Chapter Text
“Let’s start.” Kunikida pushes up the glasses on his nose; behind him, a projected picture appears on the wall. “We’ve been hired for a new case that will require all of our manpower. The client’s name is Kawakami Tsunekoka. She is the daughter of a diet member. She is also an ability user with the gift to manipulate sound waves. She recently suffered a traumatic brain injury which led to a two-week-long medically induced coma. Three days ago she woke up and —” his gaze lifts from his papers to look at the Agency members “— she was no longer able to use her ability.”
Chuuya’s brows furrow in surprise before his head swings back to the photograph of Kawakami Tsunekoka. She is of shorter stature, probably somewhere around his height. Her cheeks are round and flushed. Eyes bright. Determined. The type of person to know exactly what she wants.
“Her family hired us to find out what happened,” Kunikida continues. “We will do a full workup in smaller groups. Any questions?”
Tanizaki’s arm raises. He waits to receive an encouraging nod before asking, “Shouldn’t Ranpo be here?”
“He still has to finish business in Osaka.”
“This sounds like a big case though…”
“We’re perfectly adequate to handle the situation, Tanizaki.”
“Are we sure we’re needed?” Chuuya asks with a jerk of his chin. “You said she just came out of a medically induced coma. Isn’t it possible it’s something that she will have to relearn, same as walking?”
Kunikida sighs, probably because Chuuya didn’t bother to wait his turn and raise his arm first but he has long since given up on trying to beat some manners into him so he directs his attention to Yosano, handing the question over to her.
“It’s possible,” their team doctor answers with a one-shouldered shrug, “though I’ve never heard of anyone losing their entire ability after an injury. Competency and skill, sure, but not all of it.”
“Besides, the client gets what the client asks for,” Kunikida adds. His gaze falls back to his notepad as he begins to list off everyone’s tasks.
That doesn’t mean that the clients are always right. People would be surprised to see how many of the Agency’s employers are attention seekers with too much time and money on their hands. One time, Chuuya spent three days shadowing a middle-aged man who claimed to have a stalker with an ability only to discover that the man just wanted to feel important enough in front of his friends and colleagues and there was no stalker. There was only delusion.
“… Chuuya.” His eyes snap up. “You’re with Sigma. Interview the client and her team of surgeons. They are awaiting you at the hospital.”
Chuuya gets to his feet, grabs his jacket and waits for Sigma before leading the way out of the meeting room. “Mind if we stop by the café real quick?”
“Sure.” Sigma’s eyes slide to him, bright with curiosity. “Long night?” Chuuya grunts in reply. It earns him a jab in the ribs and a scandalized gasp. “The good kind of long night?”
“Will you be quiet?” he mutters, relieved that the others are too far away to overhear their conversation. “It’s like you want everyone here to know about my embarrassing dating life.”
“I’m sure everybody would be happy to hear that it went well enough for you to get laid.”
“I didn’t,” outside the office, Chuuya lets out a breath and runs a hand through his hair, “get laid.” He wishes that was the reason for his sleepless night.
“Oh,” Sigma says, and his brows furrow. “So what were you doing?”
“Getting drunk… and working.”
“Working?”
Chuuya gives him a stiff nod.
“But – at night?”
“I had a bad day! The date was a bust. The guy only talked about himself and didn’t ask me a single question and —” entering the elevator, he shrugs helplessly "— I was too drunk to sleep, so I opened some of the cases that I brought home.”
For some idiotic reason, he agreed to let Yosano set him up on a blind date. Something he was determined to never let happen. Who has ever been on a successful blind date? It’s pretty much destined to suck all the chemistry out of the air. But Yosano can be pretty persuasive – and maybe she has a point about him needing a good lay to let off some steam -- so one thing led to another, and now, three unsuccessful dates later, Chuuya can safely say that blind dating sucks.
“We’re allowed to bring cases home?”
Chuuya punches the button to the ground floor. “No. Don’t tell Kunikida or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
It’s quiet save for the electric hum around them. Sigma does the thing where he actually thinks about his answer before he speaks – a quality that Chuuya appreciates as much as he loathes.
