How pitiful a cat that begs to be taken in can be?
All the beautiful impressions of "him" lasted for no more than a single night.
Catherine found herself facing a brand-new crisis in her life—the clever boy she had taken in, after spending one obedient and well-behaved night settling in, tore away his cute façade and revealed his true nature beneath.
The moment she stepped onto the staircase, Catherine saw the maid inside the villa frozen in terror, looking as though she was about to commit a violent act???
"Miss Maid, why are you panicking so much?" Edogawa Ranpo said in an innocent tone. "Since you've already betrayed your mistress, wouldn't it be better to be clean and decisive about it? Just resign—why insist on staying? You've already slept with Big Sister's fourth boyfriend and enjoyed the thrill of an affair, oh… because he's a foreigner? Mixed-blood? You long for life abroad and don't want to stay in Japan anymore…"
The locally hired Japanese maid shuddered violently and screamed, "Stop talking!"
The hand she had hidden behind her back tried to lift itself!
There was a fruit knife there!
"How interesting—you want to kill me?" Edogawa Ranpo looked utterly innocent, pointing at his own face, his words sounding more and more like mockery. "I have nothing to do with you, right? Are adults always this ruled by their emotions?"
Her sanity was driven into a corner by him, and with all her remaining courage, the maid fought against the terror of her exposed secrets.
"What would a brat like you even understand—!!!"
That cry was far too frightening, like the shriek of a vengeful ghost.
Catherine snapped out of her spectator's mindset. Wait—had I just been cheated on? The smile froze on her face. Lifting her skirt, she hurried down the stairs and shouted sharply, "Maid?!"
The fruit knife failed to strike. The maid stood there at a loss, still holding it, before it clattered to the floor with a loud clang.
"C-Catherine, Miss Catherine, I-I-I don't know—I don't know anything at all!"
"..."
Catherine was struck speechless for three full seconds. Then she turned to the French butler who had hurried over and said coolly, "Dismiss her. Throw her out. File a complaint with the employment agency she came from, and make sure her mouth doesn't go spreading things everywhere."
The French butler accepted the order with visible shame. When he looked at the maid, whose face was pale with fear, his gaze turned icy and merciless.
As for the outcome of her fate, Edogawa Ranpo reacted with bright, cheerful enthusiasm. "Big Sister, you've been NTR'd!"
Catherine felt as if an arrow had pierced her heart.
She didn't know what "NTR" meant, but judging from the context, it was clearly nothing good.
Edogawa Ranpo went on, "It's no big deal—adults all seem to like chasing excitement anyway." He picked up a piece of fresh fruit from the coffee table and stuffed it into his mouth, delight blooming on his face at the sweetness. "Big Sister, we're going out today, right? I saw the postman deliver some tickets. They're probably for a play, an opera, or a concert or something. I read today's newspaper, and it said there's an 'angel' play being staged tonight—this must be the one."
Catherine walked over to where he was sitting, puzzled. "Did I ever order tickets like that?"
The French butler answered, "They're most likely special tickets reserved by people hoping to curry favor with you, Miss. After all, you often go out and enjoy local art exhibitions and stage performances in Yokohama."
Catherine gave a reserved nod. "That makes sense. In a small place like Japan, these are about the only things worth looking at."
Edogawa Ranpo wrinkled his nose, instinctively repelled by that haughty way of speaking.
"Big Sister, aren't you looking for a Japanese boyfriend?" he said bluntly. "If you look down on Japanese people like this, you won't find anyone at all."
"Uh…"
"Let me see—oh! Big Sister, do you know Mr. Randou? Mr. Randou also likes going to places like this to see exhibitions. That deceased Japanese tycoon, Uramaru Renya, collected a lot of artworks. I saw several of them in your villa. You must have come to Japan on vacation specifically for some particular piece of art that ended up overseas, right?"
Edogawa Ranpo spoke freely and without restraint, saying whatever crossed his mind.
