Chapter 61: Professor Agasa: Your Daughter? [Please Continue Reading (๑• . •๑)]

"Goodbye, Uncle!"

"What kind of haunted house was that anyway? Who on earth started that rumor?"

"Has Dr. Agasa still not come home?"

"Shall we go to the park?"

Bathed in the slanting rays of the setting sun, the three children were led away in big strides by Conan. Their vibrant, energetic figures seemed to cast a nostalgic filter over the street.

Youth, childhood companions...

That damn sense of childhood sweetheart dynamic.

Gao Mo watched as the children chattered and laughed around Ayumi, walking away and even forgetting to correct the "Uncle" address.

Why didn't he have a childhood sweetheart in this world?

Just because he was an extra with no screen time?

It wasn't until the small figures vanished at the end of the street that Gao Mo withdrew his gaze and turned to look at Haibara Ai hiding by the living room window.

This little Ai...

Why did she give him the feeling that she possessed memories of the future? A rebirth from the future?

It wasn't entirely impossible; anything normal or bizarre could happen in this world.

Huh... Wait, if she was reborn, did she remember any lottery winning numbers?

Living Room.

Haibara Ai leaned against the window, immersed in her memories, motionless for a long time.

"What do you think of Ayumi and the others?" A voice suddenly asked from behind.

"Still..."

Haibara Ai snapped out of her daze and turned around, her expression tightening slightly as she met Gao Mo's probing gaze.

"You mean those kids just now? Kudo Shinichi is too close to them; it's very dangerous."

"Dangerous?"

Gao Mo tried to read something from Haibara Ai's cold, detached face, but could only vaguely spot faint tear stains.

"If there's nothing else, I'm going to rest," Haibara Ai covered her mouth with a hand and let out a long yawn, shuffling past Gao Mo in oversized slippers. "I don't want to meet Kudo Shinichi for now. If he has any questions, just tell him directly. Anyway, you seem to know everything."

Gao Mo's gaze followed Haibara Ai as she smoothly changed the subject.

Yesterday, this woman seemed to have deliberately faked her unconsciousness.

He had almost been deceived by her cute appearance.

Regardless of how things were now, Haibara Ai was, after all, that genius scientist Miyano Shiho, her intelligence far surpassing an extra like him.

"Are you really not going to school?" Gao Mo continued. "It's a bit conspicuous for a child not to go to school, and you also need a proper new identity."

"No."

At the mention of school, Haibara Ai froze in her tracks, shuddered as if having a reflex reaction, and hurriedly quickened her pace while shrinking her frame.

As though school were some ferocious beast.

"Good night..."

Gao Mo felt he didn't quite understand, but it wasn't his place to ask too much.

It was still early, and he didn't feel sleepy. Seeing that Haibara Ai had returned to her room, he temporarily put other thoughts aside and walked back to the study at the end of the guest wing's hallway.

An open book lay halfway through on the desk.

Because of Haibara Ai's sudden appearance, his actual business had been delayed.

"Hmm?"

Gao Mo's eyes swept casually across the room, and he suddenly noticed a slight sign of disturbance among the books on the bookshelf.

Because he hadn't gotten around to a thorough cleaning yet, a layer of dust remained on the bookshelf, within which tiny, faint handprints could faintly be seen.

Haibara Ai?

This little Ai was certainly quite strange.

Could she have hidden something here beforehand?

If she had memories of the future, it wasn't entirely out of the question.

Gao Mo walked closer to take a look, and finding nothing, he stopped dwelling on it and returned to his desk to check the system note projections.

Regarding his acting career, upgrading to level 3 had met the auxiliary condition; he only needed to accumulate 30 stars.

For the detective profession, advancing from level 2 to level 3 also required 30 stars, and the auxiliary condition was to found a detective agency...

What a coincidence; lately, he hadn't really been stuck by the auxiliary conditions at all.

It was all because of a shortage of stars.

The number of stars obtainable from a single case was still a bit too low.

He wondered if founding a detective agency would come with achievement rewards.

Gao Mo thought of the professional achievement he obtained the first time he acted in a television drama. Although the reward was only a single star, it was definitely pointing in a direction.

The acting industry had no new achievements for the moment, but his progress on the detective side was advancing by leaps and bounds.

The detective persona "Kindaichi" had been successfully established, and soon the detective agency could also open for business, just waiting for Dr. Agasa to help complete the paperwork for the property.

If there were no achievement rewards, or if the rewards were meager, he'd probably have to run around hunting for cases everywhere.

To be honest.

