If the cycle of pages is nothing more than an endless Möbius strip of fate, then Edogawa Ranpo would have given up this boring journey of spoilers long ago. He would not do meaningless things.

But on the other hand, as long as there is a glimmer of hope, he will try it regardless of the consequences.

It was Xiao Wu who gave him hope.

They have been together for many worlds, and Edogawa Ranpo witnessed “Little Satoru” transform from Gojo Satoru to Edogawa Satoru.

In the superposition of the world, everyone is affected and has a vague impression of the “future”; only Xiao Wu is different. While others are moving forward, he alone is moving backward.

He started out with Gojo Satoru’s memories, then slowly lost them, and finally gained his own consciousness.

Edogawa Ranpo, the only person who read the book, witnessed everything.

“You are pure Edogawa.”

From that time on, Ranpo made up his mind to make Xiaowu real in this completely fake world of pages.

The real premise is to prove Edogawa Satoru’s independence.

Independence is the first step towards breaking away from books.

The first thought that came to Ranpo’s mind at that time was to seal Gojo Satoru.

Because Gojo Satoru is either dead or sealed, and I have already taken action against Gojo Satoru in the previous dozen pages. It would be hypocritical to say that I don’t want to seal Gojo Satoru and I want to find other ways.

Moreover, this is the method that Ranpo currently knows of, with clear process and results.

Making Xiaowu realize his own falsity is the second step to escape from the book.

Ranpo had confessed in the pages of the book before, but Xiaowu did not think that he was “fake”. Normal people should not think that they are not real, so Ranpo decided to use his departure as a hook to lure Xiaowu to leave Yokohama to find his own life experience. However, he left Xiaowu for another reason.

Xiaowu has always liked to skip steps and copy answers directly since he was young. He is very passive and will only do things if others push him. Ranpo thought that this was an opportunity, an opportunity for Xiaowu to grow and change his bad habits.

The last step is to destroy the false. As a tool that contains the “law of cause and effect”, the book page cannot be directly destroyed. However, when the character created by the book realizes that he is false or more than three people have viewed the contents of the book page, the book will become a waste page.

Edogawa Ranpo closed the pen cap and wrote and drew on the paper, leaving meaningless marks.

His assistant was very worried about him, and was getting more and more worried. He looked at Fushiguro Shier as if he was a bad girl who had kidnapped his own good child. Ranpo had to transfer Fukuzawa away and let Fukuzawa’s assistant protect his brother in the orphanage, so that he would not hesitate because of Fukuzawa’s actions.

In his heart, he regarded Fukuzawa as his own relative, so naturally he would modify his plans because of Fukuzawa’s concerns.

On April 1, the cursed spirits sent by Nozomi came to kill him, and the only one who was frightened was Fukuzawa Yukichi, who was not at the scene. He rushed all the way to Tokyo, scolded Edogawa Ranpo, and after calming down, he turned around and saw Fushiguro Shigekiru appearing in the apartment in extremely disheveled clothes.

The string in Fukuzawa Yukichi’s head broke.

He picked up the knife and said painfully: “Ranbu, it’s my fault that I didn’t protect you well, so you…”

Ranpo:?
Fukuzawa and Shigeki had a fight and tore down half of the apartment.

Without a place to stay, Ranpo’s plan to go to Tokyo had to be interrupted. Since this part of the plan was not important, he and Fukuzawa took Fushiguro Shiji back to Yokohama.

During this period, Fukuzawa was like an old hen protecting her eggs, watching over Edogawa Ranpo almost all the time. As long as Fushiguro Shigeru was present, he would be on high alert and wished he could send Shigeru to the Men’s Virtue Academy.

In response, Fushiguro Shigeki said that he could go if he was paid.

So he had to separate the two people, letting Shinji go to investigate the barrier in Yokohama and the preservation of the cursed items in the envelope, and letting Fukuzawa protect Xiaowu when he went to the police academy.

After Mom and Dad died, they saw each other much less frequently, maybe once a week.

