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Dec. 18th, 2021 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMore bad news about relative's health, so that's...great.
I haven't finished watching an lp of the game, so no full-game spoilers, just as noted.
I've watched past that point since, and some of this has already been jossed, so just see it as a slight AU. it'll come up in an idle thought eventually but I feel like this might be the y4 of the franchise which is a shame because it might end here. also, i don't trust that guy.
Main Points:
Lost Judgment (spoilers until the end of ch 3)
Chapter Summary: Saori knows something's wrong the second Yagami-san picks up.
Word Count: 2658
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Yagami/Kaito
kaito does not appear in this one in person, neither do tsukumo or sugiura
“Oh hey, Saori-san. Sorry, I don’t have anything for you yet.” Saori’s eyes narrow. To anyone else, Yagami-san just sounds tired. It’d be understandable, having trouble sleeping in a different city, but Saori knows that the man sleeps in his office, shoes on and all. That pretty much means he could probably sleep anywhere. No, he almost sounds…upset.
“What’s wrong?” she asks bluntly, finding Hoshino-kun and Genda-sensei’s eyes drawn to her as she does.
“Nothing!” It’s said quickly and defensively enough the lawyer absolutely knows there’s something there.
“Out with it.” It’s not like bright, cheerfully persistent Yagami-san to sound like this, which means something’s deeply wrong.
The pause would be categorized as annoying stalling if she didn’t hear the telltale shuffle of him getting up and the ding of the elevator, which just makes her worry more. What can’t he say in front of Kaito-san, Sugiura-san, and Tsukumo-san? “It’s, uh…it’s pathetic really.” She hears a car go past. “It doesn’t affect your case,” he adds, if that was at all a concern.
He’s trying to be his usual cheerful self, but even if he’s bad at lying, the amount that he’s failing right now… It’s not with a case. Yagami-san just gets up every time a case knocks him down. Which can only mean…
“Yes, the amount you need me for personal advice is kind of sad. But I’m not against trying to help out a friend.” Hoshino-kun blushes and looks away, still unsure how to deal with Yagami-san’s personal situation, even if he isn’t actively against it the way Saori might have thought, while Genda-sensei abruptly tries to look busy despite the fact he is absolutely straining to hear every word. She’s grateful she’s not a woman who giggles; she doesn’t have to try hard to contain her amusement at her boss displaying fatherly protectiveness. This isn’t the time to express such things.
Yagami-san, meanwhile, sounds nothing but admiring. “You’re a great lawyer, you know that? Picking out an inconsistency in a statement like that.”
She’s had enough runaround from her latest client. She refuses to take it from a friend. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Stop stalling.”
The man sighs, and that communicates far more about his mental state than anything he could say. For a man like Yagami-san to sound so defeated is practically uncanny. It goes against his very nature. Yes, except for a time after Okubo-san, her mind reminds her entirely unhelpfully, sending a shiver down her spine. “I’m thirty-eight. I shouldn’t be getting jealous.”
She’s surprised, really, that Kaito-san’s the one messing up things, but she manages, barely, not to voice that. Yagami-san sounds bad enough as it is. “What did Kaito-san do?”
Genda-sensei frowns in the background, eyes narrowing in the way that says he’s disappointed. That’s the worst, because he doesn’t get angry, but neither she nor Hoshino-kun wants to disappoint him. He also seems to have forgotten he was pretending not to listen into the call. At least Hoshino-kun has kept up the pretense.
“It’s…ugh, I don’t know. Maybe he was jealous of me talking with Sawa-sensei, so he’s trying to return the favor? I don’t know why; it’s not like she hasn’t been insulting me every time we speak.” It’s not like that’s the first time Yagami-san’s dealt with such things; she must be pretty direct, or inadvertently hitting the exact correct wounds. Saori would bet on the latter, if she were a betting woman.
“Maybe he’s into that sort of thing.” Hoshino-kun chokes at his desk; she glances up with a look of concern and he frantically shakes his head at her silent inquiry if he needs help.
“Do you—” She can actually hear the blush in his voice, which wasn’t a thing she thought was possible before this moment. “Do you think I’m a bad boyfriend?”