“I’m sure the next date will be better,” is what he ends up saying with that awkwardly encouraging grin of his. “All good things are four, right?”
“All good things are three,” Chuuya corrects flatly.
“Oh.”
The café is quiet; the barista, Tsuneko, perks up as soon as they walk inside and pockets her phone. Sometimes Chuuya wonders where the money that keeps it open comes from ‘cause it sure as hell doesn’t come from customers.
“And I’m not going on another date. I’ll tell Yosano to stick it.”
“That bad?”
His chest sags in languid exasperation. “No, just not worth it. But who needs dating anyways?” He taps his fingers against the counter. “Not me.”
It’s why it took him so long to agree to it in the first place. Chuuya doesn’t need a relationship. Hell, he is not even sure he has enough space in his life for it. Sex is a different matter. He has needs. Of course he does. He’s just not sure they are urgent enough to suffer through any more blind dates.
“It’s not all that bad, you know.” Sigma smiles sheepishly when Chuuya raises his brows. “It’s nice to have someone to come home to.”
Chuuya was more surprised than anyone to find out that Sigma – sweet, timid Sigma – was hiding a boyfriend at home, and not just anyone but some rich, older guy that pampers Sigma day in and day out. None of the Agency members have ever met him but it’s clear that he makes Sigma happy. That besotted beam, whenever he talks about him, hasn’t faded even a bit over six months.
“Go ahead and kick a guy while he’s down, why don’t ya?” he mutters and accepts the paper cup that Tsuneko hands him.
Sigma’s eyes widen. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to –”
“I’m joking. You’re good.” Chuuya elbows him. “Relax.”
“I really didn’t mean to sound like I’m bragging…”
“I know, Sigma, and,” he shrugs despite himself, “you’re not wrong. I’m sure it’s… good. I just don’t have time for that right now.”
“You’re 23 years old, good-looking, and one of the best detectives I’ve ever met, Chuuya. Right now is the best time to put yourself out there!”
Chuuya pinches his lip as he thinks about it. Maybe one more date is doable.
Kawakami Tsunekoka’s face is paler than in the photo, so bloodless that it looks translucent under the probing white glare of the hospital room. The light in her eyes has dimmed too. Even though her posture is prim and straight, chin raised, and her voice tight as she answers their questions, Chuuya feels like he is talking to someone who isn’t really there, her presence only physical.
“And there is nothing peculiar that you remember about the time before the accident? You didn’t do anything unusual, meet any new people, felt like someone was, perhaps, watching you?”
“I told you,” she replies and faintly shakes her head, using a tone that could be either mistaken for apathy or leeching exhaustion. “I just went on about my life as per usual. And then…”
Then she had a bad car accident, required brain surgery, and was put into a medical coma for two weeks.
“Sorry for keeping you up. I’m sure you’re tired.” Chuuya gives her a smile that he hopes looks trustful enough for her not to lie. By his side, Sigma is protocoling the interview. “We just want to make sure we don’t miss anything.”
“Believe me, I’ve gone through the last six months myself but…” Her lips press together and wobble. “I can’t remember anything unusual.”
Talking to her is obviously just one of the first of many other protocols. Right now, the main question is whether her loss of ability is an accident or a deliberate consequence of something or someone else. Yosano has the task of researching traumatic injuries and abilities and getting in contact with the hospital regarding any mistakes that might have happened that could have led to this. Atsushi and Kyouka are talking to her friends, family, and co-workers.
“What about your time here?” Chuuya asks. “Have you noticed any unusual behaviors from any of the hospital staff?”
Considering this is where she lost her ability, the chance that someone working here has something to do with this is possible. Another ability user perhaps. Chuuya has heard rumors of people being able to nullify skills. He has never met anyone like that, let alone who can steal or permanently take abilities, it’s a possibility.
Again, she shakes her head. Draws her knees up to her chest.
“Okay, thank you.” Chuuya meets Sigma’s gaze and gives him a nod.
“This is our number,” Sigma says, stepping forward to stretch out his hand to her with their visiting card in it. “You can reach us at any time.”
