Asou Akiya, who was recuperating in the safe house, received an unexpected phone call.
The caller ID belonged to Nakahara Chuuya's phone, yet the voice that came through the receiver was that of an adult man—steady, pleasant, and instantly likable.
"Hello, may I ask if you are Edogawa Ranpo's guardian?"
"Yes…"
Asou Akiya's very first thought was that Ranpo had gotten himself into trouble in Tokyo again.
Chuuya…
Dad had placed such high hopes on you, believing you might be able to keep Ranpo in check—and yet, you still failed.
"That's wonderful," the caller continued, sounding visibly excited, even slipping into polite honorifics. "I hit it off with Ranpo-kun immediately and would like to invite him to visit my home in Beika Town, Tokyo. He said he needed your permission first."
Perhaps realizing that his enthusiasm might make him sound suspicious, the man quickly clarified, "My name is Kudo Yusaku. I'm the author of The Night Baron. I've just returned from the United States to visit family, and while searching for inspiration, I happened to meet your son—and Ranpo-kun, whose deductive abilities are truly exceptional."
The grave expression on Asou Akiya's face froze for a moment, as if he were staring straight into a future where Japan's death rate skyrocketed.
Kudo Yusaku was Kudo Shinichi's father.
And Kudo Shinichi was none other than the infamous protagonist of Detective Conan—a walking calamity, a lone star of misfortune.
Just one Edogawa Conan—how many years of economic decline had he inflicted upon Japan already?
Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
…Surely the real world couldn't possibly be like that, right?
After offering himself that fragile reassurance, Asou Akiya's mind had already updated the latest confidential file for the Special Division for Unusual Powers:
[File No.: ▇-▇▇-▇▇-▇
Name: Edogawa Conan (formerly Kudo Shinichi)
Place of Birth: 2-21 Beika Town, Tokyo
Classification: Special A-Class Ability User
Ability Name: Unknown
Effect: Passive increase in the probability of homicide incidents occurring nearby.]
With the tone of someone who had already seen through the meaning of life itself, Asou Akiya said calmly, "Mm. Tell him I agree."
On the other end of the line, Kudo Yusaku could not help but sound surprised. After a brief pause, he asked tentatively, "You… don't need to verify my identity?"
From the background noise of the call came Edogawa Ranpo's unmistakable laughter, bright and carefree, ringing clearly through the speaker.
The corner of Asou Akiya's mouth twitched slightly. Really—who in their right mind would want to become the father of Edogawa Conan, the kind of person who seemed to bring death with him wherever he went?
"I'll be entrusting my child to you, then."
After a moment's thought, he felt that sounded a little too careless, so he added another sentence.
"Your character is worthy of trust—and I'm also one of your readers."
Without giving Kudo Yusaku time to process that, he hung up the phone. A grin immediately bloomed across his face as he turned to Randou, who was busy studying the coffee machine, and cheered, "Randou, Ranpo found something fun to do in Tokyo! He'll be back in a few more days!"
Randou replied with genuine delight, "Ranpo-kun has grown up."
The little one now knew how to entertain himself and no longer came barging in to disturb their lives.
With a complete lack of conscience, Asou Akiya cheerfully cast aside the two kids who were, in all likelihood, skipping classes somewhere outside, and let this wonderful misunderstanding continue undisturbed.
"Randou, the author of The Night Baron just used honorifics when talking to me!"
"Akiya truly deserves other people's respect," Randou said warmly.
When it came to evaluating Akiya's literary merit, Randou was remarkably objective—neither excessive in praise nor dismissive of what made him special. After all, his boyfriend possessed a breadth of mind rarely seen in ordinary people, and through his writing, he painted a vivid, living portrait of an ordinary world. Anyone who glimpsed that world between the lines would inevitably feel a unique resonance: a world without special abilities, still scarred by war, yet once peace arrived, blooming into splendor, so beautiful that one could not help but linger a little longer in it.
"Hehe." Asou Akiya grew bashful instead and spoke from the heart. "I'm just basking in Ranpo's reflected glory."
Randou brewed a cup of coffee and crafted a beautiful piece of latte art on its surface.
"Akiya always loves to downplay himself."
Not far away, in Tokyo, Kudo Yusaku returned the phone to Edogawa Ranpo and said with genuine admiration, "A parent who's this relaxed is incredibly rare. Could it be that just from a few words of mine, he was able to confirm who I am?"
