The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail was idling around in Orchidia, sat on a bench with a plastic plate of barbecued ribs and salad resting on his lap. Today was the birthday of the son of some well known, very well off local who was so happy at his boy's coming of age that he decided to hold a large party, with a surprisingly large guest list that seemed to have names of all sorts written on it. Of course, it went without saying that Houren Vanadis was not one of the names on the guest list, but because this was a birthday party and not a night club, it was easy enough for Houren to masquerade as one of the guests, and it was easy work for him to fetch himself a plate of the good stuff. All he had to do, in the end, was act as though he belonged there and that was it. He could have started filching the kid's presents from the present table, and nobody would say anything provided Houren didn't start looking left to right, and looking shady. People could say whatever they wanted, but there was no truer line in this world than ''fake it til you make it''. The Fire Dragon Slayer was enjoying his meal on that particular sunny day when someone decided to approach him; it was worth noting that Houren could see this guy had been hovering around the area for the past few minutes and was clearly trying to muster up the courage to go up and talk to whoever it was that he had his eyes on (Houren now knew that this person was him), so when he eventually did gather up the necessary courage to make the first move, Houren greeted him as he would an old friend, as though he had been expecting him this whole time. Naturally, it goes without saying that this put the other guy on edge, but he didn't let it affect him as much as Houren thought it would have. He handed the Fairy Tail mage a letter addressed to him by someone who Houren Vanadis knew quite well, that is, someone the locals of this town would have known quite well, one Dex Miller. Houren had expected the man, who obviously wasn't Dex Miller but seemed to be a delivery boy of sorts, to say something after handing over the letter, but as soon as Houren had taken the letter from him, the delivery guy did a full 180 degree turn, and walked away at a fairly fast pace without even looking back.

The other man's sense of urgency confused the Fire Dragon Slayer to some extent, but it didn't really bother him all that much after all. He must have been completely irrelevant as to the contents of this letter and was just tasked to play delivery boy for this one occasion only. If Houren applied this method of thinking, then it was only to be expected that this guy would run away as fast as he did. In any case, he decided not to think too much about the delivery boy in question and ripped open the letter to explore its contents. It wasn't a particularly long letter, but it was obvious from the way it was written that it was from Dex Miller, and he specifically mentioned Houren in it as well, so it was safe to say that the delivery guy didn't get the wrong man. The only thing written was ''come meet me in that alleyway by that bakery in that street'', followed by Houren's name which probably was Dex's way of addressing him. It even surprised Houren a little bit when he realised that he actually knew what street, what alleyway and what bakery Dex Miller was talking about. After all, they had talked there before many a time when Houren was in town. Sighing, and deciding that there was nobody in the country that was better suited to dealing with Dex Miller's fuckery than himself, the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail began to scoff down the remaining food on his plastic plate before throwing it into the nearby dustbin and heading over to where Dex Miller had said he would be waiting in his letter. The man known as Dex Miller greeted Houren as though he were some sort of old friend, but the Fire Dragon Slayer was somewhat reluctant to accept such greetings. He talked to Dex Miller sincerely though, so when the man known as Dex Miller informed Houren of his intention to be taken seriously with some plan he had concocted one night while thinking of ways to be taken seriously by the populace of the town, the Fairy Tail mage listened with an open heart, all the way up until Dex's final plea.

"But I will need your help."

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"You'll need my help?" the Fire Dragon Slayer asked, cocking his head to one side in puzzlement, a cue that Dex Miller took to be permission to continue to ramble on about criminals that he created in the confines of his own imagination and cases that weren't actually real and had absolutely zero substance in real life. Houren often wondered about where Dex Miller came up with the stuff he did, and ultimately concluded that he either read a lot of comic books or watched a lot of lacrima television; one or the other, and was inspired by the events that he saw and or read. If that were the case, then things would be even more troubling since it was common knowledge that the story lines and plots they wrote about in detective novels and noir films were extremely exaggerated, with things that could not possibly be pulled off unless there was a huge amount of luck involved. The Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail hoped that Dex Miller's plan was not something elaborate and extravagant like that. Something like that could even end up working against him since everyone in town knew he was some sort of raving lunatic. If he wanted to earn their trust, and wanted them to take him seriously, then he would need to build that up, not suddenly solve the greatest mystery in the history of Orchidia Town in one shot. That was sure to raise people's suspicions or at least that was Houren's train of thought.

