notes – So I passed out one night and then when I woke up this had already written itself. I don't know what came over me, but I hope this is a sequel that lives up to expectations! I'd suggest that you skim through 'you and mystery' first if you haven't already as this second part ties up all the loose ends I left hanging there (I hope so, anyway!).

If you feel that the writing style is different from the first part, I can only attribute it to the fact that I've been translating a lot of excerpts from the Hyouka volumes lately. I feel like Houtarou's narrative voice has taken over somewhat haha. Anyway, thank you for reading this!

me and the detective

(1)

"It'll be simple," Satoshi had said.

"You won't even break a sweat," Satoshi had said.

"You can do it, Houtarou!" Satoshi had lied right through his teeth.

The more Houtarou thought about it as he tried to outrun a gaining coupe, the more he had to grudgingly accept that it was his fault for trusting a wanted man in the first place. The both of them had expected Ibara to have a new partner, and that was why Satoshi had asked him to be the lookout for tonight's heist. What hadn't been predicted was that they would have a vehicle with them. And so, Houtarou was saddled with the worst possible task of running away.

He had only dashed down a few streets and already he was out of breath. Detective or criminal, both jobs required intelligence and perhaps a bit of luck, but never stamina. His calling was probably somewhere else, he thought dryly. Perhaps after this, he would try his luck in a third job. Maybe abstract painting. Maybe flower arrangement. That all sounded perfectly sane and optimistic, it was a shame that he had to deal with this first.

He rounded off the street corner and ran up to the sharp metal gates of a closed park. It creaked loudly as he jammed his shoulder against it, making a small opening for him to just squeeze through. Not only was this leading him to their way of escape, but it would hopefully remove the coupe from the picture as well.

If Ibara was the one chasing him, she wouldn't have cared if he ran off a cliff, she'd drive right after him – that was how scary her one-track minded determination could be. He hoped that his replacement wasn't as horrifying as Ibara. Few people were.

He leaned against a tree, heaving air in and out of his lungs as he heard the coupe brake to a stop just in front of the park. Its driver even bothered to switch off the engine and headlights before getting out of the car and slamming the door behind them. Houtarou knew that he would have to get moving or he'd get caught, but as he pushed off the tree trunk, his feet wobbled.

That was it. He decided to that it wasn't worth it anymore. He had quite enough energy expenditure for the night.

Houtarou picked his hat off the ground and trudged over to a wooden bench as a young girl about his age ran up to him.

"Um, sir…" The girl blinked at him. "Are you alright?"

Not the first thing he was expecting to hear.

"No, but I'll live," he gasped as he collapsed on the bench.

"That's a relief," she said with a hopeful lilt.

This person was peculiar.

"If so, could you come quietly with me after you've had a good break? That would be very helpful!" she stepped up to him and asked.

Houtarou had to shrug off her overbearing politeness. "What are you taking me in for?"

"For stealing, of course."

Houtarou spread his arms wide open. He even went as far as to shake them a little to prove that he wasn't carrying anything under his large black cloak. "I haven't stolen a thing." And he was telling the truth. The painting was with Satoshi, after all.

The girl's hand flew to her chin. "Oh my, you're right!"

She was taking him seriously. Wasn't she being much too easy to convince? Or perhaps this was all an act, a grave act of deception crafted by this otherwise pleasant-looking girl. Houtarou wouldn't be fooled. He had enough training and experience in the field to read a person through their eyes. He proceeded to glare up at her.

Big mistake. Look away from those eyes. Look away, now.

Having caught his breath, Houtarou got onto his feet and turned to leave. "Alright then, good night."

"Wait!"

He jerked back down on the bench as she latched onto his cloak.

He shouldn't have let Satoshi talk him into wearing this get-up. Still, Houtarou had to admit that somewhere, deep down, what existed of his self-esteem had thought that it made him look rather nice. Most importantly, he didn't need to wear a stuffy tie like he was made to when he'd been working for the detective agency. Tying neck ties wasted so much energy, never mind the fact that he was terrible at it.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go." Of all things, the girl sounded apologetic as she handcuffed his hand to hers.

