Chapter Text
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Nothing Gold Can Stay, Robert Frost
Shuichi stared at the spider-infested attic in his parents home, coughing a bit from the dust. How long had it been since anyone, let alone his parents, went in here?
His parents, Kyoko Kirigiri and Makoto Naegi, had told him what he was here for, but in the moment, the teenage detective wanted to do nothing but inspect all the boxes for clues.
Because they were hiding something from him, and he wanted to know what.
Shuichi had always been a curious, it was in his nature, being the child of the Ultimate Detective, it was no wonder he had inherited her keen eye and personality.
"Shit..." The Detective murmured, sneezing into his elbow as he walked through the dusty attic and wiped some of the dried skin flakes off the first box he saw.
"Pictures - S/S" it was labeled.
"... Where'd the second S come from..?" Shuichi questioned quietly, not to anybody but, truthfully, himself. His mom was at work and his dad was out visiting his aunt, Komaru, and her girlfriend, Toko.
He pulled the pocket knife out his(guess this) pocket and used it to cut open the tape. He pried open the box and pulled out another smaller shoe box.
"Why would you put two..." Shuichi's outloud thought trailed off into silence, which, was fitting for the setting, considering he was home alone in his dingy attic that he was pretty sure probably hadn't been used since World War Two.
He pulled the lid off of the shoe box and began to take out some old photos, tainted with yellow. He gave a slow sigh. He wanted to look in here, but there was hardly any light, so he had to get to that first.
The Super High School Level Detective made his way through the attic until he encountered a grime covered desk with a small desk lamp. He turned the knob on the lamp and watched as the light flickered before turning on.
The light bulb wasn't great, it was dim, but it worked well enough to let him see the pictures. There was generic ones you'd expect, birthday pictures, family photos, but one caught his eye.
A picture of his mom in the hospital after giving birth to him.
There was two babies.
Which, truthfully, made no sense to him, since he was one thousand percent sure he was an only child. His parents never brought up a brother or sister and he was pretty confident he had no memories, even as far back as he could remember with a sibling.
Shuichi reached into his pocket for his phone, but found nothing. "... I must've left it on my bed..." he told nobody in particular, just shook his head and kept looking through the pictures.
He made a mental note to ask his parents about the baby photo, as he decided to call it, during breakfast, considering he'd probably be asleep by the time his mom got home, knowing him.
He kept searching through the pictures until he realized that alot of the pictures must've been missing, because they were dated and supposed to be in order.
That or his parents hardly took photos on whatever camera they used to take these.
He turned the desk lamp back off, pocketed that picture, and tried to recall the actual reason he was in here. He was supposed to find...
Uh...
Oh.
He was supposed to find the old record player because they bought him all of Jack Off Jill's albums and he wanted to actually use them, so they were going to give it to him.
It had completely slipped his mind the second he had stepped into the attic, but he had to do it. If he spent all the time in the dingy space snooping, it would be a waste of his own time.
He gave a short yawn before continuing his search for the box it should be in.
His hands brushed against a mannequin hand, and he screamed in a higher pitch than he would like to admit, stumbling backwards and falling on his ass.
"... ow..." He murmured as he rubbed his head before using his free hand to push himself back up.
He found the record players box in the back of the attic, covered in layers of dust and dirt it could rival the dust storms during the American Great Depression.
He picked it up and sneezed into his elbow. He rushed down the stairs of the attic and back into his actual house, walking through the hallway and towards the flight of stairs down to the first floor, going down those aswell before opening the door beneath said staircase and entering his room.
His room originally had one door right by the front door, but because it was right by the staircase, Shuichi convinced his parents to hire someone to remove that door, break down part of the wall against the stairs, and connect it to the staircase.
And he personally loved it.
Shuichi had put up a curtain rod and put some black, thin veil-styled curtain where the wall against the flight of stairs and put some star shaped fairy lights.
He decorated the place that used to be a closet underneath the steps with a simple wooden desk and a comfortable desk chair. On the wall of the closet, the one that was right beside the door, had a cork board.
He had put down a simple black circle rug right in front if the door like someone would put a welcome mat. Shuichi set the dust covered record player box on his desk and have a small stretch.
After a short moment, he pulled the picture back out and grabbed a push-pin from the clear cup on his desk he had been storing them in, and pinned the picture on the board with precision.
He would figure out this mystery, one way or another.
Deciding to forget about it until the morning, he pushed through the curtain and collapsed face first onto his bed beside his phone.
His eyes began to close and blur, and he made himself comfortable.
And then his FUCKING RINGTONE WENT OFF!
He jolted up and grabbed it, looking at the unknown contact. Confusion evident in the way he moved, he picked up and brought the phone to his ear.
"Who is this?" The Ultimate Detective questioned. "Hi! Sorry! Uh. I got your number from your school file. I'm Kaede Akamatsu! I'm one of your classmates at Hope's Peak! Uh... Y'know. The Ultimate Pianist? I.. uh... I was wondering if you could help me solve something?" She questioned.
Shuichi was intrigued but also panicked because why was this cute girl contacting HIM specifically. "Uh... that's uhm... sure. What do you need help with?" He asked awkwardly.
"... I want you to help me find my Mom's missing jewelry. If- if that's okay with you! Could we uh... meet sometime tommorow? At that one coffee shop..? The one down the road from the general store?" The Ultimate Pianist explained.
"... uh... text me the address." Shuichi replied, sitting up and trying to act casual as if Kaede could see him.
"So you'll help me? Thank you so much..! And uh- Yeah! I can do that! Thank you again. Okay! Bye!" Kaede hung up on him.
Shuichi just collapsed back into his prior laying position. "... why did I agree to thattttt-" He murmured.
He had another mystery to solve now.
That wasn't stressful at all!
The Detective closed his eyes again and got himself comfortable under the blankets, wrapping his arms around the whale stuffed animal he had owned since childhood, as if he was a kid. His conciousness faded into white noise, and then he was out.