Detective Dennis Macfield blew on his cup of coffee, listening to his fellow officers' conversation.
"I heard the commissioner doesn't trust us. He planning on cutting down the force or something, I bet." One of the officers was flipping idly through some week-old case notes.
"Sure hope not. City's got more than enough crime for us to deal with." The second officer penned in a couple letters of the daily crossword.
"You guys are just paranoid, there's no way he would do such a sudden move, you guys should know our esteemed Commissioner better than that~" The orange haired detective chimed in optimistically, sipping his coffee.
"Easy for you to say, newbie," said the second officer between letters, "You don't really know how the commissioner can get sometimes…"
"Yeah… That glare of his… When he's upset, he's really upset. And it's more often than you'd think… It's like he thinks half of us can't do anything right."
"Then prove him wrong, duh. If you want to save your job why don't you just do something big, something flashy, something to impress even our Commissioner Akaba!"
The officer looked up from his reports to take a sip of coffee. "Easier said than done, Detective Macfield. We can't all be like Galaxy-Eyes. ...Is he still working on that smuggling case?"
"G-Galaxy Eyes? I don't believe I've met him yet…" The cheery detective showed interest, his eyes glowing brightly.
"Oh-ho-ho, then you're in for a treat," said the other officer, as he put away the newspaper, finally giving up on the crossword, "Kaito Tenjo's one of our best detectives. He's almost always working. He's currently heading the smuggling case. He's been working here for… What, a year now?"
"One and a half. Almost as long as I have."
"I'll have to meet him one day. He sounds like a much better influence than you guys are." Dennis chuckled as he walked off to some paperwork that he has been assigned to.
"Good luck with that." The officer went back to his papers, waving Dennis off.
In another part of the police department, a recently-hired young policeman and his superior officer were having a discussion about their assignment.
"C'mon Rin, why aren't we chasing all the bad guys like the police in the movies do? I-I mean, they fail all the time and get killed, but we're better than them right?"
The mint-haired lady officer leaned on the back of her subordinate's chair and said, "Police shows give an awfully inaccurate view of our work. It's not like CSI, with tons of action and stakeouts. It's mostly background work, research, patrols, helping people… that sort of stuff. It'd be stupid if it were like those shows."
The younger blue and yellow haired officer sighed and pouted, similar to that of a small child who didn't get what they wanted. He fiddles with the paperwork he was assigned to do and said, "Stupid for you, fun for me. Besides, it's borrrrring, just being confined to this tiny office with paperwork, you think so to right? I've known you far too long to not be right on that one, so let's go stretch and have some fuunnnnnn….Please Rin? Pretty please with two mint-coated cherries on top?"
"Well, we'll probably find some criminals on patrol tonight. Then you can chase and arrest them all you want. ...there's way more than enough." Rin shook her head at her friend's attitude. "For now, we have paperwork to do."
"FIne. But don't expect me to enjoy it…..I still wonder why I have this job." Yugo whined, as he filled in his paperwork with pen.
"You were the one who kept talking about how you wanted to join me at work when I told you about it." Rin went back to her seat and continued to work.
"Maybe I didn't want to be apart from the only person I care about." Yugo muttered, still away at his paperwork.
Rin kept silent, choosing to not respond, acting as if she hadn't heard.
…
"So, what is this proposal?" Shun had dragged himself out of bed, slipped on a slightly more proper set of clothes, and joined Yuto and Reiji while the latter made himself comfortable on an armchair.
"And why would it interest more than Shun, why would it interest Ruri and me?" Yuto looked at the commissioner with a confused look, intrigued with what he had to say.
Commissioner Akaba adjusted his glasses. "Oh, come now. Do you think that simply because Kurosaki here is the only one of you who doesn't hide his identity behind more common card monsters, I would not noticed the Phantom Knight of Silent Boots you used against the thieves last week or suspect Ruri's involvement when the Raptor's band increased to three? My proposition is for all of you, and rightly so."
"Get on with it already," said Shun, impatiently, "You don't need to show off."
"Hold on. I want to know how he's tracking us, the Phantom Knights of Silent Boots is nearly untraceable to any outsider, and we made Ruri hide in the shadows as much as possible. It's as if Commissioner Akaba….! How long have you been spying on us?" Yuto questioned, glaring at the Commissioner with what appears to be anger.
