Chapter Text
The day after his meet-up with his friends at the cafe, Shuichi was buying some get-well macaroons for his uncle.
After checking his phone, he had immediately called his uncle back and apologized for not being able to contact him sooner. Brushing it off, his uncle had told him that he wanted to talk about something with Shuichi and asked when the boy could visit. They decided that they could meet up the very next day at his uncle's home since they both had some free time from work and young detective wanted to know what important thing his uncle wanted to talk to him about in person.
Shuichi arrived at the cottage-esque house of his uncle right on time, just a minute or two before their planned meeting time. Knocking on the door thrice, he stood on the steps and waited, although it turned out to not be a long time.
The door opened to an old man in his 50s who didn’t look much older than 30. A kind smile spread across his face as he saw the boy and opened the door a bit more to let his nephew in. “Shuichi! Good to see you. Come in, come in.” Doing so, Shuichi handed him the macaroons with a nod of thanks as they both headed straight towards the living room, where they usually sat for their various talks here.
“Ah, this is why you’re my favorite nephew! You always know just what I want.”
Shuichi let out a soft chuckle. “That and the fact that I’m your only nephew.”
“That just means that you can’t deny that it’s true.” Mr. Saihara countered with a wink and continued. “Take a seat, I actually want to discuss some work with you. It could probably have waited until we were at work, but I wanted to discuss this with you as soon as possible to know where you stand on the issue.”
He sat down with a sigh. “First thing’s first, I'm going to announce my retirement from the phantom thief case tomorrow at the office.’
Shuichi was stunned. His uncle had never willingly given up a case before, something was wrong here and Shuichi jumped to the worst case scenario. “What? But why? You’re not dying are you?”
“Oh no. No, it’s nothing as dramatic as that. It’s just what with my recent sickness and me growing older and having less energy than in my youth, it pains me to say that my body can no longer handle always chasing after the thief all over the city. Mind you, I’m not even close to kicking the bucket just yet, and I still plan to work on investigations, but I feel like the case needs a fresh young face who can handle all the exercise that it brings from pursuing a wanted criminal. Which leads into the real reason I wanted to call you over here.” He took a deep breath and looked at Shuichi with determination in his eyes.
“I was hoping that you would be able to take over the case in my departure.”
Shuichi just sat in his seat with his mouth slightly agape. Not only did his uncle just tell him that he’s quitting the phantom thief case, but he also wants Shuichi to take it over for him? His friends had told him to think about taking the case himself, but this all seemed to be progressing too fast.
“I don’t want to leave the police hanging without an official investigator, especially seeing as they had personally requested me when I first took the case. You are my first choice to take over the case for a couple of reasons. For one, you are already acclimated with the case and the police already seem to like having you investigate for them when I contacted them earlier. That reminds me, you had an encounter with the thief himself huh? Seems that even the thief has already accepted you as an investigator as well. He only taunts those he thinks will give him a challenge, and those ones are usually the investigators who were able to get the most information on DICE. You seem to have shown your potential as an investigator to both parties.”
“Another reason, an important one, is that you already seem to have taken an interest in the case from what I’ve heard, despite being dragged onto it because of my circumstances. You will still be able to work on cases outside of this one as well, the heists don’t happen as often as the recent two have, and there isn’t much research to do outside of what you can get from them during their heists and what's already available.”
Rubbing his neck a bit awkwardly, “I urge you to at least consider taking my offer, but I understand if you don’t want to undertake this. I don’t want to pressure you into taking the case if you don’t want to. I know it’s not your field of expertise and it’s outside of your comfort zone, but I do feel like you are the best person for the job given all of the information I have gathered.”
Pride billowed in Shuichi’s chest as he thought about what this offer meant. He knew that his uncle had a reputation of only giveing large cases to the detective(s) that were the most suitable to the task that was being handed out. This just meant that his uncle saw Shuichi as the best person to take on the DICE case and the detective couldn’t help but feel like this was a testament as to how much his uncle has come to respect his skills as a detective. Even if Shuichi himself doubted his own skill as a detective, his uncle believed in him and betraying his expectations wasn't even an option.
Finger lingering by his mouth while in thought, Shuichi was able to give his final decision to his uncle sooner rather than later. “I’ll take the case. It seems like it will be fun, and I was just talking to my friends about taking it on myself as well, so this works out well for me. I just thought I would be working on it with you rather than instead of you.”
Not even trying to hide the smile on his face, his uncle spoke again. “Great! I’m sorry you have to work on it alone with the police for now, although I have to admit that I’m glad you took it. I had some back-up options on who to contact to replace me if you rejected the offer, but I hoped that this case would stay in the most capable detective’s hands.” Shuichi let out an involuntary squeak as his uncle suddenly gave him a hug from the side. ”I’m so proud of you! You’ve grown so much from when you were solving your first mystery in class!”
Blushing slightly from the praise, Shuichi responded, “I’ll do my best and work hard to make sure the case won’t go unsolved.”
“That’s my favorite nephew! I see that tenacity runs in the family! Come here!” Pushing away from the nuggie his uncle was giving him, Shuichi couldn’t help but smile with the older man as he laughed having worked everything out.
XXXXX
They talked for a couple more hours about career happenings as well as personal events going on before parting for the night. “Feel free to come to me with any questions about the case, even if it’s just to talk! I’d be glad to share my experiences with you if you find yourself in a rut!”
“Oh course! It was nice talking to you! See you at the office!” Shuichi waved goodbye as he began to pedal back to his own home.
The young detective couldn’t help but feel conflicted as the wind brushed against his face as he headed home.
He was sad to see his uncle have to give up the case since he had been invested in for a long time now and was focused on trying to solve it. His uncle would never give up this case unless he truly felt he had to, so Shuichi couldn't help but worry over his health.
On the other hand, Shuichi had finally decided to take on the case himself to catch the phantom thieves of DICE. Even if he was given a nudge from his friends and his uncle, Shuichi felt that he wanted to work on this case himself. He wanted to live up to everyone's expectations and do his best.
As soon as he arrived home, Shuichi sat down at his desk and tried to research everything he could about what was available concerning the thieving group DICE. He would hate himself for investigating so late at night, but in the morning, but Shuichi was too focused on his work to care. As he put together his materials, he tried to push down the bubble of excitement that was growing in his chest, but he couldn't stop the corners of his lips up turning into a smile when he looked out his window and towards the bright full moon in the sky.
He would not give up until DICE was caught.