Work Text:
Fukuzawa sighed as he entered his office and sat down behind his desk. He looked upon the piles and piles of paperwork he had to get done today. Well, there was no time to start like the present.
Taking a pen from a cup on his desk, he got to work, starting with documents from the top of the pile.
Most of them were legal documents. There had been an uptick in crime lately, and that had meant more cases to solve, which then lead itself into filling out paperwork confirming, yes, we helped solve the crime, yes, that includes gathering evidence and even capturing the criminals, yes, that means you have to pay us, our services aren’t free, I have employees I need to pay.
Fukuzawa looked up from the paperwork he was filling out as he heard the phone ring. Putting down the pen he was using to write, he reached over and grabbed the phone.
“Hello?” He asked, putting the phone by his ear.
“We have your son.” A distorted voice spoke through the speakers.
“I don’t have a son?” A wrong number perhaps? Still, he was the leader of the Armed Detective Agency. He should try and gather as much information as he can to try and help whoever they had kidnapped to escape.
“He made us reevaluate our life choices by exposing our backstories and now we feel really bad. Can you come and pick him up?”
“Oh my gosh…” That sounded like awfully familiar behavior of someone he knew. “You have Ranpo.”
Suddenly a somewhat quiet and distant voice spoke, suggesting they were a different person then the one holding the phone. “I’m going to become a writer!”
“Shut up!” The first person yelled, their volume making the voice distorter they were using glitch out slightly.
“Sorry, boss…”
“Now, Hirata,” another voice scolded, “what did I say again about your anger issues?”
“I’ve internalized the abuse I put up with from my parents, and instead of dealing with it in a healthy way, I take it out on those around me and let it manifest as negative emotions…”
“Ranpo?” Fukuzawa wasn’t sure, but he thought he knew who this third person was.
“Oh!” There was a shuffling sound, like the phone was being handled around, before a beep echoed out from the speaker.
“Hey! Why did you turn the voice changer off?” A high pitch and angry voice spoke out.
“Hi, Fukuzawa!” Yep. That was Ranpo’s voice.
“Are you okay?” Fukuzawa asked, tightening his grip on the phone, ”Did they hurt you?”
“I’m fine. Great, even!” There was a brief silence that was filled with the sound of chewing. After a while, Ranpo continued. “They also made me a sandwich! And they cut the crust off for me. But they don’t have any candy. I’m willing to forgive kidnapping, but having no candy? That is a crime I absolutely cannot forgive!”
Fukuzawa relaxed after Ranpo's response. If he was able to complain about a lack of candy, he clearly was fine.
“Where are you?”
“Oh, I’m—”
The rest of Ranpo’s reply was cut off as there was more shuffling noises. There was a brief comment from Ranpo that sounded like “hey, rude” but it was covered up by someone else talking.
“Anyways, back to the main point. We need you to come and pick up your son.” It was the same high pitched voice. They must be Hirata, the boss, Fukuzawa decided.
“Okay, but still—” How should Fukuzawa go about this? “—he’s not my son?”
A brief silence before—
“What?”
“Yeah…”
“But you—! wait. Nevermind. It doesn’t matter,” Hirata said, sighing, “we just need you to pick him up.”
“Got it.” Fukuzawa got up from his desk as he listened to Hirata say their location. “I’ll start going there now. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“You better…” Hirata mumbled. It was barely detectable, but the microphone had just managed to pick it up.
“Hey Hirata!” Ranpo’s voice could be heard yelling. “Can I ste— borrow one of your guys’ laptops? I want to—”
Hirata was the one to hang up the phone and the call ended, cutting off whatever Ranpo had been saying. Fukuzawa put the phone back in its place and made his way towards the door.
It seemed like the paperwork was going to have to wait. He had to go pick up Ranpo from a kidnapping.
(An hour earlier)
“Do I haaaaave to?” Ranpo asked, feet on his desk while he leaned back in his chair.
“Yes,” Kunikida responded, not looking up from the paperwork he was doing at his desk.
