Chapter Text
August 9th
8:59 am
Bobby Fulbright’s house
The milk was spoilt.
There were no eggs.
Bread was starting to mould…
…and Bobby Fulbright was late for work.
What a way to start the day!
Bobby hurriedly combed his hair, trying to calm it down as fast as possible. He scooped up a handful of hair gel and pushed back his hair, making it as decent looking as possible. Though he couldn’t afford to be late, he also couldn’t show up to work looking like a homeless person.
When his hair looked perfect to him, Bobby practically jumped down the stairs, towards the living room and snatched his shades off the table. He was starving, and everyone knows that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but that was simply impossible at the moment.
Bobby got his jacket off the hook, grabbed all items necessary for the day and hurried out of the house.
When outside on the street, Bobby jumped onto his bike and pedalled like his life depended on it.
An old lady who lived in the same street as Bobby noticed him cycling by. She smiled and waved at him.
“Good day, Bobby!” she called after him, and in return received a grin from the man.
“Good morning, yaya!” he swiftly greeted back, passing the elderly woman.
His stomach was practically growling nonstop, but for now, he needed to live with it. He couldn’t be even later than he is now.
August 9th
9:12 am
Police department
Lucky for Bobby, a bicycle ride to the police department is a small 15-minute ride, 10 minutes if he was really fast. Which is applies in this case. Bobby arrived at the police department—though 12 minutes late—quicker than ever. He swooped his bag out of his bicycle and threw it over his shoulder. Bobby then hurried inside the building, praying that he would not be scolded for his belated arrival.
Unfortunately, that was not the case.
“Detective Fulbright!” A young woman’s voice called out to him. One of Ema Skye, a detective with the Criminal Affairs Department. Despite having only returned from her studies in Europe a few months ago, detective Skye has done excellent work here as detective.
“a-ah! Detective Skye!” Bobby jumped, “Is there something the matter?”
Detective Skye glared at Bobby. “Is there something the matter?!” she repeats, “Of course there is! You were supposed to be here—” she checked her phone for the time. “12 minutes ago!”
Bobby chuckled nervously and rested his hand on the back of his neck.
“Oh, yeah…” He adverted his eyes, “my apologies about that.”
Bobby reached into his pocket and flashed his detective’s badge at the woman in front of him with a beaming smile. “But next time, I won’t let justice wait for just one moment!”
Detective Skye stayed silent, looking at Bobby as if she were judging him.
She just doesn’t understand how important justice is! Detective Skye sighed, turning back around to her desk.
“Just get your work done…” she grumbled, just loud and clear enough for Bobby to hear.
“Yes ma’am!” he saluted and walked over to his desk where he sat down. Detective Skye muttered something along the words ‘don’t call me that’, but Bobby didn’t hear that.
—
The chief of detectives, Dick Gumshoe, approached Bobby just as he was about to sit down. He grinned and greeted Bobby
“Good morning, detective Fulbright!” He pat the other man on the back, “how ya doing, pal?”
Bobby turned to look at the chief. “Good morning, chief detective Gumshoe!” He responded, that same beaming smile still plastered on his face. “I’m doing perfectly fine, sir!”
Bobby fixed some of the paper scattered around his desk and organized them in a way that they would not disturb his working place. He had been so focused on getting everything perfectly organized that he wasn’t even paying attention to what Chief Gumshoe was saying.
“—And then you need to go here… Detective Fulbright?” Chief Gumshoe tried getting his attention by snapping his fingers in front if him. What was apparently a success, because at that moment, Bobby snapped out of his train of… not-thoughts.
“H-huh?” Bobby said as he returned to earth from brain-empty planet. “I-I’m sorry sir, could you maybe repeat that?” He grinned sheepishly. Chief Gumshoe raised an eyebrow.
“Are you sure you’re okay, Detective Fulbright?” He asked, his voice filled with slight worry. Bobby just nodded.
“Of course, sir” he waved his hands in front of his own face. “I just haven’t slept well yesterday. Haha!” Bobby laughed “It was like it was new years eve!”
The chief didn’t think that was an all to funny joke, he gave an awkward chuckle before returning to the topic at hand. Chief reached into his pocket and fished out a small piece of paper. He grabbed the pencil from behind his ear and wrote a location on it, he then handed the paper to Bobby.
