Know Your Place (Rei no Kaado)

[mugenginga]

"Ah, ah, N-Nekoi-san?"

One could almost see the vein on the female detective's forehead as one of the errand boys of the office hopped from foot to foot at her side. The door to the evidence room was closed and Chisaki doubted the other gofers of the office knew she knew they were huddled around the other side of the door worrying about the fate of their comrade. She frowned. And it wasn't just errand boys either.

She'd been relegated to the fairly solitary position of evidence handling and tagging due to the way she'd been flying off the handle lately. Ever since she'd gone to the hospital to speak to Adachi... her frown deepened and she whirled on the rookie. He cringed as if she was going to clock him only to find a bagged box being shoved into his hands.

"And tell Takahashi that he can get the damn thing himself next time!" Chisaki growled. The rookie ran as if for his life.

After he burst through the door and nearly trampled his fellows, Chisaki sighed and leaned againt the wall. The stress was getting to her. She was never the most popular member of the precinct, but it really was getting worse yesterday. She probably needed to take time off.

Probably, but she wanted to keep herself busy. And surrounded by people. It seemed to be enough to keep that blond "kid" away and it was certainly enough to keep a certain "peer" from doing anything to her. She wondered if anyone had noticed how leery she was of Adachi lately.

<i>God damn bastard and I don't have a shred of proof. This is all his fault. I'd put a bullet in his skull if I thought I could get away with it.</i>

[Firebreath Fishslap]

A teenager walked into the Void City police station carrying a small notepad. He seemed somewhat nervous as he walked in, grasping the notepad tightly in his hand and turning his head this way and that to look around at the room. He slowly approached the counter and looked up at the rather large man standing there. Naturally, it was Takahashi, who had been reading a newspaper until the teenager walked up. He put his newspaper down and looked the teenager over appraisingly.

"And who the hell are you?"

"Uh..." The teenager looked even more nervous at Takahashi's stare. "W-Well, I heard you were looking for something to help with your investigations of those murders and... I found this..." He showed the notepad to Takahashi. He frowned at the teenager.

"Your name?"

"K-Kashima Naoki," the teenager said. Takahashi scribbled the name down before getting out from behind the counter.

"Come on, I'll escort you down to evidence."

"C-Can't I go by myse--"

"Mmhm, and let you turn out to be the murderer after all and then go after my staff. Yeah, not happening."

The teenager looked a little dismayed, but he followed Takahashi down to evidence. The man shoved the door open rather forcefully.

"Oi, Chisaki!" Takahashi yelled into the room. "Gofers exist for a reason! Also, this kid here's got something for you." He shoved the teenager into the room. The teenager turned back toward Takahashi, who was giving him a rather suspicious look. Takahashi didn't trust this kid at all, especially after his last experience with a supposedly nice looking kid.

The teenager looked nervously back toward Takahashi before walking up to Chisaki. "Uh... I probably should have put this in a plastic bag before I brought it. Sorry."

When Chisaki opened the notepad, there would be a message on the inside. There were only two words: "Bring Adachi."

[mugenginga]

Chisaki shot a less than professional glare at the door and there was a brief moment where anyone observing her body language might notice she'd been ready to fight or flight of the need arose. That body language faded when she saw Takahashi, the glare... a little bit? In any case, she looked down towards Naoki with a confused expression as he stammered out his explanation and apology before holding forward the notepad.

Chisaki flipped it open and frowned, looking at Naoki for a moment and then back at the notepad. She lifted up the paper and looked under it. All of this was rather broadcasted and Takahashi wouldn't be missing it. Her puzzled frown turned into a scowl and she tossed the notebook to Takahashi, glaring at him.

