(A/N: Thank you so much to Guest, SumiJepson, Jsmine Lucas, and PinkiePieParty122894 for your reviews. And to everyone who followed and favorited this story as well. :)

Technically I know this episode is from the light novel and not part of the main manga. Since I think it goes straight to when Kyoka appears and Dazai goes missing after Ranpo's storyline. But this episode starts out so hilariously I couldn't help but add it in. xD And I'm using the anime more for a reference than the manga/light novels, but I might need to check them out again, too.)

I knew something was telling me I should have just stayed in bed today...

Atsushi had believed she was the first to arrive at the office since she had awoken quite early this morning. That was until she spotted Dazai in the corner of the room munching upon something. When she went to place her hand on his shoulder, a bit concerned for the male when it seemed he had stopped moving, she had immediately backed away noticing Dazai's face had actually turned purple while he sported a maniacal grin when he slowly turned to face her.

Tempted to run straight out the door and not look back when Dazai began to unleash an unhinged laugh, she instead flipped around when realizing someone was coming in. Relief instantly washed over her at the sight of one of the more mature members of the agency.

If anyone would be able to sort out Dazai, it would be him.

"Kunikida-san! You have to help!"

Raising a brow at the pale and obviously panicked female, Kunikida questioned, "What's going on so early?"

"J-j-just look at Dazai-san!"

Peeking over Atsushi, Kunikida's features remained completely indifferent seeing a crazed look within Dazai's brown eyes as he had hopped upon one of the desks in the room.

"Kunikida-kun, it's an emergency! Just look!"

"Look at what?" Kunikida asked Dazai bluntly, allowing Atsushi to push him closer toward the 'idiot'.

"At that!"

"I only see your moronic face!"

"I've finally arrived in the afterlife," Dazai claimed in a higher pitched tone, gazing around in awe, his cheeks dusted pink. "At Yomotsu Hirasaka! It's exactly as I imagined. Blue smoke trailing the ground, moonlight dashing against the windows, and pink elephants dancing in the western sky!"

"What's going on?"

Finding what Dazai had been snacking upon, Atsushi weakly held up a partially eaten green mushroom and a red covered book.

"Kunikida-san...I think this might explain it..."

"I knew the complete suicide was a masterpiece! Who knew I needed mushrooms from the nearby hills to have such an entertaining way out?!"

"So he ate shrooms?" Kunikida stated calmly while sticking his hands into his pockets.

Atsushi found it baffling that Kunikida wasn't more alarmed by the fact that Dazai seemed completely off his rocker right now. She couldn't help but flinch when Dazai was throwing back his head and unleashing that insane sounding laughter again.

"Seems he thought he was eating lethal mushrooms, but..."

Not able to finish her sentence, Atsushi let out a loud shriek when she was abruptly tackled by Dazai. The poor girls face turned a blotchy red from how tightly he was holding onto her. She would have been more concerned by the fact that he was squeezing her so tightly it was difficult to breathe, if she wasn't more worried about the fact that it felt like her heart was about to pound right out of her chest.

And when Dazai started to rub his cheek affectionately against hers, something that made her squeak like a frightened mouse, only added to her inner turmoil.

"Kunikida-kun! Look! It's one of Spirit World's grim reapers! I told you they were pretty women! We have to take her home with us!"

Noticing Kunikida almost too casually sitting down and popping open his laptop, Atsushi reached out a shaky hand toward the blond.

"K-kunikida-san..."

"I'm doing my usual morning paperwork. Wait until I'm done," Kunikida voiced, ignoring the tears that had formed in a distressed Atsushi's eyes. "And that is considered kidnapping, Dazai."

Having somehow found herself gagged and bound by the bandages Dazai liked to wear on his arms, Atsushi squirmed in the chair where she had been placed, watching with still damp eyes when a grinning Dazai crouched down in front of Kunikida and started to tug at his cheeks.

"Kunikida-kun~ You should come to the afterlife, too. It's amazing! You can drink all you want! You can eat all you want! There are pretty grim reapers! Oh! But you'll have to find your own. I'm not sharing the one I caught!"

Closing his laptop, his calm facade abruptly faded when Kunikida slammed Dazai on the ground hard enough to knock him out cold while roaring for the brown-haired male to shut up.

