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

Chapter 297 The real winner of the game is me—Karasuma Renya!! (Seeking monthly votes at the beginning of the month!)

(This chapter is also known as: In front of Prospero's cell)

In preparation for their duel with Jack the Ripper the following day, only three remained after their meeting with Professor Moriarty—

Conan, Ai Haibara, Ran.

They went back and bothered Mrs. Hudson again.

She seemed completely unsurprised by Conan and the others' return, as well as the departure of the other children.

Mrs. Hudson then carried in steaming hot black tea and crispy baked biscuits.

"Come and try it, kids!"

After a night's rest, around noon the next day...

"Conan! I bought the newspaper!"

Ran Mouri ran into the house and handed Conan today's "The Times".

"Conan?"

Conan slammed the notebook left by Sherlock Holmes shut and closed the drawer.

He pondered the clues left to him by "Mr. Holmes" for an entire night.

Conan has not forgotten what Heiji Hattori told him in the past.

Yusaku Kudo also participated in the production of this "game content," and Professor Agasa also joined in as instructed by Yusaku.

"Since Dad has portrayed himself as Sherlock Holmes, then it must be a useful clue."

If time refuses to move straight ahead.

Then follow its reflection to find your way.

Because sometimes,
In order to truly understand the future,

You must go back to where you started.
The notes on that last page, the slightly messy notes—completely different from the elegant handwriting on the previous pages.

It's as if I hastily jotted it down without having time to think about it.

"No time to think...or, not allowed to think, no time to think."

Conan felt that it was strange in itself to "scribble down" the most important clue.

According to Mrs. Hudson, Holmes gave the instructions in his own room.

In other words, he should have been safe at that time.

If it were truly an urgent matter, why would you specifically write it down on the last page?

This should be some kind of hint.

But in any case, the most crucial thing now is to obtain the sixth pointer. As long as all the keys are found, I can verify either possibility directly.

So, at Ran's call, Conan suppressed the several thoughts that were surfacing in his mind.

He ran back to that familiar desk, took the newspaper from Ran Mouri, turned it to the third fold of the third page, and spread it out on the table.

Ai Haibara also leaned over and softly read out the advertisement that had been published.

"Tonight, go clean the opera house stage."

"The message M gave to J is the same message Moriarty gave to Jack the Ripper."

Conan flipped to another page, and his expression suddenly darkened.

"A special performance at the Royal Opera House, starring Erin Andora."

"Eileen Andora?!" Xiao Lan exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't that... Holmes's favorite woman?!"

……

It took Conan and his friends about three hours to get the tickets to the Royal Opera House.

But the real challenge wasn't getting in, but rather how to meet the star performer from the Royal Opera House.

Erin Andora, a name that now practically symbolizes the fashion and art of London's upper class.

Moreover, due to the past conflicts and clashes between "Holmes" and "Moriarty," her itinerary is now surrounded by countless security guards and theater managers.

Unlike the original work, where everyone wore luxurious clothes from the future.

Conan and Ai Haibara's drab outfits, symbolizing the "Baker Street Guerrilla," clearly don't give them the potential to become Irene Andora's old friends.

Ran Mouri, of course, wouldn't leave Conan and Ai Haibara behind to act alone, so unsurprisingly, the group was stopped.

The three of them waited until night had completely fallen, until ten minutes before the performance was scheduled to begin.

As the opera was about to begin, the flow of people arriving at the opera house became "surging".

Those dressed in fine clothes were clearly not to be neglected.

"Could you please send a few more people to help with ticket checking and maintaining order?" a security guard who appeared to be in charge shouted hurriedly.

—The opportunity has arrived.

Conan gave Ran a determined look, and she nodded firmly, giving him an OK sign.

"Sorry."

Ran Mouri silently apologized to the security guards in her heart.

The next second, she lightly stepped onto the stone steps, pushed off the wall, and her figure flashed past the remaining security guards in the corridor.

With a swift and decisive chop, the security guards only had time to widen their eyes before collapsing to the ground, unable to utter a sound.

Before the security guards patrolling back and forth could approach, Conan quickly ran up to the man with the key on his waist and deftly took it.

"Hurry up!"

He ran to the room with the poster on it and urged it on in a low voice.

The door was gently pushed open and then slammed shut.

This is an elegant dressing room, where crystal wall lamps make the heavy red velvet curtains look exceptionally luxurious.

