"OI, AKIKO!" The well-dressed, fedora-wearing Hidari Shoutarou stormed into his tiny apartment in search of his young landlady and boss. Though in his mind, refering to her as "Boss" was wrong in so many ways. While Akiko may be the daughter of his deceased mentor and former boss, Narumi Soukichi, she didn't have his level of skills or intuition as a private detective. Not yet, anyway. On top of that her stubborn, hard-headed attitude and ability to get herself into danger added up into a headache that Shoutarou just couldn't deal with sometimes. He found Akiko sitting at his desk, the chair facing the wall. "I heard from Jinnou-san that last week you PERSONALLY decided to take in some junior apprentices? Where exactly was I in all of this?!"

When Akiko turned around, she was wearing an old-fashioned detective's outfit, complete with a smoking pipe. Though in her case, it merely blew bubbles out from its end. "Why do you sound so upset? Don't you think this is a great chance to get the word out about the agency? The police station is taking in some younger police officers, so why don't we take in some young detectives? We can show them how the real work is done!"

"Did you forget that we aren't like other agencies?" Shoutarou snatched the bubble pipe out of her mouth. "Two words: KAMEN. RIDER. Do you know how impossible it would be having to babysit a group of kids if another dopant case pops up?! And you KNOW one will! They always do!"

"Well...yeah we deal with every single dopant, but you worry too much! It'll only be for a month! Besides, I bet we'll get off easy with cases! A lost dog case here, a missing jewelry case there and then before you know it they'll be heading back home without a second thought!" Akiko smiled before immediately making a lunge for her pipe, only for Shoutarou to lift it out of her reach.

"Yeah, okay, sure. In that case, how about living conditions? Do you really think this place can hold more than just two people for a straight month? My bed, desk and kitchen are all in the same room for crying out loud!"

"Just buy some futons."

"YOU BUY SOME FUTONS, THIS WAS YOUR IDEA!"

"Shoutarou, did you say you were going to buy some futons?" A second person had entered the conversation in the form of Shoutarou's partner, Philip. The eccentrically-dressed young man held his chin in curiosity, a sparkle in his eye. "I've always wanted to sleep in one. They're low to the ground and look somewhat flat, but apparently it could feel like sleeping on a cloud if you buy a well-made one."

"Philip, not right now. We've got bigger problems here."

"Oh, you're referring to the students we're supposed to be mentoring?"

"HOW DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THAT BEFORE I DID?!"

"Akiko told me about a week ago. Apparently they're from a school located in Yokohama. Jinnou Mikio and his team are apparently going to be mentoring a junior police unit from the same city."

"At least Jinnou-san will be in the same boat as us..." Shoutarou sighed with a slight hint of relief. Though he and Jinnou Mikio, one of the Fuuto Police Department's senior detectives, worked well together, he still felt a at ease that he wouldn't be the only one to have to suffer through something like this. "Wait, you said Yokohama? Pretty sure I heard a lot of weird stuff about that prefecture. Lots of old-school crime like bank robberies and jewel thefts."

"Correct. Furthering my research also showed that they have a high interest in detective work. The youth of the city, at least."

"Huh. That explains this month-long thing...Speaking of which..." Shoutarou turned back to Akiko, who gave him an innocent tilt of the head. "When exactly are these kids supposed to be coming here, anyway?"

"Oh, later this evening."

"..." Shoutarou marched up to Akiko and tightly took hold of her cheeks, stretching them out. "Akiko-san. Please go out and do some shopping for me. In case you didn't realize, we're probably going to need plenty of food to feed the extra mouths for the next four weeks. Philip and I will handle the futons. Do you understand?"

"OWOWOW OKEH OKEH I GETCHIT JUSHT LET GUUUUU!" Akiko pleaded before prying herself out of Shoutarou's grasp, huffing angrily. "You're lucky I'm always in a good mood or else I'd triple your rent right now!"

"Yeah yeah, have a safe trip." Shoutarou waved her off nonchalantly as he went to his desk to scrounge up whatever saved up money he got from recent cases. "Oi, Philip. C'mon, we're going futon-hunting."

Philip grew a bit excited. "Excellent, I can try them out first-hand."

"It doesn't work that way, Philip. They don't exactly let you try them ou-" As Shoutarou attempted to make his way out of the front door, he found himself blocked by a group of four girls standing at his doorstep. They were casually dressed, each with large bags on their backs. The girl at the head of the group, with her light pink hair done up in two loops with long bangs draping her shoulders and topped with a large yellow bow on her head, addressed him while also glancing down at a piece of paper.

"Um! Sorry to bother you, but would you happen to be...let's see...Hidari Shoutarou-san?"

Shoutarou nodded in slight confusion. "...Yes?"

"So does that mean this is the Narumi Detective Agency?" The girl's face brightened.