After sending Shin’er to do his work, Ranpo went to see Xiaowu as usual.

The expression on Xiaowu’s face when he wanted to complain about the lack of frequency of seeing each other but was holding it in was also super cute.

Edogawa Ranpo smiled and handed the birthday present to Edogawa Satoru: “This is a pair of sunglasses, do you like it?”

Xiao Wu’s eyes lit up and he happily took the glasses case: “Mine? Thank you, brother!”

He wanted to ask why he was given sunglasses, but he glanced at Ranpo and then looked away, his face flushed with joy: “Um, can I open it now?! I want to see it right now, brother, let me open it!”

As soon as Ranpo nodded, Xiaowu immediately and carefully opened the packaging bag, took out his sunglasses and put them on his nose.

With white hair, black sunglasses and a silly smile, he looks like a blind massage therapist in a massage parlor.

Ranpo narrowed his eyes and reached out to take off the sunglasses on Xiaowu’s face: “Remember to carry this with you.”

“Ok!”

Xiao Wu said sweetly.

How amazing.

Gojo Satoru in Tokyo and Edogawa Satoru in front of him.

Two people who are both the same and opposite.

Ranpo ruffled Satoru’s hair as usual.

When he turned around, Xiao Wu grabbed him, his eyes a little confused: “Brother, why didn’t you say see you next week?”

“Sorry, I was thinking about the case and forgot about it.” Edogawa Ranpo patted his chest, “Your brother is so amazing. The mayor even begged him to solve the case.”

As expected of a brother. Xiao Wu felt relieved.

But why don’t you say “see you next week”?

[Sure enough, it’s because I’m such a loser QAQ that my brother doesn’t even want to tell me about his story.]
He looked at the sunglasses in his hand and took out the rolling pencil from the pencil case.

Singular, catch up and ask your brother.

Even numbers, no chasing, wait for my brother to tell me.

The pencil rolled on the ground.

–

After Nozomi had contact with Haibara and confirmed that Edogawa Ranpo was dead, he stayed in hiding for a long time and did not dare to show up, for fear that Ranpo was pretending to be dead.

I don’t know why he always has a fear that he will fall at any moment. But Edogawa Ranpo has not appeared in Tokyo since April 4st, nor has he returned to Yokohama. It seems like he is really dead.

It would be strange if Ranpo was discovered by Nozomi since he was being led by Fushiguro Shinjiro.

He rented a house far away from his home and school as a temporary residence, and then began to pack up his daily necessities at school.

These were not necessities, but Ranpo did not want to leave them to his roommates who were jealous of Ranpo’s talent.

On April 4, the notice of expulsion came as he expected.

He replaced the surveillance just to deceive Fukuzawa and create the impression that he had just begun planning the book.

Afterwards, Ranpo completely hid himself, faked signs of his disappearance in Yokohama, and then went to various places with his assistant Uncle Fukuzawa to check the situation of the cursed objects.

Fukuzawa took care of Edogawa Ranpo all day, leaving him no time or energy to use the book.

Ranpo still keeps a close eye on Xiaowu and gives him some hints when he deviates from the right direction.

Fukuzawa followed him everywhere and gradually let go of his worries about him.

It took Ranpo less than a second to apologize in his heart.

As long as Fukuzawa doesn’t know, it’s like he did nothing.

In this way, no matter whether the result he wanted was successful or not, he would at least have a relative left.

–

Gojo Satoru has booked a very troublesome student.

Moreover, he didn’t seek it himself, but accepted it reluctantly, so he always disliked this new student at the beginning.

Perhaps the frequency of taking care of this student is not as much as the number of times I chat with Edogawa Ranpo every week.

Gojo Satoru admitted that he had the intention to kill him when Edogawa Ranpo first proposed to seal him.

The strongest seal?
Who gave you the courage and bravery?

But Ranpo said that the key to sealing him was not himself, but the people he protected.

If it’s not Geto Suguru, it could also be Megumi Fushiguro and others.

He was silent.

