STRANGERS FOR YEARS, THREE NIGHTS AS FRIENDS

˗ˏˋ APRIL 3RD, 1995 'ˎ˗

There was a noisy thunderstorm that swallowed all of Khotivane. And as a result, there have been multiple accidents that occurred in different areas, such as car crashes. But it was pretty common thanks to how many incidents happened here. Compared to Lumina, Khotivane was pretty dangerous to live in despite how modern and how up-to-date it was.

Lumina was more of a calm and peaceful city. New and improved inventions would appear in the newspapers every 2 weeks, and the technology was more advanced. On the other hand, Khotivane was a little slow on the inventions, but their technology was almost at the same level as Lumina's. It was like a competition between the two cities.

Crackle!

A flash of lightning briefly illuminated the dark sky, making raindrops look like diamonds and buildings like gold. But it quickly vanished, leaving the city gloomy again.

The sounds of pattering rain were barely heard thanks to the number of keyboards clicking and busting chatter that filled up the department. People in fancy business suits scurried around from place to place with all sorts of things in their hands. Files that held important unsolved cases, cardboard boxes that just came in for delivery, mugs that spilled coffee out, or stacks of paper that needed to be signed or reviewed over.

The smell of coffee and freshly printed paper always lingered in the section. It might've been the Khotivane Investigation Agency's signature scent to this point.

Slam!

"Alright, kiddo. Could you sign this for me, please?" The man reached the black pen forward to the young teenager.

"...What if I don't want to sign it?"

"C'mon, Seven! Don't act like this! You may be the youngest member here, but that doesn't give you any type of privilege," the man retorted.

Seven glared at him for a moment before relenting and taking the pen. He signed the paper quickly and handed it back to the man. It was just another boring day at the agency. Nothing interesting happened at all, and he already solved the cases that he enjoyed the most already. There wasn't any way that he was going to do another boring one assigned by someone else.

Not even his loud, noisy boss.

The youngster sighed heavily as he stretched his limbs over his head. The grim thunderstorm made the whole department's mood nearly gloomy even if everyone acted the same as usual. So other than staring outside the window and eating red velvet cake, there wasn't much to do. Seven brushed his fingers along his dark wooden table, ignoring the number of crumb-filled plates scattered all over.

As a smartly-dressed woman entered the bustling department, a few people greeted her with 'hellos' and waves. She acknowledged them with a nod of her own while carrying a beige file with some papers sticking out. As she navigated through the busy crowd, her gaze stayed fixed and determined.

Seven perked his head up to see the black-haired woman standing before his desk.

The look on her face almost made it seem like she was about to yell at him, which he hoped wasn't the case. He cleared his throat and took a glimpse at her nametag that read: Tachi.

"Hi, Tachi," he said with a dragging voice, glued on the plate. "What do you want? You seem pretty angry."

The woman cleared her throat as she stacked the plates on top of each other before placing the file down. Her heterochromia eyes flickered while speaking with a professional tone. "Seven, there's something I'd like to talk to you about. It's about a cruise ship that was recently shut down for a few years."