The Road to Darkness

Case 22: The Road to Darkness

I walked into a bar and talked to the bartender.

"That kind of info will cost" He gestured as I threw a giant roll to him.

He smiled "rumors say he's meeting with some people by the pier, some sort of slave trade, don't know much more".

I handed the man another roll of cash.

"This one's easy he's supposed to be lying low till he gets a chance to cause some real trouble, you can find him at the motel over by the clinic".

I walked out and began to walk down to the pier but not before stopping by a house and dropping a letter off at the door.

"Fifty grand won't be enough, how about you sweeten the deal" A man bargained in a warehouse out by the pier. Before any more exchanges could be made he heard a few gunshots outside.

As the man ran out to check I shot him right in the head. I walked over his still twitching corpse and came face to face with Kizuru Yamada.

"Y-yato Ushio! No way I'm letting you take me in again not by a long shot!" He threatened, pulling out a knife.

"Wasn't planning to" I retaliated shooting him in the shoulder.

As he let out a scream I rushed him and knocked him out.

He awoke to find himself bound and gagged in the same room.

"So many people died at your hand, so many women.....and children!" I said slamming his knife into his hand.

He screamed as loud as he could before I ripped the knife back out.

"Look familiar? It should, this is your famous knife" I said sliding it passed his throat. I cut off his gag as he barked at me.

"You can't do this! This is torture you're done for you hear!" He snarled.

"I can do whatever I want... you're my toy now" I stated, cutting into his skin before reaching his fingers.

I looked at him and smiled "how much pain does it take to lose your mind, you must know right?".

He stayed silent.

"Really? Nothing? We'll find out then" I assured as I put the knife under his nail and slowly began lifting it higher and higher until...Pop!

As he screamed I re-gagged him and smiled at him.

"No worries....only nineteen more to go".

An hour later I left, bloody and smiling as his body was nail free and his face was still red with tears. I finished with his knife stuck directly in his head from the top.

I walked to my next destination and began to feel a chill in my spine that spread around my body "this must be what it feels like to kill" I said as my own wounds began to leak out passed my clothes and onto the ground.

In a dark quiet room, a man slept silently.

With a single gunshot to his door, I kicked it open and pointed my gun at him.

"What are you doing here!?" Jaken Kokoro gasped.

"You got three seconds" I warned.

"Wait what's-" I fired a shot that went right passed him.

"3.......2....".

He ran out at full speed down the street before I chased. He ran down an alley where he jumped a fence and took off.

I lined up my shot passed the fence and aimed for him, right in the back.

A single gunshot grazed the fence with a spark before striking Jaken like a spear.

He fell to the ground, unable to feel his legs. As I crossed the fence and walked to him and heard him crying "kill me! Just end this! Let me go and see Jimmy!" He sobbed.

"You're not going to where he is..... neither of us are," I said firing a bullet down his spine once more. He no longer moved, not even an inch.

I slowly lifted him up and put him behind a dumpster.

"A fitting spot for trash like you" I spat as he laid limp, his eyes frozen with fear and sadness.

With a shot to his nose, I saw him as he tried to scream but could only stand still until the pain subsided.

I made my way to my house where I took off my clothes and took a shower. The smell of iron and color red consuming my senses.

I got out and put on my father's old suit. I pulled my tie and hat out of the washer and put them on.

The room was quiet, so was the town. No more sirens wailing passed my street or thug victims screaming from the nearby alleys.

The silence shouted out at me as my smile became a frown.

I hate the silence, I hate the lack of crime, lack of wrongdoings and misconduct.

I hate the feeling of uselessness. What good is a cop with no crime around to stop? I'd be forgotten in days, after all I've done to help I'd be thrown to the side now that my usefulness was all used up.

As the sunrise came I loaded the gun and unlocked the safety. "The light always comes.....but so does the darkness" I recited as I pulled the trigger, finally ending my journey. My small apartment now tainted in a new shade. My hat rolling over to a door that will never be opened the same way again.

A few hours later as Nakamura collected his morning mail he found a letter and opened it.

"This is not a will but a wish that could not come true. Nakamura, I could not ask for a better partner than you. You're kind, Strong-willed and an excellent friend. I'm sorry I didn't treat you the same way. You dreamed of someday being the next top detective well now it's yours. Take up the mantle and show the world who you are, do what others before you couldn't, believe in the morals that others didn't, Do what you can, just don't follow the road......The Road to Darkness".