Chapter 51: The Organization's Base
The next day found Conan at Teitan Elementary, in the first-grade Class B classroom, struggling to keep his eyes open after everything last night had thrown at him. First there had been the counterfeit bill case; then, on the way to walk Haibara Ai home, he'd been tricked into believing something had happened to Professor Agasa and rushed off in a panic; then Haibara had blurted out her connection to the Black Organization, terrifying him into thinking his own identity had been exposed; and finally, retrieving the drug research materials she had accidentally mailed to Professor Hirota's house had landed him square in yet another case.
In short, the events had come one after another without pause, and Conan hadn't rested properly at all. He spent the entire class nodding off at his desk. Fortunately, this was first grade — elementary school material he could afford to ignore entirely.
“Haaaah……”
At that thought, Conan couldn't hold back another yawn.
Still…
Watching Haibara sprawled across her desk beside him, catching up on sleep, his mind drifted back to the memory of her clinging to his sleeve the night before, sobbing until her voice gave out. It was only because of that rare, unguarded outburst of genuine feeling that he'd been able to believe this girl — who had appeared out of nowhere claiming to be from the Black Organization — truly wanted out of it.
It was also through her that Conan had picked up his first real leads about the organization itself: a vast syndicate whose members almost uniformly dressed in black, its inner circle using code names drawn from liquor. And the ones who had force-fed him that drug at the amusement park, the ones responsible for turning him into… this — their code names were Vodka and Gin!
“If you keep staring at me like that, I'm going to start thinking you're a pervert.” Haibara Ai opened her eyes, met Conan's unblinking gaze, and spoke in a flat, indifferent tone.
“Ah— sorry.” Only then did Conan realize his eyes had been fixed on her the whole time he'd been lost in thought. At her remark, he hastily looked away.
“So? Is there something you wanted to ask me, staring at me like that? Fair warning — there are some questions I won't answer even if you ask them.”
“No, it's nothing… ah, actually, wait—” Truthfully, Conan didn't have anything in particular to ask Haibara right now. His mind was a blank; he didn't even know what he should be asking.
But there was one thing that had always nagged at him, something he'd never been able to turn up a single lead on. And now that he had a former member of an underground syndicate sitting beside him — defected, yes, but surely still privy to information ordinary people could never touch — he figured it was worth a shot. “Haibara, when you were in the organization, did you ever see beads like these? Glass-looking spheres, this style?” As he spoke, he sketched out rough drawings of the several types of glass beads he'd seen in the past and held them out for her to look at.
“Or have you ever seen anyone wearing accessories made from them?”
Though she found it a little odd that Conan would ask about this, Haibara took the drawings, gave them a brief glance, and answered: “No.”
“You didn't even look carefully!” Conan protested, somewhat dissatisfied.
“There was no need to. Beads with such a distinctive design — if I'd ever seen them, I'd remember. Since I don't remember, that proves I never saw them.”
Conan's shoulders slumped. “So even you don't know, huh?”
Haibara asked, her curiosity piqued: “So what are they? Are they connected to the organization?”
“Probably not to the organization. It's just that lately I keep running into people carrying these similar glass beads, and every one of them has some connection, big or small, to Xiayu — oh, the older sister who took you to the newspaper office yesterday. Detective's instinct tells me there's a secret hiding in there somewhere. And the process of unraveling a mystery, of drawing closer to the answer step by step — isn't that what makes it all thrilling?” Conan asked, his voice rising with excitement as Haibara listened beside him.
Haibara remained unmoved, regarding Edogawa Conan with a completely expressionless face.
Under that stare, Conan gradually began to feel uncomfortable, and the smile drained from his features.
“What's with you? Fine, so you're not interested, but did you have to make that face about it……”
“Speaking of which — who exactly is this Xiayu sister of yours? Her combat skills are absurd. She's not one bit worse than some of the organization's action-team operatives.” Haibara was recalling the fluid, almost effortless sequence of moves Xiayu had used to knock out the kidnappers at the newspaper office yesterday. “So, who is she?”
“Heh. Forget her fighting skills — she's inhumanly good at all sorts of other things too. Like her night vision, for starters……” With a wry, half-lidded chuckle, Conan launched into a rundown of all the other ridiculous things he'd noticed about Xiayu, and Haibara listened as he vented.
“Achoo…!”
Xiayu sneezed without warning.
“Weird. Is someone badmouthing me right now?” She rubbed her nose and murmured to herself.
“Traveler, what are you doing standing out by the sea all alone? The weather is fine today, but the wind off the water is fierce. I would advise taking greater care.”
Hearing the voice, Xiayu turned around. “Zhongli, you're here. I'm perfectly fine — I just got a little worked up thinking that this island will belong to us from now on, so I came down to the shore for some sea air.”
“Though, come to think of it… is this island really this big?” She mulled over the ground she'd actually covered on foot since arriving. The island somehow seemed larger than it looked on the map — and its shape didn't quite match either.
“The island we purchased is, in truth, not this large. I merely found a way to add a little more land to it.” Zhongli gazed out over the water alongside her and delivered the staggering statement in a perfectly even tone.
“Ningguang's abilities are exceptional, and with the aid of Diluc of Mondstadt as well as you and the Traveler, the funds were still gathered far too quickly for our reach to match our ambitions. A larger island remains beyond our current liquid capital. And so, after consulting me on whether I might lend my assistance, she settled upon this island as the Syndicate's headquarters. It lies far from any surrounding mainland — without a fixed route, one could search forever without finding it. The climate is agreeable, and as for its sole shortcoming of size… that, I have remedied myself.”
“That is so like you, Zhongli. You can actually do that?” Xiayu gaped at him. She'd never imagined it was possible to simply expand an island after buying it — which meant they'd scored an absolutely enormous bargain.
Truly a merchant to the bone. Ningguang never let herself take a loss.
“But of course. Once purchased, the island belongs to us, and we may do with it as we please. This violates no contract — does it not?”
Xiayu gave him a hearty thumbs-up.