Chapter Text
Kuroo and Co. Law Offices
12 November. 8:04 p.m.
Kuroo Tetsurou is a simple guy. Really, he is. Just an average defense attorney who has managed to become somewhat famous by winning what seem to be impossible cases to win. He relies heavily on what he likes to call “Intelligent Assumption”; or what his defense assistant and close friend, Nishinoya Yuu, calls “Lucky Bluffing”.
He doesn’t ask for much. Maybe just getting paid most of the time (most of his clients are either his friends who seem to accidentally get into the worst kinds of trouble or are strangers in dire need of an acquittal they deserve but can’t not afford), getting rid of his atrocious bedhead and also winning his childhood best friend and resident forensic scientist, Kozume Kenma’s heart. Though the second one may be asking for too much.
He’s pretty happy with where he is. A more-than-capable defense team with one of the best forensic scientists in the country, a no-nonsense, super gifted detective, a stoic, beauty of an analyst and a hyper but super sweet, psychological expert as his defense assistant.
So, he sits there on the couch of Kuroo and Co. Law Offices, pondering his life. He and Noya have just fallen into a 2 week “No cases” period. And although it’s good that there have been no incidents… it’s pretty damn boring. He takes a glance at the aquamarine clock that is hung upon the pale cream office wall.
8:05.
That means that they have to wait for another 2 hours before being able to lock up and call it a night. Just great. He cranes his head up and stares at the ceiling, contemplating on whether he should clean the toilets for the umpteen time, or to attempt to straighten his hair just for the sake of it. His gaze shifts to the figure beside him, chestnut colored hair spiked up, and a wild blonde streak over his forehead. With his knees up to his chest, he doesn’t look 24 at all. Nishinoya is his “not-so-much-of-a-paralegal-more-of-a-just-there-psychology-expert” defense assistant. They’ve been friends for 4 years; Noya’s been his assistant since Kuroo acquitted him of the murder of a psychologist that he had been framed for.. With a a good eye and a knack for identifying lies - Kuroo’s never figured out how he does it but Noya can spot a lie a mile away - Noya’s also the sweetest person Kuroo knows.
“Hey Noya,” Kuroo’s voice breaks the comfortable silence. Noya looks up from where he’s grinning down and blushing at his phone - so obvious, Kuroo thinks - and tilts his head questioningly.
“Do you think I can get my hair to look like, say, Kenma or something? Like straight and down y’know instead of…” he trails off, pointing to his head. Nishinoya snorts.
“You’d need a miracle to fix that bed head Chief.”
Just as he’s about to retort, a bang interrupts his words.
He half-expects it to be another random teenager who had walked into trouble for a petty crime, but instead he is greeted by the sight of Akaashi Keiji bursting into his office like a whirlwind.
“KUROO-SAN!” Akaashi Keiji, part-time analyst in the police investigative unit, full time beauty and boyfriend of his forever bro, looks very much like death. His naturally pale face is a sickening shade lighter than it usually is, his eyes puffy and his breathing ragged. He must have run here from the carpark. Noya immediately jumps up and helps Akaashi to a seat.
“Akaashi, what happened?” Kuroo’s brows knit with worry. Akaashi looks up, terror apparent in his emerald eyes. He’s only ever seen Akaashi like this once, and that was in a life or death situation.
“Koutarou…. Kou’s been arrested on the charges of murder.”
A heavy silence crashes onto the room.
-----
Kuroo has known Bokuto for 10 long years. Ever since the salt and pepper haired boy ran up to him in 10th grade and screamed “HI I’M BOKUTO DO YOU PLAY VOLLEYBALL?” - yes, sans any form of punctuation - they had been inseparable, much to Kenma’s dismay.
When he decided to go to law school, Bokuto backed him up 100% all the way, though he himself decided to pursue a career in dance. The owl-eyed man spent his days teaching hip hop classes at the local community center and took up street dancing as a pastime. Bokuto was a fun and sweet, easy-going guy, with a talent for dance, a passion for Akaashi Keiji and occasional mood swings who would never hurt a fly.
