BACK SO SOON? WHY, YES! I'VE BEEN AWAY FOR SO LONG, I FEEL LIKE I OWE IT TO YOU GUYS TO UPDATE A BIT MORE OFTEN NOW.
WARNING! THERE ARE SOME DISTURBING THINGS IN THIS CHAPTER, OF THE CRIMINAL KIND. SO THOSE WITH SENSITIVE STOMACHS MIGHT WANT TO AVOID IT OR SKIP THEM IF POSSIBLE.
DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN SHINGEKI NO KYOJIN OR ITS CHARACTERS! IF I DID, MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE NOW DEAD WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!
"Kirstein, incoming", he heard the low growl that he had come to identify as his Team Captain ever since the Force dumped him in what was perceived to be 'the unit for the children no one wanted to play with'.
Jean Kirstein used to look up to people in uniform - or, well, anyone carrying a badge. Back when he was 16, his brown eyes would light up at the mere sight of officers exiting this very building he was currently in. Being childhood friends with Colleen, whose residence was right across the street, helped him a great deal with catching a glimpse when visiting.
But now, fifteen years later, and at his early 30s, Detective Jean Kirstein wanted a break from all that he used to admire. Or at least some days off, because, really, some of the shit he had to deal with was too much, more often than not. Most of said shit was also caused by this menacing short stuff of a Captain, who was now holding a steaming food package.
"Uh... thanks, Captain", he hurriedly accepted the gift, not daring to stand up to show any kind of respect. For one, Levi Ackerman hated such stuck-up gestures. Not to mention, they reminded him that almost all the male team members were taller than him, and boy, was that enough to send him in a rampage or what?
Dull blue eyes gave him the famous Ackerman Morning Glare. The 5-foot-something male clicked his tongue "Still have no idea what that poor girl sees in you, Kirstein. Must be because she's blonde and that insinuates some innate stupidity or something..."
"I heard that", a quiet murmur made them turn towards the desk of one of the two blondettes of the team, Annie Leonhart. Her blue eyes showed irritation at the insult. Not that it ever bothered Captain Ackerman if someone in the whole building was offended. What the man lacked in height, he made up for in attitude.
The superior officer opened his mouth to reply, when another blonde head made an appearance in the room - or, rather, a blonde blur.
"OK, where the fuck is my coffee?", the hacker of the team snarled, nearly tackling the Captain when he dangled the styrofoam cup away from his own body. He snatched the thing and took a generous gulp, sighing in appreciation before his tense shoulders slumped. His large, expressive blue eyes blinked, and he gave them all a sunny smile, as bright as his short golden hair. "Good morning, everyone", a sweet, boyish tone now replaced the previous murderous one. The voice was gentle and shy, totally in tune with the delicate man it came from "I really needed that. Thank you so much, Captain. I hope it wasn't too much trouble for you or Colleen."
"No trouble at all", the gruff male replied, before his fist planted in the slightly taller one's gut. The hacker coughed and doubled over, as the Captain turned on his heel to enter his private office "That was for mouthing off to me earlier."
"Ah, so lively in the morning, as always", a cheerful, deep tone turned everyone's heads to the door. A tall, blonde man, with a neat haircut and icy blue eyes that never seemed to leave their calm state stood casually there. Even with his stance, his presence was quite commanding. Well, as expected from the Big Boss, Chief Smith.
Blushing, all the present people - minus Levi - stood up to attention. Jean ruffled his short, ash-brown hair to look a bit more presentable, hoping to all hell that his gift from Colleen wouldn't offend the Chief. He never showed any indication that the rules were to be followed to the letter, but with a man like Erwin Smith, you never knew.
"At ease, Detectives", he gave them his usual fatherly smile. His bushy blond eyebrows wiggled with amusement. His expression soon turned to shock, as someone tackled him to the floor from behind in the very next second.
"GUYS, THERE'S WORD OF SOME NEW MISSION AND - FUCK!", a panicking rant got cut short, as the person stopped at the entrance, looking down on the heap at his feet with terrified, teal-green eyes. "C-Chief! Fuck - I mean, er, shit, no, shoot! C-Connie, get off of him!"
The shaved head of the Chief's assaultant rised up, hazel eyes rounding in fear as he scrambled to get away. He was the only male in the group shorter than the Captain, but that didn't mean he was favored. His usual goofiness, stupid jokes, and clumsiness were often the reason why he was hit or kicked. Case in point, he was currently trying to help the Chief up, but couldn't resist adding cheekily "Yo, Chief, morning! Damn, is your back always that hard or were you just happy to see me?"
A chuckle escaped the superior's lips even as a book was sent flying on Connie Springer's head - the lack of hair not helping with cushioning the impact. He gave the young man a sympathetic smile, before addressing the rest of the people standing at the door behind the guy who had been yelling at the top of his lungs earlier. "Come in, everyone. And close the door. There is indeed a new mission for you, and I fear you may want to be seated for this one."
"Aw, man, so early in the morning? I haven't even had breakfast yet", the country-girl drawl of Sasha Blouse, the team's sniper, sounded like a whine. She was a woman of average height and build, with reddish brown hair and light brown eyes, but her main charm was in her humor. Too bad that one was out of the market; Connie, her spotter, hadn't left much of a time for anyone to swoop her off her feet after he set his eyes on her.
