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The abandoned building.
Burning with fever, Ran's strength drained away. Her steps grew slower and heavier.
At a corner landing, the Silver-Haired Demon finally caught up to her.
"Miss, I'm truly sorry," she said calmly."I thought I was hidden well enough. I didn't expect you to notice me."
"If you're going to hate anyone, hate fate for giving you such a tragic ending."
Leaning against the railing, the Silver-Haired Demon casually pulled out a suppressor and screwed it onto the barrel, her tone almost playful.
To her, Ran was nothing more than a lamb waiting for slaughter.
One shot was all it would take.
Ran stared at the dark muzzle of the gun, despair swallowing her whole.
"Steven… please, save me!"
Her hysterical cry echoed through the hollow building.
"Steven?" the demon repeated softly, then laughed."Sorry. Even God can't save you now."
She hesitated for just a moment, then squeezed the trigger.
Click.
At that instant, the rusted railing gave way.
Caught completely off guard, the Silver-Haired Demon lost her balance and plunged down with the collapsing metal.
Ran didn't have time to think. Acting on instinct, she lunged forward and grabbed the woman's clothes.
"What are you doing?! Grab my hand!"
"Hurry! I can't hold on much longer!"
Why…?
Hanging in midair, the Silver-Haired Demon looked up at Ran's tear-streaked face, disbelief written all over her own.
She had been ready to kill her. And yet this girl still reached out to save her.
How pure, how kind did someone have to be to make such an unthinkable choice?
"Hurry…" Ran pleaded weakly.
Her fever had left her nearly drained.
Just as her grip was about to fail, another figure appeared beside her and reached down as well.
"Steven!"
Ran turned her head and smiled in relief.
He really had heard her call.
"Damn it… you're such a pain," Steven muttered through clenched teeth, finally seeing through the Silver-Haired Demon's true nature.
Strictly speaking, if the story hadn't changed, she should've been called the Road Demon.
He'd thought the altered timeline meant she wouldn't appear at all. Instead, she'd shown up exactly like in the original plot, just with a different name.
With both of them working together, the woman dangling in midair narrowly escaped death and struggled back onto the platform.
She's injured?
Steven noticed a large patch of blood seeping from her abdomen. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, his chest tightened.
"Why?" the Silver-Haired Demon gasped, clutching her wound as she stood."Why would you save me? Why?"
"Does it really need a reason?" Steven replied.
"Killing someone usually comes with a motive. But saving someone in an emergency? You don't have time to think about things like that, right?"
He struck a pose, deliberately mimicking Kudo Shinichi.
After all, this was one of those iconic scenes. He knew the lines by heart.
"Yeah… you're right," Ran agreed, nodding.
Then her eyes rolled back, and she collapsed.
Thud.
Steven spun around and caught her in his arms.
"Ran…"
Behind him, the Silver-Haired Demon slowly raised her gun.
"I'd advise you not to," Steven said calmly, without turning around."You're injured, which means your pursuers are nearby. The suppressor on your gun already fell downstairs. If you fire now, you'll bring the local police or the FBI straight here."
"And besides, are you really trying to murder your own husband? Even if you wanted to, you're in no condition to kill me right now."
"Vermouth."
He spoke her name, exposing her identity.
With Wolf Brother's full-revive ability backing him up, Steven had the nerve to leave his back completely exposed.
Ignoring whether Vermouth might attack, he pressed his hand to Ran's forehead.
So hot.
If she didn't get treatment soon, this could turn fatal.
"So… you figured me out after all," Vermouth said softly, lowering the gun.
The Organization had specifically ordered them to recruit Steven. She really couldn't afford to make a move on him.
"When did you realize I was the Silver-Haired Demon?"
"Your identity has never been a secret to me," Steven replied flatly.
"By the way, you're pretty ruthless. Ran's your future sister-in-law and your lifesaver. Are you really sure you want to go after her?"
"You kill for the Organization, sure. But right now you look more like a serial killer slaughtering innocent passersby. Kind of sad, really."
How he'd seen through Vermouth's identity was hard to explain.
Was he supposed to tell her he had the script to the whole story?
To anyone living inside it, that would sound like complete nonsense.
Honestly, Steven didn't think this outcome was so bad.
Ran and Vermouth now shared a bond. Maybe, in the future, they'd even get along better.
"Sister-in-law?" Vermouth echoed.
She laughed coldly. "Men."
"Untrainable stallions, every last one. Fall for anything that moves."
Then she accidentally tugged at her wound.
"Ah—!"
Her face twisted in pain as she sucked in a sharp breath.
"I'm not some demon who kills without blinking," she said coolly. "Most of the time, I only kill my target… and any unlucky witnesses who see me in action."
"The island nation's police and that useless bunch at the FBI couldn't find the real killer behind all those murder cases over nearly a year, so they dumped everything on my head instead. Even slapped that ridiculous title on me. The Silver-Haired Demon."
Being framed out of nowhere was seriously infuriating.
Vermouth knew she wasn't a good person, but she definitely wasn't a bloodthirsty monster either.
"Alright, enough," Steven cut in. "You're badly hurt. Need help or not?"
"If I'm not mistaken, the FBI has already sealed off this whole area. Escaping won't be easy."
As he spoke, Steven bent down and picked up Ran Mouri.
Saving lives came first. He didn't have time to keep chatting.
"Hmph. I don't need your concern. Take your little sister and get out of my sight."
Vermouth stomped her foot and turned away, chin lifted in a stubborn huff.
"Fine. Stay safe, then."
Heh. She was actually sulking.
Steven left those words behind and carried Ran slowly down the stairs.
"Wait! You're really just going to abandon me like that?"
After hesitating for a moment, Vermouth gritted her teeth and hurried after him.
With a bullet in her abdomen, breaking through the FBI encirclement on her own was basically a fantasy.
"Didn't you say you didn't need help?" Steven stopped and glanced back, teasing.
"Tch. A tiger fallen to the plains gets bullied by dogs. Ordinary grunts wouldn't scare me, but Shuichi Akai is part of this operation."
"He spent two years inside the organization. He knows how we think, how we move. Shaking him off isn't easy at all."
"This wound? Courtesy of him."
Vermouth's disguise skills were top-tier in the Detective Conan world.
Normally, that trump card was enough to let her finish missions cleanly and walk away untouched.
But this time, she ran straight into Akai Shuichi. Whether by coincidence or because she slipped up, he stuck to her like a shadow, leading people to hunt her down nonstop.
What she didn't know was that the FBI already had intel and had set a trap long ago, just waiting for her to step into it.
Bang!
She had barely finished speaking when a gunshot rang out.
Whoosh!
Steven clearly saw a bullet screaming straight toward his forehead.
"....."