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Being a detective was never the amazing Alina Gray’s first choice of her career. Of course if reality allowed she would spend all her time making masterpieces at her home studio. But art doesn’t always pay the bills, especially when most artworks of hers are morbid depictions of the destruction humanity so yearns for. Things like that don’t typically catch the public eye, in fact her art was banned from a few galleries due to its disturbing nature. So when she was face to face with adulthood and the necessity of a job, she turned to something that would hopefully amuse her. Crime solving.
Of course, the first few cases were rather boring to Alina, simple thefts or some one-off missing person cases. But once she got enough experience, she was able to help on the type of case Alina joined the force to work on, murder. Alina’s favorite types were the unexplainable deaths with no motive, or the Jane or John Doe’s messed up beyond recognition. It wasn’t that she liked the concept of murder, but rather the implications behind it, the darkest parts that people veer away from, she loved to dissect the face behind the crime . That was what inspired her art, and what inspired her to pursue a career in law enforcement in the first place.
So, when a string of robberies with a caped thief caught her attention, she wanted in on the case. Three robberies over the course of a week, a jewelry store, an office building, a museum, and a reverse robbery at a CEO’s house. The reverse robbery was especially interesting because a pile of standard writing pens that had been stolen from the previously mentioned office building’s had been dropped on the roof of all places. It was paired with a passive aggressive note about not writing down financial records despite all the pens. The note alone got Alina more than ready to metaphorically tear the thief apart by the seams to see what makes them tick.
Along with the note, the other side had a riddle that seemed more than obvious to Alina that led to where the thief was planning to strike next. When she overheard her coworkers talking about the riddle while taking a break, she less than politely told them that they were idiots and the riddle was pointing to an actor that was accused of sexual assault among other things but has never gone to trial. This led to a lecture on not calling her coworkers “useless baboons” and a spot on the case.
Her first meeting with the thief was in the backyard of the accused actor, a small pool between them. It turned out Alina’s speculation was spot on and the thief was there to steal. . . well, no one had quite figured out what they were stealing that night, but Alina was determined to find out. The thief was the first to speak the first time they met, an action that was not repeated during further meetings.
“Well, I’ve got to give you props, Miss detective! No one’s gotten this close since the custodian almost saw me swipe a pen!” The thief’s voice fit with her small stature. The air of confidence was apparent as she put her hands assertively on her hips.
“Phantom thief, it’s in your best interest to just give it up-” Alina began to speak but was quickly cut off.
“Oh! Are you a fan too?” The thief dropped her hands only to lift them up in excited fists near her chest. She bounced on the balls of her feet and Alina felt eyes on her through the masquerade mask the phantom thief was wearing.
“Scusi? A fan? What, pray tell, am I a fan of?” Alina was generally an impatient person, but this comment definitely ticked her off. It was very out of left field and it was getting them off topic.
“Oh, Phantom Thief Magical Kirin! You called me a phantom thief so I thought you were a fan. . . I guess you aren’t.” The phantom thief laughed awkwardly, her hands falling back to her sides and the aura of confidence now gone.
“How irritating,” Alina mumbled. “Just give up on whatever you’re here to steal, this house is already surrounded by police.”
With that remark, the phantom thief smirked and seemed more self-assured than before. “And here I thought you had me all figured out! I’m not here to steal anything!”
“Oh? Then what do you think you’re doing?” Alina tilted her head in a condescending manner at the thief. Alina weighed different possibilities in her mind before reaching a shaky conclusion. “Surely you didn’t come here just to break in?”
“Nope! I just wanted a way to get you guys out here!” The phantom thief giggled and laced her hands together behind her head, then froze. “Oh, but. . . That was supposed to be a secret. Um, could you keep that between the two of us, Miss detective?”
Alina once again weighed her options and decided that going along with the thief would be the most entertaining. Also illegal, but laws never really mattered to Alina anyway. “I don’t care much either way. Just get out of here if you’re done. I caught you on your way out, correct?”
The thief stood in silence for a moment with her mouth a tiny bit agape. Then it slowly turned into a smile. “Right you are, detective! I’ll be off, so I’ll see you next time, yeah?” The thief then ran off out the back of the property, her coattails flowing behind her. Alina watched her go and thought about how the witch hat was an overly obnoxious detail to the thief’s weird black suit with a pink bow tie costume.
Later that week the official police report was that no objects were stolen, though there was a trail of candy leading to a drawer with disturbing pictures of young girls that led to further investigation by the police. Then a few days after the actor was arrested due to the pictures. No mention of the rendezvous between Alina and the thief by the pool.
After that not-quite-heist, Alina was put on the team working against the phantom thief permanently, but as usual she wasn’t very cooperative with her coworkers. She preferred to do work alone, though unfortunately she had to share the calling card with her partners. Even if she was the one who found it loosely tucked behind a painting near the incriminating photos. Finders keepers has lost all meaning, she thought when her superior, Yachiyo Nanami, took it from her to look it over as a group.
