Chapter 161: Birds and Light (2)

Nian opened his mouth, unable to utter the words. In the end, he just sighed softly, "These are all stolen. Sooner or later, we have to return them. Both he and I have understood this truth for a long time."

"It's enough... It's really enough."

He escaped, had family and friends, and the love he had never dared to think of before. All of these were enough. For Birds and Light, there was nothing worth regretting.

Don't sacrifice your own lives for me.

"Not enough! How can it be enough?" Suzuki Sonoko choked and almost yelled, her tears falling down in big drops, her beautiful face looked particularly wolfish at this moment, "You guys still want to be my best man, and you haven't beaten up that crazy detective who has disappeared for so long, how can you say that it's... enough..."

Mao Lilan took a long time to hold back the sob in her throat, and shouted hoarsely while pulling Hagiwara Kenji back, "I don't care what 124 did, and whether Asuka Kiri is pretending. I only know that you are my friend. No matter whether it is 124 or Asuka Kiri, they are all my friends! Come back to me! Don't leave..."

"I shouldn't have left you alone in the exhibition hall!" Edogawa Conan was almost gritting his teeth. He was the closest to the exhibition hall, and the flames were about to lick his clothes, but the boy had no intention of stopping, as if he couldn't feel the pain and burning. "You..."

His voice was drowned out by the sudden explosion.

The people who had experienced countless explosions today shuddered because of the sound, and when they subconsciously looked in the direction of the sound source, they found that it was not an explosion.

It was a fireworks that several people had set up outside early to set off for the youngest champion in history.

Asuka Mizuki looked up in a daze. Above him, the top of the collapsed elevator passage had long been uncovered, revealing a broken sky.

The brilliant flames illuminated the night sky dotted with only a few stars.

All the light, shadow, color, and brilliance were presented in that small world, and finally gathered in the boy's pale eyes. It was not like the steel city with some colors, nor was it like the pure color that was vaguely visible from the exhibition hall with hanging cloths everywhere.

It was a firework that was so brilliant that it could be compared with the sun. Between the fireworks, a small smiling face with simple lines and words that were barely put together emerged.

Always happy.

There was no prefix, no name "Xiao Wu", just a blessing to his friend with white hair, hoping that he could be happy forever.

A fleeting scene. It was even more stunning than the night he left the lab and saw the sky full of stars.

"......If only people could turn into birds."

Asuka Misty murmured, finishing what he had not finished saying on the day he and Kudo Shinichi lay under the starry sky.

If only people could really turn into birds.

A free bird can fly anywhere, maybe as long as he keeps flapping his wings, he can fly to the stars he once longed for.

Even if he falls from the sky before he reaches his destination...it doesn't matter.

He named the free bird and the uncatchable mist, but he never really became a bird. He is still bound by everything because of the fear of the prison sentence that will come at any time.

This murmur instantly brought Edogawa Conan back to that hot summer night filled with the scent of green grass many years ago. He lowered his head and saw that the white-haired boy who was being dragged suddenly smiled.

It was not the kind of smile that was usually stiff and bound by an unchanging paralyzed face.

The boy bent his eyes that were full of light, and his eyebrows and eyes were stretched as soft as the spring breeze. A smile formed on the corners of his mouth, and the dimples that had always been fleeting appeared on his cheeks.

It turned out that he had two dimples...

Hagiwara Kenji thought in a daze. He blinked his eyes, and he didn't know when the tears in his eyes finally dripped out because of this.

When the boy occasionally smiled, his expression would not change much, and at most only one dimple would show.

"Ran, Sonoko, Conan... Hagiwara-san." The two dimples on his cheek were very clear, but there were crystal tears in the corners of his eyes, which slowly flowed down along the bloodstained cheek, and then fell to the bottom floor burning with raging fire with gravity. "This time, only this time. Please forgive me for breaking my promise."

The boy smiled, like 124, and like flying bird mist, the two people merged together wonderfully at this moment.

Kenji Hagiwara's heart tensed up, and he instantly understood what the other party wanted to do. Before he could hold the boy's slender wrist tighter, he felt the pain in the hand holding the other party.

Asuka Kiri somehow removed the man's wrist easily. After the other party's arm was completely powerless, he struggled lightly and escaped from the other party's palm that was still trying to pull him into.

So he became the same as the falling tear. Behind the boy was a bottomless elevator passage. The flames at the bottom had been burning for who knows how long, and

they were still hot, emitting huge light.

