Chapter 87: Thirty Years After Debut, Still 17 Years Old
As detectives, Edogawa Conan and Hakuba Tantei were actually quite receptive. After finally breaking free from the constraints of materialistic thinking, they understood the current situation simply by listening to Cheng Xiaoyu's simple explanation.
Especially Hakuba Tan, since he usually reads a lot of comics and watches a lot of movies, he already has concepts such as high-dimensional creatures and parallel universes, and he even explained them to Kaito Kid and Conan.
Bai Ma Tan: "So you're now bound to this world by a contract you made with a higher-dimensional being. You can't leave until you've cleared out the winery and the zoo. If you stay here too long, you might even become the next infiltration point... Didn't you mention that our world is also a comic in other worlds? Can you find a way to have your colleagues outside check out that comic and reveal the spoilers?"
Cheng Xiaoyu smiled bitterly. "Do you think I haven't tried? But now I can only find the content of the thousand-plus chapters of the comic book that the author serialized the work related to Conan and the winery thirty years later - and the face of the organization's leader has not appeared in it yet."
Edogawa Conan: "..."
Doesn't that mean that he has been a first-grade student in another world for thirty years?
Kaito Kidd and Hakuba Tan both looked at Edogawa Conan with sympathy.
Kaito Kidd: "It sounds like I'm a character from another publication? So what about my side?"
Cheng Xiaoyu: "Your side is even worse off. It predates Edogawa Conan's manga by four years, but in those 34 years, you've only had a few dozen chapters, and you even took a seven-year hiatus before recently resuming publication. The only characters with code names in the zoo are Viper and Spider, and even some original characters that only appear in the anime. And Hakuba Sentinel... the big news they found recently about Hakuba Sentinel is 'finally returning after 17 years.'"
Kaito Kidd: "......"
Bai Ma Tan: “…”
The three of them didn't know whether they should sympathize with themselves and the other two brothers, or with the ghost who had obtained cross-dimensional information technology but still found nothing and was forced to work overtime.
Cheng Xiaoyu wiped her face, then lay on her back, floating in the air like a salted fish that had lost its dream. "But it's not all in vain. At least now, Conan, you know that Kyoda Kanezawa is Rum. Now, let's get started on your detective work. I want to lie down and not work hard anymore."
Edogawa Conan: "You should still try harder. For example, first show us the information about the two people you put into the crystal ball, and figure out whether it is a zoo or a winery, and why this operation is so crazy."
Xianyu flipped over again after hearing that. The fluorescent crystal ball floated quietly in her palm. She covered it with her other palm and waved it gently. A silver-haired man in a black windbreaker appeared inside. He gave the two of them the task of sniping Kaito Kidd and Hakuba Tan.
Kidd and Hakuba Tan didn't know this guy, but Conan did. He explained to them: "He's Gin, the brewery's assassin. But why would the brewery target Kaito Kidd and Hakuba Tan?"
"I don't know. It can't be found in these two people's memories. They just followed their orders."
Cheng Xiaoyu flicked the crystal ball, and the two floating heads inside shook slightly, with uncomfortable expressions on their faces. They opened their mouths as if they were saying something, but the people outside could not hear a word.
"It seems that the memories of these two people are no longer useful."
"It seems that at the moment..." Edogawa Conan was covered by Kaito Kid before he could finish his words. "Well, if it's convenient for you to ask, what would you do if their memories are no longer useful? Kill them?"
"Killing them would be a waste. I'll make good use of them. They know too much to let them go. And their fate has nothing to do with you." Cheng Xiaoyu said, "Actually, you don't have to ask me. It's easier if you pretend you don't know."
Bai Ma Tan's expression changed drastically: "What's in this crystal ball...isn't it memories?"
He originally thought it was a situation like Harry Potter and the like where a wisp of memory was extracted.
Cheng Xiaoyu knew her plan to secretly pack some souvenirs and supper to take home was ruined: "It's not memories, it's souls. I extracted their souls, and now all the police have are two living human-shaped pieces of flesh."
...I thought you were going to recreate the Pensieve for us, but it turns out you were cosplaying a bigger, better, and more powerful Dementor!
Cheng Xiaoyu: "Wow, what are you looking at? These two people will be silenced sooner or later. After they die, they will go to hell and be tortured or disappear. So why waste it? Come to my place and take the express lane."
She had said "these two people are useless" in a declarative manner rather than a question because she was afraid that they would think that they were responsible for the life of a person. Because with the personalities of the three people present, as long as they knew what the fate of these two "useless" people would be, they would never let it go.
Edogawa Conan suddenly remembered an unconfirmed piece of information that Mizunashi Reina had spread some time ago: "Recently, there have been rumors that the winery is being targeted..."
"I did it." Cheng Xiaoyu admitted readily, "I killed the man, I set the fire, and I picked up the things."
Conan Edogawa: "This method is too extreme. There may be innocent people in it."
Not everyone in the distillery is as devoted to the work as Gin. There are many who, like the Miyano family, are unable to quit and have no choice but to do so.
"So they were just unconscious. I extracted their souls and checked them one by one. I definitely didn't kill the wrong person. I'm very sensible."
Cheng Xiaoyu noticed that the three people's expressions were not very good. They obviously strongly disapproved of her behavior but did not dare to say anything, so she said.
