You're Mentally Ill Too

"Maybe he wasn't mentally ill. Maybe he was just plain trash." Yumi Miyamoto said through gritted teeth.

"No."

Little Ai refuted Yumi Miyamoto, which greatly pleased Guchuan Ning.

As expected of the little sister I picked up. She still sided with me deep down.

"He might be both mentally ill and trash."

Guchuan Ning's face instantly darkened. Sure enough, she was a sister he had picked up.

"Are there any other abnormalities?" Fukuyama Shien asked.

"He also has impaired awareness of time," Little Ai said.

She truly felt that Guchuan was mentally ill.

If he wasn't mentally ill, how could he hear "send me to the Kudo family" as "go home with you"? How could he go outside alone at night to pick up a child?

After living with Guchuan for a few days, Little Ai had come to feel that he was not a normal person.

"What day of the week is tomorrow?" Fukuyama Shien looked at Guchuan Ning and asked.

"Sunday."

"Wrong. Tomorrow is Friday." Fukuyama Shien became even more convinced that Guchuan Ning was mentally ill.

"Haha, maybe I remembered wrong. I don't work or go to school, so it's normal for me to lose track of time, right?" Guchuan Ning said, hitting where it hurt.

Fukuyama Shien and the surrounding police officers all looked rather unhappy.

"Today is April 15th. What date is tomorrow?" Fukuyama Shien asked coldly.

Guchuan Ning clasped his hands together and pondered for a long time before slowly speaking.

"I have the right to refuse to answer."

"Heh, so you really can't tell, can you?" Little Ai drawled.

Guchuan Ning really could not tell. Picking any date gave him only a one-in-three-hundred-sixty-five chance of being right, so refusing to answer was the safest option.

"So he really does have impaired awareness of time." Fukuyama Shien stroked the few remaining hairs on his head.

"Who knows what is going on this year? Aoyama Mental Hospital has received many patients with impaired awareness of time."

"Has it occurred to you that maybe it isn't them who have impaired awareness of time, but this world that has a problem?" Guchuan stared at Fukuyama Shien as he spoke.

"See? That is a classic statement from a mentally ill person." Fukuyama Shien said excitedly.

"I told you, you really are mentally ill, Brother~" Little Ai patted Guchuan's back, looking delighted.

"Mr. Guchuan, if you have time, come to our Mental Hospital for an EEG. If you want to enter a mental hospital for treatment, please give Aoyama Mental Hospital priority." Fukuyama Shien said sincerely.

"Hehe, you quack."

Fukuyama Shien was not angered by being called a quack. Could he really take an insult from a mentally ill person seriously?

Seeing everyone around him staring at him curiously, Guchuan's anger rose.

"If this is how mental illness is diagnosed, then my little sister, 'Loli Guchuan,' is mentally ill too." Guchuan Ning lifted Little Ai onto the table.

When Conan heard Little Ai's name, "Loli Guchuan," he could not hold back his laughter.

"Conan, be polite. You can't laugh at people." Ran smacked Conan in displeasure.

"I understand, Ran."

Little Ai stared blankly at Guchuan, unsure what this mentally ill person intended to do.

"The first step is horizontal comparison: assess the differences between the patient and the normal people around them." Guchuan took out his smartphone and opened the photo gallery.

"Other children like dolls, but she likes designer handbags."

Guchuan Ning showed the photos to Fukuyama Shien. His phone was full of pictures of Little Ai holding fashion magazines and reading them.

"She just has different interests from other children. That doesn't count as mental illness, does it? My Conan is different from other children too," Ran said gently.

Conan chuckled twice.

He wasn't really an elementary school student, so of course he was different from them.

Little Ai angrily snatched Guchuan's phone away. She did not care about being labeled mentally ill; she was furious that he had secretly taken pictures of her!

"You pervert! Who gave you permission to secretly photograph me?"

"What secret photographs? I took them openly and honestly. You just didn't notice," Guchuan Ning argued without the slightest guilt.

"Where are the police? Hurry up and arrest this pervert!"

"A brother taking photos of his little sister to record her life is all."

Little Ai checked the photos on the phone with a red face. Only after finding nothing inappropriate did she sigh in relief.

Still, she could not go back to that house.

"Officer, I want to report him. This guy is a pervert who kidnaps children." Little Ai ran up to Inspector Megure and said.

"Little girl, didn't you say earlier that you were Guchuan Ning's sister?" Yumi Miyamoto crouched down and stroked Little Ai's head.

"I take back what I said. I'm not that trashy pervert's sister."

Yumi Miyamoto only felt that the siblings were having an argument, so she could only comfort Little Ai patiently.

Meanwhile, Guchuan Ning was discussing his sister's condition with Fukuyama Shien.

"Also, she really likes imagining that she's an adult woman with an exceptionally high IQ. She acts like an adult every day and loves lecturing me, her older brother."

"Ahaha, your little sister is so adorable." Fukuyama Shien said with a smile.

"How can you be so hypocritical?" Guchuan frowned in dissatisfaction.

"Huh?"

"When I'm abnormal, I'm mentally ill. When my little sister is abnormal, she's adorable. Is there any logic to that?"

Fukuyama Shien wiped the saliva sprayed onto his glasses and patiently soothed the patient.

"It is perfectly normal for children to like fantasizing. Didn't we all like imagining that we were saviors when we were little?"

"I didn't."

"Are you just being contrary?"

There was no way to continue this conversation. Fukuyama Shien felt that the patient was having an episode.

"I will advise Mr. Guchuan Yuan to send you to a mental hospital for treatment."

"I'm very healthy."

"From what your sister and Ms. Yumi Miyamoto have said, you have already engaged in behavior that harms society. If you don't get treatment quickly, you may do something even more outrageous," Fukuyama Shien said.

Little Ai nodded repeatedly as she listened.

Guchuan should be locked up in a mental hospital, though a prison would suit him even better.

"My sister is mentally ill too. I want to enter the hospital with her." Guchuan stared at Little Ai.

"I'm not mentally ill!" Little Ai shouted.

"Mentally ill people all say they aren't mentally ill." Guchuan compassionately stroked Little Ai's hair.

"Anyway, I'm not." Little Ai glared viciously at Guchuan.

"Little sister, my mental illness might be hereditary, so you definitely have it too," Guchuan said with certainty.

"What does hereditary have to do with me?"

"Then my mental illness is contagious. Anyway, you have it." Guchuan said unreasonably.

"You lunatic!"

Little Ai was furious and stomped on Guchuan's toes.

"See? You even have violent tendencies, and you still say you aren't mentally ill!"

Conan looked at everyone discussing mental illness, wanting to speak but stopping himself. Weren't they originally supposed to be discussing Guchuan Ning's theft case?

He had found the culprit before him and stolen the armor. That was very possi...

Wait!

A flash of insight struck Conan.