Tahou is a mysterious neutral organization whose size is unknown, origin is unknown, founding purpose unknown, and even its official name is unknown. This sort of organization doesn't have a so-called headquarters but instead only several subdivisions scattered in all sorts of places. Most of the time, their members don't even tell their family and friends about the existence of Tahou. What's known for sure is that they're an organization that values profit the most. Generally speaking, they're involved with all sorts of deals and they accept all sorts of offers given the fact that it won't ruin the balance between good and evil so much so to the point that it causes global turmoil.
This sort of mysterious underground organization gathered all sorts of information and exceptionally skillful people in all different fields over the years. Within the organization itself, they also developed many scientific experiments.
Futoumiya happens to be a well-known and widely respected family within Tahou. Every generation has followed their ancestors' instructions to work for and devote their life to Tahou. In addition, Ou Futoumiya definitely contributed to the destruction of that Black Organization that Kudo faced off when he was young, and so it makes sense that there would be a position in T20 for Futoumiya.
A man who belongs to this sort of organization appears to be their comrade now, but the second after when their deal is fulfilled, who can be sure of whether or not he'll become their enemy because of another deal. Because of this, the only time Kudo signed a contract with them before this occasion was ten years ago when they went against the Black Organization, despite the fact that it was more of a collaboration.
With ten years having passed, the way that they do things still hasn't changed...so unpredictable, so unclear, and so hard to figure out.
After gaining this knowledge, Kuroba now kinda gets the kind of role that Tahou and that guy play.
The only type of person worth trusting on this world is probably someone that knows you well and that you know well, and that's exactly the position that Kuroba and Kudo are in right now; they have to trust each other.
After all, they re one now.
As every second flies by, the clock on the wall repeatedly makes the same sound. Normally no one would have noticed this sound of the second hand, but now it's rather distinct as it travels through the indoors without anyone making any distractions.
People often say that time is the best medicine because it allows for people to gradually forget about any scars or pains, except they don't recognize that the true identity of such a medicine is an anaesthetic.
And their nerves have now been completely anesthetized by time, along with their mindset to be vigilant, and their conscious selves.
In a patch of darkness, he tries opening those shut eyelids, yet it feels as heavy as if they've been weighed down by heavy metal chains used to restrict movement. When he finally opens his eyes, the next second he shuts them again because of some unknown tiredness. In that instant, it's as if he sees that aquamarine light, and also that face that's still covered by a protection mask.
He has no idea of what happened, but as he's half-awake he feels something cold touching his face.
Maybe it's because that temperature feels too real, he suddenly wakes up from the dream to look out the window and see that the sky is already brightening up although that light white crescent moon still hangs high in the sky.
Somehow seeing this sight comforts him quite a bit, and so he lets out a smile and then falls asleep again.
When he wakes up again, he sees two people wearing big white lab coats standing in front of his eyes.
"You've finally awaken." A cold female voice travels into his ear.
"...Haibara, and Hakase?" He says as he rubs his eyes and yawns.
"Seriously? You guys were the ones who said noon in the first place, and by noon you just woke up."
"Noon...!" He just recalls that they're taking a visit to Tsukiya Psychological Consultation Clinic today, and so he hurriedly gets up from the floor and starts rushing to get ready.
Haibara doesn't even know where to start poking fun at him from...the moment she came in, she saw him leaning against the corner of that table. It's just unbelievable that there would be someone who could fall asleep in the same pose that he did, actually sleep all the way until noon, and not wake up even when the sun's already out.
The scorching sunlight scatters upon the same street that was once covered by darkness. And now they start on the way to the consultation clinic.
Maybe it's just Haibara's illusion, but when they drive over those perfect roads there seems to be a suspicious car following them for the whole time. She decides not to say anything about this. He takes a look at the rearview mirror and sees that car, then continues to drive steadily along the path. When they arrive at the seemingly plain house, he stops. Not long after they arrive comes another car that's black, and that man still clothed in black walks towards him; it's Futoumiya.
"Agasa-san, Haibara-san, long time no see."
"Yeah long time no see, Futoumiya-san."
Hakase politely greets him, and Haibara just walks towards the door and knocks on it without even turning her head back.
Futoumiya actually isn't upset about this at all. He brings his hand to his face with the pointer finger to the corner of his mouth and the middle finger to the center of his lips, and he sorts of rests his chin on his palm of his hand a little while looking at her with great interest. Maybe that look happens to be too intense to the degree that Haibara, who faces the door for the entire time, suddenly feels a strong chill which makes her feel abnormally uncomfortable. That type of chill didn't actually sustain for long. When Tsukiya opens the door to greet them, Futoumiya looks away from her.
"Please follow me." This time, the whole process doesn't start with being seated. After simple self-introductions, Tsukiya brings them downstairs through the tunnel and directly to the lab.
All sorts of high-tech machines and equipments enter their vision. Even though he already came once, he still isn't used to this, not to mention Hakase and Haibara.
Of course Haibara has seen way more expansive and well-equipped labs than this, not to mention Kudo Kuroba already described this place to her. Even with that she could not have imagined, that a psychological consultation clinic which seems so plain would have such a lab.
Come to think of it, this place has to have a reason for having two underground floors to it, not to mention being equipped with systems that require fingerprint verification and even iris recognition in order for the doors to open.
