There was nothing he couldn't solve. His jokes and immaturity aside, detective Amamiya Tsukito had a perfect score for cracking cases that were given to him despite being the only detective in a newspaper firm. Not many employees working for the newspaper firm questioned his presence and how he spent most of his time chuckling to himself while staring outside the window of their office, within one hand a detective fiction written in a foreign language and the other a dango stick.
After all, he got along with the boss.
"Amamiya Tsukito-kun, you say?" The boss hummed in amusement, resting her chin on her left palm. "He has a pretty face. Other than that, he's a genius."
Shijou Hiyori grunted at the words released by his very own boss, hunching his back towards the coffee table inside the boss' office and placing a teacup back onto its saucer. "The real question is: There is something wrong with the Gion district inn, isn't there? Otherwise, you wouldn't have given any of us an inn ticket, to begin with."
"Hold on, are you saying that if it weren't for any interesting cases, I wouldn't give any of my staff a break?"
"Indeed."
The boss then let out a chuckle, one loud enough to shake the entire firm building. "You know, there's something in that inn that intrigues me."
Hiyori perked his head up from the coffee table with furrowed eyebrows. "That is?"
"A girl," The boss simply answered. "The owner of the beautiful inn with many customers every single day, apparently no customer nor staff member has ever seen their employer's face."
That indeed was quite peculiar. Of course, it wouldn't be too much of a big deal if it was a larger scaled business, yet it was a smaller business and none of the staff members had ever seen her. Not to mention, Hiyori had to see his boss' face every single morning, every single day even though the scale of the newspaper firm was not to be underestimated –– somewhere in the back of his head, Hiyori felt envious of the inn staff's inability to meet their boss.
"So, is this for a mere scoop to see her face, or is this a case for the detective?"
Hiyori left the boss' office with nothing but apprehension written all over his face. He saw Tsukito as a dear friend, one with overflowing intelligence and a mouth large enough to release endless debates with. The response to his question before he left the office was one that once again prove Tsukito's so-called 'worth' to the newspaper firm, yet something in him decided to think that there was an underlying sense of danger within the case.
After all, the boss told him that it was in no way a mere scoop, but a mysterious case that could change countless lives.
"He might excel in the brains, but he certainly isn't one to master the fist," Hiyori sighed to himself, recalling the thin arms that seemed as if he had barely carried anything in his life.
"And who might you be talking about?" A familiar voice rang in his ears. Sitting on the couch of the firm's lobby was no one other than Tsukito himself, folding his arms and giving the type of pout any childish individual would muster. He then stood up, the long hem of his hakama pants flowing behind him. "In order to not miss any action, we should make haste. The case wouldn't be coming to you unless you've approached it first."
"That's hilarious."
"Hm, we'll see," Tsukito replied lazily. He then released a loud yawn while they left the building, their destination being the ryokan in the near district. Their conversations from one side of the street to the other, enough to reach the horizon, were nothing more than idle chatter.
"Oh, that's right –– Hiyori, you should pay more attention."
"To?'
"Your sister."
Hiyori raised an eyebrow, stopping his steps despite reaching the ryokan. "What do you mean?"
Tsukito took a quick glance at his friend's confused demeanour before facing forward, taking the last few steps until his figure was directly in front of the inn's warm lights. "It seems she's…"
Before he was able to elaborate, a brisk and loud sound like a gong instantly stole their attention. It would be too unusual for the presence of a gong to be inside the inn –– yet the sound was too close for it to belong to the closest shrine. Not only that but there was also now an eerie sensation crawling up their backs.
Something about their surroundings had changed.
"Hey, Tsukito…do you––"
"Yeah," the latter simply reassured. He then studied the atmosphere without a hint of panic on his face. Most of the time, Hiyori would usually dread the daily sight of Tsukito's carefree, foolish looks every single time he distracted the newspaper firm from working on their articles. Now, with an indescribable –– unreadable –– aspect of him Hiyori couldn't quite dabble on, he purely waited for a response while crossing his arms.