Edogawa Ranpo replied smugly, "Why wouldn't he be able to?"
Nakahara Chuuya covered his face and exchanged a look with Kudo Shinichi, whose mouth was hanging open wide enough to fit an egg.
Two completely unrelated people suddenly found themselves sharing the same wavelength.
[Absolutely not, okay!!!]
"That doesn't make sense," Kudo Yusaku said, frowning. "I deliberately concealed my Tokyo accent when speaking, just as Ranpo-kun suggested. Even people who know me well wouldn't be able to tell right away."
From their earlier conversation, Kudo Yusaku had already learned about Edogawa Ranpo's family background. This was a child with extraordinarily capable parents and an equally formidable guardian. It was not just Yusaku himself who was intrigued—his editor and his son had both been listening intently to the phone call just now.
Geniuses appeared every year, but a monster like Edogawa Ranpo was rare indeed—especially when his entire household was full of monsters.
"This is the kind of thing where, the moment you hear it, you already know your own intentions," Edogawa Ranpo said impatiently. "Why should I bother explaining it clearly to you? What, are you going to grade me? Give me a break. I'm not taking an exam with you. Akiya trusts you, which means you really are a good person."
He munched on his fries as he spoke, dipping them not in ketchup but in the white sugar provided by the fast-food restaurant.
Kudo Yusaku hesitated, then turned to the orange-haired child. "Nakahara-kun, do you know the reason?"
Nakahara Chuuya replied stiffly, his expression blank. "I'm just an ordinary kid."
Kudo Yusaku understood.
"My goodness, I'm still shocked," the editor finally spoke up. "With Ranpo-kun's level of deductive ability, how could he have been buried like this? He should have been shining long ago in places like the Metropolitan Police Department or the National Police Agency."
Edogawa Ranpo said blandly, "Oh, I studied at a police academy once."
Kudo Yuusaku, who had connections within the police, brightened immediately—only to hear Ranpo continue.
"And then I got kicked out."
Kudo Yusaku pressed a hand to his forehead. "Ranpo-kun is a prodigy… a true, genuine prodigy!"
"What nonsense are you spouting now?" Edogawa Ranpo said as soon as he opened his mouth, his tone all too familiar. Nakahara Chuuya already knew the routine—Ranpo was about to start praising Asou Akiya as a peerless genius while casually stomping on everyone else's intelligence, his included. Completely unruffled, Chuuya calmly reached over, took a chicken wing from the table, bit into the meat, and washed it down with a gulp of cola, having no choice but to master the essential skill of how a perfectly average person should spectate drama and eat melon seeds on the sidelines.
"In this family, I'm the weakest one," Edogawa Ranpo declared without the slightest hesitation.
"Ah!" Edogawa Ranpo suddenly fixed his gaze on Chuuya, his face lighting up with delight. "I almost forgot—there's you to prop me up from the bottom."
Nakahara Chuuya choked, silently clenching his fist.
With no suspense whatsoever, Nakahara Chuuya instantly became the object of everyone's sympathy. The thoughts running through their minds could be roughly summed up as follows:
—Living in a family like that really isn't easy.
"Come on, Chuuya, let's go play in Beika Town," Edogawa Ranpo said, surprisingly calling him by name in front of outsiders. After wiping his hands and mouth with a napkin, Nakahara Chuuya climbed into Kudo Yuusaku's car once they were done eating.
The editor took the wheel, Kudo Yusaku sat in the front passenger seat, and he deliberately let his young son interact with the two of them, treating it as an early opportunity for Shinichi to gain some novel experience in making friends.
Kudo Shinichi no longer looked down on them. Instead, his eyes shining with admiration, he asked, "Ranpo-ge, can I ask you some questions about deduction?"
Edogawa Ranpo didn't hesitate for a second. "Nope! I don't want to answer children's questions!"
Kudo Shinichi was thoroughly crushed.
Nakahara Chuuya kicked Edogawa Ranpo's foot lightly, signaling him to show a little courtesy to someone else's kid.
Edogawa Ranpo couldn't have cared less. "Short-legged little orange cat."
Nakahara Chuuya ground his teeth and finally compromised. "Fine, I'll listen to you—but don't give me any more nicknames."
Kudo Shinichi laughed, and Edogawa Ranpo grinned as well, saying cheerfully, "You're definitely curious why I made that decision, right? Out of the kindness of my heart, I'll tell you—the whole point of making that call was to ask Akiya whether we could go back."
