Chapter Text
Poe sighed in content as he sat on his bedrooms balcony, a cup of tea in his hands. It had been two years since all the drama with the cannibalism incident, the decay of angels, and far to many more incidents had ended. Finally, for the first time in six years he desided to focus on himself.
No drama. Just him, his books, and Karl, who at the moment was sleeping on the table infront of him. Though of course he still showered his dear ranpo with as much praise and attention as humanly possible. Once things had started calming down two years prior he finally realized that his "resentment" was just a cover up for his crush on his beloveded.
Even then ranpo had been the one to actually say something, he'd been to nervous about ruining their friendship to act on his feelings. But now he had everything he ever needed.
He sat out there reading and drinking his tea for what felt like only a few minutes, but in actuality it had been two hours, before he headed back inside. He had promised to meet up with ranpo at the café just under the agency for lunch.
Already running twenty minutes late he quickly grabbed Karl and headed to the front door. Oddly enough once he opened the door there was, what appeared to be, a book wrapped in brown paper and a red and white string tied in a bow sitting on his porch.
He hadn't ordered anything from his knowledge, though he did have a bad habit of ordering stuff and forgetting about it. Even so it didn't seem to have been sent by any online store since it was just wrapped in paper.
Not having time to investigate further, he knew how much ranpo hated waiting, he picked it up and headed down the stairs and in the back of his drivers car.
He lived out in the middle of nowhere, deep in the woods, so having to be driven from his home to the actual city was always a hassle. But he didn't mind.
Once his driver pulled over infront of the café poe thanked him and walked inside, the car driving away. Inside sat ranpo with Fukuzawa, Yosano, and dazai sitting by him at the bar area. "Ed,Your late!" Ranpo pouted, poe chuckling at the face he made.
"I know dear, I sincerely apologize." Poe smiled down at the shorter, having to bend down slightly to place a peck on his cheek. "Its fine, I guess." Ranpo sighed, cheeks flushed slighty red as poe took the unoccupied seat next to him.
"Whatcha got there?" Dazai asked, leaning against poes shoulder looking at the mysterious package. "I actually don't know did you order anything?" Poe shrugged, looking over at his boyfriend, who was in the middle of unwrapping another lollipop.
"Not that I know of" poe hummed in consideration just as Lucy walked out from the back. "Hay poe, same as usual?" She asked, grabbing a tea cup. "Yes please, thank you Lucy." Poe smiled, averting his eyes from the package.
"Why not open it and find out?" Yosano asked from her spot next to ranpo. "What if its a bomb or something?" Poe asked nervously. "We've dealt with bombs on the regular, im sure we'll be fine. Plus we have Yosano over here." Dazai shrugged, sitting down next to poe.
"If you say so." Poe nodded, still reluctant to open it. Fighting back his instinct to just throw it away he undid the thread and took off the paper, making sure not to rip it.
Underneath was a simple book with a black cover the title reading, "what could've been" in a metallic red. Besides the tittle there were no more words on either side, not even the author. "How strange." Fukuzawa muttered, standing behind poe and ranpo.
"Here's your tea" Lucy said, setting the tea cup on the counter. Though she stayed around also intrigued by the book. Curiosity getting the better of him, poe opened the book to the first chapter, titled "eight years in the making".
" 'eight years ago two rival detectives were called to a case in the city of Yokohama.' " Dazai read. Suddenly a bright green light appeared, blinding the group. Once the light disappeared the café was empty, only a cup of tea, a very confused raccoon and strange book remaining.
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆৻ꪆ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
"What the hell?" Yosano groaned, rubbing the back of her head. She blinked a few times to find herself in a theater lobby. Looking around she found the rest of the group, who had previously been in the café, now scattered around on the ground, confused.
"Did you use your ability, ed?" Ranpo asked standing up. He looked relatively the same only now he didn't have on his brown inverness cape. "Not that I know of." now poe looked completely different.
His hair was longer, draped over his shoulder and tied with a beige ribbon. Instead of his usual outlandish outfit he wore a simple beige sweater vest over a white button down and green tie and black pants and brown shoes.
