A/N: This story is co-written by myself (Levi) and my friend (Hanji) as part of an RP and we felt it would be fun to publish as a fanfiction!
It was a dreary Monday morning, the clouds above gray and heavy, threatening to unleash a downpour at any minute. The city streets were bustling with people as they made their ways to their jobs, local coffee shops, or anywhere else the average city citizen would go. A short statured man maneuvered around the crowds, umbrella clasped tightly in his hand as he made sure to keep from brushing against a stranger. Levi, one of the most well-known cops within the 14th precinct, was summoned to his minuscule office at 8:30 in the morning by his superior, Erwin Smith.
Entering the police station, he scoffed lightly to himself at the bedraggled people sitting in the chairs, waiting for loved ones, acquaintances, whoever called asking for bail. Strutting past them, Levi nodded in greeting to his fellow officers before he headed to his own private office, immaculately clean and organized compared to the remainder of the station. Sitting in his chair, he sighed and began to get his paperwork ready as he awaited Erwin.
A knock was heard at Levi's door, followed by a crisp "Come in," from the room's single occupant. He looked up from his latest report to see the man of the hour, Erwin, walk through the door. The tall, blond man nodded at Levi. "Good morning," he said, Levi echoing his words as he sat across from the officer. Erwin produced from his jacket a manila envelope, sliding it towards Levi. The dark haired man took the envelope, carefully extracting the files from within as Erwin spoke.
"These are files from our latest, and most troubling, case yet." Erwin began. "These are the pictures and evidence for last night's latest murder. It matches the last 5 we had this month." Levi scanned the gruesome images, noting how nearly identical the killing strikes to the back of the neck were.
"This has become a serial killing, Levi," Erwin said, "and you're the man I've decided should lead the investigation of this case."
Levi leveled a steely gaze at Erwin, face blank. "What led you to that conclusion, Commander?" he asked.
Erwin chuckled politely. "You've been looking to get a promotion for a while, am I right? Considering your impressive skill in finding tiny details out of place, I believe you will be able to catch our mysterious killer."
Papers began to cover Levi's desk as he sorted through them, observing the evidence taken, the placement of bodies, the victims, everything and anything the other officers felt was necessary to report. Levi skimmed the evidence and theories before him, cringing at the scrape of Erwin's chair against the hardwood floor when the man stood.
"We have a body at the hospital down the street, in their autopsy," Erwin said, looking down at Levi. "I suggest you go actually introduce yourself to the coroner instead of holing yourself up like you normally do during a case." At this, Levi's blank gaze turned to a glare. "Don't give me that look, Officer," the taller man said, straightening his tie. "You'll really need to get assistance from others for this case. It's the biggest this precinct has seen in decades."
With those parting words, the door closed and Levi was left alone in his office. Sighing, he stood, organizing the reports into neat piles, putting the ones relating to the current case in his briefcase and snapping it shut, before pushing his chair in and leaving his office. He passed by some of his colleagues, nodding to their greetings as he made his way out of the station. He walked towards the hospital, deciding to get this mandatory talk with the coroner out of the way.
Across town at the local hospital, the staff wore grim faces as yet another body was being wheeled down to the morgue. There was suspicion of either murder or suicide as the cause of death for the moment. The gurney passed through a final set of doors into a spacious, well-lit room lined with rows of metal doors that held the recently deceased. A woman was lying on top of one of the examination tables, and the blonde boy that had wheeled in the new cadaver let out a sigh before making his way to the table.
"Oi, coroner, please wake up. We've got another body."
The woman stirred and began to stretch, wiping off a bit of drool onto her lab coat in the process. She looked like a train wreck; completely unprofessional for her standing in the medical field. Hanji was her name. She was one of the most well known pathologists in the region and had a bad habit of delving so far into her work that she would go days on end without any regards to personal hygiene. It wasn't unusual for any of the interns to find her sleeping in piles of paperwork at her desk or, as had just been witnessed, one of the examination tables in the lab.