“This is stupid! It doesn’t make any sense!” Felicia Mitsuki said from her spot at the conference table covered in evidence, with the calling card in front of her. Felicia was one of the coworkers Alina could stand the least. She loved to loudly shout her opinion with little to no filter or regard to the topic at hand. “Why would they leave a stupid clue like this? Is it even a clue?”
“That’s a good point, what if this is just a red herring? They could’ve planted it to throw us off?” Mifuyu Azusa said from Alina’s right. She had her hand placed on her chin as her elbow balanced on her arm. Alina very easily tolerated Mifuyu, as she could be called a work of art in Alina’s eyes. Though she kept those thoughts to herself. “Alina, you’re the one who found it, right? Where was it?”
“Didn’t I tell you already? It was behind the painting. It was a copy of the Nighthawks painting. Idiota.” Alina looked over at Mifuyu with a glare with no malice behind it from where she was leaning her head in her hand. “It was pretty obvious that they wanted it to be found, if looked for.”
“Could it be possible there was another one? That it would be up to us to guess which was right?” Across from Mifuyu sat Yachiyo Nanami, the lead detective for this case and Alina’s biggest headache. The normally poker-faced Yachiyo pissed off Alina to no end, and with no particular reason. Alina just did not like Yachiyo, and she left it at that.
As the other three detectives discussed the possibility of a different card, Alina allowed herself to zone out and think about a painting she was hoping to start soon. She didn’t really need to hear this conversation anyways, she’d already figured out who the phantom thief was. A girl named Karin Misono, around the same age as Alina. Finding her was a little too easy, as she looked into the manga the thief had mentioned at their meeting. She read about half of it online already and had to admit she was excited to read more on her break. Looking into the community around it led her directly to Karin. She had one the few active fan accounts and was posting regularly with devotion. From there it just took looking through her conversations in the comments to deduce she was inspired by the fictional phantom thief to become one herself.
“Are you still with us, Alina?” Alina opened her eyes to see an angry looking Yachiyo leaning over the table to snap at Alina’s face. “I’d appreciate it if you could take this more seriously, Alina. This thief could lead to a lot more than just robbery.”
“Oh? And what could that possibly lead to? People being held accountable for their actions no matter their status? Splendida! It was starting to get boring!” Alina smiles at Yachiyo and Yachiyo glares back.
“Theft is still theft, Alina. Please cooperate with us for at least an hour. Do you have any ideas about the case?” Yachiyo’s glare doesn’t leave her face as Alina rolls her eyes.
“Yeah, obviously. The culprit didn’t leave a red herring, idiotas. The calling cards are his thing, why mess with his shtick?” Alina removed her arm from the table and leaned back in her chair. “They’re not stupid.”
“You don’t hafta call us idiots!” Felicia says louder than she has to from where she’s pouting.
Most discussions from this team followed the same pattern of Alina picking fights and Yachiyo or Mifuyu reigning them all in before fists starting flying (from Felicia). Making her fellow detectives angry never failed to amuse Alina. One of the other things that amused Alina more recently was leading them to wrong conclusions. She’d already decided she sided with Karin, so may as well help her. So she was naturally excited to see her again the night of a supposed heist at a local politician’s home. And what better place to have a risky rendezvous in the middle of the night than a rooftop?
“So, my dearest phantom thief, why is this dear diet member on the chopping block today?” Alina’s words made Karin jump and she turned around to face the detective.
“Wow! You’ve done it again, my detective! You’ve caught me just before I try to leave!” The thief walked closer to Alina, “Could it be that you like talking to me?”
“Karin Misono, how long do you expect to keep this little charade of confidence up? Everything about you screams ‘pathetic’. ” Alina didn’t mention how everything about the thief actually made Alina want to learn more about her.
“Wha- how-! Uh, I mean! Who’s that? I don’t know her!” Karin sputtered at the sound of her real name, but tried to keep up the act of the elusive phantom thief.
“Fine, play dumb if you want. I don’t care. But I asked you a question. Why did you target Shuuichiro Mikuni tonight?” Alina already had a few ideas of what the old geezer could’ve done, he is a man of power after all. But she wanted to hear the truth from Karin herself, for whatever reason.
“Huh? Who said I was targeting him? Hmmm?” Karin tilted her head and poked her cheek teasingly. “Who knows, maybe I’m actually targeting his gardener! Guess you’ll just have to investigate to find out!” Karin giggled.
Alina rolled her eyes and tried to decipher what to do next. Options laid out before her, but she wasn’t sure which path to choose. Drill Karin about the supposed heist? Ask her about the gardener? Block Karin’s escape (or find it, Alina’s scan of the area showed no points of exit other than the door)? Ask her about what she thought about the latest chapter of Phantom Thief Magical Kirin? Alina dismissed that last idea.
“Um, it’s not fair now.” Karin mumbled just loud enough for Alina to hear. Her hands fiddled with her coat sleeves and she turned her head away.
“Oh? What’s not fair?” Alina moved her finger near her lips in curiosity. Why did Karin look bashful? Potential answers once again swarmed into Alina’s head.