Why are two such incompatible people a team Atsushi pondered considering it seemed Kunikida really hated Dazai at times.

"Kunikida-san, the president has your case for the day." Haruno spoke up pleasantly when stepping into the room, not even fazed by the sight of a tied-up Atsushi or a dizzy eyed Dazai.

"Understood. Wake this idiot up while I untie the brat." Kunikida answered, proceeding to step directly on Dazai's face while he made his way for the gray-haired teen.

"Right away." Haruno said with a smile, grabbing a bottle of water and pouring it directly on Dazai's head.

I suppose it should be more concerning that events like this happening around here are actually considered a normal day Atsushi lamented, lowering her head while tears trailed down her cheeks.

By the time they had reached their destination, the sun had begun to set. Surprisingly, the location didn't look that sketchy the way Atsushi assumed it would be. There were just normal storage buildings around in the truthfully desolate area. Of course, she supposed it was uncertain what was actually being stored in the good-sized facilities...

"Dazai. Quit dawdling. Walk faster,"

"Kay..."

"We only have two minutes and fifteen seconds until the appointment!"

"That's concerning..."

He doesn't look very concerned Atsushi mused with a small smile, peering back at Dazai who was dragging behind with his arms stretched languidly behind his head. She was amazed Kunikida didn't snap at him when Dazai even let out a bored, exaggerated yawn.

"Um, is it okay for me to tag along?" Atsushi questioned, turning to face Kunikida's back. She was managing to keep up with his brisk pace.

"This is part of your rookie training. The case involves solving a series of disappearances in Yokohama."

Atsushi looked down with a light frown. "If I recall, it's the one where visitors to Yokohama keep disappearing one after another, right?"

"We have an anonymous tip. The victims have been kidnapped and imprisoned in a certain location," Kunikida continued to explain.

Dazai let out a hum at this and smiled in amusement. "An anonymous tip...How suspicious and wonderful,"

"But we can't ignore it,"

"So we'll investigate that place?"

"No," Kunikida replied to Atsushi's quiet inquiry, opening a building where the three were greeted by a long stairway. "We will investigate the tip's source first."

We look like we're walking right into a trap Atsushi couldn't help but fret considering she could barely make out her surroundings. The only source of light, when they made it further down, was from an eerie bluish glow that seemed to be coming from various computer monitors and a tank where one rather long fish floated leisurely around within it.

"How's it going, informant?" Kunikida demanded, leading the way as they made their way further into the spacious room.

"Hey, four-eyes. Are you being a slave to your notebook again?"

"You're speaking like that to a detective agent when you're a hacker? If you're arrested, your deceased father will be rolling in his grave."

"Don't mention my father," the male uttered out in a tone that caused Atsushi to bite at her bottom lip since she could sense his anger. He was good at hiding it, though, because it didn't show on his face when the rather young informant turned to face them. "More importantly, you're late. Isn't that unusual for you? Why? Were you on a date with a beauty?"

"No! Dates should be with a chosen woman, followed by marriage six years later," Kunikida rebuked to the tease. "That's what's written in this notebook."

"Huh?! Th-then, does this mean you have someone you want to marry, Kunikida-san?!" Atsushi gasped out. Even if six years felt like an oddly specific time to tie the knot, she wondered if she had met the woman who had managed to actually capture Kunikida's eye?

"I will in four years."

The brownish-golden eyed teen blinked when the female jolted back in alarm. "Is she a newbie?"

Regaining her balance, Atsushi gave a proper bow. "I"m Nakajima Atsushi!"

"I'm Taguchi Rokuzou. I'm an informant," the younger teen introduced with a smirk. "For the right price, I'll dig up dirt on anything. And for a cutie like you, I'm willing to give a discount~"

"C-cute?!" Atsushi stuttered out, completely caught off guard. Was this what they considered a flirt?! Not sure what to say, she was surprised when Dazai actually moved in front of her. Almost like he was...shielding her?

"Don't you have some information you were supposed to be giving us now, hmm?" Dazai questioned with a smile, yet his eyes were narrowed in a rather hostile manner.

