Detective Yamamoto and the Assistant's Girlfriend Part 2

Satoshi arrived at the detective's office well into the afternoon. On the way over he became aware of just how late it had gotten, and although he didn't strictly have an obligation to the detective, he hurried up anyways.

"Sorry I'm late, detective" said Satoshi as he barged into Detective Yamamoto's office.

"Oh," said the detective, looking up from the comic book she was reading. "There you are. I was wondering what had happened to you." Satoshi felt faintly embarrassed.

"Well, I was on a date," he said. "With a girl," he clarified when the detective kept staring at him, as though she intended to pump more information out of him by making him uncomfortable. He had seen her do this to other people before and felt uncomfortable to be on the receiving end.

"Oh, a date?" she asked. "How much did she cost? Did you have to inflate her?" Satoshi was baffled. The implications of the questions struck him as awfully rude, especially considering that they had seemingly come out of nowhere. He stood there with his mouth hanging agape for a moment before he could manage to come up with a retort.

"Alright, what's the deal?" asked Satoshi. He let some of the irritation he felt show in his voice. "Am I not allowed to live my own life?" Detective Yamamoto seemed to check her attitude.

"I was just worried when you didn't show up," she said, mumbling intentionally. After this admission, Satoshi's demeanor softened.

"Well, I've got a little bad news," Satoshi said gingerly. Detective Yamamoto looked up and the look in her eyes spoke of a suspicion about what the news might be.

"What is it?" she said icily.

"I won't be stopping by tomorrow. I've got another date." Detective Yamamoto threw her head back and groaned.

"Fine," she said exasperatedly. "At least while you're here, we can work on a case."

~~~

"I guess it's a good thing we managed to solve the case today," said Satoshi to break the silence. Ever since they had solved the case, Detective Yamamoto had lapsed into a sullen silence. Satoshi got the distinct impression that she was still mad at him or resentful of his new-found love life, but Satoshi firmly held the opinion that some things just couldn't be helped, and this was one of them.

"I guess so," said the detective, refusing to make eye contact or even to look in his direction as they both walked back to the agency.

"Are you sure you'll be able to manage without me tomorrow?" asked Satoshi. He still couldn't help but feel a little guilty about leaving the detective short-handed.

"I'll be fine. I've done this without you before." she said. It wasn't as reassuring a response as Satoshi would have liked to hear, but he supposed it sufficed.

"Alright," said Satoshi. "In that case, I'll see you on Sunday. Have a good night, detective."

"Good night, assistant," the detective replied before shutting the door to the agency behind her. Satoshi continued walking down the street in the direction of his apartment. He had to admit that he felt a little troubled about how things had went down with Detective Yamamoto, but he didn't see any way to address it immediately. Hopefully, sleeping on it would help.

SATURDAY

Satoshi arrived a little earlier to the meeting place than perhaps he should have. He had always maintained a habit of being punctual, but nervousness had exaggerated his punctuality to an extreme degree. He checked his watch. It was currently ten minutes to the hour and Airi wasn't expected to show up before then.

"Good morning," said a voice from behind Satoshi. He whipped around, and he was slightly surprised to see Airi. "I see you decided to show up early too." Satoshi nodded.

"I've always felt that being punctual is important," he said. Now that he got a good look at her, he was pleasantly surprised to discover that she was even more beautiful now than she had been yesterday. Like the day before, she wore a dress, but that dress had been light and whimsical whereas this one looked more elegant and mature. It was a dark red that Satoshi found quite fetching, especially given how the color complimented her eyes.

"I would have to agree," said Airi, smiling. "Are you ready to go?" Satoshi nodded. The two of them walked to the art museum.

~~~

The Shimokawa Art Museum turned out to be an ideal place for a second date. Satoshi had sprung for the cost of the entrance fee, and he and Airi entered the museum. There was a plethora of artwork to view and enjoy, ranging from paintings to sculptures. Satoshi started to walk over to a couple of still life paintings hanging on a wall when Airi walked up beside him and grabbed his hand. Before he could say anything, and not that he would protest in any case, she interlaced her fingers with his. Satoshi felt his face flush.

"What do you think of this painting?" Airi asked after they had been standing in front of the wall for a few moments. In truth, Satoshi was far too fixated on the sudden handholding to really appreciate the craftsmanship and artistic merit of the painting. As he looked at it, he concluded that it seemed nice enough. It was a fairly simple still life paining depicting a bowl of various kinds of fruit sitting on table. The interesting thing about it was that the window in the background of the painting let in light from a sunset, and the colors of all the fruits changed accordingly.

"It's nice, I suppose," Satoshi said blandly. He kicked himself mentally. Going to this art museum was his idea, but he had really only done it because Airi had expressed an interest in art. If he made it seem like he didn't really care, then coming here would have served no purpose.

"I guess it is kinda boring," Airi said. "Come on! Let's go over here!" She lead him by the hand and took him over to a section of the gallery that had all manner of sculptures. Some sculptures were abstract and akin to collections of three-dimensional shapes. Other sculptures looked incredibly realistic and depicted people. A handful of the statues appeared quiet old indeed, but many of them seemed to be recently made or like new. Most of the statues were of people. The ancient statues in particular tended to depict people of heroic stature and physique, even if some of them had missing limbs or parts due to age.

