The moment the words left her mouth, Haibara Ai snapped back to her senses and clapped a hand over her mouth.
She suddenly remembered some old legends: the protagonist walked through a haunted Deep Forest with a friendly companion at their side. If the protagonist asked nothing, the journey would end safely. But if they said something they shouldn't... that companion would suddenly turn around and become a terrifying ghost.
Had she... said something she shouldn't have?
Every messy horror movie she had ever watched began churning through her mind. Haibara Ai regretted it so much that she wanted to travel back half a minute and knock herself out with one punch... But after holding her breath for a long time, nothing she imagined happened.
Jiang Xia did not turn into anything frightening, and his tone was no different from before as he casually answered, "Because we all get along pretty well."
Haibara Ai froze.
Jiang Xia knew so much because they got along well?
...Who got along with whom? Vermouth? Or Uzo?
She wanted to ask more, but most of the courage she had gathered had already vanished during that pause. The Mini Scientist opened her mouth, then silently closed it again. Just as she had once tackled scientific problems on her own, she clung to the new clues she had just obtained and began analyzing them independently.
"Kudo gets along well with Vermouth, and Kudo gets along well with Uzo. Jiang Xia also gets along well with them... Could it be that these four people went through something I don't know about together, and formed a deep friendship through it?
"Come to think of it, Kudo actually dared to impersonate me tonight and deliver himself right into Vermouth's hands... He can be a little reckless at times, but