The Ink That Remains

In a hotel room, soft light entered through the mostly closed window curtains. The occasional sound of vehicles and birds chirping entered the room like a soft melody. On the bed, Renji lay asleep. After the meeting with his friend last night and having drunk a bit too much, he went back to his hotel room and immediately went to sleep.

As Renji lay in his bed asleep, someone knocked on his door.

"Housekeeping!" A woman said from outside the room's door in a polite voice.

Hearing this, Renji was awoken from his sleep. He stood up and walked to the door, opening it and looking at the woman in front of him before saying

"Not today, thank you.", as he said this. He closed the door.

He turned around and, while walking back to his bed, glanced at the clock on the wall.

It was 10 a.m. Seeing the time, he grumbled to himself.

"It's already 10 a.m.?"

"Guess, I should get ready now." As he muttered that under his breath, he shuffled to the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror.

"I'll figure out what happened to you.", he muttered under his breath as he stared into his reflection in the mirror.

He then continued with his daily routine: He brushed his teeth, took a shower, and dressed in a black button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves and some jeans.

After getting ready, he opened the curtains of his hotel room window. He noticed that the snow covering the streets had almost entirely melted away. He entered the balcony with a cigarette in his hand, and while gazing at the view of the city, took a long drag of it.

Some time passed as he stood there on his balcony, his dark grey eyes staring off into the distance, lost in thought. After a while, he felt his phone, the one in his pocket vibrating. He took it out of his pocket and glanced at it. It was Shun calling him again.

He rolled his eyes and said to himself

"The fuck does he want now?"

He answered the call while standing on the balcony.

"Good morning, Shun." He said in an annoyed tone.

On the other side of the call, Shun exhaled excitedly and spoke

"I did it! I compiled everything, even confirmed some stuff by looking into some security camera footage I found of a restaurant."

"Good job, so? Why did you call me?" Renji asked as he took a quick drag from his cigarette. A thin stream of smoke escaped his lips as Shun spoke.

"Yeah, so, I have no clue how to contact the client. You didn't give me information about her at all."

"Well, you figured out if her husband was cheating on her. You should be able to figure out who his wife is, or is that not possible for you?" Renji mockingly said to him.

"Wh-What? I can do it. Where the hell am I even supposed to meet her?" Shun asked him.

Renji exhaled slowly, watching the smoke curl into the morning air

"I had already decided that with her... I'll send you the location." He said while texting something to Shun.

"Oh-Okay," Shun said to Renji and hung up on him.

Renji took a casual puff, the cigarette a familiar weight in his hand.

"When will that guy figure things like this out on his own?" He chuckled and said to himself as he took one final, deep drag, then flicked his cigarette off the balcony railing, watching it fall.

He turned around and walked back to his room, glancing at the watch he wore on his left wrist. Twenty minutes had passed since he entered the balcony. He walked to the nightstand beside his bed and opened the drawer. There was another phone in it.

He grabbed the phone and turned it on, seeing a few notifications on the home screen.

"Hey, I got the information you wanted." A notification of a message he had gotten an hour ago read.

Renji sighed and read the messages following that one. There were some documents, pictures, names, addresses, autopsy reports, and some security camera footage as well. He opened the autopsy report and read through it. As he reached its end, his eyes widened.

"Cause of Death: Multiple blunt force traumas consistent with a fall from height.

Manner of Death: Suicide." As Renji read this, he tried speaking, but it was as if the words were stuck in his throat. He just stood there in shock.

"It can't be?" he muttered under his breath.

"Did he really kill himself?"

"No, no. He couldn't have."

"The Souta I knew, he wouldn't do it."

"Wh-Why? Why would he do it?"

"No, no. I'll check everything. He couldn't have done it. Someone must've done it. Someone must've forced him to do it."

As these thoughts raced in his mind, Renji stood alone in his hotel room, contemplating what to do now. He couldn't accept what was written in the report.

Meanwhile, in a fine restaurant, Shun Takeda entered through the sliding glass doors. The slightly tall, pale young man with dark brown hair and eyes wore a gray hoodie and joggers, a folder clutched in his hand. He quickly found his seat and sat down at a table. A woman with long blonde hair, wearing a red dress, was sitting on the other side of it.

"Who the hell are you? Wasn't I supposed to meet with Renji?" she asked him in anger

"I'm Shun Takeda. I work with Renji. He's busy with some other work currently, that's why he sent me.", Shun said to her as he threw the brown folder on the table.

"And here's what you wanted.", he said with a smirk on his face.

The woman, surprised, grabbed the folder and opened it. For a while, she sat there, reading through every page and every word of it. It took her some time to finish reading everything, and when she did. There was a hint of shock on her face, but she managed to hide it as fast as she could.

"Is that all?" she said as she put the folder down on the table.

"Wasn't this exactly what you wanted?" Shun asked

The woman, hearing this, chuckled and got up.

"I'll send Renji the money in a bit," she said as she got up from her chair

"As for you, you look really skinny? Feel free to eat whatever you want here. It's on me.", she said with a slight smile on her face and walked away, exiting the restaurant.

Hearing this, Shun was in disbelief. He hadn't expected that to happen at all; he thought that after taking the money from her. He would've just left the restaurant. But getting a free lunch? That was something he hadn't anticipated at all.

"Guess, I'll eat something then? Never really got the chance to eat at someplace like this...", he muttered to himself

Who would've thought that in a day, he would earn 100,000 Yen and also get free lunch at a fancy restaurant?