Chapter 165: Asuka and Hikari: The Day After
2-22, Beika-cho, Tokyo, the sixth night after Asuka Kiri left.
All lights were silent, but the lights were on here. Dr. Agasa took out the golden fried donuts from the pot and placed them aside to filter the oil. In the small pot next to it was the blueberry jam that was being cooked. Haibara
Ai walked over and suddenly remembered that she had heard Edogawa Conan mention that his white-haired friend never liked sour food, so she added two spoons of dense sugar. The girl stood in front of the stove in the open kitchen, watching the white sand slowly melt in the pot, neutralizing the sour and sweet taste of the blueberries, and then she looked away.
"I remember that Xiao Wu liked the donuts I made the most. After Mr. Amuro came, he rarely came to me to make donuts." In silence, Dr. Agasa added another donut to the filter next to him and suddenly recalled. Maybe the elderly have an inexplicable trait, such as being able to remember things from a long time ago. "Tomorrow's funeral... picnic, let's make more of this."
The taciturn and well-behaved boy will probably always make people more partial to him.
He has met many children. The four children with different personalities grew up noisily under his watch. The courtyard gradually became quiet. High school students no longer spent an afternoon playing childish games in a small courtyard. The courtyard that was originally used for them to play football and hide-and-seek became a place for the boys to sketch occasionally.
In fact, Dr. Agasa knew that Asuka Kiri was not here for sketching. His courtyard was full of the scenery that these children had seen since childhood. There was nothing worth painting on the canvas. The boys came here just for the little thought of companionship. Under the pretext of sketching, they brought one or two boxes of delicious and soft snacks made by Tsukiyama Asari to quietly accompany themselves who were inventing things at home for an afternoon.
Perhaps because of his previous experience, the white-haired boy, like his brother, attaches great importance to the word "accompany". In fact, Dr. Agasa has many like-minded friends on the Internet, and inventions and neighbors also occupy most of his time. He does not feel empty because of the growth of his children. However, after fixing the screws carefully on the new invention, turning his head to look at the courtyard, he is still happy to see the white-haired child with a straw in his mouth with a chubby cheek, looking at the easel in front of him.
Then the *** courtyard was occupied by the Junior Detective Corps, and it became noisy again. After Haibara Ai moved in, Asuka Kiri came less often. He was occupied by new, always energetic children most of the time. Occasionally, when he walked out of the courtyard, he would see a boy with a drawing board standing at the door of his house, handing the snacks in his hands to Yoshida Ayumi and others who were playing in the yard and sweating, and then turned around and left. As he walked, he could never come back.
They all grew up and left, just like birds.
The chubby old man last saw Asuka Kiri half a month ago. He hurried to the Poirot Cafe to pick up the kids waiting to go camping. He heard them chattering about how great Brother Kiri was and how he won first place. Kojima Genta showed his personal style to the extreme and asked if the first prize would be a year's worth of eel rice.
Then he remembered that he had prepared a gift, but before he could congratulate them, Asuka Kiri hurried in to take out the lunch box he was going to take with him when he went out to sketch. He waved to a few people, then left with the lunch box prepared by Amuro Toru.
"Doctor, the donuts are about to burn."
Huihara Ai's words of warning brought the old man back to his senses. He quickly took out the donuts in the oil pan, which had a completely wrong color, and wiped the sweat from his forehead from the oil pan, muttering, "It was a close call, it was almost completely burnt."
"But it's inedible like this." Huihara Ai said, turning around to make tea for the inventor who always looked optimistic.
They knew about this matter, not from Kudo Shinichi or anyone else, but just from the news. From that night to the next few days, there was no end to the news reports about the accident at the skyscraper art exhibition. As the only victim among the more than 200 people in the building, the boy's eyes were deliberately wiped out and appeared in the news almost all the time. His face was not clear, but his unusual white hair made him recognizable to almost everyone who knew him. The brown-
haired girl made tea, opened the curtains, and saw the house next door with the lights still on. "Kudo is still with Mr. Suemitsu."
"Yeah... It's been a few days."
Haibara Ai stood up and handed the hot tea to Dr. Agasa. The room fell into silence again, leaving only the bubbling sound of the oil pan.
——Sousuke
Suemitsu pushed his wheelchair and slowly came down from the second floor via the special stairs. Not a single light was on along the way, and the dim corridor made him think he was back to when he had just bought this house and moved in.
The sound came from the training room. The black-haired man pushed open the heavy wooden door, and sure enough, he saw Edogawa Conan still inside in the evening.
The boy didn't know what he had forced himself to practice before, and now he was sweating all over, as wet as if he had been pulled out of the water. Although his arms were shaking badly, he still raised the training gun and aimed at the target not far away, but every shot went astray because of his shaking arms after excessive exercise.
"It's done."
