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The night is coming soon...

A blond man in a suit stood at the door of the dessert shop, his expression blurred by the shadow of the warm light. He just stayed in front of the door for a moment, then put on a gentle and harmless smile and walked in to where Noel and the children were.

Under the children's wary gazes, he introduced himself as a hospital staff member, which was the identity he had agreed with the detective before coming. Although he still received slightly repulsive looks from the children, he managed to gain some trust after he took out a stack of documents.

But it is obviously difficult to take grappa away.

Looking at the white-haired man sitting opposite him with an unaware look, the smile on Fūya Rei's lips became a little stiff, while the three children beside the man quietly took two steps forward, trying to block the staff member's sight with their bodies.

I feel like a villain trying to steal the children's treasures...

The blond man sighed, but there was nothing he could do. He knew that he didn't have much time left, and today his villain image would probably be confirmed.

He took a step forward and was about to say something when a voice suddenly interrupted the atmosphere of confrontation.

"It's okay,"

A voice that seemed a little unfamiliar and a little soft made everyone present open their eyes wide.

The white-haired man who had been silent all this time seemed to have finally turned off the standby mode. He reached out and patted Guangyan, who was closest to him, and said soothingly, "It's okay."

"Brother Kong," Ayumi who was standing aside couldn't help but shouted out in a trembling voice. They hadn't heard his voice since they met today. Even if the kids from the Junior Detective Team tried their best to pretend to be as usual, there were always some words stuck in their throats. They didn't dare to ask, for fear of hearing the answer, and even more afraid of not hearing the answer at all.

They are smart, smart enough to realize that the distance of separation at this moment will be unreachable when they meet again next time.

"It's okay," the man repeated once more. This time his voice was no longer strange, but gentle and smiling. "And, you can call me Noel, too."

As he spoke, he patted Ayumi and Genta, then looked up at Conan who had been frozen in place since the beginning.

"Well done. Thank you for your hard work." He stretched out his hand in the direction of Conan, who subconsciously leaned over and let him touch him obediently. He wanted to say something, but the words were stuck in his throat and he could only swallow the bitter sound. He knew more and knew what it meant at this moment.

A smile flashed across his light grey eyes as he looked at the children, who were also Noel's friends, and said in a gentle and expectant voice, "Grow up well."

As the children choked in response, he stood up and looked at Furuya Rei, who had been silent from the beginning, and said softly, "Let's go."

Those light grey eyes seemed to have never shown anything, and were still as bright as ever. He dodged the children's hands that wanted to hold him back and walked forward.

"Hmm..." The blond man tried to suppress something in his voice. He responded to Noel's words and led him out of the dessert shop.

The car habitually stopped at a corner where no one was around. When the two approached, Furiya Rei suddenly stopped, and the white-haired man walking behind him also stopped without saying a word.

"Noel," the blond public security officer called out the name softly, but the latter did not react at all. In the next moment, Furutani Rei suddenly attacked. He grabbed Grapa's hand with one hand and pulled it forward, and with the other hand, he turned the man around and pushed him against the wall at the moment he lost balance.

"Why don't you ask me what I'm going to do?" Feeling the movement without any resistance from below, Furuya Rei asked with a slightly hoarse voice, but the only response he got was still a pair of overly calm light-colored eyes.

This action seemed to last for quite a long time, so long that Rei Furuya couldn't tell whether the gradual loss of strength was due to numbness in his limbs or his own unstable emotions. Just when he was about to give up and let go, he heard the other party's voice:

“He said, just do what you’re supposed to do.”

In an instant, Furuya Rei's brain became a mess. Countless thoughts flashed through his mind but melted into those empty light grey eyes. His frozen body was trembling slightly, along with his pair of grey-purple drooping eyes. Unspeakable emotions were suppressed in his throat, so bitter and disgusting.

As if he had heard something again, the expressionless white-haired man spoke again, speaking slowly in a voice that seemed to have finally been wound up:

“He also said, thank you.”

"Thank you for saving me."

Grapa finally repeated the sentence skillfully, and then his eyes widened.

He saw the pair of gray-purple eyes that had been filled with complicated emotions, reflecting a crystal clear existence under the light of the street lamp. Then, tear marks appeared under the dark cheeks, and something fell to the ground, making a crisp sound in the white-haired man's heart like a broken gem, which was shocking.

Grappa panicked again. This reaction was not within the scope of what they said. He wanted to break free and escape again, but his intuition suppressed this instinctive reaction. Therefore, he could only try hard to recall how to deal with this situation.

He remembered that the being named Xiao Hei once said that if you encounter a situation that you really can't handle, and the person on the other side obviously cares about you, then......