“You have been assigned to a case,” Chief Gumshoe supposedly repeated, “the prosecutor is currently waiting for your arrival.” He nodded at the piece of paper—bow in Bobby’s hands. “That’s the location of the crime scene, pal!” He grinned.
“Hm…” Bobby hummed as he inspected the location written on the piece of paper. ‘Sunshine Colosseum, Concert Hall 4’ was written in messy handwriting. Readable, but still messy.
“And who is this prosecutor working on the case?”
Chief Gumshoe paused. “Prosecutor Franziska von Karma.” He then said. “So, if I were you, pal—and I wouldn’t want hundreds whip marks on my face, I’d go right now.”
Bobby had worked with prosecutor von Karma before and has a… quite close bond with the woman’s whips. So, Bobby nodded and hurried out of the building, onto his bike, to the Sunshine Colosseum! In justice we trust!
August 9th
9:23 am
Sunshine Colosseum – Concert Hall 4
“You’re on time…” Prosecutor von Karma scowled, crossing her arms. “You’re quite early, in fact.”
A long silence settled between the prosecutor and the detective. Prosecutor von Karma seemed to be deep in thought. Eventually, she cracked her whip and whipped Bobby’s arm with it. Bobby let out a yelp. What was that for?! He was early! What other reason would there be to whip him?
“You’re being to foolishly quiet!”
…
…this was going to be a long investigation.
But anything for justice to be served!
August 9th
5:47 pm
Sunshine Colosseum – main entrance
Bobby felt like he was dying. His head was throbbing, his sleeves were covered in dirt marks from prosecutor von Karma’s whip and his stomach was growling like a freaking bear at this point!
Prosecutor von Karma cracked her whip and Bobby swiftly jumped away. She glared at him.
“Fool!” Her apparent nickname for Bobby, “we have arrested the suspect… you did excellent work.” She said, a rare compliment. Bobby smiled, still scared that she could whip him any moment.
Prosecutor von Karma continued sharing all the details, “let’s go over this once again.” She started, “we have arrested one Gimmy Alexandria Braike, the receptionist at The Paige Turner library. That fool of a woman has been accused of murdering one famous—” she made air-quotations around the word ‘famous’, probably because she herself had never known about the victim. “—science influencer, Kat Curiosity. Who had been present at a concert yesterday together with the suspect. The suspect’s fingerprints were found on the murder weapon, and a motive is yet to be figured out.”
“Did you write that down, detective Fool?”
Bobby nodded, trying to ignore the screaming and crying of the suspect being arrested in the background.
“I DIDN’T DO IT!” the suspect, Gimmy Alexandria Braike cried, “SHE BEST FRIEND! I DIDN’T DO IT!”
“That’s what they all say, Ms. Braike.” The officer snarled as he tightened the handcuffs around Braike’s wrists and lead her into the police car to the police station.
The two of them watched as the police car drove away, and it was quiet as if nothing gruesome had ever happened. Prosecutor von Karma had this paining look in her eyes, though barely noticeable.
She turned away from Bobby, her back facing him.
“You are dismissed.”
Bobby placed his fists on his hips and grinned. “You also did quite the excellent job, prosecutor von Karma!” he said. “In justice we trust!”
She could’ve smiled, she could’ve frowned, but Bobby didn’t see that anyway.
Alright! Now Bobby just had to hop on his bike, pedal towards the closest convenience store and buy whatever filled his stomach! God, he could pass out from the hunger. Bobby reached into his bag pulled out… his house key? No, he didn’t need those right now. He needed the keys to his bike lock.
His phone…
A pair of extra white gloves…
A small MED-kit in case of emergency…
His water bottle…
…and some other necessities for basic crime scene investigation.
But not his bicycle keys.
Where on earth were they?!
Maybe he dropped them somewhere near the bike itself?
The bike was gone. It was stolen, probably. How unjust! Who would dare commit such a crime!? Irritation started building up and Bobby almost kicked the tree he had parked his bike against out of anger. But he quickly calmed himself down. ‘That wouldn’t be fair, Fulbright,’ he scolded himself. ‘The tree did nothing wrong!’
