WE ARE THE LAW

[vapidus]

The weather's sunny in the park, with a gentle breeze blowing in off the sea. It makes the sight in front of them that much more jarringly incongruous.

Vanitas never liked Eraqus, but that didn't mean he ever expected this to happen. 'This', being his body impaled through the chest upon the helmet of the verdigrised bronze statue in the Imperial Park. Ventus's gaze was currently fixed on it. So were a large number of phone cameras, behind the cordon.

Only a cursory check of the internet was needed to know this was already going viral. The who wasn't really mattering or known just yet from what he could see, but this was a popular tourist spot, and that was enough to cause ripples on it's own.

A statue of the samurai Kusunoki Masashige. Famous for overthrowing the Kamakura Shogunate on behalf of the Emperor in just six short years. He relayed in summary, because while there was more detail it was both boring and probably irrelevant, and then snorted. Then he died and they put this up at some point. Interesting choice.

He took the opportunity to start scanning the situation for later reconstruction, prodding at Ventus's thoughts while that ran in the background.

Still there, Ventus? His tone was offhand and idle, but so had been the person whose skull he was currently in.

Comments

[vacantis]

Where else would I be?

[ He'd gotten the call beforehand so it wasn't a total shock but...well who could be unmoved seeing their mentor dead and strung up gruesomely? All Ventus wanted to do was run up to that statue and rip Eraqus' body down, so he didn't have to see him.

But no. He had a job to do. ]

I'm surprised you don't have a smug comment to make. [ A slight smile tugs at his lips as he puts his hands in his pockets and with a shamefaced gait, walked past the holographic tape and towards the crime scene. ] You two never got along and now...

We need to find who did this. I mean... I know Master Eraqus won't rest in peace until we find the truth! We're the only people who can help him now.

[ It might be irritating to others to hear Ven parrot the word master about a work superior like some sort of toddling apprentice, but Eraqus had been a very special person. He'd made Ventus into the young man he was today. ]

[vapidus]

Who knows, off in space? You practically have a summer house there.

Vanitas would probably be smugger about this if it made any sense. He'd definitely not have much decorum if it had been, say, a case of Eraqus slipping in the shower or tripping in the parking lot and breaking every bone in his old man body or some other such thing that could be construed as his fault. Without knowing any of the context here, it's just... bizarre. What is he supposed to say? 'Looks like Eraqus got the point'?

Maybe he's not even worth that much of my time. I'll do it later. You know, when they have more information to work with. It's even odds if he actually will. Vanitas had had to be told to stop zapping Ven every time he called Eraqus 'Master' for fun. It had probably among other things contributed to that function ending up being heavily restricted.

You remember you're not the only Psyncher in ABIS, right? There's also the more ordinary cops, but both Ventus and Vanitas are more likely to be 'pschh' about them. Boss only got you involved out of courtesy. Maybe Ventus knew Eraqus, but so did other people. Unfortunately. For someone who won't shut up when you get him talking about his friends, Ventus sure has a tendency to hare off without them.

I can tell you already, he wasn't killed here. Not enough blood on the statue for that. Can't have been killed more than four hours ago, either. Vanitas kind of low key likes being the one with information at a thought - rigor mortis hasn't yet set in, it's clear as Ventus approaches the draped form, the officers nearby nodding towards him and letting him pass.

[vacantis]

She'll give me the case, she has too!

[ Ven's utter certainty of this fact rings is only further confirmed once Vanitas starts giving him the info. See? His partner understands. His partner has his back. With just that alone, Ven has the confidence to do pretty much anything.

It also might be his overly chipper way of dealing with whats going on. Vanitas, seated in Ventus's nervous system, is perfectly poised to make sense of how little the hormone therapy they've done to help his emotional state can grapple with an event this huge. Ven had a hard time forming concrete opinions about dislikes a few years ago. Someone important to him dying is... ]

Vani, can you turn on X-ray mode please? I want to get a closer look at...the wound.

