He's screwed.

Either way he's screwed.

If he tells Haibara to drink some Paikaru, it'll relieve her of her symptoms for a little while, but after it'll just make her cold worse, far worse (that's assuming she'd have relatively the same reaction as he did) and greatly reduce her chances of actually escaping. A fever ridden and passing out Haibara is kind of the opposite of what they need right now.

And if he doesn't, Agasa will get suspicious and he'll basically have to tell both of them that he isn't Shinichi, which he clearly also does not want to do.

Well, fuck.

He should've known that his horrible past decisions would come back to stab him in the back!

Conan nervously shifted his gaze up towards Agasa, who was staring expectantly at the boy.

Yeah, there is no way he is telling them he isn't Shinichi right now. He didn't think he could even bring himself to do it.

Welp, here goes nothing.

Haibara I am so sorry.

Conan cleared his throat. "Haibara-san..?" He meekly spoke into the microphone. She made a small noise of acknowledgement. "You said you're in a wine cellar, right..?"

"Yes?" She said.

He gulped. "Um.. is there any.. Paikaru?"

Please say no, please say no, please say no.

"Paikaru?" She repeated.

"Yes." Was all he said.

"Uh.. let me check."

He heard some shuffling noises as she assumedly started searching the shelves and boxes and stuff, along with the occasional sound of bottles clinking. Conan just nervously waited, crossing his fingers hoping her searching would be fruitless.

"Ah." Haibara's voice came through the receiver. "I found some."

Fuck!

"But, what do you want me to do with this?" She asked.

Conan took a deep breath. "This might not work..." More like it definitely, totally will not work. "But, uh.. just, take a sip. A small sip." He hoped at least smaller amount would have less of an effect, or ideally none at all.

"Hah..?" She said, confused.

"Just..." He said shakily with heavy unconfidence. "Trust me..."

Don't.

"Alright then..."

Conan tried not to let the guilt and regret he was feeling show on his face as he heard Haibara pop open the bottle and take a few sips.

Oh boy. There's no turning back now.


After Haibara had unfortunately trusted him and drank the Paikaru with little questions asked, Conan had pretty much devoted all of his mental energy to finding out who Pisco was (and maybe some kind of way to escape, if he had the time), to sort of wordlessly apologize to Haibara.

However, the task was still proving to be very difficult. He had only just now managed to figure out where each of the seven suspects were at the time of the murder, after tediously sifting through the copious amounts of reports and articles on the incident. But that was still not enough for him to figure out who Pisco was, because he still, quite frankly, had no idea.

And it was kind of hard to focus when he felt frequent pangs of guilt every time he heard Haibara's increasingly laboured breathing through the earpiece.

Conan let out a yawn.

And he was tired too.

After a quick time check, he realized that it was far later than when he usually went to sleep.

Great.

"Hey." Haibara suddenly said. Conan perked up, attentive. "How do you spell Hercule Poirot?"

"Huh..?" He confusedly said. "Why?"

"Just answer." She testily said.

"Okay, uh..." Conan trailed off for a moment because he didn't exactly know how to spell Hercule Poirot off the top of his head. After a moment, he said, "It's 'H-e-r-c-u-l-e P-o-i-r-o-t'." He spelled out. "I think..." He added on, just in case (even though he knew English fairly well, that was still a weird and complicated name. Although he was fairly sure on Poirot considering he lived above a cafe with the name). "But, why do you..?" He still wanted to ask.

"I had that game that Tsuburaya gave me this morning in my pocket." She explained. He heard some faint typing noises in the background. "It seems they were checking it out with one of the organization's computers.. so I was thinking of copying the data on APTX 4869 onto the disk, but.. it requires a password..." Her breathing was heavy, as if just speaking made her winded.

He pointedly tried to ignore the implications of that.

After a few seconds she frustratedly groaned and said, "It's not Poirot either."

"...Why would it be Poirot, though?" He curiously asked.

"In its prototype stage, they named the drug 'Sherlock' parodying its serial number, 4869... So I tried inputting all the detective names I know, but..."

