Chapter Text
It was rare Scaramouche got to see Heizou in action.
But today was one of those days after the bitch had gone missing for a week and a half. While it's usually not alarming, he'd usually send some sort of warning ahead of time. It either arrived to him, to the tengu, his cousin, or the dog general.
However, a heads up wasn't given. Something wasn't right.
So, Scaramouche trekked amidst the desolate grounds of Yashiori Island. Heizou was a pacifist to a fault, and the elemental traces leftover indicated some sort of conflict happened.
Only a few people could sense these small traces. He could with ease since at one point he could control them all, and so could the traveler. Kazuha could if he focused on his surroundings, while Heizou did by seeing any distortions. Today he was using the Heizou approach, since after hearing him ramble about his investigations for so long, he's learnt what he was looking for.
The traces of suspiciously bent glass blades, a piece of paper that had flown into the river, and a small piece of broken steel lead to a dead end within the giant missing chunk of the island. The balethunder vastly overpowered the small traces of anemo Heizou had left behind, so now it was up to inference rather than observation.
Now, what would his beloved detective do in such a situation?
Well, again, Heizou was a pacifist. If someone had attacked him, he would flee like the goody-two-shoes he was. The area with deadly elemental energy a vision holder could tolerate for longer than the average person was probably his best bet.
Scaramouche looked down and spotted a couple of openings on the opposite side of the island. If his enemy were stupid, they would jump down into the valley with Heizou to attempt to finish him off. So, he would use his anemo to fly over the deadly electrified waters so his assaulter couldn't follow. Right?
With that conclusion in mind, Scaramouche activated flight mode and descended to the small opening he saw. He felt the electro sizzle against his skin, much to his dismay.
When he got to the opening, he was immediately greeted by some stairs and the echoing sound of something crashing down.
Oh shit.
Scara quickly flew up the flight of stairs and almost got hit by a rock being chucked in his direction.
"GET BACK HERE YOU RASCAL."
"Man alive, you're a persistent one."
Heizou swiftly dodged a strike from the Ronin's blade and proceeded to kick him on the ribs (which Scara swore he heard a couple of cracks from).
In retrospect, Scaramouche was one hell of a lucky man to see his much smaller fiancé kicking the shit out of a guy twice his height.
"You're going to pay for what you've done!"
The ronin, despite his injury, swung his blade again to hit Heizou with the hilt. That's when Scara decided to intervene.
He summoned one of the windblades he (... admittedly stole from the traveler) and hit the guy on the arm, causing him to lose balance and fall on his other arm.
"It's very stupid of you to chase a doushin from the Tenryou Commission. Not just any regular one, but the detective out of all of them," Scara noted dusting off his handplate, "Not to mention it's quite rude to attempt to harm other people's property."
Heizou pouted at him for saying that.
"Come on. You didn't have to kill the scene like that," his lover said, crossing his arms, "Also, if we did get married, it would be the other way around."
"Am I not allowed to play up the theatrics for some entertainment? Let me have this just once," Scara replied with an eyeroll, "Besides, you aren't opposed to the idea."
"I'm not, but this is all under the assumption the ceremony is held with the older vows and not the ones the Yashiro Commission has been trying to implement," the detective pointed out, "And you already know the Commissioner is-"
That's when they both got interrupted by an ahem coming from the Ronin still on the ground, now clutching his arm and (probably) the broken bones he had.
"Am I interrupting something?"
"Use your head instead of your sword for once, filth," Scaramouche answered with a groan, "Yes. Yes you are. Now shut up."
He misused his anemo vision and held out his arm for a bit, waiting. He saw a panicked look on the Ronin before he promptly collapsed to the ground, which was his cue to let go. He didn't want this guy to die, especially not in front of Cyclone.
"Come on. Let's turn this guy in to the fortress," Heizou said, cracking his knuckles, "I still have some stuff to attend to."
Scara scoffed, "Not even a 'thank you, dear'? That's also very rude of you."
The detective rolled his eyes, "Thank you, my dear Kuni. Now help me get this guy out of here."
. . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
Heizou finished talking to the officials quickly, and he immediately rushed to go see Scara by the outskirts of the camp.
There was a small sparkle in his eye, only reserved for him to see.
"Sorry I kept you waiting. I had to fill in some extra paperwork since I was being chased down from Watatsumi," Heizou apologized, grabbing his hand, "Now, I know what you're going to say-"
"-of course you do," Scaramouche interrupted, "I was worried, you dolt. Sara even came up to me and asked me where you were."
Heizou sighed, "Unfortunately something came up. I wasn't planning on it taking this long."
"... it's fine. You're not injured, which was all I wanted to see," he replied, "How much longer will the investigation take?"
"Probably another 4 days," Heizou answered, "I need to go back and record some information."