Now that she realized it everyone, besides ranpo and the president, looked completely different. She, for instance, was in a doctor's outfit with rectangular glasses on her face. Lucy was in a police officers outfit and dazai was in a black three piece suit and tie, a black jacket hung over his shoulders, and bandages over his left eye.
"We must thank you for your work detective, without you we wouldn't have found the killer" a random police officer said, bowing at ranpo before leaving. "Isn't this..." poe began looking at ranpo. "Yea, it is. But it was just us two, so why are you four here" ranpo asked himself, thinking.
"Please enlighten us on where we are" the president asked, looking over at poe since ranpo was still lost in thought. "Oh, yes, back eight years ago this is the place where the two of us had first met."
"Thank you," Fukuzawa smiled, poe smiling back in return. "Figure something out yet?" Lucy asked, looking over at ranpo. "Nope!" Ranpo shrugged, walking over to poe. He looked himself up and down before coming to a conclusion, "you should grow your hair out again, it looks nice."
Poes blushed at the compliment, running his fingers through his now longer hair nervously, "T-thank you my dear." Ranpo just shrugged and started looking around. "If it means anything," Lucy began, " I don't believe this was caused by edgers ability."
"What makes you say that?" Dazai asked, trying to take the bandages on his face off, but they wouldn't budge. "Well, his ability is only activated when whoever the person is is actively reading it and I wasn't reading it so how here am I here? Also the light was green and his is yellow." She shrugged, watching dazai give up trying to take the bandages off.
"Yea, I also wasn't reading the book" Yosano shrugged. "Well, I'll be back." Ranpo said, beginning to wonder off. "Where are you going?" Fukuzawa asked, ranpo glancing over his shoulder. "I don't know, just exploring. There has to be a reason were here." At that ranpo walked into a pair of swinging doors disappearing behind them. "I guess we should join in." Dazai shrugged walking the opposite direction without another word.
Not a moment later the only ones remaining in the lobby were poe and lucy. "Edgar?" Lucy asked, looking slightly concerned. "Yes?"
"Are you ok? You've been pretty tence ever since we got here." Poe thought for a moment before sighing, "im fine, just want to get back as soon as possible." To be fair he wasn't lying. He really did want to get back, Karl must be so confused on why everyone disappeared. But also something else tugged at the back of his mind.
From what the police officer had said ranpo had already solved the murder, so why were they here if nothing else was to happen? Just then there was a loud crash and people screaming, running out of the stage room. Quickly the two ran in, fighting against the crowd to find out what had happened. On the stage a light had fallen but the concerning part was the blood coming from underneath making its way down the side of the stage.
So much, there was so much blood that his stomach twisted just looking at it. The strong smell of fresh blood filling the room. Pushing down his nausea he ran over to the stage jumping up and hurrying over.
For having just come into this room ranpo sure was taking a while to get here. Usually he'd be all over this. Only when poe got closer he find out why ranpo wasn't there.
Laying there under the fallen light and in a pool of his own blood was the worlds greatest detective, Edogawa Ranpo.
Poe stood there shocked at the sight of his lover under a fallen stage light, blood seeping through his cloths, staining the wood boards of the stage. He walked over on wobbly legs before collapsing to his knees, by his now dead boyfriends head.
Of course he knew it wasn't real, they were just in a book after all, but seeing his lively partner unmoving made tears start flooding his vision. He tried blinking them away but it just resulted in the tears falling, running down his cheeks.
He heard a shocked gasp from behind him, most likely Lucy, but he didn't turn around, eyes locked on his lover.
He swallowed hard trying to compose himself but it didn't do much. He reached out and placed his hand on ranpos cold cheek, rubbing it softly with his thumb. He heard the sound of footsteps and talking but they were all muffled by the blood rushing past his ears.
"EDGAR!" Suddenly he was snapped out of his trance, having just been slapped across the face. He placed a hand on his burning cheek as he looked over finding Yosano kneeling by him.
For Fukuzawa,dazai and Yosano being super close with ranpo they didn't seem panicked in the slightest, their faces full of determination.
Just then cops flooded into the room pointing their guns at the three ada members. "Put your hands up!" The chief yelled. The three,though confused on why their being arrested, did as told. Not long after did the cops walk onto the stage with them and hand cuff the three.
