Back at the inn.
Mouri Ran, Suzuki Sonoko, and Haibara Ai stayed in one room, while Chi Feichi took Conan to stay in another.
Haibara Ai brought her paper bowl to Chi Feichi's room. "Aren't we going back tomorrow?"
"Worried the goldfish will die?"
Chi Feichi guessed Haibara Ai's thought. Goldfish caught or bought for entertainment like this were indeed hard to keep alive. He stood up and said, "I'll go ask the owner for some salt."
Conan, who was making the bed nearby, froze and turned to look at Chi Feichi. "Goldfish don't taste good, right?"
Chi Feichi glanced at Conan, his expression calm. "The paper bowl isn't necessarily clean, and we can't change to a fish tank right now. It's hard for the goldfish to survive. Adding salt at a ratio of one part per thousand of water can achieve a sterilization effect."
Conan was embarrassed: "..."
Alright, alright, I was thinking weird things.
"I'll go too." Haibara Ai put down the paper bowl and followed Chi Feichi downstairs.
The first floor was dimly lit. Kyogoku Makoto was guarding the counter alone. Hearing Chi Feichi and Haibara Ai's purpose, he turned to the kitchen to get a bag of salt, placed it in Haibara Ai's hand, and remained silent the whole time.
Just as Chi Feichi was about to go upstairs, Kyogoku Makoto hesitated for a moment before speaking up. "Senior Chi..."
Chi Feichi stopped and turned around. Senior?
Having called out to Chi Feichi, Kyogoku Makoto stopped hesitating and looked at him frankly. "I am also a student at Haido High School, but you had already graduated when I enrolled. We never met before, but my senior sister said there used to be a cold and arrogant senior in the school. Just now, I saw the name you registered..."
Chi Feichi: "..."
What do you mean 'cold and arrogant'?
Haibara Ai said tepidly, "Rumor is a pipe blown by surmises, jealousies, and conjectures. If you only understand others with your ears, then we have nothing to say."
"No, I never believe in rumors," Kyogoku Makoto looked straight at Chi Feichi. "I just have a few questions I want to ask Senior Chi no matter what!"
Chi Feichi nodded. "Wait for me to change clothes."
Only then did Kyogoku Makoto breathe a sigh of relief. "I'll wait for you downstairs!"
Chi Feichi returned to his room, removed his weights, and changed into clothes that allowed for easy movement.
He originally wanted to find an opportunity to see if he could fight Kyogoku Makoto. He didn't expect Kyogoku Makoto to seek him out first, which suited him perfectly.
Coming out of the room, Haibara Ai and Conan were whispering in the hallway.
"Just this? How am I supposed to guess..." Conan's voice was very low.
"If you can't guess, don't guess," Chi Feichi pressed a hand on each small head. "Go back to sleep. Conan, help me look after Feichi."
"Uh, okay," Conan looked downstairs. "That person..."
"It's fine. I probably know what he wants to say."
Chi Feichi went downstairs and said to Kyogoku Makoto, who was waiting at the counter, "Talk outside?"
"Okay!" Kyogoku Makoto nodded.
Hearing no movement below, Haibara Ai standing in the hallway frowned. "I still think the atmosphere when they were talking just now wasn't quite right."
"You're overthinking it. Alright, don't think too much..." Conan yawned, opened the room door, saw the weights placed in the corner at a glance, and instantly perked up. "Let's follow them and see!"
"Hey..." Before Haibara Ai could speak, she watched Conan run downstairs like the wind, and she followed suit.
Suzuki Sonoko opened her room door, poked her head out to look, and seeing no one outside, wondered, "Strange, I seemed to hear Conan the brat's voice right outside the door..."
"You must have misheard," Mouri Ran said from inside the room. "Is Ai-chan not coming to sleep yet?"
Suzuki Sonoko took a look and found the light still on in the next room. "Seems she's still over at Brother Feichi's place. Maybe comparing whose goldfish is bigger with Conan. Kids are so energetic..."
"I don't think Conan and Ai-chan are the type to do that..." Mouri Ran said.