“But this is the third time in one day!”
“You know that the crime rate has hit a recent spike. That means that there are more cases for you to solve.”
“Ugh.” Ranpo took his legs off his desk and stood up. “I still don’t see why I have to go alone.”
“Because Yosano was called into the hospital and I’m doing paperwork.” Finally looking up from his paperwork, Kunikida added, “besides, it’s not that far away. You don’t even have to take the train.”
“Yeah… but walking alone is boring ,” Ranpo complained, purposely dragging his feet as he made his way towards the door.
“It’s that or paperwork.”
“I'm going now!” Ranpo yelled, picking up his pace. ”Goodbye!”
He had already exited and closed the door before Kunikida could say any more. He made his way down the hall to the elevator, entering and descending to the ground floor. He waved to the person at the desk as he exited the building.
Humming to himself, he started skipping as he made his way along the sidewalk. He continued like that for a few moments, before he reached a crosswalk and froze.
He… had no idea where he was going. He probably should have paid more attention to where the case was actually taking place.
He stood there among a group of people, considering if he should cross the road or just go left and continue on the sidewalk. Eventually, the group of people started crossing the road as a light changed. At that, he made up his mind.
He was going left! There was no way he would follow the lead of normal civilians. He was the Greatest Detective in the World and he took his own path!
Moving back to avoid being swept up by the crowd, he continued to walk on the sidewalk. Most of the people had crossed the road, so it was pretty empty.
He made his way without much trouble, until a very suspicious van started driving down the street. He tried to ignore it at first, but then it started slowing down as it approached him. Looking around, Ranpo could see that there were no longer any people by the sidewalk he was on.
Welp. Time to run!
He took off down the sidewalk, trying to spot an area with more people he could head to. There was no one in sight. He could continue heading forward and hope that it was more populated ahead, but that wasn’t a for sure solution. Looking back at the van, it seemed like that would be Ranpo’s only option.
Unfortunately, since he had spared a glance back at the van, he hadn’t noticed right away that there was a group of people who had exited from a nearby alleyway, and by the time he did notice, it was too late to change his trajectory. Even more unfortunately, the momentum of his running prevented him from stopping himself, and he ran face first into the aluminum bat that one of them swung towards him.
There wasn’t time to process much else about the situation as he collapsed to the ground and the world went black.
Ranpo woke up and blinked groggily into the distance, staring at some blurry figures in front of him. After blinking a few more times, his vision cleared slightly, and he was able to make out more details on the people in front of him.
Hearing a noise behind him, he tried to turn around, only to realize that, huh, he was sitting in a chair , and that he was tied down to said chair.
If he’s going to be honest, it was kind of embarrassing how long it took him to process that. Still, he’s going to blame that on being knocked out.
Oh, right. He had been knocked out. Because he had been kidnapped.
“Hey,” one of his captors said, waving a hand in front of his face, “are you awake now?”
“Nishi!” One of the other shrieked and Ranpo winced at the volume. Did they have to be so loud? “What did I say about talking to hostages?!”
“That I shouldn’t speak to them…” the person who must be Nishi said, sighing and looking at the floor.
“You’re right! Now get that through your thick skull and remember it next time!”
Until Ranpo got a name, like for Nishi, he will dub thee: Anger Issues.
Anger Issues then turned around to the others in the building. “And what are you two doing just standing around? Stop being the worthless freaks that you are and go be useful !”
“Woah!” One of them said, raising their hand in the air, “can you just chill for a second? It’s not like we have a time limit for anything. We already did all the important stuff so I think we deserve to relax—”
“Out of my way!” Anger Issues exploded and pushed them aside. They then proceeded to stomp their way over to the exit and slammed the door open. They then left, letting the door close on its own.
“I’ll go… follow them.” One of his captors chuckled nervously as they made their way over to the door. When they were halfway through the door, they turned back. “It might be a good idea to get your jobs done now. Even if I somehow get them cooled down, if they come back with nothing done, it’ll probably make them angry again.”
