Chapter 59 (Previously Chapter 58): A Tasting of Black and Red: In Curaçao...

My existence is an eternal surprise.

Life is full of surprises.

Matsuda Jinpei's voice was very calm, completely lacking the barely expressed anger and confusion he had shown in the carriage earlier, but Zhuge Tongzhi easily sensed the surging undercurrent of emotion beneath his words.

She loosened her grip on the curtain, bit her lip, and pondered a solution, her rapidly racing mind flashing through countless miscellaneous excuses.

Encountering a fortune teller, observing celestial phenomena at night, receiving a secret message from aliens, or confessing that he is a visitor from another world? Zhuge Tongzhi went through all these excuses, which were absurd whether they were lies or not, and cold sweat gradually appeared on his forehead.

I can't explain it at all!

Neither Kenji Hagiwara's unusual behavior nor her insistence on entering the train car with a bundle of equipment can be explained reasonably!

Zhuge Tongzhi pressed both hands to her head in frustration. Her short hair, which was tied in a small bun, stood up abruptly and was now twisted and turned by her rubbing.

"You've completely exposed your struggle to explain, Kiri-chan." Hagiwara Kenji looked away from the shadow cast on the curtain by the light, his eyes revealing a helpless half-moon shape.

"I've been having the same dream for the past few days. In the dream, you were blown up on a Ferris wheel." Zhuge Tongzhi heard Kenji Hagiwara's voice softly coming from behind the curtain. His usually cheerful tone sounded a little sad and lost after the last syllable was flattened.

But after saying that, he quickly smiled and switched back to his usual joking tone, asking, "Would Jinpei believe Kenji-chan?"

Matsuda Jinpei paused in applying the gauze, then picked up a piece of gauze from the sterile box and slapped it onto the last wound that was still oozing blood. The person who had been exaggerating and screaming in pain earlier didn't utter a sound now.

After treating the wound, the curly-haired police officer stood up, threw his clean jacket onto his childhood friend's back, and forcefully slammed the cap back on with both hands, making two crisp clicks. Looking at his best friend who had put on the jacket and turned around, he said, "Takahashi will be furious with this explanation."

"A reason as bad as a tarot card."

The tin box, thrown onto the table, slammed against the tabletop with a loud crash. The curtain in front of Zhuge Tongzhi was suddenly pulled open, and Matsuda Jinpei stood in front of her with one hand in his pocket, looking down at the disheveled girl with shifty eyes.

"The reason for observing celestial phenomena at night is the same, don't you agree?"

"Yeah, hahaha..." Zhuge Tongzhi, facing Matsuda Jinpei's exceptionally tall figure, scratched the back of his head helplessly and unconsciously raised his voice. He glanced at Hagiwara Kenji, who was shaking his head with his hands outstretched behind the curly-haired man, and looked up at him with a sweet, embarrassed smile: "After all, this world is still very much a Conan world."

“I’ll talk to your guardian.” Matsuda Jinpei glanced back at Hagiwara Kenji, who quickly lowered his hand and pretended nothing had happened. He flicked Zhuge Tongzhi’s forehead twice with his fingers, his magnetic voice lowered, making it even more imposing: “This isn’t over yet.”

It wasn't just the incident of forcibly entering the Ferris wheel; there was also the previous Qingchuan Tower incident and the conversation with Curaçao inside the train car. Now he could no longer ignore those unusual occurrences.

What else is there to talk about? Morofushi Kagemitsu probably saw the whole thing. Zhuge Tongzhi was bounced back two steps, covered his forehead in annoyance, and thought to himself: Are we going to have a proper discussion about my 'bomb' attribute?

Having already been spoiled by Noah's Ark, the five-person meeting at the hospital that day, Zhuge Tongzhi, who earned the title of 'time bomb,' was firmly held by Matsuda Jinpei's wrist as he walked out of the Metropolitan Police Department's infirmary with Hagiwara Kenji.

The level of supervision was significantly upgraded. Zhuge Tongzhi, who was handed over safely throughout the process, received the same "Ran Mouri's loving fist" as Conan. The short-haired girl, whose eyes were rubbed dry by the national karate champion, covered her head, wiped the mist from her eyes, and waved goodbye to the police officers present.

"Kiri-chan, you and Conan are really something." Ran Mouri held the silent Zhuge Tongzhi's hand, her free hand clenched into a fist and cracking, her voice filled with genuine annoyance and worry, "There are already police officers handling it, how could you still force your way in?"