Suemitsu Sosuke frowned and reached out to turn on the other lights. The originally dim room instantly became brightly lit.
The boy in the middle of the training ground turned a deaf ear to him. He fired the last two bullets, then used his sore and trembling arms to take down a magazine and reinstalled it in his gun.
"Enough!"
The boy fired a few more bullets in front of him. The sound of the bullets breaking through the air diluted the man's words a lot. Edogawa Conan gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and instantly recalled the look of the boy falling down.
So, he tried to lift the extra heavy ** in his hand again. The sweat dripping down his forehead fell into his eyes, piercing a sharp pain. Edogawa Conan squinted his eyes, and for a moment he couldn't tell whether it was sweat or something else in his eyes.
Suemitsu Sosuke gripped the cold handle of the wheelchair, pursed his lips, and then raised his voice and spoke when the other party raised his hand again. "If you move again, get out of here and stop being my student."
Edogawa Conan turned his head to look at him in a daze.
The black-haired man pursed his lips and saw the other party's red eyes, the heat on his face due to excessive exercise, and the dark blue under his eyes, and then he suppressed the anger that had just risen.
"Enough, you've reached your limit."
"...Sorry." The boy whispered softly, and finally uttered this word lightly. He lowered his head, and all the sweat on his forehead and hair instantly flowed down his cheeks, mixed with the liquid that might have flowed from his eye sockets. Even he himself couldn't tell what it was.
A rough touch came from the side of his face. Suemitsu Sosuke came to his side without knowing when, and wiped away his tears with his fingertips full of scars and burns. Edogawa Conan was stunned for a moment, gritted his teeth and turned his head away.
The boy just covered his cheeks randomly and wiped away the tears and sweat on his face.
He didn't know how to respond to his teacher's actions. Whether in the past or now, this detective rarely shed tears. At most, he would be depressed because of some things. At this time, the white-haired boy could always find him accurately, and then pull his wrist and leave together. Later, he became the so-called Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei era, and then became Edogawa Conan. This emotion gradually decreased again, because Tsukiyama Asari always regarded him as his younger brother.
Now of these two people, one was engulfed by flames and darkness, and the other still lives in a hospital ward full of the smell of disinfectant.
He has done nothing, and has not grown up at all.
Suemitsu Sosuke looked at him quietly and said nothing. Perhaps only at this time can you feel that time is flowing slowly, and at this time there is probably no need for others to interrupt or say anything more. He put the towel on the boy's sweat-soaked head, then pushed the cart to the kitchen and boiled a pot of hot water.
When the black-haired man came back with a cup of redeemed warm water, the towel originally on the boy's head had been moved to his shoulders.
Edogawa Conan fell to the ground, his originally rapid breathing had gradually slowed down, and the lights in the room were turned off. He sat by the window and looked outside in a daze.
The sky was filled with thick clouds tonight, blocking the moon.
Suemitsu Sosuke placed the water cup next to his hand, then pulled the boy's arm, which was short and thin compared to an adult's, and loosened the stiff muscles on his arm little by little.
"I thought I could save him... I was already... ready." Edogawa Conan suddenly murmured. He lowered his eyes, and the image of the boy falling flashed through his mind again.
Death was irreversible, but he couldn't even accept it. He even subconsciously chose to escape because of self-blame and guilt. He didn't even have the courage to walk into Tsukiyama Asari's ward.
Obviously, the one who needed comfort the most now was his brother who had lost his family who had been with him for more than ten years, but he backed down.
"No one is prepared for this, little detective." Suemitsu Sosuke sighed and gently placed his hand on the boy's head.
"Death can never and should never be a lesson that can be taught." The man lowered his eyes, his eyelashes blocking his dark red eyes, and something flashed in his eyes, "But growth always comes with this thing."
Edogawa Conan lowered his head.
His teacher probably understood the taste of loss better than anyone else. He lost his parents in high school, lost his captain in the first team, and finally lost all the members and vice-captain of the second team, becoming a truly alone person.
"It's just... regret." Edogawa Conan whispered.
He spent a long, long time in silence, and all the intense pain and grief settled down, piled up together, and turned into a thick layer of regret.
There are many things to regret. He had imagined countless times at night, and in the scene where he finally told them his true identity, the corner belonging to the white-haired boy was forever missing.
Even though Fei Niao Wu already knew his identity, it was too hasty. They met and left in a hurry. Too many words and things were left unsaid and undone, which became the regrets piled up at the bottom.
"Then don't let it fall again." The man sitting in the wheelchair looked at him and whispered.
Don't let the ashes of regrets belonging to others fall again.
The boy's eyes flickered slightly, and he drank the water in the cup. After the two of them sat in silence for a long time, Edogawa Conan spoke again, his voice hoarse, "Do you think about those things?"
He paused for a moment before adding, "Things in the past."
