Jiangxia Tongzhi did not respond.
Haibara Ai looked at him with mixed feelings. He was getting into character way too fast. If you're going to fake sleep, at least try to be subtle about it. Classic move—if you want to fool the enemy, you have to fool yourself first.
She sighed, rolled her eyes, walked into the other room, grabbed a quilt, and resentfully tossed it over Jiangxia.
After flinging it at him, she paused. Then, with a reluctant little grunt, she reached over and tugged it flat across him.
It really was pretty cold by the sea at night—especially in the living room by the window.
That done, she went to grab a novel from her bag to kill some time. But just then, the doorbell rang.
Haibara Ai froze mid-step.
After a beat, she silently moonwalked back toward the sofa, eyes locked on the door, while attempting to violently shake Jiangxia awake.
Jiangxia continued to ignore her. Professional-grade fake sleeper.
Luckily, the doorbell only rang once. It didn't keep going with that annoying, serial killer energy. The moment it went quiet, Haibara Ai relaxed a little.
Maybe someone hit the wrong room—
Click. The door opened from the outside.
Haibara Ai's pupils shrank when she spotted the very distinct blond head peeking in. Her heart nearly stopped—Wasn't this the other Organization member Jiangxia had mentioned?! Jiangxia, didn't you say this had nothing to do with the Organization?!
She yanked part of the quilt off Jiangxia and draped it over her own head, trying to cover most of her face—she remembered Jiangxia saying that this other member had seen what Sherry looked like.
…
Amuro Toru peeked into the room and immediately noticed something was off. He had a sense for these things.
When he saw the tense look on the little girl's face, he didn't overthink it. Instead, he flashed the special customer-service smile he usually used for kids at the amusement park. "Don't be scared, I'm a friend of your neighbor bro."
Haibara Ai picked up on the condescending "talking-to-a-child" tone and slightly relaxed her death grip on the blanket. Fine. She'd play along. Getting mistaken for a child was far better than being mistaken for Shirley right now.
Amuro stepped inside under her suspicious glare and glanced at the couch.
Jiangxia was still alive. Sound asleep, looking like a peaceful Buddhist.
Amuro Toru let out a silent breath of relief. For a second, he'd seriously worried the host had passed out after taking poison, and he'd walk in to find three corpses artfully arranged in the room.
Speaking of three corpses…
He looked around and asked, "Where's that little boy?"
Hopefully the kid hadn't run off while Jiangxia was napping.
Haibara Ai observed his expression. He didn't seem hostile. She pointed toward the bedroom.
Amuro went in, saw Conan snoring safely, and came back out.
So far, both were fine. Good. At least the host hadn't gone completely off the rails and started killing innocent passersby.
Still, there was definitely something shady going on. Drugged detectives, suspicious photo setups… Was this "party" actually a cover to release the "Dark Baron" virus?
Also, the Organization's programmers, despite being weird little gremlins, were usually competent. Sure, they lost data from time to time, but it was usually physical—like someone physically losing the thing. This time, it looked like a virus was involved. Weird.
Wait.
Amuro suddenly remembered—he'd searched the host's room and hadn't found the virus.
Maybe the host didn't have it after all…?
This was turning into a classic detective existential crisis.
But Amuro had a job to do.
He quickly plotted his next move: wait for the host to be alone, knock him out, and search him.
If he didn't have the virus on him, then this whole mystery-trip-to-Izu might just be a distraction. In that case, Amuro would anonymously beat the truth out of him. Virus or not, the guy didn't even own a laptop. What kind of "programmer" doesn't own a laptop? Suspicious.
Still, Jiangxia couldn't be ignored either.
Amuro glanced at Haibara Ai. "Why don't you come with me? Jiangxia's probably going to sleep for a while."
The girl was clinging to Jiangxia and clutching the quilt like a baby bear. She looked like she didn't want to be left alone.
Haibara blinked her large, watery child-eyes, tugged on Jiangxia, and shook her head resolutely.
Amuro studied her. Clingy little thing. Very different from the boy, who'd been fine on his own.
Still, it meant Jiangxia was good with kids. Who knew the grim reaper of murder scenes had a gift for childcare?
Fine. The kid didn't want to leave—he wouldn't push it.
He walked over to the table, picked up the most suspicious-looking kettle, and gave it a shake. Empty. He put it back down. "Don't eat or drink anything in this room. I'll bring something safer later."
Haibara Ai, fully in "introverted child" cosplay mode, nodded solemnly.
Amuro Toru left the room.
As he stepped out, he caught a glimpse of a figure at the far end of the hallway—someone quickly ducked away, like they'd been eavesdropping.
Amuro's eyes narrowed. He moved quickly, closing the distance to the corner and changing his angle for a sneak attack.
But there was no ambusher.
Just a small, innocent-looking boy walking past with his head down. He happened to be blocking Amuro's path.
Too bad.
Amuro didn't have time to stop. He body-checked the kid mid-stride.
The unfortunate child flew, tumbled twice, weakly flailed his limbs—and lay there, still.
Amuro froze, then rushed over. "Hey, are you—"
Before he could finish, his outstretched hand suddenly stung with cold feeling.
The boy pulled out a syringe from god-knows-where and stabbed it straight into Amuro's hand.
"???"
Amuro reflexively went to elbow the kid but paused halfway. Instead, he shoved the boy away and yanked out the syringe.
The kid had already depressed the plunger halfway. Too late.
Amuro was starting to feel dizzy.
He managed a moment of calm when he realized it was just anesthetic—not potassium cyanide or something spicy like that. He relaxed.
Wait. No! Why are you defending the child who stabbed you?! Even if it's just anesthesia—
…
Jiangxia's puppet, Xiaobai, stepped back after plunging the syringe.
His "parents" loomed beside him, both watching proudly. Creepy shikigami family bonding.
Black-tech anesthetics never failed. Amuro collapsed like a sack of laundry, motionless.
Jiangxia calmly retrieved the half-full syringe that Amuro had dropped, refilled it, found the guy's room keycard, confirmed the room number, and began dragging the body away to hide it.
Mission accomplished.
All three detectives on-site were now fast asleep.
Plan = PASS
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 45/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*