Chaotic Stray Dogs

by BlueManul

Summary:

In Bungou Stray Dogs there are countless multiverses, with countless possibilities. In one of those universes, everything was the same as the one you witnessed. Up until one point though. When unknown ability users, a new organisation and an unstable singularity gets involved, things go south much more quickly than the original story. But our cast can handle those.

What they can not handle, are kids. Their kids. And nothing could have prepared them to the chaos that will ensue.

Chapter 1: Intro

Hello my dear readers. Your beloved author (formerly known as Aki on wattpad) Kolya here! Now there is a slight chance that some wattpad readers of you might've seen this story before (named Messy Stray Dogs). Yes, it is the same story, yes I am the same author. The government blocked wattpad and I lost all the access to my stories. I cried.

BUT not to worry! I will not yield! I will not be taken down by such forces! I will rise from my ashes like a phioneix! I will re-write (and actually finish) the fic I had been writing for four years! And the 7ish other stories relating to it...

Anyways, let me warn you that this will be a major re-write. I will fix some of the mistakes I made (especially with character relationships. Sorry for NatsuShizu lovers. The ship is dead.) If you're curious about the differences you can read the original from my wattpad account (@bluemanul) with the same title. You can see my progress if you're curious ;). The plot, characters, their powers, traits ect. are all the same don't worries. Scenes might change, so apologies for that. And no beta read we die like everyone but Akutagawa

Now onto the business. This fic was written way before current manga chapters (I remember writing about BSD chp. 101 on chapter 3 so a long time ago). The fic starts at the first panel of chapter 80. I will explain later on but for the future gang, the events took a drastic change during chapter 112 (BIG SPOILER everyone is alive and well. So here have that). Also Fyodor's ability is to kill upon contact, that new bs in gone out of the window. I fcking hate it. The old one was so charismatic.

NOW THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT
There could be spoilers from any chapters of manga and light novels. So don't blame me if I throw something really big. You've been warned. I WON'T BE PUTTING WARNINGS AT THE START OF THE CHAPTERS. If the the spoiler is from a recent chapter that got out a few days then I might. No promises but I'll try to remember.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: Blood, gore, swearing, Dazai typical suicide jokes, mental illness, torture, experiments, maybe bad jokes (idk how funny my jokes are), possible plot holes, cannibalism, murder, drug abuse, alcohol, underage drinking, mafia stuff. You know your usual BSD content ig. Still I had to write these.

SHIPS: RanPoe, FyoLai, Soukoku, ShinSoukoku, KouSano, FukuMori (they're divorced (they were never married to begin with) and Mori's not a pdfl in this. He's actually asexual. LIKE HE SHOULD BE! Anyways) HiguGin and minor SueGiku. A few OCs are scattered here and there so don't be surprised.

Now I think this is all. I hope you enjoy the story. I wanted to post it in Ao3 A LOT!

Now enjoy~
(They're gay and hot af so I think you will)

Chapter 2: One Could Have Watched "Back To The Future" Instead

Summary:

Time travel, unexpected guests and new enemies. But what they most concerned about is that they are parents? Of course time travel is possible but them having kids? Ranpo is on too much sugar if he think they're telling the truh.

"The number you're thinking of must be... 381,882, right?"

"Correct. And your number... Is it 790,115?"

The convicts Dazai Osamu and Fyodor M. Dostoevsky had too much free time.

"Ah this is no good!" Dazai exclaimed "Number guessing game is too easy!" he sit up straight "Ah, right. Next we can play poker from memory or..."

"Dazai-kun..." Fyodor's voice broke the detective out of his thoughts.

"Hmm?"

"Are you doing something? It is early to break free isn't it?"

"What are you yapping about?" Dazai laughed "Finally crossed the border of insanity?" but Fyodor wasn't listening to him. The Russian was focused on a small flicker on his bed...

Hold on a second...

"Is your bed on fire?" Dazai asked, not panicked but definitely caught off guard. How in the world would Dostoevsky do this?

"I take it this isn't your doing?" the other answered, now on his feet, carefuly examining the fire. This was... weird. Perhaps it was an assassination attempt on Dostoevsky.

That would be entertaining, Dazai thoughy with a smile. But it was odd. The fire was growing with a controlled speed and Dazai could almost smell it...

No that was impossible. The cells were not sound proof but they were far away. He couldn't have possibly smell the fire in...

"Oh shit!" he jumped from his bed to the transparent wall as he saw the growing fire. A small giggle came from his behind. He turned to see Fyodor fully backed away from the bed, cluthing to his books as if to protect them, smirking to his despair. Dazai, ever the serious adult, stuck his tongue out to him.

In a second the fire grew much larger, flames engulfing both cells in a fiery cage. Before the end both demons shared a glance. All these years of planning, calculating, lying, cheating, betraying, manupilating, murdering, winning and losing. A chess game that continued through years. A chase of rat and cat, never knowing who is which, two of the smartest humans in the world who tried to kill each other many times.

And we die to this?

They were disappointed.

As the flames took over their sight they were both ready to die in a humiliating death.

~~~

Fyodor fell onto cold floor. His vision swam for a second. He shut his eyes trying to get rid of the dizziness. He slowly opened them and saw...

Armed Detective Agency..?

He was certainly in an office. He was sure it was the office of the agency. He had investigated it before after all. He checked his surroundings. His books were gone, (Such a shame. It was hard to find ones in his native tongue) and strangely he was in his daily clothes. He felt the familiar weight of his ushanka on his head and sighed. He liked this ushanka. He was glad to have it back.

He tried to sit up but he felt a weight on him and he realised there was someone on top of him. Not just anyone actually...

"Gogol" he didn't want to show the anger in his voice but he couldn't help it. Of course he knew that Nikolai wasn't dead but was after him to kill and he was welcome to try. Fyodor enjoyed those peaceful times where the clown would try many bizarre ways to free himself via ending Fyodor's life. Alas messing with his plans was never on the table. And to add it to it he was literally on him! Fyodor always made it clear that even small touches were unacceptable.

Maybe he's drunk like that time he tried to kiss me...

Fyodor allowed himself to enjoy that memory for a second. Nikolai had really made a fool out of himself that day. But still this was too much. He disliked it. The said man raised his head and Fyodor raised his eyebrows. Unlike the pale blue he was used to a dark blue stared at him.

The owners mouth went open in a silent shock, his eyes grew wide. Before Fyodor could say something however the other made a small "gah" sound (just like Nikolai's actual surprised reaction not the dramatic shrills that once broke his tea cup) and pushed himself off of Fyodor, punching him in the stomach in the process.

Fyodor hissed in pain before slowly getting up and he realised he wasn't alone. He watched as Yosano Akiko and Kunikida Doppo of the Agency get up on their feet. Something bad and confusing was going on. Fyodor decided to observe what was happening. If he ended up in Agency with all of its members... well then he would be in trouble. Though his eyes caught different people as well. Nakahara Chuuya, Ozaki Koyo and Mori Ogai slowly got up and made way to each other. To regroup with rest of the members of Port Mafia.

Чёрт

Fine. He could handle this. He got out of much trickier situations. The fact that the others seemed very confused was good news. So whatever was going on, no one here did it. In the long run that was a problem but for now it was good. Now all he needed to do was to learn everything he could and get out of here without attracting too much attention on himself. It was doable.

"DOS-KUN!"

Until now.

Nikolai hit him in a second, hugging him like there was no tomorrow. Fyodor felt hard to breathe. The clown was 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘯𝘨.

"Guess who's back to the land of the living! C'mon admit it you missed me!" and in a second, before Fyodor could even think of using his ability, Nikolai let him go. Maybe the jester did know him more than he thought. Not that he would let anyone learn this of course.

"No I haven't" Fyodor said matter of factly. He already knew Gogol would be back. A week wasn't long. The man in question pouted like a child. He stared at him with indifference and returned his attention to others. And made eye contact with him.

With a force stronger than Nikolai, Fyodor realised there were two of them. There were two Nikolai's.

𝘐𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘰𝘳 𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘯?

Fyodor ignored his own thoughts and focused on the boy. Now that he realised this was indeed a boy. He looked much younger and shorter. He seemed calmer, observing them with curiosity. The more Fyodor looked the more he was sure this was not Nikolai, even if they looked so similar especially their faces. But this boy's visible eye was indigo blue instead of Nikolai's pale one. Their hair styles were almost the same but unlike Nikolai, his was short. No braid visible. Fyodor also noticed that unlike the initial thought the boy did not have white hair but a very pale purple.

Despite pyshical similarities both of them were very different. While Nikolai had a gigantic smile and zero care for the situation, this boy observed. He observed the environment, the people and most importantly him. His eyes constantly found him and Nikolai back and he didn't seem to hide that he was watching them. He did kind of stood right next to them. Unlike Nikolai he did not burst with energy. He stood very still, playing with the hem of his shirt. His attire was very different as well.

Nikolai dressed to impress. To attract attention. This boy dressed to blend in, to not attract attention. This was a very interesting situation. Fyodor had a bad feeling. Whatever this was it was going to be a very confusing and tiresome event.

~~~

Чёрт

Fadeyka thought as he stared at THE Fyodor Dostoevsky. He quickly got up to his feet, accidently hurting him in the process. Oh well. He looked around to find himself in the familiar office of the Agency. He sighed. It had been months since he saw the place not in ruins. He looked around to see familiar faces.

Lady Yosano and Kunikida were first to be up. Then slowly all Agency members got up on their feet. He watched Port Mafia members got up as well. From the corner of his eye he saw Sisha and smiled. Then he turned his attention to the duo next to him. Nikolai was pouting and- Oh. He's looking at me.

Fadeyka was used to the deep purple eyes starring at him, trying to get a read. And he knew what he should do to not give away anything. Still the coldness of them was unnerving. He tried not to focus on that. His papa wouldn't approve such distractions. He decided to focus on his and Nikolai's dynamic. He was rather curious about their relationship.

"We fucked up didn't we?" he heard from behind. He turned to see Takashi observing the room. They looked tired. Done with it. Fadeyka couldn't relate. To him, the show had just begun. He still smiled to the kid, to ease their worries a bit. He wrapped an arm around their shoulder and pulled them to a corner.

<𝘱>𝘐𝘵 𝘸𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭 𝘸𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵.𝘱>

Fyodor's eyes were still on him so he looked at him and winked. Though with the square bandage on his he wasn't sure how well it worked. On the middle of the room Agency and Mafia members were seeing each other, trying to figure something out. Fadeyka shushed Takashi just in case and tuned into the conversation. Atsushi had just finished talking about how relieved he was about seeing all the members together again.

"So? What the fuck was all that?" Chuuya asked to no one in particular. "I thought you bastards were done with that fucking book!" he spoke to the direction of Decay of Angels. Now that Fadeyka looked at it everyone was huddled in a group of their respective organisations.

"Ah Chibi I doubt this was caused by them" Dazai interrupted. "Dostoevsky seemed very concerned with the fire back there" he smiled mockingly to his way. Fyodor glared.

"I think it has something to do with them. But given that you cannot even observe the people in the room I doubt you would have noticed it" he smirked. Dazai furrowed his brows in question and all Fyodor did was to tilt his head towards them.

𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘸𝘦 𝘨𝘰.

Takashi grabbed Fadeyka's cape with worry. He gave them a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder. He then gave the room his most charming showman smile and waved his fingers.

All the room froze. Fadeyka saw Akutagawa's horrified expression once he saw Takashi. Atsushi also had a similar face. Meanwhile Ranpo seemed to be thinking. Fadeyka realised he was closest to understand what was going on.

𝘎𝘰𝘰𝘥 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘶𝘴 𝘪𝘧 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘵.

Fadeyka didn't know what he was expecting once everyone got over their initial shock but it wasn't certainly Sisha saying "Gogol you have a secret love child!?"

Everyone turned to the casino manager with a raised brow and judging stare. The idea was so ridiculous that even Fadeyka couldn't laugh at it. Fumiya did though. It first started with giggles then to a full on laugh. By the time everyone turned towards him (he appearantly hid himself to the couch on the break area) and Chuuya mumbled a "what the fuck" he was cackling like a maniac.

"Dear lord Sigma-san!" he wheezed "I love how you think!" he countinued to laugh.

"I don't get what's so funny." Takashi said, confused.

"Nothing. That's why he worries everyone" Fadeyka smirked.

Someone cleared his throat. Fadeyka instictively turned to the voice. The captain stood by the door of President Fukuzawa's office watching the room with an unamused glance. Fumiya heard it too and did his best to stop laughing. Then jumped to his feet in a second. Fadeyka too let go of Takashi and fixed his posture. Captain nodded to them before turning his attention to the group.

Out of everyone he must've looked the most surprising. Of course Fadeyka himself looked a lot like Nikolai. Same could've been said about Fumiya. With his curly dark brown hair and amber eyes, he looked a lot like Dazai. Takashi too, with their attire and hair which was black and white looked similar to Akutagawa. But the captain...

With his dark hair and bright purple eyes, he looked exactly like Mori Ogai. Alas his posture, his unemotional face, the way he clasped his hand in the sleeves of his black kimono... Fadeyka giggled when Fukuzawa unclasped his hands from the sleeves of his kimono, clearly uncomfortable the way they stood was exactly the same. The captain bowed slightly.

"Apologies for my underlings. We did not wanted to give you any inconvenience. This is all the result of an unstable ability singularity." he glared at Fumiya for a second.

𝘖𝘧 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘮.

Fadeyka felt unease. If Fumiya caused this then the real mastermind would be her... Great. This was going to be tiresome. The captain continued.

"I'm sure you are all very confused to be here. Separated from the foolish war someone" and this time he glanced at Angels "decided to make. Do not worry we will figure this out in no time and send you back to your designated time."

"So what you're saying is that you're from the future?" Doctor Mori spoke, eyeing the captain. He nodded.

"My name is Fukuzawa Daishiro. I am the team captain and second highest authority in Stray Dogs. An underground organisation dedicated to protect Yokohama."

They all stared at him.

"Umm Ranpo-san" Fumiya broke the silence "It's your turn to tell them he's not lying"

Said man in question had jumped into his desk chair the second they got there. His mouth was open ready to take another bite of the chocolate donut he was eating.

"What did you just say your name was?" Ranpo asked towards the captain.

"Fukuzawa Daishiro" he said without a beat. Ranpo dropped the donut.

"Well this is very interesting." Ranpo jumped up from his seat and put on his glasses, which it seemed magically appeared out of nowhere.

"He is telling the truth. They are from future." he walked closer to the group and examined all of them closely.

"And they're your kids!" he announced turning to Nikolai, Dazai, Akutagawa and Mori.

"Sure we are!" Fadeyka announced. Chuuya opened his mouth, probably to swear but someone else beat him to it.

"What the actual fuck!?" Tachihara Michizo exclaimed voicing everyones thoughts.

"I second that" Lady Yosano said.

"Well well I must say I thought I was being careful in bed." Dazai said with a smug grin "Oh well. With having so many ladies I must have gotten careless at one point"

A wave of disgust went through the Agency office.

"I did not need to hear that" Fumiya groaned, burrying his face in his hands.

"Thank you Dazai-san, for ruining my childhood innocence once more" Takashi sighed.

"Why? What did he say?" Kenji innocently asked "Oh Dazai-san! Did you hurt yourself in bed last night? Are the ladies in prison giving you bad mattreses?"

"... Yeah, that's it" Dazai quietly said. And kept his mouth shut after that.

"I would like to explain how and why we are here. But maybe a smaller group would be preffered?" Daishiro completely ignored Dazai.

"Well" Doctor Mori began "We as organisation leaders can talk in private." he looked at both Fukuzawa and Fyodor. They nodded. "I'm sure Fukuzawa-dono would be happy to lend his meeting room for us."

Director Fukuzawa's face was indifferent "Of course. But I would like some of my members joining me."

"You're the president here, father." Daishiro answered with the same face. Fukuzawa got tense.

"Kunikida, Ranpo, Dazai, follow me." he said with a stern voice as he opened the door to the meeting room.

"Koyo-kun" Doctor Mori said as he went inside. Meanwhile Fyodor grabbed Nikolai's braid and harshly pulled it.

"Behave!" he simply said and went into the room.

And thus begins your challenge captain...

"Umm what should we do?" Fadeyka asked. Were they suppossed to just wait? How boring! Daishiro didn't even looked at him when he said,

"Behave."

And went inside the room

 

~~~

The introductions were... interesting. But in the end they didn't die. Akutagawa had a hard time believing Takashi was his child though. Meanwhile Nikolai was pretty thrilled to have a "mini version of himself". Fumiya glanced around the room. On one side all Agency members -Atsushi, Yosano-san, Tanizaki, Kenji, Kyouka and Naomi-

On one side Port Mafia -Akutagawa-san, Hirotsu-san, Gin-san, Higuchi-san, Tachihara and his own father Chuuya- on one side Nikolai and Sigma... Additionally Poe-san and Lucy-san were in the room, standing awkwardly next to the Agency members.

"So! Who wants to start?" Fadeyka enthusiastically asked. It was Tachihara who bit it.

"Start what?"

"The guessing of course! Come on Tachihara it cannot be that hard! Who's children are we?!" he smiled and grabbed both Fumiya and Takashi by their waist bringing them into an awkward group hug.

"Are you joking? You already said you were the son of that weirdo over there!" Tachihara pointed at Nikolai.

"Sure but who's my other father?" Fadeyka smirked

"Easy there Deyka" Fumiya warned him "We don't want to give too much information"

Fadeyka frowned "Won't they forget eventually?"

"Yes but what if they can't work together? If we ended up in the middle of their fight we wouldn't want them to have anything against us"

"Hold on" Atsushi interrupted "Working together?"

The kids shared a glance

"You see the enemies we're dealing in the future are... really strong. So if we want to win, we need you to work together. As Armed Detective Agency, Port Mafia and Decay of Angels"

Well Fumiya did not know if they could work together or not but they sure could scream something along the lines of "No [enter various swear words] way!" and "I'd rather die" as a nice group.

"Easy there!" Fadeyka exclaimed "We have enough headaches as it is"

Eventually Yosano-san managed to calm them down

"Given the threat you have worked together before" Takashi said. "At least Agency and Mafia did. And now with the bigger threat you are doing it again. In the future"

"That sounds a bit far-fetched" Chuuya grumbled

"Whatever you say father" Fumiya sighed. He felt Fadeyka and Takashi freeze next to him. Actually, everyone in the room froze. Fumiya couldn't understand why until Chuuya spoke again. With a very dangerous voice.

"What did you just call me?"

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭... 𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘵.

Notes:

~~~~~~~~~
Translation:
Russian,
Чёрт: Crap
~~~~~~~~~
Fumiya 000000.1 second after saying they shouldn't give too much information: Oh hey Nakahara Chuuya, you're my father. This means you're married to my dad, who is Dazai Osamu by the way. Anyways I'm pretty sure that info won't cause you to lose your mind.
~~~~~~~~~~
Hello my dear readers! Welcome~
As I mentioned in the intro this is a remake of an old fic so any old readers welcome back! I hope this time I can finish this fic. Only time will tell. Well, I hope you enjoy this new remake and please don't compare it to the old one. It will be very different. This is it for now. Byee

Chapter 3: Yokohama's Stray Dogs

Summary:

Warning: Info dumb. Cuz it's been 23 years and a lot of things went down.

An old book, Alice Through the Looking-Glass touches the subject of impossible. The White Queen mentions that she believed in six impossible things before breakfast. The young man standing in front of the meeting table had read that book once or twice when he was child. He didn't like it that much, that world was utterly confusing. He was one to enjoy history books.

But right now being in the room with the leaders of three organisation that fought each other in such big war, he was reminded of that character. Given this meeting was impossible and he had not eaten breakfast yet, he supposed he did believe one impossible thing before breakfast.

Maybe the second one would be that the group he left behind and the rest of his team would steer clear of causing trouble. Though even the craziest hatters would have hard time believing that. After everyone sat down, he took a deep breath.

"Thank you again, for listening. Now shall we start?"

𝘍𝘶𝘬𝘶𝘻𝘢𝘸𝘢 𝘋𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘰: 𝘛𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘊𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘯

𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘎𝘪𝘳𝘭

"Now, first of all I'll explain who we are and what we do. During Decay of Angels' plan of world domination an organisation took this as a chance to launch an attack. They are known as The Ring. Stupid name I know. With most of the strong organisations busy, they targeted Japan, England, America and Russia. You will notice that these countries are housing big scale organisations.

Japan has multiple strong ability groups such as Hunting Dogs or you two" he pointed at Mori and Fukuzawa. They both nodded. "Despite our large groups, due to almost all of them involving in Commander Fukuchi's plot, Japan or more accurately Yokohama suffered a great loss."

"I do not know the inner politics of the rest of those countries but I know Francis Fitzgerald and Dame Christie was affected. While their damage was small, excluding one big insident in Los Angeles book fair..." he faltered.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘧𝘢𝘶𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩...

Daishiro continued "They both survived with small losses. Meanwhile, you" here he turned to Fyodor "suffered a great deal." said man furrowed his brows.

"Fyodor-san, again I don't know much but from what I've heard during years, yours is the strongest organisation in Russia. Is it correct?"

"Well my organisation is quite big. I control almost all ability users from St. Petersburg to the capital. Alas Russia is a large country. Even I don't know all organisations towards east. I suppose we could say I have strongest organisation in European Russia." Fyodor explained.

"Well back then when the attack happened you thought it was targeting the organisations I counted. The Ring has one clear purpose. Can you guess it?"

No one in the room thought even for a second.

"The book" they all said with a tired sigh.

"Someone should destroy that thing" Kunikida spoke "Its mere existence is causing trouble. And how do we even know it's in Yokohama!?"

"We have our sources" Fyodor smiled.

"Well their attempts to get the book was much stronger anyone could have ever imagined. Their purpose? The Ring believes humans are nothing but animals. Well we are, but one thing that sets us apart is the ability to think."

"So they'll use the book to remove that? That sounds..." Ranpo thought what to say.

"Animalistic?" Dazai smiled. If looks could kill Kunikida would've been a murderer. Daishiro opted to ignore the joke.

"Since it is... an ambitious goal, they need the whole book instead of a page. They can't do a situation to remove our intelligence after all."

"That gives you a quite advantage." his father said. "Yokohama is your home turf. If you defend it well, you'll win."

"That's exactly what we're trying to do. Ring has many members hiding in the government. We're trying to defend the city from both inside and outside-"

"Let me guess." Koyo interrupted "It was hard for Agency or Mafia to handle it alone. So we joined forces."

Daishiro smirked. "Perceptive as always Koyo-san. You're right. While Port Mafia and Agency joined forces to protect Yokohama, Guild, Decay of Angels and even the Order of the Clock Tower made a temporary truce to protect their countries. Fyodor-san came to Japan for personal reasons three years ago. When he did, we joined forces with him as well."

"Well that's... unexpected." Fukuzawa voiced, no one said anything else.

"So, what is your involvement in this?" Ranpo asked munching on jelly beans. Daishiro never figured where he hid his sweet stash but appearantly he had access to it even now.