"Ah, uh...yeah! Did you girls have a case for me or-"

"AHA! We found it!" Before Shoutarou could finish, the group quickly made their way into the apartment, setting their bags down by the couch. "See? I told you we'd find it no problem!"

One of the other girls, this one with short, orange hair, sighed as she followed behind. "Sharo, we passed this place like four times before! We knew where it was twenty minutes ago but didn't bother to check!"

Sharo twiddled her fingers. "It's not my fault it's blocked by a pool hall..."

"The sign near the front said the agency was down the alley!"

"It could have been a clever trap to MAKE us think that!"

"Whoa-whoa-whoa..." Shotarou interrupted. "...don't tell me you girls are..."

"Oh, right! Introductions!" Sharo cleared her throat before standing at attention. "I'm Sherlock Shellinford! Everyone calls me Sharo!"

The orange-haired girl spoke next, retrieving a candy bar from her pocket with a grin. "Nero Yuzurizaki. Pleased to meetcha!"

The next girl had long, violet hair. Her constant fidgeting made it obvious that she was a particularly shy person. "H-...H-Hercule Barton...E-Eri for short..."

The final girl had flowing blonde locks with what seemed to be flowers scattered throughout. She flipped her hair back confidently. "Cordelia Glauca. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"You ARE the junior detectives we were expecting..." Shoutarou held his head. "Damn that Akiko, she didn't even get their arrival time right!"

"We're not junior detectives! We're..." Sharo proclaimed as the other three gathered beside her, striking poses before speaking in unison. "...Tantei Opera Milky Holmes!"

"...Eh?" Shoutarou stared dumbfounded before gathering himself. "Um...Excuse me for a moment, ladies." He quickly shuffled over to Philip's side for a private conversation. "Philip, help me out here. I wanna say I've heard that name before, but do a quick fact check for me."

"Of course." Philip closed his eyes, his consciousness transported to a white abyss as suddenly dozens upon dozens of bookshelves shifted in around him, forming a mental library of information. "The keyword is 'Milky Holmes'." Upon speaking the name, the shelves rapidly began condensing and disappearing before all that was left was a shelf with one book resting upon it. Philip flipped through it while reciting his findings to his partner. "Apparently Milky Holmes is the name of Yokohama's most famous and revered detective team, who used their skills to their greatest potential in order to stop dozens of crimes and solve hundreds of mysteries."

"Revered detectives...?" Shoutarou looked over to the girls before him. Sharo was busy unpacking a bunch of her stuff while Eri tried to help, tripping over herself in the process. Cordelia was suddenly wearing a bandanna over her head and a mask over the bottom of her face, vigorously dusting the area to keep it nice and clean for everyone else. As for Nero, she was currently rummaging through Shoutarou's refrigerator on the search for anything tasty. "O-OI, no one gave you permission to raid my fridge!...Ugh...Anything else, Philip?"

"Interesting...It seems that there was a stretch of time in which Milky Holmes hit an extremely low point in their careers, losing most of their credibility and fame in the process...What's strange is I don't have anymore detailed information on that part of their history. It's like it just stops in its tracks..."

"Really...And these girls are claiming to be that same team, huh..." Shoutarou tipped his hat in thought as Sharo approached him, having finished unpacking her essentials and wanting to learn more about her temporary teacher. "Hidari-san, what kind of Toys do you have?"

"Toys?...This isn't a daycare, you know. We don't keep any toys around for kids."

"No no, not toys. Toys!"

"...What's the difference?"

"U-Um...I-I have a feeling Hidari-san doesn't have any-" Eri tried to chime in, only for Nero to interrupt her immediately. "C'mon, you gotta have Toys. You ain't a big-name detective without Toys!" Cordelia stopped her dusting to join in on the conversation as well. "Now now, perhaps Hidari-san doesn't wish to expose his Toys to others. Being unpredictable is the best way to catch a criminal, don't you agree?"

"...Philip, do you mind."

Philip sighed and entered the planet bookshelves once more. "Toys...There are two definitions. The first would be a child's plaything. A ball, a model plane or car, a-"

"I think I understand that part. The second definition, please?"

"...A term used to describe the superhuman ability housed within certain individuals. Toys are mostly genetic in nature and are usually inherited from an individual's Mother and-or Father, though there is no guarantee that the inherited ability will be the same as the parent's."

"Superhuman...? W-Wait, you mean like actual super powers?!" Though he dealt with superhuman stuff on a regular basis, all of it, including his and Philip's Kamen Rider abilities, were created and could only be used via technology. Not even Philip's ability to access the knowledge held within the planet bookshelves was something he was born with or had his entire life. To learn that actual, natural super powers actually existed was pretty surprising. Even moreso that this group of girls knew about them as if it were common knowledge.

