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To find someone that got themselves involved in a series of murders.
It sounded simple enough if only said series of murders weren't inside a novel written by Edgar Allan Poe.
When they received a call from Poe, a strange feeling settled inside Akiko's gut. The writer explained that during his "romantic getaway" with Ranpo, he felt someone entering one of his books.
The pair concluded it must've been Tanizaki. The Agency took turns to feed Karl, and it was Tanizaki's turn when Poe felt his ability activate.
Akiko headed to Poe's apartment the instant he was done explaining. Before leaving, she instructed Naomi to tell the first detective to walk through the door to hurry to help her.
As Ranpo predicted, the door was wide open, and the inside was complete mayhem thanks to that raccoon. Scattered books, broken plates, ripped papers, all the cushions in strange places, and the organized pieces of paper on the desk. The "book" that took Tanizaki.
It was a dreadful novel he wrote after watching a movie with Ranpo, something with recreational purposes he and Ranpo engineered after a bottle of vodka.
It was the lack of memory of its content that had Poe call the Agency. No one knew what kind of things Tanizaki had to face, and it was better to be safe than sorry.
The writer felt ashamed of its existence, but since Ranpo-kun helped him create it, he couldn't bring himself to throw it away. He figured it'd be alright as long as no one read it.
The book was a compilation of two short stories involving the same two characters: a detective and their assistant. In every story, the detective died, and the assistant had to figure out who the killer was. The detective came back for the next story with no explanation whatsoever of how could they have survived. Poe regretted his carelessness on the matter but, to Akiko, it was an advantage to know that, even if someone died, it wouldn't be for long.
"Yosano!" So Kunikida was the lucky first.
"I'm in here," she replied. Kunikida entered the living room, and his expression changed when he saw the disorder that reigned the room. He was probably thinking of ways to clean up, or that Poe didn't seem the type of guy who'd live in such conditions. At least at that degree. She smiled and picked up the novel. "Here's our detective."
"What do we know of the story?"
"Stories," she corrected. "A detective and their assistant get involved in three different cases where the detective dies, and the assistant has to figure out who did it."
"Do we know anything of the culprits?"
"Unfortunately, Poe and Ranpo were too drunk and can't seem to remember much about the plot."
"In other words, we don't know anything."
"Correct," she looked at the door, expecting someone else to come in. "Why didn't Dazai come too? Aren't you partners?"
"That bandage-wasting device was gone before Naomi could open her mouth."
Akiko looked away. "Is that so?"
Kunikida sighed and ran his hand through his bangs. He appeared to be thinking. After a few seconds, he placed his hands on his hips and took a deep breath. "There's nothing we can do except going in."
They'd worry about the raccoon later. Akiko walked to his side and spread the sheets in front of them. "I suppose so."
The leaned closer to the novel. Akiko tucked her hair behind her ears, and she began to read.
It was a quiet day at the job. As much as it could be when their case involved the Port Mafia...
Wait.
The feeling of being dragged appeared before they could formulate second thoughts, and then they were inside the novel.
They were inside a cafe. Pastel colors surrounded them, the white walls displayed many polaroid pictures of what Akiko guessed, were their customers. It was quiet, and they each had a cup of coffee in front of them.
Akiko glanced at her right and noticed they were next to a wall that consisted of a large window. She could see a busy shopping district outside with people carrying bags, children running around with food in their hands, and their parents close behind.
Staring at their reflexion, Akiko grimaced. Their disguises were a bit much.
She had long, blonde waves of flawless, synthetic locks that reached her waist and various layers of clothes on. She felt heavy.
Kunikida had a red scarf around his neck and a thin coat. She wished they hadn't changed his hair; black hair didn't suit him.
A phone rang. Kunikida patted his pockets in search of the sound, when he got a flip-phone out of an inner breast pocket, he answered.
"Yes?"
Well, he'd figure it out. While he had some sort of conversation, Akiko glanced around a bit more. The cutlery could work as a weapon, or someone could be poisoned or stabbed in the bathroom, a robber could come in and shoot someone. There was only another person. They had a facemask and pushed their food around the plate with dull eyes. A staff member was most likely to become the victim.
She found herself following the small creature running around.
They were either in an infested establishment or in a raccoon cafe. Knowing Poe, it was most likely the latter.
One came up her leg and snuggled on her lap. She ignored the faint pain on her leg and petted the raccoon. It needed to get its claws trimmed.
