Chapter Seven
Harry followed the other two detectives to the fourth floor of the building. Inside his chest, Harry's heart beat like a war drum. Nervous sweat had broken out upon the young wizard's brow and Harry could feel a deep pit of dread pooling in his stomach.
Finally, the detectives and Harry approached a red wooden door with a golden plaque.
Armed Detective Agency
Harry grimaced at the blatant announcement of where the agency resided. Certainly, this Agency was no covert operation that needed to hide from public or government eye, but surely a bit of subtlety wouldn't go amiss. Harry wondered if they were attacked often.
"Are you ready, Harry?" Dazai asked as the trio approached the door. Harry nodded but didn't trust himself to speak. Already, the wizard could feel his adrenaline spiking as his body fell into what Harry had begun to dub as his 'battle mode'. His heart beat, though still faster than normal, evened out. Harry's mind calmed as he focused on his single objective. His hearing and sight gained a temporary heightening as his magic began to circulate his body. The warmth of his magic was a comfort as Harry followed Dazai into the office. Kunikida brought up the rear as the three took shelter behind a wooden desk.
"I can't..." Harry peeked over the desk at the bomber. His fear evaporated. Instead, dislike took its place. These were the kind of circumstances Harry really hated.
"I can't take it anymore..." The bomber covered his face with one hand while the other held what Harry assumed to be the remote for the bomb. Harry grimaced.
A kid. The bomber was just some punk kid and the girl he had taken hostage was still wearing her school uniform.
Damn it!
Harry hadn't wanted to hurt anymore children. Not after Voldemort was dead.
"It's all your fault..." The bomber continued to mumble to himself. "The Armed Detective Agency's fault." Harry shot a look over at Dazai. Harry understood that they needed help, but that didn't mean he enjoyed being pulled into the Agency's mess. If the Agency had done something wrong, they should have cleaned it up long before it came to this.
"Where's the president?" The red-haired punk asked. He finally removed his hand from his face to reveal a disturbed and haunted visage. After receiving no answer, the kid got angry.
"Bring the President!" He roared as he jerked forward in rabid manner. A hand trailed down and grabbed the student hostage by the back of her school uniform's collar. He pulled the dark-haired girl up harshly as he delivered his threat. She whimpered in fear and looked at the bomber out of the corners of her eyes.
"If you don't, I'll blow everyone to kingdom come!" The bomber dropped the girl roughly. She let out a yelp as she hit the floor and curled in on herself in fear.
"A personal grudge?" Dazai mused. "That's inconvenient." Though deeper than normal, Dazai's tone gave off an entirely unconcerned vibe. It was as though the sight of the bomber and his hostage didn't bother or phase the man one bit. The bomber was currently jiggling his leg nervously while holding up the remote. He stared down at the girl with an angry and incredibly nerve racked visage. Harry grimaced again. Trying to talk down a nervous and desperate kid was never fun. He could never tell what was going to set them off.
"The bomber seems pretty furious at the agency," Kunikida commented. Like Dazai, he too seemed un-phased by the scene taking place at the other end of the office. For a moment, Harry was shocked at their attitudes before he shrugged it off. They worked in the country's only legal supernatural agency. They likely saw similar situations often.
"We do attract a lot of ill-will," Dazai murmured. He continued the analyze the situation before he made his next comment. "That's a pretty good quality explosive. If the bomber detonates it, the whole floor is as good as gone." Harry tilted his head to the side and hummed softly. Maybe he could throw it out the window and levitate it a few thousand feet up? "We may be able to mitigate the force of the explosion somewhat," Dazai continued. "If we can find something to cover the bomb... but given the circumstances, I don't think we'll have the time." Dazai turned his head slightly as the first real emotion crept into his voice. "I can't believe he took a woman hostage, the coward." The disgust in Dazai's voice gave evidence to the fact that while Dazai was used to dangerous circumstances, he was by no means happy with them.
"Who's the girl?" Harry asked. Did she perhaps have some sort of ability that she could protect herself with if things went south?
"She's Naomi-chan, a part-time assistant," Dazai answered. Harry gave a soft sigh. A civilian then. Great.
"So, a helpless civilian with no special talents whatsoever." Harry grumbled to himself. Dazai shot Harry a sharp look at his seeming criticism of the 'victim'.
