The Detective? Well, it wasn’t too much of a stretch, but she doubted she’d be up to par with his example. Hh-hhm, what a cute game though, she very much liked the idea of it. Meitantei Himura, oooh that sounded cool. “I’ll do my best not to let you down, Hakuba-Jānarisuto." Oh my, her title sounded even nicer with his name. (And what a cute face he had made oh dearest me). As he mentioned clues, her eyes followed his hands, then briefly cased the interior of his vehicle, profiling in silence.
"Bones, but not grave; Flora, but not floral…" She repeated his hints to herself quietly, rolling the words around on her tongue, as they peeled away from her home and started their way. Bones. Bone, bone… china? Flora, not floral, perhaps the petals or pistils, or something flower-like? Flora… The plane but not airport was gone from her, but tying into her idea was the ancient, but not outdated. Especially in both of his influential cultures, as well as her own.
"When the buddhist monk Eichu returned from China, in the early ninth century, he personally prepared and served sencha, unground Japanese green tea, to Emperor Saga who was on an excursion in Karasaki, well, what is now the Shiga prefecture— the precise year was 815.
I’d say that’s fairly ancient, though I’m curious how the plane ties in, if my suspicion is correct?"
Hakuba-Jānarisuto. He liked that.
Hakuba stole a sideways glance at the girl before chuckling, amused and impressed, as he turned back to watch the road. "No, no… the place we’re going is in Tokyo. I don’t want to keep you out too late, after all…"
But that wasn’t very helpful, was it? He laughed again.
"I can’t believe… You didn’t even have to pull out your phone to research, yet you came up with an answer that fit, with precise year…” Hakuba shook his head. “No, clearly I’ve made this far too easy because you’re over complicating it. Are you sure that you’re not secretly a detective and that journalism is just your cover?” He pursed his lips curiously at the thought in an exaggerated expression.
“…clearly, I’m going to have to watch my step with you, Meitantei Himura. You may be far too clever for your own good.”