JSWGAS Chapter 13

Chapter 13

13.

When Kokonoe finally stopped, he had run to a completely unfamiliar place.

The rain didn’t stop with his steps. The pattering sound didn’t disappear, only it wasn’t asExciting and intense as a drumbeat at the beginning. The thin mist covering the street carried the damp, earthy smell, blurring the view.

He blinked. Water droplets hanging on his eyelashes dripped onto his cheeks, merging with the rain and seeping into his wet collar.

As he was spacing out, an enthusiastic lady walked over with an umbrella. “Child, are you alright?”

“…I’m fine, thank you.”

Kokonoe Taka managed to refuse the enthusiastic lady’s offer to give him a ride. He watched her leave, then quickly darted under the FamilyMart sign consisting of green, white, and blue colors.

He wasn’t the only one taking shelter from the rain.

Kokonoe half-turned, staring at his barely recognizable reflection on the glass: black hair stuck wetly to his forehead and face, his complexion pale, his lips even a terrifying shade of blue. His clothes were also completely soaked. A gust of wind blew by, immediately causing him to shrink his body and sneeze.

He sniffed and started trying to salvage useful items from his pockets.

A keychain, a pack of sticky tissues, half a melted chocolate bar, a wallet, and a phone.

The small-size Godzilla Dark Destroyer Pendant on the keychain was covered in glistening water, and its flaunting appearance looked a little pitiful. This was one of Iwaizumi Hajime’s achievements from when he was obsessed with capsule toys a while ago. There were three in total—

One hung on his own bag, and the other was ridiculed by Oikawa Tōru. The latter refused to hang the monster up no matter what, claiming it was a matter of a handsome guy’s dignity, which earned him a beating from Iwaizumi. Of course, the last lonely monster also went missing under his deception.

Sorry, Dark Destroyer. Kokonoe Taka sighed, gloomily putting it in another pocket.

Carrying tissues was his habit, and the brand he used was very niche. It was discontinued due to too few customers. This was the last pack, so he had to regretfully throw it away.

As for this chocolate—it was obviously secretly put in by Oikawa Tōru, who was always given a few candies by his mother every time he left the house. He recently resolved to become a reliable and handsome man, and kept a respectful distance from anything other than milk-flavored candy.

Kokonoe Taka turned the chocolate over to look at the packaging. It was Oikawa’s most hated dark chocolate.

He quickly tore open the package and, ignoring the gaze of the other unlucky people also sheltering from the rain, swallowed the half-melted chocolate. First, his teeth were nudged by the cold water droplets, and then he realized that all that was left on his tongue was bitterness.

Perhaps his grimace was too eye-catching. Another unlucky person squatting under the eaves, propping his cheek, looked up: “Hey, that’s really hard to eat.”

Kokonoe Taka had no time to worry about the other person’s question. Even though it felt like he was taking medicine, he silently finished the chocolate.

Maybe it was psychological, but he felt less cold. As he thought this, he flattened the packaging and saw ‘55% cocoa content’ marked on it. Dark chocolate with this content shouldn’t be particularly bitter.

“It is indeed hard to eat.” Only then did he answer the stranger’s question, and then immediately thought of the strange and unpleasant orange juice and the tasteless cake he had at the venue.

He paused and decided to check the remaining two items first. First was the wallet. Although it also caused local rain when shaken, most of the money and documents inside were fortunately spared.

Two 1000 yen bills, and a few scattered coins. This was all of his wealth. Kokonoe Taka stared at them, thinking that the money needed to get home would probably require adding another zero—

…Could it be that he had to go back with his tail between his legs and ask his father to send him back?

He immediately crossed out this option.

But staring at the remaining 2000 yen or so was also useless. Kokonoe Taka poked the phone screen. Unsurprisingly, the fragile phone failed to live up to its price, and after being submerged in water for a while, even turning on became a luxury.

So cold.

Kokonoe Taka stamped his feet and stuffed the scrapped phone into his pocket, secretly curling up the toes in his equally wet shoes. Not only that, but because of his rapidly growing height, his pants were also a little short, and a small section of his ankle was exposed, almost losing sensation.