"Oh...right..." Rokuzou muttered with a small cough, looking away from Dazai since the guy was giving him the creeps. "The Azure Messenger. There was data left on their server. And pics of the kidnapped victims, I guess. The mole's not an enemy though, is he? He told you where they holed up and all."

"I wonder," Dazai chuckled out, suddenly leaning on one of the computer screens, making Rokuzou flinch from how quickly he had gotten near him. "I hope we don't go there, just to find he's one of the kidnappers."

Kunikida wore a deep frown, murmuring out, "The Azure Messenger...I want you to keep looking into it."

"Sure, when I feel like it," Rokuzou retorted back with a lazy smirk. Atsushi noted he had moved as far away from Dazai in his swivel chair as he could. She was confused to why Dazai seemed to make the short cropped brown-haired male so nervous. "I'm busy looking after my tropical fish."

"Hey, Kunikida-kun. Why are you looking after the Rokuzou boy?" Dazai brought up curiously after they had departed. They were now currently waiting on a taxi that Kunikida had called to take them to their next destination: an abandoned hospital.

"What do you mean?"

"It's not like you to give a job to a hacker. You could have just spoken with him over the phone, but you took the time to meet him face to face. His father's deceased, isn't he? Are you trying to be his dad?"

"We came here so that the brat could meet our informant. That's all it is."

Dazai let out a startled gasp and suddenly pulled Atsushi protectively against him. "I'm surprised at you, Kunikida-kun! Was that your way of trying to set the two up?!"

A tick mark formed on the side of Kunikida's head. "Don't be ridiculous! And what about you? Don't you think you're being a bit too overprotective over the girl?"

Dazai let out an indignant huff, not seeming to notice he caused Atsushi to grow pinker when his hold upon her grew firmer. "Of course! Our little Atsushi-chan here is clearly innocent to the ways of the world. A guy like that would eat her up and then spit her out without a second thought!"

"Erm, eat me up?" Atsushi spoke sheepishly, having no idea what was going on with this conversation right now. She was truthfully a little glad when the taxi showed up. That odd sensation of her heart rapidly pounding away in her chest cavity had happened again when Dazai was holding her close to his warm and sturdy body.

Atsushi found herself staring down at her lap, twiddling her thumbs once she was seated in the back of the taxi with Dazai. She couldn't understand why Dazai was making her so flustered. Maybe it was due to the fact that she wasn't accustomed to men being genuinely nice to her?

He was the first person who didn't look at me like I was scum beneath their feet, come to think of it...

"This driver is another informant of ours. He was an actor in another life," Kunikida had suddenly begun to explain, snapping Atsushi out of her rambling thoughts.

"I made no money," the driver voiced with a closed eyed smile, "so I switched careers."

"It was the right decision. He knows more about Yokohama than anyone I know. He also saw two of the eleven victims right before they were kidnapped,"

The older male gave a small laugh. "I just happened to drive them from the port to a hotel."

"Is this really about kidnapping, though?" Atsushi asked shakily, her and Dazai both quickly clinging onto the assist grips in the car that had left the main road to traverse down a bumpier path. "There haven't been any requests for ransom."

Holding photos of two men, Kunikida brought up, "Are you sure these two are the ones you saw?"

"Yes, I'm sure of it. They even have the same clothes, too."

Taking the photos, Dazai chirped out, "I see. I have a hunch! Look at these photos. They're both wearing glasses! That means this is a serial glasses kidnapping case! It's your time to shine, Kunikida-kun!"

"Some of the victims don't have glasses. You can't say it's a pattern,"

Dazai gave a fake pout at this. "Too bad. And here I thought it'd finally be your time to shine..."

"I can't let that comment slide," Kunikida hissed out, suddenly flipping around in his seat where he could throttle Dazai. "Are you saying my glasses are the only reason why I'd be in the spotlight?!"

"Th-that's why you both really shouldn't fight in a moving car..." Atsushi mentioned with an awkward laugh when Dazai and Kunikida both painfully jolted forward when the vehicle came to a sudden halt.

"We've arrived. It's the abandoned hospital, as you requested."

"What a nice atmosphere. It may be haunted," Dazai vocalized, making ghost motions with his arms toward Atsushi who merely batted the man's hands away, something that made Dazai laugh.

