Chapter Text
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Elizabeth groaned as her eyes opened slightly before falling shut again. She had spent hours with her eyes focused on the paper and soon lost track of what the time was. She was quite tired but she couldn't do anything about it. The girl glanced at the time on the clock beside her.
8:45
Oh shit.
She sprung to life from her seat and quickly stripped herself of her clothes to get changed. A slew of curse words spilled out of her mouth as she clumsily pulled on her jacket before running outside to the cold streets of Liones. Her mind raced with a thousand thoughts.
How was she going to explain herself?
What if the planning she did was useless?
What happened if they closed the case?
Her stomach growled in hunger but she ignored it. Breakfast was the last thing on her mind right now and she needed to get to work immediately. She dashed through the hallways of the office and flung open door after door. The girl swallowed the boulder that was lodged in her throat as she approached her father's office.
"Hey, Lizzy."
The silver-haired girl sighed and chuckled as she turned to see her closest friends in their chairs, all holding their morning coffees. Howzer had a smug look on his face before setting down his drink on the table.
"How did the embarrassment from yesterday go?" The dark blonde asked, the bubble of laughter almost erupted from his throat when he saw the girl's face turns a dark shade of red.
"Let's just say that... It didn't go well..." The girl blurted out, pointing out all the mistakes that she had done and recalled all techniques that she had learned in training that had been put to use.
She failed to accomplish her task.
Elizabeth sighed and looked at the two of the three boys who chuckled at her response. Although, the third one, Gilthunder had a blank stare painted on his face. His blue eyes pierced through her like ice, they were always so cold. The pink-haired man let out a dry cough and cleared his throat breaking the tension between them.
"So what do you plan to do now?"
Elizabeth blinked and hummed.
What was she going to do?
After that whole embarrassing situation that happened earlier with the failed arrest, she wasn't willing to go and risk the slim chance of infiltrating another drug bust.
Suddenly, the memory of last night flashed through her mind. Another possible job. Another possible case to crack. Another way to redeem herself.
Would she tell them?
They were her friends, but honestly, she wanted to do the job herself. It would show that she was an independent police officer and not some kind of insecure rookie! She couldn’t risk them stealing her thunder.
"I'm just gonna do more research on the case and you know possible lookout for crime. I mean that's what we police do am I right? Anyway, I'm probably disturbing you from your work so I should get going now!" The girl quickly rushed towards the door, cramming all of her items together into a spare bag.
All three boys watched her walk away nervously.
"She always working hard, that Elizabeth. No wonder she got put on to the team, it's amazing how she has grown during the past few years." Griamore commented before looking toward the papers in front of him and scanning them along with Howzer.
All but Gilthunder were not alarmed. The pink-haired man's eyebrows furrowed with curiosity, he could only wonder, what was she hiding away from them? Whatever it was, she can't keep in secrecy forever. He glanced down at the pen that was held between his fingertips and watched as the pink flesh harshly turned white-snow pale. Not like it bothered him anyway, he had other things to worry about. His gaze soon drifted to where the girl had once been.
***
Elizabeth sighed as she strolled through the streets of Kaynes Village. This place was known to have the lowest rates of crimes in the whole county. According to the demographics, the village mostly consisted of the elderly or parents with young children about to start primary school. Children ran along with their friends while their mothers lectured them to not run while near the roads. She smiled as it reminded her back to her days of childhood. She closed her eyes and memories flourished inside her mind as she replayed all the loving memories she contained. Having no care in the world. Boots crashing on the pools of mud and grass. Being lectured continuously for accidental mistakes. Warm and soft hugs she received from her father shielding her away from harm's direction.
Oh, how she missed those days. If only she could rewind back time.
She remembered the time when she had climbed up the tree, her older sisters had nagged time and time again never to climb the tree. But she was a renegade!
Childhood was an innocent part of life...
Protection was necessary at all times.
"Get off the road quickly!"
"All the kids off the road now!"
