Chapter Text
The Sun was shining brightly this afternoon, and the bell at the local elementary school had just rung to signal the end of the day. Kids were rushing out to meet their parents, to go to friends houses to play, to go to the playgrounds as they waited for their parents to come pick them up.
And some, like the little girl in the pink dress and pigtails, just quietly stood there, at the door of the school, and waited for their parents to come pick them up.
As the girl looked around she noticed that neither her mom nor her dad had arrived yet, which wasn’t really unusual considering they both worked long hours sometimes…but still, the little girl was anxious as she stood there watching her friends leave one by one.
Would they be really late today? Or would they send a co-worker or neighbor to come get her like last time? Maybe she should just start walking home-?
“ Excuse me, but are you Amelia?”
The little girl turned and she stared in confusion and suspicion.
“ Who are you?”
“ I’m a friend of your mom and dad, they asked me to come pick you up from school because they’ll be working late.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed as she looked the stranger up and down.
“ You don’t remember me, do you? I used to go by your dad’s food stall everyday until I moved, I ordered the same thing for lunch…what was it again? Oh yeah! It was spicy radish soup and chicken dumplings!”
The girl’s eyes widened and she smiled brightly.
“ I remember now! You always gave me candy when you stopped by!”
“ I did, and I haven’t forgotten that.”
The girl squealed in excitement as the stranger held out their hand and a piece of strawberry candy sat in their palm.
But as she reached out to take it, the stranger quickly closed their fist.
“ But~, you can’t have the piece of candy until you get home, okay?”
The girl pouted but nodded her head.
“ Okay~!”
She then proceeded to take the stranger’s hand before following him off of the school’s grounds…
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“ Wow, I can’t believe we finally made it to the Clover Metropolitan Police Agency! We finally did it, Yuno!” Asta exclaimed excitedly as he stared up at the large, towering building in front of them.
“ We did,” Yuno Grinberryall, Asta’s childhood friend, agreed as he came to stand beside him. “ Though I was worried that you wouldn’t make it there towards the end.”
Asta frowned.
“ Hey, what is that supposed to mean?!” He asked as he pointed a finger at his friend.
“ He means that if it hadn’t been for your exceptionally high scores when it came to the physical aspects of the academy and final exam, you wouldn’t be here right now.” A voice suddenly said from behind them.
Asta and Yuno turned around to see Noelle Silva and Mimosa Vermillion, their friends from the academy, standing there; Noelle with her arms crossed and a serious expression on her face, while Mimosa smiled brightly and had her hands clasped her hands behind her back.
“ Hey, those tests were really freaking hard okay!” Asta shouted, causing her to wince.
“ They wouldn’t have been hard if you had studied like I told you!” Noelle argued back, her voice loud but still lower then Asta’s.
“ Just like you wouldn’t have nearly shot our weapons instructor with the taser if you had practiced like Asta told you to?” Yuno pointed out with a raised brow.
Noelle’s face turned bright red and her eyes narrowed.
“ T-That was an accident, the trigger was jammed!” She tried to argue, but he just stared at her with a deadpan expression.
“ No it wasn’t. You left the safety on.” He replied, making her face turn even redder in embarrassment.
“ I did not!” Noelle exclaimed, but before Yuno could respond Mimosa quickly stepped in.
“ Okay, guys I think that’s enough,” Mimosa told the two as she stepped forward with her hands up. “ We should hurry up and head inside.”
“ Yeah, we don’t want to be late on our first day right?” Asta chimed in as he looked between his two friends.
Noelle and Yuno continued to glare at each other for a moment before they looked at Asta and Mimosa.
“ Fine. Let’s go.” They replied in unison before they began to walk towards the building in front of them.
“ Thanks for the help Mimosa!” Asta whispered with a bright smile and thumbs up as the pair walked behind Yuno and Noelle.
“ No problem! To be honest, I thought their bickering would end once we graduated from the academy, but I guess not.” She whispered back with a sheepish laugh as she walked beside him.
