This is for Small Turtle
Dazai-san walked up to Ranpo and asked him if he could help him with a little project of his.
"Why do you want my help?" Ranpo asked.
"Because I just found out something aweful about our newest member!" Dazai-san explained.
"So? How does that concern me? And what's so aweful that is giving you this total flip out?" The detective answered.
"It concerns you because I need your detective skills! And that aweful thing is personal, so I can't really tell you." The suicide maniac answered.
"UGH! Fine whatever," The two set after to look for the young tiger boy.
"Hey Atsushi!" Dazai-san called out to the young boy, who was still sitting on the roof.
"Hey Daza-san...Oh! Hello Ranpo-san!" The boy said brightly, every trace of his tears gone.
Dazai-san frowned. Just how much pain was this kid hiding from them? What does that smile hide from them? What on Earth did those people at the orphanage do to this poor kid?
"Hey kid. Whatcha doin up here?" Ranpo asked him.
"Oh, nothing really. Just thinking,m" Atsushi smiled sweatly at them.
"OKay. What was the name of the orphanage you were previously at?" Ranpo said quite bluntly.
"Huh? It was called Precious Child Orphange (picked that for the sheer irony)," He answered hesitantly.
"Okay. Bye...Also, you owe me lunch Dazai" And with that the detective left to do his work.
"What was that about?" Atsushi asked.
"I don't know. He's weird sometimes," Dazai-san lied.
"Oh...okay then!" And yet another fake smile.
"How're you doing?" Dazai-san asked.
"Me? I'm fine. And yourself?" Atsushi asked.
Dazai-san just turned and left. He needed to talk to Ranpo about Precious Child Orphanage.
Dazai-san walked into the office and straight to Ranpo.
"Find anything?" He asked.
"Yes. This specific orphanage is quit poor compared to the rest, but it still has a great number of kids. Recently it has been transferring more and more kids away. Which is strange because even in the past when they had little to no money they still kept all the kids. Sure, some of the kids were adopted, so they got money every once and while, but a good amount of that goes to the city and to pay for the bills. The other strange thing is, all the kids that were adopted never got sent back nor did they get any complaints about attitudes or misbehavior from the people who adopted the kids. During one point, Atsushi was adopted, but quickly sent back because the people said that he was an ungrateful child who had a bad attitude," Ranpo explained.
"Hmm. That is strange. he seems like such a nice kid. He hasn't been rude or been ungrateful to us at all," Dazai-san said thoughtfully.
ON THE ROOF
'Why did he leave so suddenly? Is he mad at me?' Atsushi thought sullenly.
'What if he hates me? If he does, then does everyone else hate me too? Am I just a nuisance to them? A bother? Do they want me gone? Is that why he asked what orphanage I came from!? Do they plan to send me back!? Just so I can be thrown out again!?
Atsushi shook his head. It couldn't be like that...They had come to rescue me...but Ranpo told me that they only did that because the President told them too...