Chapter Text
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The curtain rose.
Blinding white spotlights doused Sigma’s trembling form, so tiny yet so significant at the center of the bloody chaos. He numbly clutched his handgun with both hands, the stage floor before the victim spattered red with the slick spray of blood.
Then the screaming began.
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Sigma frowned, his gaze boring into the tiny slip of invitational paper resting inside the plastic bag atop his desk. About a week had passed since he’d obtained this particular piece of evidence, one of many cryptic messages left behind by Yokohama city’s personal terrorist, the Phantom Thief.
This thief was incredibly bold, so bold in fact that they continuously went as far as to taunt the Armed Detective Agency, of all organizations. A dangerous game indeed, considering the agency’s rather feared reputation among the common criminal.
But the Phantom Thief was no ordinary criminal. They were impossible to capture and even the agency was having difficulty with the case. Despite the thief’s boldness, Sigma was certain they didn’t actually understand the capacity of the agency’s detectives. Probably because they were a foreigner, judging by their light accent and abrupt appearance in the city nearly six months prior.
Immediately following the Phantom Thief’s first string of crimes months earlier, Sigma had been assigned to the case. He’d sifted through a dozen reports of burglary, larceny, armed robbery–pretty much any genre of theft (hey it was in the name) as well as several public stunts that were most certainly proper evidence for charges of assault and conspiracy.
Glaring down at the evidence bag lying innocently atop his desk, Sigma begrudgingly eyed the font scrawled across the gold accented business card beneath the plastic.
This particular invitation had been left at the Phantom Thief’s latest scene a week prior. The crime had been a bank heist, involving the largest vault in the city.
As per usual, agency members had arrived a heartbeat too late to the location. The thief had briefly stood in the threshold of the open vault and faced off with the detectives before vanishing through the coat of their ability along with sixteen solid gold bars and six hundred thousand dollars cash. Kunikida had also been left with a leg injury that day, the bullet from a novel 1940’s fashioned revolver lodging into his upper thigh.
The bullet had been entirely untraceable, save for the manufacturer but even then, Sigma was left with a dead end as the manufacturer couldn’t identify any buyers in the past twenty years of this particular model. And among other evidence, there wasn’t any. The thief never left so much as a trace of their presence–no fingerprints, no items, no bleached strands of hair ever left a follicle, hell even their ability was untraceable, having never been registered in the Special Division for Unusual Powers’ database.
Out of all the issues pertaining to this particular case, the worst trouble Sigma faced was the inability to discover the thief’s identity; a core component to bringing in criminals. In this line of work, Sigma’s informational exchange ability was invaluable yet taking on this case, he found that his gift was...utterly useless. The thief worked solo and there were never any accomplices on the scene nor any known acquaintances possessing relevant information for Sigma to extract. Adding onto this, the agency was never able to catch the thief, meaning Sigma had no chance of making contact with them himself and grabbing their identity directly from them.
To sum everything in a frank manner, the Phantom Thief was...impossibly different. Exciting...thrilling even, in a very weird and uncomfortable sort of way.
Sigma hadn’t exactly been bored working for the agency in the past five years but his ability allowed for instant retrieval of both evidence and specific details required in order to solve peculiar cases. Criminal profiles were opened and closed in a matter of hours.
He enjoyed the developed sense of normalcy about his routine as a professionally efficient detective. First, he’d bring in those involved with the scenario and then extract their information. Filing an evidence report referencing the use of his special ability would then conclude the case.
Simple.
Sigma appreciated the simplicity and orderly motion of his life.
But when the Phantom Thief first showed their masked face some months ago, they had been anything but simple and ordinary. Ever since that day, Sigma had only known chaos, the case file opened for the thief still empty of substantial evidence even an astonishing six months later.
Using his powers to change this fact was already established to be impossible so Sigma was left with the shadowy feeling of uselessness constantly hanging over his head. The only real step-up he’d had in life was his ability and without it he’d been reduced to a mediocre detective, rather than a great one.
