Woah new content for once lolol
Sorry for the sporadic updates, I got a lot of stuff to do in RL haha /cries/
Chapter 2 :: Dog [Analogy]
Shortly after he spoke, Arsinoë came in with her aunt who was carrying a tray of tea and persimmon cake. The blind girl settled herself on the couch. Lori trailed behind Arsinoë the entire time, determined to offer protection against the terrifying beast that sat across from her owner.
"Good afternoon Detective Yako-san, I'm Ueda Masami, Arsinoë's aunt and guardian. Thank you so much for accepting our case."
"Ah, it's no problem Ueda-san. I can assure you that my assistant and I will do everything in our power to catch the party responsible."
The older woman smiled at Yako's determination. Her eyes shone with admiration. Such youth, such ferocity, they seemed to say.
"Well, as you know, my niece is the daughter of Jonah Sinclair-san. The police department found them some months ago," she paused to take a calming breath. "Frankly, the police haven't been much help at all. They've been lovely helping us cope, but they're just as lost as anyone else."
"We're going to tell you the same thing we told the police Miss Detective. Sinclair-san and my sister left with Marcus, my nephew, for a private viewing gallery for the museum. It was to commemorate the archaeological finds of Sinclair-san and his team."
Yako nodded at that. "Yes, I recall that. Sinclair-san and his team were kind enough to let their artifacts into select museums across the world. He volunteered his university's museum to showcase for part of the Japan tour."
"Papa always held his university close to his heart. Both he and mama were..." Arsinoë took a shallow breath. "They were sentimental like that."
Yako looked sympathetically at the girl. "Arsinoë-san, please don't push yourself too hard. We aren't here to make it difficult for you."
"However, anything you are able to recollect is helpful to both sensei and I." Interjected Neuro, tactlessly as usual. Yako glared at her demonic counterpart for his unnecessary comment. He smiled back innocently as usual while a sudden sharp pricking sensation threatened her back. It let her know that Neuro did not enjoy being reprimanded.
Arsinoë just quietly cleared her throat and nodded. "Yes, I understand that Mr. Assistant," she said with a small pause, "Please just give me a minute." Yako noticed that she started to curl in defensively and sink into the couch. Yako glared at Neuro again. She's told him about this before, he needed to stop being so aggressively happy when meeting with clients, they get unnecessarily defensive and start restricting their body language. Neuro responded by pressing his claw or hair or whatever into her back. Then Lori moved in front of her owner, beginning to go into a more aggressive mode.
Yako felt the increasing pressure in her back and quickly slipped into a more casual tone. "Take all the time you need Arsinoë-san, we only want to work with you. Please, continue."
"The unnecessary and unconditional loyalty the mutt has for its master is truly irrational Yako. It was willing to die for its master, even after being intimidated by me. What kind of force binds the dog to the human?"
"I dunno, I guess it depends on how long Arsinoë-san has had her dog."
Neuro subsequently tripped her. "I'm not interested in the mutt and the girl. What binds one species to another? What compels humans to keep lower beasts as companions?"
Yako got up from the pavement. "Thousands of years of selective breeding? We've domesticated several animals over our years of existence for food. We also started breeding for more desireable and more docile traits to better handle them or something. But for dogs and cats, we usually keep them as companions which kinda breaks the pattern."
She glanced behind to Neuro "I mean, it's not TO much different from what you're doing with us, I think. The part with evolving us to produce your food."
Yako dusted her skirt off. "Considering that you'll probably outlive the entirety of the human race, I'm sure you'll be end up breeding your ultimate puzzle through the constant stimuli you're providing Neuro."
He gave a small hmmm at that.
"Actually, I heard a theory that wolves self domesticated themselves to be with humans in order to get benefits, this is all coming from a friend of mine by the way, and this symbiotic relationship grew. Now we ended up both evolving to the point where humans and dogs get extra hormones that strengthens relationships whenever they look at each other."
Yako pulled out her phone to check the time. "Ah, Neuro, I gotta go meet up with Higuchi-san for lunch."
"Very well. I won." Neuro said with a sly smile.
"Haha, I know you tear it all down Neuro."
His smile grew more devilish. "Really, you should just let me program the firewall and the antivirus software instead. It'll be thousands of times more effective than that second rate hacker's."
She sighed. "If you did it, literally no one would be able to touch or hack it. Besides, it'll be another puzzle for you to be occupied with for a short while."
"Oho, challenge accepted, I look forward to solving this puzzle and breaking your hacker's pride."
Yako left it at that, and with a smile and a short 'bye', she left the Demon to his own devices.
As Neuro walked back to the office, in between memorizing where had the highest potential for a Puzzle, he began to reevaluate what musings Yako had babbled about.
Perhaps his counterpart was right. He was, in a way, "domesticating" humans and harvesting their puzzles. He also had several "companions" he keeps on hand. But why? No doubt they were useful humans, Neuro had chose to keep them close, so it was mandatory for them to be useful. But what about the fidelity exemplified by the blind girl and the mutt? The relationship was baseless, what benefits could be brought by being companions to humans at this point? The dog lives like a slave and acts like a fool, and yet it never struggles to break free from nonexistent binding chains. Humans also barely benefit from dogs anymore either, yet they still welcome a resource draining beast into their homes. Yet the devotion both have for each other!
He wondered if he would be able to obtain such a bond.