The call was quickly connected, and Chiaki Yukinoshita’s indifferent voice came from the other end.

"What is it?"

"Hey, at least a friend is calling you. Could you not sound so cold the moment you pick up?"

"If you had just finished reviewing documents and were about to think things through when your phone suddenly rang and interrupted your train of thought, would your tone be any warmer than mine?" Chiaki Yukinoshita said calmly.

"Hmm... maybe. By the way, could you stop hanging the word ’work’ on your lips all the time? I’m calling to report about your eldest daughter, Haruno!" Yuko Hiratsuka complained.

"If you wanted to talk about recent stock trends, I might be somewhat interested. But if you’re reporting on my daughter’s recent work performance, I’m sorry, I have no interest whatsoever. I have no intention of pretending to be a good mother, faking concern about how my daughter’s work is going."

"Wow, that’s harsh. Good thing Haruno and Yukino aren’t hearing this, or they’d be heartbroken."

"I am the current head of the Yukinoshita family. I can say that sentence in front of them without the slightest psychological burden. If they feel dissatisfied, they are free to sever our mother-daughter relationship. Of course, after doing so, I will give them enough money to live carefree for the rest of their lives—so long as they don’t come bothering me again."

"That’s really heartless~"

Yuko Hiratsuka sighed helplessly. She knew this was simply Chiaki’s personality. Unless something major happened, it would be nearly impossible for her to change. So she didn’t waste time dwelling on the topic. If she said too much more, Chiaki might hang up out of irritation at having her time occupied. Changing the subject with a grin, she said:

"Damn it, how is your eldest daughter’s luck so good? One casual pull and she draws a UR that completely crushes every SSR and SR present! In a few more years, if she wants to, I’ll have to start calling her Chief Editor Yukinoshita!"

Chiaki Yukinoshita had no idea what SSR, SR, or UR meant, but she could tell that Haruno’s career was beginning to rise. Even so, she replied indifferently:

"Although I don’t understand those English terms you’re talking about, rest assured. The reason I let her work under you as an editor right now is to ease the tension between us. Like a bowstring, if it remains taut at all times, accidents are bound to happen.

"In a few years, I’ll have her return home. At that time, I’ll arrange a marriage meeting for her and have her marry early. Although both of my daughters are useless, I don’t want them ending up like your daughter—thirty years old and still unmarried."

"Can’t you just speak properly? Why take a jab at me at the end? What’s that supposed to mean? Besides, my daughter already has a partner. Next month she’ll bring her partner to meet me and Iwaoka."

"Oh? Is that so? Then congratulations." Chiaki Yukinoshita replied flatly.

"But you don’t seem particularly anxious. With Yukino’s current age, you could already arrange a marriage meeting for her and have her marry early. Why wait a few more years?"

"Because I don’t have time to deal with her right now. One of the Yukinoshita family’s investments failed last year. It’s not crippling, but it did leave a significant financial gap. I don’t want to be slowed down by that gap for too long, so recently I’ve been racking my brains trying to find an opportunity to cooperate with the Izumi family. It’s just... sigh. I’ve realized that among my connections, not a single one has a close relationship with the Izumi family."

"Hahaha, I guess even among wealthy families, there are levels. I’ll say it bluntly—right now the Yukinoshita family is maybe at the seventh tier. The connections you have are mostly people in the seventh or eighth tier. But the Izumi family stands above everyone else at the very top. Trying to make contact with them isn’t easy~"

Yuko Hiratsuka laughed.

"There’s always a way. In the coming period, I will try every possible method to make contact with the Izumi family. So I’ll be busy for a while. Don’t call me with pointless chatter like today."

"Alright, alright, you’re the busy one—so busy you don’t even care about your daughters. Bye."

After hanging up, Yuko Hiratsuka let out a helpless sigh.

"Even though Shizuka’s partner is a girl... sigh. At least she’s finally willing to date someone. The meeting date is getting closer, and I’m honestly more and more curious about what kind of girlfriend she found. If she’s decent, I’ll have them hurry things along and aim to get married early next year. After all, Shizuka will be thirty-one next year.

"As for the issue of having children... can the two of them even have kids? Sigh, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. If worst comes to worst, they can adopt."