For heaven’s sake, he couldn’t even solve the piece of evidence sitting right in front of him. He was completely incapable of deciphering the thief’s goddamn puzzles.
The only thing he ever could do with these codes was quietly watch Ranpo with a hopeless sinking feeling as the senior detective scanned over the notes and flawlessly explained the thief’s next encoded move.
Briefly closing his eyes, Sigma rubbed the bridge of his nose and let out a frustrated sigh. He’d tried so hard this week to unravel the mystery behind this latest piece of evidence but the days had already flown by and he still hadn’t the faintest clue to the nature of its contents.
Forcefully inhaling a deep breath, Sigma opened his eyes and calmly climbed to his feet. Then he gingerly collected the evidence bag and defeatedly turned to gaze across the agency’s office.
Desks riddled his path and he mumbled a greeting to Kenji as he passed the boy, half asleep and draped over a table beside an empty noodle bowl. Headed for Ranpo’s corner of the office, Sigma spied the detective leaning back in his chair, attempting to dislodge the marble from a blue ramune bottle. Pausing before his coworker’s desk, Sigma awkwardly stood in silence as Ranpo hadn’t noticed his presence yet, preoccupied with retrieving his prize.
When Sigma gently cleared his throat and Ranpo continued to ignore him, he sighed and placed down the evidence bag on the detective’s desk.
“Ranpo, I have another clue I can’t decipher,” Sigma announced in an exasperated tone, hands falling to his hips. Startled, Ranpo swung upright from his chair, nearly dropping his ramune bottle in the process.
“Oh hi,” he momentarily squinted up at Sigma before his gaze dropped to the plastic bag Sigma had just placed on his desk. A slight grin tugged at the corners of his mouth as he set down his ramune bottle and sat forward, peering at the gold business card with mild interest.
“You still can’t read these yourself?” He asked incredulously, glancing up at Sigma. Furiously biting the inside of his cheek, Sigma fought back the familiar twinge of shame he always felt when conversing with Ranpo on the topic of solving cases.
“I can’t,” Sigma admitted truthfully.
“I’ve been trying all week. I’m no good at piecing together the symbols,” he muttered consciously, rubbing a sleeved wrist.
“Okay, well then I’ll read this for you and you–” Ranpo pushed the ramune bottle toward him across the desk. “You get the marble for me. Deal?”
“Deal,” Sigma sighed, snatching the bottle from the table. In turn, Ranpo flicked down his glasses from his forehead and hunched over the desk, intently studying the scrawled lettering within the plastic bag.
Luckily for Sigma, Atsushi had taught him the trick to dislodging the marble from ramune bottles ages ago, meaning that within the next minute, Sigma had the perfectly shiny marble sitting in his outstretched palm.
A moment later Ranpo glanced up from his own work.
“Done,” he declared, gaze shifting to the marble. “I’ll take that–” he scooped the glass ball from Sigma’s hand before pushing the evidence bag back toward him in exchange.
“What does it say?” Sigma asked, returning the now empty ramune bottle to Ranpo’s desk. His shadow fell over the table’s surface as he stared at the card’s unreadable inscription once more.
“Eh, more of that mocking showbiz nonsense, mostly,” Ranpo explained passively, raising the marble to the light between pinched fingers.
“Anything else that might help me catch them? I’ve been grasping at straws lately, I need something ,” Sigma lamented, straightening up and frustratedly running a hand through choppy bangs.
“Well, the note also says that on Tuesday at 7 o’ clock during that new historical museum’s opening the event, the jade blossoms are going to mysteriously disappear,” Ranpo revealed nonchalantly, pushing his glasses to his forehead as he squinted closely at the shiny marble in his fingertips.
At his words Sigma suddenly froze, hand still gripping a chunk of his own hair as he gaped at the other detective.
“Seriously? All that from that note?”
“Yep.”
