Beginning of Chaos

[Flashback]

During the time Harold and Edrick were in Jail.

"heheh...I shall bend logic...and go"

"BEYOND SCIENCE!"

Sfx: pat

Pat pat pat pat...

"That's enough Edrick, let's head back to sleep now." Harold said in a depressing tone.

Chapter 51: Beginning of Chaos

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In the Jail Cell

"Hey! We are innocent! Dont you get it?!" Harold shouted from the cell.

"Doesn't matter, it's an order from above." Said Keiko, another police officer.

"I wanted to believe in you, sad to say you've betrayed us." He sighed.

"Huh?! Betrayed? How?!" Harold was furious.

"Don't you see it? Do you even know why you're in the Jail cell for?" Keiko said with a raised tone.

"HUH?!" Harold tried confronting

Wham!

"Ugh!" He was hit by the jail bars, reminding he's still in captivity.

"But we didn't do it!" He added.

"It's hard to to believe you haven't done it, when you're literally having all evidences infront of you..." Said Keiko.

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"Say, why did you release the criminals so easily? Why was the police the police only present on the one side of the mansion? You caused four- no, five, I don't know how many deaths but the destruction was one of the most disturbing events in the history of Tokyo!" Keiko said as he clenched his fists.

"W-what?! But we had no idea how they escaped! It just... It just happened! We had planned everything, but they had another plans!" Harold tried to defend himself.

Sigh...

"Whatever, rot in jail until the judgement comes, I guess..." Keiko said as he left the cell.

"Whatever! They aren't sure of themselves about who has done it! To save their reputation, they took us inside!" Harold pouted.

He crossed his arms and sat thinking of how to prove himself innocent.

The reason why he only though of himself was,

There's this other person, who's not interested in GETTING OUT JAIL AT ALL!

"I see ..." Edrick said in a low voice.

"See what? You idiot, they literally aren't planning to release us at all!" Harold said in a panicked voice.

Edrick was still pretty composed, for he didn't fear whatever the others were saying.

He was still embedded in his own world, doing his calculations and finding out the case.

"Who cares about that..." Edrick said in a low voice.

"Huh?! Don't you get it! It's still unfair-"

"Let me tell you something." Edrick said, as he raised his voice a little.

Sfx: spill

Splash!

"Huh?! What is this?" Harold said as he was confused.

Edrick had spilled a glass of water over Harold's clothes.

"Let's wait for a few minutes." Edrick said calmly.

"What are you-...."

After a few minutes

"I have made your clothes wet, and after a few minutes it dried. Did you notice something?" Edrick asked

"...no?" Harold didn't understand

What was going on? He thought to himself.

"When you do something, after a while it dried and went away, but the edvidence remains, that is that the cloth has now a stain over it. Isn't it? The police will use this stain to trace back that I spilled water over you." Edrick said.

"Basically, if I commit a crime, and don't do anything to hide it, I will leave a trace like the stain of water in this cloth, right?" Harold asked

"Isn't this a big inconvenience for criminals?" Edrick asked.

"Huh? It could be..." Harold didn't understand.

"What if... The criminals could just change their worlds... And make it as if it never happened?" Edrick asked.

'"are you stupid? That's obviously not possible!" Harold got irritated

"It is possible. Change your clothes."

"Huh?"

"Don't you want to make it look like you never got water onto you? So you have to change clothes to hide the fact there was ever a stained clothes that existed on your body." Edrick explained

"Wait... Okay." Harold did as he said.

After a few minutes

"Okay, now?" Harold came in a new set of jail clothes.

"Congrats, you just got into a new world where you never committed this crime." Edrick patted Harold's back

"Huh? And? Is that all you wanted to tell me?" Harold got annoyed.

"No, let's say this wasn't water... But poison. I will stain your clothes with poison, and you will just change clothes to avoid it, right?"

With everything Edrick had established so far, Harold obviously nodded with whatever Edrick said

"Yeah... Right"

"Wrong."

"Huh?!"

"Turns out-"

Pull

Edrick pulled onto Harold's clothes

"What are you-"

"Look, there might not be water onto your clothes anymore, but your body... It's still wet." Edrick said as he stared blank deep into Harold's eyes with a dead serious expression onto his face.

"Huh? What does that mean?"

"I just fooled you. I spilled poison over your clothes and made you change, thinking you're now safe. But in reality even if you change your clothes number of times... YOURE STILL STAINED DEEP INSIDE!" Edrick became violent with his expressions.

