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It’s a full moon night. Another bank’s security system has been compromised, leading to billions of bills being stolen. The culprit, yet again, is not caught, his hysterical laughter filling the streets as the wheels of his car screech with every sharp turn it makes on his getaway. Police arrive on scene shortly after, and with them is VSF officer Sonny Brisko. The first thing he notices is a spare bill on the concrete. He picks it up as his subordinates scramble to collect all the evidence they can, looking at its content. If he had to guess, it’s another counterfeit created to throw the police force off track. How he became so involved with this case when he was only really brought in to investigate the numerous banks’ security systems which fell victim, he doesn’t know, but if he had to guess, it’s because he’s the most competent on the case. It would be nice if he could move on from it though.
Word around the block is there’s a renowned detective by the name of Mysta Rias who has a 100% success rate at cracking cases, but recently, he went quiet due to unknown causes, and no one’s seen him since. Wanting to get this case that’s developed beyond his field off his hands more than anything, Sonny went looking for this reputed genius. It took him a bit of time to collect all the information himself, but he was able to locate the detective’s office, and he didn’t hesitate to pay him a visit as soon as he could.
Ignoring the fact he had to enter a dark and cramped alleyway just to reach this place, Sonny shrugged off all the tension in him before knocking on the door. No one answered, so he decided to invite himself in. The first two people to greet him are seated at a desk left of the door. They both look up from the computer screen they were focusing on upon his entrance, and already, he can tell they don’t like him.
With a quirked eyebrow, the CMYK looking one asks, “Can we help you?”
The other person sitting beside him shakes her head, correcting, “No, no, no, Kyo. It’s ‘Hewwo, nice to meet you! Now can you leave or am I going to have to see you out?’” Despite saying that so nicely, and the way she smiled at Sonny, her words stung like a knife to the chest.
Kyo looks at the other one as he furrows his brows, arguing, “I know Mysta said we should keep clients to a minimum, but isn’t that against company policy? Or general PR standards?”
The other one shrugs, refuting, “I don’t know, but if Mysta doesn’t want to work, it’s our job to make sure not too many people come seeking for his services. Besides, they can’t really sue us or anything if we haven’t physically touched them yet, so it’s fine.” Sonny can come up with at least a few reasons as to why that statement is wrong, but he cannot be bothered to bring them up nor actually care for them because he’s trying to lessen his workload, not build upon it, so as much as it may irk him to be talked about as if he wasn’t standing in front of them, he could look past it for now since he’s sure neither of them are who he’s looking for.
He was on the right track though, this much he knew for sure. “So this is the detective’s office, is it?” he asked, not just for confirmation, but maybe also to see how they would react.
“It is, but what of it?” the periwinkle haired one challenged as she looked at him dead set in the eyes. For as much as appearances made her seem like she’d be easy to push around, she clearly was not.
Then, suddenly, Sonny heard someone else walking in from another room, complaining as they sighed exasperatedly, “Look Aster, I know it’s your attitude that drives people away, and that’s nice and all, but I could really use some peace and quiet right now.”
“So you’re Mysta, the detective who can help me on my case?” Sonny asked, and that snapped the other’s attention towards him. They looked at each for a good few seconds, Sonny finding himself staring at the fox hat the other was wearing, before Mysta turned around and retreated back into the room he came from. Not wanting to pass up this chance, Sonny pursued him, and with him came Kyo and Aster as well.
“Nope. Sorry. Can’t be bothered to work on your case. Go look somewhere else,” the fox detective dismissed as he rounded the kitchen table, Sonny trying to catch up to him, but having fallen into the classic position of each other on opposite ends.
“There’s not even that much work to be done. We just need your help on a few things, and then you can go back to whatever you were doing,” Sonny tried to reason as Aster and Kyo blocked the other sides of the table.
“Sir, you have to leave. You’re trespassing on private property,” Kyo informed as he held himself back from grabbing a hold of the VSF officer.
“Or else,” Aster threatened, not fearing to step forward towards the officer.
“Aster, you’re not helping,” Kyo snapped at the other.
It was either now or never, and if Sonny didn’t say something now, he’d surely be stuck with the case forever, so he spoke his piece: “There’s a mafia boss who recently moved from Italy to Japan, and all the havoc he caused there he brought with him here. We’ve already uncovered a lot of the details regarding the case, and we have enough evidence to lock him up for good, we just need help locating and apprehending him so we can bring him to justice. I know you stopped picking up cases to look for your brother, but if you help us with this, we’ll give you all the resources we can into finding him.”
Everyone stilled in their tracks, Aster and Kyo waiting for Mysta’s command. As for the fox detective himself, something like shock plastered itself into his eyes, before he shook it off and stared Sonny down. “You’re VSF, why are you involved with this case?” he asked sharply.
Sonny sighed, replying, “All the other leads gave up on the case. I would have done the same, but I know it was just going to become someone else’s problem, and then Japan would still be in trouble.”
Mysta thought on those words as he folded his arms and continued to stare down the highlighter man. Then, he finally decided, “What do you have?”
It didn’t take long for Sonny to debrief them all on the case, much shorter for Aster – who Sonny found out was actually a guy – and Kyo to locate the culprit to a small house just off the countryside. With nothing much else to do, they all decided to head over.
Standing at the doorstep, Aster rang the bell, and immediately, they could all hear someone stomping towards the door.
When the door swung open, a tall masked man threatened, “If you don’t stop ding dong ditching my house, I’m calling the police!” So he was a victim to children.