"Wait! Why are you arresting them?!" Lucy asked, walking over. "Isn't it obvious? One of these three killed the detective. Until you can provide evidence to prove their innocence these three will be with us." Just as the cops began taking their friends away poe chimed in.
"I'll find the evidence, but you'll need to keep them in the building for a few more hours for a interrogation."
The chief considered it before sighing, "fine, but don't take long, detective." The chief scoffed, escorting the agents out of the room. Him and lucy locked eyes, the game had begun.
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆৻ꪆ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
"A ex-doctor, a mafia member, and a suspected assassin, who could have killed ranpo." Poe muttered under his breath looking at the documents he'd been given. There were three pages with information about one of the suspects.
In Yosanos file it said that she was a top surgeon for most of her life but was caught doing medical malpractice and was revoked of her medical license just a week prior, people believing that it was ranpo who exposed her.
For dazais file it said that he was a port mafia member who had been working there for a few years now. He was suspected to have been involved in multiple incidents but there was never enough evidence to get him charged with anything.
Lastly was Fukuzawa, the rumored assassin. There wasn't much information about him only stating that he was rumored to have assigned several well known people. Besides that it was nothing but rumors.
All of the suspects had sold cases against them. Yosano- revenge, dazai- a job from the mafia, Fukuzawa- a random job. Without ranpos Super Deduction poe would just need to do this the old fashioned way.
"Where were you when the murder happened?" Poe asked, Lucy to his left. They didn't believe any of them would try anything but the police didn't know that. They had made a make shift interaction room back stage.
There they had set up a long table poe and lucy on one side, Yosano,dazai, and Fukuzawa on the other, still being hand cuffed.
"I was walking down the hall in the east wing after having gone to the bathroom." Yosano started off, pushing up the glasses on her face as they began slipping down.
"Guess I'll go next, I was in a storage closet looking for cleaning supplies." Dazai shrugged. "Why did you need cleaning supplies?" Lucy asked, already having a feeling on what the answer would be. "To drink of course! I heard of this new way of suicide that I had to try out for myself!" He answered, smiling happily as if he wasn't talking about drinking chemicals.
"I was talking with the actors backstage, but they didn't seem to want to talk with me." Fukuzawa answered, deciding to ignore dazais antics.
"Which actors?" Poe asked, having a not pad and pencil out, writing down what each person said. "Ayumi Kobayashi, Akira Sasaki and Riku Fujita."
"Thank you, before we head out do you have any belongings on you at the moment?" Lucy asked.
"Not on us, all our stuff has been confiscated, if you want to see just ask the chief." Dazai answered, as poe stood up, looking over his notes. "Okay, thank you three for your cooperation." Poe said, standing up and beginning to walk out, Lucy right behind him.
"Poe?" Yosano began, poe and lucy looking back. "Yes?"
"Once you find his killer, show no mercy."
Not if, but WHEN. She as well as everyone else were counting on him to solve the murder, and he wasn't going to let them down.
Walking out two cops walked in to get the three. "Well detective?" The chief asked as the two walked over. "May we see the possessions of the three?"
"Right this way." The man sighed, leading them to a table with a bunch of loose items on it, three cards saying whos was whos.
Yosano:
- scalpel
-wallet
-hospital gloves
-handkerchief to clean glasses
-phone
Dazai:
-gun
-bullets
-bandages
-wallet (missing ID)
-phone
-"complete guide to suicide" book
Fukuzawa:
- katana
-wallet (missing ID)
-lollipops
-phone
"Officer, do you know where Ayumi Kobayashi,Akira Sasaki, and Riku Fujita are?" Poe asked, looking away from the items. "Yes, they should be in the changing room."
"Please take us to them"
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆৻ꪆ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
It didn't take long to find the actors, they weren't hard to miss. "Oh, the old guy? Yea he was here. We talked for a bit before he left, around a minute or so later we heard the light fall." Ayumi explained as she was removing her makeup.
"Honesty, I think he did it." Riku scoffed, taking his wig off. "Why do you say that?" Lucy asked, already not liking the guy. "Easy, he just so happened to leave then right after a guy dies? Yeah, that's not a coincidence. I think i even know how and why."
"Do tell" poe hummed, not looking up from his note pad. He really doubted that the prick was right.
