After becoming a chaotic daughter

"In the next few days, I need to complete a somewhat dangerous job."

Sitting on an empty office chair that Kunikida pulled out for him, Oda Sakunosuke faced Edogawa Ranpo, and bluntly stated the purpose of his visit to the detective agency.

"This job...may be a bit tricky. The children may become the targets of the enemy. Although a friend of mine has helped me find a suitable hiding place for them, it is difficult to deploy people to help me protect these children. It is impossible, so I want to entrust the detective agency to send a member to help me take care of the safety of these children, and it will take about a week."

He clasped his hands on his lap, and after he finished speaking, he paused and added: "...I will solve this matter as soon as possible."

"Dangerous job?" Ranbu leaned back on the office chair in a seemingly comfortable and lazy posture. After taking a sip of water, he placed the disposable paper cup on the table next to him, tilted his head to look at the To Oda Sakunosuke, as if he was facing an anagram game in a magazine, his tone with a slightly raised end seemed quite interested.

"Why don't you let me guess what kind of work you're doing~"

He said so, with his eyes half-opened, his sharp and silent gaze just swept across Oda's body, and then he wandered aimlessly at the ceiling above his head, with a faint expression on his face, looking Not knowing whether he was thinking or simply distracted, after a few seconds of silence, he said:

"If you want to talk about the movement of the Mafia recently, it really is only that one, right? — A group of criminal organizations from Europe."

Oda Sakunosuke just stared at him expressionlessly, without nodding or shaking his head.This is a working secret of the Port Mafia, so he naturally cannot give any answers to Ranpo's question.

But his reaction is enough to explain something.

"Do you know what the opponent's ability is?" Ranbu asked, taking out a piece of potato chips from the bag.

"...No." After a little hesitation, Oda Sakunosuke answered his question, "I don't know yet. I haven't fought against the leader of the other party. I only heard from the information that he seems to be a powerful supernatural being."

Ranbu broke the potato chips in two bites, chewed them a few times and swallowed them, then asked Oda: "But you already know that the problem is difficult, don't you?"

Oda Sakunosuke did not deny it, and his tone was calm and unwavering: "That's why I plan to entrust the detective agency to protect those children."

Ranbu stopped eating potato chips, held half a bag of potato chips in his hand, stared at Oda Sakunosuke, and stared deeply at him for a long while, silent for a long time, did not speak, even the air seemed to be The flow stopped for 1 minute, and he didn't open his mouth again until 1 minute later.

"Do you really think the 'problem' of this incident lies in this criminal organization?"

Ranpo spoke sharply in a calm and clear tone like shattered glass.

Oda Sakunosuke had a slightly confused expression on his face, unable to understand what Ranpo meant by "problem".

Breaking apart an incident in detail, and then explaining it clearly to the police and the client—this is also a part of Luanbu's daily work. Although it is troublesome, he has become accustomed to it, always Say something rude like "Are you an idiot" or "Give your rusty brain some oil", and then explain the ins and outs of the incident to the other party clearly.

However, at this time, Ranpo used a patient tone uncharacteristically, and explained to Oda Sakunosuke.

"Your identity is just a member of the lowest level of the mafia. Although the intelligence of the other organization is still unclear, the only thing that can be confirmed is that this organization is obviously very difficult to deal with. Even the leader of the port mafia is quite a headache. "

When Ranpo said this, Oda didn't know where he saw that "the leader also feels a headache", so he heard him ask again: "In this case, why do you, a low-level member, What about being named striker?"

—Indeed, as he said.

Oda Sakunosuke thought this in his heart.

In the beginning, the leader only assigned him the task of "finding Ango", but obviously the leader also knew that the matter was not as simple as finding a missing member, otherwise he would not have been given the [Silver Hand] that "even a cadre can drive it" up.

When he got this letter and left the chief's office, Oda Sakunosuke felt an indescribable vague feeling in his heart.

It's just that he didn't understand why.

He was silent, sitting quietly on a chair like a stone statue, watching Ranbu without saying a word, but his eyes seemed to have no focus, and he fell into thinking along with Ranbu's words.

"I investigated you." Ranbu said calmly, compared with his usual chattering speed, it was like a different person, "Oda Sakunosuke, a bottom member of the port mafia, was once a The killer who frightens many people has a certain ability similar to [Prediction], his marksmanship is extraordinary, and he can never miss the target of the mission. Even the president can hardly stop you from killing the person you want to kill."

