A Normal Day At The Agency

 Since she had joined it, life at the agency was never boring, it was almost guaranteed that something interesting would happen every day, and to be fair, Kath was looking forward to it. However, that day was rather… too much, even for her.

Kath's hand ran down her face as she watched a certain man climbing atop the desks and running around like some drunk after a late party with the silver-haired boy running after him. " Atsushi-kun, do I want to know what's happening here?"

" I'm… I'm not sure too…" Atsushi fluttered as he kept running after a blue-faced Dazai. " I just came and found Dazai-san in this state!"

Kath walked over to the brunette's desk. Atop it, she could glimpse a red and white book dubbed The Complete Guide to Suicide and a bitten green mushroom. " It doesn't require a detective to figure out what happened."

With a shrug, the woman proceeded to her desk and settled down, dropping her rucksack by her feet and plugging in her earphones. " Though I told him not to commit suicide in here… Atsushi-kun, he's all yours, deal with him please."

" Even if you say that…"

Kath ignored the fiasco as she opened her laptop and began typing away. The fact that her desk was lined up with stuffed animals of all kinds and colors helped to keep those two out of her sight. She only looked up from her screen when Kunikida arrived.

" Morning, Kunikida-sensei," she greeted as he walked past her and settled by his desk, trying to ignore the elephant in the room known as Dazai.

" Morning, Hanazawa," he looked back at her. " Could I ask you to get some documents for me?"

" Sure. My fox is already sorting the files in the storage room, which one do you need?"

" The one about the Azure King please…" There was a tired air all around him as he spoke, something akin to guilt and regret.

" Coming," said Kath. Atsushi, who was being tied to his chair by Dazai, saw the side door of the office open and an orange stuffed fox walking out of it with a green folder in its paws. The fox stopped by Kunikida, wagging its tail.

" Thanks." The blond man bent down and retrieved the folder.

" What was-" Before he could continue, Atsushi was silenced as Dazai gagged him and then jumped on Kunikida's desk, tugging at his jaws in an attempt to break his focus.

No use. Nothing ever would make Sensei abandon his work, not even a bad fever could. True for that, Kunikida only retaliated once he finished writing, slamming Dazai down on the ground.

" Shut up!"

" How on earth was this man accepted into the agency anyway?" Kath questioned as a pair of scissors flew from her pencil holder and hovered around Atsushi, cutting his ties.

" Thank you, Hanazawa-san," said the boy as he sucked in a deep breath. This time, the staff room door opened, leading in a teddy bear holding a tray of coffee. Atsushi kept watching it as it walked up to him and held the tray up. Once he took his cup, the bear continued towards Kunikida and Kath.

" Um… what… are those things?"

" Hm, they're toys. What else could they be, brat." Kunikia raised an eyebrow at him.

" No, I mean… toys shouldn't be walking around on their own, much less serve tea..." Atsushi pointed, still his eyes fixed upon the brown bear that jumped and joined the pile of stuffed animals.

" Oh, that would be my ability." Kath smiled as she showed him her right hand with the glowing fingernails. The silver threads could be seen wrapped around her fingers, and, upon squinting, Atsushi could see one of them extending towards the teddy bear's neck, almost as if it was coming from inside it. " Those threads allow me to control almost anything. So as you can see, I can have my stuffed animals do errands for me."

" Must be really good to have extra hands. I could use something similar." Kunikida heaved a sigh as he looked at the fallen Dazai. " Especially with such an idiot as my partner."

" I'll be happy to lend you my help any time, Sensei."

" Thanks for the offer, but I can't trouble you. I have to deal with my own problems myself, those are my ideals." Kath gave an awkward smile at that. Her teacher was the same as she ever remember, addicted to work and his own ideals.

Just at that moment, a secretary came in, telling Kunikida that the president needed him about his case for that day. As the man left, Kath looked down at the file he left on the desk, the one she had brought to him. Does it have something to do with his case today? She wondered.

That incident was all too familiar, it was a famous bombing that took hundreds of lives. She could never forget about it. How could she ever, when her teacher was wrapped in the whole mess. The face he made after the bombing happened would be forever engraved in her memory. Why him? If it has something to do with the Azure King, then why him of all people? He had about enough back then… Not that she could get an answer from thin air…

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" I should seriously think about buying a car, seeing how no one in our agency has the luxury of one," Kath noted as she and Rampo entered the train station. It seems the older man got himself wrapped in a case and couldn't find a taxi to the agency so she had to go pick him up seeing how he doesn't know how to board a train.

" That would be a great help," Rampo said leaning his head back on his arms as he waited for her to get their tickets. " Then you got a driving license."

" Back when I was in England, yeah. And since they drive on the left side in England as well, I can drive here easily."

" But you'll have to save for around two years and a half if you want to get a small car."

" Good point." As they made it to the platform, Kath's pace slowed before she halted by the police station there. When Rampo looked back at her, he found her staring at a poster hanging on the wall. It was of a young man with black hair which faded to white at the ends, and grey sharp eyes.

