Legal Matters (Rei no Kaado)

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Hikaru Kousei sat at his desk in his small office. The room was rather orderly; not a paper seemed out of place. Indeed, the only thing that didn't practically reek of neatness were the stack of manila folders on Kousei's desk, which he was in the process of looking through. There were two wooden chairs against the wall next to the door. The walls were a dark wood paneling that gave the room a somewhat imposing feel. In fact, Kousei had actually had the drywall ripped out and this wooden paneling put in when he bought the office.

Today, he was expecting a few clients, but only one was of much note to him, mainly because of how interesting this case was turning out to be. Today, he was meeting with who would be a rather important witness for his case, mainly because he was needed to "convince" Ryou to retract his guilty plea and blame everything on his other personality. Adachi had declined a visit in much of the same manner Kihara had tried to do, which had gone against all of Kousei's expectations of the man. He would have thought Adachi would do anything to help his little Ryou. Kousei doubted Adachi would decline the next time he approached him.

He looked up as he heard voices from the next room and closed the folder he was looking at. He then picked the folders up and placed them on the floor next to him. Majime would send his client in soon enough.

---------------

Atsuro stepped into the office and stopped at the door to look around at the room. Dark wood paneling everywhere, it was like this guy was intentionally trying to set people on edge. He turned toward the front desk, where a woman sat. Probably the secretary.

"Um, excuse me, but is Hikaru-san in...?" Atsuro asked.

[mugenginga]

Manako was typing data into a typewriter. A computer sat on the other side of her downright pristine desk, but it was turned off. Kousei chose which documents showed up as files as the computer... and there weren't a lot of them. He didn't even like keeping much in the way of paperwork, and what he did keep he tended to keep in his office.

The speed at which the finger was flying of the typewriter would be impressive to Atsuro. It wasn't as fast as him and no where near as fast as Cain had been, but one had to remember the lack of easy deletion on a typewriter. The device had chimed and the top had slid back over as Atsuro stepped into the office. She looked up before Atsuro had the door closed.

"Your name would be Kihara-san, correct?" She asked, using rather formal Japanese.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro blinked at how fast Manako was typing on her typewriter. He'd never used one, but he knew that they were a pain to use, and you couldn't correct your mistakes all that easily on one. This chick must have been really confident in her typing skills to be able to do that so easily.

"Yes," Atsuro said in reply to Manako. "Hikaru-san wanted me to come in...?"

Before Manako would get a chance to answer Atsuro, Kousei's voice called from the other room. "Go ahead and send him in, Majime-san."

[mugenginga]

Manako had opened her mouth to respond when Kousei spoke. She looked towards the door for a moment and gestured towards the door. It would probably give Atsuro more respect of her typing skills. It was short, but the fingernails were manacured, although they had no paint on them.

"Go right ahead, Kihara-san. We expected you today," she said politely.

She'd wait for him to go in the room and then count to five before reaching under the desk. A button was concealed there and it would turn on a recorder. Kousei had never explained how he'd gotten the system installed, it had been there since she'd been forced into his employment.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro nodded toward Manako and headed on into the office. He closed the door behind him and looked toward Kousei. Something about that man reminded him of a snake. He looked normal, but there was just something inherently wrong about him. If what Naoto had said was true, there was a good reason for that.

"Please pull up a seat, Kihara-san," Kousei said, and motioned to the chairs against the wall. Atsuro walked over to them and pulled one over to Kousei's desk. Kousei had actually begun observing Atsuro the moment he entered the room. The boy was battle scarred. There was a somewhat hardened look to his face, and there were a few small scars Kousei could spot on the exposed sections of his skin. He seemed almost malnourished, as well. At the very least, he was skinnier than any boy his age should have been, to the point that Kousei had a feeling that he was mostly lean muscle. All the more evidence there was more to Atsuro than the boy was letting on, though the fact that he simply didn't exist was evidence enough to Kousei.

"Alright, let's get started, Kihara-san," Kousei continued. He pulled a few sheets of paper from his desk and placed them there. "I would like to discuss how exactly you can help your friend, Bakura Ryou."

Because that doesn't sound manipulative at all, Atsuro thought to himself. He moved his foot a bit and felt it come up against a bump in the carpeting. He looked down and frowned. A wire under the carpet? What purpose would that have? It was too thick to be any kind of phone line.. a power cord?

"Is something wrong?"

Atsuro jumped and looked back up at Kousei. "Er, no, sorry!" Atsuro gave a grin. Kousei had to give the boy credit. If he was faking things, he was doing a damn good job of it. He certainly didn't look like the same suspicious kid from the day before. In fact, he seemed almost confident, though still unnerved. "I was just thinking... about Bakura. You want me to help convince him to not just give himself up? I'm not sure how I feel about that..."

"There's a chance he won't have to go to jail if you can convince him to do so, Kihara-san."

"Yeah, but..."

"Are you worried about his alternate personality?" Kousei spoke up. Atsuro's eyes widened. "I'm already aware of Bakura-san's dissociative identity disorder. You talked about it with length with him in the police station jail before." Kousei smiled. "You don't have to worry about hiding anything with me. All I want to do is help Bakura-san."

