Ranpo's Brother, But With Maxed-Out Combat Skills

[Updated daily at 9 p.m. (schedule may change)]

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Edogawa Kiryu was a member of the Whitebeard Pirates. After dying in the Summit War, he was reborn as the eldest son of the Edogawa family.

Though he’d been reborn, he still had the heart of a free-spirited man who longed to sail the seas.

And so

Little Kiryu: I’m going to be King of the Pirates!

The Edogawa parents: (They don’t understand, but they clap.) Wonderful! Amazing, Kiryu!

To make his dream come true, Kiryu started training his body as a baby, determined to set sail as soon as he grew up.

Only

Was he training a little too hard?

Or were people in this world just too weak?

Three-year-old Kiryu, strong enough to lift a cauldron and leaving his parents stunned, scratched his head.

Fortunately, someone with Kiryu’s maxed-out strength was a rarity in the Edogawa family. It was intelligence that truly set the Edogawas apart!

Especially after Kiryu’s little brother, Ranpo, was born

“Mom! Help me!”

For the first time, the flustered Kiryu wondered if he was really capable of raising his genius little brother.

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Ranpo had a dumb big brother.

Sure, his brother could lift a small car at three, smash a boulder with his bare hands at five, and knock out a yakuza at eight, but he was still a dummy.

There was no helping it. His brother was so dumb that little Ranpo had to carry the burden for him.

In practice, that meant that if he could solve something with his brain, he’d never use his hands. His dumb big brother could handle all the physical work.

Ranpo: I’ll be Kiryu’s eyes and brain. He just has to do what I say.

*

After the detective agency was founded, the free-spirited nature of a pirate deep inside Kiryu began to shine through.

He couldn’t sit still, so he wandered all over Yokohama.

“A boy drowning? I’ll fish him out.”

“Kids in the slums? I’ll help them.”

“A man passed out? I’ll save him.”

In Kiryu’s mind, that was how friendship worked. You picked up friends along the way. It was no trouble.

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When you have a popular big brother, a great detective has a lot more to think about.

“Mr. Kiryu, Boss Mori from the Port Mafia called. He said he’d fund your voyage if you’d agree to become a Port Mafia executive.”

Ranpo loudly turned him down on his brother’s behalf. “No! Kiryu is an advisor to the detective agency! No, no, no!”

“Um, Mr. Kiryu, a letter came from the head of the Special Division for Unusual Powers. They’d like to invite you for a visit.”

Ranpo answered sharply. “Not going! Is that bald guy trying to make Kiryu a government worker? I can support Kiryu just fine!”

“There’s another email here, marked as being from Mr. Good Samaritan? It says…”

Ranpo leapt out of his seat and deleted the email.

He snapped, “No rats allowed! Kiryu is mine! Mine!”

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Today’s topic: #Can a Pirate Dummy Raise a Great Detective?#

The top-voted answer comes from [The World’s Number One Great Detective]

: Kiryu is the one Ranpo-sama raised! He didn’t raise me!

[The Diamond Collector] and [The Russian Good Samaritan] downvoted it.

The Edogawa brothers could never be apart.

As Kiryu told Ranpo whenever he found him after he’d lost his way:

“I’ll hold your hand forever and ever, until you don’t need me anymore.”

To Ranpo, his big brother Kiryu was the free ocean, the wind over the waves, his lighthouse and his guiding star.

To Kiryu, his little brother Ranpo was a treasure of the sea, family he could never let go of and would always rush to help.

Kiryu: So, which alternate version of us should we ask 001 to take us to meet today, Ranpo?

Ranpo: I’m off today! I’m staying home to sleep!

Reader’s guide:

1. Big brother is a traditional pirate-style dummy: spacey and careless, yet surprisingly perceptive. He’s earnest and passionate. Don’t be fooled by the blurb. He’s actually quite dependable.

2. Big brother has maxed-out combat strength. Before he transmigrated, he was nearly Admiral-level, and he can still use all three types of Haki afterward. He has a golden finger, namely 001, which appears in Chapter 16.

3. Ranpo’s parents won’t die. The plot has plans for them.

4. I got the urge to raise a kid, so the childhood section of this story will be quite long. Daily life gets more focus than the plot. I’ll make it as cute as possible, so please consider that before reading.

5. The author has a day job and is happy just to finish each update. Please forgive any typos or missing words I fail to notice.

Theme: You are the wind, the sea, my most beloved child