Chapter 35 and Chapter 34: Short Messages Signed by Shinichi Kudo
I have ten virtues:
Secondly, those who know it know it, and those who don't know it just fuss.
ah?
The joy from Matsuda Jinpei's pat on the head was swept away by Conan's words. Zhuge Tongzhi pointed at himself, his eyes widened slightly, his chin jutting out, looking blankly at Conan, whose glasses were shining and who was smiling to himself.
Ale, me?
The girl, whose hand was still in a cast, spent 0.01 seconds searching her mind for the keyword 'alcohol' before suddenly remembering that it was the code name of the distillery that she had long forgotten due to being busy.
In an instant, the Oshima Jewelry Exhibition, the Möbius strip ring, the unknown older sister, and the seven-colored card stuffed into her hand... countless interconnected things flooded into her empty mind after she woke up. Zhuge Tongzhi blankly lowered the hand that was pointing at him.
Conan believes: She = Alcohol.
As soon as the huge equation appeared in her mind, the black-haired girl's round eyes widened immediately. After a flash of shock, her features shrank into a distorted mess, and she pinched her forehead with her five fingers, blocking the real pain mask on her face.
Having grown up under the red flag of the motherland since childhood, Zhuge Tongzhi stretched out his hand towards Conan's confident departing figure. His fingertips, which had grown quite long, trembled slightly, and he screamed inwardly: Conan, ptooey, Shinichi Kudo!
Wait a minute, Shinichi Edogawa!
Don't slander someone's innocence so easily!
Although I know the code name of the ale and many secrets of the brewery, it is indeed a fake child, and the custody is even registered under the name of an undercover agent in a certain brewery.
But that doesn't mean I, Zhuge Tongzhi, am also a bottle of wine!
Who exactly told you that I am El? Just as Zhuge Tongzhi was thinking about this question, he heard Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji talking about things in the holographic virtual world.
The two bomb disposal experts discussed the structure of the bomb inside the mechanical dragon's head, especially its unique configuration of using mechanical devices as a supplement and chemical detonation as the primary method, as well as the exceptionally brilliant purple-red flames after detonation.
"I never expected we'd be assembling bombs," Kenji Hagiwara said, wiggling his fingers with a hint of lingering interest. "We've only assembled model bombs before; this is the first time we've assembled a bomb that will actually explode."
"Yeah, quite a few of the parts they gave us are useless," Matsuda Jinpei commented. "Hagi, your mechanical design has regressed."
However, the fact that he even chose pink and blue for the two explosive agents was quite in line with his exaggerated aesthetic sense. Matsuda Jinpei thought of Hagiwara Kenji's unbearable wardrobe and decisively pinned the blame for the bomb design on his friend.
"I'm definitely not as good as Jinpei." Kenji Hagiwara shrugged and laughed, "After all, I wouldn't even take apart my sister's phone to take a look."
"Tch." Matsuda Jinpei smirked, still vividly remembering the time he was beaten up by Hagiwara Chisato. "Go make a call." He shoved his childhood friend on the shoulder, and Hagiwara Chisato was waving at them from the end of the corridor.
"Let's go together, so I don't have to call you over later." Kenji Hagiwara said, putting his arm around Jinpei Matsuda's shoulder, and the two walked together toward the end of the corridor. "Let's go, let's go."
Mechanical... a dragon? And with a bomb in its head? Is this Alice in Wonderland?
Zhuge Tongzhi stared blankly at the two figures as they left. After thinking for a moment, he moved closer to the Junior Detective Club to listen to their discussion. The children's topic had shifted from Baker Street back to Alice.
"...And Ran-neechan is so cool, she didn't back down an inch." Ayumi Yoshida clasped her hands together in front of her chest, her face slightly flushed, and looked admiringly at Ran Mouri, who was talking to Conan. "I was so scared."
"Me too. Even though it's holographic, it's really scary when the dragon charges at you."
Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya chuckled helplessly. The tall, thin boy scratched his head and looked at Zhuge Tongzhi, who was listening intently, and said, "But Zhuge was also very brave. If it hadn't been for the time limit, that sword would definitely have pierced the dragon's eye."
“Eh…” Zhuge Tongzhi blinked, watching Kojima Genta and Yoshida Ayumi nod seriously together, and was a little unsure how to respond, “…I see.”
What the heck? What's the time limit? Did she go and slay a dragon like Ran Mouri?
A few black lines appeared on the black-haired girl's forehead as she listened to the children's discussion with a bewildered look. Meanwhile, Conan and Ran Mouri solemnly relayed Shinichi Kudo's message and apology, promising to call each other that evening, before heading over.
