Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Mori Detective Agency."

Standing next to the sushi restaurant, Kuroba Rize looked at the beeping ambulance, and the doctor who ran down from the ambulance and carried a man who looked like a chef into the car, and hid aside with the people who were watching the excitement in the rice flower shopping street.

"Oh, it turns out it's not a murder case." An old lady leaned on a cane, as if she was celebrating something: "I just opened the shop here and something happened. Fortunately, it was just food that went bad."

Everyone in the rice flower shopping street was laughing and discussing it, until someone suggested that the man seemed to have fainted after eating Mrs. Mori's food, and the scene gradually calmed down.

"Eri-chan...are you going to move back home?"

The old man who runs the butcher shop's hands trembled, as if he remembered that when Ran Mouri was a child, Kisaki Eri would go door to door delivering the snacks she made herself.

"She's pregnant, isn't it normal for her to come back and live here?"

Mizuno Rena, wiping her hands on her blue apron, had never eaten Kisaki Eri's cooking. Although she had heard that it was bad, she had never tried it herself, so she did not take it seriously.

"Uh, I remember that my relatives in Hokkaido recently opened a new store, and they want me to help out for a while."

"My daughter-in-law is going to give birth to her fourth child, so I have to go take care of my grandchildren..."

Everyone made an excuse, and in less than two minutes, the only people outside the cafe were the yakitori restaurant employees, as well as Suzuya and Kisaki Eri who had just come out of the sushi restaurant.

"Ms. Hime, I don't think anyone has any bad intentions." Suzuya turned around and found that Hime Eri was a little depressed, so he comforted her.

"Well, what I know is..." Hibiki put her hands on her waist and said, "Kogoro said my cooking is much better than before."

"Mr. Maori?"

[This guy really speaks without thinking. What good will it do for him to meet a cooking murderer? ]

Suzuya's expression remained unchanged, but he was already madly complaining in his mind about the unlucky detective who had temporarily run away.

"During the time he was abroad, I always used the hotel kitchen to cook for him." Hibiki held her face, a little embarrassed: "Without my daughter by my side, I feel like I'm still in love."

"Didn't you two get married in college? You were in love in high school, right?" Suzuya pushed the hair in front of his forehead back.

"To be precise, it should be my senior year of high school and the first two years of college." Kisaki Eri glanced at the Mouri Detective Agency and found that her husband was not eavesdropping at the window or on the stairs, so she just lowered her voice.

"When we first entered college, we often went out on dates because we were not in the same school. But after we found out... that I was pregnant, we decided to get married."

The barrister rubbed his wrists and said, "After getting married, I realized that love is so wonderful that I don't have to worry about the trivialities of life. He didn't agree with me working, so I worked as a tutor to earn money to pay for rent and living expenses."

"After all, Lawyer Hime is a top student at the University of Tokyo. If you delay your studies because of a part-time job, or fail to build good interpersonal relationships in college, wouldn't that mean that Detective Mori is delaying you in disguise? He will definitely not be able to accept it."

It turned out that Kogoro Mori was right. Although Eri Kisaki did not work after graduating from university and focused on her family, when the two separated and Eri Kisaki ran away from the Mori family, it didn't take long for her to make a name for herself in the legal world, naturally with the help of her former classmates and teachers.

"As I was talking, I felt hungry. Why don't we go to a yakitori restaurant to eat something?" At this point, Kisaki Eri no longer mentioned cooking for the other person.

"And the little girl who was looking at us just now, you should come too."

"Ah?!" Kuroba Rize noticed that the two people were looking at her. She looked around and wanted to hide behind a telephone pole, but failed.

"Are you here to see Detective Maori?"

The girl kept looking towards the detective agency intentionally or unintentionally, so Kisaki Eri guessed that she was looking for Maori Kogoro. Suzuya knew a lot about the inside story, and he couldn't help but look at the girl with a strange look in his eyes. "Well... I'm here to pick up the kids from home."

Originally planning to go home after picking up the pet, but when Hibiki Eri saw that the girl was cute, she used the excuse that no one was home at the moment and asked the girl to have dinner with them before taking her upstairs.

"But picking up the children from home...you mean Shinpachi and the others who are boarding at the office? Then what is your relationship with Yuji?" Kisaki Eri didn't remember that the Kudo family had such a relative.

"I... I'm staying at Mr. Yuji's house temporarily." Kuroba Rize rubbed her hands on both sides of her thighs, wanting to ask him to return the pet to her and leave, but when she looked up, she found that Kisaki Eri had put away her phone.

"I've already told Kozuki, let's go."

After walking up to the girl and holding her hand, Kisaki Eri greeted Mizunashi Rena who was sitting in front of the yakitori restaurant basking in the sun, then went into the room and sat down.

"It seems that there are not many people here today?"

Looking at Rena Mizunoshi who was holding a tablet and ordering food, Eri Kisaki exchanged greetings as usual.

"Because all the customers recently went to the sushi restaurant." After placing the order, Mizunashi Rena complained to the acquaintance in front of her: "I really don't understand, such high-quality ingredients are sold at such a price, what on earth is the boss thinking?"

"When you open a store in the early stages, you should always give customers something affordable."

"But this is the Rice Flower Shopping Street." Mizunashi Rena did not refute Kisaki Eri's words: "People who come to our street to eat are either office workers from nearby or people from the shopping street."

Office workers mainly drink alcohol. To be frank, they can easily drink five glasses of beer with a serving of tamagoyaki. Kogoro Mori would feel ashamed of himself when he saw this, at least he couldn't drink so much without some snacks.

"People here don't care whether the ingredients are high-quality or not. What they prefer is cleanliness, hygiene and low price. If a sushi restaurant does that, once the price is adjusted to normal level, the business will definitely die."

Mizuno Rena realized that she had complained too much, so she bent down and walked out, closed the sliding door, leaned against the pillar, and knitted her brows.

[Have I been safe for too long? ]

She shook her head, realizing she couldn't go on like this.

[At least you should apply to participate in the next mission. ]

"Ms. Mizuno, I really like this store." Hibiki Eri looked at the door: "Business is not good, she looks anxious."

“Because it’s tied to my salary.”

Suzuya didn't intend to mention this member of the organization again. Thinking of the task that Rum gave him before he fell into a coma to find out about Kogoro Mori, he looked at the great detective who was playing with the children opposite him.

"I heard that Detective Maori used to be a policeman. Since he worked as a tutor in college, he should go to a cram school or school after graduation. How did you think of becoming a policeman?"

It's not that she couldn't find out the information through other channels, but since she could learn it directly from the person in front of her, she didn't want to go through the trouble of asking around.

[I feel like I’ve become much lazier in recent years. It may be my fault...]

She let go of her hands that were rubbing the girl's face and placed her hand to her mouth like a hammer.

"Ahem, in that case, let me talk about the past."

(End of this chapter)