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

Chapter 265 Quick Rhythm (Part 3)
"Bang bang bang!"

Accompanying the series of bullet sounds were the sounds of crystal chandeliers on the corridor walls and antique vases shattering on a nearby cabinet.

Even the glass decorations on the carved arches of the corridor were hit.

They, along with the shards of glass, fell to the ground, trying to hinder Professor Agasa's progress.

As long as... as long as we can get to that place...

Amidst the hail of bullets, Professor Agasa, panting heavily, scrambled between the pillars of the corridor, deftly dodging the shards of glass flying toward him.

The two black-clad figures that were chasing him like ghosts had been following him all day.

His only hope now lies in the location within the castle, near the village mansion, near Keiji Aso's piano room.

Professor Agasa ran towards that familiar spot.

On his chest hung a strange, blue, clear ring, roughly the size of Ai Haibara.

It is precisely what the Black Organization wants to take from him, or rather, the key to this case:

The 【Cyclic Time Tracing Instrument】itself.

This is a Möbius time loop that is nearing completion.

Its shape is an elegant yet enigmatic figure 8, resembling a long ribbon that has been twisted and then closed.

The joint between the two ends glowed faintly, a pale white light that seemed to carry a slight "repulsive force," as if trying to break it off.

A dazzling golden light, like a golden thread, was sewn there.

It intertwines and pulls at the boundary, forcibly and permanently binding the two seemingly different-sized "rings" into one.

Driven by the golden light, the blue band of light flowed like a spinning sky, gradually narrowing the gap between the two distorted parts.

—The two ends of the balance are slowly balancing.

Gin knew he couldn't catch up.

He watched from afar as Professor Agasa ran towards the ceasefire zone, gritted his teeth, and raised his gun towards the skylight that Professor Agasa was about to pass by.

Opportunities are becoming increasingly scarce.

Just as Professor Agasa knew, Gin eventually shot him anyway.

"Snapped--!"

The glass skylight overhead shattered.

Those sharp glass blades, with an irresistible force, poured down like raindrops.

The mirror reflected the dazzling silver light of the moon in mid-air, heading straight for Professor Agasa, who was about to rush to the end of the corridor.

Dr. Agasa's pupils suddenly contracted.

Without hesitation, he immediately hugged the blue ribbon tightly to his chest, then clasped his arms together and fell forward to the ground.

"boom--!"

That blue band seemed to have an unbelievable weight.

The seemingly light strip of light crashed down like an anvil, making a heavy thud on the corridor floor.

The glass blades that fell from the air could only resentfully land around Professor Agasa, or even turn into a glass cage that trapped him in the center.

Professor Agasa is now like a sacrifice being judged by the moonlight.

The time has come.

"Beep beep-"

The TDD on my wrist vibrated and then flashed a bright red light the next moment.

Perhaps it was intentionally set up that way, because the TDD alarm was transmitted to Gin and Vodka's ears without any concealment.

"not good!"

Gin immediately realized that they had gone a bit too far.

As the glass skylight shattered, the gentle moonlight shone on the glass cell that imprisoned Professor Agasa.

They quickly filled the "vessel," and trickled out from it.

In just a moment, the entire corridor was bathed in moonlight.

How sacred, serene, and beautiful the silvery glow is.

Professor Agasa had no time to appreciate the beautiful glow; his pupils were almost filled with the screen full of red alerts.

Although this wasn't the first time he'd done this, Dr. Agasa's lips trembled slightly.

He stood frozen in place, not daring to move an inch.

Dr. Agasa knew that this moonlight was actually a manifestation of the "Moonlight Murder Case".

Moreover, it was far more terrifying than any case the league had ever encountered.

The most intense temporal fire that the "Crimson Fire Ritual" can ignite is not even as bright and dazzling as the faintest ray of "moonlight" in this "Moonlight Murder Case".

Because such moonlight can only prove one thing.

A certain deity is unconsciously—[reasoning].

Now, all is still.

The living moonlight carries a grand, scrutinizing radiance, with its own appeal, gathering every potentially useful piece of information from this place.

No one can afford the consequences of being discovered.

With beads of sweat on his forehead, Professor Agasa turned his head slightly and looked at Gin and Vodka, who were also standing frozen in place, not daring to breathe.

He put his index finger to his lips as a gesture to be quiet.

"Shh-"

Gin and Vodka were filled with lingering fear. They quickly exchanged a glance and nodded to each other.

They, in perfect unison, tiptoed and quietly retreated towards the corridor away from the castle.

However, the threatening intent in their eyes was still palpable.

Gin, in particular, brandished his Beretta M92F, indicating that he would definitely not miss again next time.