"What is that guy still doing on the road, is he stupid?!"
"Someone help him!"
Her eyes snapped open at the sound of the desperate voice and her head craned to the direction of the road. There was a young man who seemed paralyzed to the spot as a vehicle was approaching rapidly and losing slight control. Must be a drunk driver. The bursting energy inside of her functioned her legs to run and reach the man, her fingers wrapped around the collar of his shirt and she forcefully chucked him out of the driver's view and on the pedestrian's sidewalk.
The offending vehicle drove off into the distance still swerving from side to side due to the reckless driver behind the wheel. The silver head sighed and glanced at the soon to be crushed man. He breathed heavily as sweat beaded down his pale horrified face, his amber eyes were almost as small as dots and his lime-green hair was ruffled.
Good no injuries, he's just in shock. That can be dealt with. She looked around the area to see whether other pedestrians had gotten off the road in time, all the children had done what was instructed.
Thankfully, no casualties.
She glanced back to take a good look at the man whom she had saved who was now staring with wide eyes.
"Hey... Snap out of it... You're out the way now... " Elizabeth reassured the panicked victim, he heard a few murmurs from behind.
"That crazy boy is gonna get killed one day..."
"This happens almost every day, but this is the first time that the vehicle had almost hit him. If it hadn't been for that lady over there he would be gone."
"His mother is always embarrassed at his behavior, he is supposed to be a grown man.. Hell he shouldn't be living with her, he should be working elsewhere at least."
The girl's eyebrows furrowed and she decided to ignore the other pedestrians and focus on the poor man who tried to process the situation.
"Do you have a name?" Elizabeth asked. She sighed as the man nodded slowly. "What is it?"
The victim stared at her for a few moments, then opened his mouth.
"Helbram! There you are!"
The man supposedly named Helbram perked up at the sound of the voice and mumbled to himself as he stared down at the ground. A fairly middle-aged woman approached them and saw Elizabeth before bowing her head and rushing to the side of the man.
"Thank you for helping him.. I'm so sorry if my son has caused any trouble for you. I will do anything to repay you!" The lady confessed as she held her son close to her and slightly shielding him from the glares of the spectators. Elizabeth blinked in surprise, why would the woman repay her?
"Oh, no! There’s no need! He didn't do anything ma'am, I mean its normal for one to be stunned when there is an approaching vehicle, especially one that was driven by a drunk driver. I'm just glad that Helbram is okay. It’s my job to protect the citizens of Liones, after all." The detective smiled reassuringly. The mother of the victim sighed in relief before guiding her son to stand up, Helbram looked at Elizabeth.
"T-Thank you...for saving me... I'm sorry." The lime green-haired boy sulked.
"Please don't worry about it. The important thing is that you are safe."
The girl said her goodbyes before continuing on with the research of the drug case. It was hard to believe that this area could be the main distribution of meth, there was practically no proof that anything was going on.
She pulled out her journal to check the timeline of the town It had a few businesses open, she spotted how there was a warehouse that had shut down a year and a half ago.
Bingo. A perfect place to carry out quiet businesses without any bystanders or arousing suspicion. She might as well check the place out. The detective noticed how the sky-scraper looking fence had a hole in which one could crawl through. She was small enough to do so anyway. She opened the emergency exit door which was clearly not hooked up to anything, no blaring alarms.
The girl scanned the abandoned warehouse, the people didn't even bother to clear most of the machinery, it is quite a surprise how no bastard had picked up the machine and dissect it to sell scrap material. Elizabeth sighed and walked around while using a flashlight to see in the dim room. She glanced down at the floor and gasped. Her eyes widened in surprise at what she had seen on the ground.
A blood trail.
It was forming a word- no a sentence!
The girl examined the blood and carefully inspected each word.
"Beware of the one who you call an ally."
What could that mean?
Is it directly messaged for the police or the people drug trading?
She rummaged through her back pocket and wiped out her camera, quickly capturing a photo of the message. The girl swiped through the photos and sighed, it would be taken away from her and be counted as evidence to the case. She decided to take another round of photos of the message and her surroundings.