"We, Stray Dogs, are a shadow organisation. Founded by Natsume-sensei and our leader five years ago. We have two jobs. One of them is to protect Yokohama in case the government, Agency and all their allies fail. To be honest this is our first mission ever. We always thought our parents failing to be... impossible." Daishiro took a deep breath "It seems it wasn't. Our other and more important job is to protect the peace within your alliance."

Everyone looked at him to continue but Ranpo took over.

"I see. Since you are children of both organisations you prevent a civil war. Similar to old royalty. They would marry each other to avoid wars."

Daishiro nodded "That's the simple way to put-"

Suddenly there was a big crashing sound.

"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?" an angry scream.

"I'M SORRY I DIDN'T CHOOSE MY PARENTS!" and a panicked shrill.

Daishiro and Koyo simultaniously sighed.

"I'll handle it" the elder executive said and rose from her chair. Of course curiousity kills the cat and almost everyone went to the to see what was happening. Answer was: Nakahara Chuuya.

He was held down by half of the people and the other half tried to take a chair away from his hands. Meanwhile Fumiya was hugging a terrified Sigma, and another chair was lying behind them, probably was thrown by the gravity user. Daishiro went out next to Koyo and made eye contact with a really amused underling of his.

𝘍𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘺𝘬𝘢 𝘍. 𝘎𝘰𝘨𝘰𝘭: 𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘧

𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘪𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘔𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘢𝘯

He was sitting next to his dad, both Gogol's enjoying a bowl of popcorn. God knows where that came from. He sent Fadeyka a questioning look but the younger only shrugged.

"Chuuya! What is going on?" Koyo called out with an unimpressed look. This seemed to work on the man as he stopped wrestling over the chair and simply let Kenji take it.

"That brat!" Chuuya pointed at Fumiya "Is telling stupid lies! Also get the fuck off of me!" he saved himself from everyone that has been trying to hold him down.

"Still, agression and violence is not a smart decision, especially right now." Koyo glared.

"And also I wasn't lying!" Fumiya piped from behind Sigma.

"Fumiya, be quiet" Daishiro ordered. He didn't know how to handle him if Chuuya got angry again. Said boy pouted.

"Ah ahh is little chibi can't be left alone without causing a scene?" Dazai poked his out so obvious that he wanted to annoy the other man.

𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦.

And just like Daishiro thought Chuuya simply tsked and turned his head.

"I need some strong vine" he sighed. Dazai frowned clearly upset over the lack of interraction. Was he really that desparate for his attention? Dazai was truly pathetic in the past it seemed.

Yosano seemed to took pity on the man and his current predicament. She rose from her seat with a smile "I have some in my locker. I suppose I can lent you a glass."

Chuuya's desperation for wine was bigger than Dazai's desperation for him. The executive didn't even question and just followed the doctor with a nod of his head.

"I liked her. She's elegant" Koyo smiled, eyes trailing behind Yosano. Fumiya and Fadeyka shared a knowing glance.

"What got him so worked up that much?" Kunikida asked. Fumiya smirked.

"Let's say he has very complicated feelings"

"You're lucky Chuuya-san did not use his ability" Akutagawa broke his long silence, glaring at the boy "Or you would be dead"

Fumiya's smirk turned into a grin "Trust me, he couldn't have use it even if he wanted. Honestly, Akutagawa-san just what do you think my ability does?" he teased.

𝘋𝘢𝘻𝘢𝘪 𝘍𝘶𝘮𝘪𝘺𝘢: 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘴𝘵

𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘕𝘰 𝘙𝘰𝘰𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘺

Fumiya tapped his foot, getting the attention to the ground where the tiles had turned colourless. Everyone looked down to inspect it. The ability had caused every area up umtil their ankles to look black and white. Daishiro could see the confused looks on their faces.

Kunikida frowned. "You are an ability user? Is this the effect?"

"Daishiro-san. Hate to tell you how to do your job but what exactly are you talking about in there? We're all ability users you know!" Fumiya sent him an unamused look.

"I was getting to it. Until you caused a scene and rudely interrupted our meeting" Daishiro send his own look at him. He liked Fumiya, he really did but sometimes the boy was too annoying. He could understand why his sister always yelled at him. Fumiya smiled sheepishly.

"It won't happen again."

"Good. Behave all of you." Daishiro took a calming breath. "Now, I think I should mention the abilities and our parents."

"Gogol, send some popcorn over here!" Ranpo called out, his gaze wandering over to each kid. It was obvious he already knew about their families. "This is going to be very entertaining."

Nikolai seemed a bit surprised to be called in such a friendly manner, by an Agency member no less but he gave a cheshire grin and send yet another bowl to the detective using his ability.

"Why do I feel like you kids are going to be nothing but trouble?" Koyo asked. Daishiro smiled sympathetically

"Trust me Koyo-san. We four are the least problematic ones." he turned to enter the room "You have three years of peace before I, the eldest is born. Then for the next twenty years we're going to be in your life." he smiled to himself as he closed the door, thinking about the dread everyone must have been feeling. These people were no parent material. Daishiro doubted they even wanted kids. He was still surprised that they ended up as decent parents despite everything.

Don't worry. You did not raise us for nothing. No matter what, we will save you.

He took his place in front of the table again. "Shall we resume the meeting then?"

 

~~~

𝘈𝘬𝘶𝘵𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘸𝘢 𝘛𝘢𝘬𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪: 𝘚𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘵

𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘶𝘵𝘶𝘮𝘯 𝘞𝘪𝘯𝘥

Takashi was by no means a lazy person. They would do every order they were given, no matter what. But now they were trapped in 23 years in the past, with Fumiya and Fadeyka and without no one to hold them from absolutely going nuts.

They loved them. Being older brothers, both were protective and responsible. You felt safe with them. But sometimes, they needed some stress relief. Though angering the most strongest ability user in the city was a bad idea. Like, Fumiya how in the world you could be so dense? And Fadeyka, why in the world would you challenge everyone to play poker with you THEN CHEAT!?

Now Tachihara was in the verge of murder with their father, second strongest ability user in the GODDAMN PORT MAFIA, backing him up. Their dad, Atsushi, beating him had really angered the black haired man. So now, with the captain being busy, Fumiya in the middle of explaining Gods know what to Tanizaki, Poe and Kyoka, haven't even noticed that his best friend is about to be murdered. Takashi had to stop Tachihara and Akutagawa! Nikolai hyping the duo up wasn't helping either!

It was safe to say Takashi was tired of this mission already.

"Father, please calm down! Losing is a very normal event!" they tried again.

"Stop calling me that! Jinko and that boy cheated!"

"Why do you drag me into this!?"

"You cheated Jinko and you know it!"

"Stop fighting- Tachihara-san I see you! Back off!"

"This brat cheated! There's no way he could've won five times in a row!" Tachihara yelled readying his gun.

"Maybe you suck at this? Don't be a sore loser Michizo!" Fadeyka retorded.

"Why you-"

"Aunty a little help here please!" Takashi begged, looking at Gin. Assassin seemed confused, but then she glanced at Akutagawa, who was still arguing with Atsushi, and seemed to realise if Takashi was Akutagawa's child then she was their aunt. She took pity on the poor kid and signalled Higuchi.

Now that Tachihara problem was over (thank their aunts) Takashi now turned to a worser problem. Atsushi and Akutagawa were still screaming at each other, attracting everyone's attention. Even Chuuya and Yosano (who had gone to taste some of her wine) poked their heads from the door. Takashi noticed Fumiya watching them with great attention, and the floor beneath them was completely grey.

𝘈𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘪𝘳 𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴...

Though even with Fumiya they could still cause problems. Takashi had to act fast but before they could even interfere Tachihara tapped their shoulder.

"No you can't kill Fadeyka!" Takashi snapped.

"No not that. Umm..." Tachihara seemed nervous. He pointed to the corner of the room, and next to the window, there was a girl. She seemed relaxed, even enjoying herself. Her presence was well hidden, watching the scene unfold without anyone noticing her. She had shoulder-length brown hair and dark eyes. She wore a simple black polo shirt and red-green flannel skirt. She smiled happily when they made eye contact. Takashi was never so happy to see someone before.

"I was wondering when you'd notice me. Quite the chaos you have here!"

𝘏𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘌. 𝘈𝘥ı𝘷𝘢𝘳: 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘋𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘰𝘯

𝘈𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘚𝘮𝘺𝘳𝘯𝘢

"Halide! You found us!"

"Of course. It's my job." she smiled. "You guys definitely love to get into trouble."

"You're right..." Takashi sighed.

"No worries. At least I found you. After overtime by the way!" she yelled suddenly, getting everyone's attention "Just because you don't go to school doesn't mean no one else does! Do you know how many work I have? My exams are near you know! I don't get paid enough for this!" she sighed and plopped down to something that appeared out of thin air.

"Hate to break it to you Hali, but we don't get paid at all." Fadeyka came next to Takashi.

"I know! That's the point!" the girl glared.

"Who got you in a bad mood?" Fumiya asked.

"You idiots, who else!?" she exploded. Then mumbled an apology.

𝘞𝘦𝘭𝘭, 𝘢𝘵 𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘰𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯.

"I spent all day at school to find you. It was exhausting. Not to mention I was so worried."

"We're sorry. We didn't mean to time travel, it kind of happened." Fumiya apologised.

"How did you time travel anyways?" Yosano asked coming back into the room with a better looking Chuuya. The magic of alcohol.

"It's a bit complicated." Takashi started "Years ago a group of ability users fought and killed each other. But their abilities caused a singularity. Which are in the shape of charcoals. When you throw them in fire they send you back in time... But it's a bit confusing."

Understanding the logic of Charcoal Singularity was tricky. Takashi had never time traveled before anyways. Almost none of them did.

"It's full of unknown after all." Fumiya, the "expert" started "But the ongoing theory is that the amount of charcoal you burn determines how much past you go. Also, strangely you're more likely to stumble into big historical events or places."

"Like France 1793?" Fadeyka deadpanned.

"Or Egypt 1st century?" Takashi raised an eyebrow.

"Or Türkiye 1919?" Halide offered.

"THE POINT IS... that time travel is tricky. In order to return home we need to find diamond shards that the charcoal turned into. There's also weight of the timeline but I am not going to get into 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵."

"Well until you find those, you're stuck here. Might as well deal with The Ring." Halide offered, picking up her cat. The animal protested against her cuddling.

"Where did that come from?" Atsushi questioned, looking around.

"Oh right. I'm not actually here." the girl replied "My ability allows me to project myself into different places and dates. I'm currently in my room, in 2035. This is simply a hologram."

"That's... wow."

"Yeah, I know every secret of history and place. Let me tell you Area 55 is just plain boring. But the Eiffel Tower? That's just... damn. And don't get me started on Jack the Ripper! If you ever fall into 1880s in your time travels DON'T mess with her. If I were really there, I'd be dead."

"Halide really knows a lot- Wait 𝘩𝘦𝘳!?" Fadeyka stared at her. The girl just shrugged.

"Your ability is certainly amazing. It could help in a lot of situations." Yosano praised. Halide grinned.

"I know right! It's a bit hard to find out people since I need to determine the place, year, month, day, even the hour. But I did it under ten hours today!" she had the proudest grin on her face "That's why I'm the leader of the Communications Division."

"You are the only member of that division." Fumiya remarked.

"Anyways." Halide ignored the mafiosi "I'll just notify the others that you're here. For all I know you're lucky to be here. The Ring is giving a hard time for the Agency and co. For now re-grouping would be-" she abrubtly stopped. Then there was inaudiable talking coming from a different room.

"Odamdayım, geliyorum!" Halide screamed "My mom is back home! See ya!" and she dissappeared.

"Her family doesn't know that she's a Stray Dog" Takashi answered to their unasked questions.

"I'm surprised your parents allow you kids." Yosano said.

All kids shared a glance.

"They haven't got any idea, do they?" the doctor sighed. Fumiya answered with finger guns. But before anyone else could speak about Halide's abrupt visit a scream came inside the meeting room. Everyone shared a glance.

"There is no way!" Dazai's voice continued, followed by Ranpo's loud cackles. A few mumbled voices contiued before Fyodor, based on the Russian accent, let out a stunned yet loud "what" and followed by more laughs from Ranpo. Fadeyka and Fumiya shared a glance.

"Are they-?"

"Yes they are"

Takashi sighed at their expressions. Whatever was going on, they planned something chaotic for it. Fumiya quickly got up and went to the kitchen, only to return with two cups of water.

"Oh Atsushi, Akutagawa-san! You two must be very thirsty because of your fight earlier. Here have a drink."

The soukoku duo looked confused. But nevertheless they thought these kids wouldn't be stupid enough to try something here, like spiking the drink. Oh how mistaken they were about the objective. Just like Fumiya and Fadeyka, Takashi also figured what they were talking about inside. Their parents. And oh boy this was not going to end well. As both men took a sip, Dazai yelled again.

"Atsushi-kun and Akutagawa-kun are together!? As a couple!?"

Akutagawa choked on his water. Atsushi spit it out. Fadeyka and Fumiya fell down because of laughing.

"Real mature you two. Real mature." Takashi rolled their eyes, getting the water from their fathers while their Aunt Gin gently patted Akutagawa's back.

"WE FUCKING WHAT!?" Akutagawa screamed once he stopped caughing. He marched to the meeting room and finally putting an end to it. All occupants got out. Ranpo looked like he had the time of his life, he handed an empty bowl of popcorn to Nikolai. Mori and Fukuzawa walked out, avoiding eye contact with everyone, including each other. Kunikida was noting something on his notebook.

Koyo and Daishiro seemed very unaffected, only reaction from Koyo was that she glanced at Yosano for a second before smiling mysteriously. Said woman just raised her eyebrows. Dazai and Fyodor however had very pale faces, which was saying something considering Fyodor's usual complexion.

Fyodor simply headed for the door not saying anything at all but before he made it Fadeyka cleared his throat and said something in Russian. Takashi was certain that both Nikolai and Dazai spoke Russian very well but it seems they both didn't understand what the boy said. Meanwhile Fyodor turned to him, his face having the most angry expression Takashi has seen ever since he Tokyo Disaster.

"Следи за своим ртом!" and he made extra care to slam the door as he left.

"You two really need to stop angering your parents." Takashi sighed to stare at the chaotic duo. They just smiled. At the word "parents" Dazai and Chuuya made a brief eye contact, they both turned around and tried hide their reddening cheeks.

"Parents?" Nikolai mumbled eyes darted from Fadeyka to the door. Said boy grinned at him as Nikolai seemed to finally understand the situation. But unlike Fyodor he let out a laugh.

"Oh my! Looks like I failed to kill my best friend! I'm a little upset to lose our friendship though."

"Don't worry you still call... whatever you have friendship" Fadeyka reassured. Nikolai copied the younger boys grin.

"Well considering you let Fedya get out that easily, I will assume we work together?" Nikolai asked. Mori and Fukuzawa nodded.

"The enemy is strong, there is no doubt about it." Fukuzawa said.

"And while you could handle them, given how weak they were during this time, the moment we leave this timeline you will forget about us. That way the future will not face any changes due to us coming here." Daishiro explained.

"So we're stuck with them, they're stuck with us!" Ranpo added from his place. Fadeyka giggled and wrapped an arm around Sigma.

"It will be our pleasure doing business with you!" he exclaimed.

Now Takashi was no master at cold reading but in that moment they knew all everyone thought about in the Agency office was the same.

𝘛𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘣𝘦 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘥𝘪𝘴𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳.

Notes:

Translation:
Russian,
Следи за своим ртом: Watch your mouth
~~~~~~
I know the organisation and its objective is plain but I wrote this when I was 14 and I'm trying to stick with the original content. Anyways I think the updates will be once every teo weeks. Well good day/night
~~~~~~
Also help why does my italic writing goes away when I copy & paste it here 😭😭😭

Chapter 4: I

Summary:

DAISHIRO, FADEYKA, FUMIYA, TAKASHI, HALIDE

These are chapters regarding character information. I know how hard it be to remember everyone when there are so many original characters introduced, so I made these interlude chapters so that if you readers feel confused about a character you can easily find information here. I am not good with descriptions so bear with me. (Kolya stop using "so" this much challenge). 

As for the years I think current BSD story takes place in 2012 so everything is based on that. Children are from 23 years in the future so they come from 2035. They're Gen alpha :'(

Also I made aesthetics for every character but I don't know how to upload pictures on Ao3 yet so I'll edit this once I figure it out. I have to post this since you guys need information. If you have any questions my instagram is @ daily.fyolai

I FIGURED OUT THE AESTHETIC PROBLEM. I made a pinterest board and I'll put the links. You can press on top of the link and it should work (don't tap though, press. My dumb ass was tapping to open links this whole time)

Name: Fukuzawa Daishiro 

Family: Fukuzawa Y., Mori O., Elise (younger sister) 

Ability: The Dancing Girl. Allows him to summon Elise at will but given she is originally Mori's, Daishiro cannot summon her when Mori already did, cannot alter her personality or her appearance. But when Daishiro is around, people Elise sees as family can control their abilities. 

Personality: Daishiro always has a serious expression on and doesn't show his emotions much. He can maintain his cool even in the hardest situations. He cares a lot about his team and is willing to do anything if something were to happen to them. Daishiro also knows how much people tend to fear him due to his parents' reputation and this brings a sense odd satisfaction and pride to him. Despite this he still feels pressure when it comes to expectations of his family

Appearance: He has black hair cut in a wolfcut and dark violet eyes. He wears a simple black kimono with hakama pants and wraps a red scarf around his neck. He wears short boots. He carries a katana sword. 

Age: 20

Height: 180cm

Likes: Cats, macha sweets, Elise

Dislikes: Olives, bright neon signs

Birthday: 15 June 2015

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

MBTI: ISTJ, Logistician

Link: https://pin.it/5neHcV2JQ

~~~

Name: Fadeyka Feodorovich Gogol

Family: F. Dostoevsky, N. Gogol, A. Dostoevsky (younger brother ☦︎), A. Dostoevskaya (younger sister) 

Ability: Diary of a Madman. Allows him to use his coat as a portal capable of teleporting. He can teleport to anywhere within 30m radius and to any kind of diary that has a date including year, month &amp; day of the week. 

Personality: Fadeyka, much like his parents, is great at hiding his true feelings and usually uses a dramatic mask to do it. Despite the talent he posseses for the theatre he dislikes attention from strangers. Under the mask he is a calm and intelligent person. Despite being very sadistic to his enemies, Fadeyka is kind towards his loved ones and not afraid to show his emotions to the people he loves. 

Appearance: Fadeyka has very light purple hair that comes off as white at first glance. He wears a square-eye patch over his left eye that his hair partially covers. His visible eye is a dark indigo colour. He has sickly pale skin. Fadeyka wears an oversized white shirt over a long sleeved black one. He wears black cargo pants and long black boots. He sometimes wears an ushanka which is black with white fur under it. He uses a hooded black poncho for his ability. 

Age: 17

Height: 173cm

Likes: Piroshki, smell of ink, hospitals

Dislikes: Mirrors, colours, frying pans

Birthday: 31st October 2018

Birthplace: Kyiv, Ukraine

MBTI: ENTP, Debater

Link: https://pin.it/47LlqIwzq

~~~

Name: Dazai Fumiya

Family: Nakahara C., Dazai O., Nakahara S. (younger sister) 

Ability: No Room for Humanity. Allows him to create a space (which usually fills the room) where no one can use their ability. While using it, the effect of the ability causes the area to look like colourless.

Personality: Fumiya is a mysterious person and enjoys to be like that. He hates anyone comparing him to Dazai just because he looks like him and likes to be treated as his own person. Fumiya tends to bottle his emotions and doesn't show much out in public. Despite that he has a short temper and is not very patient, this causes him to argue with his parents from time to time. Fumiya, despite being a mafiosi, dislikes blood and avoids killing as much as he can. 

Appearance: Fumiya has wavy, dark brown hair and amber eyes. His front bangs frame his face and his forehead while the ones on the back are a bit longer. He wears a white button up shirt and dark pants with black shoes. He wears bandages around his arms to protect his hands when he fights. 

Age: 16 

Height: 172cm

Likes: Dogs, crab, painting

Dislikes: Heights, yellow, hats

Birthday: 25 December 2019

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

MBTI: INTJ, Architect

Link: https://pin.it/6rWryaQaH

~~~

Name: Akutagawa Takashi (they/them) 

Family: Akutagawa R., Nakajima A., Akutagawa G. (aunt), Higuchi N. (cousin) 

Ability: Beast in the Autumn Wind. Allows them to transform their coat to a tiger, capable of cutting through even space itself. While they can use it with other clothing, Takashi struggles with this. The ability is referred as "Aki"

Personality: Takashi often can be too vicious towards people, including their family and friends. With strangers they don't talk much nor they show much emotions but with people they are familiar with they tend to act more relaxed and talkative. Takashi can be kind and caring too, especially to their family. They never hesitate helping others even with their own life on the line. 

Appearance: They have short black-white hair and dark grey eyes with small purple specks in them. Takashi wears black button-up shirt with frilly wrists, black pants and a white jabot (frilly thing). They wear a long knee-lenght coat for their ability. 

Age: 14

Height: 168cm

Likes: Chazuke, tigers, candle light

Dislikes: Baths, bunnies, spice

Birthday: 8 September 2021

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

MBTI: ISTP, Virtuoso

Link: https://pin.it/4uoa4mZ7K

~~~

Name: Halide Edip Adıvar

Ability: Daughter of Smyrna. Halide can scroll through time and reflect herself to a certain date, allowing her to communicate between times. 

Personality: Halide is a proud and bold girl. As someone who comes from a civilian family she is considered very brave for the line of work she does. Yet she likes to complain (especially about school) and dislikes being bothered. She deeply cares for her fellow teammates though and shows it through her actions. Despite her lack of passion for most of the things she is a raging feminist and very patriotic, to her city and country. 

Appearance: She has maroon shoulder lenght hair, dark brown eyes and light skin. She usually wears her pyjamas as she talks with the group from her house

Age: 16

Height: 162cm 

Likes: Games, shows, classic books

Dislikes: Mysogny, school, crowds

Birthday: 11 June 2019

Birthplace: Izmir, Turkiye

Background: Unlike others who were recruited by the head of the Stray Dogs (Lady A.), Halide was recruited by Natsume-sensei himself. The team has never met her in real life as she never went to Japan. 

~~~~

Halide is an original character of mine. Her namesake Halide Edib Adıvar (11 June 1884 – 9 January 1964) was a Turkish novelist, teacher, and a nationalist and feminist intellectual. 

She was best known for her novels criticizing the low social status of Turkish women and what she saw from her observation as the lack of interest of most women in changing their situation. She was a Pan-Turkist and several of her novels advocated for the Turanism movement.

Halide Edip also joined the Turkish War of Independence (Kurtuluş Savaşı) and despite serving as a civilian officer under Mustafa Kemal, she was promoted and considered a war hero. 

Her novel Daughter of Smyrna (Ateşten Gömlek) is a love story that takes place in War of Independence. Story focuses on memoirs of Peyami, a soldier resting in the hospital, of a woman from Izmir (old name Smyrna). It is the first novel focusing on War of Independence in Turkish literature. 