And with that, they left as well, leaving Ranpo and his two other kidnappers the only people in the room. Rolling their eyes, one of them made their way over to a chair and sat down.
“Sano, what are you doing? You heard what he just said. We have jobs we need to do!”
“Chill, Nishi.” Sano brought his arm to their face to cover his eyes. “It’s not our job to make sure the boss stays happy. If they choose to take it personally, it’s not our problem.”
“But—!”
“Stop taking things so seriously. If you want to still do your job, then feel free to do so. I’m not stopping you. Just don’t feel like it’s a requirement.”
Nishi stared at Sano quietly when they had finished speaking. Still silent, Nishi went to a dustpan and broom that were hanging on the wall. They nervously looked back at Sano as they grabbed them.
“I’m not going to judge you for doing a job. If someone is going to do something around here, I’d rather it be you than me.”
Nishi nodded in acknowledgment as they started sweeping the floor. Ranpo watched them for a while. They were missing a lot of spots.
It was… very quiet. Besides for the sound of the broom across the floor, there wasn’t really anything else going on. Which was boring. And Ranpo didn’t want to be bored.
They hadn’t gagged him or anything, so he could still speak if he wanted to. Maybe he could start a conversation? Sano didn’t look very talkative right now, appearing half asleep. Hmmmm… Nishi looked pretty occupied with their job. But they also looked very distracted. Maybe he could try to talk with them?
Now Ranpo wasn’t the greatest at starting conversations. In fact, he never really got why some topics were okay in the middle of the conversation but you didn’t want to start with them. Sometimes conversations started with facts and sometimes you got weird looks for bringing them up without context. Starting a conversation with a question almost always worked. That seemed like the safest bet. But what question should he start with?
“Sooooo… who was Anger Issues over there?”
Nailed it! It was the perfect starting question. Nishi already had background information on the topic so surely they had the means to respond back instead of just standing there confused on what was happening. Ranpo had some background information (even if there wasn’t as much) so he could also keep it going for a while as well. They also both had shared experiences!
“You mean Hirata?”
Hmmm, maybe he had been wrong in thinking Nishi wouldn’t be confused. They sounded very confused right now. Still, they had responded confusedly instead of standing confusedly.
“Yeah, them!” Now he needed another question to keep this going. This was a ‘conversation’ after all. “Who was the person that followed them outside?”
“Oh, that was—” Nishi never got a chance to finish as Sano interrupted them.
“You’ve talking with the hostage? When Hirata told you not to?” Sano looked wide awake now, looking back and forth between Ranpo and Nishi with a mischievous grin. “Rebellious!”
“What?” Nishi spluttered, ”no, I—!”
Sano laughed at their panic. “It’s fine, it’s fine.” They waved their hand dismissively. “I won’t tell no one. I just didn’t know you had it in you.”
Nishi was quiet for a few more moments before they turned back to Ranpo. “What was your question again?”
“Who was the person who followed Hirata outside?” Ranpo could forgive being ignored and forgotten about only if Nishi was willing to give him more information.
“Oh, that was Ryo.” Nishi turned back to their broom and began sweeping the floor again.
Ranpo took back saying he could forgive them. They were ignoring him again. That was unforgivable.
“You’re missing spots,” Ranpo pointed out after watching Nishi sweep the floor for a few seconds. He nodded his head at the spots he was referring to.
“What? No I’m no—” Nishi fell silent as they looked at the areas Ranpo had been gesturing to with his head. They quietly moved their broom to get the missed spots.
A few more seconds in silence.
“There’s a dust bunny you missed—”
“If you’re going to keep on telling me I’m doing it wrong, why don’t you just do it yourself!” Nishi burst out as they slammed the broom into the floor. It, thankfully, didn’t break.
Ranpo fell silent at Nishi’s sudden outburst. Still, he couldn’t let them get the last word. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m still tied up. I couldn’t help even if I wanted to. Well… unless…” Ranpo tilted himself and the chair forward slightly. He soon went back after he almost fell forward. “You want to untie me?”