Click!
Crash!
She soon stopped altogether and flinched.
She wasn't alone here.
The girl flashed her flashlight and tried to identify the origin of the noise. Clang! More metal was scraped across the ground and sounds of glass shards hitting the floor rang through the whole warehouse. Elizabeth closed her eyes and listened closely.... It came from the left. She ran and as she approached, she once again brought up her flashlight.
A pair of eyes widened like a deer in headlights before shielding their eyes.
"Ah! Son of a bitch that's bright!"
The offender scurried blindly past Elizabeth in an attempt to escape but crashed into a few desks instead. As he somehow managed to keep his balance, more items fell. The girl jumped over the fallen obstacles and continued to chase him. Her flashlight being the only source of light through the ever-darkening warehouse. She watched as the man fled the warehouse, and followed him.
"Stop! In the name of the Liones Law!" Elizabeth exclaimed, her language grew more colorful as the offender had drifted further and further out of her view. She couldn't afford to lose track of this guy! No- she couldn't repeat the same mistake again! The offender took a sharp right, all she had to do was follow- Wait! There was a better way.
The detective then took a left and went straight through the alleyway. Images of the map were stuck in the back of her head, the roads interlinked with the alleyway so as she exits she would come face to face with the idiot.
Her plan was set to action.
Her legs seemed to work by themselves as she picked up her pace and Elizabeth huffed as she quickly turned direction... Just a few more turns and she should be able- There he is!
"Stop right there!"Elizabeth shouted as she halted to a stop, hot puffs of breath hitting her face as she pulled out her cuffs.
"Woah! "
The figure puts his arms above his head and had a deer in the headlights expression once again. His emerald eyes smalls as dots as he got down on his knees.
Silence flooded between the two...
He wasn't the one.
Damn it.
The girl cursed under her breath as she took a closer look at the figure, it was a slightly dark alleyway but she was able to make out the scruffy blonde hair. It's the same kid- no guy who prevented her from reaching the drug trader.
"You again!"
"What do you mean 'you again'?" The blonde replied, he chuckled and got up from the ground, brushing off any dust from his trousers. "I should be saying that to you. I seem to run into you every time you’re doing your work."
"Yes! I don't know but you seem to prevent me from doing my job!"
"Well, it ain't my fault you're clumsy."
Elizabeth opened her mouth but stopped herself, she eyes the blonde suspiciously.
"Hold on a moment...what are you doing on private property?" She asked, remembering how the warehouse had private property after it had become defunct.
"What are you doing on private property?" The small man joked back, he crossed his arms behind his head. A smug smirk slowly crept his face when the silver-haired girl blushed from embarrassment. She groaned and crossed her arms.
"I'm a detective that's why!"
"Prove it."
The girl flinched and cocked her head to one side, she reached for her pockets only... It wasn't! She could have sworn that she took it with her to the office! She could have possibly left it in her room. It could have dropped.
"See? I just proved a point. When you don't have any identification, nobody is going to take you seriously. Then they call the cops and the cops are arresting their own recruit. " The blonde explained.
He took a glance at the sky before he scanned the now embarrassed girl. "Here's some advice though. You're in a marathon, your goal is far away. Way out of your reach. I'd say this.. Walk before you run because you'll just get into more obstacles such as failing to capture the robber. You got that?" The blonde smiled and patted the young girl's back then prepared to leave, straightening his fedora.
"Well see you-"
"Wait!"
Emerald green eyes shifted and he craned his neck.
"Who are you?"
"..."
"No riddles this time!"
A smile crept upon his face, a bubble of chuckling erupted from his throat.
"... They just call me the chief..."
Elizabeth’s eyebrows furrowed and was about to protest until the blonde spoke again.
"...Although my actual name is Meliodas."
With that, he was gone... The detective didn't know how to feel.
There was a fire inside her.
A fire to know more.