Detective Kanji

Chapter 8: The Next Victim

Begin

~Normal POV

When the next rainy night came, all hell broke loose. The team was horrified to find out who was on the Midnight Channel this time: Nanako Dojima.

There was an awful lot of panicking that night. Nothing seemed to go right. Yu had been detained at the police station for having another threatening letter from the culprit. And he wasn't able to contact the team. Naoto had snuck out and went to Yu's house to search for any clues, but all she found was an open door and an empty house. Dojima got into a terrible car accident chasing their new suspect, landing him stuck in the hospital. They did find some clues at the crash site, but it wasn't much comfort.

The following morning, their first priority was getting Nanako out of the tv world right away. This proved easier said than done. Their suspect, Namatame, had gone in with her. He was particularly determined to kidnap her. It was all very odd, but they didn't think about it too much. They had to fight for her safety.

The fight was tough, but the true test came afterwards. Prior to getting Nanako out of the tv, she had fallen unconscious and wouldn't wake up. Their only hope was to bring her to the hospital too.

~...

Within a short time, the gang found themselves at the hospital, having followed the ambulance. Nanako had been placed in one of the rooms and was being treated. The rest of them were all waiting outside in the hall. She wasn't allowed visitors. Namatame had been taken into custody by the police, but he was also set to get medical attention first. They would simply have to keep him under surveillance until he woke up.

The atmosphere between the team right now was rather heavy. They were all a mixture of being both terribly distraught and relieved. They had saved Nanako, but she was hurt by being in the other world. It was hard to truly call it a victory when she was laid up in a hospital bed now... Yu was staring at the door silently. The girls were all seated on a bench next to it for visitors. Yosuke and Teddie were standing against the wall with them. And Kanji, who hated hospitals, couldn't even bring himself to look at the door; choosing instead to stare out the window. For a long time nobody could bring themselves to speak.

"Nana-chan's still small..." Teddie said, quietly. "So her other self didn't appear like everyone else... And she got caught in all that craziness... I hope she'll be ok..."

"I mean, are the doctors going to be able to help her...?" Yosuke asked.

Teddie whined with tears in his eyes now, "I'm worried about Nana-chan!"

"There's nothing more we can do for her..." Chie said, looking down sadly.

"A deliveryman named Namatame... The possibility of Nanako-chan being targeted..." Naoto's voice sounded shaky. "If only I'd been more thorough in putting the facts together...! Then Nanako-chan wouldn't have had to go through this..."

"That... goes for me, too." Yosuke replied, "If I hadn't stood there like a lump in front of that bastard, Nanako-chan might have been ok..."

"I hate myself..." Chie said. "Why do I always panic when it matters most...?"

"I couldn't do anything either..." Yukiko said, quietly.

"I should have noticed sooner that something was wrong with that guy..." Rise said.

"Why did I waste time listening to what Namatame had to say?!" Naoto said, her voice breaking. For the first time, she had completely lost her usual composure, and it looked like she was about to cry. "If I hadn't tried to engage him in conversation, and we had rescued Nanako-chan immediately...! This wouldn't have happened!"

"It's no one's fault," Yu said, quietly. "I don't blame any of you..."

"But... I still..." Naoto sobbed, a couple tears running down her face now.

"Alright, enough of this pity party..." They saw Kanji had turned his attention back to them and was staring at them with a hard expression. "Is standing around and whining really what we ought to be doing now? Feeling pathetic, consoling each other... That gonna solve anything?! We gotta believe in her..." He looked down at Naoto. "So stop rehashing what's already done. Get it together, Naoto!"

Naoto stared up at him in shock at the intensity of those words. "Sorry... you're absolutely right."

"This is all that bastard Namatame's fault," Kanji continued, seeing he'd calmed her down. "And he's behind bars now, right? And it ain't like we were too late for Nanako-chan."

"Yeah... that's true," Yukiko said.

This seemed to help everyone feel a little better. As long as they stayed positive and believed in Nanako then she would get better in no time.

"I'll come see Nana-chan every day so she'll get better faster!" Teddie said, smiling through his tears.

"That's all we can do right now..." Rise said, smiling a little. "Gee, Kanji... you sounded cool for a second there."

"You guys are still here?" They looked and saw Adachi walk up to them.

"Adachi-san, um... did they find out anything," Yukiko asked.

"Dojima-san's speaking with the doctor now, but they can't say anything definite until they run more tests on her... Not just Nanako-chan, but the perp too... Who knows when we'll be able to hear his story... Well, it's getting late so hurry home. The last thing we need is for you guys to collapse too." He gave them an encouraging smile and walked away.

"Yeah... it was a rough day," Yu said, "And we hardly got any sleep last night to begin with. We do still have to go to school tomorrow so... just try to relax a little. Nanako wouldn't want us to stress ourselves out."

"Yeah, and when she comes home, we can have a big party to celebrate," Chie suggested, smiling optimistically.

The idea of this helped them perk up again. They knew that was exactly what Nanako would love. A party with a cake and all her friends. Everything was going to be fine. They just had to be patient. Yu stayed behind to visit his uncle; while the others left the hospital talking about party plans.

Naoto was grateful for what Kanji had said back there. It helped greatly. And he was right, what was done was done. She glanced at Kanji as she walked beside him.

"Kanji-kun?"

He looked at her. "Yeah?"

"Thank you... for what you said..." Naoto replied, quietly. "I appreciated it." She smiled warmly.

Kanji gave her a small smile. "No problem..."

The two joined their friends at the bus stop. It might be a long wait for Nanako to recover, but they could try to stay positive. Maybe find something else to focus on in the meantime. Other than schoolwork that is.

~End of Chapter

Note: Did I use the canon lines from other fanfic? Yes. Do I care? Not really. My story, my rules.