The amount of heartache packed into his voice is painful to hear. Theirs isn’t a friendship built this way, but just this once Saori wants to drag him to a sweets shop and feed him until he’s bursting on her own yen. It might not fix everything, but it might make him happy in the moment, which is something. “If there’s something he’s not getting out of the relationship, he needs to tell you.” She considers. “I can lecture him whenever you want. He might not come to that conclusion on his own.”
He chuckles at that. Bleak, but it’s a start. “Thanks, Saori-san.” He pauses, then lets out a deep breath that sounds like it’s releasing at least some of the tension. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just feeling homesick. I never knew I’d miss Kamurocho, but at least I know where I stand.” The next pause, she knows, is him getting his facts together to properly communicate the case. “So, Kaito-san was mad that I was shutting him out, but he’s really bad at keeping secrets; we all know that. Even he knows that. We’ve had to do this before, and he’s never…happy, but he’s never been this bad about it.”
She considers for a moment. “Was it my fault, Yagami-san?”
“What? No, I don’t think so.” He continues, sounding a little distant, like he’s putting the pieces together, like this is an investigation. “He was acting weird before that. Visiting a high school put him in a nostalgic mood, apparently. He accused me of wanting to watch a student suffer rather than help, even when the way he wanted to help would’ve made it worse for her, and when we met a teacher he started hitting on her when we were trying to stay undercover and under the radar.”
“In front of you.” This is sounding worse and worse.
“Yeah, apparently she reminded him of one of the teachers he’d had a crush on back when he was in high school.” Yagami-san doesn’t sound like he likes where the clues are taking him, which she can’t fault him for. She doesn’t like where this is going either. “Then he got really mad at me for benching him from talking to her because I can’t trust him not to keep being a sleaze and getting off track, although it might not have mattered, since she hates my guts, too. Hates how I do things, for one.” As a detective, he gets results, but she can see why some people might prefer a more…delicate approach. “Made some quip about how I ‘finally needed’ him when I asked him to take out the Pigeon. And he just kept being on my case every time I spoke to her, accusing me of going on a date with her when we were meeting to get information and…I dunno, he might’ve said something about ‘scoring’?”
This is incredibly serious, and the point where, if Yagami-san were one of her clients, she would’ve suggested couple’s counseling.
“I’m sure you told him he was being ridiculous,” she continues, glancing over at Genda-sensei who looks more and more agitated the longer this goes.
“I did, but he’s not hearing a word I’m saying. Just keeps going.” Her friend sounds frustrated, and no wonder.
“There’s no talking sense into him if he won’t hear you,” she agrees soothingly. “I assume he’s entirely projecting?”
If Yagami-san or Kaito-san doesn’t fix this on their own, and she doesn’t get to lecture the big ex-yakuza for slowly ripping her friend’s heart in two, Genda-sensei of all people is going to do it. Which is slightly terrifying, because it easily has the potential to go somewhere even she’s never seen before.
“Of course.” Yagami-san’s insulted. “I mean, sure, she’s pretty, but there’s more to a person than a pretty face. Even if she agreed to date me, you’d be finding another corpse before too long…‘scuse me.”
She can only imagine the looks he’s getting, even if he apologizes for walking into someone. How odd it must be to be talking about bodies somewhere in Japan that isn’t Kamurocho. He’s not one to censor himself, even if he is just walking around town memorizing the lay of the land.
“Besides, I have Kaito-san. I’m not looking to trade in, now or ever. …Even if he might be,” Yagami-san adds, sounding a little despondent again.
“You mentioned that you were feeling jealous, though.” That’s the part of his story that isn’t adding up.
He answers readily enough, so she supposes there was a point to that statement after all. “I got jumped before I could talk to Sawa-sensei, and this…local handyman guy chases off my attackers before I can ask them any questions. Turns out this Kuwana guy’s an asshole, because he decides that I’m not ‘properly respectful’, so then he fights me, and then Sugiura lectures me about picking fights. Sugiura treats him more respectfully than he does me…” His voice trails off.
“You think of something?” Anything might be useful here, even if Yagami-san’s case only seems not as hopeless in comparison to Ehara-san’s.
