[ǂ] Subtle Monster
"Hmm?" I reply. "Did you say something?" I lengthen my stride just a bit, and after a few moments, he has to catch up with me.
"I... I asked you if thi—"
"Here we are," I say, smoothly cutting him off. Opening the door to Renko's office, I step back, and usher him in. He enters automatically, apparently without thinking about it.
After taking a couple steps in, he comes up short at the sight of Renko, looking surprisingly grim. The overhead lights are off, the shades are drawn tightly closed, and the only illumination comes from a single desk lamp; some kind of Tiffany replica. Her hat is off, probably on the coat stand. She is leaning forward slightly, looking straight ahead at the door— and by default, anyone who came through it —with a cold, piercing gaze.
Parminder looks more than a bit worried, now, and turns to look back at me.
Time to switch roles. I hope she'll catch on.
I give him a simple, friendly smile, "Go on, have a seat," I tell him. Without giving any indication that I'm aware of doing it, I let my wings streeeeetch out behind me. They're no spooky sight to behold, technically; it's not like I had creepy bat wings like Scarlet or the weird blonde one who made it over.
But all the same, there's a little voice in his head saying:
...Oh, right. Youkai. In front of (but unseen by) him, I notice Renko's gaze flit over to me briefly, then back to Parminder.
He nods, slowly, and turns back round, looking for a chair. I've already quietly pulled one over, and present it to him. He quickly takes it, and seats himself in front of her desk, where I'd pulled it to.
The instant he does, I close the door behind me, and lock it with a very audible
click. He actually jumps a little, and then watches, white-faced, as I drag over another chair and wedge it under the knob. I then plop myself down in the chair, leaning forward relative to the angle of the chair in order to stay upright.
"What is going on? Professor Morichika, why a—" he begins, watching me, but Renko cuts in.
"Mr. Mahal?" Her voice is calm, and unruffled. There's no hint of menace, and in fact, she's relaxed her stance somewhat. She looks almost thoughtful.
One of the best ways to get people to do something you want is by keeping them off-balance, and maintaining control of the situation or conversation. You can't shake them too hard, or else they'll be no good to you. You need to give them just enough room to let them give the answers you're after, but not enough to let them think very long about what they're doing. In this way, you steer them completely according to your will. It's a favored tactic of salesmen and con artists.
...And when applied in a slightly different way, of interrogators, as well.
"Y-yes, Dr. Usami?"
"This morning, before class, I sent you up here here abooouut... 8:30 or so? Somewhere around then. I asked you to get a stack of printouts I'd left in here."
He just nods.
She continues to speak amiably while I reach into my bag. "And you came back to the lecture hall at around 8:50, apologizing for being late."
Nod.
She scoots her own chair a little closer, and leans further forward, her ribboned lock of hair swaying in the air slightly. "...Now, Professor Morichika here tells me that she saw you trying to
do something in here, and she is not exactly known for concocting wild stories." She meets his eyes, and doesn't blink. "Something aside from collecting printouts. I'm just a bit
curious about this. Care to tell me about this?"
It's silent for a few moments. I can't see his expression from behind him, but I can see his fingers fidgeting with the edge of the arm of the chair. At last, he says, in a perturbed tone of voice, "I ... I do not know."
Renko adopts a Well-that's-awful-odd sort of look, and leans back, crossing her arms. "You don't know what you were doing."
"Yes."
"Huh."
shhhiccckt
shhhiiiiick
shhhiccckt
shhhiiiiick Parminder's head whips around so fast at the sound of the raspy, grating, scraping noise that it's all I can do to keep from laughing. When he catches sight of me, sitting in the chair that's blocking the door, he sees me casually filing my nails, looking almost bored with the act.
Only instead of nails, they're my claws, extended and hardened. And instead of a pocket nail file, I'm using a 30.5cm steel file I bought from a hardware store expressly for the purpose of sharpening them.
"T-t-tha—" he starts to stutter out.
I examine them, and blow off the fine layer of bone dust, seemingly completely ignoring him.
"What Professor Morichika does on her own time is not really the topic, Mr. Mahal," Renko says, as if gently chiding a child. "...Now, you say you don't
know what you were doing." She waits until he turns back to her, at which point her tone turns curious. "I had expected you to say that you weren't doing anything at all. Is that maybe what you meant?"
"...No, Dr. Usami," he says, quietly.
Oh?
We just might be getting somewhere.
I stop sharpening, put down the file, and speak up for the first time in a few minutes. "Is this what you were spending class thinking about, Parminder?" I ask, sounding disappointed. "A good excuse? As one of your teachers, I'm a little ashamed that this is the best you could do."
