Okiya Subaru thought to himself: Uzo's cat is here. That probably means Uzo is here too.
—And that meant the case just now really hadn't been a coincidence.
Akai Shuichi, on the other hand, did not have so many thoughts.
On the contrary, since Uzo had said he would indulge his subordinates' "secrets," Akai Shuichi felt that the odds of Uzo immediately making a move against "Okiya Subaru" were actually low—ruthless executives had plenty of chances to kill their subordinates. More than that, Akai Shuichi worried that while he was away, Uzo might suddenly come over to interview him, then discover some fatal problem from Okiya Subaru's abnormalities.
So, Akai Shuichi calmly suggested another possibility:
"I remember you kept it for a few days before. Maybe that was when it memorized your door—actually, while I've been watching people outside lately, I've occasionally seen cats with similar markings passing by in the distance, visiting various households. You can often spot it around Beika Town and Beido Town in particular.
"Come to think of it, maybe it simply happened to pass by your home and went inside for a look around.
"Also, maybe it isn't Uzo's cat at all. It could just happen to have the same coat color—cats breed quickly, and as litter after litter is born, there will gradually be quite a few similarly colored cats in any given area."
Besides, Akai Shuichi thought to himself, no matter what, it was only a cat.
If it had been a dog, it might have received some training and been sent to Okiya Subaru's home for a particular purpose.
But a cat... Even Uzo probably could not train a cat to that extent—the man was the organization's criminal Planner, a killer who saw through people's hearts, not some animal keeper, much