Summary: "With the lightning and thunder, comes the rain and life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain." Like a flash of lightning in the stormy sky, Dimir brings a little electricity to Yokohama. Like lightning, she's hard to ignore. Especially for one Port Mafia executive.

Author Note: Hello, everyone! For those of you who know me, good to see you again! For those of you who don't know me, just call me Kyandi-sama. I found the manga for this a while back and fell in love with the fact that the creator used actual author names and titles of their works for the characters and their abilities. I had to do a little research...okay, a lot, but I couldn't help it. I've enjoyed making Dimir, who, if you didn't guess, is named for Vladimir Nabokov, and I hope you all enjoy her too. Compliments are greatly appreciated, constructive criticism is thanked, but please, don't flame me. If you feel like you must flame me...walk away. Save us both a lot of time and just walk away, please and thank you! So, with that, please enjoy and review. I do not own Bungou Stray Dogs.

Chapter 1 Flashy Greeting

"Dazai! Now is not the time for this!"

Another day...another comically failed suicide attempt from Dazai.

Atsushi and Kunikida stood at the edge of the river, watching as Dazai floated by, face down in the water. The man had decided to throw himself from the bridge about a quarter of a mile down the river. After even so short of a time in the Agency, Atsushi had gotten to the point where this didn't bother him so much as it annoyed him.

In fact, it had become a normal part of the day.

Something that made the day incomplete if it didn't happen at least once.

Today the three were investigating a string of attacks that left the victims with mass amounts of electrical burns over a vast majority of their bodies. With the amount of burns and the degree of them, someone would have had to of spent hours electrocuting a person with a low voltage since the burns weren't that severe. But according to the victims, the attacks didn't last longer than a few minutes. This brought Atsushi, Kunikida, and Dazai to the back streets of the slumiest parts of the city where people had seen a figure fleeing the scene of each of the attacks.

The thing was, all the witnesses could give them, as far as description of the fleeing figure, was that the person was small, shorter than Atsushi, at least, and had black hair with a dash of white at the right temple. While a little strange, as far as hair coloring went, hair color could be changed, so the description wasn't much to go on.

Not that they were getting anywhere anyway, what with the antics of Dazai delaying them.

Heaving an annoyed sigh, Kunikida had Atsushi help him fish Dazai out of the water. Once they had him out and conscious, they went back to work, Kunikida forcing Dazai to continue in wet clothes as punishment for his continued stupidity.

"This is the alley where most of the attacks occurred."

Kunikida looked down at the report in his hands as he said this, Atsushi and Dazai joining him. The alley they stood in was gated at one end and had mountains of cardboard boxes stacked against the faded brick walls on either side. For an alley, it was on the cleaner side. There was no trash littered across the ground, the boxes were neatly stacked, and there was no grime on the walls. It was as if someone spent the time scrubbing the alley walls.

The three spread out, searching the alley. Atsushi searched the gated end of the alley, finding that the boxes had been stacked to form a little hiding hole of a house with a tarp thrown over it to provide protection from rain. Inside, old, but clean, clothes had been made into a bed.

It looked as if someone was living there, at least at night. Whoever it was, they weren't there now. Atsushi called Kunikida and Dazai over to see what they had found. Kunikida ducked into the little makeshift house, looking around.

"Whoever has been living here, hasn't left anything behind to identify them." Kunikida said.

"They're probably the suspect we're looking for." Dazai remarked.

"More than likely. This might just be a case of people intruding on what this person perceives as their territory." Kunikida agreed, easing his tall frame out of the small space.

Something caught Atsushi's attention then. The faint sound of yelling reached his ears. The first two were male, yelling loudly, and the third was female, yelling for someone to stay away.

"What is it?" Kunikida asked, seeing the look on Atsushi's face.

"I hear something. It's yelling, fighting." Atsushi replied.

Kunikida didn't waste time, just demanded that Atsushi lead the way. They left the alley, following the street for a block before rounding a corner into another alley. There, they found a group of five men, all heavily bandaged, facing off with a single person. The moment the three laid eyes on this person, they knew it was the suspect that witnesses had seen fleeing the sites of the other attacks.

Their so called suspect was a young girl who stood about four inches shorter than Atsushi, making her about five foot, two inches tall. She was rail slim in a half-starved kind of way with ample curves and what they were sure was fair skin. With all the dirt and bruises, it was a little difficult to tell. Long hair was tied off at the nape of her neck and was pitch black in color. All except for the hair that grew from the right side of her forehead, making her side-swept bangs, stark white. The bangs fell to partly hide one blue eye that shined with specks of gold.

