Chapter 1: (Atsushi. N. POV)
Walking around the streets of Yokohama, me and Kyōka were patrolling the city with our superior Kunikida. He was constantly going over the schedule we were supposed to follow, all written in his notebook. Kyōka and I were asked to help Kunikida with his packed schedule as a favor from, Dr. Yosano. We were more than happy to do it at first, but even though we had only just started, I was starting to regret accepting the favor.
"Then at 10:37, we are scheduled to meet with a client about a recent burglary that happened yesterday around the east market district. Then at 11, we are called to make an appearance at the harbor, to help inspect a truckload of boxes that are under suspicion of carrying illegal drugs that have been smuggled from overseas. At 11:34, we will take a taxi to the agency where we will do this morning's reports and you both will have some time to rest at 12:50, but then at 1 we will need to go back out to do another parol…"
He's been going through his schedule ever since we left the agency. The plans he makes are crazy. The day was packed, from 9 to 4, with only giving us ten minutes of break before spending another 3 hours walking around the city. I felt my legs turn numb and my mind go blank with every step I took. 'I'm sooooo tired….'
"Hey! I said did you get all that?" I snap back to reality and straighten my back, unaware that Kunikida already finished. He faced me, looking very mad. His face was only a few inches away from mine and I could feel his cold gaze piercing through me.
"Ahh, yes! I mean— I did! I was listening, so no need to get so close…." I pulled away from Kunikida as I held my hands up in defense of getting a bashing from him.
"Really?" He asked in disbelief as he checked through his notebook. "Then tell me, in today's plan what are we suppose to do after 2:54 pm?"
My mind went in a panic as my body stood still and stiff. Sweat rolled down my face as I tried hard to remember, Kunikida was beginning to lose his patience with me. His arms crossed over his chest as he leaned onto the side, and he continuously shot me that icy cold stare.
I look at Kyōka, her face was unreadable. She would have probably remembered at least half the schedule since she was paying attention, but I'm pretty sure Kunikida would not allow any word out of her if not for him asking the question directly to me.
"Well?" His glare became too intense for me to handle, he looked like he could pop a brain vessel any moment! 'I'm dead.'
"Um… a-after 2:54, we—"
Suddenly, the sound of a gunshot broke out somewhere in the distance followed by the sound of a small blast. A large crowd of people coming from the same direction came running down the street, passing us as they ran away in a panic.
"Hey, you!" Kunikida grabbed a man running by arm of his shirt, pulling him towards us. "You came from the direction of the gunfire right? Tell me what happened."
"I-I don't know! It all happened so fast!" The man stuttered as he trembled at his own words. (Or that could have been just Kunikida). Eyes wide from the panic that was racing through his head. "W- Wait- I remember seeing a girl before it happened. She yelled to everyone, saying that we needed to get out of the area because there were hostages in a nearby café."
"Why would she say that? Did she know hostages were kept inside? How?" Kunikida asked the man, and without meaning it, gave him an intimidating glare.
"I don't know," He answered truthfully, swallowing a gulp in his throat, trying to not seemed phased by it. "she ran into a café, and then we heard bullet-shots. It broke through the windows, glass went flying, we heard an explosion, and we all started running away."
Did she go inside? I thought. But why? How did she know there were hostages inside- Wait! If she went in a second after the gunfire and explosion, she not have survived!
Kunikida lets go of the man's arm, and without a second thought, starts to sprint in the direction of the café. Me and Kyōka, exchanged a surprised look before we both started running after him.
As we approached the café, police officers were outside, their cars forming a barricade around the small shop. As the man said, glass laid below the café windows were scattered all over the sidewalk and I spotted small bronze bullet shells not too far away from the window shards.
Kunikida approached an older looking police officer that was talking on the transceiver in his police car, I assumed he is the one in charge. "We heard the explosion, do you know what happened here?"
The officer gave us a stern face as he said, "Why you wanna know? Who are you people, do you have clearance?"
"We're agents from the Armed Detective Agency. We heard that the men in this café were taking hostages." Kunikida explained, as he showed him his badge and told him what the man from earlier told us.
"Oh, well I'm sorry to say, but the perpetrators were already captured and taken into custody just a couple of moments ago after the incident occurred." The officer explained, pointing to the backseat of the car, where there sat two men in black coats and were in steel cuffs. "The hostages are safe too. They said that they were saved by a girl who they claim to be an ability user. Was she by chance any of your members?"
"No, we were nearby, we only just heard about it less than a couple of minutes ago," I explain to the officer, feeling a conflicted. "We don't have any other girl, members except for Kyōka, but she was with us the whole time." If that was the case, could there be an ability user somewhere, running loose in the city?