Not sure how to handle the situation, Sonny paused for a good few seconds before withdrawing his badge and stating, “I am the police.”
Suddenly, the man wasn’t feeling all too provocative as he turned tail back into the house, calling out to someone. Sonny pursued him, but then stepped back when he got shot from above. On top of the roof was a sniper, and they were just preparing their next shot. Sonny urged everyone to some nearby bushes, and no one argued with him.
“You all stay here. I’ll apprehend the target myself,” he directed as he made sure everyone was well hidden.
“But wait, you’re bleeding!” Kyo pointed out.
“I know,” Sonny assured as he felt the blood trail down his face, before turning around and entering the house.
Just barely within earshot, he could hear Kyo questioning, “How are you alive!?”
Dodging a sniper was no easy feat, but before Sonny entered the house, he saw they weren’t on the rooftop anymore. It was more likely then they had regrouped with the target, so treading carefully through the darkness, Sonny made his way through the house. He saw a light was on in the kitchen, so he followed it. Oddly enough, there was an open trap door. Thinking that maybe the target left in a hurry, Sonny climbed down to the depths, but then, the door closed above him, and he could hear a heavy object being scraped against the floor just above him. He tried forcing the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. Something was in his way. All he could do was wait and listen.
Five minutes passed after Sonny entered the house, and he hadn’t come back out yet. “Do you think he needs help?” Kyo asked.
Before Aster could refute, Mysta spoke up with a sigh, “We should go check up on him.”
It didn’t take long for them to find out what happened, as the moment they neared the door, they heard laughing from inside the house. Following the sound, all three of them pretty much concluded Sonny had fallen for a trap as the culprit stood around. Aster decided to take this chance to materialize a roll of duct tape and strengthen the hold on the trap door.
“What are you doing!?” Kyo barked out, breaking the culprit out of his laughing fit, and into a run.
Aster elected to ignore the both of them as he floated to Mysta’s side when he was done, holding the detective’s arm close to his chest, as he swooned, “Now that that VSF guy’s gone, we can go back and look for your brother.”
“Bullshit! You just want to get paid so you can see that singer you’re always playing the music of!” Kyo called out as he tried to remove the duct tape, trying not to give the target too much time to create distance between all of them.
“And!? Is there a problem!?” Aster challenged, giving Kyo one of the dirtiest, yet most non-threatening looks he’s ever seen.
Sonny must have connected the dots, because barely, Mysta could hear him shout from underneath the floorboards, “Mysta, if you capture the target, VSF will provide you all the resources it can to help find your brother!”
Without another thought, Mysta pulled Aster off, but kept him within arm’s reach. “Aster, charge me up,” he demanded.
The celestial huffed out a sigh, before relenting as he rested his palms on the fox detective's arms, “Fine.”
With a very small fraction of the celestial’s powers coursing through his veins, Mysta gave chase to the target, soon catching up with him just outside the property. Much like Sonny, he was shot by the sniper, but he dodged the bullet. He was able to get a good look at them, when he froze. The target stopped in his tracks the moment he realized neither was making a move.
“It’s nice to see you again, Mysta,” he greeted as he removed his face covering.
Mysta could not believe what was happening. “You two have been here all along? Luca, I thought you were in Italy! And Shu! I thought something happened to you!”
“We couldn’t do much to tell you, so we’re sorry you had to find out this way,” Luca apologized as he chuckled. “There really is a whole bunch of ways this could have gone differently, but would you mind letting us go this one time? Please, Mysta?”
“B-But… What-“
“We don’t have much time, Mysta. We need to go,” Shu reminded. Despite him delivering those words as coldly as he did, on his face he wore a pained expression. As if he didn’t have a choice.
Mysta was quiet for a while, before he finally relented, “Go.”
Shu all too quickly took his leave, but Luca lingered for a little longer as he saw the way Mysta’s shoulders sagged and his head dropped. “I’ll bring you over sometime. You just have to wait, okay?” he assured before he took his leave, but in all honesty, Mysta didn’t know what to make of that. They were on the wrong side, and he was on the side of the law. In what world was it going to be easy for him to just drop everything and join them?
Eventually, Kyo, Aster, and Sonny caught up to him. “Sorry we took forever. Aster didn’t want to help. Where did they go?” Kyo asked as he looked around.
“I lost track of them. They slipped between my fingers,” Mysta excused, and no one knew what to say.
After too awkward of a silence though, Aster huffed and spoke up as he shifted his weight to one side, “Well, if Kyo wasn’t so concerned with breaking the VSF officer out from the basement, we would’ve caught them.”
“Oh, would we? Because I’m sure you would just make up some other excuse along the way as to why we couldn’t catch them,” Kyo argued as he glared at the celestial.
“Ha! That’s some big talk you got there, moon boy!” Aster challenged as he glared right back at him. Mysta chuckled under his breath, knowing they were trying to get him to lighten up a little from the small smiles on their faces.
He turned to Sonny, offering, “We’ll help you with your case. We’ve found them once, we can do it however many times we need to apprehend them.”
Sonny knows he shouldn’t pry, but the fox detective’s sudden change was suspicious. “What happened?”
Mysta put his hands in the air as he informed, “I’m in no way obligated to tell you that, but weren’t you the one who wanted to get this case over with? Why are you being picky now?”
Sonny was not one who’s going to pass up on a chance, and so, he nodded. “We’ll continue working together then, but if I have any reasonable doubt about your intentions with this case, I will not hesitate to apprehend you.”