The more Catherine listened, the more keenly she felt herself being laid bare beneath his gaze. Uneasy, she asked, "What is your relationship with Mr. Randou? I am friends with him, but he never once mentioned you to me."
Ranpo's emerald-green eyes seemed to carry a strange power, as though they could see straight through a person's heart.
"You're lying."
"..."
"Why are you lying?" he continued calmly. "You don't actually consider him a friend. You think he's handsome and strange, so you secretly investigated him, only to find nothing at all—because he's hidden his past."
"…Did you analyze that too?" Catherine's gaze darkened, suspicion rising as she began to doubt Ranpo's motives.
"I'm telling you this because investigation is pointless," Edogawa Ranpo said. He didn't dislike Catherine—otherwise he wouldn't have come to her villa at all. He was simply stating the truth, albeit in a sharp, cutting way that wounded as it landed. "Mr. Randou approached you because he misses his homeland and his past. Don't try to dig into what lies behind him. He's the only adult that's shrouded in the thickest fog I've ever seen. If you act recklessly, You really will die."
Catherine did not move any closer to the sofa where Ranpo sat, stopping three steps away instead. She lifted a hand to gently smooth her hair by her ear. "You're not wrong—I did investigate him. But your definition of 'friend' is far too narrow, little brother. Friendship requires an equal relationship and mutual understanding. I hope to become Mr. Randou's friend."
"That's exactly why I'm warning you," Ranpo said with a smile.
Within that childlike innocence, Catherine felt her scalp prickle. She signaled to the butler with a glance—had they uncovered the boy's background yet?
"What we found was very simple," the butler replied.
Ranpo puffed up with pride. "I'm just someone from the countryside. What, are you going to investigate my hometown too?"
Catherine pressed a hand to her chest. "You're terrifying."
The lively spirits Edogawa Ranpo had shown earlier that morning immediately wilted away.
"Why do adults always say the same kinds of things?"
Terrifying?
In what way was he terrifying?
"Sis, you're a foreigner—haven't you ever met someone like me abroad?" Edogawa Ranpo asked, seeking confirmation. After thinking it over, Catherine replied, "There are geniuses as smart as you, of course, but they're certainly rare."
Ranpo curled his lip. "You're lying again. How could they possibly be rare?"
A figurative question mark almost floated over Catherine's forehead.
What on earth was he talking about, and did he really have to be this mentally exhausting first thing in the morning? A beat later, she suddenly remembered that she still had to settle accounts with her fourth mixed-race boyfriend. Bristling with fury, she marched toward the landline phone. "Adam, you're dead!"
After thoroughly ruining Catherine's morning, Edogawa Ranpo calmly filled his stomach with fruit.
When Catherine finished her shouting match and came back, she hadn't even had time to sit down when—
"Sis, your bra strap has slipped. If you don't fix it, it's going to keep sliding down."
"—?!"
Catherine, who cared deeply about her appearance, clutched her chest, froze for a second, and then hurried upstairs to change, leaving Edogawa Ranpo behind with his hands over his eyes, declaring that he absolutely could not bear to look.
The French butler, having already dealt with the maid's situation, returned to find that his mistress had changed into a new dress and was sitting on the sofa with the Japanese boy who had asked for shelter the night before, the two of them flipping through something together. More precisely, after learning about Edogawa Ranpo's deductive abilities, Catherine had eagerly pulled out matters concerning her previous boyfriends and begun questioning him.
This was unquestionably the best private detective—especially since uncovering clues came free of charge.
A moment later, Catherine let out another piercing scream.
"So I was cheated on even back then?!"
"Sis, you French really are quite open-minded. I checked your chat records and confirmed that your third German boyfriend also cheated on you—he was dating at least two girlfriends at the same time."
"I'm going to kill him!!!"
"There's no need to get that angry. Weren't you emotionally cheating on him with his younger brother as well?"
"..."
