[Warning] This is work of fiction. Street names, building names etc are fictional except for some of them. Find them if you can, it would be like solving puzzles ;)
Summary: Eren Yeager is the most famous prodigy teenager detective in Europe. Freiheit is the most famous magician and thief in Europe. They are oil and water, critic and illusioner. Yet, Eren seems to find Freiheit's heists are the most normal constancy in his dramatic life. But, there's no way Eren is going to actually 'meet' this guy. However, with Eren's luck, a serial murder case gets involved with the most famous magician in the world. Will they be able to corporate? (No need to know "Detective Conan" or "Magic Kaito 1412")
Warning: M (because of gore, blood and murder)
Freiheit's Triumph! Again!
Yesterday night, Midnight Knight Freiheit had stolen The Lady -
Click.
New Jewel. New Glider?
It seems that our beloved thief, Freiheit, has acquired a brand new glider with wings -
Click.
The Phantom of the Night
Yesterday night, when the full moon rose and shone above the Azina Museum, Freiheit -
Slam!
"Are they fucking serious?!"
"Woah! Eren!"
Eren, who had been hunching over his laptop and scrolling down the news articles, abruptly stood up and closed (more like, slammed) the laptop with an angry huff. Armin, an innocent bystander who shouldn't have sacrificed his ear buds to Eren's 'I-am-super-pissed' shout, jumped from his seat for a good half an inch.
"What's the matter?" Armin asked while finishing his sausage bread.
"What's the matter? Are you asking me what's the matter?"
Eren's dramatic sigh almost made Armin roll his eyes. Almost.
"They are almost hero-worshipping him!"
"... And?"
"He's a thief!"
"Not just any thief, Eren. He's Freiheit. He always gives back the gems after he puts up his shows."
"And?!"
"... Eren, he had been on papers, radios, and broadcasts way before you became well-known."
Still, that didn't mean Eren hated him. No, hate was a strong word. He should change his diction. Eren scrunched his eyes, remembering the 'grand' heist. How many times did he attend Freiheit's heists? How many times did he fail to catch him? How many times did the man continue to surprise Eren with his tactics?
Eren sighed once more and sat back on his seat, deliberately ignoring Armin's concerned look directed towards him.
The man with white top hat, white suit and black wings on the white cape.
The man who seemed to glow under the moonlight.
The man who never allowed anyone to be hurt during his heist.
Yes, definitely not hate.
Brrr - Brrr -
"Hello?"
[Eren, darling.]
"Oh, hi, mum."
[Are you doing fine?]
"Me? Oh, yeah, I'm alright."
[Are you sure? Do you need us to - ]
"No, mum, it's alright. I can take care of myself. Enjoy the travel with dad… Okay?"
You need it. You deserve it. Those words were unsaid but trailed along with Eren's long pause.
[... Call us, whenever you need help, Eren. I read the article when I woke in the morning and I was worried…]
"It was just the Full Moon, mum. There's no need of visiting morgue during the heist. Cleaner air, you know?"
Eren lightly commented to his mother who seemed to be amused by her son's silly joke.
[If you say so, darling. Take care. Love you.]
"Yeah, I love you too, mum. Tell dad…"
Tell dad what, Eren wondered for a second.
"Tell dad to take care as well."
[... I will, sweet dreams, darling.]
Eren ended the call and looked outside of the window. The jet-black sky was dotted with sparkling stars and a round silver moon. He stifled a yawn and hastily finished his physics homework. Lately, there had been no serious crimes going around in the nation. It was good, yes, it was good that there were no crazy people killing people and spilling blood. At the same time, the tranquillity bored Eren to the point that Eren actually contemplated on whether he should solve his Calculus textbook questions. From the start. Again.
Eren unlocked his phone's screen, revealing the time 11:50 PM, and searched through the media to find anything remotely interesting. Freiheit that, Freiheit this… Whoever Freiheit was, he must be laughing his ass off while living a double or triple or quadruple life. Who knows?
Eren closed his eyes and let his memory wash over him; the bright moon, the billowing cape, the cheers of Freiheit's fans, the thin line of the thief's lips, the soft autumn breeze, and a smooth voice declaring the owner's victory. The rose blooms under the moonlight, with its peony scent in the air. She dances until the Clock chimes 12 times, and the Prince leads the dance. The Dance has started.
