Hello,

Here's a new story - I hope it's not too OOC and I hope it's not too gruesome! It stems from my love of Edgar Allen Poe and Jane Austen (I'm not saying it's anything like their stories!) But they were my initial inspiration...

I hope you like! Reviews welcome, I researched a little for this and I am so sorry if I make any historical/medical blunders :3

- I don't own the characters, just borrowing them for a little while, I do however own paperback copies of the volumes (my treasures!) Thanks for your hard work Yamane Sensei!

Warnings: Somewhat graphic descriptions of dead bodies, swearing.

}xXx{

Meiji era Tokyo, a chaotic metropolis ever since the introduction of western culture several years ago. Private investigator Asami Ryuichi, is currently smoking a Guinea gold cigarette and strolling down the somewhat muddy bank of Edo bay on this cold December morning, his long Aquascutum trench coat fluttering in the sea breeze. As he gets closer to the shore he is in the midst of ruining yet another pair of his expensive Loake shoes, the gravel and coarse sand crunching beneath his feet, staining the fine leather.

As the tides went out this morning there were reports of a body being spotted washed up on the Yokohama section of the bay, near the docks. He spots up ahead a few people, what looks to be police and members of the press. Coming closer to the scene he recognises the police chief and a detective both talking to a quite frankly, stunning young man. He loiters behind them to observe the situation and unintentionally catches part of their conversation...

"Eh but Takaba-kun you should let me treat you, I would take you somewhere fancy..."

"Detective Eiji how many times, just let me do my job! If I want to get picked up by some weird guy I'd find a street corner somewhere..."

As the boy scowls up at Eiji, from his position over the body where he seems to be assessing time of death, he looks startled upon setting his eyes on Asami, he then blushes from embarrassment, eyes widening as he remembers what he just said.

He recognises this new man immediately, Asami Ryuichi is a renowned private detective here in Edo and maybe all of Japan. A well-educated, rich gentleman that uses his incredible skills of deduction to solve even the toughest of crimes. Takaba, as a new doctor working with the Police in their morgue is covering today for his Sempai who is working on another case.

The young doctor has been following Asami's work ever since he saw the man being greeted very respectfully by the chief of police a few years ago, when Akihito was just a medical apprentice. He was certainly intrigued that someone could merit this level of reverence from a man of such hierarchical importance as the chief himself and thus asked around about this 'Asami.' From there it's become a habit to read about Asami's adventures through newspaper articles, but there is never much detail on just how this man achieves the impossible time and time again. Only case solved, so-and-so arrested, never any comments from Asami or pictures so the mystery and wonder surrounding this man builds more and more.

Asami looks down at the kid, amused. He doesn't look old enough to be a doctor and judging from what he just heard the kid is certainly far too cute for his own good, The older man does though, like the blush upon the boy's face as Takaba hastily looks away, busying himself with the body, now examining the neck.

"...Good morning Chief, Eiji-san. What do we have here?..."

The chief turns around slowly, being a heavy drinker, long-time cigar smoker and a portly gentleman, he can't move very fast these days…

"Ah, Ryuichi come, come – meet the newest addition to our forensic team. Boy, meet the best detective of our time! Asami Ryuichi!"

"You flatter me, pleased to meet you, Takaba is it?"

Akihito unconsciously pouts a little as he rises to bow to Asami, first 'boy' then 'Takaba'. What about 'Doctor' freaking 'Takaba-san?!' Asami flashes him a knowing smile as he takes another drag of his cigarette.

And Akihito takes a moment to think that it's true what they say, you should never meet your idols.

He squats back down to continue with his examination, taking scrapings from under the deceased boys nails. He glances at Asami to see that the man is watching him closely so he offers up some of the information he has found out so far in order to shift the tension he is feeling.

"Asami-san, I believe time of death is around thirteen hours ago. However taking into account that approximately nine of those hours were spent in the water, we have lost much of the physical evidence. When I get him back to the morgue I can find out more from the body though…"

"I see, and what are your conclusions in terms of age...and occupation I wonder?"

"Well…I think about 19 years of age and an army cadet, judging from the uniform. There is a barracks on the bay here."

"I see, uniform huh…" Asami smirks at the naive boy and he really can't resist the opportunity to tease him. "Look closely at the costume, there are a lot of inconsistencies – the colour should be a darker blue, see how beautifully low-cut the neckline on the tunic is, the Hussar braiding on the shoulders is heart shaped, lovely really but not so popular in army uniform design these days..."

