Professor Agasa's house.
Haibara Ai sat in a chair and hung up the phone. She buried her head between her knees, her pale skin slightly flushed, her heart pounding.
At first, she had only wanted to casually mention that she was going to the opening ceremony of the Twin Towers in Nishitama City, then see whether her sister—or Miss Anonymous—would show up there.
But halfway through, Haibara Ai realized in astonishment that she was speaking to the Anonymous who might be listening in a willful, almost coquettish tone.
Once she noticed that, guilt swiftly welled up in her. She barely managed to finish what she wanted to say before immediately hanging up.
Haibara Ai raised a hand to support her forehead, thinking regretfully: I really did unconsciously start treating Miss Anonymous like my sister.
"..." To arbitrarily treat one person as another person's double... If Anonymous really could hear what she had just said, she hoped Miss Anonymous would not be angry.
She let out a guilty sigh.
Afterward, Haibara Ai looked at the stopwatch in her hand, frozen at "18," reset it, and deleted the record.
When she had first escaped the organization, everyone in Haibara Ai's family had died except for her. She had been utterly disheartened, with little will to survive.
But later, she had gained a stable living environment, several warm and cheerful friends, and even made contact with Anonymous... Haibara Ai's survival instinct had gradually begun returning to the normal range.
Especially whenever she thought of Anonymous, Haibara Ai felt that she could not keep coasting on what she already had. She had to keep up with the rapidly advancing cutting-edge technology if she wanted a chance to rise from an Anonymous Peripheral Member to a full member, and truly integrate into that strange,