"Why not?"

"I'll think of something! Please just wait until then!"

Was she actually asking him to wait for her to come up with a reason? Houtarou was dumbfounded by this intricate web of mind games she was weaving around him. He hazarded a glance at her again, and was drawn into those large, clear eyes. They were bright and sincere, absent of any hidden agendas. He had never seen eyes like that before. After working at the Irisu Detective Agency for five years, he was so used to staring point blank into lies and deceit, into monotonous darkness. But this girl, she lacked any of that. She was just a naïve novice.

Just who was this girl?

"Oh!" she exclaimed as she leaned closer and examined him. Houtarou edged away, uncomfortable with the way she intruded his personal space.

"You're Mr Houtarou Oreki, aren't you? I've seen your face before in my files," she said, tilting her delicate chin.

"I am." There was no reason to lie now. Ibara had probably found him out too. "Who are you?"

"I'm Eru Chitanda, pleased to meet you!"

So, this Chitanda person was his replacement.

"I see," was the only thing he could say to fill the awkward silence.

With the way she was gripping onto him, he would have no choice but to wait here for Satoshi to come to his rescue. Despite everything that he had suffered through tonight, he knew he could trust Satoshi with that at least.

"So, have you come up with a reason to take me in?" he asked. Tonight was becoming more and more bizarre. Houtarou had given up on predicting what was to come next. At least he could save some energy that way.

"Um, I'm afraid not," Chitanda admitted with a sheepish smile. "But I'll continue thinking about it."

Honestly, Houtarou could name a few things off the top of his head: trespassing on private property, being marked as a suspicious individual, running from the law. The list grew longer the more he thought, and he would probably be compelled to lecture her on the basics of law enforcement if he was still a detective.

"In the meantime, Oreki-san," Chitanda stared at him and cleared her throat. "I'm curious."

"About what?"

The moon was awfully bright. The park was quite peaceful and not as scary as he'd imagined it to be at night.

"About why you decided to turn to a life of heinous crime."

Couldn't she phrase that in a nicer way? Houtarou straightened his posture and looked over at her.

"Because I felt like it," he said simply.

"Why?"

"Because I was sick of my old job."

"Why?"

Were they going to play this game all night? His energy was slowly being sapped away the more this conversation stretched out. He took it back. Chitanda wasn't a naïve novice, she was a deadly leech. Houtarou briefly entertained the notion of dealing with Ibara over Chitanda if he were given the choice right now. Satoshi had gotten the easy break. Why was it that Houtarou always got the short end of the stick?

"Because life is horrible," he answered with finality.

"Oh. How dreadful," Chitanda commented. "But, why?"

Houtarou groaned.

…

It was a calm Saturday morning when Houtarou rose out of bed. He washed up in his cramped bathroom and journeyed to the kitchen to fix a mug of bitter coffee before settling down on a chair and picking up a book he had read halfway. As he turned to the chapter where he had left off, he peered over the top of the book to see a young man sitting across from him, a newspaper covering his face.

Houtarou didn't remember inviting anyone over.

"Ah, you're awake!" The young man placed the newspaper onto the dining table once he realised Houtarou was in the room. "I was waiting here for quite awhile. You're not an early riser at all."

"… You're Fukube, aren't you?" Houtarou ventured a guess.

The male smiled and nodded. "Nice to meet you!"

"You're annoyingly happy," Houtarou said as he continued to read his novel.

"And you're not reaching for the phone or attempting to apprehend me," Fukube observed, a delighted expression plastered on his face.

"Not yet," Houtarou amended. "You must have a reason for seeking me out, so let me hear it first."

"As expected from the top detective of the Irisu Detective Agency!" Fukube made a large flourish with his arms.

Houtarou flipped a page. "Get on with it," he yawned behind one hand.

"You interest me, Houtarou Oreki."