Chapter 5: Of Course Your Day Goes Bad If You Put Milk Before Cereal

Summary:

The Ring finally makes a move

The glass shards broke even further as the man walked on them. He looked up to take in the view. Once a majestic tower, now was in ruins. The tall tower that was seen from far edges of the city now lay on the ground, like the dead. Like his comrades. 

Like corpses she left in her wake. 

Said girl was in the middle of the room. Tied to one of the three chairs which surrounded a table. She gazed at him calmly, her blue eyes watching his every move. She had tilted her head as if she was confused. Damned brat!

Upon his arrival the two guards got up from their seats and saluted. Meanwhile the girl had shifted her attention to them. She looked as if the guards were the most interesting in the world. Well it didn't matter now, it was the interrogation time. 

"So little miss!" he started "It is a pleasure to be finally meeting you! Let me say your brother is quite the handful one. Although you are not any better." he threw a file he carried with him to the table. A file that consisted of information about his comrades. With his most fake smile he opened it so she could see it's contents. All she did was to raise her head in question. 

"Twelve corpses." his smile turned to a grin "Under fifteen minutes." he adjusted his gloves and slapped her. She let out a hiss but did not react much other than that. 

"I must say missy, you really are something else." he slapped her again, this time harder. "Really the devil's spawn. Now, you have three options." he waited a few seconds for her to recover. She turned her gaze, burning with hatred now, to him again. 

"One: You tell us where your friends are, and maybe live." 

She snorted. 

"Two: You don't tell us, I torture you until you do and you suffer a terrible death." 

She stared at him. 

"And three: You join us."

Well she definitely did not expect that. The man continued as if she wasn't starring at him like he turned into a purple hippo with three heads. 

"You, little miss, have an extremely useful ability. But of course, many people have useful abilities. You, however can recognise a good deal and act on it. The others can't do that. And if you were to join your brother would follow you with no thoughts-"

That seemed like a breaking point in his words because the girl started cackling like a maniac. And she didn't stop. Her laugh, which could rival the most dramatic pyschopaths, continued on. A bit over the top if you asked him. He was sure she was halfly faking it. Which made it more annoying. The worst part was that she sometimes tried to stop herself only to look at him and start laughing again. The man saw one of the guards get up from his seat, his face burning with hatred and annoyence. 

"That's it! Someone needs to shut you up." he said as he raised his hand. The man lunched forward, shouting in panic. 

"Don't do that-" 

Everything happened in a second. First her laugh abrubtly cut off, then followed by a slap voice and the next thing he knew the guard was falling backwards, hitting his head and blood splashing everywhere. The man glared at the girl, a cheshire grin on her face. He punched her this time, in hopes of erasing it. All she did has to lick the blood on her lip. 

"Sir! What do I do!?" the other guard was in panic, starring at his fallen partner. 

"Go get more people to clean it up. Give him a propal burial."

He stared at her, defeated as she continued the smile. Even if she was tied up, bleeding, hurt and under his mercy, he still felt fear when he looked into those cold eyes and sharp smile. To distract himself he picked his file and made the necesarry changes. 

Thirteen corpses. Under forty minutes. 

This was truly the devil's spawn. 

 

~~~

 

Fadeyka knew something bad was going to happen when he woke up that morning. He had an itching feeling inside. He groaned as he got out of the bed. They had rented a small motel (thanks to Mori's stolen card) for their group to stay when they finally found everyone. He went to bathroom to fix his hair and brush his teeth. When he faced the mirror he saw them. 

Just behind his own reflection there stood two blurry figures. One was a boy with dark hair and dark eyes. He was standing and just looking at him, he presumed. This one was always the most blurry one. Next to him sat a girl. She was really pale, to the point she was transparent. Fadeyka thought she was a ghost when he first started seeing her. Now looking at her sharp smirk, he knew she was something worse than that. 

He sighed, closing his eyes. He rubbed on them, hard, but it didn't work. There they were, still in the mirror's reflection. His anxiousness must have been more severe than he thought, if he started seeing them this early on. Only if he could shake that terrible feeling. 

"Fadeyka! Breakfast! Then we need to go to the Agency, Kunikida said it was urgent!" Fumiya's voice got him out of his thoughts. 

"In a minute!" he yelled back as he started to put on clothes he randomly grapped inside of his coat. All of them were same anyways. Endless fabrics of black and white. Just like he favoured. 

Everyone was already downstairs when he finished dressing. He liked to sleep, can you really blame him? After all, a criminal is never late (because they have a strict timetable for the crime) everyone else is simply too early. 

"Well finally" Takashi spoke from their place at the table. Daishiro gave him a nod in greetings. Fumiya was too horrified from Takashi's way of making cereal to wish him a good morning. 

"You are a monster." the brunet said starring unblinkingly at Takashi's breakfast. Though in Fadeyka's opinion calling that abomination "breakfast" would be insult to breakfast itself. 

"It's just cereal." Takashi waved him off. "There isn't a rule about how to make it." just as they said it, they dropped an unholy amount of cereal to the bowl. Then to make the matter worse, they started to crush the cereal with their spoon. 

"I can't watch this!" Fumiya went to get more coffee. Fadeyka too, couldn't handle that sight and decided to get himself a proper breakfast. 

"So" he started as he served himself a plate of sausages and tomatoes "What's going on?" 

"Who knows?" Fumiya seemed to got out of his original shock as he had started to munch on some bread while his back was turned to Takashi "Atsushi-san called and said it was "very urgent" so they want us in the office."

"And that was fifteen minutes ago. So finish up quickly." Daishiro coldly warned as he finished his coffee and went upstairs to his room. 

"Christ, have you guys ever seen him smile?" Fadeyka asked. Both Fumiya and Takashi shook their heads in "no". 

"Mori-san says he rarely smiled as a baby. Then stopped all together." Fumiya said. 

"Damn. Even my brother smiled more often." The Ukrainian finished his plate and got up to do last minute chores. 

Ten minutes later, they were on the train heading to the Agency. It was a quiet ride, considering the early hour. Morning rush hadn't even started yet!

"This better be important!" Fadeyka thought, a headache already forming. He seriously hated mornings. He waited until the others got into the elevetor and with a swish of his coat he was already upstairs. For some reason they hated using his ability. Daishiro and Takashi thought it was unnatural. Fumiya, ever the paranoid, thought it would open one to danger. With a sigh he opened the door. 

"Here we are." he announced "So what is this about?" before anyone could answer Tanizaki appeared out of nowhere and grabbed him by the shoulders. Fadeyka hated it but the frantic look on the other worried him. 

"Naomi!" he screamed "Someone took Naomi!" 

"They what!?" Fadeyka heard Takashi, the trio had just entered the Agency. 

"Well... It was important" Fadeyka thought, that itching feeling growing worse and worse every second. He swore he could hear the girl laughing, mocking him and the terrible situation the Agency was in. Alas, as usual, no one would get it if he told the others. Only he was cursed to know their existence. Even if it was only limited to his mind. 

 

~~~

 

The situation was truly desperate. They were stuck with the Mafia and terrorists, with their future children with them and now Naomi was missing! Atsushi was terrified to be honest. 

"She went out to get ice cream last night but didn't return!" Tanizaki had said first thing in the morning (which was around sunrise) 

"I checked everywhere! She's just gone..."

Hence they spent the entire morning searching for her, they had even called Dostoevsky down to help them. No one knew where he and the other two had disappeared to last night but Atsushi saw no one seemed to care. So it was safe to say no one was up to anything right now. 

"Where is Gogol?" he hesitantly asked to them when he noticed the energetic clown missing. Dostoevsky seemed really entertained by that question. He chuckled to himself but did not grace the weretiger with an answer. Sigma, however seemed very upset. 

"He didn't wake up today. He must have spent all night trying to prank me!" he rolled his eyes "I mean why would anyone even think about putting flour in a hairdryer!?" 

"I think the frying pan you threw at him had to do with the fact he was out cold this morning." Dostoevsky said, still looking very amused. Hearing his comment Fadeyka let out a whimper. All head turned to him. 

"I- uh..." he seemed nervous "I've had experiences with that..." he rubbed the back of his head "With you and... throwing frying pans" 

Fumiya and Takashi were snickering behind him, trying to avoid eye contact so that they wouldn't burst out laughing. Daishiro however placed a hand on Fadeyka's shoulder. 

"Now now Fadeyka. You did lit his casino on fire multiple times." he said as if to cheer him up. His matter of fact tone, blank face and harsh words didn't help the boy at all. 

"Half of them were because of my sister..." 

"Also the time you put live tarantulas on his bed." Fumiya added, still laughing. 

"You WHAT!?" the manager screamed. 

"He got his casino back?" Kyoka asked, as if that was the most unnatural thing about this situation. 

"It's not as grand as it was before and is on the ground... but yeah, a nice place." Fumiya smiled. Meanwhile Daishiro was still listing all the offences (which some should be counted as crimes because Atsushi was very certain that a seventeen year old shouldn't be carrying acid around) 

"Also that one time you and Fumiya decided to get a fake bomb and-" 

"Alright captain!" Fumiya interrupted "Let's continue the search yes? Whoever took Naomi-san might have our team members so..." 

"You might be right... The Ring does seem suspicious. They must have been planning something if they didn't do anything until now." 

"How many are out there?" Fukuzawa asked, scaring Atsushi to death, he hadn't realised he was in the room. Daishiro shrugged. 

"No idea. But if all the members that surrounded us came back I would say more than a hundred."

"They probably did what we did and joined forces with their past selves too." Fadeyka added. "Not to mention our parents..." he didn't finish but guessing from their faces their fates weren't good. Atsushi felt bad for them. Just how hard it must've been for them to come to a new enviroment after possibly losing their parents? 

"This Ring... Did they kill your parents?" Fyodor asked bluntly. 

"Wow, cruel!" Dazai said

"Something like that." Fumiya muttered. 

"Atsushi! Atsushi I have something!" 

Atsushi perked when he heard the familiar voice of Lucy Montgomery. The redhaired girl barged in the Agency, waving something like a tablet around. 

"What is it!?" Tanizaki yelled practically teleporting next to them. Fadeyka teleported next to them. Very silently at that. The kid was creepy. Lucy had just regained her breath, she started to explain. 

"A customer was just in here. He simply ordered a coffee and left but forgot this. Well I thought he did..." she turned the tablet over. It had a post-it note on it:

To Fukuzawa Daishiro;

Connect this to a screen. We'll call tonight. Do anything and the hostages die. 

From: 

And there was a symbol, three rings forming a triangle. It reminded Atsushi a little about the Olympic symbol. Well if it had three rings instead of five. 

"This is The Ring right?" Lucy asked after a few seconds of silence. 

"It sure is." Fadeyka took it "Hey Captain, check this out!"

Daishiro read the note, then gave it to his father (it felt weird even thinking about this) eventually the tablet got around and everyone had looked at it until it made it's way back to the president. 

"Hostages... One of yours I presume?" Dazai asked to Fumiya. The boy nodded. 

"The letter is towards Captain, therefore to us." 

"What should we do?" Tanizaki asked. 

"Nothing." Takashi, ever the positive kid, answered. No one nerved Atsushi more than them if he was being honest. They felt surreal, like he'd close his eyes and they'd be gone by the time he opened them again. It was one thing to learn he was going to date Akutagawa (how THAT happened Atsushi never wanted to know) and one thing that he had an actual, living child. 

"They're not stupid enough to send us an empty threat." they continued. "I say we wait. We know too little about this. They might harm Naomi-san." 

"And whoever they have from your team." Atsushi added.

"I wouldn't worry about that dad- I- I mean Atsushi-san!" Takashi stuttered, Atsushi found it adorable. They looked like a cat who broke a vase. "We are not people who go down easily." 

"Yes but being alone is different. They have another hostage now." Daishiro warned "You're right about not acting until the call but when they do we must be very careful. If I know them, their offer will be worse than losing two of ours to them." 

"What is that supposed to mean!?" Tanizaki shouted "Because if you are thinking about sacrificing my sister-"

"No one is thinking that Tanizaki." Fukuzawa interrupted, effectively shutting everyone up 

"Daishiro was simply saying to pay attention to the call, so that we can get a clue about where they are and rescue them without any losses." Fukuzawa turned to the boy "He just had a bad wording for it." 

And to Atsushi's surprise, the boy who he thought to not have any emotions turned his head away to hide his reddening cheeks.

"You always say that..." he mumbled. Fukuzawa ignored the kid. 

"Well then, we will wait until the call. Ranpo," he turned to the detective. "I am counting on you to find all the details from that call."

"Of course I will! This job can only be done by the greatest detective in the world after all!" Ranpo exclaimed, showing off his glasses. 

"Just keep them on call for two minutes." Dostoevsky suddenly said. Fumiya shrieked, turning around to see the man right behind him. 

"What is wrong with this family!?" he shouted "I hate jumpscares!" 

"I wasn't trying to scare you..." Dostoevsky seemed confused by his behaviour but Fumiya was too busy smacking a laughing Fadeyka to hear it. 

"What do you mean by that?" ignoring the boys, Kunikida asked him. He looked sceptical. Atsushi couldn't blame him though. Kunikida despised Dostoevsky. 

"Well, it is possible to trace a call. I can connect that tablet to my computer and find out where the signal is coming from." Dostoevsky explained.

"Not sure if that'll work papa. They can't be that stupid." Fadeyka said. 

"Don't call me that." the Russian glared at the boy. Fadeyka didn't seen to be affected by it though. "And if you are my son" he said the last word with the coldest tone Atsushi had ever heard in his life "then you should know there is no technology I cannot hack."

"Well papa" Fadeyka had the same tone "it is because I am your son that I know your limits. Trust me, I've-"

"Trust you?" Dostoevsky cut him off "Why would we trust you? Because you technically kidnapped us? Because you blackmailed us into helping you? You really are a fool if you think we trust you." 

"It's not our fault if you have the mindset of preschool children and had to be blackmailed to work together." Fadeyka glared. 

"Okay that's enough!" Fumiya raised his voice. "Both of you are acting like kids right now."

"Not my fault that he's being an annoying bit-"

"I said enough Deyka." The brunet cut him of again, more angrier this time. "You know your father better than all of us, you can't possibly be surprised that he doesn't trust us. Heck no one here trusts us." Fadeyka only pouted, instead of an answer. 

"But like you said Fyodor-san, we are blackmailing you into helping us. This is our enemy, we know them better than you do. So shut up and listen if we tell you if an idea is a bad idea!"

Everyone in the room looked equally shocked. Only Dazai was grinning. Dostoevsky was frowning slightly and his mouth snapped shut. Atsushi supposed it had been a long time (if ever) since anyone had spoken to him like that. 

"You kids will be a great danger to us." he said "And when that time comes I will kill you. Starting from this merzavetz." he glared at Fadeyka. He however seemed unfazed. 

"You can try." he simply said. Atsushi felt a new wave of respect for the kid. He saw Dazai flash him a smile when Fyodor sat down back to his computer instead of answering. Fadeyka ignored it though, choosing to write into a notebook. 

"It won't hurt to try his method." Daishiro sighed. He looked extremely tired. Seems like everyone else saw that too and decided to do what he said. 

"So we wait until nightfall." 

It was decided. 

 

~~~

 

Fadeyka acting emotional was always sign of bad news. He usually could hide it very well but now he was anxious. Fumiya could feel it a mile away. It wasn't a surprise though. This was the most dangerous job they ever had. Actually scratch that, this the first job they ever had. Maybe you could count the book fair but given how disasterous it ended, he thought it would be better if it wasn't in their none-existent resume. 

It was safe to say Fadeyka's anxiety was justified. Still Fumiya had enough mind to know the rest were fine. This didn't stop him from making that honeyed tea Fadeyka favoured. The said boy smiled sweetly as he handed him a cup. How the son of the most dangerous criminals in this century could be so adorable, Fumiya did not know. (All platonic of course but Fadeyka was just too handsome to not to be charmed with). 

"You're getting better at this." Takashi said as they sipped their tea. Fumiya let out a dramatic gasp. 

"How dare you Takkun! My culinary skills have always been perfect!" 

A loud silence followed the room. Daishiro opened his mouth to speak and he better not bring up-

"You burned water-"

"I was seven!" Fumiya shrieked. They always brought that up! 

"My tato got poisoned after a dinner at your house." Fadeyka remarked. 

"That wasn't me! Turns out my dad was trying to poison Fyodor-san but Nikolai just decided to drink from his cup!" 

"He- what!?" Fadeyka choked on his tea. After a few second of coughing he mumbled, mostly to himself "We thought he was being dramatic for thinking that!" a laughter took over the kids. Rest of the Agency was watching them with great interest. From the corner of his eyes Fumiya saw Takashi happily smiling. The younger was always in a good mood when everyone around them were smiling. 

Next fifteen minutes were less agonizing than earlier wait. And when the clock hit nine and that call started to ring... They had connected the tablet to the big screen in Fukuzawa's office and to Fyodor's computer. Everyone was on edge when Daishiro got ready to answer it. He glanced at Fyodor to confirm if he was ready. The Russian nodded. 

"Well look who it is!" the man who answered, is by all means, normal. Western, brown hair, blue eyes. Has a regular name like Jack or something. He was mostly known as "Warden", given he is one. Thanks to him many of the Ring members who got caught escaped easily. He's good at planning and leadership but that's about it. Fumiya wants to laugh. If this guy captured one of his friends, then he's sure they let him do it. 

"Oh shit it's you." Takashi groaned. Well, that was a good way to sum it up. 

"Watch it brat. You know the reason of this call, no?"

Fumiya understands why Takashi hates Warden so much. The man is annoyingly smug. Even now he has that very punchable smirk on his face. Something dark stirred in his stomach. Him being this happy, especially after Takashi gave him that nasty scar on his face, is not good news. 

"Hello Warden." Daishiro greeted cooly. The man in question grinned. 

"Hello brat. Still alive? Oh well, we'll handle that in a bit-"

"Enough!" Tanizaki shouted. He was trembling with anger, standing right in front of the screen. "Where is my sister!?" 

Wardens' smile got bigger. He waved his hands in silent order and not a moment later a figure fell right next to him. Fumiya and Fadeyka shared a glance, preparing themselves for the worst. Fadeyka quietly took a sip of tea. 

"This sister you mean? We have another one too so-"

"Naomi!" Tanizaki isn't even listening to him. His eyes were locked on his "sister". Fumiya heard Atsushi's relieved sigh to his side. Naomi, fortunately, was not hurt too badly. She was tied with robes and uncounsious but she only had a slight purple spot under her eye. Which is little damage in The Ring's standarts. 

"As you can see, she's fine. For now." Warden cheekily said. 

"Listen to me you basta-" 

"Tanizaki." Fukuzawa warned. The ginger reluctantly shut up. 

"Who else do you have?" Daishiro asked, Fumiya could see his hand shaking slightly as he said this. Daishiro has always been more emotional than his parents. A trait he and Fumiya shared. 

"Wouldn't you like to know? That's why we had to take in Naomi-chan here as well. Our little miss won't talk at all. She could be real stubborn. Wouldn't you agree, Fadeyka?" 

Oh no. 

Warden moved to the side to show a small figure, tied up on a chair. She was a bit on the dark side of the room but Fumiya saw how her head had fallen on her shoulder. Beaten and uncounsious. He heard a crash on his side. Fadeyka had dropped his cup, his lips slightly parted. 

"Let's wake her up shall we?" Warden sweetly asked. And with no warned he picked up a sake bottle and slammed it to her head. Fumiya let out an involuntary gasp. She let out a groan as her eyes slowly fluttered open. Her hair was obscuring her eyes, shadows making it impossible to see her features but Fumiya could catch the spots of red on her face, which made his blood boil. He glanced at Fadeyka again, who was frozen in place. The girl stayed quiet for a second, seemingly coming to her senses. 

"Oh." she gave a shaky smile. "Приветик, брат!" she called out. This seemed to bring Fadeyka back to his senses. 

"Sasha." Fumiya could hear the underlying panic in his forced-calm tone. "You okay?"

"As usual." her voice was strained. Heavy torture rang in Fumiya's head. He tried to ignore it. "Actually, I could use some apples. I'm very- hmph!" 

"Yeah, yeah she's fine!" Warden came behind and put his gloved hand on her mouth, effectively shutting her up. 

"Don't you dare to touch her!" Fadeyka trembled with rage. Usually he wasn't the one for raising his voice. Warden smiled again. 

"You are in no position to make a demand, little boy. Here's what we're gonna do. You're gonna surrender and come to the ports near that oil storage. You know right next to the-"

"We know." all kids said at the same time. 

"Oh good. We'll all go there at midnight. In three hours. Not a minute late. I'll bring this one-" he pointed at Naomi, who started to wake up slowly. Tanizaki held his breath. "And give her to you. Exchange for the kids." Warden grinned. "Come any second late and both of the girls will become dinner for the fishes!" and he let a satisfied laugh. Tanizaki seemed way too angered to speak. Fadeyka however, could still let out some words. 

"What about my sister?" he asked, barely keeping calm. Warden's good mood erased in a second and became angry in record speed. 

"Don't you get it stupid boy!? You are in no positio- AHH!" he cut himself short. At first Fumiya didn't understand what was going on. Based on the reactions of others, they didn't too. Only when Warden violently tried to get his hand off of her mouth did they understand. 

"Damn brat! Let go! Let go you dog!" he shouted. 

"Boss! What's going on!?" a voice from one side yelled. 

"Let go brat! She bites! They were right about that!" he finally ripped his gloves off and his index finger was bloodied. Rest of the gloves were in Fumiya's partner's mouth for a moment before she spit it out. 

"Gross! God knows where you put it!" Sasha gagged. "Ew! Disgusting." 

"Why the hell would you-" Takashi started towards the screen but held their tongue the last minute. 

"You think I'd let you insult my brother? You son of a-!"

"Cut the call!" Warden ordered "Remember, midnight or I'll smother her with my own hands!" last thing they heard before the call cut of was a mad cackle belonging to the girl. Fumiya stared at his own reflection in the dark screen. 

"Well... He isn't lying about the deal." Ranpo said. It was a bit obvious though. 

"That was..." Sigma began but did not finish his sentence.

"We need to go to the Port right now!" Tanizaki exclaimed. 

"Oh so you're selling us out?" Fumiya was first to recover his wits. 

"Yes! Oh wait no-" the redhead seemed lost for a moment. "That's not what I meant." he settled. "I was just thinking that we should pretend to follow the deal and attack them the second Naomi and... that kid are safe." 

"No that won't work" Fadeyka quickly cut him off. "Warden is very impulsive and now is very angry with my sister. He would want an excuse to kill her." 

"Naomi is in danger because of you!" Tanizaki yelled, completely out of control. "It's your fault and you will listen to us!" Fadeyka had equally lost it. 

"No! I won't let any harm to my sister!"

"Enough!" surprisingly it was Kunikida who yelled this time. "We could either shout at each other and waste time or we could actually make a plan to survive this trade."

"Or..." a voice muttered. They turned around to find Fyodor sitting on the table with a smirk. He seemed to be enjoying himself. "We could go where they are. Given that I did trace the call." Fumiya was impressed. He was expecting the Ring would do more to protect their communication lines. They weren't as orderly as the thought. Maybe time travel was a logical move after all. 

"Mukurotoride." Fadeyka whispered. Fyodor raised an eyebrow. He seemed... curious. 

"Yes actually. How did you know?" 

Fadeyka's head snapped up. He didn't seem to realise he spoke out loud. "She wanted apples. Sounds like her kind of request to do in a situation like this but she would usually want bananas." 

From the looks of it no one understood. Well Fadeyka wasn't in mood to explain, Fumiya assumed so he took over. 

"As an inside joke we often link Mukurotoride with apples. I'm sure you two can figure it out." he winked towards his dad and Fyodor. "Anyways, despite her bizarre personality, that shrimp takes things seriously. She wanted to give us a clue. Thanks to Fyodor-san," he smiled at the man, a small apology due to his earlier rudeness. The man seemed uncaring though. "Ehem. Thanks to him we definitely know she's in Mukurotoride."

"Well then let's go get them!" Atsushi said. 

"Not so fast-"

"Yeah! Let's go."

Both Kunikida and Takashi spoke at the same time. The kid gave a big grin. A bit uncharacteristic for those who didn't know them. 

"We can't just barge in without a plan." the idealist reasoned. 

"Well Kunikida... That's exactly what we do." Fumiya smiled. The man was so stunned that he didn't even correct Fumiya's lack of respect. It was quite amusing to watch. 

"Surely you will make a plan." Fukuzawa said to Daishiro. The captain shook his head. "He's right. We usually just break the door down and see what happens." 

"And... it works?" Yosano seemed amused. Fumiya made a "so so" gesture. "Well I did once ended up in jail." 

"And there was the Los Angeles book fair..." Takashi faltered. Yeah the book fair... The book fair was a bad time to improvise. 

"In any case it will be fine. We are stronger than we look! Also I'm sure you'll come too. There is nothing Agency can't handle after all." Takashi reassured. 

"I am curious." Dazai said with a smirk. "About how these kids handle situations." 

"But what if something happens to Naomi?" Tanizaki asked. 

"Would you rather wait for midnight?" Fadeyka retorted. "At least this way we have the element of surprise." 

"And we're going whether you guys come or not." 

"What do you say President?" Yosano asked. Fukuzawa was quiet for a moment. 

"We don't have much choice. Very well, go to Mukurotoride and see the situation. Get them back if you can win, but come back if you can't. Don't risk anyone's lives." Fukuzawa decided. 

"Aye aye!" Fumiya cheered. Tanizaki looked defeated but it seems he was okay with whatever got Naomi back. He extended his hand to Fadeyka. The Ukrainian was surprised. 

"Well we both have the same goal. Let's have eacher others backs and get our sisters home." 

Fadeyka smiled and shook his hand. "He's not your real sister though." Now Tanizaki was surprised but he didn't say anything. 

"Alright then-" Fadeyka declared loudly "Vamonos!" and dramatically flipped his coat. 

In the back of the room Sigma turned to Fyodor and asked "Does that include us too?" 

Notes:

Translation:
Russian: Приветик, брат: Hi, brother
~~~~~~~~~~~
I honestly forgot Sigma existed till the last second. Also I know Fyodor speaks too much Russian but in Wan he was a bit bad when it came to writing in Japanese and there is a canon panel of him studying it. So it's natural for a new speaker to use his own language from time to time, especially when he's talking to people who can speak it. Also I'm a linguistics student and I love languages. Ehe~
(I just hope I didn't butcher the language)