"Do you know you might get hurt?" The girl, deeply worried about the two children after receiving the notification, sighed. Instead of criticizing their initial intention to help, she said, "Even if you're helping, you should put your own safety first."

But even if I told you these things, no one would believe me. The girl, with her head down, sniffed and obediently replied, "I'll definitely do it next time, Sister Xiaolan."

"That's what Conan just told me too." Ran Mouri stopped helplessly by the roadside and led the girl to a less crowded area. "But next time you'll be rushing into danger alone again."

"Tori-chan".

She crouched down on the spot with the fiery clouds in the sky behind her, gently placed her hands on Zhuge Tongzhi's shoulders, met the girl's gaze as she looked up at her, and said gently but firmly, "When facing danger, you must protect yourself first, okay?"

“If you need help, I’m right here.” Ran Mouri’s cheeks were flushed with the glow of the burning clouds, and her smile was so beautiful and vibrant. “As long as you’re doing the right thing, it’s okay if you can’t explain it.”

The wind that swept in lifted Ran Mouri's hair forward, brushing against the cheek of the person in front of her. Zhuge Tongzhi, whose eyes were also filtered through the red glow of the clouds, moved slightly, and gently stroked the seven-colored card with the hand on the side of his bag.

"Yes, I will."

After she finished speaking, she grinned and unzipped her handbag, took out a cute but ugly red apple plush keychain and handed it to Ran Mouri. "This is a prize I won in archery. I went there specifically for Ran-neechan."

"I remember Conan saying that Ran likes red." Zhuge Tongzhi looked at Ran Mouri holding the red apple, put his hands behind his back, tilted his head and smiled, and explained, "There happened to be a stall selling this as a small trinket, so I just grabbed it!"

Although this is a waypoint mission that suddenly appears in the queue, with O's precision down to 0.1 degrees, winning this most expensive ultimate prize is no problem at all.

She prefers to travel in a simple and lightweight manner, so she doesn't wear any accessories on her bag except for the set of seven-color cards. The ugly-cute red apple is just right for Ran Mouri.

But she had given it to him too early in a moment of distraction. Only after giving it to him did Zhuge Tongzhi realize that the other person hadn't brought a backpack and was now just holding it in their hand. She should have waited until they got home before giving them the gift.

Ran Mouri responded by hanging the red apple on her belt, then grabbing Zhuge Tongzhi's hand and striding towards the supermarket, saying, "Let's go! Let's buy some good food. We're not bringing Conan tonight."

"Huh? Where did Conan go?" The girl, belatedly realizing that the great detective had disappeared, had a question mark popping into her head. She tried hard to recall and realized that she hadn't seen him when she left the police station.

"He went to Professor Agasa's house to get something." Ran Mouri led the child across the zebra crossing where people were going in different directions. Before the light turned red, they stepped onto the sidewalk, the red apple at her waist swaying back and forth. "And then, it seems his family is coming to see him, so he won't be back tonight."

"I see." Zhuge Tongzhi walked close to Ran Mouri, and was a little puzzled when he heard this.

Have the Kudo couple gone back to Japan? I haven't heard Conan mention it.

"Tong-chan, do you like Chinese food?"

"I love it!" She immediately forgot about Conan, who had disappeared somewhere, and squeezed Ran's hand tightly. "I want to eat Mapo Tofu, Ran-neechan."

Two girls, who swallowed hard at the same time, stepped into the entrance of the Mihua Supermarket.

…

At this time, at Professor Agasa's house

"It's nothing, Vermouth just took me out of the amusement park." Ai Haibara shook her head when Conan asked her with concern, indicating that Vermouth was sure she kept her promise and hadn't done anything to her.

Of course, there were also some verbal warnings.

The red marks from the detective badge on her hand hadn't faded yet, but she forcibly ignored the lingering fear in her heart and asked directly, "Who is that silver-haired woman? I heard Bourbon's name."

“Curaçao.” Conan wrote the name of this Caribbean liquor on the paper and repeated Vermouth’s words to Ai Haibara beside him: “Like Bourbon, he is one of Rum’s men and has a photographic memory.”

When Ai Haibara heard the code name, her hand paused slightly as she poured tea. She stopped just before the water in the cup overflowed, and the tea, held back by the rim of the cup, swelled up in a full arc, reflecting her thoughtful expression.

"It's still unclear why she's following us." Conan tapped on the name with his pen, piecing together the information he'd gathered that day. "And Vermouth said Curaçao knows my secret, but she probably doesn't recognize me."

