Vol 5 Chapter 1 (1/2)

The Origins of Hanamaru’s Soup

This was the third case that I encountered after beco an assistant detective— In other words, it occurred after the Angel Fix uproar As it happened when I had just started to record the cases, it was really hard to name that incident appropriately The whole case was like the thin noodles of rah it didn’t take a long tied the title to the aforementioned only because of Alice’s criticis and tasteless

A lot of things did indeed happen in this period of ti from the results, it was actually just a story that happened before the ramen soup was completed

The Yaed untidily at the large station near Hanamaru Ra between short buildings just six ht fell, salary up the shop in an instant, while the leftover customers would have to claim foldable chairs or overturned crates outside the shop— that was how the shop was

Although the owner’s skills improved substantially recently, it was still really hard to say that the shop’s ramen was ‘tasty’ even in politeness One of the reasons that this shop could still barely continue its business in such bad conditions was because the ice cream that the owner made due to personal interest was exceptionally scrumptious, and another was because the owner’s breasts were really large Well, that hat I personally think, anyway

Min-san, the owner of the ra in the kitchen, she kept her long hair in a ponytail, her chest wrapped in a sarashi+, and a long apron tied around her waist, covering the tank top she earing nobody knew Min-san’s real nae, and she promptly beat the person up An even ruder customer asked for the size of her bra, and she said ‘I don’t buy these things’, and beat the person up And I had to wash bowls and cut onions beside such a person, earning a daily pay of 700 yen with my life on stake

Speaking of which, I would occasionally think of this— Is working under a person whose name you don’t know really in line with social norms? The school rules stated explicitly that part time jobs were forbidden, so I never mentioned this at school, and added with the fact that both of e of looking afterto say even if I didn’t return for two days— To put it bluntly, nobody actually cares who I work for at all

This hat Alice told me when I mentioned this to her

“I do not know Master’s name as well, but I know her father’s name Her father was Hanada Masaru, the exact same name as the 66th yokozuna, it seems At first, he planned to use his name directly as the shop’s name, but someone said that the name sounded weak, and so he re the current nas are said to be, but I cannot affirm to its validity”

On the third floor of the building with the ra ‘NEET Detective Agency’, while the owner of the rooirl who called herself Alice The roo in all seasons, while the walls were full of co shrouded the whole rooirl ore teddy-patterned pajae doll-like eyes, Alice, usually sat on the bed with her slender legs extended

I got to know Alice because of the incident that happened in winter Fro ra her eat thely, it seemed to have turned into my daily routine as well

“Why do you only know her father’s name?”

I estimated the time for Alice to finish her ramen, took out a can of Dr Pepper and handed it to her while asking

“Why? Because he is the person who signed the rental contract! Of course his name is on the contract”

“…… Contract? Oh…… So Min-san’s dad is the owner of this building?”

So that’s why a raot out of fashi+on was here…… Just when I finally understood slightly, Alice spoke:

“No no, I a”

I nearly fell on my back

“Why are you so surprised? If I am not the owner, can I still modify the room and install surveillance ca your brain a little”

Giving ed and pointed at the sixth sed by her bed The h-functionality surveillance ca at all ti those in her own roos outside the room as she liked was a bit overboard……

“Seriously, you really lack common sense of the community”

You as a hikkikoht to say that! But I couldn’t talk back, and thus stayed mute

“Strictly speaking, I did not sign the contract with Hanada Masaru-shi+ directly as well He was already living here when I took over the building with illegal means”

You took over the building with illegal means……? Then I think it’s better not to ask how

“…… Whichon the rent for the rooms, huh?”

I nodded in understanding After all, I thought that the source of inco tie when she heard my words

“What sort of rude co is directly deposited into the account of the legal owner, and I never even touched it! I just required an office! Although I know that your brain of sponge will not comprehend this no matter how ain— I work as a NEET detective, and earn a considerable amount of pay as a detective!”

“Sorry, it’s ize!”

