Most cops called the I.A.D. the "Rat Squad" or the Irritating A**holes Division. It took Hangetsu reading the name on the door of his new office to find out it stood for Internal Affairs Division. He was to investigate his fellow police officers. People joked that after a week everybody wanted to leave. Hangetsu didn't even get the door open all the way before he wondered where the nearest trade school was.
It smelled like dust and shame. Dust, shame and urine after a second sniff.

Before claiming the ironic title of chief (and only) officer of his division Hangetsu was given his orientation and training.
"That's the desk. If you fill out your forms creatively you can get a few yuans for expenses. I left some booze in the bottom drawer."
Hangetsu felt less trained and oriented than ever. To his credit it took the man only one full day to realize he was in far over his head. He had a lot of training but no actual experience as a detective and had a stack of case files mildewing in the corner.

The sole officer in the Internal Affairs Division used every bit of training he received by filling out his request forms creatively and trading the bottom drawer booze for information. His grandmother had taught him that with a few brain cells the world was an open book. Fifty yuans to be used for paperclips and henweighs according to his form would make things even easier. If the world was an open book because of his mind bribes were the glossary.

Hangetsu's next week was spent interviewing detectives of repute. None impressed him. He'd been taught sleuthing by his grandmother and he'd be damned if he was going to be taught by someone he could have outwitted as a teenager.
At the bottom of his list was one Tae-yeon Choi. The most he could get with his bribe money were two words. Smart and difficult.
He knocked on the door and muttered to himself what seemed like would be many a man's epitaph.
"How difficult could she be?"

The knock of the door was a resounding relief. Standing, Tae-yeon made her way to the door, patting her hair as she did so. Had to look somewhat respectable on the first meeting, didn’t she? Fully expecting a rich girl sob story, she opened the office door and came face to face with a man in a white fedora.

Well. While trouble always came into her office, it wasn’t always this cute. The young man before her was around five five, short hair, well-dressed, and wearing glasses. The frustrated air that hung around him combined with a certain something in his posture led the young detective to instantly see him for what he was: a flatty.

A copper. A John. In short: a policeman.

Tae-yeon looked him over, one brow raised. What were the fuzz doing on her doorstep? While the young sleuth had a not-so-concealed grudge against the metalbending police, she had always made sure to stay mostly on this side of the law. When she hadn’t, she had always made sure to take a powder before the cops showed up. Leaning back in her chair, she kicked up a booted foot, resting the heel on her desk. Lighting a slim cigarette, she surveyed the man in front of her.

“Can I help you, sir?” Tae-yeon drawled. The man wasn’t in uniform, and she didn’t want to betray her observation so quickly. Patience could be a real boon, and she’d wait for him to show her his buzzer before she referred to him as ‘officer’.

Hangetsu knew how to deal with knockouts. Knockouts who waved smelling salts under his nose, stood him up and then punched him in the heart again were something new. He did his best to focus on the decor of the room rather than the bombshell occupant.

The blow that was struck the hardest was how casual she seemed. It was the kind of sexy that many women played at but never fully captured. Sexy banter involving "private investigations" and Tae "getting her man" died when the rookie cop remembered why he came. Being a doll didn't mean she could with play with him like one.

He hung his hat and coat on a rack that after dressing looked like a taller Hangetsu but with less wood. He envied it's height and self-control. The moment didn't last when he noticed in the corner of his eye a familiar trashy pulp novel.
Fleshbender. Wonderful.
Suddenly the desk in Hangetsu's mind had it's contents back on it's surface and lacked a cop and detective writhing on top of it. That book was a fantasy killer...usually. Fantasy and loneliness took no time to gang up and recruit his sister's book to their cause.

Typically, a dame, no matter how dishy, could only unsettle the rookie so much before he regained his composure. The detective casually smoking a cigarette managed to shake him like a cheap martini repeatedly. That hadn't happened since Lin Beifong sent him rocketing into puberty.

The two main ways Hangetsu dealt with sexual tension was either playing it cool or bluntly stating his feelings like a fool. When he couldn't decide he flipped a coin. He had the coin in his hand as he sat down and flipped it. He didn't even look at it. The coin flip itself outed him as a fool so he decided to go all in.
"You're very pretty...but that's not why I'm here."

Hangetsu started the other detectives off with a phony story of a cheating wife and lost koala otter as a test but he wasn't in the mood. It was time to skip to the final exam.
"Tell me five things you have deduced about me. If I'm impressed I'm a client. I'm not I'm a memory. I've been talking to gumshoes all week so let's skip the obvious. I'm a snappy dresser, near-sighted and not good with women. Also, a cop...but then you knew that already."

He'd seen that look of recognition in women far too many times, usually just before stating that hair sanitation took precedence over a date with Hangetsu Tsukishima. The rookie had been told that his job was good for one night stands but terrible for dating.

A challenge to her intellect? Usually, Tae-yeon didn't like to play such games, but she was hard up for cash and dying for a good mind game. She had no doubt, of course, that his mystery would end up in her hands. Tae-yeon had yet to lose a client she didn't personally let go.

