Chapter Text
it’s the third night in a row patrolling that same street.
the autumn wind blows hard and cold, unforgiving. his hair becomes unruly and his nose reddened, and yet all he can see is an empty alley. nothing else to it. another vague claim that ends in a failure.
katou curses himself for taking that case, not that he had a choice on the matter. at the time, given the incessant complaints from the citizenship, it had seemed a good idea — now, he thinks that tokyo residents have collectively decided to drive him crazy.
a bout of hysteria tackled by an incredulous detective.
his shoes keep driving him forward, autumn leaves crushing under his feet. he sighs, appalled. the alley is empty as it always is, and even with the dim light of the night he knows there is no need to check any further.
one more night with no sign of the alleged assaulter.
(he doesn’t really believe such a person exists, even.)
looking back over his shoulder, katou catches a glimpse of his car parked right behind the corner. it’s late, and after so much time patrolling the streets, the only thing he wants is to go home and rest.
this case is a no-go anyway.
“can you explain what happened?”
the young man fits the modus operandi of the assaulter quite well. he has darkish blond hair, almond colored eyes. athletic built, around his own height. similar to every other person who has set foot within the interrogation room for this exact matter. to the faces behind every complaint.
he’s the tenth victim.
katou half-sits on the edge of the table, offering the man a sympathetic ear. eager to listen, to find something new — any possible lead can do wonders for him right now. he has to solve this case, he has to persist and keep the people safe.
so, the man in front of him retells the terrific tale. another man came to him in that alley, late at night, when he was walking his dog. the victim was tackled against the wall in the blink of an eye, too fast for him to try and run away, and then—
“what did he say to you?” katou asks.
(knowing the answer.)
“he said, ‘you’re not the one’. and he let me go.”
a sigh escapes the detective’s lips. katou takes three exact seconds in regaining his composure, although internally he wants to scream into the void. every single man that comes in here says the same thing, the same exact explanation, over and over again. his hand reaches for the cup of lukewarm coffee he had long since forgotten at the other end of the table.
he’s been putting too many hours of work into this matter and his efforts have done nothing, have gotten him nowhere.
“do you remember what he looked like?”
“i do, sir.” a pause. “he was clad in black, i almost couldn’t see him — but when he was close to me i saw his skin. he was pale as a ghost. i think he had black hair as well.”
well, better a ghost than nothing at all.
just who is this attacker?
(and who is he looking for?)
“thank you. don’t hesitate to call if you remember anything else.”
nights bleed into weeks and weeks bleed into months — the case, always remains open. the victims have gone from ten to almost twenty, and yet no one catches any piece of information on that damned bastard. not even him.
katou has started to lose his patience.
in the last month, he has buried himself in other cases. murders, robberies, drug dealings. they all came easy to him, he was made for them. normal cases, with a clear solution, and not whatever urban legend the streets of the city have going around. but alas, the mysterious assaulter has vanished without a trace and katou has felt restless ever since.
he lays on the bed at three in the morning, anxiety-ridden, unable to catch some sleep. his head hurts. the complaints of the victims go on and on and he doesn’t know where he’s going with it all, how he’s gonna close that case, if at all. if he should just leave it be and claim that the attacker foes not exist. accept the failure. his breath catches painfully in his throat and he really doesn’t like to overthink things this much.
a need to get out of bed engulfs him and before he knows it he’s dressed up and out the door.
needless it is to say, he doesn’t know where he’s walking towards. his feet move out of muscle memory, with no specific purpose, no aim, lost — just as he has felt for a while now. no clear path to follow, the arbitrariness of it all consumes him.
a brown leaf crushes beneath his weight.
then another, and another, and another.
katou lifts up his gaze from where he was staring at his shoes, unsettled. of course he’s back there again, for the upteenth time, in that empty alleyway. a dead end.
cursing himself, he bites his lip and tries to walk away, resume trying to avoid the elephant in the room. but he doesn’t really get to do that, for a ricocheting noise startles him, and he looks at his surroundings.
only to find nothing. the street completely empty.
(but he feels observed.)
suddenly, a bout of uncalled for paranoia takes ahold of his senses. katou looks everywhere around him, the sound long gone, trying to understand. what’s happening there? why were all those men attacked in the same manner? who is doing it?
the answer starts to give him a migraine and he can’t really think. defeated, he sighs and lets himself look up at the sky.
and sees a piercing pair of deep blue eyes staring back at him, taking the breath out of him.
a lean silhouette looking right at him from the top of the buildings, clad in a black coat. like a shadow, like a ghost.
something within katou tells him to run. something within him tells him to stay — to get closer to that pair of cerulean eyes that seem so strangely familiar. he has to make the arrest, to spare other men the trouble.
it’s his job isn’t it? to protect the citizenship? he makes a significant effort to try and stay, to face the challenge head on like he has always done.
however, his more primal instincts win this round, and before the shadow can claim him as one of the assaulted, he’s sprinting down the avenue.
