The fireplace was burning.
Every now and then the crackle of the wood burning, Ichijō Mirai stood in the kitchen, poured a new glass of water and slowly drank half of it before carrying a glass of hot water upstairs.
The third floor was bustling with activity.
Conan was lying on the big, fluffy bed, his face red, his body shivering as if he was freezing, but beads of sweat were rolling out of his forehead and neck.
Mouri Ran was sitting on the edge of the bed, a white towel in his hand, carefully wiping Conan off.
The others were loosely clustered around the bed, and Tanaka Kikue said with some concern, "It looks like the fever's pretty bad, and I don't know why the kid came back all of a sudden."
"Maybe it's just that it's too serious to leave the adults?" The middle-aged man guessed, and remembered that Mouri Korogō was also an adult, and made a timely patch, "It should be that this child likes Ms. Mouri too much."
"Conan is very attached to Ran," Suzuki Sonoko looked at Conan's reddened face with some concern, then at Mouri Ran's furrowed brow and paler cheeks, "but to suddenly return after having already left, no matter what..."
It's a bit strange, isn't it?
And: "The drawbridge was destroyed by fire."
"It's true that Mr. Mirai smelled gasoline on the drawbridge,"
She said it in a declarative tone, without emphasizing it, and tried to follow it up with the statement that it was probably not an accident, but a man-made crime, and that the culprit was probably one of us.
Before the latter part of the sentence was uttered, Suzuki Sonoko remembered what Ichijō Mirai had said: the window could be broken with an elbow, the curtains could be used as a lifeline, and the bathroom was so strong that it couldn't be burned.
If someone else had said that, it wouldn't have bothered her so much; after all, it was a well-known public event that windows were replaced with brittle glass.
But it was Ichijō Mirai who said it.
Suzuki Sonoko had a very subtle intuition about Ichijō Mirai, and it was clear that she hadn't spent much time with him, and even for most of that time, she had suffered from shock with her eyes tightly shut.
But just like she had been with Ichijō Mirai for a long, long time in a forgotten corner, so long that she had seen him excited and depressed, and had seen him respond to situations and raise his eyebrows in surprise and smile at something. Suzuki Sonoko could remember every word he said and could understand the underlying meaning better, just like a drowning person instinctively wants to hold on to something to support him, even if that support is bound to disappear and be refreshed.
It was the same with the gasoline for the drawbridge, and it was the same with the repetition of the reminder. Before speaking out, Suzuki Sonoko's thoughts were spinning, and before he could even collect his own thoughts, his mouth automatically changed to say, "Maybe there's something wrong with the magic props."
-The certainty of saying that it was caused by someone else was a warning to everyone to be careful, but the one who was hiding amongst them was likely to stare at Ichijō Mirai in irritation.
...That, that's not a good idea.
Although Ichijō Mirai is very powerful, Suzuki Sonoko has no doubt about his abilities, and believes that even if he is targeted by the bad guys, he can get away with it easily.
But...
There are other ways to warn people, she thought.
With that in mind, she subconsciously turned around and looked through the crowd to the closed door of the room, and two seconds later, saw it being pushed open, and her eyes lit up, "Mr. Mirai!"
Ichijō Mirai pushed the door open and met Suzuki Sonoko's eyes precisely among the clustered figures.
He smiled and nodded from afar, then looked to his side and greeted him gently, "Mr. Red Herring."
Mr. Red Herring approached from the other end of the corridor, a box of pills in his hand, "Mr. Ichijō."
"I found cold medicine in the study over there, the boy seems to have a serious fever, taking the medicine should ease it a bit," he looked down at the cup in Ichijō Mirai's hand with an expression of surprise, and then cheerfully said, "You brought hot water?"
"That's just right. One of us delivers the medicine, one of us delivers the water."
Just in time?
There was no hot water on the third floor, and it was obvious why Ichijō Mirai had stayed in the first-floor kitchen.
His expression didn't change, "Really?"
Before he could get an answer, he spoke again, "Indeed, it was just in time, I had just boiled the water when you found the medicine, I thought it was the master or Ms. Tanaka who had gone to look for the medicine."
The two of them, one is the owner of the villa, who should logically know the location of some items, and a little jumpy, with a high presence, and the other is a little jumpy as well.
The two of them are by far the ones with the highest presence and the most attention from Ichijō Mirai besides Red Herring.
"They're talking about that kid and the drawbridge," Mr. Red Herring unwrapped the pills, glanced down at the instructions on the box for a few moments, and pressed out the capsule while raising his voice and switching the private chat to nearby, "By the way, how did the drawbridge burn?"
