Chapter 75: Brother (2)
The mechanical voice of the mannequin host echoed through the dimly lit dining room, finally laying out the true purpose of this bizarre gathering. They were here to find a treasure hidden somewhere within the sprawling confines of the Twilight Mansion. A cryptic hint followed, hanging heavy in the stagnant air.
Ikumi Soda leaned back, a subtle, sharp smile playing on her lips. "I have a question," she interrupted, her voice cutting through the tension. "Is this treasure something the self-proclaimed Kaitou Kid—our supposed host—hid himself? Or are we looking for the legendary fortune that once belonged to Renya Karasuma?"
Shukuru Ogami frowned, his heavy features twisting in confusion. "What do you mean by that?"
A brief silence fell over the table. It dawned on the others that Ogami had been absent from the room when Morikawa Shiro recounted the blood-soaked history of the Twilight Mansion. Patiently, they reiterated Morikawa's grim tale of the Karasuma tragedy.
As the story unfolded, Ogami's expression darkened. The color drained from his face, replaced by a solemn, almost nervous pallor. Unconsciously, he brought his right thumb to his mouth, gnawing on the nail.
A loud thud shattered the quiet.
Without warning, Ogami bolted upright. His chair tipped backward, crashing violently against the floorboards. His hands flew to his throat, fingers clawing at his collar as a look of sheer agony contorted his face. He let out a strangled, breathless gasp before collapsing heavily to the ground.
Dead.
The casual, almost theatrical atmosphere of the dinner party vanished in an instant. The remaining detectives snapped into action, their relaxed postures replaced by the razor-sharp focus of seasoned investigators. A murder had just occurred right in front of them. The game was real.
They quickly deduced the need to check their only escape route. After a brief, tense discussion, they decided to take the maid's car—parked safely away from the explosive destruction of their own vehicles—to inspect the bridge leading out of the mountains. Conan proposed a simple coin toss to determine the scouting party.
Once the coins settled, Kogoro Mouri, Harufumi Mogi, and Kayo Senma were selected. Natsume stood by the heavy oak doors with the others, watching the taillights of the maid's car fade into the suffocating darkness of the forest.
As the group turned to head back into the safety of the mansion to await the results, Natsume paused. She noticed Morikawa lingering near the entrance. He had not spoken a word since Ogami's sudden death. Instead of retreating indoors, he stood perfectly still, his gaze fixed upward at the clearing night sky.
Natsume stepped back out onto the damp stone path, intending to call him inside. But as she approached, Morikawa slowly turned his head.
The moonlight caught his eyes, and Natsume's breath hitched.
They were golden.
Beneath the clever disguise, beneath the facade of the mild-mannered Morikawa Shiro, those eyes shone with a warm, unmistakable brilliance. They were the exact same shade of molten sunlight she saw staring back at her in the mirror every single day.
A sudden, staggering realization crashed into her. The matching eye color. The disguised face. The cryptic warnings Jinpei Matsuda had given her earlier. The puzzle pieces violently snapped together.
For a long moment, Natsume stood frozen, the words dying in her throat. She stared into those golden eyes, the silence stretching between them, heavy with unspoken truths. Finally, she forced her voice steady and uttered a single, definitive sentence.
"I'm not Lumine. I'm Natsume."
Hearing her blunt confession, Morikawa let out a soft, genuine chuckle. The coldness of the Black Organization executive melted away, leaving only a deep, tender warmth.
"I know," he said softly. "You are Natsume. I've always known."
Natsume blinked, her carefully constructed composure faltering. "Then you..."
"It doesn't matter," he interrupted gently. "Because the person I've always known is you. The one who traveled with me across the stars was also you."
Seeing the sheer bewilderment swirling in Natsume's golden eyes, he took a step closer. "But I am Aether. So, I hope you are Lumine. I hope to be your family in this world. Your brother. Is that okay?"
Even though her sharp intuition had already led her to this exact conclusion, hearing him explicitly admit to being Aether still felt like a physical blow.
'Paimon! Paimon!'Natsume screamed in her mental landscape, panic bleeding into her thoughts.'What on earth is going on?! Come out, quickly! Didn't you say you'd message 111 to ask the higher-ups? What's the result?!'
She desperately sought the familiar, high-pitched voice of her system guide. But the void remained utterly silent. Paimon was playing dead, offering absolutely no response, leaving Natsume to weather this existential crisis entirely on her own.
She looked back at Aether. He was waiting patiently, giving her the space to process. Her mind was a chaotic storm. She felt an obvious sense of familiarity radiating from him, a bone-deep instinct that suggested they had indeed shared countless lifetimes together. Yet, her logical mind insisted she had never truly met him, that he wasn't just a digital character she had pulled from a gacha banner.