“ Yeah, I did too,” He admitted with a shake of his head. “ Maybe they’ll stop once we’re all settled in our unit?”
Mimosa sighed and shrugged her shoulders.
“ Or maybe they’ll only get worse?” She suggested, and she watched him pale and his eyes widened.
“ Do you really think so?!”
“ I mean, if we’re all in the same unit and have to work together all the time…it’s a possibility.” She pointed out, her voice nervous and hesitant just at the thought.
Asta’s face paled just as much as her’s.
“ Oh man~!!”
————
Inside Clover Metropolitan Police Agency
The four rookies stepped into the elevator and slowly ascended towards their designated floor; Asta began to feel more and more excited as the number above the elevator doors got closer and closer until it finally ‘dinged’ and the voice said:
“ Floor Number 8: Major Crimes Unit.”
The doors opened and they stepped onto the floor, and much to their surprise, the floor was eerily quiet.
“ Are we sure this is the right place?” Mimosa asked as she began to look around.
“ This was the address they gave us at the academy, so it’s got to be,” Noelle replied as she also looked around. “ Maybe they’re out for lunch?”
“ It’s more likely that they’re out investigating.” Yuno replied bluntly.
Asta suddenly hummed as he heard a door open and close down the hall, and a man with light blue hair and glasses walked towards them.
“ Hey, excuse me!” He suddenly shouted, causing the man, Noelle, and Mimosa to jump in surprise.
“ This is the Major Crimes department right?” He asked before frowning as the other man scoffed.
“ Of course it is, didn’t you hear the elevator announce it before you stepped off?” He asked as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.
“ We did, but we thought we may’ve gotten off on the wrong floor since it’s so quiet.” Mimosa replied hesitantly as she gestured to the empty hallway.
“ Ah, well, that’s because one unit of our department is on their way back from a case, and the other unit is doing…whatever it is that they do.” He muttered as he gave an annoyed look to the door on the right side of the room.
The man’s gaze suddenly shifted back towards the group and looked each of them up and down.
“ Are you the rookies-?” The man began, but was quickly cut off by Asta’s excited voice.
“ Yes sir, Officer Asta reporting for duty!”
“ Officer Asta?” The man hummed in thought before turning to the others. “ And I assume that you’re Officers, Yuno Grinberryall, Noelle Silva, and Mimosa Vermillion?”
The other three nodded, and the man sighed.
“ Alright, follow me and I’ll take you to your assigned units.”
They all began to follow the man down the hall, and after walking a few steps they stopped at a door on the left that said ‘Major Crimes Unit A’.
The man opened the door and walked inside, and the four rookies stood in the doorway and waited as he walked up to the Inspector’s desk and grabbed files from it.
“ Let’s see; Mimosa Vermillion and Yuno Grinberryall are in Unit A, and I, Klaus Lunettes, will be your superior.” The man said as he closed the files and set them back down onto the desk.
Asta and Noelle frowned in confusion.
“ Wait, we’re all not in the same unit?” Asta asked, he thought he and Yuno would be in the same unit, but apparently that wasn’t the case?
“ No,” Klaus confirmed as he pushed his glasses up his nose. “ You two are most likely going to be in Unit B.”
Noelle and Asta looked at each other.
“ Unit B?”
“ Yes, the worst unit in the Clover Metropolitan Police Agency, that’s where you two are headed.” Klaus said with a somewhat judgemental and dismissive look on his face.
“ The worst unit? Why are they the worst unit?” Asta couldn’t help but ask, his brows furrowed in confusion.
“ Because they act more like a group of rowdy, chaotic children that don’t understand the rules than a group of police officers that do.”
Noelle’s eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms.
“ And we’re expected to join this ‘worst unit’ full of ‘children’?” She asked with a huff, and Klaus turned towards her.
“ If you want to work in Major Crimes and Unit A won’t take you, then yes.” Klaus replied curtly as he crossed his arms as well.
Noelle and Asta glanced at each other, if they wanted to work in Major Crimes, then they really had no choice, didn’t they?