“Yeah, actually. If this Kuwana guy is so great, why did Sugiura need us for, anyway? Why didn’t he just get Mr. Ego to help them out?” That’s definitely jealousy, Yagami-san had called that correctly, but it still sounds like that’s a good question. If Yagami-san is so unwanted, why call him in the first place? It’s not like Sugiura-san doesn’t know what he’s getting into, unlike any other client, and she was fairly certain he’d gotten over his grudge. “There’s no way I can ask Sugiura. I’ll ask Tsukumo; he’s still talking to me. Not,” he quickly adds, “…that the others aren’t, just…they aren’t much.” Only when they have to, she reads, which isn’t much better. “Add that to: why didn’t Sugiura bother even warning me about this guy to begin with? If keeping up a good relationship with him is that important…Sugiura knows how I am. He knows I don’t exactly pull my punches.” She contents herself with the knowledge that she’d thought of that first.
“I’m glad you have a lead there because I can’t tell you,” she responds bluntly, and this time, the laugh is slightly warmer, even if he still sounds hurt.
He hesitates, but this time it’s pretty clear he’s misidentified his emotion, mostly because there was some jealousy there and it’s probably hard for him to identify himself as distraught, even if he sees it in his clients all the time. “And then there’s Kaito. Warmed up to him right away, told me I was being stuck up, and went out drinking with him all night. Invited me along, but I could tell where I wasn’t wanted, and I still had work to do. He’s not even back yet.” Kaito-san’s being a closer friend to a guy he just met than his own boyfriend. No wonder Yagami-san sounds down.
“So, no one’s listening to you and even if they did, they’d just scold you for having an ego rather than listen to your concerns about essentially being replaced in your friends’ hearts. Kaito-san is suddenly neglecting you, hopefully just because he can be rather petty. And you think you’re the one that’s overreacting,” she summarizes, as Hoshino-kun gasps from his desk and Genda-sensei takes several deep, calming breaths. (If he hadn’t wanted the others to overhear, he’d have requested for the ability to call her back and requested she take the call somewhere private.)
He’s silent for one long moment. “I’m not above this, am I?”
“Anyone would be upset in such a situation,” she reassures him. She sees movement and glances up again to see Hoshino-kun stuffing papers in his backpack. “Yagami-san, I think your story has the whole agency ready to ride to your rescue.”
“Thank you all,” he states, and the warmth in his voice says he truly does appreciate it, “…but that’s not necessary. Though I might call you daily for reports and just…a sanity-slash-support check, if that’s okay.”
“Anything you need, Yagami-kun,” Genda-sensei mumbles in, apparently having just given up and picked up his line to listen in rather than rely on his own one-sided snooping.
That’s enough for Hoshino-kun to yell an enthusiastic “Yes!”
“If you could email Tsukumo the public footage of the trial and, if possible, the transcript, that would be great. Anything else you have on Ehara-san’s record—I know you probably already have that together, given how you’ve run trials. If Hoshino-kun doesn’t have a case, I have a little homework for him, if he’s up to it.” Saori gestures for Hoshino-kun to pick up the receiver, and he does, almost too enthusiastically. She smiles a little.
“Uh, hello, Yagami-san. I’m sorry to hear things aren’t going well.” He tries to be respectful, even if Yagami-san doesn’t particularly care.
“Eh, don’t sweat it.” It’ll bother him again later, but he’s moved fully into investigation mode, otherwise known as ‘if I work myself hard enough the memories won’t haunt me’ mode. It doesn’t work. For long, anyway. “I know you’re a big fan of the court library. Wanna go take notes on relevant laws and court precedents on the use of cameras for surveillance? I know a couple for the use of the Pigeon, but it wouldn’t hurt to know everything I can.”
“It’ll probably come in handy for one of my cases eventually. No problem,” Hoshino-kun bows, and then forgets to hang up before he’s just…out the door. At least it looks like he’s using the stairs like a normal person, rather than just jumping out the window. Though he’s not as athletic as Yagami-san and might break his leg if he tried.
“How do you manage to find trouble like this, Yagami-kun?” Genda-sensei asks wearily, and the detective isn’t fazed at all.
