Chapter 47 Only I can walk to her side

On the first New Year of secretly investigating the transactions between the Black Organization and the Port Mafia, Aomine Daiki met two people waiting in front of him on his way home after finishing a dinner party in the evening.

Hayana Kotori.

The center of the Central Plains.

They were all acquaintances he was secretly investigating.

"Mr. Qingfeng." The girl waved to him with a smile: "Happy New Year."

The beautiful faces shine under the street lights.

Standing at a safe distance from the two, Qingfeng Daihui frowned, his attitude could be described as impolite: "What can I do for you?"

He raised his hand to catch the file bag that Chuuya Nakahara threw to him.

When he opened it and saw what was inside, even Aomine Daiki, who had been tempered to a calm state of mind by years of criminal police work, could not help but be so surprised that his pupils contracted!

The information about the Black Organization was the internal information that he had been exploring from the outside but had not been able to investigate!

They actually just threw such an important thing to him?

Unable to hold back his composure, Aomine Daiki loudly demanded, "What is your purpose?!"

"What kind of plan are you trying to achieve by giving this to me?!"

"A New Year's gift." Kotori Hayato said with a smile, "Consider it as encouragement for you guys to continue investigating me secretly."

"You know?" Aomine Daiki lowered his voice.

"Of course." She also lowered her voice: "I'm not stupid."

"You can choose not to hand over the things you've been given, or you can choose to use them to attack the Black Organization. Either decision is fine."

Qingfeng Dahui narrowed his eyes.

She said either option was fine, but as a police officer he only had one choice.

This conspiracy could not be avoided the moment he opened the paper bag.

"Well, goodbye." Hayato Yamato waved casually and turned to leave.

"Wait a moment."

Seeing the two stop and turn around, Aomine Daiki asked the question that had been lurking in his mind for a long time: "In the case of Kise, he thought A had a crush on his boss, but the more we investigated, the more we found something wrong. There were many contradictions. We always thought someone wanted to silence Kise, but the fact is that Kise was never harmed from beginning to end. Until I came up with a bold guess - in fact, it wasn't A who chose the person, it was you."

"Kise, A prepared this for you, didn't he?"

The embarrassing incident was brought up again, and Hayato Kotori said seriously: "You guessed wrong."

Her subtle expression...

His suspicions confirmed, Aomine Daiki said solemnly, "If it wasn't Kise who went that day, the person who died would have been the one you chose."

"A bastard who treats human life as worthless."

Whether it is Jiahua or A, the target of competition is Hayana Takanashi, not Ichiro Morino.

"Be careful what you say." Nakahara Chuuya's displeased eyes met Aomine Daiki's questioning eyes, and he threatened with an imposing manner: "You guy, do you want to be crushed by gravity?"

Kotori Hayato asked calmly, "He's already extremely evil. Do you still hope that he'll have a change of heart?"

"Evildoers who turn back are still evil."

"This world is inherently unfair," she said with a vicious smile, "Just like you who are being used by us right now."

…

On the way back, Nakahara Chuuya, who was driving, asked, "Why did you suddenly think of playing a trick on that guy?"

"I don't know." Hayana Kotori thought carefully and said, "She has a bad temper right now. If she encounters someone who is uncomfortable, she wants to make them uncomfortable too. In short, she is getting worse and worse."

Expecting a mafioso to be a saint.

In her opinion, it is more likely that the world will be ruled by the mafia.

"It's not getting worse." In the small space, Nakahara Chuuya's words were unusually clear and certain: "Saana has always been sober."

"It is precisely because I know what this world is like that I use malicious means to remind people of it."

"Chuya~" Hayana Takanashi's eyes were filled with tears.

"You think so highly of me~"

Nakahara Chuuya felt awkward and tightened his grip on the steering wheel.

Early in the morning of New Year's Day, Hayana Kotori received red envelopes from her mother and grandfather. Unlike previous years, a new family member, Tetsuji Suehiro, joined the family this year.

This year, the red envelopes prepared by my mother and grandfather are much richer than in previous years.

She was very busy for a period of time after the New Year.

Under the joint attack of public security, criminal police and various forces, the Black Organization was finally defeated, and its secret strongholds in various countries were eradicated. The drug research institute was taken down by Hayato Kotori and his subordinates.

Motojiro Kajii broke through the bottleneck in drug research and became busy again.

…

It was the New Year of the second year after Dazai Osamu left the Port Mafia.

Zhongyuan Zhongya is on a business trip.

Hayana Takanashi was alone at her residence in Yokohama. Bored, she remembered the summoning circle she had planned to draw last year, but it was not completed because she bit her tongue and went to the clinic.

Finding a water-based marker, she began drawing on the floor.

The huge and complex summoning circle was completed, and the sun had already set in the west.

She found a few more candles and lit them.

The result...failure.

