Kiseki Shikishi and the Stolen Necklace

“Hey!” I screamed, but he didn’t listen. The baseball-cap-wearing man who had just stolen my necklace kept running. I struggled to unchain my bike, but forgot the combination under the stress. Ah, what did it end in again? Was it ‘34’ or 53’? Maybe I change it too often.. Wait, that’s not important right now! Ah, got it! I jumped on my bike, and started pedalling as fast as I could. That was for two reasons: first, I wanted my necklace back, obviously. Second, it was 08:56, and I was going to be late for work! Unfortunately, it’s only the second matter that got resolved. I lost sight of the man, and rolled up to the department store that was unfortunate enough to have employed me, arriving right at 08:59.

“Hey, where’s your necklace,” asked my boss. Annoying. Of course, I do always wear it, so it’s suspicious that I’m not… But I really DO NOT want to think about that right now. “Stolen.” I replied honestly to get him to stop talking about it. Not that I wouldn't have replied honestly regardless, but I simply didn't have the mental energy to do anything else. “Shouldn’t you call the police?” My coworker’s question had an obvious answer, so I picked up the phone, and made a call. Not to the emergency number; I didn’t trust the local police to know the importance of that necklace. Instead, I called my best friend’s older brother. His name was Inpei Honnoh, and he was… interesting. He said he was a freelance private detective, but in reality the only ones who ever hired him were the police department, so… What mattered is that he knew the importance of the necklace, and would be willing to work on the case for me. Or so I thought, until I got the strangest response. “I’ll do what I can, Kiseki-chan, but I’m in the middle of a very important case… But if it’s for the necklace, I can try. Can I get a description of the thief?” I gave him one, but unfortunately the only unique thing about that man is the fact that he stole my necklace. If I ever see him again, I’ll kill him! Wait, what? Where did that thought come from? If I do that, then they’ll arrest me, not him. I shouldn’t have let the anger get the better of me. I need to calm down, and do my job, or I’ll scare away the customers… Maybe I should try optimism. I hear that’s a trendy thing nowadays. I’ve got a dinner party to go to tonight! My best friend, Inpei Kaguya, invited me to her house for a large dinner party she’s hosting. Well, it’s not a large party– only six people will be there– but I hear there’ll be a large dinner! Plus, her older brother Honnoh will be there, and I can tell him about this case in person. That should be very useful.

I knocked on the door to the Inpei residence. Well, I say I knocked, but it was more like a gentle tap. It was an old, traditional mansion, with paper doors and all. I don’t remember how you’re supposed to use them, since you can’t knock, obviously… Oh, wait. You clap, right? I clapped my hands loudly twice, and then the door slid open in front of me. There was a girl wearing the uniform of the place Kaguya worked at, and Inpei Kaguya, ready to greet me. “Shikishi-chan!” Before I had been in the house long, two more guests arrived. The first was a girl who didn’t look like she got along with people often, and the second was… Wait, was that the guy who stole my necklace?! Why is he here?! …I’ll keep quiet about it for now. I’m sure Kaguya has a plan. She usually does when things like this happen… The necklace thief sat down, and everyone else sat down afterward. Kaguya made some sort of formal announcement that the party had begun, but between the food and the necklace thief, I was too distracted to listen to it.

“Welcome, everyone!” Kaguya began the dinner party with one of her typical dramatic gestures. “Of course, the food was all thanks to my amazing brother.” Honnoh sighed, but accepted the complement nonetheless. “I just do what we can. Let me know if you run out of food– I can make some more.” I took a bite, and as I expected, it was delicious. “The food is great! Thank you very much, Inpei-kun.” “Thank you for having us,” said the man who looked like the necklace thief. “Yes, thank you,” said the girl I presumed was Kaguya’s coworker. “By the way, what’s the reason behind this dinner party?” That’s odd. I thought maybe Kaguya had gotten promoted or something, but if her coworker didn’t know… Before I could think about it too long, the lonely-looking girl who arrived with the ruffian spoke up. “Yeah, I’d like to know why, too. You don’t usually do social events like this.” “Well, you know,” said Kaguya, almost absent-mindedly, “I just thought it’d be fun.” Everyone was confused. Inpei Kaguya never did things “just for fun”. She always had a purpose. Even I knew that. After seeing the unceasing glares of her friends, Kaguya relented. “Well, you’ve caught me,” she said, giggling. “Figuring out the purpose of this party… I guess you could say that is the point of the party.” Honnoh spoke up, thinking he had a pretty good idea of the situation. “You invited everyone here to this party, but won’t tell us why… It’s supposed to be like Christie, right?” “Well, nii-san, I can’t confirm that.” Kaguya continued on with her smug grin, and I leaned over to ask Kaguya’s coworker who Christie was. The name sounded familiar, but… “Who’s Christie? A friend of Kaguya from work?” “No,” she responded, “Christie is one of Kaguya’s favourite authors. I’m surprised Kaguya hasn’t told you about her.” “I don’t read very many books,” I confessed.