She was pretty, in a sweet kind of way. High cheek bones, heart shaped face, small nose with an uplifted tip, wide eyes, and full lips. She had the kind of face that, even well on in her years, would still look youthful. At the moment, there was a bruise blooming over her left cheek bone, turning the skin there and around her eye, a molted mix of black and blue. On the other cheek was a cut, blood dripping down her cheek to her chin. It was obvious that the girl was probably homeless. She was barefoot, her feet dirty and cut, and the tank top and shorts she was wearing had seen better days, both torn and worn until the edges were fraying and holes had begun to form.

The men facing her, had her backed into a corner, the girl's eyes scanning them, and the area around her, intently. While she generally fit the loose description they had been given, at the moment, she didn't look like someone that could purposely land several men in the hospital.

Speaking of which...the men currently confronting her, were the five victims who had reported the attacks. And they didn't look happy.

"Go away!" the girl told them.

"Oh, no. You're going to pay for what you did." one of the men said. "I don't know how you did it, but you're going to pay."

The girl stiffened as two of the men stepped towards her. Her bare feet slid apart, her body shifting into a defensive posture. She was ready for a fight, ready to defend herself against these men. But as the two men drew up close, no more than three feet separating them, she didn't throw a punch or aim a kick. Instead, she raised her left hand. Putting her thumb and middle finger together, she snapped her fingers. As soon as the two fingers rubbed together, the friction causing the sound, there was a spark and then bolts of electricity were jumping from her fingers, zapping the men as they came in contact with them.

The two convulsed on the spot, their bodies stiffening, before they both collapsed limply to the ground, groans of pain leaving them. Neither tried to move again, remaining where they were on the ground. From where they stood at the end of the alley, Atsushi, Kunikida, and Dazai had quickly figured out what had happened. The girl was indeed the one who had dealt the electrical burns. Much like them, she was an ability user, hers just being electricity based.

Given the brute-ish nature of the men, Dazai was willing to bet that the men were the initial attackers, not the girl, and that she had only attacked back in self-defense. Embarrassed to admit that a little girl had gotten the best of five grown men, they had decided to report the whole thing as a random attack from behind. Whether or not that was true, they needed to put a stop to the fight at hand.

Before the girl dealt more damage to the men's brains than they really could afford.

Stepping in, they quelled the fight, Kunikida and Dazai managing to subdue the three remaining men while Atsushi detained the girl. Oddly enough, she didn't see the need to put up any kind of protest. She merely sat down on a curb, Atsushi standing over her, while Dazai and Kunikida managed to get the truth from the five men.

With a little arm twisting from the two.

Dazai turned out to be right. The men had stumbled into the alley where the little box house was, drunk, and had found the girl trying to get some sleep in her makeshift house. Deciding to kill some time, they had started to mess with the girl, who gave them ample warning to leave her be before she had zapped them all with her ability.

In retaliation, they had gone back to confront her again, and had, once again, been zapped into unconsciousness. The same stood true for the third confrontation. Embarrassed about the truth behind their injuries, and unable to explain how they had come across them, they had then told doctors at the hospital they had visited, that someone had attacked them from behind.

It was pretty sad that a girl, who looked like she couldn't be more than eighteen, had taken down five grown men with only a snap of her fingers.

Kunikida and Dazai called in the police to cart off the men before turning to the girl. She was still sitting on the curb, her arms wrapped around her thighs, her hands linked under them. Up close, they could see every bruise that colored her skin. Even her feet and hands had bruising. She looked up at the two men with wide eyes of gold speckled, sapphire blue. Kunikida crouched in front of her.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Dimir."

Kunikida blinked in surprise. That didn't sound like any name he had every heard before.

"Come again?" he asked, just in case he had misheard her.

"Dimir. Nabokov Dimir. I was named for my father, Vladimir. May I know your name, too, please?" she asked, pleasantly polite for someone who lived on the streets.

Not something he was expecting, but pleasantly acceptable none the less.

"Kunikida Doppo. These are my co-workers, Dazai Osamu and Nakajima Atsushi. Tell us, what exactly happened with those men."

