The unscrupulous detective in Conan

Chapter 1295: A Mother's Strength Belongs to...

Fujino: "..."

Haibara Ai:"……"

Watching the carp thrashing about on the grass, the two involuntarily turned their heads, looked at each other, then turned their heads away, and the atmosphere fell into a long silence.

The scene was quite awkward.

A look of confusion appeared in Fujino's eyes; he didn't understand why he was an air force pilot.

What I'm saying is, even catching some weird or strange things is fine...

Why can't I catch anything?

Could it be because there's nothing strange or unusual in this lake?

You can catch anything but fish, right?

Fujino mentally complained for a while, but then he thought about it again and came to terms with it.

At least we can be sure that there are no corpses in this lake, so it's relatively clean, isn't it?
Ai Haibara's eyebrows twitched slightly, and she tightened her grip on the fishing rod a little.

This damn fishing rod...

How come I caught a fish as soon as I cast the rod?

She glanced sideways at the silent Fujino.

I'm a little worried that he might be upset.

"Hmm, it looks like there's only one fish left in this lake."

Fujino immediately put away his fishing rod, turned around and patted Gray Cat's head, laughing, "I didn't expect you to catch the last fish. You're really lucky..."

Ai Haibara, whose head had been rubbed, put away her fishing rod and silently nodded in agreement: "Looks like this really is the last fish."

Fujino picked up the carp: "But carp have a lot of bones. You can't make fish soup without using a pressure cooker to soften the small bones."

Ai Haibara chimed in, "In that case, we'll have to save it for the barbecue tonight."

Fujino nodded upon hearing this, thought for a moment, and then pulled the carp up: "Let's keep this fish alive for now and kill it tonight. If it dies, it won't be fresh by tonight."

"I'll go get the basin..."

And so, the two of them happily put the carp in the basin of water, planning to have another enjoyable barbecue that evening.

The carp in the basin trembled.

You two are happy, but what about me?!

Who will speak up for me?
He had no choice but to struggle and fall to the ground.

Finally, a pot lid was slammed shut on it, and it could no longer make any more noise or splashing.

…………

Noon was approaching.

A light drizzle suddenly began to fall from the sky, followed by a downpour.

Two figures, one tall and one short, shrank into the tent, listening quietly as the beads outside hit the tent's tarpaulin with a series of thuds.

The tent was black, neither too big nor too small, just big enough to easily accommodate two people.

The two of them sat quietly in front of the tent, watching the water gather and flow down from the opening in front of the tent onto the lawn.

The rain poured down, making a loud noise.

The two sat in front of the tent opening, wanting to talk about something, but swallowed their words back as they were about to speak.

A while passed like this.

Beside him, Fujino struck up a conversation: "Do you miss home?"

"Family?"

Upon hearing this, Ai Haibara's expression faltered for a moment; she hadn't heard these words in a long time.

For her, the word "home" was too foreign.

For her, home is a place to live, with close family members around, or at least relatives nearby.

In her memory, the places she lived were all provided by the organization.

After returning from the United States, he often stayed at the pharmaceutical factory.

I don't have my own place to live; if I do, it's only temporary.

As for family...

Do I still have family?

Ai Haibara couldn't help but think this way.

She has never met her parents since she can remember, and even if she did, it was before she could remember anything.

In my memory, they were all older sisters who were seven years older than me.

After my sister died, that's it.

When she was temporarily staying at the Fujino family's house, she made the exact same claim when threatening Professor Agasa, saying that her parents were dead and that Professor Agasa was the only relative she had left in the world.

Fujino was probably asking about this...

She shook her head, her eyes thoughtful, though it was unclear what she was pondering.

Finally, she slowly began to speak: "I don't know, but sometimes at night I feel inexplicably irritable, followed by a strange emptiness, and then I calm down in my hazy dreams after falling asleep..."

At this point, she relaxed a bit: "But recently, I don't feel that way as often."

"Is that so?"

Fujino nodded calmly, watching the rain fall outside.

Ai Haibara looked at Fujino's calm face and inexplicably sensed a touch of sadness.

She had heard Fujino mention it and knew that the other person, like herself, had lost their family.

Mingmei, who is now, came to this world after losing her home and family.