Freiheit always sent a notice of his grand heist a week prior his show. This time, the heist came back a bit faster, only three weeks had passed since the thief's last show. Nobody knew what kind of gem he was going to steal since there were so many people who wanted to lure the famous thief to steal their gems and increase the stones' value. When did gems that Freiheit stole became more valuable anyway?
It wasn't until Eren saw the gems that were going to be exhibited on the day of the heist that The Lady was going to be the Princess. The gem was handcrafted by a well-known Chinese jeweller and valued millions of euros; it was a chunk of purple diamond - one of the rarest kinds of diamonds in the world - that reflected light within the gem under the soft light, almost shining in colour of red rose, and shaped as a water lily.
The water lily really gave away everything. Eren was not impressed. Okay, maybe he was impressed. Just slightly. He didn't expect Freiheit to know flowers like he did because of his flower-obsessed mother.
It might have looked like a regular water lily to everyone but Eren knew.
Night Bloom Water Lilies had narrower petals than their relatives and they were always, mostly, purple or dark pink. Water Lilies tended to smell sweet, fresh, and lemony a bit like peonies. Most importantly, Night Bloom Water Lilies, just like their names, bloomed during midnight.
Pity the guards couldn't protect the gem even though Eren had told them to put in every security techniques and forces around the gem.
In the end, Eren deduced that The Lady was the star of the show, Freiheit disguised and blended into the crowd, the security system was founded to be bugged, Freiheit put up a grand show under the moonlight, and the thief vanished when the smoke bomb went off. Per as usual.
Except…
"What does he mean by The Dance…"
Eren twitched his right eye in annoyance and filed the information in the back of his memory.
"Eren, you look bored."
"Oh, you noticed."
"Stop being sarcastic, idiot."
Armin took a bite at his cinnamon roll and stared at his dejected friend. Sometimes, Eren needed time to chill. And this was a great opportunity. To chill. To take a breather. Just relax.
"You need to relax."
"I have relaxed enough."
"You just went to the heist yesterday. Chased down Freiheit. Ran 4 kilometres on high rise buildings' rooftops."
"But it's heist."
Never mind. Eren attending Freiheit's heist was his way of breather. Armin should have known, no, he already knew. Right.
"Are you hoping for a crime to happen, Eren?"
"Y - No! Of course not!"
"... Uh-huh."
Armin nodded half-heartedly while his mouth was full of deliciously sweet cinnamon roll. He pointedly avoided thinking about Eren's startled answer. It would be a massive understatement if Armin said he was not worried about Eren. He was extremely worried about his best friend. Eren always had that serious shadow cast look whenever he was trying to solve something. This was not his first time that Armin saw Eren deep in thoughts.
There were a lot of consequences when Eren was too deep in thoughts.
And Armin was not going to let Eren plunge deeper.
"I am going to bring you down myself if you do something irrational."
"... What kind of person do you think I am?" Eren replied with a distinct irritation laced in his voice.
Armin trusted Eren to realise what he was talking about so he no longer commented. Eren was a lot of things in one body. His mind and personality contradicted each other to a point that Armin has labelled Eren as one of the Unsolved Mysteries in the world. Eren was irrational yet rational, calculative yet initiative, and detached yet emotional. He was the synonym of contradiction. It was almost a joke that Eren was a world known detective.
Sometimes, it was a pain in the butt to be a friend of Eren Yeager.
School ended like usual, with boring classes and boring teachers. Eren has slept most of the classes or looked outside of the window to catch the red maple leaves falling down to the cobblestone. The teachers didn't bother to wake him up. It only made Armin to form a displeased frown.
"Eren, at least try to look interested."
"How."
"Just fake it."
"I - "
Eren's words were cut off when a ringtone filled in the empty classroom. Eren took out his phone and momentarily halted when he read the caller ID.
"Inspector Smith."
[Yeager, you are needed.]
"Is there a crime?"
Eren quickly packed his belongings, his eyes bright and eyebrows knitted together in concentration, tracing back the dates and news articles he had read before as he tried to analyse if there was any foreshadowing.
[... Yes. But I will let you decide.]
"What do you mean by that? I always come - "
Eren stopped on his track, holding the door handle of the classroom when he heard the next words.
[Today's different. The victim is a 12-year-old girl. Shot.]