Nakahara Chuuya racked his brain, trying to keep up with his train of thought. "Didn't you say just yesterday that we could already go back?"
Edogawa Ranpo replied, "I suddenly thought of a possibility today."
Nakahara Chuuya: "?"
Edogawa Ranpo lowered his voice, sounding mysterious. "Akiya has his own arrangements. The longer he drags things out, the bigger the trouble he's dealing with. Once we go back, the entire city of Yokohama might just let us walk all over it."
Nakahara Chuuya looked unconvinced. "That's a bit too exaggerated, isn't it?"
He admitted that their newly appointed dad was incredibly sharp, leagues above the adults in the Slums, but to run rampant across Yokohama took an absurd amount of backing. The underworld syndicates and foreigners there wouldn't exactly play nice just because you were a local.
Kudo Shinichi hurriedly asked, "Big brothers, are you from Yokohama?"
Nakahara Chuuya nodded, deliberately hiding the fact that he lived in the Slums.
Edogawa Ranpo continued muttering to himself. "That's just the feeling I get from Akiya. He's that kind of person—far more patient than most adults. When he finally makes a move, it's always a killing blow."
Nakahara Chuuya snapped irritably, "If you want Dad to scold you, just keep talking."
Keep Ranpo's mouth in check!
Those were Asou Akiya's whispered instructions to Nakahara Chuuya. Chuuya treated them as a serious mission, and ever since arriving in Tokyo, he'd slammed on the brakes on Edogawa Ranpo's mouth more times than he could count.
"The one who tattled is a cat!" Edogawa Ranpo made a silly face at him as he said it.
"A cat, then a cat," Nakahara Chuuya replied coldly, his small face stiff with irritation. "Whoever talks nonsense is a dog."
Edogawa Ranpo: "..."
Seeing Ranpo rendered uncharacteristically speechless, Nakahara Chuuya froze for a moment. Then, instinctively, he realized the reason why. "Oh, right—Dad likes cats. If you turned into a dog, then—"
Before he could finish the sentence, Edogawa Ranpo lunged at him, clapping a hand over his mouth. The two of them quickly devolved into a full-blown scuffle in the back seat. The most tragic part of it all was that fourteen-year-old Edogawa Ranpo was being completely pinned down and beaten by a nine-year-old orange-haired boy.
Kudo Shinichi panicked, flailing helplessly. "Stop it! Stop fighting—don't hit Ranpo-niisan!"
With his hair being painfully yanked, Nakahara Chuuya snapped angrily, "He deserves it!"
Edogawa Ranpo soon realized that he genuinely could not beat Nakahara Chuuya. He endured it, endured it again, and finally, burst into tears.
"Waaah—you muscle-brained, stinking cat!"
Amidst the chaos and uproar, they arrived in Beika Town. This quiet city had just welcomed two top-tier visitors from Yokohama—figures standing at the very pinnacle of their world.
Kudo Yusaku and his wife, Kudo Yukiko, warmly hosted them. Even the couple's neighbor, Agasa Hakase, had heard that the Kudo household was playing host to a peerless genius of deduction. Overjoyed, he brought out several of his small inventions as gifts. Surrounded by people who were either frighteningly intelligent or impeccably socially adept, Nakahara Chuuya once again felt like he was firmly at the bottom of the pecking order.
Quietly clenching his fists, a sour feeling welled up inside him. When he got back, he would have to study properly. Losing to adults and to Ranpo was nothing to be ashamed of—but if this kept up, he absolutely could not afford to lose to five-year-old Kudo Shinichi!
Kudo Shinichi proudly led the two of them to see the family's extensive collection of books. Turning to Edogawa Ranpo, he said, "Pretty much all of the famous detective novels in the world are in my house. Some of them are even rare, one-of-a-kind editions!"
Edogawa Ranpo replied confidently, "The books I write in the future will be here too."
Kudo Shinichi looked at him with eyes full of unwavering trust. "I believe that too!"
Hey, hey!
Admiring someone like that would lead you astray, alright!?
Nakahara Chuuya had never been someone who enjoyed complaining or snarking at things, but after witnessing these events and their increasingly bizarre turn of developments, he finally understood something clearly: in this circle of people who were obsessed with deduction and reasoning, he was a textbook outsider.
When could he go home already… He found himself longing for the rough-and-tumble streets of Suribachi City, longing for his companions there.
If you can solve things with your fists, why bother using your brain at all?!