/Then laugh. If you really can’t do it, just laugh. /

The world's consciousness says:

/They won't force you to do anything. /

Grappa hurriedly recalled the few images in his mind, the look of a smile, and then the corners of his mouth pulled into an unfamiliar arc, a little clumsy and stiff, matched with the pair of clean pupils, reflected in the pair of gray-purple eyes.

Isn't that right...

Grappa thought anxiously, but he felt a chill on the tip of his nose, as if something was melting on his face. He couldn't help but look away from the other person, and when he looked up, he saw patches of white.

It’s snowing...

———

"Dissociative identity disorder, I should have thought of it earlier," said a new guest in the comic-book-filled living room. A girl in a white coat sat on a sofa with a cup of tea in her hand. She looked at the man opposite her who showed a rare bit of decadence and sighed, "There have always been rumors in the organization that he is mentally ill. Although part of it is true, he always gave me the illusion that he was pretending, so I ignored some overly obvious abnormalities."

"I found the mental analysis of Noel that Murakami submitted before, but it is different from the current situation. If it is really a split personality, it should have appeared recently."

"I see..." The man sitting on the other sofa finally spoke. He looked a little absent-minded, which was very different from his usual serious and cautious appearance. As if he was just talking to himself, he suddenly said:

"Xiao Ai, what do you think of Noel..."

"He won't blame you at all," the girl said calmly and rationally, interrupting the man without hesitation. She looked at the dark circles under his eyes and his tired blue-purple eyes, and said, "How long have you not rested, Mr. Zhu Fu?"

The girl was not surprised that the question was not answered. She continued, "You are not in your right mind to have such an idea. Do you need my help?"

"Psychological aspects are not an area I am familiar with, but it is more than enough to make a strong sleeping pill."

"Thank you for your kindness," Zhu Fu Jingguang rubbed his eyes and shivered because of the cold. The room without air conditioning was very cold in winter. The temperature of his body surface was high enough to be reported to the morgue.

Finally realizing something, Morofushi Jingguang gave the girl an apologetic smile and quickly turned on the air conditioner. He also vaguely realized why the girl was still wearing a thick coat in the living room. It was a little too cold this winter.

These movements gave him room to adjust, and soon, the expression on his face returned to the appearance of Morobushi Kagemitsu that everyone knew, gentle and firm, as if nothing could defeat him with ease.

The fragility, confusion, and self-doubt of the previous moment were like an illusion reflected on the ice in winter, which melted away without leaving a trace.

"I suddenly realized that you are quite similar to your friend," Haibara Ai couldn't help but sigh when she thought of the appearance of the blond police officer. But he is also right. To be able to be an undercover agent in the organization, his acting skills must be up to standard. And there is also the guy who deceived his sister.

“Very good at acting.”

It was hard to tell whether the girl's words were sarcasm, ridicule, or praise. She took a sip of the black tea in her hand. It was mellow and sweet, and the rich sweet potato-like tea aroma that surrounded her nose was much warmer than the slowly heating air conditioner.

"Zero will surely be sad after hearing this," Morobushi Jingguang said with a smile, "Although he will pretend to be proud of it."

"If you go find him now, you might see two people acting. Um, maybe three people?"

For Morobushi Kagemitsu, who had just received a call from the young detective and knew that Rei Furuya was now with Noel, this joke was a bit hellish. The third person? Noel's second personality?

"That kid probably can't win." Zhu Fu Jing Guangsi took up the topic without panic, and said with a smile: "If it's really what we think, then Noel, who hasn't learned how to disguise himself, will be easily discovered by Zero."

"You don't want to go and have a look because you don't want to be seen like this?" Haibara Ai once again looked at Morobushi Kagemitsu's current appearance. Even though his mental state had recovered, the dark eyelids on his face could not disappear instantly, and his hair was messy behind his head.

"Do you not want to be seen by Noel or do you not want to be seen by your friends?"

"Then, Ai, you didn't go after receiving Conan's message. Did you not want to be seen by Noel, or did you not want to be seen by those kids?"

Morofushi Jingguang looked at the girl's dark circles and said with a teasing and worry, "Ms. Mingmei said that you have been busy in the laboratory until late recently."

"I don't want to meet that idiot without any results," Haibara Ai said directly, "and if he knew this, I'm sure he would get into a dead end again. I don't want him to think 'I can't let everyone's efforts go to waste' and 'I don't want to disappoint everyone's expectations' so he tries so hard to survive, and in the end he is still bound by these things. I would feel pity for him."

After answering like this, Haibara Ai did not continue to ask Morobushi Kagemitsu. The two were silent for a while until the girl put down the tea in her hand. She looked out the window with some feeling, and some silver light was scattered in the air.

“It’s snowing.”