Shaking his head in amazement, Sigma quickly gathered up the evidence bag and straightened up, mind reeling from this new set of specific information.
“Thank you,” he managed out, quickly backing away from the other detective’s desk. “I need to go talk to the president.”
Then Sigma turned and hurried back across the agency floor, already thinking of what he’d relay to Fukuzawa. Tuesday was falling tomorrow and Sigma needed to collaborate with both the police and at least one other agency member to fulfill the task of overseeing the museum event.
“You're welcome!” Ranpo called after his retreating form.
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A tent was set up outside the doors to the museum, equipped with the usual security team of metal detectors and agents screening those who entered. As Sigma and Atsushi approached the queue, Atsushi flashed their detective pass at the nearest agent. The man quickly waved them around the metal detectors and pointed, allowing them to step straight into the museum. Nodding his thanks, Sigma led the way inside with Atsushi in tow as the two detectives entered the massive building.
The foyer was paved with red carpet that stretched along under their feet as they stood amongst the sea of people, glancing around at their surroundings. Marbled columns and arches ringed the room, planted under an impressively high ceiling with a glass skylight towering far above their heads. Judging by the floor balconies stacked on top of each other, the two would have a difficult time moving from one spot to another in an efficient manner.
Frowning slightly, Sigma idly studied the rows of people streaming across the balconies curving around above him. The thief had chosen a building with a near perfect layout for burglary. He couldn’t even imagine how many possible exits this place had. Luckily, they had about half a dozen police officers covering all of the building's entry points that had been marked in the museum's blueprints.
Sigma glanced over to Atsushi to make a remark about the difficulty of this architectural situation but found that the weretiger had since vanished from his side and into the crowd.
“Atsushi?” Sigma called tentatively, whirling around as unfamiliar bodies and fancy suits filled his view. The weretiger shouldn’t be hard to spot amongst the crowd, he had that uneven cut of stark white hair that was unmissable in a place like this. “Atsushi where did–”
“Sigma, I’m right here,” a hand settled on Sigma’s elbow and he jumped, heartbeat rattling against his ribs as his gaze snapped down to behold Atsushi standing at his side again, holding up a brochure. “Map of the museum. Figured we’d need it.”
Letting out a relieved exhale, Sigma blinked a few times, struggling to calm his racing heart. Atsushi briefly cast him a concerned look before withdrawing his hand to unfold the map.
“Are you okay?” He asked as he flattened out the brochure.
“Yes–Yes I’m fine,” Sigma let out another testy sigh, agitatedly rubbing his hands along his tailcoat. “It’s just nerves.”
“Do you...want to talk about it?” Atsushi shot him a dubious look. Sigma held himself back for a second longer than usual before the anxious words came spilling out from his mouth.
“The thief is just going to escape again and I’m going to look like an idiot and I know they're just going to suddenly appear–they can be anywhere and they’ll do any trick in the book and outside the book and nowhere near the book and–I’m just stressed,” Sigma snapped, one of his hands falling to his waist for reassurance, the spot where his pistol was holstered beneath his tailcoat.
Atsushi raised an eyebrow. “You could say that again.”
Sigma was also quite distressed about the dizzying vastness of the room and the overwhelming number of people constantly moving around him. The flashes of color were effectively short circuiting his senses but he decided that was irrelevant to the current situation.
Then Atsushi thrust the museum map under Sigma’s nose.
“Don’t worry, this will be easy,” he started reassuringly before extending a finger to tap on the paper. “Right here are the jade displays, I think.”
“Third floor…” Sigma mused. “I can cover those.”
Atsushi cast him a skeptical look. “Are you sure? If you’re nervous I can watch these for the night, it’s where the thief’s guaranteed to be y’know…”
“I’m fine. I can handle it. I want to. I have to catch them, this stupid chase has gone on too long and it’s gotten personal ,” Sigma growled, glaring at the map. Atsushi blankly stared at him for a moment before shrugging.