Eren sipped his coffee as he stared down at the crime photos. Eren had seen a lot of dead bodies. Millions of bodies since he started to follow around the police force when he was 8. To a normal young child, the gruesome crime scenes would have appeared in the child's nightmare. But Eren was special.
He was always special.
When young Eren first encountered the crime scene, he did not cry. He went up to the corpse with determination, baffling everyone, and hovered the back of his hand above the corpse's face. Nobody knew what the kid was doing. The scene workers tried to move Eren but abruptly stopped when the kid declared, 'He had been dead for more than 3 hours maximum. The wounds look clean. He didn't fight back… Officer, did you run a blood test?'
It was the start of Eren Yeager's fame.
Dead bodies did not scare Eren.
They never scared him.
It was always the living that scared him.
The aspect of not being able to save them on time if he knew there was going to be a murder - now, that would be called a real nightmare.
Eren looked at the photo of a young girl, pale and chalky, her limbs spread apart in awkward positions, abdomen pooled with dark red liquid. Too young. Eren always tried to save the kids before things went mayhem. The kids were the priority. The kids…
Normal kids shouldn't experience this.
"Yeager."
"Inspector Smith."
The man with neatly combed blond hair and sky blue eyes stared at the photo then back to the young detective.
"I suppose you read the file."
"Yes… Lilith Finnegan. Daughter of the bakery shop…"
She was just a normal child with no hidden background. Why. Eren dismissed his thought as he settled his eyes on the picture. He should check the crime scene again. It was no use just staring at the pictures all day long. Eren drank his last sip of coffee from the cup and threw it into the bin. Smith looked at Eren for a second but did not raise any questions and quietly followed the teen.
The murder took place under the bridge, a public place where there were joggers and cars passing by. But there were no witnesses. Eren stared at the outline of the body. There had been no other signs of assault other than the bullet. If someone murdered the kid here, someone would have heard the sound of the gun. By the temperature of the corpse, she had been long dead. That meant the actual murder did not take place under the bridge. Too risky.
Eren looked around where the body has once been. The sun was slowly setting from the horizon, orange and yellow hue glowed the sky. It was a beautiful sunset. Eren, I like sunsets, do you? Eren ignored the churning of his stomach as he stared down at the crime scene. Too young, too young. Then, the light shone directly into his eyes.
What the -
He was staring down at the ground; there was no way the sunlight could have gotten into his eyes in this angle. Why was there -
Eren sharply stalked towards the grass, a bit far from the crime scene, ignoring the shouts of the inspector. A glimmering object shone beneath the layer of green grass. Taking out his white gloves, Eren carefully reached for the object and held it high.
And almost dropped it.
No.
Eren looked at the small metallic card, a size of credit card, and examined the illustration on it.
A pair of wings, facing the opposite direction.
In black.
No.
No.
No.
"Yeager! What did you - "
The words of the inspector died as the usually stoic man widened his eyes.
"This is not just a murder," Eren could hear himself muttering beneath his breath. He slowly turned his head and stared at Smith.
"This is a message."
And the beginning of more deaths.
It was obvious that Freiheit was not the murderer.
The thief stole but never murdered.
Eren trusted his guts and deduction skills to know that Freiheit was not the murderer but instead the upcoming targeted victim.
But Eren was surprised on how media and Facebook could alter truth so easily.
"Do you think…"
"No."
"You didn't even hear me out."
"Your posture is rigid, your habit of fiddling with pockets comes out whenever you are nervous or uncertain, and you are darting your eyes between me and your phone. What isn't obvious?"
"... You are sure about this for someone who declared his hatred towards the Midnight Knight."
"He's a thief, but not a murderer."
"Then," Armin paused for a second and tilted his head to a side, "you believe this is some kind of warning. A bigger picture. This is not just about a murder, isn't it?"
That was the thing about Armin. He had some remarkable skills of observation when he wanted to observe. He just needed to be familiar with the concept of observation whenever he looked around.
"And that's why you are my friend, Armin."
Eren tugged the corner of lips upward but it quickly crumbled down as the school bell rang for the next class.
He wasn't sure how the thief got involved in a serial murder case. Why was he targeted? What did he do? Is there another past of him? Who is he?
