Conan's Science Manga Artist Kudo Yuuji

"Please drop me off nearby, thank you."

After paying the fare with the 10,000 yen Yuji gave her, Rize got off the taxi. In fact, she was still a long way from the red dot that had stabilized and was not moving, 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 Kudo's house. It is considered the border of Beika-cho. There are single-family houses around, and every house has a yard.

Following the direction indicated by the red dot, the little girl wanted to continue tracking through an alley, but her stomach had already started to growl. She was so hungry that she went off the road after smelling the fragrance.

"Sandwich?"

At the end of the road, there was a small shop that was still open. The door was made of wood with a glass in the middle. Just from the outside, it could be seen that the space was small. In addition to the bar used for cooking, there were only three seats left.

"Welcome!"

Two of the three seats were already occupied, leaving only the outermost seat. Rize sat down with the help of a chair and found that the menu in the store was handwritten, so she stared at it carefully.

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

The old chef lady was wearing a yellow and old white chef uniform. She looked at least seventy years old. The old lady was worried that the girl couldn't see clearly, so she took the signature menu off the wall.

"It's delicious."

"Then I..."

"Ah!"

The exclamation came from the seat next to her. The girl subconsciously looked over and found that it was a boy and girl of about the same age as her. She saw their faces and found that they looked familiar.

"You are brother and sister from Kyoto!"

Rize remembered the Miyanoshita brother and sister she met in Kyoto.

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

Miyanoshita was surprised to see Rize, but she adjusted herself immediately and greeted Rize in a normal manner, while Miyanoshita, who was beside her, was drinking tea, but his eyes could not help but glance at the girl.

"Why are you here?"

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

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

"I followed my father secretly."

Dad, that brat...

Miyano and his wife clenched their fists at first, but then they remembered what the woman said at Kuromaru's house.

[If it weren't for that boy who saved them, your plan would be no different from a joke.]

The clenched fists loosened again, and the couple sighed as they looked at the old lady who put the food in front of the girl, and then changed the subject.

"What is your father doing here?"

The girl who was eating the sandwich stopped, and hesitantly put the food back on the plate, chewing slowly while thinking about how to answer the question.

"I don't know."

[It's fine if you don't answer, and I really don't know. 】

"This sandwich tastes great."

Rise 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've been running a store here for 30 years."

The old lady's eyes moved from the girl to the wall behind the three people. The wall was pierced with photos with pins, including the manager's previous selfies and photos of guests who came to eat.

"Sandwiches, it turns out that I made them specially and put them in the box at the door. No one sells them. They only cost 50 yen, because there are many people living hard around here. Sometimes their daily living expenses are only about 300 or 400 yen. A cheap sandwich can make them happy all day."

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

"There used to be a girl about your age. Her parents worked as doctors in a clinic here. Every morning, they would bring money to buy sandwiches."

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

"I wonder how the child is doing now."

The three of them finished eating and left the store. Rize saw that the lights in the house went out soon, but the old lady didn't come out.

"She has always lived here. She sleeps upstairs and cooks downstairs."

The Miyanoshitas dispelled Rize's idea of ​​going back to see: "We have something else to do. You should go find your father too."

After that, the two disappeared from Rize's sight, and the girl turned on 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.

"Ah, I didn't expect the destination to be the same... or something."