"The same way Ibara interests you?" Houtarou asked, never looking up from his book.

Fukube paused for a brief moment. Then, a wide smile unfurled on his face.

"What if I said 'yes'?"

Houtarou leaned back against the chair before replying, "Then, I appreciate the unhealthy obsession but will have to humbly decline your feelings."

Fukube burst out laughing, clutching his stomach for added theatrics.

"You're cute. Not in the way Mayaka's cute. You're both cute, though," he said once the giggles had subsided. "How lucky am I to have met both of you."

Houtarou didn't know if he should feel honoured or frightened to be compared to Ibara. He decided it wasn't worth the effort to care.

"So what do you want, exactly?"

"I'd like you to partner up with me," Fukube said with ease, as if he were talking about going to the café downstairs for tea.

"Not happening," Houtarou replied. He had a vague premonition that Fukube had something like that in mind. As much as Fukube's train of thought was interesting enough to warrant Houtarou's attention, he wasn't keen on participating in anything that could lead to him waste even more energy than he already was.

"Don't be like that. Why don't we make a deal?"

"Sounds complicated," Houtarou yawned a second time.

"Now, now, Houtarou – can I call you that? I'll call you that and you can call me Satoshi," he didn't wait for a reply before continuing, "Houtarou, it's not as tiring as it sounds. In fact, I can guarantee that you'll use less energy working with me. You'll conserve energy!"

He lowered his book by an inch.

"One week. Give me one week to prove to you that partnering with me is tons more fun than working for that agency."

"I'm not interested in 'fun'," Houtarou spoke curtly.

Satoshi was barely fazed. "That'll make things even easier for me then!" He took a sip from a cup of tea he had brewed for himself. Wait a minute - that was Houtarou's favourite teacup…

"Based on my information, it seems that you have to get up early for work, and that Mayaka always sends you out for errands – such as collecting the paintings I've been returning – and now, because of me popping up out of nowhere, you're spending more time at the office too," Satoshi spilled this like he had memorised all the facts beforehand, or perhaps he was just that talented at harbouring data.

"If you're convincing me to join you because of this, it's a flawed argument. I could make my life less tiring by simply turning you in."

Satoshi held up his index finger and waved it at Houtarou. "Not at all, Houtarou. Let's say you do catch me one day, and I get locked behind bars. What a sad day that would be for everyone involved. But, aside from that, my capture wouldn't give you the life you're looking for. You'll still have to get up and go to work, Mayaka will still push you around, and you've been working long enough to know that there are many more criminals who will appear to keep you busy and deprive you of your rest."

"Am I right or wrong?" Satoshi finished, placing the teacup down.

Right he was, but Houtarou wasn't completely sold yet. It was true that recently, this lifestyle began making less and less sense to him. It constantly clashed with his desire to conserve energy. That he had been roped in by Irisu in the first place was a harsh mistake on his part. Still, Satoshi's argument was that the only way he could get out of it was to join up with a wanted criminal. That seemed to be extreme, didn't it?

And yet, at the same time, so easy.

He lowered his book even further.

"What I'm trying to say is, I need your wit and you need my ticket to freedom. With me, you'll be saving energy. I promise you won't need to do much work at all."

Those were the magic words.

Houtarou closed his book and looked at Satoshi properly for the first time since the conversation started.

"Have I won you over?"

"No," Houtarou said. For now, it was the truth.

"Then think about it, alright? No rush, pal!" Satoshi got up and dusted his sleeves before walking to the living room window. So that was how he got in. Houtarou remembered that he had been too lazy to lock it yesterday night.

As Satoshi opened the window, he waved goodbye. "See you soon!"

"Next Monday," Houtarou told him. That was the day Ibara predicted he would be committing his next robbery.

"Oh, you're right!"

…

"Ah, Houtarou! Fancy meeting you here!" Satoshi grinned as he walked up the alley with a painting under one arm. Ibara's plan was going smoothly. "So, have you given a thought about my offer?"

