Or rather, Miyano Shiho before she had shrunk from taking the drug.
But Kurumi would never reveal a secret that only she knew.
Even if she had a good relationship with Vermouth.
"I understand. I'll go the day after tomorrow." Kurumi nodded and agreed to it.
"Very good~" Clearly pleased with Kurumi, Vermouth sounded much happier as well.
However, Vermouth's next words made Kurumi tense up. "By the way, if possible... Kurumi-chan, can you tell me... was Kudo Shinichi bullied by Gin?"
Dangerous.
Extremely dangerous.
From Vermouth's tone, Kurumi could hear dissatisfaction.
Though that dissatisfaction was hidden beneath an indifferent tone, Kurumi, who knew her well, understood that Vermouth was angry.
Fortunately, Kudo Shinichi had merely shrunk instead of being killed on the spot by Gin. Otherwise, Vermouth would definitely have dragged Kurumi into causing Gin endless trouble before taking the chance to kill him.
That was not an exaggeration. Vermouth truly was capable of doing something like that.
Although the people in the organization appeared to be colleagues on the surface, everyone knew how hollow that relationship really was.
Especially the double agents planted in the organization by various countries. They would much rather see its members turn on one another over conflicts.
After organizing her thoughts, Kurumi felt that this would be difficult to explain.
"Uh... in a sense, you could say that." Kurumi gave an ambiguous explanation. "Kudo Shinichi was drugged by Gin. Right now... he has turned into a child and is staying with Mouri Kogoro's family under the alias Edogawa Conan."
After Kurumi finished speaking, the other end of the phone fell silent for a while.
Kurumi guessed that Vermouth was processing what she had just said.
After a long time, Vermouth spoke in a somewhat heavy tone. "Kudo Shinichi shrank? What drug did he take?"
"It was APTX-4869, the one developed by Miyano Shiho." Kurumi answered honestly.
"You were there when it happened?" Vermouth's tone made Kurumi uncomfortable.
She understood that Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran had saved Vermouth's life, which was why Vermouth cared so much about them.
She even treated them like a son and daughter.
But when she heard Vermouth blaming her over it, Kurumi found it hard to accept.
That bastard had clearly run over there recklessly to get himself killed. Was she supposed to walk up to Gin just because she had been there and say, "You can't kill this person!" Then stop him? Was that even possible?
If Gin really lost his temper, he would absolutely kill her too.
Still, although she felt unhappy inside, Kurumi did not show it when she spoke. "Yes. Gin happened to catch Kudo Shinichi witnessing a transaction between Vodka and someone else at the time."
Hearing Kurumi say that, Vermouth was somewhat helpless as well.
She understood Gin's temper, and she also knew that Kudo Shinichi had brought this upon himself.
Still, at least the guy had survived. So what if his body had shrunk?
"Forget it. That boy brought this on himself." Completely oblivious to Kurumi's mood, Vermouth continued, "You don't need to pay too much attention to Kudo Shinichi either. After learning this lesson, I think he should be more careful from now on."
After hearing that, Kurumi really wanted to say, "No, that bastard has become even worse!" But after thinking it over, she decided not to say too much. Otherwise, the woman who cared about her godson might fly straight to Tokyo and teach him a lesson herself, which would be quite entertaining.
"Yes, yes, yes!" To keep Vermouth quietly in America, Kurumi nodded in agreement. "That boy should have learned his lesson."
"Alright, let's stop talking about Kudo Shinichi. But while you're in Japan, pay more attention to Gin." Vermouth deliberately stressed the words "pay more attention."
Clearly, Vermouth wanted Kurumi to cause Gin some trouble.
After hanging up, Kurumi's expression turned cold.
She was jealous.
Conan and Narumi
Rationally, Kurumi understood that Vermouth's feelings toward Conan and Mouri Ran came from a desire to protect them, not affection.
But emotionally, Vermouth asking Kurumi to take better care of Conan truly left a bitter taste in her heart.
Even though Kurumi could clearly distinguish which of the two mattered more, that did not stop her from using her own methods to properly "take care" of Conan in the days ahead.
After Kurumi left to answer the phone, Conan and Aso Narumi, who had been left behind, stared at each other.