Some coughs and chuckles indicated the team's amusement at her bottomless stomach and endless appetite. How she managed to look so fit, he would never know - nor did he want to, since the response would be something crude, he was sure of it. Several chairs got dragged back and forth as people sat in their respective desks, laptops and computers started humming as they slowly came to life with button clicks.
He sat down, too, watching as the Captain followed the hacker he had previously punched to the latter's desk, leaning over the screen lazily. The chair next to him was dragged into place, making him look at his partner, Marco Bott. His black hair was combed weirdly today - probably because his son, Santo, had tried to style it again - , and his freckled smile reached his warm, brown eyes. On his desk, there was another package that seemed suspiciously similar to his.
His heart warmed. Ah, where would they both be without their dear friend, Colleen? The woman managed to maintain the bakery she had inherited from her mother - God rest her brilliant soul - , had helped Marco throughout the most difficult years of Santo growing up, teaching him everything from cooking to laundry and sewing, and, even now, still worried enough about the both of them to feed them at work. If he was another man, he would have married the girl in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately for all involved, he wanted only one woman to settle down with. He held back a sigh as he stole a glance at Mikasa Ackerman, the asian prodigy of the group and a distant relative of the Captain's. A Japanese-American, the woman was rather tall and built, with legs that could go on for days and matching black hair and eyes. Her cold persona always made him shiver and long for something between them much more than a simple companionship. But she had made it clear she wasn't interested - and thus, Jean had decided that if he couldn't have a chance with her, he didn't want a chance with anyone else at all.
Files popping up on his screen brought him back to Earth. Erasing all personal thoughts from his mind, he focused on the data and the numbers... And then all the blood left his face and his gut churned. His eyes widened. God, what a sadistic bastard were they supposed to deal with? These weren't incidents of some puny criminal, these... these were bad!
"Child and woman trafficking, gun smuggling, drugs and mur... - Oh, Lord!", Krista Lenz's cry reached his ears, but it sounded like so far away. He was breathing heavily, felt light-headed. He was glad he hadn't eaten anything yet, cause he'd be sure puking his guts out right about now if he had. The pictures... Jesus, they were haunting! They made everything the reports said even more disturbing!
"I don't think I'm hungry anymore...", Sasha mumbled, her laughing eyes serious as they glared at the screen and her hands reaching unconsciously for one of her drawers that were stuffed with guns.
Jean had to agree. Among many other horrid things, were children cut to pieces, their small bodies covered with bruises that were not related just to beating. The word "rape" escaped Krista's lips, as she was the one usually dealing with such cases and able to recognise the signs.
A grunt from the Chief was her answer "Not just that. Hanji and her team worked on the bodies we managed to retrieve - after they spent some time piecing them back together. We found them floating in a lake near a child camp. The lake was frozen from the winter and the ice melted after that, allowing what was left to float up. The rapes... they weren't done only before the deaths. They..."
Marco inhaled sharply at the sight of the Chief hesitating with the details. "You're saying... They were raped AFTER they were killed?"
His partner's voice was trembling. Understandable. Some of those kids were boys. Could have been happy campers or innocent ones playing in amusement parks like his own son, Santo. This case hit very close to home with him.
"Some of them, yes", the Chief nodded, running his hand through his hair helplessly.
"Necrophilia on top of murder and rape", Bertolt Hoover murmured quietly. His green eyes stared thoughtfully at his screen. He was contemplating something. Usually, Bertl kept to himself - he let one of his partners, Reiner Braun, do the talking and such and just towered in the background with his impressive yet awkward height. But when it came to creepy theories, he was the go-to man. One of the reasons why nobody ever messed with the gentle giant - who knew what was going on in that silent brunet's mind? He crossed his long arms and brought a hand to his chin, seemingly the only one not disturbed by the reports and the images in front of him. "In that case, it would be safe to assume they might have chopped up the victims and did... all that, to the sole necessary parts of their anatomy. Correct?"
A retching sound informed them of Sasha releasing her last dinner in the bin under her desk. The acid smell invaded his nostrils in the closed up office, and he felt his own nausea inching its ugly head near the surface. He couldn't blame her. The thought was indeed enough to send anyone vomiting. If he wasn't trembling with anger, his disgust would sure have done him in.
Delgado, the man responsible for all this, as the file said, was a mafia boss that no one could get their hands on. Always invisible, always in the shadows, never once detected or caught red-handed for his many crimes. Just this once, though, he had been careless. The report stated that the K9 unit had managed to find a lead in the traces maintained thanks to the ice on the bodies. God, would it be enough?
A mug was sent flying to a wall and crushed to pieces - the guy who had thrown it, Eren Jaeger, was fuming and ready to kill someone, not at all the same man who had panicked some moments ago for cussing in front of his superior.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go find this guy and kick his ass!", the furious brunet stood up, his chair falling back with a bang in the process. As always, the hot-headed idiot was rearing to go without any plan whatsoever. Mikasa silently followed her partner's lead, making Jean grit his teeth at the woman's devotion to the fool.