So naturally, Kuroo absolutely refused to believe Bokuto would hurt anyone intentionally, much less kill.
Kuroo shakes his head out of his reverie and flips his brain’s work switch. Don’t panic, don’t panic, stay calm, call the others. Figure out the situation. he frantically tells his brain. Quickly, he dials Kenma’s number, while mouthing something at Noya. Noya gives a quick nod and whips out his own phone.
“Kenma, we have a situation, get here quickly.”
After a short exchange, Kuroo turns his attention back to the raven haired man on the couch, who is being hugged tight by Noya.
“Akaashi, I need you to take a deep breath, and tell me what you know from the beginning…”
-----
Kuroo and Co. Law Offices
12 November. 9.06 p.m.
“HOW DID THIS HAPPEN? WHY HAVEN’T I GOTTEN THE OFFICIAL REPORT? I’M HEAD DETECTIVE, I SHOULD BE FIRST TO KNOW. WHO IS IN CHARGE OF THIS CASE?” A man with ginger hair and a relatively small frame shouts as he slams open the office doors. Yaku Morisuke is the head detective of the local agency. He’s not just an incredibly gifted detective, but also an incredible friend. Right now though, he’s also incredibly pissed.
“MORISUKE-KUN! You’re here!” Noya says, pulling the the small, angry, bitter man into a big hug. Yaku’s features smoothen out for a moment as he smiles, anger replaced with fondness, before he returns back to detective mode.
“Calm down, Yaku-kun. I’m checking the details on the reports filed,” Kozume Kenma’s calming voice fills the room. The pudding-haired man is sitting on the couch, one hand rubbing soothing circles onto Akaashi’s back, and the other furiously scrolling through his phone.
Kozume Kenma is THE best forensic scientist in the city, maybe even the country. He is amazing at analysis of murder scenes and often can guess what happened before an autopsy is done. Also, Kuroo is not-so-subtly very in love with him, but that isn’t the issue at the moment. “The main detective is Aone-san. I believe the prosecutor for this case is… Futakuchi-san?”
Kuroo scrunches up his nose.
“Isn’t he that guy… who constantly bickers with Ennoshita in the hallways of the Prosecutor’s Office?”
“Yeah… him.”
“That… smug bastard… I’m going to kill him, all files need to go through me first and he knows it. The kid always thinks he’s smarter than me because he’s a genius and I’m just ‘a shortass mediocre detective who got lucky.’- ugh . Prosecutors...” Yaku clenches his fists. He takes a deep breath and sighs.
“I know the basics but would you mind filling me in the details, Kuroo?”
Kuroo nods, his eyes blank and his face straight as he rattles off what facts of the case they have at the moment.
“Crime scene, The Karasu Bar. Time, around 7:25 p.m. Victim, Terushima Yuuji. Bokuto and Akaashi were in the bar at that time when Bokuto decided to use the bathroom. 10 minutes later he came back screaming about a dead body in a stall… Akaashi, did you know the victim?”
“No… he was a complete stranger. I-Kou… he didn’t even know him, he would never…” Akaashi buries his face in his hands and lets out an agonized sigh. Bokuto and Akaashi had been dating for 2 years, so Akaashi probably would’ve known if that person was somebody to Bokuto.
Kuroo rubs his eyes and groans.
“Okay guys, first things first, now that we’re all here… We need to go to the detention center and hear Bokuto’s side of the story.”
-----
Detention Center
November 12. 9.40 p.m.
Dull, gunmetal gray walls surround them. Some of the lights above sputter and cough. Soft footsteps are the only sounds heard, as a police officer in navy leads them into the holding rooms of the detention center. Holding Room 08 A.
This room sure brings back memories… Kuroo thinks to himself.
“Okay,” the policeman says as he opens the door to one of the rooms. “you have an hour tops.”
