Inside a certain café, Bai Yexiu, who was working a part-time job, yawned and leaned against the wall to check the time—only five minutes left until payday.
Ever since his last mission, Bai Yexiu had taken on a daily-pay gig to earn some meal money. As long as his wages came through today, he wouldn't have to worry about food for the next three days. Having no missions lately meant no source of income, leaving him with no choice but to work odd jobs.
He had even made friends with a handsome blonde-haired, tanned coworker at the café named Toru Amuro.
Bai Yexiu walked into the restroom and checked his disguise in the mirror to make sure there were no flaws. This time, he had disguised himself as a clean-cut young man. His hair remained short and slightly curled at the ends, but he had tied a thin, short braid at the back. His eyes wore pitch-black contact lenses, making them look unfathomably deep, as if anyone who looked into them might get lost.
"Ryuzawa Ryuya!" the manager called out after seeing off the last customer. Hearing this, Bai Yexiu hurried out of the restroom.
"Ryuzawa Ryuya" was one of Bai Yexiu's disguises. He would switch to this persona when wandering around for leisure, though he also used it sometimes during missions for convenience.
Happily collecting his pay, Bai Yexiu waved goodbye to Toru Amuro, who was still wiping tables in the shop, and skipped back out.
Watching Bai Yexiu's receding figure, Toru Amuro couldn't help wondering why interacting with this seemingly innocent youngster so often gave him an inexplicable sense of incongruity. It left him thoroughly puzzled.
While wandering around, Bai Yexiu caught sight of a large sign: Tropical Land.
Wasn't Gin handling some business there today? Why not go supervise?
The mischievous thought spiraled out of control. Calculating his options, Bai Yexiu pulled out his phone:
[Where are you? I'm coming to supervise. ——Cointreau]
Gin replied instantly, sending back nothing more than a single question mark.
[? ——Gin]
"Pfft..." Bai Yexiu burst out laughing, completely unbothered by the sideways glances of passersby.
Not long after entering the amusement park, Bai Yexiu spotted a tall, silver-haired man and a burly man in black sneaking into a small alleyway. Without guessing, he knew it had to be Gin and Vodka.
Bai Yexiu walked over to a curbside vendor and bought a skewer of candied hawthorns before heading toward the alley. But the moment he arrived, he found three people inside!
A high schooler was sprawled on the ground, dead to the world, while Gin stood nearby holding a box of poison recently developed by the Organization. Vodka stood stupidly at his side.
Hiding behind a wall and enveloped in shadow, Bai Yexiu watched the dramatic scene unfold with keen interest.
Spotting a camera lying near his feet, Bai Yexiu smiled and picked it up.
Talk about having a death wish.
With a silent sigh, Bai Yexiu deleted every single photo from the camera and slipped it into his pocket.
At that moment, having finished feeding the poison to the high school boy on the ground, Gin spun around and leveled his gun at the corner where Bai Yexiu was hiding: "Come out."
"Oh my, no need to be so fierce." Wearing a smile, Bai Yexiu raised both hands and stepped out of the shadows. Seeing that it was Bai Yexiu, Gin lowered his gun and demanded aggressively:
"Got nothing better to do?"
"Not at all." Bai Yexiu blinked innocently and pulled out the candied hawthorn skewer he had just bought. "I'm busy eating candied hawthorns."
Gin fell silent for a moment, then ground out through clenched teeth: "Head straight to training the moment you're done." With that, he quickly left with his underling.
Bai Yexiu turned back the way he had come, completely forgetting about the person lying on the ground. He even tore open the candy wrapper and began munching away with great relish.
Meanwhile, the high schooler on the ground—Kudo Shinichi—was undergoing an incredible transformation.
Why was one of their accomplices a minor?
Kudo Shinichi had heard every word of the conversation just now. The speaker sounded like an accomplice to those men in black, and judging by the voice, it was a minor who hadn't even finished high school.
Yet Kudo Shinichi had no capacity left for shock, because the effects of the drug were starting to take hold.
Just as he stepped out of the alley, Bai Yexiu heard a commotion inside. Intuition told him something had happened. He turned back the way he had come and found Kudo Shinichi—breathing, but shrunk down in size.
Baggy clothes, a body that had visibly shrunk... All of this pointed to a single conclusion: the poison was a semi-finished product.
Bai Yexiu smiled faintly. Things were starting to get interesting.
Kudo Shinichi was convinced something must be wrong with him. Why else would this kid, who looked even younger than him, keep calling him "little buddy"?
"I am Kudo Shinichi, not some little buddy! I just managed to capture crucial evidence of illegal activity..." Kudo Shinichi shouted angrily. Bai Yexiu just smiled and pulled the camera from his pocket: "Take a look, is this yours? I just picked it up off the ground."
Panicking, Kudo Shinichi forgot to even say thank you as he snatched the camera back, only to find that all the photos inside were gone.
Damn it, it looked like those two guys had deleted every single photo.
Suddenly, Kudo Shinichi felt his feet leave the ground as Bai Yexiu hoisted him up with some visible effort. Since Bai Yexiu himself was only a teenager, lifting someone was naturally a bit of a struggle.
"Little buddy, look, you've even hurt your head. Let me take you to the hospital, or the police station would work too."
Bai Yexiu used a rare, gentle tone.
Little Kudo Shinichi struggled in Bai Yexiu's grip: "I don't want to go to the hospital or the police station! I really am Kudo Shinichi!"
"Honestly, little buddy, this isn't the time to be playing detective games. If you don't want a few extra holes in your body..."
Mid-sentence, Bai Yexiu suddenly felt something was off and realized—ah, he had let his true nature slip.
"...Never mind, I meant to say you're quite the handful."
Bai Yexiu casually cobbled together an excuse to cover it up.
Wait, no! You literally just said you were going to poke a few holes in me, hello?!
A strong sense of ominous foreboding washed over Kudo Shinichi.
At the same time, he was slowly beginning to realize that something truly unbelievable had happened to him—his clothes hanging loosely off his frame, a body that could be lifted with ease, and a youngster who kept calling him a little buddy...
Guided by Kudo Shinichi, Bai Yexiu soon found a house. The nameplate on the gate read "Kudo Residence," but the front gate was tightly shut and the lights were off, making it look completely deserted.
Bai Yexiu pressed the doorbell: "Are you sure this is the place? It doesn't look like anyone's home."
Meeting Bai Yexiu's inscrutable smile, Kudo Shinichi felt a deep sense of helplessness. He never imagined there would come a day when he couldn't even get into his own house.
Bai Yexiu, meanwhile, was secretly gloating, wondering why this kid was so much fun.
Boom! With a deafening crash, a wall right next to the Kudo Residence was blown open, and an elderly man with white hair crawled out from the rubble.
"Dr. Agasa!" Kudo Shinichi rushed over and helped the plump old man to his feet.
"Huh?" Dr. Agasa asked, slow on the uptake. "Who are you?"
For some reason, Kudo Shinichi's mind flashed back to Bai Yexiu's remark about "not wanting a few extra holes in your body," and a sudden wave of goosebumps broke out all over his skin.
No matter how you looked at it, this guy seemed a bit dangerous...
Using a sweet child's voice, Kudo Shinichi said, "Big brother, he's someone I know!"
Since he claimed to know the person, Bai Yexiu saw no reason to linger. He left behind a casual "Good luck" and strolled away.
After all, if this kid got found by Gin and the others, he would definitely die a horrible death.
Bai Yexiu quietly sighed over the future fate of his fake child companion.