His head ducks down for a moment, and I hear him breathing slowly before swallowing. He turns to look back at me, and on his face is something new: fear. Not the sort of panic I've been instilling in him throughout this little interrogation, but a deeper, more troubling fear.
"I am not lying, Professor. I have..." He looks down again before continuing, unconsciously taking more care to enunciate his words, Indian accent giving way to a more strained, cautious quality. "...There are these, these little spaces of missing minutes in my day. Maybe once or twice a day. Some days, none. I will suddenly realize I am not doing the thing I last remembered doing."
Renko shoots me a look. I give the smallest of shrugs.
"Uh-huh," I tell him, the disbelieving tone clear in my voice. "It's called blacking out. Been partying a little hard?"
He grits his teeth. "Blackouts do not work that way and even if they did,
I do not drink, Professor. I am completely serious."
"Mr. Mahal," Renko begins, "when did this start happening?"
"Tuesday, two weeks ago."
She takes that in for a moment, and I can see her mulling it over for a second before proceeding. "How long are these 'spaces'?"
"I... they seem to be short. Never more than ten minutes. Usually between two and four, I think."
"Did you get up to anything weird?" I ask, smirking.
He doesn't rise to the bait, though, and instead replies with confusion. "...No. Almost never anything too unusual has happened, from what I can tell. In fact... I do not believe I do anything at all out of the ordinary. It is as if I am doing normal things, and then... forget little slices of them."
"And snooping around in Dr. Usami's office is something normal for you?"
He flushes at my comment, and shakes his head. "No! I would not dream of doing such things." He looks up Renko, and then at me. "...I am very aware that it is a strange story, and not one you will likely believe. But I swear to you, it is the
truth."
Renko gives me another look, but I nod, this time. My hunch, if it could be called that, appears to have borne rather disturbing fruit.
"All right, then," I say, and close my eyes before flipping on the lights. Without opening them, I get up, tucking my wings back in close again and retract my claws, returning my fingers to their normal appearance. Leaning down, I put away the file, then remove the chair blocking the door and push it aside. At last, I open my eyes slowly, letting them acclimate to the now-brighter room.
Parminder is still blinking, as is Renko. I walk over to the worried young man, and pat his shoulder. He starts to jerk it away before I laugh a bit. "Hey, hey, don't worry. I'm sorry about the whole scary-youkai act, but we really needed to get to the bottom of this."
The dark-skinned student just blinks. "What?"
"Just a little show, that's all—"
"No, no, I mean..." He looks from me to Renko again, then back to me. "You do not think what I am saying is a lie?"
...He says, to an ibis youkai and one of the city's more notable youkai rights supporters.
"You can thank Professor Morichika for that, as a matter of fact," Renko tells him as she stands up from her chair. "She had an inkling that something weird might be going on, and we decided to look into it further."
Parminder looks almost pathetically grateful to hear this, but Renko continues on. "I'd recommend seeing a doctor soon for a full medical checkup. There's probably a few things that could cause something like this, and if it's messing with your memory, they're probably not something you want to let sit."
I decide to take it a step further. I owe it to the poor kid after spooking him like that. "...And consider heading down to the Troubleshooters' Bureau for an interference screening. I don't want to scare you ...well, worse than I already did," I admit sheepishly, "but that possibility can't be ruled out."
His eyes widen. "...Magic?"
"Or some sort of youkai abilities. If something's going on, they'll catch it, same as the doctor's office."
He nods slowly, but gets up from his chair, and gives us a solemn look. "Thank you, both of you. This is... it is the first time I have told anyone about it. I was just hoping it was maybe forgetfulness, or exhaustion, or something else that would pass..."
Renko shakes her head. "Never put off weird medical issues. Men have a terrible habit of that." She rubs the base of her left ring finger, though without seeming to notice the motion. "...Here, I'll give you someone to call."
She takes a pad of Post-its from its (precisely placed) location on her desk, grabs a pen, and scribbles what I assume is a phone number on it before taking the sticky-note off and handing it to him. "Ask for Satsuki, and tell her Renko sent you. She'll take good care of you."
He takes it, and shakes Renko's hand firmly, thanking her profusely. Then the same for me, although the handshake is much more careful. Still a bit shook up about the claws, apparently.
We see him out the door (after I unlock it, apologizing yet again), and then stand there quietly for a bit.
"...Well, shit," Renko finally says.
I can only nod in agreement.
[ ] The Journey (Later that day)
[ ] The Destination (Later that night)
[ ] The Return (The next morning)
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>>35439 ...Did I make some kind of reference without knowing it?
