The establishment of the Time Travelers Alliance began in the first year of Conan

Chapter 213 Everyone is here

Hoshimi Tower is a landmark building in Beikacho, Tokyo.

To avoid the light pollution reflected into the night sky from the city, this 250-meter-tall, 50-story astronomical observation and city sightseeing tower was specially built in the western suburbs of Beika Town.

In Ai Haibara's eyes, the tower was surrounded by the forest in the center.

In the darkness, the flashing red beacon at the top of the tower was her most reliable guide as she traversed this dark forest—it was like an ever-burning red star in the sky.

"call--"

"Children's bodies are indeed... a real hassle."

Sitting on the ground with her back against a tree trunk, Ai Haibara took a few breaths. She moved her backpack from behind to the front, unzipped it, and took out the sandwich she had stolen from the convenience store.

She needs to rest and eat something; the hunger in her stomach tells her that if she doesn't eat soon, she might faint from hunger.

Looking around, this place could barely be described as "safe".

The tree behind us grows on a rather tall rock, making this a natural campsite.

The barren soil around the rocks meant that few trees could grow nearby, so the full moon's light could finally filter through the layers of branches and fall to the ground.

More importantly, I can now easily look up and see that familiar red light still flashing in front of me.

The indicator light should have been to my west, but it has now turned to the east, which means I must have gone astray.

Based on the position of the moon in the sky, Ai Haibara roughly estimated the time in her mind.

"Is it around one or two o'clock now? Then the distance is approximately..."

Using the moonlight, she clenched her fist, then extended her thumb and aimed it at the red light in the night, alternating between her left and right eyes to observe the deviation in the position of the red light.

"If I remember correctly, the red navigation light should be more than 250 meters above the ground... if we calculate based on the vertical distance..."

"It will take me at least two hours to walk, and that's the straight-line distance."

The approximate result of the calculation made her heart sink.

I can't afford to waste any more time.

Ai Haibara forced herself to stand up, leaning on the tree trunk, but as soon as she put pressure on it, a wave of dizziness washed over her, causing her legs to buckle and she to kneel on the ground.

Ai Haibara's body was protesting; for a first-grader, trekking through dense forest for several hours was already the limit.

"Hang in there a little longer, we'll be there soon."

"Think of your sister... Shiho, you can't fall here."

Silently chanting in her heart and gritting her teeth, Ai Haibara grabbed the tree branch she used as a cane and struggled to prop herself up.

The "crackling" sound of stepping on the branches gradually faded away from the cypress tree that still stood in the same place, and as the moon sank in the west, the red light in the distance became more and more eerie and bright.

The surrounding woods began to thin out, and more moonlight streamed down from overhead.

Ai Haibara could even see some trash left behind by adventurers who had tried to venture deeper into the forest.

She took off the white lab coat that she was wearing as protection, which was already somewhat tattered from being scratched by bushes and branches, and then stuffed it deep into a clump of bushes.

These things could expose her identity.

Finally, the light from several tents in the distance shone through a small patch of grass blocking my view—

In Ai Haibara's eyes, the light that swayed in the night had become blurred.

The campsite is just ahead.

In the latter half of the journey to the Star Viewing Tower, she was almost entirely sustained by her willpower.

She relies on her own will to delay the historical inertia that the story timeline has been trying to connect for her.

But just when this hope was within reach, a mournful cawing of crows rang out.

Extreme exhaustion finally overwhelmed her, causing Ai Haibara to lose consciousness and fall asleep on the soft lawn.

And so Ai Haibara fell into a nightmare, a different kind of nightmare.

Strangely, in the dream, the sky was the dark blue-green of an ink painting, while the world was a snowy day, with pale snowflakes falling from the clouds.

"Let's hurry home and play football!"

"Yes, yes!"

……

—It's a child's voice.

And I, I became the child myself, wearing a rose-colored coat, walking down a street with four children.

