Standing in a square with Heizou facing you and two other guys on each side, you held two swords at the strangers who did the same to you and your new partner, the reddish haired detective holding a blade and for some reason a crossbow. Each of you had two weapons pointed at you and each were also the one threatening another.
In the middle of you — a goat.
You might wonder how you got yourself into such a situation, and most importantly, what the goat was doing. And to explain the odds, we have to take a look into what happened mere hours before.
"You've gotta be kidding me" you muttered once Heizou had told you about the case he was recently working on. It was soon that you regretted your decision of making a deal with Heizou, thinking that you'd have to figure out about who stole the golden town chicken, though things proved to be a bit more complicated when the male handed you files of a murder case.
"Matsumoto Chihiro, 23, male, strangled to death and found at the beach near inazuma city after apparently being thrown into the ocean" you summarized the information you've got, Heizou nodding along your words.
"I've got that case not long ago and didn't get to investigate it till now"
"...you were on vacation on watatsumi island"
"Like I said, I didn't had any time to spare," the male said, pointing up a finger and shamelessly grinning, "And now that you are here, it's a perfect opportunity to start"
You stared at him with wide eyes, thinking about the worst-case-scenario that could happen when investigating in a murder case. You've seen enough police series in your life to know that murderer didn't actually liked it when people were figuring them out.
Getting rid of that thought, you let out a sigh and skimmed through the files once again about the personal data.
"Ok, then let's get over with this. Seems like this Matsumoto guy didn't had any close relatives, so let's see what we can get out of his neighbors"
"I like your intuition, [ y/n ]" snapping his fingers, the two of you set off to the deceased's house, discovering that he, in fact, only had one neighbor for that he lived a bit offside.
Knocking on the door, a man opened, his face slightly covered in paint — his hands not better as he tried to wipe the still wet stains of green and blue from his fingers. "Hello?"
"Are you perhaps Kita Yoshi?" Heizou asked, the man in front of you looking back and forth between the two of you in confusion.
"Um, yes, that's me"
"We're from the Tenryou commission. Could we have a small chat?"
"Are you here because of what happened to Chihiro?" Letting you two inside his rather small house, he seemed a bit concerned, though you couldn't blame him. You would be concerned as well in this kind of situation.
"That's right," Heizou began as you stayed silent, observing the room instead that was stuffed with canvas and sculptures of clay, "when did you saw Matsumoto the last time?"
Getting straight to the point, the reddish haired boy listened to what the man had to say to the basic questions he had to ask, not causing any suspicion so far. You were glad in that regard, finding the thought of standing next to a murderer a bit scary.
"These sculptures are actually pretty good" you muttered, gazing at the art of clay that was made with great detail.
"Thank you" a kind smile was painted on the man's face upon hearing your words — Heizou joining you in admiring the male's works, although he was not as much impressed as you were.
"Do you have any idea if Matsumoto had any enemies?" the detective then continued with his questions, to which Kita didn't took long to answer.
"He was a great singer, you know? He took every opportunity to perform in the city and even though many citizens admired him for that talent, there were also the one's who were left in his shadow," he explained the situation while Heizou took mental notes, still waiting for a name, "I just know about Kimura Izumi. He enjoyed the spotlight as a great singer till Chihiro came and took it away from him"
"I don't know about you, but I think that's a good motive" you said to your partner who nodded at the assumption.
"We should go and take a look at that"
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"And now ya think that I murdered him, huh?" The man who sat on your opposite asked, eyebrow furrowed and a bottle of sake tightly in his hand.
You found the man you were looking for not far away, sitting in his small garden as you took place on the same table to have a little talk.
"Listen, it's a good thing that bastard is rotting in hell, pal, but by the name of God, I wouldn't dirty my hands with that filthy blood of him"
It was just a guess, but you had a slight feeling that Kimura didn't liked Matsumoto.
"I wasn't even here the last three weeks. I was in Ritou, ask around if you won't believe me, but if I was you, I wouldn't waste my time with someone like me when there are people like Matsumoto's little stalker bitch" The man continued and with every word he spoke, the thought of him singing at festivals and all before Chihiro appeared, seemed more and more absurd.
"He got a stalker?" Heizou's interest was piqued when that word fell — a stalker was a dangerous thing and in cases like these, it wouldn't surprise anyone if they got something do to with the man's death.
"All I know is that she's livin down the road in that old, rotting house" he explained, sadly not stating a name, though the description of her home should be more than enough.
"Well then, thank you for the information. I'm gonna check if the story about your whereabouts are true nonetheless" your partner exclaimed once he stood up, mentioning you to follow him as that was exactly what you did.
"I just wonder how Matsumoto survived that long to begin with if he had that guy as his rival" you hissed at the thought — that Kimura really was no man to mess with.
