A/N: Lunar convinced me to post chapter two today. AREN'T YOU LUCKY.
I don't know what else to write here. ENJOY. 8D


Chapter Two - Tuesday

Sometimes, Riku wished he lived in Market Street, the main district of Twilight Town, rather than the quaint neighboring district known as Sunset Terrace. The college he attended was located in Market Street, which meant Riku had to get up ridiculously early and take the train there every morning.

But that was neither here nor there. Riku was now on the way home after spending the afternoon cooped up in the library since the school day had ended. He was sitting on a window seat of the train, playing Crisis Core and remembering bitterly the events that had transpired the previous day. Still, Riku had a plan to find the criminal and bring them to justice, otherwise known as beating them up. Riku always had a plan.

After the train pulled up at Sunset Terrace, Riku hurriedly went to his house and dumped his school supplies unceremoniously on his desk. After grabbing the large, jagged pieces of broken skateboard he had taken the previous day, he left his home again and bounded two houses down the road.

Riku breathed a sigh of relief as he saw that the garage door was open, which was a sure sign that his best friend was home. He entered the garage and waved with his free hand.

"Sora!"

Sora, whose head was bent over a pile of homework, looked up from the table at which he was seated. "Hi, Riku!" he called cheerfully. "You're just in time! I need help with this—"

"Later," Riku cut him off curtly. Glancing at the sign taped to Sora's table, which read, 'Sora's Detective Agency,' he asked casually, "How's business going?"

"Absolutely terrible," Sora declared, crossing his arms. "I can't believe no one has any mysteries for me to solve. At this rate, I'll never be like my hero and role model—Encyclopedia Brown!"

Riku decided not to tell Sora that Sherlock Holmes could beat Encyclopedia Brown any day. It would just be a waste of breath. "Well, Sora," he said instead, "I just so happen to have a job for you."

Sora leaped to his feet. "Really? Really? Awesome!" He coughed and shook his head. "I mean," he said in what was probably an attempt to sound professional (it wasn't working), "you know the rates. Initial cost of fifty dollars plus twenty more per additional hour on the job."

"We both know I'd never pay that," Riku snorted.

"Then, I'm sorry, but I can't take the job."

His tone was regretful. Riku knew Sora was excited to have a case after so long, but he was also too stubborn to change his ludicrous fees. No matter. Smirking, Riku reached into his pocket and pulled out an old key. Sora's attention was immediately drawn to it.

"However," said Riku, "I do have this key that I found. I really have no use for it. I was thinking of throwing it away..."

"GIMME!" yelled Sora, leaping for it, but falling short as Riku lifted it swiftly above his head and out of reach. "Riku, don't you dare throw it away!"

"Will you take the job?" Riku queried, still grinning smugly as Sora attempted to snatch the key from his hand.

"Yes, I will!" Sora promised agitatedly. "The key will cover all the costs!"

"I'm holding that to you," Riku warned, and dropped the key into Sora's waiting hand.

The moment the key hit his palm, Sora calmed down. "So, what's the mystery?" he asked. "I can handle anything you have to throw at me!"

Shaking his head at Sora's strange affixation with keys, Riku said, "I need you to find the owner of this skateboard." He held up the pieces of said board as he spoke.

Tucking the key safely into his pocket, Sora leaned forward and scrutinized the broken pieces. "You want to find the owner of a broken skateboard?" he asked. "Why?"

"Yesterday, while I was at the Station Plaza," Riku explained, "someone dropped their skateboard from the clock tower."

"Oh my God, are you okay?"

"Well, I'm still here and in one piece, aren't I?" Riku asked wryly. "Yes, I'm fine and my skull is still very much intact, thank you for asking. That doesn't really matter right now, though. Do you want to know why I want to find the owner? Do you want to know what happened?"

"What?"

"The idiot who dropped it made me die in my Crisis Core game!"

Sora blinked uncomprehendingly. Not being a gamer, he couldn't quite understand the weight of the situation, Riku realized. Well, he'd just have to educate him.

"Is that...bad?" Sora asked hesitantly.

"Yes, it's bad. It's very bad." Riku cast his mind out for some sort of comparison for Sora, then said, "It's like someone startled you into dropping your key collection into a very deep river and you lost the whole thing. All of it. You'd have to start collecting again from zero."

Sora's eyes widened. "That's horrible," he whispered, looking sickened. "Who would do such a thing?" he asked, voice rising angrily now. "Riku, we have to find the owner of this skateboard right away!"

"Indeed we do," Riku agreed. "And then we need to beat them up."

"Yeah! Right away!" Sora grabbed Riku's wrist and pulled him into his house, hitting the button to close the garage door with his other hand as he went. "Mom, Riku's over to study, don't bother us!" he hollered as he jumped up the stairs three steps at a time, fairly dragging Riku with him as he tried to keep up.

Once they were in Sora's room, Riku yanked his arm free of Sora's grip. "So, what's your plan?" he asked as he dropped the skateboard on the floor. "I trust that you have one?"

"Oh, I have plenty of ideas," Sora assured his friend and he went to his desk and turned on his computer. "Don't worry. First, I think we should ask a certain very smart, very all-knowing person if they know."

"Who?" Riku asked, wondering if some omniscient person who held the answer did exist.

"Google!"

Silence.

"Google," Riku repeated, resisting the urge to seriously hurt Sora. "Google will not know who dropped their skateboard from the clock tower yesterday."

"You never know," Sora replied matter-of-factly. "Google knows lots of things."

