last flowers | rohan/reader

4。snapdragon

Rohan's plan for the day was to spend breakfast with her, back her into a corner and fix his mistake with Heaven's Door, send her on her merry way, and start chipping away at the manuscript he was due to submit next week. Of course, with detective [name] around, he'd barely managed to get one thing on his list done.

She sat in his kitchen after eating, peering over the police reports she'd collected the previous day. Rohan was hesitant to lean over her shoulder to see what the local law enforcement had gathered while he cleaned up the mess she'd made while cooking, but he ended up peeking anyways. Very little information was available regarding a profile for a suspect in any of the cases. The only profiles that could be formed were of the victims' general characteristics. Young females were the primary target, which he could figure out on his own. Reimi Sugimoto would easily fit that criteria; but because her murder wasn't at all a disappearance, she would never be connected to the case without background insight.

"[name], the ghost I was previously going to show you was more than likely the first victim of the person you're after." He finally spoke up, sliding back into his chair at the table across from her. His fingers were pruny from washing dishes, one of those pet peeves of his that bothered him to no end. He decided to make conversation to distract him from his shriveled fingertips.

"Do you have a name for them?" She uncapped a pen that she kept nearby and waited patiently for Rohan's response.

"Reimi Sugimoto."

"You mean one of the Sugimoto family homicide victims?" She scribbled down the characters for the deceased girl's name with haste, and looked back up at her friend. That's what she decided she would refer to Rohan as, as long as he wasn't being a complete prick. Then again, she wouldn't particularly mind more than that. She scrunched her nose up in anger at her own hypocrisy and refocused her thoughts back on the case. "I saw the murders mentioned in your file, but I didn't know you'd be so closely connected... I'm sorry you had to go through that."

"I was incredibly young anyways, it's not like I recall much, which is a bit unfortunate for Reimi's sake. If I had a clearer memory of what happened back then, perhaps this string of disappearances wouldn't still be going on." Rohan sighed. He didn't necessarily feel guilty for not remembering his youth, but something about it continued to nag at him regardless. It wasn't his fault, but he could've prevented it if he had access to his memories from several years ago.

"I don't know, a 4-year-old's testimony would be worthless then and now. It's not that there's any doubt in children witnessing horrific crimes, it's just that it's never enough to go on. And kids have far more unrestrained imaginations." [Name] rested her cheek on the palm of her hand. "But, I'd like to ask about something else; if you are in cahoots with the spirit of Reimi Sugimoto— why did this only come up now, as opposed to years before?"

"Nobody in Morioh was previously able to come in contact with Reimi's spirit— for some reason, she could only be seen if you possess the special ability I was telling you about before. It's a manifestation of one's soul and mental strength, and apparently also allows one to see ghosts that have bound themselves to earth with 'unfinished business'."

[Name] tried her hardest not to burst into laughter. She choked on her own giggles before combusting, and Rohan sat idly by and watched, appalled at her lack of seriousness. "God– I'm sorry, Rohan, I truly am. It's not that I don't believe you, it's just— my line of work is entirely based on fact; seeing, mostly, so it's hard to take your word for truth when I'm not able to see with my own eyes. I'm sure the circumstances would be entirely different if I had a similar ability, but I'm really unable to sympathize. Explaining these psychic manifestations to a jury also sounds damn near impossible."