In front of the silver-rimmed makeup mirror, a tall woman in a peach-colored dress with long, flowing golden curls was applying lipstick.

Hearing the noise at the door, she turned around.

Those icy blue eyes met the gazes of the three unexpected "intruders."

Ran Mouri froze, then blurted out, "Shinichi's mother?!"

Erin Andora looks almost exactly like Yukiko Kudo.

Eileen didn't respond to those words; she seemed to deliberately ignore them as inappropriate remarks.

Upon seeing that small figure again after so long, Yukiko Kudo turned her head slightly, feigning confusion.

"You are……?"

Conan rolled his eyes inwardly—this was clearly his dad's twisted sense of humor.

"We are friends of Sherlock Holmes, and we have been sent by him on his behalf," Conan said, introducing himself as concisely as possible.

He walked up to Miss Eileen somewhat hastily, trying to persuade her to cancel tonight's performance.

"Miss Eileen, can you cancel tonight's performance? Professor Moriarty has sent assassins to kill you tonight!"

The blonde woman blinked, seemingly puzzled or curious: "So, why did he send someone to kill me?"

"Because he wanted Holmes to... experience the pain of losing you," Xiaolan replied earnestly.

A moment of silence fell over the room.

Just when everyone thought she would agree, Eileen revealed a gentle, reminiscent smile.

"Really? I'd like to see just how heartbroken Holmes will be if he loses me."

As she spoke, she winked at Conan.

"Besides, as Holmes' friends, you'll protect me, won't you?"

Persuasion was completely ineffective.

So they could only watch her perform on stage in an opera costume.

……

The stage lights slowly came on.

The deep blue velvet curtain made the red color appear even more vibrant and captivating.

The elegant woman stood in the center of the Royal Theater.

Around her, the melodious sound of violins mingled with the deep vibrato of oboes, intertwining with that of the double bass.

On that "unnoticed" stage, Yukiko Kudo sang her heart out.

The voice seemed to come from a distant dream.

She freely transformed all her sadness, pain, anger, and hope into notes that drifted in the air.

Then, it is given generously to every soul sitting in the seat.

Or perhaps, the only soul.

The sound was just like the Tempest!
The entire opera house fell silent for a moment, and in this stillness, as if in front of Prospero's prison, "Irene Andora" sang the first scene after the third act:
Our party is over now!
These actors, just as I predicted...
They all melted into the air, becoming thin air.

Like this illusory, baseless fabric,
Towers shrouded in mist, magnificent palaces,
Solemn temples, magnificent Earth itself.
And everything it inherited will vanish.

Just like this illusory grand event has faded,
Leave no trace.

We are nothing more than raw material for dreams.
Our life,
It was nothing more than a mirage in a dream.

The song that pierced the sky illuminated the depths of the shadows on the side stage—

Conan stood there, motionless.

He felt as if his limbs were being held captive by some invisible spell.

Every word echoed in his ears, and the high-pitched, passionate, and ever-changing emotions seeped into his very bones like a tide of mercury.

He watched the singer on stage pour out his emotions.

Those emotions, like pale and desolate moonlight, slowly and solemnly engulfed him.

In this dreamlike scene, Conan had a bizarre yet real illusion—

He was not in the audience.

It wasn't him hiding on the side platform either.

He is Naprospero!
He stood isolated at the center of the stage, like the spellcaster or the philosopher-king on a deserted island.

He used reasoning as his spell and truth as his magic wand.

A fog was cast over the four seas.

It manipulates a storm called mystery, driving fate toward itself from countless directions.

The one being sung on stage is none other than himself.

It is Edogawa.

"boom!!"

A deafening explosion suddenly interrupted Conan's thoughts.

The entire stage began to sway and undulate like a ship sailing on the ocean, and the chandeliers fell violently, tearing down the deep blue curtain along with them.

Even worse were the heavy stone domes, with debris mixed with dust pouring down like a storm.

"There's a bomb!"

"This place is going to collapse!"

Screams erupted from the stands, and the panicked crowd surged toward the exit like a burst dam.

Conan reacted quickly; he immediately realized the source of the explosion.

"It's Jack the Ripper!"

"Let's go this way!" Ran Mouri spotted the backstage exit and pulled Ai Haibara and Conan towards it.

However, just as they were about to step over the falling curtain, a scream came from the center of the stage.

"Eileen Andora?!"

Conan turned around abruptly and saw a tilted, carved stone slab falling straight towards her.

His eyes widened, and he almost instinctively shouted out.

