Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"Really? I wanted to go shopping at night, but after changing clothes and having dinner, it was already dark."

Conan, who had fallen asleep in the corner of Sannoji Temple due to a day's fatigue, was awakened by the sound of a conversation at the door of Sannoji Temple. He took out his cell phone and found that Yuuji had not replied to him.

Before, Conan was hiding outside the temple, so when the two came out, he could naturally hide nearby. But now he is inside the temple. If he doesn't think of a way, the two Osaka people will probably see him as soon as they come in.

Looking up at the tree in the temple, Conan reached out to untie the retractable belt and threw it on the branch, then pressed the switch and lifted himself up the tree.

"what is this?"

He patted the dark green insulation cloth wrapped around the branches. Considering that it was already winter, he guessed that it was the warm cloth used in the temple to keep the trees warm and prevent them from freezing to death. Fearing that he would be discovered, he stopped moving and turned on the night vision function on his glasses.

The red kimono has some maple leaf patterns on it, and the yellow laces make the girl's makeup more lively, but the light makeup on her face contrasts with the clothes.

Toyama Kazuha combed her hair with her hands, and saw out of the corner of her eye that her hair was not loose outside the new braid she had tied after taking a shower in the evening. She urged Hattori Heiji to come in.

"After taking a shower, why not go to bed directly?"

Hattori Heiji, who was wearing a jacket and jeans, saw that there was no light in Sannoji Temple. He silently complained that the old abbot must have gone out to drink wine again, and secretly glanced at Kazuha's current appearance.

He didn't feel comfortable looking at her just now at her relative's house, but now with the dim light, Hattori Heiji was no longer afraid of being discovered.

"I just remembered that a lot of trouble happened in this temple last time, so I took a walk and unknowingly came here." Yuanshan Heye exhaled a breath of white air: "The air at night is much cooler than during the day."

"What's so good about this place..."

Hattori Heiji still maintained his tough attitude, but when he saw the inside of Sannoji Temple, he inexplicably recalled the scene when he looked through the wooden window from inside the house and saw the girl playing with a ball and humming nursery rhymes under the cherry tree.

"Marutake Ibiji Oshio Iike's bride Rokukaku-chan..."

"Eh!"

While he was still in a daze, Hattori Heiji suddenly heard Kazuha start singing, also under the tree, but this time there was no hitting the ball. The sound was also different from before, and better than he remembered.

"The Four Tombs, the Buddhist High Pine, the Ten Thousand Five Roads..."

The song was not long, as it was originally a song used by Kyoto people to remember the way. After a while, Toyama Kazuha finished singing it, then hummed with satisfaction and turned to stare at Hattori Heiji.

"How's it going? You sang well, didn't you?"

"Stupid... Stupid, didn't you know last time in Kyoto that the lyrics of this song are about Sister Rokkaku, not Bride Rokkaku."

There was no sign of blushing on Hattori Heiji's dark face. He coughed and pointed out that Toyama Kazuha sang the wrong lyrics. He looked up thinking that she would argue with him as usual, but found that she was just smiling at him helplessly.

"You are the fool."

The girl with an Osaka accent said as a matter of course: "It's just a song, just sing whichever one you like. I think Bride Rokkaku sounds better." Although they were talking about the lyrics, the conversation always made people think of many things. Hattori Heiji ignored Kazuha, or rather, he didn't dare to pay attention to her, but the next second the question from the other side forced him to answer.

"Which do you think is more important, the process or the result?"

"My words... should be the result."

He subconsciously reached for his head and realized that his brain was soaked so he had to wash it at his relative's house in Heye. He had no choice but to touch his ears as if nothing had happened.

"A duplicitous guy."

He Ye grumbled, and before this guy could react, he faced him and said, "Since today's date was so bad, are you still going to confess to me?"

"Huh? Who... who wants to confess to you? You're just being so self-conscious..."

"Yuji already told me your original plan for today."

Yuanshan Heye put his hands behind his back: "So I specifically asked him to follow your plan, but also to do it extremely badly."

"..."

After a brief silence, Hattori Heiji opened his mouth with difficulty. He was completely confused now.

"Why, don't you want me to confess?"

If he was a normal Hattori Heiji, he would probably have figured it out completely when Kazuha was on the way to Sannoji Temple. It can be said that love makes people blind and stupid. Now he is just looking at Kazuha with pity like a puppy that fell into the water.

"Indeed, a perfect confession date can impress the other person and make them happily accept the other person's confession in a warm atmosphere, but..."

Kazuha tilted her head, feeling a little shy and embarrassed to face Hattori.

"As for me, even if it's not the best date, even if it's far worse than Xiaolan's confession, I still have the confidence that I can continue to be with the person I love."

The girl pursed her lips and took a deep breath.

"This kind of thing should be left to the boys to continue, Heiji, what are you waiting for!?"

The noise suddenly stopped in the temple. As Conan panicked, the warm cloth on the branches exploded. The pink cherry blossoms and the spotlights arranged in the temple made the entire temple exceptionally bright. The apricot red color of the flowers made people feel that spring seemed to have arrived early.

"Marutake Ibiji Oshio Iike's bride Rokukaku-chan..."

Children's singing rang out in the temple. (End of this chapter)