Vol 2 Chapter 2 (1/2)

Chapter 2

Knowing that I wouldn’t get a wink of sleep even if I went home anyways, I directly went to Hanamaru to check out the situation The steel door of the rah it’s so early, and trapeziu down to look at the interior of the shop, I could see a silhouette with s in and out of the counter It was Meo What in the world is she doing at this time?

I really don’t kno to mention her father’s probles yet, I really don’t feel likeher However, Meo noticed me as I was about to leave, and she opened the door for me By now, I couldn’t escape anymore

“You’re up early, Mr assistant”

“No, I just haven’t slept yet”

In contrast with my mind, my body was already extremely tired, so I just sat down on the seat in the middle of the counter

“Min-san is probably still sleeping, right?”

“No no, Min-san said that she always jogs at this time”

Oh? She’s quite the athlete

“In the end, I woke up too I’ht now Do you want to eat, Mr assistant?”

I didn’t really notice until sheout frory I was taken aback by the huge appetite of Yi Ling-san and the others, so I only ordered coffee, but I’ht now

“You cooked for me too?”

“Yeah, it’s going to be done soon”

The bowl that she brought out was filled with clear soup, porridge, clams and prawns It was also topped with sesah she didn’t use any special ingredients (I should rance of foreign cooking filled the shop She called it Khao Toe

The next dish was a colorful veggie salad, erance of peppermint This meal is actually quite rich for a breakfast

“Your cooking is not bad”

“That’s because I’ood wife”

While washi+ng the pot, Meo answered while s?

“How old are you, Meo?”

“Fourteen”

She’s two years younger than etic than I am

“As long as your parents agree, you can marry after two years But you don’t have anyone you like, do you?”

“I do My dad”

The green pepper in the salad ja lass full of water She’s so considerate She’ll probably be a great wife in the future…… Ah, that’s not the point!

“…… Is it okay for you to still dreah you’re already fourteen?”

“Why? We’re not related by blood, so we can marry!”

Eh, is that so?

“My real father died before I was given birth My current dad htthere”

Aside from the skin colour ,Meo’s features are actually quite siht that she came from mixed races So since he’s a stepfather, then they can probably marry…… Wait, is that really the problem?

…… Maybe it’s this problem?

Though I wanted to coht, I really don’ kno to say that

“Hiro taught hter, then you can hter and his wife! He was very excited when he said that”

What is that sex offender thinking of……

“But I don’t understand, why is Mr assistant so agitated too?”

Now that she mentioned it, I don’t really know myself Well…… It’s just that…… Is that really okay!?

I sed e, and calmed down after soitated, as it’s not my life anyways

“I just don’t know if dad is willing to marry me”

“You can say that again……” I would say that it’s almost impossible “How old is your father?”

“Mnn…… About thirty eight? But the big sisters who live in the sa said that they cannot see that dad is already at that age Letas a mountain cat when he’s sleepy I love dad’s sleepy face”

What does that mean! What kind of sleepy face is that? No, I should say that it’s the first ti ait is really rare

“I was not that good at cooking before, but dad would still eat up all , which is why I decided to work at a restaurant to iood?”

“Mnn, it’s great”

Meo’s s face is just like a fresh tart, and made me rather envious of Kusakabe Masaya for a erous aht now? What’s he up to?

I thought of ways to explain this dangerous situation Things have changed so much that even yakuza are involved in it, and I feltabout it I really think it’s better if we could convince her to call the police

“Actually I want to learnbest”

It was as if Meo’s eyes was looking at the skies of Thailand far away Her mother…… Didn’t she pass away already?

I suddenly re-san and Jennifer spoke of They introduce japanesein the country, did Kusakabe Masaya do that too?

“I saw it on a photo, the fact that I look exactly like ht?”

Meo’s voice quavered, as if she didn’t have much confidence Is that so?

“Did you tell your father about your thoughts?”

“No”

“Maybe you should ask hi at that time?

“You say that like it’s really sis so easily, there wouldn’t be so many troubled people in this world”

Mnn, that ht be so I, myself, experienced that first hand in the incident that happened last winter, and I forgot all about it in the end because it didn’t affect irl about these ?

“I wonder where dad is right now……”

Meo sat down on the chair in the kitchen with her chin on the table

“Do you knohere he ht be?”