Houtarou didn't reply.

"See, Houtarou, here's the ideal chance for me to demonstrate why you belong with me. If you were on my side, you wouldn't need to waste energy trying to catch me now. I bet Mayaka ordered you to do it, didn't she? I run pretty fast, so you'll need to use a lot of energy if you want to catch me," Satoshi babbled, "But if we work together, you can just tell Mayaka that I got away, or that I didn't come this way. And then, ta-dah! We'll both be happy!"

"… True." Houtarou didn't have the energy to argue with this logic.

"So, do we have a deal?"

Satoshi extended his hand.

Houtarou took a deep breath before shaking the outstretched hand.

"We must meet again to discuss long term prospects."

…

"I'm curious, Oreki-san!" Chitanda repeated. "Why is it so?"

He was the one who deserved to ask her 'why'. Why was she so persistent with hearing his side of the story? When he was a detective, Houtarou had always handled cases by solving them and throwing the offender to the police. He never bothered to waste his energy with talking to the culprit unless it was explicitly needed to solve the case. All a detective had to do was their job, and nothing else. That was the best way to utilise their energies.

Yet, this Chitanda person was ignoring all his personal beliefs like they were stop signs on a one way road.

"Let me ask you first," he said. "Why are you curious?"

Chitanda fell back into silence, giving Houtarou a much needed respite.

"… It's because I want to understand you."

Houtarou felt his collar tighten.

"What?"

"I wish to understand you, Oreki-san," Chitanda said once more. "You were a detective. You and I, we were both on the same side in one point of time. So, I don't know the reason why you would suddenly change your mind, and I won't assume that I know. I realised that the only way I could get my answer was to ask you directly."

What was the use of understanding another person? Houtarou thought.

"What's the use of that?" he verbalised it, creasing his eyebrows.

"I don't think there's a concrete 'use' for it," Chitanda replied frankly. "Oreki-san, do you think that there must be a rational reason behind everything we do?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Well, I don't agree with that."

Chitanda smiled an embarrassed smile.

(2)

Satoshi was very pleased with himself. He managed to catch Mayaka before she had a nasty fall. He wondered if he was like the knight in shining armour. Hopefully, he was on his way to making her fall hopelessly in love with him. With the obvious complications such a development would bring to Mayaka, he'd have an even more enjoyable time dealing with her.

"Fukube," Mayaka stared to say, as if coming to grips with something, her eyes were unblinking. She gripped onto his wrist as he steadied both of them onto their feet.

" – I like you."

That was quick.

"Eh?!" he exclaimed. He hadn't expected his manoeuvre to be this effective. "Mayaka, are you alright? Did you hit your head on something?"

"Oh, I'm fine."

Snap!

She slapped a handcuff onto the wrist she'd been holding without further ado. Satoshi had been too distracted to notice it until he heard the metallic click.

Satoshi had been proven wrong. Mayaka wasn't hopelessly in love. She was practical in love.

This only appeared to make her more attractive.

"No! No! Wait!" He had to catch himself before she outran him. Focus, Fukube!

"Mayaka, we're not – I'm not ready for a relationship. As you can see, uh, I'm not exactly in the right stage of my life right now. I don't think I can be a good companion. We can still be friends, right? Would that be fine with you?"

Mayaka rolled her eyes, refusing to hold anything back. "Fukube, who do you think I am? Who has been chasing you for half a year?"

"Uh, you."

"Who wasted numerous nights trying to track you down?"

"… You?"

"So, who do you think should call the shots, huh? The one who's suffered the most. And I still haven't forgotten what you did that time at Haba's. Once I knew just what exactly my feelings were, there was no way I'd let you get away again. You're so damn full of yourself. It's infuriating."

"And you're as devastating as ever," Satoshi couldn't help but sigh and smile. He wasn't even sure if she was talking about their personal or working relationship.

Mayaka narrowed her eyes. Was she blushing? Satoshi couldn't see because of the dim street lamps.