"Jaeger, sit the fuck down before I stab you with Armin's screwdriver, bury you, dig you back up and stab you again for good measure", the Captain's voice was not loud like Eren's, but it always did the job of calming the irritable idiot down and fast. Maybe because he wasn't above acting on his threats... As expected, Eren sat down, and the short man turned to the hacker again "Arlert, connect to the team's network and make it so all the evidence and the other crap are filed and away from the screens. You can all browse through that shit later in your free time, I find the accomplishes and possible lairs much more important - otherwise, SOME hare-brained motherfucker, namely Jaeger or Springer, will try to look on their own. And then I'll have to deal with lawyers and lame-ass bureaucrats - and you all know how I hate to deal with such people, don't you?"
Everyone shook in fear at the menacing aura that surrounded their leader. Armin shakily nodded and his fingers sped across his keyboard. A few seconds later, faces, profiles, maps and building designs replaced the gore and corpses they had to endure. Jean examined them, his head still dizzy from the previous pictures. The rest of the team seemed as engrossed as he was, until...
"Nice ass, Chief!", a deep baritone boomed in the silent room, startling them all and making them glare simultaneously at the source.
"REINER!", they yelled as one, half of the team blushing, the other half furious or pale. The Captain himself looked like someone's dog had peed on his favorite shoes and he wanted the mutt responsible dead. The only ones giggling behind their hands like school brats were the comic duo, Connie and Sasha.
"Thank you, Detective Braun, but you are not really my type", the Chief laughed heartily. His stance relaxed a bit, as if Reiner's comment had helped with the tension in the air.
Wait. He blinked. Damn, the Chief was right. Reiner really HAD helped them calm down. As unorthodox as his method was... He breathed easier now, his mind was clear, and his heartbeat was faster because of the adrenaline of the mission, not dreading anything other than the ordinary dangers that came with the job.
Good job, doofus, he mentally sent him his gratitude and praise.
The blonde bear of a man grinned, his golden eyes twinkling in mischief "Was talking about the hot mama in the picture, but yours isn't half bad, sir."
Jean looked at the screen in confusion, which soon cleared up. There, on the bottom right corner, was the picture of a woman's back. Her face was visible so they would easily find her, but the camera seemed to have caught a rather... interesting part of her anatomy, as well. And Reiner, being a proclaimed 'butt man', never missed a chance like this.
"OK, this one's mine", said 'butt man' proudly declared, puffing his impressive chest out. "I call dibs on that chick."
"We're supposed to capture and interrogate her, you drooling excuse of the male specimen", Ymir Cooper rolled her amber eyes and scrunched her tanned, freckled nose at him. "Just because you can't get laid doesn't mean you get to hit on the suspects. If you're about to let your dick do your job for you, then we're better off sending Armin after her."
"Hey! Leave me out of your rival banter!", the hacker freaked out at the possibility of being sent out on the field.
"As I was saying", Chief Smith's voice ceased all activities, "one team will be needed to search for the accomplices. The rest can focus on sniffing out the man himself. There are three places that have picked our interest as possible hideouts. I expect results as soon as possible, of course. Levi, I leave the rest to you. Have a nice day, Detectives."
The tall blonde exited the office at once, not even bothering with anything more than that farewell. They were used to it by now. If there was a mission on the way, their Captain wanted the preparations started pronto - any time extra taken from the schedule pissed him off. The Chief was once in the same team as him, so of course he knew what made him click and buzz.
Right on cue, the moment the blonde's second shoe touched the floor outside the door, the black haired ex-veteran jumped straight to orders.
"Alright, brats, listen up. Delgado is rumored to be one sick bastard. We all saw the images, we all read the numbers - so help me, God, Blouse, if you puke again I'll make you eat that stuff right out of your bin. Where was I? Right. The higher ups expect us to fail or get killed - well, we can count Shitty Glasses, Erwin, and Mike out of that crowd, but it still doesn't help. Which is why we were given this mission to retrieve him dead or alive. So, since I hate giving them what they want, none of you are allowed to die - or I will personally hire a psychic or exorcist or whatever to make your after life hell, and go take a shit on each of your graves. Though I'm sure Braun here will be delighted to have my ass facing his tombstone, perverted fucker that he is. Ackerman and Jaeger, you'll take the suites at his casino's top floor in Vegas. Springer and Blouse, the luxury yacht docked in Florida's main port. Leonhart, Hoover, and Braun, you - ", he stopped, visibly cringing at Reiner's attempt of a puppy-eyed look, "OK, fine, Leonhart, Hoover, and Braun, go after the hitman the drooling brute is so enamored with. Leonhart, I expect you to shoot him in the balls if he gets distracted - Hoover is too much of a softie with him to do it. And that leaves the estate at East Humpton. Kirstein, Bott, you two will take care of it. Any further questions, call Arlert. Get them debriefed as soon as you're done with the files, blondie. And now, get to work. I want the stuck up higher ups fuming with our success!"
PREVIEW:
"Well... That did not go as I expected, or according to the plan, but at least nobody important died."
"Uh... Jean?"
"That doesn't count!"
