A day after the incident with Ranpo and Poe, (Y/N) decided to head to the agency to talk about the case.
But as she closes into the building, she saw Ranpo and Poe loitering downstairs near the entrance of the alleyway.
She quietly walks up to Poe and gently taps on his shoulder, making him gasp and jumped from the contact.
"Ranpo kun hasn't said a single word since he saw that corpse..." Poe explains to her.
"Aw, this isn't good at all..." she replied as she gets down to one knee to pat at Poe's raccoon.
"Usually, this is when he would laugh out loud and points to the culprit..." he says and he thought to himself, "For Ranpo kun, being a master detective is the backbone of his soul. When that is crushed, the possibility of him standing up again is...".
"Is there no way?" Ranpo whispers but it was enough for the two to hear.
"Ranpo kun, don't lose heart..." Poe tries to comfort him.
"Okay!" Ranpo suddenly shouted and stood up, hitting Poe below his chin.
"I give up!" he continues.
"I'll head back to the office, then I'll leave the rest to you!" he waves his hand towards Poe and left.
"Ranpo kun?!" Poe shouted and (Y/N) shook her head in disbelief.
They watched him walk off to the opposite alleyway and started talking to a man. Poe took out a piece of paper and gave it to (Y/N) to read, it was some instructions about what will happen next, and where they should meet.
Right about time, when Ranpo managed to sneak into the man's car, Poe turned around and talked to (Y/N).
"Mafia san, I think it's about time to head to the next location of Ranpo kun's plans..."
"Alright, let's go. I'll drive..." she replies and quickly got into her car as she sped off.
It was not too long when the car that Ranpo got in was halted by a team of Police officers. Poe got out of (Y/N)'s car and hurriedly ran towards Ranpo.
But before the Police could do anything, (Y/N) could hear the driver saying something about being an Official Diplomatic Attache of the Russian Federation.
"Ah, we're screwed..." she whispers but it was caught by some.
"You're right, little miss. They have no right to detain us..." the foreigner said and to their surprise, Poe shouted at him.
"But you were caught in the act of attempted murder! So, you can still be declared persona non grata!"
"The gun wasn't loaded..." the driver said and unloaded his magazine in front of Minouchi as he continues with his explanations.
"You could call this an 'impossibility defense'. I'm also officially authorized to carry this gun. So there's nothing illegal about it either..."
"So... the gun was only for intimidation. This idea stinks of Dostoyevsky..." Ranpo mumbled before he bent over to the car.
"You can go now..." he says and everyone gasped.
"WHAT?!" Minouchi shouted at him.
But it was too late, the car sped off to its destination. Ranpo took out his cellphone in his pocket and starts dialing a number.
Once the receiver had answered his call, Ranpo announced it to him.
"Mushitaro kun, you win. I knew it all along. An ordinary person couldn't beat an ability. Even then, I'll defeat you. Because, I have friends who believe I'm invincible..."
(Y/N) stared at the detective, knowing that Poe's ability had been activated after the call had been made. So, she waited at the sidelines and watched the next scene unfolding in front of her.
"Seriously, he doesn't have an ability... but, he does the job well..." she thought to herself and noticed her phone was vibrating in her coat.
She took it out and saw an unknown number on the screen, without hesitation, she answers it.
"Hello?" she asked.
"It's quiz time!" the voice was loud and she heard a loud bang.
"A gunshot?" she thought.
"Who is this?" she asked carefully.
"I'm the one who is giving the quiz to you, Princess of Port Mafia..." the voice went lower, she could feel that he was smirking on the other side of the line.
"Then, start the quiz..." she says but the sound of another phone ringing caught her attention.
Minouchi, the police that was with them, answered the phone. He told Ranpo that Mushitaro surrendered himself to them.
She heard a burst of laughter in her ear, he returned her attention back to the caller.
"What do you want me to guess?" she asked.
"What's going on?" she could hear another voice and an explosion in the background of the call.
"A murder..." the voice said.
"Who's the victim?" the voice from the background asked.
"You..." the caller replied to him coldly and (Y/N) heard a gunshot in the call.
"Haha! It's quiz time! Who am I?!" the caller shouted gleefully, but before she could say anything he replied.
"What? My name is Nikolai? That's right! Now, another quiz! Why am I here?!" he shouted.
"May I have a hint?" (Y/N) asked and Ranpo noticed her expression.
"Hint? The hint is... clear! Oops, I think that's not a hint..." the voice said.
"Clear...?" she repeated the word to him and he started giggling.