When Kawakami takes it, Sigma closes his fingers around her. The moment their skin touches both of them freeze in place, though Sigma is much quicker to recover from the shock of his ability. Kawakami, on the other hand, slumps backward on the bed, unconscious.
“It’s fine,” Chuuya tells him because he’s wearing the guilty expression of someone who has done something bad. Some people might consider it unorthodox to steal people’s information without their consent but in their line of work, it can make or break a case. Too many clients insist on lying despite being the ones to hire them. “It’s a necessary precaution.”
Still, he makes sure Kawakami will be comfortable when she wakes up. And if not… well, they are in a hospital.
“It is,” Sigma murmurs, gripping the bed frame. “She – before her accident, she visited a specific pub several times.” He meets Chuuya’s quizzical eyes. “I think it was Mafia-owned.”
“The Port Mafia?”
A hesitant nod.
Pressing his lips together, Chuuya crosses his arms over his chest. The potential involvement of the Port Mafia is not surprising but it does complicate things. Encounters between their organizations rarely end without guns being drawn. Not to mention that lately, the black-clad fuckers have been even more aggressive than usual. Just this week alone, there have been four separate shootings that all led back to them. Now this. Damn it.
“This case is about to get messy,” he mutters before lifting his frown to Sigma. “Do you know what she was doing there?”
“It looked like she was selling information.” Sigma rubs the back of his head; squints at the ceiling. “About her father.” The diet member. Right. “It didn’t have anything to do with this at first glance but…”
Where there is blood, there is usually the Mafia.
Kawakami’s eyelids flutter. She shifts before she begins to wake up. “What… what was that?”
“That was the truth,” says Chuuya bluntly. “Tell me, Mrs. Kawakami. Why were you selling information about your own father to the Port Mafia?”
Her expression shutters like riven glass. She gulps. Loudly. “I –” Ducking her head, she pushes herself into a sitting position. “It’s not what it looked like. I swear.”
“Then what was it like? Because, to me, it looks like you lied to us even though we specifically asked you to tell us the truth.”
“It’s the Port Mafia,” she hisses. “Not only would you have not understood if I told you, it would have also endangered me! You don’t talk about dealing with them! Ever.”
See, that’s the thing that many people get wrong about the Agency. They are not the police. It’s not their job to rat out their own damn clients for minor offenses. Their job is to help them. That includes protection from organizations like the Port Mafia.
“Let us decide what we understand,” Chuuya shoots back. “So out with it. We already know enough that you might as well tell us the rest.”
“It’s… it’s my father.” Her jaw flexes. “He’s gotten himself into a… mess. With them. I just wanted to help him the same way he always helps me.”
“By selling his information?”
“Information they wanted. About some laws, I don’t know. They wanted it and he wouldn’t give it up no matter what. They would have killed him! Or my mother! Or my siblings! Or…”
Or her.
Chuuya arches his brows. “How’d your father get involved with them?”
Her eyes darken, lowering to her hands. “It was for me,” she whispers under her breath. “Last year, I… I was involved in an accident. Someone died. My father asked them for help to make it go away.” She lets out a grief-stricken breath. “He did it for me.”
“So your father hires the Mafia to erase an accident gone wrong, but when the Mafia asks for information, he does not give it to them. They blackmail him with what they did for him. And you —” Chuuya nods at her “— step in and give them what they asked for. Then what?”
“Nothing. They got what they wanted. That was the end of it… or at least I thought it would be.”
Chuuya’s eyes narrow as he connects the different pieces of her story. “You think they were responsible for your accident.”
Kawakami sniffs. “Who else? I’m a good driver. I had my car looked at just a few weeks before the accident.”
“But you complied,” Sigma points out with a frown.
Chuuya sighs. “The Port Mafia didn’t punish her. They punished her father for disobeying.”
A ‘this is what happens when you refuse us.’
“You’re lucky to be alive,” he tells Kawakami.
“I was in a coma.” Her glare is cold and hard. “I had brain surgery. I lost my ability.”
“And usually, you’d be in the ground by now.”