Hanji adjusted her glasses, slightly crooked from the position she had been sleeping, and glanced over at the covered body. With a quick grin she got off the table, stood to full height, and placed a hand on her assistant's shoulder, "Let's get started then, shall we?"
There was always a glint in Hanji's eyes whenever she got to examine a new patient, and it never failed to unnerve Armin. The boy was one of the most recent interns in the hospital. In fact, he was the only one willing enough to work with Hanji save for another short blonde nearly identical to Armin that had transferred out after only a week. Christa, if he could recall correctly. She had said something about how unsettling Hanji's performance was when working with the cadavers. Armin looked over at his superior and the way she was, almost disturbingly, grinning down at the patient.
Hanji's eyes roamed over the lifeless body laying before her while she scrawled out some notes. "Female... About eighteen years in age..." she mumbled into the clipboard before setting it aside. Armin watched on as Hanji began the external examination of the body, looking over any injuries or marks in search for the cause of death. Before the young male could pick up on anything, Hanji let out an excited "Ah-hah!" and smiled at her assistant.
"She has the same marking on the back of her neck as the past couple have had. It's most certainly not the cause of this person's fatality, but is definitely a form of signature or trademark."
"So... we're looking at a mass murder. A serial killer." A bit of fear sunk into Armin's expression as he made the realization. Hanji nodded in confirmation before going to search for the cart that housed all her needed equipment.
"I received a call from the police station late last night. They say they're going to be sending someone over to investigate the bodies today." She paused for a second and made her way back to the table, carting an array of tools along with her, "I hope you don't mind working late."
Levi arrived at the hospital 15 minutes later, walking in and asking the receptionist where the coroner's office was as he flashed his badge. Getting the directions, he walked towards the autopsy lab doors. He didn't bother knocking, opting to walk into the labs and look around at the multitudes of examination tables, medical equipment, forensics machinery, the works.
"Anyone home?" Levi asked.
Sudden noise of the doors opening caused the young intern in the room to let out a high-pitched yelp and drop the tray of small instruments he had been carrying. Armin had gotten a little too used to the unusual silence that had swallowed the room about an hour ago. Hanji had finally managed to stop rambling on about suturing techniques and disappeared somewhere within the lab.
The crash of the tray prompted what appeared to be a very disheveled Hanji to emerge from the depths of her office. A trail of paper followed the woman in a fluster as she rushed out to investigate. "ARMIN WHAT'S WRO-" her sentence was cut off as she noticed a second person in the room, "Oh."
"I-I'm sorry, I'll clean this right away, coroner!" Armin stammered out and began to hurriedly gather the fallen utensils.
Hanji paid little attention to her assistant and focused on the dark haired man standing near the doorway. A quick once over of the individual had given her a fair amount of starting information. He looked to be in his early thirties, yet his stature gave him the appearance of a young teenager. Hanji inwardly chuckled and let a simple smile take over her expression as she made her way across the room.
"You must be the detective Erwin told me about earlier." She extended an ink covered hand in invitation. "My name's Hanji Zoe; the coroner of this establishment."
This should be fun.
Levi, arms crossed as he watched the assistant blonde clean up, looked up at Hanji and wrinkled his nose at her disheveled appearance, something he did not expect from someone in the medical field of all things. He looked down at her outstretched hand and scoffed lightly to himself, noting the dots of ink along her palm before hesitantly grasping her hand in his, shaking it briefly.
"I'm Officer Levi," he introduced, looking around the lab. "So what information do you have?" he asked, cutting right to the chase. "I have evidence collected from my station, but I'd like to know from you what's been going on."
A light sparked in her eyes and the poor fool didn't know what he had done. Hanji grinned from ear to ear, jumped excitedly, and ran off to one of the many metal doors that lined the room. With a quick lift of the hatch, she swung the door open and pulled out the bed of the compartment all in one fluid motion. "Patient Mina Carolina. Eighteen years of age. Cause of death: multiple wounds varying in size and depth across the entire body." Hanji removed the blanket-like cover from the body to reveal a gruesome sight. A tidy row of stitches had been sewn into the skin to make a large 'Y' shape across the entirety of Mina's torso where Hanji had performed the autopsy not too long ago.
