Chapter Text
“Hello, Isshiki-san. You just finished work, yeah?”
“Ron-kun?” He'd called from one of his 2 (or maybe more?!) phones, knowing Ron, he already knows. He doesn't need to ask. “Yeah, walking back home.” He said. “Need anything?”
The sound of his cat purring loudly could be heard through his phone. He laid deeper into his couch. “You do remember Spitz Feier, right?”
“How could I forget?” With such bright purple hair and a horribly suspicious looking face, it's impossible to forget him.
Ron tried to hold back a laugh from Isshiki describing him, he definitely thinks he's not saying his thoughts out loud at that moment. “He needs my assistance he says.” Kamonohashi twirled his fingers through his cat's long fur, akin to a young girl twirling her fingers through her hair while on call with a beloved friend.
“Oh, you said he might need your help with something personal right?” He stopped in the middle of the walkway, thankfully no one else was using it. “You should help, you like solving cases after all, and I don't have any new ones to handle.”
“Thought you'd say something like that, isn't that right, Spitz?”
Spitz? He isn't–
“On guard, Isshiki-san. You need to practice to sense when someone's trailing you.” Ron said, and promptly ended the call.
Totomaru quickly looked around his surroundings, his hair is bright purple , can't be that hard to spot him, right?!
It took a minute before Spitz decided to finally say something from where he was. “Mr Totomaru, up here.”
“Ah?!” Looking up he finally saw him, standing atop the tallest building in the vicinity. “You're watching me from all the way up there?!”
“I tapped your phone too, hope you don't mind!” He yelled back down at him.
Of course I mind! Wait, hm? Why does Spitz look a little…
Depressed?
For the first time, Totomaru visited the Kamonohashi De Maison with someone in tow. He knocked on the door just once as usual, and twisted open the unlocked door. It seems he's never had a habit of actually locking it. He turned to notice a corner of his large living space redecorated, a large wooden desk that looks like what you'd see in a police station.
“Like it, Isshiki-san?” He laid lazily in his reclining office chair, setting his feet up on his desk. “Thought I'd make a nice work area in my own apartment, nice isn't it?”
He openly gestured at the two to sit down, the chairs he picked noticeably shorter than the one he was sitting on so he could always feel like the tallest in the room.
“Now, Spitz.” He said, his cat magically in his lap now as if he's some cartoon mafia villain ready to give Spitz the rundown on how he's executing him. “You weren't that good at hiding it then, nor were you good at hiding it when you told me. You want my help with a case you have, yes?”
The purple haired man sighed, slumping in his seat. “Yes… I need your help finding my–”
“Ah–” Ron interrupted him, raising a finger up as if shushing him. “Course, I don't work for free. Even if just your dog was missing I wouldn't care until you have something for me in return.”
“Y-Yes, ‘course.” He looked even more nervous, so much so Totomaru didn't even have to look at him to feel his muscles straining to hide him shivering.
“Spitz, you seem a little more nervous than usual today…” The officer finally said something about it.
“Hee!” Even his shock exclamations had a bit of his eccentricity to it. Are all British people just like this? Grizzly didn't seem to be this way, but 2 out of 3 British people Totomaru's met so far have been some sort of weird, so… “I-I'm, fine, really!”
The dark haired detective let out a chuckle. “He's freaked out from the terms I handed him.”
“Hm? What terms?” It seemed to freak Spitz out even more when Ron said it a second time.
“Told him to find out who told Blue of my innocence during the bloody field trip.” He said, gently putting Mimi down on the floor and watching as she curled up next to Totomaru's feet. “If he finds even just one clue, I'll help him right away with whatever he wants. ”
“The incident where you were framed and got your scar from?” It's honestly shocking how used to the scar he already is. Anytime he needs to find Ron amongst a sea of people, he just stares at people's necks until he finds the one and only, or he looks for the one with the most threatening aura. “They were anonymous, though. And why would you need to know?”
He sipped on his brown sugar syrup as he listened to Totomaru’s voice, soft and gentle. Isshiki has no idea when he pulled that out, but he's learned not to question Ron. “To give my thanks. I wouldn't have been able to be a detective without them after all.” He smirked, staring down at Spitz as a predator would his prey. “Either that, or find the files Blue is missing from my case.”
“Missing?”
“I had a lot of injuries following that incident, and I was given treatment for a period of 3 hours in which I was still flashing in and out of consciousness.” Ron spoke so many words that made sense to Isshiki, but he's gonna have to process most of these sentences later when he's not being bombarded with information. “That particular time frame has details missing, and even though we caught out the person who tried to frame me, I still don't know who's the mastermind behind it and my pathology, the person who framed me probably wasn't smart enough to do all of that, nor do I think I did anything bad enough to have him exact revenge on me.”
