Disclaimer! I do not own Bungou Stray Dogs. The characters are owned by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa. The only things I own are my storyline and OC's. I am not making money off of this story, nor do I plan to.
This story takes place sometime after season 3 of the anime. This can be seen as canon divergence as I do not follow the manga nor the light novels.
…...
After her talk with Oda, Charlie walked back to the morgue where she figured Chuuya would be waiting. It was nearing noon by the time she made it back. She had been correct; Chuuya was waiting in the break room and looked up as she came in.
Luckily there was no screaming this time.
Chuuya had folded his coat over one of the chairs, and he was sitting back with a mug of coffee (it seems like he drank the stuff like water. She'd have to buy more soon if his habits kept up.) Charlie noticed the coffee machine had a shiny new package of expensive coffee sitting next to it. It looks like he got tired of the coffee she'd buy from the 100-yen stores down on the street corner.
Bones, Katrina, and Diedrich were whispering in the corner, and she could head Rudyard down the hall throwing a tantrum and throwing small objects and files everywhere. If Chuuya heard something, he didn't comment on it.
"Marley went home after finishing the autopsies; I figured you could just go over his notes." He said and held up a stack of documents and an audio recorder. She nodded and took them, flipping through them.
"More pumpkins, it has to be the same person." She muttered, and Chuuya nodded.
"Did you find anything out by visiting the Armed Detective Agency?" He asked tensely, and she nodded.
"A couple of things. One: someone's ability is causing this. The sword is too big to be wielded by anyone other than someone over seven feet tall or someone's ability. Two: the ability is likely an entity of some kind. Three: the pumpkins are being sewn in post mortem. And four: Dazai Osamu hates me already." She said the last part to herself, but Chuuya heard all the same.
The coffee mug in his hands shattered as he activated his ability out of what she presumed was anger. The floor underneath his feet cracked, and she tensed at the outburst.
"Dazai?!" He shouted, and she flinched at the volume. It was loud and booming, not at all something she expected from someone his height.
"You have something against him?"
"Do I?! That idiot has been making my life miserable since he left the Port Mafia!" He spat, and she nodded, adjusting her glasses as she took in this information.
"Note to self then, avoid the topic of Dazai." She said and quickly left Chuuya to stew in his anger before he broke the table.
She had work to do.
…
Four hours later, she had finished listening to the audio recording from Marley and finished writing her own notes. It was getting close to dinner time, and her stomach was rumbling. Maybe she still had leftover takeout from the other day in the fridge that she could heat up and eat.
Charlie rubbed at her eyes and jumped at the knock on her door. Then, standing up and adjusting her suspenders, she opened the door to her tiny office. Chuuya stood outside her door sans his coat and holding a bag of what looked like Chinese takeout.
"Can I help you?" She asked through a yawn and her stomach growling. If she had been any more awake, she would've been embarrassed, but she was exhausted and hungry.
"As an apology for breaking the floor. I figured we could eat together. I'll pay to have the floor fixed too." Chuuya said and averted his gaze; if she had been under better light, she would've seen the pale pink of his cheeks. But she was busy staring at the bag of food.
"I mean- sure?" She said hesitantly and followed Chuuya out of her dinky closet and down the hall where she knew an empty autopsy studio lay.
The two of them set up a whiteboard with notes and papers attached to it. Chuuya sat on the only chair in the room while Charlie sat on the edge of the counter. Their dinner (which was fancy Chinese takeout, by the way, way above Charlie's budget) was on the examination table and was slowly getting cold while Charlie stared at the whiteboard. Chuuya was eating his own plate of food, spooning ham-fried rice into his mouth with chopsticks.
Suddenly, Charlie shot up straight and nearly choked on her noodles. Chuuya looked up from his dinner with an eyebrow raised.
"Everything okay?"
"No. Yes. No. I don't know. I just had an idea." She said and scrambled over to the whiteboard where the notes lay and began reorganizing.
"Hey, wait! That took us forever to put up!" Chuuya protested, and she shushed him quickly, rifling through for one paper in particular.
"How many Port Mafia members are English or American?" She asked, and Chuuya made a face, thinking it over through a mouthful of orange chicken.
"There's a handful, not too many, though. The boss doesn't like it." He said after swallowing and pointed at her with his chopsticks,
"What are you thinking?" He asked, and she pulled out the paper she was looking for.
"All the victims are American or English Port Mafia members. So what if someone is targeting them specifically?" She said, and he went quiet, pulling out his cellphone and stepping out. Charlie continued to go through all the papers, putting together the list of victims and their profiles. She set them on the examination table next to their food and looked through them again.
