"Transform!"
On the bulky CRT television, the girl who shouted those words raised a magic wand and began hopping around through a series of poses. The background was full of cheap, dated special effects, but a little cat only two years into her cat-life did not care about things like that.
"Transform!"
Yimi shouted too, holding the toy magic wand Kisaki Eri had bought for her and copying the television.
But she had no special effects helping her. And while the camera on television revolved around the girl, Yimi had to spin herself around in real life.
"Meow~"
Goro stood beside her and copied her by turning in a circle.
Looking down at the toy magic wand in her hand, the little cat began doubting her adaptability for the first time. She could not even imitate the Magical Girl on television and make clothes appear.
Kisaki Eri ruthlessly turned off the television with the remote, then set down a delivery box. "Why are you watching television again? Is your homework finished? Let me check it."
"Finished." Yimi obediently handed over her homework.
Kisaki Eri flipped through a couple of pages. At this age, the focus was still on learning characters, with hardly any reading-comprehension work, so Yimi did not have much trouble with the homework.
"Come to think of it, you've been getting home a little late after school these past two days. What have you been doing with your friends?"
"Taking part in, Detective Boys activities." Most of the time she was actually just playing. Occasionally she went to Professor Agasa's house to play puzzle games.
"Detectives?"
Hearing the word again, Kisaki Eri pressed her fingers to her brow. "Put the word 'detective' together with children and all you get is trouble. If something happens, let your teacher or another adult handle it. Do you hear me?"
"Grr~" The little cat made a strange noise, put her hands behind her back, and clearly did not listen at all.
Kisaki Eri had also told her before to raise her hand and tell the teacher if other children bullied her. But during a test, Yimi had raised her hand and told the teacher Conan would not let her copy his answers, and the teacher had not taken her side at all.
"If you're going to look that dissatisfied, then I won't give you this." Kisaki Eri opened the delivery box. Several different kinds of fruit sat in the foam tray, including Yimi's beloved dragon fruit.
"I'm very full!" Yimi hurriedly grabbed a broom and swept twice across an already spotless floor to act like a good girl.
"You're not supposed to say 'very full' like that, are you?"
Kisaki Eri had not bought the fruit. A large box stuffed with several different kinds at once was obviously a gift. But this time it had not been sent to her as a famous lawyer. It had specifically been mailed to Yimi, a little girl.
Opening the envelope on top revealed a message from Tomoko. Apparently, because Yimi had worn the Black Star before and kept it from being stolen the entire time, the wealthy lady had grown very fond of her.
Kisaki Eri rubbed Yimi's head. "Professor Agasa often invites you children over to his house, right? You should return the favor once in a while too."
"Meow."
* * *
After that came a long string of footsteps. Yimi had gone outside.
Along the way she even stopped at a store to buy a lollipop. Other than that, Yimi had no bad habit of talking to herself, so there was nothing else to hear and nothing suspicious at all.
Conan took off the earphones. With how suspicious he was by nature, of course he would not give up just because the first attempt failed.
"Conan, what are you doing?" Ran appeared behind him and bent down to look at him curiously.
"I'm checking my homework, Ran-onee-san."
Ran smiled. "Really? I thought you might be lonely because Yimi didn't come over today. If you're done with your homework, let's go out together."
"Go out? What for?"
"Dad is going to the bank to check the payment for a commission. If you don't want to go, you can stay home."
Commission payment...
Conan stared with dead-fish eyes, his face full of speechless disbelief.
All of that was his work. Though Uncle Kogoro had also endured the hardship of getting needled every time, so Conan supposed he would not argue about it here.
Conan put the earphones on one last time, wanting to hear whether Yimi had said anything about coming this way. It would be troublesome if she arrived just when nobody was home... Wait, that wasn't what he installed the bug for. How had he unconsciously started treating it like an everyday convenience?
Elsewhere, Yimi balanced a box on top of her head and ran toward Professor Agasa's house.
Of course, she could not carry the entire delivery box. In Kisaki Eri's eyes, that was far too heavy for a little girl, so she had packed a Hami melon into a separate box for Yimi.
Probably because Conan had asked Professor Agasa to make gum that would not make Yimi feel the sole sticking to the floor and notice something was wrong, it suffered from the opposite problem: weak adhesive strength. In any case, as she walked, the gum once again came loose from the bottom of her shoe.
Yimi merely glanced back in confusion, then turned around and kept walking.
Two minutes later, a black car passed by. A long-haired man dressed entirely in black got out and stepped directly onto it.
Unlike when Conan had deliberately tucked it into a groove in the sole while holding the shoe, this time the gum was obvious underfoot. The long-haired man in black immediately sensed something was wrong. Using a handkerchief, he peeled the gum off his shoe and stared at the bug embedded in it.
"Aniki." The square-faced man who got out after him was about to say something, but the long-haired man raised a hand to stop him.
With a slight squeeze, Gin crushed the tiny bug in his hand.
He frowned.
For some reason, he had been suffering from especially bad luck lately—or perhaps he was simply in poor health. Smoking made his nose sting, sometimes a flash of light struck his vision while he slept, he would suddenly get sleepy while speaking, and whenever he tried to sit down his rear would inexplicably hurt.
He looked down the road ahead but saw nothing. They were not the only car passing through here, nor did they have to stop at any particular spot. As irritated as he was, this truly did seem to be just a coincidence.
"Let's go."
* * *
Elsewhere, Conan lowered the earphones, cold sweat pouring down his face.
Something held in a hand sounded different from something stuck to the bottom of a shoe, so he was certain someone had picked up the bug. And the only thing he had heard was the word "Aniki."
It was brief, but he could roughly recognize the voice as belonging to the square-faced man from the Black Organization. He would never mistake that voice or tone.
What exactly had happened? Why was the bug in their hands?
Was Yimi part of the Black Organization? No. A much more likely possibility was that during the time Conan had been answering Ran, Yimi had been kidnapped by the Black Organization.
Thinking calmly, he often walked back to the Mouri Detective Agency with Yimi. From their conversations, he also knew where Aunt Eri lived now.
Conan opened a map and studied it carefully.
From going downstairs to reaching the store had taken about five minutes. Yimi's destination was Professor Agasa's house... She would pass the Beika Supermarket on the way, but since she only bought a lollipop and there had been none of the distinctive bustle of a market, she must have gone to a small shop instead.
Probably here.
Conan circled a spot on the map.
After that, because he felt he was not hearing anything useful, plus the time spent talking with Ran and waiting for her to leave, roughly one minute had passed. At most, Yimi could have gotten as far as...
"Conan, where are you going?"
"I promised to play with my friends! I'm not going with you today, Ran-onee-san!"