The lonely-looking girl started speaking to Honnoh. “So, Inpei-kun, how’s work going? Dad doesn’t tell me a lot about it…” Oh, so she’s the police chief’s daughter. I think Kaguya told me about her. Honnoh responded. “The chief has been strange today. He sent me home right after I got a good lead on the Mondai Group.” “The Mondai Group?” the lonely girl who was the chief’s daughter questioned, “Aren’t they just a bunch of street thugs? Why are the police interested in them?” “I thought they were just a street gang, too, until Kaguya told me to look into them more… At least I’ve been able to spend the whole day looking for Shikishi’s necklace.” Oh, right. My necklace. That’s pretty important. As soon as I started thinking about the necklace, I reached up to my neck without realising, and was feeling around for it. “Don’t worry, Shikishi. I have my ways of tracking it. After all, it’s a valuable Inpei family artefact, so my family’s honour rests on it.” Kaguya gave him an encouraging cheer: “Don’t worry; you’ll find it. You’re the great detective Inpei Honnoh, after all.”

I trusted Honnoh, but still… I really feel guilty about losing the necklace. Oh no… What if… I spoke up: “I hope it wasn’t someone from the… Uh… Notorious group of street thugs, was it?” “The Mondai Group,” Honnoh answered, “A bunch of rowdy gangsters. Though, they might be something even worse.” “Scary,” I replied, “I don’t want to get caught in some sort of international necklace-smuggling ring…” Then, Honnoh changed the subject to cheer me up.

“Kaguya, Hachiko, how’s work going for you two?” He asked. Hachiko told him: “It’s going well. Kaguya only has two months of training before she gets her licence.” The ruffian inquired, “What is your job anyway, Kaguya?” And I had to confess… “Yeah, I think you’ve told me about it before, but… I don’t remember.” “I think Hachiko will do a better job explaining.” Kaguya motioned to her coworker, who put on a serious face and went to explain. “Well, it’s pretty simple… The official name is ‘remote therapy’. You talk to people through online text and video chats, and try to help them. I don’t know if I really help at all, and it is pretty stressful… But I got my degree so I could help people! But I feel like Kaguya is better at it than me, even though I’m supposed to be training her… Hey, Kaguya, why did you want to become a therapist anyway?”

“Well, it’s pretty simple. After solving so many mysteries and encountering criminals who said they were motivated by anger and frustration, I wanted to help people like that. I felt sorry for them. Actually, so far I’ve even helped a few people who confessed to me they were part of the Mondai Group. It’s been a good source of information about the MG. …I guess I do have some personal motives. Sure, our clients are guaranteed anonymity, but… There are ways around it. Don’t tell your father I said that, Kaitou-chan.” The police chief’s daughter, who was apparently named Kaitou-chan, responded. “That sounds like a crime to be investigated by someone higher up than the city police chief.” “Maybe,” I interjected, “But that Mondai Group sounds pretty intense too, and Chief Kaitou seemed pretty interested in them.” “That depends on how deep it goes,” Kaguya retorted, “The Mondai Group is mostly known for acting around the city, but if my suspicions are correct, even INTERPOL could get involved. “Really? INTERPOL? What makes you think that,” Kaitou-chan asked. Naturally, I suppose, a police chief’s daughter would be curious. “International smuggling? Weapons, even?” “There’s no evidence of weapons smuggling, “ Kaguya admitted. “From what I can tell, all of the Mondai Group’s weapons were purchased domestically. Of course, it’s still illegal, but only the black market dealers would be culpable for smuggling.” The ruffian seemed pretty interested in the illegal weapons, of course. “So they’re getting guns from an underground black market? That sounds pretty interesting.” “Oh, I’m sure you’d love to know about it, wouldn’t you?” Kaguya shot him a glare, but Honnoh spoke next before the ruffian could say anything. “I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t mind checking it out myself. My pistol could use an upgrade, after all.” The police chief’s daughter Kaitou-chan didn’t seem to stand for all this talk of illegal activity. “Don’t you practically work for the police? I don’t think buying smuggled weapons is a good idea. It’s a miracle they even let you have a gun.” “Good point,” Honnoh conceded, “but hopefully it’ll keep the Mondai Group away from me.” “I wouldn’t be so sure about that, nii-san.” Kaguya’s cryptic statement sent a shiver down my spine. But my spine was hardly in the worst condition. My stomach was, though.