"I know you don't agree with my approach, which is perfectly normal, and I don't intend for you to agree with me."
"In human society, people surrender their right to kill others in exchange for the right to be protected from being killed. As a member of this society, upholding this rule is not wrong. At the same time, as a group of creatures, you resent the killing of your own kind, unwilling to bear the burden of killing a member of your tribe. It's perfectly normal for you to instinctively uphold the rule of 'not killing.' You are still human, and you must continue to live in a human society bound together by this rule. It's instinctive. Therefore, whether you reject me, are wary of me, or even dislike me, it's all perfectly normal and in line with human instinct."
"I can do this because I am not human, and I don't intend to live in human society. I don't enjoy the rights of human society, and naturally I won't be bound by its rules. I have my own set of rules to govern me."
"As for those I killed, you don't need to feel sad for them. I can tell you responsibly that every person who died at my hands took at least one life. I mean, they didn't kill anyone against their will. They killed people, and they walked outside the rules. So, at this moment, they are no longer protected by the rules of human society, which also means that they don't recognize the human social rules I mentioned above."
"They encountered me outside the law of the jungle, and I am stronger than them, that's all."
"Of course, since we are in a partnership now, out of respect for my partners I can appropriately abide by your social rules. It's okay if I don't kill these two people now."
Cheng Xiaoyu changed the crystal ball in her hand to the size of a ping-pong ball and threw it to Edogawa Conan. The three of them hurriedly caught the crystal ball before it hit the ground and breathed a sigh of relief.
With mixed feelings, Edogawa Conan put the crystal ball containing the person who wanted to kill him ten minutes ago into his pocket: "To be honest, you are more communicative and understanding than I thought."
Even though Edogawa Conan is very averse to killing, he gave up arguing with her because it was meaningless after knowing that the person in front of him was not a human or even a creature from this world.
People of the same race have irreconcilable and incomprehensible customs. Why should he use human concepts to demand an external demon?
The ideas of Hakuba Tanaka and Kaito Kid are similar to those of Edogawa Conan. This is why Kaito Kid knew that Cheng Xiaoyu would kill people but did not express any opinions in this regard.
Having said that, there is still some conflict and rejection in my heart. It's not just the act of the devil killing people that I reject, but I am also somewhat repulsed by myself for not accepting the ghost's style but having to accept the information she obtained in this way.
But they didn't expect that Cheng Xiaoyu, as a demon, would know so much about human society and even understand it. He predicted their thoughts, expressed his understanding of this, and comforted them in return, telling them not to think that their thoughts were strange.
This level of understanding of the human mind... She must have had in-depth contact and research on humans. What kind of journey has this calm and composed demon in front of her experienced?
Cheng Xiaoyu smiled. "I'm used to it. I used to be treated as a villain. I can guess what's going on in your mind with my eyes closed. You're actually quite rational. At least you're standing here and listening to me. I've encountered someone quite extreme before. When we were discussing a battle plan, he thought that if the world needed to be saved by my methods, it might as well be destroyed. He then grabbed a weapon and chopped me off the head. He was fooled into defecting... I can understand his thoughts and actions, but it's still a bit frustrating."
Bai Ma Tan: "What's the plan?"
Cheng Xiaoyu: "Abandon those infected by the irreversible pollution, completely seal off and destroy the area to prevent the pollution from escaping, and release hypnotic frequency radio waves in the city to let them leave without pain. It's not that he disagreed with this approach, but he thought I could do better and save more people. But I made excuses not to do it. From this, he concluded that I was a hypocritical demon and began to completely deny everything I said before. He even opened the blockade and released the controlled pollution. Then, the locals saw me trying to stop him, and then... in the eyes of these people who didn't know the truth, I became their enemy."
Kaito Kidd frowned: "Who is this guy? Is he crazy?"
Cheng Xiaoyu shook her head. "His family is in the blockade area. He's usually a very rigid and rational person. That was the only time he let his emotions get the better of him, the only time he lost control."
But it almost caused everyone to lose everything.
After that, Cheng Xiaoyu no longer told others about any plans or things when carrying out missions. No matter their abilities, purposes, backgrounds or names, he always kept a distance from the people he met in the characters.
Cheng Xiaoyu's elders once praised her as a child who is very studious and motivated.
She began to act alone, she began to selectively conceal information, her disguise magic became more and more sophisticated, and the shadow under her feet grew larger and larger...
As long as you are busy, you won’t be idle. If you are not idle, you won’t think. If you don’t think, you won’t get hurt.
So she kept running and running, until she realized that her disguise was so thick that she couldn't express her true emotions even in front of her family and friends.
So she threw herself once more into the endless work she had chosen for herself.
Until she thought she was trapped in a darkness from which she could not escape, until she thought there was no one around her...
The "self" she thought was indestructible eventually disintegrated like a snowball falling to the ground, and her body and soul were shattered into pieces of debris flowing with sadness and pain, and she was almost completely scrapped.
Cheng Xiaoyu smiled and sighed, "So people should still clear their minds regularly and let their minds go wild without hurting others. Otherwise, it would be really pitiful if they were dying without even having a single wild fit."
The three people who were originally feeling sad: "......"
What a weird theory?
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