𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐒𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐒

file 021 | kisaki eri is on the case

"Will you stop saying that?" Eri complained, blushing. "You're the only ones who call me that."

"No, I heard some prosecutors say that when they're in court against Kisaki-san, they feel like traitors defying their Queen," another lawyer, Shiozawa Kenzo, spoke up.

I think I understand the feeling, Suzume hummed in her head as she took a sip of her drink.

"But now the number one female lawyer is you after you got a ruling in the second trial reversed and took that famous case all the way to the High Court," Kenzo said to Ritsuko.

She smiled at him. "Anyone could have won that case."

"Let me apologize then..." A man, Mikasa Yuji, said as he walked over, rubbing the back of his head. "I was the lawyer in the first trial and I guess I wasn't good enough. That's why I lost the case that anyone could have won."

"No. That's not what I meant," Ritsuko said, backtracking. She grabbed Eri's shoulders with a smile. "What I really meant was that winning a case like that doesn't put me even close to Queen Eri's class."

"Enough already."

"You two may be separated, but I still envy you, a female lawyer who never loses and a private detective who always solves his cases," Kenzo said with a smile. "What a couple."

Suzume ignored the glances Ran was giving her as she continued to sip her drink.

Kogoro chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "Oh no. I'm just a worthless man who is ever so proud to be married to a grand lady," he said.

"You're right," Eri said. "Then that must mean I'm a stupid woman who's picked a woman-chasing private detective, a low-life who looks for dirt in other people's lives as the man to share her life with."

Oh, why couldn't I have just stayed at the hotel?!

Despite the accident with Ran's memories a few weeks ago, Eri and Kogoro were still going at each other's throats like there was no tomorrow.

The couple shared laughs as everyone stared at them, not knowing how to react.

"Good grief. How can you say that every time?" Norifumi asked. "Mouri-san solves a case, you cut out the article in the newspaper and put it in your scrapbook."

Kogoro blinked as Eri blushed. "No, I don't," she argued.

Ran grinned, clapping her hands together. "Dad does that too," she said. "Late at night, he sneaks and reads all the articles on the cases Mom is working on. Right, Dad?"

He glared at his daughter. "Don't you do that with Suzume?" he fired back.

Ran blushed and Suzume sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I do it with your karate tournaments," Suzume admitted to her lover, who hid her blushing face in her hands.

"Come on now, here we are, all in Karuizawa," Kenzo said. "Let's just call a truce for tonight and have a good time."

Kogoro looked off to the side. "Well, if Eri doesn't object, I'll oblige."

"I don't mind...not one bit."

Ran looked between her parents with a smile and shining eyes. What is this? They're still in love?

Suzume sighed at the look on Ran's face. Even with their bickering, huh?

~ — — — ~

Later that night, after searching the entire hotel for Kogoro, the Mouri women and Suzume gathered up the lawyers to see if they could help.

"Mouri-san's still not back?" Yuji asked as he stepped out of his room. "Are you sure about that?"