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There’s been a rumor around London - about the infamous Phantom Thief. With their flashy performance, and swift work, uncovering their identity only served a gruesome death. No one other than the government had a fair amount of answers in regards to the Thief, which stirred up plenty of questions with little answers that have been uncovered. For months there has been a detective that goes by the name “Atsuto Chiba”, whose obsession to capture the culprit was the only thing he could ever seemingly fixate himself on. However, witnesses deem it an impossible task, as the Phantom Thief would almost always end up victorious. Headlines weren’t bold but they captured many, whether their sympathy belonged to the desperate detective, or to the cunning culprit.
“What shall they deem as victory?” The detective muses, dipping the tip of the pen in the ink bottle. He continues writing, the sounds of the ink-covered tip scratching the paper. His assistant watches him nervously.
“V-Victory is when she finally gets caught… Sir!” the assistant stammers.
Atsuto takes a breath, “Yeah, you’re still new to business but you should’ve had some sort of training, right?”Atsuto remains silent as his partner walks in circles, sweating furiously.
He snaps at him, “Focus.”
“I’m sorry sir. This is my first time and-”
Amidst the silence, a coloured window is pierced. A clean hole was made, and a bullet aimed nearly at the assistant's head. Atsuto paid no attention, his only response being a sigh.
“How careless. It costs a lot for a simple replacement." He stands up and walks to the other side. He walks to the opposite side of the glass to find a sizzling bullet on the marble floor.
“Keep your guard up. You make too many rash decisions.” Atsuto barks, turning towards the assistant.
The assistant replies with a nod, staring at the bullet that nearly bolted towards him just now. “It’s just a diversion, yes?”
“I still wonder why we’re even protecting the jewel here, instead of somewhere in the museum… Or anywhere with tighter security.” he mutters.
Atsuto rolls his eyes, “That place is the thief’s second home at this point. At least at Amari’s Mansion, she won't be too pressed about damages, just maybe as long as I pay her father well.”
“And we don’t need security at the moment. We can deal with it ourselves.”
A pair of eyes stare at the two through the dark, observing the banter while silently tapping on the wall.
The eyes then look down below, a fairly small ruby - Caesar’s Ruby! The glimmering gem was seated on a velvet cushion and inside a glass case. Before they could stay any longer, a voice calls out, “You can stop admiring me now. I don’t think I’m that attractive to you.”
A gun fires and the figure dodges. Atsuto observes carefully - the silhouette raises its head and lands on a nearby bookshelf, revealing herself as the Phantom Thief, a rather short girl with blonde hair and a black cape that covered her body. Her hat flies off, and she leaps down to catch it.
“The Phantom Thief! That’s her, in the flesh!” the assistant points at her.
“Really now? I never expected Little Miss Thief to be so… sloppy. Especially with your history.” Atsuto comments, laughing. “Did our little chase affect your skills?”
She remains silent, but Atsuto notices the thief’s fingers digging into her palm, her other hand rummaging through her cape. She pulls out a smoke bomb and throws it at the duo. It touches the ground and sends out a purple mist that begins surrounding the two.
“Watch out!” The assistant lunges to grab the gun from Atsuto and shoot the criminal before the smoke completely covers the pair. They heard a loud thump and for a brief second, Atsuto flinched.
“Why would you-” Atsuto asks through his coughs, concentrating on his surroundings against the fog“-shoot her? You idiot!”
“I had to do it!” The assistant shouts, as the two hear glass shattering.“You do nothing about her! Meanwhile I took the shot, and she’ll finally be stopped!”
“Your actions. Don’t you think it’s almost like you’re her right hand man?”
“Huh…” Atsuto’s eyes widened, looking at the direction of the voice. “Right hand man you say?”
The pair cough as the smoke clears up, as they see the injured Phantom Thief holding the gem they’ve been protecting just a few moments ago. Seeing an opportunity, the assistant rushes to the thief, attacking her. The thief gets shoved to the wall, and loses grip of the ruby. She drops to the ground winching in pain, as her opponent catches the jewel.
The assistant steps forward to the thief and grabs her cape. He pushes her to the wall and grabs her mask. The Phantom Thief tries to turn her head around, but he grabs ahold of it and seizes the opportunity to snatch it off. The thief looks at a window, glancing at the assistant’s reflection, then at Atsuto’s, who she couldn’t read the face of. Slowly from his jacket, he pulls something out that the other reflection blocked.
“So that’s what you look like, huh.” The assistant laughs.
“Finally took long enough, now let’s see what the cops say about-”
The assistant felt something sharp through his stomach, and winced, dropping the mask. The assistant clutches to the knife, trying to remove the metal as he turns around to find Atsuto right behind him. The detective begins twisting the knife, then speaks.
“Victory is when she finally gets caught, sir!” He mocks, “You’d have no clue the Phantom Thief was a girl unless you’re related to the case. The public has no clue, and they only hire those who’re naive.”
