Chapter Text
The shift was over, the office was almost empty if it wasn’t for two people: the boss, who was fixing some paperwork, and the Detective Kato who was now turning the computer off, slowly moving the chair away, ready to go home, he couldn’t wait to go home.
His attention was captured by the empty chair next to him, by the keyboard and computer screen that were both slightly dusty since they hadn’t been turned on for weeks.
It had been two weeks since when his partner had showed up the last time to work, he could remember him walking out of the department after a very long and complicated shift, usually, after a shift he would wave at Haru, telling him to have a good night and that he would see him the following morning, but that afternoon he left saying a simple bye, and now Haru was wondering if that bye was a goodbye.
At first they thought that maybe he had finally quit the job, that maybe he had realized that it wasn’t the right fit for him, that maybe, knowing him, he decided to take a vacation out of nowhere. Nobody really worried much, they were sure that he always moved with personal guards when he wasn’t working, even though he was an amazing fighter himself, Haru had seen him fight a few times and he had a very good technique, even though he was pretty short, he was very strong.
Haru didn’t worry either, at least not until two days earlier when he had tried to contact him, but his phone calls would go straight to voicemail, as if he had blocked Haru’s number, the detective had also tried to text him, but he never answered to them either.
“Hey boss, what happened to Kambe?” Haru asked, turning his head to look at the old man who lifted his eyes from the bunch of papers, then he shrugged.
“I haven’t heard of him ever since the last time he was here, he told me that he needed a few days off to deal with something personal” he answered his question and the detective frowned in confusion, trying to understand what was going on.
“Come here, I have tried to check his file, so I could find address, but I don’t have access to it” the boss turned the screen around to show it to Haru who got closer in order to see better, he frowned, from what he knew, the boss had access to everyone’s file in that department.
“I don’t get it, have you tried to talk to his previous superior?”
“The thing is, we have no idea of who he is, we don’t know where he used to work before coming here, who is boss is, the guy is rich, we don’t know with who he has ties with, plus did you know that he chose to come here? He wasn’t sent here like us” the boss spoke standing up, leaving Haru completely shook but now that he thought about it, Daisuke never spoke about his old squad, plus who in the right state of mind would choose to go work at the worst unit? He thought that Daisuke was there because of his ways of doing the job, not because he chose it.
“This makes no sense… have you tried calling his sister? Maybe we should report him as a missing person” Haru said while taking a step back and the boss frowned, surprised by knowing that he had a sister.
“I didn’t know that Kambe had any living family left. Anyways, I spoke to a few other cops and they said that there are people already on it” he shook his head and it was Haru who was confused, living family left? What did he mean by that. People already on it? So it meant that something actually happened to him?
“No, Suzue Kambe is his family, I will go talk to her, maybe she knows something” after saying so, he left the office, also not really sure about his own words, was Suzue actually his sister? They never introduced each other as brother and sister, she simply had his last name, but since Suzue looked a lot like Daisuke, Haru simply supposed that she was his sister.
The detective walked towards his car, moved the snow away from the top of it and he felt his fingers freeze, the pain seemed to reach his bones, he snorted, he had always hated winter, his body would refuse to warm up no matter how many layers of clothes he would be wearing.
While driving, the man started to think, he and Daisuke had been working together as partners for seven months now, ever since they first met, Daisuke hadn’t changed at all, he was still his arrogant self, he was still always cool-headed, always chill and mysterious. In fact, in these seven months of partnership, he had found out nothing about him, he knew nothing about him, and yet Daisuke knew about his old job, about what happened at the First Division even though it wasn’t a public matter, only the people in there, and his current boss, knew about the incident, the fact that Daisuke somehow found out about it in less than a day, made Haru wonder who that man was.
Who was Daisuke Kambe?
Was he just some guy who simply joined the police forces just to have some fun? To have a boost of adrenaline?
Was he just some guy who simply thought that money could fix everything?
He hated his money, so much, he couldn’t believe that someone could think such a thing, he was sure that Daisuke never suffered in his life, which was most likely true, he was sure that Daisuke had never felt miserable and hopeless, because if he did feel like that, how could he think that money could solve every problem?
Once he arrived in front of Daisuke’s place, he looked at the house, the lights were all on, as if they didn’t care about the bills, they probably didn’t even know what a bill was since they most likely had someone who went to pay them. Haru thought of the when he saw the place for the first time, he thought that it was a restaurant or hotel, he never thought that it could be someone’s house, he still couldn’t understand why two people could need such a big house, when such a big building could be used for different and more useful things, like a shelter for homeless people.
After getting down of the car, the cold air hit his skin, making him tremble a bit, then he started getting closer to the door, Haru looked around, trying to catch any signs of Daisuke’s presence but he wasn’t sure of what he was supposed to be looking for, so he took a deep breath and rang the bell, a few moments later a maid opened the door, and knowing who the guy was, she welcomed him with a polite smile.
“Mister Kato, hello, what can I do for you?” she asked stepping aside so he could come inside since it was very cold outside.
“Hello, I was looking for Daisuke” he answered walking inside and looking around, once again hoping to spot the guy so he could scold him for not showing up at work for weeks.
