Legendary Detective at the World's End (Volume 1) (14 page)

   “What a pity.” Kirin said looking over to the center warehouse with disappointment.

     Lace raised an eyebrow at that remark and expression, wondering what he was expecting to do after he saved the girl. Disturbed and impressed by the tenacity of Kirin, Lace smiled.

   “We made it.” Lee said to Jade as he held her in her arms while they exited the building alongside Jake.

   “Need a ride?” Lace said to the smiling faces of Lee and Jake.

   “Thanks man.” Jake said approaching Lace. “You really helped us out a lot, even when you didn’t have to.”

   “Hell, I kind of had to.” Lace smiled. “I’m not one to refuse a pretty lady, tall or short.” He said looking at the happy smile of Jade.

   “Hey,” Jake said looking at the bag beside Lace. “Where did he get that money?” he asked Lace.

Lace smiled. “It’s your money.”

   “What?”

   “It’s yours—I’m giving it back to you. Kirin—I let him use it for this little task of his, but I want to give you the fifty pieces of gold you borrowed to your friend back.”

     Jake looked at the bag and Lace with suspicious eyes. “Karl told you.”

   “Yeah, but that doesn’t matter, does it?”

   “Why give it back?” Jake asked.

  “Think of it as an investment in your future. I get the feeling you and your detective friend might be onto something.”

   “Why would you say that?”

   “Because that’s my great gift in this world, knowing talent when I see it—that’s what all great leaders excel at. And I think you see the same thing in our detective friend that I do.” Lace said with a knowing smirk on his face before picking up the bag and throwing it into the backseat. “Take it when I drop you off.” he said turning around and heading to the driver’s side of the jeep.

     Smiling at his bit of good luck, Jake walked towards the joyful Jade and Lee as they twirled around with smiles on their faces.

   “Wait…” Jade said in her quiet voice, stopping Lee from twirling her around.

   “What is it, sweetheart?” Lee said in a sweet voice.

   “Where’s short Uncle?” she asked.

   “Who?”

     Jake laughed. “Jade, his name is Rin.”

   “Rin…”she smiled. “I like that name, Rin Rin, Rin Rin.” She said continuously until Kirin pulled away from looking at the center building to the attention grabbing call of his nickname. “Ah, not you too, Jade.” He said approaching her. “Why do you like that name? It’s not as cute as Kirin, or maybe Kiri.”

     Jade chuckled at his words as he approached her with a large smile on his face. With Kirin standing in front of her, Jade quieted her laughter as she dug through her pockets and pulled out a tinfoil ball. “Here.” She said extending her hand to Kirin.

   “Wait, no, not that.” Lee said concerned. “That’s for you.”

   “And I want to give it to Rin Rin.” Jade pouted.

     Lee sighed. “Fine. Go on.”

     Kirin raised an eyebrow as he took the small tinfoil ball. As he held it, he quickly knew what it was and unwrapped it with a giddy smile on his face until he saw the light brown surface of a sticky almond covered in the yellow hues of honey.

   “Ha!” Kirin shouted out. “I knew you still had it.”

   “Yeah, yeah.” Lee said. “You didn’t have to break my nose over it. But Jade loves them, so of course I would lie to you about it.”

      Kirin chuckled at Lee’s excuse and tugged at his nose. “You lovable degenerate gambler you.”

   “Huh?” Jade said. “What’s a De-Degen-erate Gambler big brother?”

   “Nothing Jade.” Lee said in a sweet voice before turning to Kirin with a mean look on his face. “Stop teaching her bad words.”

   “Hahaha…” Jake laughed. “Who said it was a bad word.”

   “I-I,” Jade said cutting through their noise. “I want to thank you Rin Rin for bringing my brother and uncle to me. So I want you to have my
almondy
.”

     Kirin smirked at her words, then pulled out the red tinfoil ball from his pocket. “You know what this is Jade?”

   “What is it?” she said with her eyes sparkling.

   “The tastiest snack in the world, the Chocolate Grenadier.” Kirin said un-wrapping the ball and splitting the chocolate in half. “And you know what makes it the tastiest snack?”

   “What?” she asked in anticipation.

   “Putting your favorite snack, Mr.
Almondy
, in the middle of it.” Kirin said dropping the almond into the center of the chocolate ball before closing it up and handing it to Jade.

     Jade palmed the ball with excitement flowing through her once nervous frame. “Really, I can have it?” she asked.

   “Yeah.” Kirin nodded. “Sweets were made for beautiful girls, after all.”

     Jade blushed. “Thank you.” she said immediately taking a bite out of the chocolate ball.

