Part 1

“Hey what are you doing? Put me down! This will not be forgiven!!” Shin could be heard shouting as Shinichi picked him up and handed him to the baka-junior. “Keep an eye on the child, don’t let him back in here till I am done with this guy.” Shinichi instructed the baka-junior as then proceeded to throw both the child and baka-junior out of the room.

Shinichi sighed as began straightening his attire – the little brat pulled out his tucked in shirt. Damn children….

“Are you some famous celebrity?” Shinichi asked a direct question as he sat back down. Shinichi was in no mood to play games and he wanted to be done with this taxing case as soon as possible. As far as Shinichi was concerned, the brat and baka were both distractions to his work.

“Hmmmm……famous?” Ryu thought about the question for a while. “I guess so…..though I am in disguise right now so that no one recognizes me.”

Shinichi exhaled as he supressed his raging emotions – the man in front of him was a fool who continued to give vague replies to each of his questions. The replies were so vague it wasn’t helping Shinichi in the least. In fact, Shinichi could see more paper work piling up with each passing reply.

Shinichi examined the man in front of him very carefully. No matter how Shinichi saw it, there was no visible disguise. Either the disguise is really good or this nutter is imagining himself wearing a disguise – Shinichi thought to himself.

“Then could you remove your disguise?” Shinichi requested as his shoulders loosened up – it was probably best to ask Ryu and clear up the mystery.

Ryu frowned at Shinichi’s request. “Unfortunately, I will have to decline your request.”

Shinichi furrowed his brows, this was the first time the man declined to oblige. Why? Should I force him?

“You know, I can force you to remove your disguise…” Shinichi bluffed.

“Hmmmm…..these eyes have seen hundreds of thousands of humans and can see through lies in an instant.” Ryu calmly replied. Ryu didn’t come across in the least bit perturbed about Shinichi’s threat. “You may try to resort to force however I doubt you would like to try me.” Ryu’s voice was confident as ever – it wasn’t an arrogant tone but one of absolute confidence in himself.

Shinichi stared into Ryu’s eyes and Ryu stared back into Shinichi’s eyes. There was a deathly silence in the room as they measured each other. Shinichi wondered where the man in front of him got his confidence from – especially since he sat in a police station. Ryu was clearly foreign to Japan, yet he sat aloof in the station without a worry in the world. Sensing something strange about Ryu, Shinichi shrugged his shoulders and let the matter be.

There were two ways Shinichi could treat this case. First, he could believe the man in front of him to be dangerous to society and investigate the matter more thoroughly. Second, treat the man in front of him as a harmless lunatic and note down his details before releasing him. After giving the matter a single seconds worth of thought, Shinichi decided it was better to quickly close the case and move than bother with procedure. If this person was a dangerous individual then he wouldn’t be accompanied by a little child….unless this man was some ring leader of a children’s gang – an impossible occurrence.

“Okay, what is your age, Immortal-san?” Shinichi asked as he went back to the question he had asked before Shin had interrupted them. The question in itself was strange, given the way Shinichi addressed Ryu, but considering the strong underlying sarcasm in Shinichi’s voice – it was obvious Shinichi was not taking Ryu’s aloof attitude too kindly.

“Hmmmm….age? I have never been asked for my age before…This is quite difficult. I have existed since the beginning of time. I am so old, even I don’t know how old I am.” Ryu-sama replied with a vague smile.

As vague as ever. Shinichi furrowed his brows as he stared at the man sitting in front of him. Ryu’s features were no Asian nor western – maybe a mix. Black hair but medium sized eyes….his facial features did not convey his origin. Ryu skin was slightly tanned light brown but not white like the Japanese….it could be the result of sun bathing. Ryu didn’t come across as very old however he gave an extremely old-ish feeling off, especially whenever Ryu replied he would begin with a ‘Hmmmm’. Shinichi concluded his assessment of Ryu’s age and then penned down – ‘Age: 35-ish’

“Okay, where do you live?” Shinichi asked as he began to check through the standard questions on the list. There were fifteen to twenty standard questions, as long as Ryu answered half of them correctly, Shinichi would no longer have to hold him at the police station.

Overlooking his reply for name and age, once I have an address, I can technically let him go….

“Hmmmmm…I don’t have a place to stay. I just came to Japan.” Ryu-sama explained with the continued calm demeanour.