She tears her gaze away with a wary exhale; scrubs a hand over her face. “Does that mean they’re responsible for my ability too?” she asks when she eventually looks up.
“That’s what we’re going to find out,” Chuuya says.
Although the Port Mafia won’t make it easy.
They ask her more questions, in particular about the places where she met the Mafia, the names that they went by, their appearance, and the information that they were looking for. Afterward, they talk to her surgeons but they don’t have any insightful answers for them. Kawakami was under observation by a team of nurses and no suspicious personnel was seen during the time she spent in a coma.
Armed with at least some valuable information, their work leads them back to the Agency’s office where they report their findings to Kunikida. The Port Mafia gets an exclusive space on their brainstorming whiteboard but they all agree that their involvement is only speculation so far. That means they need evidence. And that means that Chuuya and Sigma get a new job.
“Stop fidgeting,” Chuuya tells Sigma in a low voice as the man tugs at the collar of his shirt for the tenth time in a row. Visible nerves will attract attention. They don’t want that. What they want is to blend in with the masses, keep a low profile and get information.
“I’m sorry,” Sigma whispers, cheeks flushing. His hand unconsciously drifts to his collar again before he remembers and stops himself, clenching his fingers into a tight fist instead. “I’ve just never…”
Since joining the Agency six months ago, he has not worked on a case involving the Port Mafia yet.
“I know. It’s fine.” Chuuya taps the bottle of beer that Sigma ordered half an hour ago when they arrived here. “Drink. It’ll make you relax.”
His own instincts are sharpened and on alert. It’s not his first rodeo with the Mafia which is exactly why he keeps his guard up. They are deep within their territory, surrounded by a sea of black suits, wallets full of blood money, and soulless personalities. Although he doubts that most people here would want to disturb their own night out by causing trouble, he also knows that these people can scent danger when it hangs in the air. You never know.
Keeping his stance casual, Chuuya strains to listen to the ebb and flow of the murmurs around him.
“I swear, I need to sleep for ten days after today.”
“Heh. Good luck with that.”
“Yeah, good luck missing a call from Hideo. The frigid bastard will flay you alive.”
“He’s not that bad.”
“…”
“… compared to others, he’s not that bad.”
“They’re all horrible. We should quit.”
“Yeah, you do that. I won’t be there to help you when he comes for your scrawny ass.”
“He?”
“You don’t know?”
“Know what?”
“He never knows.”
“The demon prodigy.”
“Who?”
“Oh my god, how are you still alive?”
“Excuse me for being too busy to listen to all the gossip. I’m kind of busy working my ass off here.”
“The demon prodigy, dude. He’s one of the five.”
“He’s also the one who comes for you if you have the balls to defect.”
“Only if he finds me.”
“Trust me, he’ll find you.”
“And how do you know? Is he your boyfriend or something?”
“W-what? No, stupid. It’s just common knowledge. He’s crazy smart.”
“I heard he’s actually insane. Just like… you know…”
“Shut up, Makito!”
“Oh, relax. Like someone is listening.”
“You’ll get us all killed.”
“What, you’re that scared of the demon prodigy?”
“No. I just… I’d prefer not to risk it. He gives me the shivers. I saw him once in the elevator. I almost shat myself.”
“Seriously…”
“What? He looks scary.”
“Hot too.”
“Really? He looks like he hasn’t slept in ten years.”
“Exactly. Hot.”
“Pfft.”
As entertaining as it is to listen in on a group of grunts gossiping about their superiors, none of them mention anything related to Kawakami or any ability-stealing business. Chuuya meets Sigma’s gaze and raises his brows in silent question.
He receives a head-shake in reply.
It was a long shot to begin with obviously, but with cases like these, they have to take every chance they get, no matter how small. He has already contacted their Mafia informant anyway. They will get answers eventually.
Chuuya finishes his glass of wine before giving Sigma a nod. “Will you be okay for a minute? I need to use the bathroom.”
“Yes. Go.”
Despite Sigma’s flighty attitude, Chuuya has no doubt that he will be. It’s almost paradoxical how stone-cold an actor he is when push comes to shove, pummeling people out of the way, or arresting the criminal without flinching. The mask only drops later, once he is in private company.