Next up: New character introductions.

Chapter 6: To Be or Not To Be A Racoon, That Is The Question

Summary:

TW: Descriptions of blood & gore and medical inaccuracies (I mean logically it could happen but I couldn't find a proof of it so)

I know I was supposed to post a week ago but I couldn't finish the chapter. I was going to post yesterday but I was at hospital so I forgot. Anyways here you go. Plot is going forward... Very slowly

It was the weirdest group Atsushi had ever seen. The broken tower that was Mukurotoride had started to come into view. Atsushi figured the group had only a few minutes before they reached it. He, Yosano Tanizaki and Fadeyka were walking ahead. Meanwhile Dazai, Takashi, Kunikida, Daishiro and Fumiya were keeping an eye on the back of the group. Sigma and Fyodor, for some reason, were coming too and they walked in the middle. 

 

Atsushi figured that was why Dazai was so insistent on staying on the back. To keep an eye on the Russian as well. Atsushi glanced back at the man and saw Fyodor's eyes were already on him. He quickly turned his head, creeping out from the eye contact. 

 

"Does he spook you?" Atsushi nearly jumped. Fadeyka was walking right next to him. 

 

"I mean... He is a bit scary." 

 

The boy giggled. "That's my papa... That too unnerves you, huh?" he asked. 

 

"You're pretty observant." Atsushi said. Fadeyka smiled, Atsushi thought he was pretty when he did that. 

 

"A trait he values." he winked. Or tried to. He had a bandage over his eye. 

 

"You should let Yosano-sensei check that. She can heal it." Atsushi pointed at the bandage. Fadeyka looked confused for a moment before figuring it out. 

 

"Oh my eye! No no, it's not a wound. I can even see under the eye patch, no worries! Even if it was, such a little wound shouldn't worth Lady Yosano's treatment." he said dreamily. 

 

"Lady? My such respect." Yosano teased. The boy slightly blushed. 

 

"It can't be helped! I respect you too much, my lady." 

 

The doctor chuckled "Any particular reason?"

 

"Other than the fact that you saved my life?" Fadeyka grinned, "Your kindness, your elegance, your intellegence, the fact that your wine tastes the best and-" his voice dropped to a whisper. Both Atsushi and Yosano leaned in to hear him "The fact that you're willing to share some with me after a particularly troubling case." 

 

All of them laughed at that. Atsushi thought the boy was scary at first, but now that he watched him laugh so carelessly, he seemed... warmer. 

 

"So yeah... Oh and also- Ryutaro!? Is that you?" Fadeyka exclaimed, stopping so abruptly that Sigma walked onto him. 

 

"Deyka, what's wrong?" Fumiya was first to arrive. 

 

Fadeyka was starring at the wall of Mukurotoride. There, on a high pillar, was a small racoon. It sat there abnormally still for an animal but the moment the eyes turned to it, the animal chittered and jumped onto Fadeyka's head without a warning. It nudged Fadeyka's cheek with its nose before settling on his shoulders. The said boy was red in the face. 

 

"R-Ryutaro what- why did you-!?" he stammered but stopped immediately when the raccoon gave a short squek. 

 

"What's wrong?" Daishiro asked as the rest of the group reached them. 

 

"Ryutaro-san is here!" Fumiya happily said. 

 

"Cute raccoon." Fyodor muttered as he patted it on the head. The animal let him. 

 

"Hm? Oh no, Ryutaro isn't a raccoon." Fadeyka smiled. Daishiro, Fumiya and Takashi solemnly nodded. 

 

All the adults shared a glance as they stared at the raccoon on the boys' shoulder. The raccon, Ryutaro, stared back. He definitely looked and acted like a raccoon. They all collectively decided that this was an inside joke and they were not going to question it. 

 

"Ryutaro-san, what's going on?" Takashi asked. 

 

The animal patted Fadeyka's cheek with his paw and jumped down. He then turned his nose towards the broken tower as if to point. 

 

"You know where Sasha is, don't you?" Fadeyka smiled. Ryutaro let out a noise again and started to walk towards Mukurotoride. Fadeyka just grinned and followed him. 

 

"Come on." Daishiro said "Patience isn't a strongsuit for Ryutaro." if anyone else had said this, the adults wouldn't have cared. But when a Fukuzawa says this, with a neutral face, it makes one worried. 

 

"Hey kid, not to be rude or anything but..." Yosano started. "You know that's a raccoon right?" 

 

Daishiro didn't break his poker face. "Of course he's not." and he followed his team without another word. 

 

"Do you really want to keep trusting these kids?" Fyodor asked. "I am curious how they managed to survive this long."

 

Although no one would say it outloud, everyone was in the same page as Fyodor. Kunikida adjusted his glasses. 

 

"Come on, we should follow them. They can be annoying but they are still children. As the detectives of this Agency it's our job to protect." he took the lead, followed by Yosano, Atsushi and Tanizaki. Dazai, Sigma and Fyodor were in the last of the line. 

 

Dazai turned to the other two, walking backwards. "That doesn't count you two. Why follow?" he asked. 

 

"Well it's either this or to be alone with Gogol." Sigma shrugged. 

 

"I have no particular reason. They can die as far as I'm concerned." Fyodor said. 

 

"Oh, the great Dostoevsky going for a nightly stroll then? Well that should be- woah! Damn-" Dazai suddenly fell. He had tripped on a fallen collumn at the entrence of the tower. He dramatically clutched his had, groaning. 

 

Fyodor smirked as he stepped on Dazai to enter the building. "I don't know about the others but I can see why Fumiya seems to lack survival skills." 

 

"Bastard." Dazai spat. To his surprise Sigma extended a hand to help him get up. Starring distastefully at the print of Fyodor's boot on his coat, Dazai quickly followed his group to the main room, with Sigma following.

 

~~~

 

"Do you have your plan now?" Kunikida grunted. Daishiro didn't answer him. 

 

"We would usually just barge in but Shizuko-senpai isn't here." Takashi said. "Oh don't look at me like that. We never deal with dangerous enemies! You should see plans captain does for Mori-san!" 

 

"Well since we can not use you as a live bomb like Kajii, we need other options." Daishiro turned to Dazai and Fyodor. "Want to be useful? Or are you two going to bicker like children?" 

 

"You are unnecessarily mean." Atsushi commented. Daishiro ignored him. 

 

"There are hostages, to keep them safe, sneaking in would be ideal." Dazai said, then he turned to Tanizaki with a devilish grin "Well look who we have here! Someone who's ability is perfect for the situation." 

 

"Alright, we use Light Snow to sneak in and get the girls back." Fumiya smiled. "Let's do it!"

 

"So what's the plan?" Kunikida asked readying a paper in hand. 

 

"Fumiya just said it. Use Light Snow to get the girls." Daishiro answered. 

 

Kunikida ripped the paper into bits. 

 

~~~

 

Naomi couldn't help but feel envious of her fellow prisoner. She looked so calm and uncaring. Only sign of discomfort she showed was when her nose got itchy and she had to use her knee to scratch it. 

 

Still Naomi could see how badly she was treated. Her white pyjamas (Naomi thought it was a straight jacket at first but appearantly she just had peculiar taste.) were drenched in blood and her there was a deep cut on her cheek. 

 

"It's fine Naomi." the girl said. There was a subtle accent, similar to Dostoevskys'. Though she didn't give her name, Naomi knew she was his daughter. She looked a lot like him after all. Dark purple hair, same almond shaped eyes, pale complexion. She was extremely pretty though. A couple more years and this girl was going to be very beautiful.

 

"I know, I know. Still don't worry, I'm sure my brother and the others are coming for us!" 

 

"Oh I'm not worried. Fadeyka wouldn't leave me here after all." she grinned before dropping her voice to a whisper. She shook her head so her long hair hid her face "And I already have someone bringing them to a secret entrance I noticed while coming in. So don't you worry Naomi." she shook her hair out of her face and winked. 

 

Naomi wasn't sure if she should listen to a girl who immediately became a hostage and there was the fact that she acted like a psychopath but it's not like there was a better option. 

 

"Hey! You two, shut up!" a guard yelled. The girl opened her mouth to speak but Naomi shushed her. She tend to scream and swear when threatened and it caused her new bruises each time. Luckly she saw Naomi's look and decided to not speak this time. 

 

"I swear I'm going to rip your head off." 

 

Naomi pretended to not hear that whisper. 

 

The hours passed but nothing happened. Both girls had to deal with the guards taunting them. Naomi tried to stay calm. She was the older one here after all! No matter what she said, the other was a child around twelve. This didn't mean Naomi wasn't panicking as well, especially now when the clock read 23.35 and the guards acted even more excited.

 

"Well time is ticking. I hope you can swim with your hands and feet tied!" Warden laughed. 

 

"Well even if we could, you will drop us from a bridge that's quite high up. We will die from impact before we'll drown anyways. Also I can't swim even without these ropes so I suggest you untying me at least before you throw us. This is some quality rope. If I were you, I wouldn't waste it."

 

"Do you have to ruin our fun?" a guard asked. 

 

"I find great pleasure from doing it." 

 

Whatever the guard was gonna say, they didn't. A small thud had echoed around the empty room. Naomi turned to the girl. She looking towards a far wall of the room, smiling knowingly. 

 

"What was that?" 

 

"I didn't hear anything." Naomi said. She did hear it but she assumed it was a good thing, based on expression of the little Russian. 

 

"Well no one asked you!" Warden shouted. "Find the source of that noise!" 

 

"Found it." a guard said. Trapped in his arms, was a racoon. It was just swishing its leg like some kid sitting on a bench. Without a warning, a loud, high-pitched laughter rang in the room, sounding much more louder because of the echo. The little one took a minute to calm herself down. 

 

"Oh that's cute. But Ryutaro is not a racoon." 

 

And the second she said that, the guard who held the animal fell down and stayed unmoving. The racoon landed the ground with ease, making his way towards the captives. 

 

"Ladies and gentelmen!" a voice rang. Naomi raised her head to see Fadeyka standing on top of a collumn, his hands opened in a dramatic way. 

 

"Welcome, welcome to the past! A pleasure to have you here! Now let us get this show started!" out of his coat thousands of confettis blew, covering the entire area, raining on them like snow. 

 

"Rescue and show! Isn't he amazing?" the girl asked to Naomi. The older couldn't help but laugh. At that moment her own brother removed his ability. With that the guards realised they were surrounded by Agency members. Naomi felt relieved immediately. Now with a clear head she turned to the girl. 

 

"You know I never caught you name." 

 

"Oh? Just go with Sasha. You'll butcher the pronunciation."

 

"Now that's an honour Naomi!" Fadeyka said. Naomi hadn't realised it but now he was on the ground easily knocking out the guards. 

 

"She doesn't let many people to call her like that." 

 

"Well we are captive mates now! It's only natural." Sasha said. 

 

"You're crazy! Both of you!" Fumiya yelled from the other side of the room. Sasha's only answer was to laugh. 

 

"Hey papa, Sisha, I get it you won't fight but at least get us out will you?" 

 

Naomi quickly turned and noticed they weren't alone in their tiny corner. The racoon from earlier was sitting on the table, watching the fight. And both Dostoevsky and that casino manager was sitting on chairs. Dostoevsky merely glanced at Sasha but returned watching the fight a second later. 

 

"I'm talking to you! Wow you really were annoying. Sisha! Help me out! Please!" Sasha tried again. The casino manager looked around, as if to find someone else. 

 

"Sisha is you Sigma. Will you help me or should I bribe Ryutaro into doing it?" Sasha said, now looking a bit angry. 

 

"I didn't realise you were talking to me..." the manager, Sigma mumbled as he got up. "And that's a racoon, kid. It can't help you." 

 

"No he's not. Anyways thanks!" she got up and streched as Sigma untied Naomi. She gave him a smile which he returned. 

 

"Well, this was nice and all but now I have a murder to commit. Toodles!" with that she calmly started to walk towards the fight, her bare feet making small tap tap noises on the marble floor. 

 

"She was joking, right?" Sigma asked. Naomi wasn't sure. That kid was really weird. It was Dostoevsky who answered, still observing the fight from his chair.

 

"She was not." 

 

Somehow, Naomi was not surprised. 

 

~~~

 

Warden easily slipped out of the room. It would be such a shame if he, a highly useful member were to die now, wouldn't it? Sad for his subordinates but that's how the world worked. Important ones and the ones beneath them. He would get them a proper burial after this anyways. 

 

He jumped over a fallen debris and entered a narrow hallway. A secret exit point in the tower, and probably how the kids and that no good Agency got in. As he was walking in the dimly lit corridor he heard something from behind. He quickly turned, fearing he was followed but the way he came back was empty. There were no doors in this corridor as well, so maybe it was the wind. He turned around towards the exit-

 

"Going somewhere?" 

 

-and screamed. There, standing in front of him, was the little Dostoevsky, casually leaning against the wall. Warden took out his gun and pointed at her. She only smiled. There was something in those dark blue eyes of hers that made feel Warden really creeped out. 

 

"My, I thought kings went to war with their soldiers. But then again, you are nothing but a pawn. Just a slave to the Ring." she said in a low voice. 

 

"You don't know what you're talking about little girl." Warden said. "I keep almost everyone out of jail! I am one of the most important member to the organisation!"

 

"So are ants to mother nature yet they're easy to squash." 

 

"You-!" Warden removed the safety. "I'm so done with you and your witty comebacks." 

 

Dostoevsky didn't even flinch. She even moved from her spot, standing straigther as if to give him a clear shot. 

 

"Go on." she smirked, her voice becoming high again. "Do your best." 

 

Warden almost pulled the trigger but this felt off. Why was she giving herself away like this? 

 

"Oh I see!" Warden exclaimed. "So you're trying to trick me eh? This is just an illusion of that smarty kid? Or that ginger?" he lowered his gun. "You want me to shoot you. " Dostoevsky only shrugged. 

 

"Don't shoot then. I don't care." 

 

"Reverse psychology won't help. I won't shoot." Warden said. 

 

"Okay. Don't do it then." the girl replied. "If you're so sure I want you to shoot." she smirked. 

 

"Huh? Don't try to trick me! You want me to shoot."

 

"You sound so sure. But again you were so sure about this plan here as well. Or the last time too. How did that time go? Oh right, Takashi gave you that scar!" she laughed. 

 

How dare she! 

 

"You bitch! You got lucky there! That Edogawa bastard is nowhere near my intelligence! None of you are! I will fucking kill all of you!" in a fit of rage he threw his gun at the girl to destroy that illusion. But Dostoevsky just took a quick step to the side. The weapon hit the wall and fell down with a loud noise. 

 

"God, you're too easy." Dostoevsky said as she bent down and picked up the gun. "I would be dead if you shot back then."

 

"W-what!?" Warden took a step back when the girl pointed the gun at him. 

 

"No illusion here. You're just an idiot." she smiled. Warden bared his teeth and lunged at her. She sighed and lazily shot his knee, sending him to the ground. Warden screamed in pain. 

 

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Dostoevsky turned him facing up with her feet. Then she shot his knee again. And again. And again. And again until there was a snap and she stepped on his leg with one foot, severing it completely. Warden had hold on fairly well until then but when his leg came off, he barely heard what she said. He did see her watching with a cold expression. 

 

"Oh how much I would like to do this, over and over and over again but it seems like you'll die before I do that. Pity." 

 

She kicked the injured part of his knee. "That's for calling my brother stupid." 

 

Then she smashed the gun on Warden's head "And that's for kidnapping Naomi." 

 

"And finally..." she dropped the gun and leaned down next to his face. She got her hand very close to Warden's forehead, "This is for myself. If the afterlife is real, enjoy rotting there." and she gently tapped it. 

 

Warden screamed in agony only for a second before blood burst out of his veins, raining on the body and the girl next to him. He was dead, in a second. The girl sighed and got up. 

 

"Great." she said, examining her clothes "Now I have to burn these."

 

Alexandra F. Dostoevskaya: Hacker

 

Ability: The House of the Dead

 

"Kouhai! Kouhai!" Takashi's voice came from the other side of the corridor

 

"Coming senpai! You wait there!" she called back. She did not want to get scolded for causing a mess again. With a sigh, she went back to greet the others. 

 

Notes:

Introducing Alexandra! A character I inspired from Nikolai himself (obviously), Bill Cipher, Entrapta and Cheshire Cat. A good combination if you ask me

Also Dazai and Fyodor are so cousins who hate each other coded. I love writing them bickering.

Well next up: PLOT. And more main cast introduction

Chapter 7: The Almighty Shrimp

Summary:

When the character is so good you need a whole filler chapter just to introduce her.

Fumiya wasn't worried. 

He. Was. Not. 

Not when he saw how bad Naomi's bruises were. And definitely not when he saw how badly Alexandra was wounded. She was fine. Alexandra could get hit by a bus and jump right back into the action. A few (dozens) of cuts won't affect her. 

Sure she cried in pain when Fadeyka ran upto hug her. But it was fine, Yosano had said her wounds were superficial. She was fine. Alexandra was never in serious danger. Sure it was possibly his fault that she got caught since he was the one to throw that charcoal to the fire and send them back in time. 

It's not like he planned her to fall in the same place as a group of Ring soldiers. Also she was fine! She said so herself. She walked around easily, even if she clutched her abdomen a little bit more often. But she was fine. She sat and got up easily when she was wearing her boots. 

Fumiya ignored the way she clutched her brother's hand tightly when they started to walk. 

Alexandra was fine. Everyone was fine. Daishiro was fine, Takashi was fine, Fadeyka was fine, Ryutaro was fine. His family was... He would find his sister soon. She was strong. Strongest in the Stray's. She was fine too. Somewhere in the city, currently missing, but fine. 

He took a deep breath. It was not fine. The situation was not fine, his sister not was fine, the group was not fine. Fumiya was not fine. He did not worry. He was a Dazai and a Nakahara. Getting emotional was not a choice. 

Still his eyes caught his partner's movements. The slight limp she had on her left leg. He could see the blood on the fabric of her pyjamas. She pretended it was fine but Fumiya's trained eyes saw it. This was his fault. But feeling guilt wouldn't help them. His dad had always said emotions could ruin a mission. Still he tapped on the Russian's shoulder when he was close enough. Alexandra turned unceremoniously. The circles under her eyes were much more darker and her voice lacked her usual flair. 

"And how may I help you, darling? If you want hugs from your bestest friend in the world, I fear your request is denied." she smirked. And Fumiya was already regretting this. 

"Well my bestest friend in the world would be my sister. When she doesn't make me want to throw her out of the window." he grinned. "After her it would be your brother." The Russian rolled her eyes. 

"Well then traitor." she pouted. Fumiya sighed. Let's just get this over with. 

"I'll treat you to a meal. Or books. Whichever you want." the bandaged boy declared. The younger turned around, walking backwards. 

"I accept the offer. Free stuff is the best stuff... but why?" 

Instead of answering her Fumiya turned towards Daishiro "Say captain, if I were to, hypothetically, use that charcoal would you tell my parents?" 

Daishiro looked sighed, poker face breaking just enough to show his irritation. Still, his answer was what Fumiya was expecting. 

"You know I won't." 

"Well them I'm the one who used the charcoal and brought us all here." he smiled. Only Alexandra laughed at him. 

"I shouldn't have given it to you." she giggled. 

"I fucking knew it." Fadeyka groaned. "You shouldn't have carried one at all!" he scolded. Alexandra smiled shyly. 

"Go easy on me! I was held captive for the past twenty fourish hours! And tortured too." she complained. 

"We're gonna fix you once we get back. Don't worry." Yosano-sensei smiled empathetically. Alexandra glanced at her before cluthing Fadeyka's arm tightly. She whispered to him in Russian but she spoke too low for Fumiya to understand. 

Fadeyka laughed at her sister and patted her head. He answered back in Ukrainian. Show off. Fumiya hated when those two could just switch up languages and have privacy. The hypocrites always listened in on his conversations. Whaever Fadeyka said, made Alexandra frown. Which was enough for Fumiya to enjoy it. 

"Well that was entertaining to watch," his dad interrupted "but we got company. On the outside." he tapped the glass one the window. 

The company was worse than a relative meeting during holidays (which Fumiya had only learned thanks to Higuchi's sister and her very, very large family). There was at least two dozens of guards, all armed, surrounding their exit. Well... maybe they should have thought this through more carefully. 

"Ryutaro? Are we ready?" Alexandra asked to the racoon on Fadeyka's shoulder. The animal gave a small squek. Alexandra smiled. 

"Perfect! Let's just hope we don't die. Dazai-san," Alex walked upto the bandaged detective. "May I have your phone?"

Dazai raised his eyebrows. One of the good side of being clones of their parents was actually having the talents they had. So it would be no surprise if Dazai couldn't have any idea what Alexandra was thinking. And looking at his face, Fumiya was sure that was the case. Still, Dazai gave the phone to the Russian. Despite being confused, Dazai only questioned Alexandra after a minute of her fiddling with his phone. 

"Hey little miss, may I ask what you're doing with my phone?" Dazai smiled towards the girl. Alex replied without looking up. 

"Right now, I'm trying to find someone on your contacts. Three years yet reading this damn language is still so hard." Alexandra huffed. 

"Need help?" Fumiya asked, knowing very well that the girl would refuse it. She didn't even answer him. 

"Why aren't they coming in?" Takashi asked. 

"They think we have set up a trap." Dazai said nonchalantly. Ryutaro jumped on his head with a squek. He was oddly verbal tonight. 

"Well, we are the one's who are trapped." Takashi huffed. 

"Not anymore! This must be it!" Alexandra smiled triumphantly. She had opened a contact in Dazai's phone. Fumiya only seen the name for a second before she pressed the call. 

"What are you doing!?" Fumiya felt his heart beating like he ran a marathon. "I want my dad alive and well in the future, not murdered by my father!" 

"Wait what?" Dazai asked, slowly realising who the girl was calling. 

"Oh relax." Alexandra waved him off "If they exchanged numbers they should expect a call. Also it's not your father I want to talk to and if the plan- Oh hello!" 

And immediately there's a scream coming from the other side. It's not clear enough to be heard but loud enough for Alexandra to extent the phone away from her ear with a flinch and hissing with distaste. 

"Chuuya? Why are you answering?" she asked when the executive finally stopped yelling. Chuuya must have said something like "It's my phone" because Akexandra continued with: 

"Yes I know it's your phone but it shouldn't be in your hand. We kind of had a plan." 

Meanwhile everyone was eyeing Dazai with strange expressions. Only Yosano seemed amused. 

"So," she grinned "You have fancy hat boy's number?" 

Though Fumiya could see the small pink painting Dazai's cheek, he doubted anyone else saw it. He was good at hiding his emotions even when it was his body involuntarily reacting. 

"I know, such a misfortune isn't it?" he asked dramatically, "Since Mori-san was too fixated on making us work together I decided someone needed to get a headache for punishment-"

"Hey Dazai?" Alexandra interrupted. The bandaged detective turned to her. "Chuuya here says your existence causes a headache and you are a major bottom organ of a male. Though he said it in a different word." 

"Well you tell him- Give that to me for a second!" Dazai snatched the phone from the Russian and answered Chuuya himself. 

"Well chibikko-" 

"Nice job." Fumiya smiled at the girl. "Only my dad can distract my father." 

"Learned from the best." Alexandra winked at him. 

"Just what are you planning?" Takashi grinned. 

"Okay the plan belonged to Ryutaro." she gestured the racoon. In the background Sigma groaned and whispered something like "A raccoon can't do that." 

"AND! Don't yell at me, you're awfully loud for someo- Chuuya..? Chibi?" Dazai called out. What got the attention was the serious tone. "Chuuya, you there? Something is odd." he mumbled the last part to himself. 

"Put it on speaker." Fadeyka said. Dazai did, and it was odd. There were grunts and yelling on the other side. It almost sounded like a fight. 

"Someone just grab it!" a girl yelled suddenly.

"If it's so easy, you do it yourself!" another voice retorted. 

"Get off of me!" Chuuya yelled. "Oi Tachihara stop standing there like a goddamn tree stump and help me out!" 

"Why is Ane-san and Gin attacking you!?" Tachihara's distant yell came through. 

"What is going on there!?" Fumiya asked. Everyone had huddled close to the phone. Everyone except a certain Russian and the racoon in her arms. 

"Hurry it up will you?" she called from her place. 

The fight appearantly continued for a couple of seconds before the second voice yelled again. 

"Got it!" her voice was much louder. "Ane-san hold them there!" 

"Finally." Alexandra took the phone from a confused Dazai's hand. "You were supposed to get it before I called you." she pouted. 

"Yeah yeah. You tackle Nakahara Chuuya youself if its that easy." the girl grunted. "Well, where are you? Do I need to pick you up?" 

"You need to pick all of us up. At Mukurotoride. There are, like twenty guards." 

There was a mocking laugh from the other side "You can't handle twenty guards?"

"Hey we just beat forty of them! Fotry-ish." Fumiya huffed. "We're tired! And only half of us are fighting here." 

It was true. Despite their large numbers, most weren't good at fighting. Tanizaki and Fumiya weren't strong enough to handle too many guards. Fyodor, Alexandra, Dazai and Sigma hadn't even bothered to fight. This left Atsushi, Yosano, Fadeyka, Kunikida and Daishiro the main fighters. 

"Right. I forget forty guys are too much for one person. Well I'm on my way. I believe daddy dearest wouldn't be opposed to me stealing his bike."

"I- what!?" Chuuya exclaimed. 

The fighting noise from back had cut off. Fumiya assumed whoever was there explained the situation to Chuuya. Alex (or Ryutaro. Probably Ryutaro. It would need two kidnappings and five explosions before Alex finally considered asking for help) figured they might need help. So they made a plan with the rest of the group. One would go find her, and the others would wait for a call. 

Since their phones didn't work in this timeline, it was not unusual for them to use phones from the past. The unusual thing was that Dazai and Chuuya had exchanged numbers. Now their parents loves them, and they love their parents but almost all of them (with the exception of Atsushi and Akutagawa given how eager Dazai was to tell people) had kept their past as a secret. 

Sure you learned things as you grew up. For example Fumiya knew his parents met at fifteen. Or that Koyo and Yosano hadn't even properly met until after the vampire incident. But when almost all of them were enemies at start, it's no surprise that some details are never brought up. 

Fumiya sighed as he listened to his father and sister bicker on the phone. Meanwhile his dad had come next to him, trying not to laugh as Chuuya's voice got louder and louder. It felt like he was back at home and everything was normal. If only. 

Still... It was nice. After all his sister was fine, and from the looks of it, so was the rest of the his team. Maybe they could finally turn things around and everything else would be fine too. 

 

