As soon as the police officer confirmed that something was really going on, he called for reinforcements and several patrol cars arrived quickly.
Because the counterfeiters were literally right next to the police station, both Kaito and the rest of the group could see the entire situation from where they were sitting.
Bang!
Bang!
Bang!
Several gunshots were heard and, after a while, the police came out with four people under arrest.
Conan noticed the weapon one of the officers was carrying. It was clearly not standard police equipment, so he could only have taken it from the culprits. Then he counted the people.
"Four people. With weapons. How did you do it?" Conan said, looking at Kaito.
"Coincidence," Kaito replied.
Conan did not fully believe him, but he had more important things to think about at that moment, so he stood up and headed toward where they were taking the criminals.
"Brother."
"Toshiya, what are you doing here?" his brother said, surprised.
Inspector Megure saw the scene and deduced the situation immediately.
"Inspector Megure."
"Conan, I figured it would be you and the Detective Boys as soon as they said it was children who reported it."
"I need to talk to her," Conan said, pointing at the leader of the criminal group.
"Impossible, she needs to be taken to prison immediately," Megure replied without hesitation.
"It's very important, it's about the organization she belongs to," Conan insisted, not wanting to reveal too much.
"You don't need to worry about that. We captured all the members of Silver Fox and none escaped. They won't cause any more trouble," Megure replied.
"S-Silver Fox, that's their name?" Conan asked, confused.
"That's right. But you already knew that, didn't you?"
Hearing that, Conan realized it. Now that he understood they were not actually part of the Black Organization, his attention shifted completely.
"Silver Fox. Four people, with weapons. How did you know?" Conan asked suspiciously.
"It was a coincidence."
"That's too much to be a coincidence. Not only that, you always ignore everyone else. Why did you decide to join us today of all days?" Conan asked.
"I thought it would be entertaining," Kaito replied simply.
Before Conan could continue, Megure appeared again, saying he would take them home since it was already night. Conan could not continue the conversation in public.
---
"At last, the moment has come," Kaito murmured excitedly in his mind.
He had already gotten out in front of his house and from there headed toward Conan's home, which, by coincidence or not, was not actually that far away.
There, he saw Conan and Haibara get out of the car and walk together toward their neighborhood.
If it had been just one day earlier, Kaito would have felt somewhat guilty about following two children, but after spending the entire day following people, it somehow felt quite normal.
Meanwhile, on Conan and Haibara's side.
"I'm sorry you got dragged into all of this. Normally the cases stay simple, like looking for lost cats," Conan apologized.
"It's fine, it was fun," Haibara replied.
"But didn't you say you had something to do after school today? It looks like you ended up busy the whole afternoon."
"It's fine. I still have time to meet that person."
"Meeting someone? At this hour? It must be a relative, and you're probably going to your house, right?" Conan analyzed.
"You don't have to try to figure everything out."
"Sorry, I do it by instinct," Conan apologized again.
"It's fine. I suppose you have to be like that to achieve your current skill and popularity, right, Shinichi Kudo?"
Conan froze completely in shock while Haibara kept walking as if nothing had happened. After taking a few steps, she turned around and asked with a mysterious smile.
"What's wrong?"
"H-How do you know? Who are you? Are you from the Black Organization?"
"Is that what you call it? I suppose you could say that. My name is Shiho Miyano, code name Sherry, and also," she paused for a second before continuing, "the creator of the drug that turned you into a child."
"Miyano. Are you the sister of... no, more importantly, you created this thing?" Conan snapped, torn between fear and anger, not knowing what to do.
"Well, yes. Although the goal was not to turn people into children."
"What are you doing here? Could it be...?"
"Sorry to interrupt," Kaito said, having no interest in waiting for the drama to continue.
"Takayama Kaito, what are you doing here? Could it be that you're also...?"
"I don't know him," Haibara interrupted this time.
"What's going on? I'm getting more confused by the second," Conan said.
"I'll summarize it for you," Kaito said, not caring about his state. "Haibara was a scientist in the organization, she created the drug that did this to you and then ran away. The end. As for me, I need a favor from Haibara."
