Nakahara Chuuya received a phone call from his current father figure.
The content of the call was roughly this. "Ranpo has come to believe he possesses an ability—even going so far as to mistake several of us for ability users as well. Whatever you do, don't shatter his illusion. Let him stay happy for a while. He'll naturally wake up from it once he outgrows this phase of loving fantasies."
Nakahara Chuuya very nearly burst out laughing. He struggled hard to hold it in, offered Asou Akiya-san every assurance imaginable, and finally ended the call.
He rubbed at the corners of his eyes, where tears of suppressed mirth had gathered.
"How on earth did such a misunderstanding come about?"
"When Ranpo shows up later, how am I supposed to keep a straight face and not crack up?"
The orange-haired boy dashed over to the mirror, arranged his features into the most serious and dignified expression he could muster, determined not to puncture Edogawa Ranpo's carefully constructed lie. "No good—I'm going to laugh." His composure collapsed completely. The thought of that brilliantly sharp-minded boy harboring such a tender, fantasy-loving heart filled him with an overwhelming sense of delightful contrast. The entire world suddenly seemed overflowing with adorable contradictions.
Half an hour later Nakahara Chuuya caught sight of Edogawa Ranpo making his dazzling entrance. Perhaps it was only an illusion, but he could have sworn the other boy looked radiant—his entire demeanor and aura noticeably transformed from before. All the shadows that once clung above his head—fear, panic, uncertainty—had vanished without a trace. His eyes shone clear and bright like a sky freshly washed by rain, pure blue-green and serene. The Edogawa Ranpo standing before him now was, in his own mind at least, none other than a legendary "ability user"!
"Little Orange Cat, I've come to find you!" Edogawa Ranpo came running over with joyful strides, clutching a large paper bag stuffed full of hearty snacks. The wind caught the edges of his British-style coat and flung it open behind him. His wool socks paired perfectly with brown loafers, giving him the air of a carefree young boy untouched by any sorrow.
The members of the Sheep Organization genuinely despised Edogawa Ranpo's sharp, troublesome tongue—but they had no complaints whatsoever about the food he brought along.
For the sake of those delicious, substantial snacks everyone grudgingly tolerated the presence of this outsider boy.
After all—they were all orphans, weren't they.
The moment Ranpo spotted Chuuya and opened his mouth to speak, Nakahara Chuuya swiftly shoved a piece of bread—prepared in advance for exactly this purpose—straight into the other boy's mouth, effectively silencing him. Then he turned to his companions and announced. "I'm taking him outside to talk."
His companions looked delighted at the news and waved him off with cheerful enthusiasm. "Go on then—just don't bring him back."
Shirase grinned widely as he reached for the bag of snacks. "We've got food again."
Edogawa Ranpo opened his mouth to protest. These treats were the ones he had brought especially for Chuuya, not for sharing with a bunch of other brats, but Nakahara Chuuya had no intention of letting him get a word out. He leaned in close and murmured under his breath. "Don't you want to hear about ability users?"
Edogawa Ranpo immediately settled down and fell quiet.
Nakahara Chuuya led Edogawa Ranpo outside. Once the bread had been swallowed and the gag removed, Ranpo promptly resumed his usual chattering.
"You guys kept this from me for so long! I want to see your ability! You know—the one that lets you stomp the concrete ground until it cracks! And! And! Today I already got to see Akiya-san and Randou-san's abilities!"
"Akiya-san and Randou-san have abilities?"
"Of course they do!"
"Oh. My own ability isn't anything particularly special. Let's head to that empty lot up ahead—I'll show it to you there."
They reached a patch of open ground hemmed in on all sides by buildings, where a small amount of miscellaneous junk and debris had accumulated. Nakahara Chuuya finally pulled his hands out of his coat pockets. The palms—still bearing those faint, childish dimples—lifted slowly upward. In an instant the scattered objects littering the ground rose into the air, floating weightlessly.
Edogawa Ranpo's eyes widened. "Whoa!"
Edogawa Ranpo urged him on eagerly. "They can float—so is there more?"
