Hey guys! Finally, school's out (for now) and I could freely update my story without worrying about school requirements first! Yay for me! :) I've made some slight changes in the past chapters.. especially on the challenge part.. I had to modify it a bit. Anyway, here's chapter three! The answer to the haibara's challenge!
-CHAPTER THREE-
(Mitsuhiko's POV)
"HOW CAN YOU FREAKING UNDERSTAND THIS? IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE AT ALL!" Conan shouted.
I was dumbfounded at Conan's outburst. I just couldn't believe that he can't understand the quiz. It's too easy. Everyone in our class will surely be able to answer it, especially after that lesson in Math. Wait. Maybe this has something to do with what Haibara said back then.
(flashback)
"Ne, Haibara-san?" I said. She didn't look up from the book she was reading. "Haibara-san," I repeated.
She finally noticed me and closed the book. "What is it, Mitsuhiko-kun?"
I wanted to return the chemistry book that I borrowed. Thank you for lending it to me," I said, a bit embarrassed for disturbing her. "Sorry for disturbing you."
"That's okay." She smiled. "Is that all?"
"Um.." I scratched my head while eyeing the book she was holding. "You seem enthralled with that.. Isn't that a Sherlock Holmes book?"
"Uh-huh. Edogawa-kun forced me to read it so I could 'realize how great Holmes is'..." she said, making face at the last five words. She handed the book to me. A Study in Scarlet by Conan Doyle.
"Is it good?" I asked while studying the book. "This book, I mean."
"I must admit it was pretty interesting," she said. "But not interesting enough for me to be obsessed with.." she added with a smirk.
I gave the book back to her and sat down, hoping we could talk more. She never spoke to me with more than ten words so I might as well grab the opportunity.Maybe Ayumi-chan is right, I thought.Haibara has changed.
She opened the book again and flipped through the pages.
"You never beat Edogawa-kun in the professor's quizzes, right?" she said, moments later.
"Um.. Yeah," I nodded shyly. "We never get to beat him in any quizzes or riddles. He's like a genius or something. We've always wished we could beat him.. Even for at least once. It would be very rewarding if, for once, we would be the one explaining things to him. Sometimes, we envy you and Conan because you always act so mature and-" I realized I was ranting on and on so I stopped. Haibara just smiled.
"Holmes said something pretty interesting in this book," she motioned to the one she was holding. She quickly scanned for that part and read it. "Aman's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose…It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." she looked at me. "Maybe that's how it is with Edogawa-kun.."
(End of flashback)
When I glanced back at Conan, he was still spaced out.
"Do you want us to explain it to you, Conan-kun?" Ayumi asked him, obviously worried.
"NO." he said firmly.
"Conan-kun.."
He glanced back at the paper and thought for a moment.
"Okay.." He finally said.
"Wait." I interrupted. "I have an idea. Why don't we just give clues to Conan-kun just like what he does to us? It wouldn't be fair if we'd just explain it outright." Ayumi and Genta nodded in approval. Conan seemed to like the idea and agreed.
"Okay," I said. "What have you figured out so far?"
"The capitalized letters on the 'When Others think Right before Doing Something' part, form 'WORDS'.. So I think we have to do somethingto the words listed below, which was probably what the N means. But I'm still stuck with that." He explained.
"So, you don't know what N means?" I asked.
He shook his head.
"Amazing.. Haibara-san was right," I thought outloud. The other three looked at me, obviously confused. "The other day, Haibara told me about how our brain works like an empty attic and-"
"Holmes said something like that," Conan interrupted. He put his hands on his chin in a thinking manner. "It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones." he quoted.
"I don't get what it means," Genta said, scratching his head.
"To sum it up, it means we should unlearnthe things that are not useful to us. For example, Holmes didn't know that the earth revolve around the sun – a concept even a pre-schooler would know – because that knowledge won't be of use to him as a detective." Conan explained. His face lit up. I could see he already realized why he couldn't solve the quiz.
"Unlearn? As in, forget?" Ayumi asked. He nodded.
"Okay, guys. I admit defeat. I really don't recall what that N means.. I need your help on this one." Conan said.
Conan saying that he needed our help was no big deal. He always asks favors from us. But admitting defeat was a different matter. We really felt triumphant that time.
Beaming with pride, Genta told him, "Tsubaraya-sensei taught us about N. She said, it is a sign for natural numbers."
"Natural numbers are the ones we use for counting, like one two and three. Therefore, they are also called counting numbers," Ayumi added.
"Therefore, the 'N= When Others think Right before Doing Something' part means 'count the words'.. the equals sign only tells us that N is related to Math." I finished.
Conan studied the hint once more. "The words are divided to seven groups.. this might mean that.." he was muttering to himself as we watched him with amusement. "three… one… four… one… five… nine… two…" He took his pen and wrote the numbers.
3141592
"This looks familiar… wait. Why is there a period after value? Maybe.." He wrote a dot beside the number 3.
3.141592
"3.14.. Pi.. Pie?"
-END OF CHAPTER THREE-
Whoa. That was kinda nerdy.. and that flashback was quite long. Hmmmm. What do you think? Please review! I mighta sorta kinda have a writer's block at the moment (if there's such a thing..) and I need your review for suggestions and motivations! Love you guys. :)