"Guys, I-I really don't think he actually has any-" Once again, Eri's voice was drowned out by Nero, Cordelia and Sharo's much louder conversation. "If he's gonna be teachin' us stuff, the least he can do is give us a hint at what kinda Toys he's got!"

"You're being way too pushy towards someone kind enough to let us stay in his home, Nero! If he doesn't want to tell us than he shouldn't have to!"

"A-Aha...W-Why don't we just brainstorm what his Toys could be and THEN ask him later? Huh?...Girls?"

"I'D HATE TO BURST YOUR COLLECTIVE BUBBLE." Shoutarou loudly proclaimed, quieting the trio. "...but this whole 'Toys' thing? I don't have 'em. I'm just a normal guy."

"...EEEEH?!" Sharo, Nero and Cordelia all blurted out in unified shock. Eri, on the other hand, simply pouted. Puffing out her cheeks rather cutely. "That's what I've been trying to tell you..."

"T-That can't be possible! All detectives have Toys!" Sharo cried out, her large bow wriggling and bouncing violently. "That's what makes them detectives in the first place!"

"Well sorry kid, but I ain't got any." Shoutaro huffed. Being interrogated by a bunch of kids was really starting to get on his nerves. If this was how things were going to be for the next month, he was dreading every minute of it. Before the girls could question him further, a large, robotic-looking stag beetle fluttered into the room with a constant beeping noise, zig-zagging around the girls and giving Cordelia in particular a huge fright. "KYAHAH! W-W-WHAT IS THAT?! IS THAT A BEETLE?! I-IT'S SO GROTESQUE!"

Shoutaro ignored the blonde's shrieking as her friends tried to calm her back down, grabbing the beetle out of the air as it shifted into a large cellphone-like device. He flipped it open to answer it, believing it to be Akiko wanting to bother him again. "Akiko, if you're calling to ask what to bring back, just buy whatever's cheap and easy to-"

"Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm not the Chief."

"...Terui." It was Terui Ryu, superintendent of the F.P.D. as well as the head of their Paranormal Crime Investigation Division. While Shoutarou wouldn't exactly call him a friend, he was still a worthwhile comrade and fellow Kamen Rider. Shoutarou sighed before answering more professionally. "Forget everything I just said right now. What's up?"

"At the scene of a robbery that you might want to know a bit more about. You should head down here and take a look yourself. I'll send you the location."

"That so. I'll be right down." He closed the stag phone before getting up and heading for the door. "Sorry girls, but duty calls. Philip, keep an eye on 'em. Make sure they don't stick their noses where they don't belong." He subtly motioned to the hat rack on the nearby wall. The girls rushed after him in an attempt to join in on the investigation, only for the fedora-wearing detective to stop them in their tracks. "Woah woah, in case you didn't hear...you can't come along."

"Eh?! But you're goin' to a crime scene, right? We've gotta check stuff out, too!" Nero huffed.

"It's our duty as detectives! That's the reason we're here!" Cordelia added.

"Listen, I dunno what kind of detectives you think you are, but right now until I get concrete evidence that you really are this highly-revered 'Milky Holmes' team, you four are sticking around here. That's final." With that, Shoutarou made his way out into town. The girls were disappointed. The whole reason they were here was to get a refresher course in detective work and not only was the detective in question completely Toyless but he was also treating them more like nuisance than anything else.

"What a jerk! Why did Henriette-san even assign us to a guy like him in the first place?!" Nero was fuming, grabbing a giant cheeto stick from her pocket, unwrapping it and taking a large, crunchy bite out of it in annoyance.

"It does seem kind of pointless to be here...If Hidari-san doesn't see us as actual detectives, we won't get much out of staying with him..." Eri agreed. She wasn't exactly one for staying somewhere that her and her friends weren't wanted. Cordelia joined in. "Agreed! I, for one, don't exactly enjoy being treated like some kind of snot-nosed child! My nose is completely clean and snot-free, thank you very much!"

"I'm sorry for the first impression Shoutarou's given you girls." Philip spoke up. As the only person in the apartment who truly understood how Shoutarou worked, he figured it'd be best to try and play devil's advocate. "He's just somewhat...stressed. To tell you the truth, he's not a bad person at all."

"After insultin' us like that?!" Nero countered.

"Shoutarou's not exactly the type to act all compassionate right off the bat...I suppose it comes from his teachings as a private detective." Philip chuckled. "I always point out that he's a half-boiled man trying to be a hard-boiled detective. He sees himself as having a large pair of shoes to fill."

"...Can't he just get shoes that fit correctly?" Cordelia asked obliviously.

Sharo smiled before bouncing over in-between Philip and her comrades. "Come on girls, the weird boy is right! We don't really know how Hidari-san works yet, so maybe it'd be best to just suck it up and wait for next time! 'Kay?"

"...'W-Weird Boy'?" Philip was at a loss as the group of girls continued to converse on their own.