What Kaeya Set Out to Do
Ignoring the heated debate the question had sparked among the three kids beside him, Conan's entire attention was fixed on Klee.
Klee had heard him ask Haibara that question — that much was fine. The real problem was whether she had caught only that one line, or whether she'd overheard the whole conversation he'd been having with Haibara before it.
"Klee, when did you come back here? Aside from what I just said — did you hear what we were talking about before that?" Conan forced his mouth into something resembling a smile and leaned in close to ask her.
"I did hear it," Klee nodded.
Conan went stiff — and then Klee went on: "But Klee wasn't really listening. Klee only caught you guys saying something about FBI and CIA. Were you watching some TV drama?"
Haibara let out her breath slowly. Klee was close with Kaeya — if she'd heard the rest...
Conan relaxed too, tossing out a random show title to paper over the moment.
By then, Ayumi and the others had gotten nowhere with their discussion of the original question, so they wandered back over to Klee and Conan, curious to hear what the two of them thought.
Conan glanced at Haibara. He still wanted to know her answer — she'd never gotten around to giving a straight one. But Haibara had absolutely no interest in entertaining such a pointless question; she turned her head away, pretending not to see the children's expectant stares.
Conan sighed inwardly and was casting about for something to distract them when Klee answered in a tone of perfect matter-of-factness: "Klee will still hate the person who hurt the people important to Klee. Whether he's Klee's family or not, Klee's feelings toward him won't change."
Conan pressed her: "But he'd be your only family left now. Wouldn't you at least go a little easier on him?"
"Of course not." Klee shook her head. "Family doesn't have to be blood, and blood isn't always family. So whether he's Klee's relative has nothing to do with it."
"Well said." At some point, Haibara had turned back around, listening to Klee's answer with complete seriousness. "You have a real talent for cutting straight to the heart of things, don't you, Klee." She reached out and gently patted Klee's hat in approval.
Well. So much for that. It seemed Haibara was not about to soften her attitude toward Akai Shuichi just because he happened to be her cousin — and any joy at finding family again was nowhere in evidence either. Hearing Klee's words and seeing Haibara's expression, Conan finally gave up hope, and with it, abandoned any thought of telling her that Akai Shuichi was the man who had once infiltrated the Organization as Rye Whiskey.
Besides, by their plan, Akai was about to "die" anyway. Telling Haibara now would mean nothing.
......
The children chattered and laughed their way along the last stretch of road, and before long they arrived at their destination — the buffet restaurant.
"Wow! This is amazing!"
"Everything looks so good!"
The kids pressed up against the glass window outside, gaping at the lavish spread within, exclamations bursting out of them one after another. Even Klee was glued to the display of sweets, eyes shining, the very picture of a child who couldn't wait a second longer.
Once inside, Dr. Agasa issued a single warning — "Don't pile your plates too high, or you'll give yourselves stomachaches" — and then turned them loose on the food.
Before long, everyone had picked out what they wanted and settled into seats together.
"What?! Kaeya's leaving Japan?!"
It came up when Klee mentioned Kaeya and dropped the news that he was about to leave the country — and Ayumi cried out in shock. Then her face fell, and she was plainly crushed at the thought of losing him.
Conan had been puzzled by the suddenness of Kaeya's departure himself, but Ayumi's rather outsized reaction struck him as odd in a different way, and he asked her: "Ayumi, you seem really sad to see him go. But haven't you only met him a couple of times?"
"But Kaeya's so nice! He takes such good care of Klee, and he's always gentle with me too. I don't want to never see him again," Ayumi said, her voice drooping.
Conan cast his mind back. She wasn't wrong, actually. In all their encounters, Kaeya had been unfailingly gentle and attentive with the children — and especially so with Ayumi and Haibara. Even Haibara's guardedness hadn't stopped him from looking out for her.
At that thought, Conan glanced at Haibara and found her wearing an expression of entirely unsurprised understanding. His eyes narrowed to a half-lidded stare. "You knew already, didn't you?"
Haibara shot him a languid, dismissive look. "Only just figured that out, great detective? Mr. Kaeya may have had me on high alert, but there's no denying he's been good to the children. Of course they'd hate to see him go."
Having sorted that out, Conan found himself even less able to fathom how the man could be tangled up with the Organization.
But improved impressions of Kaeya did nothing to curb Conan's instinct to keep digging. He put on a show of innocent curiosity and asked Klee: "Hey, Klee — why is Kaeya leaving Japan all of a sudden?"
Klee swallowed the mouthful in her cheeks. "Klee heard it's because Kaeya finished what he came to Japan to do. The business he was negotiating is all settled now, so he doesn't need to show up in person anymore."
Having reported what she'd heard, Klee was just about to duck her head and get back to eating — but before the next bite reached her mouth, something else occurred to her, and she looked up again. "Besides, Albedo's already come to take care of Klee, so Kaeya doesn't need to stay in Japan for Klee's sake anymore. He can go do his own things now."
Things like, for instance, making a trip from Tsukikage Island out to the little island where the Teyvat Syndicate's base stood, to check on how construction was coming along. Word was that with Zhongli's help, the base was nearly finished; this visit would be to see whether anything still needed revising.
While he was at it, he would bring Lisa, Nahida, and "Noah's Ark" along — the three of them would be staying at the base from then on, setting up its network and information center, as well as the data hub for the terminal Ningguang was preparing to launch. And on the way back, he could collect Kaveh and Zhongli and bring them home. Leaving the two of them at the base any longer would serve little purpose anyway.
Conan, however, had been hanging on Klee's earlier words and barely registered the addenda at all.
The business he was negotiating...
Conan turned it over in his mind. Could the other party be the Organization? But what kind of "business"?
Then he remembered the intelligence Akai Shuichi had passed to him on the hospital rooftop, and a guess began to take shape. Could this business — this deal — be about that strange Life Potion?