After becoming a chaotic daughter

In the office, Fukuzawa Yukichi put down the phone, closed his eyes and sighed slightly.

This is the second week since Nanako was brought back to the detective agency. The police have also closed the murder and robbery case more than ten days ago. The only remaining problem is Nanako, who is the daughter of one of the criminals.

Although Ranpo and Kunikida directly took Nanako away from the scene that day, he was still a six-year-old, living child, not something to care about. As the president of the detective agency and Ran Fukuzawa Yukichi, Fukuzawa's guardian, can only resign himself to cleaning up the "mess" for Ranpo as usual, and communicate with the police about follow-up issues when Ranbu is idle teasing his "new daughter".

Not surprisingly, as Kunikida heard from the Aoki Police Department at the time, Nanako's distant uncle was unwilling to adopt the child, not to mention that he had a bad relationship with Nanako's biological father, he was just a "murderer's daughter" Such a title is enough to make most people shy away from Nanako, let alone "adopt".

There was no way to force the other party to adopt Nanako, so the Aoki Police Department could only look for an orphanage with acceptable conditions in and around Yokohama City, and then sent the information to the detective agency, allowing Nanako to choose her future destination.

With photos and information materials of several orphanages, Fukuzawa Yukichi sat down at the top of the meeting room with a serious face, and held a meeting quite formally.

——After all, it is related to a child's next ten years, and may even affect her life.

Fukuzawa Yukichi believed from the bottom of his heart that no matter how much he attached importance to this matter, it would never be an exaggeration.

On both sides of the conference table, Kunikida, who looked serious and upright, Yosano, who yawned while holding a medical magazine, and Nanako, who was sitting in a row holding half a meat bun Edogawa Ranpo.

"Nanako, half of your bun is too big, Daddy Meat will help you eat it."

Luanbu whispered to Nanako, trying to trick the meat bun in her hand.

Nanako didn't even look at him, she buried her head and stuffed half of the meat stuffing in the bun into her mouth, her cheeks were bulging, then she raised her head, moved her cheeks and chewed, her pair of dark eyes didn't blink He and Ranbu looked at each other, as if they were asking what Ranbu just said.

Luanbu, who failed to deceive the child, had no choice but to "hum", took a big bite of the meat bun in his hand, leaned his head on the table, and ate his own.

"cough!"

Fukuzawa Yukichi had to cough hard, and the rustling sound in the conference room finally quieted down. Luanbu sat up straight unwillingly, and stretched out his hand to grab the chair sitting next to him. Nanako.

The chair in the meeting room was a bit high for Nanako, and she almost slipped off the chair.

"These are several orphanages selected by the Aoki Police Department, and the relevant information is all there." Fukuzawa Yukichi said, pushing the photos and documents in front of him to the center of the conference table, "Although the development of each orphanage The situation is different, but they are all regular institutions that can guarantee normal operation. I have also asked officials familiar with the civil affairs department. The qualification assessment results of these welfare institutions in recent years are at least above the middle level. Children don’t have to worry about any problems when they go to live there.”

"'Go there to live'—?" Ranpo repeated the words of the president in a dragged tone, and asked as if he didn't understand the sentence: "Why do you want to live in the past? It's fine if Nanako is in the detective agency, and no one takes care of her." Is your child going there?"

"Her biological parents are gone, and the detective agency can take care of her for a while, but it is impossible to keep her up." Fukuzawa Yukichi replied calmly, "It has nothing to do with whether someone takes care of her or not. but..."

"There's nothing 'it doesn't matter', isn't it that the orphanage is needed because there are children who have no one to take care of them?" Luanbu lay on the table, turned his head with his eyes closed, as if he couldn't listen to what the president said The appearance of the words, "There is no need for an orphanage because someone will take care of you! That's right!"

Why should the little radish head he picked up be given to others to be raised, and it was still sent to the orphanage, so that Nanako would have to be raised by others with a group of little kids like her. Didn't he pick up a Chinese cabbage and come back? , it’s not that whoever wants it can just take it out and give it to others!

Besides, if Nanako were to go to the orphanage, wouldn't he not be able to be "father"!

"The problem is not that..."

Fukuzawa Yukichi wanted to say more, but Ranpo covered his ears childishly, and yelled in resistance.

"I am Nanako's father. A child with a father cannot be sent to an orphanage! So this proposal is rejected!"