"Don't look at me like that! Remember that you've been caught," she snapped.

Oh right. Right. "You know, it's hard to concentrate when we're dealing with two completely separate things at the same time," Satoshi explained. Their personal relationship had to be differentiated from their working relationship in some way. The problem was that the lines had blurred quite a while ago and Satoshi couldn't make them out now.

"What are you yammering about?" Mayaka said as she pulled him along with her, walking back the way they'd come. "They're the same thing to me. Don't complicate things."

Mayaka was steamrollering over everything tonight. Satoshi couldn't say that he hated it. He swung the painting in his free hand as they strolled up the dark street, going right past the Juumonji gallery. Minus the handcuffs, priceless stolen art work, poorly lit surroundings, and ungodly hour, this could even pass off as their first date.

Satoshi battled the urge to bring it up and risk upsetting Mayaka.

"So, where are we going?"

"To get Oreki," Mayaka answered, sounding nonchalant.

Her next sentence, however, was not.

"I'm going to skin him alive."

It's been nice knowing you, Houtarou.

"He's probably at the park," Satoshi said.

"How do you know?"

"Well, he's my partner."

Mayaka gave him a full grimace when she heard this. "How did you get him to join you, anyway? I didn't even know Oreki could be assed to make a life-changing decision."

"Oh, it's quite the story," Satoshi said with a laugh. "Let's just say I was persuasive and he was open to persuasion."

Mayaka didn't reply for the first time since they'd bumped into one another. The resulting silence was a little disconcerting, but Satoshi didn't mind much. While he was concocting an escape plan, he could enjoy walking beside her. It wasn't a bad deal at all.

"Why did you have to do that?" Mayaka turned to him and asked. She pressed her lips together and her eyes shined with something like confusion, reflecting all the things she couldn't understand. "Why did you have to turn him into a criminal? Wasn't it enough that you were already one?"

Mayaka was a straightforward person with only one way of thinking and understanding things. Satoshi had known that from the first time he met her. It was one of the many things that drew him to her. It was astonishing to meet someone completely unlike him, someone who didn't run around constructing and tracing and leaving behind mazes, but bulldozed her way through with utter disregard.

He didn't know how she managed that. They were so different.

"… Do you know what I wanted to be when was growing up?" Satoshi asked.

Mayaka seemed taken aback by the change in topic. She shook her head as they headed towards the city's park.

Satoshi gave her a smile. From the way Mayaka lowered an eyebrow and frowned, she must have realised that he was forcing it. Just when had she become able to see through his ruse, and why was he content to confirm it?

"I wanted to be a detective," he said.

Finally saying it out loud was like a fifteen-year old confession. "But I was never good enough."

Mayaka's brow furrowed even more.

"I loved reading 'Sherlock Holmes' when I was a kid. Who was your favourite detective, Mayaka? You must have one."

"Poirot," she answered without missing a beat. The look she was giving him now was confused, and even worse, searching. She wanted to understand him.

"I was never good enough," he repeated. It stung less the more he said it, anyway. "But even then, I didn't want to resign to a boring life. I wanted to do something with myself. Remember what I told you before? It was the truth."

In the distance, at the end of the main road, he could spot the dark outline of a haphazardly parked coupe. He didn't have much time left.

"This is the full truth," he continued.

"Tell me, Mayaka, what is something a detective can't do without?"

"Intuition," she answered.

Satoshi nodded. "What else?"

"An eye for detail." Another nod. "Evidence." A nod. "Subtlety." Nod.

Mayaka tipped her hat back with the fourth nod. She seemed flustered that she hadn't gotten the answer he wanted, but she continued offering possibilities.

She righted her homburg. "Knowledge and skill?"

"Think about it in terms of our favourite stories," Satoshi suggested.

With this one hint, she needed only a second to get the answer. "… A culprit."

"Bingo!" Satoshi grinned before he could stop himself.

