女面 - Bungo Stray Dogs Fanfiction

第十話

"You look after the girl." was what she heard as soon as she stepped foot into the office.

Leaving the dumbfounded Fukuzawa in his office, Fumiko thought she ought to return to work. After being away since she left on the previous night for dinner with Dazai, who knew how long she'd been away from her work. And knowing her company's workload, she couldn't afford to procrastinate any longer. But the scene today was a little different than usual; considering the addition of Kyoka to the Agency and that Kunikida was standing in front of Atsushi instructing him to look after the new member. After all, that's the responsibility of a full-time member. As a senior member of the Armed Detective Agency, Fumiko was familiar with this practice. She'd been there before when she was assigned to supervise those who joined the Agency after her, Ranpo and Yosano. To her, it was fun to supervise the new members, for she could learn some things about her colleagues and their abilities.

Although, Atsushi was taken aback as surprise and uneasiness emanated from his features. "What?" he said. "Me?"

"Of course." asserted Kunikida. "You saved her."

"Okay." was the silver-haired man's response.

Ranpo lowered the newspaper in his hand and looked up. His expression lit up upon seeing the brunette. "Welcome back, Fumi-chan!" he greeted excitedly. But the wide smile was soon replaced with a pout as he sulkily added, "I was going to greet you when you came in earlier, but the President called for you before I could even say a word. That wasn't nice of him."

"It's alright, Ranpo-kun." she reassured with a smile as she approached Fukuzawa's desk where he casually sat. "But you seem excited to see me. Care to share what's on your mind?"

"I'm just excited because the President agreed to let me have a day off with you so that we can spend some time together." he answered gleefully.

A sweatdrop soon appeared on the back of Fumiko's head. 'Since when did they make such an agreement?' she wondered. But, oh well. It wouldn't hurt to make him a little happy, right? "Sure." she answered. "I'll just request a day off so we can have a meal somewhere. If you want, we can visit Harajuku to eat at Cafe Ron Ron. I know you've been wanting to go there for a while."

The grin plastered on his face stretched ever so wide. Ranpo looked like he just won a lottery. Not only was he going to spend a day with his crush friend, but they were also going to a conveyor belt dessert cafe. "That'll be great!" he said. "Pick a date as soon as possible, alright? Don't keep me waiting, you know."

"Alright~" she said in a sing-song manner while giving him a quick pat on the head, to which he happily accepted and let out a soft hum.

At that moment, the door swung open and then followed by a female's voice who called, "Excuse me! We're from the Police Department." There stood a policewoman saluting them with one hand while the other held a brown file.

"Oh, hi there." greeted Kenji cheerily.

"Hey." called Ranpo whose gaze landed on the familiar-looking man standing behind her with hands shoved in his pockets. "Minoura-kun, didn't your subordinate get arrested the other day?"

The said man gritted his teeth in annoyance, but he merely heaved a sigh before continuing, "We're here for a different matter, Mr. Detective. We have a new case."

"Understood." said Fumiko with a curt nod. "You may briefly tell us the details. We'll have a look at the documents ourselves."

With that, after a brief exchange and handing over the file, Minoura and his subordinate left the building. "They left as soon as they were done talking business." noted Kenji as he leaned on the window pane watching them walk along the sidewalk to return to the station. "Didn't even have tea. City police officers are so busy."