15

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ping!

her eyes abruptly opened although the normal empty look was still in them as she took a deep breath in, almost like she was gasping for air as she heard her phone notification sound.

slowly sitting back up, she took out her phone seeing the message was from kunikida telling her the address of the hospital and that she better be their and not slacking off.

that's right...i still have work

seeing the message reminded erity of the agency and that it probably wasn't a good idea to just disappear from work for a couple weeks already as she had just started working there and knew kunikida would personally find her and drag her back to work, nagging and lecturing her until her head exploded which in that case she probably would like to happen.

letting out a sigh, she got up and looked at the address again before starting to make her way over there, hacking into the radio of the taxi that held the other's so that she could follow their conversation for more information about the case they where on.

once again pushing her away but she knew it wouldn't last long before she popped back up.

-

erity walked on the path through the dark woods that let to the old and abandoned hospital which was the address that kunikida had sent her as she was still listening in to their conversation through the taxi's radio which she could hear riding closer and closer by to her until eventually the car took a sudden stop right next to her.

"Wh-What?!" kunikida questioned as he had been flung back to the front of the car by the sudden stop.

"We're here" the driver told them making them look out the window at the abandoned hospital which erity was also looking up at from next to the car "It's the abandoned hospital, as you requested"

"What a nice atmosphere" dazai spoke "i think it might be haunted"

"By what?" kunikida questioned.

"Ghosts, probably" erity spoke up in her monotonous voice from next to the car making everybody turn to her in surprise as they hadn't noticed she was already their.

as they got out the car, the four of them started to make their way inside the abandoned hospital.

"It is creepy, to be sure" atsushi mentioned as they walked through the halls.

"It's kind of nice, it revs you up. right erity-chan~" dazai spoke, looking down at the pinkette who walked between him and atsushi.

this place, it reminds me of...

"I guess" she answered simply, and even though it was dark in the hospital he could still clearly see her eyes but they seemed to be even emptier than usual, holding a dark shadow over them.

he'd also noticed that their still seemed to be something off about her. and yet, he couldn't place what.

afterall. she was a hard person to read, and that was coming from him.

"You two better not have eaten another weird mushroom" kunikida spoke from behind them.

"Oh, are you scared, kunikida-kun?" dazai asked.

"Are you afraid of ghosts or something?" atsushi questioned.

"I'm not afraid of ghost!" kunikida stated but with a quick glance at him, erity could tell that he was seeing by the way he had his arms crossed closely to him, almost like he was hugging himself and because of the slight stutter.

"Then keep up" dazai told him.

"Fool!" kunikida replied "In this sort of movie, those who are careless and get ahead of themselves are the ones who die first"

"Look at these footprints" atsushi spoke up making them all look down at the footprints "They're still fresh"

"Help!" they suddenly hear someone shout from afar making them look down the stairs which let to the basement.

"That voice..." atsushi trailed off.

"Did it come from the basement?" kunikida questioned before he and the others noticed erity ran down the stairs and to the basement and they immediately followed her movements as they to ran down, not taking to long to catch up.

erity couldn't help but wondered though, why had she ran down right after hearing the scream of help, maybe because it seemed of.

she shook the thought away as she and kunikida arrived at a room with a big tank that was sealed at the top with iron bars that held a woman inside it which was only dressed in her underwear as the tank itself was filling up with water.

"What's this?!" kunikida questioned as dazai and atsushi made it to the room, standing next to erity at the entrance.

they watched as the woman let go of the bars and slowly started to sink down, kunikida gasped as erity's eyes squinted at the scene.

something is off

the woman's eyes met those of kunikida for a moment before he pulled out his gun and shot the tank.

-

the woman coughed as she now sat on the ground with dazai's coat around her as she had only been in her soaked underwear as dazai himself was crouched in front of her, atsushi bowed down next to her, kunikida standing by the tank and erity leaning against the entrance way.

"Thank you, You saved me" the woman spoke with slight gasps "I am Sasaki Nobuko, i'm a lecturer at a university in tokyo"

"So you're victim number twelve?" atsushi questioned.

"Did you see who abducted you?" dazai asked her.

"I'm sorry" she apologized "I blacked out at a station. when i regained consciousness, i was drowning in the tank, as you just saw"

"Dazai, what's your take on the situation?" kunikida asked.

"Sasaki-san's looking super sexy" dazai answered completely serious.

atsushi sweatdropped, kunikida got pissed while erity didn't have a reaction at all as she had thought he would say something like that.

"Be serious!" kunikida shouted.

"Oh, right..." sasaki spoke up as she turned to kunikida who turned to look at the ground "There should be others who were abducted here, i know i heard voices just as i began drowning in the tank"

"What?" kunikida questioned looking back up at her.

the four of them split up to search for the other abducted people, going through every room.

"Kunikida-san!" atsushi yelled "I found them, they're here!" the other three ran t ohe room where atsushi was, kunikida being the first to arrive and right afterwards erity.

who's eyes widened slightly as she saw what was in their, on the other side was a container chamber made of glass holding four male's in only their underwear, two of them banging on the window.

erity immediately recognised what kind of container chamber it was making her look up at the roof of the chamber to see the gas sprinklers which right after her noticing them let out the gas.