He almost asked if she tried 'Sherlock', but it was pretty clear that she already did, based on what she just said.

"Hm..." Was all he said as he trailed off in thought.

Maybe if there was some sort of name Sherlock had before he was named Sherlock, like a prototype, but it's not like he would know that.

Wait.

Conan nearly facepalmed again because Google, duh. He placed down the microphone for a second and whipped out his phone, ignoring Agasa's confused gaze, and, after a quick search, he learned that there was one. Shelling Ford, interesting.

He put his phone away and picked back up the microphone, but he hesitated.

Did he really want to do this?

If that really was the correct password then Haibara would gain access to all the drug's data, and, if she escapes, she could make an antidote and he would be done for.

He paused.

Conan furiously shook his head.

No! This is not the time to be selfish. He had to help out Haibara all he can and if that meant potentially getting the drug's data then that meant potentially getting the drug's data.

Conan bit back a yawn. "Try Shelling Ford." He said. Haibara let out a confused huh but it kind of sounded more like a groan. "It's the name Conan Doyle used before naming Sherlock, Sherlock." He explained.

"Ah..." She said as she began typing away. A moment later, she excitedly said, "It opened!"

A small (actually pretty large) part of Conan was frustrated that that was actually it, but he still said, "That's good..." While trying (and failing) to ignore the gnawing guilt that coursed through his body as Haibara's breathing started to sound more and more pained (which was made worse considering it was sounding right in his ear).

"Haibara..?" He hesitantly said. "How are you feeling?" He asked even though he was pretty sure he knew the answer.

"Horrible." Yep, he did. "I don't know why you made me drink that alcohol because it's honestly just making my cold worse..." She let out an irritated sigh. "Anyway.." She continued. "I'll copy the data on the drug onto the disk and hide it somewhere in the wine cellar.. so come pick it up after they take my corpse away..."

Conan wanted to refute that, but she was probably going to end up being correct.

He quickly checked the time, and hmm, it had been about 30 minutes since she first drank the alcohol. As far as he remembered, it took a bit longer for him to actually start passing out, but.. it almost sounded like it may happen earlier for her. Maybe the APTX 4869 in her system is making it worse. That's not good.

He looked back at the tablet to sift through some more reports, bringing his mind away from that topic and onto something more useful.

However, that didn't last long whenever he heard a very pained groan come from Haibara.

"Haibara?" He nervously asked, but she didn't respond, only the sound of her laboured erratic breathing could be heard.

Oh god, it was happening. It was going to happen earlier.

"H-hey, Shinichi..!" Agasa suddenly shouted, grabbing Conan's shoulder and lightly shaking him to get his attention. "L-look!" He frantically pointed out the windshield.

Conan followed his gaze and gasped at what he saw just up ahead on the street, Gin and Vodka just casually heading out of their car and onto the sidewalk.

"I-it's them!" Agasa shouted. "Did they get in contact with Pisco!?"

"N-no. They couldn't have!" He said panicky, but resolutely. "Megure would contact me before letting those seven go..!"

Conan stared frustratedly out the windshield, because why else would they be here!?

The two fedora clad men stopped for a moment on the sidewalk. Vodka pulled out a small computer and opened it up. They both looked at the screen for a second, before Vodka turned to his partner and said something. Gin nodded a second later, Vodka put the computer away, and they both continued heading towards the hotel.

Conan's eyes widened as he realized what their interaction most likely entailed.

"D-don't tell me..." He said fearfully. "That computer Haibara was using had a transmitter in it!?"

This is bad. Quite possibly the worst case scenario.

Conan frantically brought the microphone back up to his mouth and yelled, "Haibara! They're coming! You have to hide!" However she gave no response. The only thing he heard from her was another pained groan along with her heavy breathing.

Conan internally swore.

Of course when the effects of the Paikaru started to set in is when Gin and Vodka decided to show up. Just his fucking luck.

Conan felt tears prick at his eyes.

If he wasn't so selfish earlier then maybe Haibara would have a chance of surviving. Just maybe she would be able to find some place to hide in the chimney or something, but she had no chance in this state. It sounded like she was barely even processing his words, let alone able to sufficiently hide in time.