“Speak.” He orders the assistant, to which he briskly answers.
“I wou-wouldn’t tell you this in-information!” he shouts. “You’re lazy! You’re not trusted with the Phan-Phantom Thief task!”
He gasps for air. “For ye-years you haven’t even comple-pleted your goal! I’ve done mo-more research an-and taken more care than y-you will ever-”
Atsuto takes out the knife from his body. He chokes and falls to the ground and holds onto his hand as Atsuto takes the now bloody gem. The assistant’s words were blocked by coughs as his attempts to speak were futile.
“What a pain,” he sighs, looking at the Phantom Thief. “He knew too much and said too much.”
“Besides.” The killer turns towards the thief. “This game is only meant for us.”
The Phantom Thief slowly walks backwards, limping from the wound, but Atsuto tosses the gem to her. She catches it with her hands.
“Hm. Thought catching it with your hat would make it all the more dramatic,” he chuckles. “Of course, I’ve never seen you do that before, have I?”
“Why are you giving this to me anyways?” She points out, staring at him. “What’s your deal?”
“Be grateful, Kurokawa.” He grits his teeth and kicks the still coughing assistant to the side watching as the coughs slowly die down, along with the man he cast aside. “We both benefit from this scum dying anyway. Plus, he’s obsessed with you.”
The thief pauses, staring at him. “How much do you know about me?”
Atsuto laughs at her response. “Oh how much here?”
“Keiko Kurokawa. You work as a librarian and you’re currently 25 years of age.” He grabs a book and tears a blank page.
“You live in the apartment across from my agency, risky move if you ask me but impressive all the same.” Across from Keiko, he writes something down, in quick messy handwriting with ink.
“Your only family in this town is your aunt, the others are out of town or behind bars.” The detective suddenly stops writing and folds the paper. “Did I get anything wrong, Miss?”
Keiko pauses before slowly putting her mask back on.
“Relax! If I wanted you gone, I’d kill you by now.” the detective reassures the thief. “I don’t need any more tiresome work on my hands than I already do.”
“What.” she froze, giving him enough time to explain.
“You’ve been my most intriguing case dear,” he says, slowly stepping towards Keiko and handing her the book. “Tell me: Do you find enjoyment in our little game of cat and mouse?”
“You… find this a game…? This is fun for you!?” she stammers out.
“Tough crowd,” he jokes. Glancing at the corpse, he tucks the paper in the assistant’s pocket and goes on, “There needed to be a security check with this guy, since the details he gave me didn’t line up. He would’ve killed you.”
“And you’re… killing him.” She looks at his eyes, who looks away from her.
“Consider it protecting you.” He grins. “ It’d be rather unfortunate if you died in a random rich person’s mansion.”
He steps back to his ink and paper. “Well? Where’s my thanks?”
“You’ll be gone when you tire me and the audience anyway, so don’t disappoint me, Phantom Thief.”
When he finished speaking, he pulled a lighter from his pocket. He grabs the ink bottle and walks to the corpse.
“I’m getting rid of him, and the mansion and you’re taking the credit,” he tells her, “Leave, but if you care enough for the spectacle then.”
Noticing the blood leaking from her leg, Atsuto remembers the gunshot.
“Almost forgot!” He thinks for a moment before coming up with his answer.
Atsuto does as he mentioned earlier, ink dripping onto the assistant’s lifeless body mumbling, “I really didn’t want to pay them.”
He drops the glass, causing it to shatter, and takes out a match, holding the lighter to it. He walks closer to Keiko, lighting the match up and tossing the flame into the ink.
“Oh, I’m also really offended that he considered me your right hand man. But you can keep a secret, can you?”
. . .
“Once again, I sincerely apologize.” Atsuto lowers his head, nearly bowing. “We’ll take extra precautions to ensure future hires don’t step out of line Lady Amari.”
“No no, it’s fine really,” a short red-haired woman with a green dress answers, “I’m just worried about how my father will take the news.”
He nods and responds, “I’m terribly sorry still Lady Amari. I can still help pay for damages if needed.”
“No need for formalities, Saki is just fine. And don’t worry about payment. Besides, you wouldn’t be able to pay for much anyways,” she jokes, causing the detective to roll his eyes.
“I wouldn’t be opposed to taking you out?” Atsuto offers, “Your dad too if he’s up for it.”
“Dinner, seriously Chiba?” she laughs. “If you want then I guess he’d finally warm up to you. Well, other than your spineless co-worker setting his property up in flames.”
Atsuto smiles, holding his laughter. “He even wrote a dying message, that bastard. I’ll pick you guys up at five.”
He waves to the woman goodbye, and hops in the back of a black Vauxhall Cavalier. He starts the car and drives off.
“What a hassle the family is,” he sighs. “But with that done, she'll dispose of him soon enough.”
“That’s rather unfortunate. For them at least.”