"Alright, I've never really been big on Military history so give me a break OK?"

"Also, look at his hands again…"

Akihito takes one of the boy's hands gently in his own, he turns it over and looks for any obvious clues as to what Asami may be referring to.

"Smooth hands yes? Too smooth for any army cadet. No, this boy I believe was dressed in this costume for the purpose of role play in sex."

The Dr gasps and starts to cough, spluttering while he hastily places the hand back on the ground so he can try and recover from that particularly unexpected shock to his sensibilities. S-sex? How can this man say something so shocking out in the open like this? As he hyperventilates into his tweed clad arm, the three men stood around him all enjoy his sweet innocent reactions to something so common in this city, and each of them actually think somewhere in the back of their minds, that they wouldn't mind at all introducing this young man to the concept of roleplay, the pleasure to be found in such acts.

A visibly shaken Dr Takaba laughs a little before stammering out his understanding, he never thought it was possible to hear such things from a man he's known all of ten minutes and how did said man even conclude THAT of all things from this victim?! Akihito takes out from his doctor's bag, a couple of smaller brown paper envelopes, soggy from the evidence he had collected on the shore. He holds them up for Asami to look into as he explains just what he has found.

"Uh, Asami-san I found a thick red ribbon tied around the victim's neck linking to his hands. It's possible he may have inadvertently suffocated himself when he struggled to break free. There are though, heavily bruised areas with finger marks over his throat as you can see, again I will look into this at the morgue…

Also there is a cigar butt that I collected from down the bank there, looks like an expensive brand and it's a little out of place so I took it and I'll have police officers comb the area for more evidence when the body is moved shortly."

"Hmm, I have an idea of how to proceed, I'll be on my way. Good evening gentlemen. Dr…"

Akihito blushes again, there's something in having Asami acknowledging him as a doctor that is really embarrassing and a little pleasing. Scared though at seeming like he hangs on Asami's every word, he gives a dismissive nod of his head and starts to pack away the evidence and his tools back into his beaten leather bag.

A few minutes later though, he sneaks a look a little way up the bay as the body is being carefully wrapped for transport by two constables. He sees Asami talking to the police chief, smoking a fresh cigarette and casting an impressive view with his tall, proud, broad frame. Akihito has to shake himself out of his reverie as he gathers up his bags and tries his best to run up the bank towards the men.

Akihito reaches Asami stumbling over his belongings just as the man bids goodbye to the chief and turns to walk towards the city. The younger man doesn't want this opportunity to go to waste so he calls out.

"Asami-san! Wait! Asami-sa-Oof!"

Akihito runs straight into Asami's chest as the man turns towards the source of the noise. The good doctor is too preoccupied with the bags and apparatus he's carrying to have looked up. He drops a bag to rub his nose with his left hand as he squints trough his bangs at the taller man.

"Sorry, uh that's a rock hard chest - you work out? – Ah uh anyway, about this case I would like to help you solve - uh, it. Please."

"Why?"

"Oh, I'm a doctor and everything! But I really wanna use my skills and help to put bad guys away in a more?...Hands on kind of way - I, know that's a bit lame..."

Asami laughs, exhaling his smoke as he studies Akihito with a sideways glance.

"Hmm ok, can it with the heroics kid...it just so happens that I may have a use for you, and we can discuss it depending on what you find during the post mortem…"

}xXx{

That night Akihito is still conducting the post-mortem, surprisingly it had turned out to be a busy day as during the detailed inspection of the bay, the police search team had found two other bodies, well one partial skeleton and one partially decomposed corpse. Akihito is now working to see whether the bodies are related to the same case, so far surprisingly he has found scraps of the same costume material within each corpse as if the cloth fused to the decomposing flesh over time. There is also similar trauma over the neck portions of the bodies, although on only the oldest of the corpses appears to be a perimortem fracture, suggesting more brutal death.

So far the M.O seems to be consistent, the neck trauma, the costume, the dumping site. He can't help but be a little excited to be on the trail of a murderer whose crimes until now had been undiscovered, who knows how many other victims are out there? The only thing that has been a real shock to him on close inspection of the newest body was that semen was found from a swab he had administered to the corpses anal cavity. Just what had this poor boy been through? Is this why the trauma to the neck has lessened on the latest two murders - could he be drawing out their deaths?

Shuddering a little at the disturbing thoughts, he is certainly eager to get this case underway so he cleans up and heads to his office where he writes a lengthy letter to Asami, letting him know the findings from this evening…