After becoming a chaotic daughter

On No. 12 days after the business trip, Ranpo finally finished handling the Kyushu case and returned to the detective agency.

When Nanako returned to the detective agency after school, the protesters who had gathered in front of the red brick building yesterday had not dispersed, but the number was smaller than yesterday. Eight or nine people were sitting on the side of the road in twos and threes, holding protesting cardboards, staring at each other. Looking at the entrance and exit of the office building, it seems that as soon as someone comes out from there, they will immediately throw something in the other's face.

Nanako, carrying her schoolbag, made a detour to go upstairs through the fire exit at the back door. When she reached the second floor, she happened to meet Dazai dragging Kunikida down the stairs.

"...Hey! Dazai! Don't pull my sleeve! Tell me quickly, what's going on!"

"Okay, okay——I'll explain the details to you on the way! I'm really worthy of what you said, Mr. Ranpo is indeed a famous detective! No wonder Oda Saku and I praised him! Anyway, Kunikida, you're back Where did you park your car? The underground garage or the roadside?"

"Just parked on the side of the road... No! So why is the bomb in the fishing tackle shop!"

"Huh? That's what Ranpo-san said! Kunikida, are you questioning Ranpo-san's words? I thought you would believe his conclusions wholeheartedly and unconditionally—after all, you are like that when you see Ranpo-san Looks like it?"

"Of course I believe Mr. Ranpo, I just don't understand—"

The noisy conversation could be heard across two corridors. Dazai grabbed Kunikida's arm and saw Nanako at the corner who was slowly going upstairs. He ignored Kunikida's inquiry and immediately waved to Nanako to say hello. .

"Oh, Nanako! Are you back from school? Did anything interesting happen at school today?" He spoke eagerly.

Nanako stopped in her tracks, looked up at him, didn't speak, and shrank a little to the side to make way for their two big men who were about 1.8 meters tall. Dazai wanted to continue chatting with her, but the country Kida stopped him immediately.

"Don't block Nanako from going upstairs! Hurry up and dismantle the bomb! Nanako, Ranpo-san is back, and he's in the club." He lifted Dazai away who was in front of Nanako, and Kunikida dragged him by the back Collar, bowed his head and spoke to Nanako in a calm tone.

Nanako let out an "oh" and watched Kunikida and Dazai continue to leave.

Only this time it was Kunikida who dragged Dazai downstairs.

Standing on the steps, Nanako lowered her head and thought about what Kunikida had said to him.

【Father is back. 】

【...I can't cook noodles tonight. 】

Ranpo would not let her touch the stove, and although the food she cooked was not very tasty, Nanako still felt a little disappointed.

She walked up to the fourth floor slowly, opened the door of the detective agency, and as soon as she entered, she saw the desk in the middle of the office area that had been vacant for almost two weeks. Someone was there today.

Ranpo was just as usual, sitting on his luxurious office chair chatting loudly with Yosano, holding a lollipop in his hand.

Noticing the movement of the door opening, Luanbu turned his face away and saw Nanako who had come back. He almost jumped up from the chair, ran towards Nanako who had just entered the room with a lollipop in his mouth, and held her thin body with both hands. With thin arms, I just want to raise them high.

However, the 1.4-meter Nanako was no longer a figure he could easily lift high, so he only briefly let Nanako's toes leave the ground less than two centimeters, and immediately let her down a second later.

"Nanako, do you miss your father?" He asked in a very confident tone.The business trip lasted twelve days, which was unprecedentedly long. Normally, he would come back within three to five days at most. Presumably his idiot daughter must be full of admiration because she hasn't seen her father for so long!

Nanako looked at him, then shook her head.

Ranbu: "..."

...That's right, only the daughter of a fool can have admiration!He is a detective, and the daughter of a detective is definitely different from an ordinary child.Nanako is a mature kid in the sixth grade, not one of those little kids who cry when they don't see their parents for three days!

Ranpo finished her self-persuasion in her heart, and ravaged Nanako's hair. Her hair was not too curled up now, and it was tied into a small braid hanging down behind her head, thin and soft.

Standing in front of Nanako, Luanbu gestured at Nanako's height, but it was still only a little below his shoulders.

The raised eyebrows of Chaobu frowned, and asked in a slightly confused and dissatisfied tone: "Why didn't you grow taller?"

Don’t the novels in the magazines all say that after the father returns home from a long business trip, he will see his child who has grown taller?Then there will be tears in my eyes, hugging and crying.But Nanako didn't grow taller, she didn't cry, and she didn't hug her, so she felt no different from when she wasn't on a business trip.

Luanbu bit the lollipop and made a careful comparison. In the end, he could only find out with great regret that Nanako hadn't even grown a millimeter in height, and was still a dwarf.

[The dog that can grow in two weeks is a dog. 】

Being turned around by him like a doll, Nanako thought silently in her heart.

"Forget it." Ranpo quickly lost interest in research, and took Nanako to his desk, "Before I came back, the police officer from Kyushu bought my father a souvenir, which is a special product of Fukuoka, chicken buns. , are filled with sweet bean paste."

As he said this, Nanako also saw a few boxes of snacks stacked on his table, piled high into a pile, roughly seven or eight boxes.

Ranbu casually handed the top box to Nanako, and sat back in the chair by himself: "Take it and eat."

The snack box as a souvenir was exquisitely packaged, with the shape of cute chicken buns printed on it. Nanako put the snack box on the table and opened the lid.

Nanako looked at the snacks in the box and fell silent.

"Dad." She raised her head and called out in disorder.

"Ok?"

"Why doesn't the chick have a head?" Nanako was confused.

She was still holding the lid in her hand, and the snack box was divided into 3×3, a total of nine grids, and a steamed bun in the shape of a chicken was lying in each grid.

