"Meow."
Early in the morning, Goro jumped onto the head of the bed and hung the shuttlecock-like cat toy in his mouth from the bedpost, staring fixedly at Yimi's cat ears.
Yimi slept soundly, having kicked off her blanket and pinned it beneath her legs.
"Meow!"
At that moment, another black cat jumped onto the head of the bed and pawed at the cat toy a couple of times, shifting it until it happened to land on Yimi's cat ear.
Smack! Yimi's ear twitched and knocked the toy away.
But momentum made it swing back. Yimi twitched her ear again and knocked it away, only for it to fall back yet again.
"..."
After her ear went pat-pat-pat and smacked the toy several times in a row, Yimi rolled over and sat up, glaring at the other five cats with clear hostility.
At the sight, Goro was the first to retreat. Go, Tei, and O hurriedly backed away as well, selling out the culprit—Kai.
"Meow meow meow meow!" Yimi raised her hands and unleashed a barrage of kitty punches on it, teaching the cats exactly who was boss of this territory.
"If you're already awake, hurry up and get out of bed. Don't be late for school." Kisaki Eri stood in the doorway and reminded her, "It's pretty hot today, so wear a thinner hat. A sun hat would be fine too."
"Nn."
Yimi looked at the four extra black cats. They had found their way here on their own, and Kisaki Eri had felt sorry for them and let them inside.
They had already freeloaded in this house for two days, and Go in particular liked bullying Goro, the original resident.
They actually did have names, but Yimi had no idea what they were.
She pointed at the four cats in front of her with all the authority of the boss. "From now on, you're called Meow, Mew, Miaow, and Miao."
"Don't name them. This house can't hold this many animals. If we find suitable people, we'll have to give them away." Kisaki Eri continued talking to Yimi from the living room while getting herself ready.
Yimi nodded. "Give them away."
Kisaki Eri thought she sounded disappointed and added, "Of course, if one of your friends is willing to raise one, we can give it to them. Then you'd still get to see it often, right? Hurry up and change. You really are going to be late."
"Okay."
Yimi expertly changed out of her pajamas. This time they were no longer the little dinosaur pajamas, but an ordinary pair Kisaki Eri had bought for her.
She had already dragged Diego's true body out in the previous world. From now on, the kitty would never be tormented by Diego again.
Yimi grabbed the hat she was supposed to wear in hot weather and pressed down on her cat ears.
The whole point was to hide them, yet among all those hats, not one fit her just right. Yimi remembered that the blue one had fox-ear-shaped points that happened to fit over her ears perfectly.
No, there was still one thing that fit perfectly. It just was not very useful for hiding them.
"Are you still not dressed?" Kisaki Eri walked into Yimi's room again to hurry her along.
The air went silent for several seconds.
Kisaki Eri lowered her gaze and stared wordlessly at the tight-lipped little cat-child. The little brat had pulled one of Yimi's spare pairs of cartoon underwear over her head, leaving both ears sticking neatly out through the leg holes.
...
She got a knock on the head and was told never to do anything this strange again, even though the underwear was obviously designed so perfectly for the job.
"Kittens?"
Before class, Yimi's friends crowded around her desk and discussed the matter excitedly.
Rubbing her head, Yimi nodded. "Four more at home. Queen says they have to be given away."
"I wonder if Mom and Dad will let me keep one. If they do, there are exactly four of us left in the Detective Boys!"
"I-I probably can't," Conan hurriedly said, waving his hands. "I'm staying at my uncle's house."
Those four cats seemed to have belonged to the bank robber, right? And their owner had apparently been killed in the end. If these kids knew the truth, they definitely would not dare adopt them.
Conan turned his gaze toward Yimi, thinking about that drug.
The fact that no poison could be detected fit perfectly. The problem was, if that really was what happened, when had she ever gotten a chance to administer it?
"Speaking of which, when I passed the teachers' office just now, I heard our class is getting a new transfer student. I wonder what they'll be like." Ayumi smoothly changed the subject from kittens to something else.
"A transfer student? We've had so many this term. This makes the third one already, right? Is it a boy or a girl?" Mitsuhiko sounded very interested.
Genta made a goofy face. "I hope it's a cute girl."
Hearing that, Mitsuhiko wagged a finger. "Ayumi and Yimi are already cute enough. Whether it's a boy or a girl, having a nice personality is what matters most."
"..."
They did not have to wait long. Their teacher soon walked in with the new transfer student, and she really was a girl—a cute, short-haired one at that.
But she was extremely cold, wearing a zombie-like expression the entire time. She only wrote her name on the blackboard; even her introduction was handled by the teacher.
"Haibara-san, where would you like to sit?"
"Sensei, over here!" Genta waved at her with excessive enthusiasm.
Haibara ignored him. She walked over to Yimi, only to discover with some frustration that the two people she was mainly interested in were actually sitting together. She had no choice but to find another empty seat.
Genta took up rather a lot of space, after all.
"Everyone, please get along." Kobayashi-sensei did her best to warm up the atmosphere.
The dull school day proceeded as usual, with no change except for one extra person. The new transfer student remained quietly aloof even during breaks, giving perfunctory answers whenever anyone tried to talk to her.
When school finally ended, she had intended to stand up and leave immediately. She still had not emerged from her grief and anxiety. But Yimi planted a hand on her desk and leaned her face close, looking at her from left to right.
"Is there something on my face?" Haibara Ai calmly looked at the little girl she had met once before. Of course, back then she had still been called Miyano Shiho.
Her gaze shifted slightly upward.
She wore a hat even at school? So what Shiho had touched that day really had not been her imagination.
"You look familiar." But Yimi could not remember where she had seen her.
"..."
"Where do you live? Did you just move here?" Mitsuhiko struck up a conversation as though they were already old friends.
"22, Second Street, Beika Town." Haibara Ai, who had been cold toward everyone else, gave a complete answer this time.
Conan froze. Wasn't that somewhere near his house?
"Is there a Haibara family living there? Anyway, do you want to join the Detective Boys?" Ayumi invited her enthusiastically. They had surrounded Yimi and talked her into joining in almost exactly the same way.
"The Detective Boys?"
"It's the evil organization where we usually eat, drink, and play at the professor's house." Yimi answered according to her own experience.
"We are not an evil organization! Don't we seriously accept requests and help people all the time?" Ayumi grabbed Yimi's clothes and shook her back and forth.
The professor's house? Wait. Wasn't the address this girl had just given the professor's address?
Only after that reminder did Conan suddenly remember that the professor was basically the only neighbor near his own house.
"You have to adopt one kitten from me before you can join us. When they grow up, I'll make rat soup for you." Yimi seized the opportunity to start advertising the little menaces at home.
"There's no rule like that!"
"..."
Conan stayed silent beside them the entire time, deep in thought.