She had switched through several different numbers, most of them apparently from payphones. Only the last four calls came from the same number, so it looked like she had finally found a permanent place to stay.
Yimi knew nothing about spam calls or telemarketing. She had tested before and found that once she entered another world, she could no longer call Origami, and in this world she had only given her phone number to Akemi.
She swiped around on the phone, trying to remember how to make a call. Origami had taught her.
"What is that, a game console? Or a camera?" Yimi successfully caught Ai's attention.
Forget Ai—even that detective over there was starting to sharpen his gaze again, suspicious that Yimi had taken out some kind of high-tech weapon.
"This is a phone. You can use it, to call people." Yimi patiently explained, then called back the last missed number.
The other side picked up.
"Hello, is this Akemi?"
Bluntly using her real name nearly scared Miyano Akemi's stuffy nose clear. Not just her—Ai, standing beside Yimi, also had her pupils contract.
"Let me use that!" Ai snatched Yimi's phone away.
The intense déjà vu made Conan think of the times he had grabbed clues out of a police officer's hands at crime scenes. He would get two or three seconds to observe and think, and then he would have to face Kogoro's iron fist.
But Ai clearly had not taken the phone for the reason Conan imagined, to check whether it was some high-tech weapon. She held it to her face the normal way and listened in silence.
"Yimi? You finally called!"
There was an exhaustion in Akemi's urgent voice that she could not hide, enough that Ai did not even recognize her immediately.
"..."
"Why aren't you saying anything?" Miyano Akemi noticed something was wrong.
"Onee-san, it's me." Ai did not reveal her name, because this was not an absolutely safe place.
"...Shiho?"
Likewise, Ai's voice had changed slightly after shrinking into a child, but her manner of speaking still sounded much as it had before.
Ai's breathing quickened slightly. She covered the corner of her eye with her sleeve. "Is it really you, onee-san? Where are you now? I'm at Professor Hirota's place. I'll come find you right now..."
On the other end came equally relieved sobbing. "Is it really you, Shiho? Thank goodness. You're alive. Thank goodness..."
There had been no need to deliberately investigate. News of the pharmaceutical company burning down had already appeared in the papers, so Miyano Akemi had naturally assumed her sister had been implicated because of her and killed by the Organization.
This call was not meant for the two of them to simply cry at each other. Akemi did not understand why the one who had taken the phone was this child, but once she connected it with everything that had happened when she herself was rescued, there hardly seemed to be anything left to question.
"Professor Hirota... Has the Organization already found him? Onee-san is very safe right now. Yimi saved me before... Shiho, stay close to that child. Don't come looking for me..."
Ai slowly crouched down and did nothing but listen to the voice on the other end.
Conan silently moved farther away, quietly watching the little girl wipe her tears and struggle to suppress her sobs.
He did not understand what had happened, but this time she was not faking it, right?
...
The disk was in their hands. The Organization might still go after Professor Hirota later, but Miyano Akemi had told Ai over the phone not to worry about that.
Together with Akemi's claim that she was safe, could she have gone to the FBI?
Ai tried to remember what her sister had told her last night, but the memory was already quite blurred. At the time, she had been too absorbed in the comfort of hearing that voice again.
She was already content. Even if they could not meet, she knew that somewhere in this world her sister was alive and well. What she needed to do was live well too, and wait for the day when they could meet openly again.
And now...
"Excuse me for coming in. So this is Yimi's boudoir? It's so clean." Ayumi barged into Yimi's room and looked around curiously.
Yimi had moved in less than a month ago, so naturally the little cat's room was not lavishly decorated. Her clothes and such had been properly put away too. She had once wanted to draw on the walls, only for Kisaki Eri to give her a thorough scolding.
Still, Eri occasionally bought Yimi toys and stickers, so it was not impossible to tell that this was a little girl's room.
"Boo-door?"
"It just means a girl's room."
It was already after school the next day. Even though this same bunch of little brats had barged into a crime scene only yesterday, their parents somehow still felt safe letting them run around on their own after school.
At least they had not gone wandering somewhere random. They were at Kisaki Eri's home, where Yimi had brought everyone to see the kittens.
As Ayumi explained, the other two boys behind her—one chubby, one skinny—also walked in rather stiffly.
"Sorry for intruding."
"Wishing you prosperity."
Conan looked left and right. Only after realizing that Kisaki Eri had not come home yet did he relax.
And these two brats—normally they acted perfectly normal at school, yet the moment they stepped into a girl's room they became like this. Did kids these days really become conscious of differences between boys and girls this early?
"Where are the kitties?" Ayumi looked around in confusion.
Yimi raised a paw and called, "Myaow!"
Several heads emerged from beneath the bed in order and reported in.
"Meow."
"Miaow?"
"Mew~"
"Miao!"
Goro, who crawled out last, fell silent for a moment before adding, "Woof!"
"?"
The other four cats piled on top of one another, eyes wide as they backed away from him.
"I want this one." Ai pointed at Goro.
Yimi shook her head and picked him up out of reach. "This is Goro. He's not being given away."
"That's amazing! Did you train them to do that?" Mitsuhiko and Genta had stars in their eyes.
In truth, Yimi had simply done some last-minute preaching to them last night.
"They look exactly alike. Only their collars are different. Do they have names?" Ayumi tentatively poked one of them on the head. It did not resist.
"They're called Meow, Miaow, Mew, and Miao." Yimi put Goro down.
The instant all four of Goro's paws touched the floor, Miao—having decided that he had betrayed Planet Cat—raised a paw and smacked him twice on the head.
"Guh..."
Yimi gave Miao an unfriendly look, pinched her fingers together, and blew on them.
Then she flicked Miaow, who was lying in front of Miao, right on the forehead.
"Meow!"
Miaow turned around. Behind him, the only cat he could see was Miao.
"Wee-wee, wee-wee!" He pinned Miao down and started smacking wildly.
Sowing discord.
"Haibara-san, is there a kitty you want to keep?" Ayumi turned toward Ai.
"Right now, probably not." Ai rested a hand on the belly of Meow, the best-behaved of the four, and stroked him back and forth.
Ayumi looked puzzled. "I thought you'd already picked one."
Ai gently shook her head. "They're very cute, but I don't plan to adopt one."
"Why? You look down on cats." Yimi picked Goro up and swung him from side to side, making his hind legs sway in the air too.
"It's just that the professor's house isn't suitable for one. A cat might interfere when he's working on inventions, and his machines might scare a kitten away." Ai handed the calmer kitten over to Ayumi.
Besides, starting today she would be doing experimental research herself. Compared with the professor's machines and devices, all the bottles and jars she would be messing with might actually be more dangerous.
Mitsuhiko drew out an "Aww..." in disappointment. "I thought every member of the Detective Boys could have a cat."
"I haven't been kicked out yet, have I? Even if Haibara adopts one, that still wouldn't be one per person." Conan gave a dry laugh with dead-fish eyes. He had been more or less forced into joining in the first place.
Ai actually liked small animals quite a bit. It was not as though there was no cat she wanted to keep...
She lowered her gaze to Yimi, who had crouched down.
Before she knew it, her hand had settled on the hat-covered head in front of her.
"Meow?"