(those familiar blue eyes follow him home.)
katou is unable to shake that unsettling feeling off his shoulders for the next two weeks.
fortunately for him, no other victims appear, and his workload subsides. this alone would be a relief for him in any other situation, but in his case it only highlights his anxiety.
no matter where he goes, those eyes bore into him like bullets digging deep within his chest.
he submerges himself into the case, tossing aside his previous naïveté. he knows the assaulter exists now, has seen him before his very eyes — the broad shoulders, the slender figure, the raven locks of hair.
and oh how katou wishes the moonlight had showed up that night. how he wishes he had gotten to see that man’s face as he stood before him, so far away from his reach. how he wishes he had seen those pale features beyond those ocean blue eyes.
but instead, he was being haunted by the vague memory of a shadow. a feeling he could not describe bottled up within his chest, making it feel tight, and he really did not know why.
one week later, a phone call makes its way towards his desk.
it has katou sprinting down the avenue at midnight — a call for help. an immediate arrest. an opening, a chance to finally get rid of the case file that has been persistently opened on his desk for too long now. one would be stupid not to take it.
he pants and sweats and the merciless autumn wind late at night is taking a toll on his skin, but before he knows it he has made his way towards the familiar alley, and the sounds of autumn leaves breaking under his feet sends him back to reality.
a reality where the assaulter is just right in front of him, tackling the nineteenth victim against the wall.
katou screams. “stop!” his voice echoing in the confining space.
he takes out his handcuffs, and a feeling of anticipation curses through his very veins. he’s finally cleaning the streets from this man, solving the case. and that is the reason why, in his stupidity, he decides to charge onwards.
but as he does so, the shadow disappears, and the victim runs away from the alley, shoving katou aside in his way, trying to preserve his life.
now katou stands alone in the middle of the empty alleyway, and he could not be more baffled. in his many years as a successful detective, he has never encountered anything of the sort.
he swallows, hard.
(is there a logical explanation?)
something feels wrong.
the rational thing would be to simply leave the way he came, not expose himself to unnecessary dangers. katou is more than aware of the absurdity of the situation, of the fact that he may have gone insane, but he has seen it. the shadow vanished before his very eyes.
he turns around to leave, his heart thumping painfully against his chest. the night seems darker now, the streets emptier, and the only sound he can hear is that of the brown leaves breaking into a million pieces with every step he takes.
and then a swift sound. he bites back a scream.
before he knows it, his back collides hard against the ground. katou winces in pain, and when he opens his eyes he finally comes face to face with the assaulter — towering over him once again. this time up close.
katou thinks he has to be the prettiest sight he has ever seen. such beautiful pale features, such enticing gaze, the way his black hair cascades against the ghostly pale skin of his forehead. the detective is stunned, so much so he doesn’t find it in himself to move. smaller hands are grabbing his wrists, tackling him against the ground and it hurts.
but those piercing blue eyes are staring right at him and katou can’t look away. he can’t do anything. he’s petrified.
“you’re the one,” a deep, smooth voice says.
chills run through every centimeter of his body.
hyperaware of his fast breathing, katou opens his mouth as if to say something, ask the mysterious man what he means by that — who was he looking for? the damned detective who wanted to take him out of the streets for good? — but no words come out. those sea-blue eyes look at him with upmost adoration, almost love, almost manic. katou panics internally.
but his thought process is over before he even is aware of it. the world tilts vertiginously to one side.
one moment to another his eyes can only see the sky, the moon standing over him, almost mockingly.
a burning pain on the side of his neck.
(two sharp incisors digging deep within his flesh.)
katou gasps at the unexpected intrusion, his hands trying and failing to push away the assaulter as the other is holding his wrist tight enough to bruise. desperation takes ahold of his brain, but even if he puts all his efforts into it, he just can’t scream, his voice dying somewhere inside his damaged throat.
legs kicking, hands tight in a knuckle-white grip, katou grows more impatient and frustrated as he writhes in futile resistance, but the assaulter won’t budge. the pain is excruciating, like that of two knives contorting painfully against his muscles, but there is nothing or no one around him to help. just the moonlight and the sound of autumn leaves crushing under their joined weight with every move.
in the midst of his agony, the sharp edge of teeth on his neck becomes momentarily stronger, like the intrusion of a needle administering a vaccine, enough to make katou let out a choked out sound, like a whimper. however, after that, a warm sensation courses through him, and the tension leaves his body, leaving him limp under the assaulter’s mercy.
(this feels oddly familiar.)
a sensation he knows too well. it’s almost pleasant, correct. the skin of his neck tingles and he suddenly realizes that there is no use resisting it, that it feels good. the blood seeps out of his body like water down the drain and he no longer feels any pain, no, but rather an overwhelming sense of dizziness and calm.
his foggy brain supplies him with a bout of peculiar information. something that lied in the back of his mind, that he had locked away.
he feels himself slipping away, faint and weak. his thready pulse echoing in his ears.
“daisuke,” he chokes out.
black dots clouds his vision as he struggles to keep himself awake, alive. the grip on his wrists recedes and his neck feels numb. he feels numb as a whole. he can’t move, he can’t think, he can’t do anything.
(he has long since forgotten about the case.)
it takes him a significant amount of effort to force his eyes to open, let alone focus. he didn’t even realize he had closed them in the first place. the other man — man ?— hovers above him like a dark cloud covering the moon. katou’s blood rolls down his chin and drips unforgivingly against the ground.
and yet, he has the most alluring, soft smile. almost loving.
katou looks away, his head swimming to the side, unable to hold itself up any further. the strength abandons him, flying away like autumn leaves being dragged away by the wind. he stares at the blood seeping from his neck, forming a puddle on the ground, staining the brown leaves beneath him.
a warm feeling wraps around his chest, the other lets himself fall and lay against katou’s chest, hugging him tightly, not letting go. katou feels a head tucking itself under his bloodstained neck, allowing a blissful sigh to slide out from his red-tainted lips, like the crimson liquid that escapes from the detective’s wound.
“you’re finally back with me, haru.”