He didn't feel anything before Asuka Kiri left, and after the boy suddenly left, he suddenly realized that so many things had happened in the past.
"Occasionally." Suemiku Sosuke answered.
Occasionally I think about it, and it lasts a long time.
"Tomorrow." Without waiting for any response from Edogawa Conan, the black-haired man spoke again. He reached out and took off the towel on the boy's shoulders and pushed him towards the bathroom. "Don't go to see him with dark circles under your eyes. Go to bed early."
Edogawa Conan walked out of the house and walked back to the Mori Detective Agency on the road illuminated by a little starlight. Only then did he find that there were many missed calls on his mobile phone, all from Mori Ran.
Suemikatsu Sosuke's words flashed through his mind, and he answered another call from Mori Ran outside the door.
"......Shinichi?" The girl's voice was very low, "Tomorrow...will you come?"
After saying that, the long-haired girl seemed to remember that her childhood friend didn't even know clearly about Asuka Kiri, so she spoke carefully, "I...you know...Kiri..."
"Yeah, I know."
Edogawa Conan responded, he lowered his head, took a deep breath and opened his mouth again, "I...I always knew."
Mao Lilan was stunned for a moment.
The boy heard the sound of something falling from the room, hitting the ground with a thunderous clang.
"Where are you now...?" the long-haired girl asked.
"I..." Edogawa Conan opened his mouth and took a deep breath, "I'm at the door."
"You're at the door?!" Mao Lilan was stunned for a long time, and suddenly walked out quickly, putting her hand on the door handle, "Do you know that I have been looking for you these days, and I, I have something to ask you."
She wanted to say too much and asked too many questions. It seemed that there was a veil between the two of them that was harder than any heavy metal. The countless doubts that the girl noticed reached their peak after that night.
Now, all the answers to the answers are on the other side of the door. Kudo Shinichi put all the secrets in the box, and now he finally handed the key to the girl he loved. Can
he still bear such a regret? Edogawa Conan thought, probably impossible.
The door handle was pressed with a slight click from inside. The boy was standing facing the door, holding the phone belonging to Kudo Shinichi in his hand, waiting with bated breath for the girl inside to open the door.
The corridor was so quiet that it seemed that only his rapid and violent heartbeat could be heard.
The door slowly opened a crack, and when the light in the house was about to shine on Conan Edogawa's shoes, the person inside suddenly stopped moving.
The boy heard Mao Lilan's smile with complicated emotions on the phone, and then the door was pulled back again.
With a click, the door closed completely.
"Ran..." Edogawa Conan was silent for a moment before he spoke, even forgetting to pick up his bow-shaped voice changer, "Aren't you going to... open it?"
"I think that's enough." Mao Li Ran softened her expression, and after a long silence, she whispered, "Thank you for always being with me."
As for this secret that she probably already knew, she would wait for the day when everything was over, and Kudo Shinichi would tell him in person.
"...Okay." Edogawa Conan smiled like the long-haired girl. He looked out the window, and the clouds had dispersed a little at some point, revealing one or two dim stars.
He hung up the phone, and after an unknown amount of time, perhaps only five minutes, the door opened from the inside again.
This time, Mao Lilan did not hesitate at all. She opened the door and smiled at the boy in a small suit standing at the door, "Conan, welcome back."
-
The seventh day was a rare sunny day.
It was not a short weekend vacation. Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko took half a day off and left school after two classes in the morning.
Asuka Kiri's desk was diagonally opposite the two of them. In the past few days, the boy's empty desk has been filled with endless flowers. Brilliant sunflowers, elegant hyacinths, platycodons, violets, tulips...all kinds of colors are mixed together and crowded on the table.
Unexpectedly, there are very few white chrysanthemums that are most suitable for mourning, and even the color is rarely limited to pure white.
Children who are still in school and have not yet reached adulthood do not care about the heavy etiquette as much as adults. As if they want to add more color to the white-haired boy, most of the flowers sent are bright colors, like today's bright sunshine.
Mao Lilan looked up, and for the first time she knew that there were so many people in the school who knew her, or cared about her friends. Most of them just sent a carefully wrapped bouquet, but still filled up the seats of Asuka Misaki.
The wind blowing in from the window blew the tender petals slightly, and occasionally rolled up a fallen petal and carried it away into the spring.
The sound of light footsteps came, Mao Lilan came to her senses, and bumped into a dazzling red.
The girl felt a little awkward the first time she walked into other classes. She held a small bunch of roses in her hand and gently placed them on the boy's table which was already piled with various flowers.
Feeling the gaze from the side, the girl from the next class turned around and met Mao Lilan's gaze.
She was not a girl like Mao Lilan, not even pretty. She had an ordinary ponytail and wore glasses that many people in this grade who spent most of their time studying would wear, but she smiled lightly and looked pretty.