Meo shook her head

“I tried to call him from yesterday, but he didn’t answer”

“That’s right, tell ht be able to find out his location”

Meo widened her eyes That’s quite an understandable reaction But I’ve heard that after three years, people would be able to confir the internet…… I just have this feeling that society would beco that time

“Oh, I see I didn’t know that because I don’t have a phone”

It’s rare for people not to have a phone these days

“Dad says that children don’t need phones After I grow up, he’ll give me back the phone that my mother used But it’s no trouble even if I don’t have one, because the only person who I call is dad”

Meo fluently read out her father’s phone number

“…… Mnn?”

No phone?

I was lost in thought Because I thought that having a phone was natural, I overlooked so Kusakabe Masaya couldn’t contact Meo even if he wants to, while Meo can’t reach him as well

It’s almost like……

“Mr assistant, what’s wrong?”

“…… Eh? Ah! No, it’s nothing Sorry, please repeat the nuain”

It’s almost like Kusakabe Mayasa doesn’t want Meo to knohere he is, but I can’t tell Meo about that

I entered the phone nun women orks in a special profession and an ex-yakuza…… In just one night,confusion

“I just -san and the others”

“Were they worried of me?”

“Like a hter”

Meo showed ain

“ …… I want to go home”

I hesitated for awhile, but decided to tell her the conversation with the others in the end:

“Jennifer said…… If we find your father, then go back to Thailand Since soo back to the company or your apartment anymore”

Not only the co in the japanese society After hearing

“It’ll be okay……”

Sheat the table:

“It’ll definitely be okay, he’ll definitely be back The big sisters would be lonely without dad too”

No, you don’t even understand what I’

“There’s no chance of recovery if the relationshi+p is daed even once”

“There’s no such thing”

Being rebuked at once made an indescribable depression surface in my heart I think I’ve heard similar words somewhere recently

That’s right, it was Alice When we mentioned Ayaka, she said: “Don’t you believe in miracles?”

It isn’t really the proble

At that uitar ’ started to blare fro me so much that I almost dropped my phone

“hello”

‘Why are you still dawdling down there? You should just come report at the office since you’re already here Didn’t you just hbor?’

Really, so that girl is already awake Or did she even sleep? I really don’t knohat tioes to bed

“Alright, alright I’”

I sighed and hung up

“Miss Detective knows that Mr assistant is nearby? Does she have psychic powers?” How is that a psychic power?

“Although you wouldn’t notice from its appearance, actually there are surveillance ca If anyone comes, Alice would be able to see him from the screen in her room”

“Oh, I see”

Meo looked around, but actually there aren’t any surveillance cameras in the shop

“Is Miss Detective timid?”

“Perhaps”

What is Alice actually scared of? The whole world? Is that why she doesn’t go out?

Never mind, it doesn’t o out that I could help, albeit a bit

“The circles under your eyes are really dark”

Alice glanced at oing here and there late night, my body has already frozen, and I almost couldn’t cope with the cold air-conditioner in the office

“Is it really that bad?”

“It re”

Alice said that, and el Fix Will I have bruises on

“If you still feel sleepy, then close your eyes and thank God for giving you a chance to sleep”

She said soain The sound of the air conditioner interlaced with the light rhyth on the keyboard I could still feel a hint of sleepiness, but it drifted about fifty centi on me

“Alice, what tio to sleep?”

I suddenly thought of the question As she’s a hikikomori, maybe she’s nocturnal?

“The moment when I sleep is when everyone in the world sleeps If only there’s even a single person who may threaten me awake, I will not hand myself to sleep”

“Er”

I still don’t understand what she’s trying to say

“That est time that I have slept is probably about an hour Some doctors say that it’s an illness, while some doctors say that it’s a physical condition, then expressed their strong desire of wanting to do research on me That was one of the reasons that I ran away from home”

“Uh” Is that problem really okay?

“Strictly speaking, it see mode from time after time Hmph, it’s the zenith of annoyance That’s why my life is confined to this set so Mocha Bear Even then, the fluttering wings of a tiny bug could bring me out of my temporary respite”

I looked at er than Alice around her I’ve remembered that Hiro once mentioned, if she didn’t have those bears, Alice wouldn’t be able to sleep So this state

Even if she is cooped up in her room, surrounded by a wall of bears of various sizes, she is still unable to fall asleep

Hoould you explain that? It’s definitely an illness!

“To ly hand one third of their ti Wouldn’t you feel uneasy? The God of sluy”

“Do you feel uneasy? Are you that afraid of the things around you?”

“Yes”

Alice finally stopped typing on her keyboard and looked at me

“I as in this world that I a to ulfing me”

“Oh”

I subconsciously turned my head away

I could feel it, she wasn’t joking

“So you, who do not feel fear, just bluntly, lazily sleep without caring about your ie”

“I’ you that I can’t sleep!”

