Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"It's common for him to date two women at the same time, and he's always out and about. He even has a wife and daughter."

Nohara Maki looked at the news about Sasaki on her phone, then closed the phone with considerable disdain. She turned to look at her sleeping father and pondered over his face.

This person was her father. His attitude towards her and his habits all proved this, but she also had a guess in her mind.

This isn't what Dad really looks like!

Certainly, disguise and infiltration are basic skills for public security police, and there's no reason why her father wouldn't know them. But the thought that she'd never even seen her father's true face since she was a child made her heart ache.

Who exactly is her father? Does he have a wife, son, or daughter? What is his real name? Where does he live? She knows nothing about any of this. The only thing she is certain of is that she and her father seem to be on opposite sides of the country, but her superiors have told her to stay with her father.

Was she trying to get some classified information from her father? Or was he planning to arrange for her to assassinate a high-ranking official in the Tokyo government? For the first time, Maki Nohara, who had been lurking in Tokyo for several years, felt confused.

During her university years, she was exposed to many ideas from the North and came to believe that only a Northern government that values ​​workers, farmers, and all ordinary people in the country could bring a new future to the nation and allow her father, who was adrift at sea for a living, to have a stable life.

But now, she feels she has lost the motivation to strive.

“This country has been in crisis for the past thirty years.” Kudo Yuji, who had been pretending to be asleep, opened his eyes and scratched his back as he turned to the side.

"At first, it was the radicals and imperialists who were purged by a painter. Later, behind the painter, the old nobles who supported the militaristic system regained power and turned the country into a mess." Kudo Yuji looked at the knob on the car door that controlled the rearview mirror and started fiddling with it.

"Later, the man who was asked by the painter had to step forward and find a way to eradicate the new cancer. The person who had turned the tables became the new cancer. I think this is because, deep down, the national system that Japan established after the war was wrong."

"So you still support the Eastern Capital government's so-called suppression of the rebellion?"

Maki Nohara's hand rested on the side panel of the door, which had decorative wood grain, and it made a tapping sound when she knocked on it.

“I used to think that my father, who worked so hard to live in this world, shouldn’t have such a difficult life. Everything I learned in school over the past thirty years, even a simple rice ball in Japan now costs almost 700 yen. The country’s income is increasing, but my father still had to spend an extra month on the fishing boat every year just to make enough for my living expenses. Now he’s telling me that it was all a lie.”

"I once said something similar to someone. Back then, your desire to do more for people like that was genuine. So keep going, because that's the new future that our generation is striving to protect."

Yuji Kudo sat up straight: "Your words are weak, but your heart is not, and it is growing stronger."

“I’ve read through Sasaki’s story. His memorial service is coming up soon, so we should get going.” Nohara Maki turned to Kudo Yuji: “If the person who killed him is one of our comrades, I will do my best to stop you, Father.”

"That's what I've been waiting for. Come on, I'll give you the driver's seat." (End of Chapter)