AROUND THE WORLD

CHAPTER 1

right after our marriage, me and my husband decided that we wanted to explore the world

I want to travel around the world solving all kinds of mysteries. he's intrigued by

the traditions and cultures of the world. and this, is where we're starting

"ryohei! let's go!" shichiro, ryohei's husband called out. "the ship's about to leave!!"

ryohei swiftly goes to catch up to shichiro. "goodbye everyone!! we'll be back!!"

shichiro shouts, and waves goodbye to their family standing at the dock all waving and crying.

"and that's definitely not soon" ryohei turns around to lean on the large ship's railing.

and a minute later the ships horn blew, signaling that they were about to leave the dock.

shichiro sighs with relief "travelling is tiring." ryohei laughs "well, it will be exciting

at least."

"our first stop?"

"china."

shichiro shrugs "not Korea?"

"I’ve been meaning to go to china, and plus, we don't need to rush

we have all the time in the world"

"well I guess you're right"

they spend half of the afternoon talking outside the ship's unusually quiet deck

half of the people might be on the ship's pool. they talk about their plans there until

it hits sunset. "shi-chan, I’m hungry"

"it's about time we eat dinner. let's go."

but before they could enter the ship's closest restaurant to them

they hear a scream.

shichiro immediately runs inside to check and ryohei follows just behind him

they see a few people circling on something, what is it? they go closer to see.

it's a body. and with shichiro's kind soul he wastes no time and starts to help.

he checks the body if there's any sign of blood. there was, but it was barely visible

because of the man's blood red suit.

he looks closely to the man's face, and notices how is lips started changing color

into, a red. a dark red.

he touches his pulse, to see if there was any chance the man was still conscious

there was someone in the crowd, running to the body, which ryohei immediately stopped

"ma'am please back away, we’re investigating the body"

"HE'S- HE'S MY HUSBAND" ryohei is startled and let’s go of the woman

she sits beside her husband’s laying body trying to wake him up "DARLING. DARLING PLEASE,

WAKE UP!" she was crying. shichiro motioned ryohei to take the woman and told someone from

the few people to call the medics. they arrived a few minutes later and took the body to

the clinic.

when they were about to lay him down the bed, shichiro told them that the man was dead.

after hearing this news, the wife was in great dismay. the doctor took notice and nodded

"then we will find the cause of his death." the doctor called for more backup and checked the

body of any signs.

meanwhile outside the clinic shichiro comforting the wife.

"I’m so sorry for your loss ma'am" she finally toned down a little. while shichiro was

comforting her, he noticed she seems familiar.

"ma'am, are you perhaps the famous actress from France?" he feels the woman slightly

flinch. "n-no" she sniffles "I’m actually from Spain" he just realizes she had an accent

"oh from Spain? I’m also from there, was- was your husband from there too?" shichiro

asks quietly "y-yes. Where is the other man?"

"oh ryohei? he went back to the restaurant"

"why?"

"he said he was going to investigate"

"I-investigate? I-is that fine?"

the woman started to somewhat panic

"ma'am? ma'am are you okay?"

"nothing, nothing- um- your friend doesn't have to trouble himself-"

"no it's fine ma'am, my husband is actually a detective, and he can't pass up

your husband's death. he's a great person"

"but um-" before she could continue to talk the doctor came out of the clinic

removing his gloves. "doctor! how was it? have you figured out?"

"yes, we figured out that he was stabbed, he was stabbed right in the heart,

which is an instant kill. we thought that it was the only cause of his death but

we sooner realized that his mouth smelled like chemicals, we figured out he was poisoned.

before he got stabbed."

"p-poisoned?" the wife murmurs

"yes. we concluded that the poison was Strychnine, it was injected right into the vein.

which means he was already dying before he was stabbed."

"you're right!" they all turn to ryohei who suddenly spoke out of nowhere

"you're back already?"

"yup! and I think, Mr. Chature's death was planned. or, it was also suicide?"

"what- what are you talking about?" the wife stood up

"doctor, you said that was poisoned by Strychnine right?"

"yes..."

"and the symptoms of Strychnine?"

"muscle pain and soreness... difficulty breathing, jaw tightness, restlessness...

what are you on about?"