She heard the phone shut with a click. "Please, tell me it was someone that explained what we're doing here."
Kunikida pocketed the phone and got up. He threw a few bills on the table. "We're leaving, we've stayed too long, and it's starting to look suspicious."
Akiko placed the raccoon on the floor and gave it one last pat on the head. She opened the door for him, and they joined the people outside. She'd been in one of Poe's stories before and, if she learned anything during that time, it was that they had to let the story flow and not question anything until the first murder happened. "We're out, now explain."
"Sakaguchi Ango wants us to gather evidence that the raccoon cafe is one of the Port Mafia's fronts. An unclarified source informed him several illicit deals took place after closing hours."
"Illicit deals?"
They had been too drunk to think of such details. If they weren't clear, then the deals didn't have much to do with the case.
A shrill scream broke past the chatter of the crowd. Akiko would bet her pin it came from the cafe.
Kunikida was already running back. Akiko wondered which one of them was the detective. Please, not Kunikida.
Akiko ran after him.
All the raccoons trembled huddled in the corner. The dull-eyed customer was nowhere to be seen, but their food was untouched on the table. They made their way to the kitchen, where the dull-eyed customer stared dumbfounded at the old man Akiko guessed was the chef.
At first glance, it seemed like three shots to the chest. The sound of the gunshot was missing. A silencer.
Kunikida stepped forward and checked for a pulse. "He's dead."
Akiko sighed. It had started.
Akiko recognized them as part of the Back Lizard; they had attacked them when Atsushi joined, but she didn't know their names or abilities. Moreover, there was a missing member.
There was only one suspect. What the needed now was proof and a motive. She crossed her arms, who were these people? They knew nothing about them, and they couldn't blatantly announce they were detectives of the Agency in front a member of the Black Lizard.
The answer had to be somewhere in the cafe, Poe wouldn't write a murder mystery without evidence to solve it. Unless he wanted to challenge Ranpo, and he was by his side, giving him pointers on how to make it harder for him. Not to mention they had been drunk as fuck. This case could might as well not have any sense.
How were they supposed to solve mysteries designed to give the world's best detective a hard time?
"You investigate here," she ordered as she walked to the back door. "I'll go look for the other."
The alley was dark despite the time of the day. It was deserted. They hadn't stepped far away from the front door; if someone had left hey would've heard the bell chime. The back door was the only escape the ginger-haired brat had.
Nothing on her left.
Nothing on her right.
Nothing behind or in front.
She looked up. Several balconies faced the alleyway. There was no way he could've climbed to some of them. Only two could function as a hiding spot, and one of them had a convenient retractable ladder. She'd need Kunikida and his long legs to reach it.
The moment she turned to the door, she heard the sound of something hitting the concrete.
"How quaint of you to show yourself," she said turning to face the young man.
He reached into his pocket. "Couldn't miss this perfect chance."
The perfect chance for what? Kill her? Something more important than his position in the Black Lizard. A personal grudge? Akiko didn't remember ever hurting him.
She took a firm stance. Killing someone with the sole purpose of bringing her back. She wouldn't forgive him. "Hit me with your best shot."
"That's the plan," he chuckled. He took his hand out of his pocket. A gun?
She was pushed out of the way as he threw something. She set her hands in front of her to avoid crashing against the wall. She forced herself to stand upright and looked behind her.
Her heart beat fast. Too fast. She could hear the echo of her heartbeat booming in her ears. She felt sick, there was a lump in her throat, and she couldn't stop trembling.
Kunikida was the detective.
Her hand trembled over Kunikida's body. She'd fix it; he'd be alright.
There was a stinging pain coming from her hand. She ignored it.
She reached down towards Kunikida's cheek. She touched his hands, his neck, his forehead, every bit of exposed skin but nothing happened.
She couldn't breathe. She knew she was breathing, she was aware of the air coming in and out of her lungs, but it wasn't enough. The order was all messed up; she couldn't tell when to inhale when to exhale.
"He's already dead."
"Shut up!"
Tears fell down her cheeks into Kunikida's clothes. Her eyes focused and she noticed the trails of blood on his skin. How did that happen?
She looked at her hand; the reason why Kunikida was so bloodied. She could've sworn she used to have five fingers. Now there were two missing.
"I was ordered to kill the future president of the Armed Detective Agency, I figured that if I reported some of the Mafia's activities, Sakaguchi would eventually ask the Agency for help."