"There's some sort of mist beneath our feet," Tsukito began. "And I'm sure you've realised it too, but the sky is a lot redder than when we were making our way during the sunset."
Hiyori nodded. "The sun's suddenly gone."
"Alright. Case closed; we're going home!" came a cheery, more ecstatic tone fitter for the childish detective. Waving his arms in the air immaturely, he stepped away from the inn and faced his back towards it.
"Huh? We didn't come here for a vacation!"
"Of course, there's no way the boss would give us vacations unless there's a case here –– but as long as she called it a vacation for us, we should treat it as one."
"You know how the boss is."
Tsukito faced Hiyori with a troubled expression. "So you're saying we should just go in and see for ourselves? For all you know, there could be some scaaary youkai waiting to eat you."
"Youkai don't exist!"
After his statement, Hiyori caught sight of a disturbed Tsukito; his eyes diverted away from the red-haired man and hands stuffed into the pockets of his pants.
Ooh, so you're the one who's scared of them," Hiyori scoffed, folding his arms as if he was now the detective. With a pleased expression on his face, he lifted an arm and pulled Tsukito towards the inn. "Let's go in!"
"Wait, I don't think this is a––"
Unable to finish his sentence, the detective and journalist stepped foot inside the inn after drawing open the sliding paper doors. The darkness from outside was soon dispelled by the warm illumination of paper lanterns perched from the ceiling. Regardless of how supernatural the exterior of the inn was, the interior was indeed pleasant to the eye.
The two men confusingly glanced at each other, sending each other telepathic signals about how different it was from outside.
"I guess it isn't haunted like you thought," Hiyori whispered, audible enough for the latter to hear.
"Like I was going to say, I'm not scared."
Shrugging, they both continued to walk past the entrance, eyes tracing until they managed to memorise every single object through the hallway. For every step they took, it seemed that the lights were dimmer than before. It didn't take long until the two realised that their vision had been imposed by the lack of light in their surroundings.
"Just when we thought it wasn't dark enough out there…" Hiyori muttered.
Tsukito casually pulled out his pocket watch and hummed. "Hiyori, what time was it when we left the firm?"
"Uhh, I guess at around 4 pm?"
"And how long did it take for us to walk here?"
"It wasn't a long walk. I'm sure it was between fifteen minutes to around twenty."
Tsukito then showed his friend the time on his pocket watch. "That's what I thought, too. Unfortunately…"
Hiyori tilted his head to view the time.
"It's…2?" He exclaimed in disbelief while squinting his tangerine eyes at the object. "Are you sure it's not just your pocket watch making the mistake?"
"I'm always looking out for my pocket watch, thank you very much! I can assure you that the time isn't wrong," the detective retorted. He knew that they should have left the inn before even stepping foot inside; he knew that more than anyone else.
It's bad if we humans are involved in any supernatural business, Tsukito mentally exhaled. I know for a fact that Hiyori has a habit of trying to act like the 'older person' because of his responsibility complex, but he isn't seeing the big picture here.
Or perhaps…the moment the scenery outside changed, we were already trapped.
"Hiyori, let's turn back."
This time, the latter didn't argue or pick on him. The inn had already shown many hints of danger, and nothing else was a better choice but to turn back and walk away.
However, Tsukito's suspicions were true.
No matter how far they walked back down the hallway, the entrance and the same warm light were nowhere to be seen. It was as if the hallway had extended into an endless one-way maze. Even when they looked behind them, only darkness had invited their lack of direction.
"Somehow, I'm starting to forget which way we came out of," Hiyori grunted, trying to shake off the shivering sensation from the cold air. He then glanced towards his friend, who he thought was following him to his left. "Hm? Tsukito?'
Gone.
Not a single trace of his long indigo hair tied gracefully, nor the usual fiddling of his long and wide sleeves. It was as if the detective's existence had been wiped out completely.
"You…You've got to be kidding me."