“If you want to warm up, Great Gentleman Ranpo recommends this store’s oden.” The passerby next to him suggested in a drawn-out voice.

Kokonoe Taka looked over seriously for the first time, and asked: “Why don’t you buy it?”

As he saw, the passerby didn’t look much older than him, and also had to curl up pitifully to resist the cold rain and wind, wrapped in a small brown cloak, desperately pressing the matching brown newsboy cap on his head.

Although he clearly had more clothes and looked neater than Kokonoe at a glance, his actions made him look even more pitiful than Kokonoe Taka, who was soaked to the bone.

“Because Great Gentleman Ranpo didn’t bring any money!” The boy who claimed to be Ranpo sniffed his slightly red nose and replied confidently.

Kokonoe Taka: “…”

The other person glanced at him and shouted: “What’s with that expression of ‘Does anyone not bring money when going out these days, even elementary school students bring it’! You only brought money because you’re an elementary school student, that’s just an exception!”

His voice gradually died down, and he shrank further under the eaves: “Besides, you didn’t bring much either, not even enough money to go home, you’re not qualified to talk about Great Gentleman Ranpo.”

“…” What’s with this person, does he have mind-reading abilities?

Kokonoe brushed his hair away from his forehead and also squatted down, the backs of the two people looking like a scene of stray animals warming each other—

“Have you been here since it started raining?”

Unlike him, the other person’s clothes only had a wet hem, and the rest was still dry.

“Not too much of an idiot.” The black-haired boy muttered.

It was now 6 PM, and it had been raining for two hours. Getting closer, Kokonoe Taka could vaguely hear the noise coming from the other person’s stomach.

He looked at the boy dejectedly touching his stomach and thought for a moment before saying: “Although it’s not much, I can still afford to buy you something to eat.”

He stood up and first shook himself twice in place before walking into the bright store.

Curry-flavored rice balls, spicy cod roe-flavored rice balls, two boxes of hot milk, a large box of oden, and a bar of chocolate. These had already spent more than half of his money, and the rest was due to the store girl’s soft heart, half-given and half-sold to him as towels and an umbrella.

“Thank you.”

He softened his voice, and his rain-soaked eyebrows and eyes were even more pitiful and endearing like a dog. The cashier couldn’t help but reach out to help him tidy up the hair at his temples, and the boy let her do as she pleased: Damn it, isn’t this even more like a dog being rained on!

The dog resolutely returned to the eaves outside the door, and resquatted next to the other small animal he had encountered by chance.

“Here.”

Kokonoe Taka allowed the other person to rummage through the bag. The latter bypassed the umbrella and towel and occupied a box of hot milk and chocolate. “Your hair will turn you into an idiot if you don’t dry it sooner,” he said loudly.

“The oden will get cold if you don’t eat it sooner,” Kokonoe Taka replied.

The boy glanced at him: “You said you were going to give it to Great Gentleman Ranpo!”

“Yes. Are you called Ranpo?”

“My name is Edogawa Ranpo—the world’s best famous detective, Mr. Edogawa Ranpo!” Ranpo’s cheeks were stuffed with hot food, greatly undermining his originally imposing self-introduction. “Just call me Ranpo since you’re treating me to food.”

“Huh? A detective?”

“That’s not right, I’m a famous detective! Not a regular detective!” The detective brandished his arms, “A famous detective is different from a regular detective. A famous detective can see the truth at a glance!”

Kokonoe Taka hummed in agreement a couple of times and became silent, quickly drying his hair with a towel. Rustle, rustle. For a while, besides the sound of rain, chewing, and friction, this small area where they had to huddle to avoid the rain was extremely quiet.

Once it was quiet, Kokonoe Taka was able to think about what to do next.

But unexpectedly, after calming down, the first scene that floated into his mind was the appearance of Kokonoe Hikohito two years ago, angrily yelling while holding a vase. Pa, the vase was thrown fiercely to his feet. He was so frightened that he stood rooted to the spot, shards of the broken vase piercing towards his eyes—he subconsciously raised his hand to block it, and felt a dull pain in his left wrist, followed by the strange and chilling sensation of liquid flowing out.