"It's a prank, and I'll give you three guesses as to the original source of it," Chisaki growled. She frowned back down at Naoki, and for half a second there was a flicker of uncertainty. It was quickly replaced by her usual bad attitude, "Maybe you should study police procedure before you try to pull shit like that again, kid."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Takahashi looked toward Naoki. He gave the timid teenager a rather judgmental look, causing him to flinch and look away. Takahashi huffed and looked back toward Chisaki as she examined the notebook and then threw it at his chest. The object impacted against his chest, and he grasped it before it could fall to the ground. He flipped the cover open, read the message, and looked toward Naoki.

Naoki shifted uncomfortably, took a step back, and then apologetically bowed to the two of them. "I-I'm sorry! This weird guy outside gave it t-to me and told me to bring it to you! H-He said he'd give me food if I did..."

And suddenly, like it had always been that way, Naoki's appearance seemed a lot shabbier. His clothes were a bit frayed, his hair a little more unkempt, the slight hint of dirt on his body.

"I-I'm really, really sorry... I won't do it again..."

Takahashi scowled and tossed the notebook toward Chisaki. He gave Naoki a look saying "don't move or I'll kill you you little fucker" before storming out of the room. "Adachi!"

[mugenginga]

Chisaki blinked and rubbed one of her eyes as Naoki's appearance shifted. There was a more exaggerated hesitation that was cut off as the apparently projectile was thrown back at her. She almost tripped over her own leg to catch it. Takahashi was apparently too busy with wanting to wring Adachi's neck to notice anything unusual about any of this and stormed off.

Chisaki stared towards the door for a few minutes before slamming the notebook down on the table and looking at Naoki, "Who, or what, the fuck are you? Don't think I missed your little," she gestured from Naoki's feet up to his head, "Glamour trick."

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Naoki looked toward Chiaki once Takahashi left the room, and his expression had become rather flat. She was a fair bit more observant than he thought she was. Even the Takahashi man had missed it... or chosen to pass it off as a trick of the mind. His hands twitched slightly before markings began to form on his body.

"I am your master's messenger," Naoki said, and nothing more than that. He'd rather keep this short if he could.

[mugenginga]

Chisaki tensed up and her pulse spiked as lines of black bordered with dully glowing blue came out from under the teenager's sleeves and up from under the edges of his shirt, his eyes fading away from grey and towards yellow. Naturally the woman had no idea that "Naoki" would be able to tell her pulse had spiked.

Her hand clenched up, crumpling some of the slightly stiff notebook top under her fingers and her knuckle were white. By some miracle she was keeping her breathing fairly steady. She swallowed and attempted to fix a confident stare on Naoki. Even a human would have seen the conflict.

"What do you want?" she said, keeping her voice steady with effort. Althought he wording was worth note, at least in a situation like this. What do you want, not what does he want. And then she managed to slip in some false bravado, "And don't you think you could have done this a little better?"

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Naoki fixed a flat stare on Chiaki as she reacted to his lowered illusion. Her heart beat had gone from slightly elevated to mouse-like speeds for a moment there, and while it had begun to slow, it was still rather elevated. Her breathing remained rather steady through all of this, though.

"I don't want anything different than what my master wants," Naoki stated. "You and Adachi both seem to have forgotten what your terms were. You balked yours the moment after you came under contract."

He shrugged. "As for getting in here... I'm sure you wouldn't have wanted me to come in in a showier method. This was the quietest way in that wouldn't arouse suspicion."

[mugenginga]

A thought about if it would kill the "teenager" before her to show even an ounce of emotion flit across her mind as Naoki spoke. As it was it was almost like talking to a corpse, the thought of which did nothing for her fear of the situation. She looked towards her hand and the notepad, having subconsciously found a way to break eye contact without screaming that she was the weaker party... to humans anyways. Someone like Naoki would pick up on the subtle behaviorial signs. She lifted her hand and looked at it as she flexed it, the grip on the paper having made it begun to cramp.

"You could have come to my house," she scolded. It wasn't half as confident as she would have liked, "And as for 'what your master wants', no one's told me to do jack."