“Um...Alright...Okay, well, there’s one staircase that leads up to the second floor and only one more that goes to the third after that,” he explained, gesturing to the correlating areas on the map.
“I’ll be covering the space between them as a lookout and I’ll radio you if anything comes up,” he declared, awaiting Sigma’s confirmation.
“Likewise,” the other detective nodded in agreement. “I’ll be sticking to the jade exhibit, so come find me if you need anything.”
Then Sigma glanced down at his watch before shooting Atsushi a determined look. “We have thirty minutes before seven pm.”
Atsushi folded up the brochure and stuffed the paper into the back pocket of his rolled pants.
“Alright let’s get going,” he replied, patting Sigma’s shoulder. “Come on.”
Sigma hurried through the crowd, keeping a keen eye on the weretiger’s belt of a tail weaving between the collections of people obscuring their path to the first floor’s eastern staircase. He couldn’t help but notice how out of place he and Atsushi looked, the weretiger clad in his slacks and suspenders while Sigma merely wore a black turtleneck and jeans under a plain tailcoat, hair pinned up and out of harm’s way. Both of their appearances were too simple and ordinary looking among the overwhelming sea of glittering dresses and embroidered suits. Apparently, the museum’s opening event came with a formal dress code that the detectives had completely overlooked.
“'Scuse me,” Sigma muttered apologetically as he bumped into the elbow of a woman on his way past, struggling to keep sight of Atsushi.
Oh how he really hated crowds. Quickly infuriating someone by an accidental jostle was far too common and his five senses were always overwhelmed, especially in the close proximity of others.
Climbing the staircase, Sigma moved off to the side of the landing and paused, glancing around the immediate contents of the second floor. He’d already lost track of Atsushi in the midst of everyone, the weretiger nowhere in clear sight. That had been bound to happen eventually, the man seemed to have a knack for disappearing.
Muttering a curse, Sigma proceeded toward the next creme-colored staircase across the tide of people, weaving his way through the museum guests as he headed for the third floor.
His foot had just landed on the first step when someone hurriedly brushed past him from the opposite direction, knocking into his side and accidentally shoving him off the stair. Sigma teetered back and planted his other shoe back to the floor, quickly gathering his footing.
“Sorry,” he automatically apologized, glancing sideways.
“Oh it's no problem,” the person spun on their heel and turned away, leisurely waving a red gloved hand in solace, their back already disappearing into the crowds behind the detective. Sigma paused for a moment, a light frown etched into his expression as his gaze lingered after them, gears spinning his thoughts upon noting their black and white vest.
Then he blinked and mentally shrugged, continuing on up the staircase while the image of those strangely familiar red gloves naggingly pulled on the strings at the back of his mind. Only twenty minutes remained until the clock struck seven, Sigma determined at a glance toward his watch as he reached the top of the marble stairs.
Wandering across the surprisingly empty third floor of the museum, Sigma poked his head into various offshooting rooms, searching for the jade exhibit. To his great relief, he discovered that up here the guests were spread much more thinly and there was no need for overt caution given there was no risk of colliding with someone.
He found the correct exhibit within minutes and quickly slipped inside the room. This was a relatively small space ringed with glass cases displaying jade pieces carved with all manner of things. In the center rose a gold pedestal, equipped with a red cushion under the jade blossoms resting inside the fitted glass box.
Sigma couldn’t help but feel a twinge of relief at the sight of the jewels. Their appearance meant that he wasn’t too late. There was still time to catch the thief. Compulsively checking his watch again, he moved across the floor to stand in the back corner of the room for a better field of view, keeping the entrances to the exhibit and the glass cases within sight.
The only other museum onlookers in the room were a couple of women in suits holding hands as they peered at a carving of a cat, an older gentleman with his granddaughter and a security guard, standing opposite Sigma on the other end of the room. The security officer briefly nodded his acknowledgement at the detective.
