Mid-November.
Recently, Edogawa Ranpo's life had taken a turn for the worse—or so it felt to him—and he had become jumpy and constantly on edge.
He had noticed that Akiya was being far too good to him, cheerfully buying him all sorts of delicious treats, while Mr. Randou had also begun to show him a gentle, indulgent smile with alarming frequency, as if silently saying: Go on, child. This household only needs me and Akiya.
"Too terrifying, this is way too terrifying!" Edogawa Ranpo kept repeating to Nakahara Chuuya.
"..." Nakahara Chuuya pinched the tip of his pen, forcing himself to read Ranpo's novel and write a reading-comprehension analysis. "I don't feel that there's any problem at all."
"They're planning to get rid of me!" Edogawa Ranpo shouted. "This is the last meal before killing the cat! Can you understand the feeling of eating my beloved coarse sweets, bite after bite, while sensing that my days are numbered? Mr. Randou is the most obvious of all—he doesn't even bother hiding how much he's looking forward to my misfortune. All I did was expose an adult's hypocrisy once, that's all!"
Nakahara Chuuya finally couldn't take it anymore. He slammed the trashy novel onto the desk with a bang. "After all that drama, what exactly do you want to do?"
"I'm going to investigate this properly," Edogawa Ranpo declared.
Nakahara Chuuya irritably ran a hand through his hair, having absolutely no desire to get involved in the mess between Ranpo and Akiya.
"I won't interfere with you—so can you stop dragging me into this?"
"No!"
Edogawa Ranpo hurriedly pulled a crumpled A4 sheet of paper out of his pocket and shoved it in front of him.
Nakahara Chuuya squinted and barely made out the text. "An activity certification?"
"It's a government-issued job-hunting activity certification," Edogawa Ranpo explained. "I look for jobs all the time, so I know this piece of paper very well. Akiya deliberately put it somewhere I could see it—he obviously wants me to go get a part-time job!"
Nakahara Chuuya fell silent for three seconds, then his face split into a broad grin. "Isn't that a good thing?"
Edogawa Ranpo said something truly horrifying: "This kind of document is used for interviews! And this one is a copy! The original with the official seal has already been submitted to some company I don't even know about!"
Nakahara Chuuya replied calmly, "You're fourteen. It's fine if you don't want to go to school, but you can't just stay at home forever living off other people."
Edogawa Ranpo looked left and right in agitation. "I do want to find a suitable job too, you know."
If he hadn't found one yet, could that really be his fault?
A wave of panic swept through Edogawa Ranpo. He felt that Akiya shouldn't possibly mind him clinging on for support—after all, Akiya was the one who had personally chosen him as a long-term meal ticket. How could he suddenly change his mind at the last moment and try to shove him into a complicated working environment instead?
Deduction, deduction, deduction… the result was that there wasn't enough information! Akiya was secretly plotting something about him!
The sensitive fur of a cat had already stood on end.
After treating Nakahara Chuuya as a dumping ground for his negative emotions and finishing his rant, Edogawa Ranpo grabbed his phone and dialed Kudo Yusaku's number. His survival instinct was in overdrive; among all the "acquaintances" he knew, the only one who could solve this mystery for him was that man.
"Mosimossi!! Hey, Mr. Kudo! I want to know—under what circumstances would a guardian throw a child out to work?"
"…Well, that might happen when they're unable to provide for the child financially."
"Other than that?!"
"When they don't have the time or energy to supervise them, and hope the child will enter society early and grow up faster."
"—Hiss!"
Edogawa Ranpo sucked in a sharp breath.
Akiya was injured, and Randou was taking care of him personally—didn't that fit a crucial prerequisite perfectly?
Kudo Yusaku seemed to sense something and said to the mentally young boy on the other end of the line, "Your guardian wants you to go to work?"
Edogawa Ranpo answered in complete disarray, "Probably… maybe? It's so annoying, I don't really know."
Kudo Yusaku was surprised. "Ranpo-kun, you can't analyze it?"