Chuuya peeked his head back in the door with the cellphone still to his ear and coat around his shoulders.
"Get your jacket on; we're heading to the Port Mafia headquarters to pick up some files."
…
Charlie sat quietly in the car, mind racing as she tried to put her thoughts together. Chuuya was still on the phone, talking to someone about Charlie's theory as she scribbled down half English, half Japanese notes.
The Port Mafia headquarters was a series of five massive black buildings illuminated against the now night sky. She shivered when she saw them. This was the first time she had actually been to headquarters. All the other times she worked for the Port Mafia, she had simply gone to the crime scenes and investigated or stayed in her morgue and conducted autopsies. But, this would be the first time she would be setting foot in one of the most notorious organizations in the world.
Charlie suddenly felt very underdressed.
She held her satchel of papers close as they got out of the car and headed towards the front doors. She had to crane her head up to see the tops of the buildings and couldn't help but gawk at the sheer size of them.
"We can look later. Come on." Chuuya called from the front doors, and Charlie hurried to keep up. For someone two inches shorter than her, he sure had a long stride.
Charlie followed Chuuya through a massive lobby with an exquisite crystal chandelier and luxurious carpets and rugs covering the entire floor until it abruptly changed to sleek black tiled floors that led up to a massive set of elevators. Chuuya strode up past the receptionist and pressed the down button, finally putting his phone away in his pocket as the two of them waited for the elevator.
"What are we here for?" She asked, and Chuuya glanced over, mouth twisting in a grimace,
"I had some members put together a list of all the English and American Port Mafia members. Hopefully, your theory will give us a start. We need to solve this before there are any more murders. Six is already enough." He said and then the doors opened with a soft ding.
The floor they went to was in the basement of the headquarters. It was a massive file room with a few employees milling about with armfuls of documents. Then, a specific employee, a young woman with blonde hair in a bun, approached them. She handed Chuuya a small stack of files and disappeared as Chuuya turned to face Charlie, holding up the files.
"This is a list of every current Port Mafia member with English or American names." He said, and Charlie reached for the files.
"There's a lot of documents here. So it's going to be a long night, isn't it?" She asked, and Chuuya nodded, shoulders sagging at the thought.
"Most likely, let's go up to my office and get started."
…
It was several hours into the night before they made a breakthrough.
Charlie was sat crosslegged on the floor surrounded by papers. Chuuya was seated at his desk, doing the same thing. He had left at some point to get them cups of coffee, giving her a steaming cup as a way of keeping her awake. She paused and stared at the paper in her hand,
"This doesn't make any sense…." She muttered, rubbing at her eyes, shoulders aching as she stood and stretched. Chuuya glanced up briefly but, otherwise, didn't say anything. Suddenly she had an idea.
"What if the killer isn't a current member?" She asked aloud, and Chuuya glanced up again, mulling the thought over before he shrugged,
"Could be possible. I'll have the list sent up."
Twenty minutes later, they had a much shorter list in front of them of previous but not deceased members of the Port Mafia. Charlie was on the list immediately, cross-referencing and pulling names, writing down anything she thought might be helpful. Chuuya had his own copy of the list and was slowly and methodically working his way through it. Suddenly she had an idea.
"I think I have something." She said aloud, and Chuuya glanced up, actually getting up from his chair and coming over to see what she had found.
She was staring at her list; all names led back to one. A man named "Washington Irving." All the victims had worked with him at one point on separate missions; he was the only man who had worked with every single victim within the last two years. They had been various miscellaneous missions, nothing connected. But still, it was something.
…
FairyTailWzard's OC's (these are mine! Do not steal them!):
Charlene "Charlie" Dickens: Sleep-deprived 23-year-old medical examiner works to solve homicides and perform for the police, Port Mafia, and the Armed Detective Agency. Ability: The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain; allows her to see and interact with the spirits of the dead.
Rudyard Kipling: Deceased Englishman in his 30s, unknown background. Ability: The Jungle Book; he can manifest his tattoos into real animals. He has the tattoos of a python, a Bengal tiger, and a giant bear.
Jacob Marley: He is Charlie's assistant in the morgue and during autopsies. He lives with his nephew Tim Cratchit and businessman Ebenezer Scrooge.
"Bones": Port Mafia member found dead
Katrina Van Tassel: Port Mafia member found dead
Ichabod Crane: Port Mafia member found dead. The only one not to come back as a ghost.
Diedrich Knickerbocker: Port Mafia member found dead. Ability: Storyteller-Basically whatever he reads/writes becomes a reality.