Otherwise known as Chisaki was completely missing the point. While what she said was the truth, Naoki had already pointed out that the issue was less in following orders and more in mindset. The sense that she was still paying no more than lip service to her position. Even now she'd yet to refer to Lucifer as her master - or even referred directly to him. Whether the dodges were intentional or not they were quite present.

She was still terrified, despite the rather effective mask she was putting forth. It was also obvious she was attempting to read Naoki.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

She broke the eye contact without Naoki having to do anything. Though she hid her fear well, he could sense it easily with his own demonic senses. She tried to indicate that she was an equal party with him as she did so, but the little hints he'd picked up on were enough to tell him she was as afraid as ever.

"You're not the only one I needed to speak with. This was simpler," Naoki said as emotionlessly as ever. He took a step toward Chisaki, his emotionless expression making it impossible to discern his intentions for stepping toward her.

"You refuse to follow the one who gave you life," Naoki said. His eyes moved down toward Chisaki's heart. The woman's soul and body were no longer properly connected. The body merely acted as an anchor for the soul to keep it from drifting into the afterlife. Perhaps he could tug on the chain a bit.

He pressed his hand against her chest, the unnatural speed in his movements allowing him to reach her before she could get away. Chisaki would feel something rather like something was pulling on her soul at his touch. He didn't even look at her face as he spoke again.

"My master granted you life. He can just as easily take it away should you keep this up."

[mugenginga]

"I told you, no one's told me to do anything," Chisaki snapped.

Her eyes flicked past Naoki and towards the door. She'd thought Takahashi would bring Adachi down here to confront him with the teenager and the notebook. Where were they? The conscious part of her brain didn't connect that Adachi was the other person Naoki was talking about. She was operating too much on the desire for flight.

"If yo-" she didn't get the chance to follow up her statement because the boy was moving faster than her eye could follow and then he suddenly had his hand on her chest, near the top of her left breast. The speed at which both the human mind works and her thoughts were racing meant she was able to both panic over what the hell he was doing feeling her up and the sudden logical realization it was probably a lot worse (it could be worse?) before weakness washed up her body.

She might have collapsed at the tug had the table not been beside her. It was clear her legs were weak even then though, as she clutched the edge of the table and tried to stumble back, but it was as if there was an endless expanse between her thoughts and her body. She was still seeing out of her eyes but there was a feeling of floating and as if she was being pushed away from one side and pulled way from the other and when she remembered the last time she'd felt that any illusion of bravado was gone. Her pulse shot through the roof and it took every ounce of power she had to force out the question.

"What does.... he want... then...?" the body gasped, the words had trouble coming out. Some of it was terror, most of it was the disconnection. She had no concept that she wasn't yet in that much danger, that she was merely be warned. Naoki would probably be taking more note of her finally referring directly to Lucifer rather than sidestepping - a start, at least.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

He held the chain for as long as it took Chisaki to speak, though it was clear she was having a hard time doing so. This was what was needed to get the message across, and it was only by getting a taste of what his master could do to her that she could understand. It was when she finally actually referred to her master that Naoki pulled his hand away from her chest.

"What do you think he wants?" Naoki asked, an odd inquisitive statement. "You are his property, and you do not act as such, nor to you recognize yourself as such. I would believe it to be obvious."

And then Naoki paused, and just as suddenly as they'd appeared, the markings faded from his body, hidden once again under the illusion of a homeless teenager. Concern flooded into his voice as he began to speak. "M-Miss?! Are you okay? What's wrong?" The reason for the change became rather obvious as two voices began to emanate from further down the hallway. The nervous Adachi and the rather angry Takahashi walked into the room to find what appeared to be a collapsed Chisaki and panicked Naoki.

Adachi hesitated for a moment when he saw Naoki. He didn't know who the kid was, but according to Takahashi he'd gotten this kid to play a prank on the station. Apparently. It was a pain in the ass to deal with, especially since he hadn't actually done anything for once. Now that he saw the kid there was something weirdly familiar about him.

