Early Dawn…

in Kyoto, Kameoka. City hall office.

Lemon was in a heated discussion with a rabbit-eared woman about the detectives. Specifically, about Midare and her crimes against the TGA. It was a topic Lemon didn't like talking about because of the situation during that event. But his superior was insistent on doing something about Midare. His eyes shifted away from her piercing red eyes. Even while looking away, he could still see their minor glow in the corner of his vision, "Don't you think she's been through enough? The world has forgotten about that event so bringing it up now would be grasping for a reason to detain her."

"Lemon…" she frowned, changing her seated position to a more relaxed one. "It isn't a matter of her crimes but what she'll do now. Midare is a wild card but she will always be in favor of causing chaos in order to get what she wants."

Lemon rubbed his chin. "And what she wants is...peace? To stop that evil at all odds but now he's somewhere else. Reanne-"

"Queen Reanne." Reanne interrupted.

Her words struck him almost as if they had greater strength than a blade. "Your questioning against the high morals of the saint could be seen as heresy."

"I… understand." Lemon nervously dropped a sweat. "I'll take my leave." He began moving towards the door but stopped to hear Reanne comment one more thing. "This is the Saint's will. All evil shall be cleansed, even if that includes all humans."

Lemon continued on his way out, hiding his visible frustration and disgust with the statement. The Saint's will… yeah right...

Lemon walked down the stairs in the lobby and met with two of his royal guards. Julius d'Artagna, a rabbit eared boy with blonde curly hair and Yuyucherry Belvedere, a fox eared girl with nine tails. Her hair was long and black and her eyes were yellow. Both wore the same uniform, an outfit styled like a musketeer with a blue poncho that had a black cross of lorraine on the front, the symbol of the Blue Corps.

Julius noticed Lemon's disappointment and made a small smile. "How did it go, Lemon?"

Lemon cursed under a breath. "Reanne is still being a pain to reason with. She's insistent on putting Midare 'in her place'. "

Julius scratched the back of his head "What did she do to make the Queen hate her so much? Cherri, You got a clue?"

Cherri shrugged. "Must be past grudges."

Lemon knew it was much deeper than that but withheld that information. The information the world had forgotten due to…

Lemon nodded not wanting to continue the topic. "Perhaps. So, how about we head somewhere for breakfast. I want to hear more about that girl sending you letters, Julius."

────── 〔✿〕──────

The school day went on without much happening. After class...

Ibuki ran through the halls struggling to put away the letter she had gotten back from Midare in her bag. The girl’s thoughts were solely focused on hurrying back to the lazy detective as soon as possible before something bad occurred. The sight of Ibuki rushing confused Hyde’s trio once she passed them.

“What’s she up to?” Mikael questioned.

Hyde shrugged and continued walking in the other direction with Mikael and Mary.

Ibuki bursted into the agency which surprised Ruudachi behind the counter. “Is Midare here?”

Ruudachi raised an eyebrow “What business do you have with her?” she asked. Ibuki walked past Ruudachi to go upstairs, “Investigation work. I’ve been called-”

“Oh no you don’t.” Ruudachi hopped over the counter and grabbed Ibuki by the back of her collar holding the small girl back. “You don’t have permission to go up there. It’s off limits to customers.”

Ibuki growled “As I was saying. I was called by Midare for private business. Now unhand me.”

She struggled to break free from Ruudachi’s grasp. Fortunately for the girl, Midare came down from the stairs holding an umbrella. She laughed seeing Ruudachi holding Ibuki above the ground, “Didn’t I tell you to treat our customers kindly?”

“You also told us to not let strangers go into your office.” Ruudachi replied, dropping Ibuki. Midare snickered “She’s no stranger to me. I’m gonna have to cut your pay for bothering our customer.”

Ruudachi glared at Midare with annoyance, balling up her hands into fists. “Boss…”

Midare motioned for Ibuki to follow her outside “We’ll talk somewhere nice. Come on.”, Ibuki followed her but not before sticking her tongue out at Ruudachi and quickly leaving.

The clouds started to gather, making the skies outside turn grey. But the weather wouldn’t change just yet. Ibuki didn’t know where Midare was going or why she decided to take her out on a walk instead of conversing inside the cafe. Her mouth opened about to ask the question but Midare jumped straight into the more important matters.

“So your findings? What have you linked together?” she asked in a more kindly tone. Ibuki scratched her hair “Uh… we kinda failed the last investigation and the murderer got away.”

“Is that so?"

“What should we do? This active murderer could be Soap. Can't believe we let him get away so easily...” Ibuki let out a depressed sigh. She wanted to be out on the field along with Cherri to prove herself but Midare instead gave her a boring role, information collection. Hyde and Mary were obviously struggling.

