Chapter Text
Ahh… an off day. Finally, Shin thought. It had been a long week of working at the convenience store. Stocking shelves and helping customers was a lot of work y’know? Shin tried to justify his laziness in his mind for awhile while sitting on his bed before reluctantly checking the time on his phone.
12 pm, huh? How was he capable of sleeping in so late…? Shin slowly got out of his bed, taking his time to get up so he didn’t get a headrush yet again after getting up. He put on slippers because the floor was too cold for his feet and walked into his kitchen. Man, he hated winter. He hated having to go outside when it was cold. Putting on layers upon layers of coats, hats, gloves, mittens, and other things was a pain. Shin just wanted to lay on his bed curled up in a ball forever during this time.
Normally what he would do at home was just make canned soup or ramen. Whatever he was in the mood for since those were the easiest things to make, but a cold fear hit him directly in the stomach when he saw he was out of literally all of his canned soup and ramen packets.
This is the worst possible thing that could ever happen to a man. Shin stood in front of his cabinet for a while contemplating everything he had ever lived for. Why him? Why did God choose to beat him up and bury him today? At this point Shin was thinking about just not eating. Save it for the next day, or just order impossibly expensive take out to be delivered to his house. But his stomach rumbled. He needed food.
The sigh that came out of the poor man's mouth felt like it lasted forever, until he walked over to his coat rack to get his winter gear on. Going to work on a day that he really didn’t need to go to work just sounded like a pain… He hoped none of his coworkers would wave at him or talk to him. The thought of that gave him a gross feeling.
The chilly atmosphere outside was anything but pleasant. It wasn’t snowy at the moment, but it was still freezing cold to the point where you could see the air you breathed. Shin usually took public transport or walked places, because he didn’t have a car. He had been trying to save money for one for a while, but all his parents would talk about was like “blah blah the environment blah blah”
As Shin was walking to the convenience store, he zoned out for a minute, thinking about something warm like soup, when suddenly, he felt something bump into him that brought him back to life. Some police officer looking person had bumped into him.
“Oh, s-sorry. Ahaha, wasn’t paying attention,” Shin said, and when he was about to go on his way, the police officer spoke to him.
“Ahh don’t even worry about it! Hey, have you been hearing about what's been going on lately in the town?” The man said, and Shin cocked his eyebrow. To be honest, Shin had never really watched the news or talked to other people outside of maybe his parents and his coworkers. Most of his time was spent inside playing video games or something.
“I don’t think I have, listen I really have to g-”
“Hey wait,” the man said as soon as Shin started to walk away. Why couldn’t this man just leave him alone? He wanted to get back home as soon as possible. Shin turned back to look at the man. “My name is Tohru Adachi and I’m a detective here! And hey, just warning you, but there's been a bunch of murders going on around here. And I’m really not supposed to tell anyone this, but someone from the inside was actually just able to put a location tracker on the murderer, so he’ll be caught soon, but I just want ya to be informed. Just tryna keep you safe, kid.”
…Kid? How old did this guy think Shin was?! This was already horrible enough having to stand out in the cold with this guy. No one would actually have the balls to kill someone right in town in broad daylight, right..? That’s what Shin told himself.
“Ahaha. Ha. Thanks, but I really would prefer to get out of here, I have something important to go do.” Shin said, turning away from the man and walking back in the direction that he was supposed to be going.
God how could this day get even worse? Shin just wanted to go home already. When he got to the convenience store, he tried his best to hide his face inside his scarf to avoid being noticed by anyone. Soup aisle soup aisle… Aha. He started grabbing all the soup imaginable. Miso, tonkotsu, shoyu, just anything he could find.
It wasn’t so bad inside the store. It was much warmer than outside, and Shin was thankful for that since he could literally feel his teeth chattering when he was out there. Once he had gotten what he needed, he got in line, but he could feel some kind of presence behind him. That was… odd. He was a little nervous to look back, but he felt his stomach drop when he heard the voice of the person.
“Shin? Oh is that you?” The man said with a smile. Shin looked back to see a tall man with green hair before him. That… That doesn’t make sense. How could this be? Hiyori was… Hiyori was dead!