“Forget I said anything.”
Ranpo shrugged (or at least shrugged as much as the ropes allowed). “You don’t want help? Suit yourself.”
Nishi sighed, all traces of their former annoyance nowhere to be seen. They turned their back to Ranpo as they yet again resumed sweeping. Sano eventually sat up from the chair they had been sitting at. They looked at Ranpo, considering for a few seconds before looking at Nishi.
“You know… we could probably untie him and make him help,” Sano stated as they got up from their chair.
“What?” Nishi stopped sweeping the chair and turned to Sano. “And what about when Hirata finds out, huh? What if he manages to escape? What will we do then?”
Sano shrugged, walking towards Ranpo. “It’s not like he can escape. Hirata and Ryo are still outside so they can stop him if he tries to run. And when they both come back to see him untied, we can just explain it to them and I’m sure they’ll understand.”
Nishi hummed in consideration before they suddenly shook their head violently. “Nope! No way! I’m not letting you trick me into another bad idea that gets me in trouble!”
“If it makes you feel better,” Ranpo piped up, “I promise not to try and run away.”
“For some reason that doesn’t make me feel better,” Nishi mumbled under their breath, but Ranpo still managed to hear it.
By the time Ranpo and Nishi had had their mini conversation, Sano had snuck up behind Ranpo and had started untying the ropes.
“Sano! What do you think you're doing?”
“Untying the captive, duh.” Ranpo’s arms had been untied from the chair but his wrists were still bound. And he wasn’t flexible enough to lift his arms above the chair.
“You know what? I’m not here. I’m not witnessing this.” Nishi turned around. “When Hirata find out, it’s all on you.”
“Fair enough,” Sano said cheerfully as they managed to get the last of the ropes off.
Ranpo stood up from the chair and rubbed his wrists. Mission successful! While it might not have looked like it to an outsider, Ranpo had definitely had a complete plan to convince his captors to untie him! All those random comments were aaallllllll thought out and said at an exact and precise moment. What a well executed plan he definitely had had from the start.
Suddenly there was a broom being thrown at him and he struggled for a few moments to catch it. There was no way he was dropping it by accident. That would be embarrassing.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“You said you’d help, right?” Sano, who had just thrown the broom, asked, “so go help Nishi.”
Ranpo weighed the pros and cons of helping or not. On one hand, if he didn’t, they would likely tie him up again. On the other hand, helping would require helping and physical labor.
Ranpo gave a quick look at the chair he had just been in. It had been very uncomfortable. There was no way he was sitting in that again. So… he guessed that meant he would have to help Nishi sweep.
He sighed as he held the broom awkwardly and tried to copy what Nishi was doing. He put the bristles on the ground and stuck his arm out, causing whatever dirt had been in front to move.
“What are you doing?” Nishi asked when they looked up to witness Ranpo’s absolutely perfect sweeping form.
“Helping, obviously!”
“Here, just…” Nishi sighed and walked over to him. “You gotta hold it like this. No, no. Put your hand here and the other one there. Yeah, close, but not quite. You need to…”
Nishi eventually helped him hold the broom correctly. Or more like they just reminded Ranpo how to hold it. Ranpo had known what he was doing from the beginning. He had just needed the reminder. Yeah. That was it. Just a reminder.
After Nishi had helped him, they went back to their own broom. They both sweeped the floor in silence.
Why did it feel like he was forgetting something? Oh, yeah. Right. It was the thing Fukuzawa was always telling him to do. He had to be ‘polite.’
“Thank you.”
“I- what—?!” Nishi started and dropped their broom, turning to Ranpo with a wide-eyed shocked look.
“I just said thank you. Didn’t you hear me before?”
“You’re… you’re thanking me?!?!”
“Yeah…” Ranpo squinted at them. Did they not get thanks often? That was sad. Ranpo couldn’t even imagine not being thanked for everything he did.
