Chapter Text
Wataru didn’t even know something was wrong at first. Maybe he should have realized something wasn’t right, but wasn’t there some saying about hindsight?
But really, who would have blamed him for not worrying? After all, the exact same thing had happened during the case of the Smiling Man.
Mr. Utsugi hadn’t always answered his phone during that case, and he wasn’t always at the office. But that was normal when he was working on a case, and he would always turn up or call Wataru when he least expected it.
Sure, it had been four days since either him or Ayumi had heard from him… but he was probably just engrossed in the case he was currently working on. Earlier in the year, it had taken him a week to return their calls, and he had been perfectly fine; he had simply ‘lost track of time’.
Wataru and Ayumi were working on their own case, so he didn’t know much about the case Mr. Utsugi was working on. What he did know was mostly what the media had reported: a woman named Naoko Kawamura had been murdered, and her husband, Keisuke, had been murdered a few days later. For some reason, the Kawamura’s son, Naoto, hadn’t been the one to hire Mr. Utsugi to investigate the death of his parents. Instead, it seemed like Inspector Kamada had asked him to look into the case, just like what had happened during the case of the Smiling Man.
The case Wataru was working on together with Ayumi was something much simpler than a murder. Mr. Utsugi had begun letting them work on their own cases, but it had mostly been simpler cases of fraud or the like. Or like in this case, where someone had stolen an heirloom from their client, and they were in the process of tracking it down. It was a beautiful necklace her late husband had given her for their wedding, and she was desperate to get it back.
Wataru had been out investigating a lead most of the day, and it was already past midnight when he finally made it back to the office.
He kind of expected Mr. Utsugi to be sitting in his office chair, acting like he had never been gone. It wouldn’t be the first time, after all.
But when he opened the door to the office, the chair was empty.
“Oh, Wataru!” a voice called out once he had closed the door, and he finally noticed Ayumi. She was sitting on the couch with a cup of tea in front of her on the table, and a notebook in her lap.
“Let me guess, your phone died again, and that’s why you’re so late?” she asked, and he couldn’t even say anything to refute her, because of course his phone had died.
“Ah, hahaha…” he said sheepishly as he scratched the back of his neck, and Ayumi simply sighed as she grabbed her tea. She was definitely used to his antics at that point.
“Well, it’s not the only reason!” he then said, wanting to at least give some form of defense against her totally accurate accusation. “I was at Shoko Bar, trying to get a lead on the car the witness saw near Mrs. Hanazono’s house.”
The Mama of Shoko Bar, Shoko, had proven an invaluable source of information for them during the case of the Smiling Man, and he had begun going there whenever he needed any leads or insights, and also if he just wanted some company. Since he had turned twenty he could already drink, but he didn’t really want to drink while working on a case. Besides, Mama Shoko seemed satisfied with serving him the same barley tea she served to Detective Kamihara. She didn’t even mind that he was a detective anymore.
“Oh? Did you get anything from her?” Ayumi asked, seemingly too interested in his investigation to continue grilling him about his inability to remember to charge his phone.
“I didn’t get anything directly from her, but she told me to come back tomorrow. According to her, one of her Wednesday regulars has a dental clinic near where the car was seen, so he might know something,” he explained as he took a seat in one of the chairs. He poured a cup of tea for himself, enjoying the warm and soothing sensation of the cup between his hands.
Ayumi nodded before she began explaining her own findings, which weren’t much. It was mostly information about the necklace itself.
According to Ayumi, the necklace wasn’t actually that valuable, as all the stones were mere imitations. According to their client, an elderly woman named Fumiko Hanazono, no one else knew the necklace wasn’t real. The fake stones were very well done, so people didn’t notice the difference. According to Fumiko, the value was in the memories it held for her, and not the actual monetary value of it.
“Guess that rules out any jewelers and professional jewel thieves,” Wataru said drily as he took a sip of the tea, although he supposed they couldn’t rule out any jewelers that were really shit at their job.
“Yes, I guess so… although I guess an opportunistic thief will be harder to catch,” Ayumi said, and Wataru had to agree.
“Hey…” he then said, a small frown appearing on his forehead. “Has Mr. Utsugi been here at all, or contacted you?”
He still wasn’t overly worried even when Ayumi shook her head, although it was starting to be a bit strange; Mr. Utsugi always made sure to call them back, and it had been four days without contact at that point.
“He hasn’t contacted me either…” Wataru said as he looked at his phone, although come to think of it, his phone was still dead. He cleared his throat a bit while he put his phone in the charger, hoping Ayumi wouldn’t point it out.
“Last I heard from him, he was going to look for information regarding the Kawamuras a bit more,” Ayumi said, which Wataru remembered hearing him say too.
