The streets were empty in the dead of night, and the long-neglected streetlights flickered intermittently.
Watching the taillights recede into the distance, Vermouth stood on the street for a while before turning and limping toward the end of the pitch-black road.
She knew very well that she was merely a tool being used. The so-called mutually beneficial cooperation was nothing more than the other party winning twice.
But so what?
Only by proving her worth could she survive.
It had always been this way.
She had not stubbornly resisted because she understood this clearly. After all, compared to taking a beating for nothing, wasn't it better to pick up a sweet date after getting beaten?
They were all old foxes. Everyone knew exactly what the others wanted.
As for how much the other party knew about her, or how they had learned of her relationship with Kudo Shinichi, she would not ask too many questions.
All she needed to know was that what she knew about them was not even one-tenth of what they knew about her.
And everything she had uncovered was merely what they wanted her to see.
Vermouth raised her head and looked at the full moon hanging in the sky. Her lips parted as she murmured, "The Silver Bullet I have long awaited to pierce my chest... who will it be in the end?"
"Hey, Shinichi, Shinichi!"
After Professor Agasa noticed that the signal had disappeared, he hurried into the forest and kept calling out to Conan, whom Vermouth had left in the car. "Wake up, Shinichi!"
"Professor Agasa, you do not need to worry too much. This guy is only asleep. He has not been killed yet."
Ai Haibara had already woken up by then and heard the conversation between Conan and Vermouth. She