"By what?" Kunikida muttered, his face apathetic as they exited the vehicle and headed for their destination.

"It is creepy, that's for sure," Atsushi confessed softly. The only sound was their footsteps on the long-deserted hallways while the single source of light came from the moonlight reflecting through the broken windows.

"It's kind of nice. It revs you up," Dazai admitted while admiring the settings you'd normally read in a horror novel.

"You better not have eaten another of those mushrooms," Kunikida grumbled, dragging behind this time while Dazai and Atsushi walked ahead.

"Oh, are you scared, Kunikida-kun?"

Atsushi looked back at Kunikida with mild concern. "Are you afraid of ghosts?"

"I'm not afraid of ghosts!"

"Then keep up," Dazai chastised.

"Fool! In these kinds of movies, those who are thoughtless and overconfident are the first to die!"

Scratching at her cheek when Dazai made ghost motions at Kunikida this time, further irritating the male, she figured that was why she had noticed something was on the ground before they had.

"These footprints...They're still fresh."

"Help!"

"Did that voice come from the basement?!" Atsushi cried out. The woman had sounded frightened, and it made the light hairs on Atsushi's arms raise up. Just what was being done to her?

Quickly following Dazai and Kunikida down the stairs, Kunikida was the first to make it to the lower level where he was alarmed to find a woman, who had been stripped down to her underwear, floating in a large glass tank that was filling with water.

Her eyes meeting his as she started to sink to the bottom, Kunikida gritted his teeth and pulled out a handgun to rapidly fire at the glass, causing it to shatter. He instantly caught the pretty brown eyed and long blank haired female when she came rushing out with the water, helping her sit up once she had caught her breath.

"Thank you. You saved me," the woman addressed weakly while Dazai removed his coat and placed it over her. "I'm Nobuko Sasaki. I'm a professor at a university in Tokyo."

"So you're victim number twelve," Atsushi whispered with a troubled frown.

"Did you see who kidnapped you?" Dazai asked, crouched down in front of Sasaki.

"I'm sorry. I blacked out at the station. When I regained consciousness, I was drowning in the tank, as you just saw..."

"Dazai, what's your take on the situation?"

Staring intensely at Nobuko, Dazai voiced lewdly, "Sasaki-san's looking damn sexy,"

"BE SERIOUS!" Kunikida roared while Atsushi actually fell where she stood.

"Oh, right. There should be others who were kidnapped here," Sasaki claimed, turning away from Dazai to face Kunikida with a worried gaze. "I know I heard voices just as I began drowning in the tank."

"What?" Kunikida said, taken back as Dazai and him shared a look.

The three of them hastily split up to search the good-sized facility, yet it was Atsushi who eventually shouted out, "Kunikida-san! I found them! They're here!"

At least four men had been trapped inside an enclosed glass-like containment that had been placed in the hospital's former morgue. Pleading and begging for help, Kunikida rushed over to try and find a way to assist them, only for his eyes to widen in alarm when something was being dispersed inside of the box.

"Get back, Atsushi-chan!" Dazai firmly instructed, clenching his teeth. "It's gas! You too, Kunikida-kun...!"

Banging on the glass, Kunikida yelled out in a desperate tone, "Hey, hang in there! Hey!" Squirming when Dazai grabbed onto him from behind and forcefully pulled him backwards, Kunikida continued to shout, "Let me go, Dazai! People shouldn't die like this! Let me go!"

Kunikida-san Atsushi thought sorrowfully as he continued to fight Dazai who was having to drag him out of the room. It was heartbreaking, but there was nothing they could do in this situation...Glancing back, Atsushi gritted her teeth when noticing one of the men had collapsed, something that made her sadly look away and run to catch up with the others.

It wouldn't be long before the other victims soon followed...

"Victims of Yokohama's serial kidnapping case were found but perished when a detective agency conducted an independent raid. Perished..." Atsushi quietly read from the newspaper the next day. She wondered how they had managed to get a photo of Kunikida when he had been desperately banging on the glass?

Had someone been watching them...?

"So this was the enemy's objective," Kunikida murmured.