"H-Haibara..!" He tried again, but again, to no avail.

It was really any moment now that he'd hear the thump of her body hitting the floor as her consciousness slipped away.

Conan waited for the inevitable, but instead, he heard her scream.

He stared at the earpiece in shock.

Screaming?

She shouldn't be screaming!?

Yes it should be painful, but not scream worthy.

This is even worse than he thought.

At this point he didn't even know what was happening. His only guess was that the Apotoxin was reacting with the alcohol weirdly and doing something to her. He could only hope it wasn't life threatening and would end soon.

He flinched as she screamed again. Loudly.

Well, whatever was happening, it was clear Haibara would not be able to hide right now, so Conan, decidedly, had to do something.

He whipped out his phone and bowtie and set it to Shinichi's voice as he dialed up Megure. As soon as the Inspector picked up Conan, well, furiously yelled at the man to stop the two weird men dressed in black entering the hotel. But, from what he heard, it didn't sound like it'd be too easy. And it was getting kind of hard to concentrate when Haibara was loudly screaming right in his ear!

He eventually hung up realizing there was nothing else he could do.

Now, all he could do is wait. Anxiously wait. Wait for either the police to stop Gin and Vodka, or for them to find and kill Haibara, or for whatever was happening to Haibara to end its course. And there was nothing he could do to satiate the adrenaline coursing through his veins.

(At this point, Conan didn't think he could even call himself tired anymore, with his heart beating this fast.)

But thankfully, soon enough, his waiting ended, the universe deciding to go with the third option (which was, definitely not the worst so that was pretty nice).

Haibara's screams died down, leaving only her exhausted breathing to be heard.

"H-Haibara..?" He tried again.

She groaned as she, what sounded like, pushed herself off the ground. She let out a very confused, "Wha..?" Her voice sounded.. different, almost, but he couldn't figure out why or what was different.

"Haibara?" He said again. "Are you okay?"

She didn't say anything for a moment, and just let out a dry, breathy laugh. "Wow... I wasn't expecting this."

"Huh..?" He said quietly.

Expecting what?

Conan glanced at the clock, realizing with a jolt that five whole minutes have passed since Gin and Vodka left for the hotel.

Figuring out whatever happened to Haibara could wait. Making sure she didn't die was just a bit more important.

"Uh, anyway." He hurriedly said into the microphone. "Gin and Vodka are coming, like right now, so you have to hide. Do you think the chimney would work?"

"Uh.. yeah." She said. "Just, give me a second." He heard some noises and moving around as she presumably did just that. (Although he heard what sounded like cloth rubbing against the glasses' audio receiver, which was weird. Why would she be putting on or taking off clothes, or something?)

But, now that he could hear her clearer, he finally realized why she sounded so different. Her voice was.. deeper. Well, it sounded just like her, but lower, as if she was older or something...

No.

It couldn't be.

Did the Paikaru actually return her to her original body!?

Conan shook his head and internally scoffed.

Yeah, right. There's no way that happened. All the screaming probably just made her voice ragged, that's all. It's not like the antidote to an extremely complex drug like APTX 4869 would just be some alcohol. Even more unlikely would be that he was somehow right, again. Predicting a rare side effect of the drug was already a huge coincidence. Something like that happening again? No chance.

(He pointedly ignored the little voice in his head telling him that theory would make sense with what Haibara had said earlier and why her voice sounded deeper. Nope.)

Conan smiled, relieved, as he heard Haibara's echoey breathing, most likely meaning that she was able to sufficiently hide in the chimney. He was glad that she managed not to pass out and that whatever the Paikaru did to her, didn't seem to to be too life threatening.

That smile was wiped off his face and replaced with a fearful grimace when he heard two other distinctly male voices come through the receiver, namely Gin and Vodka. He couldn't really hear their conversation, only a few snippets of it (because the audio quality on this thing wasn't exactly good), but it didn't sound like they found Haibara, yet. He hoped.

Eventually, he didn't hear the voices for long enough to assume that they had left.

