Chapter Text
The officers in the station were huddled around HiMERU as he skimmed over a letter sent to the address.
HiMERU reads the contents of the message aloud to the people crowding him imposingly.
”You all have been too naive. Sitting on your bottoms and slacking dawn to dusk. This is unacceptable! Pha!
I shall take it upon myself to bestow charm and wisdom to one of your own. It pains me to see people in such dutiful positions making no attempt to make change.
You will learn. One of you will learn.
Tread lightly.”
HiMERU finishes reading the paper aloud as murmurs and hushed voices erupt around him.
Could they really not save the idle chatter for later?
In the midst of grumbling to himself he felt a soft, gentle touch on his shoulder.
HiMERU furrows his brows reflexively and turns up from the letter to eye the culprit sharply. He knew exactly who he was about to see, and he couldn’t be more bitter about it.
Tatsumi smiles warmly down at him.
HiMERU’s face contorts into a mean scowl.
“Hello, HiMERU-san!”
“Hello Tatsumi.” HiMERU felt his nerves about to pop.
First, a dumb letter with no sender or return address. Now, Tatsumi Kazehaya stands before him in all his saintly glory. Disgusting. HiMERU needed him out of sight and out of mind instantly.
“What’s up with the paper we received in the mail this morning?” Tatsumi tilts his head like a curious puppy, his warm smile still stuck on his face.
HiMERU would call it endearing if it were anybody else.
Unfortunately, Tatsumi is not anybody else.
“It’s written in quite an interesting way,” HiMERU begins, “But what from HiMERU can gather, it seems like it’s threatening the station.”
Whatever makes him leave quickest, HiMERU tells himself. A quick summary.
“Perhaps we should investigate this, HiMERU-san. What kind of threat was made? I don’t want to spell trouble for our fellow workers,” Tatsumi says, a worried expression crinkling his eyes.
Of course Tatsumi says he doesn’t want to cause trouble for his coworkers. That’s his deceptive and vile mask of righteousness! Disgusting, HiMERU reiterates.
”HiMERU doesn’t believe this matter requires further investigation. The letter is written in an obnoxious way to garter attention, no doubt. However, HiMERU has speculations about the authenticity of this threat,” HiMERU explains, trying to break down his thoughts
While talking, HiMERU notices the throng of people loitering about have dispersed. Was this Tatsumi’s doing?
Either way, HiMERU was thankful.
Someone from the crowd had accidentally shoved their tits in HiMERU’s face when he was reading the letter aloud.
”Ah, so then it seems like a prank letter? Well, what did they say?” Tatsumi rests his hand on his chin, seemingly mulling it over.
HiMERU wishes Tatsumi would stop with the questions. There was no need to entertain this ridiculous matter further.
HiMERU heaved a heavy sigh before adding, “They said they were going to “bestow charm and wisdom” on one of us officers. HiMERU doesn’t understand this needlessly complicated way of speech,”
Tatsumi hums along in agreement. He silently takes the letter from HiMERU and examines it carefully, making sure to catch any details gone unnoticed by his fellow detective.
HiMERU starts to get annoyed after a few minutes pass. Had Tatsumi still not finished reading the letter?
“Is HiMERU going to have to order you prescription glasses? It’s a two sentence letter not a Latin Bible. It’s not that hard to understand, Kazehaya,” HiMERU sternly chided.
If Tatsumi was going to take ages to read a mere few sentences then it was only fair HiMERU subject him to a critique or two.
Tatsumi appeared to snap out of his daze and quickly shot an apologetic look to HiMERU.
Tatsumi leaned over HiMERU’s desk to direct his gaze to a small blot of red on the end of the wrinkled paper. He could feel Tatsumi’s exhales on the back of his neck.
It made HiMERU’s mind go blank for a minute.
“I’m sorry HiMERU-san,” Tatsumi quickly offered, “I was simply running through the letter a few extra times. Look here, I feel like I’ve seen this sender’s pen name before.” HiMERU quickly recovered.
How could he have missed that!?
Golden eyes trail Tatsumi’s finger as it leads him to a messy splat of red ink across the end of the page.
It honestly could have been mistaken for a border or some interesting choice of decoration. The handwriting was absolutely atrocious. The page was adorned with big long strokes and shaky, unintelligible letters.
When HiMERU was finally able to make out characters in the script it was like a switch had been flipped in his mind.
The name now appeared as clear as day.
”Rinne Amagi”