Sherlock Holmes Style: Fully Loaded
Sherlock Holmes might be dead after all these centuries, but his legacy still lives on. Two kids from Japan have come to fill his place in the modern day crimes, solving each case without many difficulties. Of course, like any other love story, they both fell in love in due time. Kinomoto Sakura, an expert in poisons and weaponry management. Li Syaoran, an expert in behavioural analysis along with tobacco ashes. They work together to solve cases which are strangely similar to those Sherlock Holmes faced. This is their story.
Book one: A Study in Scarlet.
Chapter One: Meeting
It is the year of 2009. Kinomoto Sakura have just returned from England a few days ago, where she was previously studying in the University of London and received her Degree of Advanced Medicine. One would say that she's very attractive, with her honey brown hair hanging loosely by her shoulders and her soft jade green eyes showing a glint of laughter. She returned in aims to spend more time in her homeland country. Of course, she endured many hardships there, as being one of the few Asians to actually study in such a University, receiving a few racists comments and being bullied. Until a young man, by the name of Hiiragizawa Eriol, stepped in and stoped the harassment. He's currently accompanying her at the moment, very eager to see the country of his birth.
"It's very crowded here," he said in English as he looked around at the airport. True, Tokyo International Airport is always crowded; there are so many visitors coming in and so many people going out. It's hectic all year round.
"Why don't we go and look for our luggage?" suggested Sakura in English as she pointed to where the luggages were placed. Eriol gave a nod and followed her. It took them some fifteen minutes to find all of their cases, Sakura only brought two back, since she rarely spent any money to buy clothes. Eriol also brought two, but they're mainly filled with medical books for a bit of light reading. Sakura remembered that her cousin, Daidouji Tomoyo, was supposed to pick her up at half past ten. She looked at her watch, noting to herself that there's three more minutes until half past ten. Until then, she would have to find the waiting venue of the airport.
"C'mon Eriol-kun," she said in fluent Japanese, "We need to find the waiting venue in three minutes or my cousin will go berserk on me."
Eriol gave a chuckle and followed her as she looked at the map. Noting to herself again, they were five metres away from where they're supposed to be. Muttering underneath her breath, they have one more minute left until doomsday appears.
Always on time, a young woman with long dark purple hair stood by the waiting venue. She was scanning for her cousin with her narrowed amethyst eyes. She's a minute late. After scanning for a few more minutes, she saw them and her irritation evaporated instantly. Sakura's back; and she brought home a man?! She has a lot of explaining to do.
"Tomoyo-chan!" called out Sakura as she gave her cousin a hug. Tomoyo hugged back, although she eyed the man with curiosity. Tall, good built with dark blue hair and midnight coloured eyes which were framed behind his glasses; Tomoyo is interested on how Sakura picked up a man like that.
"Sakura-chan, I think you're meant to introduce me to someone?" said Tomoyo, stating the obvious. Sakura gave out a nervous chuckle under the piercing stare from Tomoyo's eyes.
"Tomoyo-chan, this is Hiiragizawa Eriol-kun, Eriol-kun, this is my cousin Daidouji Tomoyo-chan," said Sakura.
"Nice to meet you Daidouji-san," said Eriol as he shook her hand, "You can just call me Eriol if you want."
"Well," said Tomoyo as she shook his hand, "The same goes for you Eriol-san; you can just call me Tomoyo."
While Sakura watched the exchange, she might as well clear all accusations in one go.
"Eriol-kun is just a friend of mines, not my boyfriend," she hissed in Tomoyo's ear. Tomoyo gave an "oooh" before helping them with their luggage.
While they're in Tomoyo's car Sakura sat at the back and Eriol at the front. Tomoyo started the conversation of lodgings.
"Sakura-chan, if you're looking for a place to stay instead at my place, there's a man who's willing to share his apartment at the moment," said Tomoyo. This interested Sakura a lot.
"How much a month?" she asked.
"Half and half each basically, he pays half and you pay the other half," explained Tomoyo.
"What about Eriol?"
"Oh, he can stay with me if he wants," said Tomoyo in a very quiet voice. Eriol looked amused, judging how his brows went up and a smirk came onto his face.