"The first question is, when Ayumi and the others found Curaçao, she should indeed have lost her memory." Ai Haibara took a sip of her hot tea. "It was traumatic retrograde amnesia caused by the car accident, but I guess she regained her memory when you took the picture of her."

"So casually?" Conan scoffed, revealing his crescent-shaped eyes. "If it's because of the shutter light, there are plenty of colored lights and flashes in the amusement park. Why did the memory return at that particular moment?"

“No, it’s not that simple.” Ai Haibara put down her teacup, which clinked crisply on the wooden table. She looked down at the reflection of the overhead light in the teacup for a few seconds before saying, “Actually, I’ve heard of the code name Curaçao.”

"What?" Conan's expression turned serious as he listened intently to Ai Haibara's explanation.

"Silver hair, heterochromatic eyes, a rum subordinate who debuted in the organization in the last year or two, with an exceptional memory and photographic memory." Ai Haibara uttered a few keywords, then said with some annoyance, "Although I haven't seen a picture of Curaçao, I should have guessed it just by looking at her face."

“These characteristics aren’t particularly unique in this era, and besides, Curaçao has never intended to kill us, so it’s normal that we can’t guess,” Conan reassured him.

“Well, it’s not important anymore.” Ai Haibara closed her eyes and continued, “I had heard about her abilities when I was still in the organization, but Curaçao wasn’t the first one to be characterized by ‘photographic memory’.”

“They are two codenamed members personally trained by Rum, Rag and El.” Ai Haibara said, reaching for the teapot and missing Conan’s sudden change in expression. “It is said that they were very young when they received their codenames and had the ability to remember everything they saw.”

"Because they practice Rum's mysticism, very few members in the organization have seen their true faces, but it is certain that they are female members." The brown-haired girl searched her limited information in her mind and continued, "It is said that the two are very close and were children who came out of the training camp in the same batch."

"Training camp?" Conan seized on this key word and pressed, "Is it a place for training members of the organization?"

“There is a training camp like the one you mentioned, but the training camp I’m talking about is exclusive to Rum and has a different function.”

When Ai Haibara mentioned the word "function," a mocking smile appeared on her lips. She glanced at Conan, whose expression was somewhat unpleasant, and suddenly changed the subject.

"The APTX4869 experiment I led was a key focus of the organization, but before my parents started this research, the organization was also pushing forward with experiments for other research objectives."

“Kudo, the structure of human life is complex.” Ai Haibara said, raising her hand from a low position to simulate the process of growing from a child to an adult. “There is a unidirectional process of birth, growth, aging, and death, and APTX4869 is trying to reverse it.”

“And besides that, the most complex part of the human body is the brain.” The tea-making girl withdrew her hand and tapped her temple. “Emotions, thoughts, language, and ‘memory’ that forms the foundation of its thinking.”

“A person’s identity comes from their memories. If those memories are worn down, then that person’s existence is being erased little by little,” Ai Haibara said calmly. “So why not think about it the other way around and transplant all the memories into a new body? Wouldn’t that be considered a rebirth?”

Memory. Conan thought of the disconnect between his two identities, El and Zhuge Tongzhi, and then of Curaçao's photographic memory; a vague feeling slipped through his mind.

As he listened to Ai Haibara's wildly imaginative and slightly bizarre idea, his urge to argue vanished the moment he remembered that he had indeed become a primary school student.

"There's a rumor circulating among the lab members that the Boss previously conducted experiments on mind transplantation."

Ai Haibara wrote a B in her notebook and then drew a line connecting it to the RUM that Conan had just written. "But this experiment did not make any substantial progress and was later handed over to the second-generation rum."

“Rum controls the organization’s intelligence group. He changed the direction of his experiments and started researching the memory storage mechanism.” She circled a blank ellipse on her notebook and connected RUM to the ellipse. “Memory research is quite different from drug research. For this reason, Rum set up a training camp.”

"The first batch of people to enter the training camp are children with hyperthymesia and elderly people with Alzheimer's disease." Ai Haibara gripped the bright red ballpoint pen in her hand and looked up at Conan with her icy blue eyes.

"..."

The reason for gathering these people into the training camp is self-evident. Conan nodded silently, indicating that he understood the unspoken meaning of the girl.

“Lag and El were the most successful experiments among them.” Ai Haibara wrote the two names of the liquor in the oval box, then jumped back to the original topic and said, “But about a year ago, the two defected and were purged by the organization. Curaçao, who had the same abilities, began to emerge.”

In the consciousness space constructed by Noah's Ark, Al mentioned defection, but did not mention Lager.