"However, this has led me to discover a secret!" Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya coughed and solemnly raised his finger to his friends, especially to Conan who was walking over, saying, "Conan, you must have been secretly teaching Zhuge how to skateboard, right?"
"Huh?"
"Huh? What are you talking about? Of course I didn't teach her skateboarding." Conan looked at the three kids nodding in unison and gave them a half-moon eye, then complained, "Besides, that's not skateboarding at all, it's skiing, if you really want to say it."
"Huh??"
"What are you talking about now?" Conan took a sip of his juice, glanced at Zhuge Tongzhi who looked surprised, and slowly said, "What, you don't trust my judgment?"
What does this have to do with trust or distrust... Zhuge Tongzhi forced a weak smile, feeling that he understood less and less about this Alice in Wonderland with its bomb-wielding mechanical dragons and skiing.
It seemed impossible to figure out what was going on just by eavesdropping, so she decided to skip it. With that thought, she casually waved her hand and said, "Ah, I was just a little surprised by the snow."
As soon as he finished speaking, Zhuge Tongzhi saw Conan, who was drinking juice with his head tilted back, suddenly choke. He coughed so hard that he bent over and tried to say something, but he couldn't make out anything due to his violent coughing.
Why such a big reaction? Zhuge Tongzhi patted the boy who was choking and couldn't catch his breath. The pat almost made Conan, who was already bent over, fall to the ground. He swayed and barely managed to catch his breath.
Conan took the tissue from Zhuge Tongzhi and wiped his mouth. He leaned on his knees, breathing heavily. When he looked up at the black-haired girl in front of him, he saw genuine confusion on her face.
She didn't know what was wrong with what she said. Conan's heart tightened, and the plastic juice bottle he was holding made a squeaking sound. In Alice in Wonderland, it wasn't snowing.
"Watch out, Conan, what if I say something..." Zhuge Tongzhi put his hands on his hips, looked down at the boy, and pouted with displeasure.
“But it didn’t snow.” Ayumi Yoshida interrupted Kirito, took a few steps forward, and anxiously took her friend’s hand, asking with concern, “Hey, Kirito-chan, don’t you remember?”
"Don't you remember what happened in Alice in Wonderland, Kiri-chan?"
Don't you remember what happened? Ale.
Conan straightened up, his relaxed expression turning cold. After a moment of distraction, Zhuge Tongzhi, pressed by his friends, admitted that he just couldn't quite remember.
"Do you need to get it checked out?" Ayumi Yoshida reached out and touched her partner's head, her voice softening as if raising it would aggravate some unknown injury. She asked gently, "Does your head hurt right now? Should we call Mr. Midorikawa?"
"It's okay, Ayumi, I just can't remember a little bit."
Zhuge Tongzhi took Yoshida Ayumi's hand off her head, grabbed her arm and swung it around happily, "I remember we defeated a mechanical dragon together, and there were even some spectacular fireworks at the end, right?"
While I'm not entirely sure which specific situation it is, if it's the kind of situation that would make Conan mistake me for Aldous, then it's best not to get Morofushi Hiromitsu's attention. Even though Conan stepped in to smooth things over, he's probably still somewhat skeptical about the Harukawa Tower incident.
Dealing with a suspicious undercover agent is too troublesome; she really doesn't want to get any more attention from anyone.
Zhuge Tongzhi sighed inwardly, shaking Yoshida Ayumi's hand and saying, "I confused the light spots of the data points with the snowflakes. Actually, I remember them all, don't worry—"
The composed girl pieced together the fragmented information, rearranged it to reassure her companions, and then changed the subject to divert the children's attention: "By the way, when are we going back?"
"Ah, let me think... It's tonight's flight, and I heard it's a super-large passenger plane."
"This plaster cast is so troublesome—"
"Then don't go out alone next time!"
"Everything's OK, kids, we can go now."
"Hi-hi--!"
"Let's go, Conan." Ran Mouri bent down and said to the serious-looking boy. Following his gaze, she looked at Zhuge Tongzhi, who had been pushed back into the wheelchair. The black-haired girl was now smiling sheepishly and assuring her guardian that she would not take any more risks.
"Mr. Midorikawa is really busy. It seems like he'll be going on another study tour after returning to Japan." The high school girl said, tilting her head to look at the boy who was looking up at her. "What's wrong, Conan?"
"It's alright, Ran-neechan." Conan crumpled the damp tissue in his hand into a ball and tossed it into the trash can next to the girl. He looked up at Ran Mouri and said sweetly, "Let's go."
That evening, before the stocks of the Syndora Group and its affiliates all plummeted to their daily limit, the group left the land where they had only stayed briefly.
