November 23, Saturday
A luxurious cruise ship sailed steadily across the ocean.
In the distance, the evening glow set the sky ablaze, and even the blue sea shimmered with golden reflections.
On the stern deck, Ran leaned against the railing with her elbows resting on it, gazing excitedly toward the horizon.
"Wow, the sunset is so beautiful!"
After admiring the view, she turned to Shinichi beside her and smiled. "We're really lucky to be riding on such a luxurious ship!"
Shinichi narrowed his eyes and couldn't help complaining.
"Yeah. We can thank your dad for getting the return ferry schedule wrong. That's the only reason we got the chance to board a ship this fancy."
Ran sighed and looked back at her father, Kogoro, who was asleep in a lounge chair behind them.
"That's true. If this ship hadn't happened to pass by, we'd probably still be stranded on that deserted island."
Then something occurred to her.
"Oh, right. Where did Onizawa-san go?"
Shinichi shrugged.
"Him? He said he was calling his girlfriend to let her know he'd probably be home late tonight, so she didn't have to wait up for him."
"I see."
Ran smiled softly. "Onizawa-san really loves his girlfriend, doesn't he? That's so nice~"
As she stared at the sunset, her imagination began to wander.
'What would life be like if Shinichi and I lived together someday?'
The more she thought about it, the redder her cheeks became.
"Ran, are you feeling sick? Your face is really red."
Shinichi blinked innocently, activating his trademark obliviousness and delivering yet another line guaranteed to keep him single forever.
Ran rolled her eyes and turned away.
"I'm perfectly fine! It's just the sunset reflecting on my face!"
The sunset would like to issue a statement,
'I'm innocent. Don't pin this on me.'
...
Meanwhile, at the bow of the ship,
Ritsu was leisurely leaning against the railing. He never would have expected Kogoro to invite him along on a vacation during his time off.
The reason?
To thank him for taking care of Ran.
To put it bluntly, after the bombing incident caused by Teiji, Ran had spent days praising him in front of her father until Kogoro felt obligated to express his gratitude.
Unfortunately, the unreliable Kogoro had mixed up the return ship schedule.
As a result, the mission Ritsu had originally planned to complete tonight had to be handed over to someone else in the Organization.
"And that's the situation. Gin, have someone else handle the job."
On the other end of the phone, Gin crushed his cigarette and replied flatly, "Fine. There's nothing particularly concerning about this mission."
After a pause, he continued, "However, while Bourbon's capabilities are excellent, he's still one of their people. I don't trust him."
Ritsu raised an eyebrow. "You gave the mission to Bourbon?"
"He's the most suitable choice. This mission is just retrieving an intelligence file."
Gin lit another cigarette.
"There may be some movement from that side soon. Be careful."
"The ones who should be careful are you."
Ritsu chuckled lightly.
"As far as they know, I'm dead."
After a brief pause, he added, "Though they might try recruiting me as an outsider who suddenly appeared. Anyway, I've got something else to deal with. I'll retrieve the file tomorrow. Send me the address of Bourbon's safe house."
"He never changed it."
With that, Gin hung up first.
Ritsu's eyes widened slightly. He hadn't expected Rei to still be living in the same place. The same apartment from their days as the Whisky Trio.
Back when all three of them lived there, it had felt cramped.
Now that he lived alone...
Did he ever feel lonely?
Pushing aside those thoughts, Ritsu headed toward the stern. Before he got there, however, he heard a loud argument.
"You idiot!!"
"I thought we'd already rented out this entire ship! Why are there outsiders on board?!"
Ritsu quickened his pace.
The source of the shouting was an elderly man with long silver-white hair dressed in a formal montsuki haori and hakama.
From behind, the hairstyle strangely reminded Ritsu of Gin.
Hatamoto Gozo, head of the Hatamoto family.
Ritsu had seen information about him on television before. He hadn't expected him to be such a hot-tempered old man.
"S-Sorry, Father!"
A short, overweight man in a suit with a receding hairline repeatedly bowed in apology.
