𝐁𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬

file 060 | getting a clue or two

episodes 484—485 — whereabouts of the dark photograph

"Why is it so hot like this?! Are you planning to pick a fight with Sonoko-sama's beautiful skin?"

Suzume bit back a snort as they stopped walking down the sidewalk, the sun beating down on them.

"Really, and it's already past August," Ran added sympathetically.

"With it like this, I should have gone straight home where it's nice and cool like Eisuke-kun did."

"Yeah, he did do that, didn't he?" Suzume muttered, not at all bothered by the day's temperature. "He's been doing it for a while now, right?"

Sonoko hummed. "It's like he disappears when classes are over."

"Could it be that he likes some girl who works in a store in the neighborhood or something?" Ran wondered.

"That clumsy kid?" Sonoko said doubtfully. "You think he keeps going to visit with some girl?"

"It's true!"

Doubtful, Suzume thought, frowning. He's most likely searching hospitals for her. Mizunashi Rena, who is still unconscious. They continued on their walk. It'll be difficult, though, seeing as she's under the FBI's watch. But who is Hondou Eisuke really?

Her phone began to ring and she pulled it out to see Heiji's name displayed on the screen. She looked up at Ran and Sonoko.

"I've got to take this," she said before shooing her hands. "Go on without me, okay?" Ran and Sonoko agreed and kept on their way. With a sigh, Suzume answered the call. "Hello?"

"How many times are you gonna make me call?!" Heiji shouted from the other end, making her wince in response. "Pick up right away, damn it!"

"Sorry, sorry. You do realize I have things to do as well, right?" She became serious. "Did you find anything?"

"Yeah. I grabbed Otaki-han on his day off and asked him to investigate. I said I couldn't tell him the reason yet. He checked the Osaka school registries going back twenty years. But there wasn't any student named Mizunashi Rena. There wasn't anything to do but show that picture of the woman who resembles her taken ten years ago, and ask around the Tsutenkaku area for information about the two in the picture. Everyone knew that she was now an announcer who's taking a vacation, but no one knew her when she was young."

"I see," Suzume hummed.

"That's regarding her at least. When we showed around the picture of Hondou Eisuke that you sent me, we got a hit. There was someone who knew him when he was a kid."

"You're joking," she said, thrilled.

"Not one bit. It seems there was an okonomiyaki shop near Tsutenkaku where he would always come to eat with his father."

"Did they have anything to say about who his father was?"

"It seems he was kind of uncommunicative. What I do know is that the man's name was Hondou. At least, that's what he was called."

She caught on to the wording. "Was called?"

"Yeah, it seems he occasionally came in with his co-workers. But he stopped coming abruptly a few years ago."

"What kind of work did he do?"

"I don't know, but the current manager said the previous manager might know something. He said those two got along strangely well together. They would talk together even after the shop had closed."