…

In the early spring, the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. I sit in my office chair like a boneless person, tearing open the packaging bags of snacks one by one.

I saw Dazai Osamu passing the company entrance test following behind Kunikida Doppo.

Edogawa Ranpo paused in tearing the packaging bag of the snack.

He opened his squinting eyes slightly, looked at the humorous and cheerful man for a while, then squinted his eyes again and placed the snack in his hand on the table without mercy.

"Mr. Ranpo, aren't you going to continue eating your snacks?" Kunikida Doppo noticed this, and the familiar Dazai Osamu who was sitting at his workstation also looked over.

With his squinting eyes straightened into a slit, Edogawa Ranpo said capriciously: "It's not tasty, Kunikida, I want to eat a pineapple bun now."

"I see. I'll add pineapple buns when I go shopping this afternoon."

“Now.”

“Now?!”

"Right now."

Watching Kunikida walk out alone, his plans that had been ruining the entire day being disrupted again, but he still went out to do the shopping without complaint, Dazai Osamu looked at the willful and unpredictable detective.

Facing the young man's cute face, which looked like a junior high school student, he smiled at him kindly.

Edogawa Ranpo: “…”

I can't like it.

…

The third New Year after Dazai Osamu left.

Hayana Kotori raided Oda Sakunosuke's residence again.

When he heard him say that Dazai had never contacted him, he grabbed his collar in disbelief.

She doesn't believe it.

But the collar was loosened.

——A heartless guy.

Are you so afraid of being found by her?

That night, she dragged Chuuya Nakahara, Ryunosuke Akutagawa who had just become the captain of the guerrilla unit directly under the leader, and Gin, and the four of them got drunk together.

I missed the New Year's Eve party organized by the organization.

Late autumn.

When she received the call from Edogawa Ranpo, Hayana Takanashi was in Kajii's laboratory, in silence, or rather, in a state of confusion and collapse.

Even with the Black Organization's medicine, the experiment still couldn't move forward.

After investing countless amounts of money and time, all we get is to eliminate the pain caused by the disease and delay the progression of the disease.

Other drug research is far from over.

But the path she chose, researching lung disease drugs, came to an end.

The shadow of her hair falling on her forehead covered her eyes. As she picked up her ringing phone, she was startled when she saw the name on it. Then she answered, "Ranpo, what's wrong?"

Her voice was smooth and normal.

The veins on his forehead were all bulging.

"Saana, I need you." On the other side, Edogawa Ranpo's voice trembled with confusion.

Kotori Hayana's heart tightened: "Give me the address."

When we found Edogawa Ranpo, he was sitting on the side of the road with his back to the tricycle parked next to him. He looked listless in the gloomy weather.

Hayana Kotori walked over to him and sat down.

He sniffed and moved his body to fill the gap between them.

It was as if two people were leaning against each other for warmth, each feeling the warmth from the bottom of their hearts.

After a long while, Kotori Hayato asked, "Are you feeling better?"

"……Um."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"..." The famous detective said awkwardly: "It's just a small matter."

It was just a small matter that called her here. Hayana Kotori looked at the tricycle parked quietly behind the two of them. There was still a lot of milk in the tricycle that had not been delivered.

"Mom wasn't feeling well this morning, and Grandpa has trouble walking." Edogawa Ranpo rested his chin on his knees, looking aggrieved. "I volunteered to help, and it went well at first, but then..."

"Did you deliver the milk out of town?" Hayana Takanashi continued.

Instead of getting angry, Edogawa Ranpo was silent for a rare time, feeling insecure like a cat caught in the rain.

He also wanted to help, at a time when the family was in great pain and everyone was pretending nothing was wrong.

Tears welled up in the emerald eyes.

When you are about to lose control and throw yourself on the people around you to vent your anger——

"How long are you going to sit there?"

A crisp sound hit his body.

Looking back, Edogawa Ranpo spotted Hayato Hayato riding on a tricycle and patted the side of the tricycle. "Hurry up and get on board! If we're late delivering the milk, the customers will complain."

She smiled, dispelling all the haze in his heart.

Hayana Takanashi finished delivering milk on a tricycle with Ranpo Edogawa.

Leaning in the dark, listening to my grandfather praising Ranpo's ability, I wanted to cry but couldn't help laughing.

…

The fourth New Year after Dazai Osamu left.

Hayana Takanashi felt that she had gotten used to it.

Silver was sent by her to Guangjin Liulang to take charge of the [Black Lizard].

Because she was afraid that her undercover identity would be exposed one day, she eliminated all the important people around her in advance to ensure their safety.

Her mother never gave up the idea of ​​arranging a blind date for her.

Nothing had changed in her life except that Dazai was no longer there.

Maybe so much has changed that she can no longer remember what her life was like before.

It's only been four years.

The feeling she often expressed in her heart was—

Fortunately, there is Chuuya.

