Incident 1: Killer Queen (Part 4)

Tsubaki: Oh my gosh, that curry looks so good! I wish I could have some right now!

Yasu: You’re eating instant noodles for dinner again, aren't you?

Tsubaki: Nope!

Tsubaki: The connivence store next to my apartment had a clearance sale on onigiri today!

Yasu: You seriously need to start eating better, Tsu. Have you cooked a single thing from scratch since you’ve been left alone?

Tsubaki: ...I refuse to incriminate myself.

Yasu: Girl, you need to eat some vegetables!

Yasu: I don’t care about the MG thing! There’s no excuse not to take care of yourself while you’re alive!

Tsubaki giggled and took a swig from her bottled drink. Yasu was such a mother hen! But she loved that nurturing, caring part of him more than anything.

Tsubaki: Don’t worry! There are pickled vegetables in some of them! I was really hungry, so I maybe went a little too crazy but they had such a big variety that I’m probably actually having a balanced dinner for once

Tsubaki: But they still aren’t as good as yours

Yasu: After you deal with this serial killer, I want to come spend a weekend with you! Should I make onigiri when I’m there? Or ramen? If you buy REAL GROCERIES, then I’ll make a bunch of stuff, so you’ll have food for a while.

Tsubaki: Stop it! These rice balls are so good, but they’re nothing compared to your cooking!

Tsubaki: But I’d LOVE that! And this is why you stole my heart.

Yasu: Great to know that you’re just looking for a personal chef :)

For the first time since she’d come to Tokyo, Tsubaki was in a pretty good mood. She’d been starving after school and the food from the connivence store next door hit the spot, she was getting to talk to the person she loved most, and she finally was going to be able to fulfil her reason for coming to the city in the first place! At this rate, if she was able to finish the case, then she’d be giddy enough to go out with her classmates tomorrow.

Yasu: Okay, I need to do my homework. It was nice to have dinner with you, even if we were just texting.

Yasu: I know I’m going to sound like I’m an overprotective boyfriend, but PLEASE be careful and text me as soon as you’re done and let me know what happened and tell me you’re okay!

Tsubaki: Will do. Love you

Yasu: Love you even more

Tsubaki turned her phone over, attempting to calm her nerves. ‘First eat, then jump in headfirst. You gotta set the field, but do one thing at a time.’ The methodical mindset of only focusing on the next small step was what propelled her forward most days. She was like a wind-up toy, needing that initial push to get going. Getting up was typically the hardest thing to. Even with the mission she’d dedicated herself to, she frequently wondered why even bother doing anything. When everything was going to end in a hard cut off very soon, why do anything at all? But sitting around ruminating on the pointlessness of what life she had left made her feel even worse. If she got going, at least it made the misery less intense and gave her a slim chance of being happy for a minute or two.

Finishing her meal, she pushed the trash away and closed her eyes. Resting her hands on her knees, she took deep breaths and prepared herself. ‘This is why you exist. This is your first time taking care of business in Tokyo, but it’s nothing you haven’t already done. Let’s get this done so you can focus on planning a date weekend with Yasu.’ Opening her eyes, she grabbed her phone and typed out a message. After deleting and rewriting it three times, she finally pressed send.

Tsubaki: Hey, Emi, are you free right now?

Emiri: Yeah, what’s up Tsubaki-Chan?

Tsubaki: Any chance you could help me with something?

Emiri:....

Emiri: OMG! Are you okay? Of course! What’s going on?

A grin of anticipation spread across Tsubaki’s face. ‘So it begins.’

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“Thank you so much for being willing to help me this late at night! Sorry to ask you to leave your house after the sun went down.” Tsubaki thanked Emiri as the two girls walked down the deserted street. Emiri shook her head, her bleached curls bouncing wildly from the motion. “No problem! Happy to help! But a payphone was not what I was expecting you to need.” She raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t think people still made phone calls for anything other than business.” Tsubaki laughed awkwardly. “Yeah, it’s a bit odd but, after he broke it, my boyfriend’s phone lost the ability to send text and his parents refused to replace it since it was his fault. Calling is the only way we can stay in touch but something’s wrong with my phone all of a sudden. When I went to place a food order earlier, it didn’t ring. It just made static-y sounds and didn’t even attempt to go through. Ever since my mom died, he’s been super protective, and he wasn’t a fan of the idea of me transferring schools all alone, so he’ll flip out if I miss our nightly phone call.” The queen snickered. “Protective much?” Tsubaki shook her head. “You have no idea. It sounds so silly and unimportant but if he can’t get ahold of me, he will 100% hop on a train and come track me down just to make sure I’m okay, his own school attendance be damned. His parents are super strict, so I don’t want that to happen. I don’t want to give them anymore reasons to be angry about us dating.”