Edogawa Ranpo muttered, "If he really wanted me to work, he wouldn't send me to that kind of place." From the fact that he hadn't received any interview notice at all, he already knew that what Asou Akiya wanted to push him into was a large corporation with dense interpersonal networks—a company with a complicated screening process that would never casually hire a minor.
Kudo Yusaku pondered for a moment and offered his partial view. "Perhaps things aren't as bad as you imagine."
Edogawa Ranpo grumbled, "How could I possibly be averse to working."
He was just… averse to places crowded with monster-like adults.
After ending the call, Edogawa Ranpo slumped onto a cardboard box in dejection. Thankfully, he wasn't heavy, his limbs slender, so the box filled with household odds and ends didn't collapse under his weight.
Nakahara Chuuya, seeing this rare sight of a dispirited Ranpo, revealed confusion in his deep blue eyes.
"What are you afraid of?"
[What are you afraid of, Edogawa Ranpo?]
Edogawa Ranpo asked himself the same question. He had fled from school and from jobs, retreated into the safety of home, and only when he once again tried to touch the outside world of work did he realize that he had lost the sharp edge he possessed half a year ago when he ran to Yokohama City.
He was so frightened that his hands and feet threatened to tremble, his heart tightening as scolding voices replayed endlessly in his mind.
What had he done wrong?
Was he going to be scolded again at work?
Why was it his fault?
Why did they look at him with such disgust?!
Edogawa Ranpo hugged his knees and bent forward, unwilling to look at the brilliant world outside any longer. He sat with Nakahara Chuuya inside a crude shelter that kept out the wind and the sun, spared from adults' disputes, yet none of the essentials of life—food, clothing, shelter, transportation—could be missing; to go on living, one either needed money, or had to fight to earn it oneself.
"What kind of work has the little orange cat done?"
"If helping people move things and find things counts as work, then I've done that."
"Were you happy?"
Edogawa Ranpo asked in a daze.
"How could I be? Once you've experienced the feeling of bowing your head for money, you can never come to like it," Nakahara Chuuya's voice sank, thinking of how his own companions were enduring those same detestable things.
"…I've done three jobs: the army camp, factory work, and delivering mail." Edogawa Ranpo counted them off; in truth, it wasn't many. "Every single time, I told myself I had to find a way to keep working. I don't want to die. This winter I need money, I need a warm bed, I need air conditioning that actually works and hot food. I want to survive this winter. Sleeping alone outside, leaning against a wall… it's just too unbearable."
Edogawa Ranpo was someone who cared fiercely about his pride—fiercely. Petty, too. After being expelled from the police academy, he had once stubbornly refused to return, unwilling to accept the principal's charity given only for his father's sake.
But he wanted to live.
He would run away for a few days, then come back, then run away again, and when he could no longer endure it, he would return to the dormitory.
Only when he was truly starving would he go looking for Asou Akiya after work. The man would look at him with tolerant eyes, never scolding him, simply regarding him—as an elder would—as a homeless child.
"Akiya is a good person," Edogawa Ranpo sniffed. "If he tells me to work, then I'll go."
Hearing his father's name, Nakahara Chuuya suddenly broke free from the heavy, sorrowful mood.
He had almost been led astray by Ranpo.
He sprang to his feet. "Wait a second—so it's just a job, right? Why are you making it sound like some tragic farewell between life and death?!"
Edogawa Ranpo bared his teeth and flailed his arms. "A stray alley cat who's never had a proper job wouldn't understand!"
"Who are you calling a stray alley cat?" Nakahara Chuuya's expression turned frightening; he stepped forward, and cracks actually split open across the ground beneath his foot.
Edogawa Ranpo stared at him, dumbfounded, then bolted in a blur.
"Uwaa— the alley cat has gone berserk!"
"Damn it!"
Nakahara Chuuya didn't chase after him. He ground his teeth instead. With a brain as sharp as Ranpo's, how could he dare complain about not being able to survive? Didn't that idiot know that even fools were struggling desperately just to stay alive?!