Seeing that an empty Dr Pepper can was about to fly over, I hurriedly covered irl in pajamas is really a prideful (self-proclaimed) detective

“Actually, it is fine with me even if I don’t collect rent for Master’s store, but she is a prideful ramen shop owner as well Even if we don’t know each other’s true names, we still respect each other very lessly continue depositing rent into the account of a shell company”

Speaking of which, I don’t think I know Alice’s real name either I just heard that her name was Yuuko……

“Even so…… With your capabilities, aren’t you able to find out Min-san’s real naation?” I asked randomly while looked at the machine rack that loomed so tall behind her that they almost covered the whole wall

“She never spoke of her na me know Don’t you even know the concept of privacy?”

“A person who steals files froht to say that to me……”

“That is all the ate! Even in her room, the NEET Detective can still search the whole world Before such a detective, every personal e is like a naked body That is why Iwill”

“You don’t say……” You’re saying it like it’s real

“Of course, there is some privacy that I do not respect For instance, the names of the anirasp Although I cannot say that it’s bad taste, the standard of hteen are actually able to rent videos with such content……”

“GYAAAH, you wait just one minute!”

In a huge shock, I frantically grabbed the edge of the bed

“Is less!”

“Didn’t you rent the videos along the hen you went out yesterday to buy things for ation because you came back too late This is an evident case of laziness while on duty!”

“Ngh…… But you didn’t have to check out even the contents!”

“If I did not investigate the contents thoroughly, I would have been unable to berate you effectively!”

“Aren’t you just looking for a fight? And hoas I lazy while on duty! Is even going out on errands for you my job as well?”

“Is that wrong? Froo, the job of an assistant detective was already to run errands for the detective and being bullied by the detective to reduce the detective’s stress!”

I weakly fell onto ht, I’h I had no other choice due to various circuret it very much— and I don’t have a pay as well

“You’re getting better at talking back recently, so it’s worth it for me to bully you I’m really happy, you know! After all, you’re the only person who visits me here everyday like this”

While saying that, Alice rested her chin on her raised kneecaps, her words co her look, I couldn’t say anything more as well

Late that night, I packed away the portiere and lowered half of the steel gate When I was noisily washi+ng the plates and bowls, Min-san walked in fro a cardboard box

“Naruht”

“…… What?”

“I’ to cook soup the whole night!”

The cardboard box fell onto the desk with a ‘thud’ Inside, there were onions, carrots, dried mushrooms and thick rib bones After that, Min-san took off her tank top, leaving only her sarashi+ on her upper torso— She entered battle mode

“Uo to school tomorrow……”

“You can stay at ht I already called your sister She even said that this will save her a meal’s worth of money!”

What’s wrong with this diploard for the party concerned!

“Is it possible…… that you’re asking o to school tomorrow directly from here? No no no, how can this be possible……”

“That’s fine, you can bathe atthe kitchen The interior of the ramen shop connected directly to her roo ht…… Can you please not do this, Aneki!

“…… Why are you changing the soup all of a sudden?”

I asked cautiously Min-san stopped peeling the onions and glared at me

“Do you reht and ordered miso ramen? The one on the chair at the side”

I pondered for a moment and remembered the customer that she spoke of

“The one wearing shades?”

“That’s right I saw him at the shop for the first time last week It’s the third time this week”

“Well aren’t you clear about this……”

“That guy ordered soy sauce, salt-flavored and miso ramen in turn, but he actually left theh I don’t knohat person he is, but an action like that is just plain challenging me!”

If he thought that it was bad after just a ain That person was indeed rather e?

However, I did not have any room for rebuke After all, I owed Min-san too much, and even if that weren’t so, this person wouldn’t have talked things over with me nicely as well After all, she was an action-type person ould first beat people up to shut them up

I sighed and took out a new soup pot from under the desk to wash it

It was already late night when I heard that noise I was sitting before the large pot that was stewed by a gentle fire, weakly stirring the ingredients inside

I raised my head and looked around the dark ramen shop The aro, and only sounds of showering water ca after the pot when she went to bathes, but I started to doze off during that time

An odd noise rang out with the sound of water once again At first, I thought that it was Min-san’s footsteps— but the sounds of the shower did not stop, and the direction of the noise wasn’t right as well

The sound came from the deepest part of the corridors, the direction of the front door—

And it was approaching the sounds of showering?