Yuko Hiratsuka couldn’t help recalling what Shizuka Hiratsuka had once said: "My girlfriend is gentle, virtuous, dignified, and so beautiful she’s like a holy angel with pure white wings descending from heaven." Although Yuko felt that description was a bit exaggerated, she still found herself looking forward to meeting Shizuka’s girlfriend sooner, to see what this angel-like girl was really like... 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

If Kotomi Izumi were to hear Shizuka Hiratsuka’s description of her, she would definitely burst out laughing. Wasn’t Shizuka simply describing that white-haired little angel she met at the summer fireworks festival years ago?

And that white-haired little angel Shizuka had met back then was none other than Kotomi Izumi.

Whenever Kotomi Izumi thought about how her childhood appearance in a small yukata had, over the years, transformed in Shizuka Hiratsuka’s mind into the image of a holy white angel, she couldn’t help but secretly look forward to the day in the near future when Shizuka would learn that she herself was that white-haired little angel. What kind of expression would she make? What would she say? What would she do?

"The progress lately still isn’t going too smoothly."

Yukki Takashi lounged half-reclined on the sofa in the Hidari Detective Agency. His hair, unwashed for two days, looked messy and disheveled.

"Cheer up. At least I’ve managed to obtain, thanks to a bit of luck, a legitimate opportunity to enter Sakura Hane Seiran Girls’ Academy and conduct an investigation."

Sitting on the sofa opposite him, Hidari Okumuro spoke in a simple tone. After speaking, he rolled his neck. He hadn’t slept at all last night, spending the entire night sitting on the sofa reviewing materials...

While he was at it, he also reviewed some first- and second-year high school chemistry knowledge. Back in school, Hidari Okumuro had studied science. And after becoming a police officer, his brain had hardly had a single day to rest. The saying that the more you use your brain, the sharper it becomes wasn’t without reason.

So even though many years had passed since graduation, the knowledge in Hidari Okumuro’s head hadn’t been completely returned to his high school chemistry teacher.

After obtaining the textbooks and current teaching schedule used by Sakura Hane Seiran Girls’ Academy from Hideki Emaya, Hidari Okumuro reviewed the key points a little and felt that he was already capable of going to a noble academy to teach chemistry to those young ladies.

Yukki Takashi struggled to lift his head and glanced at the lesson notes beside Hidari Okumuro. Seeing the pages densely packed with key concepts and chemical equations, he immediately surrendered and lay back down, saying with a mixture of helplessness and admiration:

"I really admire you. It’s been so many years since we graduated high school, yet you can still pick up what you learned back then—especially something like chemistry, where if your foundation wasn’t solid, you can’t even understand the questions. Just looking at it makes my head hurt.

"I remember that in high school, my chemistry grades always barely scraped past the passing line. Back then, I could at least remember a few of the more commonly used chemical element symbols. Now I can’t understand any of them at all. The fact that I passed the chemistry lab exam in middle school was probably thanks to some invisible god of luck watching over me."

"Back then, it must have been difficult for you to study peacefully," Hidari Okumuro said with a sigh.

"I suppose so... After finishing high school, I did get into a decent university, but my studies after that were on and off.

"My pitiful yet infuriating mother had long since become addicted to playing cards and gambling. The university tuition my father had saved for me—working himself to death at a construction site—was all taken by her to gamble. In a single night, she lost every last yen and even ended up owing a high-interest gambling debt.

"I still remember her kneeling in front of me, crying her eyes out as she said,

’I didn’t mean to lose it all. I just felt that my luck was good that night. I was sure I could double it and win it back! That way I could even earn your living expenses for university!’

"If my high school homeroom teacher hadn’t taken pity on me—paying out of his own pocket so I could attend university and even selling the only valuable television in his home to help my family repay the debt—I might have had to give up on going to college and stay in my hometown working to pay off what we owed.

"When university was about to start, my homeroom teacher carried part of my luggage and sent me to the train station. On the platform, he took out the only ten-thousand-yen bill in his worn-out cloth wallet—along with a pile of loose change—and stuffed it into my hand without giving me a chance to refuse. He told me, ’A poor family should still be generous when someone travels far. The train ride is long. Don’t go hungry.’

"I knelt in front of him, wanting to kowtow, but he pulled me up and scolded me: ’Useless! Has such a small favor already made your backbone as a man go soft? Study hard at university and change your circumstances.’

"That’s why every New Year when I go back to my hometown, the first place I visit—with bags full of gifts—is my homeroom teacher’s house."

Hidari Okumuro knew about Yukki Takashi’s rough youth, but he had never spoken of it in such detail before. Perhaps he was simply tired. When Yukki Takashi was exhausted and about to close his eyes for a short rest, he always ended up talking for a while—growing sleepier as he spoke, so he could fall asleep more easily.