"I would gladly accept that off, Tomoyo-chan," he said in a mischievous voice. Tomoyo's face went red while Sakura got infected with laughter all through the ride, leaving Tomoyo redder than before as they stopped by the apartment first.
"I warn you though," said Tomoyo as she glanced nervously at the apartment, "You heard of Li Syaoran right?"
"No"
"Well, he's a little queer, very unusual. Very cold, rude and he constantly keeps the apartment very dim. I think he's a detective or something, because I saw a badge that looked similar to a police's."
"Well, I'll deal with him," said Sakura brightly, "Don't you worry about me now, damn, I sound like an old woman again …"
Tomoyo gave a giggle and wished her luck with that "queer" guy in the apartment. She took a deep breath, picked up her luggage and rang the bell. Then she counted. One, two, three, four, five … then the intercom buzzed to life, slightly startling her.
"Can I help you?" said a gruff male voice.
"Uh … I'm here to see you about the apartment rent thingy-ma-bob …," said Sakura nervously as her voice trailed away. She had a nasty feeling that whoever this Li Syaoran was, he was watching her.
"Come in, come in," he said irritably as the door swung open. As Tomoyo said, the room was very dim and she thought she could smell Potassium Cyanide from somewhere; the smells of bitter almonds were present.
"Why do you have Potassium Cyanide in this area?" she asked merely out of curiosity. The young man stopped in his tracks and looked at her suspiciously.
"How did you know?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at her. He also stood where light could show his features. Tall, slightly lanky yet fit, Li Syaoran has enough power to get a girl swoon over him. His hair is messy and out of place while his amber eyes were narrowed at her.
"I can smell bitter almonds, a common scent of that poison," said Sakura matter-of-factly. This intrigued him a lot. He decided to take a proper scan of her.
"You have a medical degree do you not?" he asked as he eyes stopped at her fingers.
"Yes, in fact I do," she said, looking at her hands, "I supposed you saw those marks made by the knife?"
"Yes," he said as he turned his back on her. She got slightly miffed. So this is what Tomoyo meant. She scanned the room for the first time. Messy, dim, unorganised, the usual habits of young detectives.
"What case are you working on?" she asked as she took a look at the documents, "Seeing the whole place is completely messed up."
"That'll be none of your business," he said coldly, still having his back turned on her. She continued to look at the documents which held pictures in it.
"Hm … she said as she looked at the analysis, "The skin has a pink tinge to it, lack of oxygen, died from a cardiac arrest …"
Syaoran just stood there and listened, how does she do it? Making those deductions just from reading and looking at the report without inspecting the cadaver, not that he has it in the apartment of course.
"Sodium Cyanide poisoning; over 1.5 mg/kg body weight. Fatal," she concluded and looked at him with a wry smile on her face, "Is that the conclusion you needed, Mr. Detective?"
He returned the smile, "Yes, in fact, I wonder how you can deduce such information in a short period of time?" he asked. She gave out a small chuckle.
"If you have the information, the solution is in there somewhere," she said, "You just need to know where to look."
"You remind me of Sherlock Holmes," he said shrewdly with a smile.
"Indeed, I follow his practise will ease," she said jokingly.
"A poet as well I see!"
It didn't take them long to go into a conversation, for they have many similarities and differences. Sakura found out that Syaoran is an expert in Psychology, taking Behavioural Analysis and have a large knowledge of Tobacco ashes. Syaoran on the other hand found out that Sakura has a medical degree in Medicine and has a wide knowledge on weaponry and the marks they leave behind. They also have a passion in the detective business.
"Why don't you join me and be my partner in this career," he suggested when they finally cleaned up the apartment five hours later. By that time, the sun started to set and they were both hungry.
"Why not? I have nothing better to do now, after university I mean," she said as she made her way to the kitchen, "I'll cook something up if you like."
"Please do," he said as he got into the shower. This left Sakura to herself and her thoughts.
