Early the next morning, Senichi slept in lazily before lazily getting up to freshen up.
For breakfast, his mom left him a thick tamagoyaki (Japanese omelet). Senichi heated it up in the microwave, accompanied by a cup of milk also heated in the microwave, and that took care of his breakfast.
Wearing casual clothes after changing, Senichi, freed from the serious suit he usually wore for work, exuded a bit less solemnity and a bit more of the youthful vigor typical of young people.
Driving his black sports car, Senichi headed straight to the Suzuki residence. They had agreed to go shopping today.
When he was close to the Suzuki residence, Senichi called in advance. Upon arriving at the Suzuki family's gate, he saw Ayako walking towards him.
Taking a couple of quick steps, Ayako reached the passenger side, opened the car door, and sat down. As she fastened her seatbelt, she asked, "Mouri-san and the others are going to investigate the arson case today, right? Aren't you going? Does it not matter?"
"Don't worry, it's fine."
Senichi dismissed it casually. "Let them do some preliminary investigation first. I'll step in later. Besides, there have been several plainclothes officers around the 4-chome of Cupho Town since yesterday. Safety is absolutely not an issue."
"Really? Then I can rest easy." Ayako, hearing Senichi's assurance, stopped asking and began to enjoy the date with peace of mind.
Ayako didn't ask much, and Senichi naturally didn't need to explain more. Of course, what Senichi said wasn't false. He was quite confident about this case and wasn't worried at all about not participating in the investigation and preventing the crime.
First of all, although arson cases generally lack a pattern, most of the crimes occur at night, which is easy to understand. After all, daring to do such a thing with people coming and going in broad daylight would likely lead to someone reporting it to the police soon.
At the same time, in Senichi's view, this was likely the initial safe time for Hattori, Conan, and the others to gather information on various suspects.
So, at least during the daytime, it should be safe, and there's also the "progress" in the information reported by Hattori Heiji.
In this situation, if Senichi followed Hattori Heiji and the others around to investigate, it would be a complete missed opportunity to prevent the crime.
Following them meant voluntarily restricting his own field of vision. Although it could narrow down the list of suspects, it would also limit his own perspective, and there was a high probability of falling into the criminal's trap.
This was normal because if you didn't fall for a trap first, how could the case progress smoothly to allow detectives to intervene seamlessly?
If detectives were important pieces in this case, then Senichi was the chess player coordinating the entire game, and at critical moments, he could personally enter the scene as the trump card.
As for the family that Hattori Heiji was investigating today, they were currently a focus of attention, and there was no need to worry about safety issues at all.
The car smoothly and swiftly arrived at the underground parking lot of the Beika City Hall.
The building that was not bombed by Teiji Moriya, thanks to Senichi's prevention of the case, was as bustling as ever. Pedestrians coming and going made the place lively.
And here, it was also a great place for shopping.
From jewelry and accessories to clothes, bags, and everyday items, you could find everything you needed on different floors.
Following this order, the two of them, after selecting several stylish jewelry necklaces for Ayako, proceeded to the clothing section.
This was a woman's "paradise" — every woman would spend a considerable amount of time here, choosing the clothes they liked.
However, for men accompanying their female counterparts, this was "hell." The time during this period would seem exceptionally long, and soon, the gorgeous clothes and the girlfriend's inquiries would become a "tight spell," causing a splitting headache.
But for Senichi, there was no such worry at all. With his advanced aesthetic sense, he could offer Ayako many surprising suggestions. Plus, the two of them weren't short of money, making this shopping trip much simpler.
After spending over an hour, Senichi put together three outfits for Ayako, bringing an end to her "battle" with joy.
Afterwards, they returned to the car to store the clothes and then headed towards the supermarket on the lower floor.
Here, everything was more casual. The two of them pushed carts and individually picked snacks they liked, returning to the car with bags of goodies.
As for groceries and such, since Senichi's parents had come, Senichi hadn't worried about it, so these were provisions for themselves at home.
"Where do you want to have lunch?" Starting the car, Senichi looked at Ayako and asked, "Is there anything you're craving?"
"Let's go to Erina's place." Ayako didn't think much and quickly made a decision. "Haven't seen her in a while."
"Sounds good. It's been a while since I've been there too." Senichi nodded and smiled, starting the car while saying, "Why don't you give them a call to see if they're in the restaurant."
After all, those two ran a "casual" restaurant that operated entirely based on their mood. Sometimes they wouldn't open even when they were at home, as they were immersed in the "food battle" in the kitchen. It could be said that they were extremely capricious.
Upon arriving at the restaurant, as expected, the door was tightly closed. After Ayako made a call, not long after, the door opened from the inside, revealing Yukihira's face.
"Hey~ Sorry to disturb you." Senichi waved and smiled.
"Long time no see." Yukihira greeted Senichi with a hearty smile. "What would you like to eat today?"
"Yeah... omurice," Senichi smiled.
"Same for me." Ayako thought for a moment and echoed, "And if there's some dessert added, that would be great."
"Oh?" Yukihira raised an eyebrow at the words, then nodded and smiled, "No problem, leave it to me!"
With Yukihira's culinary skills, two servings of omurice quickly appeared on the table. Erina, on the other hand, was a bit slower because she had to prepare the dessert. However, this also allowed Senichi and Ayako to enjoy their main course first.
On the table, the brown fried rice was topped with golden omelette, completing the orders for both of them.
Although omurice might seem like a simple dish, it also depends on who makes it. If it's just an ordinary omurice, you could find it even on the roadside.
However, Yukihira's omurice had a hidden twist.
After serving the omurice, Yukihira brought two portions of beef sauce. Taking a small knife from the tray, he made a delicate cut on the arched omurice. Like peeling the thin skin of a durian, the entire omurice opened up to both sides, revealing the shining golden molten core inside.
Afterward, he sprinkled the secret beef sauce, and only then was the omurice truly complete.
With a gentle cut at the edge using a spoon, the beef sauce, omurice, and fried rice layers neatly fell into the spoon, looking irresistibly tempting.
After enjoying the trio, you could also taste the simple molten core at the edges or the duet with the beef sauce.
A simple omurice, yet with various combinations, it was simple but not crude, even carrying a unique delicacy that made it irresistible.