Chapter 248: The Immortal Witch "Tell Sister Lin about this."...
The last line is the last diary entry written by Itakura Taku.
Haibara Ai looked at the time carefully and found that it was July 19th.
That was the day before yesterday.
Five days from now, at midnight, the software submission deadline is here. A tiny disk could actually contain a weapon capable of shaking the world... Even now, I still find it unbelievable.
After handing over the software to those people, I will go abroad and get away from this place that makes me feel uneasy.
Under the threat of my life, I must hand this thing over to those people...
However, I also left a backdoor in the software. Just for the sake of all mankind...
…
I can already feel the deadline approaching. Maybe, once those people get their hands on the software, they'll kill me.
Maybe I should take a risk...]
The diary ends here.
Huiyuan Ai frowned: "It's indeed very suspicious... You just said that Itakura Taku is missing?"
Kudo Shinichi: "Yes. Although I deduced his residence, when the police arrived, Itakura Taku was no longer there. He was still writing in his diary the night before he disappeared. I think he may have sensed something was wrong and fled in advance."
"Habara, when you were in the organization, did you hear about the software plan?"
Huibara Ai shook her head.
“Although the organization has a shared internal network, the members actually handle their own affairs separately,” she said. “All I know about are the drug development projects.”
"Okay." Kudo Shinichi received a negative answer, but he didn't show any disappointment. "Do you remember the women mentioned in Itakura Taku's diary, and the burly man with the Kansai accent?"
"That woman... should be Vermouth." Huiyuan Ai said, "'We must go against the flow of time...' I once heard her say this."
Haibara Ai has only met Vermouth a few times.
The woman always had a faint smile on her face. She adhered to the principles of mysticism and rarely showed her true face to others.
She once appeared in the R&D department and seemed very interested in the APTX series of drugs.
When she found out that Haibara Ai noticed her, she said this half with a sigh and half with advice - Haibara Ai suspected that this was her catchphrase, otherwise why would she say this to her since they were not familiar with each other?
However, Haibara Ai had some theories about her unchanging appearance. She knew that the predecessor of the APTX series of drugs seemed to be an incomplete elixir of life. Perhaps the woman had taken that drug, which was why her appearance remained unchanged.
The same goes for Punch.
"As for the man with the accent, I haven't heard of him." Huiyuan Ai said, "Maybe he is just an outsider."
"Maybe..." Kudo Shinichi said, "I want to take the initiative this time, Haibara."
Huiyuan Ai: “?”
She slowly turned her head and stared at the ignorant boy in front of her.
"Are you trying to make a deal on behalf of Itakura Taku?"
Kudo Shinichi stared at Huibara Ai, feeling a little guilty, and scratched his head: "Opportunities are rare, and they will never come back again. This is the closest I've ever been to the organization."
"Do you know how dangerous this is?" Huiyuan Ai sneered, "Besides, you don't even know where the transaction is going to take place!"
"What if Itakura Taku isn't missing, but has been captured by the organization? Wouldn't you be a fool for walking into their trap?"
Kudo Shinichi lowered his head in anger after being scolded by Huibara, but still refused to give up: "There are old phone records in the landline of Itakura Taku's home. There is a number in it that has been contacting him frequently recently, and this number is not from Itakura Taku's other three clients... I suspect that it is the contact information of someone from the organization!"
"I have a voice changer. I can pretend to be Itakura Taku and negotiate with that person..."
"What if you're discovered by the organization? Are you going to confront them head-on? With your child's body, or with the face of the long-dead 'Kudo Shinichi'?"
"Habara, we can't stop just because we see difficulties! Sooner or later, we will face the organization! I understand your caution, but I can't miss this opportunity--"
“——Okay, I understand.” Haibara Ai took a deep breath.
"If you want to do it, then do it—I have only one request."
"Tell Sister Lin about this."
Kudo Shinichi opened his eyes wide in surprise.
After a while, he said quietly, "Sister Lin already knows about the organization? Did you tell her?"
"Of course not." Huibara Ai sneered, "Sister Lin isn't as naive as your sister Xiaolan, who believes everything you say. If one of us is responsible for our identities being exposed, it must be you, Kudo Shinichi. I really should record you pretending to be a child and play it on the big screen so you can see how foolish you really are."
"Sister Lin had her suspicions to begin with, but yesterday she seemed to have confirmed something completely and hinted to me that we could always ask her for help."
"I think it's best not to act too aggressively in this situation. She's very strong, and if we continue to act behind her back now that she's already aware of the organization, it will only make things more difficult."