He knew that even the strongest person couldn’t save everyone. “Saving people” was a false proposition, and “death” was the actual result.

Twelve years ago, in the Astral Plasma Incident, Gojo Satoru was seriously injured. Fushiguro Shige was so excited that he threw away the half of his brain that his employer asked for and rushed to Hongxing Palace.

Halfway through the fight with Geto Suguru, he suddenly remembered that his mission was not to kill Star Plasma. Fushiguro Shigekatsu kicked Geto Suguru unconscious, turned around to think, and faced Gojo Satoru who had learned the reversal technique.

Fushiguro Shiori: …Gojo Satoru, are you a cheater? !
He has already racked his brains, can he give science a reasonable explanation? !
Gojo Satoru thought that Geto Suguru and the Star Plasma Body Tenriko had been killed by Fushiguro Shige, so he fought against Fushiguro Shige and killed him.

“Someone told me that I would die here… How strange. I sold my son to the Zenin family, and I entrusted him to you.”

Gojo Satoru didn’t listen to Fushiguro’s words carefully and hurried to Hongxing Palace.

What he was most thankful for at that time was that his comrades and the people he protected were not dead.

They hid Tenriko and announced her death to the public.

He checked the dark web and found that the person who issued the task to Fushiguro Shinobu was named “Ranpo-sama”. The specific content of the task could not be seen and only the person who accepted the task knew it, but Gojo Satoru remembered this name at that time.

It turned out that they already knew each other at that time.

Gojo Satoru said, “Okay, I’ll think about it.”

He will also investigate slowly until the news said by Ranpo is confirmed.

Edogawa Ranpo is used to it. No matter which world it is, Gojo Satoru will choose to cooperate with him in the end.

Because they both have the same goal.

Let this long tragedy change.

Although Geto Suguru defected, they still kept in touch. After Gojo Satoru was stabbed and lost one of his six eyes, Geto Suguru, out of humanitarian concern, lived and ate with Gojo Satoru for a long time to prevent Gojo Satoru from running away and going crazy before his brain was fully grown.

It was during this period of time that Gojo Satoru discovered that Geto Suguru was under a lot of pressure.

The astral plasma incident made both of them reflect and make progress.

Being strong doesn’t mean anything. Even someone as powerful as Gojo Satoru can die.

Being determined doesn’t mean anything. Even someone as determined as Geto Suguru can waver.

They had a long talk, first accusing each other, and then they were interrupted by a knock on the head by Tenriko, which prevented them from fighting. Then they began to state their own ideas, and as they talked, they began to laugh at each other’s ideas for being too naive.

Whenever Gojo Satoru thinks of those times, his lips would curl up and he would feel slightly happy.

From then on, they decided to separate on the surface. The high-ranking officials in the magic world could not bear to see young and capable people get together, so they wanted to break up on the surface, so that people in the magic world would think that their relationship had broken down, so that the dirty things in the dark would relax their vigilance.

Geto Suguru defected during his senior year of high school.

Gojo Satoru established connections with the political world through the Yokohama government, which had absolutely no connection with the world of sorcery.

The world of curse is a double-edged sword in the hands of the Japanese government. It can deal with cursed spirits as well as unspeakable people or things.

The “window” is actually hidden in the police station. It identifies the nature of the report and reports suspected cases of cursed spirits or monsters to a special government department, which then transfers the case to the supervision department of the curse world. The state pays the salary of the curse master.

The high-ranking officials in the sorcery world control the sorcery world by controlling the Supervisory Department, and behind these high-ranking officials are high-ranking officials in the political arena. They have taken large amounts of state funds and helped the high-ranking officials in the sorcery world to hide the sorcery world and use it to improve their own competitiveness.

Gojo Satoru is not used to dealing with politicians, but Huihara Ye is different.

Haibara was originally the chief of the psychic secret service department in Yokohama, a lawless area with a large number of people with psychic abilities. After being transferred, he entered the city government and was also connected with the demon world, with a wide network of relationships.