"You mentioned the German man's younger brother multiple times in your messages. Mm, another green-eyed man."
Edogawa Ranpo cast a look of disdain at Catherine, putting on an air of moral judgment—other people cheated on you, and you were cheating on others too!
The French view of romance was far too chaotic; Mr. Rimbaud was much better by comparison.
"No matter what, I did have real feelings for the people I dated," Catherine said as she took back her phone, a wave of bitterness rising as she wallowed in self-pity. "That damned German—I thought he looked so proper, and yet he was just as messy!"
Edogawa Ranpo declared petulantly, "I don't want to look at your relationship problems anymore. Hurry up and take me out. I get tired from walking, so I want to ride in a car. And my name is Edogawa Ranpo—don't call me 'little brother.'"
After confirming just how brilliant he was, Catherine indulged the delicate, willful Ranpo in everything and no longer regarded him as merely something cute.
This was a treasure that had been hidden away by others.
Her heart stirred.
If I brought him back to France and nurtured him properly, wouldn't he be no less than an ability user who wielded pure intellect?
"Fine, I'll take you out," Catherine said at last, though her gaze lingered critically on his clothes. "But are you really sure you want to go out dressed like that?"
She wasn't particularly dissatisfied with his sense of style—it was quite good, in fact—but the outfit had already been worn for two days, and faint creases had begun to form in places, betraying a subtle air of neglect.
Edogawa Ranpo replied stubbornly, chin lifted in quiet defiance, "Mr. Randou picked these clothes out for me."
The thought of coaxing—or outright abducting—Ranpo grew more and more tempting in Catherine's mind. Curiosity got the better of her, and she asked lightly, almost casually, "You said you're staying at their place, right? Then do you know who Mr. Randou's Japanese boyfriend is?"
"I know," Edogawa Ranpo answered readily.
Then he pulled a face at Catherine, mischievous and exaggerated. Where he was careless, he was genuinely careless; but where sharpness was required, he was more perceptive than anyone else.
"I'm not telling you!" he said cheerfully. "Go investigate it yourself!"
So infuriating!
She had thought him an easy-to-deceive child, only to realize that he had already seen through her intentions long ago.
Catherine ground her teeth faintly, but when she looked at Ranpo's face again, her fondness for beautiful people resurfaced. Unfortunately, the fragile, pitiful image he had projected the previous night had already shattered beyond recognition.
"Big sister is taking you out to have some fun," Catherine declared magnanimously. "We're going to enjoy ourselves properly!"
She was fully prepared to use money to overwhelm him.
"Sure," Edogawa Ranpo replied, narrowing his eyes, his expression brimming with childish delight.
On the commercial street, Edogawa Ranpo played his role flawlessly—the lively, well-kept boy being indulged by his patron, trotting cheerfully at Catherine's side. She bought him one expensive item after another; he neither accepted outright nor refused, behaving exactly like an exceedingly proud yet incorrigibly mischievous cat—granting people hope while making them feel, at the same time, that he might slip away at any moment.
Catherine tried to put a hat on him.
Edogawa Ranpo dodged it, hopping aside as he protested, "I don't like this one!"
What he liked were cheap, ordinary detective caps—the kind sold in unremarkable shops.
Not expensive, high-class top hats.
More importantly, he had secretly tried on Mr. Randou's black hat back at Akiya's house, and the result had been utterly mismatched and ridiculous. Still, he decided that once he grew up, he could consider snatching the "right of inheritance" to that hat straight from Chuuya's hands.
"Alright, I'll respect your opinion," Catherine said, taking a quiet breath to suppress the urge to scream so cute.
Edogawa Ranpo twisted his face away and said disdainfully, "If you're going to keep me, then show some sincerity. Don't keep treating me like a doll and dressing me up all the time—I'm not a toy for you girls to play with."
Outside the shop.
Fukuzawa Yukichi saw the boy again.