His refusal to communicate made Fukuzawa Yukichi feel a headache, Yosano and Kunikida on the side didn't interrupt, this is obviously not a topic they can express their opinions on.

Ranpo was picked up by the president since he was 14 years old, and he has been "raised" to this day. When this kind of "father and son" disputes, even with Yosano who is very close to them, at most they can only I can persuade them to fight afterwards.

Seeing that Ranpo couldn't make sense, Fukuzawa Yukichi could only focus on Nanako. After all, this matter was about Nanako herself, and Ranpo's protest actually didn't affect the result.

"Nanako, do you have an orphanage that you seem to like?" Fukuzawa Yukichi asked her straightforwardly.

What answered him was Nanako's expressionless little face.

【...What are they talking about? 】

Since they couldn't see the information on the table, and their conversation just now was fast and complicated, Nanako didn't understand what they were talking about.

Under Fukuzawa Yukichi's sharp gaze, she lowered her head and took a bite of the bun in her hand, eating it slowly.

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "..."

She took another bite.

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "..."

The third bite.

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "..."

After Nanako finished eating the buns, she stood up from the chair, propped her arms on the table, and wanted to get the paper towel on the opposite side, but she wobbled as if she was about to fall off, and Xie Ye hurriedly pulled out a paper towel for her Pass it to her.

Seeing Nanako wipe her mouth clean with a tissue, and then sit back obediently, Fukuzawa Yukichi felt a little relieved.

[It looks like I have a good appetite, and I should be able to take care of my body soon. 】

He thought happily in his heart...

——No, he was thinking about something.

Fukuzawa Yukichi stopped the strange thought in his head in time.

He slowed down his speech, tried his best to soften his tone, and asked Nanako again: "Which of these orphanages do you want to go to? Or don't you want to go to none?"

Nanako grabbed the table and poked her head to look at the two rows of photos in front of her one by one. After thinking about it for a long time, she realized that "welfare facility" means "welfare institution".

The word was so foreign to a child that it took her a long time to get it out of the depths of her memory.

"I don't want to...go." Nanako tried hard to use her poor vocabulary to piece together sentences to express her meaning, "If you have a father, don't go to Fuku, Fushi... Welfare set..."

[Welfare Institute] It was too difficult to read, she stumbled for a long time and couldn't read clearly, and then stretched out her hand to pull Luanbu's cloak: "...Dad."

Ranpo immediately put Nanako in his arms like a snack, turned his head, and showed a determined attitude that he would not listen to the president's words, like an elementary school student who was furious when his toy was robbed.

Fukuzawa Yukichi looked at them, his face seemed to be wearing an indestructible mask like a copper wall, and he remained expressionless and silent for a long time, until the air in the meeting room seemed to be frozen, that majestic face, There was finally a crack.

He sighed almost imperceptibly.

"... Forget it, I will take care of this matter, let's all go back to work."

As soon as his words fell, Ranbu immediately ran out of the conference room with Nanako in his arms, as if the president would change his mind and "sell" Nanako to the orphanage if he was a second late.

****

"If it wasn't for Dad, you would have been thrown into the orphanage, you know!"

Thinking that he has perfectly fulfilled his duties as a good father, Ranpohu frightened Nanako with feigned prestige, and then began to ask for rewards from his daughter with confidence.

"So I'm going to the coffee shop this afternoon to buy cakes and orange juice, thank you dad, remember!"

Nanako bit her finger, looked up at him, said "Oh" slowly, and stuffed the change that Ranbu gave her to buy cakes in the afternoon into her small pocket.

She was playing games while walking around, no one noticed her, ran to the side door of the office area, tiptoed to turn the doorknob, got in through the crack of the door, and ran through a short corridor , and stopped in front of the door at the end of the corridor.

Standing on tiptoe again, Nanako reached for the doorknob and pulled it down. The closed door creaked and opened inward.

Nanako sneaked her little head through the crack of the door.

She was very short, and she peeped through the crack of the door to look in, but she still couldn't hide it at all.

Sitting behind the desk, Fukuzawa Yukichi, who has been trained to be more sensitive than ordinary people, noticed the movement at the door almost when she pulled down the doorknob.

"Come in."

He said in a deep voice, and looked at the door that was opened a little. Nanako showed half of her head, stuck in the door, and when she heard him call to come in, she got into the room and ran to his desk. Standing on tiptoe and leaning against the edge of the table, he looked up at him with a pair of dark and lifeless eyes.

