Turn on the smooth jazz, ladies and gents.

This tale is not in color.

But nothing is ever simply black or white.

Chiaroscuro

noun

The contrast between dark and light, shadows and brightness, and all the shades in between.

.

It was a rainy evening in the city of Chiba. The gray, overcast sky pattered rain down on the sidewalks, making them glisten in the evening streetlight. The black limousine splashed as it pulled up to the curb, and her black high heels glimmered with water as the woman stepped out of the back door. Umbrella-less, she casually strode through the rain and entered through the front door of the office building with undeniable purpose.

She entered and exited the elevator alone, a solitary figure in the darkened office building hallways. Glancing at name inscribed on the pale glass door, she made sure that she had found the guy she was looking for. She had. Now, this was going to get interesting, she thought, licking her lips as she effortlessly lit a cigarette. And then she creaked the door open.

The office was dimly lit, with rainy evening light slipping through the partially closed blinds of the single window and the tiny desk lamp casting a barely noticeable glow. The sole occupant of the room relaxed behind the desk with his feet resting up on it. A hazy cloud of smoke wisped above his head, but his face was invisible behind a large newspaper that he held. The woman spoke.

"Hellllllllo~..." She began coquettishly. "You must be the mister detective that works here."

"...There are some who'd call me that," he replied, slow and even.

"Hey, hey, so I could use a bit of help with somethin'... do you think you could give me a hand? Whaddaya say, mister detective? Hmm?" She asked, approaching the desk with measured strides like a boa constrictor slowly looping around its prey, smoke trailing behind her like the snake's tail.

"Let's hear your problem first, miss," the man said from behind the newspaper. He reached up and slid the cigar from the corner of his mouth, breathing out a plume of smoke to the side. "Then I'll see what I can do."

She perched slyly on the edge of his desk, all curves poured into her dark green dress. "Well you see, mister, I'm a bit worried about my cute little sister. She recently became the head of our family's company, and it's a big job. So for a caring older sister like me, of course I'm a little concerned about her. Although," she smirked, lowering her voice confidentially as she leaned across the desk, "she'd be too proud to admit ever needing any help."

Behind his newspaper, the man sat unflinchingly. "Oh really. So what's your sister's name?"

"Yukino. Yukinoshita Yukino, mister detective," the woman said with a toothy smile, and blew a cloud of smoke which rolled like waves against the man's paper.

"That so, huh. Okay then, miss Yukinoshita Haruno, I accept your request." He paused to take a long, thoughtful drag on his cigar. "But stop calling me 'mister detective.'"

"What would you like me to call you, then?" Haruno leaned in inquisitively.

The man snapped down the top half of the newspaper, revealing a mess of black hair, a handsome but weary face, and a poignant pair of dead-fish eyes. "The name's Hachiman. Hikigaya Hachiman. Private eye."

.

The black limousine splashed through the night as Haruno explained her request to me. Lounging languidly like a lioness on the bench across from me, she blew smoke from her cigarette as she told me how Yukino had been selected as head of the Yukinoshita family company about two months prior. Of course, I had already known this, like most other citizens of Chiba. After all, the Yukinoshita family and company were well-known and powerful influences in both politics and the economy.

"But poor little Yukino, her new job's been pretty hard on her," Haruno purred, putting on a sympathetic face. "She's always staying up late, working out the kinks and the details. I tried to help her out, but she always refuses me," she pouted with a playful expression. "And I just wanna know why!"

I looked at her. Stunning beauty? Check. Flirtatious manner? Check. Rich? Powerful? Check and check. At first glance, she just appeared to be an attractive and successful young woman. And yet, I couldn't help but be suspicious. That seductive, facetious persona that Haruno projected, it just felt off. It was too perfect. Too convenient. From the time she had waltzed into my office like a tiger into a Burmese orphanage, I didn't know what to make of her. Except for one thing: that sure was an impressive facade she was putting up. She was the kind of woman who knew exactly how people perceived her, and molded her entire outward appearance around that. Like a beautiful dark blue northern lake that looked picturesque on the surface, yet hid crushing depths and freezing waters. Or perhaps a large, intricate painting, behind which lay trapped a dark secret passageway. She was certainly the mysterious type.

"...your sister, she might just be trying to get adjusted to her new job. Responsibilities, you know," I mused.

"Well, you can figure out more when we get there. I'll be introducing you as an additional legal advisor, so that's your cover story. But your main objective," she said with a wink, "is to find out why little Yukino's keeping to herself so much!" She thought for a moment. "You don't actually know anything about legal advice, though, do you?"

"Well, actually, I might know a thing or two." I paused. "If necessary."

Haruno's face flickered for a moment, before morphing into an expression of surprise, as she puffed smoke out her pursed lips. "Hmm, you didn't look like the lawyerly type…"

I leaned back on the limo bench, hands behind my head. "Looks can be deceiving," I muttered with an ironic half-smile. "But I'm no lawyer. Bunch of stuck-up namby-pamby blatherskites."