“It’s a skill, Genda-sensei. But like I’ve said, on the bright side, that does mean I won’t be out of work anytime soon.” Her boss grumbles at that—which is an entirely fair reaction, when Yagami-san’s decided to be vaguely annoying. Still, in this instance, Saori decides, he’s earned that right.
“Is there anything else I missed in the summary?” Saori asks, just to clarify, and at this point he decides to be even more obnoxiously cheerful.
“Don’t forget, our client, the principal, wants us gone, but me especially, Sawa-sensei hates my guts, the local gang’s got a bounty on my head…” He pauses. “Pretty much the only people I’m getting along with right now are Tsukumo and schoolchildren, although I’m pretty sure some of them still want to beat me up, too.”
Yagami-san is an absolutely ridiculous man. “That’s just going to make you dig your heels in more.” If an actual serial killer and Genda-sensei’s pleas couldn’t make him back down, nothing would.
“You know me,” he states, proud, and while there’s still a deep pain behind his words, the false cheer is far more convincing, now. “Huh, looks like Kaito-san’s on his way back. And his new friend isn’t even gonna walk him home.” Bitter, she decides, is the best descriptor. That, and if he were a cat, he’d either be yowling or trying to purr the hurt away. “I should get going, see if they decide they need me.” He might be better about his tone, but his word choice is more revealing than he thinks. “Later, Saori-san, Genda-sensei.” And without waiting for a reply, he just hangs up. He’s been doing that a lot lately.
“What are we going to do with him, Saori-kun?” Genda-sensei asks, hanging up his desk phone and making his way over to fix Hoshino-kun’s too.
“Keep him in one piece, no matter what it takes,” Saori replies, because that’s the only real reply she can give, and doesn’t simply confine itself to the physical. Her boss smiles sadly at her, proud.
“You’re a great person, Saori-kun,” he tells her.
“Does this mean I can have the last slice of cake?” she asks, because that cake had looked positively delicious.
“Absolutely not.” Predictable, but she’d hoped.
I haven't finished watching an lp of the game, so no full-game spoilers, just as noted.
I've watched past that point since, and some of this has already been jossed, so just see it as a slight AU. it'll come up in an idle thought eventually but I feel like this might be the y4 of the franchise which is a shame because it might end here. also, i don't trust that guy.
Main Points:
Lost Judgment (spoilers until the end of ch 3)
Chapter Summary: Saori knows something's wrong the second Yagami-san picks up.
Word Count: 2658
Rating: Teen
Pairing: Yagami/Kaito
kaito does not appear in this one in person, neither do tsukumo or sugiura
“Oh hey, Saori-san. Sorry, I don’t have anything for you yet.” Saori’s eyes narrow. To anyone else, Yagami-san just sounds tired. It’d be understandable, having trouble sleeping in a different city, but Saori knows that the man sleeps in his office, shoes on and all. That pretty much means he could probably sleep anywhere. No, he almost sounds…upset.
“What’s wrong?” she asks bluntly, finding Hoshino-kun and Genda-sensei’s eyes drawn to her as she does.
“Nothing!” It’s said quickly and defensively enough the lawyer absolutely knows there’s something there.
“Out with it.” It’s not like bright, cheerfully persistent Yagami-san to sound like this, which means something’s deeply wrong.
The pause would be categorized as annoying stalling if she didn’t hear the telltale shuffle of him getting up and the ding of the elevator, which just makes her worry more. What can’t he say in front of Kaito-san, Sugiura-san, and Tsukumo-san? “It’s, uh…it’s pathetic really.” She hears a car go past. “It doesn’t affect your case,” he adds, if that was at all a concern.
He’s trying to be his usual cheerful self, but even if he’s bad at lying, the amount that he’s failing right now… It’s not with a case. Yagami-san just gets up every time a case knocks him down. Which can only mean…
“Yes, the amount you need me for personal advice is kind of sad. But I’m not against trying to help out a friend.” Hoshino-kun blushes and looks away, still unsure how to deal with Yagami-san’s personal situation, even if he isn’t actively against it the way Saori might have thought, while Genda-sensei abruptly tries to look busy despite the fact he is absolutely straining to hear every word. She’s grateful she’s not a woman who giggles; she doesn’t have to try hard to contain her amusement at her boss displaying fatherly protectiveness. This isn’t the time to express such things.
