⋆ 𝐒𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐏𝐈𝐍𝐆

𝟎𝟏.

"why not ask our country's savor for some help, i'm sure the dear traveler would be interested by this little commission of yours."

ayato kamisato was always quick to suggest ways of approach but it seemed today most of his suggestions were biased toward having the traveler accompany heizou.

was the commissioner to the kamisato clan suggesting the tenyrou's- no, inazuma's illedged best detective would hit a dead end to this commission?

now that was a hit to his ego.

"i'll have you know i don't do partners or working with people on my commissions to be quite frank commissioner. shouldn't you have figured by now that i'm quite greedy to the attention and of course the pleasure of solving a case? no case i've had has failed to find a lead or end for that matter. so what if the traveler saved the nation? i don't plan to run them ragged when i don't have any reason to."

sure, heizou had said his high and mighty speech upon the matter but he found himself forced into the situation of taking the traveler with him after being reminded of the contents on the second end of the letter about a veteran fighter accompanying him and of course the sugar coated words of the sly participant in his previous conversation.

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"paimon doesn't get it. if you're s'pposed to be inazuma's super dupper best ultra detective why didn't you find paimon and the traveler when we were wanted?" the squeaks from the flying companion of the traveler broke the silence between a burnt out individual and a man who's pride was hanging in the balance of this commission.

"huh? because our commissioner was under suspicion of collusion with the fatui and if i was put on the job i'd probably be seen as a biased source. it was a real pain.. i could've found you easily too. it's not like either of you had the luxury to make any solid ties in the country at that point minus the beloved shirasagi himegimi and her housekeeper."

' gulp '

it seems like a single response is all it took to shut up the foreign thing calling itself paimon.

"hmpf! paimon wont backdown so easily! you seem so confident don't you mr detective! well how about i start calling you cold case creep! since you are soooo invested in tracking people"

"..cold case creep?"

"yeah! you heard paimon!"

it was like children squabbling for the poor traveler to listen to. and the pair didn't let up until the moment they'd arrived at the site.

the storage house in hold of the kaedehara belongings.

"huh? why are we here? paimon thought we already did this story quest."

"because the place will be scrubbed clean in a few days after the request of the owner wanting to donate them. i'm looking for anything my suspect left."

"wait a minute. are you tracking him?"

heizou turned his head sharply to look at paimon. did they know about the person that he was supposed to track?

"huh? who??"

"kazuha is innocent! you can't track him anymore he isn't a refugee!"

"erm????" heizou drew a blank.

"i'm looking for a relative of her almighty. they snuck into the nation recently and raided the kaedehara family heirlooms."

"oh! oh! paimon knows him too!"

just who were these guys? and how in gods name did they have so many connections.

no, it was stupid to think about. adventurer's had to be well versed in cultures, languages, connections, it all. i mean hadn't they been around inazuma for about a year now? they obviously had grown connections since first arriving but the traveler seemed more burnt out than during their arrival in contrast to the flying pixie mouthing off about this and that. not like it was heizou's business to pry.

"if you know the suspect then a name would be helpful."

"paimon think's you mean the evil balladeer" the voice that paimon used to address 'him' seemed a lot more anticlimactic than heizou was expecting.

"oh, wait. that actually rings a bell. it's one of those whatcha call 'em in the fatui, right?"

"harbingers! like childe... that sneaky two faced..."

it seemed the pair shared quite distaste towards the harbingers. but that was a foreign concept and expectation to the detective. the commission seemed quite ironic, what if he had been colluding with the fatui? it would've been a complete fuckover to the shogunate. did that mean she had utmost faith in him? or saw him as no threat.

both seemed plausible. 

what they found at the location was close to none due to the tampering of the traveler and company previously. it left heizou in a bit of a sour mood but he managed to find some noticeable traces of the intruder whilst being relaid the story of why the traveler was previously here.

"so what kind of guy is he? rumor has it he's got quite the anger issues."

"paimon doesn't like him! because of him travelers friend.. teppei.."

paimon seemed to be unaware of how talkative she really was leaving the traveler close to no room to speak. the relationship didn't seem pleasing from heizou's point of view. did they not feel comfortable traversing? or was paimon that unaware?

. . .

after the realization heizou kept more to himself or tried to speak hushed to avoid paimon's attention. he didn't commission her after all.

and so the trio was on their way to the next stop. to make their way to sumeru.

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