~~~

 

They waited for roughly twenty minutes before Ryutaro chirped and led them all outside. Meanwhile they had called the Agency, telling them what had happened. 

"We need to have a meeting to discuss things." Kunikida sternly said as they walked outside. 

"Oh come on Kunikida. We are all tired!" Yosano sighed "Look, Naomi has already fell asleep!" she gestured the younger Tanizaki. The girl was standing but her head was on Junichiro's shoulder and he was supporting her as she walked, which meant she was actually awake but Yosano decided to ignore it. "We can do it tomorrow morning."

"I second this..." Alexandra raised her hand. Though she hadn't even raised her head or opened her eyes from her place on Fadeyka's back. Her voice was muffled and slurry. Towards the end of the wait she had fallen asleep and now her brother was carrying her. Although she too, seemed to be awake. At least partially. 

"I can't handle meeting right now." she yawned. Her accent was thicker than before. 

"There's an 'a' there." Takashi softly corrected. 

"Whatever..." 

Kunikida looked at both girls, his eyes narrowed.

"Let's just wait for little shrimpy. Then we can decide." Fumiya smiled at the idealist. He thought about it for a moment before nodding. Their walk continued in idle chatter, most on the front. Fadeyka was walking a bit behind, with the extra weight. 

"Well you're okay with this." Alexandra mumbled. Fadeyka half turned his head to her, clearly confused. She raised her head a bit. 

"I mean Captain." she whispered. Daishiro turned to the younger, brows raised. 

"You know... This. Not leading. It not like you." she slurred. "I think they gave me something. Things not make sense." 

It was obvious. She was becoming more and more unintelligible with her accent and mistakes. Fadeyka took a deep breath in and out. Daishiro patted the boy in the arm, trying his best to reassure him. 

"Sensei will heal you." Daishiro reassured. "Let me answer your question alright?" it was for the best if she stayed awake until they got her to the Agency. 

"I don't need Yosano-san. I need sleep." she mumbled. "I just think you like being leader." 

"I do but it's not an easy task. It is refreshing when someone else handles it once a while. After all we're only human." Daishiro explained. 

"That's what Ane-san is for after all." Alexandra said, mostly to herself. 

"Good girl. If you ever become a leader you will need help too. Both to help you and stop you if you make stupid decisions." the swordsman patted her arm. Alexandra chuckled. It was a quiet one, opposed to her usual loud, theatrical cackle. 

"As if. Leading is not my type. If I ever did though, I know who I want as my second." 

"Me?" Fadeyka asked. 

"Fumiya." his sister hummed. Fadeyka huffed. 

"I guessed but still..."

"It's not personal." Alexandra raised her head. She seemed less sleepy compared to before. "You judge me so much. Fumiya gets my thinking. Just like Alexei and Ran-" she cut herself off. 

And surprising Daishiro, she blushed. She burried her head in Fadeyka's nape, muttering a "nevermind". Daishiro looked at the other boy but he shrugged. Well... Alexandra was weird like that. 

"Okay let's wait here." Takashi said. Then they turned around. Their coat started to flutter even if there was no wind. Then it twisted and got shorter and shorter until Takashi was wearing nothing but their white shirt and there was a tiger. 

Yes. A tiger. Fully black, with so little white in there. Though that might be the ability. It wasn't as big as a normal tiger and if you looked at it carefuly you could see the belt and buttons of the coat. Takashi smiled and patted the "tiger" on the head. 

"Everyone, meet Aki. In her full form." they smiled. "I'm gonna send her to scout the area." 

"Of course. First a racoon makes plans, now a coat is a tiger who can scout the area. Why not!?" Sigma groaned. "What's next, we all are actually stray dogs or something!?" 

"Ugh bite your tongue." Dazai frowned. "Who would want to be dog? Dogs are disgusting."

"You're much worse, shitty mackerel." a voice said from aboce. Dazai dramatically groaned. Unlike everyone else he didn't look up to see a small figure was floating above them. 

"Is that a dog barking?" Dazai smirked. Immediately Chuuya kicked him in the head. 

"Shut it bastard." he said as he easily landed next to them. "I'm not in the mood." 

"Must be embarrasing to get beaten by three kids, huh?" Alexandra grinned and Fumiya was pretty sure his father would have beat her into the next month if she were not half of his age. 

"What are you even doing here?" Fadeyka asked. 

"Little brat almost stole my bike so I had to give her a ride. Also don't send that tiger thing. She told me to keep the area clear. And I'm only telling you because I feel like it! I'm not a messenger!" Chuuya answered, looking rather annoyed. 

"What brat?" Kunikida asked. 

Suddenly there was a loud crash. They all turned towards the open area where soldiers were waiting for them. Instead of people with loaded guns, there was a giant boulder crushing a truck under it. The soldiers had scattered around, most fallen to the ground because of the impact. 

"This is much more pathetic than I thought!" 

"That brat." Chuuya pointed. 

Nakahara Shizuko: The Muscle The One Who Always Saves The Day

Ability: No Room For Gravity

On top of the boulder there was a figure. Had she not yelled they wouldn't have guessed her to be a girl at all. She was quite far away and her hair was short, barely reaching her nape. She laughed gleefully.

"Shizuko..." Fumiya smiled. 

"This is the bunch you couldn't handle? Seriously!? Should I do everything for you?" 

"What are you waiting for!?" a soldier got up and raised her gun. "Shoot that shrimp."

"Shrimp..?" the girl echoed. "SHRIMP!? HOW DARE YOU!?" she roared with fury. "I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW I AM AVARAGE!" 

She raised her foot up and hit the boulder. It immediately cracked. She hit it again and this time the boulder broke into to four pieces. The soldiers got up and readied their guns. 

"Oh this is gonna be fun." she grinned. 

"Should we help?" Yosano asked. Fumiya laughed. It was the same as Shizuko's. 

"Do you ask to help when he gets into a fight?" he gestured Chuuya. "She'll destroy them."

Destroy was the wrong word. Annihilate or obliterate was a better choice. It became obvious that Shizuko's ability was related to gravity manipulation. She easily kicked the rock pieces all around, crushing soldiers like she was playing bowling. And when they tried to shoot her he bullet stopped mid-air and flew right back at them. 

She was done under a minute. 

"Damn... If she's gonna be like this I'm okay with a kid." Chuuya grinned. Dazai looked at him as if he were a five headed giraffe. 

"That's my Shizuko!" Fumiya yelled as he ran towards his sister and crushed her in a hug. She rolled her eyes. 

"What's with you?" she asked frowning. "It was hardly different than my normal routine." Fumiya laughed as he let her go. He mumbled something to her which caused the girl soften her expression. She ruffled his hair, or at least tried to. They had a bit of a height difference. 

As they walked closer Shizuko's features became more visible. Despite the original thought she had a soft face. She had round grey eyes and freckles adorning her nose and cheeks. She had dark auburn hair that was cut similar to Chuuya's, though it was short. 

"Wow it's like seeing you in Suribachi for the first time again." Dazai said to Chuuya. All mafiosi could was to nod. Both kids walked side by side, resembling the duo so much. Though Shizuko's posture resembled Dazai more than Fumiya's did. 

"Well?" the girl asked when she was in the earshot. "Aren't you gonna bow down and beg?" 

"That's not in your normal routine though, is it?" Fadeyka smirked. Shizuko scoffed. 

"Whatever... Catch!" she threw something to Fadeyka which easily caught. It was a white fluffy looking hat. A familiar one. 

"You found it!" Alexandra smiled as she got the ushanka from Fadeyka. Her brother frowned. 

"You lost it!?" 

"Is that my hat?" Fyodor asked examining it. 

"One at a time boys." Alexandra grinned, though she didn't answer at the both of them. She threw the hat her brother "Hold on to it Deyka. I'm gonna need spare clothes too. They ruined my pyjamas." 

"Honey it was already ruined when you bought it." Shizuko said. Alexandra ignored her as well. 

"Soooooo are we going now or..?" Takashi asked. 

"To Port Mafia you are." Chuuya said. "Boss wants to talk to you kids." 

"Nope. Denied. It's sleep time." Alexandra said. "We can talk tomorrow." 

"I'm not sure what you're used to but you don't deny the boss of the Port Mafia-"

"Sure you do. I always do it." Alexandra interrupted. 

Sensing Chuuya's incoming anger Daishiro took control of the situation. 

"Why don't we all meet up tomorrow to disguss things?" he suggested. "At least that way we don't deal with explaning the situation over and over again. And us falling asleep mid-meeting." 

Chuuya glanced back at the group. Naomi was already asleep on Tanizaki's shoulder and Alexandra was getting there. Though they weren't the only ones who were sleepy. The rest was appearantly exhausted too. The mafiosi sighed. 

"Tomorrow then. My boss will call yours later."  

"Deal." 

Chuuya didn't seem glad whatsoever but he seemed to have realised it was a lost cause. 

"Whatever. I'll send the other two to wherever you kids are staying. Good night." and without another word he walked away. 

"And the trouble continues." Dazai muttered. Then he turned to Kunikida and asked, "What are the chances of the president giving me an off day tomorrow?"

The blond didn't even bother to answer, he was too busy dreading the meeting. Just like everyone else was. 

Everyone except the cause of the problem. The kids. They were just grinning from ear to ear, happily talking to Shizuko. 

Notes:

This feels like a really rushed ending and a sucky chapter in general but I'm doing my best guys. I wrote half of it in the hospital. 

Chapter 8: What Goes Best With Murder, Salami Sandwich or Chocolate Anpan?

Summary:

The Stray Dog team is finally complete and they have a civil conversation with the adults. Well kind of. At least no one brings out a gun.

The kids were late. 

Kunikida kept muttering about the importance of punctuality as he took notes, which annoyed Tachihara very much, but whenever the ginger wanted to snap at the blond, Gin or Hirotsu had stopped him from doing it. 

Despite Chuuya's reluctance they had managed to hold a meeting. Most of the Port Mafia members and all of Agency's detectives were crambed in a small, old fashioned tea house. Fukuzawa knew the owner personally, so they had occupied it for their meeting on a sunday morning. 

Agency members (with the addition of Poe and Lucy since Daishiro requested them to be present as well) sat at the left side of the table while Port Mafia members; Koyo, Chuuya, Black Lizard, Akutagawa and Higuchi were seated on the right. Mori and Fukuzawa sat at the head of the table, with a chair left for Daishiro. A sort of equality between three leaders. 

"Are we sure they didn't just tricked us into coming here?" Chuuya said. Though he seemed bored than skeptic. 

"And why would they do that?" Yosano asked, though it was obvious she did it just to do something. The executive shrugged. 

"Well good to know we didn't show up last." Nikolai said from behind Fumiya. The boy shrieked. 

"What do you have against me!?" 

"Gogol-" Kunikida gasped, he was just as startled as Fumiya. Most of them were. "-what are you doing here? How did you even get in?" he glanced back at the locked door. 

The clown giggled "Is that even a question?" he waved his coat. "Sorry we're late. Fedya darling had a small health problem." 

"Do not call me that." Fyodor's voice came. 

They turned around to find both him and Sigma sitting on a table. They even had McDonald's in front of them. 

"A healthy breakfast." Nikolai grinned when he caught their looks. Fyodor and Sigma both sighed. Still the manager munched on a cookie. 

"Well it's..." Kunikida tried but complimenting that trio was hard. Luckly he didn't need to greet them. 

"Good, everyone's here." Fadeyka smiled. Fumiya shrieked again. 

"Oh come on!" 

The Ukrainian just smiled and opened his cape wider. Through it all the kids passed through. First was Daishiro then followed by a girl they didn't know. She was tall and had light magenta hair that was tied to a half bun with a really familiar butterfly hair clip. She wore a black kimono with golden accents and carried a gold umbrella. She bowed gently. 

"Good morning... work acquaintances." 

Yosano-Ozaki Akeno: Medical Expert

Ability: Golden Death

She rose again with a smirk. Despite her respectful tone and elegant moves, she looked amused. As if she wasn't taking anything she said seriously. 

"Akeno is my second in command." Daishiro explained. "Also the youngest executive in Port Mafia history." 

"Stole Dazai's title have you?" Chuuya grinned. He looked as equally amused as Akeno. He glanced towards where Dazai sat but the boy only tilted his head in confusion. 

"It was easier than stealing your phone." she chuckled. The Mafia executives shared a glance not sure if that was mockery or not. 

"No time for mind games Akeno." Daishiro scolded. Akeno just shrugged and took a seat. That was when they realised she was carrying something. Ryutaro happily jumped up on the table and made himself comfortable on Ranpo's lap. Poe, who was sitting next to him, scrathed the racoons ears. Soon more people followed them. One by one all kids came out of the coat. 

"Fumiya, a hand?" Fadeyka asked. To the surprise of the Agency Fumiya got up from right next to them. Where they thought Dazai sat. 

"Fumiya-san!? When did you get there?" Atsushi asked. 

"Um... I've been here the whole time." the boy said. Then he walked upto Fadeyka and lifted his cape. From it Dazai, the Osamu one fell through. 

"This is actually better than taking the train." Dazai smiled. 

The group just stared. 

"Where were you?" Kunikida questioned. 

"Hm? Oh I was sleeping. You didn't realise I wasn't here?" 

"But you were-" the idealist cut himself off, eyes drifting to the empty chair and to Fumiya. The said boy just shrugged. 

"Once I realised the team was going to be late, I ditched them and met with you guys." he explained. The group continued to stare at him, dumpstruck how they had confused his with his father. He flushed at the attention. 

"I'm a punctual person!" he defended himself. His team laughed it off. 

"C'mon punctual guy. We're as late as it is." Shizuko patted his shoulder. 

While Dazai took the seat Fumiya was sitting earlier, the team sat next to the terrorist trio. Fyodor glared at them, though that was probably because Alexandra stole his half-eaten nugget the second she sat next to him. The rest snickered taking seats. Only Daishiro sat between his family. A moment of awkward silence filled the cafe. 

"Where's the other girl? The black haired one." Chuuya questioned. 

"Buying breakfast." Takashi answered. Another moment of awkward silence. 

"So," Ranpo began "What do we do?" 

"I think it's high time you told us what exactly is going on." Mori smiled pleasantly. It was unsettling. The group shared a glance. 

"I think they'll forget it eventually." Shizuko spoke. 

"Forget what?" Sigma asked. The group glanced at each other again. 

"Fumiya, you explain." Takashi threw the ball. 

"Why me!?" the brunet asked. 

"You time-travelled more than everyone here." Daishiro pointed out. 

"Excuse me? That gnome-" he pointed to Alexandra, who glared at him. "-was with me! Heck most of them were her fault." 

"My fault?!" the Russian shrieked. Her voice was abnormally high pitched. "My fault you say? We used five karkoals and three of them was your fault!"

"It's pronounced 'charcoal'" Akeno corrected. Alexandra didn't even glanced at her. 

"Yes Sparta was my fault but I had no idea what would it do! I assumed it was a normal kar- wait, charcoal." 

"Whatever." Fumiya rolled his eyes but Alexandra kept going. She lowered her voice "Oh look Alex, another charcoal. Let's time travel again!" she glared at Fumiya. The said boy averted his gaze. 

"I told you not to but noooo. Boom. We're in Egypt, Cleopatra wants us dead and there are crocodiles involved!" 

"As if you didn't made a friend out of them!" Fumiya shouted. Alexandra smiled sadly. "Krokodisha... I miss her." 

"Are you done?" Daishiro asked. Both kids nodded. "Then both of you get up and explain." he ordered. 

They sighed. Fumiya got up first and the younger followed just a second later. They walked up until they could be seen by everyone. Alexandra was shaking uncontrollably to the point the Agency members glanced at Daishiro to stop her. The boy didn't care though. 

"Sooo what do we explain?" Fumiya questioned. A cacophony of suggestions flew around for a minute before everyone cut themselves off. 

