"Would you like to take my brother's motorcycle? I'll take you to grandma's, okay?"

"Is mommy never coming back? Just like my brother's mommy, I can never see her again?"

"...I'm very sorry about your mother. Please live well with your grandmother from now on, okay?"

Shinji Akashi nodded. Although he was only seven years old, he was exactly as Grandma Mari had praised him. He was really a very sensible and good child, so sensible that it made people feel a little distressed.

Why did he hold onto the railing and look at me? It was because he wanted to hand the trophy to the police. Why didn't he hand it over? Because he was just a child and believed that as long as the case was not solved, his beloved mother would not leave him.

I guess he was also standing behind the railing of the second-floor balcony last night, holding on to the railing and witnessing his father's back as he left late at night.

When he returned again, he was carrying his beloved trophy, but his body was covered in blood, his mother's blood.

"Well, I will take good care of grandma and become a man of great stature."

"But remember, sometimes you don't need to be too sensible. You should act like a spoiled brat to grandma occasionally. Got it?"

"Yeah! I understand!"

Fujiwara Yuu didn't send Akashi Shinji home directly. Instead, he took the small medical kit from the trunk of his motorcycle and treated Otaki Goro's wound. Before leaving, he kept nagging him:

"Senior, remember not to touch the wound with your hands. It's very dirty. I'll go interrogate you later. You can go home and rest."

"Okay, okay. Thank you for working overtime."