January 17, Dawn Day, Disaster Prevention and Volunteer Day.

10:30 a.m.

The meeting hall of the Kanagawa Police Station was full of people. Dozens of reporters from all over the country rushed to the center of the rostrum with expressions that could not hide their excitement, and aimed their long guns and short cannons at the person standing in the center of the rostrum.

She was dressed in a neat dark blue uniform, with a crimson ponytail tied high above her head, slightly covering the brows and leaving under the sea, and a pair of slender eyes shining a beautiful but slightly sharp golden green.

This is a young female police officer—nay, not even enough to describe "young"—and she would never be more than fifteen years old by looking at her face alone, apart from her unwavering upright figure and steady gaze.

But strangely, no one had any doubts about such a policewoman who was clearly a middle school student.

"When we first met, I was Nao, a Saotome who was part of the first search class of the Juvenile Education Division of the Kanagawa Police Station. Thank you for taking the time to attend this press conference, and I will introduce to you the learning results of the members of the juvenile development class last year and the investigation of the case. ”

With a slightly cold voice, the hum of whispered conversation around them suddenly stopped, and only the shutter sound of a torrential rain remained.

The girl's eyes were calmly staring at the dense cameras in the audience, and the golden cherry blossom badge on her left chest shone in the constantly flickering magnesium lights.

Kanto, Kansai, Kyushu, Hokkaido, and Okinawa Islands...... A nationwide satellite network broadcast the press conference live at the same time, as well as a series of events after the conference. From "Juvenile Criminal Police" to "Dawn of the Police World", due to the hype of the Metropolitan Police Department and the media and her own excellent appearance and temperament, the name "Saotome Nao" swept the entire island country in an instant, and even the "Young Childcare Class", which was little known to the public in the past, gradually became famous because of her appearance, and even attracted a large number of young boys and girls who were determined to join.

But what is not known is that Nao, who has been working tirelessly to shroud these halos, is not aiming for the praise that many people dream of—these things are just one step in a plan for her.

Crucial, the first step.

While reprimanding the perpetrators passionately but solemnly, while observing the badges of the reporters present without a trace, a burning feeling rose in Nao's heart.

(Now, no matter where you are...... I can't escape. ）

"Is there a 'glimmer of the police'? Tokyo guys really like to engage in such pompous things. ”

In a mansion in Osaka, a middle-aged man with bright and wise eyes looked at the red-haired girl on TV and shook his head, "I don't want to think about how old this child is...... Now, Hirazura, what do you think?"

"Hmm...... That's not exact. ”

Hattori Heizo, who was sitting cross-legged on a mat drinking tea, glanced at a dark-skinned teenager who was staring at the screen without saying a word, and lowered his head and blew the tea calmly.

However, if you are an ordinary middle school student, I am afraid that you will have been lost in praise for a long time. He narrowed his eyes and said meaningfully.

The dark-skinned boy, Heiji Hattori, apparently heard his words, his clenched fist trembled, and Fuer clenched it tightly.

"It's not going to happen. He whispered.

Behind the praise and praise, there is a ukiyo-e of killing and sorrow imprinted on it—after seeing the real death, and opening one's heart to accept it, interpreting it, until one understands the one that death brings, who can look at it from a purely utilitarian perspective?

The immature young detective stared at the red-haired and blue-clad figure, and his dark blue eyes were clearly extinguished, and finally ignited a firm fire that was clear enough to look to the end.

That's why that wouldn't have happened – either to her or to herself who had been baptized by that case.

Looking at his son's expression, which seemed to have made some kind of determination, Hattori Heizo slightly bent the corners of his mouth and took a sip of tea comfortably.

"Far away, a new generation of successors is about to grow up!"

Enjiro Toyama followed his line of sight to see the expression of the Hattori boy, turned his head to look at the red-haired girl on the TV, and couldn't help but laugh in a low voice.

"That's right. ”

The two people across the screen, the flames buried deep in their eyes can be described as exactly the same.

Not to mention the ups and downs of Hattori Heiji, in other regions, there are a number of young people who are usually unknown, but at this moment they are aroused by the extremely dazzling posture of Saotome Nao.

Masaharu Nioh sat on a bench in the locker room of the tennis club, staring at the shaking keys of the cabinet door and wondering what he was thinking, and not far away, on the windowsill, a palm-sized radio was faithfully announcing what had happened in the conference hall of the Kanagawa Police Station.

More than a week has passed since the end of the murder in the Raven House in Kurobe Canyon, and the impact of the incident has gradually faded out of his life, but in his heart, he has never forgotten the dark and cold day and two nights.

