Trumpets sounded through the precinct, startling its occupants, as Hiyori entered the bullpen dressed in her honorary regalia as Queen of the Nine-nine, a golden goblet in hand. Yukine followed after her, carrying a boombox. All heads turned towards her as Yato leaned back in his seat appreciatively- it wasn't often that Hiyori put on a big show.
"As defending champion I am exercising my right to introduce this years heist, and it's target. So come one, come all, to Halloween Heist: Quest for the Grail. Your prize will be this-" she lifted the cup above her head dramatically- "goblet that I bought at a yardsale for two dollars last week. This heist is a free for all with all participants aiming to get the Grail for themselves." She gestured to two uniformed officers waiting in the kitchen, who carried in a pedestal and set it in front of Hiyori before moving to stand three steps behind her on either side.
"The Grail will be kept here, in full view of everyone." Hiyori extended her arms and the officers stepped forward, removed her cape and crown, and swept out of the room. "The regalia will be kept in the break room until it is time for me to be re-crowned the victor." She shot Yato a glowing look, no doubt she'd thought 'what would Yato do' while planning this ceremony. She gestured to Yukine and he clicked a button, a celebratory tune began to play.
"Let the heist begin!"
Darkness engulfed the precinct. Yukine shouted in alarm and Yato leapt to his feet, fumbling for his phone to light the darkness.
"What's going on?" Yato shouted, finally locating his phone and turning on the flashlight, first turning it to where he'd heard Yukine scream. Yato located him clutching onto Hiyori like his life depended on it, looking terrified. He's afraid of the dark, Yato realized with a jolt.
Another light shone, this time coming from Kiun's desk, and it shone on the pedestal, where a coffee mug now sat. A cry of outrage cut through the darkness from the captains office before the lights switched back on, revealing the bullpen exactly the way it had been when the lights had shut off, save the missing relic.
"What the hell happened?" Bishamon raged, looking ready to kill.
"Hiyori, you're the closest! You did this" Kiun accused. Hiyori looked scandalized, glancing over at Yato who had joined her at Yukine's side to try and make him feel more safe.
"How could I? As soon as the lights shut out Yukine grabbed onto me, I've been here the whole time!"
"We all saw her when I turned my flashlight on as soon as the light went out, she hadn't moved, and her hands were full," Yato said. "And before you go pointing more fingers, it wasn't me either. It was someone callous and moral less!"
"Here we go," Bishamon said.
"It was that crazy chick!" Yato cried, throwing out his finger to point at Bishamon.
"Whatever, you're even more underhanded than I am, I bet it really was you and that you put it in the drawer with that filthy rat so no one would take it!"
"So you admit that you're underhanded!"
"Oh my God," Bishamon said, rolling her eyes and looking at Kazuma for help. He merely shrugged.
"Enough of this arguing," he said after a moment, "the Grail is gone now, deal with it."
"Whatever, I'll still be crowned at the end of the night."
"Yeah, right, you don't have a chance this year," Kiun said.
"Bold words from someone who has never won."
"I was on the winning team three years ago!"
"Yeah, but the plan belonged to Take, and he was crowned King. Guess what, your other half isn't here because his flesh is still melted off!"
"You really shouldn't be saying that so proudly," Yukine commented, the whites of his eyes no longer visible all the way around his irises.
Yato frowned and sat down slowly, casting his suspicious gaze all around the precinct. The rest of the officers were quick to follow suit, and though their eyes landed on their computers and paperwork, their backs were rigid and shoulders tense. Well, Kazuma was always like that, but for everyone else it was unusual.
Several minutes passed in intense silence while the competitors tried to survey each other to find out who had the grail without the others noticing. In his office Captain Tenjin clicked his pen repeatedly, looking out at his underlings, wondering exactly which ones of them he was going to have to destroy in order to come out on top again. It had been far too long since he'd won.
"I can't find my mommy, is the the police house?" A high tremulous voice asked. Yato turned in his seat to see a little girl wearing a mask that covered the top half of her face and heavy face paint on the bottom half. Everyone glanced around suspiciously, wondering if this was a trick, before Hiyori got to her feet and approached the little girl carefully.
"Yes, sweetie, this is a police station, we're police officers and we can help you find your mommy. Can you tell me her name?"
"Her name is mommy!" Hiyori cast Yato a helpless look. He got to his feet and knelt next to Hiyori.
"Can you tell us your name?"