Eren sighed at the neatly cleaned classroom and stored back the cleaning mop. He had been zoning out during classes for the whole day and the Chemistry teacher did not like his attitude; thus, ordering Eren to stay behind and clean the classroom. Seriously, cleaning classroom? Weren't janitors hired for a reason? Nevertheless, Eren shrugged his shoulder when the irritated teacher half-screamed at his face. He could think about the murder while cleaning up the classroom.
Eren was heading towards the classroom door when a sudden gust of wind passed him. In swift motion, he turned his heels and looked at the open window. He searched the classroom, seeing if there was anything out of norm. He could feel someone's presence. But where? Feeling the dare, Eren poked his head out of the window and looked up. Someone was on the rooftop. A white billowing cape solidified Eren's guess.
Swiping his tongue at the ceiling of his mouth, Eren knitted his eyebrows and closed the window. He had not expected a surprise visit from him out of all people. The stairs up to the rooftop seemed like a long journey, and Eren wondered how in the world would he be able to enter the rooftop when the roof doors are locked. After a slight contemplation, he grabbed the door handle and pushed. Ah. Not that hard to enter the rooftop, huh.
"… Hello."
Eren looked at the back of the white figure, not daring to take any more steps. After all, this was not a heist. It was not in his liberty to capture the thief and turn him in. Freiheit, hearing the other's voice, turned, his face shadowed by the white top hat with the setting sun behind his back.
"Yeager."
It was not a surprise that the thief knew his name but it was a surprise that the thief would actually manifest himself in front of Eren and call his name.
"You came."
Are you worried?
The last words were left unsaid and echoed within Eren's thoughts.
"Yes."
"If you were wondering whether I thought you were the murderer, you don't have to worry."
"I know."
Huh?
"I know that you don't suspect me being the murderer. You know how my work is done and you know it's not my domain to be involved in this kind of incident. You have been to my heists many times, Yeager. I have an inkling on how you think."
"… Is that why you are so keen on making the riddles harder?"
"So, you did notice."
"Yeah, the officers always call me for to solve the riddles. It's getting annoying."
"I am guessing the police officers are the ones you are annoyed at."
Eren did not reply but stared at Freiheit.
"Why are they targeting you?" Eren blurted out to end the silence.
"… I have always been a target, the only difference between now and then is the fact that I received a big red warning sign." Eren could sense a hint of sarcasm dripping from the tone of Freiheit.
"Yeah, I think the whole nation saw the big red warning sign yesterday."
Eren could catch a glimpse of smirk that spread across Freiheit's lips and disappeared in a blink of an eye.
"I expected you to be bratty, but I believe my assumption was a bit off," Freiheit grabbed the tip of his hat as the sudden breeze swept across the roof, his cape flowing and making the thief to look like a 19th-century gentleman.
"Oh?"
"You are more bratty than I expected."
Okay, scratch the nickname of Midnight Knight. Freiheit was far from being a gentleman. However, Eren would have retorted with some sharp comments if Freiheit didn't sound so off. It was disconcerting. Freiheit always looked confident before, during, and after his show. He was a collected person from what Eren could tell. The aura oozed from the thief.
"You are anxious."
Freiheit feigned an act that he didn't know what Eren was talking about.
"You are never this anxious. Something is going on. I need to know as much as I can to help you out."
"Is helping a criminal within your agenda, Mr. Bratty Detective?"
"You are not a murder. You are going to be a victim. I will help you. And then I will put you in jail."
Eren stared at the thief with strong determination, his eyes not wavering for a second, strong and bright.
"Now, you are starting to sound more like you." A hint of challenge was subtly noted within Freiheit's voice.
Eren stared at the setting sun, which was engulfing Freiheit's figure, shining him as if he was the beacon of the universe. After a few seconds, he casually stated.
"… You trust me."
How. Why.
There were questions Eren wanted to ask but he couldn't bring himself to. He bit his lower lip slightly as he contemplated on the words that he had said out loud. When the silence continued, Eren concluded that he was not going to get an answer. He knitted his eyebrows, a habit of his that he needed to fix, and opened his mouth -
"… Your eyes…"
Eren widened his green-hazel eyes as the man in front of him completely disappeared from his sight with puff of smoke, leaving Eren to rethink the thief's parting words.
They shine. That's why I trust you, brat.
[Author's Note]
I felt like I had this urge to write. It had been long since I wrote and there's a lot of things I want to incorporate throughout this story so be sure to check it out! - LK