"You're saying they were trying to frame the Agency? That was their plan all along?"

Kunikida looked down and admitted softly, "Maybe it wasn't my time to shine, despite what Dazai said..."

"Kunikida-san..." Atsushi spoke with worry. This was the most the male had spoken since the incident. He had wanted to be left alone, claiming he needed to file a report once they had returned.

Remaining quiet for a moment, Kunikida soon questioned, "Where's Sasaki?"

"She should be in the infirmary. Do you want to go check on her?" Atsushi suggested with a faint smile.

When Kunikida gave a silent nod, the two of them were surprised to hear laughter coming from inside the room, causing them to peek inside. Dazai was sitting beside Sasaki's bed while a smile was on her face along with a gentle blush. One that remained when she turned to face Kunikida and Atsushi.

"Thank you so much for saving me the other day. If you hadn't come when you did, I wouldn't be alive right now,"

"Not at all," Kunikida replied back a bit stiffly.

"Not to mention, you even let me stay at your residence last night,"

"Where did you stay?" Atsushi asked confused. She also wondered why Kunikida had grown blue in the face.

Dazai pointed cheerfully at himself. "My place."

"WHAT?!" Atsushi shrieked out alongside Kunikida, having turned the same shade of blue as the blond.

The blush on Sasaki's face deepened while her smile had an almost secretive appearance to it. "I'm...deeply indebted to Dazai-sama,"

"I-is that something detectives are allowed to do?" Atsushi mumbled, Kunikida and her resembling twins for they were giving off similar twitches.

The gray-haired female wasn't certain why, but she was feeling oddly annoyed. Something she didn't realize carried to her eyes. She ended up giving a side-eyed glance to Dazai when they returned to the office where the male had taken to working on his laptop.

"It seems Sasaki-san didn't see who it was. She apparently faints often due to anemia. That's why she fainted on the day she was kidnapped, too," Dazai nonchalantly spoke up while he typed. "I don't know how she was kidnapped afterward."

"So she's your type?" Kunikida interrogated, a hint of vexation in his tone.

"I like all women. But Sasaki-san seems like the type who'd commit suicide with me if I asked, which is nice." Sensing Kunikida's growing displeasure, Dazai gave him a knowing smirk. "But what about you Kunikida-kun? Is she your type?"

A large tick mark on the side of his head, Kunikida averted his glare and grumbled out, "She is a victim in the case and a witness. That's it."

"Well, that's exactly how you would react," Dazai mused with a shake of his head, almost sounding disappointed. He suddenly moved a green notebook close to Atsushi, giving it a small wave in her face. "Oh, Atsushi-chan, want to read it? His ideal woman."

"You bastard! When'd you swipe that?!"

Finding herself intrigued, Atsushi lifted her head off Dazai's desk and started to peruse through Kunikida's personal notebook. "Read? You mean it's written down in here?"

"Kunikida's notebook has a wide range of schedules, plans, and ideals recorded in it," Dazai stated gleefully. He moved in closer toward Atsushi and pointed to a certain page, "See, like here."

Letting out a loud squeal, Atsushi moved her face closer, wondering if she was reading what she thought. "Th-this is too much! I'd expect this from someone like Dazai-san...but I'm kind of surprised you'd write something like this, Kunikida-san..." She ended up placing the notebook on the desk and sliding it back to Kunikida; causing Kunikida to gawk when Atsushi even wiped her hands on her dress as if she had touched something she shouldn't have.

At Atsushi's declaration, Dazai gripped at his chest as if he had been mortally wounded. "Ah! To say such a thing! What must you think of me, Atsushi-chan?!"

Aren't you the one who took a woman you just met home with you Atsushi found herself thinking, giving the whining male a look of indifference.

"I can't believe she'd compare me to someone like him...!" Kunikida muttered in complete disbelief while also feeling offended. Coughing and glaring at both Atsushi and Dazai, Kunikida added with a slight growl, "Forget about me! We're discussing the kidnapping's right now! Have we picked up on anything?"

"Yeah. In this newspaper photo, you look pretty manly," Dazai replied much too seriously once regaining his composure.

"Is that your way of indicating that you want me to punch you?"

