Outside the Metropolitan Police Department.
Most of the remaining procedures for the case had already been completed, and the other two little girls had each returned home as well.
It was already evening. The sky was gradually darkening into a dim yellow, and the shadows stretched long across the ground.
“Ah, so Mr. Yuki is a police officer too~ Thank you so much for taking care of our little Shinichi this time.” Kudo Yukiko, who had come to pick up her son, wore a grateful smile.
She was undoubtedly beautiful. Time seemed to have left no marks on her at all, only adding to her charm.
Still smiling, Kudo Yukiko pinched her son’s cheek while thanking the dark green-haired Public Security officer. Noticing that Shinichi’s mood was far more subdued than usual after a case, she paused in thought for a moment, then patted him on the shoulder.
Little Shinichi still had the blanket that had specifically been brought over for the children draped across him. “Shinichi~ Let’s go home first. Your father knows already too, and he’ll be back soon.”
Without making a show of it, she was soothing her son’s emotions with her light, cheerful tone. “Oh my, you’re still wrapped in the blanket... Do you want Mommy to carry you?”
Kudo Shinichi, not yet even in middle school, did not say a word. He silently buried himself in Kudo Yukiko’s arms, and only after a long moment did he speak in a muffled voice.
“...I’m feeling much better now.”
He lifted his head, his blue eyes clear to the bottom, not yet hidden behind lenses, and was just about to say something—
“You can keep that blanket.”
Yuki Mu suddenly spoke up, ignoring the way the eyebrows of the nearby officers immediately shot into the air when they heard that. He said it with the utmost brevity. “It’s cold on the way home.”
His gaze shifted slightly and landed on the street corner not far away, then quickly moved away again. “Someone is still waiting for you to go home. Go on.”
—He was not going to comfort children. That sort of thing was better left to their parents.
Still, the people from the Organization had arrived rather quickly. In that case, he naturally needed to go earn some Recognition Level first, so he could unlock the next [Character Card] sooner.
“Wait, Mr. Yuki?” But little Shinichi called out to the figure who had already turned to leave. Though his voice still carried some lingering heaviness, a trace of irrepressible excitement had already crept in. “...Does your friend really know Mr. Sherlock Holmes?”
Shinichi had automatically interpreted “I have a friend... London” as “I have a friend in London.”
After all, someone actually being named London would be rather unusual... and with Officer Yuki’s cold, laconic personality, maybe he had simply omitted a few words because he could not be bothered to say them.
Kudo Shinichi did not think too deeply about it. Most of his attention was fixed entirely on “Sherlock Holmes.”
—That was his idol. The one he admired most in the world!!
Yuki Mu turned back and gave a soft “Mm.” “Naturally.”
As though recalling something, he raised a brow slightly. “Oh. I heard you once called yourself Sherlock Holmes’s disciple. In that case, have you never met him?”
Kudo Shinichi: “I told you, I only called myself that! Of course I’ve never met Mr. Holmes...”
Why is he teasing a child again?!
Yuki Mu looked at Kudo Shinichi with his arms crossed. “Oh.”
Kudo Shinichi: “......”
“Do not worry. After a while, I will have him come by once.” Yuki Mu did a quick mental calculation of the situation in that world, then rapped the child lightly on the head with no particular gentleness. “I’ll call you when he does. For now, go home.”
Kudo Shinichi sounded a little deflated. “...Oh.”
At the side, Kudo Yukiko watched the interaction between the older and younger pair and, for some reason, found it adorable enough to laugh out loud.
After watching the figures of Kudo Yukiko and Kudo Shinichi disappear into the distance together, the young man said something quietly to the officer beside him, gave a polite nod, and then turned to walk toward the nearby street corner.
Matsuda Jinpei stepped out just in time to catch the moment when Yuki Mu spoke to that officer. Then he lowered his head and glanced at the time.
Mm. In theory, everyone knew it was already past the end of the workday, but because a case had come up, most people were still working overtime...
Which only made the sight of someone leaving with such effortless ease even more enviable.
From behind, Matsuda Jinpei patted the officer on the shoulder. “What did Officer Yuki say just now before he left?”
The officer still looked somewhat dazed. Blankly, he said, “...He said he donated three hundred blankets to the department first?”
The officer organized his thoughts before continuing with the last thing the man had said.
“And he also said that from now on, whenever that child from just now... his name was Kudo Shinichi, right? Whenever he comes, give him a blanket so he can wrap himself in it and wear it home.”
Matsuda Jinpei exchanged a look with his colleague, and both could see a trace of bewilderment in the other’s eyes.
...What?
Three hundred blankets. The odds of that child running into something this unlucky were already small enough as it was. What normal person came to the Metropolitan Police Department every single day...?
Matsuda Jinpei sighed. “Three hundred blankets. He really does throw money around.”
Then he and his colleague walked back into the office one after the other and resumed the final stretch of overtime work.
*
Meanwhile, as Yuki Mu walked toward the street corner, he let out a sigh inwardly.