The moon has risen; now it's a period of silence.

Thus, the chase and shooting that lasted for several hours in the Blue Castle seemed to have never happened at all.

Everyone was quietly evacuating the castle whose gates had been "sealed off"—

When the familiar first movement of the Moonlight Sonata began to play.

……

"Hu-hu-"

Sitting in the corridor strewn with broken glass, Professor Agasa took a long breath.

The security guard will probably take another three minutes to come over, so he can rest for a while now.

A beam of light illuminated the other end of the corridor—the break was over.

Dr. Agasa carefully activated the stealth and speed-up functions of TDD.

From this moment on, he cannot waste another second.

The timeline has started to switch erratically, but this chaos should end within a few minutes.

Before that, he must restore all this chaos.

Dr. Agasa has lost count of how many times he has done this—he means resetting these chaotic and collapsing scenes.

The scanning system had already marked all the areas that needed to be restored in front of him.

He skillfully activated TDD's recovery function and began repairing the scattered bullets, bullet holes, shattered crystal chandeliers, glass skylights, and other damage from the recent chase.

A pale blue light emanated from his wrist, and the bullet slowly "withdrew" from the wall, glass shards swirling and piecing themselves back together in mid-air...

Time itself began to heal from its wounds, and it began to gradually return to calm.

The moment the last pane of glass was restored to its original state, a voice that Professor Agasa knew all too well came from the end of the castle corridor:
"What's that sound? Who...who's there?!"

—It was the security guard who was assigned to keep watch at the village mansion.

The person who kept vigil for Kameyama Isamu the night after his death.

Dr. Agasa knew this in his heart.

This person rushed over from the village mansion because he encountered the so-called "ghost of Keiji Aso" and heard those strange noises.

In reality, those "strange phenomena"—

Those sounds and shadows were traces left by Gin and his men who had just left, or rather, a day ago.

"I've led that security guard over here, Professor Agasa."

Vermouth's voice came through the TDD communication channel.

"What about Gin and Vodka? And Haibara... she shouldn't have noticed anything amiss, right?" Professor Agasa asked.

He knew the answer in the next moment.

However, the sudden appearance of memories in his mind led Dr. Agasa to tell Vermouth that the plan had to be changed.

"The vodka was spotted when it was being taken away." Dr. Agasa took a deep breath and gave Vermouth new instructions: "The plan needs to be adjusted."

“Vermouth, listen to me—you must act according to the ‘new plan’ I will send you tomorrow.”

"You need to create the illusion that the ghosts of Keiji Aso and Isamu Kameyama are still lingering in the castle next to the village mansion, and you also need to spread this rumor."

"I see."

Hidden in the open space behind the village mansion, Vermouth responded in a low voice. In a few seconds, she had figured out exactly what to do.

"I've just finished recording the piece. I don't know how much of yesterday's music is still good, but it should be enough to create the right atmosphere."

After confirming with Vermouth that there were no problems with the plan, Dr. Agasa disconnected the communication.

He glanced down at the TDD interface on his wrist:

Time point – the present/night of the full moon where [Conan Edogawa] is located.

Professor Agasa knows that Conan is right next door.

Even because of the noise he made when he fell to the ground, he grabbed Ran and Kogoro and hurried towards the castle.

He can't stay at this point in time.

It's a bit of a shame, but the timeline can't get any more chaotic.

Everything is in complete chaos.

Professor Agasa quickly got up from the ground and silently followed the night watchman who was holding a flashlight, looking around nervously while shouting to bolster his courage.

The surrounding space seemed to suddenly shift.

TDD popped up a line of updated data in front of him:
Timeline confirmed – The day after Kameyama Isamu's death / The full moon night two years ago

The timing was right.

So, when Conan led Kogoro Mori to the sealed castle gate, and Kogoro Mori, with a puzzled look, read aloud the sign hanging at the entrance: "Under renovation, temporarily closed"—

Professor Agasa followed the "night watchman from two years ago" through the dimly lit corridor and left the Blue Castle about twenty minutes before Conan arrived at the castle gate.

Every timing point was calculated perfectly.

Even though all of time within the entire castle intertwined at that moment because it was at the node of the Möbius strip—

Unless Conan arrives at the castle twenty minutes earlier, he will never be able to open that door.

Just twenty minutes earlier, he had been in the piano room trying to learn more about the "cursed piano" from Hirata and Akira.

More importantly, if Conan opens that door, he will see Professor Agasa and Gin fighting fiercely two years ago.

—Then Professor Agasa wouldn't have fallen to the ground in the end, and the ring wouldn't have been able to collide with the floor under the moonlight.