Fortunately, she was not alone.

until--

Due to the "Human-Tiger" incident, the "Black Lizard" team received orders from their superior Higuchi Ichiyo to attack the Armed Detective Agency, and all members suffered heavy losses.

The mission report was uploaded to Hayana Kotori.

The report showed no casualties, but everyone was thrown out of the window onto the street below, which was embarrassing.

"It's so embarrassing." She said in a cold voice.

She felt ashamed for them.

"I'm sorry, Miss Kotori." Hirotsu Liulang, who was standing opposite, bowed slightly. "We underestimated each other."

I thought that would be the end of it.

Unexpectedly, he saw the girl with powerful superpowers stand up and walk out.

"Ms. Kotori?"

"Go find face for you guys."

She was very familiar with the Armed Detective Agency building. Even though she hadn't been here for almost three years, she still walked around the building with ease.

Ranpo is a member of the Armed Detective Agency, but business and personal matters cannot be mixed.

So she sneaked into the Armed Detective Agency, ready to restore face for her men.

Let the Armed Detective Agency know that the Port Mafia is a group of people with bad tempers who are not to be trifled with!

Open the door.

She caught the eye of a young man who was sorting documents.

The atmosphere froze for a moment.

The boy immediately straightened up, looking rather nervous and at a loss. "Hello... Are you here for a commission? I'll call Mr. Kunikida right away."

"No hurry." Hayana Kotori asked, "Are you new here?"

This look is a bit like that of a college graduate.

Watching the beautiful woman with black hair and black eyes pull out a chair at Mr. Dazai's workstation and sit down, Nakajima Atsushi, who had never been paid attention to by a woman so beautiful that it was dazzling, felt nervous and his heart was pounding. "I'm the new Nakajima Atsushi."

Nakajima Atsushi - the name of the tiger-man.

Before Nakajima Atsushi could enter the shy stage, the woman on the chair raised her hands and made casual movements.

The [Human Tiger] sensed the danger and felt a flicker in his nerves. A sharp light flashed in the boy's eyes and he quickly retreated.

Unexpectedly, I retreated to a transparent wall!

Then he raised his hand to take a picture, and found that his surroundings were blocked by transparent walls.

He was locked in a transparent square box, with no way up or down blocked.

The attack had no effect. Nakajima Atsushi, who had just entered the world of superpowers and knew very little about his own abilities, and whose development was limited to the most basic attacks, was out of breath.

"Who the hell are you?!" he asked angrily.

"The Port Mafia, you haven't cleaned up the bullet holes left by them when they came the day before yesterday."

Looking at the smiling woman sitting on the chair, Nakajima Atsushi couldn't believe it: "Port Mafia..."

It's making a comeback so soon?!

This person is not on the same level as the guys who came the day before yesterday and called themselves "Black Lizard".

Stronger than Akutagawa!

He was trapped in a transparent wall and had no way to break out!

Mr. Dazai... If Mr. Dazai were here, it would be easy to destroy this kind of supernatural power trap!

After finishing their lunch break at the coffee shop on the first floor, the members of the Armed Detective Agency went upstairs chatting and laughing.

Hearing Kunikida Doppo's voice, Nakajima Atsushi roared, "Mr. Kunikida! Be careful! There's a trap set by the Port Mafia!"

His voice shocked everyone standing at the door!

Kunikida Doppo's glasses shone coldly as he kicked the door open and saw a woman sitting leisurely on a chair, and a newcomer who was trapped in the air and was knocking on the wall?

He quickly took out his account book.

Prepare to rush to Nakajima Atsushi and ensure the safety of the members as soon as possible!

Being pulled back by someone, Kunikida Doppo turned around to look at the young man with an unsure expression and raised his voice: "Why are you holding me? Dazai! Didn't you see the new guy..."

"Kunikida-kun, please, tear off a piece of paper for me."

Dazai Osamu said this, but his eyes seemed to be glued to the enemy, never moving away.

The woman sitting on Dazai Osamu's chair had an unreadable expression.

It's rare to see Dazai Osamu looking so serious.

Kunikida Doppo calmed down and tore a blank page from the notebook with "Ideal" written on it and gave it to him.

Holding the snow-white paper, Dazai Osamu threw it forward.

Like magic - the snow-white paper was suddenly divided into fine pieces when passing through a certain spatial interface, and fell down like snowflakes.

Seeing this scene, everyone standing at the door broke out in cold sweat.

"As you can see, if you rush forward without thinking, you will end up like this piece of paper. Even Dr. Yosano's special ability won't be able to take effect." Dazai Osamu warned everyone not to go forward.

"What should we do?" Kunikida Doppo asked.

"Only me." Dazai Osamu looked at Hayato Kotori, who was staring at him without avoiding the crowd. "Now, only I can reach her."