Kokonoe Hikohito was also immediately frightened at that time. His mind instantly cleared up, and he hurried over to check his injuries. He hugged him guiltily, constantly apologizing, but he couldn’t hide the fortunate expression when he saw the wound on his wrist.

Because he didn’t injure his eyes or his dominant right hand, so he was fortunate, right.

This time, if he were caught, the vase probably wouldn’t be aimed at his feet, but would be smashed down on him, right?

Kokonoe Taka excluded his mother as a target for help. He understood that she was helpless in similar situations.

Find his grandfather? Or his maternal grandfather?

Just as he was lost in thought, a hand holding half a box of oden suddenly extended out beside him.

“Great Gentleman Ranpo suggests you find your grandfather to solve this matter.”

“Eh?”

“For the sake of the warm oden.”

The detective narrowed his eyes quite comfortably and urged: “Hurry up and take it, are you going to make me hold it like this the whole time?”

“…” He silently took it.

Half of the oden was still left, the detective wasn’t actually as unforgiving as he seemed.

Speaking of which, this person seemed to have guessed his thoughts earlier. Kokonoe Taka blankly held the oden and hesitated: “Um, you…what do you mean?”

Ranpo seemed very self-satisfied at his change in honorifics, his tail almost wagging to the sky. “It’s just the literal meaning.” A proud expression on his face.

Kokonoe Taka accurately grasped the key to petting him.

“World’s best famous detective Mr. Ranpo, can you tell me why you say that? We should be meeting for the first time today, right…?”

“For a famous detective, such a small matter can be seen at a glance. Since you’re still a little kid—the mature Great Gentleman Ranpo will explain it.” The detective slightly opened his eyes, “You’re from Miyagi, and you came with your father to participate in the sports exchange meeting. You quarreled with the other person midway through the meeting—hmm? You ran away from there because you were resisting the control freak uncle’s arrangements? It doesn’t matter, it’s your luck to meet Mr. Ranpo today.”

“…”

The detective didn’t seem to notice his bewildered expression, “As for why I’m telling you to find the control freak uncle’s father—that old man is a very upright person. Since his son isn’t very good to you and your mother, and he cheated, he won’t side with his own son in this situation.”

Ranpo somewhat clumsily tore open the straw of the hot milk, “As for why I’m not telling you to find your maternal grandfather…he cares more about his own daughter, and he’s the female side’s family member. It’s difficult to quickly resolve the situation if he intervenes.”

He vaguely added: “And since his daughter has a mental illness, he’s more likely to start with his daughter’s affairs. If he’s not careful, your custody will follow your control freak father.”

“—That’s it.”

Kokonoe Taka was already wooden: “…Why do you know—no.” He suddenly came back to his senses, “…What do you mean by cheating?”

The detective puffed out his cheeks: “You’re even more slow-witted than I thought.”

Kokonoe Taka: “…Please tell me.”

Edogawa Ranpo looked at the boy’s gray eyes, and hesitated for a moment—if the president was here, he definitely wouldn’t want him to tell this little child the truth, right? But he lost him, so—

“You came in your father’s car. There should still be things belonging to a third party in that car.”

The detective satisfied him.

Kokonoe Taka was stunned.

Ranpo didn’t need to lie to him: he was just a child, and he ran all the way here in a frenzy, meeting Edogawa Ranpo was even more accidental. The boy who claimed to be a famous detective did know his affairs like the back of his hand. Whether from a rational or emotional point of view, he believed that the other person wasn’t lying to him.

He quickly grasped the things he cared about from his memories—that umbrella. That semi-transparent umbrella with a faint fragrance and a delicate pendant.

…Incomprehensible.

He cursed under his breath, gnashing his teeth: “…That bastard!”

…He didn’t even think it was particularly outrageous. That man, from his attitude towards Kokonoe Sumiko, one could sense some wrong factors, but he had never thought about this aspect.

Moreover, more importantly—did she know about this?!