Trees can feel too! And kicking one would not be okay.
Bobby sighed irritatedly and clenched his fists. He was going to catch this thief an bring them to justice!
Ggrroowwll…
But maybe he should first eat something.
August 9th
6:11 pm
Bus stop – People Street
Lucky for him, Bobby could afford a bus ticket to a place close to his house. He bid the bus driver farewell and got off the bus.
“In justice we trust!” He had exclaimed before taking his final step out of the bus.
Now he needed to find a convenience store, so he could buy something like a meat bun. God, was he hungry.
—15 minutes later—
Bobby left the store, a steaming pork meat bun in hand. He was enjoying every single bite of it.
On his way back to his house (curse the person who stole his bike! It was so unjust!), he walked through the People park.
The birds were chirping, and a squirrel was gathering different varieties of nuts, probably for when the wintertime comes around.
There was a small nest with ducks all resting together, how adorable. Bobby almost teared up because of the cuteness— hey, where’s his meat bun?
Bobby heard a bird’s wings flutter and turned around. And his suspicions were correct, because there was a dove, with a half-eaten pork meat bun in its beak.
“HEY!” Bobby called out and ran after the bird. The bird was fast, but so was Bobby.
Small problem, though.
Bobby couldn’t fly.
He reached the point where the bird flew back into its nest, fore-chewing the meat bun and feeding it to the two chicks inside the nest. Bobby sighed, at least someone enjoyed the bun.
‘They needed it better than me!’ he thought, ‘I can always buy another one!’
Just then, he noticed a tall woman with long, messy black hair, she seemed to have something small on top of said hair. She was standing in front of the tree the meat bun thief had fled to
“Alright Dove-dono.” …now that Bobby hears their voice, he realizes that maybe it wasn’t a woman, oops! “You needn’t worry, you shall be back in your own home soon enough.” The man with long hair said. What a fancy way of speaking, Bobby thought, chuckling to himself.
The man started climbing the tree, carefully testing the durability of each branch before stepping on to them. When the man reached a large and sturdy branch, he sat down, resting for a bit, but swiftly stood up and reached for the nest where the meat bun thief had fed its children.
When the man carefully made its way back to the ground, Bobby noticed that there were now 3 baby doves in the nest.
‘He helped a baby dove back to its nest!’ Bobby thought, clutching his chest, he was almost in tears again. ‘How just of him!’
But just as he wanted to approach the man and compliment him for his heroic actions, he heard a noise.
CRACK!
THUD!
And right there before him laid a body. Still breathing, but—luckily not severely—bleeding from his knees and arms. Bobby’s eyes widen, he had just witnessed someone falling after saving someone! What should he do?!
He frantically rummaged through his bag, desperate to find something. Then he found the small MED-kit he always packed in case of emergency. He opened the thing and fished out some cotton pads, plasters, and bandages
He rolled the man carefully over onto his back. He now actually got a good look at the man’s face, and he had to admit, he was very attractive. The man had eyebags, and mascara running down his face, sure, but he still was very pretty.
Wait— what is he doing?! There’s someone hurt on the ground in front of him!
Bobby shook his head. He grabbed a cotton pad and used the water in the bottle to wet the thing. He pat it onto the wounds carefully, trying to stop the from bleeding so he could stick a plaster onto it.
When the man’s wounds were covered up and/or wrapped in bandages, Bobby sat down on the bench next to the man. He couldn’t simply leave him alone! That would be so unjust!
But what should he do now? What should he do when he wakes up? Ugh… Bobby hoped he was okay.
Bobby grabbed the phone out of his bag and went into his contacts. He had to call someone who always had advise whenever he never knew what to do. He scrolled through his contacts and clicked on the contact named ‘Theia’.
He called the number, bouncing his leg while waiting for the elder woman to pick up.
Click.
“Hello?” A voice said. It was Diana Athanasiou, Bobby’s neighbor and friend. “Who is this?”
“Hiiii, Theia!” Bobby laughed awkwardly.
“Oh, Bobby, dear! Why are you calling me? Is there something wrong?”
Bobby scratched the back of his head, “well… I kind of have a problem over here…”
“Oh! Do tell!”
