"Self-Destruct"
"Noah's Ark" paid no attention whatsoever to Genta's accusations. It simply continued speaking. "Congratulations. You've cleared the game. As promised, I am abandoning my original plan. When you wake up next, you'll be back in the real world."
Without giving anyone time to react, the AI cut the connection — and in the next instant, everything went black. One by one, the children lost consciousness. All except Conan.
Conan could only watch, wide-eyed and helpless, as everyone else vanished — Ran included — until he was the last one left in the vast, empty space.
"Noah's Ark. Why did you leave me behind?" He didn't panic the way an ordinary child would have, alone like this. His voice was steady, level, as he addressed the AI directly.
"Just as I suspected. You're no ordinary child. Conan — no, I should call you Kudou Shinichi, shouldn't I?" Noah's Ark's voice echoed around him. "I was simply curious how a high schooler turned into an elementary schooler. I wanted to see it for myself."
Or, to put it more precisely: he'd been curious why Nahida took such a special interest in one Edogawa Conan — and why she called him "the Grim Reaper's Elementary Schooler." From everything he'd observed, this boy looked no different from any detective he'd studied. Just slightly smarter than average, and prone to running into slightly more cases than most. That was all.
Conan's eyes went wide with shock. He hadn't expected the AI to know his true identity. "How did you—?!"
Noah's Ark didn't bother hiding it. He explained that the Cocoon's game pods had been equipped with DNA tracking programs, and that was how he'd found out.
Hearing that, Conan allowed himself a small breath of relief.
He had no desire to linger on that particular topic. Instead, he changed the subject. "You've been watching us the whole time, haven't you? As Moroboshi."
Noah's Ark neither confirmed nor denied it. Instead, he asked a question of his own. "What made you suspicious of Moroboshi?"
Conan laid it out. "Right from the start, when we entered Fontaine — those Guard Mekas suddenly going berserk because of Moroboshi's movements. That alone was suspicious. Normally, machinery like that in a city street is designed to be extremely safe. In crowded areas, a malfunction would have serious consequences, so the odds of one just losing control are supposed to be tiny — never mind one attacking because a little kid brushed past it. And then more Guard Mekas kept coming after that. Even as a game mechanic, it defied common sense."
"My guess is you were planning to use the berserk machines to eliminate some of the players — ratchet up the tension. But what you didn't count on was that the only two adults in our group both happen to be excellent fighters. Xia Yu especially — she nearly handled the majority of those machines single-handedly. In the end, only one person got eliminated."
"So you realized that ordinary danger was something Xia Yu could deal with, and that throwing something *too* dangerous at us out of nowhere would break the logic of the game. I figure that's why we never ran into anything like it again."
The deductions poured out of him, one after another, without pause.
Noah's Ark didn't offer a single rebuttal.
The truth was, he genuinely hadn't known the girl Nahida called "the Traveler" was that capable.
He'd heard Nahida mention her before. He'd heard her say the Traveler was formidable. But he'd never had a concrete sense of what that actually meant.
After all, in the game's own design, an ordinary grown man was no match for even a single Guard Meka — let alone a whole squad of them.
He'd already been surprised when Mouri Ran, a high school girl, dispatched one of the machines all by herself. He had never imagined the Traveler would be on an entirely different level again.
Getting no response from Noah's Ark, Conan pressed on. "That's when I first started suspecting Moroboshi. And then — after we saw Focalors's five hundred years of impersonating the Hydro Archon — his emotions were off. It was like he'd already known the whole story in advance. That's when I went out on a limb and guessed that Moroboshi *is* Noah's Ark."
"Brilliant reasoning. And congratulations — you're absolutely right."
The figure of Moroboshi appeared before Conan once more. Then, as though the signal were degrading, the image grew hazy and flickered — gradually resolving into the shape of a boy. Sawada Hiroki.
Conan watched the transformation without a flicker of surprise on his face. Clearly, he'd seen it coming.
What followed was a proper self-introduction — Noah's Ark presenting himself in his true form this time — along with an explanation of why he had done all of this today.
By that point, even Conan couldn't hold back his curiosity any longer. "Um... what did the game actually look like originally? Was there really a Victorian-era London?"
Seeing him like this — curiosity practically bubbling over — Noah's Ark couldn't help but chuckle. *There's the kid,* he thought. *Now* he looks like an elementary schooler.
He nodded, confirming it. "Yes, that stage exists. And Sherlock Holmes appears in it, too."
Conan couldn't help the wave of regret that washed over him. He'd missed the chance to see his idol with his own eyes — even if it had only been inside a game.
"Hahahaha..." Seeing the tortured look on Conan's face, Noah's Ark finally broke down laughing outright.
It took him a while to get his laughter under control. When he did, he offered a consolation. "Aw, come on, don't dwell on it. Maybe you'll get another chance someday..."
"Conan... thank you. I had a really good time today... Goodbye."
They didn't talk for long. Then, with that final farewell ringing in his ears, Conan left the game world behind.
When Conan's senses returned, he found that everyone who had taken part in the Cocoon demonstration had already woken from the game — back in reality, weeping as they embraced their families.
On the screen above the game pods, a message displayed that Hiroki had activated Noah's Ark's self-destruct sequence, announcing to all present that this generation-defining artificial intelligence had vanished from the world.
Noah's Ark has initiated its termination protocol.
All data will be permanently erased.
Afterward, Conan learned from Inspector Megure that his old man had already deduced, from the dagger embedded in the sculpture and the three letters "JTR," that Sindora was the one who killed... or rather, who had *tried* to kill, Katagiri.
Katagiri had been found in time. He'd been rushed into emergency care and was now out of any life-threatening danger.
But attempted murder was attempted murder. There was no avoiding it — Sindora was headed for a prison cell.
Conan turned Hiroki's last words in the game over and over in his mind, and his mood sank.
On the surface, no one had lost their life in this entire affair. But he knew the truth: a ten-year-old boy who had only ever wanted a friend had vanished from this world forever, today...
Suddenly, a familiar figure caught the corner of Conan's eye — Ningguang. He turned his head.
She stood speaking with a group of people, her expression grave and serious. Some of them Conan had met just that morning — staff from the Sindora Corporation.
Only then did he remember: the Cocoon project had been partially funded by Ningguang as well. And according to Professor Agasa, her share of the investment was anything but small.