After Jiangxia left, Conan silently withdrew his gaze.
…Just who are the members of this so-called Anonymous?
And why are they all kids?
Furthermore, Xiaobai's strength is off the charts.
Thinking about it—an anonymous cadre who jumped out of a bombed car, dove off a tower, got hit by a car, and still walked away without a scratch…
Conan suddenly realized he had a long, long way to go before he could even dream of joining that kind of mysterious organization.
…
Meanwhile, Granny Yone's coffee had been brewed and served.
Jiangxia came over, in the form of Xiaobai's puppet. He saw Tengu kneeling on the tray, flapping his wings and urgently pointing at one of the cups.
The others began taking their coffee.
Jiangxia dragged over a stool, climbed up onto the table, and was just reaching for a cup when he saw Ran Mouri stretch out her hand and, with terrifying precision, pick up the cup of medicated coffee.
Jiangxia: "..."
Tengu, who had been tasked with guarding the medicated cup, froze, his wings flaring in panic as he fluttered in front of Ran, trying in vain to block her. Sadly, Ran couldn't see him.
Jiangxia clung to the edge of the table and let out a soft, defeated sigh.
Ran's luck was honestly something else... Maybe it wasn't even "good luck" at this point. Maybe it was just that any low-probability event around her got violently amplified. Like picking the single cup out of nine that had sleeping pills in it. Or casually attracting bombs.
Fortunately, it wasn't an unsalvageable situation.
Jiangxia watched Ran carefully. The coffee was freshly brewed and still hot, so she hadn't drunk it yet.
...There was still time to get that cup back and let the puppet drink it.
…
Ran sat down on the sofa with her coffee.
She blew lightly on the rim of the cup and was just about to take a sip—when she suddenly felt a presence creeping up next to her.
Startled, Ran turned her head—and there was Jiangxia as Xiaobai, already halfway onto the sofa like a sneaky little bear child.
Jiangxia glanced at the coffee in her hands. "I want to drink that cup. Can I?"
Ran: "!!" Yes! Of course! Whatever you want, darling!
Smiling brightly, she handed the cup over—
But just as Jiangxia was about to take it, Ran hesitated, pulling it back at the last second.
"Ah, um, it's not really good for kids to drink coffee. Big sis will find you something else, okay?"
Jiangxia fell silent for a moment. Then he pointed a solemn little finger at Conan: "Then why can he drink it?"
Ran blinked and followed his finger. Sure enough, there was Conan, casually sipping coffee while eavesdropping on the adults discussing the case.
Ran: ...
Oh right... Why had she given Conan coffee without a second thought just now?
Feeling vaguely guilty, she hurriedly got up to confiscate Conan's cup—
But the moment she stood, she felt the cup in her hand suddenly tip.
Startled, she looked down—only to see Xiaobai grab the cup and drain it all in one smooth gulp. The little kid even pulled out a napkin afterward and dabbed at the corner of his mouth, like some kind of tiny, polite demon.
Ran: "..."
Was it because he saw Conan drinking and wanted to copy him?
...Sigh. The innocent competitiveness of children.
Still, wasn't this a little too fast? She'd only looked away for a second and the entire cup was gone…
Ran quickly checked the child over but, seeing no signs of choking, she was slightly relieved.
Then she marched straight over to Conan and confiscated his coffee too. "Kids can't drink this," she said sternly.
Conan stared down at his suddenly empty hands in utter confusion.
...What just happened?
…
While everyone was gathered around with their coffee, the reverse harem started discussing the tragedy from two years ago again and came up with a new idea.
Someone, clearly inspired by Xiaobai's sudden appearance, suggested, "Maybe Miss Reika is hiding somewhere tricky, like that kid was. We should search the villa again."
Nobody objected.
Jiangxia finished his coffee with the puppet and casually tossed Xiaobai's puppet aside, letting it "log off" for now.
His consciousness returned to his real body.
The group quickly divided the search areas among themselves.
It wasn't going to be easy—this was a huge mansion—and even Ran and Sonoko weren't slacking off.
When everyone stood up, Xiaobai's tiny sleeping form, sprawled out on the sofa, was extremely eye-catching.
But except for Conan, who gave it a long, suspicious stare, nobody thought much of it. After all, it was normal for a little kid to suddenly crash. Honestly, Conan, who had been darting around hyperactively, was the weirder one.
Granny Yone kindly offered to stay behind and look after the kids, even asking Conan if he wanted to take a nap too.
Conan hesitated. He didn't believe that some cadre from a mysterious organization had come all the way here just to nap on a sofa.
Still, if it really wasn't anything serious, there'd be no point staying. And if it was serious…well, if he stuck around, he'd probably just get stabbed with an anesthesia needle anyway.
After a moment's thought, Conan decided to leave with Jiangxia and the others to search.
If Xiaobai made any suspicious moves, he could always grab backup and rush back—he doubted Xiaobai could handle both Jiangxia and Ran at once.
Thinking like this, Conan jogged a few steps to catch up to the reliable thighs in front of him.
…
Since the murderer could very well be among them—and Yotsui Reika was still a suspect in Nikaidou's death—the search groups were divided carefully.
Ran and Sonoko, being "frail girls," were treated as one person for the purposes of pairing up... and were assigned to search together with Jiangxia.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 61/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*