A Call Before the Farewell
"Well now, cutie, what's got you calling me all of a sudden?"
"......"
"Mm-hmm, the date's been set. In just a little while we'll be boarding a ship from Tsukikage Island, and you won't be seeing me for some time. Don't forget to miss me, okay~?"
"......"
"No need for a farewell party. The signal over there isn't great, but if we actually want to reach each other, well, that's hardly any trouble at all."
"......"
Conan was hanging on Lisa's every word with total concentration — and then, at some point, her voice suddenly stopped. His heart clenched without warning. Had she sensed he was there? Or noticed something off? Just as the tension knotted in his chest, Lisa's amused voice came back on the line.
Conan let out a silent breath of relief, completely missing the way her gaze had swept, casual as anything, over the corner where he was hiding.
"Come to think of it, cutie's about to meet that old gentleman, so I imagine you're in a rather good mood."
"Still, keep your money, cutie — save it for welcoming home our hardworking architect and that old gentleman who insists on doing everything with his own two hands. Compared to the work Nahida and I are about to do, they're the ones who've earned a proper celebration."
"......"
At the name Nahida, Conan's eyes went wide with astonishment.
So his instincts had been right after all — Nahida really was one of the Teyvat people. Then why didn't she have a Vision? If it was because she was a small child, then why did Klee have one? And what about Natsume Xiayu? She was close with Lisa and the others too — in fact, she was the very person Lisa was talking to on the phone right now — and she didn't have a Vision either. Why not?
And what could a little girl like Nahida possibly do alongside Lisa, anyway — something important enough that Lisa would specifically bring her along to some secret place? He'd also heard Lisa mention a ship. Was wherever they were going out at sea? And Tsukikage Island, on top of that — how did that place get mixed up in all of this?
A mountain of questions piled up with no answers in sight. Drowning in his own thoughts, Conan failed to notice that Lisa had already hung up just a short distance away and was now walking straight toward his hiding spot.
"Conan, little boy — what are you doing hiding all alone over here? Could it be that......" Lisa drew the words out long and slow, deliberately stretching his nerves to the breaking point.
At the sound of her voice suddenly sounding right above his head, Conan froze solid, half-terrified she'd figured out he'd been eavesdropping and was about to demand an explanation.
But even in the grip of that panic, he couldn't help one inward complaint: do the Teyvat people seriously make no sound when they walk?
"......Could it be that little Ran and the others sent you to fetch me?" Only after she'd had her fun teasing him did Lisa finally finish the thought at her own leisurely pace.
Seeing that Lisa wasn't going to press the matter, Conan figured she hadn't grown suspicious of a little kid, and slowly relaxed. He nodded over and over, running with the excuse she'd handed him. "Uh-huh! The police are here already, and Ran-neechan told me to go get Lisa-neechan and bring her over."
Conan wasn't wrong. Inspector Megure and his team, having received the report, had indeed arrived at the karaoke box, and on the staff's testimony they had begun reviewing the security footage from around the crime scene.
By the time Conan led Lisa back to the scene, Megure and the others had finished watching the footage and identified five people — including Lisa and Hondo Eisuke — with any real possibility of being the culprit.
Five suspects, seriously?
Hearing there were that many this time, even Lisa blinked in mild surprise.
She glanced at Conan at her side and turned the matter over in her mind: she certainly wasn't the murderer, and Hondo Eisuke wouldn't kill anyone. That left only three suspects — which fit the rule of three perfectly, didn't it just.
By then, Inspector Megure had seen all the suspects assembled and began questioning them one by one.
When it was Lisa's turn, she didn't hold anything back, stating outright that she had already noticed the victim shadowing their group for quite some time.
Just then, Officer Chiba, who had taken the camera from beside the victim at the scene, came over carrying the freshly developed photographs — and they backed Lisa's story up completely.
"Though who would've thought that man's target was little Sonoko. Looking at it that way, you could say the one who struck him down actually did Sonoko a favor." Lisa strolled over to Officer Chiba, cast a glance at the photos in his hand, and sighed with feeling.
Inspector Megure's mouth twitched as he overheard that. Out of consideration for how well acquainted they were, he couldn't stop himself from issuing a warning. "Miss Lisa, do you realize that saying things like that only raises your suspicion?"
Megure rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Lisa, apparently oblivious to the stir her words had caused, turned to face the inspector and said, with utter seriousness, "Of course I realize it. But it's the truth, you know. Besides — I already know who the culprit is." And with that, she gave him a playful wink.
Conan's eyes went wide, disbelief written all over his face. He had been examining the photos himself just now, and had only just concluded that the victim was probably not FBI.
There was no way he could have imagined it — Lisa, who had only just returned to the scene without so much as a proper look around, had already identified the murderer!
A wave of frustration rose in Conan's chest. He had always been confident in his deductive abilities — and this time, Lisa had outdone him.