"Itto... what the heck are you doing.."
You were there with Heizou, standing in front of a locked room that could be similar to a dungeon and right where you two are standing, you could see a familiar tall figure with silver hair and red horns. The said figure could be seen climbing over the bars, you could imagine him being a ginormous bug trying to crawl on walls or something.
"Wha- who goes there??—" Itto looked down and noticed the both of you. All of a sudden, he went pale and started to yelp. "G-Ghosts!!" He lost grip on the bars and fell down, scooting on the floor, away from you.
"What the heck do you mean ghosts!? Itto, it's me!" You irked at the ridiculously frightened oni.
"Sorry but I don't know anyone who is called it's me— AH!? N/N YOU'RE ALIVE!" He perked up immediately and rushed back to the bars. "Boy, am I glad to see you compadre! I thought you finally kicked the bucket after that fall!" He then took notice of Heizou who has been right beside you the whole time. "Wait, you look familiar- have we met before??" He squinted his eyes at him.
"I do believe we have at some point~" The detective answered as he snapped his fingers. "But we can save the chitchat for later. Right now, let's focus on getting you out of here"
"Right- Anyways, what's the deal here? Did the Tenryou Commission finally see that I didn't do anything wrong?" The oni placed both of his arms on his hips.
"How did the Tenryou Commission get roped into this...?" You sweatdropped as you looked at him. Then again, you realized that Heizou is also from the Tenryou Commission, but you doubt that Itto's presumption was referred to the redhead detective since he barely recognized him.
"It seems you misunderstood that the Tenryou Commission were behind your imprisonment. Truth to be told, I'm the only Tenryou officer who came to this island"
"Huh?? Then who the heck is bold enough to imprison the almighty Arataki—"
"Is that a lever?" You immediately cut him off while your attention was at a device sticking next to the bars.
"Huh, indeed it is" Heizou placed his hand on his chin.
"Hey! That's the second time!" The oni whined as you just sighed and ignored him. You then went for the lever and tried to switch it up, then the bars suddenly was lifted. Your oni companion was finally free.
"Haha yes! I knew I could count on you, compadre!" Itto then ruffled your hair. "Oh right, I think this is yours right? Seriously, why did you bring so much books with you? For a moment there, I thought you were bringing cannonballs" He then handed your bag and you were in huge relief that your stuff was with Itto the while time.
"Thank archons my bag is here!" You then checked the contents inside and sighed in relief that even the case file is still intact, but that expression of relief suddenly faded as you were rummaging through your stuff. "Thats strange..."
"What is?" Your detective companion leaned in to check as well.
"One of my books is missing..."
"Oh dear, perhaps it had fallen off while Itto was taken here?"
"I sure do hope not... I can't afford to lose that one.."
"What's so important about it anyway? Can't you just buy another one?" Itto raised his eyebrow while looking at you. That specific line suddenly made you snap.
"It's not something that can be replaced easily!—" You immediately stopped before you could start hurting his feelings then you just wore your bag and turned around. "Forget what I said... let's go.. we still have an investigation to finish.."
You went to the other side and noticed another locked passage with a device right beside it. You went over to the said device and activated it, you then could hear water being drained at the distance, you thought that it could be the water from the pool and immediately went your way back there to check it out.
***
The three of you climbed down on the same root from earlier and see that the water has been completely drained. No one had uttered a word for a while as the atmosphere became tense and awkward.
"Sooo uhh.. Where are we exactly heading? Isn't the exit the nearest to where I was locked in?" Itto broke the silence as he pointed the ceiling. You didn't say anything while walking ahead and Heizou noticed your behavior, so he ended up explaining things instead.
"We're actually planning to check the mansion of Umigozen first before leaving. It could lead us to something interesting, and the fact that you were locked up in here means that there's more to this incident" He snapped his fingers after his explanation.
A short moment after, you three stopped right in front of a stone door that seemed like the entrance to those domains you usually see. You stepped ahead to try and open it, then to your surprise, it was quite easy to get it open so you started going in first.
"Wait- are we seriously gonna get in there??" The oni companion hesitated to follow but he ended up going anyway.
Upon entering the domain, you three would find yourselves in a dark room. You looked around and noticed those moveable walls and as you three continued wandering inside, you three would find a huge door but it seemed locked and needed two keys to open.
"It needs two of those amulets..." You muttered while observing the door.
"Can't we just bust through or something??" Itto boldly suggested as he stepped in front and crouched down.
"Let's try not to break anything here. I doubt sealed the doors here could easily be broken anyway so let's reserve our energy" The redhead detective then started roaming around and adjusted the moveable walls. You then did the same thing on the other side, leaving the himbo by himself at the door as he was puzzlingly scratching the back of his head.
You moved one of the walls to the other side, then your eyes widened in shock as you see two frightened children hugging each other in fear upon seeing you in front of them. You quickly grabbed the case file from your bag and opened it. You looked at the two children and double checked the list, it's confirmed that these two children are one of the missing villagers. "You two..."
"P-please don't hurt us..." One of them whimpered while holding onto the other. You felt bad for these poor kids and knelt down.
"Hey... it's okay, you two are safe now..." You tried to reassure them. "Do you have any idea where the others are..?" You asked with a soft tone.