"If I couldn't be the detective, the main hero, then I'd gladly settle for second best. The culprit. Every detective needs a culprit the same way every culprit needs a detective. A culprit can't say they're truly one unless they have a detective on their tail, and without a culprit, a detective wouldn't even need to go to work. They need one another to exist, don't they?" Satoshi explained as they approached the half-opened gate.

"I see," Mayaka was surprisingly attentive.

"Isn't it true, Mayaka? If I hadn't appeared, you wouldn't have been assigned to any big case, and if you weren't after me, stealing wouldn't be as fun," he chuckled.

"And that's why you return the paintings you take," Mayaka spoke up, coming to a realisation. "It doesn't matter to you, does it? It's only the act that you're interested in."

"More or less. And I figured that I wouldn't be able to sell them off anyway," Satoshi shrugged. "The moment I decided to become a criminal, I knew that all I wanted was a Holmes for my Moriarty. Just about anyone would do, as long as there was someone who'd see me for who I was." He paused for a moment. "… I guess I was lucky that I ended up with you, Mayaka."

Mayaka turned to face him as they walked through the park, emotions swimming in her eyes. Satoshi knew he should look away. He couldn't like her more than he already did when it was clear that there they wouldn't become anything. And yet a part of him – a large part of him, didn't want to.

"Houtarou probably doesn't think the way I do. He's a completely different person."

"A completely different creature," Mayaka corrected him.

Satoshi laughed. "Mm. But, this my reason. The reason why I became a fake Moriarty. A cheap imitation."

"… Satoshi – ack," Mayaka caught herself. This time he was sure her face was burning red.

"Yup?" he urged her on. It was nice to hear her say his name.

"I can't say I understand your reasons for choosing crime," Mayaka began. "But – about wanting to be someone, becoming like someone you really admire, and doing something you really love and believe in even if you might not be the best at it. That… that I can understand."

Oh, Satoshi thought.

Maybe they were alike after all.

…

"Chi-chan! You're alright!" Mayaka cried out as they approached the two figures sitting on a bench. Satoshi was tugged along at a surprising speed as Mayaka jogged up to her partner.

"You had me a little worried back there! Did this disgusting slug do anything to you?"

Mayaka threw a deadly glower at Houtarou. Houtarou didn't have any particular reaction to this frightening assault. He must be totally used to it. Satoshi couldn't decide if he should feel pity, amusement or envy.

"Not at all, Maya-chan. He was very cooperative," the girl, Chitanda, answered. "And I see that you've caught Fukube-san as well!"

Mayaka allowed a satisfied grin to blossom on her face.

As the two girls chattered, Satoshi shuffled so that he was closer to Houtarou, who likewise slid along the bench so that he could hear what Satoshi was whispering. "Distract Chitanda. I'll distract Mayaka. Then, we make a break for it."

"Easier said than done," Houtarou hissed. "She's hard to handle," he admitted in a dulled voice.

To think that Houtarou Oreki had finally met his match! Satoshi was interested in Chitanda now, but it was alright. He'd have many other opportunities to get to know her better.

"Aw, just use that Oreki charm and you'll be fine! Sweep her off her feet!"

"What are you two talking about?" Mayaka interrupted them, her hands on her hips.

"We were talking about how, now that we've been caught, we're at least happy that we were apprehended by you two ladies," Satoshi started off.

At his cue, Houtarou tapped Chitanda's shoulder and dropped his eyes to the ground. "You're… um… I find you… That is… pretty..." He looked like he was in excruciating physical pain. "Uh."

Chitanda cocked her head. "Pretty? Pretty what, Oreki-san? Pretty tired? Yes, I usually don't stay up so late. Or do you mean pretty smart? If so, then I'm flattered but that's certainly not the case. I still have much to learn."

Wow. Chitanda really was amazing.

He had to show Houtarou how it was done. Say it straight, with enthusiasm and confidence, like so:

"Mayaka, I don't know why I haven't said it before, but you're truly beautiful!"

"… And? What's your point?"

Mayaka was amazing in her own way too.