“Oh… well… Thank you!” They said cheerfully and beamed at him.
“You’re thanking me for… thanking you?” Extra sad.
“Of course!”
Now Ranpo knew he didn’t owe Nishi anything. Especially after they had played a part in kidnapping him. Still, he couldn’t let this stand for any longer.
“You know you don’t have to thank people for thanking you, right? In fact—” Ranpo leaned over to them and patted their shoulder— “you should be demanding thanks!”
“I should be what?!”
Ranpo looked Nishi up and down and reviewed the information he already knew about them. Insecure… insecure… insecure…
Hmmmm… this had to be fixed immediately!
“Yeah! You do things for people because you think you owe them, correct?” Nishi’s small wince was answer enough. “But you don’t owe them anything! You doing a nice thing for someone isn’t payment, it’s doing a nice deed for someone that —if they really cared about you— they would acknowledge it!”
“Well, I huh—”
“Like right now!” Ranpo practically yelled as he gestured to the broom Nishi was holding, “you're cleaning the floor because you feel like you need to do at least one thing to help calm Hirata down.”
“How’d you—”
Ranpo didn’t let them finish. “But you don’t need to try and calm Hirata down. Their emotions are their own. They didn’t have any right to yell at you or insult you like they did before they left. Just like how they don’t have a right just to expect things from you without asking or thanking you.”
Ranpo paused to give Nishi a chance to respond. They were quiet for a few seconds, staring at the floor. Eventually they looked up at Ranpo and there were tears in their eyes.
Suddenly Ranpo was concerned. “Did I just make you cry? If so, I’m very very sorry. I was trying to go more with ‘inspiring’ than ‘depressing’ but I’m sorry if it came off like I was insulting you— Oof.”
Nishi had dropped their broom and had surged forwards to hug Ranpo. The force of them running into Ranpo forced him to step back to keep his balance. Ranpo awkwardly brought his arms up and patted Nishi’s back.
“There, ther—?”
“I’m sorry, but WHAT IS GOING ON IN HERE?!?”
Nishi immediately squeaked and ducked behind Ranpo. Great to know how much they cared…
Ranpo turned around but it didn’t matter much. He already knew who had come bursting into the room.
Hirata was standing in the doorway, clutching the frame tightly and breathing heavily like they were trying to calm themselves down. Ryo was behind them, looking nervous.
Well, if Hirata was trying to calm down, maybe Ranpo could help with that. And maybe like with Nishi, they’d warm up to him. It was a risk but… well it wasn’t the only option but it was definitely one of the most challenging. And probably the only one that would help any of these sad sacks.
Hirata stomped towards him and Ranpo took in a deep breath, preparing himself for another great and inspiring speech.
“—and that’s when I decided enough was enough and I ran away from home — and my parents.”
Everyone in the circle nodded and murmured reassurances. They had all gotten chairs and were facing in towards the circle (group therapy style).
“Well, Hirata,” Ranpo addressed them, “it sounds like you took the only option that was available at the time in your situation, yet you still seem to feel guilty about it.”
Hirata nodded. “Yeah… I suppose that sometimes I still wonder, if I had stayed, would they have changed? Was leaving a mistake and did I just put myself in a worse position when I did?”
“Of course not!” Ranpo denied passionately, “you were in a dangerous situation and you did what you had to do to get out of it! There’s no point in wondering if they would have changed eventually, but the important thing is that they hadn’t yet. You didn’t owe staying with them and trying to fix their ways, because that was on them and that was their own responsibility. And the thing about being put in a worse position? You’re surrounded by people that consider you a friend. You’d say that’s a step up from before, right?”
“Yeah… yeah! You’re right!”
“Still, there is one thing you still have to do.” After Hirata’s questioning look, Ranpo continued. “Remember how you were being kind of a jerk earlier? And probably plenty of other times before that to your friends?’
“Oh, yeah. I guess I haven’t gotten a chance to say this yet but…” Hirata turned to look around at everyone nervously. ‘I’m sorry for being such a jerk to you guys before. And… kinda almost every time I was mad. Can you forgive me?”