He fell into the flames, as if he had fallen into a burning star

... It hurt. It was like tearing a piece of flesh from the body alive, like being devoured and burned by a raging fire, like using an iron hook to hook out the fragments that were stuck in the heart bit by bit. The feeling of loss is painful. The boy left decisively and cleanly, and under the grand fireworks, he was as silent as a shooting star that no one saw. Hagiwara Kenji looked at it, feeling dazed. The person who was still smiling and calling him Hagiwara brother in the last second suddenly disappeared. He seemed to be split into two people. One fell with the boy and was devoured by the flames. His limbs were in pain. The other was pulled by the little bit of rationality that was left. When the scorching fire around him singed his hair, he dragged out the other people who were still in a daze. Before the exhibition hall was completely engulfed by the flames, Hagiwara Kenji helped up the two girls who could not stand up straight, and the boy who finally no longer had any trace of his former maturity, and stumbled towards the exit. The fireworks were still blooming above their heads, until the few people finally left the flames, explosions and ruins behind them, and followed the bricks and tiles from the collapsed platform to the rooftop, but the sky suddenly became quiet. The fireworks that bloomed like flowers first disappeared, then the crooked words, and finally the smiling faces. There was no difference when they disappeared, all like tiny and short meteors, fading away the moment they fell.

The strange feeling of being burned by the fire still lingered behind him, but the repeated tearing wounds on his shoulders and the dislocated wrists no longer caused any pain, or he could no longer feel it. After Hagiwara Kenji helped the short-haired girl who almost cried and lost her voice out, the first thing he saw was Okiya Subaru and Tsukiyama Asari, who also looked like they had just come out.

The latter was covered in blood and looked no better than the boy before. He hunched his back, as if he was enduring severe pain in his internal organs. He could only stand up with the help of the man wearing glasses.

Their chaotic footsteps attracted the attention of the black-haired man. The man with his head down reluctantly turned his head to look at them, and his face suddenly changed the next second, as if he had reacted to something.

He stared at them blankly for a few seconds, then suddenly lowered his head, his waist and shoulders trembled more violently, and then, with the support of Okiya Subaru, he spat out a mouthful of blood on the ground and fell to his knees.

[Hey? ! Hey! Asari? ! ! ]

The system's anxious shouts mixed with the voices of other people around him, making his head buzz. Unlike the pain in his body, Tsukiyama Asari only felt that part of his soul was torn apart and fell from a high place into the sea of ​​fire.

He didn't have time to read the big comments on the forum, but just thought that the so-called theater version could be adapted into a comic. After leaving the screen and the paper industry once, Komiri really made a big splash.

In the already few cards, the card belonging to Asuka Mizuki changed its appearance. The boy's originally cold face suddenly relaxed, his eyebrows softened, and he smiled at the person on the other side of the screen, and two dimples appeared on both sides. Afterwards, the boy's already light-colored card surface quickly darkened, and cracks gradually flowed from the periphery to the middle.

In the blink of an eye, the card broke into countless pieces, melted into light spots, and then dissipated as if blown away by the wind.

Tsukiyama Asari lost a card, lost a part of his life, feelings, and lost his relatives who had been with him for more than ten years. He loved his younger brother the most...even though that was just himself.

The pain from Fei Niao Wu was equally distributed on his body. All his internal organs seemed to be injured. When combined with the damage caused by the previous explosion, he burst into intense pain and suppressed grief.

This was a situation that had never happened in so many worlds before. The system was so anxious that it cursed out a swear word that it didn't know where it learned from, and then it said something in a jumble. The speed of the query was so fast that he seemed to hear the sound of the keyboard clicking.

Yue Shan Chao opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but blood overflowed from his mouth first. Before the omnipotent system could find the cause, he felt that his eyes were getting darker and darker, and he lost consciousness instantly when the next severe pain came.

This time the emergency team came in handy.

In the chaos, the man with half-long hair turned into a rusty machine. He silently sent people to the emergency helicopter, checked the injuries of Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko, reported the situation in the building to the person in charge, watched them count the number of people, put away the goggles that could finally be safely removed after losing control, and finally transported the rescued hostages downstairs in batches.

The wind from the top of the skyscraper cooled the blood on Hagiwara Kenji's shoulder, and the repeatedly torn wound only then subtly rolled out a little pain. He hurriedly passed by countless people and finally saw his good friend who was stationed in the safe zone.

Matsuda Jinpei's curly hair was even more messy, and even his clothes were wrinkled. It looked like he had just been targeted by the hostages who knew there was a bomb in his goggles. The man who was not good at handling such things and was outspoken had a dark face, which was very suitable for being ridiculed.

Hagiwara Kenji couldn't even raise his mouth.

After being finally hit by the hostage, the curly-haired policeman who had checked the last corner turned his head and saw his childhood friend standing not far away, staring at him blankly.

The gauze on his shoulder had long been stained with blood, and his eyes were covered with a layer of light. The injury made Matsuda Jinpei's teeth ache, and he hurriedly said, "What are you doing here? Why don't you go to the emergency team to get a new bandage, and then go to the hospital with me to remove the bullet."

