Two Faced Killer

Chapter 5: Odd Job

Len frowned, eyeing the strawberry blond haired girl as she strut around the store, weaving through the aisles and chattering away on her cell phone.

She was getting on his nerves, but she was also rather pretty. He sighed and stared at her, hoping that she'd buy something. That way, she'd approach him, and he'd be able to get a better look at her. Maybe she could stop talking for once.

"What're you looking at, creep?" She snapped, scowling at Len. He scowled back.

"I'm not looking at anything," he defended himself, "Just making sure that you don't steal anything."

"Humph," she snatched a chocolate bar off of a shelf and approached the cash register, "I know you."

"I know you do," Len took the chocolate bar, doing his best to make contact with her fingers as he took it, "We're in the same math class."

"Rin told me that you thought Susie was the cutest," the girl pulled her hand back quickly and smirked at him, "That was stupid. If Dean finds out, he won't leave you alive."

"Dean?"

"Susie's boyfriend," the girl nodded, pulling some change out of her wallet, "My name's Neru, by the way."

"I know," Len frowned.

"Creeper!"

"Hey, the teacher reads out the names on the attendance list!" Len hissed, "Stupid!"

"Where did you put my name?" Neru pouted her lips. Len frowned.

"It doesn't matter," he said in spite of himself. He had put Neru's name near the top, and while he was doing his best to tell himself that he was on a mission, he really just wanted to ask her out.

"Do you like dinner?" Neru frowned. Len raised an eyebrow.

"What?" Len snapped, "It's food, I mean...if I'm hungry..."

"Then come with me," Neru smiled, "When do you get off work?"

"None of your business!" Len forced himself to say. He was being an idiot. Getting a girlfriend wasn't part of the job.

Or was it?

"Well, somebody sure is antisocial," Neru rolled her eyes, putting the chocolate into her bag and crossing her arms, "And you've ranked girls that you've only barely seen on a scale. Sure sounds like a creeper to me!"

"Fine!" Len frowned, "I'll go."

"Nah, forget it!" Neru turned and walked away. Len grabbed her arm.

"I want to go," he said slowly, "Sorry, I was...I was being too rash."

"Hmm," Neru turned and smiled slightly, "Now will you tell me when you get off of work?"

Len nodded. There was nothing wrong with romancing. He was just getting to know the town better this way. Maybe Neru was the one who had killed his friend.

He certainly hoped not.

"I'll see you at eight," Neru smiled, "We'll meet here."

"Right," Len offered a seductive smile: something that he had been trained to deliver. Neru blushed and hurried out of the store, and another customer walked in.

"Welcome," Len nodded at the middle-aged man, who smiled and began browsing the shelves. Len took note of his attire and attitude. He seemed like a 'pretty regular guy,' but according to what Len knew about the Cause of Failure, he also looked like a 'pretty regular guy.'

Twelve hours earlier

The strange masked man had left Len in a house full of clothes, weapons, food and information.

Len didn't like the masked man at all, especially the way he smiled at everything, but he did like the stacks and stacks of files that had been left behind for Len to sift through.

"We're not even sure if the Cause of Failure is male or female!" The man had chuckled before leaving, "Child or adult, large or small...there's nothing we know for sure..."

"There is something," Len held back the urge to punch K, which is what Crypton called the man, in the face, "The Cause of Failure leaves death wherever he goes."

K waggled a finger at Len. "Ah, that's right. And I'm sure there's more, too. That's why I've left your bedroom and closets full of files and documents. Anything and everything that has to do with the Cause...is in there."

And so, Len spent the night flipping through the documents and descriptions and reports. It was true; nobody really seemed to know exactly what the Cause looked like. Some called it a stout man with a large beard, and others claimed that the Cause was a seductive, glamorous woman.

The descriptions that showed up the most, however, involved a tall and lean person. The deaths involved a variety of weapons. A man had been killed with a television, a little girl with a fork, a pregnant woman with a steamroller...and it just got more and more gruesome.

Crypton never really figured out what it was that the Cause wanted. In fact, before the Cause had killed Oliver, it had murdered many others. They had managed to trace back the killer's debut to thirteen years ago.

Len frowned. He would have been five back then, when the murders started. Oliver's death happened three years ago, when Len was fifteen. So much had happened since then.

What was the purpose of all this? Len had learned about the death of his friend as soon as the body was found. He had just completed his Level 14 test for Crypton and had the highest score in the agency.

But Oliver couldn't be there to celebrate with him.

"You did well on the test, Kagamine!" Sarah had told him once he got the results, three years ago. He was grinning uncontrollably, but that was before he heard about his friend.

"The Crypton Levels test are a measurement of proficiency of skills among agents," she went on, clearly dazzled by Len's amazing scores, "Len, usually it's the agents that are in their thirties who even qualify for the Level 14, and here you are, fifteen years old and among the highest ranking!"

That was when Len's cell phone buzzed. He pulled it out and picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Kagamine, it's...it's Oliver," the voice was K's, and for once, he didn't sound so happy, "He's been killed. We haven't found the body yet, but there's traces of his blood and bullets, and...."

That one moment had changed everything.

Do you have any ideas who the Cause could be?

And yeah. Len's eighteen.

OCs: Dean