Chapter Text
○ Chapter 1 - [Ranpo]
When Ranpo regained his senses he immediately understood two things: the first was that he didn't feel any kind of pain, not in the hand that had been pierced by Shintō Amenogozen, Fukuchi's sword, nor in the back of his head, from the blow to the back that had almost ruined his plan.
He remembered running, as he had never run before, in search of the red-haired girl and the vampire king, he remembered the deal he had made with the latter and then nothing.
He must have fainted from overexertion and subsequently been treated by someone while he was unconscious. Although this was the most likely hypothesis Ranpo immediately discarded it, the only person who could have healed him so completely was Yosano, but everything from the absence of the sounds of medical machinery in a hospital or infirmary, to the knowledge that Yosano probably wouldn't have healed him for a simple hand wound and a concussion, led him to find an alternative explanation.
The second realization occurred in the moment in which he gained enough awareness to open his eyes.
What he saw, although being shocking, immediately made his current situation clear to him.
𝘏𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘫𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦
Did he, a non-ability user, just time traveled? What a joke, he could almost have thought he was in one of Poe's books if he hadn't recognized exactly where he was.
He was lying on a bench near the port of Yokohama, far enough from mafia territory and in a quiet, although unguarded by the police, area. His fourteen-year-old self made sure of that.
This thought brought him back to the reality of the situation, he was now fourteen year old, in the past and had no one to rely on. It was like being again in the situation of being accused of terrorism, he was alone and on the run again.
However now he could change everything, he was, after all, the best detective in the world (or he should have been, he had to be better, so his family wouldn't be hurt), and no one could beat him in a long game of chess (maybe Dazai could succeed in against him in the future, but now, with the past Dazai, this would no longer be possible).
"Then I will save you all," he said, looking at nothing in particular, "from this day forward you are all under the protection of the greatest detective who ever lived, and now I will rewrite the future so that we can all live in a peaceful world, together."
With that said, with a slight bounce in his step he set off in the direction of a certain crime scene, mentally preparing himself to meet his father again.
After all, this was the day he met Fukuzawa Yukichi for the first time and he couldn't ruin it.
(He should do something for a certain red-haired assassin too, after all Dazai would be sad if he lost his friend again, wouldn't he?)
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○ Fukuzawa
As an assassin and swordsman Fukuzawa had always had a very high perception of the space that surrounded him and of what was happening around him.
However, all this did not help him in any way to understand how it was possible to wake up in a hotel room in which he stayed for a month more than twelve years before, when a blink of an eye earlier he was still on the airport landing strip holding the dead body of his friend.
(the friend he had abandoned to himself. The one who sacrificed himself to achieve world peace, a crazy but noble sacrifice. A fitting description for Gen'ichirō actually).
Looking at his notes he realized that today was the day.
The day he met his son for the first time, the day he met that little green-eyed genius known as Ranpo Edogawa.
There was no time to back down or doubt now, Ranpo was all alone, the younger and distrustful version of the genius he had come to know and love like a son was lost in this cruel world thinking that everyone is lying to him. He couldn't abandon him.
He would never disappoint Ranpo again, he told himself, they would re-establish the agency, and make it stronger than before, he would make sure of that. For now he had a killer to find and a young genius to meet.
He hoped he didn't sound too suspect, after all if there was anyone who could deduce time travel out of all the possibilities it would be Ranpo.
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○ Yosano
Yosano woke up in a completely white room.
Everything, from the padded walls, to the floors, to the simple bed placed at the side, was blindingly white.
That sight alone made her think of only one possibility.
𝘔𝘰𝘳𝘪
It had to be him, but how? Had Mori taken her back as part of the deal with Fukuzawa and locked her in that room she hadn't seen in twelve years?
No, impossible, Fukuzawa wouldn't give up on her or on any member of the agency. Ranpo would never accept such deal. So what other possibilities were left?
She started to get up, wanting to search the room for possibility of escape and, god forbid, hidden cameras, when a sudden pain in her back obscured her vision at the slightest movement, forcing her to fall to the floor and hit her injured back again.
She didn't remember being hit in the back, and even if she had she could have used her ability to heal herself, so why was she in so much pain?
She looked down just enough to look at her torso and all the air left her lungs. She was wearing a white lab coat, her wrist was wrapped with a medical tag from which she read with barely concealed horror some words she never thought she would see.
- AKIKO YOSANO - 13 YEARS OLD
Now everything made sense. Mori hadn't rearranged her old room as a form of torture, this was her old room, the one where she had been locked up for years after the war, before Ranpo and Fukuzawa entered her life, bringing with them a light that she thought she had lost forever.
S𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘯
The thought was accompanied only by panic and anger.
𝘞𝘩𝘺?
What was the reason of this twist of fate? Sure the future was uncertain and seemed to be falling apart, but it was theirs. They would survive as they always did.
And if anyone from the agency tried to get themselves killed, well, she would just heal them, over and over again.
𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘥𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘩
A noise brought her out of her thoughts. The door was opening. She didn't look up to check who it was, she wasn't sure she could control her reaction if it was Mori.
The first thing she saw was a pair of white shoes approaching her, then the person lowered himself to her level, searching for her eyes.
"Time to take your medicine, little angel," a familiar voice teased her.
She looked up, locking eyes with the doctor's, who was glaring at her, as if she were a mere doll only capable of following orders.
"No" came out in a voice that she barely recognized as her own, it was hoarse from disuse and dehydration, very different from the voice any thirteen year old should have.
"Angel" he said with a warning tone "we already had this discussion, this pills are only for your health, you can't not take them"
"Good for my health" he said, those pills only served to make me unable to think and increase my constant muscle pain, they were another piece of Mori's plan to keep me under his control, without autonomy or a chance to escape.
When she didn't answer his question he let out an annoyed sigh near her ear.
“Looks like we're going to have to do this the hard way then,” he said, bringing his hand with the pills to her mouth, as if to force her to swallow them.
A rush of adrenaline went through her, she knew she couldn't escape, her legs may not be able to support her weight, but she wasn't going down without a fight.
With all the strength she had in her arm she took the scalpel she had seen protruding from the doctor's pocket and pushed it through the hand that was holding the pills.
"Damn it! ARE YOU CRAZY GIRL!?"
The doctor fell to the floor clutching his injured hand, but she wasn't done, she took out the scalpel and then stabbed his hand again, and again, and again, until she heard the door open again, hands pulling her away from the doctor and a syringe sticking into her neck, sedating her.
Her last coherent thought before blacking out again was of Ranpo, she couldn't wait for her brother to come back and save her from this place.
She would hold on until then, this hell didn't break her the first time, she didn't think the second time could be any worse.
𝘕𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦
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