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Shuichi wasn’t sure what exactly has changed in the last 24 hours to cause such a disaster.
Even with his vast experience as a world-renown detective, he simply did not have enough information to determine the cause of the explosion in the kitchen. It was also impossible to collect any evidence, with the household on high alert there was no feasible way for him to be seen moving around without being discovered.
Although he certainly did hear the explosion, and the screams that followed.
Shuichi so desperately wished to creep over and begin the investigation, to observe the scene of the crime and figure out the truth of the situation—
But alas, he could not.
Instead, he waited. While he couldn’t start his investigation just yet, he could still stay present for any information that may come his way. Thankfully being in the living room made it easy for him to eavesdrop on all the occupants of the home.
“I think it must have been one of the kids. It had to be!” The lady of the house shrieked, her face red with fury.
Her husband followed after, and Shuichi observed how the meek man was desperately thinking of what to say to calm his wife, “I already asked and neither of them are admitting to it. I don’t think yelling at them and punishing both of them is going to change that.”
“You are much too soft on them! If we keep giving them chances like this how will they learn wrong from right?”
Shuichi cannot help but feel a sadness wash over him, while her anger was completely valid, what would come of punishing the children if they truly were not responsible for the explosion?
“It was just an accident. I’m just glad that no one got hurt, since it could have gone much worse if someone was in the kitchen.”
Shuichi watched the parents embrace, the mention of safety seems to assuage the mother. “You’re right. I’m just happy everyone’s ok.”
His sadness slowly dissipated, and he witnessed the tender moment between the couple, quietly noting that the kids were lucky to have parents that cared.
Before his bitterness could set in, the lady spoke again. “They aren’t completely off the hook though! I absolutely will be lecturing them that it isn’t safe to play with knives and the whipped cream cans.”
The pair moved the conversation elsewhere, and Shuichi was left waiting once more until the humans had gone to sleep—
He clicked his light on and proceeded to traverse the home, thumping as quietly as he can across the shaggy carpet until he reached the kitchen. The smooth tile of the kitchen allowed for him to move quicker, so he’s able to roll to the areas of interest without the restriction of friction.
While the parents had indeed taken care of the situation and cleaned up, he was able to note some of the evidence from the trash:
The punctured whipped cream can, the seemingly endless paper towels, and even an empty bottle of general house cleaner.
The only missing item from the trash was the item used to puncture the aerosol can. Based on Shuichi’s expertise, it must have been a thin blade, about 5/8 of an inch.
He paused, the mother had theorized that a knife was used to puncture the aerosol can, but it would be unlikely that they had a knife that matched that thickness. Regardless he needed to be sure before ruling the knives out completely.
After some finagling, Shuichi was able to get the knife block on its side and the knives to spill out onto the floor. The blades skittered across the tile with a loud crash, and he waited to see if anyone has been roused from sleep by his mistake. After delaying for five minutes, Shuichi assumed that no one had awoken from the ruckus, and he resumed his investigation, venturing down back onto the tile.
It wasn’t until he has begun investigating the knives on the floor that he caught a soft whiny laughter coming from behind him—
Shuichi gasped and quickly spun around, making sure to brighten his light to full blast to see who’s snuck up on him.
He held his breath, expecting to see one of the children, instead he was met with the sight of a little clown toy on the floor. It’s colorful and soft, with large button eyes and what he can only describe as the image of whimsy.
The detective searched his memory of either of the children having this toy previously, but it all came up negative. Perhaps it was a recent addition, the younger child’s birthday had been spent at the carnival, and it was not unlikely that a toy like this could be purchased during that excursion.
It was only when the plush toy revealed a metal skewer does Shuichi make the connection—
The clown was the one to cause the whipped cream explosion.
“Did I scare ya?” the little clown finally spoke, moving awkwardly and abandoning the skewer in an attempt to come closer.
Shuichi debated on telling the truth, this was another cursed object he was dealing with after all, and he had no information on their motivations.
“No.” He flatly lied, which only seems to earn him a round of wild giggles from the clown.
“You so were totally scared! That little gasp and your movement gave you away!”
Shuichi frowned at the accusation, still wary of the new spirit with him and what they intended to do. He awkwardly came to the conclusion that the only way to get more info out of the little clown would be to attempt to socialize with it.
“I don’t think we’ve met. I’m Shuichi Saihara, and in my previous life I was a detective.”
“Oooh, a detective? So did you have a cool car and spy on people?”
“Err, well when you say it like that I’d have to say no—”
“Whaaat? Not like Batman? Laaaame!”
Shuichi wished he could pinch the bridge of his nose and express his annoyance already, but it was impossible to do without arms or a face.
“Sorry to burst your bubble but I was never Batman. I’m more interested in knowing who you are though.”