Her eyes widened in horror beneath the mask and she backed away, drawing her thumb up into her mouth. Hiyori cast him a shut up look and Yato retreated to lean on Kazuma's desk quietly, pretending that he wasn't watching the little girl. Once it was clear Hiyori had a handle on the situation attention shifted away from them, and no one else saw the mischievous look that the little girl shot him. Yato just thanked his lucky stars that Hiiro had always been small for her age, and an amazing actor to boot.
"Bishamon, maybe you should help Hiyori out, you're weirdly good with kids despite the fact that you have no soul." Bishamon shot Yato an annoyed look and got to her feet and approached the desk.
She crouched by the little girls side and smiled gently, extending her hand and introducing herself. Yato shook his head incredulously as Bishamon made a piece of candy appear seemingly out of thin air. Kazuma looked on, face full of soft affection. I don't know why he thinks it's a secret, he's almost as obvious as I am.
"You've got it pretty bad, huh?" Yato asked, giving Kazuma a knowing smile. His eyes strayed to Hiyori. "Same hat."
"What?"
"Yukine taught it to me, it means 'me too.'"
"Oh." Kazuma sighed. "What are we going to do?"
"I don't know about you but I'm going to defeat and humiliate the love of my life in a petty competition and then hold it over her head for weeks."
"Not likely, this is going to be my year."
"You always say that, and it's never your year."
"I'm going to win this year for sure."
"It's never going to happen, you're not sneaky."
"I can be sneaky!" Kazuma protested. "You'll see, I'll figure out who has the grail!"
"If you don't know, then you're already behind."
"You're bluffing." He was.
"Am not, and we all know that it's not you."
Tenjin was proud of the precinct he had cultivated over the years. His detectives were talented and intelligent, and though they had their issues they were a team and they had each others back when they needed it. That being said, he was planning on tearing them apart. He got to his feet and opened his door, standing in the entryway to his office as he often did when he was mulling over a problem. He looked at each detective in turn, Yato and Kazuma chatting at Kazuma's desk, Bishamon and Hiyori trying to cajole a name out of the little girl, and Kiun pretending to be working. Kofuku and Daikoku had taken the night off to go on a date, deciding not to participate in the heist this year.
Hiyori and Yato were out as suspected thieves of the Grail. Even if one of them had arranged the power outage, both of them had leapt to Yukine's side when he'd screamed and hadn't had the opportunity to take it. Kiun was the next closest, but had seemed genuinely shocked when the glass was gone, and he wasn't that good of an actor. The only other viable suspect was Bishamon, who was agile and intelligent. She was perfectly capable of pulling this off. But where had she hidden the Grail?
She seemed quite at ease as she spoke with the little girl, trying to gain her trust enough to get her name and find her mommy. No doubt the Grail was hidden in a secure location, but where?
There was only so far even she could have spanned round trip in that short amount of time, however. The nearest option was the kitchen, but Tenjin knew that it was out of the question. The kitchen was a high traffic area, making the risk for the accidental discovery of the Grail far too likely. It was much more likely to be someplace that few people looked, perhaps the ceiling? He glanced surreptitiously over her person and desk, there didn't appear to be any ceiling dust in her hair or on her desk, which didn't necessarily rule out the ceiling, but made it far less likely.
He looked around the room carefully, aware of suspicious eyes on him but paid them no mind. He brought up the precinct's layout in his mind, mapping out the possible paths Bishamon could have taken. He desk was right next to the hallway that led to the bathroom. That hallway led to several places in the precinct, but most of them were too far even for Bishamon, as terrifying as she was, she wasn't the Flash. She could have hidden it in the ladies room, which would protect it from all but one of her opponents, but the bathrooms were poor hiding places.
The briefing room, the interrogation room, and the supply closet were also on that hallway, and all at once he realized. The Grail was in the supply closet. Yato and Kazuma were talking, neither of them looking at him, a perp had just been handed to Kiun for trespassing, and Bishamon and Hiyori were still busy with the little girl. Tenjin slipped away quietly and walked casually down the hall, as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
Yukine walked past Yato and Kazuma on his way to the breakroom and Yato excused himself from the conversation, following Yukine to the vending machine. Yukine eyes him suspiciously.
"Hey, kid, are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, why?"
"Well because earlier you looked like someone had a gun to your head just because the lights turned off. That's a pretty severe fear."
