Chapter 22

"I feel so stupid for getting scared just now. Seriously." Nobara Kugisaki covered her face.

"No need to question it. You really are pretty stupid, after all." Satoru Gojo fanned the flames and earned himself a savage beating.

"...So it's a game." Atsushi Nakajima let out a sigh of relief.

But Kyoka Izumi shook her head. "Something's wrong, Atsushi."

"Huh?" Atsushi Nakajima froze for a moment.

"It's not as simple as a game." Osamu Dazai leaned back in his chair, his eyes dark.

When Ranpo Edogawa stepped out of his room, his appearance nearly made An Xinyi laugh.

"You're old enough to know better, yet you're still so careless." An Xinyi really couldn't stop worrying about this overgrown child. "Look at your collar. Doesn't that feel uncomfortable?"

Ranpo lowered his head and felt around. Yep, his entire collar was a mess. Even the hem of his shirt hung unevenly, and he hadn't lined up the buttons properly. Just what one would expect from Ranpo, whose everyday life skills were practically nonexistent.

"How many times have I told you to straighten yourself up in the mirror before going out?" An Xinyi stepped forward and gently, carefully fixed Ranpo's messy collar and buttons, even smoothing the wrinkles out of his clothes.

"There." Seeing that Ranpo looked like a lively high school student again, An Xinyi nodded in satisfaction, then lightly tapped his forehead with an index finger. "Remember that."

Ranpo rubbed his forehead and declared without a trace of shame, "What does it matter? I've got An'an here."

Speechless, An Xinyi gave his head a vigorous rub. "What if I'm not here someday?" It was just like a mother spoiling her child.

"No way." Ranpo shook his head desperately and hugged one of An Xinyi's arms. "An'an won't ever be gone. I hate it when you say things like that."

"Fine, fine." An Xinyi couldn't do a thing with him. "Eat first."

"Yay!" Ranpo sat down happily. Breakfast was milk, a fried egg pancake, and sandwiches. The pancake had been fried to a beautiful golden brown that whetted his appetite at a glance, and the sandwiches looked lovely too.

"...Mmph... An'an... mm... delicious." Even as Ranpo stuffed food into his mouth and wolfed it down, he didn't forget to give a thumbs-up.

"Don't talk while you're eating. You'll choke." An Xinyi had barely finished speaking when Ranpo choked, prompting a hurried step forward to pat his back. "Slow down, slow down. There's no rush. There's plenty more."

Gulp.

Someone swallowed.

"That looks really good," Atsushi Nakajima said sincerely.

"Waaah-" As though something had snapped, Ranpo immediately kicked up a fuss. "I want some too! I swear on my name as a great detective, that's definitely, absolutely Master Ranpo's favorite flavor!"

Satoru Gojo, who had been eating sweets all along, looked down at the cake in his hand. Suddenly, it didn't seem so appealing. He only liked sweets, though. Maybe that Edogawa just made the food look far too delicious.

Even after Ranpo finished eating, he kept dawdling.

"You're going to be late," An Xinyi kindly reminded him.

Ranpo glanced at the clock and began to panic.

"I'm off, An'an." Ranpo hurriedly grabbed his backpack and ran to the door to put on his shoes. "Hope work goes well for you too, An'an."

An Xinyi smiled. "Got it."

"Oh, you forgot your..." Japanese homework.

But Ranpo had already vanished. An Xinyi shrugged helplessly. It was fine. Mr. Fujiwara would know anyway.

Peaceful Town wasn't large, and Peaceful High School, which Ranpo attended, was only ten minutes or so from home. But Peaceful Small Town was extremely remote. It might have been called a high school, but its academic ranking was so low that anyone with even a little ambition wouldn't study at Peaceful High School.

Ranpo, however, loved Peaceful Town.

Flowers, plants, and trees grew all over the little town. Now it was a world of cherry blossoms, with pink petals dancing through the air like a beautiful painting. Free from the bustle of a big city, it brimmed with the quiet and leisure unique to a small town.

That quiet and leisure, however, were shattered by Ranpo sprinting flat out.

Since school was so close, Ranpo didn't have a bicycle and always went on foot. But as he raced down a little lane, he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly turned into the small shop at the side.

"Grandma Mizuki!" Ranpo was a little out of breath. "...Phew... I need that... phew..."

"Ink, right?" Without waiting for Ranpo to finish, Grandma Mizuki, who looked exceptionally kind and gentle, took a bottle of fountain pen ink down from the shelf. "Here. Pay me on your way back. You're going to be late."

"Thanks, Grandma!" Ranpo snatched up the ink and kept sprinting, finally making it into the classroom just as the bell rang.

"Whew, whew, whew... Made it." Ranpo slumped in his chair, gasping for breath. By then, his stern, straitlaced Japanese teacher, Mr. Fujiwara, had already entered.