“You know my name, but I don’t know yours! Shouldn’t I at least know who the amazing detective chasing me is?” Karin moved her hands into excited fists in front of her, and took a step closer to Alina.
“Oh you want to know my name? Well, why not? My name is Alina Gray.” Alina raised a hand to jokingly tip the hat on her head. “A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Karin.”
Karin giggled a bit and copied Alina’s gesture with her witch hat. “Same to you, Alina! Now if you don’t mind . .” Karin backed up to the edge of the roof, waved at Alina and stepped off of the roof.
Alina, rightly worried, peered over the roof only to find no sign of the phantom thief. Well, except for a piece of candy on the ledge, but that was to be expected. Karin expertly climbed through the nearby shrubbery just as she’d practiced a few nights ago. With her candy pouch closed and her bag with a change of clothes in hand, Karin headed back home after a successful reverse heist.
She hadn’t lied earlier when she said she was after the gardener. Rather, the gardener was just a piece of the puzzle that is Shuuichiro Mikuni. At first Karin was just investigating him out of boredom, then curiosity led her down a rabbit hole of embezzlement and affairs. So after her grand discovery, how could the great phantom thief not leave a candy trail to his sins?
The next day’s news coverage made Karin’s day even better as she saw her detective being interviewed by a reporter. More like the reporter trying to get an answer out of Alina without being insulted in some way. Soon Alina was replaced by another detective, Yachiyo Nanami, who gave a better description of what happened the night before. But Karin was still thinking about the mysterious Alina. She wanted to know why she was working with her and against her. Why she was protecting Karin and her identity as the phantom thief (only Alina called her that though).
A quick search of Alina’s name showed Karin her vaguely disturbing paintings and an article about her from high school. She was named an artistic prodigy, however what she made was not anything anyone would want in their home. Despite all that, Karin really liked the paintings, she guessed it was because of the clear amount of passion put into her work. Or the similarities Karin felt with Alina regarding art. Karin was an aspiring manga artist, but currently working as just the artist for a manga without controlling the story at all. And with the ways the story has been pulled and pushed inorganically, she had some complaints. Not that she would ever voice them, she needed this job.
So maybe it was her curiosity about Alina or the familiarity that made her start to factor in some conversation time with the detective during her not-quite heists. It was probably just out of curiosity that she kept answering her questions honestly. Just curiosity that made her want to stay longer for those meetings. Just curiosity that made her want to know Alina outside of these escapades.
“What’s with the candy?” Alina asked while Karin was fiddling with a window, trying to get it open.
“Why not? It’s just like Kir- ah! There we go!” The window popped open and Karin turned around to face Alina and sit on the window sill. She smirked at the almost fond stare from Alina. “And don’t you get to eat the candy trail? Consider it a present from your beloved phantom thief!”
Karin missed the way Alina blushed in the darkness of the room. “Of course we can’t eat the candy. They go directly into an evidence bag, idiota.”
“Really? Then that’s a waste of a good me-” Karin suddenly stopped swinging her legs against the window as she started to fall backwards. Alina darted forward as she saw the other girl sway, catching her wrist before she could fall completely, and pulled her back into the room.
“Are you trying to die? Be more careful, bellissimo idiota.” Alina let go of her wrist but didn’t back away yet.
“Haha, um whoopsie daisy? Thanks, Thanks Alina!” Karin backed away a bit and nervously fidgeted with her gloves and tried her best to keep her face from becoming more red than it already was.
“Alina! Are you in here? Stop disappearing on these cases,” Yachiyo said sternly as she slammed the door open, letting light from the hallway flood in. “Oh, so you are here. What are you doing?”
Alina whipped around, green hair effectively covering up Karin as she scrambled out the window to scale the building to safety. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yes, that’s why I asked.” Yachiyo deadpanned, and she crossed her arms.
“Well, if you’re that desperate, I was trying to find an exit point for the thief. I found an open window, but that was it, no signs of an actual escape from it.” Alina glared back at Yachiyo.
“Good to know. Come with me, I want everyone to see where the candy trail led.” Yachiyo ordered then walked off. Alina spared one last glance towards the window before following. Karin giggled silently from her spot delicately balancing underneath the window. Earlier, before she accidentally tripped some alarms, she surrounded the incriminating papers with a heart of green apple Laffy Taffy. She thought it’d be a nice surprise for her detective. It’s a shame she couldn’t stick around to see her reaction. Knowing her, it would probably just be a slightly creepy smile and a remark about how interesting it is.
Somewhere in her head Karin knew her infatuation with the detective was a little bit more than platonic, but she didn’t want to deal with that at the time. No harm in talking while shedding light on the shadows of seemingly good people. Even if being near Alina sometimes made her flustered just by being her confident self.
And at some point Alina realized that the way she tenses when her team gets details about the thief right isn’t normal, and definitely a sign of attraction. But it took a few more meetings with Karin for her to really accept that she’d fallen for the phantom thief. So she steeled her resolve once again to protect the thief. Even if it meant messing with some evidence.
Both parties knew that to be together, they’d need to drop their titles of thief and detective, to just be Karin and Alina. But would either of them be willing to do that?