"Moshi moshi."

"Meet me at the café right now, I wanna brag."

"The café."

"You know which one I mean." And he hangs up.

Are they subverting relationship tropes here, with Aoki whipping him?

Anyway.

Aoki has gotten them one of those individual booths for privacy and as soon as they have said privacy he says, "We got that cockroach."

"Wanna back a few steps up for me?"

"Kokonoe, keep up. Dad got some tasty dirt on him."

"—exciting. Can you share?"

"Not out loud in public. Loses a lot of its use if other people might catch wind of it. But if Tōkan is at all on the ball here Yamada should be out tomorrow. Maybe tonight, even, the seventy-two hour deadline is tomorrow morning."

"Very impressive. And very fast."

"It's best to be this fast. Best for the prosecutor's career, too, which my parents aren't exactly trying to help or anything but which means she'll be extra happy to drop the case and then if Kokonoe wants to try this again it'll be that much harder."

"Just how... did your father do it?"

"He has made many connections over the years, in many places, that's the best way I can put it. He can usually find decent proof of money going from place A to place B, at least for sufficiently high amounts of money, and for something like this that's pretty much exactly what we needed."

"Still terrifying."

"I know and I cannot wait to inherit all of that."

"...so uh did you just call me here to tell me that?"

"Oh it was just an excuse, I wanted to see you and have another date with you."

"You really are something else, Aoki."

"You like it."

"Never said I didn't."

So that evening, while Kokonoe Tochima is having dinner with his wife, Tōkan shows up at their dining room and leans against the doorframe. "Good evening, Father."

"...boy. What are you doing here?"

"Can we talk in your study? It's related to... the whole situation with Inori-kun."

    "Boy, can't you see we're eating?" says Hana in the curt tone she usually uses for Tōkan.

"You can wait for me there if you want. Or join us, but you will need to find some table manners somewhere if you want to do that."