Lisa's Junior
"That Lisa lady does have some connection to the Black Organization, y'know," Hattori Heiji said.
Conan's heart clenched. How could that be?!
When he'd first asked Hattori to look into Lisa, it had only been to learn as much as he could about Teyvat. How on earth had Hattori turned up a link between her and the Organization?
He clenched his fists and furrowed his brow. "Specifics. Go on."
Hattori laid out his findings in detail. "Remember how you told me that scholar fella, Alhaitham, got pulled into the Organization? Well, this time around I found out that the Lisa lady and Alhaitham were classmates. They studied at the same school back in Country Y — Lisa was two years above him — so there's a good chance the two of them know each other."
"And word is, Alhaitham made quite a name for himself at that school. Apparently he was something special. Three other people from his year did pretty well for themselves too — they say those four were the standout students of their whole class across the school's four colleges."
With every word, Conan's expression grew graver. He muttered inwardly, So Alhaitham is Lisa's junior. If the two of them really are in contact, this gets a whole lot more complicated. Does that mean Alhaitham has ties to Teyvat too?
At the same time, a thought struck him: Lisa had once mentioned she wanted to introduce her junior to Ran. Could she have meant Alhaitham?
Conan immediately shook his head. No — Alhaitham had been in Japan this whole time, which didn't match what Lisa had described. So the junior she'd been talking about was probably one of the other three.
At that thought, he hurriedly asked Hattori who the other three were — the ones who'd shared Alhaitham's fame.
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Conan heard the rustle of paper — Hattori was apparently digging through his materials.
"Ah, here it is." Before long, Hattori's voice came through the phone again, and he introduced them one by one. "First up's Tighnari. Graduated from the Amurta college, a botanist — he's working as a Forest Watcher in Country Y's rainforest right now. Then there's Cyno, out of the Vahumana college. Far as I can tell, he's working for the Y government these days. And last there's Kaveh, from the Kshahrewar college in Sumeru. He's an architect with a whole stack of famous works to his name."
"Judging by what I dug up, Kaveh seems to be the closest to Alhaitham out of the bunch. The two of 'em even lived together for a while."
He paused for a beat, then went on. "About Alhaitham himself — I managed to turn up a few things too."
"He graduated from the Haravatat college — the one that focuses on language, writing, and symbols. Word is the guy personally knows at least twenty-odd languages." On that last sentence, there was something odd in Hattori's voice.
"He worked for the government for a spell after graduating, then up and quit for reasons nobody knows, switched his field of study entirely, and started doing biology research. And even like that, he still managed to rack up some pretty solid results."
Finally, Hattori couldn't help but complain, "Seriously — does anyone actually get to be that much of a prodigy?"
Conan didn't answer.
Having heard Hattori's report, his expression was grim, and he was more convinced than ever that Alhaitham was no ordinary man.
"Don't get too worked up," Hattori said, trying to reassure him. "Didn't you say before that Alhaitham was forced into the Organization? Maybe the guy's not actually putting his heart into their research at all."
"Mm..." Conan faltered. That hadn't actually been what worried him most just now.
Alhaitham really was impressive, sure — but Conan had already heard a fair bit about him from Haibara, and this only filled in the details.
No, what had been eating at him the whole time was the question of which one Lisa meant to introduce to Ran: Cyno, Tighnari, or Kaveh.
Anyone who could share a name with Alhaitham was bound to be formidable in their own right, and the more Conan turned it over, the more sour he felt.
But after Hattori's well-meaning reassurance, he couldn't bring himself to admit what he'd really been thinking. In the end, he thanked Hattori for his help and hung up.
Meanwhile, on the other side of town, Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko, and Natsume Xiayu had arrived at the Kudo residence.
The moment Ran stepped through the door, she felt it — the air inside was noticeably cooler than outside.
It's cold in here... could it be?
At that thought, Ran immediately realized the air conditioning was running — which could only mean one thing. Was Shinichi home?
Her heart began to race. She was terrified of missing her chance to see him again. Without a second's hesitation, she kicked off her shoes and started flinging open doors one after another, calling Shinichi's name as she searched frantically for any trace of him.
Sonoko and Xiayu hurried after her.
Xiayu knew perfectly well that the person currently inside the house was not Kudo Shinichi — but she couldn't exactly come out and say so.
Watching Ran's frantic search, Xiayu quickly caught up and stopped her from darting around the house like a headless fly, gently soothing her. "Ran, take it easy. I think I just heard something from the bathroom — maybe Shinichi's in there?"