Déjà Vu
Lynette stood before Hades, and his provocative words barely drew a reaction from her at all.
"Oh. My apologies." She gave him only a flat glance, offering the apology without a trace of expression, her eyes calm and cold.
Then she stepped aside, silently clearing a path for him.
Hades frowned slightly at her indifferent response. He had expected the little girl to be provoked or frightened by his words, but her composure left him vaguely puzzled—and displeased. He raised his guard a notch, though he still couldn't imagine what a girl this small could possibly do to him.
Lynette watched quietly as Hades passed by her, and the moment his body crossed hers, she drew her sword in a flash and thrust it at his back.
Fortunately, Hades had kept that sliver of wariness. He twisted aside in a hurry, evading a fatal blow by the narrowest of margins—but her blade still grazed him, slashing open his arm.
Blood welled from the wound and dripped onto the ground.
Without the slightest hesitation, Lynette gave him no room to breathe and struck again. She swept her sword through a relentless, razor-sharp offensive, forcing Hades to retreat step by step as he scrambled to dodge her strikes—yet cuts opened across his body all the same.
With her final blow, Lynette drove her blade straight for a vital point.
Realizing just how merciless she was—that she clearly intended to keep him there by whatever means necessary—Hades abandoned any hope of getting away unscathed.
Before her sword could find its mark, he yanked out a remote control. "Take one more step and I'll press this! When the others go down with me, I won't have lost a thing!"
At the threat, Lynette's movement faltered.
Seizing the instant she froze, Hades bolted out of the alley, weaving this way and that until he vanished from her sight.
Watching his retreating back, Lynette lowered her sword and made no move to pursue. Without knowing whether he had contingencies in place—or where his accomplices might be—this was hardly the right moment to strike.
Still, the encounter hadn't been without its rewards. For one thing, teaching the deranged criminal a lesson had considerably improved her mood.
For another, in the middle of the fight she had quietly planted a tracker on his person, which would let her keep tabs on his movements in real time.
By then, Ran and the others had said their goodbyes to Apollo and noticed that Lynette was gone, coming over to look for her. Hearing footsteps approach, Lynette stirred up a cloud of dust with Anemo, blanketing the blood spattered across the ground.
"Lynette, what are you doing here?" Ran asked, puzzled.
"Someone was watching you just now, so I came to take a look. That person appears to be the culprit Conan mentioned—the one behind this case. Hades." Lynette delivered the news in a perfectly flat tone, and Ran went pale.
"What?! Are you okay?" she asked, alarmed.
"I'm fine." Lynette shook her head. "Unfortunately, I couldn't catch him. But I did attach a tracker to him."
Setting aside the question of where Lynette had even gotten a tracker, the news that they could now follow the culprit's movements snapped Mouri Kogoro to attention, and he immediately called Scotland Yard.
Of course, when he made the report, Kogoro came up with an excuse—claiming he'd bought the tracker as a precaution when he learned an incident was likely to occur. He made no mention of Lynette; as public figures, it would be better not to have their names tangled up in something like this.
The excuse was a bit thin, but out of consideration for Lady Diana, who had invited Kogoro to England, and Kudou Yusaku, who was likewise keeping an eye on the case, the police chose to believe him.
Which only made Kogoro all the more curious about who this wealthy Lady Diana really was. And especially that Mr. Neuvillette he'd met at last night's banquet—a man whose bearing, at a single glance, was clearly no ordinary person's.
Speaking of Neuvillette—back at the hotel, Conan could hardly sit still once he heard that Lynette had encountered Hades and was tracking his movements. He dashed out of the hotel with Dr. Agasa, intending to rendezvous with Ran and the others and confirm Hades's whereabouts.
The very instant they burst through the hotel doors, they brushed right past two people: Neuvillette and Furina.
The jolt of déjà vu made Conan whip his head around.
The backs of those two people who had just walked past looked so uncannily like Neuvillette and Focalors as he'd seen them in the game Cocoon.
To suddenly see characters from a game in the real world—could it really be coincidence?
"Mr. Neuvillette? Miss Focalors?" After a moment's hesitation, Conan called out after all.
They were so alike that his mind had made the connection instantly. Torn as he was, he decided a shout was worth it—if he'd gotten the names wrong, he could always apologize afterward.