"Each cut looks to have been made by a knife of some sort, but it's hard to pinpoint exactly what kind. Cuts that were made on the extremities don't appear to be as deep as those closer to her torso." Hanji's earlier excitement had faded down to deep concentration as she pointed out particular points of interest in the array of wounds. There was a small moment of silence as she hovered her finger over a pattern of incisions on the cadaver's chest. "These ones here looked to have been made with precision. When I performed my autopsy I noticed something... unusual to say the least." She paused for a moment to adjust her glasses and turn her attention to Levi, a slight grimace now spread across her face, adding "This young woman is missing four rib bones and a heart."
As if her train of thought had completely derailed, Hanji turned and headed to her office without another word.
Levi was quick to grow suspicious of this doctor, specifically her mood swings. One minute she was giddy, the next somber, and then suddenly robotic. Levi wondered how anyone in the medical field could border on something like bipolar disorder or some shit he vaguely recalled from his college days.
"Oi, Four Eyes," Levi grunted, grabbing Hanji by the ponytail and yanking her back towards him and the body laying on the examination table. He had listened to her every word only for her to trail off on him? He pulled the coroner's head down closer to his. "What the hell was that all about?" he asked, his face betraying no emotion but his eyes speaking volumes.
For a split-second Hanji sported a look of shock before her expression contorted into a glare. Although normally pleasant to those she had just met, Hanji decided that this... man... would be an exception. Not only had he thrown an insult to her glasses, which now sat crooked on her nose from the jarring movement, but he had the audacity to pull at her hair.
"First off, short stack," she re-adjusted her specs, "I suggest you remove your hand from my hair unless you'd like to lose it." It almost came across as a joke. Memory of Armin finding pencils as well as a variety of office supplies briefly crossed her mind and Hanji had to inwardly chuckle. "I have a file in my office that may hold a fair amount of importance to your case. Unless you don't want it?"
And with that, Hanji flashed him a challenging grin.
Levi's brow twitched at the short comment, but he brushed it off as he roughly released his hold on her hair, brushing his hands on his pants and crossing his arms. "I'd prefer to know when someone is about to cut short a conversation to suddenly walk off," he said, meeting her grin with his stoic expression. He was beginning to heavily believe his initial thoughts of her behavior, nearly labeling her "insane" if it weren't for the fact she was indeed a licensed medical personnel.
He held her gaze before motioning with his hand for her to leave and retrieve the file. As he waited, he walked towards the dead body and began to observe it, noting the erratic placement of knife wounds, as if the killer was desperate to sink their knife into the girl as many times as possible, as quickly as possible.
Hanji spun on the ball of her foot and, once again, headed off towards her office without bothering to give Levi a response. "Who knew that much brutality could be housed in such a short man," she whispered to herself, letting out a soft chuckle.
The coroner's office was just as disheveled as she was, maybe even worse. A fine coating of papers and file folders covered nearly every square inch in the room. Even the walls had documents tacked on them. A variety of small, metal knick-knacks along with a few pieces of medical equipment lay strewn across what appeared to be a desk. The only person that could decipher the actual contents of the room was Hanji, and even she had trouble remembering at times.
"I really should clean up in here," she briefly thought to herself while studying the room. There was a small pile of dirty clothes in a corner of the room as a result of a couple late night lab adventures. Armin had been so sweet to bring her a change of clothes. Too bad they never made it back out.
With the mess being as it was, Hanji had no choice but to step on a couple of the papers that had been thrown to the ground at some point in time. She cleared off a pile of books from her desk chair and laid them atop a larger pile somewhere else before digging into the desk itself. "It shouldn't take too long to tidy up a little bit, right?" she thought to herself.
