The Crime of Loving You

8: An Old Friend

Shigure and Mito arrived together, they had brought anything they thought would prove useful.

"Guren," Shinya says as Sayuri and Goshi go off to the two girls, "don't let them touch anything, I'll get into contact with one of our investigators. I'd suggest ending today altogether."

Guren nods, "at the very least we'll just scope out the area for a bit."

"Take a couple of pictures too," Shinya suggests, "I'll be in your car if you need me." He walks off without another word.

He climbs into the car, pulling out his phone. Straight away he searches through his contacts, looking for the name of the Hiiragi's greatest investigator.

[Raimeiki]

He presses on it, hesitating for a moment before pressing the call button.

He waits patiently as the phone rings.

"Who is it?" A feminine and tired voice asks.

"Raimeiki! Lovely to hear your voice again!" He chirps.

"Oh it's you," she responds, "what can I do for you, Shinya? Need to cover up a scene? Or has someone finally killed Seishiro and you need help finding the culprit?"

Shinya giggles at that, "no, not yet, unfortunately, however, I do have a case I'd like for you to help on."

"What kinda case?" She asks.

Shinya sighs, "before I say anymore, I need you to swear you won't tell any of this to Kureto, or anyone in the company for that matter."

"Oh, now my interest is beyond piqued," she says, "you do realize you're asking me, his greatest friend, to keep a secret from him?"

"Well aware of it," he replies, "now, do you pinky promise?"

"I pinky promise not to let anyone in the company know about this," she says with a sigh, there's a faint beep in the background, "explain while I eat."

"Good, we recently merged with another mafia- the Ichinose mob, I'm sure you've heard about them from the Horsemen mob," Shinya briefly explains, "we've joined with them to produce a new drug that they've invented, however, now it would seem that someone found their drug lab and trashed it, all their produce and equipment is gone, and I need you to help us track down who could have done it."

"Oh, I see," Raimeiki says, "so who will I be working with?"

"Uh, excellent question," Shinya replies, holding back a nervous chuckle, "six people who are barely adults and unqualified for detective work?"

There's a moment of silence.

A deep sigh escapes her from her end, "fine. You're so fucking lucky that I prefer working alone, Shinya."

"Thank you Raimeiki, when can you come by?" He asks.

"Does tomorrow sound good? Around 10?"

"That should work, I'll contact you if anything needs to be changed," Shinya says, "I'll send you the address in a bit, thank you!" He hangs up right after, not waiting for her response.

He exits the car and looks around briefly for Guren.

The grump was off to the side by the forest, curiously peeking around to find anything odd or unusual.

Shinya walks over to him, a smile already on his face, "good news, I got our best detective on board to help you out."

Guren turns around, facing him, "really?"

Shinya nods, "yeah, does 10 in the morning tomorrow sound like a good time for guys to meet up with the detective?"

Guren nods, "yeah, that should be fine. I'll talk it over with the others later."

"Lovely, now I'd say we end today here," Shinya says, "lingering won't help this situation one bit, if you're all done gathering photos, I would like to take you and your men out for a couple of drinks. On me, of course."

"Drinks?" Guren inquires.

"Yeah, we can stop at a bar that's frequented by the Hiiragi company," Shinya says, "normally if someone joins the company, someone in the company takes them out for drinks, but you guys haven't been offered such a thing because of past relations... but Kureto doesn't scare me, so?"

"Not sure if getting drinks right now would be such a good idea-,"

"We're going out for drinks?" Goshi asks excitedly as he walks over to the two.

"Wha- no-,"

"If you guys would let me, I would like to treat you all to drinks," Shinya explains, "as a celebration for joining the company."

Goshi laughs, "you want to celebrate us joining when our main reason for being wanted in the company has been stolen?"

Shinya shrugs, "technically, you're still wanted because no one but us know about this, and the detective I've hired, but that's not important, what's important right now is getting drunk-,"

"I will not let them get drinks-,"

"Oh take that stick out of your ass Guren, I want some drinks," Goshi says, rolling his eyes as he does, "I'm sure Shigure and Mito do too!"

"But-,"

"Shigure! Mito! Shinya's offering to treat us to a round of drinks, wanna do it?" He shouts to the two.

Shigure perks up instantly, hurrying over to them, Mito follows shortly after.

"Drinks? We talkin' fancy rich people drinks?" Shigure asks.

Shinya giggles, "if that's what you all would prefer, sure."

"I'm in." Mito says without any moment of hesitation.

"Me too," Shigure nods, "Sayuri! C'mon, Hiiragi's taking us out for drinks!"

Guren stands there, mouth agape and looking at them all incredulously, "you have to be kidding me. You're all just going to ignore the fact that I'm saying no?"

"Free drinks are free drinks, Guren," Shigure says, very seriously, "if I want high-end fancy rich people liquor, and if Hiiragi here is offering it, I am going to take it."

Guren rolls his eyes, he looks back over to Shinya who has a pleased smile on, they stare for a moment, and then Guren huffs, crossing his arms and grumpily pouting, "this is ridiculous."

"Guren? You seem upset," Sayuri points out as she approaches the group, "maybe a couple of drinks will do you some good, good idea, Mr. Shinya!"

Shinya can't help but let out a laugh at Guren's reaction after that.