Conan: The Romantic Daily Life of a Ghost Detective

He probably has a fear of heights like Uncle Mori, and is afraid to look down at the bottomless cliff and valley below. That's why he was forced to shift his gaze to nearby objects, and that's when he happened to notice the knife marks on the pillar.

Conan found a suitable reason for the lukewarm water.

At this moment, Ryoichi Takahashi felt that the preparations were almost complete, and suddenly jumped up from the ground.

"It's the Bandaged Man! He must have cut the bridge; he wants to leave us here!!"

Ryoichi Takahashi was so terrified that he was waving his arms and legs wildly, and almost fell off the bridge because he was so excited.

Fortunately, Hiroki Kakutani pulled him back.

"What nonsense are you talking about? This is a society governed by law. Murder is punishable by death." Chikako Ikeda said with displeasure, crossing her arms as she walked to the bridge.

"In my opinion, it's just some bored person playing a prank. It would be really embarrassing if all of us were scared by just one person, wouldn't you say, Kakutani?"

"Chikako! Didn't I tell you not to mention that matter again?" Hiroki Kakutani's face turned red.

Wen Shui guessed that the two might have had similar experiences.

Judging from Hiroki Kakutani's series of reactions just now, he should be like Ran, somewhat afraid of paranormal events.

At that moment, Ai Haibara and Tooru Amuro, each carrying an umbrella, walked from the direction of the villa.

"We went back to the villa and there was no one there. Did something happen?" Amuro Tooru asked.

Ran and Sonoko briefly explained the situation.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ai Haibara came to Nuku's side, glanced at the bottomless canyon, and said in a low voice, "While you were walking in the rain with others, I confirmed that Amuro Tooru was only here to protect me and had no other purpose."

Wen Shui was stunned for a moment, thinking, "What the heck? Why does the air suddenly smell sour?"

But he said, "Thank you for your hard work."

"It's not as hard as you." Ai Haibara gazed at the opposite bank of the bridge, fine raindrops scattered on her delicate eyelashes.

.

After returning to the villa, everyone sat down in the dining room and discussed the matter.

Since the bridge is broken, we can only try to contact the police tomorrow morning after the rain stops. If we all stay in the villa, that bandaged weirdo shouldn't dare to barge in.

"I'm not feeling well, so I'll skip dinner." Chikako Ikeda went straight upstairs.

"Chikako..."

Ayako Suzuki looked at the other person's back with a hesitant expression. She had originally hoped to relive the happy times of her university days through this gathering, but it seemed that everyone had changed.

Is this what Mom always says, that you meet new friends at every stage of life?

At that moment, Amuro Tooru walked over and asked, "Ms. Suzuki, shall I go to the kitchen to prepare dinner?"

Ayako Suzuki nodded: "Okay, I'll go help too."

Ryoichi Takahashi also stood up: "The rain seems to have lessened compared to before. I'll go and fix the roof so that the bandaged monster won't come in through the roof at night."

"How could such a thing happen? He's not Santa Claus," Sonoko Suzuki joked, trying to ease the tense atmosphere in the restaurant.

Then she discovered that surprisingly no one refuted her.

Strange, shouldn't that guy Wen Shui jump out at this moment and say some annoying things like "Santa Claus blah blah blah..."?

Sonoko Suzuki looked around and realized that the warm water seemed to have disappeared at some point, just like the wooden suspension bridge.

Ai Haibara wasn't in the living room either.

"Could it be..."

Sonoko Suzuki's eyes gleamed with the light of a detective.

.

While Sonoko Suzuki was telling silly jokes at the restaurant, Nukumizu was sitting on Ai Haibara's bed.

Of course, the two of them were doing something serious.

There were two single beds in the room. Ai Haibara sat on the edge of one of the beds, with her laptop on her lap. Her slender, white fingers tapped away on the keyboard like she was playing the piano.

After the bandaged man cut the phone line, he also seemed to have destroyed the villa's signal receiver. Previously, there was a cell phone signal near the villa, but the signal was weak and intermittent.

Ai Haibara's laptop also disconnected.

However, before the connection was lost, her program retrieved an "information packet" from the Metropolitan Police Department's database. She is now trying to crack this thing, saying that she might be able to obtain some information about the Slit-Mouthed Woman case after cracking it.

Wen Shui curiously peeked out to look.

But the computer screen was filled with characters he couldn't understand, flashing rapidly at a dizzying speed.

Warm water felt a little dizzy from looking at it, so she subconsciously shifted her gaze to Ai Haibara's legs.

Ai Haibara was still wearing that pleated skirt, her fair and slender legs crossed together, and the lace trim under the skirt was faintly visible.

As she operated the computer to crack the program, she hummed a song, her fair and soft toes hooking onto her slippers, swaying gently and rhythmically in the air.

"Can you understand it?" Ai Haibara suddenly asked.

"Just a little bit."

How's my program?

"It looks pretty good," Wen Shui replied seriously.