[ Classic ABIS protacol, doing the investigation ten feet away. It helps keep the emotional dissonance low for Ven too. He still can't see Eraqus' face well. He bites his fingernail with a thrumming intensity as he waits for Vanitas to adjust the xray settings. ]

It just doesn't make sense. We only saw him two days ago. Right after he got back from his vacation... Did he seem odd to you at all? [ Ven remembers him being a little distant, a little focused on his phone (damn things!) and that he'd blown off the dinner plans they were supposed to have that night but... Nothing that odd. Eraqus was usually busy. Ven was always happy to wait, no matter how many times he might vanish without warning. ]

[vapidus]

Uh huh. She doesn't 'have to' do anything, that's why she's the Boss.

He's just saving time! He knows you, at this point. Despite having a personality that would make people wonder what Pewter was thinking in designing it (a common feature in ABIS AIs), he does have a job to do, tsundere wriggle room aside. It's to keep an eye, ba dum tish, on Ven. And there's a lot to keep an eye on, with current events. It's definitely something he'll have to talk to Pewter about... but later.

What's the magic word, Venty? There's the smugness, in his dangling of it. When the X-ray is warmed up and activated, the world in Ventus's left eye shifts into a swathe of cool blues, artificially colored from monochrome. The statue itself is one solid shape; Eraqus's bones appear, the metal elements of his clothes and damn phone and... something in his pocket, small, long and thin. Like this, it's just a body, isn't it Ventus? The wound itself is... strange, faintly outlined in the emptiness of the air within it. It doesn't match up with the horns of the helmet at all.

I wasn't paying much attention to the geezer. Vanitas had been then, and was of the opinion now, that Ventus could have stood to be more upset with being ignored like that, and hadn't made a secret of it. Going back through the logs, just because he can review data way faster than a human doesn't mean it's not a pain to try and extract useful information from a ton of comparative footage. Be grateful, Ventus! He looked busy. Like he ever isn't, though. All higher ups at ABIS know is get inundated with work, be shady, eat hot chip and lie. Why Ventus bothers... bothered, Vanitas doesn't know.

I can pull up his leave request in the system. Is that allowed? Shh. Honestly that's half of why Vanitas is doing it... and also digging deeper. Huh, out of the country. There's a ticket to Charles De Gaulle Airport in France. Now what was he doing there? Vanitas doesn't buy that it was a vacation for a second. The man was a workaholic. Something completely above board no doubt. Yes doubt, says Vanitas's airy tone. If it was on top of the table it'd be under work expenses, not leave... It's might be just Vanitas's dislike of the man.

[vacantis]

I already said please...

Look, its right there, in your logs! Jeeeeez this AI is just a menace. Maybe the magic word is "fuck you!" Anyway, he focuses his vison on the phone first, and then at his pocket. Can you zoom in on that? Vanitas will probably hack it without him having to ask, but phones on investigations have an unfortunate chance of being off, so he might need to retrieve and charge it later.

He's pretty sure he can guess Eraqus' passcodes. He's thinking about that rather then bowing down his thanks for Vanitas doing his job as an advanced AI and watching footage of all conversations Ventus had two days ago.

Are you asking why he had the...Gaulle to travel?" Ba dum tish. Does Ven need his meds or does he just like making bad puns at crime scenes no matter the occasion. Yes. He wasn't hiding where he was going, Vani. I don't think he could have been doing anything that bad...

Unless there was a second flight, which Ven turns around uncomfortably in his head but doesn't vocalize.

I don't think Boss will let me go to France on a hunch. We should look into if he talked to anyone after he returned first. It could be totally unrelated!

[vapidus]

Shh, you saw nothing. Reading comprehension who? Anyway that's it, Ventus. Feel your animosity grow...

Hey, it wasn't just two days ago! He had to compare to conversations with Eraqus that were much further back for a baseline, too! This is the price when you don't really pay attention at the time. There's a weird sensation as Vanitas rolls himself in Ventus's left eye socket at the pun, causing his vision to mismatch for the duration.

