Chapter 50: Ai Haibara Appears
The evening breeze carried the crisp chill of the city, but Natsume practically skipped down the pavement. Her steps were light, fueled by the lingering adrenaline of the day. She had finally met the person she had been searching for—a reunion so exhilarating that she had impulsively emptied her entire wallet in celebration.
Now, staring down at the sad, hollow leather of her coin purse, she realized she didn't even have enough spare yen for a taxi.
'Well, walking it is,' she thought, tucking the wallet away with a helpless smile.
Fortunately, inheriting the Traveler's physique came with its perks. Even after trekking across several blocks, her breathing remained perfectly even. Her legs felt as fresh as they had this morning, completely untouched by fatigue.
As she rounded the corner toward the local police box, a familiar cluster of small silhouettes caught her eye.
"Huh?" Natsume slowed her pace, blinking at the group huddled under the dim streetlamp. "Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, Genta... what are you all doing out so late?"
Stepping closer, she realized the usual Detective Boys lineup had expanded. Standing beside the familiar trio were two new faces: a frantic-looking little boy, and a little girl with strawberry-blonde hair and an expression so frosty it could have frozen the summer air.
Natsume's eyes locked onto the girl. The detached gaze, the crossed arms, the aura of someone entirely too tired for this world.
'Shiho Miyano,'Natsume realized instantly.'Or rather... Ai Haibara.'
A familiar, floating voice chimed in her mind.
[Traveler! I didn't expect Sherry's childhood form to be this cute!] Paimon squeaked through their mental link. [I mean, she's only slightly less cute than Paimon, obviously. But that icy glare... she doesn't look like a kid at all!]
'You're not wrong,' Natsume agreed silently, keeping her outward expression pleasantly neutral.
"Sister Natsume!"
Hearing her voice, Ayumi spun around. The little girl's face lit up, and the rest of the boys quickly followed suit, their gloomy expressions vanishing in an instant as they called out in unison.
Natsume closed the distance, crouching down slightly to meet their eye level. She quickly learned the names of the newcomers: the anxious boy was Toshiya, and the strawberry-blonde girl was, exactly as expected, Ai Haibara.
Natsume planted her hands firmly on her hips, adopting a mock-stern posture. "So? It's pitch black out here. Why aren't you heading home? The streets are dangerous for kids at this hour."
"Sister Natsume, it's like this..." Ayumi shrank back slightly, misinterpreting the stance for genuine anger, and hurriedly launched into their tale.
"Oh?" Natsume tapped her chin, processing the rapid-fire explanation. "So Toshiya's older brother went missing. And after doing your own investigating, the Detective Boys concluded that the staff at the newspaper office right next to this police station kidnapped him to print counterfeit money?"
Genta and Mitsuhiko nodded so vigorously their heads looked like they might snap off.
"And let me guess," Natsume continued, glancing at the brightly lit police box behind them. "You marched in there to report the case, and the officers brushed you off?"
"Uh-huh! They were so mean!" Ayumi stomped her little foot, looking up at Natsume with wide, pleading eyes. "They didn't believe us at all. They even laughed and said we were watching way too many gangster movies. Sister Natsume... do you believe us?"
Standing slightly apart from the group, Ai Haibara observed the sudden arrival of this young woman. A faint, inexplicable sense of familiarity tugged at the back of her mind, though she couldn't place it. Shiho Miyano had crossed paths with the Organization member known as Cointreau when her parents were still alive, but as a mere one-year-old, those memories were buried deep in the abyss of her subconscious.
Hearing Ayumi's desperate question, Haibara watched Natsume with a cynical, calculating gaze. Adults were entirely predictable. They patronized, they dismissed, and they certainly never entertained the wild, criminal fantasies of elementary schoolers. She waited for the inevitable rejection.
"Yes, of course I believe you."
Natsume didn't hesitate. She gave a firm, reassuring nod.
Haibara's icy facade cracked just a fraction, her blue eyes widening in mild surprise.
Natsume had zero doubts. If the Detective Boys were mobilized, the plot armor of this world dictated that a crime was absolutely taking place. Besides, despite their reckless tendencies and habit of diving headfirst into danger without considering the consequences, these kids were earnest. They were essentially good kids, and she knew they wouldn't lie about something this serious.
"Yay!"
Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi instantly swarmed her, their cheers echoing down the quiet street.
"Sister Natsume, you really believe us?" Mitsuhiko asked, his eyes shining.
"Mhm. I do." Natsume smiled, patting Ayumi's head. But as she scanned the group again, a glaring absence finally registered. "Speaking of which... where is Conan Edogawa? Don't you Detective Boys usually stick together like glue?"
Genta crossed his arms, his face scrunching up in annoyance. "He told us to stay right here and not move a muscle. Then he just ran off by himself!"
"And the more he tells us not to move..." Mitsuhiko began.
"...the more we want to move!" Ayumi finished with a determined pout.
Natsume stifled a laugh. "So, you want to go investigate the newspaper office yourselves?"
"Uh-huh! Can we?" Genta asked, practically vibrating with anticipation.