"Alright, ignore them," Suzuki Sonoko yawned and closed the door. "They'll come to sleep when they're sleepy..."
Conan ran to the first floor, didn't see anyone, and immediately ran outside, still not seeing Chi Feichi who had gone downstairs earlier.
"What exactly happened?" Haibara Ai jogged out after him.
"I saw Chi Feichi's weights in the room. He took off his weights, which is only possible if he's going to fight someone. Usually, he can handle things without taking off weights, which means he's serious this time." Conan surveyed the environment around the inn, then ran to the edge of the woods, squatting down to examine the trampled wild grass. "These should have been stepped on recently. They went into the woods!"
"Let's go check."
"Wait a minute!"
Conan grabbed Haibara Ai, who was about to enter the woods, looking at the trees and frowning in contemplation.
Going into the woods at night was dangerous.
If those two just simply wanted to fight without much grudge, there was no need for them to follow. If they encountered trouble in the woods, even just getting lost, they would have to trouble others.
However, they knew nothing about who the innkeeper was, what his personality was like, or what grudge the two had—not even his name.
If the other party harbored malicious intent due to some grudge, just setting a trap or hiding a weapon in the woods beforehand would be dangerous for Chi Feichi, no matter how skilled he was...
After considering it, Conan felt it was better to follow and check. He turned on the flashlight on his watch and entered the woods first. "Not many people should come in and out of these woods usually. We can follow the traces on the ground."
Haibara Ai nodded, looked at the traces on the ground with the illumination, and then fell silent.
Conan was also stunned for a moment. He shone the light further ahead and saw the footprints behind. "The distance between the footprints is very long, and the center of gravity is entirely forward. This means both of them ran into the woods, very fast. Uh... this speed..."
Looking at the traces and footprints, the speed of these two was not just ordinarily fast; it was at least the speed of sprinters in a competition.
Although warming up before a fight was normal, it wouldn't consume too much physical strength. Did those two plan to run a lap in the woods in the middle of the night?
Or were they chasing something inside?
What on earth did these two go to do!
"Could they be chasing something?" Haibara Ai also thought of this point.
Conan used his watch flashlight to look around, not even missing the trees. "There are no traces of other people or creatures on the ground, nor on the trees. If something else lured them into the woods, it would leave at least some traces. Even if it were a bird, for them to see and chase it, the flight altitude wouldn't be too high, and traces should be left on the trees... Does Haido High School have some tradition of racing upon meeting?"
Haibara Ai had black lines dropping down her forehead. "Probably not."
Conan thought about it and agreed; he had never heard of Haido High having such a bizarre tradition. "Anyway, we'll know when we find them!"
In the woods, two figures moved rapidly.
Chi Feichi was in front, his speed ghost-like.
Kyogoku Makoto followed behind, the surprise in his eyes growing.
Earlier, Chi Feichi walked to the edge of the woods, dropped the words 'keep up', and started sprinting. He still didn't understand Chi Feichi's intention.
However, Chi Feichi's physical fitness was unexpectedly formidable.
Seeing Chi Feichi at first, he recognized traces of combat training in Chi Feichi's movements but didn't take it to heart. Judging from his hand bones and walking habits, Chi Feichi's training time shouldn't exceed two years; he was completely a rookie.
But if he was a rookie with less than two years of training, how could he achieve this level of physical fitness?
No, from Chi Feichi's sprinting movements, he could roughly see traces of technique.
He couldn't tell exactly what technique it was for now, but this was someone who focused on speed, agility, endurance, and mastered techniques!
Finding a clearing wide enough, Chi Feichi slowed down and stopped, turning to look at Kyogoku Makoto.
Kyogoku Makoto snapped back to reality, realizing he had unknowingly started analyzing the other person's situation again. He also stopped, puzzled. "Why..."
Why bring him here?
Why run in front the whole way?
Chi Feichi didn't give Kyogoku Makoto a chance to ask further. He reached out and assumed a stance. "Fight me seriously. If you win, I'll answer your questions."