"Shut up asshole, what do you know?"
"Hey, hey now," Yato said, raising his hands in surrender, "I'm not making fun of you. There's nothing to be embarrassed about, plenty of people are afraid of the dark."
"Yeah, and all of them are little kids," Yukine grumbled, face flaming.
"Not true, I've known grown adults afraid of the dark, there's nothing wrong with it."
"The other kids at the group home all make fun of me for it."
"Well what do they know? They're a bunch of kids. Seriously, Yukine, I'm telling you, don't worry about it." Yato wrapped an arm around Yukine's shoulder which was promptly thrown off.
"Get your hands off me, sweaty," Yukine said, but there was no venom in his tone. Yato backed up a few steps and gave Yukine an appraising look.
"How'd you like to be on the winning team for your first ever Halloween Heist, kid?"
"Thanks, but no thanks. I helped Hiyori with the boom box because she promised to tutor me in math, but I'm not going to participate in this dumb game."
"Aww, come on, I'll buy you an ice cream!"
"How old do you think I am, exactly? Six?"
"You mean to to tell me that you're not?" Yato asked sarcastically. Yukine rolled his eyes and inserted his coins into the vending machine and punched in the code for his Bugles.
"I'm not going to help you with your stupid game. I've seen your marriage proposals online-"
"You found more?" Yato exclaimed excitedly. Yukine ignored him.
"I don't want any part in whatever it is you have planned."
"Oh come on, Yukine, heists like this require subtly and subterfuge, not theatrics and fireworks. There's a time and a place for those things-"
"And it seems to me that you have yet to find them, seeing as how Hiyori isn't wearing a ring." Yato clasped his chest in dismay.
"That's so mean!" Yukine shrugged disinterestedly and left the room. Yato was so busy nursing his new wound he didn't see the consipirital look exchanged between Yukine and Hiyori.
Tenjin lifted the Grail from the soapy mop water as if he were drawing it from the crystal clear waters of the lake of Avalon and lifted it above his head in silent triumph, suds and dirty water streaming down his forearm to his elbow and soaking into his rolled up sleeve. He was unbothered. Bishamon thought that she had this heist in the bag but she was wrong. Sneaking into his office and closing the door quietly was almost too easy. He text Tsuyu to call his office, and when she did she picked up he asked her to wait a moment and he closed the blinds as if he'd wanted privacy for his phone call. Then he reminded Tsuyu that they were out of milk and hung up.
He climbed onto a waiting chair with a screwdriver in hand and removed the grate on the vent and placed the Grail inside. He smiled to himself, brushed off the dust from his hands, and re-opened his blinds, smiling to himself. He had the Grail. The crown was his.
At Hiyori's desk Yukine leaned down and whispered something in Hiyori's ear. Bishamon, engaged in a game with Hiiro, didn't notice, Hiiro, pretending to be engaged in a game with Bishamon, did. Hiyori suppressed a small smile and nodded, then handed him a file. He took it and left without another word. Hiiro narrowed her eyes and looked to where her brother was processing an egger at Bishamon's desk. Yukine was definitely working with Hiyori.
Hiyori hummed slightly and spun her chair around, glancing around Tenjin's office quickly before turning back around. Yukine had had some very useful information about a mysterious bulge in the captain's coat pocket when he'd emerged from the supply closet and slipped wordlessly into his office again. Hiyori was sure that Bishamon had taken the Grail and Tenjin had taken it from her. There was no reason to tell Bishamon this, let her go on thinking that the Grail was hidden safely away, that would make it easier for Hiyori to keep it safe once she obtained it.
Hiyori wrote something down and subtly signalled to Yukine, who walked past and picked up the paper all in one motion. He stopped to recline against a wall and Hiiro glanced around, pretending to be startled by the criminals that were being brought in and out while she looked around for what Yukine might have just been assigned to keep watch over. Hiyori knocked and Yukine's eyes cut to the office window, a dead giveaway. She didn't know how, but the Captain had stolen the Grail from Bishamon without her knowing and hidden it in his office. Hiyori knocked on the door to spook him and Yukine's task was to watch where he looked, which would give away the position of the Grail.
"Captain I just wanted to let you know we got a first name out of the girl, still nothing on the mother's name, but we've gotten a rough description of the girl and her costume out to all the officers in this precinct and the bordering ones, still nothing. She says she'll be in trouble if she takes off her costume so we can't get a good look at her face."