"Once he left he went up to the cat walk through the secret passage way then waited until the guy was underneath the light then BAM! He went and cut the cord, killing the guy. As for the why I think his real target was one of the cast members but mistook the guy for his real target."
Oh so confident but oh so wrong. Realalisticly that could be possible but knowing what he knows, how would Fukuzawa have known where the secret passage way even was. From what he had said and acted when they first showed up Fukuzawa didn't even know where they were.
Even if he babied the idea the cord wasn't sliced in half the killer had stayed there sawing away at the cord, easily seen by how jagged the cut was. And if he knew Fukuzawa, he probably would've just cut it in half not saw at it. He explained as much to the actor, a little more polite though.
He knew that the actor didn't know ranpo bit hearing ranpo be called "the guy" just pissed him off. Ranpo wasn't just some low life, he was the worlds best detective.
"I have to agree with the detective on this one, Riku. Plus he had mentioned during our conversation the, now deceased, detective was his son. I highly doubt he would've killed his own son, expesualy since he had mentioned how proud he was of him." Akira shrugged, ready to leave before her eyes landed on poe.
"Now I have a question for you." She smiled seductively. "Do you happen to be single?"
Seconds went by in silence before Lucy burst out laughing, poes face tinting red in embarrassment. "N-no, I have a boyfriend." He mumbled. "Aw, shame, well if you ever want to get it on with a cute girl just call me, handsome." She winked before leaving.
Lucy was now on the floor dieing of laughter, "Oh my- 'are you-' HAH!"
He groaned at her laughter turning to Ayumi, "do you know where the secret passage way is?"
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆৻ꪆ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
Ayumi lead them down a long hall with different plays posters on the walls. "I must apologize on Akiras behalf. She can get a bit flirty with any guy with a pulse." Ayumi sighed, glancing back at poe. "I-its fine, really." Poe smiled nervously, Lucy giggling at the memory, only getting a hard glare from poe in return.
"And here we are" Ayumi sighed, stopping infront of the Romeo and Juliet poster. "Its a poster?" Lucy asked, tilting her head to the side. "Cleaver, a hidden passage behind a poster." Poe smiled, as Ayumi opened the poster revealing a hidden hall. It was dark and musty, clearly hadn't been cleaned for however long it was made.
"The stage crew use this for the lights, it leads right to the cat walk. Go straight ahead till you get to the turn, there about half way through there's a latter, just climb up and you'll be on the cat walk." She explained before turning to leave. "Thank you for your help." Poe smiled before him and lucy made their way through.
The hall was crammed, mostly just for poe giving his hight, making him need to duck the whole way through. Just as Ayumi had said ones they got to the turn there was a ladder half way through.
Poe let lucy go up first, following ones she got to the top. There was a medal platform with boxes full of different accessories to put on the lights. Lucy started her way onto the cat walk before stopping and looking back, no hearing poe following.
Poe was absolutely terrified. One of his biggest fears was hights, so why the hell did he think it was a good idea to go on the cat walk? His heart rate sped up as he looked down. They had to be at least 100 feet in the air.
"Poe, you coming?" Lucy asked, hand on her hip. "Y-yes, let me just... uhm." He stammered, starting his way over. He had only made it three steps on the cat walk before the vertigo hit.
Everything started spinning, his legs shaking uncontrollably. His breathing hitched as he became nauseous and a loud ringing in his ears started. He gripped the handals tightly, his knuckles turning white, as he kept moving. He focused all his attention on lucy, just trying to make it over to her.
Lucy, realizing something was wrong walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you ok?" She asked, considered on why he was acting weird. "Mhn, lets keep going." He answered, eyes plastered straight ahead. Looking at lucy just ment looking down, and if he did that there was no telling what would happen.
"Seriously, whats going on... wait... shit" she sighed, just now remembering poes phobia of hights. She had completely forgotten, it hadn't really infected anything that the two did and when on the Moby Dick he was locked in his study the whole time.
"Y-yeah, its fine though, if it means finding ranpos killer then I'll happily do this for him." Poe said, trying to swallow down his nausea. The two continued, Lucy knowing that if it was ranpo guiding poe to do this there was no way he was backing down.
