Exile: Hello dear reader! Now before you start reading, I would like to tell you somthing important: This is chock-full of OCs. However, I guaruntee you that there is no OCxCANON. Well, minus the Sibling!KandaOC and Cousin!LaviOC. That's it. Also, this fic is what I'm doing for a Science Fair alternative. If you see anything (i.e,. grammar/ spelling mistakes) Please point it out. Feel free to be as harsh as you like without turning on the flamethrower.

Pairings: This fic is more crime-centered than relationship-centered. There will be hints at various pairings, the most obvious being Allena and Laven so far. Oh, and the two mentioned above.

Rating: T for character death

Prologue: Dolls of the Gray Man

10:14 AM November 16th, 2012
California State University of Long Beach, CA

"Hey, Rei, wake up. The teacher is looking. I said wake up!" Ekaterina Ivanov hissed across the aisle at the sleeping student, Ryuukei Pham. "I know ForenSci might be boring for you, but at least-"

"At least pretend to pay attention, Pham!" Professor Rittai yelled at the sleeper. The only response was more soft snores from the androgynous girl. "Ivanov, if your friend doesn't wake up in ten seconds, count her as the next demonstration." Ekaterina winced at the threat and whacked the base of Rei's neck, making sure to hit a pressure point.

"What the hell, Kat!" Ryuukei, or Rei, yelped in pain, jolting upwards. The awakened 20-year-old glared at her friend, who was now pointedly staring at the professor.

"You fell asleep." Kat replied crossly. "And you do realize that we are in Forensics at the moment." Rei shrunk in her seat and resumed lazily scrawling notes on the lecture, which was on rigor mortis, the stiffening of joints and muscles after death. She mentally sighed. This stuff was basic. Everyone knew what rigor mortis is; heck, it had been on the entrance exam. The Vietnamese girl shrunk even more in her seat.

"Isn't forensics supposed to be interesting?" she thought resignedly, accidently saying it aloud and interrupting the lecturer again. Pr. Rittai stared at Rei with disdain, having clearly heard the wayward remark.

"So, Pham thinks that rigor mortis is boring?" the man called out to the class, eyes boring holes into the top of Rei's head. She nodded reluctantly. "So, Rei, if rigor mortis is so boring, please elaborate exactly what you would like to hear about today then." he sneered. Kat almost palmed her face. Rei was to say the least eccentric, and would probably ask about something so weird that the teachers would give her the look. In eighth grade she had asked about the multiverse theory in Science!

"The Doll of the Gray Man Incident." Rei answered flatly, receiving looks from the surrounding university students. "We're going to learn about it anyway, right?" Silence.

The professor's lips curled into a smile. "Very well. Why don't you explain what it is, Pham, since you want to hear about it so much that you'd disdain rigor mortis, a good way to determine time of death." A few rows away, another student that had been drinking water choked and let out some loud, hacking coughs at the statement. "Is there anything wrong…Ikazuchi?" he asked after consulting the seating chart. Ikazuchi Raikou shook his head, coughing more.

"Nothing, professor." the blond boy replied with a cringe. Rittai had an infamous reputation for strictness, earning the nickname "Solid Clay" from alumni due to the fact that he never changed his stance on a subject no matter what. It didn't help that his name meant "clay solid body" in Japanese.

"The Doll of the Gray Man Incident," Rei began cautiously, standing up, "was a series of killings four years ago, the first death on January 3rd, 2008. 11 people died, and the one thing that they all had in common was that they had a rare genetic mutation which caused abnormal gray skin. They were all killed in the same way, the prefrontal cortex having been removed and the cranium having holes that were common results of lobotomy in the 1940s. They were then hung like dolls, with wires suspending them in mid-air and hung them in different positions. Those were the only things in common with each of the victims. Later, the culprit was sniped and killed by the CIA, according to news reports, on December 1st of the same year. The criminal was-"

"The criminal was never announced." the professor interrupted. Rei frowned and shook her head. "Are you kidding me?"

