Chapter Text
A middle-aged man with what looked like to be an office attire stood in front of a building; from the outside, it looked like an antique shop, but the sign in front read "Charles' Detective Agency" so he was sure he hadn’t gotten to the wrong place.
The building stood out from the rest like a sore thumb, it looked like a time machine warped this building from the Victorian era to modern day Japan. That was another reason why the man was absolutely sure this was the right place.
"I'M SICK OF THIS!"
He was surprised to see a lady suddenly stormed out of the building, clearly looking pissed off. Their eyes met and the lady came up to the man, stomping furiously.
"Don't waste your time with that wacko detective, just go to the police. He won't help with anything!"
The lady left the dumbfounded man behind. He did consider to turn back but he already made up his mind. He knew that the police won't help and that's why he's here. Taking a short breath, he put his hand on the knob and turned it open.
.
.
.
"Please be more considerate to your clients, Mr. Charles…"
"She's the one who was rude in the first place."
"But still…"
When the man opened the door and the bell rang, two young men turned to the source of the noise, and the blonde-haired one smiled softly.
"Welcome to Charles' Detective Agency, how can I help you?"
The man in the suit immediately noticed the blondie is a foreigner, just by looking at his facial features and hearing his accent. The man panicked a little bit and bowed slightly since he can't talk in english, and the blondie just stared at him with a question mark and a smile still plastered.
"Don't worry, my assistant Arthur can understand Japanese." The chair that the other young man sat on spun around, revealing a black haired man with different colored eyes, smiling as he tapped his desk to invite the guest to sit.
"What brings you here today, mister?"
The man sighed in relief seeing the detective seemed to talk Japanese just fine. He sat down just as suggested. "Your Japanese is good, Mr. Charles."
The heterochromic manーCharles, looked at him and scoffed. "Unfortunately, I'm a 100% pure-blood Japanese. Born and live here." The man in suit blinked in confusion, but did see the resemblance of a Japanese on Charles' facial features. Charles took a paper and slid it towards the man which snapped him back to reality.
"Is there something on my face?" Charles smiled lightly and the man panicked slightly then scratched his neck with a sheepish laugh. "Haha I just thought that you're really good-looking, I wish I am as handsome as you…"
Charles blinked before smirking as he put his chin on his hand with a hum. "I think you're also charmiー"
"Please write your name and sign this document, Mr. Client!"
The blonde assistantーArthur, pointed to the paper in front of the man and gave him a pen with a huge smile. "That is, if you're sure about using our service."
The man nodded and took the paper to read the contentsーas it is common sense to read documents before signing anything. It is a contract containing terms of service. Basically if he signed it, he's fine with sharing privacy with the detective to help with solving his problem. It is also mentioned that payment will be discussed after the case is solved. After making sure there's nothing fishy going on, he wrote his name and signed the paper, letting out a breath afterwards.
"Please look here, Mister."
The man was surprised to hear a sound of a camera snap, and then followed by a sound of photo printing out of what looked like a vintage camera. Arthur took out the photo and flapped it slightly before giving it to Charles.
Charles took the paper and glued the photo on it, then he picked up his quill pen. "So, Mr. Minakami Yoru… what's the problem?"
The man straightened up his back and looked straight at Charles. "I came here to ask you to search for my engagement ring… it was stolen."
Charles still focused on writing before stopping for a moment, playing with the quill between his fingers. "When was the last time you saw the ring?"
"Last night before I went to sleep at 10 pm… I put it in the drawer as usual. I only noticed it was gone when I checked it this morning before going to work…" The man sighed, looking exhausted. "Because of this I ended up not going to work… I just can't focus when I'm worried to death about the ring…"
Charles glanced at the client for a few seconds before blurting out. "You're absolutely sure that you didn't just misplace it, right?"
"No!"
Hearing Charles' question, the man shouted and just realized afterwards that he had raised his voice. Arthur seemed surprised but Charles is still as calm as ever, like he knew the man would react like that.
"I'm sorry… I just… I'm really desperate and tired, Mr. Detective…"
The man was a bit surprised to find a cup of tea put in front of him; the cup looked fancy and expensive, made of porcelain with a hint of gold decorations. He looked up to find Arthur smiling as if there were flowers floating around him, and the man bowed slightly to apologize and say gratitude for the tea. Sipping the chamomile tea made him calm down a bit.
"Why didn't you just file a report to the police instead of going here if it was a theft?"
Charles continued after seeing the man had calmed down, then the man just stared at the tea in his cup, reflecting the face of the exhausted salaryman. "I did… but they didn't really take me seriously and said the exact same thing you just said, Mr. Detective." The man then put the cup back to the saucer and looked up at Charles.
"The ring was the only thing that was stolen."
Arthur gasped dramatically like he just heard a plot turning point, and Charles smirked lightly before continuing to write. "I see, I assume there's also no sign of a break-in?"
The man nodded quickly. "The thief was really careful, to be able to sneak in without any noise and find the ring quickly…"
"It's like the thief knows exactly where the ring is!"
