Dissolution

"Ahh... now that hit the spot," Genta sighed in deep contentment once he'd eaten and drunk his fill.

"Yeah. Maybe it's because we're in a game, but even after eating that much, I don't feel all that stuffed," Mitsuhiko said.

Emori nodded. "Mm. I could probably manage a little more, honestly."

"What do you say we buy some dessert, too?" Kikukawa suggested. "We've still got some money left over, after all."

The corner of Conan's mouth twitched, and he hurried to cut them off. "No. We can't afford to waste any more time — let's get our focus back on cracking the case."

Moroboshi chimed in, agreeing with Conan, then turned to lecture his two friends. "Exactly. You two need to quit thinking about nothing but food. Clearing the game comes first."

"Yeees..." Emori and Kikukawa droned.

Seeing that everyone's attention had finally gathered where it belonged, Conan launched into his analysis. "Based on what Trista told us earlier, plus the physical evidence we saw at the Marechaussee Phantom, here are the leads we've got so far."

"One — the missing girls come from every kind of background imaginable, and so far we haven't spotted a single thing connecting them to one another.

"Two — nearly all of them were alone at the moment they disappeared.

"Three — the disappearances themselves were astonishingly swift. Sometimes only a very short time passed before the girl was simply gone, and there were almost no eyewitnesses.

"And four — at every spot where a girl vanished, a pool of water was left behind, and several of the scenes also had shards of glass, which we suspect came from some kind of container that had held a liquid.

"That's everything we have."

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"That's barely any clues at all," Genta complained. "What are we supposed to figure out from this?"

Conan felt just as stumped. The clues really were thin on the ground — and since he had never seen the scenes himself, he couldn't tell whether something crucial had been overlooked.

Xia Yu rested a hand against her chin and pondered for a while before speaking up. "Does everyone still remember that prophecy we heard while making inquiries at the harbor?"

"Of course I remember — I'm the one who told all of you about it in the first place," Moroboshi replied. "The prophecy went like this—"

"Wait..." Something seemed to strike Moroboshi the instant the last words left his mouth. "Dissolved into the water... Don't tell me the missing girls were all dissolved by it?! That's why there was a pool of water at every single scene — isn't it?!"

Emori and Kikukawa latched on at once. "Whoa, that actually makes everything click! Moroboshi, you're amazing — you even managed to deduce that!"

"Hold on," Conan cut in. "How could a person possibly be dissolved by water?! It's impossible the moment you think about it."

"Why impossible? Conan, you have far too little imagination. This is a game — anything can happen here," Xia Yu said.

"Exactly," Ayumi agreed. "Stop thinking about real-life stuff all the time, Conan."

Conan's eyes shrank into flat little dots. "Oh. Riiight. We're in a game."

Ugh... this game was so realistic he'd all but forgotten it was a game at all. Still, if the girls really had been dissolved into water, it would explain, quite neatly, the pool and the glass shards at every scene — and why the disappearances were over so quickly that hardly anyone saw anything. The victims had simply vanished in the space of an instant.

It tied back to the prophecy, too. No wonder the story had them tackle the case of the missing girls first.

But one thing still didn't add up for Conan: why were the victims all girls? According to the prophecy, every person in Fontaine would dissolve into the water — which meant men would be dissolved just as surely as women. So why had only girls gone ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠missing so far?

And water capable of dissolving a human being could hardly be ordinary water — if it were, people would be dissolving in everyday life all the time. Just what that water actually was remained another open question.

Conan voiced these doubts aloud.

Moroboshi gave it some thought before answering. "Could it be that the culprit behind the disappearances just hates girls? Or maybe some girl did something that hurt him once, and it twisted him up inside — so now he's out for revenge against all women?"

It was a bold leap of a theory, but Haibara heard him out. "It's possible. With a murderer that deranged, there's no telling what goes on inside his head."

The investigation had made some progress, but the clues were still far too few, and no one was quite sure where to dig next.

"Then let's go have a look at the Fountain of Lucine," Xia Yu offered after a moment's thought. "Fontaine is the nation of water, and both the prophecy and this case revolve around it — which means water has to be the key clue here. I asked around earlier, and the Fountain of Lucine is where every waterway in Fontaine converges, so we might just turn up a new lead there. Since we're out of ideas for the moment, what do you say we go check it out?"

Mouri Ran nodded in agreement. "Mm... I think we should go see for ourselves." Then she looked toward Conan and the others and added in a low, soothing voice, "Don't be too anxious. There are this many of us — we're bound to come up with something."

At the sight of Ran's gentle smile, the frustration that had been gnawing at Conan — the impatience over how few clues they had — seemed to slowly ebb away. Time to switch gears and think like a gamer. "You're right. If the developers went to the trouble of building this map, it has to be connected to the clear conditions somehow. Which means we absolutely have to go take a look."

Ayumi's mind, meanwhile, had gone somewhere else entirely, and worry colored her voice. "But if the culprit can dissolve people into water... aren't Ran-neechan and Xia Yu-neechan in danger?"

"I don't think so," Moroboshi said. "The prophecy refers to the people of Fontaine — which means only Fontainians can be dissolved by the water. We're not Fontainians, so we should be fine."

Emori scratched his head, bewildered. "Moroboshi, how do you know we're not Fontainians, though? What if the game's setting actually made us Fontainians?"

Moroboshi rapped him on the head, plainly irritated. "Have you forgotten already? When we first arrived and met the Hydro Archon, she addressed us as 'travelers from a foreign land.' Doesn't that make it obvious we're not Fontainians? How could you forget something that important?!"

Emori and Kikukawa's eyes went wide with realization. "Ohhh. Right. Heh heh... we weren't paying attention before."

"Well, you'd better pay attention to things this important!"

While Moroboshi was busy dressing the two of them down, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Genta leaned over toward Conan and grumbled under his breath, "Conan, this Moroboshi guy is kinda scary. Besides, who could possibly remember something somebody just said off the cuff? I didn't remember it either..."

The corner of Conan's mouth twitched. "..."

Oh, please. If anything, he thought Moroboshi had made a perfectly good point. Genta hadn't managed to remember it himself, yet here he was complaining about somebody else.