Yellow police tape.
Red and blue sirens.
Black spirals.

How long had you been stumbling around in here? How long would you remain hopelessly trapped in this psychotic, psychedelic hell?
This was the most bizarre thing that had ever happened to you in your life. Forget the weird string of murders recently, forget coming across a body yourself. Hell, forget going to the police station and first feeling that foreboding sensation in the air around you.

It all started when you went into that room...

…

“I'm so sorry you had to go through this, truly I am. You must be feeling pretty scared right now.”
“Not scared, just...shocked.”

Tohru Adachi was a kind person, you thought. When you initially arrived at the station for questioning you were slightly afraid that Dojima would be the one doing it. Not that you disliked the man or anything, you just found him a little intimidating.

Adachi was a tad dense, but you liked how sheepish he was. In many ways that clumsy nature reminded you of yourself. Perhaps that was what drew you to him.
“Here's your tea.”
He was kind enough to make you some, just a plain and kind of tasteless sort, but he explained with some embarrassment:
“We don't have much better here at the station, hehe...”

“It's fine, thank you.” you smiled weakly and sipped some, at least comforted by the heat of it. The room you were being questioned in was kind of warm anyway but you still had chills after what you'd witnessed.

How could it be explained? How did that body even...get so high...?

“Sorry to push you at all [Y/N] but we really should get started with the questioning.” Adachi apologetically pulled out a notepad and flipped it open to a few pages in, clicking his pen. “Don't feel any pressure, but do try to answer me honestly.”
“I will...” you set down your cup and cleared your throat.

“Good.”

It didn't go on for too long, but it felt like an age. You answered him as best as you could, voice only quivering now and then. It wasn't so bad being asked by someone that kindly, but recalling the details still turned your stomach.

Thankfully, eventually, he closed that notebook.
“Alright [Y/N], that's all I need to ask you. Thanks for your cooperation. Though I'm sorry-!” he noted something with suddenly wide eyes, “-I must have made your tea go cold...”
“Oh!” Remembering the cup beside you, you glanced over and touched the liquid with your fingertip, leaving a slight ripple. It really was quite cool.

“Let me get you another, since I distracted you.” Adachi stood immediately but you shook your head, getting ready to stand too.
“I appreciate it but I really should get going-”
“No no, I insist [Y/N]. Seriously, sit down.”

For once he almost sounded firm about it. Yet when you looked up at him you only saw that same bold yet shy man who you had met earlier this year when you first moved here. Someone who came across as simple minded even though he was a detective. A good guy by all means.
“Well...if I'm not encroaching.”
“Haha, of course not!”

Seeming pretty damn happy about your decision to stay, Adachi walked to the machine happily to get another teabag and some more hot water for it. Meanwhile you sat there, still a little stiffly, at the table. The rubber toe of your canvas shoe absent-mindedly kicked the metal leg beside you as your eyes scanned the room. It was a dim place, pretty damn dull, but not uncomfortable. Just drab.

The table was clear of anything but the empty saucer for your cup and a few blank papers. The cork-board on the wall was plastered with obvious news, all about the killer that had been terrorizing Inaba. Newspaper articles, photographs, maps, you name it. Any scrap of a clue that could help draw together a conclusion.

Eyes drifting to the blank screened TV in the corner, you sighed a little, catching sight of your tired reflection in it. You could only hope that they caught this guy soon before he killed anyone else. Such a monster...

“Here you are, sorry for the wait-”
It really hadn't been much of a wait at all, Adachi was back in seconds. He closed the door and you didn't even hear it lock over your own noisy thoughts. He set the cup of tea before you and you gazed at it longingly, before finally lifting the cup and drinking some of it. It went down smoother this time around. You were starting to relax a little.

“Do you have any particular time you need to be back home by?” Adachi asked out of the blue, glancing up at the clock on the wall. Looking that way too, you then shrugged and turned your eyes back to him again.
“7PM I guess, why?”
“Oh good, I mean-” Suddenly flustered, he rubbed the back of his neck with some degree of fury, “-I don't have any more tasks today so it would be nice to have a little company to pass the time, even just for a little while.”