They both nodded and pointed to the other side of the room. You figured that Heizou might've found them as well so you didn't have to worry much. You then slowly reached both of your hands out to them. "Cmon, we'll take you both back home along with the others, okay?"
You then took the children back to where Itto was and at the same time, Heizou also returned with a mother and son together.
"It seems that we found the people we're looking for" He then took out an amulet from his pocket. "Also one of the amulets. What about you, y/n? Got anything?"
"Ah.. not exactly..."
One of the kids tugged the hem of your shirt and tried to give you a certain object that is glowing in purple, it's the very same amulet that you were looking for. You gratefully accepted the amulet then you were about to head for the door along with Heizou.
"W-Wait..!" The mother called out as you both stopped and turned to look at her. "Hm?"
"M-My husband... They took him away... I don't know where but he could be somewhere in here..!" She cried out as you felt sorry for her. You then turned to your red-horned oni companion.
"Itto, can I leave the search to you?"
"Heh, you can leave it to me compadre! There's nothing that this oni can't do!" He proudly responded then you nodded at him.
"Great, I'll leave the villagers in your care. Heizou and I will go on ahead to make sure it is safe to enter" you and the detective continued heading for the door and used the amulets to fit it through the carved keyhole. The door then started to unlock itself and it finally opened before you two walked right in.
The moment you both entered, it's like a well-lit room with a beautiful view of the cherry blossom right by the opened balcony. Although the silence and emptiness of the room doesn't feel quite right for some reason.
"It's... too empty.." You remarked while looking around.
"We still have to keep our guard up. My intuition is telling me that something's not quite right" Heizou immediately responded as he also looked around cautiously.
You carefully walked right into the center of the room, it didn't take a moment before a couple of people started appearing from the shadows of the room. A couple of Nobushis, treasure hoarders then a Mirror maiden. You immediately stepped back to gain distance but the both of you were already surrounded as you stood back-to-back with your companion.
"Man alive, looks like getting out of here won't be as easy. Guess brute force is our only way out"
You then took out your catalyst and started preparing for a sudden attack from any of them.
After a long period of fighting, you and Heizou finally managed to take down most of them, but you're already beginning to feel exhausted as you looked at the last enemy which is the Mirror maiden. She then started her attack by suddenly imprisoning your legs in a spike of mirrors from the floor, which made you immobilized.
"-!?" You struggled to move as floating shards of mirrors started to surround you.
"y/n!"
Beams of hydro element started coming out of the mirror shards and were all aimed at you. You could only try to generate your dendro shield, but it wasn't fast enough to block all of the beams, therefore receiving a few damage. Fortunately, they weren't aimed on your fatal parts but it was still quite painful that you couldn't help but yelp in pain as you dropped on your knees to catch your breath from the pain. You could suddenly hear Heizou's footsteps running ahead and as you slowly looked up, he was attacking the Mirror maiden head-on. You would honestly never think of Heizou being this eager to get on a physical fight with anyone, for someone who never liked to use violence on an enemy.
You felt every ounce of your body getting heavier and your vision starts to black out. Your hearing then slowly muffled out the noise until your consciousness could no longer stay up.
***
You immediately jolted up and gasped as soon as you regained consciousness, only to be greeted by a sudden stinging pain throughout your body.
"ACK!?" Your body dropped back down as you try to endure the stinging pain that felt like electricity flowing through your veins.
"That's the second time you let yourself sprung up the moment you finally awaken, y/n" You could hear a soothing voice, followed by a chuckle of a certain detective. You slowly turned your head towards him and see the redhead sitting by the window frame while holding a novel on his hand.
"...What happened..?" You then tried to turn your head around to scan the area. It seems that you're finally back in your room at the inn.
"You lost consciousness while battling but no worries, I made sure everything was taken care of, even reported everything to the Watatsumi general" He got up from the window frame and slowly approached closer before crouching down beside you. "You really had everyone worried, you know?" He then gently took a few strands of your hair and let it slide through his palm. You slightly blushed and could see in his eyes that he was deeply worried.
"I still have so much to learn, honestly.. I couldn't even protect myself..." You sighed. "If it weren't for you, I guess I won't be able to solve the case all by myself, probably won't be able to live to finish it either" You then slowly sat up, trying to avoid triggering any pain from your wounds then you looked at Heizou straight in the eyes. "Thank you.." You softly smiled to which the detective reciprocated, then he handed you the novel he was holding a moment ago.
"I believe this is the book you were looking for?" He tilted his head to the side. Your eyes slightly widened as you accepted the book from him.
"Where... did you find this..?"
"The Mirror maiden dropped it after defeating her. Never thought the Fatui would be interested in reading literature from Sumeru, which makes me wonder.. Are you perhaps from Sumeru, y/n?"
You then put the book on your lap and ran your fingers through the cover. "Not exactly... But when I was young, I actually went on a short trip to Sumeru once.. It's how I got this book"
"Hm.. I see, hence why your reaction towards Itto about losing this book felt more hostile"
You recalled yelling at Itto back then, and now you started to feel bad for letting your emotions take over. "I should... Apologize to him.."
He nodded and patted your head. "I'll be back to get your food, you can start your apology once you're feeling better" He then stood up and left the room.
As the detective had finally left the room, you could feel your cheeks heating up as you placed your hand over your chest.
"Honestly... That detective.."