“Oh, you mean little ol’ me?"
The pair share a strange silence as the clown figured out how to introduce himself.
“I’m just… a cute little guy!”
Even without a face, Kokichi can tell Shuichi doesn’t believe him one bit.
“Fiiiine, killjoy. The name’s Kokichi, and I manipulated the kiddos to bring me here. Now I’ve been trying to figure out how to have fun here!”
“Fun…?” Shuichi responded, genuinely baffled at the response. Did the clown really not realize their situation?
“Yeah, it’s too domestic here. Was hoping they had at least a dog or pet to scare. I should totally start practicing how to spin my head so I can pull an Exorcist on them.”
Shuichi mentally nodded, already getting a feel for the mischievous clown but still wondering just how far and depraved the depth of his mayhem would go.
“Well, they don't have any pets. And the kids are still in school, so during the week there will be long periods of time with the house unoccupied.”
The little clown seemed visibly frustrated with the news, his little smile suddenly morphing into a horrifying expression—
“Are you serious?! UUUUUGH THIS IS ALL SO LAAAAME!”
Shuichi watched at the little clown began to spin all his limbs a full 360 degrees, at varying speeds. The detective couldn’t help but wonder if Kokichi was still struggling with his possession.
Alternatively, Shuichi had never attempted to posses something resembling a human, so whether it was a difficult task or not was completely lost on him.
“I think we should lay low, there’s no need to draw so much attention to ourselves.”
“We finally get to be ghosts and all you want is to be ignored?! Might as well just be alone at that point… Besides, it’s more fun to play with everyone if we’ve got a whole family here!”
“You’re going to get caught and thrown away, or maybe something worse.” Shuichi had heard about exorcisms and purification during his lifetime, but he didn’t want to find out if they were effective or not in his current state.
Kokichi twirled his eyes, showing off that the back and front of his buttons were different colors, “Oh I see. You’re one of those ghosts that just hangs out and licks dirt off the wall, huh? Talk about ultra BORING.”
“I don’t lick dirt! I observe and investigate—”
“So you’re guarding them? Protecting them? They your family or something?”
The myriad of questions instantly shut down any interest Shuichi had in the clown.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m just giving you some advice. You wanna stay here? Fine. But if you cause a ruckus then they are going to figure it out and then you’ll be gone.”
And so, the cascade of pranks and chaos was unleashed onto the household.
The family reached their breaking point when Kokichi decided to write threatening messages onto the walls in bright magenta paint.
If Shuichi had to be completely honest, he was almost impressed with how large Kokichi had managed to write the letters, as they seemed to be maybe three or four times his size.
But the detective had known that the family were slowly coming to the truth, and that it was only a matter of time that they would realize the source of their problems.
They had solved the mystery together, and Shuichi saw how it made their bond stronger.
Yet the only thing Shuichi could feel was worry.
He didn’t know whether or not to hope that the Father would remember his light when they finally disposed of the cursed clown from their home. Perhaps it would be cruel, to serve as the guiding light to Kokichi’s banishment—
He was ignored once again, in favor for a real flashlight.
And so, Shuichi waited until the household had gone to sleep to finally pursue a new investigation.
He was aware that they took Kokichi outside; but he had no other leads.
As he managed to roll into the pavement, he began to list out all the places where Kokichi could have been taken—
He didn’t hear the car start, so it was unlikely that they took him off the premises. The detective decided to pay his due diligence and rolled past the driveway anyway, counting the vehicles and their positions to completely rule out the possibility of the clown being removed from the property.
Unfortunately that didn’t rule out the many ways they could have disposed of Kokichi.
He began with his worst thoughts, that the family would burn Kokichi.
Thankfully, his investigation of the cold barbecue and lack of smoke suggested that it hadn’t been used to destroy Kokichi.
Finally his eyes catch sight of the trash bins, as only one of the many bins were wrapped tightly with chains. Shuichi’s intuition went off at the very clear sign— Kokichi’s locked up in the trash.
He spent the next couple of hours trying to get the garbage bins open. It took all of Shuichi’s wit and power to dislodge the chains and wretch open the metal bin top, but after his suffering he is rewarded with confirmation.
The little clown plush lay buried in the garbage, and a pang of sadness cut through Shuichi—
The once adorable and seemingly-innocent looking clown was now a shadow of his former self. Looking over his form Shuichi noted all the differences:
The fabric of his body and face were dirtied with paint, dirt, and potentially some sort of powder.
One of Kokichi’s big button eyes was missing, and many of his threads were already coming loose.
Some of his stuffing was very clearly missing, as his cloth body had been cut open with something sharp.
It was only natural for this conclusion to follow, that the cursed toy would be thrown out once the mystery had been solved.