“H-Hiyori…?” Shin swallowed. “B-Bu…But…” and Hiyori just stood behind him, dropped down to his height, and whispered in his ear.
“Don't say anything, Shin. Just keep walking.” Hiyori said with a smile. Shin felt like he couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t say anything, he couldn’t stop shaking, so he just did what Hiyori said. Keep walking.
To his surprise, Hiyori took Shin’s basket and paid for it. Talked to the cashier like it was just a normal day, and was very polite. This was so strange. How was Hiyori even here when… When he was… gone?? As they both walked out of the store, Hiyori put his hand on Shin’s back.
“Shin you trust me, right?” He said. Shin almost thought that to be humorous. Of course he didn’t, but he didn’t have any power over Hiyori, or what he did to him, so he just sighed. “Yeah.” he said. “I trust you, Hiyori.” Then he felt the green-haired man put something in his pocket.
“Don’t take this out, don’t even touch it. Go home like normal.” Shin nodded, grabbed his grocery bag from Hiyori, and his legs slowly moved him home. He didn’t even notice the group of teenagers that were watching his entire conversation. He was too scared and confused to care. What was Hiyori doing here? What did he put in his pocket? Oh god. The feeling of knowing that Hiyori was still there made Shin sick to his stomach.
The walk home was utterly depressing. Shin was in a daze, and he didn’t really notice anything going on around him. He didn’t even have the energy to complain to himself about the cold weather. That was when he heard police sirens coming towards him, and cops running out of their cars.
“HEY! Put your hands up!” One policeman said. Shin squinted, trying to figure out what in the everlasting fuck was going on. “Put your hands up or I’ll shoot!” the police officer said again, and Shin snapped out of his daze, putting his hands up. What…? What??? What was even going on??? He felt like he was in a dream.
The ride to the police station was quiet. Shin was handcuffed in the backseat, and he was confused. So utterly confused. Could this be related to what Hiyori put in his pocket? What were they going to do to him? Why was he just arrested? Shin looked out the window. His heavy breathing mixed with the cold air had left condensation on it.
The next few minutes were a blur after he had gotten out of the car. The police told him that he was going to be put in an investigation room when Shin tried to tell them he really didn’t know anything. The entire time Shin was just confused. And pissed off. Why was today actually the worst day of his life…? What did he do to deserve this, Jesus Christ.
A gruffy looking detective had greeted Shin there in the investigation room. He almost looked like a dad. He sat down across from Shin, cleared his throat, and started talking.
“So, kid. You don’t look like you’d be a killer, but you were the one with the tracking device on them.” He looked Shin in the eyes, to which he averted them. Eye contact was really scary, especially in a situation like this. And why was everyone calling him kid? He was twenty fucking one! “Can you explain what you were doing today? Or if anything suspicious had happened.” Shin sighed. Was it right to tell him about Hiyori?
In an instant, Shin just unloaded. Told the detective everything that happened that day, including the part where Hiyori put something suspicious in his pocket and he had no idea what it was. When Shin mentioned that Hiyori was, in fact, dead, so it was strange to see him out in the open like this, the detective raised his eyebrows and widened his eyes like he had just had a revelation.
The detective got up, and shook Shin’s hand. “My name is Ryotaro Dojima. You seem to be cleared of suspicion for now, but we’ll have to keep you at the station overnight. And you’ll have to be watched by one of my assistants after that.”
That was a cold night. The chair Shin ended up sleeping on was hard, nothing like his actual bed, and he had no blankets. He really didn’t understand what was going on, or how his day ended up being so horrible it ended up like this. Shin just wanted to sleep in a regular fucking bed, was that too much to ask?
The next morning Shin woke up early, except he was awoken by a strangely familiar voice, and an arm nudging on his shoulder.
“Erm… please wake up, Sir. Sir. Hello?” The man kept pushing on Shin, but he was just so sleepy. Shin didn’t want to get up and experience this hell hole again. When he begrudgingly got up and opened his eyes, Shin saw the man from the day prior. Adauchi, was it?
“Oh, you’re awake! Amazing. Okay, so just to make sure of everything, gotta be careful, I’ll be watching you for the next few days, just to keep an eye on you, y’know!”
These were going to be the longest few days of Shin’s life.