"Xiaolan!"

Ran's actions were Conan's response.

"Drink up—" Ran Mouri shouted.

She slightly bent her knees, then pushed off the relatively flat ground, tensing her waist and abdomen to propel her entire body into the air like a whirlwind.

A spinning kick suddenly slashed out!

Precise and powerful!
The boulder, several meters tall, was kicked through the air and immediately shattered into pieces, scattering like powder across the surrounding floor.

—Yes, Erin Andora was absolutely unharmed, not even a scratch.

"Eh...?!"

The scene before her eyes stunned Yukiko Kudo.

She even blinked her eyes somewhat blankly, almost forgetting that she was still in the burning theater.

"Phew—" Conan wiped the sweat from his forehead, secretly relieved, "Luckily, Ran is the karate champion of the Kanto Tournament."

"Run! This place is going to collapse!" Ai Haibara's anxious voice immediately brought everyone back to reality.

The group ran towards the half-open back door in the long corridor with its cracked walls.

However, with another, even more violent sound erupting from inside the theater, the shaking of the theater became increasingly intense.

One side of the theater's vaulted ceiling finally gave way.

Like snow sliding during an avalanche, the entire cross-section shifted, casting a huge shadow as it collapsed and crumbled towards Conan and his friends.

But as if it were all planned, just as a falling stone pillar was about to smash into Conan.

A slender figure darted out decisively, shoving Conan aside.

"Haiyuan——!"

As the smoke cleared, a scene resembling the aftermath of an earthquake appeared before us—several broken archways intersected, like a collapsed temple.

Below that intersection, in that narrow space, came Ai Haibara's weak but clear voice.

"I'm fine... Miss Eileen pulled me up at the last minute."

Beneath the half-collapsed vaulted ceiling, Ai Haibara sat leaning against the stone wall, her right arm dislocated, and she felt a tearing pain in her muscles.

Beside her, Yukiko Kudo breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, Holmes had calculated this location beforehand and hinted at it.

Conan ran to the source of the sound and tried to rescue Ai Haibara. "Haibara, give me your hand, I'll pull you out."

But just then, Xiaolan's voice came from not far ahead, "Don't run! Jack the Ripper!"

"She absolutely can't do it alone." Ai Haibara's voice made Conan grit his teeth.

"We'll be fine for now, we're just stuck here."

She urged Conan to chase after them immediately.

“We absolutely cannot give up, Kudo. If we can’t find anyone to help us, you are our Sherlock Holmes.”

"With this ability, there's no case that Holmes can't solve, right? Don't forget, as long as you catch Jack the Ripper, everything can be salvaged."

Conan's pupils contracted sharply, and then he came to his senses.

"Okay, the police will come to rescue you later."

He spoke softly into the shadow cast by the vaulted ceiling, "Haibara, I... I'll go first."

Without saying another word, Conan turned and rushed in the direction where Ran Mouri had disappeared, his footsteps fading into the distance.

As the footsteps faded away, Ai Haibara finally closed her eyes and let out a soft breath.

"Please... Shinichi Kudo."

The next second, Miss Eileen's teasing voice came from the side.

"You're Ai Haibara, right? What do you think of Shinichi—"

Ai Haibara blurted out, "I would never fall in love with that culprit."

Yukiko Kudo was slightly taken aback, but then realized the meaning behind her words.

She paused for a moment, her voice soft but slightly choked with emotion.

"I'm sorry, Shinichi—" She didn't finish her sentence.

“I know,” Ai Haibara interrupted Yukiko Kudo’s explanation. “It’s not your fault.”

A moment of silence spread through the narrow space beneath the arcade.

After a moment, Yukiko suddenly spoke in a low voice:
"Ai, do you want to leave here? Theoretically, we've already been 'eliminated'. I can give you the bracelet; the other children should have already been taken to a safe place."

Ai Haibara did not expect that the Doctor could actually do this.

She turned her head. "Then what are you going to do?"

Yukiko chuckled softly, but did not reply.

Haibara stared at her for a while, then gently shook her head in refusal.

"Fine, I'll just wait here for the final result."

Now, they can only wait for the final result.

……

Charing Cross Station.

This is a typical 19th-century British railway station. Beneath the red brick platform, the slightly worn-out rails meander into the distance.

Conan and Ran Mouri followed the twisted black shadow all the way here.

"He's getting on the train!" Conan spotted the figure in the black trench coat stepping into a carriage.