[Conan Edogawa] will disappear once he deduces the "cause" of the "problem with the castle".

He simply couldn't get to the castle gates.

However, Conan Edogawa has already "deduced" this, so the ending is already set.

And the security guard, whom Shimizu Masato mentioned as having witnessed the "ghosts" and "strange shadows" in the castle, will never know—

He traversed every stage of his journey from the village mansion to the castle, and even from the moment he left the castle to return to the village mansion... and even the number of time points he passed through with each step.

……

Now, standing outside the castle's tightly closed gates, Professor Agasa looks up at the sky.

A full moon hung high in the cloudless night sky.
Professor Agasa let out a long sigh.

After leaving the security guard, the timeline he is in now has finally returned to the day Kameyama Isamu died.

The clock went around a full circle and returned to its original position.

Although the plan has deviated slightly, it seems that the balance of this giant scale is still being maintained.

But Dr. Agasa knew in his heart what price this balance had come at.

He slowly took out the blue Möbius strip from his pocket—it seemed to have its own breath, its faint light flashing intermittently.

Professor Agasa carefully pinched the spot where the golden pattern was located, the only irreplaceable key node in this time-traveling structure, and began to drive the ring to slowly rotate forward.

Time begins to move backward while simultaneously reversing forward.

This "paper strip," which has been flipped, glued, and knotted, is slowly completing a perfect closed loop.

Professor Agasa, holding the Möbius strip, stands at the very center, witnessing everything around him begin to change.

He is both the shaper and the observer.

Now, the balance of the scales has reached its final stage.

The disordered sequence of events is perhaps only clear to the ring itself.

Just like the legend of the "cursed piano" that he just directed Vermouth to create—

The cause of this incident.

Was it Gin's carelessness, or Conan's suspicion about the castle...?

Or is it because of Masato Shimizu's earlier descriptions of Conan, or perhaps that's just how history was originally written...?

This tight, interconnected logic makes the rotation of the Möbius strip increasingly stable.

As Dr. Agasa meticulously completed this loop structure step by step, he was very clear in his mind:

—The ending was already written long ago.

At that moment, he glanced down at the time information that appeared on TDD:
Time points – ten years ago / two years ago / the current full moon night

The three timelines, like the moon's reflection refracted three times, finally overlap at this moment.

The starting point, midpoint, and ending point intersect at a single point.

Having just completed that final closed loop, there's only one step left.

Professor Agasa is going to meet someone.

One that, like in every previous cycle, can smooth out all the tangled threads, untangle the chaotic interweaving of timelines, and put everything back on track—

The sacrifice that could give Conan Edogawa an answer.

He will bring this madman back on track.

……

Now, Professor Agasa walks alone towards the gate of the village mansion.

He even saw Hirata Kazuaki, the village chief's secretary, shouting at the window of the piano room.

"Who's in the noodles?"

Dr. Agasa continued walking forward along the reversed timeline, watching Hirata Kazuaki retreat step by step until he reached the familiar glass door.

"Wow—"

The door was pushed open.

Professor Agasa immediately heard the piece; it was the first movement played in reverse.

He now wants to transmit the same vibrations that he, in the past or in the future, experienced from the castle.

Now, two years in the future, Conan, standing opposite him, has his hand on the piano room doorknob, about to push open the door and see—

"Dong dong."

Professor Agasa knocked on the door.

He knew that a day later, he would do his best to run to that corridor and correct the source of the tremor to the castle.

Professor Agasa, whether in the future or the past, will correct the imbalance.

And now, Professor Agasa is listening to the first movement, which is still playing backwards.

He didn't turn around—that's important.

He was just staring at an inconspicuous pattern on the wooden door in front of him.

During this time, he began to recall how he, or the Alliance, had used the "cycle" itself to accomplish all of this.

Maintaining balance is a long and arduous process.

First, there was that first, inevitable mistake.

This matter may ultimately boil down to when Hattori Heiji resolved the "Red Fire Festival" issue.

Before that, the reason why no one went to that abandoned port was that the Black Organization once regarded it as a secret submarine base.

This means another gin and another vodka, and others...

In short, their reason for appearing on Moonshadow Island "two years ago" is quite reasonable.

After all, the Gin and his crew who landed on the island in the future boat are not the same as the "Gin and his crew" who existed two years ago, are they?
The original "historical inertia" did not specify on what day "Gin two years ago" was, or where Gin No. 2 was located.

In other words, Karasuma Renya, or the [story timeline], could very well have them appear on Tsukikage Island at that time.

Therefore, if we look at it from a higher-dimensional perspective...