"They looked so pitiful, so I just..."
"So you made the decision on your own?!"
Gozo's voice rose.
"You've got some nerve. Making decisions without my approval. Have you stopped respecting me entirely?"
"N-No! That's not it at all! Father, I know I was wrong!"
The suited man could only continue apologizing. Sweat had already formed across his shiny forehead.
Ritsu glanced at the foot he had halfway stepped forward with.
'Maybe I should just take that step back.'
This old man clearly wasn't happy about them boarding the ship.
His attention shifted to a group of unfamiliar men and women chatting with Ran and the others. Choosing a side corridor instead, he walked around them.
Then his eyes landed on a young man sketching nearby. The reason he noticed him was simple. The man was drawing a young woman in a blue dress.
The sketch looked strangely familiar.
'Where have I seen something like that before?'
Hearing approaching footsteps, the young man hurriedly flipped the sketch over and pretended to draw the sunset instead.
"..."
If he hadn't reacted like that, Ritsu might never have suspected anything.
The guilty behavior immediately triggered a memory.
A sketch he had once seen in Tomizawa Yuzo's private studio.
If he remembered correctly, this young man was Yuzo's friend—Hatamoto Ichiro.
So this was one of those situations.
"I love her, she loves him, and he loves her too."
The classic prime-time soap opera love triangle. That meant Ichiro was probably the second male lead.
"The old man's useless, and his son isn't much better. All he does is sit around drawing pictures all day. His father ought to straighten him out."
Gozo's gaze fell upon the hidden sketch.
Then he coldly declared, "If it's a dream that can never come true, you'd better give it up sooner rather than later."
"Y-Yes! I understand!"
Ritsu glanced at Gozo in surprise. For some reason, that final remark sounded like it carried a double meaning.
"And Takeshi, I need to speak with you. Come to my room before dinner starts."
"Yes, sir!"
Ritsu was about to head over to Shinichi and the others when another voice reached his ears.
It forced him to stop and listen a little longer. Fortunately, he'd already withdrawn that half-step earlier.
Now he simply hid around the corner and returned to one of his old specialties,
Eavesdropping.
"Dear, just be patient a little longer."
"Father's already old. He doesn't have much time left anyway."
"Once he's gone, the entire Hatamoto Group and all the Hatamoto family assets will belong to you."
The speaker was a slightly overweight middle-aged woman in a purple kimono.
Looking up thoughtfully, Ritsu recalled that she seemed to be Gozo's eldest daughter. He couldn't help twitching at the corner of his mouth.
'What a wonderfully filial daughter.'
The old man was still alive and well, and she was already talking about inheriting everything.
"I'm afraid it won't be that simple, Auntie~"
A fashionable woman with short hair smiled smugly. "You're being a little too naïve~~"
"What do you mean by that? What else do you know?!"
The fashionable woman smirked.
"Hmph. Just don't faint when you hear it."
The two lowered their voices.
Unable to hear them anymore, Ritsu cautiously poked his head around the corner. Apparently they'd started whispering.
Still, judging by their expressions and what he'd already overheard, it wasn't hard to guess they were discussing something unpleasant.
Especially after hearing the fashionable woman say, "This ship won't reach Tokyo for another twenty-four hours. If we don't think of something during that time, we'll have a real problem."
Ritsu narrowed his eyes. It seemed he'd need to keep a close watch on these unfilial members of the Hatamoto family.
Pretending he hadn't heard a thing, he walked over to Shinichi.
"Kudo, what are you looking at?"
Shinichi had been quietly envying the affectionate relationship between Natsue Hatamoto and Takeshi Hatamoto.
So much so that he hadn't noticed Ritsu approaching.
More importantly, he'd completely forgotten that he was still holding an untouched cup of cola.
When he spun around too quickly, the cola enthusiastically launched itself into Ritsu's embrace.
Fizzzzzzz.
That was the sound of carbonated soda soaking into a beige sweater.
Crack. Crack.
That was the sound of Ritsu smiling while cracking his knuckles.
Because his fists were suddenly itching.