Meeting Klee
Conan watched Haibara's retreating back, the corner of his mouth twitching.
Come on, he'd only been joking. Around the kids, no matter what, he would never actually go poking at the Organization in a situation like that. It wasn't as if he threw all caution to the wind the instant the Organization entered the picture.
Time flew by, and before it seemed possible, the weekend Ayumi and the others had been looking forward to finally arrived.
Early Saturday morning, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi gathered at Professor Agasa's house.
Besides the kids, Mouri Ran had decided to come along as well — she wasn't comfortable letting a group of children head to the hotel by themselves.
Rounding out the group was one Suzuki Sonoko, who had heard there might be a handsome man to see.
"So why is this guy here?" Sonoko eyed Hondo Eisuke sideways. With this clumsy boy along, the trip was bound to be one disaster after another. She just hoped he'd watch himself.
"Ha ha, it's just that I watched Mouri-san solve cases before, and Mouri-san said Conan always used to provide all kinds of useful leads. Conan is honestly like a member of Sherlock Holmes's detective squad in the stories, so I wanted to see more of it." Hondo Eisuke scratched his head, explaining himself to Sonoko with a sheepish grin.
"Is that so." Sonoko looked only half convinced. She couldn't shake the feeling that this newly transferred Hondo had some kind of designs on Ran, but that was just a woman's intuition — without any proof, she couldn't really say anything.
"Mm-hm." Eisuke lowered his hand and nodded over and over, to prove he meant every word.
Only, his hand wasn't all the way down before he accidentally smacked Conan, standing beside him, right on the head.
"Conan, are you okay?" Eisuke spun around at once to check on him.
But in doing so, he bumped into Conan yet again.
Conan clutched his head, with no time to dodge, and very nearly got knocked over by another collision.
Watching Eisuke apologize over and over, Conan could only accept his misfortune. This was hardly the first time — ever since they'd met, his poor head had suffered one assault after another. All he could do was keep as much distance from Hondo Eisuke as possible and spare himself further injury.
"Hondo-niichan, you should just stay away from Conan," Genta said, thinking along exactly the same lines. To him, this Hondo guy was honestly even more of a klutz than the rest of them — actual children.
Ayumi hurried over to stand in front of Conan too, eyeing Eisuke warily, afraid Conan might get hurt again.
"So this is the person you said resembles Kir?" Haibara came up beside Conan, studying Eisuke as she asked quietly.
"Yeah." Conan's head still ached; he kept his hand pressed to it as he answered with a half-lidded stare.
"He doesn't really give off the impression of someone from the Organization, though. By the way, Haibara — don't you have a sense for Organization members? Can you pick anything up from Hondo?" As he spoke, Conan looked at her expectantly.
"No." Haibara rolled her eyes. "But it doesn't work every time. You're better off judging for yourself."
Conan nodded and took that to heart.
Still, he figured that if Haibara sensed nothing from Hondo Eisuke, the odds of the boy being an Organization member had dropped yet again.
The group arrived at the Beika Hotel.
Genta had wanted to give Klee a surprise, but once Ran learned what the kids were planning, she felt it would be rude to just show up unannounced.
So she had reached out ahead of time through Xia Yu to Klee's older brother, Kaeya — which also had the bonus of preventing the kids from showing up to an empty room and having their spirits crushed.
"So who exactly are we going to see?" Hondo Eisuke asked Mouri Ran curiously in the elevator.
"You really are..." Sonoko pressed a hand to her forehead, utterly exasperated. "You came along without knowing a single thing about any of this?"
Faced with Eisuke's blank expression, Sonoko couldn't bring herself to say more, so she simply gave him a brief rundown of who Klee was.
"And besides all that, there's one very important thing..." Sonoko drew it out for dramatic effect.
Eisuke dutifully put on an interested expression, and Sonoko happily delivered the punchline. "Klee has an older brother who's quite good-looking, you know. He has this whole wicked-charming playboy air about him — for certain people, he might practically invite conquest."
"And word is, Kaeya's adopted brother just arrived recently too. I wonder what he looks like? Could he be a different flavor of handsome altogether? Just thinking about it gets me excited."
Sonoko gradually sank deep into her own little fantasy, leaving a somewhat embarrassed Ran tugging at her sleeve and begging her to show a little restraint.
Aside from Conan and Haibara, the younger kids couldn't have cared less about Kaeya's adopted brother — they were simply overjoyed at the prospect of seeing their long-absent friend again.
"Judging by what Suzuki-san said, Kaeya's adopted brother is already in Japan. I wonder what kind of person he is?" Haibara already knew that Ran had contacted Kaeya in advance, which meant the information Sonoko had must have come through Ran.
"Ah, I've gathered some news reports these past few days. Most people describe the head of the Ragnvindr family as a flawless, effortlessly graceful young noble." Still, Conan felt he'd need to see the man with his own eyes before drawing any conclusions.
Before long, the elevator reached the floor where Kaeya's room was located.
Ran's group stepped out and made their way down the corridor, checking doors one by one.
Though "searching" was generous — the floor Kaeya lived on didn't have many rooms to begin with, and soon they were standing at the door of Klee's hotel room.
Ran knocked, stepped back two paces, and waited.
Before long, the door in front of them swung open.
At the sight of Klee's head poking out, Ran hadn't even managed a greeting before the impatient children pushed right past her.
"Klee, it's us! So? Surprise or what?" Genta elbowed his way to the front, beaming.
Klee had been a little puzzled about why Kaeya-niichan had suddenly told her to answer the door this time, but at the sight of her friends appearing out of nowhere, her eyes went wide and she nodded with a smile. "Mm-hm! Genta, Ayumi — it's you! And Ran-neechan too! Of course Klee is happy that you came to see Klee!"
"So this is the Klee that Conan and the others are always talking about? What an adorable little girl." Hondo Eisuke stepped up beside the children, adjusted his glasses, and smiled down at Klee.
Klee tilted her head, peering up curiously at this big brother she didn't know.
"Ah, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Hondo Eisuke, a classmate of Mouri-san and Suzuki-san." Only now remembering that Klee had no idea who he was, Eisuke hastily bent down to introduce himself.
Conan clocked the movement and scrambled out of range — had his reflexes been a second slower, his head would have taken yet another hit.
"Klee, why are you keeping everyone standing at the door? Aren't you going to invite your friends in?" Kaeya called from inside the room.