I have 45 unfinished wips

Okay so here have the gist of it:

The setting is a kind od victorian-like, somewhat southern europe country with Sherlock Holmes if it was Warm and Sunny outside vibe + magical realism (magic is there but it is not studied nor a well known fact). A famous travelling theatre troupe comes to Port Town and the lead actress, the diva and the face of the group (Nene) immediately gets kidnapped by the local mafia. Naturally everyone is in panic and all the detectives in the area are immediately on the case, however...

The whole kidnapping thing is actually entirely staged by Rui (with Nene's enthusiastic consent), the right hand man of the local mafia leader, because those two are childhood friends and haven't seen each other for literal ages, and because Rui is, well, a criminal and Nene is a celebrity, no way they would be able to catch up and spend time together as friends in public. So Rui decided kidnapping it is. (Additionally Nene wasn't doing so well in her troupe and wanted to take a break without anyone breathing down her neck about it. Neither of these people have a good idea of what normal behaviour is)

An is a prodigy detective who inherited the business from her dad and his detective agency (Ken is alive and well and is currently running a speakeasy, Nagi and Taiga are both considered missing). She's technically underage and should not be running a detective agency but nobody says anything about it because she's scary good. Unnaturally good even. Anyway An figures the whole Nene situation out fairly easily and when she tracks Nene down, she is met by Nene asking if not outright begging An to not blow her cover yet because she missed Rui a lot and still haven't had enough time with him (and also, potentially, maybe thinks she can make a law-abiding citizen out of him. Very unlikely and they both know that. Platonic "I can fix him")

An agrees, because

a) she knows how it is to be separated from your loved ones and misses people in her life as well (exactly what you're thinking about, but also Haruka)

b) she's in competition with other detectives and will gladly take the opportunity to throw them off the trail and then claim all the credit when Nene is miraculously "rescued" (their deal is basically this initially)

c) she's honestly gonna have so much fun with this

d) she's Down Bad for Nene let's be real

Cue them both trying to mess with the evidence and suspect sightings and other's group's trails and staging all sort of shenanigans. Hilarity ensures.

Bonus content:

1) Nene's disguise is just removing the hair puffs away from her face. Her regular haircut is somewhat similar to her Colorfes trained but with styled, curled into elegant strands of hair puffs. Once she hides them completely? Unrecognisable. Not the same person. Nobody knows it's her but Rui (and later An)

2) Rui is right-hand man to Mizuki, who is the mafia leader but they're not there much. They just basically got Rui on their side with "we're both outcasts, you know what outcasts do well? Crime :]" and the rest is history. They don't actually harm people much, they mostly smuggle stuff like diamonds and jewels and precious metals across the port security... For a price. And an occasional gun or two. But mostly just jewels.

3) Rui isn't actually that hype to be a part of the mafia, but he's still an inventor and that's like the only way he can both get his hands on materials and new tech and not be judged for it by The People. He doesn't believe he's ever going to fit in with regular society anyway, might as well.

4) An is rivals with Rui and they basically still have this cat and mouse dynamic (fox and rat?). An takes it Much more seriously than Rui ever did.

5) "Nene-san, I can understand a lot about secret relationships, but him?"

"it'snotlikethatIswear-"

6) The other featured characters:

- Akito, the only competent person at the agency. An's right hand man, but is mostly regarded as someone who's responsible for not letting her throw herself into danger head first. Perpetually annoyed by everything and is very grumpy

- Tsukasa, An's apprentice, much to his chargin (An never explains how she does Anything. "Idk dude just figure it out"). This is a part-time job for him; wants to be an actor still but keeps getting rejected

- Kohane, who works as a crime photographer for a rival agency. Whatever is going on between her and An is between them and god

- Mafuyu as a field medic/apprentice who's there from time to time. She wants to help people, but her mom wants her to have a prestigious career (still a doctor? Idk). Hangs out around An's detective agency often because Ken helped her out through a tough spot once and she feels indebted, but is otherwise not sure what to do with herself

- Touya is a double agent for An and Tsukasa, pretending to be part ot the mafia. At the same time she's such a nice guy he can't exactly figure out where his loyalty lies. He wants everyone to be friends. A good detective, rational and logical vs An's spiritual and intuitive. He's chill :]

- The Otoris do a lot of things, but they are mainly a merchant family. Therefore they clash with the mafia often, and Emu tries to prove herself by defending the goods! Unfortunately this leads to her also clashing with Rui, who she thinks is genuinely a good person and potentially an incredible inventor who just haven't had the chance to use his mind for the good of humanity. She tries to convince her brothers to hire him in order to develop more tech and make everyone's life better like her grandfather would have wanted, but to no avail so far. She and An know each other, but they're not so close yet!

