"Akiya, you can't sweat. I'll sleep under a separate blanket."
The place Randou chose to return to was, unexpectedly, not the spacious private house from before, but their shared safehouse.
Even though he possessed the strength to protect Akiya, he still followed Akiya's wishes and agreed to stay in the most intimate yet cramped space possible. Randou pulled a thick quilt out of the wardrobe and laid it beside Asou Akiya, saying with heartfelt solemnity, "I won't let your wounds relapse again. Don't refuse me. I know you can't bear to part from me, but I have to take care of you!"
Asou Akiya propped his chin on his hand.
Randou, I really wasn't refusing at all…
Most couples who share an unspoken understanding still end up with strangely misaligned conclusions over the smallest things.
Randou slipped into a bed that held no second body's warmth, and was instantly struck by a wave of loneliness and chill. Asou Akiya sipped his breakfast porridge, watched Randou preparing to sleep, and tucked a hot-water bottle into Randou's arms, letting it serve as a substitute for his own body heat.
During the morning hours of catching up on sleep, Randou wrapped himself up like a silkworm cocoon and slept deeply.
Only afterward did Asou Akiya realize that Randou had overdrawn his stamina. He was no longer the supremely confident Transcendent; for the sake of guarding against assassination attempts, he had been wound tight with tension. Even with senses far keener than most, Randou still feared missing some unknown enemy. Because he longed to protect Akiya, because he wanted to further grasp his ability, Randou had personally gone out to kill Watanabe Yukisada, instead of letting Kimura Seimei carry out a bedside assassination, eliminating the greatest risk in the plan—that the enemy might escape.
"It's my oversight, Randou," Asou Akiya said, setting down the bowl and turning slightly toward him.
The romantic, power-admiring French beauty lay there with eyes closed, lashes curled, his faintly trembling breaths making him resemble a startled squirrel—except this squirrel would not flee into a safe burrow, choosing instead to stand guard over the one he loved.
From the moment he had saved Randou, Asou Akiya had always been the one caring for him, and the sweetness of it now quietly welled up inside his chest.
What I give, you return in equal measure.
How wonderful.
Asou Akiya rested together with Randou, savoring a leisurely morning free of work.
—The crisis had already been resolved.
At noon, before eating lunch, Asou Akiya asked Randou to support him over to the sink. Randou was momentarily puzzled and handed him a damp towel, but Asou Akiya instead took both of Randou's hands and guided them beneath the faucet, into the stream of warm water.
"Akiya?" Randou asked.
Asou Akiya smiled as he answered, his tone light, like an elder repeating an auspicious saying passed down through generations.
"Let's wash our hands clean, wash away all our sins, and then go eat together."
"..."
Randou stared at him blankly. In the mirror above the sink, their clasped hands were reflected side by side.
Without realizing it, the darkness born of the cruel world of abilities slowly faded from Randou's eyes.
Randou returned to a state of untainted clarity.
"Mm. I've washed the filth away."
After washing his hands, Randou used the towel to gently wipe Akiya's pallid face, leaving behind a soft, moist trace. "I'll wipe away Akiya's pain too. When you've recovered, we'll make up for everything we missed during your recuperation."
Asou Akiya accepted his care and teased him lightly. "Is that really the point—the things we missed?"
Randou replied with complete frankness, "I like sex. Is that not allowed?"
Asou Akiya said, "Fine."
A man can't say he's not capable.
His train of thought skewed off course, and he could not help but think of yet another man—single for many years, yet fond of "sex life" all the same.
Back then, not taking the entrance exam for the University of Tokyo… it had been a regret, and yet also the correct choice.
...
The cram school session came to an end.
At the same time, the two people who had gone to Beika Ward returned by train.
They had gained quite a lot. The suitcases they carried were stuffed full of gifts from others: novel manuscripts, small invention prototypes, stacks of essays accumulated through writing practice, and more. Edogawa Ranpo and Nakahara Chuuya came back loaded down with spoils.
After getting off the train and seeing the familiar streets of Yokohama, Edogawa Ranpo stretched lazily and shouted at the top of his lungs,
"I'm back in Yokohama!"
Damn it—Akiya and Randou had not come to pick him up.
Edogawa Ranpo turned to glare at the "culprit" responsible for this situation—Nakahara Chuuya.
As if possessed by mind-reading powers, Nakahara Chuuya snapped angrily, "What does that have to do with me?!"
He was the one who had it the worst!
A biological son, raised outside the home, unable to return, and forced to read the moods of an adopted son on top of that!
In an instant, Nakahara Chuuya spun an entire tragic backstory for himself, conveniently ignoring the facts that he himself had stayed in Suribachi Street and possessed an unparalleled ability. His nose stung, and he began to feel sorry for his own fate.