Two years ago, the time when they arrived on the island should have been Gin No. 2 and others, Gin and others, and then Professor Agasa and his group.

In other words, the [story timeline] has an advantage in this regard.

Because the castle is already there, and the Alliance will undoubtedly leave the secret to victory inside.

This is one of the reasons why this "mistake" was unavoidable.

It led to Moonshadow Island being no different from what it was two years ago, two years before this incident.

"A Battle of a Hundred Cases"

—That's what Dr. Agasa calls it.

Just like the "warm welcome" from the Black Organization that Professor Agasa received when he first set foot on Moonshadow Island two years ago.

Gin, Vermouth, and others from the Alliance, along with Gin, Vermouth, and others from the [Story Timeline], escalated the situation.

Because Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, Chianti, and Cohen, who were the last to leave Moonshadow Island, are the ones from the original history.

In other words, if you are "killed" by yourself at another point in time, a kind of "reset" that is not a "reset" is completed.

Clearly, each side will do everything in its power to ensure that it is the one who survives.

For example, the black-clad organization he first encountered, which ambushed him on the dirt road, and the other team, including Gin, who betrayed him and tried to protect him.

Guns, missiles, submarines... even a nuclear bomb.

Professor Agasa will never forget that nuclear flash.

Before Hattori Heiji resolved the "Red Fire Festival," there were dozens of cycles of full moon nights two years prior.

That's the real reason the port was abandoned.

At that moment, the "Blue Castle Case" was vying with the "Red Fire Sacrifice Case" for influence on the future.

No, the struggle has become somewhat humanized, more like a natural occurrence, an attempt to become a reason in "The Moonlight Murder Case".

And that's the only reason.

"There is only one truth!"—Therefore, there can only be one reason.

This also led to the fact that, under Vermouth's cover, when Professor Agasa first obtained the "ring belt," he discovered that the balance of the scales had been weakened to an extreme.

All those who died in the crossfire must be given a reasonable explanation in the future.

Provide an explanation that Conan Edogawa would accept and not doubt.

No one can stand up to the Black Organization at its peak, or the [story timeline].

Everything was interpreted as a case, a hundred cases, perhaps more.

Then...

In order to reverse this terrible disadvantage and to erase those "cases," he introduced "Moonlight."

Professor Agasa watched as the once bustling harbor fell into decline.

Many people who might have stayed on the island left to "make their way in the world" for various reasons.

By the time Kogoro Mouri and Conan arrived on the island, most of the berths were covered with tarpaulins for repairs, and the young fishermen had left due to pollution of the fishing grounds...

Only a few thousand people, or even fewer, remained on the island.

On that morning, Dr. Agasa tried to get a medical list of the villagers of Tsukikage Island delivered to Asai Narumi.

This won't change anything about the Moonlight Case.

The number of villagers decreased, and that decline stopped after that.

Of course, it's also possible that all of this happened because Conan foresaw the outcome.

Of course, besides this, Professor Agasa did many, many other things...

Many, many more...

The terms of the castle's gift, Asai Narumi's legacy, Kameyama Isamu's confession before his death...

Dr. Agasa doesn't know if all of this is also part of the Alliance's plan.

The price to prevent those "cases" from happening again, the price to ensure that "casualties" never occurred, is:
If none of this had ever happened, then—

The Moonlight Sonata Murder Case could only be the cause of everything.

This was especially true after Hattori Heiji resolved the problems stemming from the "Red Fire Festival".

The "Moonlight Sonata Murder Case," which serves as both the beginning and the end of the story, is powerful to an unparalleled degree here.

It's even like Gin's unwilling retreat just now.

The cause and effect of being together are calculated down to every tiny action of each person involved.

As the dim, breaking Möbius strip solidifies, as all cause and effect are about to truly close.

The original historical inertia was welded shut.

This time, however, it was the alliance that took action.

Because this is undoubtedly the simplest and most direct method.

Once the moonlight rises, all activities that might affect the "predetermined outcome" of the full moon night must cease.

The Crimson Fire Festival, the Blue Castle, the dual timelines... Anyone who tries to change all of this will first have to confront the loop itself.

This way there will be no interference.

Conan Edogawa will be having his most important moment of reflection on his identity as a "detective".

And it will be very simple and easy to get the third pointer.

only……

Asai Narumi's burning determination for revenge, and that melodious first movement.

None of these things can change anything.

Professor Agasa lowered his head and looked at the ring hanging on his chest.

—It's time to hand the pointer over to him.

P.S.: A question for today. Based on the previous text, which time periods did the security guard actually traverse?

(End of this chapter)