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And thanks to Dearshul for taking the time to beta-read this story ^^
Here's chapter one. It is somewhat of an introduction :)
Chapter 1: The case
Kid found himself again in the park again several days later after class, even though it wasn't raining and Killer had offered go grab some pot from a guy he knew. Truth be told, Kid wasn't much into drugs, they were just as much of a good way to pass the time as anything else.
"Well, Mr. Eustass, I wasn't expecting to see you again." Law greeted, who was sitting on one of the park's old wooden benches.
"Disappointed?" Kid asked, approaching him.
"Not at all, you're a nice change to my boring and solitary existence."
"If you think I'm being charitable, you're wrong." Kid said with a snort, plopping down on the bench next to Law.
"I wouldn't even think of it. You have 'school bully' written on your forehead."
"Then you have a 'crazy junkie'."
"I've never tried drugs; I'm not interested in them."
Ignoring him, Kid put his biology book on Law's lap. The man looked at it and lifted an inquisitive eyebrow.
"You explain well, I even passed that paper you helped me with."
"You want me to tutor you? If you think I'll be charitable, you're wrong." Law said, paraphrasing him.
Kid laughed.
"I don't want 'tutoring'; I just want you to help me pass this fucking year I have left. In exchange…" Kid searched in his bag and brought out a shopping bag full of various foods he's bought on his way here. He handed it to Law. "You need this, don't you? I doubt you have money."
"Not a cent." Law confirmed, accepting the bag. "Alright, let's see what can be done with those grades."
Portgas D. Ace would be lying to himself if he said he wasn't nervous. He's finished his training in record time, something not at all surprising if you thought about the special training his grandfather had subjected him to since he was a little kid; and now he was there, facing the imposing building that was the city's central Police Division, ready to start his first day at work.
Taking a deep breath, Ace started walking to the entrance. The glass doors slid open and Ace's ears filled with the racket of tens of people talking all at the same time, some of them on the building's reception and others being heard from further inside.
Ace approached the nearest counter, marked with a sign that said 'reception', and cleared his throat to attract the attention of the girl sitting on the chair behind it.
"Excuse me…"
"To file a complaint, third door to the left on that hallway." The girl said without lifting her gaze from the screen.
"No, it's not that-"
"You're not here to file a complaint?" Interrupted the girl, looking at him.
"No. I'm starting a job here today."
The girl seemed lost for a moment, and then her eyes opened comically.
"Boss' Garp's grandkid!" She exclaimed, standing up hurriedly. "I'm so sorry, Sir! I've been so rude. Please, follow me."
Ace thought the girl looked a bit scared. It wasn't too strange, especially if his grandfather was here half as much of a nutter as he was at home.
"Thank you…" He looked down the tab on her blouse. "Anna." Ace followed her down one of the hallways. "You don't need to be so formal, I assure you I don't bite."
She looked at him, insecure.
"Seriously, madness skips two generations in my family." Ace said, feigning to confide a great secret.
She laughed and, looking visibly relaxed, answered:
"That's good to know." She stopped in front of a glass door. "This is the homicide division, you have to go to the back, the gray door is boss Newgate's office. He'll tell you everything you need to know."
"Okay. Thanks again." Ace did a short reverence and she laughed again.
"It was nothing. Good luck."
Luckily, his entrance didn't get too much attention, besides a couple of turned heads before people went back to whatever they were doing, and Ace could take a good look of his new co-workers. Most of them wore dark suits and Ace felt glad to have put on a white shirt and a jacket with his dark jeans. He saw a brown-haired man styled in a pompadour, dressed in a white suit, that was doing paper planes and throwing them around. Next to him sat a huge and serious man looking reproachfully at his behavior while filing what seemed like an eternal pile of paperwork. Across the room was a blond man whose hair reminded Ace of a pineapple, looking in amusement at the brunette. None of the others stood out to Ace, some of them sitting at their tables and others going from one place to another doing various kinds of things. There were around twenty people in that room.
Ace reached the office's door and, fighting his nervousness, knocked a couple of times at the door.
"Come in." Came the strong voice from inside.
Ace opened the door, revealing an office that, despite being of a decent size, seemed too small for the huge man who occupied it. Edward Newgate, whom his grandfather had told Ace about, was an aging man that had retired from field work years ago, although he still looked strong under his suit.
"You must be Ace, Garp's brat. Come in."
Ace did as he was told and went to close the door, but the man shook his head.