"Get back, atsushi-kun! erity-chan!" dazai shouted as he ran into the room "It's gas! you, too, kunikida-kun"

even though she had heard dazai, erity didn't move as she stood a bit in front of them but slightly behind kunikida as fragments of memories from when she was little and had been in such a chamber herself flashed trough her mind as she watched the gas spread further trough the chamber making the men couch and buckle down, continuing to plead for their help.

"Hey, hang in there!" kunikida shouted at them as he banged against the window of the chamber, snapping erity out of it as she blinked, her mind clearing up.

as she had come to, she took the situation into account and came to her conclusions.

we can't save them but...

springing into action she ran forwards and got a hold of kunikida putting her body in such a stance so that she could use most of her strength to start pulling him back as best as she could.

knowing that if they stayed here to long they to would have the same fate as those men, or at least everybody here except for her.

"Kunikida-san!" dazai shouted as he ran up next to erity and helped her try to pull kunikida back.

"Let me go, dazai! erity!" kunikida shouted back as he struggled against them "People shouldn't die like this!"

"Let me go! let me go!" kunikida kept shouting as erity and dazai keep struggling to get him out but eventually got him out the room, although erity did notice something.

while she and dazai where trying to get kunikida out the room she noticed a camera in the corner, recording everything, it didn't take to much thinking to figure out it was their to record the events that had happened.

so once everybody was out the room she had gone back in, not once looking at the chamber, knowing what would be their but just held her head down before turning to the wall which held the camera.

she held her normal emotionless expression and empty eyes as she stood their looking down although inside it felt like she was burning.

she waited and then, she finally heard it, the wiring of the camera.

that's when she looked up and in that split second her eyes where no longer the empty once as usual but instead they showed a turmoil of emotions.

crack!

the camera she had noticed before was now broken as she had flicked a small stone she'd found laying on the ground at the camera, hitting it right in the middle.

she blinked and when her eyes opened, they where empty once again as she turned with her hands inside her jacket pockets and walked out the room, through the halls and out the abandoned hospital.

-

a small girl with wild pastel pink hair and dull pink eyes sat by a woman with long beautiful green hair and gentle light green eyes.

they sat by the table in the watch room, erity had become quiet acquainted with the space as she had been brought their many times by the woman.

on the table sat a vase and in it...

erity kept looking at the vase before turning to the woman who turned to also look from the vase to her, the woman watched and as she had expected, erity tilted her head.

the woman gave her signature soft, gentle smile which made erity look around the room and then back at the woman who turned back to the vase.

"This, erity. is a camellia flower" the woman told her as she moved the flower a bit closer to erity so that she could get a better look.

erity looked back at the vase which held the camellia flower, it had a white color which became a lightish yellow in the middle and wasn't to big in size.

"Would you like to know what they mean?" the woman asked her.

"They mean something" erity said as she kept looking at the flower, a slight curious look in them.

which made the womans smile brighter, something she had noticed as she had been 'taking care' of erity is that over the time they've spent with each other and as erity started to learn more about the world outside of the laboratory, she started to grow more into 'herself' as the woman like to put it.

erity had become quiet the curious one even though erity herself did not notice this.

the woman let out a chuckle as she thought of the many things she had shown and told erity about and how erity always in her own way had asked about them, having that little curious glint in her eyes as she did, even having started to ask about things herself.

it brought such joy to the woman and she hoped that one day she could show erity those things or talk about them outside of the laboratory.

"Yes, they do. all flowers have their own meaning" the woman explained.

"All flowers, so there are more" erity said with a tilt of her head as she turned back to the woman.

"Oh yes, so many. and you'lle see them all" the woman told her "I'll make sure of that"

erity's head tilted to the other side as she saw a strange look come into the woman's eyes.

"I will" erity spoke making the woman blink before looking at her, the strange look having left her eyes.

"I promise, one day you will be standing in a field of camellia flower or any flowers you wish" the woman said giving her soft, gentle smile as she reached and held erity's hand in her bigger one.

erity didn't quite understand but, she did know one thing.

"As long as your their, i don't care where i'm standing" erity spoke , her eyes holding a different kind of glint now but the woman didn't notice as she had been taken off guard by erity's words.

but never the less smiled that gentle smile which brightened up the room as usual.

-

erity's eyes opened slowly to be met with beige and blue walls and the lingering scent of disinfectant as she laid upon a white sheeted bed.

the infirmary...right, i came here so i didn't have to deal with kunikida's nagging

she heard giggling from next to her and realised that must have been what had woken her up, it sounded familiar. she blinked and softly shook her head to get rid of the sleepiness as she continued to listen.

"Oh, that's great" she heard one of the people say and realized it was dazai as he and the other person kept giggling.

a little later she heard the click of the door and footsteps, meaning someone must have come in.

"Thank you so much for saving me the other day" she heard the other person say and could finally place the voice to be that of sasaki "If you hadn't come when you did, i wouldn't be alive right now" the woman they had saved yesterday who erity still felt something off about.

