His partner, Detective Kumano, had just gone off to do his own thing. I ain’t a goddamn nursery teacher, swore Yasui internally while taking out a piece of candy to give to the little girl. “All right, all right. What about some candy, do you want some candy? Here, you can eat this and be qu—”
“IDUNWANTITUWAHHHH!!!”
The little girl chucked the piece of candy away with all her strength while shaking her head furiously in an expression of defiance. He was getting nowhere at all.
He had been checkmated already the instant he laid eyes on this little girl stumbling around uneasily, looking on the verge of tears. With Detective Kumano looking on, ignoring the girl was not an option. And so he had called out to her. Thus ensued all the clinging and crying that seemed to have no end. Detective Kumano had said, “If I’m around, I’ll just frighten her even more” and then he had went off ahead. Although what he said was entirely true, Yasui still felt slightly bitter about having to deal with this all by himself.
There was nothing that he could do if the little girl was going to just cry and not say anything. Quickly giving up on trying to resolve this situation by himself, Yasui was just about to radio for a female police officer when the little girl abruptly stopped crying and grabbed his arm with a firm grip.
Surprised, Yasui looked at her. Then he was surprised once more upon seeing the uncanny calmness unbefitting of a little girl on her face. Her steady, wide-open eyes caused a chill to run down his spine.
“For at least the next ten minutes, both of us are free from surveillance. Yasuo Yasui, how would you like to make a deal with me?”