Kaeya!
"Let's get one thing straight first — today we're just here to scope the place out. Don't do anything unnecessary," Conan warned Heiji Hattori, standing with him at the door of Ms. Judy's apartment after some time had passed.
Heiji agreed readily, then asked, "So what excuse are we using to talk to her?"
"Huh?!" Conan whipped his head around and stared at Heiji in disbelief. "You didn't think of one?!"
Just as the two of them were bickering over whether they should simply give up and leave without a pretext, the door in front of them suddenly swung open.
"Conan? And Hattori? What are you two arguing about outside Ms. Judy's door?"
An unexpected figure appeared before them.
"Xia Xi?! What are you doing here?!"
Conan never dreamed that coming to see Ms. Judy would put him face to face with Xia Xi. Was there some connection between the two of them?
"Remember how I ran into Ms. Judy during that bus hijacking case? Tonight I bumped into her again while I was out on a job. She was a little curious about the way I handled myself back then, and since her place happened to be nearby, she invited me over for a chat." Xia Xi gave a brief explanation of why she was at Judy's apartment, then looked at Conan and Heiji. "So what about you two? Why the sudden visit?"
Cold sweat broke out on Conan's head. Caught off guard, he could only stammer that they'd come to hang out with Ms. Judy.
Xia Xi eyed the two boys' strained smiles with a suspicious look but said nothing more, ushering them inside.
"Whoa! I can't believe a child your age knows so much!" Inside the apartment, Judy was gazing at Nahida in admiration, unable to stop singing her praises.
Then she caught the stir at the door and turned to look, finding that Xia Xi had indeed brought two people back with her. Her eyes flickered almost imperceptibly.
"Wow! Xia Xi, I had no idea your hearing was that sharp! I didn't even hear anything at the door just now," Judy said.
A moment earlier, while Judy and Xia Xi had been chatting, Xia Xi had suddenly remarked that someone was outside looking for her. Judy had been rather surprised, half wondering if she'd misheard — only for there to actually be people standing at the door.
Judy prided herself on the soundproofing of her current apartment. Was it really possible to hear movement outside the door like that?
"It's nothing, really. Those two were making quite a racket out there arguing," Xia Xi said casually as she sat down.
"Nahida? You're here too?" Conan stepped into the room and let out a startled cry when he saw someone besides Xia Xi and Ms. Judy.
"Hello," Nahida said, nodding with a smile.
"Kudo, who's this one?" Heiji leaned close to Conan and whispered.
He had already met Xia Xi back at the Teitan High School festival — but what was the deal with the little kid beside her?
Still, his luck today really was rotten. He'd come to probe Judy for information, and instead they'd stumbled into two outsiders — one of them a child, no less!
"This is Nahida," Conan explained. "She's apparently the daughter of a friend of Xia Xi's, and she's looking after her for now."
"Oh~" Once he knew that, Heiji didn't think much of it.
"By the way, coolguy, did you and your friend need something from me?" Judy asked.
Conan could only repeat the excuse he'd just made.
"Well then, have a seat and we'll all chat for a bit. I'll go pour you some water. Though coolguy, I always thought you were the clever one — turns out this little girl gives you a run for your money." Judy rose and headed toward the kitchen, and at those last words she glanced back at Conan with a smile and a wink.
Heiji bristled. "What's that supposed to mean, Kudo? What's the deal with this kid? She says she's not inferior to you?"
Conan gave him a half-lidded look. "Like I said — Haibara thinks Nahida might be a genius..."
"A genius?" Heiji scratched his head. He'd never actually seen what a genius looked like.
"Oh, right — Xia Xi, where's Klee? Weren't we just seeing her with you a few days ago?" Conan asked, puzzled to notice one small child missing from Xia Xi's side.
"Kaeya had something come up a while back, so he asked me to look after Klee for a few days. Once he was finished, I took her back to..."
Crash—!
The shatter of a dropped cup cut Xia Xi off mid-sentence.
Everyone in the living room turned, startled, toward Ms. Judy, who had accidentally broken a glass in the kitchen.
"Ah — I just wasn't holding it properly. Don't worry about it, I'll clean it up in a minute," Judy said.
Conan and Heiji silently traded a glance. Neither of them bought her explanation. She had clearly been so shocked by Xia Xi's words that the cup had slipped from her hand.
But Xia Xi hadn't said anything out of the ordinary — she'd only mentioned a name. Kaeya's name.
That left only one possibility: Ms. Judy knew of Kaeya, but she had no idea that Xia Xi and Kaeya were acquainted. That was why hearing such an unexpected name out of nowhere had startled her enough to fumble!
Could Ms. Judy truly be connected to the Black Organization after all?
Kaeya!!!
The instant Xia Xi had abruptly mentioned that name — the very one Shuichi had spoken of — Judy had been caught completely off guard, and the cup had slipped through her fingers.
She had never imagined she would hear the name Kaeya from this girl's mouth — this girl whom Vermouth was watching. And from the sound of it, the two of them were on close terms, close enough that Kaeya would trust her with babysitting his ward.
So was she one of Kaeya's people too? Was Vermouth watching her because of Kaeya? And why the codename hard-wonprincess? And that boy Conan — Vermouth had her eye on him as well. What was the reason for that?
Questions churned in her mind, but Judy kept her composure, finished pouring the water, and carried it over to Heiji and Conan.
No one brought up the little incident. They simply carried on chatting.
Before long, Heiji sidled up to Conan's ear. "Kudo, now I get why Ms. Judy said what she did. Level with me — that Nahida really hasn't taken the same drug as you, right?"
Conan's eyes narrowed to slits. "I already told you, she's probably just a genius! And you think I haven't been suspicious? I had the Professor look into Nahida's immigration records ages ago. There's a paper trail — which means she's here legitimately. Stop seeing a smart kid and jumping to wild conclusions!"
Heiji said nothing. Ha. Kudo, you piece of work! Lecturing me about jumping to conclusions — weren't you suspicious yourself, or you'd never have asked the Professor to check!
With Xia Xi present, Conan knew there'd be no investigating anything today, so after a short while he made to take his leave with Heiji.
Seeing how late it had gotten, Xia Xi rose as well, ready to leave together with them.