That same evening, Morofushi Kagemitsu gave his ward a serious pep talk, prepared a week's worth of frozen rice balls for breakfast and midnight snacks, and instructed the child to be careful before returning to school to prepare for the so-called 'study tour'.
He had barely stepped out of the community gate when Zhuge Tongzhi, who was in a wheelchair, opened the previously closed door and climbed over a gap in the wall.
The heavy cast on her arm shifted her center of gravity, causing the girl to stumble upon landing before barely regaining her balance. She leaned against the wall to stretch her legs, which felt weak after sleeping for so long, and then took out her phone to check it before continuing on her way.
On her phone in her pocket, a text message lay quietly in her inbox.
'
From: Conan Edogawa
Title: Untitled
If you're free tonight, please come to the Kudo residence to meet me.
PS: This is in the identity of Shinichi Kudo.
'
Ugh, why did you have to tell me you're Shinichi Kudo? Wouldn't it be better if we just kept acting like this and got along peacefully?
Such a self-disclosure text message is just too much! How could anyone refuse...? It's outrageous! It's outrageous!
Lost in thought, Zhuge Tongzhi rushed out of the alley with his plaster cast on his hand. He caught a glimpse of Ran Mouri coming out of the Kudo residence. He quickly grabbed the edge of the wall and turned back, peering out from the wall.
Ran Mouri, now dressed in casual clothes, had a slightly flushed face. She was holding a carefully wrapped gift box under her arm and was locking the door of the Kudo residence with a key in her other hand, while she was on the phone.
"Yes, Shinichi, I got it... Okay, be careful."
She didn't know what the other person was saying, but as she put the keys back in her pocket, she nodded with a bright smile. However, she realized that the other person couldn't see her, so she quickly added, "Okay, I know."
"Um...you too...goodnight, Shinichi."
The girl who hung up the phone put it back in her pocket, held the red gift box in both hands, and walked towards the Mouri office with a slightly skipping gait. After her figure disappeared around a corner, the door of the Kudo residence was pushed open from the inside.
Conan walked out, holding a voice-changing ribbon in one hand and a cell phone with its screen lit up in the other, his gaze following Ran Mouri's departing figure.
Zhuge Tongzhi slowly walked out of the alley, deliberately kicking the pebbles on the ground to make some noise before walking towards Conan, who had turned around. His little bun, which was tied crookedly with one hand, nodded forward.
"Come in and let's talk." Conan put his bow tie back in his pocket, took off his black-rimmed glasses, and stepped aside to let Zhuge Tongzhi pass through the entrance to the Kudo residence. "It's safe here."
“I know—” Zhuge Tongzhi, with his spiky hair, drew out his words as he walked past the detective who was always so direct, muttering, “If your own home isn’t safe, then your identity is really on the verge of collapse.”
Conan's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He closed the door, chased after Zhuge Tongzhi, and asked, "So, have you remembered?"
“No, Great Detective.” Zhuge Tongzhi walked into the entryway, changed his shoes, turned around and faced Conan, who was taking slippers out of the shoe cabinet. He put one hand on his hip and said seriously, “I knew who you were a long time ago, but this has nothing to do with any ale.”
“Actually, I don’t even know if ale has any real meaning.” The black-haired girl coldly closed her eyes, made an X with one hand in front of her, and said, “If you want to ask me this, then I’m sorry, you’ve come to the wrong person.”
"Maybe." Conan shrugged noncommittally, leading the girl, who had put on her slippers, toward the living room. As they passed the kitchen, he tiptoed to grab two drinks from the refrigerator and gestured to Zhuge Tongzhi, saying, "But I think you'd like to know what's happening in the virtual world."
"After all, you still have to fool your guardian, right?"
Without the glasses covering his eyes, his blue eyes shone even brighter. Conan handed the fruit and vegetable juice in his hand to Zhuge Tongzhi, who was looking at him. His voice, no longer strained, sounded very steady. The boy looked firmly at the girl in front of him.
“Hikaru Midorikawa, he’s not an ordinary person, is he?”
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Author's note: Everyone! I've finished my exams!
But I didn't have time to update this quickly because I went out for a good run after the exam QAQ
But I'll add more later (10,000 words! 10,000 words! I'm going to conquer you!).
Thank you all for waiting these past few days!
And I will start revising the text later. I read my own writing today and felt that there were more than ten grammatical errors in one sentence (facepalm and helpless smile).
And countless typos (I am the king of typos! I shout it out!).
These cuties are absolutely adorable for enduring this long! OuO
Let me take a break from finals.
Mwah
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