To Trust or Not
While Xiayu half-listened to the banter between Mouri Kogoro and Kamon Hatsune over the next little while, a waiter suddenly appeared at their side.
"Sorry to keep you all waiting," he said, setting down a plate of cake.
But his hands proved clumsy, and the cake ended up tipping over onto Kamon Hatsune's pants.
"Oh dear, you've stepped in it too." Kamon Hatsune looked down at the cake smeared at his feet with a worried expression.
"I'm terribly sorry..." The waiter's face was a picture of embarrassment as he apologized. "It's only my first day working here."
Curious, Xiayu tilted her head to get a better look at the blond, dark-skinned waiter with his black-rimmed glasses that shadowed part of his face. Listening to him apologize to Miss Kamon in that rich, mellow voice — so gentle, so courteous — she couldn't help taking another long, deliberate slurp of her drink.
Wow. So this is Bourbon.
The last time she'd crossed paths with him was at Beika Central Mall — except back then, he'd been wearing Akai Shuichi's face. This was actually the first time she was seeing the real appearance of Bourbon, one of the most popular characters in *Detective Conan*, with her own eyes.
Xiayu had to admit, Bourbon lived up to his reputation as a man who had spent years undercover in the Black Organization. He clearly knew who she was — quite possibly had investigated her already — and yet he could behave as though they'd never met, not sparing her a single ounce of surplus attention. His acting was first-rate.
Come to think of it, she recalled, these two newcomers had each, entirely by coincidence, hired private detectives to investigate their own lovers. The detective Kamon Hatsune had hired happened to be Bourbon — which gave him the perfect excuse to get close to Mouri Kogoro.
Still, the two of them were a piece of work. They were about to get married, and yet neither seemed to trust their partner worth a lick.
For a while afterward, the group kept up their idle chatter. At one point, Kamon Ryota and Mouri Kogoro even started needling each other about their respective jealous streaks, and the whole table settled into an easy, cheerful mood.
Just then, Kamon Hatsune raised her wrist terminal and glanced at the time.
Her nail appointment was coming up. Determined to be flawless for tomorrow's wedding ceremony, she resolved to drive there despite the heavy rain outside.
Kamon Ryota's thoughts drifted back to that rather good-looking waiter, and his brow creased faintly. He turned his gaze toward the window, where countless fine threads of rain were sliding slowly down the transparent glass.
He looked away and back at Kamon Hatsune standing beside him, then said in a tone of studied carelessness, "I did tell you before — if you ever get fickle with me, I won't forgive you."
"That line should be mine to say, darling husband." Kamon Hatsune winked at him with a smile.
Then she leaned down toward him, and the two shared a soft kiss.
For pure-hearted high schoolers, the scene was a little too much to bear — Mouri Ran and Conan flushed bright red on the spot.
"Ahem." Xiayu choked on her drink as well.
It wasn't that she was as innocent as Ran and Conan, blushing over something so mild.
It was simply that she knew the truth of these two people's relationship, and seeing them suddenly act like lovers right in front of her made it all feel a bit awkward.
Sigh. Thinking about it now only made their tragedy seem all the more tragic.
"I'll be back in about two hours. I'll let you get a good look at them then." Kamon Hatsune raised her hand, turning her nails toward Kamon Ryota with a smile.
Xiayu glanced at the terminal on Kamon Hatsune's wrist and decided this actually made things much more convenient.
Silently, she asked Paimon to contact Ningguang and have Noah's Ark monitor Kamon Hatsune's terminal for a while.
She remembered that after receiving Bourbon's investigation report, Kamon Hatsune had in fact already grown somewhat suspicious of her and Kamon Ryota's relationship — hence her special commission of a blood-relation analysis between the two of them from a testing agency.
By all appearances, when she finished her manicure and drove back here, she would receive the agency's results.
Normally, without that terminal, pinpointing the exact moment she got the results would have been a hassle. Now it would take nothing more than a small favor from Noah's Ark.
"Miss Kamon!" After a moment's hesitation, Xiayu fired off a message to Mona, then rose from her seat and called out to stop Kamon Hatsune before she could walk out the door.
When the woman paused and turned back toward her in puzzlement, Xiayu said, "Miss Kamon, could you let me know when you get back from your appointment? There's something I'd like to talk with you about — just the two of us."
Once Kamon Hatsune nodded her agreement, the two exchanged contact information, and Xiayu returned to her seat.
Conan studied Xiayu with searching eyes, his expression growing grave: Don't tell me Xiayu-neechan's noticed something again that I completely missed?!
Ran, too, found it strange. Xiayu had only just met Miss Kamon for the first time today — what could she possibly need to speak with her about alone?