"It's also because your dad's such a high-ranking police official, isn't it?" Okita Soji rarely spoke up for Heiji Hattori. "Coming to you is practically no different from calling the police."
"How could it possibly be the same?" Heiji Hattori protested indignantly. "I can keep my mouth shut. It's not like I'd tell them."
"When have you ever investigated a case while completely staying out of your dad's sight?" Okita Soji made a somewhat disdainful face. "Even if you don't tell him yourself, how could your father and the others not keep tabs on you whenever you leave home?"
Because of Tang Ze's case, the two of them had interacted quite a lot. Okita Soji had basically figured out Heiji Hattori's family situation by now.
The father and son were the type to be awkward with each other.
Heizo Hattori talked as though he looked down on his son's detective career, believing that while detectives assisted with investigations and there were even famous criminal-case detectives, the profession as a whole was little better than being a paparazzo. Even though being a detective did not mean his son was wasting his life, he still wanted to keep him in check, lest the praise go to his head at such a young age.
As for Heiji Hattori, he was at the age when his rebellious streak was strongest. During the period when he had achieved the most, he received no praise from his parents and was constantly suppressed and scolded by his father. On top of that, his family background had undeniably given his investigative work many conveniences, making him resist that identity even more and want to prove that he could accomplish things without his father's protection.
In reality, though, Heizo Hattori had always cared greatly about his son's movements. When