The girl smiled with her eyes downcast and spoke softly, but it didn't seem like she was explaining to the long-haired girl opposite her, it seemed more like she was talking to herself.
"He once gave me an umbrella, for rainy days."
A not-so-big umbrella was handed to the white-haired boy whose shoulders were already wet from the rain. The girl, who was so timid that she could only use her coat to cover her head, took it blankly. When she came to her senses, the boy had already walked away.
An accidental glance is enough to remember for a lifetime.
"Is that so." Mao Lilan curled her eyes and smiled.
Asuka Misaki probably didn't expect how she would appear in the eyes of others. When you are in high school and you are in love for the first time, you will always pay more attention to classmates who are good-looking and have a temperament that is a bit depressed like in pop dramas. Occasionally, the boy would carry a drawing board and hurriedly walk through the corridor. I don't know how many girls would stop by the window for this, and then smile and push away their friends with teasing faces.
Most of the emotions of young people are passionate and simple. Although they have never spoken to each other, their names are carefully written down and hidden in textbooks, or their profiles are secretly photographed and posted on their desks. Although they are completely unrelated, they inexplicably ignite the courage to work hard to make progress, or become the motivation to get up early and go to school in the cumbersome textbooks.
The white-haired boy who was looking for stars, unknowingly, became the faint star in the sky of countless people.
Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko
got up after the second class, sorted the flowers on the table, and held them in their arms. Some familiar classmates in the class knew that they were going to say goodbye to their friend who had always been very quiet, and they also placed some small snack boxes under the bouquets, most of which were homemade. The cream squeezed on the cupcakes did not look well whipped, and the small smiley faces drawn on them became a little strange as the cream collapsed.
They walked out of the campus with arms full of flowers. People they met on the way, whether strangers or familiar, classmates wearing the same school uniform would stop for a while.
At the door, a white sports car had been waiting for a long time.
The two people holding things got from the back seat, greeted the blond-haired, dark-skinned man in the driver's seat, and thanked him for picking them up. Amuro Toru nodded slightly in response.
On the passenger seat was a bunch of flowers decorated with blue and yellow, and a box of ice cream cake that Fei Niao Wu had secretly eaten last time. Some of it had melted, so he quickly took out the juice frozen in the car refrigerator, replaced the ice cream cake, and left.
He kept thinking on the way, completely forgetting that he had repeatedly emphasized to himself after making the cake that he should replace the drinks from it, and then put the cake in to freeze.
He had seen many deaths, and even prepared himself to sacrifice himself early, but he had never thought of letting a white-haired boy who should be studying in school without worries shoulder the malice in the entire dark corner.
Death came too suddenly, like a ridiculous stage play with a bad script.
Toru Amuro drove them to the mountain. It was a weekday, so there were only a few people camping. Or rather, there was only them.
Ran Mouri put down the flowers. They had so many bouquets that they covered the picnic blanket and took up space on all the food and snacks they brought.
So they put the flowers outside again and sat in a circle surrounded by the flowers.
It was a quiet picnic, with nothing worth remembering. Occasionally someone would start chatting, and the content of the chat was like a blank paragraph without sentences, abruptly starting and disappearing, and then returning to silence.
They ate the food they brought, and occasionally shared some things about the person who left, without a tone of intense grief, as if talking about family matters, saying that he probably didn't like this because it was sour.
The atmosphere was not good, but no one cried.
Tsukiyama Asari took the last bite of the donut and said to the system in his heart, "Let's do it now."
[......Okay.]
As the system responded, a clear bird cry suddenly came from the distance, attracting everyone's attention.
Suddenly, a snow-white bird flew out of the distant jungle. It spread its wings, flew towards the group, and then landed lightly on Tsukiyama Asari's shoulder.
Hagiwara Kenji saw its light green eyes and was stunned for a moment, forgetting to react.
The bird flew towards him, stepped on his face, and used its wings to ruffle the man's messy hair. Before the police officer with half-long hair could reach out to touch it in a hurry, it spread its wings and flew to the next person.
It landed on Edogawa Conan's head, knocked off the boy's glasses, landed on Maori Ran's shoulder, and used its feathers to wipe off some water marks on Suzuki Sonoko's face. He took down Matsuda Jinpei's cigarette box, and scattered strawberry-flavored candies all over the floor. He pecked Dr. Agasa on the tip of his nose. Date Kou smiled and caught the flying bird with his arm, so the white bird tilted its head to look at him, and flew to the next person, knocking over the plate in Amuro Toru's hand. After
stepping on everyone, the white bird blinked its light green eyes, suddenly jumped to the middle, holding a nameless bouquet of flowers leaning against the edge of the basket in the middle of the picnic blanket, then spread its wings and flew towards the bright sun in the distance.
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