Yagami-san, meanwhile, sounds nothing but admiring. “You’re a great lawyer, you know that? Picking out an inconsistency in a statement like that.”
She’s had enough runaround from her latest client. She refuses to take it from a friend. “Flattery will get you nowhere. Stop stalling.”
The man sighs, and that communicates far more about his mental state than anything he could say. For a man like Yagami-san to sound so defeated is practically uncanny. It goes against his very nature. Yes, except for a time after Okubo-san, her mind reminds her entirely unhelpfully, sending a shiver down her spine. “I’m thirty-eight. I shouldn’t be getting jealous.”
She’s surprised, really, that Kaito-san’s the one messing up things, but she manages, barely, not to voice that. Yagami-san sounds bad enough as it is. “What did Kaito-san do?”
Genda-sensei frowns in the background, eyes narrowing in the way that says he’s disappointed. That’s the worst, because he doesn’t get angry, but neither she nor Hoshino-kun wants to disappoint him. He also seems to have forgotten he was pretending not to listen into the call. At least Hoshino-kun has kept up the pretense.
“It’s…ugh, I don’t know. Maybe he was jealous of me talking with Sawa-sensei, so he’s trying to return the favor? I don’t know why; it’s not like she hasn’t been insulting me every time we speak.” It’s not like that’s the first time Yagami-san’s dealt with such things; she must be pretty direct, or inadvertently hitting the exact correct wounds. Saori would bet on the latter, if she were a betting woman.
“Maybe he’s into that sort of thing.” Hoshino-kun chokes at his desk; she glances up with a look of concern and he frantically shakes his head at her silent inquiry if he needs help.
“Do you—” She can actually hear the blush in his voice, which wasn’t a thing she thought was possible before this moment. “Do you think I’m a bad boyfriend?”
The amount of heartache packed into his voice is painful to hear. Theirs isn’t a friendship built this way, but just this once Saori wants to drag him to a sweets shop and feed him until he’s bursting on her own yen. It might not fix everything, but it might make him happy in the moment, which is something. “If there’s something he’s not getting out of the relationship, he needs to tell you.” She considers. “I can lecture him whenever you want. He might not come to that conclusion on his own.”
He chuckles at that. Bleak, but it’s a start. “Thanks, Saori-san.” He pauses, then lets out a deep breath that sounds like it’s releasing at least some of the tension. “I don’t know, maybe I’m just feeling homesick. I never knew I’d miss Kamurocho, but at least I know where I stand.” The next pause, she knows, is him getting his facts together to properly communicate the case. “So, Kaito-san was mad that I was shutting him out, but he’s really bad at keeping secrets; we all know that. Even he knows that. We’ve had to do this before, and he’s never…happy, but he’s never been this bad about it.”
She considers for a moment. “Was it my fault, Yagami-san?”
“What? No, I don’t think so.” He continues, sounding a little distant, like he’s putting the pieces together, like this is an investigation. “He was acting weird before that. Visiting a high school put him in a nostalgic mood, apparently. He accused me of wanting to watch a student suffer rather than help, even when the way he wanted to help would’ve made it worse for her, and when we met a teacher he started hitting on her when we were trying to stay undercover and under the radar.”
“In front of you.” This is sounding worse and worse.
“Yeah, apparently she reminded him of one of the teachers he’d had a crush on back when he was in high school.” Yagami-san doesn’t sound like he likes where the clues are taking him, which she can’t fault him for. She doesn’t like where this is going either. “Then he got really mad at me for benching him from talking to her because I can’t trust him not to keep being a sleaze and getting off track, although it might not have mattered, since she hates my guts, too. Hates how I do things, for one.” As a detective, he gets results, but she can see why some people might prefer a more…delicate approach. “Made some quip about how I ‘finally needed’ him when I asked him to take out the Pigeon. And he just kept being on my case every time I spoke to her, accusing me of going on a date with her when we were meeting to get information and…I dunno, he might’ve said something about ‘scoring’?”