Sano and Ryo were nodding and agreeing, but Nishi was staying silent.
“Nishi? I… I know I took my anger out on you often and I… I guess I never really appreciated how much you did for our group until you spoke of it. Can… can you forgive me?”
“Well, I.” Nishi shifted around uncomfortably and looked away from Hirata.
“Remember, you don’t owe them forgiveness,” Ranpo reminded them, “only forgive them if you want to, don’t let yourself feel pressured or like you're obligated to.”
“Okay…” Nishi finally looked at Hirata in the eyes. “I… I want to forgive you, but I’m not sure if I’m ready yet. I think I need a little more time and I want to wait to see if you actually are going to change your ways.”
Hirata took in a deep breath and then exhaled. “I respect your decision, Nishi. I can acknowledge that you need more time and that you may not even ever fully forgive me, but that’s okay. Thank you for informing me of how you felt.”
Ranpo clapped his hands. “Good job everyone! That was a bit of emotional maturity from all of you!”
“No, good job to you,” Hirata stated, “you helped me see how I was continuing the anger my parents projected onto me.”
“And you helped me with my problem with thinking I owe people everything!”
“You helped me with how I thought I was responsible for people’s emotions and how they acted,” Ryo spoke up.
“And you told ways I could express how I care and my emotions instead of just keeping it inside,” Sano said.
“I know.” Ranpo gave them all a grin. “I’m pretty amazing like that!”
“There is one thing though…” Nishi started while looking at all of the others. They all nodded. “ You never told us anything about you.”
“Nah, this is about you guys. I don’t have to make it about me.”
“No, no. You helped us. We want to help you.”
There were sounds of agreement from all of the others. Ranpo took a deep breath to prepare himself. There were some things that he hadn’t thought about since they happened… and here he was… about to share them with others.
“So I think the moment it kinda all started was the day my parents died…”
“…and then Fukuzawa and I got the skilled business permit, allowing us to start the agency. Allowing me to finally start using my ability more without police supervision.”
There was silence after Ranpo finished. However, Hirata eventually spoke up.
“It sounds like your father really cares about you, even if he sometimes struggles with showing his emotions.”
Ranpo didn’t question his use of the word father.
“Yeah… I know he really does care, but—” Ranpo looked up from where he had been staring down at his hands— “sometimes it's hard how I just don’t really ever see it. Sometimes it’s nice to hear it from the person, y’know?”
More nodding.
“I can get that.”
“Same thing happened to me.”
“Yeah… I know how it can get sometimes.”
Ranpo looked up to a clock at the wall. Wait… was it an hour later than what it had been before? He hadn’t thought he had stayed here for that long.
“Huh… so this might seem like a kinda random question with an obvious answer, but I figure it's worth a try.” Ranpo shrugged while looking around. “Can I go home?”
Everyone froze before eventually looking towards Hirata. When Hirata realized everyone was looking at them, they started talking.
“You know what? Even though we kidnapped you, yeah. Yeah you can. You helped us all become better people so I think it’s fair that you get to go back.”
Ranpo jumped up from his chair. “Great! So if you can point me in the right direction I can just get go—”
“Nope!” Hirata stood up and blocked the door.
“What gives? I thought you just said I could leave.”
“Yes, but we saw you when we were kidnapping you. We had gotten your schedule beforehand so we could follow you easier but… you were not following the right direction at all. We’re not letting you go back by yourself.”
“Then have one of you guys bring me.”
“We would but I feel like we all need to be present to talk about recent… realizations.”
“Ugh… fine…” Ranpo agreed reluctantly.
Hirata took out a phone. “Do you have someone we could call to pick you up? What’s your dad’s phone number.”
“Oh, yeah. My dad’s phone number is…” Ranpo prattled off the numbers to Fukuzawa’s phone.