Unclipping the radio from his belt, Sigma quietly pressed the comm button. “Atsushi, it’s all clear up here.”
A few seconds later, Atsushi’s response came warbling through mild static. “Everything’s fine here too.”
Satisfied, Sigma hooked the radio back to his belt and folded his arms across his chest, periodically checking his watch for the predetermined arrival of the thieving hour. A few minutes later, the security guard informed Sigma that he was on rotation and headed to the next room over. Sigma gave him an assuring nod, eyes following the man’s retreating back as he exited the room.
Three minutes left until seven.
Sigma couldn’t help but notice the racing thrill of adrenaline bubbling through his veins as he feverishly scanned the perfectly ordinary museum room. The thief would be coming, he was sure of that fact. This was his chance. While the element of surprise was out of the question considering the thief’s taunt to the detective agency, Sigma remained determined, feeling confident he’d be able to at least grab the thief before they had a chance to disappear.
He glanced down at his watch again, eyes following the needle ticking around the clock.
Thirty seconds.
Twenty seconds.
Five seconds…
At 7pm the museum's clock began to chime a glittering tune that reverberated around the confines of the building, echoing up and down the floors and filling the exhibit rooms. Sigma kept a hand on his holstered pistol, eyes sharp for any new sudden movements. He wouldn’t be able to fully draw his weapon considering the guests still lingering in the exhibit but the pose looked threatening enough. As the chiming bells of the museum began to fade, icy panic gripped Sigma’s chest. The thief hadn’t hadn’t made their appearance on the hour and each additional passing second was like an agonizing shot to his heart. His clammy fingers tightened around the grip of his handgun.
Come on...Come on…
Then the tension in the atmosphere exploded. The ear-splitting sounds of shattering glass were loud enough to send a throb of pain through Sigma’s head. He staggered forwards, disoriented by the lights now flooding the room in bright red, the wailing alarm screeching through the building and drowning out his thoughts as he forced himself to look across the room.
“Out–get out!” He shouted over the din at the patrons left in the exhibit, the four of them already thrown into a panic and crowding for the exit. Sigma whirled around just in time to glimpse a familiar pair of gloved hands snatching the jade pieces from the fragmented glass remains of the centerpiece pedestal.
“Oh no you don’t–” Sigma growled, whisking out his pistol and firing off a shot toward the disembodied limbs.
The bullet missed and instead shattered a glass case on the other side of the room. In the midst of the commotion, the gloves gave Sigma a cheerful wave before disappearing into thin air, along with the jade pieces.
“ Fuck !” Sigma exclaimed, already racing toward the exit and bounding over the threshold as he ripped the radio from his belt, responding to Atsushi’s alarmed yelling coming through the receiver.
“The thief grabbed the jade–they’re on the move–Atsushi, keep the floors blocked, get some officers in here!” he shouted over the other detective, racing out into the museum hall. Thin streams of museum guests were all fleeing past him toward the staircase. Glancing left and right, Sigma had to do a double take as he peered down the left hand corridor– a fluttering white cape had just disappeared around the corner.
Without a second thought, Sigma’s feet were already moving toward the left wing as he bolted after the fleeting glimpse of the thief.
“Thief’s here! Third floor–I’m going after them!” Sigma determinedly shouted into the radio. He dashed around the corner, spying the thief just up ahead, vanishing through their cloak as they reached the locked dead end of the fire escape door.
“Be careful!” Atsushi warned, voice fizzing with static. “You don’t know what they’re armed with!”
Cursing, Sigma dropped the radio to his belt and instead gripped his pistol with both hands before slamming his boot against the weak point of the door, the rusted metal hinges shattering under his blow. The door banged against the exterior of the museum wall and Sigma leapt through, staggering out onto the narrow fire escape.