Totomaru had to hold back talking back to him on the last sentence. He definitely did something bad enough to make people want revenge on him, he can't imagine how much meaner teenage Ron would be.
“Just a bit more information and Dr Usaki says she might be able to reel back my ailment.” What a solemn expression he had, so desperate, he needs it. “And that's why I'll absolutely help you if you just do either one of my conditions!”
It honestly scared Spitz how quickly he changed from a miserable look to a happy businessman who had just made a wonderful deal.
“Ron-kun!” Isshiki got up from his seat to scold him. “You can't extort him like that for your own gain!”
“It's not so simple to help him, Isshiki-san!” Ron sat up straight in his chair, it's been a while since he's talked back to him, but he was still much gentler about it. “He wants us to find his missing family! If the world's best tracker can't track down his own family, what are the chances that we will?”
“We should still try!” At least this time, Ron isn't so unreasonable. He's making valid points, but to the righteous Officer Isshiki, “we should help people in need, and he's our friend, is he not?”
At that point, the S-Rank detective stopped. Smiling back at the officer, it made him think he had something wrong with his appearance. “What's so funny?”
Before he could get an answer, Spitz finally said something. “Thank you, Mr. Totomaru!” He was basically tearing up from how moved he was. “You're making me ashamed of even hesitating!”
“What?!”
“If my friends are going all out for me, then I should too!”
Isshiki shook his head profusely. “No, Spitz!” He said. “Don't let those beautiful eyes and silky voice trick you!! He just manipulated the situation so I'd motivate you!!”
“I'll do it, Kamonohashi!” That nervous and depressed look entirely gone from his face. “If you look for my brother, I'll help you with both conditions!”
“Both? If you say so~” Ron acted so innocent anyone would be fooled by it, not Isshiki though. “Your words, not mine.”
“Spitz!” Maybe he can still save Spitz before it's too late. “Don't do it! He's just joking, right, Ron-kun?”
“Don't worry, Mr Totomaru. That was just the push I needed!” He looked so hyped up for what is essentially a contract he can't back out of. Isshiki shuddered at the idea of Ron working in business or politics instead of detective work. “How could I say no after hearing about his tragic past?”
He's taking this way too lightly!! Does he even know who Ron is?!
“Wonderful.” He got up, combing his hand through his hair and checking his outfit for any unsightly wrinkles. “Let's get going, Isshiki-san, Spitz.”
“Already?”
“H-Hey, we can't just run off to Europe like that!”
“‘Course we aren't, Isshiki-san.” That smug look on his face would've looked so annoying if he didn't have a handsome face. “We're heading to Yamanashi.”
Eh? Japan?
“My brother was an anthropologist studying folk religions around the world.” The grass and stone underneath their feet crunched as they walked through the tree covered pathway. “Due to my father's work, he lived in Japan ever since he was little, so maybe…” Ron was too busy looking around the woods and staring at the various flora and fauna to focus on his exposition. “… That's why he particularly liked doing field work in Japan.”
Kamonohashi walked behind the two, picking leaves off bushes to stare at them. He was clearly bored out of his mind.
“He visited Yada Village a lot for research.” Bugs scurried across tree trunks and leaves, with Ron swatting them away from his perfectly white sleeves. “11 years ago, I was on summer vacation in high school when he brought me here, he disappeared that year.”
“So you were in Japan back then…” Totomaru was just about to continue the small talk before he heard a rustle in the bush near them.
Spitz and Isshiki were too focused on looking at the snake that caused the sound to notice Ron wandering from them. “A snake!” He noticed. “It's white!”
Sure they're rare to see in the wild, but it's not unheard of. Maybe someone lost their pet? Ron shushed the two, “I hear something.” And before they knew it, he ran off into the woods.
They quickly chased him to find him standing before a cliff overlooking a beautiful waterfall. As Totomaru was still admiring the beauty, the 2 detectives noticed something.
“A shrine.”
Only then did the officer finally see her, beautiful long hair flowing in the wind, also admiring the beauty of the waterfall, unknowing that there were 3 people watching her.
And unbeknownst to those 3 people, some others were watching them too.
Thankfully, Isshiki acted on instinct and dodged in the right direction as he saw a huge axe flying his way. It hit the tree he was standing next to, showing off how closely he was to getting his head chopped cleaned off.
Everyone else was too shocked at the sudden violent attack to register Totomaru’s girly scream. “Who are you?!” He yelled at the people who had almost created a murder scene with his own body.
