If Only You Hadn't Existed
Marcel continued, his voice taking on a defensive edge. "Honestly, I never intended for things to go this far. But who told them not to believe me? Not one of them would accept that a person could be dissolved by water. What choice did I have but to prove it to them...?"
"Besides, I want to restore Vernier. If I don't do this, how am I supposed to gather the experimental material I need and find a way to bring her back...?"
As they listened to Marcel — no, to Vacher — the whole group fell momentarily speechless, unsure how to respond to a justification like that.
In the end, it was Conan who found his voice first. "Even if losing your beloved broke your heart, and even if the Maison Gardiennage staff were wrong not to believe you, that still doesn't give you the right to go after innocent girls."
Genta, catching up at last, chimed in. "Yeah! They never did anything to you!"
"And besides," Conan added, "taking the law into your own hands is never acceptable. Even a murderer shouldn't have his life decided by private vengeance. He should be handed over to the police — er, the Gardes, I mean — and then the Iudex decides his punishment."
Vacher paid the children no mind. Having vented his grievances, he turned once more to Xia Yu and pleaded with her to tell him about Vernier's condition.
Watching him show not a trace of remorse, caring only about Vernier, the others couldn't help but feel their anger rise. Still, Xia Yu told him where Vernier was, and they brought him along to the Fountain of Lucine.
After all, this was their only lead now. All they could hope was that once he laid eyes on her, he would honor his promise to testify honestly in court — and tell them what exactly the Primordial Seawater that dissolved people actually was.
Xia Yu sighed inwardly. She had already anticipated that once Vacher saw Vernier, he would likely be in no state to give testimony in a courtroom. But she hadn't reminded the others to press him with questions beforehand — partly because she had no reasonable excuse to suggest it, and partly because until he saw his beloved with his own eyes, Vacher probably wouldn't have answered a single thing.
When they reached the Fountain of Lucine, Vacher had meant to ask Xia Yu how he could see Vernier — but before the words left his mouth, he seemed to hear something, and walked straight toward the spring without responding to a single call behind him.
The others grew worried, and were curious besides about what Vernier might say to him, so they followed in his footsteps together.
As they drew near the Fountain of Lucine, a wave of dizziness washed over everyone this time — and when they came back to themselves, they found they had arrived in that blue space Genta and the others had described before.
Vacher was walking ahead of them, glancing anxiously in every direction and calling Vernier's name over and over.
In answer to his cries, a blue figure took shape in the air ahead. It looked something like a fish, yet it had blue wings, and it drifted above them, responding to Vacher's call.
Haibara stared up at the figure and murmured to herself, "So that's what a Pure Water Sprite looks like. It really does seem to be made entirely of water. But with no facial features on its head... how does it talk? How does it see?"
Conan, standing beside her and catching every word: "..."
Why is she still hung up on THAT of all things...?
"Vacher... why have you come?" the Pure Water Sprite said softly. "Didn't I tell you that I didn't need you to?"
"Vernier? Is that you? Vernier... after more than twenty years, I can finally see you again..."
......
Conan noticed that Haibara beside him seemed oddly distracted. "What are you thinking about? Don't tell me you're still wondering how a Pure Water Sprite sees and hears?"
Haibara snapped out of her reverie and shot him a glare, her voice cool and distant. "Hardly. I'm simply not interested in listening to someone's self-indulgent declaration of devotion."
No matter how beautiful he made it sound, how deeply he professed to feel — at his core, this was a man who had experimented on innocent people at will to serve his own desires. And even now, not a flicker of guilt or regret.
Haibara remembered the human experiments she had been forced to perform in the Black Organization — how she had wanted to refuse, and had been given no way to. That was exactly why people like Vacher sickened her.
With that thought, she put extra weight into her words. "In the end, it's just two long-parted lovers pouring their hearts out to each other. Whether we listen closely or not hardly matters, does it?"
Conan: "..." What's gotten into Haibara? Did she swallow a stick of dynamite? Why is she suddenly so angry?
Vacher's voice cracked as he poured out his longing. "For more than twenty years, every single day has been an agony. Vernier, without you, I don't know how I was meant to go on living..."
"And I think..." the Pure Water Sprite replied, "Vacher — if only you had never existed at all."
Huh?!
Even Conan had assumed, just moments ago, that things would unfold exactly the way Haibara had predicted. He had never expected Vernier to come out with something like that.
But it made no sense. From what Genta and the others had told them, Vernier was supposed to have loved Vacher dearly. How could she say such a thing?
If even Conan and the others were visibly stunned, one could only imagine what those words did to the man who heard them.
Bewilderment spread across Vacher's face, and for a moment he wondered if his ears had deceived him. "What... did you just say?!"
The Pure Water Sprite paid his confusion no mind and pressed on. "Without you, I could have finished my law degree, and perhaps become a first-rate attorney. Without you, I could have..."
"I've got it — she isn't Vernier!" A flash of inspiration lit up Conan's mind, and the words burst out of him.
Mitsuhiko looked baffled. "How can she not be Vernier? She knows Vacher's name, and she knows things only his beloved could possibly know. Why wouldn't she be Vernier?"
Mouri Ran nodded along. "And Vacher loves her so much — he would never mistake the person he loves..."
"Which is why, more precisely, she isn't only Vernier," Conan amended.
Ran's expression went blank, as if some thought had just struck her. "What do you mean, not only... Vernier?"
Realizing he had rattled her, Conan hurried to explain. "I'd been suspicious for a while now. So many girls have gone missing — so why did we only ever see one Pure Water Sprite? And why a victim who perished all those years ago, rather than any of the recent ones...?"
"Good point — why?" the group asked in unison.
"Because they've all merged into one, most likely..." Xia Yu rested her chin on her hand, a thoughtful look crossing her face. "What the sprite just said was probably the wish of every single one of them."
She didn't leave Conan any room to spin out the reveal for dramatic effect, and said it plainly. "Once they were dissolved into water, and the currents carried them all to the same place, it's hardly impossible that their consciousnesses flowed together and became one — just like the water itself. Is it?"