Nakahara Chuuya closed his fingers into a tight fist. A sudden surge of power erupted from him. Dark crimson light enveloped every floating piece of debris!
All of it shattered into fragments in the next heartbeat!
Manipulating gravity—one overwhelming force shattering ten thousand delicate tricks!
With his feet planted firmly on the ground, Nakahara Chuuya—no longer bothering to conceal his secrets—revealed the small, ferocious beast that dwelled within him. A triumphant, almost boastful smile spread across his face. "Gravity manipulation ability. Is this enough for you? I could crush ten of you without breaking a sweat!"
Edogawa Ranpo froze for several seconds, then muttered unwillingly. "It looks so crude and violent."
Damn it. He couldn't possibly beat Little Orange Cat's ability in a fight!
"Alright, your turn now. What's your ability?" Nakahara Chuuya slipped his hands back into his pockets. True to the promise he had made with Akiya, he was genuinely curious to see how the other boy would spin this tale—if Ranpo ran out of ideas midway, no one could blame Chuuya for that.
Edogawa Ranpo struck a dramatic pose. By fortunate coincidence he stood directly beneath a ventilation duct, and an updraft caught his clothes, sending them fluttering upward around him.
Yet he relied on no external aid. The true change occurred in the brief instant between opening and closing his eyes.
His gaze transformed into something eerily inorganic—like the cold, unblinking lens of a humanoid machine.
The aura radiating from him became utterly overwhelming.
Nakahara Chuuya instinctively held his breath. In the boy's eyes he glimpsed something intangible and elusive—the pinnacle of humanity's greatest gift, an "Intelligence" capable of scaling the same heights as any ability!
"Ability—Super Deduction!"
Having been momentarily taken aback, Nakahara Chuuya heard the name and promptly rolled his eyes. Deduction? No wonder.
"Ranpo, just how far can your ability go?"
"Point to anyone you like—I can deduce whatever you want to know about them in roughly five seconds!"
Edogawa Ranpo's confidence seemed fully charged to the brim, a complete reversal from the timid weakness he had shown in the past. Nakahara Chuuya had no real desire to crush his spirits, yet the boy was simply begging for a beating. The way he looked at people—as though gazing down at fools—was utterly infuriating. Tch. To think he believed he could pass himself off as an ability user just by relying on deduction? It felt like outright mockery toward those who possessed genuine abilities!
Nakahara Chuuya decided to test him outright. He pointed at a random passerby strolling through the streets of the Pleasure District. "What did that guy eat for dinner last night?"
Edogawa Ranpo answered without the slightest hesitation. "Nothing at all, he went out drinking instead."
Nakahara Chuuya pressed further. "What relatives does he have? Can you tell me their exact backgrounds?"
Edogawa Ranpo unleashed a rapid string of details. "Both parents are deceased. The father was an alcoholic who drank himself to death from alcohol poisoning. The mother suffered from severe mental illness and eventually killed herself because she could no longer endure it. He has one older sister and one younger brother. The sister was sold off years ago. The younger brother ran away and was taken in by a normal family. There's still a little contact between the two brothers, but their relationship remains lukewarm at best. A few days ago this man tried to borrow money from his younger brother and got refused, so last night he drowned his sorrows in liquor."
The man in question overheard the voices and turned his head. His gaunt, sallow face registered pure shock—as though he had just seen a ghost.
Nakahara Chuuya's mouth parted slightly in astonishment. He knew Ranpo had hit the mark exactly right. He told himself firmly—this proves nothing. At most, the boy's already exceptional deductive talent has simply blossomed to its fullest potential.
Deduction always requires clues. There will inevitably be things no amount of reasoning can uncover.
Only something that defies common sense can truly be called an ability!
Unwilling to concede defeat, Nakahara Chuuya threw out a deliberately absurd question. "Do you know what color underwear he's wearing today?"
"..." Edogawa Ranpo visibly recoiled in disgust, wrinkling his nose. "Yellow."
Nakahara Chuuya turned immediately to the adult man. "Answer me truthfully and I'll cover the cost of one bottle of liquor for you."
The man, enticed by the promise of free alcohol, hastily put on a flattering smile. "White!"
