Chapter Text
As per usual, Shuichi Saihara rode his bike to work, storing it by the entrance of the small gray-faded office building. More than half of his waking hours were spent working at the Saihara Detective agency doing research for his investigations or ding a variety of field work. Although Shuichi shared the last name, his uncle was the one who actually ran the business. Many people believed that the boy would inherit the business, but Shuichi felt more comfortable focusing on investigation cases rather than adding the management of a business to his schedule.
When he entered, a few “Good morning!”s were tossed his way and then reciprocated, leaving only ghosts of friendly conversation in their wake. Taking note that it seemed a lot quieter than usual, he sat down at his desk and took out the case file he was currently working on. A runaway cat.
Last night he had taken the case when no one else had and he planned to question the family about the cat’s interests and activities to try to determine where it might have run off to and then head out to look for it. The only reason he came to the office first was to organize a couple of files on the case and retrieve his investigation notebook that was left here overnight.
Before he had a chance to leave, his scattered, but organized, files had been overtaken by a large shadow. Looking up, Shuichi found himself looking upon a massive man with a bright smile looking down on him who he recognized as his uncle’s best friend and top employee. Startled by the sudden appearance, the boy fumbles out a greeting.
“H-Hello, sir. What can I help you with?”
“HA-HAH.” His voluminous laugh visibly shakes the liquid in Shuichi’s water bottle copying the slight flinch from its owner from the sudden loud noise. “I’ve told you before to drop the formalities, son. I have a personal request I would like to ask of you, if you’re not too busy today.”
Eyebrows raised slightly on the boy’s face by the sudden proposal from his superior. The man didn’t normally come to the others for help but more-so for light conservation when people looked particularly stressed from work or other issues. Focusing hard on not immediately tipping his hat down to avoid the man’s beaming eyes, Shuichi responds. “I have to do a small investigation first, but it should be over fairly quickly. What would you like me to do?”
“You know how you’re uncle is tackling that phantom thief case recently?” Of course Shuichi knew about the case since his uncle had been on it for a couple months and was very frustrated in having close to nothing to show for it yet. Even if the thief and their crew would only show up every couple of weeks following a notice to the police as to where, when, and what they would steal. They never left any trace behind and would even return the stolen good(s) the next day with a pair of dice as a kind of calling card. Wile the police did not take kindly to being mocked like this, the media had taken an interest and had started to call them DICE, which the thieves wholeheartedly embraced.
“The thing is that tonight is the next heist that they are going to pull and your uncle has been really looking forward to attending with the police so he can try to gather more clues to help in the case. However, I am going to have to bring him back home and confine him to his house today since his face was a lizard green when he came in this morning. For his own safety and to protect the others from his illness he has to go home and rest up rather than push himself with this case. That’s where you come in. Shuichi, I need you to take charge by attending the heist with the police tonight in substitution for Mr. Saihara.”
His uncle certainly seemed a bit taxed over the last couple of days in the office; Shuichi regret not taking measures himself to keep his uncle healthy. “I-I’m flattered, but.... Why me specifically?” the boy questions. “I’ve mostly taken smaller, personal cases recently, and I haven’t dealt with any large-scale thieves. Surely there are other people in the building who are more experienced than myself who would be able to gather more valuable information?”
“There are a couple others that I asked that have more experience with cases like this, I admit, but they all are either too busy to help out now or the request is too last-minute for them to attend. Also, a lot of them seem to avoid dealing with the case since so many of the initial detectives have dropped it for being too hard or time-consuming, leaving your uncle as the sole official investigator. However! I wanted to ask you as well, despite your inexperience with cases such as this, because you have proven yourself to be a very capable young man based on the performances and results of your investigations! I feel like this would also be a grand opportunity that will stretch your boundaries and give you new experiences as a detective! But of course, this is just a personal request from me for my good friend, so you can just decline if you wish. I don’t want to pressure you into this if it is out of your comfort zone.”
Thinking it over for only a moment, Shuichi decides that this experience would be good to expand his own knowledge and would ease some stress off of his uncle, who really should be getting some rest.
“Alright, I’ll do it. Could you give me the details?”
“That’s the spirit!” Shuichi had only a few seconds to prepare himself for a firm pat, more like a slap, on the back. “The police are setting up at 08:00 PM outside the location of the heist, the Kami Art Museum, three hours before DICE is supposed to show up around 11:00 PM. Here are some files on the subject for you to look over beforehand-” a small folder plops onto the already crowded desk, “-although there is close to nothing recorded about the group. The police will give you the details when you get there, so you can just try to focus on finding clues and information about them while leaving the chase to the police, but don’t be upset if you don’t figure anything out since no one else has either! Anyway, at least try your best and make the most out of your time there!”
With the major presence gone from the room, Shuichi’s body went limp in his chair while he gave into his habit and finally lowered his cap down to cover his eyes. To the boy who rarely gets an abundance of social interaction, talking with the energetic man was taxing and exhausting, although not unbearable. Figuring out a mental itinerary for the day, he decided to head out into the glaring sun and investigate.
This day was turning out to be much longer than Shuichi Saihara had originally intended.
XXXXX
The sun shone brightly, unhindered by the loose strings of white in the sky overhead. The slight breeze helped to alleviate the heat accumulating in Shuichi’s entirely black outfit. After being in the field for less than an hour, the Scottish Fold was found rummaging through a neighbor's trash to retrieve some discarded leftover salmon bits. The rest of the remaining time was spent to reunite the family to their lost pet and disinfect/dress the wounds that littered his body from the whole process.
Arriving back at his office with a couple hours until he had to leave to meet up with the police, Shuichi occupied himself with quickly organizing some of his other cases before focusing on the case file for the thief group DICE. The contents held only about ten loose papers as files despite the case being investigated for slightly less than three years.
According to the files, despite there being so much hype about the phantom thief, the heists were committed by a band of misfits with the codename DICE. Their name was based on the group leaving a pair of dice with the stolen goods that they return the very next day to the police. Stealing for about three years, DICE had grown bolder and more flashy with their heists, which had gained more attention from the media. Their flamboyant leader was the one who did the actual stealing while the others tended to deal with the pre and post theft accommodations, such as preparing their traps, “pranks” they dubbed them, and procuring an escape route. With the leader being at the center of attention, the media tended to automatically focus on him rather than his partners in crime.
The case file listed seven recorded members of the group, the first one being their leader, along with very brief bios of each of them. Most of the information provided dealt with physical characteristics with only quick notes of the mannerisms shown by the ones that were sighted the most often. The phantom thief himself had the most information recorded on him. He had referred to himself as a male on one of his heists and also that he was at least old enough to be out of high school after overhearing a reporter say that he looked like he was skipping out on his elementary school classes. There were very little if not zero potential suspects with so little information to go from and there was no way to confirm or even deny the words that came from his mouth.
Under his bio it stated that he was a compulsive liar and very fickle with his emotions, so even the experienced detectives had a really hard time trying to figure him and his gang out. The ones who were the most interested in figuring out his personality found that they had to deal with a lot more of the gang’s tricks than the others, almost as if the thief was intrigued by their attempts to get to know him and was testing them. Inevitably, even the most interested fell off the case because they just couldn’t deal with all the “pranks” the thief set up for them.
The case seeming more exhausting by the minute, the clock finally reached the appropriate time for the young detective to head out.