"Alright, I should get going then," Scaramouche said, "I know Sara must be paranoid by now."
Even though both Heizou and Sara denied it, they cared for each other. They almost acted as if they were siblings - both of equal strength, yet opposite in every other way in their execution. If Scara was less knowledgeable on their companionship, he probably would've disliked Sara by now (which would've been bad. Madam Kujou was one of their most trusted confidants).
It didn't take long before the puppet got snapped away from his thoughts by Heizou cupping his cheek and asking, "Could you stay for a little bit longer? I want to be with you for a few more minutes."
He couldn't deny that pretty face... ugh, he's grown soft. A part of him screamed that if this were at any other time in his life, he would have acted differently but... He's gained a new life. The closest to the 'normal' he had desperately sought after was being with Heizou, even if this was the guy who probably had a bounty on his head.
"Okay, okay. What do you want to do?"
The detective's eyes lit up.
"I want to show you a place I found while hiding," he said, grabbing Scara's hand, "But we have to get there before the sun goes down. Come on!"
So, Heizou started running towards the beach, with Scara in tow. That's when he realized Heizou could actually run really fast, actually no… Scarily fast.
"Slow down!" Scara hissed, "I'm not as agile as you are!"
"You're keeping up well enough. Besides, we don't have that much time," Heizou replied, "We're almost there. Just bear with me."
He was right, it really didn't take long but Scara was still peeved (whatever, he will just complain to Heizou when he gets back). Their destination was a cliff with a view of the ocean and some of Orobashi's remains. To think that damned kagemusha had done it…
"See? That wasn't so bad," Heizou noted with a chuckle, "It doesn't hurt to run in a little while."
"Easy for you to say," Scara replied, scoffing, "You can keep on running, I'd rather just fly."
The detective crossed his arms, "I can tell . I heard your boost echoing from the staircase."
"It's not that loud."
"It is. Why do you think the ronin threw the rock in that direction?"
"I don't know! I just thought it was random debris!"
Heizou laughed at his reply, and while usually Scaramouche didn't enjoy being made fun of… Well, he's a sucker for Heizou's laugh. He didn't mind it from him.
"Oh, Kuni… You're going to have to be more careful if you want to track me down. The last thing I want is for you to get hurt," Heizou said, lifting up his chin, "But at least this time, nothing happened. I'm glad you're here."
"You're so damn cheesy."
"I know. You like it, though."
"No I don't."
"There you go again, being a contrarian…"
"I am not a contrarian!"
Heizou laughed at him again, "That's almost as bad as me saying I'm not doushin."
"Well that's because it's your stupid ass job," Scara scoffed, arms crossed, "Saying that you're not one would land you in trouble."
"Which is exactly why I'm making the comparison," Heizou cheerily replied, snapping his fingers, "If people knew you were going to oppose what they said no matter what, they would be spared a headache…"
Scara tsked , "Ugh. Whatever."
"We're getting wildly off-track here, now look," Heizou said, dragging Scara closer to the edge of the cliff and pointing towards the gigantic bones laying on the opposite side, "The crystal marrow formed on top of the remains. They look beautiful when the sunset hits them."
Now, Scara wasn't a complete idiot, he knew what Heizou was going to say next.
"Let me guess. They're not as beautiful as I am, right?"
"Correct!" Heizou excitedly replied, "You're getting the hang of this, my dear Kuni."
After that, they enjoyed the sunset mostly in silence, with Heizou sometimes pointing at something he had spotted from far away. Scaramouche enjoyed these quiet moments, forgetting about the world and its troubles…
. . • ☆ . ° .• °:. *₊ ° . ☆
Two days later, Scara found himself in the courtyard of the Tenryou Commission headquarters early in the morning.
Right away, he heard the loud thud of an arrow hitting its target.
"Madam Kujou, I'm here."
The general lowered her bow and turned to look at Scara.
"Wanderer, you're back. I presume things went smoothly?"
Scara nodded, "Yes, Heizou is fine. He just got held back by a ronin that gave him some trouble. We already reported him to the authorities at Fort Fujitou."
"Excellent, thank you Wanderer," Sara replied with a small smile, "I'll make sure to follow up on the case to see what caused the issue."
"Oh, right, here's something Heizou wrote about it ahead of time."
He handed Sara an envelope, in perfect penmanship was written to the lady with a fan.
That was an odd way of addressing things.
"Alright, I'll head out to do some errands now. Have a good day, Madam Kujou."
Sara said her goodbyes and Scara turned to leave. But before letting the tengu out of his sight, he saw her open the envelope and start reading it.
Her expression turned from neutral to confusion. A part of Scara wondered what his damn detective had written there, but it wasn't his business. Maybe he'd ask Heizou when he got back…