"I really like this sculpture," said Airi, walking over to and gesturing to an especially exquisite statue. It depicted a woman wearing a dress with a look of longing on her face. Satoshi marveled at the statue. It struck him as incredible how the sculptor managed to make stone so closely resemble fabric and how it creases and folds when worn.

"I can see why," said Satoshi. "It's breathtaking." Airi squeezed his hand a little tighter as she looked at the statue.

"There's one more thing I want to show you," said Airi. She once again led Satoshi to a group of paintings hanging on the wall. In particular, she directed his attention to a small oil painting of a landscape. It was a nice sort of grassland with a few sparse trees and a mountain range in the background.

"What's so special about this painting?" Satoshi asked. To his eye, it looked nice enough, nicer than many, but it wasn't a masterpiece.

"I painted it," she said. Satoshi turned to look at her, assuming that she was pulling his leg, but she looked sincere.

"You really painted this?" asked Satoshi. He tried to inflect his voice to imply that he was truly impressed she had painted it. Of course, he truly felt that way. When he had heard she did some painting of her own, he never would have guessed that her artwork would be kept in a museum. Airi nodded affirmatively. She leaned in close to Satoshi and whispered in his ear.

"Between you and me, no one else knows my painting is here," she said.

Satoshi gave her a questioningly look. "What do you mean?"

"I have a friend who works here and I had them pull a few strings." She flashed a smile that had a definite mischievous bent to it.

"You've certainly got good friends in high places," Satoshi remarked.

~~~

Detective Yamamoto felt slightly annoyed at having to pay for a ticket to get into the museum, but it couldn't be helped. So far as she was concerned, there was something that wasn't adding up between her assistant and his little girlfriend. She didn't necessarily want to snoop on Satoshi, follow him around, and intrude on his private life, but suppose this harlot sought to take advantage of Satoshi? It wasn't as if Detective Yamamoto and Satoshi were fast friends, but the detective couldn't abide by her assistant being taken for a ride.

Now, Detective Yamamoto was keenly aware that her presence at the Shimokawa Art Museum could be regarded as suspiciously coincidental. It was true that she was the detective, and Satoshi was merely her assistant, but even he could likely draw a connection between their recent interactions and now her being here. So the detective had no choice but to be as stealthy as possible while keeping tabs on the date.

To that end, Detective Yamamoto adopted a crouching posture as she stalked from room to room behind Satoshi and his date. Fortunately, given that the pair had come here to look at and enjoy the various piece of art, they frequently stopped to linger. Detective Yamamoto wasn't close enough to them to overhear their conversations, but she could plainly see whatever they were getting up to.

She could hardly hide her disgust when she noticed that they were holding hands, in public no less. Worse yet, she noticed they had interlocked their fingers. Had they no shame? Detective Yamamoto could only just refrain from vocalizing her disgust at their degenerate exhibitionist behavior. If that wasn't enough, now the harlot was leaning in close to Satoshi, and the detective had no doubt that she was whispering all sorts of salacious things to him.

Unfortunately, her reaction to the degenerate events she had witnessed had left her vulnerable. She failed to make any effort to blend into the crowd, and as Satoshi and the girl turned away from the paintings that they had been inspecting, Satoshi locked eyes with the detective. As quickly as possible, she tried to maintain a neutral facial expression.

"Detective Yamamoto?" Satoshi asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, hello assistant. Fancy meeting you here," replied the detective, trying to feign nonchalance. "I thought I would enjoy some art since business was slow."

"You've certainly picked a good day for it," said Satoshi. An idea seemed to strike him abruptly. "Oh, detective, while you're here, I think you should meet Airi."

"Airi?" the detective repeated, looking at the girl with Satoshi. The girl was pretty cute, the detective had to admit, and she had interlocked her arm with Satoshi's. Detective Yamamoto couldn't help but notice that Satoshi certainly looked happier than he usually did.

"Yes," said Satoshi. "As it turns out, we helped out her little cousin a while ago."

"Is that so?" asked the detective. This revelation mollified her, even if she didn't show it outwardly. That this was a person related to a previous client was about as positive a sign as Detective Yamamoto could hope to expect. Airi nodded.

"My cousin's cat ran away and you found him," she said. "She still talks about you."

"Well, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Detective Hanako Yamamoto." She made an exaggerated flourish before bowing slightly at the waist.

"It's a pleasure to meet you," said Airi, mock-curtsying in response.

"Same to you," said the detective. She feigned glancing at her watch. "I've been here a while now. I should probably head back to the office."

"Sounds good, detective," said Satoshi. "I'll see you tomorrow."

Detective Yamamoto left the Shimokawa Art Museum somewhat reassured. Sure she might hold hands in public, but Satoshi seemed to be enjoying the time he spent with her. The detective couldn't really justify snooping any longer or impeding their date.

SUNDAY

 When Satoshi arrived at the office, Detective Yamamoto observed that he was not at his best. She didn't need to be a detective to realize what had transpired, and so she deduced pretty quickly that her assistant had been bewitched by that Airi girl. Under normal circumstances, she might not have minded, but given that she had grown used to having an assistant, especially one who was so put together, the lack of Satoshi's help presented a considerable set back. Detective Yamamoto sighed. While Satoshi was enthralled like this, she was going to have a rough time.

In the end, what could she do? Satoshi's life was his own and the detective couldn't make decisions for him. Detective Yamamoto hoped that Airi would prove to be more of a positive influence than a distraction for Satoshi's life.