Matsuda Jinpei said, his flexible fingers typing on the phone, and he put down the tool box and finished, "Let me talk to Shugo first, didn't you say before Xiao Wu was shot in the ankle. Do you want me to arrange a first aid team? I am worried about the two of them now that Tsukiyama Asari is in this state. At least let Shuugo come back to be a free nurse for his two younger brothers."

He had just finished saying this when he saw Hagiwara Kenji trembling. The tiny arc was almost invisible. If it weren't for the light on his clothes, which was rippled with trembling, Matsuda Jinpei would not have noticed it.

The man raised his head and met a pair of red eyes.

Matsuda Jinpei suddenly reacted to something, and felt the blood in his body freeze. The next second, the man with half-long hair suddenly hugged him, like a mountain that had been shaking for a long time and finally collapsed.

There was endless silence, and no one would come forward to disturb them.

Suzuki Sonoko and Mao Li Ran chose to follow the suddenly unconscious black-haired man to the hospital, but the boy suddenly retreated, with his own unclear thoughts, realization and guilt, and even lost the courage to wait outside the emergency room.

Edogawa Conan left quietly, with a blood-stained notebook in his pocket, on which was recorded every piece of information about the organization, and every stroke was like a sharp blade falling on the boy.

The boy's award-winning painting, his once silent suppression of the picture, was just a fraction of the pain he had endured.

He quickly found the painting that was borrowed by Kubo Wan for exhibition, but was afraid that it would be affected by the explosion that had already been prepaid, so he moved it to a corner of the building not far away on the pretext that it had not been hung yet.

Works of countless famous artists were piled together like discarded corrugated paper. He saw Mrs. Tsukiyama's painting and Asuka Mizuki's.

Edogawa Conan looked at the painting that looked like a mixture of broken blood. He saw a work named "Stars" but full of despair. However, he did not see Asuka Mizuki's signature in the lower right corner.

He was inexplicably moved and he walked forward slowly.

The canvas had long been freed from the cold frame. Asuka Mizuki hated anything with rules and regulations. After participating in the competition, he took down the frame that required it to be framed. Now, what was casually placed here was just a free but fragile piece of cloth.

The boy reached out his hand and carefully touched the uneven surface caused by the paint. The thick brush seemed to be cushioned by something similar.

Unexpectedly, the canvas was not firmly attached. He quickly peeled off the oppressive outer shell, revealing the soft inner core.

It was a gentle color scheme, and several familiar faces were squeezed together. The light in the eyes of the man with pink eyes was incredibly soft. He stood in the middle, holding himself in his arms with glasses, with a cocky expression that was often complained about.

The two girls naturally stood together. I don't know why they left Asuka Mizuki the impression that they were always stuck together. In the portrait, they were still holding hands. Mao Lilan smiled at the front, and her expression was somewhat similar to Tsukiyama Asari at this time. Suzuki Sonoko winked mischievously. Behind the two girls, the big detective who had disappeared for a long time was looking at them with his arms folded, with a smile without any haze on his face.

To the sides were the policemen who loved this child who was owed too much by the world. Matsuda Jinpei, wearing sunglasses, did not have the villainous look he usually had. It seemed that Asuka Mizuki had automatically coated him with a layer of filter. Hagiwara Kenji next to him was no different from usual. He waved outside the canvas, as if he was saying hello to someone.

Date Kou looked a little more robust than usual, probably because he liked to lift skinny boys up and let them sit on his shoulders since a long time ago. Even today, young people probably have the impression of him as a strong gorilla.

There is no Amuro Toru, and no Kasugawa Shugo. But there are two little bears hanging behind him. One is wearing an apron and holding a sandwich that a certain cafe is proud of. The other one has round eyes and says nothing, just lying on Tsukiyama Asari's shoulder, looking very tired. There are many other people, crowded together noisily. In

the lower right corner of the canvas, he found the signature that he had not seen on the first canvas. There is no snow-white silhouette of a flying bird that he has always painted, but just the name of the painting written in light color. The beginning of

"Stars"

is elegant, but the tail is sharp and long.

'At that time, I didn't know what it was, but I just felt that it was very bright. It is something that lights up at night, a safe place where no one can find it. '

It is a place that can be accepted, a place where hope lies. Kudo Shinichi thought that Asuka liked the stars in the sky, so he asked the craftsman to carve a few stars on the brush as a gift, in a place where he could touch it carefully every time he held the brush.

It turned out that they were the stars of the boy in the end. After

the fireworks faded, after being illuminated by the dazzling firelight, even the few stars that were originally there became silent, and took the opportunity to escape.

The boy looked at the painting for a long time in the weak light of the sky, and suddenly burst into tears.

Author's words:

I have added 3k of the old article as the update on the 23rd.

The forum will be updated after the event is over, probably the day after tomorrow

. Although the card is torn, there will be a lot of sweet ifs in the extra chapters. Is there anything you would like to see?