This is incredibly serious, and the point where, if Yagami-san were one of her clients, she would’ve suggested couple’s counseling.
“I’m sure you told him he was being ridiculous,” she continues, glancing over at Genda-sensei who looks more and more agitated the longer this goes.
“I did, but he’s not hearing a word I’m saying. Just keeps going.” Her friend sounds frustrated, and no wonder.
“There’s no talking sense into him if he won’t hear you,” she agrees soothingly. “I assume he’s entirely projecting?”
If Yagami-san or Kaito-san doesn’t fix this on their own, and she doesn’t get to lecture the big ex-yakuza for slowly ripping her friend’s heart in two, Genda-sensei of all people is going to do it. Which is slightly terrifying, because it easily has the potential to go somewhere even she’s never seen before.
“Of course.” Yagami-san’s insulted. “I mean, sure, she’s pretty, but there’s more to a person than a pretty face. Even if she agreed to date me, you’d be finding another corpse before too long…‘scuse me.”
She can only imagine the looks he’s getting, even if he apologizes for walking into someone. How odd it must be to be talking about bodies somewhere in Japan that isn’t Kamurocho. He’s not one to censor himself, even if he is just walking around town memorizing the lay of the land.
“Besides, I have Kaito-san. I’m not looking to trade in, now or ever. …Even if he might be,” Yagami-san adds, sounding a little despondent again.
“You mentioned that you were feeling jealous, though.” That’s the part of his story that isn’t adding up.
He answers readily enough, so she supposes there was a point to that statement after all. “I got jumped before I could talk to Sawa-sensei, and this…local handyman guy chases off my attackers before I can ask them any questions. Turns out this Kuwana guy’s an asshole, because he decides that I’m not ‘properly respectful’, so then he fights me, and then Sugiura lectures me about picking fights. Sugiura treats him more respectfully than he does me…” His voice trails off.
“You think of something?” Anything might be useful here, even if Yagami-san’s case only seems not as hopeless in comparison to Ehara-san’s.
“Yeah, actually. If this Kuwana guy is so great, why did Sugiura need us for, anyway? Why didn’t he just get Mr. Ego to help them out?” That’s definitely jealousy, Yagami-san had called that correctly, but it still sounds like that’s a good question. If Yagami-san is so unwanted, why call him in the first place? It’s not like Sugiura-san doesn’t know what he’s getting into, unlike any other client, and she was fairly certain he’d gotten over his grudge. “There’s no way I can ask Sugiura. I’ll ask Tsukumo; he’s still talking to me. Not,” he quickly adds, “…that the others aren’t, just…they aren’t much.” Only when they have to, she reads, which isn’t much better. “Add that to: why didn’t Sugiura bother even warning me about this guy to begin with? If keeping up a good relationship with him is that important…Sugiura knows how I am. He knows I don’t exactly pull my punches.” She contents herself with the knowledge that she’d thought of that first.
“I’m glad you have a lead there because I can’t tell you,” she responds bluntly, and this time, the laugh is slightly warmer, even if he still sounds hurt.
He hesitates, but this time it’s pretty clear he’s misidentified his emotion, mostly because there was some jealousy there and it’s probably hard for him to identify himself as distraught, even if he sees it in his clients all the time. “And then there’s Kaito. Warmed up to him right away, told me I was being stuck up, and went out drinking with him all night. Invited me along, but I could tell where I wasn’t wanted, and I still had work to do. He’s not even back yet.” Kaito-san’s being a closer friend to a guy he just met than his own boyfriend. No wonder Yagami-san sounds down.
“So, no one’s listening to you and even if they did, they’d just scold you for having an ego rather than listen to your concerns about essentially being replaced in your friends’ hearts. Kaito-san is suddenly neglecting you, hopefully just because he can be rather petty. And you think you’re the one that’s overreacting,” she summarizes, as Hoshino-kun gasps from his desk and Genda-sensei takes several deep, calming breaths. (If he hadn’t wanted the others to overhear, he’d have requested for the ability to call her back and requested she take the call somewhere private.)