Admittedly that turned your cheeks pink too. Maybe you hadn't noticed it before, but was Adachi...interested in you? You were legal, that was something he didn't need to stress about, but there was still a big enough age gap for you to have always assumed that he saw you as a kid anyway. Certainly you had predicted your little heartfelt feelings for him would go unnoticed, forever one-sided.
Yet maybe you were in luck?

“Sure...I'd be happy to.” you eventually said, and he relaxed his tense posture when you agreed.
“Aha, awesome.”

Time passed. He got himself some coffee and brought through some biscuits too, urging you to stay hush hush about it considering he wasn't supposed to be snacking on the job right now.
“I'm surprised it's so quiet considering...” you uttered, and Adachi explained:
“Most of us have been out investigating in the field, so I guess I got lucky pretty much getting the station to myself tonight.”

Just about, though you weren't sure you'd call it 'lucky'. It was a little too quiet...so you were grateful to keep having conversations with him. The topics ranged from school to work to friends to hobbies to cabbages of all things, but eventually time had crept on enough that your curfew was approaching. Adachi didn't seem to clock this until you stood up.

“Right, I really need to go now. Thank you again though.” you told him, pulling your satchel over your shoulder. He stood too, straightening his suit a bit.
“You're going right now?”
“Yeah, it's nearly 7PM-” you explained with your back already turned to him, pretty certain he was checking the clock and seeing you were correct.

“Thanks for the tea and the talk-”
You repeated yourself somewhat and reached out to push the door handle down, only to be met with resistance. It caught you off-guard enough that you almost smashed your nose against the door.
It wasn't...opening?

Why?
Why wasn't it opening?

You tried again, rattling the handle a few times before turning to Adachi.
“Did you lock the door? I need to leave.”
“Oh! Yeah I did.” he smiled at you with wide eyes.
“Well I...need to go so...”
“...You need the key?”

Suddenly he produced it from his pocket, holding the glinting piece of metal up in the air. You smiled with some awkward relief.
“Yes.”
“Hmm.” Adachi pulled the key before his eyes, before then tapping it against his bottom lip a few times. You sweated. What the hell was he doing?

To your horror, he simply shoved it back in his pocket.
“Sorry, no can do.”
“...Excuse me!?” you exclaimed, completely baffled. Was he playing some sort of prank on you? “Sir, what's going on? I don't understand-”

“Why don't you sit back down and I'll explain everything.”
Something about his voice was different. Something about his face was shadowed. You pressed tight against the door and kept your sweaty palm on the handle, tightly gripping it.
“No I...I want to go home now.”
“...Didn't you hear me [Y/N]?” he tilted his head, eyes as wide and blank as ever, “I said sit down.”

You probably planned on protesting again, but you were oh so predictable. Adachi stormed over and grabbed your arm before you could, flinging you away from the door so hard that you ended up slamming against the edge of the table, bruising your side.
“OW!”
You curled up immediately, pained and holding yourself. Adachi checked the handle and examined his palm after he pulled his hand away, clenching and unclenching it a few times.

“Wow! You really are tense!”
“You-!!” Struggling to your feet you already saw him coming for you in a blur of black and red.
“What? What about me?”

You stumbled out of his way, letting his hands slam against the empty space on the table. Practically falling over your own feet you panted and panicked, back meeting the wall just by the television. Adachi's head remained hanging for a moment, as his body quivered violently with chuckles.
“Hehehehe...you really are fast [Y/N]. Nice one...”

When his head raised again to look at you, you were struck with a sight that made your blood run cold. His once placid and endearing expression was now twisted into something truly monstrous. His face seemed barely big enough to contain a smile so wide, his once calm hazel eyes now beady pricks. The jovial, awkward blabbermouth had become a creature you couldn't recognize.

Yet you did recognize him, didn't you? He was the one behind it all. The very reason why you had come to the station so pale faced this evening. He had to be, why else would he be acting this way?
He was the killer.

“Figure it out yet? Clever girl, I was wondering when you'd catch on~” Adachi pulled his hands away from the table top and started to calmly pace around the side of it, making his gradual way towards you. You pressed ever tighter with the wall behind you, willing it to swallow you whole. Your legs felt weak and shaky, your knees ready to buckle beneath you. You blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

“D-did you drug my tea!?”
Adachi blinked, looking at you with a supreme sort of innocence.
“How easy do you think it is to walk into a police station carrying drugs? Come on [Y/N], you're smarter than that.”