The train's horn, signaling its imminent departure, blared shrilly.

"Conan, bow your head!"

Ran Mouri reacted extremely quickly. She grabbed Conan and leaped into the car, successfully jumping in just before the doors closed.

The doors closed, and as the steam turbines began to operate, the train clattered away from the platform.

Ran Mouri steadied herself and gently put Conan down, but when they looked up at the interior of the carriage, they were stunned.

——No one is there.

"Conan?" Ran Mouri looked at Conan, seeking his opinion.

"Let's check the rear of the car first."

Ran and Conan first searched the carriages at the back of the train one by one, and then turned back.

The good news is—

He and Xiaolan now each carry a pistol they found in the guardhouse at the back of the car.

And here's the bad news—

Not a single person came out to stop them, and the carriage remained strangely empty, as if everyone had been silently removed.

"This is the last carriage."

Ran Mouri looked down and exchanged a glance with Conan. They both looked up at the car that was lying quietly in front of them.

This scene felt so familiar.

Just like... just like what happened on that antique auction train.

For some reason, Conan suddenly felt a sense of unease, and he even took a step back in a barely perceptible way.

In contrast, Ran Mouri handed the gun in her hand to Conan.

"Conan, step back a bit."

After Conan retreated to a safe distance, she grabbed the seemingly locked car door with both hands and exerted force with her arms.

With a creaking sound of steel deforming, the carriage door was flung open.

As the two stepped into the boiler car...

It was also completely empty inside.

The unattended boiler was burning fiercely, the red coals emitting a somewhat bright light, and in that flickering light, Conan's pupils suddenly contracted.

That's because the brake lever broke off, leaving only the gears that are almost impossible to turn.

For a moment, apart from the crackling sound of the stove, the only sound in the carriage was the train accelerating faster and faster—the wheels were rumbling more and more rapidly.

"The train... is accelerating!" Conan immediately realized it was a trap.

He turned around abruptly, "Sister Xiaolan! This is a trap! We have to take advantage of it before the car reaches its maximum speed—"

"Sister Xiaolan?!"

—Ran Mouri disappeared at some point.

Conan instinctively raised his gun and looked around, then rushed anxiously to the first carriage.

There was still no one in the first carriage.

Just then, he saw the gap between the front of the train and the carriage, and beside him was an iron ladder leading to the roof—placed there to facilitate the cleaning of the flue pipes blocked by coal ash.

"They must have gone to the roof of the car!"

By the time Conan climbed onto the roof, the train had already left the underpass.

It is now speeding along a railway line that hugs the cliff face of the waterfall, almost as fast as the wind is blowing.

The figure dressed in black stood in the center of the curved surface of the car roof.

Ran Mouri was tightly bound with ropes. She lay behind the dark figure, with a few traces of blood at the corner of her mouth.

Clearly, the Ripper wasn't having an easy time either.

His left hand hung limply at his sides, looking as if it had been dislocated or broken forcefully.

"Conan!"

Ran Mouri called out as soon as she saw the boy.

"This person is strange! I just... I just blinked and I'm here!"

—You appeared here in the blink of an eye?

Conan's heart sank.

Jack the Ripper slowly turned around, as if he had been waiting for Conan for a long time, his face showing an almost morbid excitement and distortion.

"Haha...the successor to Sherlock Holmes...you've finally arrived."

He suddenly took a step and stood in a position where he was almost about to fall off the carriage.

Then he knelt down and used the back of the dagger in his right hand to lift the rope that connected him to Ran Mouri.

"Shoot?"

He watched as Conan pointed the gun at him, slowly raised his hand, pointed it at Ran Mouri, and then pointed it at himself.

"Her life...is now intertwined with mine."

hateful!

Conan gritted his teeth inwardly, but when he saw the cliff bend he was about to turn, his eyes lit up.

If I can use the train's momentum, I might still have a chance!

As long as I hook Xiaolan's rope, it will be just right for—

"Don't come closer, just stand there, throw the gun outside, and don't do anything."

Jack the Ripper looked at Conan; he knew from that book how "terrible" the boy was.

He held the knife close to Ran Mouri's neck, saying, "If you make any move, I'll stab her."

After Conan did as he was told, he breathed a sigh of relief, and the smile on his somewhat ferocious face suddenly faded for a moment.

He turned his head to look at Conan and began in a storytelling tone, "Would you like to hear a story, Conan Edogawa?"