Chuuya’s washing his hands when he notices the guy in the mirror reflection, who was just on the phone, rub a distressed hand over his forehead, coated with a sheen of glistening sweat. He looks horrible enough that Chuuya almost asks whether he is alright. He stops himself before doing something so stupid.
“What is it?” his friend asks, drying off his hands on his pants.
“Um…” He leans closer to murmur something into his ear.
Chuuya is careful not to be too obvious in his attempt to wash his hands for as long as possible.
The friend suddenly jerks away, eyes wide. “What? Right now?”
“Yup.”
“But why?”
“Well –” He whispers something into his ear again.
Chuuya has already spent too much time here, so he pushes away from the sink and brushes past them on the way out, not able to overhear actual words, only another alarmed squeak.
At the table, Sigma is no longer alone. A taller and significantly older man leans over him. Sigma’s expression is a mixture of polite interest and distance. Chuuya recognizes that smile. Sees it every single time they are out, the two of them.
When Sigma spots Chuuya approach them, relief fills his eyes and he nods eagerly at him. “Ah, here he is. My boyfriend. Hey.”
“Hey, babe,” Chuuya plays along and squeezes himself between the two to slide an arm around his fake boyfriend. “Sorry it took so long. And who are you?”
“That’s Junichi. He’s an accountant.”
Stepping back, Junichi eyes Chuuya from top to bottom before tipping his head to the side. “I am. I was just telling your boyfriend how beautiful his eyes are.”
“I know,” Chuuya says. “I look into them all the time.”
“But you have beautiful eyes as well. You both do. By any chance, would you happen to be interested in dinner with me? The two of you.”
Not having anticipated that, Chuuya blinks.
Sigma is the first one to speak. “That’s a really nice offer but we’re exclusive. I’m sorry. It’s nothing, uh, personal.”
He nods. “I understand. Nonetheless, I wish you a pleasant night.”
Chuuya watches the man walk away, then turns to Sigma, still wide-eyed from surprise. They look at each other for a moment before bursting into quiet, soundless laughter.
“Why settle on one person when you can have two, right?” Sigma murmurs eventually.
Chuuya just shakes his head. The grunts around the table next to them whisper frantically among themselves. He only catches a few words this time but they are enough to make his laughter fade. The demon prodigy. Is coming. Here.
“Something’s happening,” he tells Sigma discreetly, still squeezed next to him. “We should probably go.”
Sigma blinks. “Huh, really?”
“Yeah. Look.” Chuuya jerks his chin at the bar where the bartender who has been pouring out drinks at a comfortable pace all night has started to frantically wash glasses, hissing at the waiter to clean the counter faster. In fact, the entire atmosphere in the bar has shifted. Tension hangs in the air like a wire, keeping everyone’s expression tight and their posture stiffer than puppets on a string.
Sigma doesn’t need more than that to understand. Gulping down the last of his beer, he gets up from his chair, following Chuuya.
Their exit attracts more attention than their presence has. Chuuya feels eyes on the back of his head. They make his skin prickle with tension.
“I don’t think we were supposed to leave,” Sigma whispers once the cool night air washes over them.
Chuuya doesn’t look over his shoulder but he knows what he would see if he did. Every single person inside staying exactly where they are as though glued to their seat. Or as though it’s some sort of informal law not to leave in the presence of someone high in the chain. From what he knows about the Port Mafia, it probably is.
“Keep your head low,” Chuuya tells him, partly as a reply and partly as a reaction to the car that stops on the side curb right in front of them. Sleek black. Tinted windows. In typical Mafia fashion.
Sigma grabs his hand and interlaces their fingers. “We’re just a nice couple out for a walk passing the bar. Nothing more.”
Chuuya hums.
His heart begins to pound in his chest. It’s not just nerves though. His skin buzzes – with the need for a fight maybe. With something.
But they pass the vehicle and no one stops them. Chuuya dares a glance over his shoulder when they’re almost at the end of the street. He only sees the door of the car open and the hint of a boot before Sigma tugs him around the corner and out of the demon prodigy’s sight.