A Strange Gaze

Watching Inspector Megure's retreating back, Conan suddenly remembered that Lisa had mentioned before that she worked at the library.

A lightbulb went off in his head. He ran up to a member of the staff and asked, "Excuse me, miss — is there a librarian here named Lisa?"

"Ah, yes, there is," the woman said. "But she's taken the last couple of days off, so if you're looking for her, sweetie, you won't see her until tomorrow at the earliest."

So Lisa really did work here. Which meant — was the anonymous tipster her?

And speaking of taking leave, he hadn't seen Xiayu taking on any commissions these past two days either, when he used to run into her on the street all the time. The two of them had vanished at the same time. Had they gone somewhere together?

Meanwhile, on Tsukikage Island, Xiayu looked at the world quest completion status displayed on her system and smiled.

It felt good. The world quest that had been dragging on for ages — the Library Murder Case — was finally done.

The director over at the library had never made a move, so they'd waited a while to gather evidence. Now that the drugs were sitting inside the library, the moment Lisa made her anonymous report the police had caught him red-handed, just as expected. Better still, this time Lisa had called the police the instant she confirmed the director had brought the drugs back, so he shouldn't have any chance to silence witnesses with murder.

What mattered now was Tsukikage Island. She really hadn't seen this coming, though — after the Moonlight Sonata Murder Case, the island's mayor and its biggest capitalist had both ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠been killed, leaving the mayor's seat vacant. And that position had ended up falling to Sangonomiya Kokomi.

Yes — the identity Xia Xi had just drawn for Kokomi was the newly appointed mayor of Tsukikage Island.

Xiayu was a little worried. Back in her old world, Kokomi had been the Divine Priestess of Watatsumi Island — a living oracle versed in military strategy and masterful scheming, more than capable of handling domestic affairs and diplomacy with flawless precision. But she was new here, and Tsukikage Island had, for all intents and purposes, been in the grip of a ring of drug traffickers. Xia Xi was certain the people involved numbered far more than just a mayor and a few others.

So with things wrapped up for the moment, she had come over with Lisa to check on Kokomi, lend a hand, and hand over the evidence she'd been collecting all this while.

The next day, while Xiayu was out searching for a cat, she ran into the four members of the Detective Boys yet again.

This time was different, though — Conan was in rough shape, wobbling from side to side as he walked.

Worried that he might be sick, Xiayu stopped them to ask how he was doing.

Only after stopping them did she discover that Conan wasn't sick at all — he was hungover. Xiayu was speechless. Were elementary schoolers hitting the bottle these days? Then it dawned on her: this must have been right after Conan learned that high-proof baijiu could temporarily turn him back into a high schooler — the moment he'd chugged an entire bottle. All she could think was, of course the protagonist downs that much hard liquor in one go without getting alcohol poisoning.

Since Conan was fine, Xiayu saw no reason to keep holding the kids up on their way to school and let them go on their way.

She didn't simply let it drop, though. Xiayu pulled out her phone and called Mouri Ran, telling her about Conan's drinking and hangover, and asking her to keep a close eye on him from now on — whatever happened, he must not pick up Mr. Mouri's habit of hitting the bottle.

Over the phone, Xiayu could hear Ran "sweetly" promising that she would take much better care of Conan from now on, and thanking her earnestly for the warning.

Xiayu hung up, satisfied.

Suddenly, she felt someone watching her and whipped her head around. But all she could see were pedestrians coming and going — nothing out of the ordinary.

Still, Xia Xi trusted her instincts. Someone had definitely been looking at her just now. In fact, lately she'd had a vague, recurring sense of being watched, though the gaze never carried any malice. An acquaintance, maybe?

But that was impossible. She had only just arrived in this world — the only people she knew were the characters she'd drawn, and none of them had any reason to hide from her.

Odd as it was, she sensed no danger for the moment, so she let it go. If she really was someone's target, they would show themselves eventually.

Not far from where Xiayu stood, behind a pillar, a man leaned back against the concrete, head bowed over the photo he had just taken on his phone: Xiayu crouching down to speak with Conan, caught in perfect clarity.

The photo framed her with razor-sharp precision, while Conan and the other children of the Detective Boys came out blurred, mere background props to her figure.

"Should I call you Xiayu... or Lumine?" he murmured to himself.

Meanwhile, Conan, on his way to school, suddenly shuddered from head to toe as a chill crawled up his spine — but his hangover-fogged brain couldn't manage much in the way of thought. He chalked it up to the wind and didn't give it another moment's attention.

Of course, when he got home from school that afternoon and found Mouri Ran waiting for him inside, he understood exactly what that chill had meant.

Elsewhere, at the Black Organization's base.

"Cointreau. If I remember correctly, you returned to Japan ages ago. Why are you only now reporting back to base?" Gin stopped Cointreau in his tracks, brow furrowed.

"Nothing much. It's just been so long since I was last in Japan that I'm a little out of touch with the surroundings, so I took the chance to look around." Cointreau halted, answering Gin's question with careless ease.

"You'd better be telling the truth." Gin didn't press the issue. He'd asked the routine question and gotten an answer; that was the end of it.

After all, Cointreau had been in the Organization since long ago — he'd already been there when Gin himself joined. Gin knew that Cointreau's ties to That Person ran deep, that he answered to no one but That Person; in a sense, Cointreau was his superior. And his face hadn't changed a day since the moment Gin first laid eyes on him. These days he scarcely appeared before the other members at all — as far as Gin knew, the only ones still aware of that fact, besides himself, were a handful of the Organization's old guard.

Which meant there was no way in hell Cointreau could be a rat. Gin trusted him completely — the question just now had been nothing more than the usual formality of logging his whereabouts. Besides, Cointreau ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was one of the rare members who excelled in every field, and with operations picking up in Japan lately, his arrival would ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠be a genuine help.

"Since I've run into you — there's a job coming up. Tequila is set to trade for a list of software engineers. You're not tied up with anything at the moment, so it's yours. You'll be his handler for the deal."

"Tequila? Can't say I know him well... One of Rum's people?" Cointreau paused, thinking it over for a moment before recalling that the codename seemed to belong to Rum's intelligence division.

"Yeah." Gin affirmed it.

"Fine by me. Send me the relevant files and I'll take a look." Cointreau didn't refuse — it wasn't as if the job was any real trouble.