I unconsciously look around to where the café stood. Though all the costumers, who were taken as hostages had already left, the employees were still there. Two of them sat down on a nearby bench beside the shop, drinking some bottles of water the police provided them.
"Could we please question the café's staff, before you take them in?" I asked, wanting to get some insight on what happened, and curious about this mysterious ability user.
"By all means. I'll give you 10 minutes with them, but after that, well haft to take them off your hands." Another officer calls out to him from the patrol car and he leaves us to our work.
The employees, both a guy and a girl, saw us coming as we approached them, they both looked to be somewhere around Junichirō's age. They wore the same worn-out black working aprons and plain white t-shirts underneath. Barely visible scratches covered their arms, though the guy had a deep purple bruise covering his left eye.
Kunikida was first to greet the group. "Hello, my name is Kunikida. These are my subordinates Atsushi and Kyōka. If you don't mind, we would like to ask you three a couple of questions about what recently happened."
"Why? We already gave our questions to the police." The guy spat down at the pavement as he gave Kunikida a look of annoyance through his black bangs. "We don't need to answer any more shit to you people." I don't know if he's either trying to intimidate us, or just piss Kunikia off. ('Cause it seems to be working.')
"Quiet you!" The girl, who was sitting next to him hissed in his ear as she gave him I slight shove on the shoulder. "Even in front of the police, you still act like a jerk."
She got up from the bench, bowing to us apologetically low. "I'm very sorry. Excuse my friend Noel, he's usually like this." She said, sounding a little embarrassed more than annoyed of him. She had brown almond hair tied up in a high bun and bright blue eyes that shined behind her red-framed glasses. "My name is Nana. We would be happy to answer some questions." Behind her, I hear Noel let's out an uncomfortable sigh.
"Thank you. Can you please make a run-through of what happened?" Kunikida asked as he grabbed out his notebook and was ready to take down notes.
"Well, it started somewhere right after nine o'clock. The café was not very busy, barely any costumers came by, so we were short-staffed with only me and Noel taking the shift, from the morning until noon. Anyway, I was serving tea and cakes to the customers while Noel was at the station preparing the food and drinks. Things were going on smoothly. At one point, I noticed two men walking into the shop wearing thick black coats, which I thought was strange since we're in the middle of August, the temperature was hot outside and no other costumers had any long-sleeved clothing. I didn't think much of it at first, but just as the door closed, they both pulled out pistols. Everyone saw and they all started to freak out. They shouted at us to get down on the floor, or he would shoot a bullet through our heads…"
Her voice trembles as she was reaching closer to the climax, I notice her hands shaking as she crunches up the bottom of her apron. "We all got down to the floor and Noel was told to step away from him this station and he got down next to me. Then, one of the men told me to lock up the shop or we would all die… I was so scared I could barely move. I didn't know what to do— my voice wouldn't come out, I-I—"
Coming from behind, Noel wrapped his arm around Nana's shoulder, snapping her out of the memory and back into reality. She looked like she was about to throw up. Giving her a reassuring squeeze on the arm, he turned to Kunikida, this time in a less aggressive manner. "That's enough, I'll finish for her. You mind?"
"Not at all she can rest… I'm very sorry, I didn't know the incident was giving this kind of effect on her." Kunikida gave a sympathetic expression as Nana walked away sitting back down on the bench, taking deep breaths and slowly sipping the rest of her water.
"Figures you would know what that's like," Noel commenting on Kunikida in a sarcastic tone. Before Kunikida could snap back at Noel, he continued from where Nana left off.
"As Nana said, one of the guys threatened to shoot if she didn't do what they said. The man told Nana to lock the door, but just by looking at her, you could tell she would barely move even if you asked. They began to get impatient, he kept screaming that if she didn't do what he said, he would shoot everyone. When she didn't comply the second time, the other man stomped towards her and delivered her a kick in the stomach telling her to do as she was god-dam told. I got mad and I was gonna land a hit to the bastards face, but then-"
" 'He dodged your attack and punched you in the eye.' Right?" Kunikida stated, finishing his sentence gesturing to his left eye.
"Well, they don't call you detectives for nothing," Noel grumbled under his breath, sounding unimpressed as he brushes his hand against his bruised eye.
"But yeah, felt my eye began to swell as soon as I hit the floor. The guy was gonna shoot me then and there, but then the door slammed open and a girl came running in towards us both. The man pointed his gun at her and started to shoot, but somehow she was able to dodge them cause the next thing I know the glass and broke the windows. She blasted him with a ball of white fire that appeared out of nowhere. Send him flying across the room."
