Izu trip?
That was the time they met Kyogoku Makoto, right?
Chi Feichi had originally planned to rest for two days, but he also wanted to meet that human weapon. "I'm fine with it. I'm off these next two days anyway, and I can ask for leave if needed."
"Then I'll leave this brat to you," Suzuki Sonoko smiled and ruffled Conan's hair. "Ran insisted on bringing him along. How can she meet handsome guys with a brat tagging along! By the way, Professor, do you want to come too?"
"I won't go," Professor Agasa said. "I promised the children I'd take them to the amusement park tomorrow..."
"I want to go." Haibara Ai's words were brief, but her attitude was firm.
Conan was a bit surprised, but the more people, the better. He wouldn't be reassured if only Suzuki Sonoko and Mouri Ran went.
Suzuki Sonoko made the final decision. "Then let's go together. Bringing one brat or two doesn't seem much different!"
The next day.
Chi Feichi drove Haibara Ai to the agreed-upon inn.
Suzuki Sonoko had originally planned for Conan to go with them, seeming to think two girls taking the train might attract unwanted attention, but Conan shamelessly insisted on taking the train with them anyway.
Only Chi Feichi and Haibara Ai arrived first.
Driving over also allowed Feichi to get some fresh air without having to hide all the time.
"Is this the place?" Haibara Ai looked at the dilapidated small inn from the car window, suspecting for a moment that Chi Feichi had taken a wrong turn.
"Should be correct." Chi Feichi parked the car.
Feichi occupied the entire back seat and crawled onto the window. "Could it be that the eldest Miss Suzuki's family went bankrupt?"
Chi Feichi: "..."
His family might go bankrupt, but the Suzuki conglomerate going bankrupt is impossible.
Haibara Ai leaned over and picked up Feichi, who was lying on the back window. "Feichi, we're here. Time to get out."
Feichi: "..."
Although being treated gently feels nice, everyone carrying me around so casually makes me feel less and less like a snake...
Entering the inn, a man wearing glasses sat behind the old counter. Hearing someone enter, he looked over. "Two guests..."
Haibara Ai's small arm obviously couldn't compare to Chi Feichi's. Feichi coiled up Haibara Ai's arm, winding all the way up to her shoulder, and simply rested his head there, flicking his tongue at Kyogoku Makoto.
Chi Feichi observed Kyogoku Makoto. The healthy, dark-skinned young man's face had turned slightly pale from fright. "You're afraid of snakes?"
The corner of Kyogoku Makoto's mouth twitched slightly. It wasn't a question of being afraid of snakes or not. A little girl standing there calmly with a live snake wrapped around her was just plain creepy, okay?
Like a haunted doll from a horror movie...
"Ahem, I'm fine. Are you two checking in?"
"We booked rooms. The reservation is under Suzuki Sonoko." Haibara Ai said.
Kyogoku Makoto looked down and flipped through the notebook on the counter, then handed over two keys. "There is a reservation. Two rooms for today and tomorrow, two days in total. Please keep the keys safe. Also... I suggest finding a cage for the pet you brought. We can provide one here."
"He's very well-behaved and won't bite." Haibara Ai raised her arm slightly. After interacting with him so much, she didn't find Feichi scary at all.
However, Kyogoku Makoto's face stiffened involuntarily. "Even if it doesn't bite, if it scares other guests..."
"Give me the cage," Chi Feichi said.
Kyogoku Makoto breathed a sigh of relief, went to find a cage for Chi Feichi, and then stood up to show them to their rooms.
Fortunately, there's a guest who is considerate of others...
"Are we really going to lock Feichi up?" Haibara Ai asked in a low voice as she followed them upstairs.
Feichi turned to look at Chi Feichi. If Chi Feichi wanted him to stay in a cage, he wouldn't refuse...
"I'll teach him how to pick the lock later, in case he gets caught by bad guys and can't escape," Chi Feichi looked down at the latch on the cage. "The mesh is dense, but the denser the mesh, the thinner the wire. It's best if he can bite a hole. If he can't bite a hole big enough, he needs to learn to open the lock with his tail."
Kyogoku Makoto leading the way: "..."
Is this why you wanted the cage?
I heard everything, okay!
"Bite this cage?" Feichi coiled around twice, opened his mouth wide, and snap, bit two large holes in the cage. Only a crumpled wire remained between the two holes. "Master, don't underestimate my bite force. Is this enough for me to get out?"
Saying that, he poked with his tail and forcefully poked another hole on the other side.
"Even with my tail, I can..."
Before Feichi could finish showing off, because he was only wrapped around a section of Haibara Ai's arm, he lost his balance and fell to the ground with a splat.
"Be careful," Haibara Ai bent down to pick Feichi up. "But Feichi is really smart. Can he understand us talking about biting the cage?"
Chi Feichi: "Mn, he understands."
Haibara Ai: "Then what if Feichi is put into a glass box? What should we do then?"
Chi Feichi: "Try hitting it with his tail to see if he can break it..."
Kyogoku Makoto showed them to their rooms, glanced at the cage set aside with three new holes in it, silently picked it up, and took it away. A while later, he brought back an iron cage with a glass box tightly fitted inside. "Guests, I exchanged the cage for you. Also, damaged items require compensation."
Subtext: Stop messing around and keep the snake locked up properly, or wait to pay up!
Feichi: "..."
This person is utterly insane!
Chi Feichi didn't mind the compensation and examined the cage.
Seeing Kyogoku Makoto close the door and leave, Feichi slithered to the cage. "Master, this big black guy is targeting me too much. Can I bite him?"
"If you want to die," Chi Feichi said without thinking.
Even if Kyogoku Makoto was startled earlier, Chi Feichi believed that in a critical moment, Kyogoku Makoto would definitely dare to tear a snake apart with his bare hands, or just stomp Feichi out of existence...
"What?" Haibara Ai, who was unpacking her clothes nearby, looked up.
"Nothing," Chi Feichi said.
Haibara Ai hesitated for a moment, sighed inwardly, walked over, and sat next to Chi Feichi. "Were you talking to Feichi? Did you hear what it said earlier?"
Chi Feichi glanced sideways at Haibara Ai.
"It's okay to have auditory hallucinations. Maybe what you hear is really its meaning," Haibara Ai reached out and fiddled with the cage. She came along to observe Chi Feichi's condition, and now it seemed severe. "You don't need to suppress yourself deliberately. Medication can slowly improve such conditions."
Chi Feichi: "..."
I appreciate the concern, but how do I explain that it's not a hallucination...
"Teach Feichi how to escape from this kind of cage," Haibara Ai patted the cage and thought for a moment. "Let me see if there's any way."
A wire cage encasing a glass box. The glass box was almost impossible to bite. If he used his tail to hit the glass box, the outer wire cage fitted tightly would distribute the impact, making it hard to break...
Haibara Ai posed a difficult problem. The two humans and one snake sat on the floor, staring at the cage in the middle.
"Find a point on the glass box and keep hitting it with the tail tip. It should shatter the glass box, then deal with the wire. This should work, but it's easy to get cut by glass shards..."
"Mn, and it takes a long time. Might be discovered, or too late to escape."
Deep thought, silence, staring.
"Here! Finally here! Brother Feichi... Eh?"
Suzuki Sonoko slid open the door and saw two people and a snake sitting around a cage on different sides. Confused, she ran to the empty side and knelt down too, staring at the cage in silence.
Chi Feichi: "..."
Haibara Ai: "..."
Feichi: "..."
An idiot has infiltrated their ranks!