Before Conan could react, he would begin to "deduce" or quietly murmur something:
"Jack the Ripper... was a child abandoned by his mother. He survived on the streets from a young age, relying on theft, begging, and food that others didn't want."

"Almost all of his memories come from a ring—left by his mother."

"So he always wore that ring... and because of wearing it for so long, his right ring finger became deformed."

His voice was low and slow.

"He killed prostitutes because, in his eyes, those women were substitutes for his mother. He could not forgive her for abandoning him, and ultimately even killed his own mother with his own hands."

"Then he directed this anger at all the women who looked like his mother—because he would not allow that evil bloodline to continue."
"You read this story in Holmes's notebooks, didn't you?"

Conan stopped in front of him and slowly clenched his fist.

Jack, however, wore a satisfied smile.

He even threw away the dagger he was holding in his right hand, then bit the glove on his ring finger with his teeth and took it off.

—Just as it described, it was a thin, pale ring finger with prominent knuckles.

More importantly, on that ring finger was an ancient ring, inlaid with an equally pale hand.

"Enough is enough..."

He then recited that line from Hamlet.

"The times have become out of touch, but that cursed fate has made me born to mend it."

Jack the Ripper

No, it should be Karasuma Renya who paused, seemingly quite pleased with Conan's calmness, and then spoke to him:
"Now, take off your watch and throw it to me."

Conan reached for the watch, and as if he had completely given up, he threw it at Karasuma Renya.

Karasuma Renya's breathing was as rapid as the sound of the wind in her ears.

He never imagined that he was really about to succeed!

He managed to fool the CYZ Alliance!

They managed to fool Yusaku Kudo!
They even managed to fool Sherlock Holmes!

“Hmph, Professor Moriarty…” Karasuma Renya voluntarily gave up that identity.

Knowing the plot, he knew from the beginning that his identity was merely an "outsider" in this case.

Therefore, how could he possibly keep occupying it?

The reason he used the disguise of "Moriarty" and that guy who was also disguised as "Sherlock Holmes" to play that damn detective game in this damned, never-ending London of 1888 was all for this moment.

In fact, the moment Karasuma Renya received the sixth pointer, he realized that the Alliance had "given" it to him.

Just like Professor Moriarty, who, in the original setting, controlled the entire underground network of London and even Europe.

Karasuma Renya was able to glean his thoughts from Holmes's actions.

Just as he had guessed, after seeing the extra Sonoko Suzuki and the other children who hadn't appeared, he understood the League's intentions.

"It's the same old thing... How boring..."

He even found the boring, dull plan hilarious.

The alliance is still using the same old methods to deal with the "timeline"—

By leveraging the general trend of "historical inertia," and by altering those subtle details that, on the surface, do not affect the outcome, a result completely opposite to the initial "historical inertia" can be obtained.

Of course, this is indeed feasible.

After all, two timelines cannot actively change places where the "historical inertia" has not changed, right?

"But I'm not just a [story timeline] anymore..."

Following the Alliance's plan, Karasuma Renya delivered the pointer to Jack the Ripper, causing him to lose control just as depicted in the original story.

but……

The reason Jack the Ripper lost control was not, as he openly stated, the reason he told Sherlock Holmes.

He showed that poor guy the "book," the "Seven Chapters of Conan."

By using the fourth and sixth chapters of the Seven Chapters, Karasuma Renya successfully made himself a part of Jack the Ripper.

In fact, to prevent the alliance from finding out, he deleted almost all unimportant content and memories.

Even more so this time, because that guy named Hiroki Sawada is no longer around.

Furthermore, he implied to Yusaku Kudo that they should follow the original "historical inertia" and evacuate everyone who should be in the carriage.

Even Sherlock Holmes won't suddenly appear on the roof of a car now, following historical inertia.

All that's needed next is for Jack the Ripper, who believes he's about to "break free from fate," to put on that six-hand watch and activate it.

He would then unconsciously hope to change his tragic fate, hoping to trace back to the time before it all happened.

And at that time, his identity will be me—Karasuma Renya!

However, even though she had obtained the watch with five hands, Karasuma Renya still felt a vague sense of unease.

He seemed to have forgotten some important information.
-
P.S.: Hahaha! I wonder if anyone guessed it!

Actually, it was hinted at a long time ago—the real winner is me—Karasuma Renya!

After all, how could Conan's ultimate enemy be a mere murderer?
Ahem, back to the main topic, what very important information did Karasuma Renya forget?
(End of this chapter)