Nakahara Chuuya's expression lit up with triumph.
Edogawa Ranpo let out a miserable wail and clapped both hands over his eyes, unable to bear the sight of the disheveled Pleasure District man any longer. "My eyes are going to get dirty! Don't listen to his nonsense, he hasn't washed those underwear in a whole month!"
Nakahara Chuuya made a strangled sound. "...Ugh."
This farce was quickly set aside. Nakahara Chuuya found himself forming a new appreciation for Edogawa Ranpo's powers of deduction.
In the end he seized upon his quick wits and posed the decisive question.
"Can you tell me about my past?"
"..."
The lively cadence of Edogawa Ranpo's voice fell completely silent. His emerald-green pupils reflected Chuuya's face back at him with crystalline clarity, carrying an unspoken, crushing pressure.
Nakahara Chuuya's mouth went dry. He licked his lips and stubbornly pressed on. "I mean my real past. If you can answer that, then I'll admit you truly have an ability."
Yes!
That past of his—the one sealed away, the one that had emerged from oblivion!
Edogawa Ranpo stared at him for no less than five full seconds. His gaze was piercing yet strangely translucent, shimmering like dew caught in morning light.
"Mn. I see it now."
"Little Orange Cat is still just Little Orange Cat—silly and foolish, standing dumbly at the bottom of a deep pit without understanding a single thing..."
"You didn't lose your memories... rather..."
Nakahara Chuuya recoiled in shock. His heel caught on a loose stone as he stumbled backward, and he fell hard onto the ground, landing seated in the dust.
What kind of ability was this?!
Edogawa Ranpo suddenly turned his head to the side, eyes sharpening into razor focus. There, crouched in the shadows, sat a calico cat—face perfectly innocent, tail held high and straight like the classic beckoning pose of a maneki-neko.
In the next instant the calico cat leaped with agile grace onto the rooftop eaves and vanished in a flash of fur.
[Oh no.]
[This child has truly grown up. He isn't as easy to fool as he used to be.]
"It's that cat again." Edogawa Ranpo muttered under his breath. "Every time I see it, it feels like I'm being watched."
Nakahara Chuuya hadn't caught the words clearly. He raised his voice. "Spit out everything you know!"
Edogawa Ranpo lifted his chin with haughty pride. "I refuse. I've already proven my ability—nobody else could do what I just did, right? Lord Ranpo is one of a kind!" He paused for dramatic effect, then abruptly dropped the chuunibyou act. "Except for Akiya. Akiya's ability is 'High-Dimensional Observer'—a power that sees the true essence of things even more clearly than mine."
Nakahara Chuuya pressed urgently. "That matters to me a lot!"
Edogawa Ranpo dug a finger into his ear as though clearing out the noise of Chuuya's shouting, then issued an imperious command. "I want a marble soda."
Nakahara Chuuya bolted off at once to buy the drink.
In the brief window while Chuuya was gone, Edogawa Ranpo swiftly pulled out his phone and dialed his guardian. His voice dripped with sly triumph the moment the call connected. "Akiya, I figured out Chuuya's past! He's hiding an even bigger secret than I imagined!"
Merit points! He absolutely had to claim his merit points!
The person on the other end of the line understood the hint at once. "Reward—you get one slice of cake. Stop digging any further."
Edogawa Ranpo blinked in confusion. "Why? Doesn't Akiya want him to know?"
Asou Akiya answered calmly. "The secret itself isn't what matters. In my eyes he is simply Nakahara Chuuya. That secret is something he should uncover on his own. It's the very goal that will push him to grow."
Edogawa Ranpo tilted his head back to stare at the sky. "Like how my mom and dad used to say that once I grew up I'd become smarter?"
Asou Akiya picked up the thread smoothly. "Yes, something very much like that."
Edogawa Ranpo huffed in displeasure. "Adults always make things so complicated. Keep it simple! Be honest!"
Asou Akiya offered without missing a beat. "Two slices of cake."
Edogawa Ranpo immediately countered. "Three slices!"
Asou Akiya rejected the demand. "No way. You'd end up consuming way too much sugar and get cavities later on."
