Is It Because You Don't Like Him?
And yet, Kir still had her doubts. An undercover mission this important should have been entrusted to someone cautious and level-headed — that was how these things were supposed to work.
Could the Teyvat Syndicate really not have found anyone better suited for the job?
Gin paid no attention to the farce unfolding beside him. His eyes settled on Kir, and he spoke in that low rasp of his. "Heh. When exactly you came back to your senses — only you know that, and we have no way to verify it. But that doesn't matter. You only need to do one thing to prove yourself to us..."
"What do you mean by that?" A bad feeling crept over Kir.
"Oh~ Gin, you're planning to use Kir as bait to lure out Akai Shuichi and put him down for good, aren't you?" Wanderer had guessed his intention before the man even finished speaking.
"But here's my question — why make Kir do it? You hate this Rye whiskey so much, so why not kill him yourself? Is it because you don't like him?"
Wanderer looked up at Gin with a face of perfect innocence, eyes wide with feigned bewilderment.
A cross of irritation popped up on Gin's forehead. He fixed his gaze on Wanderer the way a beast locks onto its prey, and ground out each word like a blade leaving its sheath: "Shut. Up."
Wanderer rolled his eyes. Honestly — the moment he lost an argument, this was all he had.
Hah. He despised these people.
Once Wanderer finally showed signs of closing that mouth of his that had no business existing, Gin turned back to Kir, his gaze cold and congealed, and laid out his demand. "Find a way to kill Akai Shuichi. Do that, and you will have proven you haven't betrayed the Organization."
It took every ounce of Kir's self-control not to instinctively glance at Wanderer when the words landed — but the calm on her face was a mask over anything but serenity.
Akai Shuichi and that boy had predicted Gin's plan to the letter, and were already preparing to turn the trap against its maker.
And Wanderer — no, rather the Teyvat Syndicate standing behind him — had been watching the whole thing unfold.
With every passing moment, Kir found that organization more and more unfathomable, and more and more impossible to underestimate.
For all the thoughts churning inside her, outwardly Kir simply froze for a beat. Then she clenched her fists hard, fury rising in her eyes as she glared at Gin. "Gin, are you joking? How could I possibly kill Akai Shuichi on my own?"
She paused, shot a glance at Wanderer, and her lips curved into an ambiguous smile as she continued. "Like Wanderer said — why don't you do it yourself? Your odds of success would be far better than mine, wouldn't they?"
Before Gin could answer, Wanderer cut in ahead of him. "Hey, hey — what is it with you people? Why do you all love pumping up the enemy while tearing down your own side?"
He waved a hand airily. "It's one guy. He doesn't have superpowers or anything, right? I honestly don't get why you're all so scared of him. All that talk about a Silver Bullet that can pierce the Organization's chest..."
Wanderer shook his head. "Using such flowery, theatrical praise for your own enemy — that old man, ahem..." He caught sight of Gin's fingers stroking the Beretta in his lap, rolled his eyes, and hastily swapped the word out. "...that boss of yours is quite the literary man, isn't he?"
Kir decided she'd been wrong. So Wanderer hadn't been singling out Vermouth and Gin earlier after all — he didn't put the boss in any higher regard either. If anything, his target was everyone. Plainly, unapologetically, everyone.
"You can get the hell out."
The moment Wanderer threw around commentary about the boss as casually as commenting on the weather, Gin's patience finally snapped. He twisted around to face Wanderer, jabbed a finger toward the door, and growled in a low, dangerous voice. Clearly, Gin had no intention of enduring one more syllable of the man's poisoned sarcasm in his ear.
Wanderer had long since grown sick of the place. At Gin's words, he rose to his feet without a shred of hesitation and headed for the exit, muttering under his breath the whole way.
"I really don't see what the point of dragging me here was. Do underground syndicates do bureaucracy now, too?" He made absolutely no effort to keep the others from overhearing.
And the others, for their part, showed no reaction at all upon hearing it.
Chianti was actually a little envious of Wanderer. She wanted to leave too — wanted nothing more than to stop sitting in this room — but she didn't have the guts to defy Gin openly the way he did.
With Wanderer gone, most of the people in the room felt as if the air had freshened considerably.
Undisturbed at last, Gin laid out his arrangements...
Under the weight of Gin's pressure, Kir had no choice but to agree to his demand.
The next day, Professor Agasa took the Detective Boys — Klee included — out for an all-you-can-eat buffet.
"So Mizunashi Rena really was CIA all along."
With the matter wrapped up, Conan had recounted the whole affair to Haibara on the way there, editing out everything he couldn't share. She let out a long breath at the end of it.
"Oh, that reminds me — Edogawa, you've been mentioning that Akai Shuichi an awful lot lately. I'm actually a bit curious to meet him myself."
"Why?" A bead of cold sweat prickled at the back of Conan's neck.
Catching his odd reaction, Haibara's eyes slid sideways to study his face, her instincts sharpening. "What — is there some reason you can't let us meet?"
"Ah— no, of course not."
Conan looked away, guilt gnawing at him. Of course there is. It's not like I can tell her that Akai Shuichi deliberately got close to her sister, used her to infiltrate the Organization, and indirectly got her killed — only to find out afterward that the two of them were actually related by blood.
But that mention of blood ties lingered. Conan hesitated, then turned back to Haibara, carefully searching her expression. "Um... Haibara, can I ask you something...?"
Haibara rolled her eyes. "Then ask. Don't hem and haw about it."
"Okay... it's just... say there's someone who unknowingly hurt someone precious to you. You hate this person — and then you find out that this person is family of yours too. How would you treat them?"
Haibara stared at him, her face perfectly blank. "What kind of ridiculous question is that? You already know I don't have any family left..."
"Mm... it's a hypothetical. Just suppose it happened. What would you do?" Conan pressed.
"Ah— you two are whispering to each other again!" Ayumi turned around, spotted Conan and Haibara huddled together once more, and wailed in protest.
"Yeah, what are you two talking about? Why can't we listen?" Genta, hearing Ayumi's complaint, stomped over and planted himself in front of Conan and Haibara, demanding an answer.
"Well, that's..."
"Klee just heard it~" Before Conan could cook up an excuse, Klee — who had somehow materialized beside them without anyone noticing — shot her hand into the air and beat him to the punch. "Just now, Conan was asking Haibara: if someone accidentally hurt someone really, really important to her, and it turned out that someone was her family too, how would she treat them? — Yep, that's the question!"
Klee nodded firmly, confirming to herself that she hadn't gotten a single word wrong.
"Eh?" Mitsuhiko blinked. "What a weird question."
Genta scratched his head, genuinely troubled. "Yeah... so the person who hurt your family is family too? What are you supposed to do about that?"
......