“Oh…” Shinichi revealed a delicate smile – that was an unexpected reply. Shinichi did feel sad that this was not the answer he hoped for however if this person just came to Japan that would mean there was a paper trail somewhere which would lead to the mysterious man’s identity. Although, Shinichi was uninterested in the man’s identity, a small part of him definitely wanted to know who was this famous nutter.

“Do you have a passport?” Shinichi enquired as he felt this might be the first tangible lead. Paper trails always began from travel documents…..

“Passport?” Ryu-sama frowned. “What is a passport?”

“Ah….no never mind…” Shinichi frowned as his shoulders drooped in disappointment again. Why did I bother ever thinking someone like him would have a passport…..

“Is this what you are referring to?” Ryu asked he pulled out a mouldy yellow chit of paper.

Shinichi’s eyebrows were raised in curiosity – oye what are those patrol officers doing! Didn’t they empty his pockets before bringing him here? What is he holding? Since when did tattered pieces of paper become travel documents….

Shinichi took the folded yellow tattered piece of paper and opened it up. The paper bore resemblance to an ancient document. There were some Japanese characters scribbled on it however the ink was smudged in several places.

“This….what is this?” Shinichi asked as he carefully held up the paper – it could tear apart from the slightest force.

“Hmmmmm……If I remember it right….a girl once told me to show it at sekisho…..or something like that….to be honest, I am not sure what it is myself….” Ryu nonchalantly replied.

“Argh…sekisho….what are you? From the Edo period?” Shinichi didn’t conceal his frown. “If you don’t know what it is…then why are you giving it to me?” Shinichi set the document aside and picked up the forms again.

“Putting aside that you don’t have travel documents on you….I can only assume they were stolen? Or Lost?”

Ryu tilted his head to the left like a dog or a cat would and maintained silence. Shinichi almost confused Ryu for an animal. One of the task force’s dog would make the same expression when it did not understand the command. Am I dealing with an animal?

“Basically, just tell me how you came to Japan?” Shinichi simplified the words as he felt a surge of exhaustion.

“I flew here.” Ryu replied as he leaned back on his recliner chair; pushing it back to its absolute limits. “This is a nice chair.” Ryu commented. “I have to make sure my throne is just as comfy”

“Yes…yes….sure…” Shinichi muttered as he ignored Ryu’s words. “If you flew here…then you took the plane?”

“Plane?” Ryu asked curiously as he stood up and began examining the chair’s reclining ability.

“Why did I bother asking…” Shinichi grumbled. He then looked up at Ryu who was moving about his chair and doing something with it. Shinichi thought about asking Ryu what he was doing with the chair but then decided against it. Shinichi knew he would regret asking Ryu what he was doing with the chair.

“Where did you come from…..”Shinichi began tapping his pen on the table as he impatiently waited a for a reply. “Immortal-san?” Shinichi called out as he looked up at Ryu who was now standing absolutely still behind his chair.

“Hmmm…..” Ryu began with his notable humming as he stared at the ceiling in a peculiar way. Although it would appear Ryu was blankly staring at the ceiling, his eyes were intently following some sort of pattern – almost as if he could see through the ceiling. Taking his time to reply, Ryu finally spoke up, I came from Hawwaaaieee? Or was it…” Ryu muttered as he scratched his chin thoughtfully.

“Hawaii?” Shinichi suggested with a vague hope that his guess was correct.

“Yes that is the place with beautiful women wearing skirts.” Ryu hurriedly nodded with a smile.

“Hawaii…” Shinichi muttered as he penned down where Ryu was from. But as he began to pen it, Shinichi had an afterthought, “Wait…are you American?” Shinichi asked in excitement with his eyebrow raised.

“American?”

“Never mind.” Shinichi quickly replied – why did I bother thinking he would know the answer to my question.

“You know dining and dashing is a crime….normally it would be a small amount and it can be forgiven….and you will have to do community service….but you don’t even have a residential address…this makes things difficult….”

“Hmmmm….kuinige? I am sure it is a misunderstanding…..” Ryu replied - confident as ever.

“I wonder about that…” Shinichi replied as he rolled his eyes in scepticism. “It says here as per the patrol officer’s statement, you tried to pay in gold coins…” Shinichi read out from the file as he placed a gold coin on the table.