"Not much. Well, nothing out of the normal for me, at least. It was pretty much over before it began. They woke me up one night, drunk, throwing bottles at one of the walls near where I made my hideout. When I stuck my head out to see what was going on, they started throwing the bottles at me. A couple of them made contact. Hurt really badly too." she remarked, twisting her arms to look at a few of the bruises on her person. "I warned them that they should go home and sleep off the hangovers they were sure to have, but they just laughed at me and threw more stuff at me once they ran out of bottles. One of them drew a knife, suggesting that they should "play" with me. I didn't even want to know what he had in mind, so I...zapped them. They came back a couple of times after that to try to get even, but I defended myself then too."

The girl, Dimir as she had introduced herself, waved one finger in the air, tiny bolts of electricity dancing off her finger.

"So you're an ability user." Atsushi remarked.

"My ability is called Lolita. With it, I build up electricity from electronics around me or simply from static electricity or thunderstorms and then discharge it. I can use it in vastly different ways. Zapping people is pretty basic." Dimir replied.

It was an interesting ability and not one that either Kunikida or Atsushi wanted directed at them. No one wanted to be electrocuted by a little girl.

Except maybe Dazai.

"And you live in that little, cardboard house?" Atsushi asked.

"It's better than sleeping on a park bench, that's for sure." Dimir replied. "At least I don't get wet when it rains."

"What about your family?" Kunikida asked.

"What family? The only family I ever had was my grandmother and my mother. Both of them have died. I never knew my father, but according to what my mother told me, he was a foreigner that died in a boating accident when I was very small." Dimir replied.

So she was an orphan, just like Atsushi.

Kunikida looked up at Dazai, opening his mouth to say something, when he saw the look on Dazai's face. It was the same look he had had on his face before he had drug Atsushi back to the Agency. He didn't need to ask to know what the bandaged man was thinking.

"Don't even think about it." Kunikida told him.

Dazai's grin only grew in reply to the comment. Dimir looked between the two, confused as to what was going on. Ignoring Kunikida, Dazai turned to Dimir, who blinked back at him in confusion.

"How would you like to meet the Director?"

-0-0-0-0-

"What is this?"

Fukuzawa Yukichi, known simply as Director to his subordinates, stood before the couch in the Agency's office, looking down at the wide eyed, dirty and bruised, face of a young girl who stared back at him in wide eyed fascination. Despite the dirt and her torn and worn clothes, she sat properly, her legs together and tucked slightly to the left, her hands folded in her lap. Kunikida and Atsushi stood behind the couch, both looking put out and slightly annoyed with the whole situation.

Dazai was laying on the other couch while everyone else currently in the office, was staring at the girl.

"Our latest job turned out to be a waste of time. The so called victims turned out to be the one's attacking this girl and she was merely defending herself." Kunikida said, answering Fukuzawa.

"And she's here, why?" Fukuzawa asked.

"She's a homeless orphan and an ability user." Atsushi added.

"And he insisted we bring her here to meet you." Kunikida added, spitting out the word "he" with as much venom as possible, one thumb jabbing in Dazai's direction.

Kunikida and Fukuzawa both turned sharp looking glares on Dazai. Dimir looked between the three, feeling uneasy about this whole thing. She didn't want to be the cause behind someone getting in trouble with their boss.

"Umm, excuse me." Fukuzawa and Kunikida looked back down at Dimir. "If this is a problem, I can just leave. I probably shouldn't be gone for long."

"Gone for long? You basically live in a cardboard box." Kunikida replied.

"Well, technically that's true, but I do have a few odd jobs lined up for today. A girl's got to eat, you know." Dimir replied sheepishly, her smile matching and a sheepish laugh leaving her when her stomach growled loud enough for them to hear.

Fukuzawa stopped, taking a minute to truly look the girl over. Now that he stopped to really look at her, it was easy to tell that she was homeless and improperly fed. Yet, she had a genuine smile on her face, as if, despite her circumstances, life still had a brightly polished, silver lining. She was prepared to walk away and back to the sorry excuse of a life that fate had given her.

"What is your name?" Fukuzawa demanded.

"Dimir, sir. Nabokov Dimir."

"And how old are you?"

"I'll be eighteen in two months, sir."

She was just shy of being the same age as Atsushi. By law, she should be in some kind of state custody if she had no living relatives. Had she run away from officials then? Curious, Fukuzawa angled himself into a chair across from her.

"Tell me why you live on the streets." he ordered.