He’s silent for one long moment. “I’m not above this, am I?”
“Anyone would be upset in such a situation,” she reassures him. She sees movement and glances up again to see Hoshino-kun stuffing papers in his backpack. “Yagami-san, I think your story has the whole agency ready to ride to your rescue.”
“Thank you all,” he states, and the warmth in his voice says he truly does appreciate it, “…but that’s not necessary. Though I might call you daily for reports and just…a sanity-slash-support check, if that’s okay.”
“Anything you need, Yagami-kun,” Genda-sensei mumbles in, apparently having just given up and picked up his line to listen in rather than rely on his own one-sided snooping.
That’s enough for Hoshino-kun to yell an enthusiastic “Yes!”
“If you could email Tsukumo the public footage of the trial and, if possible, the transcript, that would be great. Anything else you have on Ehara-san’s record—I know you probably already have that together, given how you’ve run trials. If Hoshino-kun doesn’t have a case, I have a little homework for him, if he’s up to it.” Saori gestures for Hoshino-kun to pick up the receiver, and he does, almost too enthusiastically. She smiles a little.
“Uh, hello, Yagami-san. I’m sorry to hear things aren’t going well.” He tries to be respectful, even if Yagami-san doesn’t particularly care.
“Eh, don’t sweat it.” It’ll bother him again later, but he’s moved fully into investigation mode, otherwise known as ‘if I work myself hard enough the memories won’t haunt me’ mode. It doesn’t work. For long, anyway. “I know you’re a big fan of the court library. Wanna go take notes on relevant laws and court precedents on the use of cameras for surveillance? I know a couple for the use of the Pigeon, but it wouldn’t hurt to know everything I can.”
“It’ll probably come in handy for one of my cases eventually. No problem,” Hoshino-kun bows, and then forgets to hang up before he’s just…out the door. At least it looks like he’s using the stairs like a normal person, rather than just jumping out the window. Though he’s not as athletic as Yagami-san and might break his leg if he tried.
“How do you manage to find trouble like this, Yagami-kun?” Genda-sensei asks wearily, and the detective isn’t fazed at all.
“It’s a skill, Genda-sensei. But like I’ve said, on the bright side, that does mean I won’t be out of work anytime soon.” Her boss grumbles at that—which is an entirely fair reaction, when Yagami-san’s decided to be vaguely annoying. Still, in this instance, Saori decides, he’s earned that right.
“Is there anything else I missed in the summary?” Saori asks, just to clarify, and at this point he decides to be even more obnoxiously cheerful.
“Don’t forget, our client, the principal, wants us gone, but me especially, Sawa-sensei hates my guts, the local gang’s got a bounty on my head…” He pauses. “Pretty much the only people I’m getting along with right now are Tsukumo and schoolchildren, although I’m pretty sure some of them still want to beat me up, too.”
Yagami-san is an absolutely ridiculous man. “That’s just going to make you dig your heels in more.” If an actual serial killer and Genda-sensei’s pleas couldn’t make him back down, nothing would.
“You know me,” he states, proud, and while there’s still a deep pain behind his words, the false cheer is far more convincing, now. “Huh, looks like Kaito-san’s on his way back. And his new friend isn’t even gonna walk him home.” Bitter, she decides, is the best descriptor. That, and if he were a cat, he’d either be yowling or trying to purr the hurt away. “I should get going, see if they decide they need me.” He might be better about his tone, but his word choice is more revealing than he thinks. “Later, Saori-san, Genda-sensei.” And without waiting for a reply, he just hangs up. He’s been doing that a lot lately.
“What are we going to do with him, Saori-kun?” Genda-sensei asks, hanging up his desk phone and making his way over to fix Hoshino-kun’s too.
“Keep him in one piece, no matter what it takes,” Saori replies, because that’s the only real reply she can give, and doesn’t simply confine itself to the physical. Her boss smiles sadly at her, proud.
“You’re a great person, Saori-kun,” he tells her.
“Does this mean I can have the last slice of cake?” she asks, because that cake had looked positively delicious.
“Absolutely not.” Predictable, but she’d hoped.