“ Fine, and where is this ‘Unit B’?” She asked with a reluctant sigh.
“ Across the street. After they nearly destroyed both their and our office last week, the higher ups decided to move them to their own, seperate building.” He explained as he pushed his glasses up his nose again.
Asta frowned and looked behind him and out the window at the building across the street.
“ But, Mister Klaus, that’s a daycare center?”
Klaus nodded.
“ Exactly. That’s Unit B’s new office for the foreseeable future.”
————
Noelle and Asta stared up at the dilapidated sign that hung above the walkway leading to the daycare with confused, and somewhat worried,
expressions; this was Unit B’s headquarters? An old, slowly decaying daycare center?
“ This has to be a joke right? That Klaus guy had to be pulling our legs.” Noelle said as looked from the sign over toward Asta.
“ I don’t think so, look at that banner over there.” Asta said hesitantly as he pointed to a banner on the front of the school that had the Clover Police logo and words that said ‘The Temporary Headquarters of Unit B of Major Crimes’.
Noelle groaned as she felt a sense of dread fill her.
“ Hey, don’t judge a book by it’s cover, I bet it looks better on the inside!” Asta tried to tell her cheerfully.
“ And I bet Unit B is full of really cool and awesome people that work on just as many cases as Unit A!”
She quietly sighed, silently cursing his infectious positivity. Maybe he was right, maybe it wasn’t as bad on the inside as it looked on the outside, maybe the Unit wasn’t as bad as Klaus made them out to be…
“ C’mon, let’s go before we’re really late!” Asta exclaimed as he grabbed her hand and ran towards the building.
“ H-Hey! We’re not going to school, y’know!”
The two walked into the daycare and blinked in surprise; despite the rough condition of the sign and the outside of the building, the inside was pretty well maintained.
The floor was made of a light tan colored wood laminate, the walls were colored either white or in calming pastels. There were decals of various flowers and animals on the walls, and there were lots of toys and items to keep children entertained during the day.
Was this really a police headquarters?
“ Can I help you two with something?” A young woman with a kind smile asked.
“ Oh, hi! We’re looking for Unit B of Major Crimes?” Asta asked, and the woman instantly pointed toward the ceiling.
“ Second floor! Good luck!”
Asta and Noelle nodded in thanks before they walked up the stairs to the second floor, and instantly stopped when they heard a loud shout.
“ Head’s up!”
They immediately turned and saw a baseball flying right at their heads, Noelle ducked down and covered her head, while Asta caught the flying ball in the palm of his hand.
“ Woah, nice catch!” The guy who threw the ball said in surprise as he gave Asta a thumbs up.
“ Hey, that was my ball!” Another guy exclaimed in disappointment at the other end of the hall, making Noelle and Asta turn around to face him.
The one holding the bat had messy blonde hair, blue eyes, and a grin on his face. He wore a white t-shirt, a light blue button up over it, and a pair of tan shorts with tennis shoes.
The one who threw the baseball had black hair with the sides dyed purple and styled in a mohawk. He wore a black turtleneck shirt, a black leather jacket, a pair of black skinny jeans, and calf-length motorcycle boots.
Noelle’s eyes narrowed, surely these guys were the older siblings of the kids downstairs, right? There was no way-!
“ Holy crap that hurt!” Asta suddenly shouted as the baseball fell from his hands and hit the floor with a loud thud.
“ Asta, are you okay?!” Noelle exclaimed as she saw how red his palm was after he caught that ball, just how fast did this guy throw it?!
“ Asta? You’re the rookie we were assigned?” The man with the mohawk asked, and Asta nodded.
“ Yep, that's me! And this is Noelle!” He said brightly as he patted her shoulder.
“ She’s the other rookie Inspector Yami was talking about!” The blonde man said as he dropped the baseball and rushed over.
“ We were wondering when you two would show up, c’mon, the office is this way.” The man with the mohawk said as he turned around and began to walk down the hall with the blonde.
Noelle and Asta looked at each other before they slowly followed behind them.