"That's not necessary, boy. We'll be done soon."
Marco was going through the case files again after Thatch has stopped acting like a three-year-old with the fucking paper planes. It has been over a month since the last murder and they had yet to advance in the investigation, even though the victim list did nothing but grow.
Eighteen. There had been eighteen victims in the past three years, and they weren't anywhere nearer to catch the murderer than when they found the first corpse.
Heavy footsteps Marco knew very well made him lift his head to see the boss exiting his office accompanied by the boy that had entered moments before. His supposition must have been true and that was Portgas D. Ace, Garp's grandson and his new partner now that Shanks had left.
"Listen, you bunch of slackers," the old man called them affectionately, "this boy is Ace; he's going to work with us from now on. He'll be Marco's new partner." He looked at the boy and then pointed to Marco. "The blonde pineapple-head over there."
Marco, too accustomed to the jokes about his hair, didn't react to the comment or the snickers that followed it. Ace, apparently embarrassed, began to approach him, but it took him a while because he was stopped by the whole division welcoming him.
"You're not as crazy as Garp, are you?" Marco heard Thatch asking.
It took Ace over fifteen minutes to cross the room and reach Marco, who greeted him with a lot more calmly than most of the others, giving him the impression to be a far more stable person than what Ace had feared he would be. After all, this city's police department was famous for being somewhat like an asylum.
Ace absentmindedly noticed the plate on the man's desk, 'Marco Newgate', and supposed he was the boss' son. Ace put up his own plate, given to him along with other things by the old man, on the desk that would be his from now on and moved the chair to sit before Marco, who started to tell him about the case he had right now.
The Avenger.
Ace was surprised to find out the first case he would be working on would be such an important and controversial case as this, a murderer who had the press and the public opinion on his side for targeting the members of a dangerous criminal organization from which not a single member has been ever condemned for anything. Marco simply shrugged and told him it would be good to have a fresh point of view, and then started giving him all the information they had gathered up until now.
Eighteen murders in three years, all of them from the same organization and different levels of importance inside it, assassinated during rainy nights with two shots to the knees and left to bleed to death. No fingerprints, no shells, nothing useful from the bullets and, due to the weather and the places of the murders, no witnesses or security footage.
"At first, we thought that the first two murders were executions inside the gang. It wouldn't have been the first time, as some years ago they had eliminated one of their own in the same way. But the third body, found less than two months after the second, seemed too much, and we started thinking it could be some other group trying to get rid of the competence and suicidal enough to target them, but that theory didn't take us anywhere either." Marco explained to him.
"So we don't know anything."
Marco shook his head.
"Nothing at all. Nor do they, or they would've tried to stop our investigation by now."
Eustass Kid closed the door to his small apartment with a deep sigh. He had had a shitty day and just wanted to forget it as soon as possible. He was somewhat cheered up by the scene he found there: Trafalgar Law, lying stretched across the old sofa in the main room, was flipping through channels with a bored expression.
"Isn't there anything good?"
"On the contrary, there's this extremely interesting show, starring a group of stuffed and colorful things with antennas on top of their heads, which love to conceal pornography as child's love."
Kid snorted.
"I'm not in the mood for your shit, Trafalgar."
"Bad day?" The brunette asked, turning off the TV and leaving the remote on the small wooden table.
"A shitty one. I've spent two hours dealing with a stupid spoiled brat who wants her car repaired by tomorrow. The idiot crashed into a tree for eating while she was driving. Can you believe that?"
Law smiled amusedly.
"I've heard worse. And, speaking of food, I made you dinner."
"You? You burn even water." Kid said, feeling astounded that his home was still intact, and went into the kitchen.
There, on the plastic table, rested a plate of instant curry rice, one of those you can prepare in your microwave in matter of minutes.
"That's what you call 'make dinner'?"
"You could always prepare it yourself after your shitty day." Law suggested, approaching from behind.
"I'll pass."
Kid strode to the table and gulfed down the rice in record time. Then he went to the bathroom.
"I need a shower."
"You shouldn't get wet just after eating; you could have a stomach cramp." Law warned, a smirk clear in his voice.
"What a problem."
Kid had undressed while walking, so he turned on the water, as hot as possible, stepping into the shower and standing under the water splash. A body pressed against his back, giving him a lukewarm sensation when combined with the hot water.
"You're cold." He said, clasping Law's hands between his own.
"What a surprise."
To be continued
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