"WHAT THE HELL? WAS THAT POISON?"

"IT COULD BE!" Edrick laughed

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA"

He laughed like an animal

"You're being very weird right now. What the hell has gotten into you? What does this conversation lead to?"

"After I die, I want you to go into my office and take my 'Aimi case' files. There, you'll understand each and everything. Including this conversation we had." Edrick said in a low voice.

Slap! Smack!

"Ughh! Are you fucking stupid?! We aren't dying here are we?!"

"I never said 'we' would die here." Edrick said as he held his cheek, which Harold had slapped.

"I know you will understand nothing which I will tell you right now, but will you promise me something?" Edrick said as he looked at Harold with a look of hope

"Huh? Okay then... You're just going mad, I'm telling you-"

"Don't ever forget each word that I'll speak right now." Edrick said with a serious expression on his face.

"Ah- o- okay, i- I guess..." Harold said with a breaking voice.

Edrick began speaking.

"After the death of Mayuri, I was taken aback."

"Huh?"

"The tears in the eyes of her mother, as she blamed to police officers, and me for it. The look on the innocent look on the eyes when she creid and yearned for the life of her child, it was truly a disturbing scene."

"That was quite true, Edrick."

"Due to this, I tried to find every way there was to see how could have Mayuri died. Until, I stumbled into one possibility." Edrick said as he stuck his tongue out in excitement.

He couldn't hold back what he was about to say it seems.

"I saw her eating an apple that day in the morning. But the thing is, the color of the apple...-"

"Yeah yeah, the color of the apple didn't match the ones of the apples she used to buy from the store, isn't it? The color of the apple matched from Ryou's mansion, this was our gamble to believe Aimi was the killer, am I right?" Harold already guessed what Edrick was about to say.

"You're pretty quick at guessing that for sure. But there's more to it" Edrick spoke.

"I thought, how could Mayuri possibly get an apple from Aimi, when she never met her in the first place? Let's say the apple really was posioned and Aimi really did kill Mayuri. But how did she manage to reach the apple to Mayuri? That was what I wondered..." Edrick spoke

"And-"

"UNTIL" Edrick's eyes glowed to what he was about to say.

"I applied the same logic of the shirt and water I just told you. I spilled some water over you and you changed your clothes, but the water still remained onto you." Edrick said.

He meant to say that just like how Edrick spilled the water, Aimi had also done something to Mayuri, and just how Harold changed the clothes, she changed the situation too, but since the water remained, that apple in Mayuri's hands also remained.

"This, this was weird for me." Edrick spoke.

"So, I thought of a theory. But it was pretty illogical, and unbelievable. Hahah, speaking it to someone still makes me shy. Because you'd think I have lost my mind."

"As if you haven't lost your mind already Edrick..." Harold sighed.

"But in order to actually do convince myself of this theory, I had to do another experiment." Edrick said.

"That day, when we freed the criminals to rob Ryou's mansion, we made them wear t-shirts with the day 'wednesday' written onto them..."

"Yeah, that was your idea..."

"Did you notice something?"

"No, I didn't?" Harold was confused.

"That day before we brought them like dogs to serve our needs to break into Ryou's mansion, they all looked hopless and weren't even determined enough to betray us. For them, it was more like an average task being asked by the police."

"Hmm, now that you ask me about it..." Harold began thinking.

"But suddenly, the next day, they all looked surprise as if they had discovered something very weird, didn't you notice that either?"

"At the Jail cell when I came to pick them up, ah, now that you speak of it, they did look as if they have a plan!"

"After catching tons of criminals, I have an experience and just enough predictions to know how a criminal looks when they have hopes of escaping a hell hole they are stuck in." Edrick spoke creepily.

"And they looked just like that...isn't it?" Harold guessed it.

"Yes. The truth is, Aimi must have an ability that allows her to do this, stain the shirt, change the cloth, and let the body be wet."

"You don't mean it literally, do you?"

"Ofcourse not, this is a mere example of her ability." Edrick spoke

A silence took place between the two.

"Ahah...you make good jokes, Edrick. Now let's actually go to sleep, shall we?" Harold shrugged off whatever Edrick had said just now.

He'll get mad at me for not understanding anything he has said, right? Harold thought to himself.

Sfx: smile

"Hm, okay!" Edrick smiled as he patted Harold's back.

"Why, you're not mad?"

"Why should I be?"

"Huh?"