“Sorry ‘bout that.” One of the men from the group said, entirely ignoring his question. “That was close, wasn't it? Almost took your head right off your body. Be a shame if that happened.” They looked so suspicious they made Spitz and Ron during their first encounters with Isshiki look like angels in contrast.
The brunette said nothing more, out of both fear and frustration. It's best not to aggravate them more, what if they have a second axe stashed away somewhere?
They continued their journey, noting that the woman they saw ran off somewhere. Probably from hearing the sound of the axe hitting the tree.
It didn't matter much, they finally reached the village Spitz had been talking about the whole way there.
They walked towards a small gathering of villagers, yelling and protesting against something.
“No way!”
“We're not letting that happen!!”
“Yadagami-sama won't be happy about it!”
“He'll serve divine punishment if you do!”
As Totomaru always does, saying his thoughts out loud. “Some kinda argument?”
Ron stayed back, opting to observe rather than get involved, but he does think that speaking to the people himself would be a better way to gather information, easier to see microexpressions and tell whether someone was lying or not.
“Mr Mayor!” Spitz called out to a little old man on the edge of the crowd, one of the few people attempting to calm the others. “It's been a while!”
The old man turned around to face him, his face wrinkled from age and stature shrunk from muscles weakening. “Oh! You're the one searching for you brother, Spitz-kun, right?”
“Yep!!” He cheerfully responded. “I brought my friends today to help search again!”
Kamonohashi has a basic grasp on how the people before him act, he can speak to them without overthinking much. “What's all the fuss, Mr Mayor?”
“Ah…” He recoiled just thinking about explaining it to non locals. “This outsider is demanding the whole village be evicted…”
Said outsider saw the mayor wasn't in the crowd anymore, following him to the others. “Don't make me sound like I'm some foreigner! I represent the country.”
And with him, the rest of the villagers follow, bringing them to surround the group of detectives and the Mayor. “We're not letting you do anything to our village! Nor is Yadagami-sama!” They said. “If you build that dam he's gonna deal out more divine punishments!” The protest felt even more heated than before.
Totomaru turned to Spitz, “who's this Yadagami-sama they're talking about?”
Who answered wasn't him, but a curly and dark haired man who stood around the Mayor as he was talking to the group. “It means ‘snake god of the night’, our folklore says that it's protected the village since ancient times.” He explained. “I'm a folklorist that came to this village to study the Yadagami legend, but that's the least of my concerns at the moment.”
Kamonohashi thought it's odd that the man would say “our folklore” when he explains himself to be someone who wasn't born nor raised in this village. That'll be a discrepancy he has to recount at a later time.
The mayor tried again to calm everyone down, with the shadiest looking representative the country could've found behind him almost seeking shelter. “I just want to do some preparatory surveying!” He said, not an ounce of innocence in his voice nor expression.
There were only more protests and arguments in response. “If we let him, that'll just mean we're giving in!” They said, “will drown by tomorrow morning at this rate!”
“Good grief.” The representative said, could he at least try to look nicer and more friendly? “You need to teach them manners along with that Yadagami legend, Mayor.”
That's apparently all he wanted to say, because after that he walked off, informing, not even a request, that he'll start work tomorrow. “I'll sue anyone who interferes with my work.”
The mob stood and continued yelling profanities at him, though that wasn't enough to chase him out the village unfortunately.
Spitz got up to the mayor, their closeness showing how often he's visited the village just looking for his beloved brother. “Mr Mayor! I don't want this village to get submerged! My brother disappeared here!”
“I feel the same way, but we don't stand much chance against the national government…” Almost an instant change of his tone, something weird enough for Kamonohashi to notice, but not enough for any questioning, he offered the group to stay in the village.
“Sure! Can we borrow the hut again?”
“Ah, that official is staying in the hut, you can use my house instead.” What a kind person ! Totomaru was much too naive to notice anything suspicious about this village, unfortunately. Even Ron noticed it, and he's not even the one reading his thoughts.
Planning on looking around the village for clues, their investigation cut short. “It was so sunny a minute ago…” Isshiki looked up to the large raindrops clanging onto the metal and ceramic rooves of the houses in the village. “Such sudden rainfall…”
The mayor stood with them, watching the storm too. “We call this kind of rain ‘Yadagami-sama’s scowl.’ Must be something he's mad about…” Clearly he's not very happy with the government official either. Must be hiding it just for the crowd and the official himself. “Well, come on in.” He says, inviting the group into his house.