"Well that is true" Heizou laughed, walking down the path that was mentioned and already seeing a certain house in the distance thats wood appeared older and the walls were littering with smaller cracks, everything basically screaming that it could crumble every second now.
"Whew, I don't know, I'm not much of a stalker fan" you spoke, standing in front of the house for a while, the detective just silently agreeing with the statement before knocking on the door.
Slowly opening, the door was grinding over the wooden floor and created a rather unpleasant sound. Revealed was a rather small woman, a bit curvy and wearing bright red lipstick that stood out heavily.
"What is it?" She asked, appearing a bit hostile towards strangers as the look in her eyes just added to that thesis.
As you took a closer look at the woman while Heizou repeated the standard questions and everything like 'where were you when he was murdered', 'how was your relationship with him' and so on.
The female stated her name to be Koko. She was one hundred percent sure that she and Matsumoto had a romantic relationship, even though you and Heizou already knew better than that. Koko got the man loads of expensive presents, and when he once returned the gesture with a bracelet as thanks, she was already planning the wedding in her head — so it appeared at least.
"Everyday he sang, practicing from morning till evening. It was truly beautiful," the woman said when she let the two of you enter her house, the inside not looking the slightest bit better than the facade, "He had the voice of an angel, my Chihiro"
"I see... do you have any idea why someone would do something like that to Matsumoto?" Heizou questioned, his fingers resting on his chin as he listened closely.
You on the other hand were always close to the male, scared out of your skin as the inside of the females house was nothing but spooky. Just to add to it, a cat was roaming around and for some reason, you felt like it wanted to murder you.
"No, he was a good hearted person. I can't imagine anyone having any ill wishes towards him," she stated, her eyes glossy as she held a cup of green tea in her hands, "I still can't believe that he's gone now"
Heizou was about to place a hand on the females shoulder to express pity, how many did, though he was stopped when you quickly gripped his arm, almost falling over but balancing yourself the in the last moment.
Receiving confused stares of both people, you just awkwardly grinned before pulling the male's hand back and quickly apologizing before rushing out of the house, leaving Koko on her own again as you heaved a sigh.
"What was that for?" Wondering about your odd behavior, you looked at the male with a certain look. You'd never expected that watching series like 'bones' would come in handy at any time, but here you were.
"You should never make any physical contact with a person like her. I'm not an expert, but believe me when I say that the possibility exists that if you make that kind of contact with her and show so much emotion right after she lost her old obsession, she might get attached to you like she was to Matsumoto" you stated what you've once learned and even though you couldn't be sure if it was actually true, you wouldn't want to risk it.
"Oh? Well, then I guess I owe you~"
Coming uncomfortably close as he grinned, Heizou seemed to be in his teasing mode again. Quickly stepping to the side, you started walking away from the house and out of the city so that you could talk about the information you got in privacy and without any citizen hearing it all.
"So? What do you think?" You asked, you and Heizou walking through the village in front of Inazuma city when the male thought for a moment.
"The most logically would be Kimura. Though I don't believe he was it, and I'm sure he isn't lying about his whereabouts," he started as you could only agree to his words, "Koko seems suspicious to me the most"
You nodded, thinking about the scary lady as a shiver ran down your spine. "My guess would be that Matsumoto rejected her and Koko thought that if she couldn't have him, then nobody should"
"Like I said, I admire your intuition" Heizou exclaimed at your guess, causing you to chuckle as the two of you were then stopped in your tracks when a goat ran past you, "whoa, where did that come from?!"
Turning around, an old man was chasing after the animal, "stop the goat!" He called, being at least fifty times slower than the goat itself.
"Since when did they have goats here?! And where are you going Heizou?!"
"Chasing it!"
With a groan, you ran after the male and the Goat, trying to catch it but the animal was like speedy gonzales and at one point, you could swear you saw it on a tree.
After good ten minutes of running after that monster, you finally spotted it standing still on the beach. Though the relief was gone as fast as it came when you saw the reason of the sudden stop in the goats movements.
"Treasure hoarders? Are you kidding me?"
"Man alive, that could end in chaos" the male next to you said as you nodded, the treasure hoarders already having noticed you as they closed in, eying the goat with a look in their eyes that told you that they wanted to eat it as dinner.
"Oh no, don't even think about it!" You said, charging at the enemy with Heizou close behind you. Fighting didn't seemed to be as scary when you were able to use your beloved brass knuckles. Gorou and the others just didn't needed to know about this.
Punching and kicking the treasure hoarders, you had your struggles due to literally just throwing punches left and right, but tried to copy some of the things your partner was doing. Well, the things except for the backflip because you would, with high chances, break your neck while trying.
When some suddenly came at you with swords, you slightly panicked, though being able to block the attacks with the steel covering some parts of your fingers, you always flinched upon contact. Quickly disarming the men, you then held two swords up and were unexpectedly met with two other blades at your throat.