Sora logged onto his computer and opened an internet browser. Riku slapped his palm against his forehead when he saw that Google was Sora's homepage.

"It's. Not. Going. To. Work," he ground out irritatedly.

Sora ignored him and typed into the search bar, 'Who dropped their skateboard off of the clock tower?'

The search results loaded, and Riku skimmed the links, though he already knew the idea was doomed for failure. The first result was a link to the Wikipedia on the movie Back to the Future. Then there was a YouTube video link, and another page on Back to the Future. The remaining results were equally unhelpful.

"Nothing," he announced.

"Don't be so hasty, Riku," chided Sora. "Maybe it's on the next page."

Riku rolled his eyes. "It's not," he muttered. "Trust me."

"Trust me," Sora responded.

"Right... Well, we'll see who's right in the end. Meanwhile, I'm going to go use the restroom. Be right back."

Sora's bathroom reeked of air freshener and vinegar. Riku gagged and pulled up the collar of his shirt to cover his mouth and nose. After quickly doing his business, Riku went to the sink and discovered the source of the vinegar stench. On the counter was a bucket filled to the brim with what was no doubt vinegar. Settled at the bottom of the bucket were several old keys. And if the vinegar scent alone wasn't bad enough, Sora had probably sprayed air freshener everywhere, which would account for the overwhelming, sickly sweet scent that mingled with the vinegar. Shaking his head in disgust, Riku turned on the sink and washed his hands.

"Your bathroom stinks," he announced rudely when he reentered Sora's bedroom.

"Did you see my new keys?" Sora asked, completely disregarding his friend's statement. "Pretty cool, huh? I have to soak them in vinegar to clean them up."

"It smells horrible."

Sora shrugged. "My mom told me to get rid of the smell, so I sprayed some air freshener in there. Do you think I should have sprayed more?"

"No!" said Riku hastily. "Just leave it. But I don't think you should use so much vinegar next time. It's only a few keys."

"Hmm, I guess you're right. Maybe I'll only fill half of the bucket."

"Less than even a fourth would suffice," Riku mumbled.

Sora frowned. "Really? Maybe I'll Google it."

Riku groaned.

"Anyways, I couldn't find the answer to our mystery on Google, so I guess you were right," Sora went on.

"Told you so."

"Oh, be quiet. I have a much better idea now."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, really."

"Do enlighten me."

Sora held up a...something...and proudly showed it to Riku.

"Um. What is it?" Riku asked.

Sora winked at him. "It's my fingerprint dusting kit!"

Riku stared. He exhaled loudly, then drew in another breath and exploded, "THAT WON'T WORK EITHER!"

"And why not?" asked Sora. He snatched up the largest piece of the skateboard's remains and opened up his kit. While he dusted for fingerprints, Riku went to bang his head against the wall.

"I got some prints!" Sora said excitedly after a few minutes. "There are at least two sets of fingerprints here!"

"That's nice," Riku said, voice dripping with unconcealed sarcasm. "And how do you plan to figure out who the owner is using that knowledge? You can't very well ask everyone in Twilight Town if we can see their fingerprints."

"No," Sora agreed thoughtfully. "But we can start with everyone we know. Liiike, you!"

"What? Of course I didn't do it!" snorted Riku, shoving his hands roughly into his pockets. "Why would I make myself lose my own game? I'm not letting you take my fingerprint. It's a stupid idea anyways."

"You're acting very suspicious!" Sora said in a singsong voice.

"It's not going to work anyways."

"Come on!"

"Ergh, fine." Riku rolled his eyes and held out his hand. As Sora gleefully pressed Riku's thumb against an ink pad—which had probably come with his fingerprint dusting kit—and then onto a piece of paper, he added, "But I hope you know that—"

"There's a match!" Sora exclaimed. "Riku, your fingerprints are on this skateboard!"

Riku groaned inwardly. He'd been expecting this, which was why he was reluctant to let Sora take his fingerprint in the first place. "Well, obviously that's because—"

"Because you set the whole thing up!" Sora declared, pointing accusingly at Riku.

"No, no I did not set the whole thing up," Riku growled. "Why would I do that?"

"You wanted to sue," explained Sora, sounding very sure of himself. "You set it up to frame someone and sue them for making you lose your game."

"..."

"I'm right, aren't I? You're quiet because you're stunned at my excellent deduction, aren't you?"

"That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."

"But it's true, isn't it?" gloated Sora. "I was right! You thought I'd think it was whoever you're trying to frame, but you didn't count on me dusting for fingerprints!"

"Who would sue someone over a dying in a video game?" Riku fairly screeched. "And my fingerprints are on it because I picked it up you idiot!"

The words seemed to take a moment to sink in.

"...Oh," Sora said after a moment. "Why didn't you say so sooner?"

"I tried to tell you," ground out Riku through clenched teeth. "But you were being tunnel vision stubborn, as usual."

"Sorry." Sora grinned sheepishly. "I guess the other set of prints is the owner? How will we find them?"

"We can't, and therein lies the problem."

"Oh."

Riku crossed his arms impatiently. "Now what?" he asked sourly.

"Now we..." Sora hesitated briefly, then his face broke into a wide grin and Riku sorely regretted asking his question.

"Now we should ask Cha-Cha!"

Riku closed his eyes and willed for the patience to tolerate his friend. "How long do I have to put up with your ridiculous ideas before we finally make some progress?"

Sora didn't answer but, personally, Riku would put his money on two days.