A Choice Between Two
“My beautiful angel,” Takano Hideki declared, gazing at Xiayu with an expression of profound devotion, “I want you to know that my heart has fallen deeply, madly in love with you. You are the most wonderful accident of my life. Take these flowers from my hand, and agree to be my girlfriend. I promise you this: from now on, you will be the one I love most among all the women in the world. Rest assured, I'll treat you well and give you plenty of money. Whatever you want, just tell me. You won't have to work yourself to the bone as a detective anymore, showing your face in public to earn a living. I'll take care of you myself...”
Paimon couldn't help but pop up. “Traveler, this is the first time Paimon's ever seen someone confess to you! But... something about the way he talks really ticks Paimon off. Weird, isn't a confession supposed to make you happy? When Ran got confessed to yesterday, she looked pretty happy about it!”
Her voice was tinged with genuine confusion.
Xiayu clenched her fists, suppressing the fury that his little speech had kindled. Ha. That's because somebody doesn't know how to talk to people properly.
From the look in Takano's eyes, she could tell that while he was undeniably full of himself, he genuinely believed he was doing her a favor. Which meant that managing to make a confession sound this insulting was, in its own way, a remarkable talent.
If he kept going, she honestly wasn't sure she could refrain from shutting his mouth for him. Physically.
Conan and Ran, standing nearby, had been annoyed at first too — but when the cold smile slowly crept across Xiayu's face, they traded their irritation for wary, nervous glances in her direction, praying she could hold herself back.
Because this was very likely a matter of life and death.
Then, suddenly, something caught the corner of Xiayu's eye. She snapped her leg up and kicked Takano Hideki clean out of the way.
Aether sensed it too, and stepped in closer beside her.
At first, seeing her move, Conan assumed she'd finally lost her patience and was about to strike. It took him only a moment to realize how wrong he was.
CRASH!
Before everyone's horrified eyes, one of the towering Christmas trees that had been standing as a decoration beside Takano Hideki toppled over — landing exactly where he had been standing a second before.
Put simply, if not for that kick, the tree would have crushed him flat. He'd have been lucky to escape with his life, let alone his limbs.
Though, speaking of which — why on earth was there a Christmas tree standing here as a decoration? Christmas was still months away, wasn't it?
Ran and Sonoko rushed over the moment they saw what happened, hurrying to Takano's side and helping him up.
“Mr. Takano, are you okay?!”
“Y-yeah, I'm fine... ah, ow! No, wait — maybe I'm a *little* hurt, actually...” Takano Hideki had intended to play it tough, but his chest genuinely ached where she'd kicked him. In the end, honesty was the only option left.
Still, he knew he couldn't blame Xiayu — she'd only done it to save him.
And this was the second time she had saved him now. With each rescue, Takano grew more and more convinced that the two of them were bound by fate itself.
Xiayu watched him stare up at her with eyes swimming in gratitude, and a shiver ran down her spine. Goosebumps prickled across her skin.
Had she kicked this man's brain loose? Sure, she'd been angry enough to put a *little* extra force behind the blow, but she'd noticed he hadn't hit his head — there shouldn't be anything wrong with it.
Watching the scene unfold, Aether was fighting a losing battle to keep the smile on his face. He angled himself slightly to the side, blocking Takano's line of sight.
The police arrived at the scene quickly.
“Ran, Conan, and Xiayu — we meet again, huh?” Inspector Megure said, fixing them with his usual half-lidded stare.
One of the officers behind him greeted the group as well.
“Miss Natsume, so this time we're finally meeting somewhere that *isn't* a bombing site.” Matsuda Jinpei pulled off his sunglasses and tucked them into the breast pocket of his jacket, then gave Xiayu a wink.
His gaze slid to the person beside her. “And who's this? A new friend of yours?”
Was it his imagination, or did this guy's silhouette look oddly familiar? If the face were different — well, no, the face *was* different, but if it hadn't been, he might almost have mistaken him for the person who'd saved his life back then.
Leaving the face aside, too many little details were the same. Really just a coincidence?
Matsuda Jinpei found that hard to swallow.
“Ah, Mr. Morikawa, was it?” After hearing Xiayu's introduction, Matsuda extended a hand and shook the man's.
“You look kind of familiar, Mr. Morikawa. Have we met somewhere before?”
“I don't believe so. I only recently returned from overseas. If we'd crossed paths lately, Officer Matsuda, I'd certainly remember it.” Aether showed little reaction to what sounded suspiciously like a pickup line; he merely wore a thoughtful expression for a moment before delivering his denial.
“Really? Then I must have remembered wrong.” Matsuda seemed satisfied with the answer.
Without another word, he turned and walked toward Inspector Megure to begin investigating the day's incident. Conan, for his part, had already beaten him there, trailing at Megure's side like a shadow.
“That officer's pretty sharp,” Aether murmured, his voice so low that only Xiayu, standing beside him, could hear it.
“Do you regret saving him, then?” Xiayu watched Matsuda Jinpei's back as he bent over the investigation with grave focus, curious what her brother was thinking now.
“Were *you* happy, back when you found out he was alive?”
“A little, I suppose. It felt like making up for an old regret.” At the time, most of what she'd felt had been confusion and shock over the storyline going off the rails — but there was no denying that when she'd realized Matsuda Jinpei truly was alive, some part of her had been glad.
“Then I don't regret it.” Aether gave his little sister a gentle smile.
“So we have four suspects this time,” Inspector Megure said, his tone strangely uncertain.
Something about that number felt off to him. Wasn't it supposed to be three, in these situations?
The four suspects were as follows:
Nakamura Masato, Takano Hideki's lackey, in charge of setting up the confession scene. He had chosen the tree's position, and he had personally arranged the decorations on it.
Inoue Jin, Takano Hideki's friend, invited to attend the confession event. He had accidentally knocked loose one of the ornaments while passing by, and had lingered for a while afterward.
Kaeya, a new acquaintance of Takano Hideki, who had asked of his own accord to join today's event. Because the child with him had taken a liking to the tree's shape, he had stood beside it admiring it for some time.
Akai Shuichi, a temp worker hired by the hotel for the day, responsible for moving the tree to its position.
“Look,” Inspector Megure grumbled after hearing all the testimony, “it's just a confession. What's with all this elaborate staging?”
The corner of Conan's mouth twitched as he looked at the last of the suspects. *Mr. Akai — is *this* why you told me yesterday not to worry? You actually came to the scene yourself.*
Though there was no way Akai was alone. There had to be others watching the scene's every move as well.
He'd already been surprised when Kaeya turned up as a suspect — never imagining that Mr. Akai would too.
Well, this made things easy: of the four suspects, two could be struck off immediately. Mr. Akai would never stoop to something like this, and Kaeya had no reason to. That left exactly two.
A choice between two.