- Honami runs a bakery in the district!

- Others probably will also have a role I just haven't decided yet

Inspiration sources, naturally:

(+more)

IMM FREEEEE WOOOOO

Anyway you read me saying it before but this us SO AWESOME AND ALSO SO FUNNY. AN CASUALLY HELPING NENE HANG OUT WITH A CRIMINAL HCHSHDH ruinene "I can fix him" help meee 😭😭😭 ruian one-sided rivalry over nene hxjajdhsh. MIZUKI MAFIA BOSS. Akito being SO Tired (tm). What's there not to love?

I love to imagine the shenanigans that ensue and the chaos but also fun of staging all those fake scenes 😭😭 and how thrown off all the others in the detective agency are. I imagine for a genius like an who usually solves cases quickly this is f9r once very fun snd challenging

I also rly wanna know what becomes of mizurui later, especially rui since he has nene and also emus offer in theory to maybe give him a more honest life. And also an too I guess

And also how annene develops! We know an is Smitten immediately but how does nene grow close to her 👀 also nene disguise is so funny 😭😭😭 shes not even trying and yet it works

Anyway!!! I love this!!! Thank you for sharing its super fun snd interesting! If you ever have more to share feel free :D

I don't remember if you've done it before, but could you talk about your url? Like where did "shiraishi kanade" come from? Is it implying like smth like kanade being a shiraishi sibling or smth like that? :0 or parallels?

I'm not caught up on all the stories so idk if they've ever met but I wanna hear about how you imagine their interactions and dynamic if that's OK! Or about their parallels if that's what it's about. Or both if you feel like it HAHDHA /nf

Oh this is such a nice question to receive honestly!

There's not much thought behind shiraishi-kanade as much as me just mashing two of my favourite characters' names together, seeing how it sounds and then also discovering it is by some miracle not taken yet. It flows much nicer than yoisaki-an, no?

That said I absolutely love Shiraishi sibling Kanade hcs/fics as well so you're not far off! I have an AU of my own where Ken and Yuka are Kanade's foster parents until (or if 👀) her dad gets better because in that universe child protection services are a little bit more sensible. Mashing a depressed teenager who misses her family more than anything and blames herself for her dad's illness, another teenager with abandonment issues who unbeknownst to her just lost a member of her family and also has a very idealised idea of an older sister, a grieving foster dad and an absolutely shocked by all of those circumstances mom together goes about as well as one might expect (not at all, but they all heal and learn).

That said I absolutely love Kanade and An parallels, they very much have some! They're both musically gifted, both of their families had musician dads and non-musician moms, both of them have taken on the legacy of the ones who are no longer able to carry it, both are hard workers to the point of pushing themselves beyond their limits, but because of different circumstances and different upbringings they react to it completely differently. They also differ in a way that Kanade appears utterly selfless but in truth has a selfish streak inside her, accounting for her saviour complex; on the other hand, An who is brash and outspoken on the outside has a very vulnerable and selfless heart. Their arc go a little bit against each other (learning to truly care about people Kanade claims to want to save & An learning to accept her own feelings, including the ugly ones) but then are also similar in some ways that my mind is too hazy to recall right now. And also, grief. A whole load of it. They're such an interesting pair to spin and rotate in my mind.

That said they actually haven't properly met in canon, of which I've expressed my grief extensively. They are aware of each other's existence because of the Hermit event (where this Kanade untrained is from) and have seen each other perform a couple times, but unfortunately nothing more than that. Which is a pity! They would make great friends in my opinion. Which is also why I have more than one shuffle au where they are teammates.