This kind of organization is somewhat similar to her situation.

So she couldn't help but ask softly, "Would you... want to?"

"I don't know either, it's very unfamiliar."

Fujino shook his head slightly, genuinely unsure.

He had never experienced the feeling of home.

In his past life, he was an orphan who grew up on the charity of many families. He was supported by the village to attend primary school, junior high school, and high school, and finally went to university with subsidies. After that, he was tricked into joining a pyramid scheme while working...

Fujino felt that "home" should be the village, but "family" and "people in the village" didn't quite fit into his definition. To be more precise, they were his benefactors.

Fujino clearly distinguished between benefactors and family members: one is someone you don't need to repay, and the other is someone you do need to repay.

Treating one's benefactor as family is somewhat shameless.

At least that's what Fujino thinks.

As for the parents of this world...

At most, it's just some lingering memories of paternal and maternal love, and the care between family members.

For Fujino, it was like watching a movie with a deeper sense of immersion.

For a moment, Ai Haibara didn't know what to say.

Compared to herself, she felt that Fujino must be even more upset than she was.

Fortunately, even though she had lost her parents before, it wouldn't have a big impact, since she had never met them before.

However, Fujino did indeed live with his parents for sixteen or seventeen years before...

This feeling made her feel a little sorry for him.

It's a kind of sadness and loneliness that's hard to describe.

This sorrow is invisible, seemingly indifferent, or perhaps completely nonexistent, yet it is undeniably present in our senses.

Ai Haibara didn't understand what this was. But she knew that this feeling was extremely deadly.

She didn't know how to comfort him, so she could only use her small hands, which were now the size of her body, to gently press down on Fujino's large hands that were supporting him on the ground.

The cat doesn't understand why you're sad; the cat can only try to show that it's right beside you.

Fujino felt the warmth of the little hand and sighed helplessly.

Originally, he wanted to test whether Gray Cat would miss her sister.

It turned out like this.

Even though the other person was in a worse situation than me, I was the one who ended up being comforted.

Okay, let's change the subject.

Fujino thought to himself, raising his wrist to glance at his expensive Rolex: "But it's almost lunchtime, isn't it?"

"Why haven't those others returned yet?"

Upon hearing this, Ai Haibara took out her phone, as she could only check the time using her phone since she couldn't see Fujino's watch.

It was getting late, and it was raining.

She frowned and said, "Could something have happened to them?"

Her face remained as serious and aloof as ever, but her concern was evident in her tone.

Compared to those actors who play children so convincingly that it's hard to believe they're acting, and who might genuinely believe they're actually a primary school student, this actor is quite different.

Haibara clearly doesn't see herself as an elementary school student.

Although she sometimes has to act, she doesn't act like a child. You can tell from her usual outfits. Compared to children who look about the same age, she dresses more fashionably and maturely, making her look more like an eighteen-year-old girl.

To be more specific, she should be an 18-year-old married woman with three children.

Haibara lacked maternal love and care, and her older sister played the role of her mother from a young age.

Therefore, when facing the little ones, she naturally took on the role of the children's mother as the eldest sister.

From a psychological perspective, this is called post-traumatic compensatory care behavior, which also carries a tendency towards role identification.

Essentially, it's about compensating for oneself through others.

Fujino's analysis of Ai Haibara is as follows.

So he suggested, "Why don't you contact them using your detective badge?"

Upon hearing this, Ai Haibara realized what was going on and then took out the Detective Boys' badge from her pocket.

Before she could even speak, a loud shout came from the detective's armband: "Run! It's a Yamanbagiri!!!"

"..."

"Hey, what are you scared of?"

"She's holding a machete!"

"It must be a Yamaba!"

"..."

"She's just an old lady who went to the field to cut vegetables."

"..."

Ai Haibara and Fujino fell silent for a moment after the sudden shout.

Ai Haibara, feeling rather helpless, lowered her eyelids and retorted with a tone full of displeasure, "So, Edogawa, what dangerous place have you taken them to this time?"

"We found an old house nearby, and since it was raining heavily, we were planning to go there to take shelter from the rain for a while, and then we saw an old lady," Conan explained, then suddenly realized something was wrong. "Wait, what do you mean I led them there? They're the ones who found this place!"

