"Hello, S.S. Van Dine and Associates, how may I help you?"
In the heart of Tokyo, there was an individual working stark early in his office, receiving the first phone call of the day. The digital clock on his desk said '09:12' and the sun shone in his personal office, illuminating everything with the familiar light of the morning sun. Taking his Styrofoam cup of coffee that he bought recently from Love~ Coffee (owned by the entrepreneur twins Zepar and Furfur, which had quite an embarrassing design to the male consumers' opinion), he sipped the freshly brewed coffee as he returned to his phone call.
"…..Dlanor, didn't I tell you to call me during emergencies?" the man chastised the person on the other line, using a gentle yet stern tone. "And aren't you not allowed to bring your hand phone to school?"
"I'm sorry," a small, but strangely mature (with a hint of a childish) voice came, "but I guess this is an EMERGENCY. I found Diana in my bag, and the teacher wanted to confiscate her until I told her that I'll call you to come OVER. So she wants you to take Diana home, and I think you should come NOW. Apparently Diana is HUNGRY."
"…You didn't finish your lunch yesterday, did you, Dlanor?"
"….How can you accuse me of such a THING?"
The man sighed. "Tell the teacher that I'm busy at the moment and feed Diana. Make sure she eats. Shut off your phone and make sure to take care of it, okay? I won't buy you another one if you lose it. And don't bring it to school again, you hear?" He stated his instructions to the girl as if he had memorized it by heart.
"Of COURSE. Have a good day at WORK. Say hi to Lion-san for ME. What time will you pick me up from SCHOOL?"
"Around twelve. I'll get your stuff ready before we go to Nijima, alright?"
"Thank YOU. See you LATER."
And that was BEFORE everything went wrong.
Chapter 11
"WILL, PLEASE! STOP THE CAR! IT'LL EAT MY HAIR ALIVE! I PROMISE NEVER TO PINCH YOUR BUTT AGAIN! OH GOD, WILL, PLEASE STOP THE CAR! PLEASEEEE!"
A proud prosecutor and detective, Willard Huntington Wright has a respectable job, a loving family to support and has many achievements in his 20 years of living. His cool, aloof demeanour has helped him gain many peers, acquaintances and friends, but Will only focused on performing his work for the sake of justice and the welfare of his mother, Clair Vaux Bernardus (who divorced twice and is currently single) and his stepsister, Dlanor Arbuthnott Knox. This unimaginably young prosecutor is well known for completing tasks with utmost perfection if he sets his mind to it, and Will is that type of person who can do almost anything.
Anything except convincing his best friend Ushiromiya Lion that cars aren't evil.
"Lion," the prosecutor sighed, "the car's not going to do anything to you, nor your hair. As long as I'm driving it, everything's going to be perfectly fine. And stop your screaming, for God's sake! You'll wake up Dlanor."
Nevertheless, the Ushiromiya heir simply refused to accept that. "It WILL do something to me, Will. The last time I ever fixed a car was with Battler, and it tried to suction my ponytail in its horrid, nightmarish engine!"
"It won't suction your hair, Lion. This car is perfectly well-oiled and running."
"It's old."
"Yeah, sure it's old, but not THAT old!"
"Your father drove this car ever since you were a toddler."
"…..The exterior is holding up well."
"….You're kidding me, right? THE BOOT IS LOOSE. The brake lights don't work either."
Now Will was running out of positive points about his 20 year old car that wasn't supposed to get them to the port, much less move. The car was obviously grimy, hasn't gotten a carwash in years and the engine sounded worse than Lion's uncle Hideyoshi's singing. There were a number of things Will didn't know about Lion, mainly his gender, but he decided to reach the hypothesis that Lion was a really feminine guy. Dlanor was scrunching up her nose during the whole trip, and Diana was simply itching to scratch Lion's face if he didn't shut up.
"So a-anyways," Lion stuttered, trying to distract himself from the fact that he's on a moving car, "why do you want to go to Nijima too, Will?"
"I was given a case. Apparently there are rumours about a hired spy looming about in Nijima….so I decided to go with you to try and solve it. Can you take the files from the back seat and read the particulars?"
Lion then reached for the yellow file Will mentioned and proceeded to open and read the contents.
"Apparently…the people connected to the spy is Mr. Okonogi Tetsuro and Miss Sumadera Kasumi….wait, Kasumi-obasan is…."
"Related to your aunt Ushiromiya Kyrie," the detective finished. "So yeah, we might need to keep our eyes and ears open, if you want your grandpa's hotel to be safe."
Lion thought long and hard about it, and then nodded his head in agreement to cooperate with Will's case.
"So how do we find this spy?"
"Oh, pretty simple actually….." Will drove on. "A guy with a ponytail seems pretty easy to spot on a little island."
"…By that, do you mean ME?"
"…..Asides from you."
"Well, thank you so much Kawabata-san!" a middle school student smiled at the ferryman with a catty smile.
Tightening her blue pigtails, the girl walked towards the hotel with a pretty confident look. As she whipped out her cellphone, she dialled a foreign number, and then waited for the person at the other line to answer.
"I'm here, my cousin," she smirked, taking her stride in the Rokkenjima Hotel.
The new guest has arrived.
A/N: Try to guess who's the new guest, xD. It's pretty simple, mm?
Please review! I've actually been rushing with this chapter, and your reviews are always appreciated! Thank you so much for the previous reviews!
-Densetsu-no-Maguro.