"Why don't you start at the top. We know the enemy but not the situation." Fukuzawa suggested. Fumiya nodded and gestured towards Alexandra. 

"It was your case." he said. Alexandra sighed as she walked up at the centre. 

"It was Ranpo's case but fine." she jumped on an empty table and sat on it, while Fumiya sat on an empty chair to the side. 

"Fumiya can bore you with time travel deal later. For now I'll just tell what we're up against." she started. 

"Okay so in the future we kids deal with any cases relating to "cooperation". Meaning when a problem or enemy or whatever bothers two or more organisations, we deal with it. Well except times it's way too dangerous for us kids. We usually figure out what the heck is going on and adults do the arresting or killing bit. Sometimes." she grinned. She looked a bit manical with the dim lights of the tea house. 

"Moving on, it was a problem like that. Agency got an urgent case from police about a series of murders. What the police didn't know was that all the victims were my papa's employees. Normally my brother handles that. He's the "bridge"-" she made quotation marks with her hands "between Agency and Decays. But since Ranpo was interested in the case and I'm his favourite-" she grinned proudly. "He wanted me to accompany him." 

"You sure that was the case?" Dazai asked. "Or was it just because he need a guide." 

"Trust me, Alex's way finding is even worser than dads. He likes her company."

"Exactly! Thank you Ryutaro." the Russian grinned. Dazai rolled his eyes. 

"You're welcome." Ryutaro said. That seemed to be what made people realise. 

All heads turned to where Ranpo was sitting. The said man seemed normal, not surprised to the kid who came out of knowhere but Poe's mouth was hung open as he stared at the boy. The boy simply smiled and got up. He was relatively short for a guy. He had dark, spiky hair and a rather pale skin. His hair mostly obscured his face but they saw his violet eyes. He looked more like a foreigner rather than Japanese. The adults stared at him, shocked. The boy tilted his head. 

"What's with those looks? They told you I wasn't a raccoon." 

Ryutaro W. Edogawa: Mastermind

Ability: The Panorama Tale

Ryutaro smiled as he removed his detective hat to greet them. That was actually the only thing that made him look like a textbook detective. He looked more like a scholar than anything. He wore a white button up with a black blazer over it. All he was missing was a tie. 

"Were- were you that racoon all this time?" Sigma asked looking extremely frustrated. Ryutaro winked at him. Next to the manager, Fadeyka giggled. 

"I am a master of disguise after all!" the shapeshifter laughed. 

"Right. He was sleeping when they attacked us. That's why he was a racoon." Akeno smirked. Ryutaro glared at her. 

"It was a tactical retreat! No one would suspect me as a racoon."

"A tactical retreat to save your dignity, more like." the girl laughed. "We all know you sleep in a cat onesie!"

"Akeno! Shut it!"

"That's why he was stuck in a different form until you found Fadeyka and got spare clothes." 

"Akeno!" Ryutaro yelled, looking red in the face. All the kids laughed at him. 

"Can we please continue? You know I have to explain murder of my father." he yelled the last two words. His team immediately quieted, suddenly too interested in the room around them. 

"Thank you. Now Alex, just continue." the boy sighed. Alex, however seemed extremely uncomfortable. 

"Are we sure about this?" she quietly asked. "I mean Ranpo is literally there-" she pointed "-What if hearing about the incident causes problems?" 

"Since when do you care about people's mental health?" Fadeyka asked from his place. His sister glared but before she could retort, Ranpo spoke. 

"Why not ask the guy himself?" he asked, smiling. All heads turned to the master detective. "To be honest I already knew." 

"Of course you did." Ryutaro sighed. Ranpo grinned. 

"All of you were acting strange around me. Averting your gaze, getting really quiet. I figured something bad had happened and death is the first thing that comes to mind in those sort of things. And before you go about trying to soften it, I really don't mind." 

To that everyone looked sort of surprised. Ranpo continued without a care though. 

"I see dead bodies all day. I sometimes see more of the dead than the living. People say death is the biggest mystery of all. To me, it is literally the only thing that isn't a mystery. When I get a new case the first thing I will always know is that the victim is dead. Their identity, location, relationships, who did it. Those are the mystery. So no, I'm not scared of dying. Do I want to die? No, that's Dazai's department. But knowing I'll die in, what 20 years? Well I'm surprised I managed to live that long. Actually, I'm not. I'm amazing at seeing and avoiding danger after all." 

Ranpo took a deep breath for a second before reaching inside of his detective cape and opening a packet of marshmallows. He made himself comfortable before continuing. 

"So don't sugercoat anything. I'm fine, curious even. If it's a mystery, I'll solve my own murder!" he happily announced, showing off his glasses. The entire room was starring at him, dumbfounded. 

"You're all crazy." Sigma broke the silence. From the other side of the room Tachihara nodded slowly. 

"Wait, wait-" Atsushi worriedly began "-So it is real? Ranpo-san will actually- die. For real? That- that can't be."

"Dad calm down." Takashi tried. "You're gonna have a heart attack." 

"Yeah, plus he might not even die in this timeline. Sure he's dead in ours..." Fumiya tried to reassure. He failed. 

"I don't think I understand that..." Atsushi mumbled. Fumiya sighed readying himself to explain. 

Before the mafiosi could answer however there was a clap. A slow, and extremely obviously sarsactic clap. Everyome turned around the see a beautiful girl standing at the entrance of the locked tea house door. They knew, just with a glance she was a future kid as well. Inky black hair, red eyes, a gentle face which was a complete copy of her mother's. She had couple of blastic bags wrapped around her arms so they made sounds as she clapped. 

Finally she stopped with a gentle smile on her face. She took a long moment to put the bags on a table. When she was done she turned around, still looking kindly and sweet. Her attitude and her fairy-like appearance fooled the adults for a moment before she opened her mouth. Her voice was soft. 

"Wow..." she looked at her team. "All of you together yet you're still useless at meetings." 

Higuchi Natsuko: The Assassin

Ability Repute: Black Dahlia of Yokohama

 

~~~

 

Natsuko walked around the familiar yet unfamiliar city. Most places were exactly the same. At least around the part of the city she spent most of her time in. It was sad to see her favourite book store replaced by a convenience store though. More like the book store replaced the convenience store... 

It was confusing. Time travel was both simple and a confusing event. She had always wanted to try it though. Though she was hoping to experience history like Fumiya and Alexandra did. And Shizuko that one time but even she had no idea Natsuko knew about that. 

To be perfectly honest she was a bit disappointed. She would much rather explore the temples of Mayans or see the streets of Pompeii while it was still alive. Twenty-three years wasn't exactly that long for a big city. Still, time travel itself was amazing so she would get every information she could from this trip. 

Her feet dragged her to a familiar bakery. It was comforting to find it. At least she would eat something known to her. She chekced her money for one last time and walked in. It was a small bakery. Typical, cozy. Natsuko loved it. She would usually come here with the girls or her cousin. Or sometimes alone. She liked the simplicity of it. And they worked all seven days so it was a win. 

"Good morning dear. How may I help you?" the owner greeted her. 

Now that was interesting. The owner knew Natsuko by name, given how much she visited the bakery. She was prepared to be not known by her but seeing her young, she did not expect. Still Natsuko swallowed her surprise and smiled. 

"Hello ma'am." Natsuko greeted. She glanced at the display, thinking who would prefer what. Natsuko had asked them to give her a list but nooo, all of them were indecisive so now they were going to eat whatever Natsuko got them. Still she wanted to get something they would enjoy. 

Captain, Takashi, Nakahara's and Ryutaro were easy to buy for. First four would prefer something salty while Ryutaro would want sweets. Daishiro enjoyed salty pastry, but would like something sugary for Elise because Mori always hated it when she had it too much. Annoying the boss was much more important to Daishiro than breakfast. 

Takashi, Shizuko and Fumiya would like salty things as well. So she bought all four of them sausage pans. For Ryutaro, Elise and herself she bought anpans. Akeno was going to hate that they were eating sweets in the morning but it was a stressful situation right now. 

Now the rest were problematic. Akeno, Alexandra and Fadeyka had really different tastes. Akeno especially was really hard to buy food for. Except certain sweets she had never shown much interest to anything and would eat everything you put in front of her. It was a bit scary actually... She got her a cheese and salami sandwich. 

And with the Russians... Natsuko knew, no matter how much they claimed otherwise, those two still had trouble getting used to the food. Alexandra was more willing but that contradicted with the fact that she hated trying new things. Natsuko knew they had grown up in a small town in Siberia until they were around eight. So they had lived with traditional Russian food for the longest time. Heck Alexandra had gotten sick after trying squid for the first time. 

So she didn't risk it and got them sandwiches as well. Alexandra would be upset that she got a sandwich while others got pastry but it would be bad if she got sick. So sandwiches it is. She added coffe and juices to the order and left the shop. She headed to the meeting point. While walking she saw a familiar figure waiting for her. 

"My lady." Fadeyka bowed dramatically, reaching a hand. 

"Such a gentelman." she laughed as he kissed her extended hand. 

"Of course. We were waiting for you." 

"You're all starving aren't you?"

"Oh lord, yes." 

Natsuko laughed. Fadeyka too smiled. 

"So what did you explain to them so far?" the assassin asked. Fadeyka frowned. 

"Actually... we were a bit late. And with the arguments or banter we barely managed to tell them Ranpo will... You know."

"I've been out for an hour and you did nothing?" the younger frowned. She wasn't angry, mostly annoyed but Fadeyka still tensed. Natsuno knew she scared people when she was angry. She didn't get why though, she wasn't the one to get angry quickly or much. 

"Fine. I'll handle it. Captain and Ane-san has gotten soft. All of you have gotten soft these past months." she mumbled. 

"Sure, go ahead." Fadeyka smiled. Just then Natsuko had an idea. 

"I think I'll get a bit dramatic for this. Can you help?" 

She couldn't help but laugh at the pure excitement and joy on Fadeyka's face. 

 

~~~

 

After making her rather dramatic entrance Natsuko made her way insiönde the tea house. She stood in front of the tables where Fumiya and Alexandra were supposedly explaining things. She high fived her cousin on the way. 

"I'm a bit disappointed Captain. I thought you would organise this more... sternly." she glanced at her leader. Daishiro frowned. 

"Noted. You'll do it differently if you ever have team of your own." the boy said. Natsuko smiled politely at the jab. 

"Noted." she mimicked. "Still we have the issue of explaining, well everything. To them." she gestured the room. 

"And you are..?" Tachihara asked. The man looked annoyed. Natsuko was sure she had the same face when she pointed at Gin, who was seated next to him and said, 

"You have three guesses." 

"I'm sure that's not what he meant." Akeno chimed in. Natsuko grinned at her "older sister" to show she knew what he was asking exactly. Tachihara too was aware of that fact and he seemed more annoyed than ever. 

"I'm Ichiyo and Gin's daughter. And Takashi's cousin." she added as an after thought. 

"Now, with that out of the way let's get started. Takashi, give everyone their food. Sausage pans are for you, Dazai's and Captain."

"Natsuko! What did I say about sweets for breakfast?" 

"That it's an amazing idea? Cause you'd be right Akeno."

"No Ryutaro it's not healthy!"

"The extra anpan is for Elise by the way." Natsuko interrupted Akeno and Ryutaro's banter. The little girl in question smiled as she took the bread. Mori frowned. 

"I'm not sure I like that idea..."

"Good enough for me." Daishiro said as urged Elise to eat it. 

"Wait everyone gets buns but all I get is a lousy sandwich!?"

"It's a salami sandwich though..." 

"Still! I wanted something-"

"Sasha shut up and eat your sandwich." 

"Fadeyka! Ugh fine, hey is the mixed juice mine?" 

"Yep yours. Sorry, I didn't get you guys anything." she gestured the adults. 

"Not a problem at all." Fukuzawa gestured the tea in front of him, and some other drinks and snacks, various people got for themselves.

"Now! Fumiya get over here. We're handling the time travel first." 

The said boy glanced up from his food, almost all of it was already gone. That boy really ate like a vacuum... He nodded and downed his coffee too. 

"Shouldn't we continue with the "Ranpo-san is dead but actually he's not dead." part?" Yosano questioned. 

"Let me eat first." Alexandra argued, gesturing the barely bitten down sandwich. Fumiya once again stood in front of the tables. 

"Okay. No interruptions, let's get down to business-" 

"To defeat the Huns!" all the kids, minus Daishiro and Akeno, sang. Fumiya laughed. 

"Now. You already know how we time travel. A singularity scattered charcoals around the country and throwing them into the fire brings us back. While we are in the past there are a couple of rules." 

"Now. What you need to understand is that time is a line. Think of it as a really, really long rope. Every single thing has a weight on this rope. Me, you, that table, um let's see... well the Agency building, Karl, a random bee. Everything. And this "weight" is unique to every being. The rope can handle all these weight while they exist. But nothing more. Or it will snap. It cannot handle the weight of the same being at the same time." he took a long breath and eyed his empty coffee cup with sadness. Shizuko quietly passed her own coffee to him. 

"I love you so much."

"Yeah yeah. Love you too." the redhead smiled. 

"So what I'm saying is that if I were to time travel right now and go back in time to one hour there would be two of me. And that would destroy the entire timeline and kill us all." 

"Now that escalated quickly..." Dazai said.

"Yep. The only way we're able to be here is that we're not born yet." Fumiya explained. "But we can't stay here forever. You see Daishiro was born in 2015. So three years from now on. It may seem like we have three years but no. The timeline will try to protect itself and to do it will try to erase us from existence. Based on my own experiences I say we have four to six weeks. Alex, what do you think?" he turned to the Russian. Said girl shrugged. 

"Who knows. I'm not good at math. It's not like we glitched that much before. Except that one time you glitched so bad that the Bolsheviks caught you." 

"Yeah and we had spent, what five months there?" 

"Worst five months of my life." Fadeyka mumbled. Shizuko nodded. 

"The worst." she agreed. 

"Anyways, so you kids have a deadline?" Kunikida asked. Fumiya nodded. 

"What is this Ranpo business then?" Koyo questioned. 

"Oh that. Well that's general science to be honest. Basically this theory says that every action we do causes the birth of a new timeline. So our present may never be your future. It's impossible to know." 

"Well that's good. But since we already know what will happen, wouldn't we change it?" Atsushi asked. 

"Nope. Like I said, the timeline protects itself. It'll erase this change and you'll all return to where you were before we came, forgetting everything. So if you die, don't worry you'll be fine once we go back. If we die though..." he didn't need to finish for everyone to understand. 

"Well that is everything about time travel I think." Fumiya said. "At least everything I know." 

"It's my turn isn't it?" Alexandra pouted. "I hate public speaking." Natsuko gave her a headpat. 

"C'mon, it's family not a bunch of strangers." 

"They kind of are. I'm %95 sure papa would kill me if I hug him." 

"But doesn't Fyodor-san always hate hugs?"

"Touché. Alright, murder!" she walked up to where Fumiya was standing with her sandwich at hand. 

"Now now, recap! We get a murder case, all the victims are papa's low ranked employees and Ranpo and I arrive at a murder scene. It was your normal homicide. Adult male, non-ability user. I think his name was Dimitry-"

"Vladimir." Fadeyka corrected "Dimitry is the one you pushed into the Neva."

"Oh right. I like Dimitry." 

"I would guess he doesn't like you." Fyodor said. Alexandra grinned at him. 

"Anyways, poor Vlad's dead. But the problem is there's literally nothing. Only thing that connects the murders is that the same gun is used in all of them. No struggle, any struggle. Nothing. That's why they wanted Ranpo to take a look. We were certain it was an ability user." 

"What was Ranpo-san's verdict?" Tanizaki asked. The Russian however shook her head. 

"He never got the chance." her voice cracked. "The other officers knew to leave him alone when he checked out the crime scene so it was just me and him in a small alley. Suddenly I heard a noise coming from a fire escape and the next thing I know Ranpo was pushing me to the ground and there was gunshot." she took a deep breath. "He was dead before the first policeman reached us." 

The only sound was the sound of Ranpo's marshmallow package. The detective regarded the girl. 

"So the one who killed future Ranpo was the person who fired the gun." he said. Alexandra looked at him but didn't answer. 

"Well obviously." Ryutaro rolled his eyes. "It was either the gun person or Vladimir." 

Ranpo just hummed, scanning every kid with eyes open. Once he was done, he closed them but didn't say anything. 

"It is... an unfortunate loss for you. May he rest in peace." Fukuzawa tried to be sympathetic. Though he was as stoic as ever. Natsuko wondered how he was feeling. His adoptive son was killed by an unknown force, for unknown reasons. 

"Amen!" everyone said. Fyodor, Fadeyka and Ryutaro crossed themselves. 

Natsuko walked up to Alexandra, relieving of her duty. Mostly because she still hadn't finished her breakfast but also she was much more nervous than usual. Alexandra had stage fright to the point Natsuko suspected social anxiety. And it didn't help she was explaining Ranpo's case. 

Alexandra adored Ranpo. He was her hero, smartest person she ever met. Their personalities were so similar as well. Alex always craved understanding and she had found it in Ranpo. His loss was heavy on her. Weirdly Dostoevsky kids didn't handle death well. Natsuko found that odd, given their parents. 

But now wasn't the time. Now her team needed help. Alex needed her help. Just like Alex, Natsuko too had craved understanding and it was Alex who gave it to her. They had become best friends, sisters in arms. So now she was going to support her. Alex gave a small smile and sat back down. 

"Things went downhill after Ranpo-san." Natsuko explained. "The Ring started to target us and our allies. They targeted our ability users, attacking them one by one. By the time we realised what was going on, it was already too late. It started with disapperances. First loss was that Ivan guy from Fyodor-san's organisation-" 

"That isn't much of a loss to be honest." Alexandra interrupted. "If anything it was a win."

"Sasha..." Fadeyka warned.

"What? He deserved to die!" 

"We are not discussing this again-"

"Yes you are not!" Daishiro, surprising for him, slammed the table. Both kids immediately quieted. 

"This is your fifth fight since this morning. Keep it together, and if that includes not talking to each other then you won't speak to one another. Now, Shizuko change seats with Alexandra." 

At that moment Daishiro looked like a tired teacher than a captain or a big brother (and Natsuko was one of the only people who could do that comparison since she actually went to school at one point of her life.) 

After the change both Dostoevsky's didn't look at each other, despite being seated across from one another. Daishiro made a gesture for Natsuko to continue without adressing the issue. Natsuko nodded. 

"From the Agency, first Tanizaki-san disappeared. Out of nowhere. Naomi-san said he went out for shopping and never came back. Then followed by Kajii-san, then we heard Hawthorne and Mitchell from the Guild had disappeared. All of this happened in a month." 

"By that time our parents had already took control of the case and left us out of the picture. All we know is that ability users from all organisations started to disappear. It was when Tachihara went missing that we realised how dangerous the enemy actually was."

"Wait up!" Chuuya made a 'time out' gesture "You just said they only kidnapped ability users." 

"Yes, I did?" Natsuko seemed confused. "Since Tachihara is actually a Hunting Dog, it makes him an ability user-" 

"He's a what!?"

"-You had not learned that yet..." Natsuko finished herself with a tight smile. 

Oh shit. 

"Tachihara... Any comments?" Hirotsu turned to his fellow 'mafiosi'. Now all Mafia members were starring at him, looking extremely angry. Well, except for Mori. He seemed amused more than anything. 

"Umm... Surprise?" the ginger tried to smile. He failed. "My chance of survival is slim isn't it?" 

"Probably impossible." Dazai leaned in and patted his arm. 

"It's not actually." Mori hummed. All mafia members turned to him. Their boss looked extremely amused now. "I'm really glad to have a Hunting Dog under my service." he smiled. "Tachihara-kun, come see me after this meeting."

"Boss!" Chuuya exclaimed. Mori shushed him. 

"I- what!?" Tachihara stammered. Mori raised an eyebrow. "Okay... sure thing boss." the boy sighed, looking much more confused than anyone in the room.

Natsuko smiled. "Good choice. Your current boss isn't as good as you think anyways." Alexandra giggled at that. Even Daishiro's lips curled upwards. A bit. 

"May I go on? I'm pretty sure you will be really interested in what happens next." 

"Let me guess? You found the kidnapped people. The end." Akutagawa grumbled. Natsuko shook her head. 

"Nope. They found us." she smiled sadly. "And killed every one of you." 

"What..?" 

Natsuko's smile was a sad one now. She glanced at her teammates. The kids had gotten odly quiet. Natsuko pointed at Alexandra. 

"Appearantly those murders Ranpo-san and Murasaki was investigating had a reason." she said. "They were an attempt from an ability user. We don't know who "he" is so we call him X. Because you know X-Files." she grinned. Everyone glanced at each other. 

"Oh come on! Fox Mulder, Dana Scully? FBI agents searching the supernatural?" she asked. "I can't believe this. Do none of you know!?" 

"I think it was my dad who introduced the show to them." Ryutaro said. "American show and all." 

"Woah. Just woah. Okay, we'll fix it later. Anyways X, who was named after the greatest show in the existence, has the ability of mind control. He kills his targets and controls them." 

"How do you know they're dead? Maybe it's just regular mind control." 

"We can see the wounds." Takashi croaked. "I doubt one would have a bloody gape in their heart and survive." 

Fadeyka wrapped an arm around the child. They smiled but it was obviously fake. 

"So... We have an enemy who can kill everyone in this room. I'm sure that shows how dangerous the situation is." 

"Not all of them." a new voice said. Natsuko quickly turned around, drawing the dagger on her waist. Alexandra choked on her juice and Fadeyka turned his head so quickly, his neck cracked. 

The Manager had a scowl on his as he stood right behind Natsuko. His dual colored hair was tied to a ponytail and he had dark circles under his eyes. He glared at Fadeyka and Alexandra. 

"You two brats better have a good explanation." Sigma said as the siblings walked upto him. Fadeyka smiled sheepishly while Alexandra donned an innocent grin. 

"We have five. Pick your favourite." 

Notes:

FINALLY I EXPLAINED THE TIME TRAVEL
It's so hard to explain it in my own language, let alone English. Apologises for the info-dump. I have no idea how to not do it. Anyways next up: I don't know. I kind of forgot what happens next so I'll have to ask my friend who has access to Wattpad.
Well... toodless~

Chapter 9: II

Summary:

ALEXANDRA, SHIZUKO, AKENO, RYUTARO, NATSUKO

A long overdue character introduction chapter. This will be the last one for a long while. I still have a few OCs but this is the end of the main group. I also made aesthetics for this batch as well, I'll put the pinterest link so you can check it. 

Name: Alexandra Feodorovna Dostoevskaya

Family: F. Dostoevsky, N. Gogol, F. Gogol (older brother), A. Dostoevsky (older brother ☦︎) 

Ability: The House of the Dead. It causes her to kill every living being which touches her bare skin. Her family and Sigma are immune to her ability. While her familys immunity is caused by their biological connection, Sigma being immune shows that her ability can be controlled at will but Alexandra doesn't know how to do it. 