Of course, Chisaki was collapsed on the other end of the room, too. Had she had a freakout because the kid got too close to her? Oh, that would be great if that was true. He ran over to Chisaki and held out a hand to pull her up with.

"You alright?" Adachi asked.

Naoki looked toward Takahashi. "I don't even know what happened! S-She just collapsed while we were talking!"

[mugenginga]

The effort to not collapse was pretty much lost when Naoki released her and she crumpled to the floor. She attempted to catch herself again given it had felt like she'd fallen into her body when she was released, but her hand only hit the notebook, which slid and clattered to the floor with the dull thunks of its cardboard cover in front of her body. She propped herself up with one hand and clutched at her chest with the other as she took in deep breaths and Naoki answered her question.

She didn't even notice Naoki shift back as she continued to try and catch her breath. She was dead. She was dead and it was Adachi's fault. It was almost comical, she was a walking corpse that didn't even belong to herself and wasn't even being allowed that illusion apparently. She vaguely heard the footsteps running next to her and her mind quickly caught up to process Naoki's question. When Adachi reached out his hand she slapped it away.

"I don't need your help," she growled. The venom was a bit much, even for her. Takahashi had probably noticed her avoiding Adachi lately - it didn't take a detective to figure out something had happened between them. Although she didn't seem entirely capable of getting up off the floor without his help. She'd gone back to clutching her chest after she slapped Adachi's hand away and still seemed to be catching her breath, "I'll be fine, just get the hell away from me."

Definitely not a shining example of professionalism given the kid standing in the middle of the room with all of them. The station wasn't exactly generally well received by the public to begin with, and this wasn't the sort of thing that would exactly... endear them to the general public if it got out. It didn't help he'd already shown an apparent willingness to put himself at risk for food, either.

[Firebreath Fishslap]

Adachi jerked his hand back by reflex when Chisaki slapped it. He grimaced a bit, and didn't reach toward her again. Stupid bitch. He rubbed his hand a bit and held it away from Chisaki like he was protecting it.

Takahashi looked between Chisaki and Adachi. Something had happened between them just before New Years, and ever since then their relationship had been strained, which was saying something considering this was Ms. Hyper-Bitch Chisaki they were talking about. Something was wrong with Chisaki too. She'd had a panic attack of some sort while the kid was in here, meaning the kid had probably done something and wasn't saying anything about it.

This whole situation just reeked of a bad PR situation waiting to happen. And Takahashi wasn't going to stand for it. He was going to worm whatever had happened out of Adachi and he was going to take care of this kid at the same time. He turned toward Naoki.

"Why don't you wait outside the door for a bit? I'll buy you a lunch later, okay?" Takahashi asked. Naoki's face brightened a bit at that and he nodded before running outside the door. He closed the door behind him, leaving Takahashi in the room with Adachi and Chisaki. Not the best of circumstances.

"Well, I'm going to put this as bluntly as I can. What the hell is going on between you two?"

[mugenginga]

Chisaki was working on climbing back to her feet, her breath evidently caught. Adachi didn't do anything more than shift his weight from one foot to another, but it was enough to cause Chisaki to jerk her head to the side and glower at the man. She'd just gotten to her feet, although she still seemed a bit shaken, when Takahashi demnded an answer for their behavior.

"Absolutely nothing," Chisaki replied. And if she hadn't had her little display with slapping his hand or the past week's attitude in relation to the man, it might have been believable. That's how flawless it was. At least until she chose to step backwards rather than forward and go around the back of the table.

She stopped at the far front corner from Adachi and glanced at Naoki's head through the small window on the door between the rooms. SHe frowned for a moment and rubbed her hip, grimacing. She let out a long sigh and gave Takahashi a flat stare.

"It should get better in a few days, alright? And no I will NOT explain what I mean."