Haruno stifled a giggle, and I shivered involuntarily. "Fufu… You are interesting. Looking forward to working with you, mister Hikigaya."

I closed my eyes and wished for a MAX coffee. "Likewise."

.

The limo had pulled up to the most well-known skyscraper in downtown Chiba, the towering black building that housed the main central offices of Yukinoshita incorporated. Although the elevator ride to the top was long, the wait for a meeting with the huge company's head was so short I barely had time to light up a cigar before Haruno beckoned me to follow her into the main office.

The door to the room was relatively unadorned, with simple brass letters spelling out "Yukinoshita Yukino, CEO." Haruno didn't even bother knocking, and simply barged straight inside with a cry of "Yukino-chaaaaaan~!" I sighed and took a long, slow drag on my cigar. At the very least, this was going to be irritating. I reluctantly pushed open the door and went inside the office.

Whatever I may have been expecting from a CEO's office, the reality came as a slight surprise. One could definitely see the trappings of an average business office in the background: a large desk, floor-to-ceiling windows, filing cabinets and stacks of paperwork. But the part that was most striking was the sheer quantity of books in the office. Bookcases sat in front of the windows and lined the walls. Books were piled on side tables and stacked on the floor. Gee, I wonder if miss Yukinoshita likes to read, I thought sarcastically.

"Nee-san…" Ah, the woman herself. As she stood up from her desk, I immediately recognized her from the various news programs that had covered her appointment as the company's new CEO months earlier. Long black hair, steely blue eyes, modest chest, serious expression. A cool, collected businesswoman befitting of the Yukinoshita name. And yet, after that initial storm of press coverage, she had yet to appear on the news even once more, and so she was widely regarded as the so-called invisible CEO. "Why are you here, nee-san?"

"Is it wrong for me to be worried about my cute little sister?" Haruno asked playfully, her eyes fixed on Yukino as she advanced toward her.

"And yet this has to be the first time in at least a month that you've bothered to actually come into my office," the younger sister replied, surreptitiously backing away from Haruno.

Abruptly, she turned around and skipped back over to where I was standing. "I'm actually here to introduce an additional legal consultant I've hired to help you out with your work!" Yukino glared at her, but Haruno simply responded with a "Tee-hee!" expression.

"Evening. The name's Hachiman, Hikigaya Hachiman." I doffed my hat slightly. "I'll be assisting you where I can. I assure you, I won't be much of a bother."

As I spoke, Yukino Yukinoshita turned her piercing gaze from her sister to myself...I could almost feel my body temperature lowering the longer she glared at me. If there was ever a gadget that functioned inversely to a heat lamp, it would be her eyes, I thought wryly.

"Nee-san, I have no idea why you took it upon yourself to do this completely unnecessary task, but rest assured that I have absolutely no need of any additional legal consultation assistance. And I highly doubt that this man could offer me any help anyway. Rather, his eyes make me feel as if I might be in danger…"

"Hey now. Do you always insult people when you first meet them? Because that's not going to win you a lot of friends."

"Excuse me. I don't believe I was talking to you, I was talking to my sister. And furthermore, you're the one making unfounded accusations here."

"But do you actually have friends though?"

"Well, what would you classify as a friend? What qualifies one to be considered as such?"

"Stop right there, I've heard enough. That kind of talk only comes from people who have no friends."

Haruno laughed suddenly, interrupting our debate. "See, Yukino-chan, you're getting along already." In what universe did this qualify as "getting along?" I wondered. "And I'm sure you'll find mister Hikigaya's services most helpful. Well, that's all for now! Ta-ta, Yukino-chan!" And with the abruptness that I had come to associate with her, Haruno whirled out of the office like a tornado.

Yukinoshita rubbed her forehead in exasperation. "She's always like that, doing whatever she wants. And she always gets her way, too."

I turned and looked out one of the office's large windows, gazing over the lights of Chiba. "She's certainly an impressive woman."

"That's what everybody says. Good looks, smart, rich, powerful…" Yukino sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why…"

"Hmph. That doesn't sound much different to you. What're you trying to do, indirectly compliment yourself?" I smirked. "No, the impressive part about her is how she holds it all together. That unbreachable shell of a personality." I paused to take a slow whiff of my cigar. "She's hiding so much, and yet it seems like she's being completely open and straightforward. That facade she's got… it's pretty effective at concealing her true self."

Yukino looked at me in surprise, then her face shifted into a slight half smile. "Perhaps those dead-fish eyes of yours aren't completely unobservant."

"I'm not completely incompetent, you know. Your expectations were far too low to begin with."

"Hmph. Then let's see if you can match up to those expectations. You should know how to work financial balancing, as a legal advisor, right?" She gave me a chilly glare.

"I believe that's what I'm here for," I said, a bit apprehensive.

"Good." She picked up a huge stack of papers and slammed them on her desk in front of me. "Then go sort through this, mister advisor."