"Good work, she seems very young so she probably doesn't understand that taking off the makeup will help us find her mother, and forcing her too will only make her trust us less."
"Oh, and one other thing, she seemed afraid of Yato, and he thinks that she's probably afraid of all men, but I think it's just possible that she's afraid of Yato because of the way that he is."
"Probably, but keep her away from the other men just in case, Kazuma isn't gifted with kids and Kiun is well… he's just plain weird and would probably freak her out. You and Bishamon keep her busy."
"Yes, sir." When she sat down at her desk Yukine wordlessly handed her a file with a handwritten note tucked inside. Hiyori smiled, everything was going according to plan. At that moment the little girl accidentally knocked the jenga tower over right on top of Hiyori's head.
Well, almost everything, she thought.
Hiiro needed an opening to talk to Yato, but Bishamon and Hiyori were watching her like hawks. Probably they didn't love the idea of losing a child who was already lost but in a building full of guns and criminals this time. Yato needed to know that Yukine and Hiyori had formed an alliance and were about to get their hands on the Grail. She refused to have sucked her thumb and talked in this stupid voice so no one would recognize her for nothing.
Dammit, she thought. If I can't talk to Yato directly then what can I do? I need to get somewhere private to text him, because if they see I have a phone they'll know I'm not a helpless and lost little girl. There are only four hours until midnight, if Yato can get ahold of it, then he can keep it that long.
"I need to use the bathroom," Hiiro said, a little louder than necessary, hoping to catch Yato's attention. It worked, and he could see him giving her a questioning look but now Hiyori and Bishamon were focused on her so she couldn't look his way. She also couldn't risk using one of their secret signals from when they were kids because Kazuma would recognize them almost for sure.
"Can you take her? I've got a lot of paperwork to do," Hiyori said, and Hiiro knew she was planning on using this opportunity to make her move on the grail. Bishamon nodded and took Hiiro by the hand and led her to the bathroom.
"Do you need any help?" Bishamon asked kindly.
"No thank you, I'm a big girl I can go by myself."
"That's awesome!" Bishamon said, injecting just the right amount of fake astonishment for such a proud occasion into her voice. Hiiro couldn't even be disgusted because of how surprised she was by Bishamon being this good with kids. It was weird.
Hiiro slipped into the stall and fished her phone out of her large kimono sleeve and text Yato as fast as she could.
Hiyori and Yukine aligned, Tenjin has Grail, Hiyori to extract NOW
She sent the message and waited until she got Yato's usual unintelligible mixture of emojis back before locking her phone and dropping it into her sleeve. Now that she was here, she actually kinda did need to use the bathroom.
"Are you sure you're going to be okay in there? The air conditioning vents don't seem like the safest place to be," Yukine said, sounding concerned.
"Don't worry, the heating and cooling systems are separated and it's the middle of winter, the system isn't on and the vents are wide enough for me."
"You've been in them before?"
"Sure have," she said jovially. "I'll tell you about it sometime later."
"Was it for another Halloween Heist?"
"One of the times, but not the other."
"How much time do you spend in the ceiling exactly?"
"More than the insurance company knows about that for sure. The department would get into so much trouble if they knew we climbed around up here sometimes."
"So why do you?"
"Gotta do what you gotta do, I have a title to defend!" With that Hiyori stepped onto the chair Yukine had fetched for her and lifted herself into the ceiling in one smooth move.
She climbed through the vents, careful to move slowly and evenly so that her weight wouldn't displace the ceiling and send white chip raining down in the precinct, thus revealing her purpose and presence. Despite her cautious movements she was at the Captain's office in no time. In the place of the Grail she left a DVD copy of 'Ocean's 8' as a joke and then slipped back out of the vents.
Yukine looked stunned when she dropped to the ground, grail in hand, and grinned at him. He put it in his backpack as planned and headed to the roof, where last week Hiyori had shown him the place Yato used to keep his shame cigarettes before he quit smoking and started stress knitting.
Yato and Nora exchanged meaningful looks when Yukine went out on the roof while Bishamon was calling other precincts to see if they had a mom looking for her daughter to match their daughter looking for her mom. Now all Yato had to do was get the Grail, but how? Hiiro, his only minion, was tied up with Bishamon, but Hiyori and Yukine were free to notice if Yato tried to go onto the roof. What could they do?