"If she had some sort of power or something we could at least somewhat rely on her to keep herself safe once we get her untied." Harry explained. "So, why can't your president come see him, anyway?" Harry asked bluntly. "He's your leader, right? Shouldn't he be able to do something about this?" Kunikida looked horrified.
"He'll try to kill the president!" The blond whispered emphatically. "We can't let the president walk into a situation like this!" Kunikida pushed his glasses up and gave Harry a hard look.
"He's got some sort of supernatural gift, doesn't he? At the very least, he has to have some sort of talent to be in charge of an entire supernatural agency. If he's at the top of the line, shouldn't he have some sort of really powerful gift to help him out?" Harry defended himself. Kunikida's harsh looked faded, but only by a bit.
"I'm still glad the president's away on a business trip." The man huffed angrily. Dazai snorted.
"Well, either way, we are left with one method." He said seriously. Kunikida nodded with an equal seriousness. Both of them raised their arms. Harry backed away a little. If they were about to start throwing around supernatural abilities, he didn't want to be too close.
"Rock, paper, scissors!" The two whispered together before making various hand movements. Harry stared dumbly at the two. These... fools... were the country's supernatural detectives?
Harry growled angrily under his breath and turned back to the front. Could he perhaps banish the bomb out the window? No, that could hurt the pedestrians. Maybe Evanesco? It was supposed to be capable of vanishing all objects, but would it stand up to muggle technology? Hmmm... maybe Evanesco could be plan "A" while "B" could be a sky pointed, over-powered Depulso? And if neither worked, he could always use the basic shield charm as a container instead of a barrier...
Harry's musing was interrupted when he heard Dazai chuckling behind him. He looked back in confusion. What was there to be happy about?
"Go, go. Come on, go," Dazai singsonged as he waved his arms. Kunikida growled and waved his fist in agitation. Harry watched in rapidly fading confusion as Kunikida stood to confront the red-haired bomber.
"Hey," Kunikida called. The red heard jerked in surprised and threateningly placed his thumb over the red activation button. He looked at Kunikida in nervous desperation.
"Calm down, boy." Kunikida said calmly. The detective stood in the middle of the room as if he was in the middle of a completely normal conversation. His hands were placed carelessly in his pockets and he leaned back in a show of being unafraid. Though... considering how unconcerned the man was, Harry doubted it was a mere show. Kunikida had obviously dealt with suspenseful situations many times. He held a sort of mettle to him that was hard to come by. Even Harry didn't have that kind of strength, and he'd been through a war. Yet Kunikida seemed to be completely fearless and unconcerned. Harry had to wonder how often the agents of the agency had to risk their lives or confront dangerous situations. It must be quite the normality for Dazai and Kunikida to have that kind of steadiness.
Though, if Harry were to judge by the faces of the other women peeking out of a door, he doubted these kinds of situations occurred often at the office. The two detectives likely had many dangerous situations occur while on the job and thus 'away'.
"Stay away!" The bomber kid demanded like a brat. "I only want to see the president." The punk pointed the remote at Kunikida threateningly. "If you do anything funny, I'll blow this up!" Back behind the desk, Harry hummed thoughtfully as he gazed at the remote.
Hmmm... maybe he could banish the remote? Or vanish it? Maybe just put a reversed shield over it until the bomber brat was apprehended? Mmmm... option C sounded the least likely to induce an explosion with accidental magical interference. Probably the easiest too.
"Okay," Kunikida acquiesced to the kid's threat. He raised his hands in a show of surrender.
"I know who you are," The brat snarled. "You're Kunikida. I bet you're trying to make me let my guard down and use that annoying ability of yours... well, fat chance! Get up on that desk on all fours and keep both hands where I can see them!" Kunikida shifted.
"Huh?" He asked. The bomber jolted back at the slightly annoyed tone Kunikida took.
"I-If you don't do as I say, I'm taking you all down with me!" The kid threatened again. Kunikida raised an eyebrow before he sighed and conceded to the terrorist's orders. The man calmly walked to the desk, climbed on, and remained on all fours while facing the brat.