"Did they leave?" He hesitantly asked.

"Yeah..." She said. Her breathing still sounded very strained, which wasn't too good but at least the worst has passed.

"Do you think you can try to find a way out then?"

"Already got one." She answered.

Conan let out a very confused, "Huh?"

"Thanks to that Paikaru, I'm big enough to climb up the chimney." She grunted as she slowly pushed herself up the walls.

Wait.

Conan's eyes widened, realizing what she was implying.

No. Fucking. Way.

"W-what..?" He quietly choked out. "You mean.. it worked!?" He incredulously shouted. "I-it actually..!?"

"Yeah..." She said. "Why are you so surprised..? Didn't you plan this?"

"I, w-well..." He stuttered, at a loss for words. "I-I didn't think it would actually work!" He settled on, which, well, wasn't a lie.

Haibara let out a huff of air, which he assumed was supposed to be a laugh. "Yeah... But I'm surprised. Does Paikaru have something in it that increases the cell's multiplication ability? I'll have to test it..." She trailed off.

But Conan didn't process any of what she just said, too busy mentally freaking out and staring at some nebulous space in front of him.

After about 30 seconds of his thoughts ping-ponging at rapid speeds against the walls of his brain as he tried to process the fact that Paikaru actually was an antidote to the Apotoxin, what the hell, he was right!? Conan sighed and brought a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose.

Huh.

Maybe he shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss the supernatural, because the idea that he was a psychic or some sort of accidental future foreseer, was sounding pretty plausible at the moment.

Conan wanted to hysterically laugh or scream or cry or something, but he tamed that urge because now wasn't exactly the best time to be doing so. Actually, now wasn't the time to be freaking out either, when he still needed to find out who Pisco was.

After a second, he suddenly gasped, realizing something very important (and pointedly ignoring the worried look that got from Agasa).

What if this change was permanent? What if she never changed back!? Haibara would have to go 'missing' and it'd cause a whole fuss that the Black Organization may notice and where would they even hide her? And the other side of the coin is pretty bad too. What if this only lasted a few minutes!? What if she changed back before she could even make it out!?

Okay, maybe he can let himself freak out a bit longer.

After a few seconds, Conan took a few deep breaths to calm down, because it was no use worrying over something he couldn't change, and it'd be much more productive to think about something actually important.

So, Conan shoved all those thoughts into the back of his mind, for later, and started sifting through the reports again.

After a few minutes, he finally found something useful. In one of the articles, there was an image of two of the suspects, Nanjou and Tarumi, hugging each other nearly moments before the murder, so clearly neither of them could be Pisco.

Conan brought out the diagram he drew earlier and crossed off their names.

He searched the photo again, just in case, and surprisingly found something else. Far in the background, it looked like someone was reaching their arm up, as if pointing at something (pointing a gun at something.. perhaps). It was far too blurry to tell what they were actually doing, let alone who it was, but it gave Conan an idea.

He whipped out the two pieces of evidence he had from his pocket and started thoroughly inspecting the handkerchief. After just a few seconds, he found a burn mark almost right in the middle of the back side, wondering how he managed to miss this earlier because it was kind of obvious. Then, he grabbed the chain and covered it with his hand. It was faint, but there was still a small amount of what looked like glow in the dark paint on the piece.

Conan smirked.

He knew how it was done, now he just has to figure out who did it.

He looked back at the diagram and thought through each of the, now, five suspects. Chris and Tawara were the two closest to the chandelier, in fact, too close to be able to aim the gun at the chain correctly. He crossed out their names. The chairman, Mugikura, was up on stage and would've had too much attention on him to be able to carry out that trick, so that left Masuyama and Mihei. But both of them were fully capable of committing the murder...

Wait.

Mihei was the guy who spat out the chain right. The chain that was a crucial piece of evidence, that Pisco would want to remove and definitely not spit out and draw attention to.

He crossed out his name, looking at the one final uncrossed name.

So, that Masuyama guy was Pisco then.

Huh, that was easier than he was expecting. Just some simple process of elimination.