“Maybe we should start calling the hospitals,” he then said as an attempt to lighten the mood; based on the pillow Ayumi threw in his face, it wasn’t appreciated.
“Don’t even joke about that!” she said in a hiss, and Wataru could have sworn she had muttered something about ’jinxing it’ underneath her breath.
“Sorry, sorry… but I’m sure he’s fine! He probably just got engrossed in his case, and he’s going to be back in his chair before we know it, telling us all about it.”
Ayumi still looked worried, but she gave him a smile, probably trying to tell herself that everything was fine.
“Yes, I’m sure you’re right,” she said as she finished up her tea and got up from the couch. “Right, I’m going home. Are you going to stay here?” she asked, to which Wataru nodded.
“Yeah, I want to do some research before I stop for tonight. I’ll just sleep on the couch.”
Neither of them were strangers to sleeping on the couch in the office, and they knew Mr. Utsugi didn’t mind it. In fact, he had once said he preferred that when they were working late, since it could be dangerous going home that late at night.
Ayumi said her goodbyes after she had cleaned up after their tea, and once Wataru was alone, he continued his research. He was trying his best not to worry about their boss.
He was fine, surely.
He had to be.
~~~~~~
When four days turned to a week, Wataru finally let himself be worried.
“What should we do?” Ayumi asked on the evening of the seventh day, and Wataru couldn’t blame her for the panic in her voice.
“I already talked to Detective Kamihara. He said he would let Inspector Kamada know about it, so that they can start looking for him,” he said, both to calm Ayumi down, but also to calm himself down a bit. What if something bad really had happened?
… Shit, what if he really had jinxed it back then? Wouldn’t that mean all of this was his fault?
“I don’t really think there’s anything else we can do, other than wait,” he then said, since they had finished their own case that morning.
It was as simple as the case had seemed in the beginning. The woman’s sister had stolen it, believing the necklace to be very valuable. Apparently she had begun gambling, and she wanted to sell the necklace to pay off her debt. The car had turned out to belong to one of her close friends, and she had borrowed it to not be recognized.
Everything had been resolved peacefully, and the necklace was back to its rightful owner.
But then, there was the case Mr. Utsugi was working on, and the case of Mr. Utsugi himself.
“You went to see the son of the family, didn’t you?” he asked Ayumi, who gave him a nod in response.
“I did, and I believe his exact quote was ‘I didn’t see that fuckin’ detective at all that week, and I would remember seeing his awful polka-dotted tie,” she said, doing her best impression of the son. “Not exactly a charming man, but I suppose that’s to be expected from someone who has just lost both of their parents.”
“Yes, I…” Wataru said, although he trailed off what he was saying when he finally processed what Ayumi had said.
“That tie… do you remember when Mr. Utsugi bought it?” he asked, wanting to see if Ayumi could figure out what he had discovered before he told her outright.
“Yes, wasn’t it the day before he… wait,” she said, and Wataru was pleased that she could tell right away.
“Yeah… Unless Naoto Kawamura is somehow psychic, he shouldn’t know about the tie if he hadn’t seen him.”
Something akin to a deep worry settled into Wataru when he thought about the lie, because didn’t that mean things were actually really serious? After all, Naoto wouldn’t have any reason to lie about that.
Unless…
“I’ll let Detective Kamihara know about this,” he said as he grabbed his phone, which was thankfully fully charged for once in his life.
“Oh, if it isn’t the boy detective!” Kamihara called out when he picked up, cheerful as always. “Sorry, we don’t have anything yet.”
“We might!” Wataru said as soon as Kamihara had finished talking, quickly grabbing his notebook to look up information about the case. Even though it wasn’t a case he was personally working on, he liked to keep notes on them so he could study them.
He explained what he and Ayumi had discovered, and he could hear Kamihara scribble down in his own notebook while they were on the phone.
“... Got it,” he said as he finished writing, and his voice was suddenly more serious than Wataru had ever heard it before. “Truth be told, we’ve been suspecting Naoto Kawamura for a few days now. If he discovered that Detective Utsugi was closing in on him…”
He didn’t say anything more, but he didn’t need to for Wataru to already fear the worst.
“We’ll find him, don’t worry,” Kamihara then promised him, and Wataru really wanted to believe him. Really, he did! But he also knew the statistics.
When Wataru ended the call and sat down on the couch, he could hardly sit still. They finally had a solid lead, and they couldn’t even do anything about it!
“They’ll find him, Wataru,” Ayumi told him, and even though he knew she was scared too, he chose to believe in her words.
He had to believe them.
~~~~~~
The visit came from Detective Kuze the day after.
“We found him.”
Apparently Naoto had killed his mother during a drunken rage, and his father was getting suspicious of him, so according to Naoto, he ‘had no choice but to kill him’.
Once he realized Mr. Utsugi was on his trail, Naoto knocked him out and dragged him to an abandoned factory he knew about since he used to work in the area.