"I have no family, no home, and I didn't see the point of taking up space in a foster home or orphanage, that some truly needy child could use. I take care of myself fairly well, all things considered. I work odd jobs to pay for food, I stay out of trouble...for the most part. Most days, no one even notices I'm there. I don't want to be a burden on others." Dimir told him.

"What kind of jobs?"

He was not going to happy if she was doing something stupid like drug transportation or was selling her body. No young girl should do either of those things. As if sensing his thoughts, Dimir gave him a brilliant smile.

"Nothing bad, sir, I promise. Mostly delivery jobs for restaurants or city offices. I work for cheaper pay then an actual delivery service and I'm just as fast, if not faster. Static electricity can give someone like me a much need extra bounce to their step. Sometimes it's cleaning jobs or sewing jobs. I'm good at repairing damaged clothes." Dimir told him.

"Do you always find jobs?" Fukuzawa asked.

"Well..."

The look on Dimir's face as she idly scratched one cheek, suggested that she wanted to say yes. She didn't want to come off as a needy person who was worse off than she really wanted to let on. She didn't need, or want, another's pity. That much was clear, but Fukuzawa didn't have time to deal with the girl's pride over her independence. His eyes narrowed as he gazed upon her.

"Don't lie to me. Just answer the question." he told her sternly.

"Yes, sir." Dimir's back straightened under his firm stare. "No, no I don't. I'm lucky to find work two or three days every two weeks."

"What do you do for food when you don't have work?"

"I don't. I can make the money from one job last a few days: two or maybe three at best. The other days...well, I'm not so pathetic that I go begging. I make do." Dimir replied.

Fukuzawa's eyes scanned her once more. From the skinniness of the girl, from the sharp way her body caved inwards at her stomach, her ribs junting out, and from the way her cheeks were starting to hallow out, she wasn't making do.

She was starving.

As if to prove the point, a hallow, low growl rang out, her stomach protesting the topic of food. Sheepishly, a smile on her face, Dimir apologized, one hand rubbing her stomach. She was slowly starving to death, yet she smiled as if she knew the day would get better.

"Are you stupid?! You shouldn't be grinning right now! Or do you not realize that you're starving to death." Kunikida asked.

"I believe stupidity is subjective. After all, everyone has a different opinion on what level of brain function decides intelligence. Some people don't believe you intelligent unless you can crack equations that even has NASA stumped. Others believe you intelligent as long as you have common sense. Personally, I've known some truly brilliant people who didn't have the common sense God gave them, as well as vice versa." Dimir replied.

Kunikida opened his mouth to speak, but closed it. She had a point and he really couldn't argue it. After all, Ranpo was brilliantly gifted, but was stupid enough to believe the lie that he had an ability, not to mention, get lost going to and from the office.

And Kunikida didn't need to get started on Dazai's stupidity.

"Besides," Dimir smiled lightly. "if you can't find a reason to smile in the face of adversity, then how can you see the good in life? Life is already needlessly difficult, riddled with shadows and evil, meaningless death, abuse, and brutality...there's no need to add onto it. I choose to smile rather than dwell in the bad cards I've been dealt, because you can always exchange one bad card for another. Even when life seems to be nothing but dark clouds of rolling thunder and crackling lightning, I will look for the silver lining and smile brightly, knowing the storm will eventually pass. If that makes me stupid, well, then I guess I'm an idiot. After all...with the lightning and thunder, comes the rain and life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...it's about learning to dance in the rain."

Fukuzawa was pleasantly surprised. So young and this girl had already learned something that most people didn't learn until the end of their lives, if ever. She saw how needlessly dark and cruel life could be and choose to look for the light at the end of the tunnel without being blinded to the shadows that riddled the path with danger.

He didn't want to think about what she had seen in life to gift her with such knowledge.

"That's a good outlook." he told her.

"Life would be increasingly depressing if I didn't have such an outlook." Dimir replied.

Fukuzawa nodded, agreeing silently with her. Redirecting the conversation back to his line of questioning, Fukuzawa got to the topic that was forefront in his mind.

"Tell me about your ability." he said.

"Ah, about that...the truth is...I have two."

END

Author Note: Before anyone says anything about me making my character over powered, I am aware that two abilities is a little much, but with the new power, Dimir's control over it is less. Not only does is it less, it even becomes dangerous to her. I have taken into account what weaknesses she would need to have two abilities. So please, stick around and continue reading. Next chapter starts my usual character interactions. So, please enjoy and review and I shall be right back. Bye-bye!