【I am truly sick of this... Why does [Beika] have to be bound to [Hawaii]? Kudo Yusaku has not even taken Kudo Shinichi to Hawaii to learn that pile of bizarre skills yet. If they cannot be unbound, then could [Hawaii] at least wait until Shinichi finishes learning all those strange techniques in Hawaii before coming out?】
The system coldly refused. 【I am very sorry, but that is not possible.】
As the young man’s gaze fell upon the hint of brown visible at the street corner, his eyes turned as cold as ice.
The system said weakly, 【...Among all the [Character Cards], because of [Beika]’s special nature, only this pair is forcibly bound! All the remaining city consciousness personas can move independently! You do not need to worry about that!】
And at the end of the day, were not both [Hawaii] and [Beika] under your control anyway...?
“Oh my, so I really was found out.”
Sensing the approaching footsteps, the man who had been leaning lazily against the corner turned around. He smiled before he even spoke. “Your shift should be ending around now, and you never work overtime anyway... so I came to wait for you.”
“No need.” The young Public Security officer rejected him without mercy, not even bothering to hide his impatience. “What is it?”
Though it was grammatically a question, he forced it into a cold statement. The man opposite him, however, was not affected in the slightest.
The corners of Hawaii’s eyes lifted, forming a deeply alluring trace of intimacy. Those amber eyes, already sweet as honey to begin with, now radiated their tempting charm without the slightest restraint. “Of course it is something important.”
He deliberately showed off his shirt, its buttons done all the way up to the top. Yet even in a severe, finely tailored suit, he could not suppress the quality of his presence. “My codename is ‘Blue Hawaii.’ Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Hawaii’s tone carried a pointed undertone. “Three days. Compared to three minutes... in terms of difficulty, there was not really much difference, was there?”
Yuki Mu: “...You came here just for that?”
Hawaii let out a sigh.
Beauty had always been a weapon. For someone at Hawaii’s level, even more so. In any other setting, if he wore that slightly aggrieved expression, there were wealthy women who would probably have wanted to pluck the stars out of the sky and hand them to him.
And with that face, Hawaii merely said, “You are the only one I would tell in person.”
Hawaii was a city with a highly developed tourism industry, defined by transient crowds moving endlessly in and out.
So Hawaii never stayed for anyone.
Though his face was always lit by that affectionate, rakish smile, and all kinds of people swirled around him, no one had ever managed to step any closer. No one had ever won any true feeling from him.
Except for the one under 【Forced Binding】.
“Oh? Is that so?” But Yuki Mu merely looked him up and down and said in a flat tone, “Do not use that routine on me. It is useless.”
“And besides...” He tapped lightly at his temple and said with perfect calm, “Do you think I cannot see it?”
“Three days to obtain a codename?” The young man let out a very soft laugh.
He did not laugh often. When he did, there was danger in it, but also a peculiar charm. Word by word, he said with lazy contempt, “What do you think enabled you to get a codename so quickly?”
“I know perfectly well...” Hawaii, unusually, let some of the smile fade from his face. He slowly moved closer, bent slightly, and breathed the words against the younger man’s ear. “—Because we are ‘forcibly bound.’”
Because [Hawaii] existed, [Beika]’s physical condition had dropped far below the line of health—but looked at from the other side, it was precisely because [Beika] existed that as long as [Beika] remained in this world, [Hawaii] would remain too.
—So long as [Beika] continued to exist, [Hawaii] would never die.
They lived in mutual symbiosis.
Yuki Mu mocked him openly. “Karasuma Renya must have been practically drooling when he saw your ability, was he not?”
He paused very slightly before continuing. “...Did you die in front of him?”
The question sounded rather strange, but Hawaii was visibly delighted. Even the subtle malice he always carried around him faded a little.
From the pocket of his suit, he drew out a sharp, elegant scalpel. Then, in a motion almost gentle in its tenderness, he caught hold of the other man’s hand. Yuki Mu tried to pull free, but it was obvious that he held no advantage where brute strength was concerned.
Still holding the younger man’s hand, Hawaii used it to grip the scalpel, then lightly pressed the blade against the carotid artery at his own neck. His amber eyes curved upward with easy frivolity. “Look.”
“—Like this.”
Warm blood pulsed beneath the skin. All it would take was the slightest pressure— and a spray of blood would burst forth.
The system was utterly shaken. 【...Wait, what exactly are you two doing??】
While controlling the [Character Card], Yuki Mu calmly dealt with the system’s question as well. 【Take a look at who is steadily contributing Recognition Level in the backend right now.】
System: 【Let me see... Good Lord, Akai Shuichi???】
Yuki Mu: 【Mm-hm.】
As he held the scalpel, his gaze shifted ever so slightly.
—At the street corner on the other side.
Rye Whiskey, who had chosen the fastest possible route to investigate information related to “Yuki Mu,” was concealing himself there and watching this side in secret.
Yuki Mu: 【Mm. He seems rather shocked... But [Hawaii] and Akai Shuichi really do come from the same school, do they not? Do all FBI agents like hiding at street corners?】
The very next second—
“Focus, sweetheart.” Hawaii smiled and casually let the sweet, sigh-laden endearment roll off his tongue. Softly he spoke, drawing the other man’s wandering attention back to himself. Then his hand pressed down lightly.
Blood immediately welled from the wound and ran downward, staining the white shirt a vivid red. “Let him watch.”
“—Right now, the one standing before you is me.”