Bobby started explaining the situation as quickly as possible, about the large (attractive, though he didn’t mention that) and long haired man, his heroic deeds and that he fell down to the ground.
It was silent on the other end for a while, She was thinking about what to say, probably.
“How about you bring him to your house?”
“Huh?”
“Yeah! Bring him to your house, so I can come over and treat his wounds better!” Diana explained. “I assume you only wrapped the wounds in bandages and such?”
It was true, he didn’t do more than any average human being would do when they saw someone with wounds sprawled out on the floor, but it was still embarrassing when Diana said it like that
“But Theia! I can’t bring a stranger into my house, right?” Bobby protested, “what if he’s a criminal or something?”
“Didn’t you say he helped a birdie to its nest again?” Diana countered, “doesn’t sound pretty criminal to me.”
Bobby was silent for a while, he couldn’t think of anything to object to.
“I suppose you have a point.” Bobby admitted.
It seemed like Diana wanted to say something, but before she could even let a word out, Bobby heard a groan coming from the man.
“Oh my!” He gasped, “Theia, I think he’s awake! I’ll call you back later!” He quickly hung up before Diana could say goodbye.
The man rubbed his eyes and sat back up straight. Bobby smiled.
“Ah, you’re awake!” He exclaimed, looking over to the man. “You’re very lucky, sir! If no one had been here, your skull might’ve been completely cracked open!” He joked. The man turned his face towards Bobby with wide eyes.
“I jest, sir!” Bobby chuckled, but the man was already back to laying on the ground. It seemed that he had fainted. “Your skull isn’t damaged at all, I think, and—oh my goodness you passed out!”
Ok so now he was panicking a bit more now.
August 9th
6:50 pm
Bobby Fulbright’s house
“What happened to ‘I can’t just let a stranger into my house’?” Diana asked, raising an eyebrow. She raised the icepack from the man’s head for a few seconds. Bobby suppressed a groan but did grumble, something that she could not hear.
“It was an emergency!” Bobby protested, “AND! It would’ve been the most just thing to do!”
There was a stranger on Bobby’s couch, and Diana was holding an ice pack to try and lessen the bump on the man’s head caused by the fall. A few minutes earlier, Bobby arrived home and laid the man carefully on his couch. He then immediately called her, explaining the situation and asking her to help him.
—
“Do you know this man’s name, dear?”
“Well, he passed out before he could say anything, so no.”
“…”
“…”
“Well? What are you waiting for? Look through his bag for a clue to whoever he is!”
“Wh-what?! Theía, that’s violating someone’s privacy!”
“If you found a wallet on the ground, you’d check it to see who it belongs to, right? Go on, check his wallet or something. Éla*!”
—
Bobby thought it was a horrible idea to snoop through other peoples’ possessions, so Diana decided to rummage through it, looking for an ID or anything of the sorts.
By checking the contents of the wallet, they had found out that the man’s name was Sai Uman, and that he was 28 years old.
“Hmm… what a strange last name” Theia Diana hummed, inspecting the ID, it seemed pretty real to her. Bobby was looking over her shoulder, nodding along with her.
“Ok, you can put it back now!” He hurried, “Like I said, it’s not polite to go through peoples’ stuff!”
Diana rolled her eyes and stuffed the ID-card back in the samurai-themed wallet and placed it back into Mr. Uman’s bag.
“Now, then,” Diana clapped her hands together, “let’s have some tea, you can worry about the man later”
Bobby nervously looked over at the unconscious man lying on the couch. Is this even normal? How is she so calm? Surely Mr. Uman would be frightened by suddenly being in a strangers house. Would this be the most just thing to do? They could’ve brought him to the hospital, right? What will happen when he wakes—
“Bobby!” Diana called out, “what kind of tea would you like?”
“uhm… just an earl grey with honey, please.”
-6 minutes later-
Diana placed the teapot on the table and poured water into the mugs she had prepared with honey and sugar. She dipped two different teabags into the mugs and handed one of them over to Bobby. Diana opened the closet door and grabbed a plate with butter cookies, powdered with sugar. It were the kourabiedes* Bobby had baked a while ago for his sisters birthday.
“hey! How did you—”
“So, Bobby, dear.” Diana started, “I actually wanted to ask you a favour.”