Chapter Text
Sherlock Holmes was not at the Great Waterloo Hotel when he arrived. And, in a just world, that would have been the most surprising thing about the day.
Yuujin had been very pleased to find out that he and Jigoku would not be sharing a room for the length of the symposium, and not just because it would mean getting to spend at least some time away from the man with whom he'd spent the majority of fifty days, and would soon be spending the majority of fifty days again on the return voyage home. It would also mean a modicum of privacy, and not having to choose between trying to hide his proclivities from the Minister of Justice and trying to hide them from his own daughter. Prolictivities that he had been quite looking forward to, and that he was sure that Sherlock was as well, if the increasing amount of innuendo sneaking into his telegrams were anything to go by. And yet, there Yuujin was, and there was no Sherlock in sight.
Susato was waiting in the hotel lobby when they arrived, and Naruhodou as well, both gawking in wonder at the opulence surrounding them. It was nice to be greeted by his daughter, and nicer still to take a photo commemorating their time in London together. And yet, it felt like there was someone missing as they posed.
Part of him wondered if Sherlock had somehow gained access to their rooms in advance and was waiting for him upstairs. If so, he sorely hoped that Sherlock had chosen the right room—Jigoku had been acting a little off all day and would likely not be in the mood for surprises, even if he hadn't been the one subjected to such rigorous and arduous customs checks. But there was no Sherlock in his room, nor any shouts from Jigoku's to indicate that anything might be amiss.
Indeed, there was nothing left to do but to anxiously wait in the lobby and read a newspaper, and claim that he was involved in important business as he waited for his partner to arrive.
Except, of course, he never did.
And then the body of London's most well-known detective was found, and Yuujin understood in an instant that the day, and indeed the whole trip ahead of him, was about to unfold quite differently than he had ever expected.