"Not at all" she heard kunikida's voice say, making her guess he must have been the one who had come into the room and she had a feeling atsushi must be with him to.

"Not the mention, you even let me stay at your residence last night" sasaki told them.

"Huh?" kunikida questioned sounding like he'd been taken off guard which didn't surprise erity to much that he had reacted that way as to what sasaki had just said.

"Where did you stay?" she heard atsushi ask, confirming her guess to be right.

"My place!" dazai spoke up, after a couple quiet seconds.

not a surprise

"What?!" both kunikida and atsushi questioned, shocked.

"I'm...deeply indebted to dazai-sama" sasaki told them, sounding a bit shy.

"See?" dazai said simply.

"I-is that something detectives are allowed to do?" atsushi asked, sounding nervous having probably gotten the wrong idea.

erity didn't care much for it and just closed her eyes again. letting out a soft unnoticed sigh, slightly disappointed that she had been woken up just for that.

-

sadly for erity, dazai had noticed she was also in the infirmary and pointed it out before they went to leave the infirmary, resulting in kunikida nagging at her as he, literally dragged her out with them.

so they now sat at their desks, erity having forcefully been placed next to kunikida so that he could make sure she didn't slack off again.

atsushi watched dazai wearly, still wondering about what he had meant a little while ago in the infirmary as dazai was typing on his laptop.

"It seems sasaki-san didn't see who it was" dazai explained as he continued to type "She apparently faints a lot due to anemia, that's why she fainted on the day she was abducted, too. i don't know how she was abducted afterward"

"So she's your type?" kunikida asked as he started at him with a hard look.

aren't all woman

"I like all woman" dazai answered just as erity had thought "But sasaki-san seems like the type who'd commit suicide with me if i ask, which is nice" his answer had ticked kunikida off as he looked up from his laptop "But what about you, kunikida-kun? is she your type?"

erity turned her head to look to the other side as it laid on the desk, seeing kunikida turn to look aside.

"She is a victim in the case and a witness, that's it" he answered simply but erity didn't really expect any other kind of answer and just turned her head back to the other side like before.

"Well, that's how you would roll" dazai said having had the sam thought as erity before turning to atsushi who still was looking at him wearly "Oh, atsushi-kun, erity-chan. want to read it?" he asked them making erity move her head up so that her chin was laying on the desk and she could look up at dazai who now held kunikida's notebook "His ideal woman"

"you bastard!" kunikida shouted pissed but slightly nervous to as he slammed his hands against the desk making erity's head bob up before landing back on the desk "when'd you swipe that?"

"Read? you mean it's written down in here?" atsushi questioned as he looked through the notebook.

"Kunikida-kun's notebook has a wide range of schedules, plans, and ideals recorded in it" dazai explained before leaning over and pointing out something in the notebook "See, like here"

"Whoa!" atsushi shot up his expression changing drastically as he read what dzai had pointed out.

"Th-this is to much..." atsushi trailed off before kunikida snatched his notebook back from behind him.

erity just watched it all, she wasn't going to deny that she wasn't curious about what was in the notebook but knowing that kunikida wrote everything in it, she knew it best to give him his privacy, afterall.

even though she had been working here for a while now, nor him or any of the other members of the agency had really questioned her besides asking for her name.

"You have a problem with it?" kunikida asked as he looked towards atsushi making him nervous.

"No, i can sympathize with your vision of an ideal woman, but..." atsushi told him as he trailed of.

"You should probably not share that vision with woman" dazai told him holding the newspaper.

"Forget about me!" kunikida spoke, angry "We're talking about the abductions right now! have we picked up on something?"

"Yeah" dazai awnered as he picked up the newspaper and showed it to kunikida "In this newspaper photo, to look pretty manly"

erity looked down at the picture, remembering what had happened and what she had done to the camera that had taken that exact picture.

if i had noticed it sooner...

"Is that your way of indicating that you want me to punch you?" kunikida asked him, getting pissed once more.

"What's regrettable is this..." dzai spoke as he turned the newspaper and looked at the picture "You should've picked sexier eyeglass frames, if you where going to end up in the news"

erity let her head fall forwards back on the desk, having it make a small thud sound which went unnoticed.

"They're so plain" dazai continued as he took kunikida's glasses.

"Hey!" kunikida shouted as dazai proceeded to put the glasses on

"Only a naturally flamboyant person like me could pull off wearing them" dazai explained before doing a pose "What do you think, atsushi-kun? erity-chan?"

"Not bad, really" atsushi answered.

erity leaned her head back to see dazai now wearing kunikida's glasses, she starred dully for a couple seconds before smacking her head back down, although she didn't have much of a reaction, she did actual have a thought about it, she just didn't say it loud up.

con man

"They only scream 'con man' to me" kunikida answered, having the same thought as erity.

"Wait..." kunikida trailed off seeming to be deep in thought for a second causing the other two to turn to him as erity listened closely.

"What's the matter?" dazai asked, right after kunikida turned to him and took his glasses back.

"Let's go, the three of you" kunikida said before putting back on his glasses as he turned around again "i know who's behind this"