He glanced up and down the steep steps, frustration wracking his mind as he’d evidently lost track of the thief. The sirens could be heard even outside, wailing into the evening night. Flashing red and blue lights illuminated the dark sky, a brilliant spotlight lighting up the front of the building in a blinding glow. The police were already steady in position meaning that the thief had nowhere to go except up.
Racing up the rickety stairs of the fire escape, Sigma nearly tripped on the peeling metal, fearfully gripping the rusted railing with one hand as he rushed toward the roof, chasing the thief’s trail.
Bursting out onto the landing of the domed roof, Sigma tore around the edges of the raised center until the front of the building came into view. There he raised his pistol, slowing to a stagger forwards as he pointed the handgun directly at the glowing silhouette of the thief skipping around the edges of the roof before him. Wind whipped across the high altitude and Sigma had to shout at the top of his lungs to get the thief’s attention.
“ STOP !” He fired off a warning shot over the thief’s hat, deliberately stalking forwards. The thief whirled around, surprise etched across their expression at Sigma’s appearance. Then a grin split their features as they began to lightly jog backwards, headed toward the edge of the roof that led to a free fall straight to the ground.
“You’re a bit late to the party!” They called teasingly.
“ Freeze! You have nowhere else to go, hands up, now!” Sigma barked, keeping the barrel of his gun aimed at the thief’s chest while he slowly moved across the curved roof, inching towards them. With a chuckle, the thief raised their empty red hands, teetering on the very brink between air and solid ground.
“My my, how fun!” they grinned, braided hair whipping in the wind and the card of diamonds serving as their mask wiggling under one eye, teasingly threatening to rip away.
“Step down from there!” Sigma hollered, apprehensively eyeing the thief’s heels bouncing on the empty air behind them.
“Or what?” they taunted cheerfully. “Maybe, I might just slip–” they raised one foot off the roof and flailed wildly for a moment, threatening to tip backwards over the edge wearing a surprised expression.
Sigma’s heart jumped. Seized by panic, he blindly lunged forwards only for the thief to calmly settle their free foot back onto the roof, demonstrating their impeccable balance in the winds. The detective skittered to a halt a few feet away, heart thudding as he gripped the pistol in front of him.
“Get on the ground. Slowly. No funny moves,” Sigma ordered, furiously gritting his teeth.
“Ah, you’re not in a fun mood tonight,” the thief pouted. “A shame really, I like it when you’re all flustered. Although this new commanding attitude is kind of–”
“The police will be up here any second,” Sigma snapped, stealing a threatening step forwards. A blinding spotlight suddenly shone up from the ground, trained on the thief from below and silhouetting them in a glowing victorious sort of light.
Sigma was excruciatingly close to the Phantom Thief now, only a few arms lengths away. The thief eyed him with one amused eye.
“Well then,” they started, hands falling a few inches below their shoulders. Sigma instinctively fired off another warning shot over their head at the sudden move and they yelped, nearly toppling off the roof by a heavy gust of wind.
“Ooooh! Scary!!” they chirped, regaining their balance with a mocking fear twisted across their expression. Then before Sigma could register what was happening, they’d stooped into a sweeping bow, removing their ringmaster’s hat in one fluid motion.
“Well, until next time, dear detective,” they grinned, gaze snapping up as they blew Sigma a kiss.
“Don’t you fucking dare–” Sigma started fiercly, instantly lunging forwards after them, one hand outstretched in furious desperation as he watched the thief fall supine over the edge of the roof with a brilliant laugh. They’d only just slipped through his grip, his fingers curling around not the fabric of their vest but a fluttering slip of paper that had been left in their wake, drifting through the cool night air.
Sigma’s nails nearly split the paper in two as he clutched the slip in one shaking fist, gaze boring over the roof’s edge at the line of police cars on the ground far below. The thief was nowhere in sight, having vanished during their free fall. With a heated stamp of frustration, Sigma holstered his pistol and irritably stalked back around the roof, ripping his radio from it’s cord as he headed toward the fire escape.
“Atsushi, the thief’s gone, I failed again.”