I kneeled in front of the bed and said:

“And I’m here to report to you”

“Mnn, it seems so”

“The peopleMeo’s house are indeed yakuza, and I’ve heard that they’re froumi”

I repeated what Yi Ling-san, Hua-san and Jennifer told me

“ hello Corporation is a puzzling company”

“I still don’t knohat the company does”

“It’s a company that provides laborers on the surface, but actually most of the workers are wo in a ‘special’ trade The reason for starting employment courses and so on, is probably for tax avoidance If yakuza are involved too, it would be better to ask Yondaime”

“But do we need to investigate the information about the company in such detail?”

Don’t we need to find Meo’s father first?

“The bag that Meo brought had two hundred million yen in it How do you think that happened?”

“ Didn’t he defalcate the company?”

“I don’twhy is it filled with cash worth two hundred million yen?”

I shookto say

“Are you saying that there aren’t that e for the company to have that much cash?”

“Those are et it for now The information that we have is too little No matter what, the request that I accepted is to protect Meo and to save Kusakabe Masaya We can’t just stop after we locate hi with hello Corporation”

“ Okay”

It seems that I can’t help with thisMeo the bad news? For example, when her father is proven to be a criminal

Can I still be the assistant of the detective even then?

“Anyways, we have too little inforation later than Tabara-gumi, which is why they have more information than us Thus, we can’t avoid theate the coet some threads of information from them”

“Ah, that’s right She told me the phone number of her father just now”

“I’ve already found out his nu this needs a lot of time, if the phone has GPS function, it would be better to locate him”

After hearing that, I lowered e even if she checked the phone log frootten about soht about the doubt in ure it out A person like s, but still stare blankly with s until they turn into regret?

“What are you being autistic for?”

“I’, there’s really nothing that I can help with, even though I’ holidays and only work on Fridays and Saturdays”

“Maybe I don’t sound convincing when saying this, but”

Alice shrugged and said:

“Please don’t mind your position as a detective’s assistant tooupside down, you’re still a high school student But you’re just going to be a NEET after you graduate anyways, so I advise you to treasure your ordinary life right now”

“Wow”

I covered my face with my hand and said:

“Having my employer say that to h I’race period of my ordinary life, lose hope for my future”

“You can still visit Ayaka”

My shoulders twitched for a moment Alice stared at me with cold eyes and said:

“Why are you always so guarded each ti friends that much?”

“No, it’s not that I hate it It’s just that”

From that day, I didn’t take even half a step into the hospital that Ayaka is staying at I just couldn’t bear to see Ayaka slu with her eyes open, and I’m afraid that the miracle that less coincidence, so

The black hair on the bed swayed slightly

When I raisedsoundlessly

“ What are you laughing at?”

“Nothing I just feel that you and I are very alike”

I shook my head

“Sorry, I’ myself, so you don’t need to think much about it You don’t know ifit, while I know that the world don’t bear any hostility towards me but I am still afraid But since you did not make fun of me, I will not make fun of you either”

Alice’s words swirled in my mind, and I suddenly showed a relaxed expression and nodded to her

Then, Alice turned her back againstto my ears

‘You say that like it’s really sis so easily, there wouldn’t be so many troubled people in this world’

I recalled Meo’s words It is truly so

Suddenly assaulted by a hint of sleepiness, I lied down on the bedside, drifting into dreamland

I drearoup of pink and purple bears

“— Uwaaa!”

And I oken up by my own shouts

As I was about to raiseon the back of my head and my shoulders fall down Eyesa step back subconsciously It was after quite some time that I realized that it’s only a teddy bear

The mat slid down from my back, and I sneezed because of the sudden chill I fell asleep while lying on the bed, but was covered in bears of various sizes for some reason

“So you’re finally awake”

Raising e of the bed, beside me

Even in the cold air conditioned roo chest and muscular arms made me think of the crowd of bears in my dream

“Erm”

“Saying that you can’t sleep but falling asleep right after that, you really are astounding I applaud you”

Alice said sorumpily

Ahh, so I fell asleep As I was about to stand up, the wall of dolls surrounding me collapsed

“ What’s with all the dolls?”

“You were sleeping whilelike patrasche and hat not, so I covered you with theThe proble else in my room that can be used to keep out the cold, and I couldn’t turn off my air conditioner, and it’ll be troublesome if you just freeze to death here, so that’s how it came to be”

“Erm, Alice—”

“Since Naruang’s place?”