Edogawa Ranpo began whining and rolling around dramatically over the phone. Asou Akiya's voice softened, warm and indulgent laughter threading through every word. "I'll give you a gift even better than cake. Try guessing what it is with your ability, Ranpo."
In that single instant Edogawa Ranpo's eyes lit up as though a brilliant blue sky filled with white clouds and blazing sunshine had suddenly burst open inside them—radiant and dazzling.
"It's a detective outfit—!!!"
The finest partner would be Fukuzawa Yukichi.
The finest job would be solving cases through deduction.
The person he had interviewed with wasn't some SK Corporation at all—it was that solitary swordsman willing to carry him on his back!
By the time Nakahara Chuuya returned with the marble soda in hand, what greeted him was Edogawa Ranpo bouncing up and down on the spot in pure delight. The boy was so overjoyed he blurted out without thinking. "Your dad is amazing! Randou-san is amazing too!"
Nakahara Chuuya stood frozen. "..."
A sharp pang of bitterness twisted inside his chest.
He had no idea what had just happened, yet an overwhelming urge to give the other boy a thorough beating surged through him. How was he supposed to deal with this?
Meanwhile, on the guardian's side of things, Randou had already selected an excellent custom-tailoring shop. He placed an order for three complete sets of autumn-and-winter detective outfits for Edogawa Ranpo—from head to toe, every garment included, hats and all. The design sketches carried impeccable taste; there was no doubt about the quality.
Once the task was finished, Randou emerged from the pleasant haze of romantic buffs and suddenly registered the word "detective."
A flicker of unease stirred in his heart.
Ranpo was already frighteningly sharp at this stage.
And right now the one person capable of keeping Ranpo in check, Akiya, possessed analytical abilities that stood at the absolute pinnacle.
—Has my spy cover already been blown?!
Bursting with decisive action, Randou made up his mind. Akiya loved him. The other man's loyalty to the organization had never reached the point of sacrificing their relationship. Randou was willing to gamble on it—to trust that Akiya would understand the reasons behind his choices.
He walked straight over to Akiya, who had just finished his phone call.
Before stepping fully into the Port Mafia, he decided to come clean—to lay everything bare and resolve the troublesome issue once and for all.
"Akiya..."
"Mn?"
"I just remembered something. It seems I'm not simply a poet."
"...! ! ! "
Asou Akiya suffered a tremendous shock. His phone slipped from his fingers and clattered onto the sofa. "What are you saying?!"
Randou's own reaction was startled by the intensity of Akiya's response. He hurried to amend his words. "What I mean is that I seem to be more than just a poet. Beyond being a poet, I must have another identity. Haven't you noticed, Akiya?"
Asou Akiya declared with unshakable certainty. "Randou is simply Randou!"
Randou stared blankly at his lover's expression. Waves of guilt surged through him. "You really don't mind?"
Asou Akiya nodded without hesitation.
Randou stood frozen, utterly at a loss. His hands clumsily tugged at his scarf, then rose to cover his suddenly burning face.
"I'm sorry."
For doing something like stealing secrets and harming the interests of another country's organization...
Wait a moment.
Did Akiya already know he had deceived him?
Randou peeked through the gaps between his fingers, heart pounding with dread, terrified that the truth of how he had seduced Akiya might come bursting out at any second. Asou Akiya, still reeling in confusion for a brief moment, spoke even more cautiously than Randou had. "Randou, I don't care about your past... even if you..."
Randou's heart leaped straight into his throat.
Asou Akiya forced the words out through clenched teeth. "Had a previous lover."
Randou went completely still. "..."
Why did you have to say it out loud! Wouldn't it have been so much nicer if we could have happily pretended this never happened?!!
I never two-timed anyone!
Randou buried his face in his hands in a desperate attempt to block out reality, tears welling up as he wailed. "No! I don't have any ex! I can't remember clearly anymore!"
Asou Akiya reached out and gently stroked the French cat who had thrown himself into his arms. "Mn..."
Yes, you never had a previous boyfriend.
After so many days had passed—once again, heartfelt thanks to Verlaine! The love rival had already suffered complete social death!