Haido City was the city neighboring Beika, and it was also where an upcoming jewelry exhibition would be held.
Late at night, Conan cracked Ran's bedroom door open and peered inside at Ran, fast asleep under the covers, with Yimi hugged in her arms.
They had even cleared out an extra room, yet those two insisted on sleeping together. Ever since this brat moved in, Ran did not even take him along when she bathed anymore... Ahem, that was not the point.
Ever since they returned from Tsukikage Island, he had been completely unable to stop worrying about this little girl. When he was actually around her, she felt so much like an ordinary child that he could not bring himself to stay on guard. But once he calmed down and thought things through, all of Yimi's mysteries came flooding back.
He always had this feeling that she had approached them for some purpose, and seeing Ran alone with her made him uneasy.
Closing the door, Conan spat out the gum he had chewed to the right consistency, went to the entryway, and stuck the gum together with a bug into a groove in the tread on the bottom of Yimi's shoe.
He had specifically asked Professor Agasa to make a special kind of gum matching the color of the sole. It should not be noticed.
"What are you doing?" Yimi had appeared behind him at some point, hands clasped behind her back as she looked at him in confusion.
"!"
Conan's pupils nearly went unfocused from fright. He hurriedly smiled, tilted his head, and played dumb. "I wanted to go see that master thief. Didn't we see his notice during the day? He might show up tonight."
That was not actually a lie. During the day, they had followed Kogoro to the Beika Museum. The police still seemed completely baffled by Kid's note, but Conan had already figured out where he would appear.
Checking whether Yimi was asleep had partly been about seeing whether Ran was asleep too. He was about to sneak out tonight and put that bastard down with one Anesthetic Needle so he could see just who the hell the guy really was.
Conan backed up two steps, messed up everyone's shoes, then pressed his palms together and tried to bluff his way through. "Keep this a secret for me, okay? Next time, I'll let you copy my homework."
"Okay."
She did not seem suspicious. But having her suddenly speak from directly behind him had been so frightening that Conan honestly could not tell whether there was anything hidden beneath that innocence.
After putting on his shoes, Conan ran out the front door. If she really did have some kind of ulterior motive, he absolutely could not hesitate here.
That excuse was the only way to explain why he had been in the entryway so late at night. He really had been planning to go out anyway, but now that Yimi had caught him, Conan almost did not want to go anymore.
He ran a little farther away and put on the earphones. Naturally, there was no speech to hear. Yimi did not have a habit of talking to herself. But putting a bug on the bottom of a shoe had obvious drawbacks, such as the noise from walking being much too loud.
Walking?
Conan turned around.
"Why did you stop?" Yimi, who had changed clothes at remarkable speed, stared at him from one meter away.
"Why did you follow me?"
Does this girl make no sound when she walks? I only noticed after putting on the earphones...
"Aren't you with the Detective Boys? You know where the thief is. Why don't you call the police?" Yimi's voice came from both in front of him and through the earphones at the same time, proving that the bug worked even from the sole of her shoe.
She had thought calling the police after a detective found the culprit was a mandatory step.
"Because I want to see what this master thief who runs the police in circles looks like too. Want to come with me?" With her right in front of him, Conan could probably relax a little. This little girl seemed interested in detectives, so inviting her along now would not seem strange.
Yimi raised a fist. "I'm going to see the heartbreaker who made Ran-onee-san sad."
Conan choked on his own spit. "Who taught you that word?!"
Yimi said, "Sonoko. Earlier today."
"..."
Whenever he interacted with her face-to-face like this, he always forgot every mystery surrounding her without thinking. In both impression and behavior, Yimi seemed like an ordinary little girl.
* * *
"'Invited by the waves'—the 'waves' in that line means radio waves. So Kaitou Kid will appear where BS radio waves are being transmitted. BS signals are sent forty-five degrees from south to west and also at an angle of 42.3 degrees above the horizon. The only place that matches both conditions is the rooftop of the Haido City Hotel."
As they ran toward their destination, Conan did not forget to show off the answer he had deduced.
"Mmm." Yimi frowned.
She did not understand a single thing he was saying. Did being a detective really require knowing that much? No wonder Kisaki Eri kept telling her to study properly.
Seeing her frown, Conan hurriedly explained, "Professor Agasa told me all that when I called him. He may be pretty scatterbrained most of the time, but he is still a professor, you know."
Just as they reached the hotel entrance, Yimi vaguely sensed something and glanced in a certain direction.
"What's wrong?"
"Don't know." She did not pay much attention to it and kept running after Conan.
About a hundred meters away in the direction she had just looked, a high school girl stood deep in thought.
When she had divined Kid's actions for today, the result had been completely blank. Curious, she had come to take a look for herself. But what was that thing? Some extraordinary creature disguised as a human?
Unaware that she had drawn the attention of a magician from this world, Yimi followed Conan into the elevator and up to the roof.
"How do you use this?" She was still holding a bundle of skyrocket fireworks—more precisely, fireworks that shot into the sky and exploded—which Conan had bought on the way over.