Especially the end that he couldn't let go-

Nao and Hattori, who returned from the burned-out warehouse, won a tough victory. Although the prisoner was subdued, it also caused great damage to the bodies of the two, Hattori hit his head when he fell into the cellar where the prisoner was hiding, and an inch-long wound was cut on the back of his head, and the blood almost soaked his collar, while Nao was kicked in the back of the waist by the prisoner with a very heavy kick, and a series of actions after that, all the wounds that had been slightly crumbling her mouth were broken, and I am afraid that she will not be able to make more violent movements than bowing in the near future.

And what about him?

What about him, who was determined to even boast that Haikou wanted to protect the girl?

Let's see what he did when the two of them were desperate!

Sleep in the warm living room!

Indescribable. When he saw the eyes of Miss Detective, whose face was still stained with stains and blood, when she saw that she was safe and sound, he roared in his heart with a surging love that he could not describe in words.

Something sour and bitter blocked his throat, and when he saw the golden-green pupils overflowing with great joy and deep fear—at that moment, the heart that had been drugged broke free, and the turbulent rush gushed out of the atrium that was struggling to compress and smashed wildly against his chest.

As if manipulated, the two syllables that had been chewing in my heart for a long time swept towards the scarred girl with a deep breath and stiff arms—

(Nao...... ）

The girl's slightly warm and soft body was hugged tightly in his arms, and the unforgettable touch seemed to remain in his hands—probably the most impulsive thing he had ever done in his thirteen years of life.

An expert who is good at interpreting and manipulating the psychology of the other party can't control his own heart?

"This is terrible......"

Nioh Masaharu let out a low breath and smiled wryly as he looked at his arms that were shaking from the memories of Fang Cai.

At first, I didn't expect to be so addicted. Whether it's the detective or the girl.

In his mind, Saotome Nao has always been just a friend with a common language, although he will occasionally be surprised in his heart that he has always regarded a serious and straightforward person as a friend - seeking the truth and chasing it to the end, this style is really not commensurate with him, and the aesthetics he pursues are the kind of beautiful phantoms that can reflect everything like a soap bubble but are easy to die lightly. But as his father said, the essence of a building that is not as beautiful as the world is a solid foundation and a load-bearing skeleton that runs through the entire building, so the girl with the straightforward eyes will exude such dazzling brilliance at the moment when the truth is revealed.

It can reflect the phantom of all things, but at the moment of touching, it returns to nothingness. That kind of look.

If the case is a phantom of nothingness, then that look is the sword of truth that breaks through the phantom, and if the case is stripped of its bewildering cloak and returns to reality, then that look will rise into a brilliant but fleeting firework.

But what kept him looking away was the case itself, or her Saotome Nao herself—occasionally he would ask himself that in his mind.

But what is certain is that no matter which it is, it is enough to make his heart flutter now.

Yes, he was attracted by the brilliance and uncertainty that emerged from the reality, so he approached her step by step.

The radio on the windowsill was still tirelessly broadcasting the girl's firm and confident voice, but the person listening to the voice gradually closed the pair of turquoise pupils.

It's time to do something about it.

The silver-haired boy curled the corners of his lips slightly, and a string of numbers that he had memorized passed through his mind.

"Just watching from the audience, it doesn't fit my character~"

Outside the window across the wall, the purple-haired boy leaning against the wall pushed his glasses and showed a shallow smile.

"How's that, let's go along with it. ”

Outside the hall of the Kanagawa Police Station, Matsuda Jinpei, who was wearing sunglasses, took the bag in Nao's hand and opened the car door for her.

"Seriously, it's more tiring than playing a game. ”

Nao threw himself in the passenger seat, pulled his tie and let out a long breath, "Those reporters' questions are more acute than one another, and I have to consider secrecy while telling the truth, especially the matter of the last case - the old housekeeper has been dead for more than three days, where did they get the news!"

"There are all kinds of channels, so you can't underestimate those reporters. Jinping snorted and started the car, "The most important thing is that there are always a few unconscious people who reveal the case information to some people who don't want to do it in order to show off, and this kind of thing is not once or twice." Do you remember the incident of the Asakawa family of four?"

"You mean the case where the prisoner coerced and □ a fifteen-year-old female classmate and finally killed all her family?"

"Ah, that's right. In the end, only the girl of the Asakawa family who was □ survived. In this case of minors, it was not possible to disclose information about the victim to the public, but it is not known who exposed the girl's name and school. Jinpei frowned in disgust, "As a result, the girl was so upset that she jumped from the roof of the apartment...... It's completely wiped out. ”

"That's a ......"