Ughh, terrible. Vanitas's puns are much better, it's undisputed. It's a central airport. You can get nearly anywhere else in Europe easily from it. Can't find any GPS records since arriving there either. Which means he'd had his phone off the whole time; Ventus knows him well in the sense of him eyeing it up. But he's also right in that they can't exactly just run off to France, especially since the lead goes cold there for now.

After that, the field of view does indeed zoom in. It's hard to make out, but it's definitely something metal, with a oval on one end and a square shape on the other. The image crisps up a little as Vanitas's own curiosity takes hold, resolving into a... It's a key. Looks like an old one too, from when warded locks were common. They haven't been seriously used for anything since the start of the 20th century. Which does raise some questions as to why Eraqus has one, since it's probably not his house key unless he lives in some ancient mansion.

Vanitas makes a noise of thought, the key still in full focus. Hmn. He cancelled dinner with you, so maybe he was meeting someone else. Clearly Ventus is a lower priority than whatever was going on. Gives us a time frame to ask about.

[vacantis]

Its growing!

"Hah. I'll be here all night." Ventus says smugly, drawing the gaze of a few cops who, misunderstanding his meaning, give Ven a nod. Open mic night at Marble, here we come.

The key is examined with a growing seriousness. Ventus continues to hang back, closing the image of the key to examine the bloodstain, Eraqus' postition for any other clues but the key sticks out like a sore thumb.

I don't know what a warded lock is but Eraqus' house doesn't use keys like that. He's got a digital keycard or a code. ABIS uses those too, its why I don't need keys with you around.

Thank you for buzzing him into work, or into his apartment, or hacking the door to his car when he lost the keys. Thank you so much. You are his key..his partner... all sorts of mushy stuff he'll never say or Vanitas will overcome his protocols and unlock shock therapy again.

Meeting someone else... And if his phone was off since he took his trip? Then he had to have made that plan in person with someone after he arrived. Otherwise why would he cancel last minute? Eraqus would never be THAT rude, surely.

I want to charge his phone and check the contacts, but lets talk more about the cause of death. Doesn't something about the body seem strange to you, Vani?

[vapidus]

Mama's bad enough. Don't involve me in your terrible ideas. There's no we, if Ventus gets on stage Vanitas will be rolling right out and all the way to the door.

He does preen a little, though. That's right, he's the best at getting into places he shouldn't. And also should, but that's expected.

What would you do without me? Be a pathetic puddle on your front doorstep, looks like. He does do all those things, though sometimes he'll be bit of a dick about it first, as in the case of the car where he laughed for like two minutes about it. ...If he has a keycard, it's not on his person. It's annoying they can't be sure about that fact.

Useful if true. Ventus has a brain in there after all, despite Vanitas's needlings at him. That means whoever it was is local to Tokyo... fits with the short time to get all this set up, too. This clearly wasn't randomly chosen as a dumping ground, or was a case of panicking. It was definitely planned out; it sends too much of a message not to. Ha, maybe he just forgot he'd already made plans with you.

The phone could prove things one way or the other.

Apart from it being used as decoration? ...the wound, I guess. The dismissed image of the key is replaced with a close up on the aforementioned. The size and shape of a stab wound, but it's too There's a pause as Vanitas thinks, processes. Clean. There's no sign of anything being moved with any direction of entry, and bones would crack and chip, not be cut like this. It's like the murder weapon went right through a block of wax. Rather than flesh and bone and blood. No sign of cauterisation or freezing, and something like a water cutter would bruise the surrounding flesh. There's a note of displeasure in Vanitas's digital voice, at this weird bullshit in particular. He considers himself an expert on injury, so this is kind of an insult.

[vacantis]

Nooo! Don't roll away! He needs you to pretend to have telepathy (advanced googling).

Right! I mean, thats not exactly what I was thinking, I couldn't see the bones until you pointed it out but- Ven lifts a hand to point at the statue. It's too clean. If you impaled me on a horse because I wouldn't say rude things Pewter when you wanted me too, I'd leave lots of blood everywhere. But there's not any on this statue.