Wataru didn’t know if he should laugh, cry, or both. He really had jinxed it, it seemed like.
Mr. Utsugi was alive, but only just, he had been told. Naoto had apparently tortured him to the extremes, and he was currently in the intensive care unit. Wataru wanted to barge right into the holding cell and ask the son why the everloving hell he had tortured Mr. Utsugi that severely, but he had a feeling it wouldn’t go down well with the police.
He and Ayumi hadn’t been allowed to see Mr. Utsugi yet, so they didn’t know how bad it was. Based on what they had been told though, it seemed to be pretty bad.
“There’s still a chance he doesn’t pull through,” Detective Kuze said, and while her voice was as stoic as always, Wataru could see how gentle her eyes were when she looked at Ayumi, who had taken the news pretty badly; she was currently sitting on the couch, her body shaking as she cried.
Wataru himself was shaken up too, obviously. He had figured that Mr. Utsugi was simply busy and engrossed in the case, not… not this.
“Hey…” Kuze then said, her gaze moving to Wataru. When she began speaking again, he could tell her voice had gotten softer.
“Daisuke told me what you told him about the son mentioning the tie. That was some good work.”
Kuze didn’t usually praise people, so Wataru figured it was just something she did to calm him down.
It wasn’t really working, but he appreciated the sentiment all the same.
“Could you… tell us what happened to him?” Ayumi asked, her voice hoarse from crying. Wataru couldn’t really blame her.
Kuze was clearly conflicted, and she began muttering something to herself, not looking at either Wataru or Ayumi. After a little while she let out a sigh, and she began looking at the two of them again.
“As I said earlier, it was really bad. Apparently, Naoto gets really violent when he’s drunk, which was what caused him to kill his mother during an argument. Ironically enough, the argument was about his drinking problem. According to what he told us, he began drinking after knocking Utsugi out, not knowing what to do with the detective in his captivity. He was originally just going to keep him captive for a while, but the alcohol took over, and well…”
Cool, cool cool cool cool. Not terrifying in the least. Nope, that was perfectly fine, and Naoto was definitely a stable member of society.
“I don’t really feel qualified to explain all of the injuries detective Utsugi sustained, so you would have to talk to the hospital about that. He did lose a lot of blood due to the torture, which is the main reason they’re worried he might not pull through. They said that he’s suffering from a severe concussion as well, which would line up with what Naoto told us. According to him, he slammed Utsugi’s head into the concrete several times. He also suffered other injuries, but you should talk to his doctors about those.”
Ayumi looked like she wanted to cry again at the explanation, and Wataru felt like he was going to throw up. He wished he could be like Detective Kuze, who had just said all of that and not really reacted to it.
“I want to go there,” he then said, his voice steadfast and determined, which surprised even himself. “You said we can’t see him yet, but we should be able to talk to the doctors, right?”
Kuze looked like she wanted to protest at first, but she probably realized that he wouldn’t budge.
“Sure. I’m going there anyway to drop off something for Daisuke,” she said, and Wataru figured Detective Kamihara was probably one of the detectives in charge of keeping Mr. Utsugi safe while he was at the hospital.
“I… I’m going to stay here,” Ayumi said after a few moments, and the way her voice was shaking was almost breaking Wataru’s heart. He didn’t do it, but he really wanted to go over there and hug her close and tell her that it would be all okay. “Please call me with any news, though.”
Wataru nodded, and before he left with Kuze, he gave Ayumi’s shoulder a quick squeeze. He could do that at least.
And then, they were off.
~~~~~~
Detective Kuze had been right, the injuries were really bad.
According to the doctor they spoke with, Mr. Utsugi had been cut several times with a knife, which accounted for the excessive loss of blood. Other than the injuries Kuze had already explained, the doctor also explained that his right knee had been fractured pretty badly, and the damage had been bad enough that the doctor wagered he would have mobility issues for the foreseeable future. Even though he would probably be able to walk again, it was very likely that he would need to use a cane.
The injuries they were the most concerned about were the concussion and the loss of blood, but the doctor assured him that they had already started the blood transfusions.
He still wasn’t allowed to visit him though, so he was currently sitting in the cafeteria with a cup of coffee and a pretty bad burger. It was three in the morning, so aside from Detective Kamihara, there weren’t many other people there.
They talked a bit about the Kamiharas, and about how Makoto was doing. He had recovered fully from being shot, and because his memory had returned too, he had become much more happy and vibrant.
According to Detective Kamihara, he had gotten a job at the local library, and Wataru nodded along to the information, even if his mind really wasn’t in it. He was too worried about Mr. Utsugi to really focus on anything else.