“Here to gloat?” Kokichi asked, the little clown wiggled just a bit, but Shuichi suspected that not having enough stuffing made it harder to move his limbs normally.
The detective was unsure of how to best respond.
While he had been inconvenienced by Kokichi’s presence in the home, he had also been just as fascinated by the family’s ability to investigate Kokichi’s mischief.
He had known that the father had an interest in crime and mystery novels, so when Shuichi was bought as part of a junior detective mystery set, the detective had hoped to see some use. Maybe even live a little vicariously through some pretend mysteries with the family—
But the father never was able to share his love of mystery with the rest of the family.
No one else found interest in the mystery set nor the little flashlight that Shuichi inhabited. The magnifying glass at least had some interest for a couple days to the kids, to the point where Shuichi soured that he hadn’t chosen to inhabit the magnifying glass instead.
But even that eventually became boring to them too, and so Shuichi was left in the living room, to serve as a display piece instead.
So, Shuichi had resigned himself to watching. It was better than being alone, and at least he could do his own little investigations when something caught his attention. Maybe he would even be able to cause just enough small anomalies that they would notice—
But it wasn't until Kokichi’s mischief let them experience a true mystery that they had come together, like Shuichi had always hoped for.
“It was fun.”
Kokichi squinted with his one button eye, clearly confused from Shuichi’s sudden declaration.
“Or, I guess it looked like fun. Being seen. Being noticed.”
The little clown laughed, “It was.”
Shuichi paused for a moment before finally asking, “So, what do you plan on doing now?”
Kokichi shrugged, “I dunno! I’m pretty beat up so I guess the first thing would be to figure out how to patch myself up. But after that…I guess I’ll just find out another fun thing to do!”
Shuichi nodded, but the motion makes Kokichi blink a little rapidly, “Oh sorry, it probably hurts having the light in your eye.”
“It’s fine, not like I have retinas anymore.”
“You’re still wincing though.”
“I’m not wincing, I’m squinting.”
Shuichi laughed, “I can’t ever win with you, can I?”
Kokichi nodded proudly, “Yeah cause I’m always gonna win. Duuuuh!”
Shuichi smiled at the clown, “How about we find a new place to haunt?”
“Hmm?”
“Yeah, I’ll help you patch up and then we can plan a new mystery for someone else.”
“Ooh I get it! You want in!”
Shuichi’s light goes full blast without him intending to, and he realizes that this was how his possession was reacting to his embarrassment.
“Well, I told you it looked fun, so it’s just natural that I wouldn’t mind trying it sometime—”
Kokichi bounced a bit, finally freeing himself from the garbage he was stuffed into.
“You’d be totally useful as a flashlight, and I totally seen you do stuff I didn’t even think was possible for a ghost. So as long as you can hang, I’ll allow it!”
The detective was overjoyed, still unable to dim the strength of his light, but this time it felt right considering he was beaming with joy.
“Alright, it’s a deal.”
“It’s settled then!” Kokichi clapped but suddenly he stilled, “But first, I’m hungry.”
Shuichi watched as Kokichi dug around in the trash, mumbling to himself, “I could have sworn I saw the kid throw some away…”
The detective hadn’t even realized that Kokichi could feel something like hunger much less actually feed himself.
After some searching, the clown managed to find what he was looking for, pulling out a half empty container of french fries.
“Want some? They are still a bit hot.”
Shuichi held back the urge to barf.
“No thanks…”
The little clown simply shrugged. “Suit yourself!”
Shuichi watched in disgust as Kokichi proceeds to eat garbage fries.
“You’re making me reconsider my offer…”
“Wow, you are a total ass! Makes me wonder if you got killed or if the universe got fed up with you and orchestrated your death!”
“Haha, very funny.” Shuichi deadpanned.
“Hey, shine your light into the bin, maybe we can find some other treasures while we’re in here.”
Shuichi helped Kokichi rummage through the garbage and when they find a remote-controlled truck and the controller in the bin Kokichi started hollering—
“That’s what I’m talking about! If we can find some batteries and get this baby running, we’ll be kings of the streets in no time!”
Shuichi confidently popped out his batteries, “Here, try these. We have to make sure it works before we commit to the illegal racing life.”
The batteries brought the device to life, and Kokichi eagerly began to learn the controls, “There’s a bit of drift on the remote, but we can work with it.”
Kokichi extended his little plush hand, a bright smile on his face, “Cmon, what do you say? Wanna Tokyo Drift out of here?”
The pair sat through another awkward silence.
“… So are you gonna take my hand or—”
“Kokichi.”
“Yeah?”
“I don't have fucking hands.”
“Ah, right. I’ll just get you in the car then.”
Shuichi and Kokichi laugh as they ride into the night, eager to set up their next mystery together.