But none of them have heads.

Nanako looked at the chick whose head had been pinched off, revealing the bean paste stuffing inside, and remembered a sentence she hadn't seen for a long time:

[cute love, no head]

...What a cold joke.

Nanako shuddered inwardly.

"Huh?" Ranbu poked his head over to take a look, and then said as a matter of course: "Oh, because the plane ride on the way back was too boring, so I broke it all off and ate it-but the red bean paste inside is still there, eat it Once you wake up, there will be no problem with the taste at all.”

Looking at the nine "headless chickens" lying in the box, Nanako silently put the lid back on and decided to leave the box of chicken buns for Gogol to eat.

"By the way, speaking of it..." Luanbu turned to Xie Ye and asked, "Miss Yu Xie Ye, are the protesters downstairs still there?"

"It's not over yet." Yu Xie Ye sighed, "Today is only the second day, and it will probably take a week before we all leave."

There was a displeased expression on Luanbu's face: "It's really troublesome. If you walk through the back door, you can't take the elevator. Climbing the stairs to the fourth floor is really exhausting me."

"After all, it's a newcomer's test..." Yu Xie Ye said, turning her head slightly, she was standing by the window, and she could see the situation downstairs when she turned her face, "And this incident was originally Kunikida's case. It doesn’t look like it’s time for Mr. Ranpo to take over the job.”

Luanbu curled his lips: "Understood, there is really nothing to do with you guys! If you really can't figure it out, hurry up and ask me for help!"

"Of course." Yu Xie Ye smiled helplessly.

*******

I ran all the way back to Yokohama during the day, and when I got off work at night, Ranpo came earlier than usual, and took Nanako and Gogol back to the dormitory.

Half of the autumn has passed, and the weather is gradually cooling down, and it is even colder after nightfall.Luanbu stood at the door of the dormitory, facing the dim light in the corridor, clumsily trying to identify the one that could open the door of the dormitory among the bunch of keys, grumbling and complaining.

He was on a business trip for almost two weeks and didn't come back for several days. He almost couldn't even tell the keys.From the detective agency, from the pantry, from the infirmary, from the president's office, from the dormitory, from lockers... a lot of silver keys are strung together in a mess.

Nanako and Gogol stood behind him, waiting for him to find the key.The night was very dark, and the overhead light fell, casting blurred shadows on the wall and the ground. Gogol raised his hand to face the light, and played with hand shadows on the wall. Nanako stared intently at The little rabbit jumped up and down on the wall, and in a blink of an eye, the hazy little rabbit turned into a puppy again.

After spending a long time, Ranbu finally found the key to the dormitory.He inserted the key into the door lock, turned half a turn, opened the door, and was about to enter the room when the lights in the dormitory next door suddenly turned on.

Next door is Yosano's dormitory, the light shines through the window in the corridor, and someone's movement can be vaguely heard.But when Ranpo came back with Nanako and Gogol, Yosano and Yosano were still packing things in the infirmary.

The movement of stepping into the room was slow, and the door of the dormitory next door was opened from the inside.

Leaning out of the room was a young black-haired woman, but it wasn't Yosano, but Sasaki Nobuko in Yosano's pajamas.She saw Nanako and Gogol, her gaze moved, and she noticed Ranbu standing in front of them again.

"Hi, I'm Nobuko Sasaki, and I'm staying at Dr. Yosano's house for a few days." She had a gentle and weak smile on her face, "I'm sorry, I heard a strange man in the room just now. I was a little concerned about the sound, so I came out to have a look."

"Oh, that's right. I've already heard about you from Ms. Yosano." Ranpo answered her casually, "My name is Edogawa Ranpo, and I'm a colleague of Ms. Yosano. I went on a business trip a few days ago, and I just came back today, please give me your advice. If Kunikida and the others can't solve your problem, you can come to me for help, Miss Victim."

What he said sounded like he was competing with his colleagues for performance, and the title "Miss Victim" was also somewhat offensive, Sasaki was slightly taken aback, and subconsciously nodded to him: "Ah... well, more of yours kindness."

"It's nothing." Luanbu waved his hands without raising his head, and went into the room neatly.

Sasaki nodded to Nanako and Gogol, then retreated to Yosano's dormitory and closed the door next door.

The "little dog" that Gogol gesticulated on the wall also ran into the door and disappeared. He and Nanako followed Luanbu into the dormitory.

After taking off her shoes at the entrance, Nanako ran into the house with her schoolbag on her back, took off her schoolbag and put it in the corner, knelt down to pack the things in the schoolbag, stuffed the textbooks for the next day's class into the schoolbag, and took it out of the schoolbag Li took out the kettle and wanted to take it to the kitchen to wash and dry it.

He took a change of clothes from the closet, walked into the bathroom randomly, and was about to take a shower, but he came out again not long after entering the bathroom.

He stood at the door of the bathroom with a thoughtful look on his face. After a while, he asked Nanako, "Nanako, has anyone else come in these two days?"

Holding a kettle in her hand, Nanako, who had just run to the kitchen door, stopped, stood where she was, turned her head to look at him, and replied a little too slowly, "Well, Zuo Zuo...Zu Zuo ...The sister next door slept here the night before yesterday."

She didn't remember Sasaki's name all of a sudden.

The night before yesterday, Nobuko Sasaki, went to bed.

Ranpo thought for a while about Nanako's answer, and then asked her, "Who brought her here?"

"Dazai." Nanako finished speaking, thought for a while, and added, "Let that sister in, not him."

The expected answer.

There was a displeased expression on Ranbu's face, he let Nanako wash the kettle, and turned around to go into the bathroom to take a shower.