     Kirin smiled before walking off towards the other end of the yard. Jake could not help but smile himself at Kirin. Did he not want the Chocolate Grenadier? Wasn’t this the reason they went through all the gunplay and explosions for? No. Jake shook his head. We did all this for fun. Kirin would do this just for pure entertainment, nothing more.

   “Hey!” Lace shouted to Jake. “Where is he going? Bring him back—we need to get out of here. I’m tired of looking at this place.”

   “Yeah.” Jake nodded as he made his way towards Kirin.

     Running up ahead towards the sun rising slowly from the depths of the twisting waters of the sea, Jake caught up with the stroll of Kirin.

   “Hey,” Jake called. “We need to get back.”

     Kirin stopped and looked up towards the sea ahead before turning back to look at Jake. “What was your case?”

   “What? My case? Forget about it.”

   “Really? I do owe you one since I got the Chocolate Grenadier.”

   “And you gave it away.” Jake said standing beside Kirin as he looked out into the warped sea. “So you don’t owe me anything, in fact, I think I owe you now.”

   “I still want to know.” Kirin said with a determined look in his eyes. Noticing his steady gaze, Jake smiled and looked at the sea alongside him.

   “Fine then,” he said with a reluctant smile on his face. “It’s not really one case, it’s more like cases.”

   “Cases?” Kirin said raising an eyebrow in interest. “What do you mean?”

   “I want to start a detective agency in town, the first of its kind in this city. I’ve always wanted to start a business, and now, after meeting you, I think I found the right partner for it.”

   “Not interested.” Kirin said abruptly.

   “Wait—at least hear me out first.” Jake said with a sense of enthusiasm that held Kirin from walking away.

   “I’m listening.” Kirin said.

   “We’re not talking about petty cases now, we’re talking about the riddles and mysteries that swirl just like the whirlpools in the ocean, the things without cause, the strange and the wonderful, these are the things we will be investigating. We’ll solve a murder one day, the next, how the ocean spins, how the seas changed and where the beast of the Grey Forest are born. We’ll chase all the mysteries behind this new world, and maybe make a few legends of our own while we do it.”

Kirin smiled. “Now you’re thinking big.”

   “What? You don’t like it?”

   “No.” Kirin turned to Jake with a warm smile on his face. “I love it.”

   “Ta-ada!” Jake said with a grin from ear to ear while he pointed to a shabby looking shop behind him. Kirin, looking at its dirty windows and worn out wooden doors, tilted his head in confusion as to what he was looking at.

   “Well,” Kirin said. “This is… A nice shop, I suppose?”

   “No it’s not,” Jade said running past Kirin while kicking a ball to Lee. “It’s ugly and dangerous, a den of evil, just like big brother told me.”

   “Yes.” Lee nodded his head as he kicked the ball back to her. “It’s a bad place where good people are tricked out of their money—a horrible land where evil gathers.”

   “Money? Evil?” Kirin raised an eyebrow.

   “Now do you get it?” Jake said pointing at the building with emphasis.

   “No, not really.”

     Jake sighed. “You were just here a week ago, twisting words, gambling money, and talking down robbers, does that ring a bell?”

   “Ah!” Kirin snapped his fingers. “The gambling den?”

   “Yes.” Jake said.

   “What are we doing here? If we’re here to gamble again, I’m not interested, I’m not the gambling sort.”

     Jake shook his head, unconvinced. “Yeah, right. Everything you do is a gamble.”

   “No. Now that’s where you’re wrong. What I do is take a measured look at my environment.” Kirin said raising a hand and closing one eye, using the space between his open palm’s thumb and index finger as a scope while he turned and looked at the light traffic of the Downtown local shopping area. “I look,” he continued. “Listen, and learn from everything around me, gathering information and using it appropriately to my advantage.” As he spoke, his eyes eventually landed on Lee who was still playing kick ball with Jade. “While a gambler enters a situation with no information beyond the rules set against him. Contrary, when I walk into a place, I take all information and set the rules myself… Therein lies the difference between us.” he said turning the direction of his handmade scope to Jake. “No,” he continued. “I’m not a gambler—I am what you call a scientist—or a detective, you take your pick.”

   Jake clapped his hands enthusiastically. “Well said, and that’s why I brought you here Rin, so you can be a detective, professionally.”

   Kirin broke his hardened stance and looked at Jake. “What are you on about?” Kirin looked at the den again. “There’s no gambling in their anymore, there are no cases to be found in there.”

   “No, not to be found,” Jake raised a finger in the air as he wore a giddy smile on his face. “To be waited on… Lee!” Jake called out, causing Lee to quickly cradle the ball underneath his foot and kick it up into his arms as he ran to a moped with a folder resting on top of it. Grabbing the folder and picking out a piece of paper, Lee raised his hand into the air while holding a flyer.

