Here we go! This is for 0mniessence and it's a Kuromaya Police AU, very loosely based off the content of the manga, but for the most part this is original content! I hope you all enjoy!

I couldn't think of a great title so uh...

Disclaimer: I do not own Shoujo Kageki Revue Starlight.

Catching Phantom Thief Starlight

Chapter 1. The Academy

Of all the career choices Claudine Saijou could have chosen from, it seemed only natural that she would go for the most challenging option.

As a child, the dance and theater classes she'd taken had been too easy for her, since she was clearly naturally gifted in those departments.

And so she'd chosen a different department. Literally.

The police department.

She wanted to follow in her father's footsteps and hunt down the bad guys who plagued their society, put as many crooks and villains behind bars as possible.

She had graduated high school in France early and gone immediately to college for a degree in Criminal Justice and Psychology, where she had worked extremely hard without wavering in spite of the almost-debilitating workload. She'd watched many classmates drop out of the program, but in some strange way that only ever seemed to encourage her to keep going.

She'd be damned if she ever gave up on anything, especially after coming this far. Watching the others drop like flies made her feel even more empowered, even more confident that she could finish what she'd started. Against all odds, she would prevail.

And it certainly wasn't easy, even when she was still in school.

She was the youngest person in the program, and she was a girl on top of it all. The boys harassed her almost daily outside of the classrooms walls, taunting her and making sexist comments, telling her she'd never be strong or smart enough for this kind of work. She should just be a secretary at best, stay safe and protected behind a desk.

Most of the other girls received the same treatment and dropped out, and several of the boys did as well.

But Claudine stood firm against the harassment, kept quiet so as to not cause trouble for her image or the school's.

That had been the toughest challenge of her life until that point; to suppress her fighting spirit and keep her head down until graduation. Where she couldn't fight back with actions and words, she fought back with her grades and her exams.

And at the end of her studies, she was one of the last ones standing.

And she was standing at the top of her class.

She graduated with nearly perfect scores in every subject, and she received several awards and medals, much to the chagrin of her tormentors.

And she didn't waste any time once she was finished with school.

Almost immediately afterward, some personal things came into play, and she ended up moving to Japan. She transferred over all of her degrees and paperwork, and entered the Police Academy there within weeks.

Entering the Academy at such a young age as a foreigner - and as a girl - was essentially emotional suicide. She was only eighteen when she started, and though she was fluent in the language, being half-Japanese herself, she was still made fun of and spoken to as though she were a child.

Not a single one of her fellow trainees or superiors believed in her, not even the women. They called her horrible nicknames, bullied her about her dancing past, accused her of cheating or sleeping her way to the top at school. It was a nasty and volatile place of work.

But it was the biggest challenge she could hope for, and being as stubborn by nature as she was, Claudine tackled it all head-on.

And surprisingly enough, it wasn't just her.

Evidently, there was another young girl at the Academy who had also been a dancer in her younger years. She'd gotten top scores in school and also worked her way to the top of her class.

So Claudine knew she must have experienced the same kind of abuse. And even so, she hadn't given up, either.

Claudine met this girl on the very first day of training. Her name was Tendo Maya, and she had topped the Criminal Justice schools and training programs here in Japan, just as Claudine had topped them in Europe.

From the second Claudine laid eyes upon this girl, she could tell they were the same.

Tendo Maya had a hard, determined gaze, one that silently warned everyone else to keep away or suffer the consequences. Like Claudine, she had a goal, and no one was going to stand in the way of it. She harbored the same fierceness, the same wit, the same unwavering, unbreakable spirit.

Claudine put up the same display to everyone around her, too.

But only when her eyes met with Tendo Maya's from across the room that first day, just for a moment, did her eyes soften. Just a little.

And it seemed Maya's did, too.

They knew then and there, even without speaking to one another, that they were kindred spirits, that they would share the same struggles together now as they'd shared them separately in the past. Being the two youngest and two of the only girls, they would keep an eye out for one another.

Their childhoods as a dancers, which had been nothing but a source of torment for them until this point - had made them agile and strong. They were petite and could maneuver themselves in ways that the men couldn't.

But they were also skilled with the knowledge of weak points that they could use against others with larger frames and statures.

In physical training and combat, both Maya and Claudine were superior in speed and strength. Even if one of the men got the better of them and overpowered them, they used their wit and flexibility to turn the tables.

They were the first ones up in the mornings and the last ones to bed at night, constantly studying body camera videos and other training films. They aced every exam with flying colors, were never late for classes or briefings, were never known to complain or talk back to their superiors.

They rolled with the punches, but didn't take insults and degradation lying down. They always had a sharp, but tactful comment to reply with, one that was just borderline so it couldn't be used against them.

They quickly became known as the Academy's most peculiar but fearsome duo.

Whenever Claudine and Maya were paired up for exercises or training sessions, they blew the competition out of the water. Where they excelled as individuals, they were twice as impressive together.

And even off the training field, they started to keep close to one another.

They ate together, shared their stories, shared their sufferings - but only in private.

They looked out for one another against the jealous officers-in-training. It hadn't been easy to handle all of the demeaning sexual advances and insulting comments by themselves. But when they had each other, it somehow became a source of strength to propel them forward.

When one man rigged Maya's obstacle course the day of her exam, Claudine noticed from the sidelines and brought the issues to the attention of the overseeing officer. The culprit was apprehended and expelled from the Academy, and Maya was given a fair course, which she completed in record time.

And when a persistent creep continuously tried to lay his hands on Claudine, Maya caught him in the act several times on record and exposed him. He was also expelled, and the people in charge gave everyone a long lecture about their conduct and behavior.

After that, neither Claudine nor Maya, nor anyone else in their group, experienced any kind of unwanted advances or comments again.

Maya and Claudine began visiting one another's rooms to study and discuss, to practice their moves and train themselves on their manners of speech. They acted out hostage negotiation situations, tested one another on hypothetical crime scene scenarios, asked the hardest questions with the most impossible answers, just to ensure they were both prepared for anything that might get thrown at them.

And little by little, they began to gain the respect they deserved.

Their fellow trainees, both men and women, came to look up to them, ask them for assistance and tips, cheer them on and applaud them when they were given praise. Their superiors came to respect them as well, and while the work itself didn't get any easier, the people around them were no longer obstacles barring their way.

And so Claudine and Maya worked even harder throughout the years of rigorous training, and like in their other courses, quickly paved a path to the top.

In only three years, both Claudine and Maya graduated the Police Academy in Japan. Maya was at the top of the class, and Claudine was humbled by second place. She knew it was because of one course where they had each been in charge of a hostage scenario, where Maya had managed to get all of her team, the hostages, and criminals out alive. In the same scenario, Claudine had ended up 'killing' one of the criminals, and thus her score had suffered that margin, and was reflected in her second-place graduation.

But even so, it was absolutely unheard of for the Academy's top 2 graduates to be such young girls, and one of them a European foreigner, at that.

But even after all the years they had spent together, all those nights studying and training, having each other's backs, fronts, and blind sides…

Claudine and Maya parted ways just after graduation to continue their careers abroad.

Though, interestingly enough, they don't end up terribly far apart. Maya is sent to London, and Claudine to Paris.

And, as fate would have it, they don't stay apart for long.

A/N: Okay, so this was all just a set-up for some world-building. The real story starts next chapter!

Please review!