Reiji pulled out a card from his pocket and summoned it. "I have my ways," he said as DD Copernicus appeared in the room. "I've known about your activities ever since the Raptors began, and as much as you want to believe otherwise, you're not invisible to the press."
Out of pure reflex, Yuto summoned the Phantom Knights of Ancient Cloak the second after DD Copernicus appeared.
The commissioner raised an eyebrow. "A duel, now? I'm not wearing my disk." The commission was also known to participate in duels as well, but only with the police force for certain events that met his approval. The crowds had expressed hopes of seeing Heartland's Raidraptor-using star duel the police's prodigy commissioner, but on the rare occasion that they were in the same tournament, police business had arisen and Shun had mysteriously disappeared.
"You're the one who summoned a monster first. What I'm doing is Self-Defense." Yuto said, in a rather calm tone that doesn't match his deathly glare at the commissioner.
"Fair enough." Reiji dispelled his monster and adjusted his glasses again. "Now, as for the proposition. As you know, despite my efforts, the current police system is rather corrupt, and I suspect a number of my officers are receiving bribes from criminal sources, as some groups have eluded us longer than they should have."
"As far as your police goes, I only care about the one they call 'Pawn of Fusion'. And Yuto is sure that he found that pawn. We plan to get rid of him when he goes out for his patrol." Shun nodded at Yuto as Yuto gave Reiji a profile picture that shows Yugo's face. '
The commissioner took the picture, looked at it, and promptly covered his mouth with his other hand, shaking almost imperceptibly. It took a moment for the caped crusader to realize that the composed, refined, and articulate commissioner was trying not to burst out laughing. "Though I'm … quite surprised… I wish you luck with that. However, I've not finished explaining my proposal."
"...Fine. It is rather rude of me to cut you off, please continue with this proposal." Shun, who at this point, was trying to contain his anger. No one laughs at his best friend without consequence..
"As I was saying, the police aren't fully trustworthy, so I intend to enlist a group of trusted individuals to a more secure subsection, and I hope to include you three." He had also hoped to include Yugo and Rin, as despite Yuto's suspicions of the former, Yugo was one of his most trusted officers. "In my employ, you will be officially funded by the department, and have access to police files and records." He also considered telling them that he had his own suspicions on the "Pawn of Fusion's" true identity, but he wasn't certain yet, and the information might just confuse them, as their suspect held a few visual similarities with his.
"You were right commissioner, this is fairly interesting at the very least….Who are the other individuals you plan to include in this group?" Shun had a small glimmer of interest, the support of the department along with any possible evidence they could use, and profiles of every person in this city would prove to be useful for their line of work.
"Detective Tenjo, who you're familiar with, an officer named Rin and her subordinate, Officer Noboru Gongenzaka, Officer Sawatari, and my younger brother, Reira." He decided not to mention Yugo by name, for fairly obvious reasons.
"We will consider this, but we should expect a meeting between your comrades soon before we make our decision."
"Of course," said Reiji, "Though don't expect it to happen anytime soon. There are a few loose ends and suspicions to be cleared before we can begin forming the group proper."
"Agreed, we still have to find our Pawn, so if you have any information regarding him, we would appreciate it, considering how you question Yuto's accusation of your officer." Shun said, hoping the Commissioner would give them a clue regarding their case.
The commissioner adjusted his glasses, creating a glare on its lenses, obscuring his eyes. "I don't have any evidence, but I doubt Yugo would be capable of being the Pawn of Fusion you're seeking. However… I haven't confirmed the legitimacy of all my subordinates. But I do recommend that you take some care when talking to Yugo."
Yuto nodded and walked off into another room, leaving Kurosaki to deal with Reiji alone.
"Is that everything?" Shun decided that if Reiji didn't have any more important things to say, he was going to shoo him off, so he could get some decent sleep.
"Yes it is. Goodnight, Kurosaki." As Shun wasn't too difficult for Reiji to read, the commissioner left. As he reached the door, he turned his head back towards the vigilante. "By the way," he said, with the corner of his mouth ever so slightly upturned, "Don't take too long with the dishes. I doubt Yuto would appreciate being pushed to take matters into his own hands if the work accumulates." And with that, he left.
