Chapter 10: Investigation Allegro

Dinner was a quiet affair. Everyone present had impeccable table manners, even Reigi. Kakashi was absent, and had taken his dinner in his room. Though Itachi got the sneaking suspicion that he didn't want anyone spying on his face while he ate.

It was over with swiftly, and Itachi got back to work. He had no idea where Kakashi had gone, so it was a solo venture until he decided to show up. He checked his inventory and saw that his only two leads were a book and a fork.

Itachi suddenly realized he hadn't investigated the crime scene. That'd help him, at least, he thought it would. A quick check of the minimap and a few arrow presses later, he was at the crime scene. There was nothing worth investigating except for the display case.

Display Case:

The door for it is open. Scratch marks around the keyhole point to the lock being picked… poorly

Itachi was mildly annoyed at this. He poked around a little bit more, and ended up finding something despite the fact it hadn't been visible.

Clue Discovered: Metal Thing

It looks like part of a makeshift lock pick. But where's the other part?

Itachi took this to mean that the "other part" was also hiding somewhere on the ground. He checked every single spot he could and got nothing. He was left with a dead end, and so, returned to what he did have. The fork was next to useless, but he did have the book. He made his way back to the dining room and approached Reigi.

"Oh hey, that food was great. Nothing like what my mom cooked but still great-" He started, but was swiftly cut off by Itachi.

"What can you tell me about this?" He asked, shoving the book into Reigi's hands.

"Oh, this. I was reading this about a week ago. It's pretty interesting. Reminds me of my history teacher back in school, now he could-" He began his inane babbling, and Itachi cut him off again.

"That's all I needed, thank you." He hastily said. A dead end. Whether it was his power or Reigi himself, something was not going to let him press him for more information. He didn't particularly feel like trying to show him the fork either, so he was stuck again.

He turned his attention to the only other person in the room, Taio. Maybe if he asked him about the book he could get somewhere.

"Excuse me, could you look at this?" Itachi asked him, giving him the book.

"Yes, what about it? I told you already, this was the book Reigi had been reading on the day of the crime," he said. "I hope in the future you don't waste any more of my time."

"I'm sorry." Itachi muttered before leaving the dining room in shame. So the book was of no use. He had no idea what to do with the fork, which just left… the crumbs. It was a long shot, but maybe he could get more evidence by talking to Ryori.

Itachi made his way to the kitchen, which was about what he had expected. Clean, organized, and Ryori at the center of it all. She was putting away the last of the dinner dishes when she caught sight of Itachi.

"Oh, you must be Kakashi's partner. He's told me about you," she said. At least Itachi knew what they'd been laughing at earlier. "Now here in my kitchen I only have one rule, which is to never swipe food." Her tone became harsh, harsher than Itachi would've expected.

"I'll bear that in mind," he said, not wanting to displease here, "but I'm just here to ask about the food crumbs. What can you tell me about them?"

"I found them in the drawing room," she said, resuming her usual demeanor.

"That's all I needed, thank you." Itachi took his leave. So someone had been eating in the drawing room, and that food had presumably been stolen. This did not help in the slightest in the theft case. But Itachi was getting an idea. There was a high chance he knew who the food thief was.

He returned to the dining room, only to find that Reigi was missing. Itachi looked at the clock, and it read 9:00. He probably went to sleep. But Itachi was not going to be denied, and furiously tapped his way to his room. He knocked once. No response. He hit the door as hard as he was allowed to for a few seconds. Nothing.

No one is inside.

His power confirmed his suspicions, although a bit late. Reigi was out doing something, Itachi was sure of it. But where was he? He hadn't seen him on his way here or even between the kitchen and the dining room. Thankfully, the mansion was much smaller to Itachi than it should've been, which would make searching a breeze.

He began his search. It wasn't particularly exciting, just some tapping to check the more out of the way places. Again and again he found empty rooms, and Itachi was beginning to suspect that he was missing something. By chance he navigated himself to the drawing room, and he gave Taio a shock.

"What are you doing at this hour?" He asked after his brief recovery.

"I was just looking for Reigi," Itachi answered. "Though the same could be asked of you," he added.

"Don't be preposterous, I always clean the drawing room at this time," he said, indignant of the audacity. "Leave, I have cleaning to do!" Itachi found himself being shooed out of the drawing room.

There was only one place left for Itachi to look, and he had a hunch as to the why. He went to the garden, and sure enough, Reigi was among the fruits and vegetables.

"May I ask what you're doing?" Itachi asked. Reigi looked up from his position.

"I'm making sure the soil is good enough for the plants. What's it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to find something," he replied. Itachi told himself it was almost over.

"What is it?" Itachi asked. Given that he'd gone everywhere he possibly could, this was his last chance at finding a lead.

"I'm looking for one of my rings, yeah. I remember that I dropped it earlier out here but forgot about it until I realized it was missing. I tell you, this ring is really special..." He blathered on. Itachi ignored him as he got a popup.

Deception Detected

Deception's level has increased by one.

Itachi knew he'd have to produce whatever it was that he was looking for to progress, but what was it? He glanced through his inventory: crumbs, a book, a map, and a fork. The only thing that made sense was the fork, so he just showed it to him.

"Is this what you're looking for?" Itachi asked, a smile growing on his face.

"Oh, uhh, no. But hey, weren't we eating dinner with those? Why do you have it?" Reigi tried desperately to shift the blame. Itachi was pleased that there was no popup that stopped him.

"Is that so? Because I found this right out here." Itachi said.

"Well, you got me," he admitted, "but I can explain it!" Itachi merely raised an eyebrow at him. "See, I had stolen some food, and I knew that it was against the rules, so I just brought it out here to eat. But then I dropped the fork and I've been looking for it since!"

"Really now?" Itachi said, excitement building, "because I happen to know that there was some stolen food, and that it was eaten in the drawing room, not the garden."

"You think you can trick me with your lies?" Reigi asked, panic straining his voice. It was painfully obvious that he was grasping at straws. "I don't believe you!"

"You don't have to," Itachi said, "because Ryori was the one who told me about them. I could probably go find Taio to verify the statement." Itachi's displeasure from the game's rules was starting to fade. There was something satisfying about finally catching Reigi.

"Fine, you got me." A victory at last, he had conceded. "But I have to ask smart guy, what does a fork that I was looking for have to do with the theft or anything really. Why would I even have a fork out here?" He asked, regaining his confidence.

And just like that, Itachi's momentum was killed. He sat and thought about it. It was Reigi's turn to smile. Itachi had no other option but to retreat back inside the manor. Upon entering, the clock struck the hour, and it was now 11:00. Searching everywhere had taken much longer than Itachi had anticipated.

The mansion was silent. No one was awake at this point, except for Reigi and Itachi. There was no point in trying to make any more progress today, so he retired to his room. He didn't sleep immediately as he would be fine as long as he had an hour or two.

He went over what he'd learned. Someone had stolen some food, but that wasn't important, Reigi had somehow found the fork, and it ended up in the garden for whatever reason. Someone had picked the lock, pointing to someone without access to the key.

He had part of the lock picking instrument, but what was the other part? Literally everything Itachi had found pointed to Reigi as the culprit, but how was he going to prove it? He needed to find out what else had been used to pick the lock. Whoever stole the food was inconsequential, but what did the fork have to do with anything?

Itachi was on the verge of the cracking this case, but he was missing a piece. He laid in bed and thought about it some more but nothing came to him. Maybe he could just ask Kakashi for advice tomorrow. He had been working a lot longer than he had been, so he probably had some sort of advice for him. Without a reason to be awake, he let himself drift off into sleep.