An awkward atmosphere gradually spread between them.
"Um..." Looking at Conan, Narumi increasingly felt that this kid was no ordinary person.
Combined with his conversation with Kurumi, his way of thinking only confirmed it further.
"Should I call you Aso Narumi, or Asai Narumi?" With Kurumi gone, the tension and anger in Conan's heart eased somewhat. As a result, when he looked at Narumi now, his expression no longer carried the previous grim hostility.
"Just call me Aso Narumi." Narumi shook her head, her tone softening. "After all, that is my real name."
"Is that so..." For a moment, Conan did not know what to say.
Actually, he really wanted to ask why Aso Narumi had gotten involved with Kurumi. Judging from the two women's relationship earlier, their harmonious and intimate behavior suggested that they shared something more intimate than friendship.
"So, were you the one who sent the warning letter to Uncle Mouri's house and made the phone call? Or was it Tokisaki?"
Faced with Conan's question, Narumi knew that the plan between her and Kurumi had already been exposed, so she did not intend to hide it.
After learning that Narumi had done it, however, Conan only had more questions. "Why?"
He asked, "Since you and Tokisaki wanted to kill those people, why did you deliberately do something like that? Isn't that contradictory?"
She wanted to avenge her family, yet she had deliberately sent a warning letter to a detective. Conan truly could not understand why Narumi had gone out of her way to do that.
Unless...
Thinking of one possibility, Conan asked tentatively, "Could it be that you had not met Tokisaki yet at the time, and when you were preparing for revenge, part of you also hoped someone could stop you... was that it?"
Such a guess was very contradictory, but if it was Aso Narumi, a kind female doctor, Conan felt it was highly possible.
"It seems you really are no ordinary person..." Narumi sighed. From Conan's eyes, she could sense a maturity and experience unlike that of a child.
No wonder Kurumi told me to watch out for this kid. Narumi quietly became more vigilant.
Although this kid had now discovered their plan, that did not mean their later actions would come to nothing. There was still room to salvage everything.
Taking Narumi's sigh as praise, Conan could not help revealing a confident yet mysterious smile.
"My name is Edogawa Conan, and I'm a detective!"
At last, Conan spoke the famous line engraved into countless people's DNA.
"A detective..." Narumi muttered.
Now that things had come to this, with no way to turn back, she began to regret needlessly sending a letter and making a call to Mouri Kogoro's detective agency.
If she had met Kurumi earlier, her revenge would probably have gone incredibly smoothly.
"So? Do you want me to persuade Kurumi to stop?" Aso Narumi stared at Conan. Unwilling to betray the effort Kurumi had put in for her, Narumi's impression of Conan had worsened considerably.
Hearing the concealed mockery in Narumi's words, Conan knew that he probably could not persuade her through his own efforts alone.
So, rather than start another pointless argument over their differing beliefs, Conan decided to begin with Narumi. He would try to draw out their plan, then ensure the remaining two people's survival before the appointed date.
"No. I only want to know—there is a blood feud between you and those other three people, but I'm curious why Tokisaki came back to help you. Did you know each other before? Or was it... for some other reason?"
Trying to fish for information? Aso Narumi narrowed her eyes slightly. Conan trying to pry information from her had also been within Kurumi's calculations. Before this, Kurumi had already told her what she could say and what she could not.
Narumi did not directly answer Conan's question. Instead, she asked one of her own. "Conan, do you know anything about China, which lies only a sea away from us?"
"China?" Hearing Narumi suddenly bring up their neighboring country, Conan thought for a moment. "Of course."
"Good." Narumi asked again, "Then do you know what the White Powder Kuroiwa and the others were selling, something that harms the country and its people, means to China?"
Conan, who was fairly good at history, nodded. He seemed to understand why Narumi had suddenly brought this up.
"Could it be that Tokisaki once lived in China?"
Based on that guess, Conan could also understand why Kurumi had shown no mercy at all toward people like Kuroiwa.
Conan sighed. "If that's the case, then I think I understand."