"Of course. I'll go with you." Natsume agreed easily.
Internally, she was already calculating the potential Primogem rewards from the System for resolving this. A few counterfeiters? Please. Even if they were armed to the teeth, she had the Geo element thrumming in her veins. At the first sign of a bullet, she could summon a crystalline shield thick enough to stop a truck. She wasn't afraid of a handful of thugs.
"Yay!" the trio cheered again, throwing their fists into the air.
"But," Natsume raised a finger, her tone dropping into something far more serious. "You have to promise me one thing. When we go inside to check the office, you must stay behind me. No running around. Understood?"
"Yes!" the children chorused, dragging out the syllable.
Natsume took the lead, her footsteps silent against the pavement. By keeping them behind her, she ensured she would be the first line of defense against whatever waited inside.
Trailing at the back of the pack, Haibara stared at the young woman's back.
'What is wrong with this person?'Haibara thought, her brow furrowing.'What kind of normal adult instantly validates such an outrageous kidnapping theory from a child? And worse, actually escorts a group of kids to the potential crime scene?'
The group quickly arrived at the front entrance of the newspaper office. Natsume paused, closing her eyes for a fraction of a second. Her enhanced senses swept the immediate interior. Nothing. The front room was entirely empty.
Without a word, she pushed the door open and stepped inside, the children filing in like ducklings behind her.
The office smelled heavily of ink and stale coffee. Shadows clung to the corners of the cluttered room.
"Huh. There's nobody here," Genta whispered, his shoulders slumping in disappointment.
Mitsuhiko scurried over to a nearby desk, standing on his tiptoes to peer over the edge. "I don't see any counterfeit money, either."
Genta wandered over to join him, scratching his head. "Do you think that kid Conan made a mistake?"
"He shouldn't have made a mistake. Look, there are a lot of painting pigments on the desk, and look at this—" Natsume's voice was quiet but sharp. Her eyes flicked upward, subtly noting the red blinking light of a surveillance camera tucked into the ceiling corner.
She reached out, pulling a large sheet of paper from beneath a messy stack of newspapers. The heavy parchment was plastered with the distinct, complex designs of ten-thousand-yen bills.
"Wow! So much money!" Ayumi gasped, covering her mouth.
Genta immediately started counting on his thick fingers. "How many eel rice bowls can this much money buy? One... two... three..."
"That's strange." Mitsuhiko leaned in, his eyes narrowing as he inspected the print. "Look at the portraits on the bills. They're all missing the left eye, and they haven't been colored in yet."
Before anyone could process the clue, the heavy metallic clack of the front door handle echoing through the room made them freeze.
The door swung inward, and a woman's sharp, mocking voice pierced the silence.
"This is just like a Wish-Fulfilling Daruma. You can only draw the final eye when your wish actually comes true. Hmm!!!"
Ayumi and the boys whipped around in terror. A woman dressed entirely in black stood in the doorway, a cold sneer on her face as she raised a black handgun, pointing the barrel directly at the children.
She didn't even get to pull the trigger.
Natsume moved.
She didn't run; she practically teleported. Closing the distance in a blur of motion, Natsume grabbed the edge of the heavy wooden door from behind the woman and slammed it shut with bone-rattling, superhuman force.
The heavy wood connected squarely with the back of the woman's skull. Her eyes rolled back, and she crumpled to the floor like a cut string, the handgun clattering uselessly against the linoleum.
Outside the door, two male voices shouted in alarm.
Natsume didn't give them a single second to react. She ripped the door back open. Snatching two heavy glass pigment bottles from the nearby desk, she hurled them with terrifying precision.
The bottles cut through the air like bullets.
Bang! Bang!
The heavy glass shattered perfectly against the foreheads of the two men rushing the entrance. They didn't even have time to scream before their knees buckled, both collapsing into an unconscious heap on the pavement.
Silence descended on the office.
By the time Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta processed that they were in danger, the danger was already bleeding out on the floor.
Natsume stood casually by the doorway, dusting off her hands. Just beyond the threshold, another man sat hog-tied on the floor, trembling violently. Natsume deduced this had to be Toshiya's kidnapped older brother.
"Big Brother!"
Toshiya screamed, snapping out of his shock. He sprinted past Natsume, dropping to his knees to desperately claw at the ropes binding the man.
From the shadows of the adjacent hallway, a small figure stepped out, his glasses catching the dim light.
"Sister Natsume?" Conan Edogawa stared at the carnage at the front door, his jaw slightly slack. He looked from the unconscious woman to the two men groaning on the pavement outside, then up at the young woman who had just dismantled an armed counterfeiting ring in under five seconds.
"Nice job, Conan." Natsume smiled warmly.
She stepped over the unconscious woman and looked down at the final kidnapper—who Conan had apparently just dragged out of a back room and knocked out with a vicious kick.
Reaching down, Natsume vigorously ruffled the young detective's hair, praising him.
'Wow,'she thought to herself, her hand lingering on his hair.'His head is perfectly round. This is actually incredibly comfortable to pet.'
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