Early in the morning, in a coffee shop, a short-haired, brown-haired Female student ordered a black coffee and sat at a table, as if waiting for something.
Soon, Hirota Masami rushed into the shop, looked around, and sat down at the table where the short-haired, brown-haired Female student was.
"What's wrong, Shiho? Why did you call me here in such a hurry? Didn't we just meet yesterday?"
Hirota Masami asked, puzzled.
The Female student took a sip of coffee, then carefully took out a note from her pocket and handed it to Hirota Masami.
Taking the note, Hirota Masami saw an address on Shikoku Island written on it.
"This is?"
"His old home address."
The Female student said seriously, "Sister, please help me investigate the cause of his death. Besides you, I really have no one else I can ask."
"That's fine."
Hirota Masami said, lowering her voice, "But why do you suddenly want to investigate this now?"
Just as the Female student was about to answer, she suddenly saw a man in a blue windbreaker walking towards the transparent coffee shop door.
Then, the Female student, slightly flustered, got up and walked into the Toilet in the shop.
Seeing the Female student's unusual behavior, Hirota Masami felt very strange, so she followed the Female student's gaze and turned to look at the coffee shop entrance.
The man in the blue windbreaker walked into the shop, bought an iced Americano, and then left.
Hirota Masami naturally recognized the man; he was the one who rushed onto the stage after the incident at the "Fusae" new product launch event yesterday.
After the man left, the Female student calmly walked back to her seat.
Seeing this, Hirota Masami, as if she had discovered something incredible, leaned closer to the Female student and asked curiously,
"Hey, Shiho, that's the guy from yesterday's new product event, right! You're not..."
"Sister, don't overthink it.
Don't you think he looks a lot like that person?"
The Female student said with a calm expression.
Hirota Masami pondered for a moment, then finally shook her head.
"Is that so."
Seeing Hirota Masami's reaction, the Female student seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then picked up her coffee and took another sip.
"Then, could I trouble you, Sister, to help me find out who that person was just now?"
On the other side, the person who had just left the coffee shop was naturally Takato, and the windbreaker he was wearing was, of course, the one called "The Hermit."
After being washed and spun dry in the washing machine last night, and then ironed by himself, it was already wearable.
Because he had found a reliable Detective Intermediary Office, Takato set off early this morning to earn money, heading to the location of the Detective Intermediary Office called "Detective Intermediary Office."
In Japan, a country where private Detective is a legal profession, there are many professional private Detective who make a living from it.
However, the profession of Detective, in addition to necessary abilities, also requires fame to more easily receive commissions, which is very difficult for newcomers just starting out.
However, the number of Famous Detective is few, but commissions are endless, so naturally, intermediaries emerged.
In Tokyo, a large number of units acting as Detective commission intermediaries can be found online, but considering that there might be many shell companies or unscrupulous enterprises among them, Takato performed extensive screening of the information he retrieved using "crawler software" last night to reduce the difficulty of selection, and finally found this presumably legitimate "Detective Intermediary Office."
According to the address mentioned in the information, Takato arrived at a large European-style apartment building with "Sandglass" written on the doorplate, meaning "hourglass."
Pushing the door open, the wind chimes at the entrance immediately rang out with a crisp sound.
But Takato found that this seemed to be a coffee shop.
Soft lighting illuminated the beautiful decor, which had a somewhat classical feel, but there were very few seats in the shop; besides the bar, there were only a few round tables and chairs—which made Takato a bit awkward, as he was still holding an unfinished coffee purchased from another shop.
At the bar, Takato saw a man of about thirty or forty, wearing common black-rimmed glasses.
His whole demeanor seemed very frivolous, neither like a coffee shop owner nor someone related to the Detective profession.
There was also a boy wearing a baseball cap and a Female student in a maid outfit in the shop, but since there were few customers, the boy was aimlessly mopping the floor with a mop, while the Female student was intently stroking a cat in her arms.
And besides himself, the only person who seemed to be a customer was a middle-aged woman currently sitting at the bar.
Because of Takato's entry, the man with glasses at the bar looked at him and then naturally said, "Welcome."
Somewhat unsure, Takato walked to the bar and quietly asked, "Is this the Detective Intermediary Office?"
"Yes, let me introduce myself, my name is Itoi Horou, the owner of the coffee shop and the Detective Intermediary Office."
The man Itoi Horou replied, "May I ask if you have a commission?"
"No, I am actually a Detective, and I came here to accept some commissions."
Takato said.
Hearing this, Itoi Horou adjusted his glasses and looked at Takato with some curiosity.
"Excuse me, what should I call you?"
"Akechi Takato."
After hearing Takato's name, Itoi Horou pondered for a moment: "Hmm. I haven't heard that name before."
Takato had nothing to say about this situation, as the cases he had solved before had not caused any stir in the outside world, and the only time he encountered a case in front of the media yesterday, all the limelight went to Kudo Yukiko.
"It's like this, we divide Detective into three grades: 'Pine,' 'Bamboo,' and 'Plum,' and the payment standards for different levels of Detective are also different.
Currently, I don't know your specific abilities, Detective Akechi, so I really can't assign you a rank, nor do I know what commission to give you."
Itoi Horou said helplessly, then as if he thought of something, he pointed to the lady who was currently sitting at the bar.
"Oh, by the way, there's a client here right now, and I haven't decided which Detective to introduce to her.
Why don't you try first?"
Looking at the lady sitting at the bar, who seemed a bit anxious, Takato nodded in agreement.
So Itoi Horou went to the lady and introduced him.
"Ms. Hirata, this is Detective Akechi.
If you have any commission, you can tell him."
"Hello, Ms. Hirata, how can I help you?"
Takato walked to the lady named Hirata and asked.
Seeing a Detective approach her, Ms. Hirata, as if grasping at a lifeline, said to Takato in a flustered and somewhat agitated manner, "Detective Akechi! Please save my husband!"
Saying this, she even stood up and bowed to Takato.
Feeling a bit embarrassed by such a grand gesture, Takato asked Ms. Hirata to calm down, inquiring, "May I ask, what happened to your husband?"
"He's been arrested by the police, accused of being a murderer!"
Ms. Hirata said with a hint of despair in her voice.