And this is exactly how you got into that situation, coming back to the present with you standing in a square with the other three men and the goat captured in the middle.
"Um... Parley?"
The best way to get out of this kind of situation:
Distraction.
"...what?" The treasure hoarders seemed confused at your words as you cleared your throat, giving Heizou a look that told him enough to know what you were doing when you then started rambling.
"Parley is part of the Pirate's Code set down by pirates Morgan and Bartholomew, allowing anyone to be taken to negotiate with the captain of their ship without being attacked until they are finished" why you could remember that much you wonder? Because you've watched pirates of the Caribbean at least twenty times in your life.
"Pirate? Ship? What the heck are—" and they were out cold on the ground when Heizou knocked them out.
Giving the male a high five, you quickly held the goat before it could run away again, slinging your arm around its neck while crouching down.
"We should get that Goat back to the village" you spoke as your companion agreed, though you had no idea how you should do that.
"Well... I'm gonna get a rope or something" Heizou was about to leave the place, though you weren't mentally ready to stay behind with a goat and at least eight knocked out people around you who could wake up every second.
"Wait wait wait—" gripping onto the yellow rope around his shoulder to stop him out of panic, you weren't aware of the fact that it was attached to the chocker around his neck — holding him back as his hands shot up to his neck after almost being chocked when you quickly let go once you realized what you just did, slapping your hand over your mouth.
"Oh— oh god, sorry, I didn't knew—"
"It's fine" laughing a bit at your reaction as you were slightly embarrassed for some reason, he re-adjusted the chocker once again.
"Why are you even wearing such a thing?!" You exclaimed as this felt very much wrong for some reason.
"Wanna find out?~" and then he got a shoe hitting his head.
"Cut the crap!"
Laughing even more at the reaction you gave even though his forehead was now hurting like a little bitch, a idea then dawned you, what on the other hand, caused Heizou to look at your sinister grin a bit nervous.
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"Are you serious...?" Heizou stared at the goat that now wore his choker as you held onto the rope in terms of leading the animals way like you were going on a walk with your dog.
You didn't commented it anymore till you returned the goat to its owner and took off the chocker once again, giving it back to the male you got it from, who just stared at it.
"Wait a second" suddenly stopping in your tracks once again as this caught Heizou's attention when he was in the middle of tying the black leather around his neck.
"Matsumoto was strangled to death, right?"
"That's correct"
"What was used for that?"
"Um... they couldn't tell exactly what it was, though it has to be a kind of wire — really thin and sharp"
"...I think I know who the murderer is"
Slowly, a grin crept onto the detective's face when you said those words. "And? Who was it?"
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"Kita Yoshi, you were the one who strangled Matsumoto to death" with that plain statement, the man in front of you let his paintbrush drop to the ground, staring at you with wide eyes till he pursed his lips and averted his gaze go the ground, "Koko told us that he was singing from morning till evening, day after day. That must have been annoying at some point"
With your statements, the man stared at the ground and if it could help him to get out of this situation, pleading god to let him off.
"I didn't payed much mind to it at first, but for making these sculptures, you use wire for details, don't you?" To be honest, you kinda didn't though about the weapon that was used to be of that much importance. If someone was killed with a knife, you wouldn't immediately know who it was just with that.
Though in this case, it was essential. You could have known who the murderer was from the beginning if you would have paid more attention to that detail, knowing what kind of tools the male used after seeing them displayed in his house.
But in the end, you only got to that though because of... well... these circumstances.
"No matter... no matter how often I asked him to stop singing, he just ignored it. He continued and continued and someday, he appeared in front of my door. I– I didn't wanted to, I swear, but I was tired of it. I strangled him with the wire. And he fell. I could've never known that he would die just like that," you could clearly hear the despair in his voice as he spoke, finally looking up with wide eyes and a trembling smile.
"But it was silent... it was finally silent"
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"I'm never gonna do that again" receiving a laugh from your companion, you stared at the distant islands when you sat together with Heizou at the edge of Inazuma city, having brought the murdered to the Tenryou commission so he would get arrested.
"For your first case, it was not that bad"
"Not that bad? I was awesome! We were awesome. I'm not doing it again though"
"And why's that?"
"Because murderers are scary" you said, looking at the grinning boy who just looked back at you.
"And by the way, could it be that you figured that all out way before I did?"
"Aw c'mon, why would I keep it a secret if I'd already know what had happened?"
"Because you wanted to test me or something. And you're an asshole" you stated, though not entirely meaning it as you faced the front again, gazing at Watatsumi island as it was seen in the distance.
"If you say so~"
Around 1000 words more that usual? Damn
Anyways, this case is actually one from the series bones 💀 though the way I made it was a bit shitty