[mugenginga]

Manako had turned on the system, and had then stood up and walked towards the door of the firm. She clicked the inside lock shut and pulled a key from a pocket, locking it that way as well. She slipped it back into her skirt and walked back over to the desk. With a few keystrokes on the computer a video program came up.

Atsuro was shown, Kousei was not. There was no sound on the video, either, as that was piped through a different system. With a few key strokes she managed to zoom into Kousei's desk, but the angle wouldn't show his hands. Instead it showed the side of the desk Atsuro would have access to. With that accomplished, a few more key strokes sent the computer into a false hibernation. She rolled her chair back over to the typewriter and began to type again.

She hadn't had any of those skills until being forced into Kousei's employment. She bit her lip and shook her head, shooing away the thoughts that always came when he did this. He was just a boy.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Atsuro bit his lip. The boy appeared understandably nervous, so Kousei decided to prod him a bit further. "I'd like to ask some questions, before we go on. First, how do you and Bakura-san know each other?"

"Er... well, we were friends at school, actually. Bakura was the new kid, but he always had the best Monster World campaigns, so after school, me and some of my friends used to hang out over at his house," Atsuro said. "Then... stuff started happening, and we had to stop hanging out. He moved after that."

Kousei raised an eyebrow. "What kind of stuff?" He already knew from Bakura's previous conversation with him, but it would seem odd if he didn't follow that vague statement up.

"...Sometimes he'd change in the middle of games. He'd get a lot crazier then. He'd start getting mean about the traps he'd send up against us. One time it happened and..." He shook his head. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. B-Besides, you don't need to know about this, do you?"

"I need to know if he's ever had episodes where his other personality took over before now," Kousei said.

"Th-The only reason it is now is because he doesn't have that necklace anymore! A-And I'm working on getting it back, so--" Atsuro cut himself off rather suddenly as he appeared to realize what he'd just said. He was standing now, having gotten to his feet in his excitement.

"Kihara-san, please calm down," Kousei said softly. Atsuro's face flushed red with some kind of embarrassment and he returned to his seat. Kousei couldn't help but be impressed. He was damn convincing.

[mugenginga]

Manako paused every few seconds to glance at the turned computer screen. She frowned, considering grabbing her coat and throwing it over the display. He was just a kid. Kousei had never dealt with kids before. Of course, he was a teenager. And even she could see he looked like he'd been through hell and back. And that Ryou boy was a kid too, it would only make sense that Kousei would need some of his friends...

She got up and walked over to the coat stand. The door was locked, and pulling the coat off and shoving it under the desk would only take a second longer if anything happened. It wouldn't, of course. Kousei had always been too careful for that...

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei waited a few moments before continuing. That wait clearly made Atsuro more nervous, and he began to fidget in his chair. It was as Atsuro opened his mouth to speak again that Kousei continued. "What occurred when Bakura-san changed?"

Atsuro looked nervous. "I don't remember all that happened... All I remember was waking up in the hospital six months later. Apparently I'd been in a coma... I guess he managed to hit me really hard with something. I've still got some lasting effects." He held up his hand. There was a light tremor in it, something Kousei hadn't noticed before on the tape of Ryou and Atsuro talking. "Haha, see? My hand's shaking again."

Atsuro had decided to go with a mundane explanation, mainly because if he tried to say what would have actually happened, Kousei would likely throw out his testimonial. The hand tremor he'd just thought of off the top of his head to add a degree of realism. It looked like Kousei was buying it.

"I see," Kousei said. "So Bakura-san attacked you, and managed to send you into a coma for six months. And this happened to other people?"

"...yeah. Apparently the same thing happened to everyone else in our group. And it was always when he was like that."

"I think that's more than enough evidence of Bakura-san's disorder," Kousei said. He still planned on getting papers forged that proved Bakura had a psychiatric exam proving that he possessed such a disorder, but that would come later. "Now that the formalities are complete, we can move on to what we're going to do to help Bakura-san."

[mugenginga]

Manako threw the coat over the screen, the buttons clicking on the side of the desk. It wouldn't be audible in the other room with the door closed. She frowned for a moment and walked over, more carefully arranging it over. She sat down and had typed a few more strokes in her typewriter before hesitating. If the Kihara boy came out and saw that, he'd ask questions.

She reached towards the phone, considering for a moment about interuppting Kousei, and then lightly picking it up. She pressed a single button for the inside line, and waited for Kousei to pick up. It would note on his phone it was an inside line. If he ignored it, she'd have to come up with something else. It wasn't as if it would be that hard, he'd just have to press a single button and issue an apology to the teenager.

He had no idea what he was getting into... it was horrible.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei moved a few papers to the side and pulled out a few more, though for what reason, Atsuro had no idea. Kousei had not written down a single thing or even glanced at the papers the whole time they had talked. He crossed his hands in front of him.

"I would like you to talk to Bakura-san before he can go to trial," Kousei said. "I need you to convince him that this isn't his fault."