"—but from a certain point onwards, you stopped killing people."

"You become a 'no-killing mafia.'"

The words stagnated here for a few seconds, and even the breathing of people also stagnated. When he spoke again, Luanbu's words suddenly changed: "In the mafia, a mafia that can kill but not kill, but It's not just 'not needed'."

"For Dr. Sen... no, he should be called 'Chief Sen' now. To him, to the leader of an organization, you are like a [virus], a black hand who pursues the principle of violence and blood Party, breaking the 'Rule of Silence' that everyone agrees on."

"It's better to use the [virus] to deal with the enemy than to let the [virus] corrupt yourself—presumably that man thinks so. Kill two birds with one stone, and there may be some other benefits that are not clear for the time being. When you made this appointment, you were doomed to never come back safe and sound."

He pierced the misty appearance with frank words, revealing the truest truth that had been concealed, just like a butcher standing in front of the chopping block, skinning the bloody lamb and pulling out the bones.

Rather than saying it was a "hint", it was simply a blunt statement. No matter how dull Oda Sakunosuke was, he could still hear the meaning of Ranbu's words.

He didn't doubt Ranpo's words. Even though he hadn't had any direct contact with Chief Mori, as a low-level member of the Mafia, he could clearly feel the man's behavior.The interests are paramount, and the development of the port mafia as a whole is the first interest.

Useless members are the redundant garbage of the organization and need to be cleaned up so that the organization can run more efficiently and for a long time.

And for someone like him, it seems that it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a "organizational virus".

He finally realized this: "Having the ability but willfully not using it" is a behavior that is more provocative to the rules of the organization than simply "having no ability".

After Ranbu finished what he wanted to say, a long silence enveloped them like a heavy and damp white mist.

Oda Sakunosuke finally spoke, with a pair of tea-brown eyes like lifeless glass beads, his eyes were silently watching Ranpo, and what he spoke was still such a dull, emotionless voice.

"I understand, thank you for your advice." Oda Sakunosuke said, "I will proceed with caution in the future."

"Ah, really." Luanbu didn't express anything to his reaction, and his posture suddenly became lazy again, "If that's the case, then you should work hard."

Anyway, he has given all the advice that should be given, and what choice others have to make is not something he will interfere with.

"About the entrustment..." Oda Sakunosuke said again his purpose of coming to the detective agency.

Luanbu interrupted him clearly, and said, "That's simple—anyway, there are already five children, and it doesn't make much difference if there is one more."

Oda: "...?"

Ranpo didn't explain to him, but turned to Kunikida next to him and said, "Take him to fill out the power of attorney."

Kunikida responded subconsciously, but soon showed hesitation: "So this entrustment is given to...?"

"Gogol should be in Gaoqiu Park now, let him go." Ranbu said.

"Gogol...?!" Kunikida didn't realize what he was saying, "But he still only—"

"That brat is already 12 years old, and he can just escape with a few children when necessary. For him, this kind of thing is very simple... It's better to say that he is more suitable for doing it than you or Ms. Xie Ye This matter." Luanbu answered him lightly, "If it were you or Ms. Xie Ye, if you were faced with several, or even a dozen criminals, you would be able to take five to ten criminals unscathed. Did the year-old child escape?"

——The answer must be "nearly impossible".

Kunikida is also very aware of this.

But Gogol's space manipulation ability can completely escape with a few children before the enemy reacts. If he is more aggressive, he may be able to take down all the enemies.

But Gogol was only 12 years old.

Even before he came to the detective agency, he was suspected of being kidnapped for several years of human supernatural experiments, had a very complicated experience, and occasionally behaved like a child, but none of these can conceal the objective fact, that Even Gogol is still only young enough to be called a "boy".

Even if he or Luanpo, he only started to participate in these dangerous jobs when he was about 14 years old.

Ranpo can guess what Kunikida is thinking without even looking at it. He didn't tell Kunikida that "Yasano was dragged into a tragic battlefield by Mori Ogai when he was 11 years old". After all, it was really a bad behavior , he just said to Kunikida:

"Don't treat that brat like a normal kid, Kunikida."

"The days of wandering around Yokohama aimlessly are enough. What he needs now is to experience more and different life."

Kunikida couldn't fully understand Ranpo's words, but he also vaguely felt a little bit of Ranpo's meaning. He no longer expressed doubts, and took Oda Sakunosuke to fill out the order.