I was shocked In the house— someone else was there

I lightly rose from the round stool, took off h the kitchen door An orange light was lit a few steps in front It came fro the light fro room

I was in too much shock to remember that the as just behind ht With a ‘thud’, a light i ca for me to remember the fact, the shadow already jumped

“…… W- Who’s there!”

As though blasted away by my voice, the shadow almost fleay The footsteps were devoured by the darkness in the corridors in an instant The sound of the front door being roughly pushed open broke the spell I finally came to my senses and chased the silhouette

The door was still open Outside, it was the parking lot at nighttihts barely shone in the space surrounded by buildings at three sides, and the silhouette just now had long disappeared without a trace

He escaped I weakly knelt on the cement floor of the entrance What person was that? A thief?

“— What’s wrong?”

Sounds of speaking suddenly rang behind me, and I hurriedly turned around in shock, but instead stu position on the floor

Min-san’s face was just before me, a red flush on her skin after her bath As she bent down to look at me with only a towel on, those breasts…… Us of that size wrapped in a sarashi+? No, now isn’t the time to think about that, I have to calm down

“Well… W- Why don’t you put on some clothes first?”

“Nn? But it’s really hot recently!”

Stop fanning yourself by pulling on the towel before your chest!

I first locked up the front door before pushi+ng Min-san into the corridors to explain what happened just now

“…… A thief?” Min-san wiped her hair with a raised eyebrow “I don’t even have anything valuable to steal over here!”

Shouldn’t you be ed in while you were stark naked! This person really didn’t have any sense of danger……

“Anye’ll have to do soations And also, please lock the front door well!”

“I did lock it! And besides, nobody even uses the door over there”

That’s true If so, where did that guy come in from?

“Ahhhhh!” Min-san suddenly cried out when she returned to the changing room

“What happened?”

Her eyes burning with the flames of fury, Min-san rushed out and finally crashed into me

“My sarashi+ that I left there to dry disappeared!”

The next afternoon

“Narumi? You look really bad Didn’t you sleep?”

Tetsu-senpai asked the instant he sawup the road in front of the ramen shop

“…… Really? I was sleeping through every period……”

Recently, I kept thinking of why I go to school

“Just hurry up and drop out! It’ll be a miracle if you can move up successfully”

Although I was rather unwilling to adht After all, I barely went to school during the third semester, so it was not easy at all forhurricane

“You can always aska NEET, you can sleep until noon everyday, and that’s better for the health as well!”

“It seems like senpai is healthy every day……”

Tetsu-senpai dropped out of the high school I ao It is said that he was once a boxer This person had brown skin, a thick chest, while his exposed arms were unbelievably muscular I met him for the first tiet up through the whole winter The few people who usually haunted the ramen shop were usually oblivious to the seasons when it co, and senpai was one of them

“Master, I’ good to eat?”

Tetsu-senpai triumphantly strolled into the rae and there still weren’t any custo roared at by Min-san: “SHUTUPANDGETOUTYOUJOBLESSbumINDEBT!”

“…… Say, she see happen?”

Senpai hurriedly pulled asoline tanks and plastic baskets for beer that was at the back of the ramen shop and continued his questions

“And also, why is Master’s sarashi+ blue today? What’s that?”

“Ah— That? I heard that it was a piece of cloth left over fro”

Tetsu-senpai tilted his head in puzzles that occurred the day before After hearing my words, an expression that was between a wry se

“I say, that person…… probably wasn’t a thief, but a stalker, isn’t he?” He said, “ If he wanted to steal so, he would’ve ran off when he heard sound of water from the bathroo in if he saw lights in the bathroom, wouldn’t he?”

That sounded reasonable

“Did you see his face?”

“It was rather dark in the house that time……”

Judging from build, it was probably a man

“Master, did he sneak a peek in the bathroom?”

Tetsu-senpai poked his head through the kitchen backdoor

“No matter how dense I a from the door, okay!”

“Shouldn’t that count as failing to peek? But ould he steal a sarashi+ of all things?”