"It's burning too much... I saw a bit of snow up there when I came, it shouldn't be burning that much... it's like I doused it with some kind of accelerant... Here, Ms. Mouri, cold medicine."
Ichijō Mirai handed Mouri Ran a glass of water and said, "There's one more thing that you haven't realized yet."
"When I was boiling water downstairs, I was a bit worried, so I tried to contact Mr. Mouri, and contacted a few friends, but all of them were 'unavailable at the moment'."
He turned his head sideways, exposing his face to the view of most of the people, his brow slowly furrowed, folding out traces of worry, "This, seems to be a bit bad."
Most of the people's gazes sharpened: not only was the drawbridge suspected to have been splashed with accelerant, but the cell phone was out of range too!
Suzuki Sonoko's eyes also sharpened: Mr. Mirai's admitted 'friend'?
It's not that Ichijō Mirai has a friend that's weird...well Ichijō Mirai having a friend is weird!
Is it a man or a woman?
Both men and women seem to be dangerous!
She smells danger.
The others smelled it too. The middle-aged man froze for a moment and spoke quickly, "No cell phone reception? What about the landline?"
He consoled himself and the others, "It's probably because it's so remote, and there's snow outside, and it's late at night, so the cell phone signal isn't good, but there's a landline in the villa, so it should still work."
Tanaka Kikue, on the other hand, took out her cell phone and made a call on the spot, her brows knitted tightly, "I'm also getting a 'temporarily unable to dial' message here.'"
"I didn't try the landline," Ichijō Mirai replied, observing them, "So?"
Suzuki Sonoko didn't make it too clear that her own safety was more of a concern than the fever of a small child she didn't know, but when the situation got a little dicey, everyone's sense of crisis and self-preservation became unerring and they spoke up, "I'll go down and try the landline then!"
"Yeah, yeah, and that 'Escape King' guy's not here yet!"
Even Mr. Red Herring rubbed the back of his head with a somewhat worried expression after locking eyes with Ichijō Mirai, "I'll go down with them and take a look too."
In a flash, the room cleared out, leaving only the three adults behind.
Ichijō Mirai glanced at Suzuki Sonoko, smiled at her, and turned to Mouri Ran, "How is Conan, Ms. Mouri?"
"I fed him the pills," Mouri Ran placed her glass of water on the bedside table, a little distracted by hearing the topic of concern of the others, "Conan he keeps calling my name."
Calling 'Ran run', intermittently, without any incidental address, not 'Ran sister' but 'Ran', signaling a strong warning, it was a straight 'run'.
"Really?" Ichijō Mirai had already heard it, but nodded as if he had just learned of it, and speculated, "Maybe he sensed something was wrong in the villa,"
"He seems to be sweating all the time? Ms. Mouri, Ms. Suzuki, why don't you go down to dinner first?" Before getting a refusal, he moved to the right reason, "Ask Mr. Red Herring again if he knows where the alcohol is, I'll help Conan cool down with an alcohol wipe, he's still a kid but not too young, it shouldn't be too convenient for both of you, I'll do it instead."
A kid in grade school knows what he's doing.
After a moment's hesitation, Mouri Ran responded, "Thank you, Mr. Mirai."
Her brow still knitted, she carefully moved Conan's hand that was tugging on her own, and moved gently to hook his fingers away before standing up, "I'll go find the alcohol first."
Suzuki Sonoko volunteered, "I'll get the basin from the bathroom."
They split up and soon returned.
One took two bottles of alcohol and a few clean towels, while the other carried a small basin.
The former's brow was still furrowed in a light frown, and when she lowered her eyelashes, her thick black lashes covered her watery purple eyes, "Conan... is he..."
She quirked a heavy brow in confusion and shut up again.
The latter found a small stool and half-squatted down as she set the basin on it, looking up at Ichijō Mirai, who was seated on the edge of the bed, his eyes bright as a bright, fresh mint green, as if the propeller was cranking up behind him again, "Mr. Mirai's here... I'm sure Conan's fine!"
She thought for a moment, speaking with conviction, but then showed a bit of hesitation, adding with uncertainty, "Right?"
Her voice was also low, "Well, do foxes care about health? I think, I think they do, don't they? Surely the gods can keep humans healthy anyway!"
So without further hesitation, she lifted her pale chin once more, and wagged her illusory tail into a propeller with an inexplicable sense of pride.
Ichijō Mirai: "..."
Someone is more of a fox than he is.
He pretends he didn't hear Suzuki Sonoko's whispering to herself, and doesn't change his face, "Uh-huh."
