“Yes, unfortunately.” He sighed. Though his words were harsh they held the fondness of a sibling speaking.
Jon scowled at Shinichi and pinched him on the rear causing the detective to yelp and jumped. “What did we promise?”
“I didn’t think that mattered when introducing someone." Shinichi huffed back and rubbed the soar spot. "Hakuba,Twig, this is Jonathan Wriggly, Jon this Hakuba Saguru, a fellow detective and his companion, Twig.”
“Nice to meet you.” The burly man said in a surprisingly flowy kind of Japanese and earned a glare from Shinichi.
Switching back and forth between languages? Hakuba looked from one to the other, then back again, uncertain. He was so concerned, even, that he failed to notice that Shinichi had addressed him as a fellow detective, but that would come back to him when there were less pressing things on his mind. Which convention was appropriate in this instance? A bow or a handshake? If any. The larger man was obviously American, so a simple nod might have done, or a wave, or a muttered growl, perhaps, but…
“A pleasure to meet you, as well,” Hakuba finally replied, opting to stick with Japanese until he was absolutely certain, giving a small, polite bow – oh god why did he come back to Japan? – and an offered hand. “Do you, ah, prefer Japanese or English?"
Twig looked pleased, tail wagging, because although Hakuba was acting like a nervous nelly, he was at least operating under normal enough conditions. She panted, smiling, and waited to make sure that the transaction of pleasantries went according to her expectations.