“Well, we can’t have that!” Emiri said cheerfully. She gave Tsubaki a bitter glace that passed as quickly as a cloud. “I didn’t expect you to have a boyfriend already! What a lucky girl! How’d you manage that when you’re so...you?” Tsubaki smiled as if she was oblivious to the thorns that underlined the question. “Well, we’ve been friends since we were kids. We started dating during our first year of middle school, but it was so natural that it just kinda happened, you know?"

“Really?! That’s no fair!” Emiri turned away from Tsubaki. “I wish I could have such a sweet romance like that! Childhood friends...” Tsubaki stared at the back of Emiri’s pale cardigan as the girl led her through the alley. “You don’t have a boyfriend?” She mimed shock. “There’s no way the boys aren’t falling over themselves to ask you out! You’re so cute! There has to be someone!” Emiri laughed. “I appreciate the sentiment.” She pointed forward. “We'll be there in five-ish minutes. Sorry, there probably was a phone both closer to you, but this is the only one I know of.” “Sounds good.” The two walked in silence for a moment.

“There was one. A boy I had a crush on, I mean.” Emiri said suddenly. “He was so dreamy looking. He had the prettiest blue eyes. And he was an artist. I got in trouble in art class all the time because it was so mesmerizing when he’d sketch. I could watch him for hours and barely got any work done.” “An artist?” Tsubaki gasped in amazement. “How romantic!” “Yeah, he’d do drawings for me sometimes. My favorite day was always Wednesdays, because that’s when we’d pair off with our table partners and work on still life sketches of each other. His drawings of me were...I’ve kept every single one. You can tell that his soul was in that art.” Tsubaki attempted to gauge Emiri’s mood, but it was unreadable.

“That’s so sweet. Did you guys end up going to different schools?” “No.” Tsubaki couldn’t see the other girl’s face, but she sensed the drop in her voice. “He goes to our school. He’s in class 2-C.” “Well that’s good! You should confess to him! Why bother waiting ?” Tsubaki put on her best cheerleader act. “Life’s too short to be scared!" Emiri gave a wistful chuckle. “I appreciate the advice, but I already beat you to it.” “Oh...I’m sorry!”

“I did confess. Last year, on the last day of school. But he turned me down.” Emiri stopped in her tracks, engulfed by the shadows. “I wore my best dress for the end of year party and I even had my hair and nails professionally done. I hand-made a little card covered in heart stickers, like from a shojou manga, you know? But...” She clenched her fists tightly. “He turned me down. Me. He said I was colorful and fun, but I was too much for him. He didn’t feel the same.” She lifted her left thumb to her mouth and began chewing on her nail. “Then that jerk had the audacity to tell me that there was someone he liked! And he’d already confessed to her that night! And she said yes to being his girlfriend!” Emiri’s teeth ground back and forth across her fake nail with the intensity of a beaver gnawing on wood. “He was supposed to be mine! I’d liked him as long as I could remember! She was so plain and as ugly as hell! She never wore make up and dressed like a grandma! I was the prettiest girl in our class; everyone said so! I’d gotten over twenty love confessions during the school year! But he wanted that ugly bitch! She was always so useless and in the way! All the parents in the neighborhood always talked about how sweet she was and blah-blah-blah! But she was ugly and had no talent and was totally useless! She was supposed to be a background character! But he thought she was prettier than me! Than me!” Emiri bit her nail so hard that the pink fake nail popped off.

“I can’t stand it! I’ve been in pageants before and I’m a high-class beauty! My family has lots of money and I’ve always attended exclusive schools! But people always want to praise the boring, ugly looking girls! It’s not fair! I put so much work into looking better than them! But everyone seems to like their stupid faces better!” She turned and faced Tsubaki with crazed eyes.

“I can’t stand boring or ugly girls who trick people into thinking they’re gorgeous. That’s why I take their faces after I kill them.” A wicked grin spread across her face. Tsubaki stood unmoved. “I was right.” Her fingers instinctively reached towards her necklace; grasping at the charm that looked exactly like her sister’s old magical wand.