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"Alright, everyone, back to your seats!"Seeing the noisy classroom, Miss Kobayashi stood with her hands on her hips and barked out the order, clearly annoyed. But since these were all first graders, they quickly got back to their seats in neat rows.
The whole time, Conan sat there bored, resting his chin on his hand. He couldn't care less about the new transfer students—after all, they were just little kids.
If it weren't for that damn drug that shrunk his body, he'd still be the famous high school detective Shinichi Kudo. No way would he be hanging out with a bunch of kids like this.
Miss Kobayashi wrote the names of the transfer students on the blackboard: Ai Haibara and Ka Fumei. She even added furigana on top of the kanji so people could pronounce them: haibara_ai and ka_fumei.
"Okay! These are your new classmates starting today: Haibara Ai and Ka Fumei. I hope you all get along!" she said with a cheerful smile.
Before she even finished talking, Genta raised his hand and shouted, "Haibara! The seat next to me is open!"Even though he was super enthusiastic, Ai Haibara walked right past him and sat down next to Conan.
Conan, who had been watching the show, froze for a second. Huh? What's going on?
"Nice to meet you," Ai said politely.
Conan nodded instinctively, clearly still processing what just happened. Meanwhile, a very confused Genta mumbled to himself, "Did... did I just get ignored?"
"That seat's just perfect for observing the lab rat," Ka Fumei said as she plopped down next to Genta.
Lab rat? Genta was totally lost.
After school, Ayumi ran over to Ai with a big smile. "Haibara! Fumei! Wanna walk home together?"
Mitsuhiko asked where Ai lived, and Fumei answered for her, "2nd District, House No. 22, Beika Town."
"What?! You two live together?" Everyone looked shocked.Fumei smirked to himself. Live together? Please, we even sleep in the same bed… well, just for today anyway…
Conan leaned on his hand, deep in thought. That address sounded oddly familiar. But then he shrugged it off with a self-mocking smile. Where they live has nothing to do with me, right?
On the way home, the kids chattered nonstop. They talked about how they'd formed the Junior Detective League and insisted on recruiting the two new kids. Their over-the-top enthusiasm made Fumei feel like he'd stumbled into some kind of pyramid scheme.
Ayumi pointed at the shoe locker and explained, "Genta's shoe locker is actually our case drop box. Everyone leaves their case requests in here."
There was even a Detective League flyer stuck to the locker, looking just as sketchy as one of those shady medical ads on telephone poles.
Inside, they found a letter from a student asking them to meet in Classroom 1-A after school. Fumei didn't have anything better to do, so he tagged along out of curiosity.
When they got to Class 1-A, there was only one quiet, frail-looking boy waiting there. After talking with him a bit, they learned his name was Junya.
Apparently, his older brother—who was ten years older than him—had been kidnapped. But the police didn't believe it. They thought the guy had just run away from home.
"You guys... your Junior Pyramid Scheme—uh, I mean, Detective League—even takes on kidnapping cases now?" Fumei asked, surprised, staring at the three kids.
Genta puffed up proudly, about to say something, but Conan cut him off, "Usually it's just lost pets and stuff like that."
…Awkward silence.
Mitsuhiko quickly changed the subject. "Let's go check out his place, then."So the whole crew headed out, with Junya leading the way home.
After saying hi to Junya's mom, they went upstairs to check out his brother's room.
Everyone started digging around. Conan actually looked like he was doing a proper investigation, but the other kids? They were basically rummaging through everything like thieves, touching every valuable item they could find. Genta's final conclusion: "He probably just ran away."
"I wouldn't be so sure."
Fumei, who hadn't said much until now, suddenly spoke up. He pulled a wallet out of a drawer and said, "If someone's running away, they'd definitely take their wallet.
But Junya's brother didn't even grab his—he probably left in a rush because something unexpected happened."
"....."