"Oh you said something really smart, Arthur." Charles looked up to Arthur expectantly. "So, you have an idea who the culprit is?"
Arthur pondered for a moment before exclaiming. "I don't know but it must be a very professional thief that planned ahead of time!"
Charles chuckled and shook his head, just by that Arthur knew his answer was wrong.
"But you weren't wrong that the culprit planned it ahead of time."
Arthur smiled again since technically he's still half-right, so he's proud of it. Charles continued to write and the man sighed while rubbing his temple.
"It must be a very professional thief, to be able to break in my locked drawer like that…"
Charles paused writing for a moment, glancing towards the man. "Isn't it easy if you know how to lockpick or find the key?" The man shook his head. "That specific drawer doesn't have a key, it opens using a 6-digit password like you would find on a safe. That's why I put the ring there."
"No sign of brute forcing it open?"
The man shook his head again, and Charles quickly wrote down the new information. The man sighed even longer as he sip on the tea to try to clear his head.
"What does a professional thief want with my engagement ring? I know it's my most expensive treasure… but why…"
"Exactly, why?" Charles looked at the man with a smile. "A random thief has no motive to plan that much, only to go for one ring. It might be very important to you but for them, it's not that much."
The man along with Arthur pondered more and Charles chuckled lightly seeing their faces. "Let's drop this ‘professional thief’ topic shall we? Our culprit is closer than you two thought."
Charles put the quill back in its place, folding his arms along with putting his leg on the other. Arthur gasped lightly since he knew if Charles stopped writing and got relaxed like that, he had come to a deduction. It hasn't even been 20 minutes?
"So at 10 PM, you put the ring in the drawer before going to sleep. The thief sneaked into your room, went straight to the drawer, input the right password and went with the ring. A very simple and fast crime."
Arthur and the man nodded along, that does make sense and they couldn't think of anything else.
"Now, doesn't it make you wonder how can this culprit do this crime so quickly and easily? And no Arthur, it's not a professional thief." Charles said as Arthur just opened his mouth, making him close it again.
"The culprit knows you personally Mr. Minakami. They know where you put the ring, they know when you would let go of your precious treasure, they even know when you go to sleep."
Arthur and the man stared more intently, gulping nervously waiting for Charles to continue.
"And to be able to sneak into your room with ease… the culprit lives with you Mr. Minakami." Charles snapped his finger with one eye closed. "Any candidate in your mind?"
The man blinked for a moment before the realization hit him, he stood up and slapped the desk with his hands, surprising Arthur.
"Are you doubting my family!?"
"I didn't say it was your family, but they definitely live in your house."
The man widened his eyes as if remembering something, and almost yelled while saying it. "That's right, the lock! Nobody knows the password except for me! How can anyone guess the password that easily!?"
"It's the date of your engagement, right?"
The man almost choked on his saliva, it looked like he hit the bullseye. "Anyone would've guessed if they knew you close enough." Charles said still calm as ever, contrary to the man who seemed even more stressed and sat down dejectedly.
"So you found the culprit?"
The man nodded weakly before muttering. "My sister… I did have my suspicions on her but there's no way I would doubt her of a crime… but now that you've come to that conclusion, it must be true, Mr. Detective."
The man then smiled and pulled out an envelope from his pocket, putting it on the desk. "Thank you so much Mr. Detective, I'm glad that I asked for your service instead of the police. This was just a huge misunderstanding." He stood up and tidied up his tie, bowing to both Charles and Arthur. "Thank you for having me, I'll talk it out with my sister. Thank you once again."
"Have a good day!" Arthur said as he waved to the man exiting the door. Charles relaxed to his chair as he stamped the paper, giving it to Arthur to be archived.
"I didn't expect it was really that simple… as I thought you're a genius Mr. Charles!" Arthur put the paper in the file, before putting it back to the shelves. "But how did you know his drawer's password?"
"Just a small deduction… and intuition." Charles took the rubik cube on his desk and fidgeted around with it. "He specifically only put his engagement ring in that drawer, and it might be something that can be easily guessed if someone else can guess it."
"But you could be wrong?"
"And so does the culprit."
A last click sound was heard from the rubik cube before he put it on the desk. "It was a huge gamble for the culprit, but remember that it was his sister. She can get away with it easily, considering how agitated he was trying to defend her."
Arthur once again is amazed by this man in front of him, solving a rubik's cube as they were having a conversation.
"You could've done that for the lady too, but as always you always put your personal preferences first~"
"I already solved the lady's problem, but she didn't listen. Different from the well-mannered man, that lady with the inside-out dress definitely misplaced that stupid necklace."
Charles scoffed and Arthur just chuckled as he put the cup of coffee in front of him.
"Also you need to stop flirting with your male clients."
"You jealous?"
"No! It's distracting them!"
Now it's Arthur's turn to be pouting and Charles chuckled as he sipped on the coffee.
Meanwhile, the lady found her necklace in her own bag as Charles had suspected.