The most important thing is that Yokohama has no cursed power and no curse caster, and Gojo Satoru just doesn’t want the curse world to know what he wants to do.

He wants to give the world of magic a new look.

Gojo Satoru forced himself to learn how to control and develop the Gojo family, and little by little get closer to high-ranking officials in the political arena.

He moved forward year after year, and when he stopped many years had passed.

Gojo Satoru looked back, recalling how he had taken the wrong paths and done wrong things over the years, but fortunately he actually had close friends by his side all the time.

Twelve years. How many twelve years can one have in a lifetime?

“Seal me?”

A deep laugh resonated from his chest.

Okay. That’s great.

Seal him on October 10st?
Then he would wait patiently and deal with all the clowns that jumped out after he was sealed.

By then, his wish would have come true.

He does not represent justice.

–

“So brother has already decided on these?”

“If Gojo Satoru hadn’t been sealed, there would be other ways.” Edogawa Ranpo said, “The drowning spring in Yokohama can be changed by changing the soul. But before that, you mixed with the blood of the vampires and deviated.”

Xiao Wu was stunned: “Is it the drowning spring where you become a woman after drinking one sip and get pregnant after two sips?”

Ranpo smiled and nodded.

“Brother, are you kidding me?!”

“Hahahaha.” Ranpo said vaguely.

Xiao Wu wanted to take the last two pages to read, but Ranpo wouldn’t let him.

He looked up at the time, took Xiao Wu out for dinner, and walked around Yokohama after dinner.

“Well, there’s no rush.” ​​Ranpo said.

Xiao Wu seemed to realize something and followed Ranpo quietly.

He stepped on Ranpo’s shadow, but the dim street light was too bright and snatched away his shadow. Xiao Wu took two steps at a time and took Ranpo’s hand.

“So, why is brother hiding from me?”

[I was so well behaved that my brother saw that I was very cooperative when he got the book page.]
[Why?]
Edogawa Ranpo didn’t want to disappear either.

How he wanted to spend this time with his brother.

No one knows the consequences of escaping from the falsehood and the pages of a book. Even Ranpo doesn’t know.

The accomplice of Edogawa Satoru is him, Edogawa Ranpo.

The one standing in front of Edogawa Satoru now is Edogawa Ranpo, who, like Fushiguro Shinobu, comes from another page of the book.

After arranging everything in April, Edogawa Ranpo of this world has already grabbed a one-way ticket and is heading to the next page of the book.

He went to his death calmly.

This time he didn’t save anyone but Edogawa Satoru.

Don’t tell Xiaowu about this kind of thing and make him feel bad. Edogawa Ranpo showed his brotherly manner and patted his chest: “Of course there is a reason for leaving you, just believe me.”

On October 10st, at 31:11, Edogawa Ranpo handed the second to last page of the book to Xiaowu.

Ranpo has repeated the words “You have to believe me and I love you” countless times.

Xiao Wu, are you tired of listening to this?
Then change the sentence.

“Xiaowu, Sayonara.”

His body slowly became transparent. He wanted to grab his brother’s hand but it penetrated his body. He wanted to hug him but couldn’t. The moment Xiao Wu held the page of the book, he felt the world withdrawing from him.

It was like countless hands were pulling him away from here.

don’t want–

He stretched out his hand, trying to reach his brother.

Ranpo didn’t cry. He should have cried, tears adorning his smile, his open eyes lingeringly watching Edogawa Satoru slowly disappearing, that touch of green was like a blessing from the Vientiane forest, a refreshing farewell.

He smiled and said goodbye to Xiao Wu.

–

“Welcome to the Prison Gate.”

The unexpected guest disturbed the sleeping man, and he woke up slowly.

He was holding a page of a book, lying among the skeletons, embraced by death and bones.

The man pulled off the blindfold, revealing his blue eyes. He sat up and gently wiped away the tears on Xiao Wu’s face: “Your brother raised you to be a crybaby. It’s completely different from me.”

That’s what my brother said.

The world outside the pages?
(End of this chapter)