"Sometimes you don't know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory."
- Theodor Seuss Geisel
...
The next day
The warm rays of the morning sun came in through the window and fell on the face of the sleeping person, warming him gently.
Dean slowly opened his eyes and groggily looked at the clock on the bedside table.
7:32 am.
It was still early—almost 18 minutes away from the alarm going off.
The reason he didn't set it directly for eight o'clock was that he wanted to snooze for an extra ten minutes after the alarm sounded.
In addition, this meant that the alarm didn't wake Dean up.
But he also didn't wake up naturally.
Ding-dong! Ding-dong!
The continuous ringing of the doorbell outside woke Dean from his sleep, forcing him to get up at an awkward time.
Dean didn't worry that his identity would be questioned again and that Batman or the GCPD would come to investigate it.
It's not because he has absolute confidence in his ability to hide his identity, but because if Batman and his crew were coming, they definitely wouldn't ring the doorbell.
'Who would come to see me so early? Is it Dick? Or is someone trying to hit on me again? It better not be Barbara.'
Dean thought as he quickly put on his clothes and headed towards the door.
To be safe, he looked through the peephole first.
And then he saw someone unexpected.
A petite girl in her early teens with a spirited look stood in front of the door.
Her skin had a healthy and beautiful tan tone, bright, lively eyes with deep black pupils, a head of flowing hair, and typical Asian features.
This is... Cassandra Cain?
Dean opened the door and asked in a curious tone, "Hey, do you need something from me? And how did you know where I lived? Did Barbara tell you?"
Cassandra gave a small nod to show that she had learned Dean's address from Barbara.
She made a few gestures to Dean, saying, "May I come in and talk to you? I have some questions to ask you."
Dean glanced at Cassandra. He couldn't see anything else in her eyes besides purity, unlike some people whose eyes were clouded.
"No problem; come on in if you want. After all, a guest is always welcome, right?"
Dean welcomed Cassandra with a relaxed expression as she entered.
However, the moment Cassandra walked through the doorway with her back to Dean, he quickly and discreetly scanned the area outside the house.
He found nothing suspicious, no strange objects, and no unusual people.
Dean calmly closed the door.
This didn't necessarily mean Dean had strong suspicions about Cassandra, but rather a cautious instinct.
Who knows if someone might be secretly tracking Cassandra?
"Milk? Or cola?"
In the living room, Dean opened the refrigerator filled with different beverages and asked Cassandra.
Sitting on the couch, Cassandra shook her head to show that she didn't want anything to drink.
"Alright."
Dean wasn't sure how to interact with this silent girl, so he closed the refrigerator.
"So... what do you want to ask me?"
Dean sat on the couch opposite Cassandra and got straight to the point.
Then Cassandra took out a newspaper with a close-up picture of Phantom Thief on the cover.
She pointed to the picture of Phantom Thief in the newspaper and then pointed to Dean, calmly making a few hand gestures as she asked, "Are you... Phantom Thief?"
Hearing this, Dean's face suddenly froze.
"Huh?"
Cassandra looked at Dean and instantly analyzed his body language.
'Dean was frozen, and the question earlier caused him to have a strong emotional reaction...'
She thought to herself.
This made her even more sure of her judgment.
Before, when the Phantom Thief stole the Bat-Signal at Gotham City's Stadium, Cassandra was also present at the scene.
A few days ago, the incident at the Gotham City Stadium was the hot topic in Gotham, and even Cassandra, who usually didn't pay much attention to current events, heard about it on the TV in Barbara's hospital room.
For some reason, she had a strong desire to meet the Phantom Thief.
At that time, she didn't know what kind of person Phantom Thief was, only that he was a thief whose appearance was unknown.
So, Cassandra went to the Gotham City Stadium to watch the entire performance of Phantom Thief.
And the moment she saw those two people, something incredible happened, her innate talent for reading body language automatically kicked in.
This made her realize a fantastic fact.
Whether it was the Phantom Thief or Batman's sidekick Robin, they both had the same body language!
At least, to Cassandra's instinctual understanding of body language, Phantom Thief was just like Dean Thurston, and Robin was similar to Dick Grayson.
Although Cassandra couldn't see what these two people actually looked like, she had never seen two people with the exact same body language from birth until now.
Even with twins, their body language was completely different.
Therefore, Cassandra was sure that the Phantom Thief was Dean. She couldn't possibly mistake someone she had seen before.
Once she'd seen someone, she couldn't mistake them for someone else unless they looked like something other than a human, didn't have typical human body language, or had very confusing body language that she couldn't figure out.
Clearly, both Dean and Dick were humans; they didn't have any non-human body features, and they weren't crazy enough to constantly make meaningless gestures...
So, as long as Cassandra observed them, they couldn't really disguise themselves from her.
The ability to read body language was that powerful, and there were more people in this world who had this ability than just Cassandra.
'Whoa... I never expected Cassandra to have such a terrifying ability besides her inhuman strength,'
On the other side, Dean was in shock.
Just now, he discreetly used his Mystic Eyes to gather basic information about Cassandra and gain some understanding of her abilities.
Since Mystic Eyes didn't rely on human body movements, Dean wasn't worried that Cassandra could see through it.
"What if I told you... I'm not the Phantom Thief?"
Dean asked after thinking for a moment. He looked at Cassandra with a very serious face, as if he weren't the Phantom Thief.
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Cassandra's eyes widened instantly, her face filled with disbelief.
'He's not lying.'
Cassandra could tell from Dean's body language that he wasn't trying to deceive her when he told her he wasn't the Phantom Thief.
'But how is that possible?'
She wondered silently.
...
A/N: By the way, does anyone else find it strange that Phantom Thief has combat skills? In reality, Phantom Thief is highly proficient in kendo, and his skill level is impressive. It's worth mentioning that this information is not from the Conan dream sequence but rather from a spin-off side story in 'Magic Kaito.' Also, there are actually quite a few people who know Kaito's identity—not just extras, but characters like Konosuke Jii and Saguru Hakuba are aware. So I might pick Cassandra to be assistant of Phantom Thief, but not now.)
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