Kudo Shinichi said with a sense of luck: "Sister Lin probably doesn't know that we have become smaller, right?"
"It's hard to say." Huiyuan Ai broke his self-deception, "Be prepared to have your lies exposed, great detective."
Kudo Shinichi's face drooped.
"What if Sister Lin doesn't agree with my plan?"
"Sister Lin won't disagree." Huiyuan Ai was very confident. "She likes to keep everything around her under her control. If you tell her, she will only help you accomplish what you want to do - she will be happy that you asked her for help. But if you do it secretly without her knowledge and she finds out, hehe... although she won't say it, she will be unhappy in her heart."
"Besides..." Huiyuan Ai's tone was a little helpless: "Sister Lin also likes exciting and interesting things. She will probably think that what you are going to do is very interesting..."
Ultimately, Lin Jie and Edogawa's personalities are the most similar. They both love adventure, and when they encounter something they're interested in, they forget about everyone else. They're full of confidence, and they believe that nothing is unsolvable...
The only difference may be that Sister Lin has a higher emotional intelligence than Edogawa, and she can make everyone around her happy when she speaks.
Buzz...
While they were chatting, the intelligent robot had already prepared instant coffee for them and handed it to them in small cups.
Dr. Agasa accepted it gratefully. "The robot Ms. Lin gave me is really useful. Not only can it help analyze experimental data, but it can also take care of daily life... It makes me feel cared for."
Kudo Shinichi was embarrassed: "Doctor, you are still young, please don't talk like you are some lonely old man..."
Ai Haibara glanced at the little robot.
The robot's round head tilted.
Haibara Ai withdrew her gaze.
"There is one thing, and it's also about Sister Lin," she said.
Seeing her seriousness, Kudo Shinichi's expression also became serious.
"What happened?"
Haibara Ai pursed her lips and considered her words.
"That's right, I feel like Sister Lin has been a little strange lately," she said. "Although she appears to be the same on the surface, I always feel..."
"What do you always feel?"
"...I always feel that she is not in a good mental state recently."
Huihara Ai said, "Actually, Sister Lin is a very insecure person. She seems to be a social butterfly, with many friends and no lack of care, but she always politely keeps a distance from every 'friend' and never takes the initiative to pry into other people's secrets."
"If she encounters someone who needs help, she will definitely step forward. But once she is the one in trouble, she will... subconsciously act tough. She always thinks she can solve everything, and when she encounters a problem she can't solve... she becomes very anxious."
Kudo Shinichi touched his chin.
Indeed, Sister Lin always keeps a distance from others that is neither too close nor too far, making people feel warm and relaxed without feeling offended.
Only last time... in the forest, Sister Lin's expression suddenly changed.
She suddenly stopped smiling. When she wasn't smiling, she really made people feel distant, as if the air had been frozen into slag... Kudo Shinichi couldn't help but shiver when he thought of that time.
What did he say then?
"Mr. Amuro is a really good person, Conan. He's someone you can trust. If you encounter any difficulties, ask him for help. I believe he will definitely help you."
"I might as well come to you, Sister Lin," he muttered softly, "if I need help."
Then Sister Lin’s smile disappeared.
"You really think so?" she asked darkly.
"Sister Lin doesn't seem to like others relying on her too much." Kudo Shinichi was unsure and asked doubtfully, "Was she like this before?"
Huiyuan Ai pondered for a moment: "It's not that she doesn't like others to be too dependent on her, but rather that she doesn't want to establish too close a bond with others."
"But when I first met Sister Lin, she wasn't like this. She seemed very lonely then, so she actively wanted to connect with the world, and I was the same way...that's why we developed this kind of relationship. If it were Sister Lin now, she would definitely not invite me to live with her. She would just keep a suitable distance and occasionally show concern for me."
"Also, last month, I found a registration slip at home. It said the institution was Mihua Ankang Hospital. I did some research and found out that the hospital is... a hospital that specializes in treating and accommodating patients with mental illnesses."
"This..." Kudo Shinichi stood at attention, "Has the situation become so serious?"
"I asked Sister Lin, and she just said she was going to the hospital to visit a friend." Huiyuan Ai said, "So I didn't care much."
"Maybe these are just my guesses, I'm too sensitive..."
Huiyuan Ai paused mid-sentence. She remembered the scar she had seen on Lin Xi's neck that day.
She lowered her head and said, "If you really want to contact someone from the organization, tell Sister Lin about your plan."
"If she's already starting to shy away from a deeper bond with us, then maybe pulling her in, forcing her to accept all of who we are and stand with us, might alleviate her insecurities."
——By the way, it can also eliminate her own insecurity.
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