In this seemingly high-class laboratory, there's a short-haired woman sitting in the corner with her eyes closed. Since one cannot defy the pull of gravity, her head tilts more and more towards the right and then just droops down. With that happening, she suddenly wakes up and rubs her eyes as she lifts her head up to see them here. She hurriedly gets up and apologizes.
"Excuse her," Tsukiya says as she pats Mai's head and has her hand gently follow the waves of Mai s hair until her fingers touch Mai's face. "This child, she's a little tired." As she says so, she takes a pat on Mai's shoulder and tells her to take a rest upstairs.
Seeing this, Futoumiya originally planned on following Mai back to the first floor; that is, until Haibara calls him out: "Where are you going?"
"As the first party, I have no reason to be viewing the process by which the third party's invention works."
"But," says Haibara as she lets out an uninterpretable ambiguous smile, "as the first party, don't you have the responsibility of protecting the client? Does your work only apply to escorting the client on the way to and from?" She stares at him directly, and those daggers once in his eyes seems to be weakened by this sharp questioning.
He smiles at Tsukiya to see her take a look at Mai and then turn back.
"Haibara-san makes a good point." With that being said, Tsukiya makes a couple of gestures with her hands to tell Mai to bring the info. Afterwards, she gets Kudo Kuroba seated on the chair of The Dream Exploring Machine, starts operating like yesterday, and then leads Hakase and Haibara into the surveillance room.
Times goes by second after second, electrical currents seep in little by little, and consciousness blurs little by little.
Kudo looks at the people behind that door. Although the few glances that they give him evidently show their fear, but them being with him reassures him all the more.
Yet somehow as he feels this sort of reassurance, there's also a sort of disappointment. When his eyes meet with that man's eyes, this sort of complicated feeling instantly turns into anxiety. In the state of anxiety, he closes his eyes and falls into a world of darkness.
In that darkness, suddenly a white light passes in through a seam. Behind that seam, something appears and blocks the middle. When that seam enlarges does he know, that thing happens to be the hand of a human, and that seam is the seam in between two doors.
That light brightens up the lab a little bit, and in a blur he kind of sees how that person looks; just like that of his memories: old, not much hair which happens to also be white, and many wrinkles on the face. Yet compared to these, there's something that's more worth his attention. The next second, his mind's in a blur again. He just feels as if he's being dragged to some place, and then he totally goes unconscious.
When he regains consciousness, he finds himself running behind a person clothed in white who effortlessly jumps on top of the buildings. In the night which has a half moon hanging in the sky, it is unknown why a city full of tall buildings isn't noisy at all like it normally would be. Not to mention, the few small crowds of people also don't seem to move or make any sounds as if they're completely still. Under this sort of condition, he just continuously runs as if there's no end.
It is unknown when the color of everything, except for him and Mr. Thief who he cannot catch, gradually all vanishes until they all blend into the night and can no longer be seen.
Even so, he still runs continuously, as if he can never stop. The only thought in his mind is to catch Kid.
Suddenly, he gets tripped over by something and so reaches a stop as he lies on the ground.
He lifts his head up to see that the half moon isn't like he thought for it's not a perfect half; in fact, there's some imperfection with the right rim. It's just like mankind, no matter how many cuts made to the face, it's impossible to reach perfection such as that in a jewel. The same applies for both the surface and the inside. No matter what, there ll always be craters and flaws—there'll always be imperfections.
He attempts to stand up, yet he discovers that somehow all his limbs are already cuffed.
Even so, he cannot just let a mission target who's so close to him escape so easily.
Kaitou Kid sits on the ground and just observes the man who's working so hard to climb towards him. Kid smiles, puts his right hand behind his back, and pulls out a handgun. A poker card shoots out from the gun. The instant that card is about to hit him, it turns into a bullet. At that moment, Mr. Thief's poker face smile also turns into Professor Suzukawa's face.
As the pain spreads from his forehead, his whole body starts to ache in pain, as if the amount of invisible chains also increase to tie him tighter and tighter.
The pure white moonlight suddenly turns into the light in the lab, and those invisible chains become the aquamarine currents which continuously travels through his body.
"Shinichi!"
"Kudo, hey Kudo!"
He awakes to their calls which sound of panic. His whole body is full of sweat. The image of the face that person makes which he cannot interpret and that stiff movement still sticks in his mind.
In a blur, he breathes heavily and hurriedly like the last time.
Seeing him so weakened and exhausted, Haibara couldn't control herself but to grab him by the collar. "You..." She furiously stares at him. "You still plan on continuing?" She lowers her head and asks him in a soft voice as she finally releases him, not wanting to leave another mark on him on the inside.
"That's..." he says as he manages to get up in a sitting position and pulls out a smile, "of course."
Haibara doesn't say anything, she just leads the way out the lab with a smile on her face. "Bakas, both bakas," she thinks to herself.
Yet, it just so happens to be this type of baka which makes people more willing to see if any miracle capable of combating this disaster will actually occur and save them.
At least in their dictionary, there s no such thing as impossible, that's all that matters.
No matter if it's suffering the worst pain over and over again, struggling in quagmire, or even being tied in who knows what such as in that dream, none of this can stop that heart which will never give up in the face of danger and challenge.
Even if that freedom that comes with success in the end, doesn't come along unless he experiences numerous occasions close to death.