[Conan Doujin] The Mystery of Theseus

Puzzle33 is beyond the world.

When a job has never been done, people automatically assume that it is "his job" if someone does it first.

Waiting outside the door with folded arms, listening to the occasional sound of paper flipping through the open door and the air in between, Akai didn't know if his mood at the moment was "want to sigh".

Because he was the one who received Heiyu the first time he came to check the information, his reliable companions tacitly agreed, "This is his job."

Both parties directly involved in this rash decision made themselves psychological victims.One side doesn't want to be watched while reading materials, and the other side doesn't see the need for surveillance in a place like this where there are cameras everywhere.

Another page of the file was turned, and based on this moment, Akai read the seconds silently in his heart.

The time for the next page turn is...

When he heard that the file was turned over again, he didn't intend to wait any longer.It's just ridiculous, downright ridiculous.Both the watcher and the watched party are just putting on a show, a show that nobody benefits from.

Stopping impatiently tapping his fingers and lowering his crossed arms, Akai just opened his mouth to break the atmosphere of silence, his words were polite but his tone was unceremonious.

"If you think this information is not helpful to you, you don't need to read it."

"Huh?" Even though he wasn't really reading seriously, Kuroba, who was used to the quietness just now, was still a little frightened.The page-turning fingers hovered in mid-air.

"Although it is not allowed in principle to take the information here out, we will not stop you from trying to store what you see in your brain," Akai tapped his temple with his index finger at this point, "But every page It’s the first time I’ve seen the time spent almost exactly the same.”

"Varied--"

"You don't care about the contents of that file at all."

Kuroba stopped talking and lowered his arms, and the closed folder was loosely held between his fingers.

It seems... there is no need to refute.

"I heard that you agreed to cooperate in order to help 'him'." Without specifying who this object is, Akai took an unopened file on the desktop and continued, "And let Your access to these documents is a quid pro quo."

"As long as I can help," Kuroba felt that he should say something to show his sincerity, "I will do my best."

But any sentence seems to be actively revealing flaws.

"If you're 'helping' with that kind of thinking in mind," Akai raised his chin at an insignificant angle, "I advise you to give up as soon as possible."

"Huh?" subconsciously responded with a disapproving voice, and Kuroba adjusted his words in the next second after reacting, "Sorry, I mean... I don't understand what you are talking about at all."

This is playing stupid, Kuroba is very clear.What's worse, he vaguely felt that the man standing opposite also saw this clearly.

"'This information is very important to you, and it is worth assisting in return. This transaction is an absolutely balanced exchange of equivalents', you want to convey such a message," Akai tapped the information in his palm, "so that he can I can ask you without the burden."

"This information is indeed—" Tongue was a little knotted, which made the non-brained reply more like a refutation, "This information is indeed very important to me! That's why I want—"

"So you read the same document every time?"

"That's because, I want to remember..."

"I don't see any direct connection between 'want to remember' and 'only look at a document'," Akai turned the subject, "I said Now, this kind of thinking is more dangerous for you."

Black Feather did not continue to refute.He didn't quite understand what the other party meant by "dangerous", but he was a little frustrated by this inexplicable reason, like a middle school student who lost a debate competition.

The speech of others is like a mirror, reflecting their cognition and attitude towards a given object.People are used to looking in the mirror to see how they look, but that doesn't mean they're used to seeing themselves blinking in the mirror.

Kuroba Kaito's current feeling is that not only did he see himself blinking in the mirror, but the guy in the mirror gave himself a straight look at "why he blinked" and "how the facial muscles move when he blinks" explain it to him.

He even fell into self-doubt, whether he is no different from what he usually thinks of himself, or is he seeing that appearance in the mirror.He couldn't confirm that without looking in the mirror, which confuses him even more.

Self-doubt brings silence.During this silence, Akai was not in a hurry to get any explanation from him, nor did he intend to engage in any debate that must have a result.He simply stated the facts as he saw them.

Untimely, he heard the landline ringing in the reference room next door.There are not too many people who can call landlines these days. Considering that the number of people who know the location here is very limited, the number of people who can call here is even more limited.In normal times, Akai would probably let the ringtone go, after all, "pick up the phone" is a dangerous move.But at present, it seems that this is a move to end the topic, so he walked to the next door, picked up the receiver and cut off the ringing, leaving the silent young man to continue his psychological struggle with himself.

He was a little surprised by the voice on the other end of the receiver, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was "so surprised that he felt that he had recognized the wrong person".The other party also seemed to understand that he belonged to the category of "absolutely impossible to call", so he didn't try to explain the reason for the call, and didn't even give the most polite greetings. He just conveyed his instructions after explaining his identity and purpose.

Perhaps it was because receiving the call was already enough surprise, Akai did not continue to show surprise and hesitation, but took down the instructions given by the other party in a deep voice.The voice in the earpiece gave him quite a sense of unreality, so that at a certain moment he felt that he was in contact with reality prematurely.

This sense of control is not bad.

"I see...Thank you for the information."

Before the call ended, he almost put an emotional smile in the corner of his eyes.

"...You really haven't changed at all."

When he hung up the phone and returned, Akai saw the boy flipping through another document casually.The other party noticed his footsteps and seemed to be ashamed of this pretentious behavior, so he immediately put down the document.

Akai raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment on it.

"Someone asked me to ask you," he said, with a certain persuasive attempt in his words, and even concealed some coercive meaning. "Of course, you don't need to answer right away."

Kuroba looked back at him inexplicably.

"Do you wish to escape from the current situation?"