Sakura's POV:
I suppose he's investigating the recently talked about the important lord Fuji Hiroshi assassination. People are still scrambling to pieces together and find out what happened. Fuki Hiroshi was not a very popular man. No, he was hated by many. His cruel intentions of child abuse and he found joy in torturing his wife, who now lay deceased five years ago. No one missed him, but the biggest mystery was who did it?
I gave out a sigh, I remember reading in a paper that an unknown detective had a major lead in the case and the police are sending him hourly reports on their progress. I guess that it's the lucky guy in this apartment then. I opened the pantry and what I saw irritated me beyond comparison. It was full of instant noodles. This guy is INSANE! Who the bloody hell eats instant noodles every single day for food?! Li Syaoran. I summed up my current list of him:
1. Rude
2. Queer
3. Eats instant noodles every single day as food.
Ah but as I looked in the fridge, there were some food. Eggs, ham, pork and milk. Along with a single bottle of water which had not been opened. I gave out another sigh and started the stove. It wasn't long before a soft aroma filled the kitchen; I tasted the soup and deemed it edible. Just when I was about to put the soup into bowls, Li just have to come in.
"What? You haven't finished yet?" he exclaimed rather rudely, "You're slow, hurry up! I'm starving!"
I gave him a glare and turned my back on him.
"Complaining like that next time and you won't get anything as food," I said rather stiffly. I turned around only to find that he's not there anymore. I got irritated. Stupid idiotic genius; can't even say a simple 'sorry' to me, rude.
End of POV.
In a couple of days, the crime was solved, thanks to Sakura's help although she received no credit from him apart from a small 'thanks' out of his mouth. She didn't mind this much; she thought it was best not to draw too much attention to yourself. During those days, she found out that Syaoran was both proud and rather arrogant of his work. Sure, he has contemporary knowledge of literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know nothing. With this, it reminded her of what Watson said in A Study of Scarlet:
"His ignorance was as remarkable as his knowledge. Of contemporary literature, philosophy and politics he appeared to know next to nothing. Upon my quoting Thomas Carlyle, he inquired in the naivest way who he might be and what he had done. My surprise reached a climax, however, when I found incidentally that he was ignorant of the Copernican Theory and of the composition of the Solar System. That any civilized human being in this nineteenth century should not be aware that the earth travelled round the sun appeared to be to me such an extraordinary fact that I could hardly realize it."
-Watson-
Yes, Li Syaoran reminded her, a lot of Sherlock Holmes, his attitude to everything is so much like Holmes's, it makes her wonder if he's really him in disguise. With those in her head, another quote, this time from Holmes himself, came to her memory:
"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
-Sherlock Holmes-
Yet her behaviour to his responses was very Watson-like, but she placed those thoughts at the back of her head as Syaoran walked in with a letter. When he spotted her, he gave a wry smile and showed her the letter.
"Very interesting I think," he said, "Have a read and tell me what you think."
I took the letter and looked at it curiously. It read:
"TO MR. LI SYAORAN, -- "There has been a bad business during the night at the local park of Tomoeda, Penguin Park. One of our officers on patrol found a body of a man who had not moved from the same spot at 2 a.m. this yesterday morning. When the officer searched him, he found a card bearing the name of: Wakahisa Ensei Takahiro, but with not address of any sort. There were no sign of robbery nor was there any indication on how the poor man met his death. There were some marks of blood around him but it appears that no one was near the man before 2 a.m. yesterday morning. Your help would be greatly appreciated on solving this puzzle.
-Ito Tsubasa.
"Yes," she said when she finished reading the letter, "It certainly looks interesting, I heard something like this yesterday morning on the news. A man found dead at the local park, Penguin Park and there was no indication of assault nor any marks where the man could've died from. Very interesting."
Syaoran nodded in agreement, "Would you care to accompany me if you have nothing better to do?" he asked.
"Not at the moment no," she replied as she grabbed her coat from her room, "But at least bring a coat with you, it's cold outside."
"It'll subside in the afternoon, carrying on while the weather's warm will be a hindrance to me while I'm working," said Syaoran as he took the keys to his car. She followed him out with the greatest difficulty of not rolling her eyes.
"On our way to the park I presume?" she stated as she closed the car door. He looked at her as if she had gotten crazy.