Then she saw a black car parked on the side of the street, a Porsche 356A, Gin's car. He was sitting in the driver's seat, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, looking at her coldly.

A familiar voice rang out:

"Alright, it's time to wake up from your dream, Sherry. To celebrate our reunion—"

Then, Gin saw Sherry, with her brown hair and childlike appearance, freeze in place for a moment, and the next moment, a voice he would never forget responded to him.

"Yes, let's celebrate with your blood."

Finally, he pulled the black pistol from his pocket, amidst Gin's incredulous expression—

Bang!
And so the nightmare ended.

When Ai Haibara opened her eyes, she found herself curled up in a grove of trees. The dazed look in her eyes lasted only a few seconds before the sunlight streaming down from above immediately put her at ease.

It's already daytime!

Ai Haibara peeked out from behind the bushes and glanced at the sky. It was probably around eight or nine o'clock.

In the distant campsite, backpacks were scattered outside some tents.

Ai Haibara turned her head and glanced at her brown hair. "The organization might have photos of me when I was a child."

She then skillfully slipped into the campsite, pretending to be a lost child.

She was able to walk along the road to the vicinity of the Star Viewing Tower yesterday, and even get those sandwiches from the convenience store, all thanks to this self-taught "coquettish" skill.

Similarly, to avoid potential exposure, it's best to wear a hat when entering the Star Viewing Tower.

This time, she was even lucky enough to find a few children's coats.

She changed out of the children's jacket she found at the Kudo residence and put it in her backpack—now she had even less chance of being exposed.

……

Gin had the same nightmare.

The story timeline draws him into a dream that shouldn't exist now.

The Star Viewing Tower case does not exist in the story's timeline, which means that without a reasonable reason, reality would not allow the Black Organization to approach the Star Viewing Tower.

Especially given that GSSRA is conducting thorough searches of all intersections.

More importantly, following the historical inertia of "escaping to Professor Agasa's house," Ai Haibara should have remained hidden from everyone's sight.

In this situation, the alliance and GSSRA have a huge advantage, and the reason is very simple—

They outnumbered and outgunned.

It is true that the Star Viewing Tower is a very large building.

However, if there are enough investigators from the police, GSSRA, and the Science Frontier, there is a greater chance of encountering each other, whether in reality or within the Alliance.

Therefore, the story timeline made a very clever move, and this historical inertia can also be interpreted as "Ai Haibara using shrinking to escape".

in other words--

Using the same nightmare as [Historical Inertia], [Story Timeline] incorporates "the reunion with the Black Organization" into this case.

Therefore, when Gin woke up from his nightmare, his phone screen was lit up by a text message that symbolized a Boss's order:
“GIN, you and Vodka are going to the Star Tower tomorrow. Pisco and Vermouth will handle the specific tasks. You need to cover them.”

"The target will appear in the conference hall on the 49th floor of the Star Viewing Tower at 6 PM tomorrow."

"At the same time, if Pisco accidentally reveals his identity..."

In this way, Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, and Pisco will all gather at the Star Tower tomorrow.

More importantly, for both Conan and Ai Haibara, the 49th floor is the only way to reach the top of the tower.

……

It was noon on the third day, and Conan and Heiji, who had been running around all morning, were having lunch in the restaurant on the fourth floor.

Nothing happened during last night's surveillance mission, and considering the numerous floors and functions of the Star Tower—

“Heiji, if we can’t find any crucial clues, it’s all a waste of time. This tower is too big.”

For Conan, he had already ruled out many floors.

"The information hidden by Miss Yami is very likely related to the pointer, and if we also consider the decoding equipment that Professor Agasa mentioned, such as the Star Tower, might be helpful..."

In the restaurant on the fourth floor, Heiji sat in a secluded corner near the window, while Conan spread the map he had obtained on the table.

"It seems that the key may lie on the first, second, and third floors, as well as the twenty-fifth and fiftieth floors."