Conan put away the handkerchief, chain, and his notebook, and brought out his phone and bowtie, ready to tell Megure who the culprit was, before a realization suddenly hit him.

He told Megure to keep anyone with a purple handkerchief at the hotel, meaning Pisco must've had one at that time. Except, that couldn't be right because Conan had his handkerchief at that time. So, there should be no way he could've had it. Unless...

Unless he had an accomplice.

Meaning that, most likely, there was a second organization member among those seven.

That's worrying.

But he didn't have time for that right now. First and foremost, he had to make sure Megure apprehended Pisco.


Well, turned out Megure let the suspects go right before he decided to call him, which was just peachy.

So now Conan had to go back into the hotel, regrettably leaving the glasses with Agasa, and try to do something about Pisco making his way to the room Haibara was kept in and potentially finding out about her shrunken nature.

Thankfully, he easily figured out where said room was after innocently asking the receptionists if there was an old wine cellar in the hotel, and had thus headed over immediately after.

He was hurriedly rushing through the fortunately less crowded halls, when suddenly he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Conan irritably groaned because now was kind of the worst time for someone to be calling him (he really should've put his phone on silent or turned it off or something). He slowed down only slightly, as he grabbed his phone out, but the irritation left his body, seeing Agasa's caller ID on the screen.

He quickly picked up, hoping that whatever the man was calling about was good. "What is it!?" He asked.

"Haibara was shot!"

Oh no. That was not good.

"What!?" He yelled.

"Yeah, they found her on the roof and started shooting her!" He explained. "You need to head-" He suddenly cut off.

"Professor! Professor!?" He frantically yelled.

He looked down at his phone and was met with a blank phone screen.

Great, out of battery.


Conan rested his hands on his knees as he took a moment to catch his breath on the top of the stairwell. The long trek to the rooftop had made him quite winded.

After his breathing had slowed to a normal amount, he slowly and quietly cracked open the door to the roof, bracing himself for the scene he was about to see.

And, boy, was it a scene.

Gin and Vodka both had their guns in hand hanging at their side, and we're somehow exuding an extremely menacing aura while just standing there. And Haibara (or perhaps the name Sherry or Miyano would be more accurate at the moment) was laying in the snow practically bleeding out, in her full, un-shrunken form. She looked, well, exactly as he remembered, save for the outfit, glasses, and the fact that she was covered in blood.

He just stared in shock at her for a moment, because a small part of him was kind of hoping this whole thing was just some practical joke, and that she didn't actually grow back, but nope. Now that he could see the physical proof with his own eyes, the realization was starting to hit him again.

"Aniki..." Vodka suddenly said, bringing Conan back to the present and making him remember that this is a dire situation that he should probably be paying attention to. "This woman won't talk."

"It can't be helped then..." Gin said, raising the gun in his, huh, left hand (Conan stored that tidbit of information in his mind) and pointing it at her. "Let's send her to meet her sister up in heaven.. shall we?"

Conan's eyes widened in fear, realizing that he really had to do something, right now. He popped open the lid of his watch and aimed it at the man, searching for an area of open skin on his body, before realizing that there wasn't exactly.. any, at all, when he was facing away like this. So, he just decided to get him in the arm, hoping the needle would penetrate through the fabric.

As soon as it made contact, Gin immediately brought a hand to his arm and bent down on one knee. Vodka looked over at him, confused, and said, "A-aniki?"

Conan didn't have too much time to be relieved, when he started to implement the next part of his plan. He set his bowtie to some nondescript male voice and yelled, "Get inside the chimney! Hurry!"

Vodka yelled, "Who's there!?" As he quickly turned to meet where the voice sounded. Conan ducked behind the door before Vodka could catch a glimpse.

Suddenly, bullets started sailing over him and impaling on the opposite wall. Conan flinched and put his arms over his head, but thankfully the shots all ended up far above him. Clearly Vodka was aiming for someone more adult sized, which he guessed was one of the few perks of being seven, in this situation.

Vodka cursed and started shooting at.. apparently something else.