"This isn't good," Dazai muttered from beside Harry. Harry blinked and turned his attention to suicidal man. "Because of his personal grudge against the agency, he's done his research on all the members' names and faces. If I go now, it'll only further provoke the bomber. Hmmm... what to do?" Dazai questioned as he seemed to contemplate the situation. Harry looked at the man out of the corner of his eyes. He sighed. If he was going to go through with his plan, he would need some help.
"If I can assure that the remote is a non-issue, can you take the punk-kid down? Without extreme violence?" Harry asked. Though the kid had to be stopped, Harry didn't like the thought of hurting him. The brat seemed confused and upset. In a way, the kid reminded Harry of himself, before Sirius had died. Back then, he hadn't thought of how his actions could affect others and had merely ridden on the storms of his emotions with no control to steer him to safer waters. It was true that Harry was only seventeen and likely the same age as the brat, but Harry felt immensely older somehow. Looking at the desperate kid, Harry saw a little bit of his past self in the brat. Though wrong, the punk was just an emotionally distraught kid whose life was most likely screwed to the point he had felt as if there was no other choice than to lash out at who he perceived to be the cause of his suffering. Had Harry not done the same to Dumbledore at some point?
"What are you suggesting?" Dazai's sharp, but still quiet, voice cut through Harry's internal sympathizing.
"I can ensure that no one will be able to touch that remote. While he's so dependent on using the remote, the kid won't think to manually set the bomb off for at least a few seconds after I render the remote useless. During that time, can I trust you to take the kid down?" Harry asked. Dazai stared at Harry for few moments. He seemed to be mentally assessing Harry's validity.
"Hmmm... I suppose. Your method is full-proof?" Dazai checked.
"Absolutely. Once I activate my... ability, not even a bullet will be able to touch the remote... I'll have to get closer to him though. I don't want to miss." Harry blushed sheepishly at Dazai's incredulous look. It wasn't fault that magic actually required skill and good aim to hit the target. And while yes, Harry was definitely a decent spell caster, that remote was barely the size of someone's hand. Harry only had one shot at this and he didn't want to muck it up because he missed the bloody target.
"How close?"
"Depends on the angle. Don't worry though, I've got a pretty good idea. After all, he may have researched the Agency's members, but he can't have seen mine." Harry grinned impishly as he glanced over at someone's unopened take out. The boxes of barbecue were even still in the bag from where someone had dropped them off near the door. Finally, he got to have some fun!
"Stop! Stop please, sir!" Harry cried as he stumbled into the office. He held the take out in one hand and some transfigured keys in the other. His face showed clear distress and Harry had upped his magic to insure a nervous sweat dripped from his brow. The bomber jerked his head up and grunted in displeasure. An instinct-driven growl threatened to escape Harry's mouth, but he forced himself to swallow it down. Instead, he played off his inner cat's instincts at the brat's perceived challenge as a nervous gulp.
"Wh-What could you possibly do by blowing yourself up?" Harry asked. He tried to make his voice sound frightened and shaky but didn't know if he quite pulled it off. After all, he really did want the kid to realize how stupid he was being. No matter his anger, surely the kid had people who would care if he disappeared, right? As Harry spoke he continued to creep carefully closer. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Kunikida frowning at him.
"I bet it would make your parents sad." Though Harry tried to make his voice sound scared, the bit about parents came off a bit more angry than frightened. After all, Harry was a bit angry at the kid. He hoped his parents gave him the what-for the next time they saw. Granted, they'd be doing it during visiting hours at the prison...
Still, if you were lucky enough to have parents you should treat them like the gold they were.
"Who the hell are you?" The brat barked out. Harry grimaced but continued walking forward. It wasn't just his tiger side getting upset at this brat's blatant disrespect.
"Who do you think I am? I'm the delivery boy from down the block." Harry growled. The kid looked taken aback and alarmed at the definite anger Harry's voice held. The brat seemed to realize the shortening distance between himself and Harry.
"Get the hell back! Don't come a step closer!" The kid howled defensively as he swung his remote about in the air.
Harry stopped walking forward but didn't take a single step back. He couldn't afford to lose any more distance. At his current range, Harry might be able to hit the remote with a reversed Protego... it was still a bit of a gamble though...
