Klee's Brother
At Kaeya's reminder, Klee finally snapped out of it and hurried to let her friends come inside.
"Klee, why don't you take your friends to go play some games? Klee's got it all set up ready!" Kaeya said gently, smiling down at her.
Before long, Conan and the others were settled in front of the television alongside Klee.
"Whoa! Is this a brand-new game?" Genta exclaimed, eyes shining at the device before him.
"Yep! Kaeya got it from one of his friends just now. You can hook it up to the TV, and we can all play together on the super-big screen!" Klee explained proudly.
The children eagerly crowded around her, their interest instantly piqued.
Hondo Eisuke, too, sidled up beside the kids, intent on watching them play at close range.
Ran and Sonoko, for their part, couldn't have cared less about video games, and took seats a little way off.
Conan kept one ear on the chatter of Klee and the others debating the game, while letting part of his attention drift toward Kaeya.
Kaeya brought a few glasses of drinks from the kitchen, set one down in front of each of the children, then carried the remaining two over to Ran and Sonoko and settled into a seat beside them.
"This is a raspberry-mint drink from back home. Go ahead, give it a try."
"Ooh, it's all icy and blue! It looks delicious already!" Sonoko leaned in without a moment's hesitation and took a sip through the straw.
"It really is refreshing — cool and crisp, a little sweet and tart, but not cloying at all," Ran said after tasting hers.
"Glad you like it," Kaeya said with a smile.
"Oh, that's right — Mr. Kaeya, I heard your brother came along too. Where is he?" Sonoko swallowed her mouthful of the drink and looked at him, curiosity written across her face.
"That guy..." Kaeya let his body sink back against the chair, sounding utterly deflated. "The moment we arrived, before he'd even spent five minutes with Klee, he was off somewhere talking business with somebody. The man simply doesn't know how to live. Miss Sonoko, you'd agree someone like that is rather dull, wouldn't you?"
"Hmm... I wouldn't go so far as to say dull," Sonoko replied. "But Mr. Kaeya, your brother really is in the wrong here. You two haven't seen each other in so long — you should be catching up properly!" What mattered most, of course, was that she still hadn't laid eyes on this Mr. Diluc, this allegedly devastatingly handsome man. What a tragic waste.
"There's no need for any catching up." Kaeya waved a hand. "Once we grew up, we hardly ever saw each other. The only reason I stayed at Dawn Winery for a while recently was for Klee's sake. And even after all that, Master Diluc never gave me a kind look when I left. Poor Klee — she was absolutely terrified when we left the winery."
With Diluc out of the room, Kaeya launched into a ceaseless stream of complaints, each one polished and shaped by his own careful hand.
It left Ran and Sonoko — neither of whom knew anything of the real situation — convinced the two brothers were on terrible terms, and quietly worrying that showing up on Diluc's doorstep unannounced with all these children might well provoke his wrath.
Conan pricked up his ears, listening to the conversation between Kaeya and the girls, a thoughtful look on his face.
Hondo Eisuke noticed his distraction. He crept closer, crouched down beside him, and whispered into his ear, "Conan-kun... what are you thinking about?"
The sudden voice at his ear nearly gave Conan a heart attack — his heart actually stuttered for a beat.
"N-nothing, nothing at all! I was just trying to figure out how to beat this level. Ha ha." Seeing that it was only Hondo, Conan hastily collected himself and dredged up an excuse to brush the question aside.
"I see." Hondo didn't believe him for a second, but he didn't press the matter either.
He had noticed that Conan had been keeping a close eye on Mouri-san's side of the room. There were only three people over there — so it couldn't be Mouri-san or Suzuki-san he was watching. Which left Mr. Kaeya. Was there something special about that man?
With that thought, Hondo got up and wandered over to join their conversation.
Haibara, who had been subtly keeping her distance from Hondo all along, watched his string of maneuvers — then cast a brief glance at Conan.
She sensed none of the Organization's aura about him, but her intuition told her that this man's appearance was no coincidence. I hope my instincts are wrong, she thought. Please let him really have nothing to do with the Organization.
After some time had passed, the sound of the front door opening suddenly echoed from the entrance hall.
Everyone in the living room — everyone except the children, who were utterly absorbed in their game — turned to look toward the door.
Two men walked in.
The man in front was tall and slender, with a pair of crimson eyes and long red hair tied back, dressed from head to toe in nobleman's attire. His face betrayed no expression whatsoever — one look was enough to tell he wasn't the easygoing type.
The man who entered slightly behind him was somewhat shorter, with tawny hair braided at the crown and gathered at the back of his head, and blue-green eyes. On his neck sat a single star — impossible to tell whether it was a tattoo or a birthmark. He wore a white hooded coat over a deep-blue turtleneck, with black gloves on his hands.
Conan studied them carefully. Sure enough, both of them bore a Vision — and aside from the color, theirs were identical in design to Kaeya's. The first man's hung at his waist; the second man's was strung around his neck.
Conan had already recognized the first one as Diluc — the features were unmistakable — but he knew nothing about the man behind him.
Neither of them showed the slightest surprise at finding the room full of people; clearly, they had known in advance.
"Well, well — our dear Master Diluc has finished his busy day at last." Kaeya made no move to rise along with Ran and the others. He stayed right where he was in his chair, greeting Diluc with a bright smile.
By now Genta and the others had set down their controllers, turning to gape curiously at the two strangers who had materialized in their midst.
Diluc cast Kaeya a glance devoid of even a flicker of emotion, offering no response whatsoever to his earlier little performance.
Then he shifted his gaze to the guests in the room, nodded politely to them, and, together with the man behind him, introduced himself.
Only then did everyone learn that the man behind Diluc was named Albedo — Klee's older brother, the very one who had entrusted her temporarily to Kaeya's care.
No one had expected that Diluc would bring Klee's brother along on this trip as well.
Conan, too, suddenly recalled what Xia Yu had once told him — that Kaeya wasn't actually Klee's blood brother. Having watched Kaeya treat her with such earnest tenderness, he'd nearly forgotten the fact entirely.
Watching Klee press herself happily against Albedo's side, Haibara felt a flicker of unease at the appearance of yet another Vision-bearer — and yet she was genuinely glad for Klee's sake that the girl got to see her brother again.
Because I'll never see my sister again...
But whether it was her imagination or not, Haibara couldn't shake the feeling that something about Klee's brother was strange — a subtle, unsettling sense that he was not entirely human.
Then she watched Albedo patiently fielding Genta and the others' barrage of questions, and rubbed her forehead. It had to be an illusion — the product of everything piling up at once and her nerves running thin, surely.