The Boy
Just as he'd received a text from Ms. Jodie and learned that Cointreau had leapt off the building and vanished after parting ways with the others, Conan heard Sonoko's complaining—and his expression turned complicated. He hadn't expected Sonoko to think so highly of the guy.
He was a little disappointed not to have caught him, but Conan quickly pulled himself together and scooted over to Xiayu's side, playing the curious child as he asked, "Hey, Xiayu? You've only known Morikawa for a little while, but you two seem really close. Do you like him? Do you *like* like Morikawa?"
*Please don't let Xiayu have any special feelings for Cointreau,* he thought. *If she does, she'll only end up hurt.*
"That's right, Xiayu—honestly, do you feel something special for Morikawa or not?" Sonoko leaned in from the other side, eyes gleaming with gossip.
"Now that you mention special feelings..." Xiayu pondered for a moment before answering. "I suppose I do."
"What?!" Sonoko and Conan cried out in unison, and even Ran, who hadn't been part of the conversation, turned to stare at Xiayu in astonishment.
At the sight of their shocked faces, Xiayu burst out laughing. "Got you! I don't like Morikawa—well, no, that's not quite right either. It's more accurate to say it's not the kind of 'like' you have with Kyogoku, Sonoko, or the kind Ran has with Shinichi."
"Xiayu! Shinichi and I are *not* like that!" The moment the words left her mouth, Ran's face flushed scarlet as she shot up in protest, her voice suddenly loud and thick with embarrassment.
Xiayu glanced at the blush spreading across Ran's cheeks, arched an eyebrow, and offered neither confirmation nor denial.
Even Sonoko just snickered beside her.
As for Conan, all Xiayu could see was the top of his lowered head—there was no telling what kind of expression he wore now.
Noelle trailed behind the group, staying out of the conversation, but never took her attention off their safety, least of all Conan's—that child who was forever darting off in every direction. Whenever anything unexpected happened, the better part of Noelle's focus shifted straight to him.
"Oh, oh, right—you said you have special feelings for Morikawa, but that it's not the 'like' you and Kyogoku have. So what *kind* of feeling is it?" Sonoko steered them back to the earlier topic, bumping her elbow against Xiayu's arm with a grin.
Xiayu tapped her chin with a finger. "Mm... it's a feeling of closeness, I suppose. Like he's family. It makes me want to be near him."
Watching Conan frown in thought, Paimon couldn't help asking the Traveler, "Traveler, why did you answer like that? What if Conan figures out you two are siblings?"
Xiayu comforted her. 'Don't worry. He won't make that connection for now—we don't look anything alike, after all.'
'And honestly, there's no way around it. I'm bound to have plenty of contact with my brother from now on. With Conan's luck, he might stumble onto my brother's true face one of these days, and at that point he'd learn about our relationship anyway.'
'Saying this today just plants an impression in Conan's mind—it'll keep him from suspecting, once he uncovers the truth, that I knew all along. Ideally, he'll come to believe that Cointreau, as a member of the Organization, merely wanted to see me, and never revealed who he was.'
The last thing she wanted was for Conan to decide she was privy to the Organization's secrets, leaving her to weather his probing and testing the way Amuro Tooru would later on.
Paimon's eyes lit up with understanding. "Ohhh~ so that's how it is."
Ran and Sonoko remembered that Xiayu was, for all intents and purposes, alone in the world, and worried that dwelling on the subject might stir up painful memories—so they changed the topic to the latest celebrity gossip. With Noelle joining in, the group went on chatting and laughing over whatever caught their interest.
Organization base.
On the way back, Cointreau ran into another member of the Organization—but this time it wasn't Gin. It was Vermouth.
Seeing Cointreau's figure, Vermouth remembered how he'd swooped in to snatch her prize not long ago, and had no intention of acknowledging him.
She cast him a careless glance and was about to move on when she suddenly noticed that Cointreau hadn't returned to the base alone. A unfamiliar figure was trailing at his side.
Though she couldn't make out the face, Vermouth could be certain of one thing: no codename-bearing member in the Japan branch had the build of that boy.
Her eyes glinted. A genuinely intrigued smile curved her lips, and she abandoned her plan to walk away, heading straight toward Cointreau.
"Cointreau. You're the man who never left his room for ten days or half a month at a stretch, and lately I keep running into you out and about. Off to visit someone important, perhaps?"
Without waiting for an answer, she turned her gaze to the strange boy behind him. "And who's this? Casually bringing an outsider into the Organization's base—that's hardly proper, is it?"
Vermouth studied the boy Cointreau had brought in, and genuine surprise flickered in her eyes. She had rarely seen a boy this beautiful—if she hadn't caught the hint of an Adam's apple, she'd have taken him for a girl.
The boy looked no older than fifteen or sixteen, clearly a minor. Hair cut short at the ears, violet eyes carrying a faint trace of impatience. Skin so fine and poreless that even she, a major star, felt a twinge of envy.
"Madam, if the question is about me, why not ask me directly?" Just as Cointreau was about to make introductions, the boy cut in first.
*Madam?!*
The moment Vermouth heard what the boy had called her, her reasonably good mood darkened on the spot, and an angry cross popped up on her forehead.
"What did you just call me?!" Vermouth glared at the boy through gritted teeth, enunciating every word.
"Madam," the boy replied, looking at her with complete indifference, repeating the word as if it were obvious. Noticing Vermouth's mounting fury, he snorted a laugh and corrected himself. "Oh, no, my mistake. Given your age, I really ought to be calling you *granny*."
*Granny?!*
At this increasingly outrageous form of address, Vermouth's mood had gone from clouds to storm—just one spark away from thunder and lightning.
Watching how genuinely worked up Vermouth was, Cointreau couldn't help musing that no matter the woman, age was always a sore spot.
But he had no intention of letting Vermouth and the boy he'd brought along start brawling in the Organization's corridor. He stepped forward, easing the two of them apart to give Vermouth room to cool down.
Vermouth took a moment to settle her agitated nerves, then studied the boy with searching eyes. It was rare these days for anyone to get under her skin with just a few sentences.
And even through her anger, she had caught the unusual implication in his words—he knew something about her situation. At the very least, he knew her age wasn't as young as she looked.
"You call me granny—then by rights, you should be calling Cointreau *grandpa*, shouldn't you? Why don't you?" she said, probing to see whether the boy knew about Cointreau's circumstances as well.