"What's regrettable is this. You should've picked sexier glasses frames if you were going to end up in the news. They're so plain," Dazai suddenly took Kunikida's glasses and placed them on his own face. "Only a natural flamboyant person like me could pull off wearing them. Wouldn't you agree, Atsushi-chan?"

At the cheeky grin Dazai was sending her, Atsushi turned lightly pink and scratched at her cheek, "I suppose they do suit you..."

"Hmph. They only scream 'con man' to me," Kunikida insulted, stubbornly crossing his arms. A sudden realization hit him, and Kunikida reclaimed his specs. "Let's go, both of you. I know who's behind this."

Heading back to previous area where they had met Rokuzou, the diligent male had also called the former actor, now driver, to pick them up and bring them there.

"So, you said on the phone that you figured out who's behind the murder case. You're on your way to arrest the killer?" the older dark-haired male inquired, peering over at Kunikida who was jotting something down in his notebook.

"That's right."

"Then let's hurry. Where to?"

"Here," At the driver's confusion, Kunikida sent him a piercing stare and continued, "This is where the kidnapping took place, and you are the kidnapper. You dosed passengers with sleeping gas and kidnapped them after they fell unconscious. You wore a gas mask."

While Dazai wasn't fazed by this revelation, a bead of sweat trailed down Atsushi's face and she asked hesitantly, "What were his reasons?"

"I can think of one. Cargo."

"Cargo?" Atsushi said softly, turning to look at Dazai.

"He'd sell them off. There's a black market for organs in the underground. The margin isn't great because of the exchange rate," Dazai explained, leaning forward in his seat with a knowing smirk, "but if you're pulling it off alone, it's a decent payout."

"That's horrible..." Atsushi whispered, scowling at the cruel man.

"Hang on. If I used this taxi to kidnap people, the police would have found me when tracing the victims' last known locations," the driver attested.

"No, no one looked twice at this taxi. Because all the victims would vanish and become untraceable the following day," Kunikida rebuked, his words making the driver grow pale. "When your targets boarded the taxi and you knocked them out, you'd imprison them and take their clothes and luggage. That's why all the victims at the hospital were in their underwear. You would then wear their clothes to disguise yourself as them, then check into the hotels where they'd made reservations. You showed up on security cameras for that reason. The victims were all of approximately the same height and build because you were choosing passengers you could impersonate. Many wore hats and glasses because that made impersonating them easier."

I know how skilled Ranpo-san and Dazai-san are when it comes this sort of thing, but Kunikida's skilled at deduction as well Atsushi realized in awe. She had never really understood why the Agency was so well known until now.

"If the security feeds show someone looking reasonably like the victim, you could fool the police easily. By the time the last known sighting of the 'victim' was recorded, the real victim had already been abducted," Kunikida concluded.

"Sasaki's abduction was even easier, wasn't it?" Dazai brought up with a derisive smile. "After she collapsed at the train station, a certain someone paid for her cab ride. It's faster to hail a cab than call an ambulance at a train station."

"That's all circumstantial evidence,"

"Hmm? I suppose," Dazai said, seeming at a lost for a moment. He then leaned back in his seat while shutting one eye. "You're right. What now, Kunikida-kun?"

"Are you being serious?"

"Let's make a deal," the driver cut in when Kunikida glared at him. "If you agree to my conditions, I'll turn myself in. Please protect me at the Armed Detective Agency! I must be protected for 72 hours while the prosecution concludes their questioning and arranges witness protection."

"What's this about?"

The older man gripped at the steering wheel and lowered his head. "I was put up to this. I was assured by a new-fangled organ smuggling organization that this was a great deal I'd never get caught for, and yet..."

Kunikida's deep green eyes grew bigger. "So there's a group behind all this? Where are they?"

"I don't know. I always meet them in the Central Harbor Building..."

"And? Why do you need our protection?" Dazai questioned with a raised brow.

"Well...it appears one of the people I kidnapped was with the Port Mafia..."

"Well, that's not good-" Just as Dazai started to say this, the sound of gunfire went off, and the messy brown haired male shoved Atsushi down in her seat just as the bullets shattered all the windows, using his body to shield hers from the rain of glass that fell down on them.