"I trust you, Harold. You will never forget whatever I said, and remember what my goal was after all." Edrick smiled.

"Huh? So you mean..."

"Yes, Catching Aimi red-handed, is no longer my goal."

"WHAT? THEN?"

"Calm down Harold, see through my eyes, one day, you will realise what I wanted to prove." Edrick said

Sfx: lay

"Aghhh...I'm going to sleep now. Yawn." Edrick went to sleep.

"Goals...huh?"

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After some time, in the Mansion

"The goal, ah, Harold, sorry for only telling you half the truth, it wasn't just to prove my theory... But..." Edrick spoke as he panted

Sfx: stab

STAB!

"AGHHHH- IT WAS TO USE MYSELF TO PROVE IT SO!" Edrick stabbed himself,

Thud!

And fell down.

After a while, the police officers

"This seems to be the work of Ryou, who's currently on the run." Kaito said.

"Maybe, for Edrick we shall do it." Yuko agreed.

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Truth is, Edrick never meant to frame Ryou for this case, as we know of, this is what Lee and Harold had discovered.

"Look, he killed himself to frame Aimi as the killer, but they took it as the wrong signal and thought he wanted to prove Ryou guilty...!" Harold exclaimed, back when he had visited Ryou's mansion with Lee.

But the truth was, that's not true either.

Edrick never planned to frame either Aimi or Ryou. He just used it as a mere justification to kill himself, or rather convince himself to die.

Moreoever, he wanted to prove Harold, when he would later investigate Edrick's death, which he did. He wanted to prove Harold how Aimi really did

Wet the cloth, stained it

Changed the clothes

But, the water remained on the body.

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Sfx: pant

Hff... Hff...

"Haah... That day, I couldn't understand a single thing Edrick that told me..." Harold panted as he said it.

"But then...when I found out his file on the Aimi case, I UNDERSTAND IT ALL."

"How does that concern us?" Ryou said.

"L-lets-"

"No, Aimi, let him talk." Ryou countinued.

"Ah, you need to just know that I've already won." Harold laughed st.himself as he said.

"I would ask you how, but I already know the answer." Ryou spoke.

"Y-you must be talking about all the people that are present here, isn't it?" Lisa spoke as she trembled with the gun she held in her hand.

"Oh, that? No, I'm not interested in arresting Aimi in the first place..."

"Huh?"

"You see, I've already won this case."

"I don't get you..." Lisa spoke.

Lisa thought that by betraying Harold, and now that Mai is unconscious with Harold shot, they have lost it all. How could he possibly win at this moment?

"The thing is, I have won by knowing about the 'curse' you have... And the fact that now Edrick's theory did not go in vain..." Harold spoke as he took a sip of air.

"What are you..." Ryou was shocked,he has never heard of anything like this before!

"WAIT- DONT LET HIM SPE-" Aimi panicked.

Rush! Leap!

"Can't let you go." Lisa said with a blank face.

"AGH!" Aimi was captured by Lisa

"Speak." Ryou couldn't contain his curiosity.

"Aimi is a cursed child. Her brother, Ray, is also a cursed child."

"How are they cursed...?"

"Say, you were the one who gave Aimi the knife on that day, in middle school massacre, right?" Harold spoke.

Sfx: shock

Badump!

"Eh-" Ryou was caught off-guard with this question!

He had never expected a topic of the past, that too more than eight years ago to be risen up at this point of time.

"Yeah... I was."

"Or is it?"

"Huh?"

Harold questioned if Ryou was truly the one who provided Aimi with the knife the kill the shooters, or if it was Ray who did this...

"How many people were there day ...?"

"Well, there were me, this girl-" Ryou began speaking as he counted the number of people on his finger

Suddenly, he was interrupted by Harold

"I wasn't asking you this question, let Aimi answer." Harold said as he clenched his first onto his chest, trying to stop the bleeding a little.

"H-huh?...!" Aimi was still pretty nervous and panicking.

It seems even the well-composed perfect Maiden Aimi could no longer be in one piece.

Was she broken?

"I-... It was..."

"Speak for my sake, Aimi." Ryou looked at Aimi, as he wanted the answers aswell.

"Eh-...?" With all the people looking towards Aimi, she was pressured into speaking the truth after all

"There was Me, those two men. A boy aswell."

"See, Ryou, It was you!" Harold exclaimed

But suddenly

"And..."

"Huh?" Harold was caught off-guard, he didn't expect another name?