"I want to create a fake crime scene, and then solve the crime myself. Nobody will be able to doubt me if I do that. I'd like for one of my real cases to be acknowledged, but it doesn't seem like that is going to happen, so I'll plan out this fake one. I need your help getting some things so I can construct this fake crime scene; for example, I need a bag of blood from the local butcher's... and I'll need some weapons you can get from the local blacksmith. It'd be nice if those weapons looked like they were used before. Maybe get swords with blunt edges or something? It's up to you," the man known as Dex Miller spoke much faster than Houren was used to, although the Fairy Tail mage was well aware that Dex Miller was nothing if not a massive chatterbox. In any case, he seemed earnest in his goal to get the town of Orchidia to begin taking him seriously, and while the Fire Dragon Slayer did not think they were too harsh in their treatment of him, he could empathize with him in some ways. There were people in town that actually tried to entertain Dex Miller's shenanigans, but the man never forgot a face. If he was under the impression that you were willing to listen to him ramble on about cases that didn't exist, then he would definitely come to find you the next day and the day after that to continue his story, so even those who were kind enough to talk to Dex Miller in such a lighthearted and friendly tone would soon get annoyed and snapped. Houren was on the verge of one of these snaps before, but fortunately, he wasn't a local and he could leave town whenever he felt like he was getting sick of Dex Miller's shit, and when he came back a few months later, he'd be all right again.

The Fire Dragon Slayer wasn't doing this for free, but it seemed like Dex Miller already knew that and began to talk some numbers. When they concluded on a number that satisfied them both, Houren said his goodbyes and headed over to the butcher's shop to get the bag of animal blood. He didn't know that butchers actually sold that kind of thing, but apparently, they did and a lot of people actually bought them. For a small price, the Fairy Tail mage was able to get more than enough animal blood needed to recreate Dex Miller's fake crime scene. The next place he headed to was the blacksmith where he had asked for some blunt tip weapons and ones that had been worn and torn. The blacksmith actually seemed kind of offended though and was adamant that he would never sell damaged goods, but told Houren that there were some damaged weapons in his store room that he would never sell because of their lack of quality, but was willing to give them away to Houren for free since they were clogging up his storage room anyways. Of course, Houren was more than happy to take these things off the blacksmith's hands. At that moment, the blacksmiths suddenly remembered that he had thrown those low quality weapons out, and instructed Houren to head over to the trash can at the side of the building to get them, so that was the Fire Dragon Slayer's next destination. He went to the trash can, picked up the broken weapons in one hand, and the bag of blood in the other hand before heading back to where he was going to meet Dex. However, before he could reach the alleyway where he had met Dex Miller before, Houren was stopped by a man who did not introduce himself, but by his garb and visible emblem, it was clear to Houren that he was a member of the Rune Knights, and he did not seem at all happy with what Houren was doing.

"I saw you a few blocks down taking that stuff from the local blacksmith's trash can, son. It might be nothing more than the blacksmith's trash, but that doesn't mean you can take it, you know? It's still stealing," the Rune Knight, who was a middle aged man who probably no longer had any chance to promote, began to speak, to which Houren replied that he could explain everything to him. "You can explain, eh? Well talk then, son. I'll give you one chance to explain yourself, or I'll take you to prison for theft. Sound good?" he gave a mocking thumbs up, and a flash of his toothy smile.

Houren gave another sigh and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "You know Dex Miller, right? Well, it's a long, long story...." he started, as he began the tale of just exactly how all this came about.

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"And that's pretty much everything."

