Roll The Dice - Celegiri and Saiouma

Why take a chance

Chapter 9
🖤Why take a chance💜

Kyoko stepped out of her car, eyes landing on the inn in front of her. It was a quaint, brown building with a sign hung over the entrance reading "Mugen".

She heard Maki speak behind her, "This place should be good," the girl stepped in front of Kyoko, "I stayed here once on a business trip."

"What exactly do you do, Maki?" Shuichi piped up. He was hauling all three of their luggage in his arms, speaking through puffs of air.

Kyoko raised an eyebrow at his shaking arms, "Need help?"

For a moment, she thought the detective was going to decline, but when he nearly tripped over nothing walking over to them, he complied.

Maki rolled her eyes, "Next time, ask for help."

The two took their respective luggage, Shuichi slouching slightly afterwards. Maki rolled her eyes at him, glancing at Kyoko with a look she couldn't decipher.

Shuichi thanked them at least ten times before they even made it into the building.

●●●●●

The room they were put in was small, but not uncomfortable. Kyoko found herself relieved at the quality compared to the last place they stayed at. Though, there wasn't too much time to appreciate it, as Maki soon began turning the room upside down.

"And just what do you think you're doing?" Kyoko asked warily, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Maki shrugged, "You called ahead to request a room under your real name." She spoke as if every word coming from her mouth was extremely obvious, "For all we know, Oma has the inn keeper in his back pocket and this entire room is bugged."

Shuichi peered over from the other side of the room as the girl pulled the sheets off the beds, "I guess that makes sense, b-but do we have to d-destroy the beds?"

Maki silenced him with a glare, making the detective throw his hands in front of him in mock surrender, smiling. Kyoko narrowed her eyes at them.

"Anyways," Kyoko began, "we need to go around and talk to the locals, see what kind of information we can get." She glanced briefly at Shuichi, "Shuichi and I will go together since he seems to lack social competence."

Despite the insult, the young detective let out a sigh of what seemed like relief, physically relaxing his uptight posture.

Once Maki was satisfied with her search, they all prepared to go door to door. Kyoko handed each of them a notepad, instructing them to write down anything that seemed important.

"So, what exactly am I supposed to ask people about?" Maki questioned, watching as Shuichi locked the door behind them.

Kyoko glanced back and forth between the two, "Ask them anything you think might be useful to the investigation." Shuichi looked ready to say something before she cut him off, "I mean anything. We need as much information as we can obtain."

Maki nodded, turning on her heel towards the door, "I'll start on the west side of town, head south." She glanced over her shoulder, "Hope you find something."

Kyoko took a map from the stand next to the inn desk on the way out, stopping to consider their next move, "Let's head up Gion and make our way towards Higashiyama first." She stepped out of the building, Shuichi just ahead of her.