“Yeah, when you mention it……”

Min-san’s hands that were cutting the cabbage suddenly stopped She raised her head to stare at thin air

“My sarashi+ goingseeht that I mistakenly threw it away that time”

Wait a minute That means—

Tetsu-senpai and I azes At these times, senpai’s movements would be especially quick He i

“…… Is this Alice? Yeah, it’s me Have you heard of Master’s issue? Not yet? Is that so, uh huh……”

He quickly explained the entire matter

‘I understand Call Major and Hiro over right away Tell Master to come over to the office when the two of them reaches’

After saying that, Alice hung up

“Vice-admiral Fujishi+ma, it’s been a while! I heard that you’ve successfully advanced in your education, is that true?”

After thirty minutes, those were the first words that Major spoke to me when he reached Hanamaru Ramen on his scooter And the Vice-admiral Fujishi+ma that he spoke of would be me

Although Major was the sae as Tetsu-senpai, he was of a much smaller stature than I, and his skin hite and s his cay les-styled glasses hung on his neck

“Vice-ad red in five subjects is an incredible chance! Not having any experience of staying the year will set you back on being an excellent NEET!”

“No, I' to be a NEET at all!”

“What are you talking about! Vice-admiral Fujishi+ a NEET in the future, you know that as well, don’t you?”

“Yeah yeah, hurry up and get upstairs! Alice is asking for you”

Major’s butt was kicked by Tetsu-senpai, and he reluctantly walked into the gorge between the buildings, clah For soschool attendance that barely passed the school rules and five subjects to retake for the semester finals— does my future really look so dim to the others like this? Perhaps that’s exactly it in the others’ eyes, huh? But that was a given

“It’s best if Master and Naruoes as well”

Hearing Tetsu-senpai’s words, Min-san and I glanced at each other, some distance apart

“Why o as well?”

“You’re the victi if you see the video recording Just leave the shop to me!”

“I’ a new soup!”

“Which one is more important, your own safety or the soup?”

“The soup, of course!”

Seeing that a ed myself between them

I explained to Min-san that it probably wouldn’t take a long time and finally convinced her to head to Alice’s office with me

Major sat on the cramped space before the bed with his laptop co The moment we stepped into the room, Alice immediately raised her head

“Why hello there, Master It’s been a while since you came to my house…… Waaa!”

Min-san unhesitatingly walked to the bed and pushed Major away, extended her arh Alice’s armpits and raised her small body

“W- What are you doing! Hurry up and put me down!”

“Why didn’t you grow at all? Did you really eat everything obediently? I even secretly put some more meat in them lately!”

“What? That is just too despicable! Everyone has a size suited for themselves, so don’t think that you can increase their volu carbohydrates!”

Alice struggled frantically with her feet bare, but since she was a weak hikkikoh in the air for quite some time

“Whatever, I’ll slowly increase the portion for the food after this anyway Naru her eat them all up!”

With that, Min-san finally put Alice down on her bed, while Alice puffed out her cheeks in displeasure

“So? What did you call me up for?”

“We’re searching for the ies recorded by the surveillance calued to the monitor “You said that there was a thief before this as well, didn’t you? How long ago was that?”

“A long long ti that happened such a long tio?”

“We have records of the latest two months!” Major answered triumphantly It was said the surveillance camera system was made by Alice and Major

“Hain? I seem to recall that it was last week……?”

“It’ll take a long time if you can’t ree for the search on the screen”

“Ah! I reuy with shades caht, I went back to the shop again to tryht”

“The guy with shades? Who’s that?”

“Oh nothing, just a customer who annoyed me somewhat”

That was how Min-san answered

I suddenly felt a sense of strangeness

The intruder— assu that the one who stole the sarashi+ the first tiht when the peculiar customer who ordered ramen but only ate a mouthful showed up

What sort of relationshi+p existed between the two? No, the ht back on the thief that I saw in the darkness Although his facial features couldn’t be clearly seen, from his overall silhouette, it was indeed quite far apart from that customer

“Didn’t it happen on Thursday?” “What tinize that person from the video?” “You didn’t film the shop, how do I know?”