"The felon was a man known as Adam Earl. In the 1940s he was well known for his successful lobotomy surgeries. However it was revealed that he killed several of his patients, the ones that the American public never heard of due to the fact that those surgeries had been failures. He killed them through injection of cleaning fluids after he discovered the failed results. He pled guilty for those deaths in 1952, and was slated for capital punishment. However, a few weeks before the execution was administered, the Earl somehow escaped. After he was caught again 4 years ago, he pled guilty for all 11 killings at the trial, and was eventually listed for capital punishment once again, which was administered a year following. Interrogation revealed that apparently there had been no motive for the killing spree, and yet they were all premeditated." she said, finishing her monologue. Silence descended on the small class and Rei trembled a bit, remembering when Kanda had first told her about the murders.

"How gruesome." Raikou muttered, shivering.

"Lex tallionis- a life for a life." Pr. Rittai said, breaking the silence. "And how is it that you know that it was Adam Earl when said information wasn't released?"

"My brother was one of the first investigators to be assigned on the team. Yuu Kanda is my adoptive brother." she quickly explained. The professor nodded in recognition at the name.

"A genius in the field, apparently." the man muttered.

"Yeah, but an idiot at home." Rei retorted under her breath.

11:25 AM, November 16th, 2012
Black Order Morgue, Los Angeles Branch

In his office, Yuu Kanda sneezed violently, falling off his chair and startling his long-time friend Lenalee Lee, who worked under him. "Are you okay, Kanda?" she asked. He was briefing her on a new case, and both were awaiting the other investigator on the team. Lenalee was a 5' 6'', 31-year-old Chinese forensic pathologist, and was always immediately recognizable with her green eyes and long, dark green hair tied in two pigtails. She was a very cheery, and got along well with most of her coworkers, although during an autopsy most lab technicians described her as "terrifying".

"Idiot sister is probably talking about me again." he snarled, standing back up and dusting himself off. "Now where is that beansprout?" The Japanese man had never liked being referred to by his first name, and stood at 6'1''. He had an odd dark blue hair which was constantly kept in a long ponytail, making him look like a Japanese samurai of old. It didn't help that he had a collection of swords at home.

"It's Allen, BaKanda!" the white-haired investigator retorted, entering the office and giving his superior a glare at the nickname. Allen Walker was uncharacteristically short for his 32 years of age, being around Lenalee's height, and with his white, trauma-induced hair, had earned him the name "beansprout" from close friends and coworkers, much to his chagrin. "And, sorry that I'm late. Cross came back last night." those within earshot flinched at the mention of Allen's adoptive father.

"It doesn't matter." Kanda growled after hiding his surprise, "Just sit down." Cross Marian was a famous sniper, but the man's personality was horrible enough that everyone in the Black Order Morgue pitied Allen's situation, not that they'd ever say so and incur Allen's dark side.

"So what's the situation?" Lenalee asked after Allen had gotten settled in one of the stiff chairs in Kanda's office. "You usually don't have…that much paperwork on your desk." Kanda was infamous for sporting a neat, paperwork-free desk that everyone envied. However there was a now a large pile awaiting his review and assignment.

"Arsonist and murderer." Kanda said shortly. Allen's eyes narrowed at the words. "Do you guys remember Miranda Lotto, the lady that sold us all the clocks here? And I think she graduated from Innocence Academy with us."

"What about Miranda?" Lenalee asked, remembering the forever nervous, clumsy, and apologetic clockmaker.

"She's dead." he said, leaving a minute of silence for the two in front of him to digest the fact. "You guys probably heard about the fire last night on the news, right?" they nodded slowly, still stunned. "It was arson, plain and simple. Traces of an accelerant were found on the premises after the fire was extinguished, which were Miranda Lotto's clockwork shop, Timekeeper, and a neighboring warehouse. But that's not all." at this, Kanda stood up and went to one of the many file cabinets lining his office, rummaging around it and coming back with a few photographs, which the duo picked up and examined. "The accelerant was probably lubricant oil that she used in her clock repairs."