   “Ta-da!” Lee said with enthusiasm as a sheet of paper bearing the likeness of Kirin with the title
Legendary Detective Agency
at its header.

   “What is this?” Kirin asked.

   “It took a while to draw the concept out,” Lee said admiring his work. “I mean, Jake asked me to make you look more mature on the flyer,” Lee snickered. “I know—impossible, right? But I tried anyway. So I did my best fantasy sketch of you. It’s rough around the edges, but it works.” He said looking at the increased height and chiseled facial features of Kirin on the sketch.

     Kirin turned to Jake with a confused expression on his face. “What is this all about?”

   “C’mon,” Jake said. “Don’t you remember us talking about this a week ago? About partnering up and starting a new business?”

   “Um…”

   “You said you loved the idea… So, I thought we needed a place where people could find us. And, here we are, our new agency headquarters.”

   “Agency?”

   “Yeah,” Jake nodded with a sigh of disbelief at Kirin’s forgetfulness. “Last time we met, before we got off track, I wanted you to take a case, well, it was more like a test run to see if you might be interested in getting into business together, you know, start up an agency in town for all those seeking answers to their personal mystery.”

   “Eegh…” Kirin said disgusted. “Sounds tedious.”

   “Or convenient.” Jake smiled as he approached the hesitant Kirin. “Think of this Rin, instead of chasing the mysterious, how about letting them come to you? If we build the proper clientele and relations within the community, we can pick and choose the most interesting cases, hell, we might discover new cases that would have been impossible to find with just roaming the streets.”

    “Tch…” Kirin sucked in his teeth. “Still, its sounds tedious dealing with all the people.”

   “That why it’s a partnership. You let me deal with the customers and I’ll let you handle the cases.”

     Kirin raised an eyebrow. “Hmm… Sounds interesting enough.” He said looking at the building. “Where did you find the money to rent the space out? I thought you would be at some gambling house throwing your money away by now.”

   “Hey, I might not look like it, but I’m a hard worker, don’t let the one time mistake of me listening to Lee’s dumb plan on beating the house tell you otherwise.”

   “Pff…” Kirin laughed. “A plan to beat the house—the start of every two-bit gambler’s scheme.”

   “Hey,” Lee shouted out as he played ball with Jade. “It would have worked if the house didn’t cheat.”

   “You fool.” Kirin said looking up at the sky. “All gambling houses cheat.”

   “Listen,” Jake said grabbing his attention. “Rin, I don’t make the same mistakes twice. I worked hard to save my money: I’ve worked as a messenger, cleaner, blacksmith assistant, carpenter’s assistant, every damn assistant in this city until I had enough coin to open up my own shop. I never knew what kind of business I wanted to open up before, not until the day I saw you work your magic in the Courtesan house. You have talent Rin, enough talent to build something new and successful around in a town with a lot of big ideas waiting to be found.”

   “Big ideas?”

   “You know Teigen, it’s a growing city, many successful people are coming here, whether for the hunt in the Grey Forest or the treasure expeditions in the mines, and they all have their secrets. This town is now bursting with mysteries, searching for someone to unravel them. And like I said the other day, don’t you want to find out what’s happening in this world, and not just the stories you’ve been told. Don’t you want to experience what makes this island go round and not just listen about it in the rumors?”

   “Hmm…” Kirin lowered his head in thought, then glanced at the excited smile on Jake’s face before walking past him and heading for the front door of the old den.

   “Hey, where are you going?” Jake asked.

   “To check out our new agency, I dare not work in a filthy environment.”

     Jake smiled as he chased him inside the old den turned detective agency. “Don’t worry. Me and Lee cleaned things up inside.” Jake said as they walked into its main hall where two desks stood side by side at its center with pairs of filling cabinets and along with couches to each sides of the wall with one chair stationed in the center of the room.

   “That chair is for clients.” Jake said stepping in front of Kirin. “It’s surprising to think the old gambling den only had this one room with the old office in the back.”

   “Why not use the old office?” Kirin asked.

   “It’s better to use it as storage, plus it’s not welcoming enough to customers to bring them in an old dank office, better to be in the light, away from the shadows, we’re trying to break open cases and bring them there after all, might as well set the atmosphere for that.”

     Kirin glanced at Jake’s profile as he grinned happily. “You’re really serious about this, huh?” he said. “What about your stint as a loan shark for wandering gamblers, you’ve giving up on that already?”