"...is this okay? I mean..." Atsuro still looked rather nervous. Before Kousei could prod him further, Kousei's phone rang. Kousei looked down at the reciever, and he looked rather annoyed as he saw who was calling. He picked the phone up and held it to his face.

"Yes, Majime-san?" Kousei asked into the phone.

[mugenginga]

Manako was actually surprised he'd answered, and had to fight a sudden urge to hang up. That was a Bad Idea[super]tm[/super] now that she's already interuppted him. Wow she was quite certain that the boy didn't hear it, she'd worked with Kousei long enough to hear that slight inflection. It wasn't just annoyance that he'd been interuppted during an interview. It was very specific towards her and held traces of warning.

"I'm sorry for the interupption, Hikaru-san, but could you let me know before you let Kihara-san out from the office?" She considered for a moment, aware that it wasn't uncommon for hearing to be good among some of the species that could be met on the Island. Atsuro was human, but once you got used to accomodating for certain things it didn't go away well, "I'm afraid I've made a bit of a mess, and I think it may be rude to Kihara-san if you let him out before I could get it taken care of."

Manako hated to admit it, but she and Kousei actually worked rather well together. It wasn't just the years, she was actually more observant than a lot of people guessed from her behavior. There had been a lot of reasons she'd known her husband hadn't killed himself, and many of them had not been obvious to your average observer. So she knew he'd understand that she'd done something it wouldn't be wise to let Atsuro see... providing he didn't have a camera out to her hidden somewhere on his desk. She wouldn't put it past him and he did seem to have an uncanny knowledge of who was in the front office.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Kousei's expression did not change as Manako went on, but he understood the implications enough. She had done something she did not want Atsuro seeing. He could indeed see her from a small screen built into his desk, and quite honestly, he was rather ashamed of her. Was the fact that he was actually manipulating someone not over the age of 20 that bothering to her? He would have thought she would be stronger after all of these years.

Atsuro could hear what was going on in the other room, and it wasn't because of any kind of enhanced hearing. It was just that he had trained himself to hear even the faintest sounds. These were the things you had to do when you were a human in the Court of Bel if you didn't want to get killed. She didn't want him to see something. Like what? The only things on her desk had been that typewriter and computer. What could--

Atsuro looked back down at the wire. If she had the screen for a surveillance system pulled up, that would certainly explain it. Especially if the surveillance system was centered right on the spot he was sitting right now.

"Certainly, Majime-san," Kousei said into the phone. He placed it back on the receiver. "I apologize for that, Kihara-san. Now where were we...? Ah, yes, the matter of Bakura."

"I-I'm not sure I'm alright with this, Hikaru-san," Atsuro said. "I mean, I know this would help Bakura, really, but I'm not sure if I wanna get mixed up in all of this court stuff--"

"Hm... I wonder why that would be. Perhaps it has something to do with how you don't exist, Kihara Atsuro?"

Atsuro cut off with a strangled gasp. Kousei gave a smirk and pushed up his glasses. Now he had him.

[mugenginga]

Manako put the phone back in the receiver after it had clicked off on her. He was a little annoyed, but she'd be fine after a lecture. She frowned and looked over at the coat on the computer. Of course he knew she didn't approve of what he did, but most of the time she just sucked it up. He'd never dealt with kids before, not in her memory. She shook her head, trying to make the thoughts go away. She slid her chair back over and began to type again.

At least she could put on an unreadable face when Atsuro came out. While Kousei would get over this bit of "weakness", she'd be in real danger if she screwed anything he was doing up.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

"I did some research into you, Kihara, and found nothing. No medical records, no residence records, no job applications. Not even any photos. Nothing but this."

Kousei pushed the papers on his desk toward Atsuro. They were all excerpts from a police report regarding an explosion at a hotel in Void City. Atsuro's face was pale as he looked at the report.

"Isn't it interesting that the only place your name would appear was in a police report? Perhaps you didn't think to dispose of this file, hm?"

"H-How did you get this...?" Atsuro choked out. Kousei ignored him and leaned forward a bit, but not enough that he would be able to be seen on the surveillance feed. There was still a wide smirk plastered across Kousei's face.

"People who don't exist tend to have things to hide, Kihara. Dangerous things. Wouldn't it be interesting for the police to find out about your little secrets?" Kousei said. "It almost makes me wonder how much of what you told Bakura back there was true, Kihara..."

Atsuro still seemed to be at a loss for words. He pulled his hands off of the table, and let them hang loose next to his sides. Then he closed his eyes and gave a light chuckle. "Are you seriously trying to blackmail me...?" He shook his head. "That won't work on me, Hikaru-san."

"Oh? And why do you say that?" Kousei asked. He was honestly quite curious. Everyone had some kind of thing that made them fearful enough to give into his blackmail. For most people it was their life.

"...Heh, no reason..." Atsuro said. Kousei only continued to smirk. So he was a man without anything to lose, then. He would probably find it a convenience for Kousei to arrange for him to die. Well wasn't he something...