The young man was walking beside a French woman. She was buying things for him, while he wore an expression of obvious reluctance.
Then Fukuzawa Yukichi's pupils contracted sharply.
He read the movement of Edogawa Ranpo's lips and suddenly understood—his relationship with the French woman was not the "friends or relatives" Fukuzawa had assumed it to be, but a kept relationship?!
The arm where Fukuzawa Yukichi had received an injection began to throb with pain.
His fist clenched tightly.
Good heavens—what had he allowed this boy to do? All for the sake of a single week's worth of food?
Suppressing his anger, he chose to endure it, then began to follow the two of them, determined to prevent Edogawa Ranpo from straying down the wrong path.
Edogawa Ranpo and Catherine exited the store, and Ranpo immediately began directing the wealthy lady to buy ice cream. Catherine agreed to everything without hesitation, completely unconcerned about the consequences of letting someone eat ice cream during a chilly season. She had no experience raising children—only experience raising boyfriends—and when it came to boyfriends, her philosophy had always been simple: Whatever you want, I'll give you. If I can't afford it, I'll kick out your greedy ass.
Seizing the moment when they separated from others, Fukuzawa Yukichi strode forward in long steps and grabbed Edogawa Ranpo by the arm.
Edogawa Ranpo turned to look at him, "What are you doing?!"
Fukuzawa Yukichi demanded angrily, "Does your guardian know what you're doing?"
At the mention of a guardian, Edogawa Ranpo straightened with pride and said, "Of course he knows!"
Asou Akiya took a metaphorical bullet to the knee.
"Akiya is so much smarter than I am—he knows everything. He already predicted what I'd do today long ago. As a child, all I need to do is follow my own thoughts and keep going, and before long I'll be able to see him again!"
"…I really want to deal with both you and your guardian."
Thunder and lightning seemed to crackle over Fukuzawa Yukichi's head; he was on the verge of being driven mad by this child's complete lack of common sense.
"Silver-haired uncle," Edogawa Ranpo suddenly said, "you were the one who didn't want to take me in. What, are you regretting it now? Is your conscience feeling uneasy?"
Fukuzawa Yukichi said firmly, "Come with me. Don't do this kind of thing anymore."
Edogawa Ranpo shook his head and said mischievously, "I'm not going. You already missed your chance yesterday—don't even think about keeping me now."
Fukuzawa Yukichi asked sternly, "You can't debase yourself like this!"
Edogawa Ranpo said, "I can't do anything, I don't understand anything. Without Akiya and Mr. Randou helping me, if this is what I have to do to fulfill the bet and struggle to stay alive, what's wrong with that?"
Fukuzawa Yukichi was left speechless.
Only at this moment did Fukuzawa Yukichi realize just how disastrously wrong he had been.
This genius's understanding of himself was fundamentally mistaken. He had been filled with far too many notions of being "weak," endlessly suppressing himself within the boundaries of what he believed an "ordinary person" to be. Doing so had given him the empathy of a normal human being, a rich range of emotions and desires, keeping him from drifting away from society and human morality—but at the same time, it meant that Edogawa Ranpo's talent could never truly bloom, leaving him without even the ability to support himself.
What on earth was his guardian thinking? Why refuse to change this? Letting him wander so freely through such a dangerous world—wasn't there any fear that he might perish halfway along the road?!
"I…" Fukuzawa Yukichi said with great difficulty. "I will help you. I'll help you fulfill the bet between you and your guardian."
Edogawa Ranpo replied coldly, "It's too late. I don't need the silver-haired uncle anymore."
Edogawa Ranpo was going back to Catherine.
A hollow ache spread through Fukuzawa Yukichi's chest, emptier than if it had been raked by a cat's claws, as though he had lost something irretrievable.
"Ranpo, this is wrong."
A deductive genius who could identify the true culprit at a glance should have been heaven's favored child.
How could he live like this?