Conan took a hesitant peek outside just in time to see Haibara falling into the chimney as one of Vodka's shots ricocheted off the side of it.

Conan took this as his sign to run away before Vodka started coming after him, and immediately ran down the stairs, heading to the storage room Haibara fell into (hopefully before Pisco got there but he wasn't too confident).


And Pisco did, in fact, make it there before him.

Conan hid behind a corner as he watched Masuyama (glad to know he was right) heading into the room. As soon as the door shut, Conan quietly rushed over and peeked inside.

Pisco was standing in the middle of the aisle in front of the chimney, and consequently Haibara, who was now shrunken again (very glad to know that wasn't permanent).

"Amazing!" The man said. He walked over to Haibara and crouched down in front of her. "You were still a baby back then, so I guess you won't remember me, but.. I was a close friend of your parents."

Conan decided to use this moment, when Pisco was distracted, to set up for his deduction. He opened the door just enough for him to get through and tip-toed over to hide behind one of the shelves.

"They were scientists like you." He continued. "They told me a lot about the drug they were developing..."

Conan made his way down the aisle and hid a speaker behind some random box on the bottom of the shelf (while intently listening to what Pisco was saying because he'd be lying if he said he wasn't interested) then quickly began heading back to the door.

"But who'd guess that you'd develop it to this extent."

Conan paused, mid-way through the journey back to the exit.

The drug that Haibara's parents were making, was it APTX 4869, or at least a version of it? And Pisco made it sound like the shrinking side effect was actually intended.

Intriguing.

"But, this is an order..." Pisco said as he reached into his jacket. Conan (quietly) rushed back to the door and continued peeking inside. "Don't think badly of me, Shiho-chan..."

Shiho-chan?

Is that her name?

Conan saw the glint of a gun in Pisco's hand, which promptly reminded Conan that this was not the time to be thinking about Haibara's, potential, real name.

"That's, as far as you'll go." Conan quickly said, into the bowtie. "Masuyama-san, or rather.." He paused for dramatic effect. "Pisco."

"W-what!?" Pisco slightly flinched, then immediately stood up and began searching for the source of the voice.

Conan carefully peeked inside, and, as soon as Pisco (who Conan noticed was smoking a cigarette, in a room full of flammable substances - honestly you have to be some special kind of stupid to do that) ducked into one of the aisles, he snuck in and hid behind a shelf on the opposite side as Pisco, all while saying his deduction, which he tried to drag out as much as possible, to give him more time to carry out his plan. He slowly made his way over to Haibara (while keeping an eye on where Pisco was) and gingerly wrapped her up in his jacket, after he noticed that the uniform she was wearing was far too large to work right now.

And that was when he suddenly heard multiple gunshots (silenced, of course) and the sound of bottles breaking, spilling their contents, along with Pisco's loud shout of, "There you are!"

Seems he found the speaker, that was fast.

Conan had planned to just grab Haibara and go, while leaving Pisco to fruitlessly search for him, but at this rate, Pisco would probably find them before he even had a chance, so he had to formulate a new plan now. He peeked behind the shelf corner, and one immediately formed, seeing the cigarette in Pisco's mouth, the 'Spiritus 96% alcohol' written on the side of the broken box, and the pool of alcohol beneath Pisco's feet.

It was a stupid and far less than ideal plan, but a plan nonetheless. And probably the one he was going to end up going with, considering he had no other ideas.

(He felt kind of guilty for basically condemning the man to death, especially one by fire, but Pisco was a heartless murderer and Black Organization member, so really not too much.)

(He also wasn't planning on getting anywhere near fire anytime soon - especially after that fiasco of a KID heist - let alone causing one, but what could he do.)

Despite all that, Conan continued his deduction, further enraging Pisco.

Soon after (when Conan had just finished his deduction - wow what timing), Pisco shoved the box off the shelf and, when he noticed the speaker on the side of it, he yanked it off and furiously yelled, "W-who the hell are you!?"

Conan stood in front of Haibara, put his hand in his pockets, and placed what he hoped was a smug (and definitely not nervous) expression on his face. "Edogawa Conan, a detective." He said, without the bowtie this time.