It's spotless, a clean wound, a clean statue, there's barely even any smell of blood in the air for a scene this gruesome. The whole thing is sterile, theatrical. Ventus wouldn't be suprised if the first people who saw Eraqus' body might have taken it for a bit of modern art.

I'm thinking. A wound this precise and a body without that much blood had to take a lot of time to set up. You'd need to cut the body exactly to fit around the sword, and then you'd need to drain and clean it so it wouldn't make a mess... Are we totally sure Master Eraqus doesn't have any other wounds? Poison in his system? I mean...has anyone from Toxicology been here?

[vapidus]

Too late, there he goes... like a tumbleweed. A tumbleweed with access to the sum of human knowledge, sort of.

Was whoever did this a neat freak or something? Vanitas grumbles. Yeah, if I impaled you I sure wouldn't bother going to this trouble about blood. It'd add to the message, he adds. He knows you can swear, Ventus. He knows it.

Vanitas doesn't blink, because while he can move around in Ventus's eye socket to annoy him or make a point he doesn't have control over his eyelid, but there's the mental sensation of it. Huh. This is as close as he ever gets to saying Ventus has a good point. No sign of brain swelling, so head injury's unlikely... Could have been drugged. Of course, he could have been already dead as well.

There's a bit of a mental shrug. How should I know? The case report hasn't been updated yet, Ventus, this is all new. You might have to actually talk to a physical human being. There's a bit of a grin to the words.

[vacantis]

I guess that means Boss is totally cleared of suspicion. Her office is a mess.

Ventus says nothing but its pretty clear he finds the idea of talking to other people at this crime scene distressing. He's shy. People are well and good usually, but they're going to ask if he's okay or suspect him or... It doesn't sound fun. If he doesn't talk to them though, Vanitas is going to make fun of him and he's going to eventually have to do it anyway so...

He does need to talk to someone. The toxicology guy, specifically. He agrees with Vanitas, and its more likely Eraqus was already dead when his chest was cut. With no other visable wounds the most probable cause of death is...

"....hi..." It takes him a lot more effort then he'd like to admit to walk closer to Eraqus' body to stand next to the guy taking samples. This is fine. He can just focus on this right now. He's a lot taller then Ven, so he has to look up at him to see what little he could of a (handsome! so so handsome! hottest aitsf character!) face. A face beaming with hope right before it will be crushed by despair.

"Have you found anything Mr..."

Oh oh crap Vani get the ABIS HQ files whats his name again?

[vapidus]

Where she finds half those things is beyond me. They can't all be confiscated evidence.

But thou must... exhaust all the dialogue options. Just pretend you're talking to nicer Vanitases. Although maybe that's half the problem, given their potential concern...

Let's see... Vanitas says like he's looking through pages or tapping a finger on his chin, despite the fact he can bring up the files pretty much instantly. Says right here it's 'Minami'. It does not. In some ways this is Vanitas's object lesson in not relying on him too much, but mostly it's the opportunity to mess with two birds with one stone.

[vacantis]

"Mr. Minami."

Oh to see how instantly crushed the toxicology officers face goes, how pale,,,how saddened. Ven watches with growing disquit as the man pushes his hands to his forehead slowly and then turns to look over at Ven with a smile.

"It's Kagami."

"Oh!" Ven nods slowly. "Sorry I got the first letter wrong. Vani- I mean I must have misremembered. Sorry Kinami."

..................

"It's Kagami"

At this point Ven is looking inward on this.

??????????????????????

Isn't that what I said?

[vapidus]

Every time, he allows himself a flicker of hope, and every time the cruel hand of fate closes on it and reduces it to ash. Vanitas is of no help whatsoever.

Yeah, that's what you said. So it has to be something else.

This is hilarious.

Poor guy. Look at him, he's utterly defeated. So cruel of you, Ben.

He's having way too much fun with this, and while he doesn't have an expression, his amused tone is the same as not keeping a straight face.