At a street corner, Nakahara Chuuya—who had not seen Edogawa Ranpo for several days—came tearing out of Suribachi Street while chasing a cat. He was about to be driven mad by the stray cats there. They had actually shredded his homework and even snatched the necklace he had temporarily placed beside his pillow. That was his "longevity lock," something he had cherished for many years and never allowed anyone to touch carelessly!
"I'll tear you apart!"
Nakahara Chuuya searched frantically for the stray cat as it vanished into the crowd, his deep blue eyes blazing with murderous fury.
In a corner, a calico cat was extremely satisfied with the little underling cat that had the "longevity lock" clenched in its mouth. The cow-patterned junior circled its boss excitedly. The calico nodded in approval—worthy of being a stray it had recruited from Suribachi Street. Bold, agile, and after some instruction, it had successfully stolen a personal item from Nakahara Chuuya.
[It's a "longevity lock" that's popular over in Huaxia.]
The well-informed calico immediately recognized the necklace's origin. Over the years, it had spent plenty of time freeloading around Yokohama's Chinatown.
[Looks like he really is an orphan. It has nothing to do with the explosion in the Yokohama foreign settlement; it's just that a great deal of information from that year was lost, and I can't find any records about his parents.]
The two children adopted by Asou Akiya were neither of them simple characters, and the calico cat grew wary.
So who, exactly, did the "King" and the "Little King" refer to?
The Ace of Hearts symbolized love and wisdom. Wisdom, at least, was easy enough to understand—but how was love to be interpreted? How much power could a single person's love truly wield? And what kind of existence was Randou, to be significant enough to serve as one of Asou Akiya's hidden trump cards?
[I'll find a chance to ask him next time. I doubt he'd dare lie to me.]
After helping Asou Akiya smooth things over and save the situation, the calico cat poked its head out, exhausted, to observe how matters were unfolding outside. With both Fukuzawa Yukichi and Nakahara Chuuya present, surely they could drag Ranpo back, right?
Clairvoyant my tail.
Just how on earth do you raise children like this?!
"Eh—Ranpo?" Nakahara Chuuya caught sight of Edogawa Ranpo, dodging through the crowd and walking toward him as he ate ice cream. "What have you been up to these past few days?"
Hearing the familiar voice of the little orange cat, Edogawa Ranpo looked over, his gaze immediately flickering away.
Oh no—he's been spotted by the little orange cat!
With strangers, he could mess around however he liked, but once he was seen by someone familiar… an odd sense of shame bubbled up inside him, gurgling ominously, as though this scene were destined to become one of his future black histories.
"Big sis, let's go over there!" Edogawa Ranpo panicked and tried to drag Catherine away.
"Hey, slow down!" Catherine protested; running in a dress was hardly convenient.
"Stop right there!" Nakahara Chuuya realized something was off and gave chase from behind, his leg strength erupting in an instant as he sprinted forward to grab him. He shouted angrily, "Aren't you an orphan?! Where did this 'big sister' come from? And have you finished your novel assignment these past few days or not? You're going to ruin my reading comprehension grades next!"
Caught by Chuuya and subjected to a thorough scolding, Edogawa Ranpo retreated behind Catherine, using her as a shield.
Catherine stared uncertainly at the newly appeared boy. He had orange hair, round blue eyes, and mixed-blood features softened by baby fat; his expression was brash and explosive, like a small orange cat with its fur standing on end.
There were far too many varieties of cats in Japan!
Catherine asked, "Young sir, may I ask who you are?"
"I'm this guy's… half a brother," Nakahara Chuuya answered vaguely, his ears reddening as he spoke. It was the first time he had ever admitted in public that he had a brother, which earned him a sly, triumphant grin from Edogawa Ranpo.
"And who are you?" Nakahara Chuuya shot back, eyeing the wealthy woman with suspicion.
"I'm the one temporarily taking Ranpo in," Catherine said, grabbing Ranpo by the wrist. "He doesn't have money to eat, so he's going to stay at my place for a week. The people at your home are really quite irresponsible."