"Actually, as soon as I smelled gasoline on the drawbridge, I told my friend to call the police at nine o'clock for me."
Suzuki Sonoko: "Wow!"
That strange pride fluffed up.
"Shhh," Ichijō Mirai restrained his eyes from looking behind Suzuki Sonoko's back and at the corners of her forehead, studying whether she had a tail and ears or not, and held up his index finger in a smooth gesture to ward off his laughter, "There's a discrepancy in the burning of the drawbridge, and the person who set it on fire is most likely amongst us... you must keep quiet for the moment..."
"Since setting a fire in a place like this destroys the only way to get there, it's likely that the person who set the fire is up to no good, and probably wants to plan something, such as a murder, and once the other party learns that someone has called the police, they're likely to do it in advance."
Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko both nodded vigorously.
"They were on the phone when I came up," Mouri Ran reported in a low voice, "and couldn't get through on the landline."
"So," Suzuki Sonoko inquired in a low voice, "we'll keep an eye out for anyone suspicious?"
The murderer's plan was well thought out, and he was obviously determined to kill, so he probably wouldn't be noticed by an inexperienced novice.
But Ichijō Mirai said, "I'd like to trouble you both."
He opened a bottle of alcohol and poured it into the basin, put in a towel, and said in a calm tone, "Then will you leave this place to me, and I'll leave the downstairs to you?"
Suzuki Sonoko: "Yes!"
Almost fluffing up, she took Mouri Ran's hand and bounced out the door, "We'll be sure to keep an eye on things and never alert anyone!"
Ichijō Mirai smiled, and after the door closed, he looked down at the red-faced Conan, sweeping his eyes over the childish cheeks inch by inch, and then took out his cell phone.
There's no signal now.
But there was a signal before.
He clicked on the photo album and looked at the last few screenshots he had saved.
The screenshots were simple search results, such as 'Kudō Yūsaku' and so on and so forth.
Ichijō Mirai had seen all of these search results, and without looking at them again, he could recapitulate which words were in which position in which picture with his eyes closed, but he looked at them as if he couldn't remember them for a long time before blinking his eyes, and slowly pronouncing one of the names in the screenshot as if he were a beginner at recognizing the Japanese language, "Ku- dō- Shin- ichi?"
He read it very slowly.
On the bed, Conan stirred, letting out a muffled, unconscious grunt, "Huh?"
Then the beginner of Japanese snapped out of it, and smiled an exuberant smile, as if he was happy to have recognized a Japanese name correctly, to have his learning verified.
Ichijō Mirai propped up his chin and slowly pronounced it again, "Kudō Shinichi?"
On the bed, Conan's face was flushed red, somehow hotter, beads of sweat rolling down his forehead, his eyes twitching under his eyelids as he answered vaguely and unconsciously, "Hm?"
This time there was a little more struggle, a bit of a nightmare person struggling for clarity.
"Ms. Mouri's childhood friend, or rather, the one who likes and cares for Ms. Mouri," Ichijō Mirai smiled, staring into Conan's closed eyes, "Kudō Shinichi?"
He raises his hand, poking Conan in the face, and gasps at the burn, "Wow."
Conan's eyeballs rolled a little more frequently, and a visible struggle to turn them could be seen in his eyelids.
"That's amazing," Ichijō Mirai exclaimed again as he gazed with interest at his rolling eyes, hot cheeks, and breathing nose, "Wow."
"It's breathing."
"It's alive."
"The eyeballs rotate in the same way as a normal person, but the heartbeat seems to be a little high, ah wait, it's a fever."
"It's not bad looking... It's the result of genetic programming... Again, wait a minute... It's not an artifact or a clone, it's a more magical 'reversal'... Or implanting the memories of a real human being who cares about the person that human being cares about, who adores the person that human being adores, and who is willing to die for the sake of protecting the object of his affections...?"
"…But he is only six or seven years old…it is indeed a 'reversal', a 'turnback'…wow."
He exclaimed, "That's amazing."
"Right, Kudō Shinichi?"
The frequency of Conan's eyeballs rotated drastically, and at one point in the rapid rotation, he awoke from his nightmare and sat up violently, and before he could see his surroundings, he subconsciously blurted out, "Danger, Ran!!!!!"
His forehead hit Ichijō Mirai's lowered forehead.
Ichijō Mirai gasps in pain, and again, "Wow."
It was hot, hard, and soft, the feel of a normal human skull against skin.
A child's, but an adult's version.
Unscientific, as if it only exists in literature, it's like being born again.
It's alive.
"It's dangerous now," He agreed with Conan with a grin, "with a murderer."
"Shin-i-chi."
So fun ^ ^.