Cachexia - I

Date: 13th of August 2030

Time: 12:00AM

"Like I said, I am not Niles! Or whatever the fuck are you all spouting! I told you this for numerous times and I actually showed you that I kill! I'm not a fucking runaway!"

The shout was actually heard from the other room now Jean is seated on the comfortable couch, just right after he was told to send the file directly to the Chief, who is now sitting in front of him with an unamused face. He folds his hands as he folds his legs also, scrutinising Jean thoroughlyーfrom head to toeーwhile letting the young officer drinks his warm tea leisurely.

"Why does it have to be you, out of all person to read that file?" Chief starts on his conversation with a mocking tone that grasps Jean's attention shortly after.

"It might be a fate, sir! I might not be assigned for this case, but I find things to be intriguing. I told you about everything I have pointed out in the call earlier. So... do you mind telling me what is going on?" Jean asks politely as he gestures one of his hands to the room next to theirs, listening to the lous crash and bangs.

The Chief rolls his eyes.

"Fairly speaking, I too, find the difference in that photograph you'd shown me. But what I don't understand is... what the other Division is thinking right now." The older male shrugged and winces in a reaction.

'I see... so searching a victim for the lost cause of a case. So the public wouldn't be bothered and closed case. I see how it is.' Jean concluded as he knits his eyebrows.

"Classic." He simply commented while shaking his head as well, finding things to be going awry sooner or later, especially if the public came to know the fraud side of this whole case.

"If you already know it's 'Classic', why would you even show up right now?" And that isn't really a question from the Chiefーmore like the thing Jean had to cope now he already learnt the truth.

As if nothing is fearsome for him, the young officer merely smiles.

"Well, sir, all is fair in justice." He returns to sip his tea again and closed his eyes. This time the Chief lets out a snort and gives him a menacing glare to the younger officer. "And by that, whatever would that mean?" He asks with a wave of hand that seems dismissing Jean with hopes or whatever blatant truth is there left for him to know.

Jean quickly stands on his own two knees in a reaction, smiling.

"Let me gather the truth and find the missing personーNilesーin person. I want to find the truth, even if I have to do things alone. No one really needs to know anything I do nor reporting anything if they came to know the result later." He smiles and starts heading to the door, grabbing the handle already.

"By this, you do know the risk well, do you not? Nothing will be covered if you mess up, boy. Even in the name of Justice you said about. Crazy youngsters who are blinded by justice would bring nothing but naught in the Law's side!" Chief actually asks for one last timeーa confirmation, Jean assumed.

"I do. That was why I decide to become a police. Instead of relying on sole payment alone and be a fraud cop who only knows how to point fingers at the innocent that look alike with the missing person." And Jean quickly walks out from the room itself, merely listening to how the Chief yells, 'you fucking irritable bastard' on the back as he starts to walk farther and farther away from that cursed room.

Listening to nothing, but his iron grip of justice.

His eyes are straight and looking at something really distant as his hearings listens to nothing but the clacking sole of his shoes.

"To find the truth itself is... justice."

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Date: ???

Time: ???

It was a bright day in the field. Everyone was happy with the amount of watermelons they had gotten during the summer now everyone gets their fair share of the juicy and mouth watering slices. A smile drapes on their lips as they ran around with the watermelons on the field, waving the slices like they had just gotten the treasure itself.

Everyone was happy.

Even Jean was happy.

Everything that happened made him happy.

Until a hand snatch two slices of his watermelons and drops it to the ground.

Then just like a storm brewing in the middle of the day, the laughter that was once there, died on its own.

"Why... did you do that?" Was what Jean asked as his eyes gotten cold in surface when he gets to see the watermelon was already trampled by those dirty shoes.

There was no answer, but laughter.

The laughter that gets even louder when Jean merely stares at the crushed fruit, that would be no longer edible judging by the appearance.

But Jean, was there.

"Unfair..."

Was what he said as he actually reached his hands to the fruit that is no longer having any of the former shape. He no longer listens to the laughters as his eyes were fixated to the remains of the watermelons down there.

"Unfair...."

Until he sees another pair of shoes crush the watermelon's remains, again, this time with a loud laughter that follows after, "look at him, this crazy kid actually is still fixated with the watermelon, still, even though its just a fruit! What a fucking weirdo!"

And it doesn't take him long for Jean to already find the sole of his shoes hitting whomever said those things. "Unfair..." Was what he kept saying as his eyes no longer had the warm color he used to have and actually finds his fist moves on its own as his sight actually gets redder in color.

And it gets even redder when he heard someone screaming 'help' from time to time. The color only grows bloody after his hands starts moving like he was possessed, and all he had in thoughts was that the color of the watermelon. Once there was no any voices heard to say anything about the watermelon, or even any laughter that follows, Jean smiles.

He actually looks up and smiles to whomever that was there at that moment, only to find disappointment instead: everyone was wearing frightened expression. And when he tried to reach his hands to them, everyone ran away.

'Why?' Jean asked as he actually chased after his friends to everywhere, but no one returned.

Not any single ones are talking to him anymore after that.

He kept on running to the streets ahead and waits for anyone who laughed there with him to return, but no one ever came to that field anymore.

No one... but him.

With his chapped skins.

Standing there, alone, waiting for the happiness to come.

❖❖❖

(Jean actually gets apprehended the next day to the police office, and was diagnosed with 'justice obsessed disorder', but was released the next day because he was still a kid and is under heavy theraphy to treat his concerning sense of justice; to made sure he won't condone yet another kind of crime he isn't even conscious of doing. Yet, he knows nothing of this until this very day.)

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