Personality: Alexandra appears to be a calm, quiet person at first. Usually she is, especially with strangers. Only with her loved ones she gets loud and somewhat eccentrik. Alexandra lacks empathy to a big extend, mostly because of the nature of her ability. It causes problems, especially when it meets her cruelity. She doesn't consider how her actions can effect others, thus sometimes hurting them. Still, she has an unwavering loyalty to her family and friends and is willing to put anyone (including herself) at risk for them. 

Appearance: Alexandra has messy, dark purple hair that reaches her waist. She has front layers and bangs but they are overgrown which makes her hair look like it had never been combed before. She has lively indigo eyes and a pale complexion. She wears an indigo button down with a tie, black shorts and usually mismatched long socks. She wears black gloves, an ushanka and knee lenght boots. 

Age: 14

Height: 150cm

Likes: Poker, books, calligraphy

Dislikes: Clowns, olives, hospitals

Birthday: 24 October 2021

Birthplace: St. Peterburg, Russia

MBTI: INTP, The Logician

Link: https://pin.it/6CsJ0h90u 

 

~~~

 

Name: Nakahara Shizuko

Family: Dazai O., Nakahara C., Dazai F. (older brother) 

Ability: No Room For Sorrow. Allows her to create a space (usually that fills a room) where she controls the gravity. The ability causes the affected area to look in a reddish hue. 

Personality: Shizuko is a bold and arrogant person. Mixed with her short temper, she can be quite hard to get along with. Still, she is extremely loyal and her extreme strenght makes her a reassuring presence. While people mostly assume she's the "brawn" while her brother is the "brains" she is a genious of her own. Her observation and improvisational skills usually saves them whenever things go differently than Fumiya's pre-made plans. Shizuko also has strong sense of responsibility. 

Appearance: Shizuko has chopped ginger hair and greyish blue eyes. She has freckless spreading through her nose and cheecks. Shizuko, despite the genetics, has average height. She wears a black crop over black jeans and leather boots. She also wears a rather familiar black hat. 

Age: 15

Height: 162cm

Likes: Crab, poetry, music

Dislikes: Yellow, countryside

Birthday: 6 June 2020

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

MBTI: ESTJ, The Executive

Link: https://pin.it/7pHFg5hg1

 

~~~

 

Name: Yosano-Ozaki Akeno

Family: Koyo O., Yosano A. 

Ability: The Golden Death. Creates a sword wielding phantom which has the ability to heal any deadly injuries caused with its own sword. 

Personality: Akeno handles herself with grace and dignity yet she has an easy-going nature. She is usually amused by her teams antics, rather than being annoyed. Yet being the second-in-command, a doctor in training and the youngest executive of the Port Mafia has honed her to a mature, responsible person and a great leader. Akeno doesn't handle disrespect well and has a cold anger. It takes a great time and effort to earn her forgiveness. Akeno is also strict with health related issues, trying her best to maintain her loved ones well-being. 

Appearance: Akeno has long magenta hair tied to a half bun by a golden butterfly hair clip. Her long bangs frame her face. She has cherry red eyes. She wears a black kimono with golden floral designs, a golden obi tied into a small bow and short black boots. She carries a traditional Japanese umbrella which hides her sword. 

Age: 17 

Height: 170cm

Likes: Flowers, poetry, fashion

Dislikes: Sexism, being underastimated, tofu

Birthday: 19 May 2018

Birthplace: Yokohama, Japan

MBTI: ESFP, The Entertainer

Link: https://pin.it/5NIr32dGh

 

~~~

 

Name: Ryutaro William Edogawa

Family: E. Allan Poe, Edogawa R.

Ability: The Panorama Tale. Allows him to create illusions based on the descriptions he writes. Despite being illusions, depending on the description, they can be felt by all five senses. Although the illusions won't last long to attacks and can be torn apart if the papers the descriptions are written on are damaged. 

Personality: To the strangers Ryutaro is quiet and introverted. Yet with people he's comfortable with he's loud, cocky, childish and prideful. Ryutaro is the son of an amazing mystery writer and the greatest detective in the world after all, mystery is in his blood. He can solve any type of mystery easily and isn't bothered by blood and gore. Ryutaro doesn't feel fear to the point he puts himself in deadly situations, thinking he can easily get out. 

Appearance: Ryutaro has short messy black hair and tired looking violet eyes. He looks like a Westerner rather than a Japanese, which causes him to perceived as a foreigner. He wears a white button up, a black blazer, dark jeans, long boots and a black detective's hat. Weirdly he can produce a notebook and a pen everywhere, no matter what he wears. 

Age: 18

Height: 164cm

Likes: Mystery novels, sweets, the smell of rain

Dislikes: Stupid people, school, wool

Birthday: 1 January 2017

Birthplace: Salem-Massachusetts, USA  

MBTI: INFP, The Mediator

Link: https://pin.it/6DZTh9WPW

 

~~~

 

Name: Higuchi Natsuko

Family: Higuchi I., Akutagawa G., Akutagawa R. (uncle), Akutagawa T. (cousin) 

Reputee: Black Dahlia. A master assassin trained by Paul Verlaine and Gin herself. Though she mostly captures her targets rather than killing them. 

Personality: Natsuko is a calm and mature person. She is patient and usually tries to handle things rationally. She cares deeply about her family and is always willing to listen to their problems. She sometimes neglects her own issues and tries to handle everything on her own. Under her caring personality, lies a cold blooded killer. True to the saying she is silent and deadly, willing to kill if it's necessary. 

Appearance: Natsuko has long black hair tied to a half braid and deep red eyes. She has soft features, almost identical to Gin. Natsuko wears a white laced button up, a burgundy broche, black trousers and black boots. She wears a belt which carries her tantō. 

Age: 16

Height: 168cm

Likes: Knives, baking, western sweets

Dislikes: Dairy products, loud noises, non-platonic intimacy

Birthday: 30 January 2019

Birthplace: Osaka, Japan

MBTI: INFJ, The Advocate

Link: https://pin.it/4ZnpXVXey 

 

Notes:

You have no idea how many versions of aesthetics I made (please check them out). Again, the outfits are merely to show their normal style, though some wear the exact same in this fic. Only Ryutaro and Alexandra have different outfits but I couldn't find what I wanted for them. Also YES I made a dead character just so I can try to write "Haunting the narrative" trope.

Plus Dostoevsky family needed angst and those ASPD maniacs could only be affected by a really close death. Maybe. Well the cast had to be a bit OOC if I wanted a healthy family relationship.

Anyways byee~

Chapter 10: Sibling Bickering At Its Best

Summary:

The Past Team learns promising leads from the Future Team but it's hard to focus on the job when you have so much unresolved family trauma. And poor Fadeyka doesn't get an allowence enough for this.

"So... Would you prefer alphabetical order, or from our favourite to least favourite?"

 

"Sasha..." 

 

"Or you know, from longest to shortest?" 

 

"Sasha-"

 

"OR I know, from most logical to least logical because that would be entertaining-"

 

"Sasha!" both Sigma and Fadeyka yelled at the same time. The said girl turned to them with a scowl. 

 

"What? He asked for explanations!" 

 

Sigma loudly groaned. He walked further into the room, his illusion passing through the chairs easily. Fadeyka couldn't see Halide around but he knew this was her ability. From closer Sigma looked even worse. His clothes were clean but they were torn. He had small scrathes and bruises all over his face. Yet, he looked exactly the same as the one who stood next to him. Fadeyka assumed that would come off as a surprise to the past group, and sure enough... 

 

"Well, you look very young." Nikolai said. "Though you've grown into your looks! No longer a baby!" he wiped an imaginary tear. Past Sigma punched his arm. Future Sigma didn't seem amused as well. He was glaring daggers at Nikolai. 

 

"When the Ring attacked, the government assumed it would be helpful if we were, ah what was it again? We should be in our "best selves, unrestrained by time" and it would be... "beneficial." the manager explained. "So the very gracious captain of the Hunting Dogs reversed our ages. Lovely girl." he said through gritted teeth. 

 

"Oh yes." Fyodor smiled nicely. "I have heard about your loss to Okura Teruko. I warned you, didn't I?" 

 

"Shut it Dostov. I'm already mad at your kids, don't you get on my nerves too." 

 

Fadeyka could see the way his father lose it every passing day. So many changes, things out of his control. People out of his control. He must have been losing his mind. Still he interrupted before Fyodor could retort. 

 

"Easy Sisha. We really are sorry for running out on you but you need to calm down." 

 

Sigma's eyes snapped down to Fadeyka, his features hardening. 

 

"Calm down!? Are you insane!?" he yelled. Fadeyka felt Alexandra shift closer to him. She always hated being yelled at. 

 

"Your parents sent you to me for protection! Have you ever thought how bad the situation was if the great Dostoevsky trusted someone else, with his kids of all things!? What were you thinking you fools? Running away like that!" 

 

"We were given an order!" Alexandra spoke up with a surge of boldness. "All of us were." 

 

"By whom?" Sigma narrowed his eyes. He glanced at Daishiro but Alexandra shook her head. 

 

"I can't tell you. It's one of our rules" she mumbled. 

 

"Rules of what?" 

 

Silence. Sigma, sighed and turned to Fadeyka. 

 

"What or who could be so important that you'd risk your safety?" 

 

"You have to trust me in this Sisha. There was no risk-"

 

"No risk!?" Sigma yelled again. "You are trapped twenty years in the past, with hundreds of Ring soldiers and half of the Alliance who are under their control! Damn it Fadeyka, do you want to lose your sister too!?" 

 

Now Fadeyka wasn't the one to get hurt by words alone. He had been stabbed before. Shot at, beaten up, poisoned. But he never gave into the pain. Not unless it was this. Fadeyka had always seen death as a natural part of life. It was a natural part of life. But when he had left home one morning and didn't come back. When he had become nothing more than a memory, a picture in a frame, an empty bedroom... 

 

Now Fadeyka could see how foolish his decision was. He had risked his life, Alexandra's life, for what? Because he wanted to rescue his parents on his own? In what scenerio he could win where his parents failed? Sigma was right. He couldn't even protect him before, how was he supposed to protect the reckless Alexandra? He was prone to be cheated on after all, he could easily fall for lies. Could easily fail, lose the only family he has left-

 

"Too? Wait, who died?" He wasn't sure who had asked but it was enough to bring him back to the present. 

 

"Go ahead darling." he heard a soft whisper, like the calm wind after a storm. "Tell them who." 

 

He glanced around but there was no image of the girl. Yet she could hear her, her whisper, her smugness, her coldness. Was it getting colder? He felt his heart beat as if he was climbing a mountain. Breathing had gotten harder as well. He needed to sit down, calm down, comfort Alexandra, do something- 

 

He felt warmth. 

 

A comforting warmth on his wrist. Soon it was his whole hand. He felt another one on his back, warmth seeping through. He took a deep breath, and another. And another. 

 

"Deyka?" Ryutaro whispered, he squeezed Fadeyka's hand. "You okay?" 

 

Fadeyka looked down at him. He had a kind, understanding face. He smiled at him reassuringly. As far as he was aware Ryutaro was one of the only people who know of his loss. His fault, his sin. Yet he stood with him. Fadeyka sometimes wondered if Ryutaro was a forgiveness sent by him. Or not, he wasn't as considerate like that. No, Ryutaro was a blessing. He took a deep breath and met Sigma's gaze. 

 

Some of his turmoil must have reflected on his face because the older man was looking at him with panic and regret. He looked like he wanted to hug him but he was just a reflection. 

 

"Deyka I'm-" 

 

"No need to worry Sigma." Fadeyka cut in. "I'll keep Sasha safe, even if it kills me." 

 

"And here I am worried about your safety." Sigma sighed. 

 

"You have a funny way of showing." Ryutaro smiled. It looked sweet but Fadeyka knew it was how he showed his discomfort. Everything about Ryutaro was twisted, different, out of the box. Oh how much Fadeyka adored it. 

 

"No need to worry your pretty head. We have his back." the young detective assured. Sigma's shoulders slumped. 

 

"Okay! Time to end this lovely chat." Halide walked up, seemingly out of knowhere. "'Sup?" she waved. Some of the group waved back. 

 

"I have class in ten minutes and we still have more worried parents out here. So Mr. Manager please return to your poker game instead of emotionally wounding your... what adoptive siblings? Nieces?" 

 

Sigma didn't grace her with an answer. "Just... be careful." he glanced at Fadeyka for a moment before walking away. 

 

"That was tense." Halide smiled. Fadeyka decided to sit down instead of answering. He had just had a fight with the only adult family he had left anyways. 

 

"So I'm not the only one who's confused right?" Takashi voiced. "What was Sigma talking about? Where was he by the way? He didn't look on edge? And what was he talking about!? None of us died. I mean sure, our parents did but still, Fadeyka didn't lose anyone-"

 

"Takashi, shut up." Ryutaro snapped as he sat next to Fadeyka. 

 

"Well I have no idea what the manager was talking about but I know where he is." Lucy smiled. 

 

"Wow..." Past Lucy stared. "This is so freaky."

 

"I know right?" Future Lucy smiled. "Hey you kids!" 

 

"Lucy!" Ryutaro grinned, waving excitedly. "I'm so glad you're okay!" 

 

"Of course I am. No matter what, they can't get into Anne's Room" she winked. "So anyone who survives comes here." 

 

"Survives?" Shizuko echoed. 

 

"Oh right... You kids had your own deal." Lucy's smile dropped. "It's a warzone out there. With your parents gone the Ring is bombing everywhere, attacking buildings. We can only hide since we aren't exactly organized." 

 

"And what the hell is government doing?" Chuuya questioned. 

 

"The government, Mr. Nakahara, is corrupted." a stern voice answered. 

 

"Hey Ango." Shizuko greeted. Ango only nodded. 

 

"Good to see at least one division is together." he glanced at Daishiro. "Nice work on trapping the dangerous one's in the past. We can take a breath now, thank you."

 

"Thank Alex and Fumiya. It was them who brought us to the past." the captain got up and walked upto Ango. He looked around. "Where are Alex and Fumiya?" 

 

Fadeyka quickly looked around and sure enough, they weren't there. Of course... He was so focused on himself, he completely forgot about Sasha. Oh he was going kill Sigma for this-

 

"They're together. It's fine." Natsuko calmly said. "You can relax my friend." she said in a low voice, just so only Fadeyka could hear her. 

 

"Great, we're dead but Doc Glasses is still thriving." Chuuya rolled his eyes. Next to him Dazai was standing and assessing him. Ango opted to ignore them. 

 

"Daishiro, we need your team to take care of X-"  

 

"That's kind of the plan Sakaguchi." Takashi rolled their eyes. 

 

"-While we'll take care of the remaining ability users under the Ring's control." 

 

"Who's left behind?" Akeno asked. 

 

"Usually Guild and Dostoevsky's men." Ango dismissed. 

 

"Please do not dismiss my members like that." a voice spoke from the side. "Hey Adisay, show me who Sakamachi is speaking to." 

 

"My name is Adıvar!" Halide shouted. She snapped her fingers and Ango disappeared. Instead the illusions showed a different part of Anne's Room. Huddled around a small, round table Sigma, Fitzgerald and a guy Fadeyka didn't know sat, playing poker. Upon seeing the unknown man, Chuuya and Dazai glanced at each other. 

 

"Oh it's these kids." Fitzgerald said. 

 

"Hey boss." Ryutaro greeted again. 

 

"William! Finally, an employee of mine who doesn't want me dead." Fitzgerald smiled. "Hawthorne has changed sides again and Twain tried to assassinate me twice!" 

 

"Sad to hear that sir." 

 

"Louisa is here. Along with Mr. Melville." Lucy walked up. "But we lost sight of Allan weeks ago." 

 

"He's probably here. We'll handle him." Daishiro promised. Fadeyka looked at Ryutaro but the other boy seemed intent on not making eye contact. 

 

"And when you say handle..." Yosano began. "How do you plan on killing people who are already dead?" 

 

"By destroying their conciousness crystals of course." the unknown man said, looking up from his cards. 

 

"What are you doing there Adam?" Chuuya snorted. 

 

"Chuuya-sama! I am glad to see you alive again." this Adam person said. Fadeyka pinched Shizuko's arm. The ginger raised an eyebrow. 

 

"Who's that?" 

 

"Adam Frankenstein. A robot detective working in the Europole. He and father had met when he came to Japan to arrest Uncle Paul." 

 

"A robot..?" 

 

"Well yes, Fadeyka Feodorovich. I am the first autonomous humanoid computer in the world. I was created by Dr. Wollstonecraft. Actually, she is the reason I am here." the robot, appearantly, smiled. Fadeyka woved to never tell Alexandra an actual AI robot existed, or she would lose her mind with fear. Fadeyka himself hated robotics as well, finding them creepy. Their theory for world ending revolved around robots after all. 

 

"You see, Doctor was ordered from Dame Christie to find out X's identity and weaknesses." Adam stopped for a moment. "I'm sorry but the information is classified and only to be revealed to Fukuzawa Daishiro."

 

"Out with it tin man." Chuuya ordered. 

 

Adam took a second to process the order, literally. Fadeyka didn't care that much. All he wanted was to find his sister or down a bottle of vodka. Or just cuddle with Ryutaro. He wasn't sure. But the name adam dropped seconds later made his blood froze in his veins. Shizuko, Chuuya and Tachihara swore loudly. Even his papa and tato glanced at each other, stunned. 

 

"Jack London." Adam had said, not even aware of the bomb he had dropped. A madman, a serial killer. A man who was killed fourty years ago. 

 

~~~

 

Alexandra might have been small, weak and sickly but she was fast. Gods damn it she was fast. And knew how to hide. Luckly the tea house was also small so she didn't have much choice in that matter. 

 

Fumiya climbed to the small second floor to find her. Natsuko had attempted to follow the girl but Fumiya had stopped her, deciding she wasn't well informed about this to bring Alex back to her senses. 

 

The Dostoevsky family were so adamant on keeping their loss a secret. Fumiya had a sort of understading on why but he also thought they were a bit too strict about it. Still, he respected their choice. As far as he was aware only he, Ranpo, Ryutaro and interestingly Yosano knew that there used to be three children instead of two. 

 

"Get out." Alexandra ordered as he climbed the last of the stairs. She was sitting on a table near a window, watching the quiet street. She had the weird ability to understand who was coming based on footsteps and honestly it was freaky. 

 

"It's not like I haven't see you cry before." Fumiya responded. Alexandra just sniffed. 

 

"Honestly," he walked upto her and sat at the opposing chair. "No one cares if you cry. Well, we care but differently. You get what I'm saying." 

 

The other huffed as she took a piece of napkin to wipe her eyes. "I hate how one mention can turn me into a mess. If he were to see this, he'd definitely make fun of me. Of us." she added as a later thought. "I shouldn't have leave Deshka like that." she mumbled. 

 

"He's got Ryutaro. You know how weirdly good those two get along." 

 

"Yeah..." she sniffed. "You boys do get along." 

 

"You and Natsuko get along too." 

 

"Yeah I suppose..." 

 

"Okay that's it." Fumiya jumped next to her. Alexandra barely avoided falling of the table. "What's with you?" 

 

"Que- que'est-ce que tu fais!? Es tu un imbecile!?" she screamed. 

 

"En Français? Pourquoi?"  Fumiya replied, puzzled. Alexandra stopped for a moment. 

 

"I forgot you spoke it too." she replied after a second. Fumiya chuckled as he threw an arm around her shoulders. She flinched back at first but allowed him when Fumiya used his ability. 

 

"I'm just confused on why you are so emotional these days. Is it... your parents?" he asked. Then he wished he didn't, as it might have been offensive. Alexandra hit him lightly. 

 

"A little." she replied. "I just have so much losses. And Fadeyka is acting distant towards me." 

 

"He's probably as sad as you are right now. Trust me, we all are." the brunet sighed. "He probably has no idea how to process things. Since your emotional capability equals to one of a rocks'-" another light hit "he's just doing a bad job." 

 

"I... just want to go back to normal." 

 

"Well we gotta work hard for that." Fumiya messed her hair. "Now ready to go back or do you want to mope around a little bit more?" 

 

"This can't be healthy." Alex jumped off of the table. She wiped her face and nose with a napkin and started to walk towards the stairs. 

 

"Alex you've been killing people since you were eleven. We way passed the point of healthy." Fumiya rolled his eyes as followed the girl. Alexandra turned around, a mischievious smirk on her face. 

 

"I was five actually." she grinned. Fumiya stopped in his tracks. 

 

"Excuse me?" 

 

"You're excused. Let's go." 

 

And just like that she jumped on the railing and slid down. Fumiya took a breath, rubbing his eyes. He was calm. Why wouldn't he be? His friend and partner in crime had just turned out to be one of the youngest killers in the world and possibly in history. Nothing to worry about. Fumiya made a mental note about never sleeping whenever he got Alexandra angry again and walked down. 

 

 

~~~

 

 

"-And then we wandered around for a while. Port areas are still more secure than rest of the city but had it not been Lucy-chan we would have been long captured." Higuchi was explaining as the pair got down, while Natsuko sat on the table closest to her with Gin standing next to her. They both hadn't changed much. Though Fumiya knew they were at the age of thirty instead of early twenties like they were in the past. Or present. It depended on who was talking. 

 

"Anyways we've been trying to get the city back ever since. Protect the civilians, kill rival gangs."

 

"The usual then?" Takashi asked. Higuchi nodded. 

 

"Welcome back you two." Ango greeted Fumiya and Alexandra. Fumiya waved while Alexandra bowed slightly "We waited for you to give the details." 

 

"Sorry for that. Go ahead." 

 

"Now there are two things. First is that Jack London is somehow back." 

 

"Yeey. Who was that again?" Alex asked. 

 

"Seriously, do you ever listen to papa?" Fadeyka rolled his eyes. His sister simply grinned as she sat next to him. 

 

"We're kind of confused as well." Yosano pointed to the Agency. "We've never heard of this Jack London." 

 

"Because up until now he was supposed to be dead" Dazai said. "Unless someone did not lie again." he looked directly at Mori. The mafia boss paid him no mind. 

 

"He was hunted by the combined efforts of the military. That was the intel I had gotten." he looked at Tachihara. The ginger shrugged. 

 

"Commander was the one to do it." Tachihara said. "Jack London was a notorious serial killer during the Great War. He was a dangerous ability user. He worked for everyone as long as they paid him to. London first became a wanted criminal in America at the start of the war, then ran to England. After that, to Japan where he was killed by Commander Fukuchi a couple of months before the war ended." 

 

"He sounds pretty dead to me." Shizuko said. "Maybe someone with a similar ability?" 

 

"Not possible." Adam interjected. "The ability signals match with the ones Dr. Wollstonecraft detected back at the war times. It is most certainly him." 

 

"But Commander said-" Tachihara began but he was interrupted. 

 

"I wouldn't trust him that much hunting pup." Nikolai grinned. 

 

"What the fuck did you just call me?" 

 

"Calm down Tachihara." Mori ordered. "You can't expect a smart answer from him." 

