Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Please just drop me off somewhere around here, thank you."

After paying the fare with the 10,000 yen Yuji gave her, Rize got out of the taxi. In fact, she was still a long way from the red dot that had stabilized, but if she chased too close, she would definitely be discovered, so the little girl decided to walk the rest of the way.

This is undoubtedly Beika-cho, but it is far away from the shopping street and the Kudo family residence. It is considered the boundary of Beika-cho. The surrounding area is full of single-family houses, and every house has a yard.

Following the direction indicated by the red dot, the girl crossed an alley and wanted to continue tracking. However, her stomach started to growl and she was very hungry. The girl smelled a fragrance and went astray.

"sandwich?"

At the end of the road is a small shop that is still open. The door is made of wood with a piece of glass in the middle. Just from the outside you can tell that the space is small. Apart from the bar used for cooking, there are only three seats left.

"welcome!"

Two of the three seats were already occupied, leaving only the outermost seat. Li Ze held onto the chair and sat down. He found that the menu was handwritten, so he looked at it carefully.

"Today's signature dish is cola fried chicken and peanut blueberry jam sandwiches."

The old chef was wearing a yellowed and worn white chef's uniform. She looked to be at least seventy years old. She was worried that the girl couldn't see clearly, so she took the sign menu down from the wall.

“It’s delicious.”

"Then I..."

"what!"

A scream came from the seat next to her. The girl subconsciously looked over and found that it was a boy and a girl about her age. She saw their faces and found them familiar.

"You are siblings from Kyoto!"

Rize remembered the Miyanoshita siblings she met in Kyoto.

"Hey, little girl, long time no see."

Miyanoshita sister was surprised to see Rize, but she immediately adjusted her composure and greeted Rize in a normal manner, while Miyanoshita brother beside her was drinking tea the whole time, but his eyes couldn't help but glance at the girl.

"Why are you here?"

The Miyanoshitas all remembered her. After all, a child with multiple mothers was very attractive to biologists. Moreover, the biological father of this child seemed to have taken action against their daughters.

"I was just taking a walk..." Rize ordered a signature dish and thought for a while, then realized that there was no need to lie in front of these two strangers.

"I came here secretly with my father."

Dad, that brat...

The Miyano couple clenched their fists at first, but then they remembered what the woman had said at Kuromaru's house. "If it weren't for that boy who saved them, your plan would be nothing more than a joke."
The couple unclenched their clenched fists, and sighed as they watched the old lady put the food in front of the girl, then changed the subject.

"What is your father doing here?"

The girl who was eating her sandwich paused, hesitantly putting the food back on her plate, chewing slowly while thinking about how to answer the question.

"do not know."

[Why don’t you just not answer? Besides, I really don’t know. ]

“This sandwich tastes delicious.”

Rize wiped the jam from the corner of her mouth with a tissue and found that the old lady was looking at her with a smile.

"Of course I have a horse. I have run a shop here for 30 years."

The old lady's eyes shifted from the girl to the wall behind the three people. The wall was covered with photos emblazoned with pins, including the store manager's old selfies and photos of diners.

"I made these sandwiches specially and put them in a box at the door. They're only fifty yen. There are many people living in this area who have a hard life. Sometimes they only have three or four hundred yen a day to live on. A cheap sandwich can make them happy all day."

The old lady refused the money the girl handed over, saying that she was about to close the store, so she would not charge for the last order.

"There used to be a girl about your age. Her parents worked as doctors in a clinic here. She would come here every morning with cash to buy sandwiches."

The Miyashitas who were eating stopped, as if recalling the past according to the store manager's words.

"I wonder how the child is doing now."

The three of them finished their meal and left the store. Li Shi saw that the lights in the house went out after a while, but the old lady did not come out.

"She has always lived here, sleeping upstairs and using the downstairs for cooking."

Miyanoshita and the other two stopped Rize from going back to see him: "We still have things to do, you should go find your father too."

After saying that, the two disappeared from Rize's sight, and the girl opened her glasses again and walked in the direction of the red dot.

Fourteen minutes later, when they met again in front of a white house, the three of them looked at each other in silence.

"Yeah, I didn't expect the end point to be the same...or something."

(End of this chapter)