Beyond the thick glass divider in the middle of the room, sits a man with hair black and white and spiked up like a great-horned owl. His usually sparkling golden eyes are muted and there’s a downcast expression on his face. It’s an expression that most certainly doesn’t belong on him.
He looks up as he hears the door creak open, face lightening the moment he recognizes the visitors.
“BRO! KEN-KEN! YAKKUN! NOYA! KEIJIIII!!!” his voice echoes around the empty room on his side of the glass. “You came to see me!!” Tears well up in his golden orbs. His eyes are puffy enough as they are. Kuroo rushes towards the man behind the glass.
“BRO, ARE YOU OKAY???” Kuroo presses his hands on the glass.
“I’M MUCH BETTER NOW THAT YOU’RE HERE!”
“BRO...”
“BRO…”
They both attempt to hug each other, but alas, a glass wall separates the bromance.
“Please stop, you’re making the officer uncomfortable…” Yaku interrupts, as he turns to the police officer. “I’m really sorry…”
“N-no, it’s okay Chief Detective.”
“Keiji!"
“Koutarou! Are you okay?” Akaashi’s worried face comes into his view.
“I’m… well, I’ve been better. But! The people here haven’t been too bad to me, I guess…” Bokuto squints. “Keiji… are you okay?”
Akaashi manages a watery smile and wipes his eyes, which are red and sore from all the crying. Kuroo has never seen Akaashi display so much range of emotion in one night. Looking at both of his friends in this state, he can’t help but feel like crying himself.
“I’ll be fine. Kuroo-san is going to help you. We all are.”
“No way bro! You’re gonna defend me???” Bokuto’s eyes well up and a big smile appears on his face.
“You bet I will.” Kuroo shoots a goofy grin in reply, but that slips when he sits down on the white plastic chair in front of the glass
“First Bo, you need to tell me exactly what happened. I know it’s late and you may still be in a bit of shock, but please try to recall as much as you can.” Kuroo gestures at Noya, who nods and brings out his notepad.
Bokuto sucks in a deep breath.
“Okay… so, at ‘round 7, ‘Keiji and I went out for drinks at Karasu Bar. We sat down and ordered our drinks. I needed to take a piss so I walked to the toilet, which was outside.
“After I came back, a few minutes later, I realized my pocket knife was missing, so I realized I may have dropped it in the toilet. I walked back out to the toilet, and when I opened the stall that I used…” he shudders, terror apparent in his eyes. “There was a guy… blonde undercut, tongue piercing, eyes white, just… on the ground and he was bleeding so much from his stomach… and I realized my knife was in his gut and I just-” Bokuto buries his face in his hands. “I-I can’t ever unsee that. That was horrible.”
“Bokuto-san…” Nishinoya starts, his eyes filled with sympathy. He stops writing. “I can hear the distress in his voice. Chief, all that he says is the truth.”
Kenma, who has been quiet all this time, speaks up in a small voice just then.“Bokuto-san, are you able to recall the time difference between you losing your knife and the finding of the body?”
Bokuto taps his chin.
“Ah, maybe 20 minutes give or take?.”
Kuroo notices how Kenma’s eyes widen slightly. He’s onto something.
“ And… how big was your knife?”
Bokuto gestures to his hand.
“About the length of the tip of my finger, to the bottom of my palm.”
“That… doesn’t make sense… the unofficial report states that the body was found to have lost already a liter when Bokuto reported it. That should mean the time of death was much faster than originally thought. He was stabbed in the aorta with a small pocket knife.
“I highly doubt that Bokuto, or anyone for that matter, could’ve killed him in an estimated time of 10 minutes, with one single stab to the gut, taking into account the amount of time needed to steal Bokuto’s knife.” Kenma explains, to the occupants of the room.
“If it was a brain hemorrhage, say, blunt force trauma or something similar, it would have made more sense… I don’t have enough information from the reports,” Kenma continues, “I think… we may need to check out the site right now.”