Pisco immediately whipped his head around to look at the boy. "A brat!?" He yelled incredulously.

Conan decided not to say anything to that and just continued. "Just like those two on the roof, you'll be caught by the police." Which was his plan before he had to scrap it (which yeah wasn't too good, because Pisco knowing that Haibara shrunk is still dangerous even if he's in the hands of the police, but there really wasn't anything else to do other than killing him). "But before that, why don't you tell me where you got that purple handkerchief during the investigation, or rather.. who gave it to you."

Pisco scoffed. "There are things in this world that are better off remaining a mystery." He raised his gun. "And have a good look at your situation! You can't call for the police."

Conan smirked. "You're the one who should have a good look at your situation... Or at the floor, that is."

Pisco immediately looked downwards, and his eyes widened, staring at the broken bottles next to his feet.

"Don't you know not to smoke around flammable substances?" Conan said in a very condescending manner. "Alcohol evaporates very fast, you know."

Pisco gasped, consequently letting the cigarette fall from his mouth. The area around them immediately broke into flames, causing Conan to start briefly panicking because the fire was spreading fast, far faster than he was anticipating.

Conan took a deep breath (as much as he could with the rising smoke) because now was really not the time to start panicking, and removed any thoughts of 'fire', 'bad', and 'going to die', from his mind and solely focused on just getting out.

Conan picked up Haibara, surveyed the room, determining that there was thankfully still a clear path to the door, and promptly ran down it, not even caring if Pisco heard him. As soon as he stepped foot into the hall, he shut the door, hopefully trapping Pisco inside, and just ran.


"What!?" Conan yelled, safely sat in Agasa's car. "Gin shot and killed Pisco!?"

"Yeah.. I heard them through the glasses Ai-kun forgot in the storage room. It seems after he shot Pisco, he climbed back up the chimney." Agasa answered, eyes not straying from the road.

"But I..."

'Tranquilized him', Conan didn't say.

Gin should be passed out on the roof right now, not able to climb up and down a chimney. Unless.. the needle wasn't able to get through his clothes after all. But no! He clearly saw Gin react, meaning that the needle did reach his skin. But then, why didn't it work?

Conan yawned, the exhaustion coming back in full force now that he wasn't so nervous and his bloodstream wasn't full of adrenaline. He was too tired to try and think of an explanation right now and just chalked it up to Gin being Gin, for now.

He glanced behind him at Haibara who was laying down in the backseat (with no seatbelt on which was kind of dangerous but he figured it'd be fine, just this once). She, quite frankly, looked horrible, which was to be expected. According to Agasa, she was shot multiple times (he was starting to see some blood seeping through his jacket), but thankfully none of her injuries were fatal. And, now that he thought about it, it was quite concerning how Haibara's actions were predicted so easily.

But, what were they going to do now?

Well, if Gin was able to predict what Haibara was going to do so accurately, maybe they should do the opposite of what she wants.

"Hey." Conan said as he turned to the girl behind him. "So, what're you going to do now?"

It took her a moment to realize she was being spoken to, her eyes slowly moving to meet his gaze. "Good point." She said tiredly. She looked even more exhausted than he was. She painfully groaned. "They know that I'm staying in this city... I can't stay with you guys anymore." She paused. "That disk must've been burned up too.. so there's no point in staying."

Conan's eyes slightly widened because he completely forgot about that disk. That was actually a lucky turn of events, at least for him.

"Don't worry, I'll be leaving tomorrow." Haibara finished with a huff.

"Hey! You're too injured to do that!" He absently heard Agasa say.

So the opposite of leaving would be staying...

Actually, that would make sense. Gin may think that she'd immediately leave, and that it'd be pointless to try and search for her here.

"That's good then." He suddenly said, hoping that he was actually right. He probably wasn't, but, in that case, they'd be dead in a few days either way, so.

Agasa let out a confused, "Huh?" While Haibara managed to convey the sentiment with just her eyes.

"If that's the case, then it'll be fine..." He cryptically said, just looking out the windshield with a smirk.