Case after case, he now always felt like he was hunting for scapegoats.

Several times death had spread outward, and last time he had almost harmed the Moustached Uncle.

The Beika Library incident was the same; if Tsugawa hadn't been so weak, coupled with the fact that he already knew the guy was suspicious and subdued him in time, several members of the Junior Detective League might have died.

When he was around, it seemed that only by quickly cracking the case and eliminating the culprit could he prevent the spread of death.

If he didn't rein it in a bit, he'd turn into a "mastermind behind the scenes" or an "incarnation of the Grim Reaper" in the criminal underworld.

There was no telling what might happen by then.

His current counter-reconnaissance and disguise skills weren't exceptionally brilliant.

If things really went wrong, having a persona might not necessarily keep him safe.

If he triggered a large-scale casualty event...

Gao Mo quietly looked at the glowing text on the note projection.

He hoped he was just overthinking things.

...

"Bang—!"

Early the next morning.

Gao Mo was startled awake by a deafening roar, feeling as though the entire house had nearly shaken off its foundation.

Parting the curtains to look into the neighboring courtyard, his field of vision was completely obscured by thick smoke.

Needless to say, the Doctor must have been back.

Opening a detective agency right here... didn't seem like a great choice anymore.

It was too terrifying.

Gao Mo walked out of his room in his pajamas, running right into little Ai coming out of the opposite door—yawning as if she hadn't gotten enough sleep, she glanced at him and hurriedly averted her gaze.

"I'll go make breakfast."

Haibara Ai stepped into oversized slippers and walked skillfully into the kitchen, pulling up a chair to fetch eggs and instant noodles from the refrigerator.

"The ingredients are too sparse. Can we get some more delivered?"

"I already made a delivery call yesterday, and someone should bring some over this morning," Gao Mo explained. "When the agency opens, there might be a private gathering where some friends drop by."

Haibara Ai turned her head, blinking, clearly curious about what kind of friends Gao Mo could possibly have.

"Will any celebrities come?"

"Yoko Okino wanted to come, but her manager stopped her, and I don't want to stir up any trouble, so it should probably just be Mouri and the others coming over for a meal."

Gao Mo only intended to open with a low profile. With the "Kindaichi" persona, he wouldn't have to worry about a lack of commissions.

If some major incident broke out because of Yoko Okino, he'd probably have to shut down the detective agency before it even started.

"Boom!"

Another commotion came from next door; the courtyard wall finally seemed to have collapsed for good.

Gao Mo observed from the doorway for a moment, and once he was sure it was safe, he said to Haibara Ai, "I'm going to visit the Doctor next door in a bit. Are you coming?"

Haibara Ai's small hands trembled slightly, and it took her a long while to lower her head and give a soft murmur of assent.

...

"Cough, cough!"

In the neighboring courtyard.

Dr. Agasa crawled out of the ruins amid the pungent smoke and dust, his protective suit completely blackened, and after taking off his goggles, he rubbed his slightly singed mustache.

"Failed again. That makes no sense."

The last time there was an explosion of this magnitude was when Gao Mo had come looking for him.

The time before last was when Shinichi was still living at home...

"Doctor!"

Gao Mo greeted him, bringing Haibara Ai along.

"When did you get back?"

Dr. Agasa pulled at his mustache to collect his thoughts, then turned to look in surprise at Haibara Ai cowering beside Gao Mo. "This child... is your daughter?"

"I'm single. Where on earth would I get a daughter?"

Gao Mo pulled Haibara Ai forward as she subconsciously tried to hide behind him. Stepping past the ruins with the Doctor, they entered the living room before he continued his explanation.

"She ate that kind of drug and shrank, just like Kudo. She's temporarily staying next door, and I'd like to ask you to help her set up an identity... preferably one where she doesn't have to go to school."

"Not go to school?"

Dr. Agasa rubbed his bald head, and before he could say anything, he saw Haibara Ai holding up a large package of diet tea with both hands.

"..."

Were diet teas all the rage right now?

"You two have a seat; I'll go change my clothes."

The Doctor hurried away, completely missing the tears welling up in Haibara Ai's eyes.

Though it only lasted a moment before she lowered her head to hide it, Gao Mo, who had been quietly watching, caught sight of her sorrow.

What on earth was wrong with this woman? She acted as if everyone was going to die in the future.

"I'll figure out the identity issue myself," Haibara Ai said, putting down the diet tea. "I probably won't stay in Japan for very long. Leaving too many traces will only bring future troubles, so..."

Gao Mo opened his mouth in surprise.

What kind of development was this?