The pictures were different angles of a badly charred body, with some parts under fallen and similarly burnt grandfather clocks. The last one had a note on the back, which Lenalee read aloud, "Cause of death is presumed to be cranial damage, caused by collapse of observed objects. Autopsy pending." she put it down and glared at Kanda. "I want that autopsy."

"No can do. Fou already came in a while ago and took it. She confirmed the statement, but discovered Miranda also died because one of her ribs broke, puncturing her lung. The lung did her in." he said. "What you two are in here for is that the fire was a disguise for the fact that she was murdered. The fire occurred after she was murdered, because Daisya, the arson investigator, noticed that the wall nearest her death had the upside down V-marks. Those usually show up where the fire starts. Also, those grandfather clocks that are on top of her? They are more burnt than ones in the backroom, which is where she usually did her work. The culprit set the fire to destroy evidence. And that is where you two come in." Allen and Lenalee exchanged looks, at the last line. "We need to figure out the time of death and some other stuff, and Daisya had to go to another fire."

"Wait, so if Allen investigating, what do I need to do?" Lenalee asked, confused. Kanda pinched the bridge of his nose in exasperation.

"You and beansprout are working together. Daisya just gave me a call from uptown; there was another fire there. And a body, too. I'm guessing that it's the same person. You two will be working on these cases until we get the guy. You do the autopsies, beansprout does the field. And besides, I know that you have a M.D in criminology, Lenalee. If it's another serial killer, we'll need both of you. You might accompany beansprout to the scene if you need to. "

"Okay, chief." Allen said, nodding. "I guess there's more info in the papers?" he suddenly felt a chill from Kanda's abruptly happy demeanor.

"Yep. All this paperwork is for the investigator that took on the case, specifically you, beansprout. Now get out of my office." Kanda said with a vindictive smirk. Allen and Lenalee scrambled out, now bearing a of load paperwork, the bane of every investigator and forensic pathologist.

The Black Order Morgue was to say…rather unique. There were branches of it in every major city in the US, and it operated slightly differently than the conventional morgue, with contacts in the police. At best, it could be described as a morgue and a police organization merged together and dubbed "Black Order". They specialized in nationwide cases, but since those only came every four or five years, each morgue took in cases for the city that it covered. It and each city morgue did butt heads over cases, but since the system already had a backload of cases, the government was quite content with forcing most of those on the morgue. Investigators for the morgue had to have gone through the police department for a few years before becoming eligible to apply for a position in the Order. Kanda had put years into becoming the Deputy Chief of the Black Order Los Angeles Branch, and had several case resolutions attributed to him, including the Doll of the Gray Man, or DGM, case. But life didn't go his way, even after all the hard work; his phone rang. Pinching the bridge of his nose again, Kanda looked at the caller ID and almost wanted to punch something. "What do you want, Rei?" he snarled, drumming his desk with his fingertips angrily.

"My intern shift is today, right?" the voice of his adoptive little sister asked excitedly. Oh, yeah. Kanda realized absentmindedly. "Right?" Kanda rummaged around his desk drawers, searching for the intern shift calendar.

"Yeah." he replied shortly. "You and that Ekaterina friend of yours. And some person named Raikou Ikazuchi, ring any bells?" On the other side of the line, Rei choked on her sandwich at the name.

"Raikou?" she asked weakly after she recovered. "He's in my Forensic Science class. We share Criminology, too."

"Well remind him, too. You're lucky that this year the Order is allowing Cal State undergraduates to intern here, if it can be called interning. Darned Komui." he replied. "Since you take morning classes only, go meet beansprout at…I'll text you guys the address. Bye." Hanging up, Kanda cradled his head in exhaustion. First he had to deal with Allen and Lenalee, and tell them that an old friend had been murdered. And then he would have to deal with Ryuukei and her companions, and after years of siblinghood, he knew that life was not going to be unfair in his favor anytime soon. And before that…Kanda wisely decided to stop remembering and go grab a cup of coffee before his impending headache got any worse.

For the sake of my grade:

Review?