Step On Me | Scaramouche x Reader

Investigation

You wanted to look away.
Or at least you thought you did. You didn't really know what you wanted as of now.

Your mind was blank, and at the same time so full of questions. Were you even in your body? It felt like being so conscious yet dead. What were you looking at?

You felt indifferent- no, numb. The smell was what got you back into awareness. The pungent, overwhelming, smell. It engulfed your senses. How long was his body there? Just lying there, left in its defiled state?

You knew you had to do something. But what? What was there to do? What next?

It was impossible to gain control of your limbs, to tear your eyes away from the scene, to force your legs that felt bolted to the ground to move. 

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"I'll take it from here." He said to you solemnly, gently placing his hand on your shoulder. "I'll contact you when I discover further information. As of now, take care of yourself." Heizou offered you a soft smile. It stung.

Were you supposed to just leave and act like nothing happened? Wait around until you received some form of closure?

"Let me help." You said bitterly.

Heizou gave you a wary look. Normally, he wasn't supposed to.

You bit your lip. "Please?" You pleaded.

"Y/n, staying here will just hurt you more."

You met Heizou only a couple times. He was generally a witty character. He seemed more genuine. You didn't know if that helped or made it worse.

It still didn't feel real. As if this was some sort of challenge you had to overcome, and when it was all over he'd be back. He wasn't truly gone. It didn't feel like it.

"I can't do nothing." You looked at Heizou. No, more like into Heizou. He sighed.

"Alright. If you need to take any breaks, that's alright." He said in a reassuring tone. Though it quickly evolved into something more stern. "Remember, this is a crime scene containing empirical evidence. Be sure not to contaminate anything, leave everything as is. If you find something let me know." He handed you a pair of disposable gloves. You could smell the rubber. It was comforting, drawing your attention away from the scent of blood, only for a second.

You slowly put them on. They kind of just hung there, you didn't really bother to stretch it onto your hand properly.

Another person (detective?) from the tenryou commission was present as well, although you originally failed to notice her as she stood silently.

Heizou motioned for the girl to come, and she stood attentively. "Take note of the fact that there are clear signs of retaliation, our victim noticed the killer and fought back."

"Killer" and "victim". Like they were characters in a play, not real people. It felt dehumanising.

"Aether. He fought back." You said firmly.

You sort of just observed as they did their jobs. This wasn't your area of expertise, but you wanted to be of help anyway. You needed to.

Heizou carefully bent down by Aethers lifeless body. His olive eyes scanned the body. A short while after, he murmured "Blunt force."

There were multiple areas affected. One area you refused to look at, was his face. You couldn't bring yourself to take in his expression. Was he scared? Angry? Confused? At peace? You didn't want to know.

You unconsciously drowned out the sound of Heizou's voice. You didn't really ask yourself how? Or why? Not even who.

You were brought back into reality when you heard "catalyst" and "anemo" strung together in the same sentence as "weapon".

Were you hearing things?

"What?" You questioned Heizou.

"The weapon. It was a catalyst, of the element anemo." Heizou repeated.

"You're wrong. That's not it." You frantically darted your eyes from the floor, to Heizou's confounded expression, and back to Aethers bloodied body.

"Do you know someone who possesses it? Who would use it against the traveller?" Heizou demanded, it didn't feel like a question.

"No." You swallowed.

"Lying to me will affect this case." He paused, then softened his tone. "It's going to be okay. Tell me everything you know, and it will be alright." He remembered he would have to take you into questioning later, anyway.

"It doesn't have to be right now. Take your time, okay?" He again placed his hand on your shoulder, only to retract it and return his focus onto investigating the scene.

"Just," your voice wavered for a fleeting moment. "Just how can you be so sure?"

"The wounds scattered on his body. Head, chest, stomach. You can tell it was done by a catalyst, target areas are distanced. If it were done by any other weapon, say a sword, we would notice stab wounds. If by a bow and arrow, then the diameter of the punctured areas would be a giveaway. A claymore may have also given a similar result, but you can eliminate that as it would have also left slash wounds." Heizou explained to you slowly, letting you process the information.

"You could also deduce the element by the same process of elimination."

It couldn't have been him, right? He wasn't home, he hasn't been home since right before aethers disappearance, but that was just some funny coincidence. You were sure that Scaramouche would walk through those doors, and come to comfort you.

"We're going to pull some prints from possible entry places, alright? While that's happening, you're going to need to be taken in for questioning." Heizou explained, looking at you with sorrowful eyes. He had to see things like this occasionally, though it was always just as hard.

"Okay." Was all you could muster to say.

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One more chapter, and this book will be complete. Thank you all for everything, I will be doing a special and taking requests after the end.
Can you tell that I also love heizou?