"Hmm?" Ai Haibara frowned, quickly noticing Wen Shui's gaze. "I asked you to look at the information on the computer, not my legs."

Wen Shui: "Sorry, I got distracted."

Ai Haibara looked at Wen Shui helplessly: "I really don't know if meeting you is a good thing or a bad thing for me. Lately, I often have a premonition that I will die by your hand first."

"How could that be? We're comrades!"

Wen Shui also said half-jokingly, "Besides, I'm easy to take care of. Not only can I solve cases, but I also have a nice way of speaking. I won't go looking for trouble with the Black Organization like Shinichi Kudo. I can even protect your safety in critical moments."

"Like protecting Ran this afternoon?" Ai Haibara blurted out, as if possessed.

Wen Shui paused for a moment, then said, "Of course, you are all mine..."

"I don't need it!" Ai Haibara interrupted Wen Shui. "I'm not used to being protected by others; I prefer to take my own destiny into my own hands."

She paused, brushing a stray hair behind her ear: "But if you obediently cooperate with me, even if your plan fails, I can take a risk to save you."

Of course, your lifestyle will need to change a lot by then.

Because this is someone else's villa, Ai Haibara said it very subtly.

But Wen Shui immediately guessed that Ai Haibara was saying that if his plan to leave the organization failed, he should also be turned into Conan to escape the organization's pursuit.

But even if she could develop a stable APTX-4869 capsule that shrinks people, Wen Shui wouldn't want to choose that alternative path.

Wenshui didn't want to follow Ran around calling her "Ran-nee-chan" all the time.

"We'll see when the time comes. I prefer to take control of my own destiny," Wen Shui said listlessly.

Ai Haibara looked away with some regret.

Wen Shui was startled, wondering if this woman might have some strange fetish? Perhaps, due to a lack of maternal love in childhood, she awakened a compensatory behavior of collecting children and then desperately trying to give them maternal love?

Wen Shui imagined herself shrunk down and being imprisoned and pampered by Ai Haibara in a luxurious villa—it was a bit scary.

"By the way, do you like children?" Wen Shui asked casually.

Ai Haibara immediately noticed something, and as she retreated to the foot of the bed, she also used her laptop to shield her cute little belly.

"W-what do you want to do?" The blush on her face looked somewhat alluring.

Wen Shui couldn't help but rub her forehead: "I was just asking a casual question, why are you reacting so strongly?"

"Why are you asking this out of the blue?" Ai Haibara asked warily.

Wen Shui explained in a serious tone, "It's just that although you're usually cold, you're very caring, and you have a kind of motherly girlfriend vibe."

Ai Haibara breathed a sigh of relief, then realized that her reaction did seem a bit abnormal, so she switched to her cold, icy witch persona:

"If I remove the girlfriend part, I have no plans to date for the time being."

"Mom?" Wen Shui asked tentatively.

Ai Haibara looked at him with disbelief: "You... how could you say that?"

"What's the big deal? Xiaolan called me 'Dad' this afternoon," Wen Shui said.

No sooner had he finished speaking than a commotion arose outside the door.

Immediately afterwards, Ran and Sonoko Suzuki, who were hugging each other, accidentally broke open the door and fell to the floor.

Chapter 39 "Split Operation" - Chikako Ikeda

Just as Wen Shui and Haibara Ai were "interrogating" Ran and Sonoko, who were eavesdropping, in the room.

Ryoichi Takahashi also secretly climbed down from the side roof and walked into the depths of the dense forest.

The warm lights inside the villa contrasted sharply with the cold drizzle outside. He looked up and could vaguely hear Wen Shui and the others laughing and talking from the room at the far end of the second floor.

“Originally, Atsuko and I could have been this happy…” Takahashi Ryoichi said in a dejected tone.

He looked down at the sharp axe in his hand, and the slight hesitation he had shown earlier completely disappeared.

That woman must pay the price!

Ryoichi Takahashi arrived at the agreed location with practiced ease and saw Chikako Ikeda standing alone under a tree with her back to him, holding an umbrella and pacing anxiously back and forth.

Sure enough, it was easy to lure the woman out by simply using a note that read, "Come to the forest if you don't want the secrets of the Blue Kingdom to be exposed."

Ryoichi Takahashi stepped out of the woods and pulled down the hood of his raincoat.

"You...it's actually Takahashi?" Chikako Ikeda's eyes widened, seemingly surprised that the one threatening her was the shy Takahashi.

She quickly noticed the axe in Takahashi's hand and retreated uneasily, saying, "Takahashi, what are you trying to do? I advise you to calm down. I told Ayako before I came out."

Takahashi Ryo pressed closer, his gaze as cold and ruthless as an abyss beneath his glasses, which were covered by rain and fog.

"Go down there and tell these things to Dunzi."

"Dunzi? You..."

Just then, a bolt of lightning ripped through the night sky.

The sharp, gleaming axe blade sliced ​​through the rain, scattering bright red raindrops everywhere.