" He finally got himself a wanted poster I see."

" He's causing quite the troubles around," Rampo complained, spinning and walking back to the platform. " Just the other day he ran into Atsushi and ripped his leg. Not to mention almost stabbing Tanizaki to death."

"... How horrible," Kath murmured as she joined him. " Then, the reason Port Mafia is after us is?"

" Ah, it's about Atsushi. Seems there's a bounty of 7 billions on him in the black market and Port Mafia is willing to cross any line to get it." Rampo sighed, rubbing his head. " Tsk, speak of troublesome friends."

Kath glanced back at the poster then." Well, he's a member of the agency now, you can't just kick him out because he has a bounty on his head."

" Guess I can't," Rampo admitted with a sigh just as the train stopped before them and its doors opened to let them in. " However, I don't like putting our agency in danger. If the Armed Detective Agency and Port Mafia were to truly fight each other, it wouldn't end quite well for both of us."

Kath had to agree. Even if one of them emerged victorious from such a fight, they would suffer unmeasurable damage. That's why, they were trying to keep away from each other's affairs for the most time. Even if they had some long history of rivalry or whatever it might have been in the past, both sides acknowledged the other's strength.

But knowing them, 7 billions is quite enough to spur them into action. I wonder who could be the one behind that bounty, and why do they need Atsushi-kun? What are their real intentions?

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" What's the meaning of this!" Kath flung around the newspaper she had picked up that morning at the train station upon entering the office. Atsushi and Kunikida averted their eyes. Kath clucked her tongue and tossed the newspaper on the table. " No matter how you look at it, this was made on purpose."

" This was the enemy's objective in the end." Much to her surprise, Kunikida seemed rather calm about the whole ordeal despite his face making the first page.

" You're saying they were trying to frame the Agency?" Atsushi wondered out loud.

" Maybe it wasn't my time to shine, despite what Dazai said," Kunikida murmured.

Seeing his face, Kath's heart crunched. The sad look he wore, his regrets… Despite what it may look like, Kunikida was the easiest to affect out of their agency. " Kunikida-sensei, it wasn't your fault. The one to blame is the person who had the heart to press a button and gazed them to death." The man looked away, his glasses shadowing his eyes from hers.

He took in a deep breath before looking up at the white-haired boy. " Where's Sasaki-san?"

" She should be in the infirmary," Atsushi answered.

" Very well, I have to ask her a few questions." As he walked around the table, he stood before Kath. With their height difference, the girl had to crane her neck to look up at him. " Can I bother you with the task of looking up those victims? You can work along with Taguchi."

" The agency's informant?" Kath tilted her head. " Very well, you can leave it to me, Sensei."

With that taken care of, Atsushi and Kunikida left for the infirmary while Kath took out her laptop and cracked her fingers. " Well then, time to dig out some people."

It wasn't until later that she was joined by the trio in charge of the case. Upon entering the office, she could see Dazai receiving quite the doubtful looks from both Atsushi and Kunikida, but it seemed neither of them was willing to spill out the reason why. So far, what she could glean from their conversation was that the only victim who survived miraculously was unable to confirm the face of her kidnapper.

Placing back her earphones, Kath focused on the pictures she received from Taguchi and the security camera records of the victims before they had disappeared. Hm, all of the victims... they had just traveled to Yokohama and were staying at hotels. Which means they're not from here. I wonder why? Was there some reason behind going after tourists only? There was no single local who had been kidnapped. Also, all of them are males, except for Sasaki… Which reminds me, Sasaki-san is the only victim who wasn't caught on a security camera before her disappearance…

Knitting her fingers together, Kath leaned on her hands and closed her eyes. Think Katherine, think. There must be some reason behind those actions. It's not a coincidence.

Kath snapped back into reality just as her teacher snatched his diary back from Atsushi. By the look of it, Dazai was playing around with poor Kunikida. " I wish you could just get a little bit serious about this case, Dazai-san. Lives were lost after all."

" That's what I've been telling him since he joined this agency!" Kunikida cried at the man who stole his glasses and was now sporting them. " And that look only screams 'con man' to me."

Glasses… speaking of that, all the victims appeared while wearing ones too. Though their profile pictures… Tourists… males… Glasses… Then something clicked in the back of her mind. " Kunikida-sensei!"

" Seems we have about the same thoughts." Kunikida put on his glasses and walked over to her as she pulled out all the files she had about the victims. " But we still lack the evidence."

" No." Kath looked up at him and pointed to a video. " We have. The culprit had to check in 11 times in different places. He had either to sign or fill out some form each time he went to a hotel. Which means if we check their records…"

" Fingerprints or handwriting tests would be enough." Kunikida pushed up his glasses. " Brat, Dazai. Let's go, both of you."

And so, the trio left. Kath however looked back to her files, her heart feeling unusually heavy… What's this bad feeling I'm having right now… she gazed longly upon the profiles and her eyes widened. " Shoot!"...