Cassiopiea

Cassiopiea
chapter III; �s�^���r-fu'un kohitsuji(unfortunate lamb)

The police station was small but effecient with only four rooms for the policemen to work in, a filing room, storage area, and a small jail in the back. When ever the need to lock someone up for longer than a month then the inmate was simple shipped over to a larger city where he would be tried and conviced of whatever kind of crime had been commited. The policemen themselves where friendly and kind. They knew when to be leanant and when to be sturn, thus the reason why most citizens of the city called them "the fathers of the town". Many times the larger cities have tried to transfer these men and women over for their skill, to better their own police force. But at each offer or demand they were refused. The policemen enjoyed their small town with large tourist attraction. To them, they had strived so hard to be good at their job in order to ensure the safety of the people that had faces they recognized. This sleepy town meant a lot more to them than anything else. It was their home, where their families had grown, anors ors had died, and leaving the town meant leaving everything you cherished behind. That was probably the key thing that made Hyoga admire these people. Even though he fought so hard for the safety of the world he too had his home in Saiberia. It was the one thing that he could connect regular people with, that feeling of belonging somewhere.

When he had introduced himself he was greated by a young woman. She looked very plain in her blue uniform, the cap on her head hiding her dusty blond hair. Tomanoman did not bother to give her name but only rambled on about how grateful they where to have someone from the Kido company to show an intrest in helping them out. The vast networking of information that the Grand Foundation had was legendary to those who knew about it.

Opening the doors to the filing room she addressed the Russian, "Mr. Kido, I apologize but you will have to share with our pervious guest. I would have liked to give you the files in private but due to the tleftleft in the day..."

"It's alright," Hyoga felt something grate at his nerves from being called Kido. Perhaps it was because he never liked that family. It took a while for Saori to become a friend of his after he recieved his Cloth. Her previous actions when they were children left its burn on his soul, something that one could not easily heal from. She had been cruel when she was a child, always beating on the group of orphens adopted by her grandfather just because they did not have parents themselves. When she had realized that she too was adopted the abuse went down ever so slightly for a while, then intensified as if she was trying to vent the hatred and shame she felt for herself for being "one of their kind". Thinking back, it was a hidious childhood filled with fighting, training, verbal and physical abuse. He couldn't even count how many times he had bled by young Saori's hands alone. But now he knows that the girl, now grown into a lovely woman, regrets harming them. Before she had left to live in Sanctuary he recalled hearing her cry at night saying things about how she could never ask for forgiveness to all those she had harmed when she was a young child. And that gave him a sense of closure, she had learned a lesson and through that it made him proud that he was Athena's Saint. She was strong in the sense that she accepthatthat she had done wrongs, that they can't be forgotten, and now all she can do is try to make up for it. He had known so many that would either forget what they had done, run away for their past, etc. Indeed, considering all things, he was lucky to be Athena's Saint.

"You okay there?" a woman spoke while standing up from her hiding spot from behind a large box of files.

"Uh, yes," he shook himself from his memories to acces the stranger before him.

She was kind of pretty. Her hair short, smoothed out to flair in the back as two long locks of the red brown hair framed her face and laid on her rather bountiful bossum accented by the black shirt she wore. Her skin was tan but on the pail side and her eyes where green-blue and sparkled with something that caused a warry fascination to boil up in side his gut. Her hips where round but seemed to still have trouble holding up the army paints that she adjusted while reading a file, the belt already tightened to as tight as it will get.

"So," she walked around still reading, at times she would stop just to rock her weight from one foot to the other. "You here to research the Zodiac Case?"

"Zodiac?"

She looked up at him with a look of 'where have you been', "Um... yeah, the recent string of murders."

The blond frowned while fully stepping into the room, closing the door behind him. "Why are they called that?"

"Because so far, the only pattern the cerial killer has is following the zodiac," she held out a file for him to take. "What's your name?"

"Hyoga," he took the folder and started to thumb through the text of the files.

"Neat, call me Kraken," Cygnus raised his head at this, not many people would have that name. The redhead ignored the curious look she was recieving and continued on with sharing information, "As I said, it seems that the killers are only following the zodiac. The style of which the murders are conducted are biezzar though."

"What do you mean?" he flinched when coming up to a photograph.