Though lucy stayed close to poe just incase he fainted, he somehow got more pale then he already was.
Making it through the cat walk and at the light that had fallen there wasn't much to see. Just a large light having fallen, simply an accident, no? We'll that's just how it was made out to look that is.
The wire that had been supporting the light had been cut, shown by the rather sloppy job of cutting. "It looks like whoever did it was shaking." Lucy noticed, looking up at poe. "And since Fukuzawa, dazai, and Yosano all have steady hands it couldn't have been any of them!" Lucy concluded.
"That or that it was cut like that intentionally as a way to lead off suspension." Poe shrugged, examining the wire closely. "Yeah, that does make sense." She sighed, looking down at the stage.
Ranpos body had been taken away, the only sign he was ever there to begin with being the massive blood stain and light, coverd in said blood.
She desided to look away, not wanting to remember the gruesome scene that had happened just a while ago, and looked up at poe. He was deep in thought, writing frantically in his notepad.
As curious as she was she didn't want to drag his attention away from his work, knowing he'd tell her when the time was right. But it was strange, he seemed...off. she didn't know how to put it besides that.
"Let's head back down, i... I think I know who the killer is." He muttered the last part under his breath, being to walk away, seemingly forgetting his fear at that moment.
~~~~~
Poe, Lucy, the three suspects, and a handful of cops gathered on the stage, poe being infront of them just staring at ranpos chalk line on the floor.
The blood had dried at that point. A hollow reminder of what had been lost just two hours prior. "Well detective, who did it?" The chief asked impatiently, arms crossed. "Give me your handcuffs." Poe demanded, holding his hand out. It was a strange sight, poe was never one to go demanding anything from anyone, from Lucy's perspective anyway.
Confused, the chief handed poe the handcuffs. "Release the suspects, none of them killed him." Poe sighed. "And just how do you know that?" The chief scoffed.
"Lucy was right, the slice was to shaky to have been done by them. Even if they had faked it it wouldn't have been that natural. Plus dazai only has a gun,Fukuzawas katana would've been far to sharp to have the cut be that wonky with both his and Yosanos wepons not having a serrated blade."
"So your saying whoever the killer was used a stake knife to cut it." Fukuzawa hummed, as he was let out of his cuffs. "Ok, then why did you need the hand cuffs? Do you think the killer is still in the theater?" Yosano asked, rubbing her rists.
"Yes, their also in the same room as us."
The room went silent, waiting for poe to tell them who the killer is but instead...
"You all remember how much I hated ranpo back then right? So full of hatred tords him I wrote a whole book for him just so I could one up him, prove that I was the superior detective." When no one answered he continued.
"It wasn't just the book that was my first idea at revenge. My first ones were to kill him in person." Suddenly something clicked, dazai knowing exactly what he was getting at. Just then poe placed the hand cuffs on himself looking back at the group, tears in his eyes.
"I killed Edogawa Ranpo"
Just then a bright green light blinded them.
⁺‧₊˚ ཐི⋆৻ꪆ⋆ཋྀ ˚₊‧⁺
Lucy opened her eyes that she had clenched shut do to the light and she realized that she, as well as everyone else, were back in the café. Only now with a few extra guests.
"Thank god, are you all alright?" Atsushi asked hurriedly walking over with the entirety of the agency. "What are you all doing here?" Yosano asked, looking around at the crowd. "People reported seeing a bright green light appear from the café and we hand come to investigate." Tanizaki answered.
"That was boring." Ranpo sighed. "Oh thank god" Yosano smiled, relieved to see ranpo back. "Welcome back to the land of the living." Dazai chuckled, stretching his arms over his head. When the agency members were focused on ranpo, dazai, Yosano and Fukuzawa, Lucy looked around for poe, who she saw on the floor.
He was sitting on his knees, head down as he was staring down at his hands. Karl walked up to him concerned, nudging poes hand with his face. Poe went and picked him up before standing up. Now off of the floor lucy could see his eyes watering, a single tear falling.
"Edgar?" She asked, leaning over tords him, not missing how ranpos attention went onto poe. "Im going home" poe said, voice barly being heard over the agency. Quickly poe, quickly left the café not bothering to say good bye.