He sighs.
“But… that’s crazy!” Yaku exclaims. “Was it premeditated then? This couldn’t have been a hit and run…”
Kuroo stands up from the chair.
“Bro, I promise you I will defend you ‘till the end. We need to check out the crime scene first, okay?” Kuroo’s voice is filled with sadness, yet he gives his best friend a small smile. Bokuto returns it and nods.
“Go ahead guys, I’ll be fine…”
“Kou, we will be back tomorrow, please stay safe, I’ll be here in spirit okay?” Akaashi attempts a steady voice and brave face. “I love you…”
“Oh, Keiji… I love you too. Please stay safe, all of you!” Bokuto looks like he’s about to burst into tears again, and Kuroo can’t bear to watch it. Akaashi presses his hand on the cool class, and on the other side, Bokuto does the same.
“Soon.”
Bokuto lets out a strangled laugh.
“Yea.” a sad, but loving smile plastered on both their faces.
“WHEN YOU GET OUT BOKUTO-SAN, I’LL TREAT YOU TO GARI GARI-KUN I PROMISE!” Noya enthusiastically announces.
Bokuto lightens slightly.
“You bet, little man!!”
“Stay positive, Bokuto!” Yaku fistbumps him from behind the glass. Bokuto can’t help but grin.
“Yessir!”
Kenma gives him a shy wave and mumbles a “we’ll get you out of there”. Bokuto’s face breaks into a smile and Kuroo chuckles. Kenma sure has that effect on people when he’s being sweet.
------
Karasu Bar. Downtown.
November 12. 10.00 p.m.
An obnoxious orange sign with cursive font spells out The Karasu Bar in glowing neon, contrasting sharply against the obsidian night sky. It’s a standalone building, and the color of the red dull bricks clash with the long rolls of yellow police tape that sling from side to side. Police cars are lined up on the street, forming a semi-circle around the building.
From what he had heard, Kuroo knew it was a pretty high class bar that earned a lot of money. He’d wager that some workers there probably earn even more than he does. Maybe he should consider-. Now is not the time Tetsurou…
He glances through the tinted windows of the bar. Ugh. The view of a crime scene is familiar, yet every time he visits one, Kuroo still feels an uncomfortable twist in his gut. There is a policeman guarding the front. Kuroo gives a curt nod and gestures at Yaku, who pulls his badge out.
“Boss!” they hear a rich deep voice call out, just as the policeman is about to let them in. Kuroo turns around to find an tanned man with messy, spiked hair (not like Kuroo’s is any better), running towards Yaku. Yaku notices him and waves. Kuroo flashes him a grin. If Iwa is here… does that mean… He’s here?
“Detective Iwaizumi! What brings you here? You aren’t Prosecutor Futakuchi’s detective right?” Iwaizumi shakes his head and Yaku gives him a pat on the back as he stops to stand with them. Or well, the part of the back he can reach.
“Hey guys, Detective Tendou sent me,” he flashes a toothy grin. ”Here’s the updated report.”
He fishes out a file from the folder in his hand and hands it to Yaku before pulling out another, smaller file out.
“Oh and Kozume, here’s the body report, they’re waiting for you to do a check on the body before they take it for official autopsy,” he smiles and hands it to Kenma.
“I told you, call me Kenma…” Kenma looks away, avoiding Iwaizumi’s gaze to flip through the report. Iwaizumi chuckles and gives a mock salute.
“Iwa-chan, where are you~” Iwaizumi’s face falls almost instantly. Kuroo would know that irritatingly suave voice anywhere. Nishinoya attempts to (albeit poorly) hide his laugh at the face Iwaizumi is making.
“Uh,okay, you guys should go inside first. I’ll have to deal with some stuff,” Iwaizumi says, pulling a face.
“You mean your clingy idiot boyfriend?” Kuroo teases, winking.
Iwaizumi glares.
