Kept a daily update streak for a whole week.

Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

(After all, half of 2019 is already gone.)

(If I don’t hurry up, I’m gonna slap my own face again.)

(Goal for 2019: wrap this up and start a new book.)

*****

Maybe it was because everyone acted so natural that, at first, Uesugi Yui and the others didn’t notice anything off beneath that seemingly normal surface.

Dojou Kazuaki was Katagiri Mai’s father.

Dojou Kazuaki was also Kurashige Yui’s father.

Dojou Kazuaki was also Dojou Mei’s father.

Laid out like that, only the last one actually made sense.

And in this family, there didn’t seem to be any trace of a “mother” role at all.

Before, Uesugi Yui had always had this vague feeling that something was wrong.

Today, in Katagiri Mai’s house, she finally figured it out.

What’s with all these different surnames!

“Kurashige’s father is also Officer Dojou?” (Uesugi Yui)

In the living room, Uesugi Yui couldn’t help blurting out the question that had been stuck in her chest.

And then, the whole scene froze.

Everyone stood there, stiff, while little Mei, who still had no idea what was going on, was babbling happily, perfectly content in Kurashige Yui’s arms.

“Emmmm, why don’t we all sit down first?” (Dojou Kazuaki)

As the head of the household, Dojou Kazuaki stepped up to take charge.

Since the guest had already asked, this was something he had to answer.

It wasn’t some unspeakable secret, really.

Just… complicated.

So, under Dojou Kazuaki’s direction, everyone found a place to sit in the living room.

Uesugi Yui, Yuki, and Mizuo all sat together on the three-seater sofa in the middle.

Katagiri Mai sat in the corner on a single armchair, face blank as always.

After bringing everyone juice, Kurashige Yui sat on the other single armchair with Mei in her arms, directly facing Katagiri Mai.

The laptop that had been on the sofa was moved by Uesugi Yui onto the low table in front of the couch.

From Yui’s angle, she could clearly see the laptop screen was still on, logged into the police station’s database, currently displaying the file of a wanted criminal with the codename “Gin.”

That got Uesugi Yui all worked up.

The whole reason she’d come to Katagiri’s place today was to use this system to look up Kuroda’s data, and now what she wanted was right in front of her.

Right in front of her.

Right. There.

And all she could do was look.

She couldn’t even stare for too long.

She could only sneak glances.

Otherwise Dojou Kazuaki might notice.

More precisely, every single second, Uesugi Yui was worried that Dojou Kazuaki would just reach over, snap the laptop shut, or even take it away.

If that happened, she was done for.

It was like sitting on pins and needles.

Life-or-death in an instant.

“As you can see, our family has a lot of different surnames. The reason is that our family’s story is rather complicated. But that doesn’t stop us from being a happy family.” (Dojou Kazuaki)

After a brief pause, Dojou Kazuaki began to explain.

From his expression, Yui could tell this was going to be a very long story.

A very long story meant it would take a long time to tell.

That was… not good.

Not good how?

If too much time passed, the laptop might automatically go into sleep mode.

And if it did, and Dojou Kazuaki had set a password, they’d have to enter it to unlock it.

Worse, if enough time passed, the laptop might just run out of battery.

Either way, once it happened, Uesugi Yui’s plan would go straight down the drain.

No one else present noticed any of this, including Yui’s teammates.

Aside from Uesugi Yui, everyone was just sitting there, full of interest, waiting for Dojou Kazuaki to start telling the family story.

Uesugi Yui was in serious trouble.