Shun just grunted and vanished into his room. He flopped onto his bed a second time and drifted into sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night with the realization that Reiji had even spied on that conversation.
…
Yugo could swear someone was watching him. He'd looked back a full ten times on the way from the station back home, and had seen nothing. But he had to make sure. A criminal or an assassin might have been following him, and not trusting his investigative instinct might have put him in danger. That would not be allowed to happen.
So he parked his motorcycle next to a tree, locked it, gave it a quick check to makes sure there wasn't anything that could be adjusted or preemptively fixed before he got to his garage, then began investigating.
Yugo pressed the com button in his helmet that connected to the walkie-talkie system. "Rin..I feel like someone's watching me...And I feel like my heart's about to burst, can we just go to another area for patrol tonight?"
There was no response, and the interface display in the helmet said that she was not currently available.
"G-Great...Agh! I don't need her anyways!" Frustrated, Yugo continued his investigation, hoping his heart would ease a little as time went on, but unfortunately for him, it was only getting worse.
Yugo thought he heard footsteps behind him and turned around. But there was no one there. Eventually, he decided that it was only his imagination… until he turned back to his motorcycle and saw a girl, covered from head to toe in a dark purple and gray outfit, examining the Duel Disk system he'd attached to his motorbikes' controls. She wore a black masquerade mask with pink trim, and white gloves on her hands.
"Oyyy! What are you doing with my Motorbike?!" Yugo yelled as he ran toward the mysterious girl, thinking that she was attempting to steal it.
The girl seemed startled at the sound of Yugo's voice and stepped back. She then put her hands on her hips and said, "I was just looking at it. Can't a girl look at a motorbike nowadays?"
Yugo recognized that voice. "T-That Voice...Why would you look at a motorbike you helped build? Rin?"
The girl froze, and Yugo couldn't tell what she looked like under the mask, but he could envision Rin's face, surprised at how easily he recognized her. "What are you talking about? Who's Rin?"
Obviously, this was a ploy to keep her identity a secret. "You? I recognize that voice, I've known you since we were kids Rin! You can wear that...Wait what are you wearing? I thought Halloween wasn't until October…."
"I'm Miami City's Melodious Masquerade. ...except in Heartland." She took another step back from the motorcycle.
Yugo only vaguely recalled the Miami hero. He wasn't too surprised that Rin would also want to be a heroine like her. ...Maybe she didn't want her identity revealed.
"...I swear, I've heard that name before...Sorry..It's just your voice, you sound just like a really close friend of mine." Yugo played along for now, his heart won't get any better if he just kept calling her out in the middle of the night.
The girl seemed pensive for a moment. "I should get back to my patrol. Crime waits for no one."
"W-Wait! Just a moment please!" The young officer went into the back of his motorbike, and grabbed a helmet and passed it to the lady. "Crime would wait a lot less if we worked together for the night right?"
She took it and looked at it. "Are you offering to help me?"
"I go on patrol too, you know. It would be a lot quicker if we worked together for the night."
She put the helmet on, the corners of the mask bending slightly to fit, "Alright, thanks."
Yugo imagined a grin on her face as she accompanied him onto the motorbike and sped off.
The patrol covered the normal police route, but the girl had them take a few detours into some places he did not consider looking into. At the end, she asked to be dropped off at a subway station.
"By the way, haven't caught your name, and Melodious Masquerade doesn't exactly roll off the tongue for me."
"Just helping me patrol tonight doesn't entitle you to knowledge of my secret identity."
"I know it doesn't….I just thought it would be nice to know each other…" The young officer pouted at the girl, as if he was a small child who didn't get what he wanted."
"Well, if Melodious Masquerade is too long, I guess you could call me…." She thought for a bit, "Mel? And I'll be patrolling tomorrow night too. We could meet up in the park again."
"I look forward to it! Oh right! The name's Yugo!" Immediately, the pout turned into a bright smile, as if his spirits were lifted up instantly.
She nodded. "See you tomorrow, Officer Yugo." She then boarded the subway and left.
As Yugo headed home, he couldn't stop thinking about that girl, how he was convinced she was Rin under the mask, how she was so much more...distant than usual, but he also looked forward to meeting her again.
A/N: Lith again! This chapter was longer. Deal with it. AN: It's me again, and yeah. We really put a lot of stuff into the second chapter.
