★彡[ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴏɴᴇ ʟᴏᴠᴇꜱ ᴄʜᴜᴜʏᴀ]彡★

The Big Event

The thousands of people that filled the Chuestival all came to a collective halt, staring up at the sky. 

The fireworks had faded, replaced with a single burst of red zigzagging in the far off distance. They all knew what it was, this was what they had been waiting for after all.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Ranpo whispered.

Poe was fiddling nervously with Karl. Ever since tossing his dear friend through the air, he had been feeling very strange. Guilty, almost.

He had thought seeking out Chuuya might help (because Chuuya always knew what to do) but for whatever reason, his feet had brought him a couple booths over to where the genius detective, Edogawa Ranpo, and the rest of the Armed Detective Agency were instead. 

"E...erm..." he stammered, "I'm not sure, Ranpo-kun. I think everything here is lovely but...doesn't that look dangerous?"

"It's beautiful," Ranpo only repeated, "It's perfect."

"It is time," President Fukuzawa said gravely, eyes also unmoving from the sky.

 From somewhere in the distance, a kettle whistled, but the owner made no move to take it off. A dog barked, her leash slipping from her owners fingers before running away un-chased.

An overhead speaker crackled.

Nikolai Gogol's voice came through, his cheery and energetic tone sharply contrasting with the stillness in the air, "Alright everyone! As promised, it's time for the Big Event! So fasten your seatbelts and get ready for the show! None of us are going to make it out alive!"

"As none of us should." came the chorus of voices in an eeriely perfect sync.

Poe tugged on his friend's sleeve. 

"Ranpo...maybe we should go..."

"And miss Chuuya when he arrives?" Ranpo replied, words suggesting a tease but voice monotone and eyes glazed over as he continued to watch the skyline, "This is a once in a lifetime chance."

Poe swallowed, shrinking back from the enthralled crowd. They were starting to resemble dead fish, eyes bugged out and mouths parted. Limbs stiff and attention distant. As if all this time they had only been puppets, and now their master had put up her strings and walked out of the theatre, taking the magic of their lives with her.

"Oh Karl..." Poe whimpered, feeling a faint buzz in his head, "...I don't like this, I don't like this one bit..."