"Obviously we are," he said as if it's the most obvious thing in the world, "Where do you think we'll be going? Carnivals?!"
He muttered underneath his breath on how dense women these days are, this left her slightly miffed but she didn't mind. She had not plans for the day and there's absolutely nothing else to do unless you count cleaning Syaoran's room which she avoided at all times.
It took them no less than five minutes to get to the scene, where police markers are already set up. Everyone was waiting for him and as she passed one of them, they gave her a sceptical look. Rolling her eyes at men's egos and all, she nevertheless following him into the scene. Until she was stopped by a large officer.
"Sorry ma'am, but only Li-san can enter," he said rather rudely. Before she even attempted to open her mouth and fire back a retort, Syaoran dragged her in rather roughly.
"She's with me, medical examiner," he said blithely, completely ignoring the glares which Sakura sent at him with irritation. The officer looked rather taken aback and nodded with approval.
"Any data yet?" she asked, although she knew the answer and finished it for him, "Ah, but of course, it's not good to theorise before seeing the evidence, it biases the judgement."
He gave her a wry smile, "Another retort inspired by Sherlock Holmes perhaps?" he said shrewdly, "It is a capital mistake to theorise before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgement."
She returned the smile, "Nicely quote 'Mr. Holmes'" she said in an amused voice.
"Now, let's have a look instead of wasting any more time," said Syaoran, suddenly business-like as he clapped his hands together. He then started to inspect the ground around the murder scene, earning some looks of scepticism from the officers. She gave them a wry smile. She's pretty sure that he's looking for clues the officers might've missed. Twice I saw him stop, on the first time he had a smile on his face and on the second time he utter an exclamation of satisfaction. Of course, the muddy ground (it had rained the previous day) would've had the footsteps we needed but since the police have created a complete mess of it, I, like Watson did with Holmes, failed to see how he would learn anything from it. When he walked back to me, a tall slightly tanned man met us, I soon realised, as I looked at the badge, that this is none other than Ito Tsubasa, police chief of the local area. When he saw Syaoran, he shook his hand with a grateful expression on his face.
"It's great to see that you've came," he said, "I have left everything untouched."
"Except for that," said Sakura as the pointed to the muddy mess, "If a herd of buffalos passed along here there would be no greater mess."
"No doubt however, that you have formed your own conclusion already before you permitted this?" said Syaoran.
"I have so much to do with the body," said Ito rather evasively, "My colleague, Fujioka Kimihiro is here. I relied on him to look after that."
Syaoran looked at Sakura in the eyes and raised his eyebrows sardonically, "With two such men as yourself and Fujioka, there will not be much for a third party to find out," he said. Sakura stifled a giggle and her face remained black.
Ito rubbed his hands together enthusiastically, looking satisfied, "I think we have done all that can be done," he said, "but it's a queer case you know, and I know how you like cases like these."
"So you didn't come here with any help of transport?" asked Syaoran.
"Nope."
"Nor did Fujioka?"
"Nope."
"Then I'll be content in just inspecting this area thank you," said Syaoran with a flourish, leaving Ito very confused and very irritated. Once Sakura made sure that he was out of the hearing range, she let loose the giggle that threatened to crack two or more of her ribs.
"What?" asked Syaoran in surprise.
"You quoted Holmes's line: "With two such men as yourself and Lestrade upon the ground, there will not be much for a third party to find out," and finished him good," she said once she calmed down. Syaoran gave her a wry smile before continuing to look at the scene with his piercing amber eyes.
Hey, this is my first detective fic so don't hailstorm me with flames saying I did a bad job. I had this idea when I was reading Sherlock Holmes: The Boscombe Valley Mystery. Note, I am a big fan of Sherlock Holmes and I intend to see the movie which I think is coming out this year. Anyways, to those who are confused: My old pen name used to be Yukimura-san, but I've changed it to Detective-san. Sorry for the inconvenience I have caused XD.
Also, to all Sudden Inspiration readers: I'm currently having a large writer's block on it. Please send me your ideas on how you think the story should end via PM. If I don't recover from writer's block, it will be discontinued.