Midare was trying to connect some dots in her head. Setting aside the topic of her role in the agency “Perhaps this is Soap's way of spying on us, or this is an entirely separate problem we'll have to deal with. I'd say let the police sort it out themselves. We have much more important things to worry about."

“Eh..? Like what?"

The sounds of rolling wheels was heard from behind and Lambda soon casually strolled with them on her skateboard. “Updog.”

“What's up dog. Nice ride” Midare replied.

“Thanks. Wanna see the ahegao pattern on the bottom?”

“No.” Midare kicked her leg on Lambda’s wheels making her trip and fall off her board. Ibuki let out a small chuckle and looked back “Will she be fine?”

Midare nudged Ibuki forward “Yes, now where were we?”

“A couple of people called the agency lazy. How c--"

“Midare!” Lambda jumped on the detective’s back growling like a small dog. “Pay attention to me! I have things to tell you too!”

Midare pulled the girl off her back and held her up by the back of her collar. "Lambda can't you see I'm busy?"

“Hmph!” Lambda crossed her arms “You don't appreciate the hard work I do for the agency."

“Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But now you're being quite troublesome." Midare said.

Lambda raised an eyebrow "Really now? Well guess what. I witnessed a crime scene at a nearby magic shop." She grinned cheekily. Midare dropped Lambda "Best go home then. I have a job to do."

Lambda hopped up "I'm going too. I want to see magic artifacts."

Ibuki nodded confidently "Me too!"

Midare walked ahead "Fine. Just don't be bothersome."

They entered a small magic shop. Trinkets, jewelry and accessories lined the shelves and glass cases. All for show, but only Midare knew none of these cheap items has an ounce of magic. Her doubts would be proven wrong however, when she caught a glimpse of the sickly shopkeeper. Blood leaked from every hole, mouth, nose, eyes. Probably certain other areas too… but the shopkeeper was holding onto life, leaning on the back wall behind the counter. Glass littered the floor, something was obviously stolen. He spoke with his last breath "Special weapon… Soap…" before choking on his own blood and falling to the floor.

The sight was horrible. Ibuki was stunned in place but Lambda had seen this outcome many times before.

"Someone overloaded his magic! No wonder the police weren't called. He was practically poisoned." Lambda exclaimed. Midare furrowed her brow "Mhm. And aside from the stolen object, the shop is still intact. That means Soap stole a special weapon."

Midare lifted her hand and a miniscule magic circle appeared above it but she quickly dispersed the magic particles and cursed under her breath. "Can't do that…'' she muttered.

"Without authorization from the TGA we're really limited." Lambda looked around "Maybe there's fingerprints?"

"Soap came in, overloaded that man's magic, and stole the special weapon while the man was in a dying state before leaving. It's doubtful Soap would come in broad daylight dressed like a clown." Midare caught an idea and looked up, there! A camera. "With the footage we can find out Soap's real appearance."

Lambda rubbed her hands together "This is something I'm good at. I'll extract the footage." She ran into a door on the side not realizing it was locked. She slowly turned to the shopkeeper's body "That means…"

"I'm not touching that." Ibuki stepped back. This left Midare to do the deeds, not that she was complaining about it. She had green gloves on and took the key from the man's pocket. Suddenly she tossed the key to Lambda. Lambda almost dropped the key "Ugh! Gross gross!" She rushed to open the door and entered the security room, dropping the key on the floor.

The room was small and only contained a computer on a table. Lambda got right to work, extracting the footage on a usb. She handed it to Midare "The rest is up to you Boss."

"I'll get Mikael to analyze this. Thank you Lambda." Midare patted her head.

"Haah~ senpai!"

"We're not that close."

────── 〔✿〕──────

Mikael, Midare and Ibuki gathered in Midare's office. From there she played the video. It's black and white visuals and static made it difficult to make out every detail. The static video showed a man in a mask of some sort enter and pull out what seemed to be a dagger. It had a bright aura, neary blinding. No doubt it was a powerful weapon, one powerful enough to make the shopkeeper stagger back like he was facing radiation. Midare deduced, a man (presumably Soap) used magic to poison the man by using a special weapon's immense magic and stole the special weapon contained in the shop. But Mikael caught a detail she didn't notice.

"Hey that looks like our school uniform!" Mikael pointed,"The black gakuran and green pants."

"Ibunroku Academy? I don't recognize him." Ibuki said.

"Hmm…" Midare rubbed her chin.

"Something wrong Midare? We almost solved the case." Mikael said with a smile.

Midare shook her head "This is too easy." She shrugged "Soap's smart so I'm thinking there's a catch to this. For now find that kid."

Ibuki and Mikael left the room to tell Mary and Hyde of the new information brought to light. It seems Soap had assistance from others. This trail might lead them in the right direction, and if the culprit was right under their noses then...