One. Two steps.

“...Monster.”
His face contorted cruelly.
“Maybe.”

Three...four...five...

“...Let me leave...”
Adachi's lips curled with amusement and he looked aside with his eyebrows in his hairline.
“Ah...are you some sort of idiot, [Y/N]?”

Coming closer and closer...

“Now you must be feeling pretty scared. Right~?”

You tried to move. You tried to bolt. He was faster this time.
Palms slamming to the wall like they had done so upon the table, your eyes met with an arm suddenly when you moved, and you fell back only to meet another. Before you, his chest, and above you his head, looking down at you with cruelty as you shied against the plaster once more.

“...The world's pretty shitty, isn't it? Filled with bitches and whores...” Knowing you weren't going to try running again, Adachi relaxed his stance and allowed one hand to drift over your shoulder, fingertips then tracing along what collarbone was showing outside your shirt.
“But you...I always knew you were different from them. The very first moment I saw you I realized you were smarter than any of them. Because you saw it, didn't you?”
Revelingin the way you shuddered, he allowed his drifting hand to cup beneath your jaw, thumb and fingers pressing deeply into your plush skin. Adachi leaned in closer, engulfing you further within his tall shadow.
“That I'm also far better than any man out there. We're on equal ground in that way, though of course you still have a lot to learn.”

His lips met your ear and he whispered seductively:
“...I'll give you some lessons in respect...”

Immediately you started struggling again, punching and lashing out against his imposing figure with your hands and feet, quickly finding it was useless. His laugh echoed in your head as he pulled back and grabbed your collar, hauling you with him towards the very thing you had been staring at so intently earlier.

The TV.

Tears welled and trickled down your cheeks as he spun you round and slammed your back against the screen, pinning your wrists painfully. Looking up at him in terror you shook your head.
“I-I didn't know you were like this!!”
“Yeah, because I'm a really good actor.” he grinned all too happily, and a sob escaped you. His sick smile faded a little, and he removed one hand just to bring it to your face again. Thinking he was going to hurt you, you flinched, but his thumb only softly rubbed away a tear.

“Don't cry [Y/N]. This is a happy moment, trust me.”
“Y-you killed a-all those people!”
“Nobody that didn't deserve it.”
“You're a--a monster!!”
“Hahh...you've said that alre-”

Your now free hand careened across his face and struck his cheek hard enough to make the crack echo. Immediately you froze, and a sudden cry of pain left you in his place as his other hand tightened on your wrist, enough that it threatened to snap. Whimpering, you shook your head again, the same digits that had delivered that blow now raising to your lips and curling in fear.
“I-I-I'm sorry...”
You didn't even know if you really said it, your voice was so quiet.

Adachi's head slowly turned back, and you saw eyes that truly glowed golden, an expression so blank it was inhuman.
“Oh. I guess you really are the same.”

Suddenly your shoulders were seized instead and he slammed you even harder against the TV. When the screen opened up behind you, you thought it must have smashed. Yet...you could feel yourself being...sucked in? No broken shards around you, just a hollow space.
Eyes going even wider with dread, you opened your mouth to cry out for help.

“HEL-MMF-!!”

His lips quickly sealed yours shut, and you closed one eye with weak and wincing resistance as his tongue explored your mouth. Adachi kissed you ravenously to the point where you had no choice but to return some to make him stop. It was as if he had been waiting a long time for this chance.

You'd say it wasn't one sided anymore, but your own love for him had vanished completely now. If only you'd realized sooner how truly malicious he was...
When he finally broke free he let out a heavy, sultry breath, and gazed at you with hooded eyes. You were so stunned and shaken that you simply stared back up at him trembling.

A smirk grew again on his visage. He was already over that slap, because he knew he'd have plenty of time to hammer it into you. Lesson after lesson. Change you into exactly what he wanted. That was what they called 'character development', right?

The hands on your shoulders pushed hard, and the world you once knew became a box before your eyes. Within it, Adachi only showed that creepy, knowing smile. It grew wider still as his hands released you, letting you plummet with only a single parting statement:

“I look forward to watching you tonight...”