The closer they got to the room, the louder the shouts and yelling became, and as soon as the man with the mohawk opened the door the two rookies' eardrums were slammed with multiple different sounds.
There were about twelve people in the loud and chaotic office, three women and nine men. Some were trying to do paperwork, some were yelling because they had the wrong files, and others were just sitting back and watching the chaos unfold.
Noelle felt that sense of dread from before suddenly come roaring back; these people were definitely like Klaus said they were!
“ Hey Inspector Yami, the rookies are here!” The man with the mohawk shouted, making everyone else in the room immediately quiet down to look at them.
“ Took you brats long enough,” A man sitting at a desk at the far end of the room began as he slowly stood up. “ What? Ya get lost or something?”
“ No, sir! We went to the Agency first and after we were told your headquarters moved we came straight here!” Asta yelled, his voice echoing around the room and causing a few people to wince in response.
“ They told us you were moved because you nearly destroyed your own office and Unit A’s, sir.” Noelle explained, and she watched as he laughed.
“ Heh yeah, we got a little rambunctious after closing a case!” The man admitted as he rubbed the back of his head.
“ Anyway, welcome to Unit B; name’s Yami Sukehiro, and I’m the Inspector of this unit.” Yami explained as he crossed his arms.
Yami was tall, had messy black hair that stood up. He wore a tight, black button up dress shirt, a pair of black dress pants, and had what appeared to be a trench coat hanging off the back of his chair.
“ This is Assistant Inspector Nacht Faust, he’s the guy you answer too when I’m not around.” Yami said as he pointed to the man on his left.
Nacht had long black hair tied back into a high ponytail, his piercing blue eyes glared slightly at the two even though he had a calm smile on his face. He wore a plain black and white suit with a long black tie around his neck.
“ Well, aren’t you two a bunch of cuties~!” A woman with pink hair said as she leaned over her desk and gave them a charming smile. “ I’m Vanessa, it’s a pleasure to meet you two!”
Vanessa had shoulder length, wavy pink hair and warm purple eyes. She wore a wine red, long sleeved shirt and long, black leather pants and she had a matching wine colored leather jacket hanging off the back of her chair.
“ My name’s Henry! It’s nice to meet you two!” A man with long blue hair and a kind smile greeted them.
Henry had long, fluffy, light blue hair that partially covered his face. He had bright yellow eyes, and wore a light blue sweater with a white turtleneck underneath and a pair of long, tan pants.
One by one the members of Unit B greeted them.
A quiet man named Gordon with black hair, pale skin greeted them with a small nod. He wore a solid black suit and tie with a shiny, metal buckle on the side.
There was a young man named Finral with wavy brown hair and green dyed tips. He wore a white dress shirt with a green sweater on top, along with a pair of casual black dress pants.
A young woman named Grey waved shyly at them. She had short blue hair and wide blue eyes, and wore a light blue suit and white top underneath.
A much shorter woman named Charmy greeted them brightly next. She had long black hair tied back into a bun, and wore a white shirt with a bigger short sleeved black top over it with matching black pants.
Then a tall man named Zora with red hair and a mischievous grin introduced himself with a wave. He wore a deep red button up shirt that was missing the top two buttons, and a pair of black dress pants.
“ You already met Magna and Luck earlier, so there’s really no need for introductions.” Yami said as he pulled out a cigarette and put it into his mouth.
And the final member of Unit B named Gauche didn’t even bother to look up and greet the pair. He had messy brown hair with bangs that covered one of his eyes, and he wore a purple, turtleneck sweater and a pair of high-waisted brown pants.
“ There’s supposed to be a third rookie with ya, but I got a call earlier that they won’t be here until later this week.” Yami explained as he picked up a file from his desk.
“ So, are you two ready for your first case?” He asked as he held up the vanilla folder.
Asta and Noelle’s eyes widened in surprise, they had only been here a few minutes and were already getting their first case?!
“ Yes, sir!” They both exclaimed excitedly.
Yami smirked, walked over to them, and handed them the file.
