Big Brother 2
After that, the other party laid out the purpose of inviting all these detectives — to uncover the treasure hidden somewhere in the mansion — and offered up a hint.
“I have one question. This ‘Kaito Kid’ who claims to own the mansion — is the treasure he wants us to find one he hid here himself, or the treasure that once belonged to Karasuma Renya?” Yarita Ikumi asked, a subtle smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
“What exactly do you mean by that?” Ogami Shukuzen asked, frowning in confusion.
Only then did the others remember that Ogami had been absent when Morikawa had explained the history of Twilight Mansion earlier, so they repeated Morikawa's words for his benefit.
By the time Ogami finished listening, his expression had grown grave. Without seeming to realize it, he lifted his right thumb to his mouth and began to bite it.
There was a bang —
Ogami shot to his feet, sending his chair clattering over, clutched at his throat with a look of pure agony, and then collapsed to the floor, never to draw breath again.
With a murder now on their hands, the detectives abandoned the casual airs they'd been wearing. Their faces turned grim, and they began to take the case seriously at last.
After some discussion, the group decided to drive one of the maids' cars — parked elsewhere and spared from the explosion — over to the bridge to assess the situation. Who would go was settled by a coin toss, on Conan's suggestion.
Once the drivers were chosen, Xiayu and the others watched Mouri Kogoro, Mogi Harufumi, and Chikama Koyo drive off, then prepared to head back inside the mansion and wait for word of what they found.
She was about to follow the rest back in when she noticed that Morikawa — silent ever since the murder — had stopped, standing with his face tilted up toward the night sky.
She turned around and walked over to him, intending to call him back to the mansion, when Morikawa slowly turned his head and looked her straight in the eyes.
Only then did Xiayu realize that Morikawa's eyes were gold as well — the very same color she saw in the mirror every day. Like sunlight, warm as they gazed back at her.
That familiar eye color. That disguised face. Connecting it all with what Matsuda had told her before, a guess took shape in Xiayu's mind.
She suddenly had no idea what she ought to say. Staring into Morikawa's eyes, she held her silence for a long moment before finally managing a single sentence: "I'm not Lumine. I'm Xiayu."
At her words, Morikawa couldn't hold back a soft laugh, gazing at her with undisguised tenderness. "I know. You're Xiayu. I've always known."
"Then you..."
"That doesn't matter, because the person I've always known is you. The one who traveled by my side was you, too."
Reading the confusion in her eyes, Morikawa went on. "But I am Aether. So I hoped you might be Lumine. I want to be your family — your big brother. Would that be all right?"
She had already guessed, of course. But hearing him admit it outright — that he was Aether — still left her struggling to believe it.
Paimon! Paimon! What on earth is going on?! Get out here!! Didn't you say you'd message 111 and ask? So where are the results?!
Unable to make sense of what he meant, Xiayu frantically called for Paimon in her head, desperate for an answer.
But for some reason, Paimon seemed to have gone completely deaf. Not a single response came back, leaving Xiayu alone to spiral.
She looked at Aether, still patiently waiting for her reply, torn over whether she should agree at all.
It was true that he gave off a familiar feeling, as though they'd spent time together once, long ago — and yet she was certain she had never met him before, just as she was certain he wasn't some character she'd pulled and taken on as a role.
But looking into his eyes, she could feel the sincerity behind his words. He truly wanted to be her family.
"Of course, if you'd rather not, I could just as well be your little brother instead." Seeing the conflict written across her face, Aether decided not to push. It wasn't as though he absolutely had to be the older one.
Xiayu's mouth twitched, and she asked, half-exasperated, "How old are you, exactly?"
"Hmm... counting only the years I've spent in this world, I'd say I've been alive about forty years now," Aether answered after a moment's thought.
A dark line slid down Xiayu's temple. "You're older than both of my lifetimes put together. How exactly would you be my little brother? Big brother is more like it."
Aether understood at once, and his smile bloomed wider. "Well, the weather's fine right now — how about giving it a try, then?"
Xiayu looked down at the pavement, still damp from the rain that had just fallen. Speechless as she was, she opened her mouth and called out anyway: "Big brother."
"Mm~" Aether answered instantly, his voice light as a bird's.
Watching how happy that single word of address had made him, Xiayu found herself laughing too.
It was then that she realized the two of them had lingered outside far too long, so she urged him back into the mansion — everything else could wait for later.
"Xiayu, how come you and Morikawa nii-chan are back so late?" Conan asked, unable to contain his curiosity when the two finally walked through the door.
"Nothing much. I kept some hot-headed fool company while he stargazed for a while."
Ran looked doubtful. "It only just stopped raining. Can you even see stars yet?"
Morikawa answered with a smile. "The rain's cleared and the sky's clean — no harm in taking a look at a beautiful night, is there?"
Conan shot a probing glance between Xiayu and Morikawa. Strange. What did those two talk about just now? Somehow, in that short a time, they seem... closer than before.
And with a murder having just happened, why on earth does Morikawa look like he's in such a good mood?
Just then, Mogi Harufumi and Mouri Kogoro returned from the bridge — bringing with them the news that Chikama Koyo had, unfortunately, been murdered as well.
From that point on, with one extra person in the mix, events unfolded exactly as they had in the original story. Under the web of cameras spread throughout the mansion, the group staged one fake death after another, pretending to pick each other off — until Conan, a mere child, baited the mastermind out into the open.
The mastermind, Chikama Koyo herself, once she realized that every detective present had seen through everything and had merely been playing a part for her benefit, could only resign herself and explain why she had done it.
And when Conan unraveled the riddle the impostor had left behind, Chikama learned, to her bitter disappointment, that the treasure she had schemed so long to find was nothing more than a timepiece made of gold.
Watching that child called Edogawa Conan — a name that sounded fake the moment you heard it — expound confidently before a room full of detectives, Morikawa realized that the boy was almost certainly this world's protagonist.
But was he really a child? No ordinary elementary schooler possessed reasoning ability like that.
Morikawa thought back to how Vermouth had recently made a point of visiting Teitan Elementary for a physical examination, and to her particular interest in Kudo Shinichi. A suspicion began to take shape.
If his guess was right, then this was one very substantial piece of leverage indeed.
Yes. Worth making use of.