The Fairy Tail mage had just explained everything to the Rune Knight in question, and from the very beginning too. From Houren coming into Orchidia Town from Sieghart Mountains and the lethargy he felt from the trip, to the birthday party that he had decided to crash in order to nab a free meal, to the quirky man who delivered the letter from Dex Miller to the Fire Dragon Slayer, and of course, he spoke about the meeting between him and Dex in that alleyway and how Dex Miller was interested in creating a fake crime scene and a fake crime and solving this fake crime that he created in order to get the people of the town to begin to take him more seriously. As Houren spoke, slowly and concisely so that he would be able to get his point across the first time around, the middle aged Rune Knight listened intently and despite Houren's fears, did not actually judge the fact that Houren was doing all this for the village idiot just because he was being paid for it. The Rune Knight let out a sigh, a complete 180 turn from before when he spoke to Houren as though he were dealing with a criminal. Instead, he now spoke in a softer tone, as though he were talking with a kindred spirit. "Dex Miller said something like that to you, huh? I hate to admit it but that does sound like something he would do." this time it was the Rune Knight's turn to rub his head sheepishly, as he began to ponder his next course of action. Houren wasn't a lawman by any means, but he knew that the Rune Knight was conflicted as to what he should do with Dex Miller. On one hand, he probably wanted Houren to go along with the mission, but on the other hand, it was a bit risky as well. The Fire Dragon Slayer had already cleared up the fact that the blacksmith had actually given Houren permission to take those shitty weapons from his trash can, so the Fairy Tail mage could no longer be charged with any crime, and the animal blood had been paid for too. The Rune Knight knew that there was nothing in the law that gave him permission to do anything right now, but if Dex Miller got his way, then things could become messy later on, and of course, it went without saying that Houren was aware of this fact as well.

''You know what, fine. This is all you. I'll let you do your little fake crime scene, but the investigation will be left up to the Rune Knights, not that Dex Miller guy, got it? I don't want him to think that creating fake crime scenes is something that we're going to let him get away with. You're going to use that animal blood and those weapons, right? Alright, hand me the weapons and you can carry the animal blood and we can get to setting the crime scene," the middle aged Rune Knight huffed and puffed as he took the weapons from Houren, allowing him to use both hands to carry the bag of blood that was starting to get a little bit heavy, but it was otherwise okay. Together, the middle aged Rune Knight and the young Fire Dragon Slayer headed over to the empty alleyway and began to set up the crime scene that Dex Miller wanted. The weapons were scattered around the place, and due to the fact that they were all rusty and worn and torn and stuff like that, it looked as though they had just been used in a battle. Houren scattered the animal blood around the place to make it look as though this was just the scene of a fight. It was a convincing enough crime scene, Houren thought, and the Rune Knight made a comment in passing regarding that as well. The only thing is that there was no corpse to make it seem like a legitimate crime, but Houren supposed that wasn't so bad. If Dex Miller wanted a corpse, he might have asked Houren to do some outrageous like become a grave robber or something. Fortunately, he didn't ask Houren to do something like that.

"I told Dex that I would have a single for him when I'm done, you know? He's actually waiting out there somewhere in the city for my signal. Once it comes, he'll come rushing here. Of course the signal is for other people too, it'd be pointless if Dex Miller arrived to the crime scene first, right? He wants a slight crowd so that people can see him solving the case, not that I have any idea how he plans to do that. Whether he wants to frame somebody or whatever..." the Fire Dragon Slayer of Fairy Tail suddenly halted in his speech, as he realised that he was actually babbling as though he were Dex Miller, the guy who had employed him for this mission. He sighed, and decided that he would leave Orchidia immediately after this. He was hanging around Dex Miller too much. Houren directed his face towards the sky and opened his mouth, shooting a large burst of fire that would definitely be seen by the people in the vicinity. He could hear chattering in the distance, and taking this for a chance, Houren signaled to the middle aged Rune Knight and the both of them began to flee the scene, with Houren running straight into the crowd because that was where Dex Miller would be waiting. After Dex Miller paid Houren the money, he would head into the scene and do whatever it was that he was planning on doing. Houren was pretty sure that he would crash and burn but soon enough, that wouldn't be his problem anymore. Sure enough, once Houren managed to squeeze his way past the people who were drawn to the commotion, the Fire Dragon Slayer met Dex Miller waiting for him, excited to the point that he was shaking in his boots and with the jewels in hand. He didn't bother addressing Houren as he handed the money over and began to run into the crowd, pushing his way past the crowd so that he would be able to get at the crime scene that he had paid for. Houren watched as Dex Miller did this, only turning around and leaving the alleyway once he could no longer see his client.

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