Kamihara had seemingly noticed that he was distracted, and his voice had turned a bit more serious when he spoke again.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. You heard the doctor earlier! His body is accepting the blood well, and his condition is stable. I’m sure he’ll wake up in no time!”
“I… I want to believe you,” Wataru said, his voice quiet.
But I can’t, he thought, choosing to keep that particular thought to himself.
“Junko’s got the car, but I can call you a cab if you want to go home,” Kamihara offered, but Wataru shook his head. Sure, he was incredibly tired, but he wanted to stay in case there were any changes in Mr. Utsugi’s situation.
“I’ll just exist solely on shitty hospital coffee and this shitty burger,” he said as he tried to lighten the mood a bit. Kamihara didn’t laugh, but he did smile slightly.
“You know what? That’s fair. I’m going to leave soon since someone else is taking over my shift, but I can bring you actual coffee when I come back in the morning.”
Wataru wasn’t really a hugger, but in that moment, he really wanted to hug Detective Kamihara.
Kamihara left after a little while like he said he would, giving Wataru a slightly awkward pat on his shoulder as he did so. Wataru had long since finished the burger, and he ended up going to one of the lounge areas to wait, wishing he could do something.
Anything.
There hadn’t been any updates when Kamihara came back in the morning, but he did bring Wataru the promised coffee, which was gratefully accepted.
“Look, kid… you look exhausted,” Kamihara said, and honestly? He was, he really was. But… Mr. Utsugi had done so much for him. He didn’t want to just leave him.
“I can take over here while you go home and rest for a few hours. If there are any updates, I’ll let you know.”
Once again, Wataru was very conflicted.
His exhaustion won out in the end though, and he knew that he couldn’t be of much help at the hospital either way.
“... Okay,” he then said, and he definitely noticed the pleased expression on Kamihara’s face.
“Excellent. I’m staying here, but I can have someone give you a ride,” he said as he got out his phone, quickly calling someone.
“One of the other officers will take you home. He’ll wait for you in the parking lot.”
Wataru knew that detective Kamihara didn’t have to do anything like that for him, so he was grateful that he wanted to.
“Thank you,” he said as he continued drinking the coffee, saying his goodbyes to Detective Kamihara in the process.
The officer did indeed take him home, not seeming to mind the extra errand at all.
He made sure to update Ayumi with a text once he was inside his place, and just to be on the safe side, he made sure to plug his phone into the charger.
And then, he simply tried to get some sleep.
~~~~~~
Wataru hadn’t gotten a whole lot of sleep when he was back in the hospital that evening, having been granted permission to stay outside of normal visiting hours, just like he had the night before.
He was still incredibly tired, but well… he wanted to be there for Utsugi. He knew he didn’t have much family, and he wanted to at least be there for him, like Utsugi had been there for him before.
According to Kuze, Ayumi had been in earlier, but she was already gone when Wataru had arrived.
He had had the foresight to bring a thermo-cup of coffee from home, so at least he had that to drink, and not just the shitty stuff from the hospital.
Kamihara was sitting with him for a while, basically just talking about everything and nothing. Wataru assumed it was to get his mind on other things, since it wasn’t like there was anything they could do either way.
It was around eleven at night when Kamihara spoke up, his voice more serious that time.
“Hey… I’m going to leave soon, but I figure that you’re going to stay here just like you did yesterday. Do you need anything before I leave?”
Wataru could cry. He’d tell himself it was due to the exhaustion, of course, but in reality he was just so touched by how kind Detective Kamihara was.
“I’m fine… but thank you for asking. I think I’ll just go wait in the lounge and watch TV or something,” he said, to which Kamihara nodded.
“I’ll see you around, boy detective,” he said with a small smile, and Wataru figured it was an attempt to lighten the mood a bit before he left.
And then, Wataru was alone. He still had the coffee, but it wasn’t really doing a great job of keeping him awake, and he figured it was due to just how exhausted he was.
After a while he got up from the table he had been sitting at with Detective Kamihara, and he found his way to the lounge. It was empty due to the time, so he decided to sit in one of the couches and watchTV.
It wasn’t long until his exhaustion crept up on him though, and he was practically sleeping upright when he heard someone cough, and his eyes shot open as he was faced with a nurse he hadn’t seen before.
Oh shit, was he going to get in trouble for sleeping there?
“Excuse me, are you Wataru Shimada?” she asked, and since she hadn’t scolded him yet, Wataru figured that he was home safe. He nodded as he briefly rubbed his eyes, trying to get the sleep out of them as he looked at the time on his phone. According to the display, he had been sleeping undisturbed for a little while, and it was currently close to half past five in the morning.
“It’s about Mr. Utsugi,” she said once she had confirmed his identity, and Wataru’s heart felt as though it was lodged in his throat, until he saw what looked to be a smile on her face, behind her professional demeanor.
“He’s awake.”