Chapter 14: Brother
Conan Edogawa sat quietly, his oversized glasses catching the light as he observed Natsume. He was still deeply suspicious of her sudden relocation to the neighborhood. Prior to the recent incident, she had been a complete ghost in Beika. Then, out of nowhere, she had materialized right beside him. More alarmingly, she had been present at Tropical Land on that fateful day. The gears in the shrunken detective's mind turned endlessly, weighing the terrifying possibility that this cheerful woman might be connected to those men in black.
Putting on his best childish facade, Conan tilted his head and pitched his voice an octave higher. "Say, Sister Natsume! Why did you suddenly decide to move all the way out here? Did something happen?"
Natsume paused, setting down her teacup with a soft clink. "I came here to find my brother."
[Traveler, did your brother come to this world too?] Paimon's voice echoed in her mind, sounding genuinely surprised by the revelation.
'Of course not,'Natsume replied silently.'It is just a convenient excuse.'
In truth, she had struggled to come up with a flawless justification for her impulsive move. Borrowing Lumine's original motivation from the game's lore provided the perfect cover story. It gave her a sympathetic background and neatly explained her sudden pivot into the detective profession.
"A brother?" Ayumi blinked, her large eyes filling with innocent curiosity. "Did your brother go missing, Sister Natsume?"
"Yes, he did." Natsume let her eyelashes flutter downward, casting a melancholic shadow over her golden eyes. It was a calculated move to shield her expression from Conan's piercing scrutiny. She softened her voice, lacing it with just the right amount of vulnerability. "A few years ago, I was involved in a terrible accident. I fell into a deep coma. When I finally woke up, I learned that my brother had been missing for a very long time. The doctors and the police all told me to give up hope. They said that after being gone for so long, he had likely met with a fatal accident."
She paused, letting out a shaky breath. "But my hospital bills were always paid on time by an anonymous source. I know in my heart that he is still alive out there. He just cannot show himself right now, for reasons I do not yet understand."
She offered a small, brave smile to the children. "That is why I moved. Someone reached out to me, claiming they had spotted someone matching his description right here in Beika. I opened my detective agency so I could gather clues and track him down myself."
"Sister Natsume, I just know you will find him!" Ayumi leaned forward, her little hands clenched into fists of determination. Her heart ached for the older girl. Being separated from family was the worst feeling in the world. Ayumi remembered crying for days when she had to spend time away from her grandmother, and that was with a guaranteed reunion. The uncertainty Natsume faced had to be agonizing. "You will definitely be reunited one day!"
Natsume looked at the little girl, a genuine warmth blooming in her chest. Ayumi truly was like a little angel. She was polite, endlessly optimistic, and so incredibly empathetic to the pain of others. She was a genuinely good child.
Mitsuhiko and Genta nodded vigorously in agreement. "That is right! Your brother will definitely come back safe and sound!" Genta declared, puffing out his chest. He then elbowed Conan sharply in the ribs. "Right, Conan? Tell her we think so too!"
Jolted from his intense train of thought, Conan stumbled over his words. "Ah, yeah... definitely."
Despite his outward agreement, his mind was racing in the opposite direction. The circumstances surrounding this missing brother sounded highly suspicious. The disappearance did not sound like a kidnapping, especially with the continuous, anonymous hospital payments. Was this brother involved in something illegal? Had he gone underground to escape the law, or worse, the Organization?
Mitsuhiko raised his hand eagerly. "By the way, Sister Natsume, do you have a photograph of your brother? You should show it to us! The Detective Boys are experts at finding people!"
"Yes, yes! We can help search the neighborhood!" Ayumi chimed in.
Natsume let out a heavy, perfectly timed sigh. "I am afraid I do not have a single photograph of him. After I was discharged from the hospital and returned to our old home, I discovered that every single picture of him had been taken."
Conan narrowed his eyes behind his lenses. Not a single photograph left behind? The suspicion in his gut twisted into a hard knot. That was the hallmark of a professional cover-up.
"However, my brother and I look remarkably alike," Natsume continued, gesturing to her own face. "If you ever cross paths with him, you would recognize our relation instantly." She proceeded to give a detailed description of Aether, painting a picture of a young man with golden hair braided down his back and striking, warm eyes.
The conversation naturally shifted as the children demolished the remaining snacks. Soon, the entire plate of delicate, flaky Lotus Crisps was reduced to crumbs.
Genta leaned back against the sofa, patting his noticeably rounded stomach with a satisfied groan. "Wow, I am so stuffed! I do not even think I have room for dinner tonight."
"That is because you ate more than half the plate yourself, Genta," Mitsuhiko scolded lightly, before turning to their host with a polite bow. "Thank you very much for having us over today, Sister Natsume. The food was delicious."