She could barely make sense of what he was saying. "Why did you kill your friend? Since when does the Mafia indulge in killing their own ability users?"
He walked closer. "The Mafia didn't give the order."
It was so fast her eyes couldn't follow. The other member of the Black Lizard was in behind the ginger, with an intense look in their eyes. "Gin, you should've stayed inside."
Gin opened their eyes and looked down. They fell down, the blade they intended to use on the man piercing their abdomen.
"Tachihara, you traitor," Gin managed to spit.
Tachihara looked at them with sad eyes. Akiko rejoiced in the idea it hurt him. She didn't lose a second, and before he could turn to face her again, she was already behind him with her hands looming over his neck.
She had always loved the sound of bones breaking.
She was on the train. Boxes of things she didn't remember buying sat next to her, with Junichiro buried beneath them, staring at his shoes.
She forced herself to take three deep breaths.
These were not mysteries. They had no structure, what kind of mystery had the culprit expose himself? There was no time to investigate, no time to do anything. What the hell had Poe and Ranpo done? She didn't solve anything, why were they in the next story?
There was something wrong with the novel. Its authors couldn't remember writing it, there was a chance it wasn't even a mystery novel. It might be a silly story born from alcohol and bad decisions, a story that wasn't meant to have someone in it.
She looked out the window. Judging by the direction they were heading and the finished shopping, they were on the way back to the Agency.
She looked at her companion. Tanizaki.
She rubbed her temple. She had forgotten about the reason they were in there in the first place.
"You okay, Tanizaki?"
He looked up. "I'm fine, Yosano-san."
Akiko settled on her seat, trying to find a comfortable position. "You don't have to lie, it's actually me, we came for you."
Tanizaki's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Poe called as soon as you got stuck here, why weren't in the first story?"
"There's more than one? I was tidying up the place when I accidentally read the first line of one of the papers that were on the floor."
Akiko crossed her legs. "So you came straight to the second one?"
Her blood boiled. They went through the first one for nothing.
Junichiro cleared his throat. "This is our stop, Yosano-san."
Right, she took one box in her arms and stepped out of the cart. She paced to the Agency. She had to make sure Kunikida was alright.
She climbed the stairs two steps at a time and opened the door with a loud bang.
The box slipped through her fingers.
It happened again.
Kunikida was on the floor, the other members crowded around him. Naomi was crying, shaking Kunikida and pleading him to open his eyes. Dazai had a blank expression and had his hands in his coat pockets, Akiko could see they were shaking. Ranpo was nowhere to be seen, and the President stared at his disciple's body with glassy eyes, willing himself to not cry in front of his subordinates. Haruno was talking on the phone, probably requesting an ambulance. But it was too late.
He died again, and she couldn't do anything.
Why couldn't it be her? Kunikida would know what to do, he was used to this kind of work, she was a doctor, not a detective. Without her ability, she couldn't help them when it mattered.
Tanizaki grabbed her shoulders and shook her. "Get a grip, Yosano-san, it isn't real."
She let the thought sink in. It wasn't real. None of it.
It was just a stupid novel, she could do it.
She wasn't a part of the Agency because of her ability. She'd figure it out, she could still help Kunikida.
She had a mystery to solve.
What would Ranpo do? She doubted taking Kunikida's glasses and putting them on would help. On second thought, they might, but not to solve the case.
First, secure the crime scene, don't give the culprit a chance to tamper with anything, and discard impossible variables.
"Everyone here is a suspect except Junichiro, Dazai, and I."
Naomi raised her hand. "Why Dazai?"
Yosano shot a glance at Dazai, who found his nails quite engaging at the moment. "Because if he had access to whatever killed Doppo, he would've used it on himself."
They all nodded or hummed in agreement.
She simply had to get it done to go back to Kunikida. For now, she could trust two people. "Everyone, go to the President's office, now. Junichiro, bodycheck them and make sure they don't do anything."
Tanizaki nodded and led everyone out. Akiko grabbed Dazai's collar to prevent him from going anywhere and waited for everyone to leave the room. This would be like a walk in the park. "Dazai, what happened?"
"Kunikida-kun died without me, that's what happened. If he planned on dying, at least he could've told me, how cold of him."
Poe and Ranpo outdid themselves writing Dazai.
Dazai sat on Junichiro's desk. "We had a meeting about two hours ago, that was the only moment he could've been poisoned, judging by the body and how he died—"
"Strychnine."