“Hmmmm, yes I recognize that coin is mine. My acquaintance informed me that each coin is worth hundreds of thousands in human currency….is that not enough for the meal?”

Without replying to Ryu’s question, Shinichi picked up the coin, unwrapped the gold wrapper and took a bite of the chocolate within.

“Ah! No wonder those gold coins gave off a deliciously sweet fragrance….” Ryu mumbled as he pulled out a pouch full of coins and began examining them – all of them were chocolate candy. The pouch even had a tiny tag which read "Chocolate Candy - $2.00". “This…is bothersome….to think that I have been tricked…” Ryu spoke while furrowing his brows in agitation – he did not like being played a fool.

“Sure… you might have to explain that to the magistrate…” Shinichi replied now completely uninterested in Ryu as he wrote of the entire incident attributable to idiocy. The only respite was the chocolate, Shinichi continued to nibble on the evidence.

*BANG*

The door leading into the meeting room burst open – the door smashed into the wall behind it.

“GREAT ONE!!” Shin shouted out vigorously as he smashed open the door.

The baka-junior could be heard in the distance, “Shinichi-san….help me…”

Shinichi’s only audible remark was - “I am too underpaid to do this job.”

Part 2

“GREAT ONE!! THER….” Shin shouted out as he flung open the door with full force. Since the door was flung open with excessive force, hit the wall and rebounded – smacking into Shin’s face.

“Owwww” Shin could be heard crying out loud in pain as his face turned red on impact.

“Too much enthusiasm…” Shinichi commented as he opened the door slowly to find the little boy sitting on the floor, with tears welling up in his eyes. Shinichi looked ahead further to find the baka-junior squirming in agony on the floor while tightly holding on to his family jewels. “What are you doing brat?” Shinichi asked in a stern tone. “Hitting an officer is a….”

Completely ignoring the police officer who stood at the door, Shin spoke to Ryu directly, “I sensed some strange energy and I came to defend the Great One.”

“Hmmmm?” Ryu asked with a rarely displayed slight surprise on his face. “Interesting….” Ryu replied. “You can sense something like that as well?”

“Sense what?” Shinichi asked with a question mark over his forehead. He couldn’t sense anything. Are they talking about a fire? Ryu was weird however given the sincerity with which Shin spoke to Ryu – could there really be something that these two could sense or hear that he could not?

“Shin, I will be leaving.” Ryu abruptly declared as he stood up. “These are my problems, and something I prefer not to involve humans with.”

“Where do you think you are going?” Shinichi asked sternly as he blocked the doorway. Shinichi was ready to use force to stop Ryu from leaving if he had to.

“ Grovel before the Great One, human!! Do you dare stop the Great One from leaving? He is acting in your interest!!!” Shin spoke with crude words and gaps in his sentences as his eyes darted around the room for something to stand on. He did not like looking up to Shinichi and speaking.

Ryu smiled at Shin’s response as walked next to one of the peach painted walls. Although the walls appeared old, they were strong and sturdy.

“What are you doing…” Shinichi asked in confusion. The only exit was where Shinichi and Shin stood. The walls were made of reinforce concrete and steel frames....

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

*RUMBLE*

The entire police station began shaking as Ryu pressed his open palm against the wall.

“What the…earthquake!!!???…” Shinichi would have gone on speaking, however, he saw something unbelievable after that – Ryu made a hole in the wall from just pushing the wall.

First, it appeared as though Ryu was pressing against a sponge. The paint from the wall began to peel off as the building trembled. Then there was a strong cracking sound coming from inside the walls – as though iron was be torn open. Dirt from the ceiling began to fall and the lights in the room flickered. Little by little, the brick and mortar was pushed out while the steel bars were torn in half and bent outwards. It were as though a huge drilling machine rammed through the wall to leave behind a hole big enough for an adult to walk through. However, the hole wasn't created through brute force rather Ryu's gentle push gave the illusion that the wall was made of butter.

This is an illusion? I must be dreaming? Where are the hidden camera's?

“Shin, take care…you are an interesting child….hahahaha….I will never forget you. Take care!” Ryu shouted out as he jumped through the hole he made.

“Waiiit!!” Shinichi screamed out as he came to his senses and realized what just happened. Shinichi rushed to stop Ryu from jumping out – they were on the fourth floor.

X-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-X

Author's note:

Wondering where the new chapter is? It is labelled Volume 2: Intermission Chapter 2