This world isn't that good—but it isn't that bad either, Edogawa Ranpo!
"Back already?" Asou Akiya was sitting on the sofa at home, watching the Yokohama news. Hearing movement at the entryway, he looked up and spoke to Edogawa Ranpo, who had just finished running around outside.
Edogawa Ranpo gathered up his fragile, wounded pride, then stormed in in a huff and dropped into the single-seater sofa.
"Akiya, are you messing with me?"
"No," Asou Akiya replied.
He had no intention of entertaining a question that made no sense.
"Look at this!" Edogawa Ranpo pulled out a newspaper. Printed on it was a photograph of the female president of S&K Corporation, a major business magnate in Yokohama, her face bearing the unmistakable air of a hard-edged career woman.
Asou Akiya blinked, clearly not understanding.
Edogawa Ranpo said, "I went to track down where that activity certification ended up, and you submitted it to this company."
Asou Akiya raised his fist to his lips, covering the smile he couldn't quite suppress. "Didn't you 'like' her?"
"I didn't!" Edogawa Ranpo protested, flailing. "You're the one who taught me to go after middle-aged female tycoons! It's all your fault, Akiya! You made me look ridiculous in public! I only just realized that trying to get someone to support you makes people look down on you!"
Asou Akiya raised an eyebrow in mild amusement. "So you actually realized that, huh?"
Ranpo's shoulders slumped, his hair falling limp. "I don't want to sell myself—I just wanted someone to take care of me… Akiya, please don't give up on me… I'm growing up…" He tugged at Akiya's sleeve, his expression the perfect image of a three-year-old pleading with an adult. "I'll grow up to be someone like you."
Akiya's gaze flicked to Ranpo's ear; the ear lobe was slightly red, irritated, probably inflamed.
"Ranpo, lie down. Rest your head on my lap."
"Huh?"
Obediently, Ranpo flopped forward.
Akiya retrieved a box of cotton swabs from the drawer of the coffee table and gently cleaned Ranpo's ears. Water must have gotten in during his bath, causing some buildup and irritation over the past few days.
Ranpo squirmed a little, the ticklish sensation making him shrink his neck, but his eyes flicked up to watch Akiya.
In this moment, Akiya looked so much like a father figure.
"You won't abandon me, right?"
"Never."
"You won't make me go to some terrible job I don't want, or make me deal with scary adults, right?"
"I won't."
"Eh?! Akiya said yes! ! !"
"Spill it already!" Edogawa Ranpo could no longer contain himself—he had fallen right into the trap.
"Here's the deal," Asou Akiya said. "You'll attend the S&K Corporation interview. If you pass on the same day, you win. If you fail… your allowance for the entire week gets cut off. No asking friends for help—you'll have to survive out there on your own."
"I accept!" Ranpo rolled on the floor in pure delight.
Akiya's expression remained gentle as he listened to the sound of his little cat falling headfirst into the hunter's trap.
His gaze met Randou's.
Randou's eyes asked silently: Can you pull this off?
Akiya blinked his left eye with perfect subtlety.
Who do you think I am?
I'm the Analyst who can trick Ranpo into losing all sense of north and south.
In this web of fate, I am king.
Meanwhile, in a villa district of Yokohama, Catherine waited desperately for the young mailman. Every day, she was greeted instead by a parade of strange, awkward postmen delivering letters. Her heart, the heart of a French noblewoman longing for a young lover, was broken into seven or eight pieces. She desperately needed a fresh taste of exotic romance to nourish her soul.
Her sofa was buried under a mountain of letters.
She tore through them, sighing: "When will you come? Is it really so hard to see you just once?"
She had the wealth of a big sister—but lacked someone to share it with.
The thought that Randou, the gentleman she'd met in Japan, had completely forgotten her made her even more forlorn.
No friends. No lover. A Frenchwoman could hardly breathe.
Japan was not romantic in the slightest!