Candy Store, Raccoon, Wooden Sword

~~~

There's a knock on the door to the Armed Detective Agency and Poe peeks his head into the main office, "Ranpo?" 

Ranpo spins around in his chair, knocking various snack wrappers off of his desk, "Oh, Poe!" He gets up and walks over to his friend, "what's up?"

"I appear to have a very important meeting today and unfortunately cannot keep watch over Karl, would be so kind as to take care of him for the day?" Poe says, looking at the ground, Karl is sitting on his shoulders.

"So like a babysitter?"

"I suppose you could put it that way..."

Ranpo grabs the raccoon, holding him up and spinning around, "sure thing, bye!" He closes the door before Poe can respond and carries the raccoon back to his desk. Immediately Karl starts to sort through the wrappers on Ranpo's desk, trying to find one that isn't empty.

"Ranpo," Atsushi stands on the other side of the desk, one hand reaching out to pet Karl, the other handing Ranpo a piece of paper, "can you go check out this location? We got information about possible robberies in the area and everyone else is busy out on other missions."

"Hm?" Ranpo grabs the paper and reads it over, "I cant."

"Why not?"

"I'm busy."

"With what?"

Ranpo points at Karl, "I've been entrusted by a friend with a very important mission."

Atsushi sighs and leaves to work on the case by himself, leaving Karl and Ranpo alone.

Ranpo digs through the mess on his desk for a new snack as he finishes the current one then frowns, he's all out. He stands up and puts Karl on his head, "time for an adventure little friend." 

He heads out of the building and toward one of the few places he actually knows how to get to, the candy store. He's definitely a regular customer there, but today it's busier than usual. He heads inside, ignoring the stares from people because he does in fact have a raccoon on his head and tries to find one of the employees. They all know him and know what he orders every time, he just needs to say hi and they'll start getting together what he wants. 

There's a small crowd of people around a table on the other end of the store so he goes over to check it out.

"Hi Ranpo!" One of the employees says to him, "have you heard about our event today?"

He shakes his head and Karl tries to climb down off him so he grabs the raccoon to hold in his arms instead.

"It's a game, whoever can finish a jar of candy of their choice first in a one-on-one competition wins a wooden sword," she points to a bucket of swords sitting next to the table, "no cost to join, it's just for fun."

He looks down at Karl then up at the employee, "I'm in."

"Great! You can take a seat next to the other gentleman over there, we'll start this round soon."

Ranpo walks over and sits down to a guy with a band-aid over his nose and a cool green jacket.

"Oh," boy glares at him, "it's you..."

Ranpo looks over at him, "who are you?"

"Tch, the name is Tachihara, part of the Black Lizard in the Port Mafia, some detective you are."

"...nope. Still don't remember you. Anyway, you want to race?" Ranpo sets Karl on the table.

"Race? It's supposed to be a race."

"Yeah, you're here for the eating contest right? Must be a busy day at the mafia."

"I'll have you know this is very important mafia business, we're watching over the-"

"Mhm, so what candy are you picking?" Ranpo interrupts. The employee sets down a jar of his favorite candy, already knowing what he likes, then sets down a jar of what Tachihara had picked as well. "Good choice, good choice," Ranpo sits back in his chair.

The employee sets at timer and goes over the rules again, "alright boys, the only rule is that whoever finishes first wins, and no sabotaging the other competitor. Other than that, anything goes. Are you ready?" Both boys agree, "on your marks, get set, go!" With that, they both start eating their way to victory.

Ranpo sneaks a few pieces to Karl along the way, who happily eats what he's given. A minute later a victor is announced. Tachihara looks over in shock to see Ranpo already finished when he wasn't even halfway done with his jar. "Maybe next time mafia boy," Ranpo waves as Tachihara storms out in defeat.

"As expected from our best customer," the employee says as she hands Ranpo his prize, "for winning, we'll let you have your usual order on the house."

"Oh, thank you." Ranpo takes his prize and the multiple bags of snacks that he usually gets. Karl jumps up onto his shoulders and they head out, leaving the rest of the customers shocked at what just happened.

Ranpo arrives back at the ADA to see Yosano working at her desk, "eventful day?" she asks when she sees him.

"Yep." He heads toward his desk.

"You got a sword?"

"Yep." Ranpo empties the bags onto his desk and sets the wooden sword on top. Karl jumps down onto the pile and starts to chew on the sword. Ranpo goes back to consuming his snacks as they wait for Poe to return.

Kenji and Kunikida show up throughout the day, both asking about the Karl and sword. Kunikida is more concerned about office safety and the fact that there was a raccoon inside, and Kenji just wants to pet the new friend.

A few hours later there's another knock at the agency door and Poe peeks inside, "Ranpo?"

Ranpo hops up, grabbing Karl and the sword and walks over to the door, "heya Poe." Karl jumps from Ranpo's arms up to Poe's shoulders and Ranpo hands him the sword.

"Ranpo, what is this for?"

"It's for you! I won it and Karl helped. It's only fair that you take it."

"But I have no need for this..."

"Hmm, well it's a gift then, no returns allowed, now have a nice day!" He closes the agency door, leaving Poe standing in the hallway confused. Ranpo heads back to his desk to continue working, and by working he means snacking while the rest of the members handle the cases.