Harry's eyes widened as he made a startling connection. Why the heck was he trying to get to the remote when he could make the remote come to him? For a moment, Harry felt as though he could hit himself for his stupidity.
"Good thing I don't need to be a step closer. Accio!" Harry demanded as he held up his hand and glared at the little black remote. Good thing Harry was so used to using Accio, he didn't even need his wand for this one.
The black device jerked itself out of the brat's hand and flew straight to Harry's palm. To insure no accidents occurred in the following scuffle, Harry made a show of tapping the remote with his other hand. To the onlookers, it appeared as if Harry had merely tapped to device and applied a glowing blue barrier. In reality, Harry had merely used his hand to cover his wand as he allowed it drop down from within his sleeve and tap the remote. All of that took a mere second.
Everything after that, felt as though it took less than a second.
"What?" The bomber brat cried out in shock as he stared at his empty hand. The brat glanced towards the bomb.
"Get him, Kunikida-kun!" Dazai shouted from back behind the desk.
"I know!" The blond man retorted. He surged forward and grabbed the front of the brat's shirt. Then, with an impressive amount of strength, Kunikida threw the brat up and over his shoulder to land in the center of the office. He followed it up by expertly pinning the punk by exerting pressure on the brat's arm. If the brat made any moves to escape Kunikida could easily snap the kid's arm.
"One down," Dazai commented airily. "All right, Good job, everyone."
Harry gave a sigh and cancelled the inverted Protego. The blue field surrounding the remote faded from existence and Harry wrapped his hand carefully around the remote. He didn't know much about muggle bombs. About the only thing Harry did know was that he did not want to set one off by accident.
The girls in the office doorway began to laugh and clap in relief.
"One down, you say?" Kunikida grumbled. His voice rose as he continued. "'Now', 'Secure him', you're all talk and no action." The blond accused. Harry blinked. Ah. That was right. Dazai was supposed to have taken down the bomber brat but had instead ended up doing nothing. How incredibly lazy.
"What choice was there?" Dazai smiled cheerfully. "You lost at Rock, Paper, Scissors, Kunikida-kun."
"You..." Kunikida growled angrily as he hunched his shoulders.
"Well, everything's well that ends well, right?" Dazai suddenly got a mischievous look in his eyes. "I've heard that if you are too neurotic, you'll get wrinkles and your aging becomes accelerated!" Kunikida blinked.
"Is that true?" He asked interestedly.
"Go on, take notes." Dazai urged his partner earnestly. Dazai blinked his brown eyes innocently but Harry frowned as the memory of another 'you should take notes' situation arose. He backed off a few feet, not wanted his sensitive hearing to be plague by what he suspected was about to come next.
"If you're too neurotic..." Kunikida mumbled as he wrote. "... your aging becomes accelerated." Dazai turned the other way.
"I'm messing with you."
SNAP!
Kunikida's pen snapped in half as the man exerted his surprisingly strong grip on the relatively weak writing utensil.
"Ra! Bastard!" Kunikida yelled as he kicked Dazai furiously in the back. "Stop ridiculing me!"
Unfortunately, Kunikida had released the bomber brat in order to deliver his justice.
"You all... stop making fun of me!" The brat screeched as he dived for Harry and the remote.
"Crap!" Kunikida shouted as he turned to race forward.
Luckily, Harry was far from helpless. When the punk rushed him, Harry raised one foot and planted it firmly before exerting his weight downwards.
"Mmphf!" The bomber gave a strangled cry as he was forced down by the weight of Harry's foot on his face. Harry looked down and bared his suddenly very prominent incisors.
"Shut the Hell up, brat!" He growled. "You. Are not. Bombing. Today. Get it through you thick head, roll over, and go calmly into police custody. Who knows, you might get out earlier if you exhibit some good behavior and plead to be trialed as a minor instead of an adult."
Yes. This brat somewhat reminded Harry of himself. Thus, he knew exactly what the brat needed and exactly what Harry wished someone had given him before it was too late.
A bloody wake up call.
For a moment, the office was overtaken by a tension filled silence.
Then...
"Jeez. I knew he was violent, but I didn't think he was this bad." Harry blinked a looked over at Kunikida with a nonplussed look. He had just taken down the stupid bomber brat and Kunikida complained about how violent he was?