   “Another misunderstanding,” Jake said sitting on top of a desk. “Lee was supposed to spend that money on a new apartment and shop for him and Jade. Instead, he got some bad ideas about doubling his money before ever spending it. From there, we had last week’s adventure. Once burned, you always learn.”

   “Once burned, you always learn?” Kirin smiled warmly. “Sounds like something you would say.”

   “Exactly.” Jake grinned. “So what do you think?”

     Kirin looked at the refurbished walls and clean floors along with the sturdy furniture inside. Turning to the front side of the room, he noticed covers over a window. “I never knew there was a window here.”

   “Yeah,” Jake said sitting up. “Before, inside the den, they would weld them shut, you know, to keep a gambler from ever knowing how much time past between games.”

   “Smart. To keep a player focused on each hand, making them never to consider what sort of insane person gambles from midnight to midday.”

   “Something like that. Anyways, I un-welded them with a little help from Lee. You know, he may seem a little untrustworthy, but he’s a skilled carpenter and mechanic. If he ever applied himself, he could make something out of himself.”

   “And is that why you look out for him so much?” Kirin said pushing the curtains to the side to look at Lee playing with Jade. “Or is it the little girl you’re looking out for?”

   “Both.”

     Kirin chuckled before turning around to look at Jake standing in the center of the room. “I give you no promises,” Kirin said running his fingers through his wavy dark brown hair, making his baby face even more feminine in its features as he spoke in his soft voice. Jake stood up straight and shuffled the weight of his body while he felt a bit uncomfortable in his presence.

   “But since I owe you,” Kirin continued as his eyes looked over the room. “I wouldn’t mind trying something new. Let’s do it.”

   “Um… What? D-Do what?” Jake said still uncomfortable with himself.

   “The detective agency, let’s do it, I don’t have a bit of confidence that this will drum up an interesting mystery for me to take a bite out of, but It can’t hurt to try.” Kirin said. “And to be able to sit around idle for a change might be fun.”

   “Ah, yeah.” Jake replied finding his words again. “Don’t worry about that, I had Lee spread flyers all over the city earlier today, we’re bound to find an interesting case.”

   “Good.”

   “Wait,” Jake said gathering his thoughts. “I’ve wanted to ask you this, but where do you live? I mean, where do you go when you aren’t wandering the streets?”

   “I’m an immigrant,” Kirin replied walking towards the desk on the right. “No rights to own property in Teigen and a group home is too dull for my taste, I rather be in the streets, in the thick of things.”

   “Then where do you sleep or go to the bathroom?”

   “I only sleep an hour a day, too much thoughts rolling around the mind to let it idle. And the bathroom… You can walk into any old restaurant or Courtesan house to find a comfy washroom.”

   “No you can’t, those are for paying customers.”

   “Lucky for me, I’m a good customer.” He smiled deviously. “You’d be surprised how easy work comes to you when you wander. I could save for a big meal and a short stay in the Red Sector every night off saving puppies for dotting wives in the High-End Sector.” Kirin said these testosterone filled words contrasting the general feminine look of his appearance—hearing him speak so frankly about it, made Jake feel all the more uncomfortable.

   “Yeah…” Jake said raising an eyebrow in wonder of his words. “Wait… You said you were an immigrant, right? Where are you from?”

   “The Outskirts.” Kirin said looking at the empty bookcase by the wall.

   “Wow…” Jake looked on with surprise. “Which part?”

   “Does it matter—it’s all bad the same way.”

   “I guess so.” Jake nodded. “There are a lot of illegals that try to make their way to the city, but the border guard is so ruthless, many of them die on their way here. Not to mention most of them have been gotten to by beast before they reach here.”

     Kirin smiled as he paced the room, looking around. “Riches are not the rights of all men, only the daring few.”

   “Or those born into it.”

   “That too.” Kirin chuckled as the front door slammed opened, catching his and Jake’s attention. Turning to it, they saw a young girl wearing a black blouse and pants with a fitted cap on with the words “Yum Yum” etched on its fore.

   “Excuse me,” Jake said stepping forward. “Can I help you with something?”

     Panting heavily as the door swung shut, the girl looked over the face of Kirin and Jake before deciding to step towards Jake.

   “Hey,” the girl said in her throaty voice. “Are you guys the detectives?”

   “No.” Jake said before pointing to Kirin in the back. “He’s the detective, I’m just the manager.”

   “Well, I’m going to need your help, Mr. Manager.”

   “With what, might I ask?”

     The girl reached into her side belt and pulled out a small bag that she handed to Jake. “Here’s five pieces of silver, I heard that’s the minimum going rate.”

   “Or twenty copper, but that’s right.” Jake said grabbing the bag. “But that’s just for advisement, not taking on a full case. You’ll need another five pieces for that.”