The Teyvat Syndicate
Ran stared at the necklace in astonishment. Could jewelry this beautiful really be made of glass?
No — this was absolutely not some glass bead. Conan had just touched it, and it lacked the cold chill of ordinary glasswork, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out what the material actually was.
"Huh? That's weird — Xiangling's got a bead just like it hanging at her waist too! Did you buy it at the same place as Miss Lisa?" Conan suddenly pointed at Xiangling, who had just returned with the soup and taken a seat beside them.
Every eye in the room turned to the ornament dangling from Xiangling's waist.
"It really is similar," Ran agreed. "The shape and color are a little different, but they do look alike."
Kogoro waved a dismissive hand. "Glass beads like that are a dime a dozen in shops all over town. You probably just happened to buy ones that look the same."
Xiangling, seeing their interest in the ornament at her waist, unhooked it and handed it to Ran. "It must just be a coincidence — these things are pretty common. Miss Lisa and I had never met before today. But if she's... hmm, a friend of Xiayu's, then she's a friend of mine too! Remember to come by my restaurant often — I'll cook you all sorts of delicious things!" She beamed at Lisa with a radiant, open-hearted smile.
"Mm~ I certainly will. I look forward to sampling the chef's exquisite cooking, then."
Conan could only gape at the ornament in his hands. You've got to be kidding me — she's this casual about it too?
He'd assumed it would take considerable effort to get his hands on something like this, and now it had simply landed in his palm. For a moment, he didn't know what to think.
Xiangling's bead was square, its frame a tilted diamond, and its color a fiery crimson like a living flame. The symbol inside resembled an abstract tongue of fire. Maybe it was his imagination, but the thing seemed faintly warm to the touch.
So the colors of these beads corresponded to their patterns — red for fire. Then...
Conan glanced at Lisa's necklace. Purple... did that mean lightning? No — he couldn't be sure yet.
And what did the outer frames mean? Why were the two of them different?
Had Xiangling and Lisa truly never met before? Was she lying? No — the two really had been strangers just now. That kind of unfamiliarity couldn't be faked.
And what was Xiayu's connection to them? She didn't have one of these ornaments. Was it merely coincidence that she knew them both?
Ugh — too few clues. I can't analyze anything!
Lisa watched Conan wrestle with his thoughts from the sidelines and smiled with evident amusement, while Xiangling paid the whole exchange no mind whatsoever, busy urging Xiayu and Mr. Mouri to eat before the food went cold.
After watching a while longer, Ran returned the ornaments to their owners.
Bellies full and the meal finished, the Mouris said their farewells to Xiayu and the others.
Conan noticed that Lisa showed no sign of leaving. "Lisa-neechan, aren't you going home?"
"Mm, my home is quite far away, so I thought I'd stay the night here. It'll give me a chance to get to know my new friends better." Lisa bent down and ruffled his hair with a smile. "Does that explanation satisfy you, little boy?"
"Haha, I was just asking. Ow!" Conan clutched his head and shot the uncle who had just clobbered him an accusing look.
"You brat, what do you need to ask so many questions for? Miss Lisa can sleep wherever she pleases." Having delivered this lecture, Kogoro turned to Lisa with a greasy smile. "Miss Lisa, you're always welcome at my humble detective agency, you know. Should any trouble arise, you may entrust it to me... Ah, Ran, wait — we haven't said goodbye to Miss Lisa yet!"
Before he could finish, Ran had him by the arm. After bidding Xiayu and the others farewell, she seized her father's hand and hauled him bodily toward the door, with a reluctant Conan trailing behind.
Damn it. I want to know what they're going to talk about once we're gone — it definitely won't be small talk.
Installing a bug on his glasses in front of everyone was impossible at this point, so this time he'd have to let it go. But there would be other chances. He would get to the bottom of this — though he sincerely hoped it had nothing to do with the men in black who had shrunk him in the first place.
"All right, the outsiders are gone. Traveler — what is it we need to discuss?"
The moment Xiangling saw Conan and company disappear into the distance, she shut the door and asked impatiently.
"Ahem. What we're discussing, of course, is our organization's development plan for the period ahead."
Xiayu pulled out a chair and sat down, waving Xiangling and Lisa into the seats beside her, then cleared her throat and spoke with a grave expression.
Xiangling scratched her head. "What organizat... Oh! You mean the Teyvat Syndicate!"
"My, my — don't tell me you'd actually forgotten the organization existed, Xiangling?" Lisa purred, catching her slip with malicious delight.
Under the weight of Xiayu's mournful stare, Xiangling grew sheepish. "Sorry, Traveler. It's mostly that the organization doesn't really have any members yet, you see? Just the few of us, plus Alhaitham — we can't do much of anything. After a while... I just, well, I forgot." Then something occurred to her. "Oh, right — Traveler, have you seen Alhaitham lately?"
Xiayu sighed. "Not in person, but I've messaged him. He wouldn't say what he's up to right now, though it shouldn't be anything dangerous." Her face turned rueful. "It's not like I can control him — all I can do is let him do as he pleases. Don't worry. Alhaitham knows what he's doing. I'll just fill him in on what we decide today later."
...
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, the man who "knew what he was doing" was slipping into Shirley's laboratory using stolen access credentials, preparing to search for the data on replicating APTX4869. And indeed, there was no danger to speak of — no one in the Organization had noticed a thing.
In the time since Alhaitham had joined the Organization, he had wasted no effort avoiding fieldwork — and to that end, he had quickly produced a research result: a stamina-restoring supplement with no side effects, designed for use in emergencies. Drunk when injured or in a crisis, it could rapidly replenish one's strength, fortify the body, and draw out latent potential for a short time — a considerable boon to the Organization's people in their dangerous line of work. Best of all, it came with no side effects, save a brief spell of limpness in the limbs afterward, which merely required careful timing.
Perhaps because this research proved useful to the Organization's goals — and because no sane syndicate would suspect such a famously brilliant scholar of being an undercover agent — Alhaitham was granted a codename before long: Bordeaux. He had become the fastest member in the Organization's history to earn one.
Today was the day after Alhaitham received that codename.
The drug known as APTX4869 could fairly be called the fuse that lit this entire story — everything began with it. Whoever held the related data held a critical asset, both for future dealings with the Organization and with the protagonists' circle. It was an exceptionally powerful card to keep up one's sleeve.
Alhaitham never fought a battle he wasn't sure of winning. Before anything else, gathering as much intelligence and as many trump cards as possible was simply a matter of course.
...