"Last night we sneaked into the giant constellation projector in the lobby on the first floor."

Conan flipped the notebook in his hand to the third page.

Besides a hand-drawn diagram showing the positions of the stars on a constellation projector, the paper is also filled with his various notes on his thoughts.

"One of the words on the pointer is the word 'moon,' and the doctor received that message under moonlight, which suggests that a special lunar phase is likely required."

"Or rather, information related to the moon..."

"Hey, hey, I'm talking to Kudo—"

Heiji Hattori interrupted Conan's thoughts as he placed a stack of jam-covered bread in front of him, saying, "Stop thinking about things related to the stars."

"Since the 'pointer' you mentioned is so important, it's hard to imagine that Ms. Yami would hide the information in the projector."

"Even putting aside the fact that the image projected on the projector changes every day, have you forgotten the entrance we found yesterday? Only a little kid like you could squeeze into it."

"Well……"

Conan casually picked up a piece of bread and stuffed it into his mouth, while Heiji continued to explain his own views.

"If you ask me, the key is the observatory on the 50th floor. After all, if you're talking about advanced astronomical instruments, that's where it is."

“I already asked, and normally that place isn't open to the public. That means unless I get GSSRA to help us get access, otherwise—”

Heiji shrugged and spread his hands, indicating that he was probably powerless to help.

"In short, if you don't want to alert them, we'll have to figure out a way to get the elevator key and the staff's ID cards ourselves."

"No, the information left by Miss Yami could not have been on the fiftieth floor."

Conan knew very well that the timing didn't match up.

According to the information Heiji received last night, Ms. Yami went to Hoshimi Tower three days before the Beika branch bombing.

At that time, she did not have the pointer, so it was impossible for her to analyze the required equipment and astronomical equipment by trying to decode the pointer information, like Professor Agasa did.

And the thought that popped into my head last night while I was reasoning at the funeral home—

"If my guess is correct, the information hidden in the Star Viewing Tower is very likely not... no, it should be said that it wasn't just left behind by Miss Yami alone." Suppressing these speculations in his heart, Conan picked up another piece of bread, simply continuing along Heiji's train of thought:

“If it were not normally open to the public, Ms. Yami, who was a bank employee at the time, would not have been able to go to the 50th floor either.”

Conan unfolds the entire map of the Star Viewing Tower.

The third floor is the entrance to the observation deck. After purchasing tickets, staff will use a dedicated visitor elevator to take you to the twentieth floor.

The fourth floor, which is the floor I'm on now, is a restaurant and a souvenir shop.

Floors 20 to 25 are high-altitude observation decks, especially the 25th floor, which, from the outside, looks more like a 360° observation deck with an all-glass structure.

The floors above the 25th floor are commercial areas, such as reception rooms or upscale restaurants.

"So our target for this afternoon should start from the twentieth floor."

"Kudo, don't forget that it took us a whole morning to search the astronomy museum on the second floor and those empty rooms on the third floor that might be suspicious."

"Moreover, if you want to hide secret information, a high-altitude observation deck is definitely not a good choice, as the visitor flow is too large."

As he said this, Hattori Heiji quietly brought his mouth close to Conan's ear.

“We can’t just run around like headless flies. The key is to find those people in black clothes that you mentioned.”

He hadn't forgotten how he identified the suspect on the Suzuki auction train.

"I have instructed the personnel blocking the intersection to pay special attention to everyone wearing black."

“Yeah,” Conan added, “if they’re stupid enough to keep wearing that conspicuous black outfit into this observation tower, after all, it’ll be immediately obvious…”

"Cough-cough-!"

Conan suddenly coughed violently. The scene he caught out of the corner of his eye made him swallow the bread stuck in his throat immediately, and at the same time he quickly gestured to Hattori Heiji to look out the window.

In the open-air parking lot outside the Star Viewing Tower, the doors of several black cars were opened, and then about a dozen people dressed in black got out of the cars one after another.