She blew out a bluish smoke ring, raising an eyebrow at the young man and then twisting her lips into a wry smile. Like taking candy from a baby, this challenge. Tae-yeon turned brown eyes on the bookcase as she answered.

"You're not a great bender, are you?" She crossed her ankles, propping both boots up on her desk. The lean back in the chair was extremely casual. "Need to bolster that confidence, perhaps? For the man who inspires Fleshbender, I'd say that's interesting. Ms. Tsukishima is your sister, is she not?" Flicking her gaze to the flatty, Tae-yeon smiled an almost venomous grin. "Hangetsu. Still wearing your metal-bottomed boots and spools, I see, even to the office of a PI? Not smart in this neighbourhood." Choi Tae-yeon didn't rent an office in an area that was full of love for the Republic City Police.

She chuckled a little and took another drag. This guy and his glasses. It was just too much. "To end... you seem to dislike the smell of smoke, so I'd wager that even though you've a lighter concealed in your hip pocket, you don't smoke. Care to start?"

She held out her cigarette, dangling it in slim fingers.

Truthfully, she wanted to hear why he'd come. What could convince a copper to track down a list full of small-time civvie detectives? Did he suspect some sort of inside job? There would be nothing Tae-yeon would enjoy more than taking down the police from the inside. Not that she didn't respect the law. She respected the law enough to know how far she could go.

Hangetsu couldn't help but smile. There was a certain nostalgia to being read. It had been so long since he'd seen it that he'd forgotten what great detective work looked like. He'd thought himself good at it, but he was the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind. When compared to the woman smoking behind her desk he might as well have been a one-eyed man squinting to see through a monocle of black glass.
"Right on all counts, detective...aside from your bender comment. I'm great, I'm just not consistent."

The officer sighed, rested his right ankle on his left knee and pushed up his glasses.
"I work for the Internal Affairs Division in my precinct." He flashed a self-effacing grin to the pretty detective."I'm having staffing difficulties at the moment so I have decided to subcontract. Your duties will be two-fold. Not only will you investigate but you will impart upon me your years of experience. All I have is theory."

No one had gotten this far in his interviews and he hadn't even gotten to the hardest part to sell. He held up his hand before Tae could speak to deliver what he assumed was the coup de grace to his hopes.
"If the idea of working with a cop to bust other cops doesn't make you want to force me to exit stage window there is more. I can not pay you."

An odd feeling of pride and shame entered Hangetsu's voice upon speaking. "You train me, I assist you." He looked around the office and sneered at the disarray. He himself wasn't the neatest of people but believed in keeping a tidy office. "I can cook, clean, file, do whatever you require."
He slid his finger and held up the fruits of that one swipe.
"Also, I make coffee. That's the stuff that swill in your cup wishes it could be."

As much as he knew he should have left it at that, minus the insult to Tae's horrible coffee, Hangetsu could not let go. It was if the woman silently dared him to prove he wasn't a typical flatfoot with with more casual brutatility than brains. Watching her face as she dissected him awoke something Hangetsu had thought asleep. A sense of rivalry and challenge.

"So you know you won't be starting from scratch...you practice a martial art based on the circular scratches on your boot soles. Something with a basis in throwing or bone breaking requiring you to pivot on the balls of your feet. You're left-handed but you seem to be training your right...did something happen? Lastly, you think I'm a little cute. What am I...a six out of ten?"

They were small deductions, but thrilling to make. He hadn't done actual detective work since his grandmother had died. He thought it would make him sad but he imagined Han looking at him from the spirit world shaking her head in dismay at how his skills had dulled.

"Right on all counts, detective...aside from your bender comment. I'm great, I'm just not consistent."

"Do you think you should bandy about terms like great when you've no consistency?" The detective raised an eyebrow. As the man went on with the rest of his story, though, her hopes were dashed. Choi Tae-yeon didn't do pro bono work. At least, not usually.

"Listen, Hangetsu, I don't work for free," she said. "You're going to have to figure out a way to swindle some money from your superiors to pass my way, or I'm afraid you'll need to take a walk." She didn't need an assistant! She needed money. Mystery. Puzzles to solve.

Being able to make rent on her office was pretty important. Then again, perhaps if she took this job, she'd be able to have some... access... she hadn't had previously. That could be a boon when it came to her civvie cases. A great boon indeed.

"So you know you won't be starting from scratch...you practice a martial art based on the circular scratches on your boot soles. Something with a basis in throwing or bone breaking requiring you to pivot on the balls of your feet. You're left-handed but you seem to be training your right...did something happen?"

"I can use both hands," said Tae-yeon, "near equally well. Nothing happened, but I like to be prepared." As for the rest, why bother to answer?

Lastly, you think I'm a little cute. What am I...a six out of ten?"

A six out of ten? Yeah, right. The man would need at least four inches to rate even a seven on that scale. Tae-yeon laughed. "For someone who needs to build confidence," she said, "you're on the money with that facade. And you could stand to be a lot taller." She took her feet down and leaned on an elbow, halfway over the desk.

"Tell you what, honey. I'll take you up on your offer, providing you find some way to pay me at least a few yuans per case. In exchange, I'll let you clean my office and make my coffee, and I might just teach you how to tell more about a gal than what you see on the soles of her boots."