ICHIGO

By the time they'd left the chief's office, Ichigo had begun to perform a happy dance inside her head. It took all she had to hide the broad grin behind a schooled expression of calm. "It's a lot busier here than the last station I worked for." She made a subtle show of examining everything, as if she were still new to the force, still green. She wasn't, she knew, but she wouldn't tell him that. It would lead him to suspect her, in the future.

Retasu was walking beside her, blushing a bit as they neared the tech division, where Pai sat at a computer, typing away. Among the bustle of noise and movement, he sat stoically in his computer chair, his amethyst eyes never leaving the screen. He reminded Retasu of a tranquil island, though he reminded Ichigo of a monotonous statue.

"Pai, I brought your new partner to watch you work. It's her first day here, so be nice, alright?" Ichigo watched as Kishu grinned and leaned over Pai's shoulder, examining the data on the screen. "I never WAS good at computer work."

Cutting his gaze to Kishu, which made the green haired man step back a bit, Pai turned in his chair, to face the group. "Midorikawa Retasu and Momomiya Ichigo, I take it?" He nodded as a show of greeting to both of them and raised his eyebrow questioningly when Retasu's face turned a beat red.

"She gets like this around new people. She's really sweet and really smart." Giving her friend a gentle, not-so-subtle, nudge forward, Ichigo smiled and stepped back beside Kishu, by the door.

However, when Pai's eyes went from Retasu to Ichigo, the redhead froze, a cold sweat threatening her forehead. He knew more than she thought. Kishu might have been clueless about it, but the way his eyes met hers, she knew Pai had figured it out. She smiled, or tried to, at least, and watched as his gaze flitted back to Retasu. They'd begun to discuss computers, which she knew nothing about.

'No,' she thought with a shake of her head, once they were outside the tech lab. 'No, he won't tell. If he was the type to tell, he would have told Kishu already. They're roommates, right? Retasu saw his eyes, too. Hopefully she can get him to keep quiet. I can't afford to be caught, not when I'm this far in.' She bit her lip and glanced up from the floor when she noticed they'd stopped at yet another glass door.

This time the white letters on the door read 'Tokohiro Kishu – Investigator' in large font. Looking through the door and into the office, she noticed the weathered wooden desk, a clutter of paperwork and folders, as well as the two beat up visitor chairs in front of it. The room was lacking in a sense. It had no personal touches, no coffee mugs, and no pictures, save a glass framed photo of himself, Pai, and Taruto. She nodded thoughtfully and stepped through the threshold, examining the room with a keen eye.

"Well, this is home sweet home a lot of times." Kishu shrugged and she could see his eyes dancing happily as he admired his-their-office. "I guess I can start you off filing paperwork. I don't have any easy cases yet. Right now my hands are tied up with the Shadow Thief Case." Again his eyes sparkled, the challenge showing itself. "I'll get her soon – I'm THIS close!" Little did he realize just who he was talking to, and again she was grateful for his denseness.

"I heard about that case. She's a pretty cool thief, though." Ichigo shrugged, as if she were making casual conversation, and smiled, her eyes lighting up as she rested against the desk, one ankle crossed over the other nonchalantly. "I heard everything she stole was ALREADY stolen. There have been reports that the items in question were returned to their original owners, with notes and photo proof. The original thieves were arrested. Isn't she a Robin Hood, and not a thief, then?"

He'd never thought of it that way, she knew, and a flicker of triumph crossed her eyes as she watched him pace the room, sinking his teeth into her words. "I suppose…but it's still theft, still breaking and entering… Besides that, she gave me a challenge when I met her. It's like a huge game of cat and mouse, and I'm determined to win. I'll bring her in and finally get to question her! I want to pick her brain."

She was about to say something else, making more conversation, but stopped when she saw him pause abruptly in his pacing. He turned to her, his golden eyes wide and curious behind his forest green bangs. His arms, which had been crossed across his chest as he'd paced, now hung limp at his sides. When he spoke, his voice held question, amazement. "How do you know so much about this?" There was that dreaded underlying suspicion.

In an effort to prove her innocent, she schooled her face to become shocked, as if she didn't know why he was so suspicious. "I did a lot of studying up on the case. Besides that, she delivered an item and proof to the last station I worked at. I saw it with my own two eyes. It couldn't have been staged." She silently applauded herself for her A+ performance, and awaited his response.

"Oh…" was all he muttered as he studied her face more closely. "You know, you sort of remind me of her. You've got the same deep eyes. You couldn't be her, though. She has violet eyes, not caramel." He smiled; trying to convince him that there was no way the two could be linked. "Anyways, Momomiya, I think you can handle the Shadow Thief Case. You seem to know how she thinks, which will be good for tracking her."

The sureness in his voice made her smile, and she straightened. "I'd be glad to, Mi-Detective." She quickly covered up her mistake. "We heard a lot about you, where I used to work. They said they needed someone like you there. It's a smaller station, so not a lot of good detectives." She silently cursed herself for nearly calling him 'Mister Detective'.

Kishu didn't seem to notice her slip-up as he smiled. "If I wasn't so baffled by my case here, I'd stop on by and help them out." He'd begun to drink his coffee now, cursing the fact that it had become lukewarm and was no longer scalding, which he needed to wake him up that morning.