Yosano recognized it, one of the soldiers used it. He rathered ingest that dreadful poison than going back out there. It was a horrible way to die. She gripped her skirt and reminded herself it wasn't real.
Except his pain had been real. She remembered how it felt to die; the torture it had been to see Ranpo's expression because to him, at that moment, it was real.
After that it was all black, she hadn't felt anything, hadn't thought anything. An infinite void where she couldn't move or think. And then a green light that absorbed her and expelled her from the book. She still got goosebumps every time she thought about it.
They had to hurry.
She looked around the office; there had to be clues somewhere. "Dazai, find that poison."
"Yes, ma'am," he answered and headed towards the meeting room.
She skimmed through the papers on Kunikida's desk. She turned his laptop on and smiled at the waterfall he set as his desktop background. The accuracy in the mindless details was frightening.
She opened the last document he had. A report on the progress on a series of murders. That could be it.
She sat down and read the report.
Four bodies had been discovered in the past two weeks, all of them had claw marks on their throats and died of severe blood loss. She opened the attached files. The claw marks were too small to be a tiger's. Therefore, Atsushi was innocent. She doubted he had any appearances in the story, not even Kenji was a part of the Agency.
Kunikida, or story-Kunikida, wrote that the killer was most likely a cat, or someone using a cat as a murder weapon.
She got up and sat down on Haruno's desk. The moment the computer turned on, she started to connect dots. If she remembered correctly, and she'd be embarrassed if she didn't since Haruno never shut up about him, the cat's name was Mii.
A regular cat was incapable of murdering four people in such a gruesome fashion. But she was inside a story that didn't have much sense in it.
The serial killer was the cat, and since Haruno feared Kunikida might catch him, she killed him. She planned on erasing the data he had collected, but Yosano sent them all to the President's office, and she lost her chance. Case closed.
"Yosano-san," Dazai called. She was naive to believe that'd be enough. "Come here, please."
Dazai had the jar with sugar cubes in it. Akiko grimaced; Kunikida was the only one who drank his coffee with sugar.
"At first I thought the cup had the poison, but Naomi washed them immediately after the meeting was over," he explained as he opened the jar. Akiko didn't like where he was going. "And it wasn't the coffee, or we'd all be dead."
He threw a sugar cube at her. She caught it and examined it. "What does that taste like to you Yosano-san?"
It was the perfect disguise for a white powder like strychnine. "I get what you mean, it's not—"
Dazai had his hand in front of his mouth, a sugar cube in his fingers. He put it in his mouth.
Akiko stared wide-eyed at Dazai, frozen.
He spat it out. "Sweet."
Akiko took the jar from him. "Of course it's sweet, it's sugar."
"Isn't it curious? If they wanted to kill Kunikida-kun, then why not poison all the sugar cubes? I had a few before you came in and only one was bitter."
"Idiot! Do you—," Akiko processed what she wanted to say and shut her mouth. It was pointless to ask; she knew the answer. Anyone could've poisoned the sugar cubes. "Who poured the coffee?"
"Naomi, but Haruno brought the sugar."
That didn't take away the possibility of someone poisoning the sugar before.
She had to work with what she had. It had to be Haruno. It couldn't be Naomi or Fukuzawa because they had no motive, and Dazai wouldn't kill someone if he could kill himself first.
Junichiro and herself weren't present during the meeting so they couldn't be the ones behind it like in the other novel.
Dazai walked out, and Akiko followed. She thought they'd go to reveal the culprit, but he sat down in front of Haruno's computer.
He frowned at the monitor. "This cat resembles a cat that used to frequent a bar I know, he was quite clever, he even gave up his seat on the bar whenever someone came in."
A clever cat. Akiko leaned on Haruno's desk. No matter how smart a cat was, it couldn't be a serial killer. It was still just a cat. Unless it wasn't. Akiko had seen stranger abilities.
To Haruno, Mii was just a cat, Akiko was sure of that. She looked over at Kunikida's desk. Why did he have to be the only one who drank his coffee differently? Always adding two sugar cubes.
The sugar cubes tasted bitter.
Akiko smiled, she understood why Ranpo loved his job: it felt great when all the pieces clicked together.
She walked to the President's office; the office that would one day be Kunikida's, and opened the door. "Junichiro, what did you find?"