Chuuya froze. "No money?"
Edogawa Ranpo nodded obediently.
Chuuya pointed at his own face. "Couldn't you borrow money from me? I still have a bit of allowance."
Ranpo shook his head. "I can't. I have to be self-reliant. That's what he said!"
Chuuya grew troubled. If that was something Akiya had said, then there was no way he could overturn it.
Three seconds later.
A creature guided by instinct pinpointed the heart of the problem with uncanny precision. Chuuya's deep blue eyes flared with light, his presence suddenly sharp and aggressive.
"Even if you're broke, you can still find a job yourself! He arranged an interview for you, didn't he?"
"The person who interviewed me died."
"Was there really no one else besides that one person?"
"The female CEO fell to her death; the murderer was her secretary, and the company stopped hiring new employees."
"…Your luck is truly terrible."
"It was obviously him digging a pit and scheming against me; he was trying to find someone to dump me on for supervision, and that person still refused to take care of me!"
Edogawa Ranpo let out a loud wail, on the verge of bursting into tears. His "cat food" had been cut off, and a string of setbacks struck him one after another, delivering a heavy blow to the confidence with which he had set out so eagerly the day before; the bitterness of it all was something no outsider could fully understand.
"I just want to eat one proper meal—why is it so hard!"
"Don't worry about me—I'll find someone on my own to mooch meals from. If I can't get enough to eat, at worst I'll just go to prison for a few days; the food there should be decent, and I can even find people to chat with!"
"Don't hit me! Don't hit my head! I'll get even stupider!"
"Ow—!"
The absurd sight of a nine-year-old boy beating up a fourteen-year-old teenager in the middle of the street became reality.
Catherine felt as though she had turned into a complete bystander, watching them with polite awkwardness and a chill creeping through her thoughts.
[So I really am just your meal ticket.]
It wasn't only stray cats that clung to people; there was also an Edogawa Ranpo who had no desire to work hard.
Japanese people, huh.
Don't hit his face—if his face gets ruined, I won't be able to tolerate his personality at all!
"Sorry, but I'm taking this person with me," Chuuya said after beating some sense into the idiot Ranpo, speaking firmly to the adult woman before him. "Whatever he's done, I'll apologize on his behalf, but there's no way you're going to keep him."
Chuuya raised his voice, following his instincts, each word ringing out with force. "You can't afford to raise him."
You can't afford someone like him.
You can't give Edogawa Ranpo the sense of security and the future he needs.
One of Japan's most precious "cats" was dragged away by Chuuya from the heartbroken Catherine. Along the way, they ran into a silver-haired man who looked as though he wanted to speak but hesitated. After learning about Fukuzawa Yukichi's situation, Chuuya finally had an epiphany. He stepped aside to make a phone call, pieced together the full story, and realized that his dad had temporarily handed Ranpo over to this man to be looked after.
"Leaving him to you!"
Chuuya shoved the stunned Edogawa Ranpo forward. Ranpo stumbled, and Fukuzawa Yukichi reached out to steady him.
A model son of the modern age—there was no one more fitting!
He had directly resolved the problem of Asou Akiya's completely derailed script.
"Mr. Fukuzawa, please make sure to educate him properly and spare my dad some worry. My dad says he's very grateful for your appearance—Ranpo almost ran straight into a very strange path."
With that said—
Having taken care of everything for his dad, Chuuya left, arriving in a hurry and leaving just as quickly, off to look for stray cats.
He hadn't been gone long before he immediately ran back, shouting, "Ranpo, do you know where my longevity lock is?"
Edogawa Ranpo was in the middle of throwing a tantrum with Fukuzawa Yukichi. Hearing this, he snapped back furiously.
"Stupid Ranpo doesn't know!"
Go find it yourself! How dare you treat me like that, you stupid little orange cat!
Hmph!!!