But looking into his earnest, golden eyes, Natsume felt the absolute sincerity in his soul. He truly, desperately wanted to be her family.
"Of course, if you're unwilling, I could be your younger brother instead," Aether offered, a playful glint returning to his eyes as he noticed her internal struggle. He was not going to force the older sibling dynamic if it made her uncomfortable.
Natsume's lips twitched. The heavy emotional atmosphere instantly shattered. "How old are you right now?" she asked, her tone deadpan.
Aether tapped his chin, pretending to calculate. "Hmm... counting only the time I've spent in this specific world, I've already lived for forty years."
Imaginary black lines dropped down Natsume's forehead. "You've lived longer than my past two lifetimes combined. How could you possibly be my younger brother? Older brother is the only thing that makes sense."
Aether caught the subtle acceptance in her words, and his smile widened into something incredibly bright. "Since the weather is so nice right now, why don't you call me that once?"
Natsume glanced away, looking down at the stone path still slick with fresh rain. She felt a bit ridiculous, but a strange warmth blossomed in her chest.
"Brother," she said softly.
"Mm-hmm~" Aether hummed, his voice practically vibrating with lighthearted joy.
Seeing a feared executive of the Black Organization look so genuinely thrilled over a single word, Natsume could not help but let a small smile grace her own lips.
"We've been out here too long," she noted, feeling the chill of the night air. "Let's go back inside. We can discuss the rest of this later."
"Sister Natsume, why did you and Morikawa-niisan come back so late?" Conan's sharp, inquisitive voice greeted them the moment they stepped back into the grand foyer. His oversized glasses glinted under the chandelier.
Natsume did not miss a beat. "It's nothing. I just spent some time stargazing with someone who suddenly had a moment of impulsiveness."
Ran looked toward the heavy double doors, puzzled. "But it just finished raining. Can you even see the stars right now?"
Morikawa offered a smooth, charming smile. "The clouds parted beautifully after the downpour. It's never a bad time to admire a clear night sky, is it?"
Conan's eyes narrowed slightly, his gaze darting between Natsume and Morikawa. 'Strange,'he thought, his detective instincts flaring.'What did they actually talk about out there? It feels like the distance between them vanished in the span of a few minutes.'
More, a man had just been poisoned to death in the next room. Why did Morikawa suddenly seem to be in such an incredibly good mood?
Their quiet moment was soon shattered by the return of Harufumi Mogi and Kogoro Mouri. They burst through the doors, bringing the grim, unfortunate news that Kayo Senma had perished in a fiery explosion at the bridge.
From that point on, save for the unexpected addition of Natsume and Morikawa, the night unfolded exactly as the original timeline dictated. The remaining detectives engaged in a brilliant, high-stakes theatrical performance, pretending to systematically murder one another under the unblinking gaze of the mansion's hidden security cameras.
Ultimately, it was the child, Conan Edogawa, who laid the final trap, luring the true mastermind out of the shadows.
Kayo Senma.
Realizing that the dead detectives had completely seen through her elaborate ruse and cornered her, the elderly woman surrendered. With a bitter, helpless sigh, she confessed her true motives, detailing her desperate, lifelong obsession with the mansion's secret.
As Conan flawlessly decoded the final riddle left by the mannequin, the grand truth of the Twilight Mansion was revealed. Senma watched in crushing disappointment as the treasure she had sacrificed everything for turned out to be nothing more than a clock made of solid gold.
Standing quietly in the background, Morikawa Shiro observed the scene with calculating eyes. He watched this child, Conan Edogawa, a name that sounded like a fabricated pseudonym the moment it hit the ear, speak with the eloquence and authority of a seasoned investigator, commanding the attention of Japan's greatest minds.
'He must be the protagonist of this world,'Morikawa deduced, his golden eyes tracking the boy's every movement.'But is he really just a child?'
A normal elementary school student, no matter how gifted, did not possess that level of deductive reasoning, nor the commanding presence to orchestrate a fake murder plot among professional detectives.
Morikawa's mind raced, connecting disparate threads of intelligence. He recalled Vermouth's recent, highly unusual infiltration of Teitan Elementary School under the guise of a physical examination. He paired that with her intense, secretive focus on the supposedly missing high school detective, Shinichi Kudo.
The pieces clicked together with terrifying precision.
If his theory was correct, then this little boy was a walking miracle, and a massive piece of use against the Red Faction.
A slow, dangerous smile curved Morikawa's lips.
'Hmm. This can definitely be put to use.'
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