“Thanks.” Hirata started putting the numbers in the phone when—
“Hey! Who’s hungry? ‘Cause I know that I’m starving,” Sano spoke up, still sitting in the circle of chairs.
“Oh! Why didn’t you say so before? I can make you a sandwich!” Ryo responded, standing up from the circle.
Ranpo frowned slightly. “Now, Ryo… are you making food because you feel like you need to make Sano feel better or because you actually want to?”
Ryo paused for a few seconds. They seemed lost in thought, staring at the floor. Eventually they looked up at Ranpo.
“I think… It's because I want to. Because I’m also hungry, I'll also make a sandwich for myself. Two birds with one stone!”
Ranpo nodded, satisfied. “Good!” There were a few seconds of silence before… “hey. Can you also make me a sandwich?”
“Of course!” Ryo walked over to a cabinet and pulled out the necessary ingredients. They made their sandwich first before making Sano’s and Ranpo’s. After they were done, they walked over to Sano and gave them a sandwich and then walked over to Ranpo, giving him one of the sandwiches.
“Hey! You even cut the crusts off for me!” Ranpo exclaimed as he took it and bit into it, “this is actually pretty good.”
“Thanks!” Ryo beamed at him. They then started to eat their own sandwich.
Ranpo slowed down in eating his sandwich as he looked around. “Do you guys have any candy here?”
“Ummm… let me check really quick.” Ryo got up and walked over to some cabinet set up against the wall. Opening the cabinet doors, they looked inside. Then they closed them. “Nope! We’re all out.”
Ranpo froze.
It would surely take a few minutes to contact Fukuzawa and then a few more for him to arrive.
So… did that mean…
He had to stay here for more minutes… without candy?
…
“Nooooooooooo!”
Fukuzawa slowed down as he approached the building Hirata had claimed they were at. Spotting a door on the side of the building, he headed in its direction.
When he got to the door, he stopped and considered his options. Hirata had claimed that they just needed Fukuzawa to pick Ranpo up, but there was no telling if he had been lying and this was a trap.
He could kick the door open and hope to take them by surprise. Still, if it ended up not being a trap and they had been being honest, he didn’t want to provoke them.
He could try to find an alternate, less obvious entrance. Maybe like a window or something similar. But that also had the same problem as the first one if he were to sneak up on them.
He could… just walk through the door. Even if it was a trap, it was likely he’d be able to react faster than them. And it didn’t have the risk of provoking anyone.
Making a decision, Fukuzawa placed one hand on the door handle and the other on the hilt of his sword. Just because he was taking the riskiest option didn’t mean he didn’t have to be prepared.
He opened the door slowly and braced himself for an attack. But an attack never came.
He cautiously took his hand directly off of the sword, but kept it hovering near just in case. Opening the door fully, he stepped inside and looked around.
There. Ranpo was in a corner of the room with another person. He was talking passionately with his arms waving around wildly. The other person was leaning forward with wide eyes, looking invested in whatever story Ranpo was sharing.
“…and that was when I said, ‘no, that isn’t the real killer. The killer is right behind y—’ oh. Hey, Fukuzawa!” Ranpo turned around to wave at him. The other person leaned to the side out from behind Ranpo and waved as well.
“Good. You’re here,” A voice that sounded like the one from the phone call spoke.
Fukuzawa let his hand drop away from his sword completely. “I am,” he confirmed while stepping farther inside the building. There seemed to be two other people besides for the ones he had seen when first entering.
“Well, you know. Make sure he gets back safe and all that.” The person who was most likely Hirata waved their hand dismissively as Ranpo ran up to Fukuzawa.
“What took you so long?” Ranpo demanded, “you took forever.”
“I only took ten minutes since I got the phone call.”
“Exactly. Forever.” Ranpo walked behind him and started tugging on his sleeve. “Anyway, can we go now? I haven’t had candy in over an hour and I can feel myself crashing. Let’s go!”
“We can go now,” Fukuzawa told Ranpo as he placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked behind him as he steered Ranpo towards the door in case the others in the room tried to stop them from exiting. Thankfully, it seemed that they were letting them leave.