Nao's eyes narrowed slightly, "I'm afraid those scum sold the victim's information for a good price." ”

“...... Who knows. ”

Jinpei slapped the steering wheel and stared at the red-haired girl next to him who seemed to be different from the past.

She still has long bright red hair that beats like flames, and long narrow eyes of golden green, but compared to the sharpness and pride that were obviously exposed in her eyes in the past, she is now more restrained and more calm like a sharp dagger with a hidden blade - but this restraint and composure have not affected the unique aura she has, and is even more awe-inspiring than before.

It's only been a week, what has made her change so much?

Is it because of the injury? Or is it ......?

"Now, I'm flat. You said that Kurosawa and Mei who disappeared, who are they? ”

Nao hugged her shoulders, her fingers rhythmically tapping the badge of the Junior Education School on her right arm, and her gaze seemed to penetrate the rapidly reversing scenery on both sides of the car, landing somewhere unknown on the horizon.

"This kind of thing ......"

Jinping flicked a cigarette and put it to his mouth, snorting undeniably.

"It seems to me that the person who pretends to be the old butler is a little more suspicious. The last person to put sleeping pills in the coffee is probably him. ”

"That's right. Of all the people present, he was the only one who didn't leave any fingerprints on the coffee mug — no, not just the coffee mug, but the entire villa. But even so...... I still think that Kazumi Kurosawa also has quite a lot of doubts. First of all, if she wasn't a prisoner, why did she leave the villa before the police arrived? The reason that "the man who gave me first aid in the case of the choke man and looks familiar" is completely untenable. ”

"yes. At that time, you were in a coma with blood loss, and it was impossible to see her. ”

"No, I saw her—to be exact, I saw a very familiar figure before I fell unconscious, and only later did I hear from Yue that it was Kurosawa Kazumi, the health care doctor of their Ice Emperor Middle Division. ”

Hearing her words, he lit a cigarette for a while, and looked sideways at the girl beside him, "That's why you ......"

"That's right. That's why I think it's so weird. ”

"Intuition......

Matsuda lit his cigarette and let the lilac mist rise in front of him.

"So, what about your conclusion?"

"I don't know. I'm sure I've never seen her before. Still, I always had a feeling—"

Nao's golden-green eyes narrowed into a slit, and a strange dark light flowed under her eyelids, "That Kurosawa Kazumi is coming for me." Whether she had malicious intentions or good intentions, the target she wanted to approach was me. ”

"Little Miss Nao, could it be that you are thinking too much?" Jinhei laughed, "If that's the case, wouldn't it be a bad move for her to slip away from the villa? ”

"What if she has a reason to leave?" Nao's gaze swept over the man beside him, the corners of his narrow eyes slowly curving, "For example...... Go after the members of an organization who finally show their tails. ”

"Heh, you're sharp. ”

Jinpei smiled a little happily, his dark eyes under his sunglasses overflowing with approval.

Nao shrugged at him, "It's not obvious. The prisoner, Koji Haneda, died violently on the way to the police station, and an autopsy revealed that there were still incomplete capsules in his stomach, and the cause of his death was excessive cell division and organ failure, and it was initially inferred that he had been fed some kind of cytotoxin. When I captured Haneda, I felt the breath of someone else in that burned-out wooden house, and after Haneda said the word 'organization', the breath of the hidden person was confused...... From this, it can be inferred that Haneda's death was killed because he said something he shouldn't have said, and that the 'Lord of the Order' was one of the villas, the fake butler who put sleeping pills in everyone's cups.

"At first, I didn't know who Haneda was talking about – until I found the body of the real butler. It is conceivable that before Yagyu and the others arrived at the villa, someone from a certain organization had already killed the old butler and pretended to be him, erasing his fingerprints in order not to leave any clues - probably a trick such as applying nail polish to his fingertips - and Kurosawa Kazumi's purpose for participating in that martial arts rally was probably me at first, but it was temporarily changed to the fake butler on the way, otherwise she would not have disappeared in such a hurry, and at such a sensitive moment. ”

After Nao finished speaking, he exhaled a low breath, focused his gaze on Matsuda Jinpei beside him, and slightly curled the corners of his mouth.

"Now, Jinping, I have a hunch...... I don't know if it's good or bad, but the smell of that strong smell already excites me. ”

It was a premonition that we were about to step into some uncharted territory — no, it would be better to describe it as touching fate.