Marble || Edogawa Ranpo

Case 10

He simply nods and pushes the door to open, "At ease, we are of Armed Detective Agency would be pleased to welcome you."

As he did that, every single noise in the room abruptly died down with his entrance.

"Now come," He commanded shortly, and you brave yourself to enter the premise right after him.

"Y-yes, sir!" You automatically answer in obligation.

Inside, their curious attention landed on you as though they see someone foreign. It's not that they haven't met you before, right? But this feels sort of different.

"Excuse me, sir... thank you for considering the proposal of a joint investigation. I will do my best!" You expressed your gratitude toward the said leader of this agency.

Initially, to form a joint investigation team (JIT) with another detective agency is not so easy with your current position. Since it must consist of law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, and other relevant personnel. But having consulting with Dazai in the past days after you proposed to him (not the romantic proposal), he unexpectedly said it is already in progress the moment he heard about your existence from Atsushi.

Talk about a scary preparation beforehand. Nevertheless, the JIT is led by a member of the country in which the JIT is based. And it is the law of that country that governs the JIT's activities. So, since Armed Detective Agency is an organization with abilities users and also operate under the same government such as Japanese Ministry, the progress currently went smoothly to form the team. With the agreement from the renowned president, even the judges and the military police immediately agree.

Although you are not joining the agency directly, you will be working with them occasionally from now on as a third party.

"Not a problem. The agency looks forward on working with you." He replied.

The President wordlessly enters his room then closes his door. It seems that he is not a man of words, how taciturn. But he does not appear like a bad man... it just that his impression is very daunting. Even his employees immediately stood up rigidly the moment he enters the room and greet him in deep respect. That shows the authority that he holds in this agency as their leader.

"I was starting to question when you will enter," Ranpo was the one to break the invincible silence from his place. On top of his desk is scattered with many different assorts of snacks and candies wrapper, there are also many confectionaries with all sorts of types and flavors. Safe to guess that he has a sweet tooth. But this many for his diminutive figure, you can't say how healthy his diet was.

'Need my help again?'

At your hand was a brown confidential enveloped of a new case, the one that you received from Minoura. Since you have proposed the joint investigation with Armed Detective Agency, you managed to receive permission to handle this one so easily. It seems that the agency really holds a great influence in Yokohama.

"Yes, a case of serial disappearing of woman."

"Homicide case?"

"Not quite right but close."

Ranpo proceed on eating another bag of chips, "Sounds boring,"

'If it wasn't a homicide case... then boring,'

Wait till he listens to your summary; you were sure he will be intrigued as you are too.

"There's already 12 women who have gone missing in the span of two years, but they all left a note saying they want to run and eloped with the man they love. Then they are untraceable, even their family couldn't find them and all more reason the police disregard this case because there was no corpse to be found and think the missing woman maybe has gone oversea. But there is no record of any of them leaving the country, so the police thought they were smuggled by a cargo ship."