“Oh, I’m sorry but mister Kambe hasn’t been here for weeks now” the old woman explained and Haru sighed, soon after some footsteps were heard, he moved his head, turning it to the direction from where the noise came from, he saw Suzue who got out of the garage after hearing the sound of the bell.
“Oi mister Kato, good evening!” she greeted him with a smile as if she wasn’t worried at all about Daisuke.
“Good evening miss Suzue, do you know where Daisuke is?” he asked politely and she sighed, stopped walking and slowly nodded before pointing upstairs.
“Come with me”
Haru didn’t say a word, Suzue started walking once she saw that he was following her, the two of them went in that room where he actually met Suzue, it looked like she was working on some new weapon, her skills really interested Haru.
“You know mister Kato, despise how much he hides it, there are things who bother him, especially things that hit a bit too close to home” the woman started to talk while looking for something.
“I couldn’t say, I never thought that there could be such things that could bother him, sometimes he really looks like he lacks morals and emotions” Haru shrugged, laying his back against the wall behind him and Suzue laughed at his comments about Daisuke.
“He used to be a very cheerful child actually, he would love to spend a lot of time with the staff here, wanting to see them work and things like that, but then he started growing colder and colder and I can’t blame him for that, people deal with things in their own ways” she finally found a gray key and handed it to Haru who stared at it, then he grabbed it, confused by her words and also by the metallic object.
“He usually throws himself in work, but since you’re here, I believe that he hasn’t shown up there either, so he’s probably working on something else” Suzue grabbed a tiny piece of white paper, she took a blue pen and wrote something in it.
“I believe that he’s here, he usually goes there when he wants to avoid everyone” just like with the key, she handed it to him and Haru put both the objects in his pocket, then a tiny shy smile grew on his lips, in a way to thank the woman.
“Thank you”
“No problem, drive slowly, the roads are frozen” she let him know and Haru slightly blushed because of the concern she showed to him.
“Will do, and again, thanks!” he bowed down a little.
“Have a good night, miss Suzue” and after that, he started to walk towards the door, she thanked him and wished the same to him.
“Hey, Haru, go easy on him, ok?” she asked softly, as if she was worried by how his words where going to affect the older Kambe, even tho Haru frowned, he still nodded.
The drive towards the address that Suzue gave him was long, the detective was tired, he felt his eyes heavy, a few yawns left his lips, he would rub his eyes and leave the music in a higher volume than usual, hoping that the noise would keep him awake.
The snow was once again falling down the sky, and no matter how much he hated it, he had to admit it, the falling snow was definitely beautiful and he liked how it could make places look a lot prettier. The Sakura trees were full of it, it looked as if they were full of white flowers, as if they had started to bloom already.
Haru loved the blooming cherry treas, he found them beautiful and romantic, but he also thought about how strong these trees they were for surviving months of very cold winters to just bloom again as if the cold didn’t bother them at all.
While driving, the man ended up thinking about what his boss said: <> and what Suzue said just twenty minutes earlier: <>, then he started thinking about the last case they worked on together, it was a bad one, a little kid had seen the assassination of his mom, back then, Haru didn’t notice anything weird with Kambe, but while thinking about it again, he remembered how the detective never left the kid’s side, making sure that he was comfortable and ok, Daisuke had worked on that case following Haru’s lead, at the time, Haru thought that it was because it was a complicated case and there was a lot of pressure on that one, but maybe he did it simply because it felt right to actually follow the protocol.
Did that case hit close to home?
Did Kambe lose his parents just like the little kid?
He knew that he could simply search it up on Google but it didn’t feel like the right thing to do, it felt like a violation of his privacy.
Forty minutes later, he was there, or at least he was supposed to be there, but the place didn’t seem like a place Daisuke Kambe would stay, it was an apartment complex, a shitty one, it looked even worse than the one where Haru lived. For a second he wondered if Suzue was messing with him, but then he remembered that she wasn’t Daisuke, she was a nice and sweet person, plus, for some reason, he felt like she actually wanted him to talk with her brother… or whatever Daisuke was to her.
Before getting down, he grabbed a hat from the passenger’s seat, he put it on and grabbed as well a scarf, he used it to cover pretty much most of his face since outside it was windy and it was snowing as well, as soon as he opened the door, the wind almost closed it again but Haru stopped it with his foot and whispered: <>, then he walked out, locked the doors and ran towards the entrance of the building, once inside, he rubbed his hands together, blowing a few times some air on them, trying to warm them up.
The detective was in front of the door, he looked around, the place was loud and it smelled like roasted meat and smoke and weed, it was disgusting, Haru really hoped that his house would smell better than that. After taking a deep breath, he grabbed the key from the pocket of his jacket, he was about to open the door but decided to knock instead, a few minutes later he heard the rich man’s voice and a sigh of relief left his lips, at least he was alive.
The door was opened and he saw a Daisuke Kambe who was wearing an over-sized shirt and some gray jeans, his hair weren’t pulled back as usually, they softly covered his forehead, his blue eyes were slightly red, maybe because of the lack of sleep, he had some dark circles under them, he looked pale and smelled a lot like cheap cigarettes.
“What are you doing here?” Kato asked him, not managing to understand why he would be in such a place.