Chapter 307: "Holographic Projection"
Even Vermouth couldn't help reaching out to catch the little purple flower that drifted up to her face, stroking it gently. It truly felt like a flower. Held beneath her nose, it gave off a faint, elusive fragrance.
Sight, touch, smell — not the slightest flaw in any of them. If the flower hadn't scattered into motes of light and vanished mere moments after landing in her palm, she honestly would have believed it was real.
How was this done? Is this really something holographic projection technology can achieve?
Vermouth smoothed away the composure she'd briefly lost and glanced at Bourbon beside her, who had been moved to make the very same gesture. She arched a brow and suggested with a smile, "Well, Bourbon? Spot any cracks in the illusion? Why not have a taste — see if flavor comes through as real as everything else?"
Bourbon buried the shock in his eyes and shrugged with practiced nonchalance. "I have no idea what a real flower tastes like. If you're curious, feel free to try it yourself."
He had no intention of putting something of unknown origin into his mouth on a whim.
Conan, who had no idea members of the Black Organization were present, was staring at the flower drifting before his eyes with the same stunned expression.
His mind instantly went back to what he'd experienced in the Cocoon game. If he hadn't been certain he had no memory of entering a machine, he might almost have suspected he'd been thrown back into the Cocoon's full-dive world all over again.
"Relax — we're not inside the Cocoon." Haibara's voice was flat and cool, as if she'd read the doubt right off his face.
Meeting Conan's puzzled look, she elaborated. "I sent a message to the Professor, and I just got his reply. So rest easy. This is reality."
"Oh. Good." Conan let out a breath of relief — and immediately felt his tension spike again.
If this was reality, then it meant that after taking over Schindler's company, Miss Ningguang's Jade Chamber Corporation had advanced its technology by leaps and bounds — far enough to pull off something that looked like outright magic.
Wait. Then what he and Hattori had seen near the Takahashi residence back then — had that been real too?
"Hey, Kudo." Hattori nudged Conan discreetly and murmured, "You think what we saw before was some kind of hologram too? No matter how you slice it, there's no way anyone could pull a knife out of their chest like that."
Clearly, Hattori Heiji harbored the very same doubts. "But why would the Kamisato family go to all that trouble?"
Conan had no good answer either.
Amuro — Subaru Okiya — loosened his right hand, which he'd been clenching tight. The flower that had rested in his palm was gone without a trace.
He pressed two fingers to the pulse in his left wrist and counted out a full minute. Nothing unusual — no racing, no slowing. Whatever this was, it hadn't dosed his body with anything.
Deceiving touch, sight, and smell all at once — was that genuinely within the reach of today's technology?
Masumi Sera was equally astonished by the spectacle before her, but with no knowledge of Teyvat and only a vague awareness of the Noah's Ark incident, she simply filed it away as another marvel of modern science.
The Detective Boys beside her, along with Ran and Sonoko, weren't thinking that deeply. They were thoroughly absorbed in the performance, eagerly snapping photos and shooting video like every other member of the audience, desperate to capture the scene before them.
Xia Yu was doing the same, recording the show on her terminal.
She still harbored a small grudge against her brother for refusing to come — something about not wanting to keep appearing around the main characters, and not wanting to dream — but whenever something beautiful crossed her path, she still sent it to him to share.
At last, it was Nilou's turn to perform, and the event began building toward its climax.
The moment she stepped onto the stage, the entire scene transformed. As the music swelled, the world around them melted into a boundless expanse of clear, placid water, smooth and unbroken to the horizon.
One curious audience member even crouched down to trail a hand across the surface — and could distinctly feel the wet, liquid touch as the water's stillness broke, sending ring after ring of ripples spreading outward.
Then Nilou began to leap and spin in time with the music, and the scenery shifted along with her every movement, blossoming with lotus after luminous lotus of water.
Finally, as her spins grew faster and faster, the lotus blooming at her feet grew larger and larger, until — with one last motion — the flower burst open at its fullest and everything stopped, as abruptly as it began.
Thunderous applause erupted. The whole crowd was chanting Nilou's name.
One act after another drew to a close, the competition neared its end, and the audience began casting their votes on-site.
There was virtually no suspense: the champion was Miss Nilou.
The crowning of a winner meant the contest had come to a perfect close. But no one seemed ready to leave; they remained in their seats, savoring a performance that had lived up to its billing — a dream in waking form.
Then, without warning, the lights went out. Before panic could take root, illumination returned — and everyone discovered that the world around them had changed once more.
They were standing on an open terrace before a magnificent pavilion — one that floated amid the boundless sky, ten thousand meters above the earth.