Chapter 18: Kyubey: Do You Require Assistance?
Tokyo Bay Mall, 3:15 PM.
Bright sunlight streamed through the massive glass dome of the high-end shopping mall, dappling the top-floor food court in gold. The air was filled with the cheerful sounds of a weekend afternoon—laughter, the rustle of shopping bags, and the clinking of coffee cups.
Ran and Sonoko were sitting at a window-side table, surrounded by delicate pastries and drinks.
"Ran, I just saw this amazing new—hey, Ran." Sonoko was in the middle of a passionate speech about the latest fashion trends, but Ran seemed distracted, her gaze constantly drifting out the window. "Ran, are you even listening to me?"
"Sorry," Ran said, tapping the phone on the table. "It's just, Conan gave me this special phone. He said it was only for emergencies, but he was so serious about it, it was like..."
Her words trailed off as the very air around them seemed to thicken. Ran felt a wave of vertigo, the world twisting before her eyes. She instinctively gripped the edge of the table to steady herself, a cramp seizing her stomach.
"R-Ran... are you seeing this?" Sonoko's voice was a barely recognizable tremor. "The ceiling... the walls... they're... they're moving!"
The cloying, sickeningly sweet scent of a hundred different perfumes flooded the space.
"What is... happening?" Ran blinked hard, trying to convince herself it was a hallucination.
One by one, the other patrons in the food court turned to look at them, their faces frozen in grotesque, uncanny smiles, their eyes empty and blank. Then, one by one, they collapsed.
Sonoko screamed, grabbing Ran's arm. "Ran! What are those things?! Is this a nightmare?! Did we eat something bad?! Are we being drugged?!"
Ran couldn't answer. Her rational mind refused to accept what her eyes were seeing, but her instincts were screaming DANGER. Are we... seeing ghosts?
"S-Sonoko..." Ran managed to force the words out. "We have to get out of here... now!"
A monstrous creature descended from the warped ceiling. Its body was a grotesque mannequin formed from a mishmash of luxury brand gift boxes. In place of a head, a diamond-cut crystal ball floated, filled with a swirling vortex of glittering credit card shards. Long, grasping tentacles made of shopping bags extended from its sides, each one tipped with a razor-sharp receipt, ready to slice through anything that came near.
"What is that thing?" Sonoko whimpered, her face ashen. "This isn't real, this isn't real..."
The display windows of the surrounding stores melted like wax, the hallways stretching into impossible, infinite corridors. Ran felt a wave of nausea; her brain simply couldn't process the violation of physics, and she almost lost her balance. "I think I'm gonna be sick," Sonoko moaned, her legs barely able to support her.
Ran clung to the last shred of her composure. "We can't stay here... we have to... find an exit..."
Using her karate reflexes, she pulled Sonoko out of the way of a falling, glowing red percentage sign. A mob of the blank-eyed shoppers shambled toward them, their bodies stiff, brandishing shopping bags like clubs. Ran snapped into a defensive stance, a clean roundhouse kick sending the nearest one stumbling back before she grabbed Sonoko and sprinted into the distorted labyrinth of the mall.
Suddenly, the Witch unleashed a tornado of red discount symbols, the signs spinning at high velocity, becoming a vortex of razor-sharp edges.
"Ran, look out!" Sonoko screamed, and without a second's hesitation, she shoved Ran out of the tornado's path.
The vortex slammed into Sonoko, throwing her through the air. She crashed hard against a cosmetics counter, glass shattering around her.
"SONOKO!" Ran screamed, rushing to her friend's side.
Blood was trickling from a gash on Sonoko's forehead, but she was still conscious. "Ran... go... don't worry about me..."
"I'm not leaving you!" Ran said, helping her to her feet. She half-carried, half-dragged her into a nearby changing room, momentarily out of the Witch's sight.
Inside, Sonoko's consciousness began to fade. Ran gently patted her cheeks. "Sonoko, stay with me! We're going to get out of here!"
She frantically pulled out her own phone, but there was no signal. "Dammit!" She tried dialing emergency services, but the screen just read "No Connection."
Ran cautiously cracked open the changing room door. The sight outside made her blood run cold. The hallway was completely warped, the floor and ceiling flowing like molten wax, and the giant gift-box monster was patrolling nearby. "There's no way out..."
Sonoko's breathing was growing shallow. In a panic, Ran felt her pocket and her fingers brushed against the other phone—the special one from Conan.
"This..." she whispered, remembering the incredibly serious look on his face.
"If you're ever in an emergency, especially the kind where you suddenly lose signal, you have to use this to call us!"
Is this what he meant? she wondered. This is too dangerous... I might not make it back. But I have to warn them. I have to tell them that this world isn't normal.
"Please work..." she prayed, her hands trembling as she dialed the pre-set number.
"Conan... we're at the Tokyo Bay Mall... something impossible is happening... The people here all collapsed... there's a monster... Sonoko is hurt... I don't think we're going to make it back... you have to live..." Her voice broke. "Be careful... this world... it's not what it seems..."
On the other end of the line, at Dr. Agasa's house, Conan's face went pale. "Ran! What's happening?! Hold on! We're coming!"
Kogoro snatched the phone. "Ran! What's the situation?! We're on our way!"
"Dad? Dad, no! Don't come! It's too dangerous! There's a monster!"
Just as she finished speaking, the changing room door began to warp and buckle, as if being crushed by an immense force. The line went dead.
"Ran! RAN!" Conan yelled into the phone, but there was no response.
"The signal was cut off," Haibara said, already checking the phone's status on a nearby computer. "And not a normal disconnection. It's being blocked by a powerful interference field."
"A monster?" Kogoro's face was grim. "It can't be..."
"It's a Witch," Haibara and Conan said in unison.
"Location, Tokyo Bay Mall," Haibara confirmed, pulling up a map, though the interference made the exact position fuzzy. "Another one has appeared."
"We don't have time to waste!" Kogoro said. "Have you pinpointed her location?"
"Almost!"
"Then we'll get to the scene first!"
Mitsuhiko grabbed Kogoro and Conan, and in a flash of blue light, they teleported to the mall's perimeter. The entire building was enveloped in the Witch's Labyrinth, a shimmering dome of distorted reality.
"I have her location!" Haibara's voice came through their communicators. "A changing room on the top floor!"
The team phased through the barrier, entering the twisted shopping center.
Inside the changing room, Ran held the unconscious Sonoko, staring in despair as the door bent inward.
A calm, flat voice spoke from right behind her.
"Do you require assistance?"