 

"However stupid a fool's words may be, they are sometimes enough to confound an intelligent man." Nikolai said in his low voice and oddly serious face. Fyodor and Sigma both turned to look at him, their faces akin to something like bewilderment. Though it was only Sigma who looked the part, Fyodor's face was as blank as ever. 

 

"Well... I suppose, I guess?" Tachihara stared at the gester, weirded out by his unusual character change. 

 

"What тато trying to say is that Fukuchi might have let him live. London was a strong ability user, if he had found a way to use him, especially during the war, then he might be still alive today." Fadeyka said. 

 

"That does sound logical. Fukuchi was willing to use anyone to achieve his goals." Alexandra added. 

 

"Do we know if he's from this year or from our time?" Natsuko asked. 

 

"No, unfortunately." Adam answered. "But we do know how to release the conciousness of the captured ability users." 

 

"The what now?" Shizuko asked. Adam stood up to explain. 

 

"Remember, simple words." Sigma said to him. The android nodded. 

 

"Now I assume you think the captured ones are under some type of mind control but appearantly they are not. Doctor's research suggest that the conciousness has been switched. Normally it is the human who controls the ability. In their situation however, it is the ability who controls the human."

 

"And the ability is controlled by London." Ryutaro finished. 

 

"Exactly." Adam smiled. "The reason they killed them on was to make that reverse possible. A part of the ability."  

 

"So if we were to nullify the ability would it bring them back?" Fumiya asked, trying to hold his voice from shaking. He didn't like assuming the worst but he'd rather be prepared to the worst than hope for the best. 

 

"That is unknown." Adam answered. 

 

"What isn't?" Fumiya sighed. 

 

"I doubt we'll be able to nullify it. With Agency allies protecting him we will never get close to London." Daishiro pointed out. 

 

"That will not be necessary." Adam interrupted. "Doctor has followed the ability signals of London and found a way to release them." 

 

"Ability signals..?" Atsushi questioned. Alexandra turned to him. 

 

"It's like a sound wave all abilities have. For example Director Taneda, the leader of Special Division for Unusual Powers, can understand an ability's entire nature if its activated near him. He does it by ability signals." the Ukrainian explained. "They are completely unique to the ability user, no matter what they are. My brother and my tato here have the same ability, but their signals are different." 

 

"Slightly different." Alexandra added as an after thought. "But different nontheless. When me and Doctor Mary met back at Los Angeles she showed me how it worked." 

 

"I always forget you were at that book fair as well." Ryutaro interrupted. "But then again, all I remember are the zombies." 

 

"The what?" Sigma turned to him. But before the boy could answer Akeno interrupted. 

 

"Adam-san, please continue. How do we release the captured people?" 

 

"Well Ms. Ozaki-Koyo, Doctor has followed the signals into little crystals. We believe nullifying them will stop the captured ability users."

 

"What will happen to them?" Shizuko asked. 

 

"Uknown." Adam answered. 

 

"Will they return to their normalselves or will ability still control them?" Fumiya asked this time. 

 

"Unknown." Adam answered again. 

 

"Wait do abilites work with the Ring willingly or are they being controlled?" Fadeyka questioned. 

 

"Unknown."

 

"Will our parents come back to life?" Takashi spoke. 

 

"Unknown."

 

"You know nothing more than what you told us, don't you?" Ryutaro rolled his eyes. 

 

"That is correct." 

 

"It seems we will improvise after this." Daishiro broke his silence. "No matter. We have dealt with worse." 

 

"What can be worse than your parents, who are dead and under control of the enemy?" Future Sigma asked. Daishiro just shrugged. 

 

"That was reassuring." Future Sigma dead panned. 

 

"Hey tall guy!" Alexandra called out, looking at Adam. The robot pointed at himself in question. Alexandra just continued. 

 

"Do you know how Doctor tracked down the ability signals?" 

 

"She built a device using London's DNA to track his ability signals." 

 

"So if we were to have a device to do that, could we do the same with DNA?" she asked, her hand going for her pendant. 

 

"Oh what is this?" Fumiya found himself grinning

 

Dostoevsky family, as nature, was extremely secretive. To the point it took Fumiya a year to learn Fadeyka's favourite food  (it's something called borscht) and he's still not sure about Alexandra's. Despite this, he knows a good amount of their secrets. One of them is that he knows what exactly is in that little gnome's pendant. 

 

"That could be possible but it was Doctors own design." Adam said proudly (as proud as an android can sound anyway) said. Alexandra rolled her eyes. 

 

"I'm aware. I'm the reason she came up with it." she took out her pendant and showed it to Adam for him to inspect. The android scanned it (literally) and nodded. 

 

"This is the device. Though much less simple, it could work in a smaller area." Adam said. 

 

"It better be." Alexandra huffed. "I paid my and my brothers' whole allowence for it." 

 

"You what!?" Fadeyka shrieked in a high, Gogol pitch. And continued with that same tone "When did that happen?" 

 

"The book fair, duh! That was the only time I ever saw Doctor Mashka." his sister grinned. 

 

"What- Papa chewed me out for getting my money stolen in the crowds! And you let him!" 

 

"But your money did get stole in the crowd. I stole it when you were walking around." 

 

Fumiya guffawed "So your sister stole your money?" he looked directly at his own sister. "How reletable."

 

Fadeyka gritted his teeth "How did you manage to steal Lyosha's?" 

 

"Oh he gave it to me. He was kind like that." to that Fadeyka let out an offended gasp. Meanwhile Shizuko snorted. 

 

"Wow your brother gave you money? How unreletable." 

 

"I think we're done with your services Adam-san." Akeno sighed as she watched the pair of siblings bicker. "Thank you for your service."

 

At that Adam gave a programmed smile and bowed slightly. 

 

"It's why I'm here." 

 

"Well I hope this was informative but now this little call should come to an end." Halide showed up. "Since my lunch break is over and the teacher will mark me absent if I'm even a minute late. Do your goodbyes. Quickly!" she ordered as she gathered her bag. 

 

"No need for any more time." Ango sternly said. "Kids, good luck. I hate to say this but we are counting on you to save Yokohama." 

 

"No pressure huh?" Shizuko sighed. 

 

"There's quite a lot of pressure actually." Adam tilted his head. Chuuya groaned. 

 

"Bye Natsuko, Takashi. Don't get hurt." Higuchi smiled. Both cousins gave their promises. Sigma smiled and to Fumiya's surprise, Alexandra smiled back. 

 

"Well, good luck guys." Halide said lastly before snapping her fingers and the little cafe was met with silence. 

Notes:

Translation
French:
- Que- que'est-ce que tu fais!? Es tu un imbecile!?: What are you doing!? Are you an idiot!?

- En Français? Pourquoi?: (Speaking) In French? Why?

Ukrainian:
тато: Father
~~~~~~
This shouldn't have took this long, I apologise. I had exams, doctor check-ups (Multiple parts of this chapter was written in various hospital visits) graduation and now university exam in a week. So it's extremely badly written but I'll try my best for the next one.

Also on a funny note I just realised Natsuko's name literally means "child of summer" yet she was born in the hearth of winter. I've made these character nearly four years ago, I forgot the meanings of the names. Plus I just picked author related names, in Natsuko's case Higuchi Ichiyo's real name. 

Chapter 11: When Your Friend Group Is Too Chaotic That Investigating An Enemy Base Is Safer

Summary:

The group is starving and Takashi is forced to socialise (written by your author who climbed out of the grave)

Takashi did not want to go to this mission at all. Normally, they weren't the type to skip missions. Or dread them. Takashi enjoyed being given missions. Since they were the (currently second) youngest in the group they were never taken seriously. 

So Takashi was originally extremely excited when Daishiro told them they were going but they were paired with Atsushi and Kenji in this mission. Not that they didn't like those two (one of them was their father for crying out loud) but they preferred working solo. Ryutaro knew that. Which meant if he assigned them a partner then there was a chance of facing one of the adults. And Takashi most certainly did not want that. They sighed as they put on their coat. They could sense Aki's concern. 

"It's okay girl. I'm fine, just a bit anxious" Takashi tried to reassure the beast that somehow lived in their coat. Takashi, like most ability users, did not question why or how. They loved Aki, she was a part of them. They enjoyed her existence and as far as Takashi was aware she liked them too. And that was enough. 

After adjusting their coat (in spring by the way, try fighting in a coat in 25 degrees weather!) they walked downstairs. Just as expected, only Fumiya, Akeno and Natsuko were there. The trio was half done with their breakfast. They were using one of Port Mafia's safe houses in Yokohama as their motel. Takashi wasn't sure if the Mafia knew about this but they decided they did not care. 

Today, just like every other day, everyone was eating cereal and/or eggs and sausage. They were a bit down in supplies. Not that they were broke or anything, Elise had stole Mori's bank account information before they got sent back in time so they had plenty of money. Everyone was just too lazy to do groceries.

"Please don't disrespect breakfast today." Fumiya sighed from his place. 

"Good morning to you too." Takashi smiled sweetly. Akeno giggled when Fumiya glared. Natsuko too smiled a bit, although she tried to hide it from Fumiya. Takashi took a plate of boiled eggs and sausages before sitting down on the sofa. 

"Others are asleep I presume?" they asked. Natsuko nodded before listing off. 

"Daishiro-san was busy with Elise the whole night, Fadeyka and Ryutaro are sleeping in as usual, Mura-chan was adjusting her pendant for your mission today and Shizuko... I honestly have no idea what she was doing." 

"Poetry." Fumiya answered between bites. "Also Alex fell asleep on the job so one of us has to break into her room and take the device... While she's asleep."

There was a moment of silence as all four of them stared at each other. 

"Not it!" three voices said at the same time. 

"Not it!" Akeno said, just a second later. She hissed in annoyance "Damn it! I'm always the last!" 

At least Natsuko had the decency to try to hide her smile. The other two, did not. Akeno glared at them as she stood graciously and washed her hands before going upstairs to Alexandra's room. 

One thing about the Dostoevsky's was that they loved their sleep. Fadeyka hated waking up early. He fell asleep early and woke up late and it was impossible to wake him up once he did. When they first moved to Japan, Fadeyka had helped Ryutaro with a particularly frustrating case. It had taken them a week of running around in Tokyo to close it. Poor boy wasn't used to it so he had fallen asleep for almost 27 hours, without once waking up. 

Alexandra on the other hand, woke up easily. Even a slight noise down the hall could wake her up and she hated it. Waking up early made her irritable througout the day and given that she was already ill-tempered, she could be extremely hard to deal with on those days. She also had a tendency to throw knives, punch and/or kick if she were startled awake. Given the nature of her ability, this habit caused mortal danger. 

As Akeno gracefully walked the hall, her mafia upbringing allowing her to be stealthy enough not to make any sounds, the remaining three held their breaths while they watched from the start of the hall. Akeno passed her and Shizuko's room and reached Alexandra's. And suddenly there was a two meters tall figure right behind her. The demon floated right above Akeno. 

The Golden Death, unlike her name, was magenta. She had light purple skin, purple eyes and black streaks running down from her eyes to her chin. She had long magenta hair tied to a bun which was styled into a braid. She wore a black and golden kimono styled similarly to Akeno's own kimono to the point Takashi wondered whether Akeno based her clothing style of her demon. 

Akeno extremely slowly slid the door open and the Golden Demon quietly floated inside. A second later, she floated back out, with Alex's pendant. Akeno grinned victoriously and closed the door with the same caution. 

"Ta-dah!" she whisper yelled as she reached them. Fumiya took the pendant from her and grinned. 

"Nice job. Let's go downstairs and I'll explain you what it is." 

"That would be nice." Takashi thought. Because no one but Fumiya had no idea what Alex's prized possession was

~~~

"A compass? Are you kidding me!?" 

To say that Takashi was disappointed would be fitting. For years that little Slav would keep her pendant, compass appearantly, a secret. It was her most valuable item.

"Yes, my dear Takashi, a compass." Fumiya said. "But not just any compass! Behold-" Fumiya cut himself off as he struggled to open the compass. After a few moments he huffed. 

"I hate this thing so much!" 

"It's locked." Alexandra said, right behind Fumiya. 

"No shi- OH SHIT!" Fumiya shrieked as he turned around to see the purple haired girl. Alex was not amused. 

"Please stop sneaking up on me." Fumiya breathed as Natsuko rubbed calming circles on his back. 

"If someone is sneaking around it's you four!" the younger scolded. Her accent was thicker than usual, probably because she had just woken up. Her hair was messier than usual as well. "One of you got into my room while I was asleep!"

"It was Akeno sensei!" Takashi and Natsuko pointed. Alexandra's glare did not soften, ever the disrespectful brat. 

"We needed your compass for the mission." Akeno calmly explained. Alexandra sighed. 

"Then just say so, I don't mind waking up for the mission. It's important after all..." she took her compass back from Fumiya and took out a something like a thicker than normal needle. She pressed it somewhere on her compass and it clicked open. Inside it looked like a normal compass but instead of one, it had four needles. Three of them were stacked on top each one and pointed north while one of the pointed southwest. 

"Now you need to understand that this compass will not show you the north. If you try to use it for wayfinding you will be lost."

"Why do you even have it?" Natsuko questioned

"It was a gift from Doctor Wollstonecraft. She made it for me when we were at Los Angeles."

"The book fair?"

"Yep. Back then she was experimenting with ability signals. Maybe you noticed but I have a tendency to get lost." 

"Oh my Gods, really?" Akeno gasped dramatically "None of us had not noticed at all! It's not like you got lost seven times last month!" 

Suddenly Takashi was glad that they were going on a mission because they most certainly did not want to deal with an Alexandra who had been woken up forcefully by Akeno and was currently dealing with a sarcastic Akeno. That was not going to end well at all and Takashi would rather be outside when it happened. 

"Takashi pay attention!" Natsuko poked them. 

"Anyways, since I got lost a lot she took my family's DNA and made a compass that traces their ability signals. Long story short, this compass shows where my family members are 24/7. It has a range of 20 meters." Alexandra poked at the needles. On the top was a black one, under it a white one and under it a dark purple one. The other one which pointed southwest was the light purple one. 

"The light purple one is Fadeyka. The rest are my fathers and my other brother. They are not moving right now because papas are not in the range and my brother is dead so he has no signal. Fadeyka's however is moving. Look-" she took the compass and slowly turned it. The light purple one kept showing the same point while the others were unmoving. 

"Now interesting thing is that the compass actually recognised my papas. The needles kept pointing towards them. Meaning-"

"The past and future have the same ability signals! We can trace them with this!" Natsuko excitedly yelled. Alexandra grinned. 

"Cool isn't it?" 

"It is. Nice work, hacker." Akeno smiled. She reached out to pat the girl on the head but the younger stepped back before she could do it. Akeno frowned before understading and slowly pulled her hand back. 

"Thanks Akeno. Well... right! I made these last night." Alexandra took out three more needles. "Backup needles. I have a lot of these. Doctor had given me. If I lose a needle all I have to do is to put DNA into these and voila. So anyways these three has blood of other people. They are a bit random but try stealing blood from Mori Ougai." she showed the needles and unlike others, they weren't colour coded. They were white with names written on them. 

"Hold up, you stole blood!? From our parents!?" Fumiya looked sick. He never was fan of blood. 

"Not from our parents. From Takashi's dad, Kunikida and Tachihara." 

"Why them? Why not just ask for a strand of hair or something?"

"Oh I had stolen their blood before this whole compass business." the purple haired girl smiled. Takashi looked at Akeno, Akeno turned to Fumiya, Fumiya glanced at Natsuko and Natsuko simply patted Alexandra on the back. 

"Well... Thank you, Alex. This will help a lot during missions." Takashi smiled. 

"I hope so, just don't break it. It's precious to me. Let me change the needles, it can hold so much after all." as she worked on that, Fumiya laughed. 

"You'll probably be buried with that." 

Alexandra snorted. "Probably. Better than being buried in bandages." 

"I won't be buried in bandages!" Fumiya frowned, showing his bare and perfectly unscarred arms. 

"Yeah sure. I'll call your spirit after your funeral and then we'll talk."

"Oh please, you won't be in my funeral. It's impossible for a reckless tiny piece of a menace to outlive me."

"Shut it old man. I'll be a young flower, blooming when you die because your brittle bones couldn't handle it."

"I'm only two years older than you..."

"Whatever. We'll see in a forty years." 

"You think we'll live until our fifties?" Natsuko asked suddenly. Alexandra shrugged "Boss and Fukuzawa-san managed, didn't they? I mean I sure don't want to."

"I second that." Natsuko laughed. 

"Well, here you go Takashi. Please don't break it." Alexandra handed the compass to Takashi. 

"Don't worry, I'll keep it safe."

~~~

Atsushi and Kenji showed up half an hour later. By that time most of them had woken up and was in the middle of arguing, rather aggressively about the lack of groceries. 

"We should just go." Takashi said as Kenji ducked to avoid the chair that was thrown by Shizuko. 

"I agree." Atsushi ran towards the exit. 

"Good luck!" Ryutaro called out from his place on top of the fridge. He had shapeshift into a younger version of himself so that he could avoid the argument somewhere high up. Natsuko had been hit by the last egg and had left to take a shower. Akeno had called her demon to stop Shizuko and Fumiya from shooting each other. Unfortunately, Fumiya had used his own ability which resulted in nullification of everyone around him. Daishiro had taken his chance to strike down Alexandra, who was usually left alone due to her ability, so now she was on his shoulders and viciously bit him. 

Meanwhile Fadeyka was still asleep. 

Last thing Takashi saw before closing the door was the return of Natsuko, who wanted revenge on Ryutaro for throwing an egg on her. She dumped their last box of milk on him and the detective retaliated by throwing cereal on her. 

"Okay, so what do we do exactly?" Atsushi asked as they walked the streets. 

"What did President Fukuzawa told you about the mission?" 

Kenji shrugged. "It was Ranpo-san actually. He said that there were some disturbances near the mountains. Strange noises and landslides, that sort of thing. Then he told us you were going to investigate and told Atsushi to help you. I volunteered to support you guys!"

"Thanks Kenji-san." Takashi said a little unenthusiastically. "I really like having people around me." 

The farmer, however didn't understand the double meaning and smiled happily. Which made Takashi a bit sad. The boy was genuinely happy to be with them. His Kenji was an adult and dealt with the strongest of people along with Chuuya. So going on a mission with him was impossible. Takashi was a bit anxious to work with him but just like adult Kenji, young Kenji was the sun incarnate. Takashi could work with that. 

"Ranpo-san said mountains?" they turned to Atsushi. The mantiger looked anxious as well. He jumped at the sudden attention directed to him. 

"Y-yes! He's a unique character but if he said so, there must be something in the mountains."

"I know. I was trying to remember which train we should take." Takashi hummed as they entered the station. 

"I can take you! I go hiking on the mountains from time to time. The air is so fresh up there." Kenji smiled as he took the lead. Takashi poked at Atsushi. 

"I uh... I kind of don't have any money on me right now." they smiled nervously. "I'm sorry, I'm not used to carry money around. I forgot to ask before we left"

"It's okay." Atsushi sighed. "I'm used to Ranpo-san dragging me places so I always carry extra with me. But what do you do normally?" the mantiger asked as he payed. 

"You remind me to take money before I leave." 

To that Atsushi turned with a confused look. 

"My dad does I mean." Takashi corrected themselves. 

"Oh I see..." 

And Takashi decided it would be less awkward if they joined Kenji for the rest of the time. 

~~~

They reached the peak of Omaruyama around 14.30. It was warm but cloudy so it wasn't a bad hike. The view was absolutely astonishing. Even Takashi was impressed by it, and they normally did not enjoy such trivial things. 

"Alright!" they called out to the other two. "There are reports of unusual natural activities. The Ring tends to set bases in hard to reach places, such as this mountain. So they're probably just scouting the area to see if they can make it work." with that they reached for their inner coat pocket and took out the compass. All needles were pointing north. 

"No adults as of yet. Though I doubt Kunikida-san will show, no one has heard of him ever since he went missing a month ago." 

"And the others?" Atsushi asked as they headed deeper into the mountain.

"Attacked us occasionally. Some of our abilities would be helpful to them. You'll notice, despite owning the compass, Alex did not join our mission. Nor Ryutaro-san, even if his presence would be very helpful. Them getting caught would be catastrophic, so Captain never lets them join missions."

"Their abilities are strong..." Kenji mumbled, mostly to himself. 

"And dangerous. This one time Ryutaro-" but suddenly Atsushi grabbed their arm and pulled them back. 

"What the-!?" 

"Please be quiet! Kenji-kun, hide!"

They all climbed a tall tree and the very second Takashi pulled their long overcoat upwards, two men rounded the corner. One was Western, the other was Asian and they spoke English with one another. They were walking the direction where Takashi and other's came from. They were descending the mountain. 

"...that guy! He can't just show up and order us around." the Western one said

"We're the lowest ranks. Get used to it." Asian one sighed. "Just shut up and wait for your pay. Then who cares what happens? Plus we get to travel a lot, just look at that view."

"Whatever. Let's not be too hasty with this medicine job. I want to stay away from here as much as I can."

"We need to be back soon." the Asian sternly said. "Wouldn't want to get scolded. Plus the guy coughs like there's no tomorrow, I feel bad for him." 

"Who cares as long as we..." 

After that, they walked out of the earshot. It didn't matter though, Takashi had stopped hearing after what the Asian had said. Atsushi and Kenji jumped down after they made sure the men were gone. 

"Good hearing Atsushi-san!"

"Thank you, Kenji-kun. It would be bad if we run into them."

"No worries! I would just threw them down this mountain!"

"... Right. Oh, Takashi! They're gone, you can come down." 

But Takashi did not hear him. Takashi did not hear anything other than their own heartbeat. 

"There is just no way..!" they thought as they stared at the compass. "With my luck though... Of course it would be him!"

Takashi knew who this "new guy" was. They had understand the moment they mentioned a cough, but did not want to believe. The proof, however, was there. Two needles of the compass were unmoving, still pointing at north. But one of them pointed northwest and it kept shaking between west and north. As if what, who, it was pointing at kept moving around. Alexandra had wrote names on the needles. To show who the needles was pointing at. She had only written his last name, because the first name did not fit. Yet still Takashi knew, they knew that name like it was their own. Because it was Takashi's own name... 

Akuatagawa. 

Notes:

Finally a new chapter! A short one though. I'm sorry this took so long but the university exam, it's results, summer vacation ect. took so much of my time.

During writing I usually use italics to write thoughts but conversation in other languages will be italic as well. Canonically everyone in this fic speaks Japanese so to show English I used italics. Why does it matter? Because of Atsushi and Kenji's sheltered lives their English is not the best so Takashi is the only one who understood the danger.

During the description of The Golden Demon, I based her hair from Princess Leia's celebration hair in A New Hope.

I also made a really small reference to "The Return of The Sith" not the context of the movie but rather it's name. I also used an extremely iconic Tuffnut quote when writing "Alexandra was not amused." so yeah those who have seen these are not going mad with hyperfixation, it was all intentional.

I hope everyone has a lovely time, and please stick with me. I'll try to update more frequently.

Series this work belongs to:

• Part 1 of Chaotic Stray Dogs