Third Dad
Oda Sakunosuke calmly lowered his head, then met the child's gaze.
Staring at the little girl's face, which bore a striking resemblance to someone, Oda Sakunosuke fell into a blank, expressionless daze. The ahoge (cowlick) on his head twitched, and he looked at the little girl with a bewildered expression, hesitatingly asking, "Who... are you?"
Xiao Luo is already used to being grabbed, lifted, and pulled.
Suddenly feeling the comfort of Oda Sakunosuke's embrace, the child's eyes welled up with tears of gratitude. "Uncle, you're such a kind person."
He'd been given a "friend zone" card. Oda Sakunosuke calmly twitched his ahoge (cowlick) and said seriously, "I'm twenty-one this year."
Xiao Luo subconsciously replied, "It's okay, I won't dislike you."
After responding instinctively, both of them paused for a moment because of what she said.
Oda Sakunosuke nodded slowly, then hesitated before asking, "Thank you?"
Xiao Luo initially felt a little guilty upon realizing she might have mispronounced her lines, but upon hearing Oda Sakunosuke say thank you, she immediately cast aside her nonexistent conscience and generously replied, "You're welcome, it's what Xiao Luo should do."
Oda Sakunosuke: ...
Skipping over a few minor incidents, Oda Sakunosuke's children chattered excitedly as they told him about Koro's origins.
Oda Sakunosuke understood, but hesitated: "The fairy who came down from heaven to find my father, but couldn't find the Armed Detective Agency, so she asked me for help?"
"Yes!" The children nodded earnestly.
"Yes!" Little Luo's proud voice was even louder than theirs.
“Alright then.” Oda Sakunosuke nodded in understanding. “I’ll take you to the Armed Detective Agency later; I’ve been there before.”
"Great!"
Amid the children's cheers, Oda Sakunosuke calmly asked, "I haven't asked you yet, little girl, what your father's name is. Maybe I know him."
The little girl answered happily, "Dazai-ko! My father's name is Dazai-ko!"
Lingling, who was lying comfortably, choked and started coughing violently.
Oda Sakunosuke nodded in approval, saying, "It's a very unique name."
"Yes, yes, the first time I heard Dad's name, I thought of that little rascal!"
“It is very similar,” Oda Sakunosuke agreed.
Lingling couldn't sit still any longer. Who exactly is this Oda Sakunosuke? What family would have a man named Dazai? Does he have no brains at all?
Lingling hurriedly opened the panel and showed Xiaoluo her new father's real name.
Oda Sakunosuke looked at the little girl in front of him who resembled Dazai Osamu, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Little girl, do you have an older brother?"
"Yes!" Xiao Luo, whose attention had been diverted by Ling Ling, turned her gaze back. The little girl's interest was immediately piqued. She casually pulled aside the screen in front of her and, amidst Ling Ling's desperate cries, began to talk incessantly about her brother.
"My brother has beautiful, big, bright eyes. He's so handsome! His skin is whiter than winter snow, his hair is blacker than squid balls, and his nose is so straight and perfectly sculpted that it could hold three little radishes together. His little mouth is as red as an apple and even smaller than a cherry. He's just so incredibly handsome!"
Brother praised Xiao Luo with a string of compliments, but the compliments seemed a little off.
Katsumi couldn't hold back any longer: "Is he even human?"
“Yes.” Oda Sakunosuke agreed with Koro’s words.
Big eyes, Osamu Dazai.
Pale skin, Dazai Osamu.
Black hair, Osamu Dazai.
The nose and mouth can be categorized together as so beautiful that even young children can't find the right adjectives to describe them.
Moreover, the little girl's father also has the surname Dazai.
Oda Sakunosuke felt he had discovered the truth. Hmm, he'd ask Dazai next time they met.
I can take the little girl to her father's place first, after I finish eating my spicy curry.
"Spicy curry? What's that? Is it delicious?" The little girl's mouth watered upon hearing this.
When the little girl actually asked Oda Sakunosuke if spicy curry was delicious, the other children around her looked on with fear and awe.
Is this a fairy?
Upon hearing the little girl's question, Oda Sakunosuke naturally nodded in affirmation without hesitation and asked Xiaoluo if she wanted to eat something.
Xiao Luo's eyes lit up. It was like a pie had fallen from the sky. Hesitating for even a second would be disrespectful to the food.
The child agreed without hesitation, despite the terrified looks from the other children nearby.
*
The child came downstairs, happily following Oda Sakunosuke down the stairs with the gift she had prepared for her father.
New customers have arrived at the curry shop owner's room on the first floor.
The young customer, wearing a heavy suit jacket, had his dark hair hanging listlessly. The boy, slumped over the table, called out listlessly, "Boss! I want a bowl of extra spicy curry."
Oda Sakunosuke looked at the boy with some surprise: "Dazai?"
Dazai Osamu slowly glanced over upon hearing the voice, "Odasaku, you..."
When her gaze fell on the little girl next to the red-haired man, she paused, and the words of complaint she was about to utter stopped abruptly.
They look so alike! This child and Dazai Osamu look so alike that you can almost tell they are related at a glance.
