"I have brought them as requested." The old man led the group to the side of the carriage, bowing slightly toward the figure seated in the darkness within.
"Thank you for your hard work."
"Now then, little boy, why don't you hand that bottle of wine over to me?" The voice of Professor Moriarty drifted out from the shadows.
The old man stepped forward to take the bottle from Conan's hands. As he drew near, the Great Detective's nostrils flared, catching a faint scent.
This fragrance...
"To be able to go toe-to-toe with Colonel Moran... you truly are a worthy disciple of Sherlock Holmes."
"You went to such great lengths to find me," the figure in the carriage continued. "Is there something you require?"
"Hey, mister... are you really Professor Moriarty?" Conan asked, tilting his head back to look up at the carriage.
"Naturally," the voice replied.
"I see. So you're using this method to test us, then?" A knowing smile spread across Conan's face.
Indeed, the figure currently sitting in the carriage wasn't Professor Moriarty at all. The real Professor Moriarty was standing right beside them, disguised as the butler.
"Heh... Hahaha. Seen through already? Tell me, how did you know?" The old man removed his top hat and let out a dry chuckle, revealing his true features.
"Everything you just said was spoken through ventriloquism, wasn't it, Professor?"
"Furthermore, there was the matter of Colonel Moran's tone and attitude. But most importantly," Conan added, "I've heard that Professor Moriarty is a stylish gentleman who favors a natural, herbal-scented cologne."
Conan laid out his deduction clearly. In truth, the fact that a man like Colonel Moran used honorifics when speaking to a mere "butler" was proof enough; the scent of the cologne was simply the finishing touch.
"Splendid. It's like looking at a miniature Sherlock Holmes."
The decoy figure stepped out of the carriage to allow the real Moriarty to take his proper seat. Having been unmasked, the Professor looked at Conan with a gaze full of genuine praise.
"Now, you may speak. What is it you want from me?"
"Jack the Ripper—he's a monster you unleashed upon the streets to turn London into a capital of fear, isn't he?" Conan asked.
"That... is only half-correct. Jack was merely a stray I picked up from the slums."
"Though he was a waif abandoned by his mother to wander the streets, I saw his talent the moment I laid eyes on him. A talent for crime."
"I molded him into a top-tier assassin." As he recounted the story, Moriarty seemed quite satisfied with Jack's "performance."
"Then why did he kill innocent women?" Ran asked, her voice tight.
"Jack the Ripper became a murderer far beyond my expectations. This string of atrocities is the result of that child losing control."
"If you wish to put an end to Jack," the Professor continued, his smile turning cold, "then I suppose I shall assist you."
"As... assistance?"
The group was stunned. They had hoped for a few clues at best; they never expected the primary antagonist to offer his help proactively.
"Though Jack has spiraled out of my control, he should still follow a direct order to kill. All you need to do is go to the designated location and wait for him."
Moriarty's plan was simple and brutal. He would place a coded message for Jack in the advertisement columns of tomorrow's Sunday Times. As for who the target was and where the hit would take place, the group would have to read the paper and deduce it for themselves.
"Do you trust his word?" Moroboshi walked over to Conan and whispered.
"Let's take the gamble," Conan replied, keeping his eyes on the Professor.
"I wish you luck."
With a thin smile, Moriarty boarded the carriage.
"Please be careful of Reichenbach Falls three years from now," Conan called out, a cryptic smile of his own playing on his lips.
Three years into the future, Moriarty and Holmes would have their final confrontation at Reichenbach Falls, where both would plunge into the abyss—though only Holmes would miraculously survive.
Ayumi watched the carriage fade into the distance, tilting her head. "Conan, isn't he the enemy?"
"Uh... I guess I just like this villain almost as much as I like Holmes."
Conan blinked, surprised by his own words. It had been an impulse, a strange whim that compelled him to offer that warning.
Ran, hearing his words, felt a sudden jolt of familiarity. Shinichi once said the same thing... that he loved the character of Moriarty, but only within the world of the novels. On their last date, he hadn't stopped talking about Holmes for a single second.
"Everyone, I'm sorry," Moroboshi said suddenly, his head bowed. "If it weren't for me, Kikukawa wouldn't have been eliminated."
"Looking at those long faces... I suppose you've all made some progress after all," Haibara remarked, her hands in her pockets as she observed the expressions of the elite children. It seemed Noah's Ark's goal was being met, at least in part.
"Speaking of which, I find it a bit strange," the Great Detective muttered, scratching his head. "How did he suddenly appear here...?"
The "he" in question was, of course, Tsuneo.
If the "Fixer" hadn't appeared to suppress the situation, several more of these children might have been eliminated before Moriarty ever arrived at the club.
"You're right! I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when I saw two Tsuneo-niichans," Mitsuhiko added. After seeing those two thugs' heads smashed into the floorboards, he was certain he hadn't been hallucinating.
"That man... I remember he was your companion, right?" asked the stout Akira Emori. He recalled seeing Tsuneo standing with Conan back at the party.
"Honestly, if he were with us, clearing this game would probably be easy," Takizawa mused. Having witnessed such a violent scene, he felt a lingering sense of terror, but as a teammate, Tsuneo offered an overwhelming sense of security.
Moroboshi pursed his lips but remained silent.
"No," Haibara said flatly, shaking her head. "If he were here, the chaos would likely be even worse."
That man would probably just start throwing every NPC into the Thames. Hmm... catch one, sink one. Eventually, you'd clear the stage.
"I'm inclined to agree with that," Conan admitted with a dry laugh.
He had felt the very building tremble when the two Tsuneos were fighting. It hadn't felt like a hallucination. Even Colonel Moran had shown a flash of genuine fear the moment Tsuneo appeared.
The "Fixer" had appeared right after Kikukawa was eliminated. Was there a connection between the two events?
"It felt like he's become much stronger," Ran noted, sharing the sentiment.
"Where do we go now?" Ayumi asked, looking around the deserted street.
"Let's find a place to rest for now and wait for tomorrow's paper."
"It looks like you ran into some trouble on your end."
Tsuneo panted heavily, dragging a chair over to sit down. He looked toward the Administrator, who was now lying flat on the floor. The longer they had fought, the more the duplicate had learned from him. It had been a nightmare to deal with.
By the end, Tsuneo was left with nothing but a sliver of health.
"Some unexpected variables occurred, but the repairs are complete," Hiroki's voice echoed. His image materialized as he surveyed the wreckage of the banquet hall.
He had borrowed Hideki Moroboshi's data to participate in the London world's game. Pointing the gun at Colonel Moran and causing trouble had been a test to see how the children would react in a crisis—though he couldn't rule out the possibility that the boy himself had simply wanted to try aiming a gun at a major villain.
When Seiichiro Kikukawa was eliminated to protect Conan, a BUG had caused the two Tsuneos to manifest in the wrong world, briefly derailing Hiroki's plans. However, he didn't intend to forcibly change anything; he simply ensured the NPCs in the club accepted the occurrence without further question.
"How long does it take for this thing to refill?" Tsuneo asked, pointing at the health bar above his head. He noticed some untouched food on a nearby table and began to eat without ceremony.
"You seem like you're having fun," Hiroki replied with a small smile, sidestepping the question. "That's good."
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