>"Which would be most informative, do you think?"
>"That depends." She leans back slightly. "When you're looking for jewelery that isn't quite... above board, the first place you should look is a pawn shop. A fair number of the ones here aren't entirely inquisitive about every bit of merchandise that comes across their counter. They can't traffic in engraved jewelery, but Chen's pendant isn't, according to her fliers. There's five pawn shops in town that might have acquired that pendant and not have contacted Ran or Chen, or the police for that matter, by now. And it's not at four of them, or Id've known by now. That leaves the fifth, and that's the one that won't deal with me. That one, however, is basically on the other side of town, and it keeps long hours, even on Sunday so it wouldn't hurt to check into the other place first."
>"There's a little store called Kourin-dou, that's the place we're closest to. It's not a pawn shop per se, but it takes in all manner of merchandise. It's possible the owner acquired Chen's pendant, and isn't even aware that he did. Or that he forgot, he can be pretty damn absentminded, when he's not talking business."
>You have heard of this Kourin-dou before, and it's owner and seemingly one of only two employees, Rinnosuke Morichika. The place is rumored to be a repository of all manner of wacky and exotic things that some can't even put names to, and is agreed to be one of, if not the, most disorganized stores in the entirely of the country of Yamato. Although you would bet Marissa's place is worse. Rinnosuke himself has a bit of a dual reputation, some say that he's immensely scatterbrained. Some others say he could sell rain to a cloud, although this version of Rinnosuke doesn't seem to be as popular as the former. You've heard your classmates discuss the store before, but you've never had cause to go there yourself.
>"And even if he doesn't have the thing," Eagle continues, "he might have heard something useful. And hey, ynever know, you might find that piano Kotohime's looking for while you're in there. But as for Ran's, well, that's honestly a question mark. I'm sure the Yakumos and their flunkies have gone over a four mile radius and more looking for that thing, but there's at least one good reason for me to have a stab at it. It's not a guarantee, but it's a chance."