"what I'm trying to say is, with further investigation, I think Mr. Chature killed himself"

he smiled, but it was a serious smile

"he- why- why would he?"

"hmm, I’m guessing ma'am the poison you injected to him caused too much pain so he couldn't

handle it and killed himself."

"there's no way! I did it to make him-" the woman almost instantly realized what she said

and covered her mouth with both her hands.

both the doctor and shichiro whipped their head to look at the woman with suspiciousness

"excuse me?" shichiro muttered

"NO! I- I DIDN'T KILL HIM!" she was tripping over her own words as she slowly started to

back away trembling. but shichiro grasped her wrist. "let me GO! LET ME GO!" her voice was

quivering. "ma'am please calm down" shichiro was trying not to hurt her but she kept moving

"let- let me go!" tears started to fall down her eyes, she became weaker and soon gave up on

letting herself free. "ma'am, I just want to ask a few questions"

she sits down and wipes her tears away, but it still kept falling

"ma'am, why did you kill your husband?" ryohei asked with a calming and reassuring voice

she sniffles "I- I’m... I didn't- I-"

shichiro rubs circles on her back "please calm down ma'am"

"I- I tried to kill him- it's because he- you don't know what he did!" she silently

shouts

"If you're ready, are you willing to tell us why?"

"y-yes..." they guide her to the clinic and she sits beside her dead husband's body

the three realize that she's looking at him with both empathy and rage

the doctor told her that she should go to sleep first so that she could calm down the doctor

suggested she sleep at the clinic so they could check her, and fortunately, she complies.

so, since she's resting the couple decides to go rest, they go back to the room they were

staying, in which is luckily a little close to the clinic.

when they arrive at the room shichiro flops down the bed and with a muffled voice he

said "oh c'mon...! we're literally still on the ship and a murder is already happening!"

ryohei laughs "it's going to be fun!"

"your version of fun is always different!" shichiro pouts

shichiro groans and stands up "I’m going to take a shower, what about you?"

ryohei lies down the bed "I’m going to go to bed"

"you're not going to even take a shower?"

he pauses "I guess not"

shichiro finishes showering and quietly lays down beside a sleeping ryohei.

the next morning, shichiro wakes up without anyone beside him, it's practically normal by now

since ryohei wakes up way earlier then he does. so he goes to change and proceeds to go to the

restaurant where they're having breakfast, he doesn't see ryohei there so maybe he's in the clinic

and that's exactly his next stop. and he is there, already preparing the woman for the interrogation

the woman sees the shichiro first and shichiro greets a good morning, the woman slightly smiles

and greets back. ryohei notices and turns around to see "shi-chan!" he immediately stands up to go

hug shichiro. shichiro scoffs and smiles "good morning to you too" ryohei let's go and asks him

if he has eaten breakfast yet. "well, I just woke up so no-"

the doctor nods and tells the remaining nurses to go get everyone food.

"no it's okay I can-" oh. he gets it. they're trying to make them leave "oh well, um thank you"

after the nurses left they started. "are you ready to tell us ma'am?"

"um... yes. but I want to be honest with you, yes, I am Catherine Marceau. but, my husband

told me to change my appearance. I-I admit that I poisoned my husband, but I didn't stab him!

I- I was told that it would make my husband unconscious for a while... I-I didn't know!"

"it's okay miss Marceau, you were just tricked. the person who tricked you is the real culprit"

ryohei calmly tells her

"he- he was... I didn't see his face... but- I met him before we rode the ship. he knows about my

relationship with my husband- and- and told me that if I could just make him unconscious then

he would deal with everything else- but now- he's gone and the people who were in the crowd have

spread the information, my reputation is ruined, and I’m going to jail"

"miss Marceau, will you tell us your relationship with your husband?"

"As you know, the Chature's are a wealthy family, my manager told me, that if I married him

then my fame would grow even larger. and since I didn’t know anything, seeing I was a child

I just- did what my manager told me- but… but” she starts to sniffle then tears start forming in her eyes

“he- he raped me- and did so many other things to many other women!”

“so it wasn’t only you, huh”

“did you know the other girls?” Ryohei starts noticing the worry in shichiro’s voice. This man was too
kind. “no. we were never allowed to talk to each other”

“I’m glad you told us that miss Marceau, we will deal with matters imm-“shichiro was cut off by ryohei