Edogawa Ranpo snorted. "It's all because the little orange cat has blue eyes."
Nakahara Chuuya stared at him in shock. "What does that have to do with my eyes?"
Edogawa Ranpo rummaged through his pockets for coarse candy, but found nothing—he had eaten it all on the way. "I want something to eat!"
Nakahara Chuuya waved a hand dismissively. "We'll buy something later."
Edogawa Ranpo puffed out his cheeks. "You have blue eyes, and Mister Randou's former partner also had blue eyes. Haven't you noticed how Akiya sometimes looks at you as if he's thinking hard about something? He's figuring out how to disguise you."
The place where Akiya's gaze lingered the longest was precisely Nakahara Chuuya's eyes.
Those blue eyes, deep and vast like the sea.
In order to get Ranpo to continue, Nakahara Chuuya voluntarily took on the burden of dragging both suitcases, asking as they walked, "Didn't Dad say he'd never met the other person?"
Edogawa Ranpo replied with absolute confidence, "For adults like that, is it really hard to judge from a distance?"
Nakahara Chuuya answered with effort, "Oh."
He would swear on the heads of all the adults he had ever stepped on that the adult world was absolutely not full of geniuses!
"Ranpo, why do you think everyone is that smart?"
"You're wrong again! It's adults who are smart!"
"Fine, fine, adults are smart—but why? Ranpo, you can't just guess like that because they're older than us. I think there are only one or two truly impressive people among adults."
"Of course not!"
Edogawa Ranpo walked along empty-handed, lighthearted and pleased, escorted by Chuuya as they headed toward Akiya's residence.
His clear, bright voice echoed through the streets of Yokohama.
"It's what my parents and that uncle told me—"
"In this world, I'm still a child, and adults are smarter than us, so we should leave things to the adults!"
"And when I grow up, I'll become a smart person like them, someone respected by everyone!"
A step behind him, Nakahara Chuuya wore a look of complete speechlessness.
That was the actual reason??
Wasn't that just a load of nonsense those people had been spouting?!
"Ranpo…" Nakahara Chuuya hesitated, wanting to tell him the truth.
"Shh." Edogawa Ranpo cut him off, his emerald-green eyes lively and bright. "Little orange kitten, your brain isn't very sharp, but your fighting skills are great, so from now on I'll help make up for your lack of intelligence!"
Nakahara Chuuya's face darkened instantly, and he decisively forgot everything he had been about to say.
Weak cat! If you've got guts, come fight me!
When they reached the quiet residential house, Edogawa Ranpo stopped before taking out the key, standing on tiptoe to peer into the yard.
"No one's here?"
Neither Asou Akiya nor Randou was home.
Hearing this, Nakahara Chuuya, who was about to leave, turned back and mocked him. "You were the one who said you wanted to sneak back and surprise them. You can wait here by yourself for them to come home. I'm leaving."
Suddenly, Edogawa Ranpo's expression turned grave, and he ran off to the neighbor's house, pounding furiously on the door.
A few minutes later, he announced the result of his deduction to Nakahara Chuuya.
"Akiya was shot."
"What?!!"
Yokohama's youngest embodiment of "intellect" and its youngest embodiment of "strength" erupted in fury at the same time.
At the entrance to Asou Akiya's residence, there was a surveillance camera—an uncommon luxury for this era—which had clearly captured the figures of the two of them. And so, Edogawa Ranpo's and Nakahara Chuuya's phones rang simultaneously.
The young man on the other end of the line seemed to understand their anger, and spoke in a tone that was helpless yet brooked no argument.
"I'm fine. You don't need to worry."
"Akiya, why did this happen?! How could you fail to protect yourself?!"
Compared to Nakahara Chuuya, who felt relieved the moment he heard Akiya's voice, Edogawa Ranpo read far more into Asou Akiya's manner of speaking. Panic crept into his tone as unpleasant memories of his parents' sudden deaths resurfaced.
Taking advantage of the moment when Randou had gone into the kitchen to wash the dishes, Asou Akiya lowered his voice and revealed the truth.
"Everything is proceeding according to plan." He paused, then stated it plainly for both of them. "There's no need for you to go looking for trouble with the enemy. The enemy has already defected, and the assassin is no longer a concern. Randou and I are staying somewhere else, on our honeymoon."
"Ranpo, you and Chuuya go eat lunch on your own. You are not allowed to come looking for us. Do you understand?"
"..."
"..."
At that moment, Nakahara Chuuya looked over at the petrified Edogawa Ranpo with undisguised schadenfreude.
See? Your fate is exactly the same as mine!