What happened during the organization's purge? Conan stroked the warm rim of his teacup, lost in thought.

“If nothing unexpected happens, Curaçao should have the same background.” Ai Haibara crossed out the names of Lag and El from the oval box and added Curaçao at the bottom, saying, “Rum values ​​her highly. This person should have memorized a lot of the organization’s secrets.”

"As for whether Curaçao has discovered your identity, I think that's still questionable." Ai Haibara pushed aside the notebook and turned back to Conan's second question, saying objectively, "The organization's experiments are basically not shared with each other, so she should not know about APTX4869."

But Conan didn't think so. After learning about the organization's inner workings, and returning to the original question, he suddenly realized who Curaçao's "secret" really referred to—

If Curaçao and Elju came from the same training camp and had photographic memories, she would definitely remember what the younger version of Zhuge Tongzhi looked like, but Vermouth mistook that for him.

Curaçao didn't leave immediately after regaining her memory, probably because she discovered the ale but couldn't act because of the police around.

Having sorted everything out, Conan downed the tea in his cup in one gulp, calming his turbulent emotions.

As a result, Vermouth's one-click report, which was misunderstood, led to a series of farcical events that ultimately pushed the person into the hands of the undercover police officer Bourbon.

"The reason I know about Rum's experiments is because that defection incident caused a huge uproar, and the codenamed members were basically aware of some of his methods," Ai Haibara concluded. "Most of Rum's men are shrouded in mystery, and that's all I know."

"This was a great help, thank you, Haibara."

"It's alright, Kudo."

"Alright, alright, kids shouldn't stay up late, it's time to go to sleep."

"Doctor, we're not really little kids..."

"Click." A pink-haired man took off his headphones and placed them on the table.

A black data cable was connected to the earphones, and the other end was plugged into a device that looked like a radio. The device was extending its antenna to capture signals of the same frequency, and Professor Agasa's voice was faintly coming from it.

In the brightly lit Kudo residence, he stood up and drew back the curtains in front of the French windows. As the night deepened, a small figure pushed open the outer gate of the Kudo residence and ran towards the main entrance.

Hearing the sound of a door opening downstairs, a pair of squinty eyes behind square half-rimmed glasses opened, and dark green wolf eyes calmly looked at the light that had been turned off in Professor Agasa's house next door, making it impossible to see what he was thinking.

"Mr. Akai!" Conan's clear, childlike voice rang out in the corridor. "I'm here."

“Here I am, Boya.”

Shuichi Akai lowered the floor-length curtain in his hand, turned around and opened the door to the reception room.

Curaçao, Al, Bourbon, Scotland... Shiho Miyano

interesting.

…

Maori House

Shortly after the meal, the lights were turned off in the room. Zhuge Tongzhi sat up from the bed. His originally frizzy hair was now neatly combed by Moli Ran and tucked behind his head.

The girl, seemingly still half-asleep, raised her head and scanned the dimly lit room. Her gaze paused when it fell on the red apple bathed in moonlight on the table. Then, she slowly raised her hand and pressed it against half of her head, her brows twitching a few times.

"Phew..." With one hand pressing her temples, the short-haired girl quietly got out of bed, quickly changed into clothes that were easy to move in, and took out a miniature earphone from her backpack and put it in her ear.

"Noah's Ark".

"Here." A synthesized electronic voice rang in my ears.

"Send me Curaçao's location." The black-haired, black-eyed girl grabbed a rope and tied up her loose trousers. She left the Maori residence silently, then turned around as she listened to the Noah's Ark broadcast. "Take care of the surveillance footage."

'Okay, are you going to find Curaçao?'

"Hmm, find an excuse to get Bourbon and Scotland out of my way." She slung the same shoulder bag she'd used that morning over her shoulder, the seven-colored card dangling from the side of the bag with her movements. "It doesn't matter when they get back, just let me in."

Okay, do you need me to tell you the access route?

“No need.” Elju pressed down on the earpiece, a smile playing on his lips. “I’ve already glanced at the layout plan.”

"There are too many roads to take to reach your destination."

-----------------------

Author's Note: Tonight, Xiao Ke: An information frenzy night!!!

Zhuge and Xiaolan: Super delicious Mapo Tofu! (Fujiya smiling and giving a thumbs up jpg.)

Akai: Immediately install a bugging device at my cousin's house.

Boss Jing and Zero: They are preparing to work through the night to handle matters related to Curaçao.

El, the top-ranked player: Let me steal a house.

…

Mwah