Adventure Beyond The Firmament [Heiscara]

Chapter 3

The excitement caused by the information they found didn't last long, as the only thing they knew was that the Doctor could help them, but the pair had no way to find him. Furthermore, the police officers, who were definitely more familiar with the place than them, couldn't locate the scientist either, so it was safe to assume that the odds were not in their favour.

At some point, long after the sun had gone down and the streets started to empty, the detective began to complain about being exhausted and his limbs aching. Scaramouche had almost forgotten that Heizou was not like him and needed rest, so the thought of stopping for the night hadn't crossed his mind until then. They agreed to spend the night in an abandoned building and tried to find their way back to a neighborhood  that was almost full of them and had clearly seen better days.

After endless bickering about which way they should go, in the end they found it and easily broke a window of a two-storey house to get in. The interior was rather spacious, dark and cold. Its former residents had left a few pieces of furniture behind and covered them with white sheets to keep them clean, which contributed in making the atmopshere very creepy. The floor beneath them creaked with every step they took in the dark space in their efforts to find a candle. Heizou visibly struggled a lot more and kept bumping into walls and furniture left and right. On the other hand, the Harbinger managed to navigate a lot better despite the lack of light, he was lucky to have a much better vision than humans; the only thing that bothered him was having to constantly check up on the detective to make sure he didn't get injured too badly.

After a few minutes that felt longer than hours, Scaramouche found a packet of matches and two scented candles in a cabinet in the kitchen. Satisfied with his findings, he brought them to the corridor where the green-eyed man was and lit one up.

"Thank the Archons! You have no idea how many times I bumped into something. If you hadn't found the candles, I don't think I would make it out of here alive." Heizou joked, relieved that he could now see what was around him.

"Running into a wall or two is enough to kill you? And here I thought I could rely on you to get us back to Teyvat." The puppet said, a teasing smirk was visible on his face despite the dim lighting.

"That is irrelevant! I will get us back. Just you wait!" He exclaimed, confident in his deductive abilities.

"Whatever you say, Mr Detective. Get your beauty sleep now, you'll take us back tomorrow." Scaramouche said, taking off his new hat and fixing his hair.

"Do you think there will be any beds upstairs?" The detective asked, not wanting to sleep on the cold, hard floor. The indigo-haired man only shrugged in response, before Heizou proposed they check the first floor.

Scaramouche was the first to climb the stairs, as he was the one holding their light source, with the green-eyed man being right behind him, almost as if he was scared of staying behind. The first floor was even emptier than the ground floor; the only thing they could see other than the bare walls was two wooden, dirty doors. They walked up to the first one and opened it, revealing an empty room with a large window that let the moonlight in. Seeing as there was nothing there, they closed the door and went to check the other room. This time, the door made an annoying creaking sound as it opened, which almost made Heizou's ears hurt, but he forgot all about the irritating noise as soon as he noticed the large bed in the room, covered by a sheet just like all the other pieces of furniture.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Heizou almost pushed his companion to the side in order to get to the bed and uncover it. After he pulled off the white cloth, they could both see a fairly luxurious double bed, with intricate patterns on the headboard. The detective was quite impressed by it, it wasn't every day that he got to sleep on beds like that one. Meanwhile, Scaramouche wasn't too fascinated by it, his own bed back in Zapolyarny Palace, despite being unnecessary, was definitely fancier. Unfortunately, however, the bed only had a mattress on it; there were no sheets, blankets or pillows on it. Of course, it was still much better than the floor, but it wasn't ideal either.