Fukuzawa Yukichi lowered his head and looked at her for a while, realizing that if he didn't speak, Nanako might just keep staring at each other in silence, so he could only speak first.

"What's matter."

He tried his best to make his tone sound less oppressive, but the effect was not obvious - it was better to say that it had no effect, let alone an ordinary child, even at a young age Some teenagers and girls, when they hear an uncle talking to him (her) in such a tone, they will probably have weak legs and want to run away immediately.

But Nanako didn't feel this at all, she just opened her mouth and spoke stumblingly.

"I don't want to go to Fu, Fu Fu... that place." She spoke with difficulty, and would pause abruptly between one or two syllables, as if she were an alien who couldn't speak, "Don't, go."

"I already know this." Fukuzawa Yukichi replied to her. He was used to concise and clear words. His Japanese is also terrible, and he didn't realize the subtleties of the wording.

He explained to Nanako like this: "I will take care of this matter, you don't have to feel... afraid."

He originally wanted to say "worried", but then he thought that Nanako was still a young child, so he changed his words to "scared" which would probably be more suitable for her emotions at her age.

Nanako digested his words, paused for a few seconds, and then spoke again: "Ranbu, be, dad... Be my, dad."

Fukuzawa Yukichi thought it was just a declarative sentence, but after hearing Nanako finish speaking, he continued, "Isn't it possible?"

He pondered for a while, not knowing how to answer Nanako's question. After weighing it over and over in his mind, he answered cautiously, "This doesn't... comply with the regulations."

"Everything in this world has its own rules. For example, you must abide by the school rules when you are in school, and you must go to work on time when you work in a detective agency. But above the rules of the school and the detective agency, there are still rules that override them. , a higher rule."

Fukuzawa Yukichi patiently explained to Nanako, starting from the "most basic", Nanako tried hard to listen to what he said, but it was a bit difficult to understand, both words and grammar were so profound.

"The rules that override these rules are called 'laws (ほうりつ)'. Laws are the highest level of rules in this country."

Nanako blinked blankly.

[ほ, ほうり... what? 】

I didn't understand the most critical word, it's over, and the listening comprehension score for this question is 0.

There was a bit of bewilderment in her eyes, but Fukuzawa Yukichi didn't realize it, he just continued to explain to Nanako.

"The law is a rule that everyone in a country must abide by, because this rule stipulates that if Luanbu wants to adopt you, the age gap between you must be over 40 years old, but Luanbu is only 12 years older than you. Years old, the law will not recognize the guardianship relationship between you."

"Moreover, according to the law, 20 years old is considered an adult, that is, one can be considered an 'adult' at the age of 20. Luanbu is not yet an adult, and minors cannot be guardians."

[Forty...twelve...twenty...what...? 】

A bunch of numbers made Nanako dizzy, and she didn't understand Fukuzawa Yukichi's words at all.

This time Fukuzawa Yukichi saw the blankness in Nanako's eyes.

Indeed, words such as guardianship, adulthood, and adoption are too obscure for a child to understand, and Nanako's language level has not even reached the level of a normal six-year-old child.

【…】

Nanako's tiptoed feet fell back to the ground. She thought about it, and although she didn't understand, it probably meant "No!".

She stood behind the tall desk that could almost cover her whole body and froze for a while, and finally let out an "oh", and wanted to go out for a walk.

"So——" Seeing her ignorant look, Fukuzawa Yukichi gave up explaining those twists and turns, and said directly: "In law, your guardian cannot be Luanbu, your household registration is only You can hang here with me first."

Nanako, who had already turned to leave, heard his words, stood where she was, bit her finger and lowered her head to think for a while.

...I didn't even understand.

It is more complicated than those few words just now.

【law】

【protector】

(guardian)

【Residence】

There were only three short sentences in total, one for each of the unintelligible vocabulary, Nanako scratched her messy hair in confusion, and looked up at him.

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "..."

He pondered for two seconds, then changed to another most simple and rude answer, looked down at Nanako, and said to her:

"In other words, Ranpo can be your father."

Finally understanding a sentence, Nanako stared at Fukuzawa Yukichi and blinked slowly.

"……grandfather."

She opened her mouth and called out to Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Fukuzawa Yukichi: "...um."

Nanako turned around and ran away.