"Kazawa——"
Hearing the shout, Kazawa deftly stepped aside, steadied Suzuki Sonoko by the arm, and at the same time avoided her rushing straight into him.
"Be careful, Suzuki-san," Kazawa said calmly, shifting his commuter bag to act as a barrier between him and Suzuki Sonoko.
This was starting to get annoying now that they'd gotten more familiar.
He suspected it was Suzuki Sonoko's clinginess that made the socially anxious Hoshikawa Teru more and more reluctant to go to school in his place.
"Sonoko, stop doing that all the time." Mouri Ran pulled her friend back, stopping her from leaning on Kazawa. "It's really embarrassing for me if you do that."
"Okay, okay," Suzuki Sonoko muttered, straightening up.
She knew full well she wouldn't catch Kazawa with those antics, but with such a handsome guy nearby, getting close was already worth it!
"We just met yesterday and just got back from Izu... You're way too enthusiastic. You might scare Karasawa," Mouri Ran said, pulling Sonoko along as she placed herself between her and Kazawa. "Hurry up, we'll be late for the first day of school."
Kazawa walked with a faint smile on his face, heading toward Teitan High. But his thoughts were elsewhere.
Conan must've already met the "new transfer student," right?
"I heard her last name is Haibara..."
"Ayumi, did you see the new student?"
"No, I just heard Ms. Kobayashi mention her name."
"Haibara, what a weird last name..."
"Maybe a bit, but compared to Conan, not that strange."
"Hey, hey..." Conan sat with his chin in one hand, bored as he listened to his classmates chatter. He turned his head when he heard Kojima Genta talking again.
"'Edogawa' is just rare, that's all... What's so strange about that?"
"The last name's weird, and the first name is even weirder—" Genta smirked, hands behind his head, unfazed by Conan's glare.
Conan couldn't help it. At the time, he was reading only detective novels, so all the names he knew came from mystery writers...
Before he could argue back, the classroom door slammed open.
Next to the smiling Kobayashi Sumiko stood a little girl in a black sleeveless top and white shorts.
The noise immediately caught everyone's attention, and they all looked over.
"Wow, she's so cute..." Conan heard Ayumi whisper in awe from the seat in front.
Conan studied the new classmate carefully.
She had a delicate, pretty face, blue eyes, and chestnut-colored hair—the same color as Kazawa's... wait, why did that pop into his head again?
Snapping out of the odd déjà vu, Conan focused again.
Her skin tone was slightly darker than most, and along with her eye and hair color, she looked like she could be mixed-race. Again, kind of like Kazawa...
Feeling inexplicably uneasy, Conan watched as the emotionless little girl followed Ms. Kobayashi to the front.
"This is Haibara Ai," Ms. Kobayashi said warmly, writing her name in kanji and hiragana on the board. "From today on, she'll be in our class. Let's all get along with her!"
Amid applause, Ai Haibara gave a small bow, raised her head—and locked eyes with Conan.
"Let's see... Haibara-san, you can sit..." Ms. Kobayashi began scanning the room.
Several boys with empty seats nearby became fidgety, all eager to volunteer.
But Haibara Ai didn't break eye contact. Without waiting for instructions, she calmly walked straight down the aisle and sat in the empty seat next to Conan.
"Huh?" Conan, still observing, was caught off guard.
Haibara Ai pulled out the chair, set her bag down, and sat upright.
"Please take care of me," she said, staring at him for a few seconds before speaking in a flat voice.
"Oh... uh, please take care of me too..." Conan replied awkwardly, feeling strangely subdued.
Do I know her? Why does she feel so unfriendly?
"Huh? She seems kinda full of herself."
"Maybe she's just nervous?"
"She seems hard to talk to..."
As the kids whispered around her, Haibara Ai quietly pulled out her stationery and books, organizing her desk.
"Heisei-era Sherlock Holmes"?
Ridiculous. How could a great detective fail to notice when the person living next door to him was suddenly replaced?
"Nao~! I missed you so much over break!"
"Mio, did you change your hairstyle?"
Hands in his pockets, Kazawa followed Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko into the school building, threading through the noisy crowd.
The moment he stepped into Teitan High School, he instinctively fell silent, only responding to Ran or Sonoko with short interjections.
At school, Karasawa still maintained the image of a quiet, socially anxious student. Even after some time at school, he only really spoke to Mouri Ran and Suzuki Sonoko.
He didn't have much of a choice—Unit 2 really was socially anxious.
If he got too familiar with the other students, Hoshikawa Teru wouldn't be able to handle the social load, and it would be easy for inconsistencies or rumors to start.
Not everyone in high school was like carefree Suzuki Sonoko, who thought "as long as he's handsome, nothing else matters."
"Hey, did you see the news yesterday? About the 'Phantom Thieves of Hearts'?"
"You mean that someone's imitating them and sending out a warning letter? I saw something in today's paper."
Kazawa caught the familiar words and subtly turned to listen.
"Yeah, because those Phantom Thieves send so many preview letters, the media showed a bunch of examples... Seems like a lot of people are copying them now, sending fake letters everywhere."
"What a bunch of losers! But that means the real ones' letters don't stand out anymore, right? How can anyone tell the difference?"
"I don't know. Apparently someone played a prank with one and caused quite a bit of trouble."
"When something gets popular, people start copying it. Hahaha, like when Kaito Kid sends out his notices—tons of cosplayers and fans show up, and the cops end up arresting innocent people by mistake..."
Oh? Copycats using the Phantom Thieves' name? Now that's interesting...
Still, if someone's using his name to pull stupid pranks, that could hurt the Phantom Thieves' reputation.
He'd need to talk to Hoshikawa and the others about getting some kind of anti-counterfeit seal in place.
Their reputation tied directly into his subway progress—he couldn't let it be tarnished.
"Really? What's the point of copying someone else's letter?" Suzuki Sonoko huffed. "If you're actually targeted by the Phantom Thieves of Hearts, you confess right away! That's how you know it's real! These fakes can't even do that. Who would believe them?"
"Oh? Sonoko, sounds like you're kinda rooting for them," Mouri Ran teased as they walked upstairs. "Didn't you used to be a huge Kaito Kid fan?"
"I still am!" Sonoko declared proudly, hands on her hips. "Nobody said I can't like both! Besides, Ran, did you see those photos of Joker in the news? He's a total hottie—with white hair!"
Kazawa, still thinking about anti-counterfeiting measures, glanced sideways.
So that's what it means to be into looks... See one handsome guy and you switch allegiances immediately. So real.
"Still, someone needs to sort this out," Mouri Ran said seriously, touching her finger to her cheek. "If you can't tell what's real, then the moment someone gets a warning letter, everyone might assume they're a criminal. That's not good. The Phantom Thieves of Hearts only go after bad people, right?"
The three entered Class 2B and headed for their seats.
"True. If I saw someone else get one, I'd probably assume... the same..."
As she spoke, Suzuki Sonoko stopped mid-sentence—and the classroom went dead silent.
Kazawa, who had been looking at his phone behind her, paused and raised his head.
On his desk...
A red and black warning letter, made of newspaper clippings, had been stabbed into the wood with a knife—right at the center.