"I didn't want to come!"

Ai Haibara retorted directly, "Then why did you bring them along?"

"There's nothing we can do about it!"

Conan pursed his lips: "Alright, let's not talk about it for now. Let's go visit the old lady first and come back when the rain stops."

After saying these words, he hung up the phone immediately.

Ai Haibara's grip on the detective's armband tightened involuntarily: That damned Edogawa, how dare he hang up on me!
Gray Cat expressed strong dissatisfaction that her kittens had been taken away by technology and their whereabouts were unknown.

I took a deep breath and calmed myself down before I could recover.

After that, he fell into deep thought again.

She was a little confused as to why her emotions were becoming increasingly difficult to control.

All I wanted to do was grab a wooden sword and stab that Hakiko on the head!
Could it be...? No, this body hasn't even developed yet.

Ai Haibara pondered, somewhat puzzled.

But thinking about a wooden sword...

He must have learned it from Fujino.

…………

On the other side, Conan and his friends were immediately ushered into a retro triangular hut.

Conan thought this little house looked just like the retro buildings he'd seen on his last trip to Onizawa Village. (Onizawa Village, ending of chapter 800)
The "mountain hag" that the children just called out to was actually an old woman named Tanaka Iwae.

Conan found it quite baffling that these kids were mistaking the old lady for a foreigner.

But looking at this old lady's face with age spots, messy white hair, and the straw raincoat she's wearing, and even the machete she's holding, she really does look a bit like one!
The old lady was very kind and warmly invited the little ones inside to take shelter from the rain.

During the conversation, he also revealed that he has a grandson who left home ten years ago and has not returned since. He said that the grandson is doing quite well now and sends money back every month.

Then, the little ones who had just entered the door were still in the entryway when they noticed a pair of eyes peering in through the crack in the door.

This gave them quite a fright; they thought it was some kind of mountain spirit or monster.

Yamamura Misao: So this is what you mean by not believing in any monsters, huh!
The boomerang is still going strong!
As a detective, Conan naturally doesn't believe in any ghosts or monsters.

If there's anything truly terrifying, it has to be Fujino.

As long as it's not Fujino, in his eyes it's just a matter of anesthesia.

To put it another way, it's like adding another kick to the ball; if one kick isn't enough, then two.

If two legs aren't enough, then you might as well wait to die.

When Conan opened the door, he discovered that it was a group of two men and one woman.

I heard they came to this mountain for a spring outing, but suddenly it started raining heavily and they got lost. They only came here to take shelter from the rain after seeing this house.

The three people were naturally ushered in by the old lady.

The tone was just a little bit off.

This made Conan feel a little confused: Logically speaking, this old lady should be a good person, so why was her attitude so bad just now?
After the group of people were ushered in, they began to introduce themselves.

The woman's name was Akane Oba. She was a pretty woman with short brown hair, slightly curled at the ends, wearing a stylish white tank top, off-the-shoulder sweater, and black trousers. She gave off the impression of being quite wealthy and successful.

The two men next to him, one named Andarai, had dyed blond hair and had a mature, older-man style, while the other named Kahara Fuga wore a knitted hat and had a youthful, trendy style.

The two of them identified themselves as male waiters.

This trip to the forest was entirely to accompany her client, Akane Oba, who appears to be quite wealthy and is indeed a bit of a rich young lady.

The children understood that the two people were accompanying the older girl on her outing.

However, he couldn't understand anything about the hospitality or anything like that.

This left the children a little confused, as they only felt that the two people were probably waiters or something similar.

Conan was speechless. As the incarnation of high school detective Shinichi Kudo, he knew very well what a waiter was.

He's basically a male character who drinks with wealthy young ladies, housewives, and other women, listens to their innermost thoughts, and provides them with emotional value and a sense of 'satisfaction'.

To put it bluntly, they're just people who drink with you!
In Japan, they're called host clubs (or "host bros").
If we were talking about ancient China, then it would be a rabbit, a little singing animal, or something like a male.

Thinking of this, Conan suddenly lowered his eyes and fell into deep thought:

How could I possibly know these things?
(End of this chapter)