"You've never played with these? Use a lighter to light this part, then it'll fly off on its own like a missile. Do you know how to use a lighter?" Conan explained while looking around for Kid.
He also wanted to call Professor Agasa first. Portable phones had only recently started becoming widespread.
"Yeah." Back in the seafaring world, Yimi had often seen Aunt Xia use a wheel lighter when she smoked, though Yimi always stayed far away whenever she did.
As though he had timed his entrance exactly, the white figure descended from the sky just as Conan looked up. With the crescent moon behind him, he crouched on the edge of the building wearing a confident, mysterious smile and met their eyes from beneath the brim of his hat.
His face was hidden by the glare on his monocle, but he was clearly very young. Comparing carefully, Conan even realized that the shape of this guy's face really did resemble his own as Shinichi.
Conan noticed that the guy's mouth opened slightly after he saw Yimi. Maybe he had remembered their previous meeting.
He looked at Yimi, trying to signal with his eyes that she should hurry up and light the firework. But Yimi did not need a reminder at all. She had already used the lighter to ignite the fuse.
Pointed straight at Kid.
Fweee—pop!
The skyrocket curved bizarrely through the air and exploded right beside Kid.
"..."
"You..." Conan could only stare at her in speechless disbelief.
Where did this brat come from?!
Yimi had no idea what he was trying to say. He had been the one to tell her that the thing was like a missile. Yimi had known what missiles were ever since she watched Ultraman.
"What a dangerous prank. Are you children playing cops and robbers?" Kid did not care about that greeting in the slightest. Even seeing Yimi, the flying child, again did not make him show surprise on his face.
After all, he already knew people who could use real magic existed in this world.
"Are you sure it's okay to stand there? That firecracker seems to have caught the helicopter's attention." Conan touched his wristwatch.
Once this guy came into range, Conan would drop him with a single shot. Yimi had already discovered the Anesthetic Needle anyway. Conan was going to drag this guy by the head in front of Ran and clear his own name!
Kid did not answer. He only looked at them. "Kids, what are your names?"
"Edogawa Conan. I'm a detective."
"Yimi. I'm a cat."
"A cat?" Watching the helicopter steadily approach, Kid took out a radio, coughed twice, and switched to another voice. "This is Inspector Chaki..."
So he's a master of voice imitation too?
He successfully fooled the police, but there was one person who did not fall for it: his future father-in-law and current nemesis, Inspector Nakamori.
Nakamori quickly led a group onto the roof, rows of gun barrels aimed at Kid. "Give up on that black pearl, Kid. You have nowhere left to run."
Kid kept both hands in his pockets and adjusted himself to a stylish angle where the wind would catch his cape. "Pearl? I'm only here for a little rehearsal. I never planned to steal it today. It is April Fools' Day, after all."
"What?"
Kid deployed his hang glider, and a flash bomb dropped from him, instantly flooding everyone's vision with white.
At the same time, while nobody was looking at him, he hurriedly folded the glider back up, changed into a police uniform, and blended into the crowd.
"He's gone! He disappeared!"
"Helicopter, search with radar!"
Without that Hakuba brat around, this was ridiculously easy.
Kid was making faces in the crowd when he saw the little girl who had caught his attention earlier walk right up to him and tilt her head back to meet his eyes.
Yimi raised a hand and pointed at him. "Heartbreaker."
"Heartbreaker?" The officer beside him looked at Kaito in confusion. "Come to think of it, who are you?"
"Damn it! Kid has infiltrated our group!"
"N-no, this is..."
Kid pulled out a smoke bomb and smashed it hard against the ground. Using the opportunity, he changed to another face while shoving through the crowd toward the corridor.
While changing clothes, he accidentally exposed the folded hang glider. Yimi happened to step on it, and when he yanked it back, he accidentally pulled her off balance and dumped her onto her butt.
"Sorry, little miss!" He was still composed enough to apologize.
Unfortunately, he did not notice the piece of gum that had stuck to it when they collided.
"Damn it! Why didn't you block the entrance?!" Inspector Nakamori glared angrily at his men.
It was not really their fault. Kid had opened his hang glider, so everyone had been focused on where he had flown.
"..."
On the opposite building, Koizumi Akako hurriedly looked away from the scene.
The flash bomb, and then that other flash of light when the little girl fell... Rather than some modern supernatural creature, it felt more like an angel had descended to the earth. Something like that actually existed...
Akako left the scene uneasily.
Better not provoke that child.
* * *
The next day.
"Young Master, the hang glider can't be used anymore. It probably can't be repaired either."
"What a shame. Guess we'll have to throw it away."
Kuroba Kaito held a guest list. "These are the people attending that party? They're all rich and powerful. Edogawa Conan is that boy. Besides the little girl, the people traveling with him are Mouri Kogoro and Mouri Ran..."
"Mouri Kogoro seems to be a famous detective. Then go get me a set of that girl's clothes."
"..."
Conan listened to everything through his earphones.
Fine, ruining my reputation is one thing, but now you dare go after Ran?!