He suddenly realized:

"Oh, so that's what it was about!"

"Is today the day that Fusae and the professor agreed on?"

He saw a ginkgo leaf that had turned golden on Ai's hair.

The ginkgo leaves reminded him of that important matter:

—That was the ten-year promise between Professor Agasa and Fusa.

The golden ginkgo leaves were a reminder that the appointed time was approaching.

He only remembered the approximate time they agreed on, but he had no recollection of the exact date.

Xiao Ai had just returned to the living room after trying on the clothes when she heard several people complaining.

She then spoke up:

"You guys should stop complaining."

"The reason why the letter is missing is also related to the fact that you came over last night to play video games and made a mess of this place."

“That makes sense…” Mitsuhiko and Genta instantly lost their confidence.

He wiped his hands with a towel, and then walked over to Ai and reached out to remove the ginkgo leaf from her hair.

"Ai, did you go to school this morning?" Kōyū asked.

"Yeah, I went to school with Ayumi this morning to check on the school's rabbits." Ai nodded.

She said:

"The place where they raise rabbits is near the road with ginkgo trees."

"That must have been when it drifted into my hair."

After she finished speaking, she covered her mouth with her hand and yawned.

Hearing their conversation, Ayumi stopped what she was doing and touched her hair.

She also found a golden ginkgo leaf in her hair.

“A rabbit?” Guangyou thought for a moment and said, “I remember hearing a girl say yesterday that the rabbit seemed to be sick.”

Teitan Elementary School has a tradition of keeping these small animals, supposedly to cultivate children's compassion and sense of responsibility.

So far, the results seem quite good.

However, this only applies to most girls and some boys.

"So Ayumi and I went to the school to take a look this morning."

After saying that, Ai glanced at the things that had been rummaged through the floor and asked:

"By the way, haven't you found that letter yet?"

"No," Ayumi shook her head.

Stroking his chin, recalling what Professor Agasa usually did after receiving letters, Kōyū said:

"I remember that after reading the letters, the professor would usually put them on the TV."

"Could it have fallen behind the TV?"

"Have you searched that area yet?"

"No." Ayumi shook her head.

Upon hearing this, Mitsuhiko walked over to the television, bent down, and peeked through the gap behind the television.

Upon seeing that there was indeed a letter or something similar in the crevice, Mitsuhiko said to everyone:

"There really are a lot of things!"

"Look."

He reached out and took all those things out, then raised his hand to show everyone.

He had several envelopes in his hand.

The envelopes were covered in a layer of dust from being left in the gap behind the television for so long.

"We should have started looking in places like this from the beginning," Conan said, somewhat speechless.

Upon seeing the letter, Kōyū muttered to himself:

"It really is today."

"What do you mean today?" Ai asked, somewhat puzzled.

"Actually, it's nothing." Kōyū briefly explained the situation to Ai, "It's about the thing I told you about the Doctor's childhood friend."

"That thing?" Ai remembered.

Guangyou had told her about it before.

However, not wanting to break their agreement, they did not take any action.

Instead, they were thinking about whether there were other opportunities.

But so far there has been no opportunity.

After that, there were so many things to do that I simply didn't have any time.

"Is the appointed day almost here?" Ai asked again.

"Yes." Guangyou nodded and said to her, "And it's very likely to be today."

"Should we let the two of them handle this themselves?" Ai asked, looking at Kousuke.

"Well, if the appointment is for today, then let Professor Agasa go find the other party himself." Mitsuyu had already made the same decision as Ai.

It's not that he didn't want to help, or that he wanted to shirk his responsibilities.

Since it was an agreement between Professor Agasa and Fusae, let them do it themselves.

What kind of business is it for him to interfere?

Ai nodded in agreement.

She thought it was fine.

As a girl, she understands this feeling very well.

...

Holding the letters, everyone sat down on the sofa and began to read them one by one.

There were many letters, postcards, greeting cards, etc., found, for example:

New Year's cards, summer greetings, and even notices to renew expired driver's licenses.

Finding these things surprised Professor Agasa:

"These are all things I thought were gone."

In addition to these, there were several other letters.

The postcard at the top caught Ai's attention.

"This character is so cute."

"It's obviously written by a child," Guangyou said.

The two then exchanged a glance.

Although Ai didn't ask, her questioning look said it all.

Guangyou, who immediately understood, nodded in agreement.

However, this photo only attracted Mitsuyu and Ai.

And the attention of Dr. Agasa, who was involved in the incident back then.

The others' attention was still focused on the missing invitation.

After a brief pause, Kōyū put aside the postcard, which was most likely drawn by Fusa, and then picked up the next letter.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!