It was almost inaudible her question, she whispered it under her breath, and the rain was so loud. “Why are you here…?” If Spitz wasn't the master tracker he was, being able to listen to the smallest voices, he wouldn't have heard her, at least Totomaru didn't.
“Mii-chan!” He called out, he looked so happy, like seeing an old family since years of separation. “You were at the waterfall earlier, right?”
Before he could keep excitedly greeting her, he noticed the other two confused of their relation to each other. “Ah! This is the Mayor’s granddaughter!” He finally explained.
“Spitz-kun…” It was as if she only just realized who she was looking at. Why didn't she realize first when she saw him? There's only 1 guy around with that purple hair, at least according to Spitz. “It's been a while.”
He didn't seem to notice her weird greeting. “I'm staying here tonight!” He said to her.
“I see. Make yourself comfortable, then.”
They took an empty room of the house to eat dinner and talk without bothering the mayor and his granddaughter. “This is my brother.” He said, zooming in on a selfie of the two of them together as he showed the two detectives. “I took it the day before he vanished, when we were asking the villagers about the legend.” Clearly he's gone over the events with multiple people multiple times, it sounds like a practiced line for a movie at this point.
“We went back to the hut across the river, eating our convenience store bento boxes before heading to sleep around 10. Then I woke up at 6 to find he wasn't inside, so I thought he went back out without me.” He said. “I looked all over the place, asking the people in the village, but no one else has seen him.
Spitz wasn't sad about it, just full of determination that one day he'll find his brother again. “We filed a missing person's report with the police, the villagers helped us look deep in the woods for any traces of him, but after all of that, we couldn't even find proof he left the village at all.”
Totomaru shuddered. “Like he was just spirited away.”
Spitz nodded, interrupted by hearing sounds of a certain condiment falling onto Ron's food. “Ron, what is that?”
“Tofu, pickles, and wild plants, same as yours.”
He can't possibly be that oblivious?! “He means the brown sugar syrup!!”
“Ohh!” He said, much more excited than Isshiki expected. “Can I try some?”
Ron looked equally happy to have a chance to drag someone into his brown sugar syrup cult. “Eat it in one bite!” He says, smiling wide, but the way he does it is scaring Totomaru a little. At least they're having fun…?
For a moment, Totomaru paid attention to his surroundings and noticed the rain had stopped. Maybe they could go out to investigate now? But all the grass would be muddy and hard to get through…
He looked out the open door looking over the river, he's sure it'd be a nice view during the daytime, but it's entirely too dark at the moment to make anything out. All he could see was the house, presumably the one that official was staying in.
Just as he was going to look back to his meal with the others, he caught a glimpse of something. He got up, looking closer at it, it was a window of the house, one that you could see straight into. “I-Is that a snake?!”
All 3 of then got up to look and confirm his suspicions, “looks like a snake wrapping around someone!”
Before Spitz and Toto could discuss any more, Ron was already leaving the room, grabbing his vest and combing his hair through his fingers. “Let's move.”
He acted like he wasn't in a rush when he walked through the room with the mayor and Mii-chan. The two others scrambled to catch up, their legs nowhere as long as his.
They got to the hut as fast as they could, Spitz watching it as close as possible to make sure no one walked in or out of the hut before they even attempt to get in.
Out of impulse, Ron's hand reached for the doorknob instead of knocking, twisting it. He expected it to be locked, why wouldn't it be? But… “I-It’s open!” He crashed into the house, looking at the surroundings to find another door behind where they'd saw the snake.
“Do you see the snake?” Totomaru was stuck behind him, Kamonohashi had stood in the door way, looking around for any clues before it was too late to see them again.
His thoughts were interrupted by a loud bang. “A-A gunshot?!” It sounded like it, so much like it, but… “No… It's not loud enough.” Totomaru retracted his statement. as a police officer, he's thankful that he never had to use a gun on a culprit, but that's probably because he's mainly put on useless cases that no one else wanted to take. He's not that used to the sound of a gunshot, but he's heard them before, and they sound much, much louder.
The 3 start splitting up to look through the whole hut, it isn't big, so the culprit, or at least the victim, will still be here somewhere.
Ron and Isshiki stared at the empty room they swore they saw the large white snake and man in, there wasn't even a trace of their presence.
The raven haired detective cautiously walked up to the window, barred by wooden sticks. The holes were much too small for even a child to slip through, much less a large snake or a human adult. “He vanished…?” He reached his hands at the wooden bars, jolting to see if maybe they could be slipped open, but alas.
The cops were called, and they arrived the next morning to investigate.
They'd found the official’s lifeless body on the far side of the river, red marks on his neck that resembled the scales of a snake.