I looked at the mountain of papers in front of me, then up at the cold gaze of the younger Yukinoshita, then back down at the papers. As I thought, I'm really gonna need a MAX coffee…

.

I had never been exceptionally good with math. For some reason, the precise calculations of numbers and digits had never come naturally to me. Perhaps it was because of my confusion at how a completely human-created system managed to accurately signify reality. Perhaps it was the sameness of all the numbers-their impartial lacking of individuality that made them hard to distinguish or assign rules to. Whatever the case may have been, my math skills were undeniably on the weak side. And I knew that.

But I had not been completely honest with Haruno, back in the limousine. Nor had I been completely forthright with miss Yukino. The truth was, I had a lot of experiences with legal matters involving large businesses in the past. It was all under the radar of course, and I thought I had put all those times behind me. But corruption never quite goes away, it seemed. And I was soon faced with the probable cause of why the young Yukinoshita CEO was encountering problems running her company.

The documents that she had given me were mostly financial registers about transactions between the main company and its numerous subsidiaries, smaller businesses that were owned by the Yukinoshita corporation. When I started noticing discrepancies in some of the ledgers, I figured at first that I had just bungled up the math. But after checking and rechecking, I realized that it wasn't me that had messed up the finances.

I knocked on the door to the main office once again.

"Who is it?"

"Me."

"Oh… mister Hikigaeru, was it?" Frog? No, that's not actually my name…

"Are you trying to be insulting?"

"Just come in."

I entered the office, the thin wisp of smoke from my cigar trailing behind me. The young executive sat at her desk, immersed in stacks of documents and ledgers twice the height of the pile she had given me. She was working furiously with a red pen, and barely bothered to glance up to acknowledge my entrance.

"So, did you do the work that I assigned you? I should hope you would be capable of at least that much. After all, hiring you was one of the few things my sister's bothered to do to meddle with me in a long time."

"Not like you go out of your way to involve yourself with her either, evidently," I commented offhandedly.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Never mind. Anyway, I think I found something that might interest you." I showed her the collection of various financial reports pertaining to a collection of certain subsidiary companies. She looked over them a couple of times, confusion evident on her face.

"I'm not seeing anything particularly interesting."

"Look closer. See the financial report for three months ago with this subsidiary's balance? If you cross-reference it with these other companies' ledgers and their stated profits, you'll find that there's a discrepancy when you compare it to their balance two months later. Basically, it doesn't add up. You've got money missing here."

"So what you're saying is…"

"Either somebody's screwing up their financial ledger, or they're stealing from you."

Yukino Yukinoshita remained with her head down, looking at the documents on her desk. But her hand, resting on top of the papers, quietly curled itself into a fist. She spoke softly and evenly, her voice livid with silent fury.

"It seems that some punishment is in order for whoever did this. Thank you for your assistance in pointing this out to me, and I assure you I will not just let this slip by. I will hunt down whoev-"

"Hold on just a second."

She stopped her rant abruptly and looked up at me in irritated confusion. "What?"

"Going about this with a heavy-handed approach is liable to allow the criminals to slip away as soon as they get wind that they've been discovered. Instead… I propose that you let me deal with it."

Miss Yukino quirked an eyebrow. "And what are you going to do?"

"Don't worry. This is my job, after all. And I've got a plan. All I need to know is the location of this company's CEO's office," I said, pointing.

"What? But that's not even the company who's been siphoning money."

"That's how it looks, anyway." I puffed a small cloud of smoke as I shrugged on my trench coat and pulled down my hat, turning to leave. "Just tell me where their office is."

Yukino closed her mouth, which had been hanging open in surprise, and quickly moved into action. "They're located in a nearby office building. Here's their address," she said as she handed me a small business card across the desk. I tucked it into my pocket, then strode across the room to the exit. As I turned the knob to leave, I glanced sideways over the high collar of my coat at the beautiful yet tired young woman, obscured behind the piles of responsibility before her.

"I'll be back."

And so I left.

.

To be continued.

...

...argh, can't resist the author's note. Shame to my famiry.

Greetings guys, ImaNuke here, with something resembling a full-length story. Originally, I planned this to be a really long oneshot or twoshot in my other story "Essais," but then I decided it was going to be long enough and different enough to warrant its own story. Plus I want a cool bit of film noir-style cover art. *wishes that I could draw* *cries a little*

So like I said, this is basically a "film noir" AU. If you don't know what film noir is, think of mid-20th century American crime dramas. Things like "The Maltese Falcon," "Out of the Past," "Double Indemnity," and "The Big Sleep." There are numerous explanations of film noir on the interwebs too.

By the way, the story's explanation blurb is a reference to the "Guy Noir, Private Eye" program from NPR (National public radio) in the US.

Also, the story legitimately reads better with some Miles Davis or John Coltrane in the background (to set the mood (but more to distract you from the shitty writing)). "Blue in Green" and "Stardust" are classic choices.

Anyway, thanks for reading as always and cya next chapter.