"Huh?" Harry voiced his confusion.
"But he seems to have the same disposition as you, Kunikida-kun." Dazai chirped cheerfully. "Wouldn't you agree, Tanizaki-Kun?"
"Mmphfmm!" The red headed brat under Harry's foot gave a completely untranslatable reply.
Harry blinked.
Did Dazai know this brat?
"Huh?"
"Oni-san!" The black-haired part timer ran forward and frantically pulled at Harry's foot. Confused, Harry complied with her nonverbal urging and stepped away from the brat. The red head blinked up painfully from a boot imprinted face. He then groaned in more pain as the girl wrapped her spindly arms around him and pulled tight. It appeared... those spindly arms packed quite the silent strength.
"Are you alright? Did he hurt you badly?" The school girl questioned worriedly.
Brother?
What was going on here?!
"W-What?" Harry asked as one of his eyebrows rose of its own shocked accord.
The girl continued unheedful of Harry's questioning gaze.
"You played the part of the villain so wonderfully, Oni-san! I had the time of my life when you tied me up and threatened me! Please continue where we left off, once we get home!" The young girl chirped happily as she began to run her delicate hands up and down the brat's torso. Meanwhile, the red head had gone from trembling in pain to trembling from something Harry didn't really plan on thinking about.
Ew.
Harry turned his somewhat still incredulous glare to the two detectives.
"So, the part-timer was also in cahoots with you lot." He growled. Had Harry been in tiger form at that moment he was sure his tail would have been twitching in agitation. As it was, he settled for giving his best impersonation of a certain hook-nosed dungeon bat.
"You should blame, Dazai. He was the one who insisted we give you a chance with us before dumping you with the government. However, you really shouldn't have believed Dazai of all people would help you find a job. Even without your bounty factoring in, Dazai isn't trustworthy for the most mundane of things." Kunikida said. He folded his arms over his chest and the gaze he gave Harry was as cold as ice. Whereas before, there had been some warmth in his rough, irritation laced tone, it was now bereft of anything resembling kindness or tolerance. Now that the gig was up, he was free to express his true emotions to his almost-murderer.
They apparently weren't pretty.
Harry grimaced. Damn, he was hating his idiotic moon driven decisions right now.
Dazai however, merely grinned. He didn't seem to care at all about Kunikida's tone and that in itself was quite telling. Though he had pushed for Harry's continued living, it did not appear as though he cared how Harry was treated. Deep in his eyes, something sharp glittered.
"I did mention a test, didn't I? Hmmm, Hari-kun? Dazai questioned idly.
Harry went still... did that mean? Horror rose like bile to his throat. Oh, please no!
"Like... an entrance exam?" Harry asked in horror.
"That is correct." Harry looked up in ill-concealed horror. The women from the doorway had stepped apart into even, respectful rows. Moving past them, was a gray-haired man.
"The exam has been... passed without much ado, President." One of the office ladies informed the man.
"President?" Harry squeaked. The president continued to walk forward until he stood before the group. He wore traditional Japanese clothing and even carried himself like a pure-blooded lord.
"Dazai said that you felt remorse for Kunikida and chose to give up your escape in order to heal him. We normally don't take in wanted criminals, but he did not believe you were too far gone yet. Dazai thinks that with the influence, you can become a blessing to humanity instead of a danger." The president explained. Harry turned to look at Dazai in shock. Dazai thought what?
"You lack control. That can be rectified with time. A lack of a heart can not be. Luckily, you seem to have enough of one to feel remorse. Because of that, and that alone, I do not believe you deserve the death the government has demanded of your moonlit form." Dazai's joviality had left his tone, but somehow Harry felt more at ease with the more serious statement. At least right now he could tell what the Detective thought. If Dazai was covering everything up with a joke, he was a lot harder to get any sort of read out of him.
"Because of Dazai's support for your continued living, you will be given a... probation. Instead of being sent to the government, you will serve time at the agency instead with strict rules and regulations to keep you from either running away or breaking anymore laws." The president spoke again. Once more his voice was even, calm, and ever so commanding. Harry could tell that this was a man who had the experience to lead and lead well.