"Yes. My job is to clear everyone who knows our next job. If I give away the answer, this quiz would be boring. Right, Mushitaro kun?" he says and she could hear Mushitaro's voice from the radio of the patrol car.
Advising Ranpo to not accept any jobs that were given to the agency and if they did, it will be ruined.
"DO YOU HEAR ME?! ABSOLUTELY DO NOT..." before he could finish his sentence, gunshots were heard from the radio and from (Y/N)'s phone.
"You're the treasure that Dostoyevsky wants..." and he ended the call.
(Y/N) has heard of this situation before, well, she is from the Mafia and they would use this tactic to threaten. But, this is Dostoyevsky that they are talking about. And who knows why he wants her that badly, to the extend of killing his pawn.
Ranpo walked up to her and her eyes met his.
"Do you want to tell me what the caller had told you before that?" he asked her.
Without any choice, she nodded her head and drove Ranpo and Poe back to the agency.
__________
Dazai was going through his laptop like there was no tomorrow, even making Atsushi looked weirded out in watching him work.
As the door opens, Atsushi turned his head to greet the guest. But it turns out to be the trio that was there yesterday.
"(Y/N) san?" Atsushi question and made Dazai looked up.
"Come, (Y/N) san. Let's get into detail about the caller..." Ranpo gestures her into the meeting room and Poe follows suit.
"Caller? What's going on, Ranpo kun?" Dazai asked and he was leaning at the door frame.
"Well, we cleared the case from yesterday... and..." Poe tried to explain.
"Somehow, (Y/N) received a call before the killer was... murdered..." Ranpo continued from there.
"(Y/N)?" Dazai looks at her and she lets out a sigh.
"The caller said something about being the treasure that Dostoyevsky wants. And his name was Nikolai, his job was to clear everyone who knows about their next plans.." she said and Dazai felt complicated.
He took out his phone and searched for a name before hitting on the dial button. He waited for a while for the receiver to answer his call.
"Yes, Dazai kun?" the receiver answered.
"Did you know that your daughter was threatened?!" Dazai scolded.
"Ah, he's talking to Mori san..." Poe says it quietly.
"Some guy named, Nikolai, just issued a threat to the agency and your daughter! You better keep an eye... no, the whole Black Lizard team on her!" Dazai continues shouting.
"This is making matters worst..." she mumbles.
"What do you mean that I'm overreacting?! Did you know what that Nikolai said to your daughter?! The treasure that Dostoyevsky wanted! So you better put surveillance on her, 24/7! I can't trust that shrimp either!" and he just ended the call, just like that.
"Did he always talks to the Port Mafia boss that way?" Atsushi asked Kyoka and she nodded her head.
"Alright, now that settled. I'm sending you home!" Dazai said and pulled (Y/N) out of the agency.
"But I drove here!" she retaliates.
"Good! Cause you won't be using that car!" he scolded and got into the driver seat.
"You know that I can drive myself home, right?"
"Nope. Not today, young lady. I'll take the car cause this, Nikolai weirdo, is probably stalking for this vehicle that he might see you using it. And how many times do I have to make myself clear about the situation that you are in now?!" he scolded as he starts driving.
"I know... I just wanted to help..."
"Look, I'm sorry for raising my voice like that, but it's the truth. We need you to lay low. Who would you think that will have a hard time? Not just me, but Chuuya, your father, and those who relied on you in Port Mafia. You're somewhat special to every one of us, including that Russian pervert..."
"I understand..."
The ride from the agency to Port Mafia was in silence. It wasn't the stressful type of silence, but it was the type of silence that made you reflect on what you did.
As he turns into the main entrance, (Y/N) got down from the passenger seat.
"Remember, lay low for now..." Dazai bends over to look at her.
"Yes and thanks..." she said before closing the door to her car, which Dazai drove off.
Leaving her to enter the building where Hirotsu was standing there waiting for her.
"I heard it from the boss, you weren't harmed, were you?" he asked and lead her to the elevator.
"No... I wasn't hurt..." she replied.
"We caught wind of a killing spree in town, where a policeman was killed in the driver's seat and a man who was slouch over to the radio..." this made her look him.
"So, was that your situation?" he asked and she nodded her head.
He sighs and raked his gloved hand into his hair, he knew that this Dovtoyevsky guy was a pain but he didn't expect it to be one hell of a pain.
"Let's get you to the boss, he was getting nervous about you..." he said flatly and leads her all the way to Mori's office.
To be continued...