Tetsu-senpai cruelly interrupted my words

“Mnn, that’s true, it is better this way”

A gang? They aren’t talking about Tabara-gumi, are they?

“I’umi for help, but their inbox can’t be opened It seems that the machine broke down You’re probably more suitable than Tetsu for this job, so infor with their computer”

Oh So they’re referring to Hirasaka-guain

But it can’t be help, I’m indeed the most suitable candidate As I suddenly had a new job, sleepiness gradually left me

“I’ll check out the police station, and ”

Apparently, Tetsu-senpai knows the police quite well

“But this ot to knohat is happening at hello Corporation, it would go against our client’s wishes But of course, getting new information is nice So what do you plan to do?”

“I’ll think of soo!”

Still soed out of the office by Tetsu-senpai

As soon as I walked out of the rooht now, isn’t it? Is this what they ht oil

Tetsu-senpai grabbeddown the stairs Eh, what is is? Is he angry? Did I do anything wrong?

“Senpai”

“You slept in Alice’s room two times, didn’t you?”

Senpai said in a low voice When I think about it, it seeh I didn’t really fall asleep that ti, but what about it?

“Why is that so, perhaps you have so special to you?”

Tetsu-senpai didn’t even glance at me, but continued toon

“Never mind”

When we reached the end of the staircase, senpai finally looked at me

“Oh yeah, Narumi, lend me some money!”

Is it e of topic too sudden?

“Refused”

“Please, I’ive you back double the money”

“The problem is I don’t have any money, why don’t you borrow from Alice? She’s quite rich, actually”

“How can I do so?”

And borrowing from me isn’t!?

“Really, I wonder how et from this case”

“Tetsu-senpai, have you heard about the case this time?”

“I’ve heard all about it when you were sleeping Meo’s proble Ah!”

Tetsu-senpai suddenly widened his eyes At that instant, I i of

I ran past the kitchen backdoor and entered the house behind the ramen shop before Tetsu-senpai could have the chance “Naruh Min-san’s scoldings could be heard, I ignored it Meo was sitting in the house while holding a steel pan with her legs crossed, using an electronic mixer to blend fresh butter

“Meo, hurry up and hide the bag!”

“What?”

Suddenly hearing my shouts, a surprised expression appeared on Meo’s face Then, Tetsu-senpai pushed me away from the back and stepped into the corridor

“Meo, can you lend me some money?”

“No, dad said to me not to have any money transactions with other people”

“Then it’s okay even if you don’t lend uarantee you that the money would increase twentyfold after the Sakura Gallery next week”

“Wait Tetsu-senpai, what are you saying!?”

“Sakura Gallery—?”

“That’s right It’s like this Eighteen horses run around a large field for one and a half minute, then the money will increase”

Isn’t that a bit too brief!

“Oh, so it’s horse racing, dad told me about that many times He said that many people who needthe days when he was still a yakuza, and later he could even tell this type of people from their eyes”

Meo used her large, innocent eyes to look at Tetsu-senpai, and et a word in

The tense atmosphere disappeared with the severe pain that assaulted the back ofaround my head

“What in the word are you guys up to? Naru an eyesore here and get out!”

Min-san grabbed my collar with the hand she used to hit Tetsu-senpai and I and threw et beaten up too! It’s a pity that I don’t even have a chance to protest

Hirasaka-gu of what they do, they just (try to) deal with the street fights in acare of the whole city like this To be exact, they’re just NEET delinquents

Many shops around this area has the Hirasaka-guoods, boutiques and so on If you look closely at the corner of their signboards, you would probably see sticker with a stail butterfly, the emblem of the Taira clan, on it

It is said that these shops had connections to Hirasaka-guh school student, only heard ru everything is Yondai The other members always look very free, cooped up in their office all day

Because of Alice’s request, I had to go use the creaking elevator to get to the third floor of the broken down building, nervously open the iron door that the signboard of Hirasaka-gu on, and then I saw the office stuffed full ofblack T-shi+rts

“Err, Alice told me to come…”

As soon as they saw ht people or so

“A- Aniki, thanks for your hard work!” “Thanks for your hard work!”

These people should be older than me, and yet because of various incidents that happened in the last case, I am noorshi+pped by these people as their aniki Most of the , so when they bowed at the same time, I just couldn’t help but take a few steps back

However, I couldn’t see the tho are particularlythat Yondaiuards, so they usually tag along his side

“We’re waiting for you, let’s start”

“Eh? Wh- What?”

“It’s too dangerous”