Chapter 448 - 59: When Did You Start Doing That Too?

Chapter 448: Chapter 59: When Did You Start Doing That Too?

Getting hit in the head by that would probably hurt a little.

"No way!" Those were Irish’s last words.

Yimi had discovered that there were rocks beyond the sky back before she could even turn into a human, right alongside the fact that the world was actually round.

The asteroid had heated to a blazing temperature as it tore through the atmosphere. Conan still could not see what had happened to the helicopter beneath it, but he did not need to. If the people on the aircraft had not yet managed to report his true identity to the Organization, then Irish was probably the last person still keeping that secret.

The words "Run!" jammed in Conan’s throat before he could shout them. This was nothing like the ordinary bombs he dealt with all the time. Yet when Conan tilted his head out from under Famine’s arm to look at Yimi, he clearly saw the catgirl purse her lips after lowering the scope.

Maybe she was satisfied. Maybe it was something else. Whatever it was, she certainly was not frightened or shocked. Yimi was often startled by enormous living creatures, but a rock was not enough to scare her.

Even at a moment like this, Conan did not stop thinking. There was no way astronomers could conceal a celestial object that was about to strike Earth. If so, could this thing actually have been man-made?

Bullets freezing in midair, and the speed with which she had gotten downstairs—just as fast as when he had taken the elevator—were not phenomena that belonged anywhere in physics.

"You—"

The meteor’s final impact point was in the river. If it had landed in the city center, the whole of Tokyo might have suffered a catastrophic blow. Yet Conan, despite being so close, had not even had a hair harmed—not so much as a single splash reached him.

Only the balance scale hanging from the "knight’s" hand clattered in the violent airflow. Even then, it never tipped completely toward either side. At that moment, the little girl raised the scope again, as though checking whether the helicopter was still flying.

Conan stood there dazed for a long time without even looking at Yimi.

Perhaps this was the moment he finally understood how those criminals who had suddenly dropped dead had really been killed—and just how much kinder Yimi’s true nature was than he had imagined.

"..."

"Let’s go back." Yimi was the one who spoke first.

Only then did Conan realize he had no idea how long he had been standing there in a daze.

The "knight" rode his horse back the way they had come with the two of them. Once again, the scenery blurred past at a dizzying speed, and Conan no longer had the energy to try to untangle everything he had seen.

At some point—maybe on a road, maybe somewhere else entirely—the knight left. Yimi showed absolutely no intention of discussing what had happened with Conan either.

It was as though a kindhearted knight had simply helped them chase someone, only for the helicopter to be struck down by a meteor in a freak accident. Everything had been an accident.

Could a human control a celestial body without technology? For that matter, could they even do it with technology?

Conan had no choice but to think about a question that had nothing to do with his everyday life—or with any case anywhere in the world. It would occupy half his night.

Maybe he should speak a little more gently to Yimi from now on. She was only a child. There was no need to stoop to arguing with her...

* * *

The next day arrived.

"...In the end, astronomers named the asteroid ’Acute Angle,’ after the incredible acute-angle trajectory it took toward Earth under the influence of the magnetic field." That was how the news reported it.

Absurdly enough, the casualty count was an odd number, and every one of them had been aboard the helicopter. It was practically a miracle.

Yimi was fairly satisfied with that result. She felt there was no trace at all that she had used superpowers.

Honjo Kazuki was arrested. There was not much hope that the hand Yimi had twisted like a pretzel would ever fully recover. But for a man who had killed to vent his anger and then tried to swing a knife at a child, there probably would not be many people willing to pity him.

As for how he had suffered that injury, why the scene contained not a single bullet mark, and why the bullets were scattered around as though they had simply dropped straight to the ground, those were matters the police could puzzle over.

Kogoro, who had deliberately kept working the case for Yimi’s sake, now had one more thing to think about. When Yimi thought she had secretly slipped away, Mouri Kogoro had been watching her the entire time.

The scene now shifted to Teitan Elementary School.

Conan carefully molded his little horse back into shape while also trying to untangle the relationships he had failed to make sense of yesterday.

It was difficult to imagine who had manipulated events so that the listening device he once planted under Yimi’s shoe would end up being picked up by Gin.

"Conan, Conan?" Ayumi gently nudged the yawning Conan, then accused him with a wary expression. "I saw you on the weather forecast yesterday! You went out to play with Yimi all by yourself!"

"Really?" Mitsuhiko stared at Conan and Yimi in shock, looking slightly flustered for a moment.

"Conan, you’re fixing your horse?" That was Genta.

Conan chose to ignore Genta. "What’s wrong with that? I’m staying at Uncle Mouri’s place, and Yimi is Uncle Mouri’s adopted daughter. We run into each other all the time."

"Th-Then... do you two sleep in the same room? Conan wasn’t nervous at all when he went into Yimi’s room before!" Mitsuhiko pointed anxiously at Conan, his tone hard to describe.

"Edogawa has already been put on Mouri-san’s ’Keep Away from Yimi’ blacklist," Ai said while reading as she walked past them.

Then she backed up, paused in front of Conan, and added, "Is it just me, or do I get the feeling you’re deliberately avoiding that child?"

The seats had been rearranged again today. Conan had deliberately moved far away from Yimi and ended up sitting beside Genta, while Ai finally got her wish and sat next to Yimi.

At Ai’s question, Conan gave a hollow laugh.

Haibara had no idea what he had actually witnessed. Looking back now, the fact that Yimi kept stumbling into murder scenes really did seem to contain an element of "luck" after all...

"Meow?"

Hearing Ai, Yimi crab-walked sideways between the desks until she reached Conan, then whispered to him, "That big rock, I didn’t pull it over. It fell down by itself."

Conan: "..."

Ai: "..."

"Congratulations, Host, for unlocking the achievement [Nothing Suspicious Here]! Reward: Portal Energy +5%."

Conan looked at Yimi, opened his mouth as though he wanted to say something, then finally stood up. "I’m going to the bathroom..."

He still had not figured out how he was supposed to talk to Yimi. In fact, part of him still felt that everything from yesterday until now might have been a dream.

"I’m going too!"

Conan’s nervous behavior only made Mitsuhiko more suspicious.

Once they reached the corridor leading to the bathroom, Conan turned around before Mitsuhiko could say anything. After hesitating for a long moment, he patted Mitsuhiko on the shoulder. "Mitsuhiko, you should give up. She isn’t a girl from the same world as you."

Mitsuhiko: "?"

...

After school, Yimi did not go to the detective agency with Conan. Yesterday, after Kisaki Eri carried her home, she had fallen asleep the moment she arrived and never even got the chance to say her final goodbye.

So Conan had no choice but to return to the agency alone. He could not ask Yimi any of the things on his mind, but now he truly no longer dared to interrogate her the way he once had. He even deliberately lowered his voice whenever he spoke to her.

"Conan, you’re back?" Ran had already returned home before him.

She came over holding a basket and reached for Conan with her other hand. "Perfect timing. Let’s take a bath together."

Ever since Ran’s suspicions about him had been dispelled, she had once again been willing to bathe with him. Of course, whenever Yimi was around, Conan never got that chance.

Thinking about it, Conan suddenly remembered the period when Ran had suspected him. Uncle Mouri had told Ran to take him into the bath, and Ran had shot him a suspicious look instead... Come to think of it, why had Ran not reacted the way he imagined and felt guilty for giving him the cold shoulder?

"Hey, hey, hey. How old is he now and you’re still taking him into the bath with you?" Kogoro, who was reading the newspaper, lowered it and gave Conan a look.

Conan read suspicion in his eyes.

"?"

How come you’ve started doing that too?