The humiliation suffered by China, a great nation, because of this substance throughout its history had made its crackdown on drugs among the harshest in the world even to this day. That hatred, carved into their souls, had also made them pay a terrible price in the struggle against it.
Of all those involved, the most unforgettable were probably the anti-drug police officers fighting on the front lines.
Looking at Conan's thoughtful expression, Aso Narumi also felt deeply moved.
She remembered clearly that when Kurumi had told her about this, the expression in Kurumi's eyes had openly revealed hatred and anger without the slightest concealment.
Especially when Kurumi said that one of her friends had died because of it, Narumi could clearly feel the sorrow coming from the depths of her heart.
"Do you know, little detective?"
"Kurumi told me that, within the organization, she once personally took out a group of people who used the organization's resources to sell that stuff in the city."
"And afterward, she was also suppressed and targeted for assassination."
What Aso Narumi said was what Kurumi had told her.
More importantly, what Kurumi had said was true, not false. As for that friend who had died, that was real too, except it came from Kurumi's previous life.
"What!" Conan was immediately shocked when he heard this.
He had never imagined that Kurumi would do something like that.
The Initial Cooperation Between Both Sides
In Conan's eyes, Kurumi had already become a ruthless killer with a sweet appearance. But when he learned from Aso Narumi that the supposedly cold-blooded Kurumi had disregarded the organization's interests and insisted on personally killing a group of "colleagues" dealing White Powder, Conan suddenly could not see through her anymore.
As a detective with some knowledge of the underworld, Conan knew very well that Kurumi doing something like that in her personal capacity meant damaging the organization's interests and committing a kind of "betrayal" against her comrades.
It was only natural that such a member would face assassination attempts and exclusion.
"So that's why Tokisaki came to talk to me about cooperating?" Conan murmured, his opinion of Kurumi shifting somewhat.
"Perhaps. Kurumi didn't tell me much about the organization, but from her tone, she probably doesn't have a very good impression of it." Kind-hearted Aso Narumi had once asked Kurumi why she did not leave the organization, but Kurumi had only smiled, shaken her head, and remained silent.
Looking toward the room where Kurumi was, gratitude and a trace of heartache appeared in Narumi's eyes.
"Actually, the main reason Kurumi chose to help me was probably because of what these people did."
Aso Narumi did not know that the reason Kurumi had chosen to help her was actually because she lusted after Narumi's body.
Of course, that was only one aspect of it.
Although Narumi's words had shaken him somewhat, Conan still could not approve of Kurumi treating other people's lives as worthless and slaughtering them at will.
If Tokisaki really is as Aso Narumi says, perhaps we truly can reach some kind of cooperation. Conan, whose mind had been wholly focused on finding a way to return from his current childlike body to Kudo Shinichi, began changing his thoughts.
As long as she could spare the lives of those two scum.
At the same time, Aso Narumi, who had been secretly observing Conan, was filled with thoughts of her own.
She was truly curious about who Conan really was. The feeling was as irritating as being scratched by a cat.
But being clever, she knew what she should ask and what she should pretend not to know or want to know.
She did not want to make Kurumi uncomfortable, so she could only suppress her curiosity.
Just as Conan and Aso Narumi fell into silence again, Kurumi emerged after finishing her call.
Kurumi's expression had not changed in the slightest. She still wore that calm look.
"Well, little detective, isn't it time for you to leave?"
The first thing Kurumi said after returning from her call was to tell Conan to leave.
"Alright, I'll honor our agreement. Now can you tell me about your organization?" Conan had not forgotten that point and clearly did not intend to leave yet.
Seeing that Conan had not been bluffed, Kurumi said impatiently, "Fine, fine. What I can tell you now is that Gin, the one who knocked you out, is one of the organization's most capable killers. The other one, Vodka, is Gin's driver. He's not very bright, but he has some ability at least."
Kurumi made no attempt to avoid Aso Narumi and simply said it outright.
But Kurumi not caring did not mean Narumi felt the same way.
Aso Narumi asked somewhat timidly, "Um, is it really okay for me to hear this? Should I step out for a moment?"
"No need!" Kurumi grabbed Aso Narumi's small hand. Feeling that softness in her palm, Kurumi found herself reluctant to let go.
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