A Secret Belonging Only to Ai Haibara
Ai Haibara, wearing her pajamas, pushed open the door.
She slowed her movements, afraid of making any noise that might wake the sleeping Akemi Miyano.
After leaving the room, she slowly walked up the stairs to the fourth floor and arrived at the door of Fujino's bedroom.
Ai Haibara stared at the door in front of her, her mind filled with a myriad of thoughts.
There aren't many people in this world willing to save her.
You could count them on one hand, using only five fingers.
She vaguely sensed that the person who had just saved her was Fujino.
No, it should be said that apart from Fujino, no one else would have rescued her or taken her home.
She was more inclined to believe that the man in the white robe was Fujino.
But then again, he didn't realize that person was Fujino.
Maybe it's because of fear.
After all, ever since that rainy night, she had already owed Fujino too much.
If Fujino is the White Robe, then perhaps what she owes will never be repaid.
Pulling her thoughts back, Ai Haibara now saw the door before her as Pandora's Gate, leading to the unknown.
Even if it's just self-deception...
She took a deep breath, made her decision, raised her small hand slightly, and pushed open the door with her petite body.
The bedroom was completely empty.
Ai Haibara was stunned and stood there in a daze.
"If Fujino is in this room, then he is definitely not the man in the white robe."
She comforted herself with this thought more than once.
But this was accompanied by the opening of a door to the unknown.
The last glimmer of hope she had left in her heart vanished completely.
"What exactly am I doubting..."
Ai Haibara regained her senses, and a gentle expression gradually appeared on her face.
She walked slowly to the window, lowered her head and sighed softly, her heart filled with mixed emotions.
"Beep beep beep!"
Just as Ai Haibara in thought with her eyes lowered, a phone ring suddenly interrupted her thoughts.
She suddenly froze, like a kitten that had done something wrong, her eyes darting around warily.
However, she quickly found the source of the sound.
It's in my own pocket.
Ai Haibara breathed a sigh of relief.
She didn't know how to face the situation now that this thin veil of secrecy had been pierced.
She looked away and took her phone out of her pocket.
What catches the eye is the note "[Conan Edogawa]" on the screen.
The tenderness on Ai Haibara's face faded, returning to her usual indifference. "Moshi moshi."
"Is that Haibara?!"
Upon hearing Ai Haibara 'Conan voice on the other end of the phone, Conan immediately asked urgently, "Where are you now? I've been looking for you at the hotel for ages and couldn't find you..."
"I am currently at Fujino's house."
Ai Haibara glanced down at the Mori Detective Agency across the street. "It's right across from the detective agency where you usually live."
Conan looked puzzled. "How exactly did you escape?"
"I don't remember."
Ai Haibara paused, gathered her thoughts, and said, "I remember being captured by Pisco and locked in a storage room. Then I hung up the phone with you, and the door was kicked open. A person in a white robe came in, scratched my hand with something strange, and then I fell asleep. When I woke up, I was lying on the roadside, and then I went home."
"If that's the case, then your identity shouldn't have been discovered by the organization yet."
Conan rubbed his chin and said, "Just now, I sneaked into the hotel with Gin and Vodka, but by the time I got there, they had already been seriously injured in the explosion."
After a pause, Conan continued, "After that, the police also found Pisco's body in a room at the Haido Hotel."
Ai Haibara asked in surprise, "Pisco is dead?"
"That's right."
Conan on the other end of the phone nodded. "He was stabbed in the chest with a sharp weapon and died on the spot. Judging from the time of death, he should have just left after being interrogated by the police. If that's the case, then he probably hasn't told Gin that you've shrunk yet."
Ai Haibara crossing her eyes.
She had heard that Fujino's other identity was that he never killed any living beings.
But today...
Was it for her?
Thinking of this, a sense of guilt welled up in my heart.
It seems like I'm owing more and more...
"The white-robed man you mentioned should be Beika Batman."
Just then, Conan's voice came from the other end of the phone again. "But why would he go to save you?"
Ai Haibara paused for a moment before saying, "Perhaps she just happened to be passing by."
"Just happened to be passing by?"
Conan was even more puzzled. "Even if it was just a coincidence that he was passing by, he shouldn't have happened to pass by the Haido Hotel, and then just happened to save you and kill Pisco..."
"It's also possible that he has a grudge against the organization."
Ai Haibara interrupted Conan, pretending to ponder, and said, "His saving me was probably purely accidental. After all, he also helped Ayumi when Ayumi was kidnapped before. I think his real purpose was to take revenge on the organization."
"I see..."
Conan, on the other end of the phone, nodded upon hearing this, feeling that Ai Haibara made sense, and immediately began to imagine the situation. "He first used a bomb to seriously injure Gin and Vodka, and then killed Pisco. It seems that guy's real purpose is to oppose the organization... I didn't expect that guy also had a grudge against the organization."
Ai Haibara on the other end of the phone nodded in satisfaction.
—I agree with Conan's imaginative interpretation.
She then hung up the phone immediately without saying anything more.
Ai Haibara's lips curled slightly as she gripped her Ai Haibara phone tightly in her fair, delicate hand, gazing at the falling snow outside the window.
She didn't intend to tell Conan about it.
Similarly, I don't plan to tell anyone.
She wanted to keep this matter buried deep in her heart.
Keep this secret to yourself.
On the other side, in a dark alley.
Fujino, dressed in Assassin's Robe, reached out his left hand and grabbed a gaunt man in a trench coat by the collar, slamming him against the alley wall. He demanded sharply, "Tell me, what is a butterfly?"
"Butterfly?!"
The gaunt man was clearly stunned for a moment.
"I have already investigated."
Fujino used a voice changer to make his voice unusually deep. "Among the drug dealers around here, you are the only one who sells butterflies."
As he spoke, he raised his right hand, and a silver-white hidden blade slid out from his sleeve, its tip pointing at the gaunt man's neck. "I'll give you two choices: tell me what a butterfly is, or die."
"I'll talk, I'll talk!"
The gaunt man swallowed hard. "The butterfly you mentioned, I just brought some back from my supplier."
Fujino released his left hand, put the gaunt man down, and flicked his sleeve dagger with his right hand. "Take it out and let me see it."
"This is it."
The gaunt man quickly reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of small red cards. "These are the butterflies you mentioned."
[P. S.: Thanks for the monthly tickets. I went to the ophthalmologist today and didn't get back until tonight. Basically, I have some eye problems right now: 600-700 degrees of astigmatism, over 100 degrees of myopia, bulging keratoconus (which could potentially puncture my cornea), and conjunctivitis. I can't update frequently for now, but I'll try to update 6,000 words a day once my eyes get better.]