Nanako was lying on the desk with half a pencil in her hand, watching them talk intently.

They talked too loudly. Although the physics problem was as incomprehensible as their conversation, Nanako chose to fish in the middle of writing the problem and listen to them say some strange things.

Although she felt that her Japanese was sufficient for daily communication, Nanako half-understood every time they talked about work.

Ranpo said so many strange things just now, such as "criminal organization", "virus", "killing two birds with one stone", and "supernatural person" - this word Nanako doesn't quite understand what it means, but when members talk about work Occasionally, it is mentioned that it seems to be some kind of occupation similar to "thug"—Nanako didn't fully understand the meaning of those words, but only roughly understood that it seemed that Uncle Oda had offended some underworld gang, so she wanted to entrust a detective agency Be a bodyguard for his children.

She knows that Sakunosuke Oda seems to be a member of a local gang, but her understanding of the Japanese gang is limited to the level of hearsay such as "Yamaguchi group", "it is a legal organization", and "I heard that children will be given candy on Halloween". , feels like a "family business" kind of thing.

Kunikida took Odasaku to the office in the inner room, Ranpo continued to eat potato chips, turned around and saw Nanako staring at him in a daze, obviously listening to them just now.

Ranpo didn't really care about it, and she didn't know much about the situation of illegal organizations in Yokohama. Even if Nanako listened to their speech, she still couldn't understand what they said.

"Nanako, hurry up and do your homework." Ranpo said to her.

Nanako lay motionless on a pile of draft paper, holding a pencil in her hand, drooping her eyelids, blinking slowly, and after a few seconds, she answered Luanbu slowly: "I don't want to do homework... Hungry, want to eat."

After writing physics questions for more than an hour, she didn't want to write anymore. Mental activities are also very exhausting.

"Huh?" Luanbu asked her while biting potato chips, "What do you want to eat?"

"...Instant noodles." Nanako opened her mouth and answered dryly.

"No, don't eat cup noodles every day like Huadai." Luanbu refused her seriously, "Eating cup noodles all the time will lack nutrition and will not grow taller!"

Nanako let out an "oh" and stopped talking while laying on her stomach. After being quiet for a while, she suddenly said, "In the morning, Brother Hanadai is in the tea room, eating instant noodles."

"Hmm." Luanbu responded perfunctorily a few times.

“Cup Noodles with Cheese Shark Fin Soup.”

"Uh-huh……"

"It smells delicious."

"Um……"

"dad."

"Ok?"

"I want to eat, too."

"..."

I have never tasted the chaos of this new taste of cup noodles.Occasionally eating instant noodles is still not harmful to health, he found a reasonable excuse for himself in his heart, and then stood up.

"Come on, let's go to the tea room."

The author has something to say:

It is [personal guess] that Morio loaned out Mimic to deal with Oda Saku.

According to the original text of Kurotoki, Dazai's defection was the expected "loss" of Mori Ogai, and the hiding place of several children was deliberately leaked by Mori Ogai to mimic.Compared with "how to kill Gide", I personally feel that Mori Ogai's actions have always had a tendency of "how to kill Gide and Oda at the same time".

That is to say, Mori Ogai’s benefits include: eliminating mimic; obtaining a business license for supernatural powers; solving the existence of Odasaku, which may affect the "ethos" of the mafia; Dazai, who made him afraid, voluntarily defected to the mafia.

In fact, it is killing four birds with one stone, all of the above belongs to [personal speculation]

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Discuss rationally, do not quarrel or scold the characters

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Nanako can basically understand Japanese, but she doesn't understand the meaning of some of Ranpo's words

Odasaku is a mafia → understand (but she thinks the mafia is similar to the legal ordinary gangs in Japan in reality)

Entrust a detective agency to protect children → understand

The metaphor of Ranpo "virus" and Mori Ogai kills two birds with one stone → I don't know Mori Ogai, I don't know the port mafia organization, I don't know the situation of Oda Saku and the mimic incident that is happening, so I don't understand it.

Understanding the text is not the same as understanding the meaning. An example is the classic dialogue between Dazai and Ranpo:

"Mountain?"—"No, it's the sea."

I know every word of these two sentences, but I don't understand the inner meaning.

If you want to feel this kind of feeling, Baidu "Bankruptcy Law", you can just pull to a certain law in the middle and read it again. You will read every word, but your first reaction after reading it must be "what did you say?" , This is how Nanako feels when listening to Ranpo without background knowledge.