“…”
Sazerac had been in the area for business purposes. That restlessness he sought to be rid of had come useful as it was when going about his profession; a healthy dosage of paranoia for one with a more or less undercover role, but certainly too much for a teen. The Osakan did offer a hand at the very least, or a shoulder to be leaned upon, or what-have-you. Nevertheless he wasn’t used to it, if his tautness upon contact was any indication. ”I should hope that, whatever it was, your intent wasn’t on following me…”
Clothing was relatively semi-formal, erring more on the casual than formal, but he had nothing to hide—well, save his tools of the trade, though the only sharp glints would come from his gaze alone. The flavor of tonight’s murder weapon was that slackened noose around his neck; a gaudy set of old mauve and antique white stripes that saw nights worse than this and was ready to be tossed into the fire. The Kansai agent was relatively confident of his hiding it—he had to be, of course, such expertise called for that brazen confidence—but surely it wouldn’t escape the meticulous hawk eyes of any detective worth their gluttonous salt. “This way, then.”
No sign of a strangled corpse as he did what was told and made a beeline for the way out in leisurely haste. His work was done elsewhere, perhaps some yards away in another room or another building, but either way it’d been close enough that he’d heard the the bang and tumble of something heavy falling down the stairs.
Fortunately for Janus, Hakuba was somewhat distracted by the pounding in his head. Having been disarmed in this way, and by that glorious voice – which seemed to be the only thing to take the edge off the pain – the detective wasn’t even thinking about things in terms of suspicion and detail.
At least, until Janus mentioned following him.
The half-brit, leaned awkwardly against the Osakan, paused and lifted his head to look at the other’s face, brows raising in a sort of cautious and curious quizzical expression.
“No…” Hakuba said, shaking his head with another grimace. “I wasn’t following you. Should I have been?"
He wanted to look Janus over. Pick out the details, compare notes, riddle out what he might have been doing out here. But his vision doubled and got progressively worse the longer he stood. To that effect, he shuddered and grasped his arms around the other man to prevent himself from stumbling.
"Gnn… maybe I do need a moment… just, need to clear my head. My apologies. All of them.”