Levi began to tap his foot impatiently, waiting for the coroner to return from her office. He looked over at the young blonde man standing near him before glancing back towards the closed office door Dr. Zoe disappeared down. After 30 more seconds of waiting for either the coroner to return or the lab aide to go get her, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He walked towards the door, ignoring the stuttering intern.
The door was wrenched open, and Levi swore it was a glimpse into hell. His eyes widened slightly as he looked around, the mess extending to every nook and cranny of the small room. He could feel his fingers twitch, itching for some gloves and a bottle of disinfectant. "Doctor..." he called out, "What the /hell/ is this?"
Hanji poked her head out from behind a medical journal she had recently discovered in the landfill of an office. Despite her efforts to organize at least a small portion of the clutter, it only ended up a larger disaster than when she first set out on the endeavor.
"Hm? Oh! I forgot you were here, detective. It looks like your patience matches your height." Hanji closed the journal she had been immersed in and set it on a stack of papers, finally focusing her attention back to Levi. It looked like he was caught on the edge between verbal rampage and utter disgust, and Hanji wasn't exactly sure what to prepare for.
In hopes of defusing the situation, she stood up and held out a file to him. "I believe this is what I originally came in here for. All of the information that we have so far is written in there."
For a moment Hanji wondered if she should have taken Armin up on his earlier offer to type out her notes. She may have known the content of the pages to heart, but to another person, the words might as well have been written in a different language.
Levi looked down at the file as if it were diseased (and it probably was) before he gingerly took it with only his thumb and forefinger. "Thank you," he said, gingerly opening the file and scanning it. His stoic face quickly turned to a glare as he attempted to read the doctor's chicken scratch. Fed up, he looked up at the coroner with a steely gaze.
"Have you ever heard of a computer?" he asked, "Because I can't read this shit you call handwriting." He promptly snapped the file shut and handed it back to Hanji, careful not to actually touch her fingers with his. "In order for this to be beneficial to me, I'll need this typed or at least written in a language humans understand."
She accepted the file back into her possession and met his glare with a set expression of her own. It wasn't a surprise to her that the man had been upset by her handwriting. Honestly, she would have been shocked if he hadn't.
"Typing up the contents of this folder would be very time consuming for me." Hanji sat back in her swivel chair, slightly exasperated. "I'd rather not have my assistant do the work. I don't want him to know this case in it's entirety."
The recent string of murders had been putting everybody on edge. Each time a new body was wheeled into her lab, Hanji knew she would be looking at another victim. It had almost become a pattern at this point; one per week for the past six weeks.
Hanji pinched the bridge of her nose and let out a deep sigh. There was so much work to be done. Oh so much work. But she had to deal with this detective.
"Meet me at the café on Maria Drive tomorrow, and I'll go over everything I've written down."
Levi sighed in exasperation, feeling his time was being wasted by the coroner's lack of initiative towards keeping her notes and files neat and orderly in the first place,but he could not deny the importance of confidentiality. He mentally cursed Erwin for giving him this particular case, promotion or not.
"Fine, what time?" Levi asked as he snapped his briefcase shut in a practiced maneuver. "I am free after four," he said.
"Five o'clock," she answered, scrawling something down on a slip of paper before handing it to Levi. "Just in case you need to get a hold of me."
No longer paying any attention to the man standing before her, Hanji set back on her futile attempt to clean up the small office. A small glint showed in her eyes as she filed through paper after paper.
Levi took the slip of paper, opening his wallet and slipping it in neatly before pocketing it and giving a slight nod to Hanji. Without saying another word, the short man left her office, walking out of the hospital and back to the precinct, deep in thought.
What the hell was up with that coroner? She was the total opposite of what he expected from someone in the medical field, post-mortem or otherwise. Her work areas were a mess, her overall personality loud and abrasive with odd bouts of seriousness thrown in. He sighed wearily to himself as he sat down at his desk, pulling out his wallet and looking at the hastily scribbled phone number Hanji gave him. Tomorrow would definitely be interesting...