1:30 in the morning."

"How is that possible?"

"Not sure, but one more thing."

"What?"

"The primary suspect is always the wife, husband, boyfriend or girlfriend since they were with the victim last and they have no alibi or memory of what happened."

"Yeah, but they claim that they didn't do it because they dreamt about a ghost killing the victim. So?"

"The guy also found records on the first victim from thirteen years ago. He had a younger sister named Orihime Inoue."

"Yeah, so?"

"She claimed that she saw the ghost that killed her brother. The description matches what the suspect told police at the time."

Sighing deeply, Ichigo rubbed the back of his neck and said ruefully, "You're driving."