“I’m stuffed,” I informed Kaguya. Everyone else seemed to agree, and got up from the table, thanking her for the meal. “Thank you, everyone!” Kaguya gleefully clasped her hands together. “I’ll get the entertainment ready. Let’s meet back here in the dining room in a little while. For now, you can get to know one another.” As I started walking out of the room, Honnoh came over and whispered to me: “I’ll tell you what I know about the necklace. Follow me.” Naturally, I did as he suggested.

He took me upstairs into what I could only guess to be his office. It was lined with bookshelves, and had an old desk as the centrepiece. There was a window, but the blinds were closed-- not that it would have changed much anyway, now that the sun had gone down. The room was candlelit, which seems like a questionable choice given the paper doors, but I doubt Honnoh is anywhere near as clumsy as I am.

Honnoh took out a clunky, old laptop, and pulled up some sort of program. “That’s odd,” he said, before turning the laptop off and back on again. Once it had booted up, he loaded the same program, and his face contorted in a way I’ve never seen before. “Huh. That’s… Interesting.” “What’s going on,” I asked, feeling left out. “It’s the software for tracking the necklace,” he explained. “So, you can see where it is, then?” “In theory, I should be able to.” “What’s it showing?” “That the necklace is inside of the house.”

“Um, about that--” “Well, for better or for worse, it couldn’t hurt to check. Let’s split up and look for it.” “But--” Before I could let him know that I was pretty certain the ruffian at dinner was the necklace thief, he had already left the room. And in quite a hurry, too. It seems like he had other business to attend to. Well, I figure it only makes sense that if the necklace thief is here then the necklace is too, so I might as well go look for it. I don’t know if I can stand up against that hooligan fellow, though…

I headed downstairs to look for the necklace, but I didn’t have much luck. I couldn’t find the necklace thief, but I did search his chair from dinner, and the entire entryway. I expected to see Kaguya in the dining room, setting up whatever the entertainment was, but she was missing too. Well, if I wasn’t having any luck downstairs, I might as well go back upstairs.

When I made it up the stairs, Honnoh was still nowhere in sight, but the police chief’s daughter was there. She probably knew proper police procedure for locating stolen goods and searching property and such, right? I’m sure she could help me. “Kaitou-chan!” I called her over, and began to ask for advice.

“Can you help me with something?” “Yeah, sure. Shikishi, right? What do you need?” “Well, my necklace was stolen… But luckily Honnoh managed to track it somewhere in the house! I was wondering if you knew any super secret special police techniques for searching for stolen stuff…” “Sorry… I don’t know much about police stuff, frankly. Dad doesn’t really talk about work stuff when he’s at home.” “Oh, that’s alright…” Frankly, I was kind of disappointed, but I guess there’s nothing she could do about it. She’s not really a police officer herself, just because her dad is… Oh, right! She knew that suspicious-looking guy. Maybe he had a twin brother or something? Oh no! She was starting to walk away!

“Wait, Kaitou-chan!” “Hm? What is it?” “Well… About that guy you seem to know…” “Makoto? What about him?” “Well… he looks just like the guy who stole my necklace. Does he have a twin brother or something?” “What? Really? I mean, I don’t think he’s got a twin… But I’ll ask him. Maybe a cousin or something. Though, you know. It’s a popular style that he wears. Could have been anyone, really.” Before I could ask any more questions, Kaitou-chan had already gone back downstairs to talk to the guy whose name was apparently Makoto. I was going to go downstairs myself, but then Kaguya’s coworker Hachiko came up behind me and struck up a conversation.