"Japanese homework..." Seeing that Mr. Fujiwara was about to collect yesterday's homework, Ranpo prepared to take his out. But just as he reached for it, he froze.

I'm doomed. I stayed up too late playing games yesterday and forgot to put my homework in my backpack.

That must've been what An'an was trying to remind me about. I ran off too fast.

Mr. Fujiwara glanced at him and told the class representative, who hadn't started collecting the homework yet, "Ranpo Edogawa forgot his homework."

Then he turned to Ranpo. "Remember to bring it this afternoon."

Ranpo nodded like a chick pecking at grain.

Only after Mr. Fujiwara looked away did Ranpo breathe a sigh of relief. It wasn't that he was afraid of his teacher, but he had made a pact with An'an: absolutely no arriving late, leaving early, skipping class, or neglecting his homework. Otherwise, he wouldn't get his daily dessert!

"...Did I miss something?" Atsushi Nakajima looked utterly bewildered. "How did they know what Mr. Ranpo needed?" Was everyone Ranpo Edogawa here?? That was way too terrifying.

Osamu Dazai frowned, his expression serious. "Something really is wrong." Geniuses like Ranpo Edogawa were incredibly rare, but this Small Town... What kind of joke was this? Did every single person have the ability to see straight to the heart of things?

"But those are all things you can tell at a glance." Ranpo, however, looked thoroughly excited as he stood up. "Right? Right? I told you, it's easy."

"Ranpo." Yukichi Fukuzawa sensed that something was off.

"All right." At the look in the president's eyes, Ranpo sat back down. "I know. Everyone in the world is a foolish infant who needs Master Ranpo's protection... But he's really happy."

That Ranpo Edogawa had always been a child. He had never grown up.

In his world, adults were all very smart. He could leave anything troubling to them. He was just a child, and at most, he was a little smarter than the other children.

Still... he was just a tiny bit envious. Just a little.

Ranpo's deskmate was named Makoto Sato, and he had a rather easygoing personality. He kept shifting his backside around on his chair, until Kobayashi, sitting behind him, grew impatient. "Sato, you got a spanking, didn't you?"

Makoto Sato rolled his eyes and made one last desperate attempt to deny it. "No, I fell."

Kobayashi gave a dry chuckle.

"You clearly got spanked because you broke your mom's favorite perfume." Ranpo glanced at him and exposed his lie.

Makoto Sato wailed, "Life's hard enough without you calling me out, Ranpo."

Makoto Sato slumped over his desk. "I just wanted to smell it! That super, super expensive perfume she supposedly bought in Tokyo-I wanted to know what it smelled like. Then it slipped out of my hand."

"Who told you to get all excited and smear skin cream on your hands first? Whose fault is it that they were slippery?" For Ranpo Edogawa, there was no process in the world, only results.

"I was just curious. Curious." Makoto Sato scratched his cheek awkwardly. "It came from a big city, you know. Peaceful Town is just so remote."

"I really want to see a big city." A yearning expression came over Makoto Sato's face.

"Oh, right, Ranpo. You're different from us, aren't you?" Makoto Sato nudged Ranpo with his elbow. "You and the mayor both came from Yokohama. That's a port city, second only to Tokyo. Are big cities really beautiful and busy?"

"Not really." Ranpo thought it over, utterly uninterested. "I don't like it there. Too many people, the city's too big, and it's always noisy... Besides, the adults there aren't sincere at all."

"They can clearly tell at a glance, but they never say any of it." Ranpo pursed his lips. "So big cities aren't good at all."

"I like Peaceful Town better!" Thinking of Peaceful Small Town, Ranpo broke into a happy smile. "I'm going to stay here forever." Unlike people in big cities, the adults in this Small Town were all wonderful. They never made him play guessing games. Grandma Mizuki had known at a glance that he needed ink and was about to be late, just as Mr. Fujiwara had known at a glance that he hadn't neglected his homework, only forgotten to bring it.

If they had been adults from a big city, they surely would have seized the chance to give a child a hard time again.

"Huh-wouldn't that be a waste? You're the smartest one among us, Ranpo. You might even get into the University of Tokyo."

"That's just because you're all too dumb, okay? There are tons of adults smarter than me." Ranpo was unconvinced.

"But it's kids like us who take the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo."

"Then Master Ranpo could definitely get in. But I don't want to leave here, or leave An'an."

"You really do like the mayor, Ranpo."

"Of course!" Ranpo beamed. "I love An'an most!"

Listening to Ranpo Edogawa's declaration on the screen, everyone silently turned their eyes toward the Ranpo on their side.

"I love An'an too!" Ranpo Edogawa said bluntly, without any attempt to hide it. "Yep! Just a little less than the president."

...We lose, some of them thought. Ranpo wasn't going to get embarrassed.

He was the straightforward type, after all.