Then just as the other shooter was about to pull the trigger on her, a giant white wolf entered from the window and went charging towards him just as he started shooting. The wolf was able to dodge the bullets, it jumped on the guy and pin him down."
"Then what happened after that?" Kyōka asked as from behind me and Kunikida holding a note pad in her hand and scribbling down notes with a pen in the other.
"Um- the girl tied them up, and the wolf told me and Nana to call the police and lead everyone out of the café."
"Wait, you said, 'the wolf told you'," I asked, a little surprised by his sudden statement of a 'talking wolf'. "You mean it spoke to you?"
"Yeah, as crazy as it sounds, it did," Noel said this as he scratched a finger under his cheek. "They left after that and the rest is just what the police told you."
"Possible case is that the wolf could be another ability user that can change and alter their shape." Kunikida mumbles to himself as he wrote a few notes down. "Did you happen to see where they both went?"
"I saw them heading into that alleyway over there," Nana called to us as she pointed to an open passageway to an alley from across the road. "They seemed to be off in a hurry."
"I see." Kunikida said as he suspiciously eyes the alleyway from the corner of his eye. He looks back at Noah and Nana. "Thank you for your time."
"It was no problem." Nana sweetly said as she gave us another low bow. She nudged Noel by the shoulder and he gave us a low bow in spite of not wanting to.
The police officers came and took them both away, and while doing that, we went to go investigate the alleyway. We didn't find anything out of the ordinary, only a couple of trash bins and rustic pipes that traveled across and in the inner walls. Then, as I was searching through a bin Kunikia told me to search, we heard Kyōka say, "I found blood."
For a second I felt my heart sank, I stopped what I was doing, jumped out of the bin, and got next to Kyōka, followed shortly by Kunikida. Indeed there was blood, but only a small puddle of it that was smeared across the pavement. Could it belong to them? Could they be injured?
"Good job Kyōka," Kunikida said as he pulled out a black cellphone and started dialing a number, "I'll call the agency and let them know that we may have some new ability users in the city."
"Why? Is there really a big deal in doing that?" I asked Kyōka as Kunikida held the phone to his ear and began to talk on the phone.
"Depends." She answered crouching to the ground. She pulled out a small plastic bag and cotton wool out of her kimono sleeve as she collected the blood.
"Depends on what?" I asked a little perplexed by her response. "You need to be a bit more specific."
"It depends," She stuffed the evidence back into her sleeve and standing back up dusting the dirt and rubble from her kimono. "if they caught the attention of the Port Mafia. If the organization got wind that there're are new ability users in Yokohama, they could put themselves and others in mortal danger."
"In danger? How so? Is it because of their abilities?" I asked as we both began walking out of the alley and look for Kunikida.
"Yes. The Port Mafia would take a great interest if there were people who could have abilities like that, they would easily manipulate them and turn them over to their side. So to make sure it would never come to it, finding and protecting them would be our top priority."
Since the incident was resolved and all the hostages have been checked as safe, the police were wrapping up the scene and heading out in their patrol cars. We saw Kunikida by the café, that was now blocked off by yellow police tape on the door and windows. He had just hung up the phone, and let out a heavy sigh. He rubbed his fingers between his temples as if he was having a migraine.
He quickly recovered as we approach him. "Did you collect the blood sample?" We gave him a quick nod. "Good. Let's go, we're heading back to the office." Kunikida started to walk off in a fast pace, with me and Kyōka following him from behind.
"What about your schedule?" I asked him as I was able to catch up to his side and started walking at the same pace as he did.
He sighs placing his hand on his temples as if I reminded of news he wishes he didn't hear. "As much as you were excited to help me with my plans today," Yeah, not really. "they will have to be postponed for now. The President instructed us to come back to the agency so we can discuss the plan to—"
Kunikida was interrupted by the ringtone coming from his phone. He took it out from his back pocket and answered the call, placing the phone to his ear.
"Hello? Yosano? I already got word from the President, just give us a—… wait, what?" His serious expression shifts and his eyes widen with shock as a gasp escapes as he speaks. "Hold on, you're saying they're at the agency?….Really?… Okay, we'll be there soon…" He hangs up on the phone, he turns to me and Kyōka, now wearing a most serious look on his face.
"It seems that we won't haft to look for them after all. I got word from Yosano, they both came into the office. They said they're looking for Dazai."
I know it wasn't the best first chapter, but I'm still improving... Thank You for reading!
Chapter 2 will come out at the end of the following week! (Assuming I get it done in time... No pressure!)