"Well, as you can see," she offered him a seat that he took. Rounding him she sat on the table that had folders and note paper stroon through out the top, "You've got the Cappricorn file. There have been two of these so far and both people have been killed in the same way. Their fingers where cut off while they where still alive, probably the first injury done to the body. Then the rib cage was removed, optopsy says it was cut out and they think by some kind of saw. But from what I've seen the bones are too clean cut and here's an interesting tidbit for ya, the rib cages where never found."

Blue eyes narrowed on the picture he held, "Almost as if it was done in one blow."

There was a knock on the door. Kraken jumped up and opened it to be handed a plastic bag she thanked the person for delivering it and closed the door. Taking her prevous seat on the table she set the sack down and started to rumage through it, pulling out a styrafoam box.

Popping the top she continued, "Right, so what the hell could cut through bone, let alone a whole rib cage, in that manner." She started to eat away at a babiqued rib as she continued on, "Now then, the rib cages where never found. And after the removal of the rib cage the organs still remained intact, meaning the person was still alive. After bleeding to death the stomach was peirced and a half of a foot of intestin was removed," she nibbled away at her food.

Hyoga watched her feeling his stomach churn. It was very abnormal to be eating, let alone something like BBQed ribs, whiled looking at the kind of gorry photographs that he held which she was pointing to and explaining about.

"Sorry, haven't eaten today," she mentioned before continuing on. "As I was saying, a foot of intestin was removed as well, that too remains at large."

"Back to the Zodiac, they're following along it as you said. So there have been 23 victims?"

"No, They started off with Cappricorn for some reason, and who ever is doing it is killing in sets of two. Currently they are on Cancer, the first victim has already been claimed."

The blond closed his eyes trying to shut out the sounds of her eating in hopes it would calm his nassia, "Do you suppose they're killing to keep the times of the year?"

"What do you mean?"

"What I mean is, the first murder was commited on December 22nd, the second one was on January 4th, according to the files. Each zodiac covers two months."

"I would clap at your briliance if I wouldn't get BBQ sauce all over the place," she laughed a little. "But you're right. The last muder was done on June 21st, so far nothing in July."

"Then that gives us up until the 22nd to figure out who will be next, any pattern between the times of the muders yet?"

"Nope, they're speratic almost as if the perpitrator does it on a whim," she made a thick, wet, snapping sound when breaking a rib bone.

"Could you eat some where else?"

She snorted, "Oh yeah sure. You just have no stomach."

"Huh?"

Kraken slid off of the table grabbing the rest of her food, "Well I'm about done here anyway. Later, No stomach."

With that she scurried out of the room leaving a rather large sauce mess on the door knob. Hyoga was only thankful that she had dropped a few napkins on the way out. Now alone, he leaned back in his chair looking at the open folders that she left behind. As he had suspected, they were the case files on the other murders. With a sigh he busied himself.

@'--- ---'@

Night. Such a beautiful blanket that covered the earth telling it to recover from the harsh day's work. Dark creatures move about in the shrouds of shadows preying upon the weak. Eyes of a cat reflect the light of the street as she darted half way across the road only to pause and look around, causous of being followed. With a jingle of a bell the feline skittered into the shadows of a bush to rest and wait.

Clacking of heavy footsteps echoed through out the cobble stone avienue stopping to remain in the shadows. The darkness of night seemed to thicken, snuffing the radiacane of the street lights creating a fine line between darkness and light. Green blue eyes sparkled with excitement at the sound ofeoneeone approuching. The footsteps haulted, all that could be seen were the large bundle, wrapped in a white sheet, and the hands clutching the form close.

"Don't get too upset, you'll see him again," the man held out his hand in the light. The blue and silver armor adorning it sparkled like moonlight.

The person hessitated before holding out the figure. Some of the white cloth that covered the form slipped down reveiling a pale hand that sagged with long golden locks falling around the flesh. The strange man took the hand and tucked it back in with a great deal of care before taking the body.

"How many are left?"

"Only two...." the person's voice was saddened.

"A pleasure to hear," the green-blue eyed man craddled the body carefully. "Is there anything I should know about?"

"The... the Bronze Saints have arrived. They're the best saints Athena has."

"I'll keep that in mind. Just remember that we need the other two with in three days or else," the strange man turned and walked off in the shadows. The clacking of his armor disappearing along with the deep shadows that sufficated the town, leaving the street lamp to glow once more revealing a young man with wild brown hair and two blue dots for eyebrows.

To Be Continued...