Dazai Osamu looked at the child, and the relaxed and casual expression on his face vanished instantly.
Who is she? Is she from his former family or something? What is her purpose in getting close to Oda Sakunosuke, especially at this particular juncture...?
Did he reveal something?
The boy's eyes were sinister as he sized up the little girl who was skipping and hopping towards him. Because he had thought too much in an instant, his iris-colored eyes gradually turned murderous.
Little Luo didn't notice anything amiss with the boy. She happily climbed onto the stool and excitedly raised her hand: "Boss, I want a spicy curry too!"
The shop owner exclaimed in surprise, "Spicy curry is really spicy! It's made many people cry. Are you sure, kid?"
Xiao Luo stopped raising her hand. It's so spicy it's made so many people cry. Just how spicy must it be?
The child's gaze shifted, and after a moment's thought, she realized she couldn't just listen to Oda Sakunosuke's side of the story. The little girl turned to Dazai Osamu beside her and asked, "Brother, is that spicy or not?"
Upon hearing her question, Dazai Osamu suppressed his emotions, a smug smile playing on his lips, and said enthusiastically, "That curry? I heard it's especially delicious!"
"Okay!" Little Luo nodded happily and obediently chose the curry she wanted.
Seeing how easily the child was fooled, Dazai Osamu turned to Oda Sakunosuke, asking with a mixture of curiosity and inquiry, "Where did you pick up this brat from?"
Upon hearing Dazai Osamu's words, Oda Sakunosuke shook his head in disapproval and calmly said, "I didn't pick her up. She's a friend of Kosuke and the others. She got lost and asked me to take her to the Armed Detective Agency to find her father."
Knowing what his friend wanted to know, Oda Sakunosuke added, "She seems to be a space-type ability user. Kosuke saw a door appear on the slide, and then Koro came over."
I was playing games with Kosuke and the others just now, and I was sure she wasn't in the house, but then she suddenly reappeared.
Dazai Osamu seemed to be deep in thought. After discussing with the owner about ordering a small curry rice, the little girl swung her short legs and turned towards the two adults who were talking.
"Uncle! What are you talking about?" Little Luo called out affectionately to Oda Sakunosuke, curiously peering at Dazai Osamu from the balloon in her arms.
Dazai Osamu was so shocked by Xiao Luo's appearance that he hadn't noticed that the child was holding a teru teru bozu doll that looked exactly like him.
That doll, dressed only as Dazai Osamu's head, with white bandages tightly binding the balloon-shaped Dazai Osamu's neck like chains, looked like a curse.
"What is this?" Dazai Osamu asked curiously, a hint of excitement in his voice.
Xiao Luo cautiously hid behind her to prevent Dazai Osamu from touching her, and said seriously, "This is a gift for Dad! I made it by hand for a very long time. Brother, don't touch it, or I'll blackmail you if you break it."
A gift for her dad...
Dazai Osamu stared thoughtfully at the teru teru bozu (a Japanese doll that looks remarkably like him), the doll having a bandage over its right eye, just like him. Would this design ever be so similar as to be copied by someone else?
Little Luo looked at her black-haired brother staring at her gift and suddenly realized something was wrong. The little girl scratched her head in surprise: "Brother, you look just like Qiuqiu! No, you look just like Daddy!"
Dazai Osamu's eyes darkened, a thought flashed through his mind, and a bright smile appeared on his lips as he asked, "Really? That's amazing! What's your father's name?"
Xiao Luo didn't listen to what he was saying at all. When she realized that this older brother looked like her father, she was overjoyed: "Brother, could you make your smile a little darker? Can we take off the bandages over our eyes? That way we won't look like my dad."
The child excitedly discussed it with Dazai Osamu, naturally projecting Dazai's image onto the child: "That's great! This way, Daddy can be the older brother (biological brother), and the older brother (Dazai Osamu) can be the daddy!"
Dazai Osamu fell silent again. Was this guy using him as a stand-in?
"Very bold," the boy chuckled vaguely, lazily snatching the balloon from the child's arms, preparing to toss it up and tease the child.
You can see the back that the child was hiding, which is a bandage connected to the balloon.
Having failed to amuse the child, Dazai Osamu nonchalantly began untying the balloons amidst the little girl's bewildered gaze.
Damn it, it was tied in a knot that was impossible to untie.
"Brother, what are you doing?" The little girl opened her big, iris-colored eyes, watched quietly for a long time, and asked curiously.
Dazai Osamu released his grip nonchalantly, his face showing no sign of panic, and his smile remained unchanged. "It's nothing, I just think this headless doll looks like me! I'm so curious, who's your father?"
"Xiao Luo's gift isn't a headless doll!" The little girl angrily snatched back the balloon, pulling on the bandage, when she heard Dazai Osamu's name for her gift. "The balloon is made to look like Dazai's, you have no taste at all, no one will give you a balloon!"
The child got angry, hugged the balloon, turned around, and turned his backside towards Dazai Osamu.
Dazai Osamu had no idea he was annoying the child. Watching the teru teru bozu doll that looked just like him disappear from sight, the boy pondered for a moment, then lowered his eyes to hide his thoughts and continued to provoke the child.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