……

As for Gin and vodka, who needed to do some tampering with the memorial service in the evening—

"Boss, we haven't encountered anything along the way."

Vodka's words silenced Gin, who was sitting to the side.

"What happened?" A soft voice came from the back seat of the classic Porsche 356A.

Gin's answer was succinct: "I haven't had much luck lately."

"Luck?" The voice now carried a hint of sarcasm. "Isn't that why the Boss sent you to support Pisco?"

If anyone could see the face of the person who made that voice, they would surely exclaim that name in astonishment—

Chris Vineyard.

The American actress who was once a sensation on the silver screen is now sitting in this black Porsche that shouldn't belong to any ordinary scene, along with Gin and Vodka.

After all, few people know that she has another name—

Belmode.

……

Clearly, the plan had problems from the very beginning.

After witnessing that scene, Hattori Heiji immediately took out his communicator and called Sato Shoji.

To avoid situations like the secretary being replaced, he specifically transferred Sato to be the commander of this operation!
"Sato! What's going on over there? Didn't I emphasize to be wary of everyone wearing black?!"

But a strange voice came from the other end of the phone.

“Mr. Heiji, Tokyo has made it clear that they want us to let them pass, and they have received approval from their superiors.”

"Unless you directly pinpoint the location of what the Black Organization is looking for, or have clear evidence that any of these people are members of the Black Organization..."

The voice was deep and steady, and even sounded quite reasonable.

"Judging whether someone belongs to the Black Organization based solely on the color of their clothing is obviously unrealistic. As long as a member of the Black Organization is willing to change their clothes, they can easily get away with it. They might even take advantage of us."

"But this is our only lead right now! What if it contains—"

"Those people are guests attending the memorial service for film director Akira Sakamaki tonight."

The man continued, "We have already verified the information of everyone on the list. Since the invitees come from all over the world, the list of invitees for the memorial service was finalized three months ago."

After a few seconds of silence, the person on the other end finally said, "I'm sorry, Mr. Heiji, we have to let them pass this time."

"At the same time, in order to avoid any unexpected situations, we will block any path leading to the Star Viewing Tower after 6 p.m.

Then, seemingly casually, he added, "The memorial service will begin at 6 p.m.

Heiji Hattori immediately realized that there would be problems with this so-called memorial service, or rather, there was likely a disagreement within GSSRA about the matter.

His brow furrowed deeply as he stood up and glanced around at the tourists still lingering inside the tower, but inwardly he was already cursing—

Damn it! Even looking at it this way, GSSRA isn't sure if the Black Organization will take this opportunity to infiltrate the Tower!
"Do you realize that this is risking everyone's lives?! Don't forget, we had absolutely no idea how those explosives were installed at the Mika branch!"

"If they're carrying explosives—!"

“Mr. Heiji, the chairman (Yusaku Kudo) has also agreed to this operation.”

The words on the other end of the phone left Hattori Heiji frozen in place.

"I have no right to know more information, but we have to take this risk."

"The chairman has instructed us that if you cannot find the key information before 6 p.m., GSSRA's combat personnel will cover your evacuation."

Evacuation?!
Damn it, what on earth happened?!

The words Gehrman had said when he said goodbye suddenly echoed in his mind, and Hattori Heiji couldn't help but mutter, "Is this place going to become a battlefield?"

The next second, Heiji snapped out of it and grabbed Conan's shoulder, his voice filled with barely concealed anxiety.

"Kudo! Didn't you say you had a winning formula?!"

"It's time to put it to use!"

……

Meanwhile, Professor Agasa was carrying a small bag and leading the children toward the Star Viewing Tower.

The midday heat caused fine beads of sweat to appear on the doctor's forehead.

It wasn't just them; there were many more tourists, all with smiles on their faces, looking satisfied from being in contact with nature, walking along the road towards the Star Viewing Tower.