“Hey, Shikishi-chan!” “Oh, hello, Hachiko-chan.” I didn’t really know her very well, but she seemed friendly. Kaguya talked about her from time to time, and I did have some interaction with her as a witness in the Salmon Incident, but she understandably didn’t want to talk about that at all. “Can I tell you something? It’s kind of a secret, but I think you should know, being Kaguya’s friend and all..” “Sure! I’ll do my best!” …I was terrible at keeping secrets, but if Kaguya’s coworker needed to tell me something, I would at least make an effort. “It’s about that Makoto kid…” Oh, right! That was the suspicious guy from dinner. The one who looked like the guy who stole my necklace. “Oh? Go on, then. I won’t tell anyone.” At least, not other than Kaguya, not yet. “Well… he’s part of that Mondai Group that Kaguya was talking about…” “Oh! So he is a hooligan after all… Then maybe…” “Kaguya said she’d protect us from any danger, but… I’m still worried about him.” “Me too! I think… I think he may have been the one who stole my necklace. I should at least ask.” It was going to be scary, but for a necklace that important, I could endure it! “Are you sure? It could be dangerous…” “But I have to! For the necklace! And I trust Kaguya when she says she’ll protect us. So it’s worth a shot.” “Alright… Just… be careful, okay?”

Let’s see… Now where was Makoto… That’s right, he said he was going outside to clear his head. He had to be in Kaguya’s garden. Unfortunately, when I got there, all I saw was an empty bridge and a moonlit pond full of koi fish. I gazed over the railing into the pond, and saw a reflection of my face in the middle of the bright, full moon. Just as I was about to give up on finding Makoto and go back upstairs, he came out of the dining room holding a can of fish food. It was now or never!

“You! You stole my necklace, didn’t you! I remember!” Hah! It looked like I had caught him off guard! He started fumbling over his words before he finally managed to get a sentence out. “I-- I don’t know what you’re talking about!” “You stole my necklace this morning! And you’re a part of that suspicious and dangerous Mondai Group! We have a tracking device in that necklace, you know!” “Okay! I give up! I’ll confess!” Wait, you will? Did I hear that right? “Like you said, I am part of the Mondai Group…” Hah! “But I know nothing about this necklace…” Is that so? Really? “But you say you have a tracking device. Why don’t you show me where it is on that tracking device, and we’ll look for it together.” Well… This was starting to backfire… “Well.. You see… it’s… The tracking device… The tracker isn’t here..” “So you’ve come to accuse me without evidence, then?” Well, I was backed into a corner. Only one thing to do now! “I’ll go get it! You’ll see!” I ran back into the dining room, but to my surprise, it was already full of people. Inpei Honnoh came in behind me, and shut the door between the dining room and the garden.

The only ones missing were Makoto-- understandable, he wasn’t exactly on good terms with everyone-- and Kaguya. Which was odd, as she was the one who had told us all to meet here in the dining room to begin with, wasn’t she? Honnoh seemed concerned, too, asking everyone: “Where’s Kaguya? I thought she was preparing something here…” “Who knows with her,” Kaitou-chan casually remarked, “Where’s Makoto? Probably off getting himself into trouble…” “He’s been out at the koi pond all night,” I answered, “not on the best terms with some of us…” “Yeah, I haven’t seen him inside much,” added Hachiko. “Well, that’s no surprise,” replied Kaitou-chan, “He’s not exactly a people person. Best to let him be while we wait around for Kaguya to get back.”

Right on time, Kaguya made her dramatic entrance. “Hello, everyone! I’m back! It’s entertainment time! …Oh, we seem to be missing someone.” “Yes,” confirmed Honnoh, “we’re missing Makoto. We decided it’d be best to leave him alone for a while.” “That won’t do,” scolded Kaguya, “we need everyone together! I believe I saw him out at the koi pond. Let’s go get him!”

And so we all trudged out of the dining room and into the kitchen, where there was no sign of Makoto, at least at first. Hachiko let out a shriek as she leaned over the railing, causing Honnoh and Umi to dash up beside her, and I followed closely behind. There, in the water, was Makoto, bobbing lifelessly up and down. And floating next to him was my necklace.