Asta and Noelle opened it excitedly, their minds racing as to what kind of case this would be, but as their eyes scanned the pages their excitement turned into confusion.
“ Uh, Inspector Yami, are you sure this is the right case file?” Asta asked hesitantly as his gaze moved up from the papers to their team leader.
“ Yeah, why? Is something wrong with it?” He asked as he walked over to a nearby window, opened it, and then lit the cigarette in his mouth and took a drag.
“ Well, it’s, uh-.” Asta began, but Noelle cut him off.
“ It’s a missing child’s case from fifty years ago, you gave us a cold case.” She told him as she took the file from Asta and held it up for Yami to see.
He hung his head out the window to let out a cloud of smoke before turning to look at them.
“ Yeah, I know. We’re a cold case unit, so it’s kind of obvious that you’d be working on cold cases.”
Asta and Noelle felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped on them at Yami’s words…
Unit B of Major Crimes was a cold case unit?!
“ I take it the guy from Unit A didn’t tell you that?” Nach asked as he crossed his arms, his eyes narrowing at the rookies.
“ No he didn’t,” Asta admitted with a sheepish chuckle, his hand coming up to scratch the back of his head.
“ Probably because he knew we would immediately start to complain if we found out,” Noelle said as her voice took on an annoyed tone and she put her hands on her hips.
Asta wouldn’t lie and say he wasn’t taken aback by this news. He imagined himself solving active crimes that happened days ago alongside Yuno, both competing to see who could solve the crime first and who could solve the most, but now…now there was no way that could happen.
There was a good chance that he would fall way behind while Yuno soared far ahead and got closer and closer to achieving their shared dream of becoming Commissioner General.
He quickly shook his head, no, there was no way he would let that happen! Being in a cold case unit might not be ideal, but he wasn’t going to give up. No matter how old the case, no matter how long it took, he was going to surpass Yuno and become the Commissioner General!
“ Hey kid, you alright?” Yami asked as he turned to look at them.
Asta blinked as he was pulled out of his thoughts and he smiled brightly.
“ Yes, sir! I was a little surprised at first, but now I’m ready to go and solve this case!”
“ That’s the spirit!” Yami said as he finished his cigarette and put it out.
“ What about you? You ready to solve the case too?” He asked Noelle.
Admittedly, she was less than enthused about working on cold cases…but really, what could she do? Her only options were to either work here, quit, or try to get her brother to pull some strings so she could transfer to Unit A.
Quitting wasn’t an option, she had worked too hard to get here, and right now she couldn’t call her brother to get her transferred…so in reality, she only had one option…
“ Fine. Since I don’t really have a choice.” She replied as she tossed her silver hair over her shoulder.
Suddenly, Asta and Noelle felt arms over their shoulders and saw Magna’s head hover in-between theirs.
“ Trust me, solving cold cases is a lot more interesting than ya think, just give it a chance!” Magna told them brightly with a wide smile on his face.
“ Since you feel so strongly about our unit, why don’t you supervise their first mission, Magna.” Yami said as he closed the window and walked over to his desk.
Magna looked at him in surprise.
“ Me?”
“ Yeah. It’s about time you got to take the lead on a case,” Yami replied as he sat down in his chair. “ And when you see who the victim's family is, I think you’ll understand why.”
With a frown, he looked over Asta’s shoulder and read the name of the victims family, and his eyes widened.
“ No way…” He muttered in disbelief as he stepped back and took the file out of Asta’s hands, his eyes scanning the pages over and over again.
After a moment, he looked up from the pages with a fiery look in his eyes.
“ C’mon rookies, let’s go. We’ll take my crazy cyclone!” He told Asta and Noelle as he turned around and walked out of the room.
The two looked at each other with slightly confused looks before they quickly followed him out of the office.
“ Mister Yami,” Finral began hesitantly as his eyes moved away from the door towards their team leader. “ Are you really sure it’s going to be okay?”
“ I’m sure those three can handle it.” Was what Yami replied with as he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.
“ I’m gonna take a nap, let me know if they find anything.”