"There was another boy, the one who provided me with the knife." Aimi spoke

From the bottom of her heart, she spoke the truth in one go as she said

"The boy provided me with the knife, a he said 'Dont be afraid...' and ran away. While the other boy killed those shooters with me." Aimi confessed.

And so, the mystery was solved.

That day, Ryou provided Aimi with the knife. While Ray and Aimi carried out the murder.

"B-but...this, contradicts whatever Edrick and me has found out-WAIT" Harold started started panicking as he realised Edrick's theory

Might be wrong afterall, or was it?

"I don't have much time left to die, confirm this, Edrick proved that you would stain the shirt, change the cloth and yet the water would remain onto a body. That's how you rewinded each day to your liking, right?" Harold spoke quickly.

"I-...no! What are you saying?! What curse?!" Aimi was already in tears, but hearing this mad her more fragile as she defended herself with weak arguments.

"So, hear me, Ryou..." Harold said

"AHN- N-NO!" Aimi trembled

"Let him say what he wants, he's going to be dead sooner isn't he?!" Lisa panicked

"RYOU DONT HEAR WHAT HE SAYS-"

"Know this Ryou, ..."

"CLOSE YOUR EARSSSSSS.....!"

"Aimi has a curse, for each life she kills, she passed a day. If she doesn't kills, her day would repeat, only in love..." Harold spoke as blood rushed through is chest, the bullet now had really affected his health.

"Huh..." Ryou couldn't believe his ears, whatever he had heard

Was this all true? Is this real? Was this, not a lie? What was this, that Ryou had just heard?

"Eh-..." His face froze

Snatch!

"UWA-"

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"Haah...haah..."

"AIMI...!"

"Edrick...you were correct all along, let me now, join you...in hell, or heaven. Wherever you are. Goodbye."

Harold said as his eyes finally closed, for eternal peace.

He had achieved everything he had wished for, that included proving Edrick right.

He was a simple man, a man of wit. A man of true courage and knew the best what it feels like to lose a loved one.

"...welcome back, Harold..." A translucent voice spoke to Harold, which Ryou and the others couldn't see.

With this, Harold passed away, a not so peaceful yet fulfilled death.

Blessed are those who die peacefully with their loved ones surrounding them at their sides.

But maybe Harold wasn't so blessed.

[Ryou's Perspective]

Maybe the well composed Aimi isn't always so composed after all.

Even SHE can break her charector and lose all hope too, huh?

"She has a curse... To pass a day..."

AGHHH!

What was that?!

Did Harold decieve me?!

Was this a method of fooling me?

"The curse..."

"HAH-" Aimi gasped as

Rush!

Hug!

"Auf..." Aimi muffled as she rushed into my arms, hugging me as tightly as she could.

"Not a timing to make a face like that, if I have witnessed two murders infront of me..." I said in an embarassed yet blushing voice.

Her body,

Sfx: press

Her arms, her hair, her chest

...

"So familiar, isn't it? You are home, to me." I said in a calm tone.

Sfx: cry

Aimi began crying, as she said

"Hff..hff...i- I'm sorry!" In a frail, low and a weak voice

"...that won't do..."

The curse, passing a day, her counting days as if it's a normal thing for her, the reason, behind for killing

And most importantly,

"Only in love..."

What could this possibly mean?

I've got to investigate all of this.

And so,

"Answer me, Aimi, what is the curse?"

"I-..."

She did not answer.

"I-...I promise to not kill..."

"That wasn't what I had asked you, Aimi." I spoke.

"This curse, 'only in love', passing a day, Aimi, promise me..."

"You will never ever kill a person again, right?"

Sfx: twitch

"Right..."

She didn't seem motivated.

"Remember our contract?"

Next, I add

"For each life you spare, I surrender myself to you for the day."

"Let's upgrade it to..."

"For sparing all lives, I surrender my life to you for the eternity."

To which

Sfx: smile

She smiled.

"Then so be it, surrender your entire existence into my authority, and I will harm nobody, ever again." She proposed.

Sfx: nod

I agreed to her proposal.

"We still have to deal with the others, Lee and them, right?" Lisa spoke in between

"Ah, right!" I forgot!

I don't see Michael in this room, where could he be?

Well, whatever

"So, I should begin by clearing the obstacles between my Ryou, isn't it?" Aimi spoke with an evil smile in her face.

"Still wicked as ever, huh?" I shrugged.

Sfx: walk

As she walked towards the electric board, where she picked up a needle, she said

"Let's begin a fire, shall we?"