Books hold memories of the past.

Hey there! New chapter is out as I promised yesterday! I hope you are all doing well and I thank you sooo much for your precious patience on my slow updates! I started writing my thesis in nursing school last week and in combination with the study for medical school's enter exams, I have limited free time for myself. Though with this chapter I hope your waiting was worthy!

Let's start, shall we?

I don't One Piece but I do own the plot, OC and extra characters!

Have fun~

Elga was looking at the lifeless corpse of the girl right in front of her completely shocked.

"Elga-san, isn't it?"

The brunette turned to her left so as to face a man approaching her.

"Yes and you must be officer Larry, right?"

"Yeah… this is quite a murder don't you think?"

"I don't remember witnessing something so cruel to be honest…" the girl answered holding back with difficulty an urge to puke at the sight of a girl not older than her age, laying dead on the snowy ground with her throat sliced from ear to ear and all of her blood drained.

The brunette felt goosebumps on her spine and shivered feeling sorry for the other girl.

"Elga-chan you must be cold! Here take my coat." Blake said observing the girl's reaction and brought his upon her shoulders.

Elga felt the cozy warmth embracing her torso and gave a smile at the red haired as a reply for his gentle action.

The boy winked her in response and smirked back.

Suddenly, a cough caught their attention and both of them turned their heads only to face Law wearing a poker face while glaring them.

Elga focused her gaze sideways annoyed by the said boy's presence and decided not to talk to him but walk towards officer Larry.

"What do you think happened?" she asked putting her mind in thought in an effort to forget her personal problems and be useful.

"The girl's name is Belle and she was declared missing for two weeks now. I don't know how I am supposed to announce those bitter news on her family." he said leaving a sigh escape his lips while massaging his forehead.

Law who was kneeled down examining the body made an infuriated frown and put on a pair of plastic medical gloves to touch the deep wound on the neck.

It seemed strangely professional like the killer had done this before. A confident slice and definitely had the essential anatomical knowledge to know where to cut so as to drain the victim's blood.

The raven haired calculated quickly the time of death and it shouldn't be more than 7 hours considering the freezing cold and the environment the body was exposed.

This fact meant in the girl's position that was laying motionless in front of him could be Elga. He immediately repelled from his tired mind this fear, remembering how ridiculously worried was last night because of her absence and all the thoughts with the worst scenarios he had put in his brain.

He turned his head and glanced at her feeling at least relieved she was fine.

Elga felt his eyes piercing her back and turned to face him in a blank expression. They locked their gazes for some seconds and then looked elsewhere breaking the contact awkwardly.

However, the girl decided to walk at him approaching the corpse and do the first step or else they would never manage to work together again under those conditions.

She indeed wanted to kill her feelings for the said boy but they still had to work and live together under the same roof so she just had to put some limits on their professional relationship.

"This must be the killer's first murder as I haven't heard of such a case in this island before." she spoke gaining his attention but he maintained his focus on the body's examination.

"The slice is too confident for a beginner. They did this before for sure. Though in a different island I guess." he replied.

"Hmm, I see… Then we should research about other missing announcements of girls of the same age. Maybe it will lead somewhere."

"I don't recall of this action being a doctor's responsibility." he said giving the brunette a death glare too tired for her annoying stubbornness.

He remembered pretty well how it was about to end the last time she wanted to play the detective and wasn't at least amused to experience the same story.

"Come on! Don't tell me you don't want to find the murderer!"

"No I don't. I will take the body back at the clinic, we will run some blood tests and do a full body examination and our job will be done at this point. I won't accept any denials from you and you are in no position for that now so be quite and do what I tell you." he explained in a fake calm tone, growling at her.

"Quite a fascist aren't we today? I'm not your slave to order me around like that!" Elga answered narrowing her eyes irritated by his comments.

Law stood up and took a few steps towards the girl, leaning a bit so as to stop his face a few inches from hers and smirked to her.

"Well, I'm not your babysitter too so if we find your blood-drained corpse in the woods like this girl don't put the blame on me.", he whispered and Elga widened her eyes at the feeling of his hot breath tickling her cheeks.

She felt goosebumps all over her spine from his words but soon replaced her expression with a more confident one, wearing a similar smirk too.

"Well, you shouldn't hide your cowardice behind your fake worries about my well-being. I did and still do perfectly fine without your protection." she responded in a sassy way only to receive an annoyed expression by the said doctor.

"Then you can play the strong independent woman by doing the necropsy alone while I enjoy the rest of my Sunday." he said in a completely calm tone and started heading for the wooden cabin leaving a furious Elga behind him.

*It is going to be either him or me in the end…*, she thought giving him a last glare before return to her job.

~…~

The brunette ignoring for once again Law's words, ended up helping Officer Larry with the ongoing case by searching the files of other missing girls with similar characteristics.

"Check out this one!" she said pointing at a paper with a blond girl's picture on it.

"Sandra Rodriguez, age 13 and announced as missing two weeks ago. There are many common points to be just a consequence."

"Though we haven't found a body yet so maybe the killer just keeps their victims somewhere. We should start searching for isolated places that are hard to reach.", she suggested and the officer nodded in agreement.

"Did you finish with the necropsy?"

"Yes sir, just before coming here."

"Good, I will pay a visit then at the clinic later to take the documents and greet Dr. Hashimoto as well on my way."

"I'm sure he will be glad to see you!"

Officer Larry just replied with a smile and closed the files in front of him, thinking it would be good to take a small break.

"Elga-chan you should rest too. We can continue the investigation later."

"Alright! Goodbye then!", she waved her hand and took her things, exciting the town's police station.

She stood there for a minute thinking what she could do next to kill her boredom. She certainly didn't feel ready yet to return back so any other choice other than that was fine by her.

Her gaze fell on the lending library on her right and decided it would be a good idea to check out for new books in there.

She approached the shop with excitement as it was the first time until her arrival in Pleasure Town that could spare some minutes and visit this place she so wanted to enter.

Once she stepped inside the familiar intoxicating smell of old books hit her nose and hummed in the comfortable sense.

Observing the small labels at the top of every bookcase she stopped right under the one that had sculptured the word 'History' on it.

She pointed with her index finger all the books in order, reading the titles until her eyes fell on one that caused her a rather familiar sense of fear and agony in her gut, thought she couldn't remember why.

She immediately held it in her hands like it would magically wake her memory, and flipped through its pages until she reached the last one where the old lenders' names were written.

"TDWL.", she read the signed name and then a small piece of her memories hit her tired brain like a blast.

Hot tears started running down her cheeks and she covered her mouth with a hand so as not her sobs to be heard through the library.

"Of course… How could I forget!", she murmured in a trembling voice.

And the name of this book was 'The History of White Town: Flevance'.

Oh my! Was that a memory? What does Elga have to do with Flevance? We will learn in the chapter! I have to note that as you can understand we reached the main part of the story that we will learn everything we need to know about the girl's past. I'm looking soo forward for your reactions hehehe XD. Till next time see ya!