"Can we go to Yimi's house to see the kittens after school? Will Queen welcome us?"
"Yes. Home has five cats."
Six, actually. You're forgetting yourself.
Conan raised his gaze toward Yimi's hat. Haibara Ai keenly noticed the motion.
"Haibara-san, come with us too." Ayumi took Haibara Ai by the hand.
Haibara Ai did not resist.
You even got a cat for joining this children's group?
Unfortunately, she probably could not keep one.
Watching them enthusiastically discuss their visit, Conan unconsciously took a step backward. "I have something to do, so I'll head off first..."
"You're not getting away!" Genta grabbed Conan from behind just as he tried to turn around.
Conan truly did not want to face Kisaki Eri. Ever since he was little, she had often scolded him for causing trouble, and this auntie remembered exactly what he looked like.
"Ah, I remember now! No wonder you seemed familiar." Yimi suddenly smacked a fist into her palm and stared straight at Haibara Ai.
She remembered?
Haibara Ai's heart skipped a beat.
The white-haired girl patted herself on the shoulder and identified her by voice. "Asuna's mom!"
"?"
They had not spent much time together, but the woman had given Yimi a game console, so Yimi could still recognize her, more or less.
"She's always mistaking people for someone else. Not long ago, she kept calling me 'Child Emperor.'" Conan, a long-suffering victim, explained helplessly.
This one was ridiculous even by her standards. How did an elementary school student get mistaken for somebody's "mom"?
Because they wanted to see the kittens, the little brats who normally hung around school waiting for requests raced off unusually quickly. None of them knew that right after they left, a boy slipped a request letter into Genta's shoe locker.
None of them had ever been to Kisaki Eri's house, so this time Yimi took the lead. Naturally, the one and only time she led the way, she got into a traffic accident at the first corner.
Fortunately, it was not a car that sent her flying. A man walking quickly simply bumped into her by accident. It was enough to make the little cat wonder whether her EX-rank Luck was fake. Otherwise, why had she been landing on her butt so often lately?
"Yimi!"
The man even glared at them with a terrible attitude. "Watch where you're going, brat!"
"You were the one who bumped into her! Yimi was just walking normally in front of us!" Ayumi helped Yimi up and angrily defended her friend.
"Exactly!"
"Stupid asshole." That one came from Yimi herself, successfully silencing the friends who had been about to support her for two whole seconds.
"What did you say, you rude little brat?! Want me to beat you all to death?" The man raised a fist and roared at them. The sheer pressure of an adult successfully intimidated the three children who were still very much ordinary kids.
"Tch."
Clicking his tongue, he returned to a normal walking pace and headed toward the convenience store up ahead.
"What's wrong with that guy? He's awful." Genta was only talking tough now that the danger had passed.
Strange.
Conan watched the man.
He had been walking very quickly just now, which was why he ran into Yimi. Why had he gone back to a normal pace afterward? Wasn't he in a hurry?
Through the convenience store window, Conan saw the man pull out a thousand-yen bill and buy the cheapest pack of cigarettes from the clerk.
A thousand-yen bill just for that? Didn't he have any change?
Remembering the man's odd behavior, Conan watched him leave the convenience store, then ignored everyone else and rushed inside. "Onee-san, can I see the money that man just gave you?"
By the time he finished asking, he had already snatched the bill into his own hand.
"Hey, wait, you little—!"
"Just as I thought. It's counterfeit." Light flashed across Conan's glasses as he smiled. "Onee-san, you'd better call the police."
It was possible the man was simply some unethical unlucky bastard who had happened to receive counterfeit money and decided to spend it. But judging by how quickly he had been walking, he had probably just spent another fake bill somewhere else and unconsciously sped up after leaving the shopkeeper's sight because he felt guilty.
In other words, this man might have had more than one counterfeit bill. There could very well be a gang behind him mass-producing fake money!
Of course, something like that could simply be reported to the police and left for them to handle.
"Fake money? So that man used a counterfeit bill? He really is a bad guy!" Unfortunately, the Detective Boys had taken Conan's words to heart and immediately grew excited at the prospect of a real case.
Yimi clenched a paw. "Let's go beat him to death right now!"
Even though the little cat had no idea what counterfeit money even was.
Conan glanced at her.
How could a girl speak so violently all the time? Oh, right. Somehow he had forgotten again that she was also suspected of poisoning people...
"All right! We'll secretly follow that man right now." Genta, the self-proclaimed leader, issued his command.
These damn kids...
Conan waved both hands and gave an awkward laugh. "Wouldn't it be better to call the police in a situation like this? There might be a whole gang behind him. We're only kids. It's way too dangerous."
"Idiot Conan. We have to find their hideout first so we can report it to the police." Genta looked at him with deep disappointment, as though wondering when Conan would ever become as smart as he was.
"He went that way just now." Ayumi leaned half her body out of the store and pointed.
"Keep your voices down. Don't let him notice us..."
"..."
The convenience-store clerk blinked at the group of children who had loudly plotted right in front of everyone before running off. She raised the counterfeit bill and held it up to the light.
In any case, she should call the police first.
...
There was no possible way six little kids clustered together could tail anyone. The man did not even need to be particularly alert before noticing that the brats he had just quarreled with were actually following him.
Damn little pests. If he were not afraid of drawing attention, he would have charged over and kicked every one of them.
The man clicked his tongue and ducked into a nearby alley.
"He ran!"
"I told you all to be more careful! Hurry, chase him!"
"..."
Is that how you people tail someone?
Conan had just opened his mouth when Yimi shot forward at the head of the group, showing off the athletic ability that always put her at the top of the class in PE.
"RIDER KICK!" Imitating a pose from a cartoon without the slightest hesitation, she slid in feet-first, grinding durability off her shoes while tripping the man hard.
"You little bastard!"
The man barely got the curse out before Genta planted his butt directly on the man's face.
"Hold him down." Yimi took the opportunity to pick up a conveniently spawned hemp rope from the side of the alley and expertly tied him up from head to toe.
Conan: "?"
This wasn't right. Weren't they supposed to find his hideout?
The little cat planted a foot on the back of his head. "You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say will be your last words."
"So cool, Yimi-chan!" Mitsuhiko clapped and flattered her.
"You bastard, tell us where your gang is, or we'll hand you over to the police!" Genta grabbed the man by the collar.
Naturally, the man played dumb, though the anger on his face was completely genuine. "You damn brats! What the hell are you talking about?"
"This guy..." Without worrying about any of that, Conan searched his pockets and pulled out a thick wad of change.
He had already spent all the counterfeit bills? But carrying this much small change in his pockets meant the guy really had gone out with a big stack of fake bills to exchange them for real money.
"Let's just hand him over to the police. They can prove it by checking the places where he bought things." Conan was not particularly interested in a case with almost no deduction involved.
Genta looked at him strangely. "Didn't we say we were going to find his hideout?"
So you do remember!
Conan shook his head. "We don't have any way to make him talk, and it's genuinely too dangerous for kids like us."
"Dangerous?" Haibara Ai, who had done nothing for most of the chase, pointed at the man lying on the ground and cracked a joke. "Didn't we just capture a hostage?"