“Bye, Nishi, Sano, Ryo, and Hirata!” Ranpo called out as he waved his hand enthusiastically, “don’t forget any of that advice I gave you!”
“We won’t!” One of them called back, “and thank you!”
“You’re welcome!” Ranpo was practically yelling as both him and Fukuzawa had exited the building. Fukuzawa let the door close behind them.
Ranpo was humming happily and skipping along. Still, when they had gotten a few blocks from the building, Fukuzawa stopped and turned to him.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt anywhere? Do you need—”
“I’m fine, I’m not hurt, and no I don’t need any help,” Ranpo rapid fired answered his questions.
“You sure—”
“Yeah, I am. They didn’t harm me at all. In fact, they were kinda nice. Or at least not that bad.”
Nice? “In case you’ve forgotten, they kidnapped you,” Fukuzawa reminded Ranpo. Granted, they had also let Fukuzawa pick him up no strings attached, but the point still stood.
“Ha! Yeah… That’s just something that happens on a normal Thursday though.” Ranpo shrugged and started to continue walking.
“It’s a Wednesday.”
“What?! You’re saying I have two more days I have to work this wee— I mean. Yes. I am aware it is Wednesday. And my statement still stands.”
Fukuzawa sighed. There was no point arguing with Ranpo when he was being stubborn about something. And apparently he was being stubborn about insisting the people who had kidnapped him were actually ‘not that bad’.
They walked in silence for a few minutes. Well, as silent it could be when Ranpo had decided to resume humming.
Suddenly Ranpo froze. Fukuzawa stopped as well and looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed.
“Something wrong?”
“You remember what I said about not having any candy and potentially crashing?” Ranpo said very slowly. His words were somewhat slurred together. “Well… I think that’s about to haaaa… p… eeennn…”
Ranpo trailed off and fell forwards. Fukuzawa held out his arms to catch him. Ranpo, thankfully, landed safely in his arms.
“Ranpo?”
“Zzzzzz…”
Fukuzawa sighed when Ranpo didn’t respond. It didn’t look like he’d be active anytime soon… guess that meant he’d have to carry him back home.
It was awkward trying to get Ranpo in a piggy-back ride when he wasn’t awake to jump on his back. Still, he eventually managed it and was able to hold Ranpo in a position that was hopefully comfortable for him.
Ranpo buried his head in the fabric on Fukuzawa’s shoulder. “Thanks, Dad…”
Fukuzawa froze and nearly dropped Ranpo (well, maybe not nearly. He was still making sure Ranpo was firmly secured with no risk of falling). After a few moments when Ranpo didn’t say anymore, he resumed walking.
Dad… huh. It seemed that Ranpo must really be out of it. He’d have to get him some sugar soon.
He looked over at Ranpo, who still had his head resting on Fukuzawa’s shoulder. He looked pretty much asleep. Hesitantly, he started to talk.
“You’re welcome… Son.”
Fukuzawa reached over to ruffle Ranpo’s hair. It was an awkward reach, with Ranpo on his back, but he managed it anyway.
Eventually he turned around and headed back home with Ranpo in tow.
Bonus:
“Did you see that? Did you hear that?!?!”
“I knew it!”
“Susssshhh! You guys are gonna give us away!”
“Oh! Right… I mean, did you guys see that?”
“‘Not my son’ huh? That scene seems to say otherwise.”
“Yeah! And— ahh! He’s looking over! Duck! Take cover!”
“…”
“Are they gone now?”
“Yeah…”
“Darn… we just missed the best father-son duo in the history of duos.”
“It'd probably be creepy if we were to follow them right now, right?”
“We already were following them. We’re already creeps.”
“Fair point.”
“So now that they’re gone, we don’t really have a reason to be out here any more.”
“Yeah, we don’t. Let’s go home.”
“Ha! You just called the headquarters home! See? It is homey! It is a home!”
“Shut up!”