Haruno was serving tea, Naomi sat on the chairs in front of Fukuzawa's desk, where the president sat. Tanizaki was behind Fukuzawa, keeping a clear view of the three of them.
Tanizaki shook his head. "Nothing."
Well, the details were not necessary; when she exposed the culprit, they'd agreed to confess. She marched to the center of the room.
"The serial killer Kunikida was investigating is Haruno's cat," she announced, then turned to the desk. "Isn't it, President?"
Fukuzawa remained unmoving. He looked at her. "Do you have proof of it?"
Akiko ignored him. "I don't know why, but you're the only one who could've done it."
Haruno stood up. "There's no way Mii-chan did all that!"
Dazai, who was standing in the entrance, laughed. "You know he did, during the nights of the murders he's never with you, you shouldn't keep a diary in your computer."
Haruno started trembling and sat down. Naomi held her hand. "Why is it that only the President could've done it."
"Because Kunikida drank it," she explained. "Despite knowing it was poisoned."
That, and because he knew he was in a novel where he was meant to die.
"You wanted to get caught, you wanted Kunikida to confront you and seek treatment, but he didn't," she wondered if Kunikida would've done the same if they weren't inside a fake world. If he'd stay loyal until the end. If he'd trust the President had a legitimate reason to kill him. "You made a bet with the sugar cubes, if he picked the poisoned ones then you'd go along with it, if he didn't, you'd do something about the serial killer. That's why you didn't tell Kunikida to give up on that case."
At this point, she was grasping at straws and blurted out whatever seemed to have any type of connection to the case. She was sure of at least two things of what she had said. The rest were assumptions she made putting herself in the shoes of those two drunks.
"That you gave him a chance to survive means you didn't want to kill him; someone else made you do it," Akiko took Fukuzawa's cup and threw it the floor, where it shattered. "You'd rather die than hurt any of us, that's why you poisoned your tea."
Haruno gasped. "That's why you asked a different kind than all of us?"
Fukuzawa sighed. "I had a favor to pay back."
"He asked you for something impossible, and you came to an agreement," Akiko knew it was the only way Fukuzawa would ever try something like that. "A bet where you used Kunikida's life."
Everyone stayed silent as if there was nothing else they could say. They reached the end.
Akiko felt the green light surround her. Junichiro said something, she ignored and closed her eyes.
When she opened them, Kunikida was by her side and Junichiro was on the floor.
Kunikida smiled. "I knew you could do it."
If she hadn't used all her tears during the first case, Akiko was sure she'd be crying.
He was alive, and that all that mattered.
She kissed him. For so long she had wanted to hold his waist and take the red ribbon around his neck to pull him into a kiss. He tensed but relaxed soon after, giving her the opportunity to deepen the kiss. She didn't want to stop, but she had gotten caught up in her emotions and forgot to breathe.
"Guys, can we please go back now?"
She forgot about Tanizaki again. And so did Kunikida, it seemed. His ears were crimson red, and he avoided eye contact with the kid. A snort escaped Akiko's mouth. He looked cute when he blushed.
"Yes, let's go back," she swung her arm around Tanizaki's shoulder and started pulling him to the Agency. She wanted to hurry and forget she ever saw Kunikida die in front of her, and there was only one way she'd be able to give closure to that wretched novel. "We have to prepare to beat up Ranpo's Poe-kun."
"We're not assaulting any civilians, Yosano-san," Kunikida scolded. "But, I suppose Poe never officially resigned from his position in the Guild, did he?"
Tanizaki interveined. "I don't think he did."
"Then it's only fair we respond to the Guild's clear attack," Kunikida grabbed Akiko by the shoulder to prevent her from crossing the street. She looked up to see a red light. She hadn't been paying attention, she turned and mouthed a thank you. Kunikida noded. "Ranpo and Poe will be back in three days, Yosano-san, are you free on Sunday?"
The light turned green. "Kunikida, are you asking me out on a date?"
Kunikida blushed at her accusation. "Akiko, we've been dating for seven months."
"I know," she said. Tanizaki stared at them with eyes as wide as plates. "I just wanted to hear you say it."
After what they'd been through, it didn't feel right to keep their relationship a secret.
Nothing was certain, Kunikida could die at any moment and she might not be there to save him. He could die in the very street they were crossing.
At that thought, she let go of Tanizaki and waited for Kunikida to catch up to her. She took his hand and pulled him to the sidewalk.
She wouldn't let him go ever again.