Kazuma was in the bathroom, which meant as soon as Bishamon turned her head she could signal to Yato her plan. Bishamon thanked the officer she was talking too, hung up the phone, and dialed the next precinct. Hiiro looked around quickly and gestured to Kiun. Yato's eyes lit up and he nodded, understanding.
Kiun was going to be their patsy.
It wasn't hard to guide Kiun to the Grail's location, he was a detective after all, not to mention, he had no idea that Yato actually knew any better than he did where the Grail was. All Yato had to do was plant the seed and then have his inside girl, Hiiro, bring it home by loudly asking Yukine if he could take her outside to play with him too next time. Next she created a distraction by crying loudly to give Kiun the perfect opportunity to slip outside and steal the Grail ten minutes until midnight.
While Bishamon and Hiyori were busy trying to figure out what to do with her if her mom didn't come by the end of their shift Hiiro got up from her seat and tugged on the heavier one of Kiun's kimono sleeves. What he didn't notice was her sly pick pocket hands splitting the seam of his sleeve with her switchblade and dropping the grail into her own pocket while Yato set up her dramatic reveal. Two minutes to midnight Hiiro slipped into the break room and began taking off her makeup.
"Wait, where's the girl?" Bishamon asked.
"Don't worry about her, crazy bitch, have you checked your watch?" Yato crooned.
"What the hell, why are you being so creepy? What did you do to her? Who cares about the stupid heist when the kid is missing?"
"I didn't do anything, and she's not missing, and I care. I care because I won."
"Yeah, right," Kiun said, "I have the-" he reached into his sleeve and noticed the ripped seam. "What the hell, I just had it! I stole it from Hiyori!"
"What?" Bishamon asked, "I have the grail." Tenjin stepped out of his office, for some reason holding a DVD copy of Ocean's Eight.
"No, you don't, I took it from you at the beginning of the night, and Hiyori must have taken it from me."
"And Kiun took it from Hiyori," Yato finished. "And I took it from him."
"How?"
"With the help of my trusty accomplice."
"Where is this accomplice?" Bishamon asked skeptically.
A hissing noise emanating from the break room and smoke began to fill the doorway.
"Oh she's just preparing for her dramatic entrance." At his words Hiiro walked out of the break room wreathed in smoke make-up and mask free, appearing, for a moment, to be the phantom that she was pretending to be, She walked with triumph, the Grail held proudly before her.
"Hiiro!" The assembled crowd said as one, their faces wearing matching expressions of delight and surprise. It had been a long time since any of them had gotten to see her.
"That's right!" Yato said, "It was Hiiro who-"
"Who pretended to be a little girl who could spy for you, we get it," Bishamon said, looking pissed. Yato, annoyed, continued.
"Yes, and it was Hiiro who-"
"Stole the Grail when she told me my costume was like hers, yeah, we're detectives, we figured it out." Yato glared at him.
"So you'll know that it's me who should have the honor of crowning my older brother King of the Nine Nine," Hiiro proclaimed.
"I couldn't agree more," Tenjin said warmly, "seeing as how you did all the work for him."
"I think Hiiro should be Queen of the Nine Nine, honestly," Hiyori said.
"Yeah, she was really the star tonight," Kazuma affirmed.
"Whatever, you guys are just mad that you lost!" Yato said. "It's time for my coronation."
"I hereby Proclaim Yato, my older brother and legal guardian, the ultimate detective slash genius, and King of the Nine Nine!" Hiiro said, placing the crown onto his head, holding her chin high.
"If I'm king that makes you a princess, which means you can boss all these losers around," Yato said, grinning.
"Right, my first order of business is that someone should buy me ice cream. Now. The ice cream at school is terrible. I want moose tracks or chocolate chip cookie dough!"
"Coming right up," Kazuma said, getting up from his seat and walking with Hiiro to the ice cream bar.
Usually after the heists the detective squad went out for drinks, but Yato deigned that inappropriate since Hiiro and Yukine were with them and whisked them all away to an ice cream store that was open late.
"So," Hiyori said, "your majesty, I'm surprised you were able to keep such a big secret."
"I didn't, not really."
"Explain."
"I told you she was coming home for the holidays, I just didn't specify which ones."
"Okay, so that's a technicality. How did you convince the headmaster to let you bring her home for the weekend?"
"He begged and cried a lot and got snot all over everything," Hiiro called from the ice cream bar. Yato laughed along with the group.
Tonight was a good night.