"So, we're keeping him?" Kunikida questioned. He frowned at the president. Harry tried not to look too deeply into what emotion the blonde's frown might represent. For few moments, a tension filled silence filled the office.
"I'll let Dazai decide." The older man began to walk off before pausing at the doorway to his office. "However, whatever you decide, Dazai, is your responsibility." The man narrowed his eyes at the brown headed detective and Harry would have had to have been deaf to miss the double meaning. He shivered. The president fellow was definitely not on his list of favorite people.
"You can trust me." Dazai assured the vanishing president.
Harry gulped. Great.
"Oh, come now! Don't look like that! You passed the test, you can be a detective here, now!" Dazai said cheerfully. His smirk turned mischievous as he continued.
"Of course, if you would rather I take you by police headquarters and inform them of what happens to the tiger once morning comes..." Dazai let his threat trail off.
Harry closed his eyes and grit his teeth.
Damn it.
Dazai had Harry right where he wanted him. And the stupid detective knew it too.
"How in the world does this equate to finding my godfather?" Harry grit out between his clenched teeth.
"Hmmm...? Oh! Well, we are a detective agency, Hari-Kun. We have informants all over the country. If you godfather's anywhere in it, we'll find him. Meanwhile, you can stay here at the agency and work off all the debt your tiger form accumulated." Harry opened his eyes and glared into the gleeful face of the detective. Yes, it would be useful to have the agencies resources on his side, but Harry would rather be out there himself. Besides, with all the magical tricks Sirius had up his sleeves, how were mere muggles supposed to find him?
"Your people won't be able to find him." Harry stated. The wizard crossed his arms unhappily and allowed his unnerving yellow eyes to continue to rest on the detective.
"And why would that be? It seems you're quite certain."
"I'm not the only one with transformational talents, and his are a lot less eye catching." Harry growled. Dazai's eyes gleamed with interest.
"Oh? How interesting. Not to worry, I'm sure we can work something out. Either way, you currently have two options, Hari-Kun." Dazai straightened from his laid-back demeanor. "You can be tried and executed in court, or you can serve out your probation and pay back your crimes to society." Harry grimaced. So, this is a rock and a hard place.
"Fine. I'll work at the detective agency. But only till my debt is paid. Then I'm going right back to looking for my godfather." Harry conceded. Dazai's face lit up with a pleased smile.
"Then I suppose I should say, Welcome to the Armed Detective Agency, Hari-Kun."
Harry gave a long sigh. This, at least until he ran away, was going to be troublesome.
"Congrats!" Naomi called happily.
Very troublesome indeed.
"This place is too violent." Harry grumbled. For a moment the office was silent.
"You know, I think that's really rich coming from you." Tanizaki mumbled as he rubbed his boot-imprinted face.
"Hmmm! Hmm! It seems someone's a little hypocrite!" Dazai singsonged happily. Harry blushed bright red.
"I thought you were a real terrorist!" The wizard cried out.
"But your foot in my face hurt!" Tanizaki whined.
"Then don't go around pretending to be a bomber!" Harry growled. "I really thought you were some stupid punk!"
Around them, other office members chuckled at their continued antics. It seemed there would be a new member of the agency now. A very... interesting one.
This would have been posted earlier but something was wrong with the wifi. I have no clue as to what it is, but I was just able to submit documents again a few minutes ago. Anyway, this was hard to write. Yes, there has to be test to get into the Agency, but I don't want to write the same thing as what's in the series. Soooo... yeah. To compensate for my unhappiness at having to write something so close to canon when I am super close to getting to the 'do whatever i want' point in the story, I made Harry a little bit violent. Personally, I do think Harry would respond somewhat similarly to a bomber. Though I can also understand that he might not have sworn as much... meh.
As for Harry sympathizing with the 'bomber brat'... Harry was really desperate for a long while. Seeing another kid acting so desperate would have brought back some memories of his younger self. granted, entirely different ways of showing their desperation, but I like to think that Harry has a soft spot for kids/teenagers who he thinks are just having a rough time of it.
Anyway, consequences for Harry almost killing Kunikida are still quite prominent and will be further seen in how other members react to Harry. Still, I tried to end on a somewhat light-hearted tone.
Anyway, I'm just glad to be able to post this today. Enjoy!
~Blitza