"Ah, sorry. I seem to have said something strange."
After sinking into gloomy, melancholic thoughts for a moment, Yuko Aizawa quickly raised her head again and waved at them.
"It's nothing..."
Ran Mouri and Eri Kisaki exchanged a look, both smiling understandingly as they prepared to let the subject pass.
To be fair, Yuko Aizawa's tone would indeed sound strange to strangers. It was clearly the sort of sentiment that only came up when discussing private matters, and saying it aloud made it difficult for others to ask further questions. After all, if they did, touching on the cause would be unavoidable.
Everyone else was ready to move past the topic, but Tangze had other ideas.
The dishes had begun arriving one after another. If he did not keep the conversation going now, then the moment Yuko Aizawa had time to move freely, this highly lethal martial artist would head out to create a homicide case.
Though they were crazy enough that their deaths would not be especially regrettable, getting people killed over this trivial nonsense would still be rather unfair.
The Phantom Thieves of Hearts dealt specifically with lunatics, after all. He would just have to accept it.
"Were you close with Mr. Kajimoto Hajime, Ms. Aizawa?" Tangze chose a relatively tactful point of entry. "As I recall, Mr. Kajimoto is no longer young."
Yuko Aizawa had retired due to injury three or four years ago, while Kajimoto Hajime had long since married and had children. Based on the usual trajectory of an athlete's career, the two of them should not have had many opportunities to become acquainted.
"We were indeed fairly close. For one thing, Senior Kajimoto still pays attention to the national team's training and often comes over to provide guidance. And when I first started competing,