Chapter 440 - 51: Camera

Chapter 440: Chapter 51: Camera

It was indeed a little awkward that Vermouth had not followed as Jodie intended. But just as Vermouth had called in backup, Jodie had no reason to confront the Black Organization alone either.

Near the edge of the city, Akai Shuichi, a shotgun slung across his back, concentrated as he lay on the ground and listened carefully.

Hoofbeats?

For a moment he thought he had heard wrong, but the sound kept drawing closer.

He spun around abruptly, only to find that the beggar he had briefly encountered on the bus had appeared at some point. The man was now less than a meter away, and Akai had not noticed him at all!

The muzzle Akai raised was gently pressed downward. Yimi was annoyed to discover that once Famine pushed the gun down, it happened to point directly at her as she lay in the Stand’s palm, so she stretched out a front paw and pushed the muzzle down a little farther herself.

That movement made Akai lower his gaze and stare at Yimi for quite a while.

The beggar stared at him without blinking and asked, "Police?"

"Don’t I look like one?" Akai did not deny it. His identity was no secret to the Black Organization, and tonight, anyone walking around outside with a gun would belong to either the red side or the black side.

"Are you or aren’t you?" The kitten did not particularly like such an ambiguous answer.

Akai fell silent for two seconds. At this distance, he could clearly tell where the voice was coming from, so he looked down again at Yimi, who had moved her cat face close to the mask.

"Yes?"

The answer was definite. The questioning tone was directed at the incomprehensible situation in front of him.

After hearing that answer, the person who had appeared for reasons unknown did not even ask to see identification. He simply turned around and left, apparently unafraid that Akai might shoot him in the back.

Akai lowered his head and thought for a long while.

That person’s voice sounded like Gin...

But that was impossible.

...

Yimi had probably searched almost all the armed criminals she could find, at least among the people carrying guns tonight. She had even dragged one man out of bed while he was sleeping soundly at home and delivered him to the police station.

Gin’s scent had overlapped with Calvados’s after he reached him, so Yimi had not paid much attention. The rest should all be police officers. Yimi was starting to feel sleepy too.

The mission status still showed it as incomplete. Yimi could not understand it at all. She had caught so many bad people and had even carefully made sure she did not mistakenly catch any police officers, yet somehow that still did not count as being a qualified detective.

After returning to the city, Yimi dismissed her Stand. Her mouth was dry from making so many calls, so she returned to human form and stood in front of a vending machine. After feeding in some coins, she selected a bottle of strawberry yogurt.

An apple yogurt dropped out.

"Hmph!" Yimi angrily planted a shoeprint on the machine.

"If you kick the machine hard enough to break it, you’ll have to pay for it. See? There’s a camera inside, right?"

A voice that sounded slightly familiar to Yimi, yet not quite familiar enough, came from behind her.

It was Vermouth, disguised as Dr. Araide. She concealed her irritation at being unable to catch up with Jodie without a car and walked over to greet Yimi.

Because the matter involved Cool Guy, Vermouth had not called Gin for help. She could only watch Jodie drive away. This was not a game where she could just press F and steal someone else’s car.

As for speaking to Yimi now, it was not really out of kindness. Vermouth was simply very curious about the child in front of her. Compared with "Edogawa Conan" and "Haibara Ai," this girl’s past was genuinely a complete blank.

The only important clue she could find was the girl’s adoptive mother. The famous undefeated lawyer had once taken Yimi to a hospital for a full physical examination. The medical records were confidential, but stealing them was easy for Vermouth.

Vermouth took out her wallet and sorted through the coins inside. "Usually the person restocking the machine put something in the wrong slot. In a situation like this, buying the apple flavor next to it might actually make a strawberry one come out."

Yimi ignored her. She placed the apple yogurt back into the collection slot and quietly watched as the machine itself dropped a bottle of strawberry flavor.

Vermouth had not inserted any money. Yimi had simply returned the apple flavor to the machine, so in exchange, the machine had to give her a strawberry flavor.

Only after doing that did she turn to Vermouth. She blinked but still said nothing.

"It’s so late. Why are you still outside, Yimi-chan? Aren’t you going home?" Vermouth spoke first. Using that form of address while posing as Dr. Araide did not sound strange at all.

Yimi did not answer. She took a step back and raised a hand. "Gun."

"Gun?" Vermouth froze.

The kitten pointed at her waist. "Are you a police officer?"

They had just been almost face-to-face. Even in human form, Yimi could smell it at that distance.

Vermouth covered her waist. The gentle smile of her disguise disappeared, replaced by a stiff smile that did not reach her eyes. "Little girl, it looks like you’re no ordinary little girl either."

"Ordinary little girl?" Yimi unscrewed the yogurt bottle without the slightest trace of tension.

Vermouth smiled faintly. "I investigated you before. In several cases where you were present, the culprit died of cardiac arrest. I don’t think that’s a coincidence, do you?"

There was a camera installed inside the vending machine, so naturally Vermouth would not draw her gun in front of it. If there had been no camera, she would not have minded pointing a gun at the seemingly innocent little girl in front of her.

Yimi lowered the hand holding the drink. "You’re not police?"

"Maybe I am." Vermouth’s smile became meaningful. "I’ve been investigating for a long time and finally locked onto my target, so I decided to come arrest you, you little murderer."

"Guh..." Yimi made a strange noise, turned around, and started walking away.

Although she had spent the entire night asking people whether they were police officers, in truth, if someone actually said yes, Yimi would not verify it. Nobody had taught her to look at identification. She could only make a rough judgment based on clothing.

"Oh my, feeling guilty now? Little—" Vermouth’s voice stopped.

When she reached down to press the pocket holding her gun, her fingers touched only fragments of the weapon through the fabric.

The little girl walked away unhurriedly. Vermouth did not dare follow and continue pressing her, since she was not actually a police officer.

* * *

By the time Yimi returned to Kisaki Eri’s apartment, almost all the lights in the building were off. It was already very late.

Quite a few people would probably be unable to sleep tonight because of her. Conan’s side of things was also far from over, but none of that had anything to do with Yimi, who went to bed early.

The little girl crawled back into bed, rubbed her eyes, and quickly fell asleep. The unfinished mission didn’t weigh on her much.

An unknown amount of time later, the door to her room opened a crack. Eri came in, pulled the blanket Yimi had kicked away back over her, then sat beside the bed and gently played with her hair, lost in thought for a long while.

...

The next morning.

"Waah~"

Without sleeping in or setting an alarm, Yimi woke up on her own, stretched both arms straight forward, and gave a long stretch.

Her room seemed a tiny bit different today. Maybe it had already been different last night, but she had not noticed.

Rubbing her eyes, she stood up and walked to the corner of the room. She lifted her head and looked up at a round object.

"Meow?"

She vaguely remembered something like it. There had been a similar object inside the vending machine yesterday. That doctor had said it was called a camera.