The Investigation Begins
Meanwhile, the other kids had already swarmed around the strange robots that appeared to be recharging along the roadside—Conan included. After all, what boy could possibly resist a robot that moved?
“Whoa! This robot is so cool! Think it works?” Moroboshi cried.
Mitsuhiko, his earlier squabble at the game venue completely forgotten, was gazing at the machine with shining eyes. “It should. Look, there are others just like it walking around over there.”
“Then why is this one just standing there without moving? Is it really charging? Because I don't see any plug,” Kikukawa said.
“You're such an idiot, Kikukawa. A place this advanced has robots everywhere—why would charging still need a plug? It's obviously wireless,” Emori scoffed.
Genta paid no attention whatsoever to the discussion. He simply stared at the robot in front of him, itching to act. “I wonder if I can touch it? Should be fine, right...”
Before Conan could stop him, Genta's hand was already reaching out.
Conan and the others watched the robot tensely, and when it showed no reaction, they let out a collective breath—and then their own hands couldn't resist either. The kids crowded in, poking and prodding the machine with curious abandon.
Before long, Moroboshi grew unsatisfied with merely touching it. Since the robot wasn't moving at all, he decided it must be harmless—and spotting an exposed gear, he prepared to pry it right off.
“Attack intent detected. Activating self-defense mode.”
While the children were busy pestering the machine, the robot abruptly spoke those words—and then it moved.
“Not good! Everyone scatter!”
Conan's face changed drastically the instant he heard it, and he shouted for the kids to get away immediately.
Genta and his group didn't hesitate; they bolted from the robot at once. But Moroboshi, Kikukawa, Emori, and Takizawa weren't inclined to take orders from someone who was just a kid like them, and they failed to react in time, lingering where they stood.
Conan saw how dire the situation had become and moved to pop a soccer ball from his belt and kick it to stop the robot. To his shock, nothing happened when he pressed the buckle. Only then did he remember—he was inside the game now, not the real world. Which meant his power-enhancing sneakers, his tranquilizer watch, his voice-changing bowtie—all of it was useless here.
As the realization sank in, Conan's expression turned grim.
By the time Xiayu and Ran noticed the children's strange behavior and rushed over, a boy named Takizawa had already been knocked out of the game by the robot.
Only then did Moroboshi, Emori, and Kikukawa snap out of it, scrambling away from the spot in a mad, stumbling rush.
Xiayu ran straight up to the robot and sent it flying with a single kick, putting it out of commission entirely.
Just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, the patrol robots in the vicinity noticed the commotion and converged on the scene.
Xiayu and Ran planted themselves in front of the children, and as the surrounding robots moved in, the two of them charged.
Ran certainly had some fighting skill, but she was clearly no match for this many machines all at once; the best she could manage was keeping them from reaching the kids.
That left Xiayu as the main force against the robots. Under the children's awestruck gazes, she disabled one machine after another with a few swift blows, and when she decided that fighting bare-handed was too inefficient, she simply plucked a sword from a nearby blacksmith's shop. After that, the surrounding robots stood even less of a chance against her.
With Xiayu there, the machines were hardly a real threat—but they kept coming in an endless stream, and that alone was a genuine nuisance.
Just as Conan was growing anxious and casting about for a solution, a member of the guard detail—the one supposedly left behind by the Water God to help them get their bearings—came running from the distance, accompanied by a small staff member who introduced herself as a Melusine.
The moment she arrived, she shut down all the clockwork automatons—her word for the robots—and then set about finding out what had happened.
That was how everyone learned the robot had attacked only because it sensed Moroboshi's intent to damage it, triggering its self-defense mode. The guard, meanwhile, had seen how badly things were going and hurried to fetch Trista the Melusine from the Shadowchaser Court to halt the machines. (Melusine name chosen at random.)
Once Genta understood the situation, he couldn't help lecturing Moroboshi. “Honestly! Things are this urgent, and you're still as careless as you were back at the venue? Can't you keep your hands to yourself?”
“Moroboshi didn't do it on purpose. Besides, since when is it your place to lecture him?” Kikukawa shot back. He wasn't thrilled that Moroboshi's meddling had gotten two of their friends eliminated either, but he wasn't about to stand by while his friend got torn into.
“He's the one who messed up. Of course I get to say something,” Genta insisted.
“That's still going too far—”
“Enough! Just stop it!” Moroboshi clenched his fists, visibly forcing himself to hold it together, but he spoke anyway. “It was my fault. I shouldn't have touched that robot without permission. I'm sorry.”
Seeing that Moroboshi had apologized, Conan stepped in to smooth things over—now was hardly the time for the group to be at each other's throats.
At that point, the guard member, satisfied that the argument was over, hurriedly brought the Melusine forward. Only then did everyone learn her name: Trista. And when it came to leads on the missing-girl case, Trista was the one they could ask. (Melusine names made up on the spot.)
The moment everyone realized this touched on the very clue that would clear the game, the earlier unpleasantness evaporated. They swarmed around Trista, firing off questions in a chaotic jumble—so many that she could barely keep up, and more than a few had nothing to do with the case at all.
“How many victims are there in the missing girl case so far?” Conan asked.
“As far as we know, seven girls have gone missing,” Trista replied.
“Huh?! That many! Which girls were they?” Ayumi exclaimed.
“There was Kesha, Vinnie...” (Names invented freely.)
Before Trista could finish, Mitsuhiko cut in. “Is there anything these victims have in common?”
“We haven't found any common thread among them...” Trista said.
Even Haibara couldn't contain her curiosity. “Is there any difference between you Melusines and ordinary people? In terms of senses, abilities, that sort of thing?”
“We possess a special kind of sight. We can perceive things that ordinary people find difficult to observe,” Trista answered.
“Hey, Haibara—why are you asking that?” Conan gave her a half-lidded, exasperated look. Of all times to ask something unrelated to the case.
Watching the kids bombard Trista with questions until she couldn't finish a single answer, Xiayu finally cracked down on the lot of them and made them take turns, one at a time.
Only by going slowly, step by step, was the group finally able to gather the many leads surrounding the case of the missing girls.
Once Trista had covered more or less everything she knew, she offered to escort these strange visitors to the Shadowchaser Court to examine some of the physical evidence related to the case.