I mean, it was one of her daily goals to avoid him. Most people don’t want to be around those who annoy them, let alone gas them, lie to them, try to drug them, and threaten to shoot them with a watch dart.
However, after he finally acknowledged the detective in front of him, Naoto instantly regretted opening her mouth. ”Why?”
Why in the name of all things good did he need to know such things, let alone that he couldn’t figure it out for himself.
OKAY, OKAY, I GET IT. Geez, why couldn’t you just let things go?
“Well…” He wasn’t sure how he should answer the other’s question. He supposed he could tell the truth, but he rather didn’t.
“Because I need it? I’m fixing up some stuff in my office.”
It seemed she’d picked the wrong time to return from doing field work. One of Naoto’s daily goals was to avoid Shinichi Kudou at all costs. She heard enough of him at home, even though they didn’t even live together, and honestly, being around him generally amounted to nothing worth mentioning.
”What are you mumbling about.” Less of a question, more of a statement.
What do you mean, it was one of her daily goals to avoid Shinichi Kudou? Why would you NOT want to be in his presence? Shame on you, Naoto. Such shame.
Either way, he was in such deep thought that it actually took him a while to notice the girl in front of him. It was the sound of her words that woke him up from the trance, really.
“Ah… Shirogane.” He blinked at her. “You wouldn’t happen to know where the supplies of duct tape went, would you?”
Not that she was the neatest person when it came to her work space, but how a person could lose things and let a mess get that out of hand was a little beyond Naoto.
At least he found it without having to drag the other person into it.
“Not that I am an expert on that area, but I could possibly give rough guestimations for it. Have you thought about talking to others within Enforcement? Most of them have been around for a period of time, and are probably familiar with how it works.”
“Urrgghh… no, that’s fine.” He leaned his head into his arms and stayed there for a moment. What Shinichi would do for a nap right now. Honestly.
“I still have Munakata’s estimate for 2014 and it roughly matches the expenses of this year.” The boy raised his head again to sip from his coffee. “We can reference it, but it needs some tweaks.”
And then he came upon an idea. He stood up and then took out a few files. “Actually, you could probably do it? Since most of it has been established already. It’s not much different from the estimate for Investigation.” The brunet passed the papers over to Naoto. “If you need help you could ask–”
Chie? No… Better not, he supposed. She didn’t look like the paperwork person, but it had to be someone from Enforcement. Maybe Tasuku? But both he and Noboru were a little too young for that. Then…
“… Kuze, I suppose. He should know a bit of what goes on in the department financially.”
“….“ Not that she hadn’t expected that type of reactions, but did he really need to get misty eyed just over a caffeinated beverage?
“If you insist.” Oh. Well, his next comment was annoying, yet expected. Especially in the state his office currently was in. ”I gave you that two weeks ago. You told me to leave it on your desk.”
Of course he would lose something like that.
He looked at his ”[ IN ]“ pile, then slumped his head onto the table. "Noooooo….” The brunet whined for a little while, rubbing at his own neck before he raised his head again.
“Can you get C-ta for me? He knows the organization of my files best, so I need him.” The detective yawned for a moment. “Ah.. wait… if you left me it two weeks ago, then it should be here–” He fumbled around his desk for a moment and then took out a pile of papers to search through.
“Right…” He looked through a bunch of files. “I got the estimate for Investigation here, but I’m struggling with Enforcement now that Art is absent. I can’t ask the soon-to-be Superintendent to do that either…”
And to your left, you will see a young man looking as if he is drowning, except the water is paper.
“…” internal suffering from being kind to such a person. ”..Here,”
Cue the kind placement of a trenta size-eight espresso shot-coffee
“Would you like me to assist with any of.. this?” This being the small sea of papers.
“Shirogane… thank you…”
The boy held the espresso in his hands and took a grateful sip from it. “No… if you leave me in my office, I will get it done. It’s just stuff like… budget, paychecks, extra holiday payment and the new governmental rules for work next year. It would be appreciated if you could put together an estimate of how much budget the Investigation department needs for 2015 though….”
He was so deep down into management that he felt like crying. Also, his employer is the Mayor(???), so just imagine having a boss more irresponsible than Shinichi.
Hn.. Must be hard to not be a main character. Not that I would understand. Not only am I a main character in my main series, but said series has too many spin-offs, plus I have myown novel and manga series. Hard life, Shinichi Kudou.
I’m sort of the main character of a 20+ year long running anime + manga series, but you wouldn’t know about that. Shut up, Shirogane and don’t rub it in. Jerk.
