So I was planning on doing a chapter for Lost Blue before I came back here, but then I started rewatching Double and well here we are. I swear I'll rewatch Gokaiger next.
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It was absurd that he felt the need to sneak around his own family, but Raito didn't want to worry them. So he found himself glancing back toward the house to check for anyone watching before slipping behind one of the larger trees in the yard and sitting on a root. His cat, Mick, trotted over to lie at his side, and Raito scratched him behind the ears with one hand while flipping his phone open with the other. A quick scroll down his contacts brought him to the name he wanted. He hesitated.
His mother thought it was dangerous.
His father thought it was dangerous.
His sisters, if they knew, would think it was dangerous.
He called Shotaro.
The detective answered after a single ring. "Hello? Hidari Shotaro."
"Hey, Shotaro. It's me."
"Raito?" There was a clatter, and then what sounded like a door closing. "What's up?"
Another glance was thrown toward the house, and Raito's distraction got a little meow from Mick until he started petting him again while resuming the conversation. "Do you have time later today? I wanted to ask you some questions about your work." He still wanted to fill out the comparisons between Japanese and American private investigation, after all. Talking to Shotaro was easier than seeking out some other private detective in the city.
"Sure. We don't have a case right now, so I'll be around the office all day. I can meet you outside this afternoon."
"Alright. I'll come over after lunch." Saeko, Kirihiko, and his father were going into work right after the family meal. Raito would only have to dodge Wakana and his mother to leave the house.
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An hour after lunch, while Wakana was workshopping a new song and Fumine was meeting with the head maid, Raito stepped out of a taxi outside the Narumi Detective Agency. There was no sign of Shotaro... he frowned, opening his phone to call him.
Shotaro didn't answer. Rather than leave a message, Raito flipped his phone closed. It was possible Shotaro had just forgotten and not been near his phone. It wasn't any trouble to go inside to talk to him.
But when he knocked on the agency door, the voice that called out wasn't Shotaro's. "Come in."
He frowned, but opened the door. It looked empty, until a man stepped out from behind the half-wall that separated the sitting area from the office proper. He wore a sharp suit, similar to the style Shotaro wore, and held a book in his right hand, a page marked with his thumb. Raito blinked. "Hello. I'm looking for Shotaro..."
"Ah, were you the one who called him, just now?" The man nodded to the table next to the half-wall, where Shotaro's black phone rested. "I sent him out on an errand, and I guess he forgot it." A half-smile quirked his lips, and he offered an apologetic nod. "I'm being rude. I'm Narumi Soukichi, the chief of this agency."
So this was Shotaro's boss. Made sense. Raito returned the nod with a small bow of greeting. "Nice to meet you. My name's Sonozaki Raito."
"I know. Shotaro's told me about you." Soukichi returned to the office to sit behind his desk. Raito followed, stopping with his shoulder against the dividing half-wall. "He also told me that your parents approached him with some concerns about you getting involved in our world."
Raito tapped at his chin, lifting his free shoulder in a shrug. "They can be a little protective."
"I have concerns of my own," Soukichi said, as if Raito hadn't spoken at all. He leaned back in his chair, opening his book again. "The Sonozaki family has a way of complicating the things they get involved in."
He had no idea what to make of that. His family's wealth and status sometimes caused trouble, even for him, but he felt like that wasn't what Soukichi meant. Rather than try to parse the meaning, though, he focused on the book in the man's hand. "What's that book?"
"This?" Soukichi twisted the book some, though not enough for Raito to see the cover. "It's The Long Goodbye, one of my favourites. The protagonist solves all his problems with his choices." Setting the book down on the desk, he focused on Raito. "Choices are important in every person's life. Are you confident that you've made the right choices, Raito?"
Confusion was becoming consternation, and Raito found he couldn't meet Soukichi's eyes, looking instead out the window next to the desk. "I try to be," was what he ended up answering with, before standing straight and taking a step back. "I apologize for the intrusion. I'll be leaving now."
"No problem." Soukichi leaned back again, and said nothing as Raito turned on his heel and left the office perhaps a bit faster than was necessary.
His pace didn't slow until he was back outside in Fuuto's familiar wind. Then he paused, glancing back at the agency before setting off in a random direction. He needed to clear his head.
He'd never met Soukichi Narumi before today. What little he knew of him was from things Shotaro had said.
So why did he feel like that question about choices should have been different?
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Soukichi calls Raito "Raito-kun" here. I considered him using his last name, but it didn't feel right.
Fun fact, in my Double rewatch I noticed that the first time Shotaro meets Ryube is in Fuuto Museum, while Shotaro is looking at the T-rex skeleton, and Ryube surprises him. Exactly as I wrote their meeting here. I don't remember if I did that on purpose, but it prompted me to toss some parallels into Soukichi and Raito's meeting here.