Though her face was indeed flushed, her words remained sharp and severe. "Sweet talk is hardly appropriate," she pointed out. "And consider working on it when you're doing your time, Satoshi. It's not impressive at all right now."

Yes, truly amazing.

Houtarou burned a sidelong glare at Satoshi. Alright, alright. So maybe this plan to disarm the girls with masculine charm wasn't exactly working out. Maybe it was because he and Houtarou lacked the sort of masculinity required to pull off such a feat, no – don't think about such a depressing thought at a time like this. Save it for a rainy day. Now, another plan was in order.

"Here, Mayaka." Satoshi handed the painting over to the girl. She had won this round, so she deserved it back. But she hadn't won the game, and it only made Satoshi more eager to discover an opening for them, a way to continue the fun.

"Juumonji-san has excellent taste, doesn't she?" Chitanda said. "She's my family friend, so I've known her since I was young. She's always had such a good eye for things like these." She held onto the other side of the painting, propping it into the light of the moon to admire its colours.

"You know Juumoji? That's fantastic, Chi-chan! We should all meet and have tea one day. I'd love to get to know her."

"We should! Where do you think we should meet?"

"How about the art museum? Or maybe…"

Satoshi was stunned by this turn of events, and feeling somewhat left out too. He snapped his attention to Houtarou as the boy slapped him softly. Oh, right. For some reason, they had the opening they were waiting for. Houtarou made a discreet gesture with his chin, and Satoshi winked to show that he understood.

One of the many merits of having Houtarou onboard with him was that he had learned how to pick open a handcuff.

By the time Chitanda and Mayaka had decided on where they would have afternoon tea with Juumonji, Satoshi and Houtarou were already tearing down the main pathway leading to the clearing in the middle of the park. Or rather, Satoshi was tearing and frantically dragging Houtarou behind him by the sleeve of his jacket. Satoshi held his hat to his head as he heard two shouts of alarm behind them.

"You promised I wouldn't sweat," as exhausted as Houtarou was, it seemed that he didn't mind wasting precious energy to growl this out through gritted teeth.

"A minor setback!"

Houtarou's lack of reply was a reply in itself. Satoshi stuck his tongue out in mock apology as they reached their means of a getaway.

The large, white balloon had been tethered to the trunk of a large tree, hidden from view by the immense leaves and the weak light of the moon. Satoshi and Houtarou worked at pulling the balloon out from under leafy shelter and unwinding its thick rope ladder from a messy coil. A passing breeze made their escape twice as fast, and they grabbed onto the length of the ladder as their balloon began floating away.

"Quick, Chi-chan, back to the car!" Mayaka's voice dwindled below them.

Satoshi laughed as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "They aren't giving up!"

"You don't know Ibara well enough," Houtarou spoke with a voice burdened by horrific experience.

"I'll have plenty more chances to get to know her!" Satoshi assured him. "I hope they'll be as fun as this night."

"And I hope not," Houtarou retorted, frowning at Satoshi's smile.

…

"So does this mean you're going to keep engaging with Ibara?"

"Yeah, I am."

"But it's clear, isn't it?" Houtarou clung closer to the rungs of the ladder as he adjusted his monocle. "Nothing can come out of this."

Satoshi didn't nod in reply. "I don't think Mayaka agrees. And if she doesn't agree, then I'm in no position to decide yet either."

"I'll never get the both of you," Houtarou mumbled.

How strange, Satoshi was pretty sure Houtarou understood them perfectly. That was why his sigh was so loud.

"You know Mayaka, she doesn't give up once she sets her mind on something. She's got a plan, or she's going to have one," Satoshi said, leaning his weight to one side of the rope ladder and directing them across the skies. The scattered lights of the city below mirrored the stars just above them.

"And you live to mess up plans," Houtarou concluded. Something that could be Houtarou's equivalent of a smile - a tiny and awkward and crooked one - appeared on his face.

Satoshi grinned at this.

"Well, I am Moriarty after all."