Glancing at the clock and realizing the afternoon had slipped away, the children gathered their backpacks. They lined up at the door to say their goodbyes. Before stepping out into the evening air, the trio stood at attention, solemnly swearing that the Detective Boys would not rest until they helped Natsume reunite with her missing brother.
As the door clicked shut, the floating fairy materialized in a shower of starlight. [Lying to a bunch of sweet little kids,] Paimon crossed her tiny arms, floating at eye level. [Does your conscience not hurt even a little bit, Traveler?]
Natsume placed a hand flat against her chest, feeling the steady rhythm of her heartbeat. 'Of course... it does not hurt at all.'She mentally shrugged. In her previous life as an exhausted office worker, she had learned to reserve her limited supply of guilt for things that actually mattered. This was merely a harmless white lie to secure her position in this dangerous world.'At worst, I will just make it up to them by saving their lives a few extra times when they inevitably stumble into mortal peril.' Given the terrifyingly high crime rate surrounding Conan Edogawa, she knew those opportunities would present themselves on a weekly basis.
Hours later, the apartment was completely silent. Natsume lay alone in the dark, staring up at the ceiling shadows cast by the streetlights outside.
"A brother... huh," she murmured into the quiet room, the fabricated story lingering in her mind. A strange, hollow ache settled in her chest. "If only it were real."
Pulling the blankets up to her chin, she turned onto her side and let the exhaustion pull her into a dreamless sleep.
Late at night, deep within the neon-lit underbelly of the city, a hidden bar operated as a clandestine stronghold for the Black Organization. A place like this should have been packed with rowdy patrons and deafening music. Instead, the atmosphere was suffocatingly tense. The establishment was nearly empty. The few scattered patrons nursed their drinks in absolute silence, their eyes darting nervously toward the imposing figure seated at the center of the mahogany counter.
The man wore a heavy black trench coat that seemed to absorb the dim lighting. Long, striking silver hair cascaded down his back, stopping just short of his waist. He held a glass of liquor with lethal stillness, not bothering to remove the dark fedora that shadowed his cold, predatory eyes.
"Big Brother," a heavily built man in a dark suit spoke up from the adjacent stool, breaking the oppressive silence. Vodka leaned in slightly, his tone laced with grudging respect. "I really did not expect that arrogant brat we recruited a few days ago to actually have real skills. He already produced solid results in the lab, and in such a short amount of time too."
"Hmph." Gin let out a low, chilling sneer. The ice in his glass clinked as he swirled the amber liquid. He had fully anticipated this outcome. "He is a highly regarded scholar from Britain. If he lacked the necessary ability, the Organization would never have wasted the resources to recruit him in the first place."
"At this rate, he might earn himself a codename very soon," Vodka noted, shaking his head in mild disbelief. "He might even set the record for the fastest promotion in the history of the Organization."
Gin took a slow, deliberate sip of his drink, his expression entirely noncommittal. No matter how impressive the new recruit's intellect was, he was still just a rat scurrying around in the research division. It was a slight pity that Gin could not draft the man into his own executive action squad. It was exceedingly rare to find someone with such sharp, ruthless efficiency. Instead, he was stuck managing a team composed mostly of incompetent trash.
The thought of genuine, lethal skill brought a specific face to the forefront of Gin's mind. He recalled the encrypted message the Boss had relayed to him just yesterday.
Setting his empty glass down on the counter, Gin spoke, his voice cutting through the quiet jazz playing in the background. "Vodka. Cointreau is coming back."
"Eh?" Vodka blinked, visibly startled by the sudden shift in topic. "Has Cointreau not been managing our primary operations over in Europe for years? Why would the Boss suddenly transfer an executive of his caliber back to Japan?"
"He requested the transfer himself," Gin replied, a hint of dark amusement curling the corner of his mouth. "He claims he wants to search for someone. Someone who does not even exist."
For as long as Gin had known him, Cointreau had been obsessed with finding this phantom. Yet, the executive possessed absolutely no concrete information. He did not know the target's age, had no photograph of their appearance, and lacked even a basic name. He did not even seem entirely certain of the person's gender. Decades had slipped by without a single credible clue surfacing. If Gin did not know firsthand how deadly and utterly devoid of humor Cointreau was, he would have assumed the man was suffering from severe delusions.
Thousands of miles away, the bustling terminals of an international airport in the United States hummed with activity.
A lone man stood near the massive glass windows, preparing to board his first-class flight to Tokyo. He cut a striking figure against the backdrop of the runway lights. His golden-blonde hair was cut short in the front, framing his face, while the back was woven into a long, complex braid that swayed gently with his movements. His eyes, a brilliant, warm amber, were clear and deceptively gentle.
He tilted his head back, his bright gaze piercing through the glass to look at the vast, starry sky. A quiet intensity burned within him, as if he could already see the very thing he had spent a lifetime longing to find.
'Are you finally out there?'he thought, a faint, hopeful smile touching his lips.'Have you finally appeared?'
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