Gritting his teeth when the driver took this chance to flee for his life, the long-haired male turned to Atsushi-the three of them having exited the vehicle while also using it as cover where they crouched down-who wasn't able to get a signal. And the frown on his face deepened when Dazai mentioned they must have jammed it.

"If we lose the driver, the truth may never come to light," Kunikida vocalized. "Dazai, pursue the driver. Brat, contact the police and request backup. I'll distract them as a decoy."

"Roger!"

Atsushi took off when Dazai did after Kunikida had used his ability to create a flash grenade to blind the enemy. She found herself glancing backwards, her eyes growing big when seeing familiar black tendrils slice through the taxi, and which Kunikida thankfully avoided.

Akutagawa is here, too?! I hope Kunikida-san will be all right against someone like that...I need to get the police here as soon as possible...!

"I turned the driver over to the police," Dazai announced. The Port Mafia had dispersed the moment sirens had filled the area, much to Atsushi's relief.

Gazing at the decrepit building they stood before, Atsushi mumured, "So this is the building the organ traffickers used for their deals?"

Heading inside, the building was completely vacant. They had already fled.

"The walls scorched black," Atsushi noticed.

"This is where the Azure King blew himself up,"

"Huh? You mean, the one in the infamous Azure Flag bombings?" Atsushi voiced surprised. She had remembered reading about him in the director's newspaper when he had placed it down. "That Azure King?"

"That's right," Dazai spoke up solemnly. "A terrorist who destroyed many national and corporate facilities. From the time I heard the term 'Azure Messenger' I've been wondering if they were connected to the Azure King."

"I heard that the Azure King blew himself up in the end," Atsushi said softly while peering around the rather ominous room. "So this was the place. He committed suicide after the police cornered him, right?"

"That's right. I'd determined that this was his hideout and reported it to the police," Kunikida elaborated.

Atsushi looked at Kunikida with interest. "You were the one who found the Azure King's hideout?"

"But on that day, the military, homeland security, and the police were all working together, so the chain of command was in utter chaos. Only five detectives arrived at the hideout in a timely manner upon receiving the report. To add further insult to injury, the Azure King got wind of the police's actions, so he holed himself up with a bomb. After a conflicting set of orders, the decision was made to raid. But ordinary policeman without special training or abilities didn't stand a chance. Cornered, the Azure King blew himself up and perished, along with the five detectives..."

"How awful..." Atsushi spoke quietly, gripping at the front of her shirt.

"I remember now, Kunikida-kun. One of the detectives was that Rokuzou boy's father, wasn't it?" Dazai brought up.

"He was an excellent detective with a strong sense of justice. I'm the one who reported the hideout's location to the police. I may as well have set the bomb off myself," Kunikida lamented.

"That's not true! It's the terrorist's fault for blowing himself up!" Atsushi declared firmly.

"That's right, Atsushi-chan. Yet Kunikida-kun can't stop trying to look out for the Rokuzou boy in his deceased father's stead," Dazai added on, his expression unreadable.

Kunikida said nothing, approaching a nearby desk where tools and various bottles of chemicals sat stored. A laptop had also been left there, and Atsushi tilted her head when Kunikida began to examine it, his features stern.

"What's wrong, Kunikida-san?"

"Another job for the Agency. The client is the Azure Messenger."

"I see, I'm starting to see who this Azure Messenger is," Dazai said with an untroubled smile. "So? What's the job?"

"Disarming a bomb."

"A bomb?!" Atsushi gasped out. Why was this giving her flashbacks to her orientation?

"If we don't disarm the bomb by sunset tomorrow, hundreds of people will die."

Her features losing color, Atsushi took a step backward. "A bomb capable of that can't be easy..."

"The equipment here is for building a bomb. With this setup, you could build a very advanced bomb," Kunikida admitted, though his features were unwavering. "Don't worry. We won't let the bomb go off. We'll stop it for sure this time!"

Not too certain about Kunikida's bold statement, when feeling a firm hand on her shoulder, Atsushi leaned her head backwards to see Dazai looking down at her with a reassuring smile. He was telling her, in his own way, she had nothing to worry about...

I see...I just have to believe in them. Believe that everything will turn out fine...