“No, the stupid hacker checking the victim’s cell phone.... who just so happens to be my clingy idiot boyfriend.” Iwaizumi rolls his eyes. “Nevermind that, you should go before the amateurs in there pass out from the scene.”
Iwaizumi shoos them inside.
As they step through the doors, Kuroo can’t help but stare .The interior of the bar is well designed. The black walls are covered in paintings of white feathers, and softly glowing fairy lights cling to the walls. Lights line the glass rack behind the counter and the shelves under it.
Kuroo whistles.
“Some fancy bar this is,” he mutters.
Akaashi, looking much better after meeting Bokuto, rolls his eyes at the attorney. Yaku, who is walking ahead of them, stops in his tracks.
“Over there,” he says, pointing to one of the doors that led out to the restrooms of the bar. The police officer guarding the door steps away with a nod when she sees them and makes way for the to go outdoors. The restrooms are right at the back. Nishinoya pushes open the black doors to the restroom and stands there with his mouth wide open.
The first thing that assaults Kuroo’s nose is the coppery tang of iron. Right after that, he’s hit with the sight of a body lying face up on the floor of the bathroom stall.
There’s a small pool of blood around Terushima Yuuji’s body, soaking through the casual blue hoodie and ripped jeans that he’s clad in. His body face up on the ground and blood was seeping out through his clothes from his gut, Bokuto’s pocket knife is still in lodged in it and Kuroo winces at the sight.
Kuroo grits his teeth. Even with his eyes and mouth closed, Kuroo wagers a guess that Terushima was an attractive young man, probably around Kuroo’s own age, with blonde hair and an undercut, with a number of ear piercings.
Next to him, Akaashi gasps and covers his mouth with his hands, while Nishinoya is slack-jawed. As a criminal defense team, it’s hardly their first time on a murder case, but there’s something about seeing the meaningless deaths of young people who probably had bright futures ahead of them that always gets to them. Terushima is no exception. Yaku turns away from the body, grief in his eyes as he says a silent prayer and steps away to check the rest of the bathroom for leads.
Kenma gives Kuroo a small pat on the back, pulling on his gloves to check the body.
“That’s odd… there really are no signs of a struggle here.” Yaku mutters. “The blood is only on his body and the small area surrounding it. It’s either someone cleaned it off… or it just was this clean of a murder.” Yaku grabs his gloves from his coat pocket and puts them on. “Kenma, where’s the luminol?”
Kenma nods towards the small white bag beside him, his hands occupied as he gently inspects the body. “Kuro.”
Kuroo pulls out a white spray bottle from the bag and tosses it to Yaku, who then sprays the entire area of the bathroom.
“It’s clean.” Yaku steps back from the back area of the restroom, slightly shocked. He hands Kenma the bottle. Kenma sprays the insides of the stall. Besides the blood coming from Terushima’s body, there are no other traces of blood anywhere.
Akaashi’s eyes widen. “If it’s completely clean… how is it that only one blow killed him so quickly? The knife was relatively small and the area hit was not the most critical of spots. He must’ve been stabbed earlier than we thought… But how was he stabbed so quickly without putting up a fight? Maybe he was caught offguard? There’s gotta be something we’re missing.”
“Wait, I know we can’t tamper with the body at the moment but… what if he was stabbed somewhere else? Maybe Akaashi-san is right and he was stabbed earlier. Or what, I’m kinda lost? Also does anyone smell burnt nuts?” Nishinoya rubs his neck.
Yaku shakes his head.
“The reports say 1 knife wound… That is odd though. They haven’t done a full body autopsy yet, so maybe they might find something else?”
“Hang on…” Kenma speaks softly. “I think the knife isn’t what killed him entirely. Look, the color from his face and nails are lost and his upper body looks so pale” Kenma’s gaze is calculative. Kuroo knows that means Kenma’s found something.
Kenma gently opens Terushima’s eyes and mouth , and curses under his breath.
There was foam in his mouth.