Min-san poked her head out fro

“The entrance of Min-san’s house and the shop…… wasn’t filmed?” I tried to ask Alice

“Didn’t I already say this? I respect personal privacy a lot Besides, these surveillance ca tois filmed except for the road outside and the area near the stairs

Alice shrugged

In the end, the recording was only seen about once before Min-san’s li of value was discovered Thus, she left Major and went back to the shop

“Why you, who gave you permission to eat it?”

In the kitchen, Tetsu-senpai was holding a stea Min-san to explode the instant she saw him So Tetsu-senpai cooked some ramen to eat…… Oh please, and you actually put so much chashu!

“Whatcare of the shop”

“It matters a whole lot! And you actually ate my neork? I haven’t even tasted it myself!”

Tetsu-senpai lightly evaded Min-san’s lashi+ng fists, finishi+ng up the food in the bowl in an instant As expected of an ex-boxer

“Thanks for the meal!”

“Blast……”

After kicking Tetsu-senpai out of the kitchen, Min-san took out tls, poured soy sauce soup and broth,tls of soup

“Narumi, you try it as well”

“Ah…… Okay”

I moved to the outer side of the counter and sat down by Tetsu-senpai’s side After that, I picked up the spoon and sed a mouthful

“…… Hmm—“

The fresh taste of kelp and fragrance of dried mackerels immediately spread out in h it wasn’t bad……

“How is it? Say it clearly!”

It was really a taste hard to comment on Min-san picked up the bowl for a sip as well, and her mouth immediately bent into a へ

The one who first broke the silence was Tetsu-senpai

“If you’re ai at a japanese flavor…… Your old man made it better”

Min-san’s shoulders shook visibly As she had her head lowered with a bowl in her hands, the expression on her face couldn’t be clearly seen

“This new soup is probably made in imitation of your old man, isn’t it? I think the previous soup tastes better”

Min-san neither got angry nor rebuked him, but just poured away the soup in the bowl I was rooted to inal spot, and could only look at the expressions of the two in turn

Her old man’s soup?

Min-san wasn’t a talkative person, but she once talked to me about her father as well I heard that her father suddenly left her daughter and the ra just like that Because of that, Min-san gave up on her drea to inherit Hanamaru Ramen instead

It was a long time after that when I came to the shop That hy I could not knohat kind of taste the soup had when Min-san’s father was the chef there

“— Narumi, what do you think?”

My gaze fell on the amber soup in the bowl, and I raised my head to look at Min-san after that

“The taste doesn't see at the process of its production, so I just had this feel that I could recognize the ingredients inside”

But there wasn’t any ‘ramen soup’ feel

“Is that so……”

Min-san pursed her lips in slight self-deprecation, took down the large pot froredients away For a moment, the kitchen was filled with thick puffs of heat

“So I just can’t ood as my old man’s! And I never asked for the recipe and method as well……”

While stuffing the re, Min-san said while shaking her head

“But ht I would take over the shop as well……”

“So that’s why?”

“Ever since I entered a confectionery school, he seeiven up already, and never ht that it didn’t matter any more Both me and the shop, we didn’t matter to him anymore……”

It didn’t matter anymore……

So that hy he suddenly left everything and went ? Well, I can’t say that I’as well

“He ht just come back one day!”

Tetsu-senpaiher head

“He won’t coht not even reo!”

That was the first ti a lonely expression

That night, when the seats in the shop were all full and the custo out of the shop, Hiro-san hurriedly rushed into Hanamaru Ramen

“I heard that Min-san got targeted by a stalker?”

A customer nearly stood up, another nearly spat out his ramen, while another spilled his teacup Min-san’s hand that was holding the kitchen knife stopped, and she stared blankly at Hiro-san, as standing at the shop entrance

That day, Hiro-san earing a beige blazer with a Polo shi+rt and a single-colored tie As usual, his trendy get-up was completely out of place in the ramen shop far away from the busy districts Actually, this person was just a NEET as the sae as Tetsu-senpai and Major

“…… What are you talking about? Hurry up and scram to the back Don’t bother the customers over here” Min-san said in annoyance

“Isn’t Hiro-san a bit late?”