"From me?" Haibara asked, confused. "Before asking for a favor, shouldn't you introduce yourself? I don't understand who you are or how you know me, but I'm sure you're not a child, at least not a normal one."
"I'll answer depending on the answer to this question. Does the wine cellar have any strange history? Something like becoming powerful very quickly or doing things that should be impossible?"
"The wine cellar? Why do you like inventing names? At least it's better than Black Organization," Haibara said, then thought for a moment. "They say the wine cellar came out of nowhere. It appeared and started growing rapidly, becoming what it is today in just a few years. However, after that, its founder disappeared from the public eye for some reason and never showed up again. Since then, the wine cellar has just stayed afloat, operating normally, but it never grew as excessively as it did at the beginning.
Does that help you? Now answer me."
"It helps me a lot," Kaito replied.
"As for who I am, I'm a demon from another world who was reborn in this world as a baby and lost almost all of his powers. I need something that the leader of the wine cellar has to recover my strength and my form."
Haibara frowned, thinking he was not serious and that he was not holding up his end of the deal.
"Alright, Mr. Demon. What do you want from me?" she said sarcastically.
"I want you to take me to the base of the organization you escaped from," Kaito finally said, after years of waiting.
"Are you insane? You'll die. Worse, I'll die if I go anywhere near any place related to that organization," Haibara replied, looking at Kaito as if he were crazy.
"I still don't understand much and I don't trust her at all, but she's right.
Besides, the organization wouldn't be stupid enough to stay there. They've probably already fled and taken everything," Conan added, who had only been listening, trying to understand something, unsuccessfully, since every word Kaito said sounded crazier than the last.
"I don't need them to be there, I have a plan. And you don't need to worry, the organization won't have time for you, they'll focus entirely on me," Kaito said.
"And why do you think I'd trust you? You can't even tell me your identity," Haibara retorted.
"I don't need you to trust me. Just do me this favor and you'll owe me. I'll revive your sister if you want."
"Don't joke about that. I don't care who you are or what you want, but I won't follow your madness," Haibara replied angrily.
"Ugh," Kaito sighed. "I knew it would be impossible the easy way, but at least I wanted to try.
Fine, Miyano Shiho, if you don't take me there, I'll hand you over to the wine cellar."
"Please, if you knew where they were, you wouldn't need me in the first place" Haibara replied, not feeling threatened at all.
"Aren't you forgetting something? We're in Beika, where they mainly operate. How hard do you think it is to notice someone dressed in black with a hat? Sooner or later I'll run into one of them. Conan himself has run into members several times in just one month," Kaito said.
Of course, Conan is the protagonist, so the chance of someone other than him running into the wine cellar by pure coincidence is almost nonexistent.
As for why he did not just follow Conan to find a member for his plan, it was because Kaito needed there to be many members, either at a base or at a location monitored by the organization.
However, Kaito would not say any of that out loud.
"Are you threatening her?" Conan said, surprised by Kaito's sudden attitude.
"...I'll take you there" Haibara said after a few seconds, clenching her teeth in resignation.
---
"Gin, three children dressed like our organization just entered the area. Should we keep an eye on them?"
At the top of a building, dressed in black and with a sniper rifle in front of her, a woman spoke.
"Dressed like us?" a voice asked through the earpiece.
"Black trench coats over black clothes, hats and black glasses," the sniper replied.
"Watch them and tell Korn the same. I have images of them through the cameras" Gin replied.
Chianti obeyed and informed Korn to follow the children before continuing to watch them through the sniper scope.
But at that moment, something happened that completely unsettled both Chianti and Korn.
"Gin, are you seeing this?" she said breathlessly through the earpiece.
Before her eyes, the three children turned into a kind of static, impossible to recognize, she even felt that she could not remember what they looked like before.
"I'm seeing it. Fire immediately" Gin said through the earpiece.
______________________________________
+15 chapters in advance on Patreon.
p-atreon.com/IAMME26
(just delete the hyphen)
80 power stones = 1 extra chapter (cumulative)