The woodlands are often damp and sultry at midday.

Therefore, avoiding the heat of cooking fires under the midday sun and choosing to enjoy the long-lost air conditioning in the Star Viewing Tower, or even taste ice cream, is obviously the best choice.

However, unlike the leisurely tourists, the children around the doctor all had their heads drooping and looked extremely dejected.

Xiaolan's face was filled with hidden anger. She clenched her right fist and looked around warily, as if searching for someone.

"Sister Xiaolan! Don't worry, I will definitely help you find that hat!"

"And my coat!" Ayumi's voice trembled with a hint of tears. "That was my favorite piece of clothing!"

Finally, overwhelmed with resentment, she couldn't help but cry because her beloved clothes had been stolen.

Xiao Lan quickly squatted down to comfort her, frantically wiping away her tears.

"Ayumi! I will definitely help you find that thief!" ×2.

Genta and Mitsuhiko's angry voices rang out.

Especially Genta Kojima, who looked indignant and excitedly grabbed Ayumi's hand, "Ayumi, do you remember who we are?"

The leader of the Junior Detective Club (who claimed to be the leader but had no actual command authority) exchanged a glance with Mitsuhiko and nodded vigorously in unison.

"We are the Junior Detective League! This thief who stole our clothes! We will definitely help you catch him!"

In fact, this was definitely the most discouraging thing for the camping kids today.

Because the campsite is located on the edge of the forest, the picnic area and the campsite are separate.

Therefore, after Ran and her group locked their important belongings in the tent and went to the campsite to enjoy a hearty meal with the three children and Professor Agasa—

"Ran-neechan! Professor Agasa! Our clothes are gone!"

None of the valuables were lost.

However, several jackets that were hanging outside the tent to dry, which had been soaked by the children's water gun fight that morning, were missing.

"Could it have been blown away by the wind?" Dr. Agasa wondered.

"No, Doctor, it must have really been taken by someone."

At that moment, Ran Mouri glanced at the empty tent poles in front of her and came to a conclusion.

“My hat is gone too. It was clipped to the tent pole with a clip, but look, Doctor, there are no scratches on the plastic sheet covering the tent pole.”

"If a strong wind pulls the hat off along with the clip, then there should be marks left on the plastic sheet from the clip."

"Wow! Sister Xiaolan, you can actually deduce so many things!"

Faced with the somewhat admiring gazes of Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi, Ran couldn't help but smile, gently squatting down to pat Ayumi's head.

Her warm smile made Professor Agasa, who was standing behind her, feel a little sad.

"Yeah, even I was startled..."

"Probably because of something..."

A faint warning in her mind stopped her from speaking.

Even though Professor Agasa is currently in a fake timeline, he still knows that Conan is Shinichi.

So she changed the subject to another question.

"But who would steal a few children's clothes, or steal my hat?"

And that's why the children are frustrated.

Ultimately, they failed to find the real culprit, and were even criticized by other adults for running around the camp.

After Conan immediately dialed Dr. Agasa's number because of Heiji Hattori's urgent words.

Now, using the comforting excuse of "going to the Star Viewing Tower for ice cream and continuing the search," Professor Agasa, carrying a small bag made from a folded skateboard, leads the children to the Star Viewing Tower.

And at this moment——

Ai Haibara, who was sneaking into the fourth floor of the Star Viewing Tower and slipping into the buffet restaurant when the waiter wasn't looking, subconsciously raised her hand to touch the white hat on her head.

Yes, now she has adopted the name "Ai Haibara" as the voice that stood beside her in her dream and called her.

She has now tucked all her hair into her hat, and from her appearance, no one could connect her with Shiho Miyano when she was a child.

She had already spotted that familiar car when she passed the parking lot—

Gin and Vodka's bad luck finally came true. Apparently, when they returned to their car after completing their mission, Gin would find that his tires had blown up again.

(End of this chapter)