"Do you hate your mother?" Hidari Okumuro asked.

Yukki Takashi merely chuckled.

"I’m a middle-aged man now. By this age, you understand that nothing in this world is purely black or white. People are complicated. My mother was like that. Maybe I hated her before. But when she died of illness and I saw her lying cold on the hospital bed, the only word I could use to describe what filled my heart was congestion.

"Did I hate her? It didn’t feel like that anymore.

"Forgive her? How could I forgive her? If she had been willing to share even a little of the family’s burden instead of drowning herself in gambling, my father might not have been worked to death at the construction site.

"Looking at her body after she passed away, I couldn’t help wondering what had been on her mind in those final minutes. Did she have anything she wanted to say to me?"

"This New Year, do you want me to go back to your hometown with you?" Hidari Okumuro suddenly asked.

Yukki Takashi was silent for a long time before muttering,

"I don’t even know if we’ll get time off this year... We might have to work overtime. I’m still a member of the Metropolitan Police Department. The nurse rampage incident at Chiba Municipal Hospital still hasn’t made any progress. Ishimizu is already sprouting several white hairs because of it.

"The schedule at the Metropolitan Police Department isn’t as free as yours, Mr. Private Detective. Honestly, ever since people found out you opened a private detective agency, quite a few former colleagues have envied you. At least you don’t have to treat overtime like a daily routine, turning night into day."

"Then why not resign from the Metropolitan Police Department and run this agency with me? We could even change the name to—Hidari & Yukki Detective Agency." Hidari Okumuro’s tone carried genuine invitation.

Yukki Takashi fell silent for a long time, as if thinking—or perhaps already half asleep. Then he spoke again.

"That’s an offer that makes it hard to refuse. How about this? Once we completely uncover the truth behind the continuous murder cases at Sengetsu Girls’ Academy in Showa 31 and the Gokugu Village serial killings, I’ll submit my resignation. Then we’ll run this detective agency together and build such a reputation that we can afford to stay closed for three years after a single job."

"Deal. Neither of us is allowed to go back on our word." Hidari Okumuro smiled.

"Don’t worry. You know me—my finest quality is keeping promises." Yukki Takashi laughed heartily, blinked once, and then fell into a deep sleep.

Hidari Okumuro didn’t disturb him. She picked up a blanket and draped it over him before continuing to flip through the documents on the table.

After an unknown amount of time, her heavy eyelids told her it was time to rest.

After all...

Her gaze fell on the Sakura Hane Seiran Girls’ Academy teacher identification card lying on the table.

For the Izumi family, obtaining such a teacher’s ID card had been ridiculously simple.

With this card, before long, Hidari Okumuro would be able to enter Sakura Hane Seiran Girls’ Academy openly as the academy’s newly hired chemistry teacher and begin investigating in secret.

Since she was about to start "working" as a teacher, she would need to adjust her daily schedule accordingly.

—The first one will appear! The first one will appear! The first one will appear! The first one will appear! The first one will appear! The first one will appear!

Recalling the deranged words spoken by the two nurses who had gone mad at Chiba Municipal Hospital not long ago, a faint unease stirred in Hidari Okumuro’s heart.

She took a deep breath.

"I hope everything stays peaceful... I hope there really won’t be any ’first one.’"

Hidari Okumuro murmured to herself. Even though she knew that the school Kotomi attended was not Sakura Hane Seiran Girls’ Academy but Sobu High School, she still couldn’t suppress her worry for Kotomi.

It was as if...

Her intuition was telling her that Kotomi Izumi was inseparably connected to the continuous murder case at Sengetsu Girls’ Academy and the serial killings in Gokugu Village.

But very quickly, Hidari Okumuro rejected that thought.

If that were true, it would be far too absurd.

After all, whether it was the Sengetsu Girls’ Academy continuous murders or the subsequent Gokugu Village serial killings, everything had begun in Showa 31.

Now it was 2025—Reiwa 7.

Showa 31. Reiwa 7.

Between those two points in time lay such a vast and distant span.

How could Kotomi possibly have any connection to murder cases from Showa 31?

If there were any connection at all, Kotomi would be an elderly grandmother by now—not a young, beautiful girl in the bloom of youth. Unless she possessed eternal, ageless life.

At that thought, Hidari Okumuro couldn’t help but laugh softly, amused by her own fleeting imagination.

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