Chapter 26: I Dare You to Find Me

"If I told you I heard it, would you believe me?" Chi Feichi asked, looking down at Conan, whom he was carrying.

Conan nodded. He felt that was the only logical explanation. "Your hearing is truly astonishing. However, we could see the light through the gap in the door earlier, and she likely saw it too. She’ll probably find her way here soon, so we should leave this place quickly!"

"Turn off your wristwatch light," Chi Feichi said, carrying Conan forward. "You'll be discovered."

"Can you see?" Conan asked hesitantly. He was worried Chi Feichi might carry him right into a wall.

"Don't worry." Chi Feichi rounded a corner, triggered a mechanism, and as the secret door opened, he slipped inside immediately. Seeing Chi Feichi’s confidence, Conan turned off his light.

As they walked, Non-Red (the snake) stretched its body and pointed the way from beside Chi Feichi’s ear. Chi Feichi took the opportunity to evaluate Non-Red’s various capabilities. Its scent tracking was no weaker than that of an animal with a sharp sense of smell, and combined with thermal vision, it held a significant advantage in total darkness. Its eyesight was comparable to a human's—useless in absolute darkness—but for a creature like a snake whose "true eyes" weren't very effective, this was excellent vision.

Moreover, whether it was an innate talent or not, Non-Red had an incredibly precise judgment of distance. Having secretly learned a lot from humans, it could accurately report numbers: how long a step Chi Feichi took, how far they were from a corner, and how many steps were needed to reach a destination. Chi Feichi was also quite sensitive to numerical length, but he knew his own precision was inferior to Non-Red’s; his margin of error and the probability of mistakes were higher.

Overall, they were a perfect match. Their shared ability for precise numerical judgment allowed them to play to each other's strengths. Non-Red could infiltrate, search, detect, and serve as his eyes behind his back, while he handled the combat, planning, and tasks only a human could perform.

In the darkness, Non-Red shared Chi Feichi’s thoughts. Although their last operation had been profitable, it lacked challenge. This mission was an opportunity to understand each other and hone their synergy, so it focused intently on memorizing Chi Feichi’s various habits. Chi Feichi adjusted his movements accordingly, varying his walking speed to simulate different scenarios, allowing Non-Red to understand him. Meanwhile, half his mind was pondering: *Japan doesn't sell bamboo rats. I need to find a way to order two.*

Only Conan, being carried through the darkness like a ghost, felt completely disoriented. He couldn't tell where he was or which way was north, south, east, or west; he could only tell whether Chi Feichi was going up stairs, down stairs, or walking on flat ground. Occasionally, he would see a flicker of light—a beam from Mamiya Masayo’s flashlight searching for them—but it would vanish quickly, as if the two parties were destined never to meet.

Actually, they had crossed paths once. Earlier, just as Conan was about to ask where they were heading, Chi Feichi had suddenly lifted him, covered his mouth and nose, and pressed him forward. Just as Conan thought Chi Feichi was about to finish him off, he heard the faint sound of breathing on their left. Simultaneously, he realized Chi Feichi had held his breath.

When it dawned on him, he felt both horrified and speechless. Mamiya Masayo had likely turned off her flashlight and was hiding in a gap like a "Voldemort," hoping to ambush them, only for Chi Feichi to carry him past her in the open like a ghost... right past her. And Mamiya Masayo hadn't noticed them at all. It was like a pro player in a survival game outmaneuvering a boss in the dark, and he was just the "item" the pro player was carrying to complete the mission.

After being carried around for another minute, Conan couldn't help but poke Chi Feichi.

"It's fine, she's not nearby now. You can speak," Chi Feichi said.

"Where are we going?" Conan didn't doubt Chi Feichi was lost; the guy seemed to have a map of the entire place in his head.

Chi Feichi didn't mention he was using this time to sync up with Non-Red. He mused for a moment, "I don't know. I'm considering it."

Conan: "..."

*Seriously?!* He’d been lugged around for over ten minutes, and Chi Feichi says he doesn't know where they're going and is still considering it?

"I think we could ambush her and deal with her directly..." Conan suggested weakly. During their earlier encounter, he’d been startled, and Chi Feichi had moved past her too quickly for him to react. Otherwise, one tranquilizer dart would have solved everything. Judging by Chi Feichi’s speed and agility, he was clearly trained; he could have easily handled her head-on.

"You have a point, but we haven't seen her for a while; she’s probably already left," Chi Feichi said. The woman was guilty of murder, malicious assault, and attempted murder, yet the police hadn't discovered her yet, let alone issued a warrant. In other words, she wasn't a "high-value target." Rather than rushing to capture her, it was better to treat her like a "game-over-if-discovered" monster to train with.

Conan was speechless. "Then let's get out of here and call the police to handle it..."

"No rush," Chi Feichi analyzed calmly. "You said she already confirmed you hadn't been rescued earlier, so why go back to that dark room? Does she not realize that the more she goes there, the higher the risk of something going wrong?"

Conan suddenly realized. "You mean someone else has been captured by her? She went back to lock that person in with me!"

"So..." Chi Feichi stopped and adjusted a mechanism on the wall. "While she's away, we need to save one more person... right, Professor Agasa?"

The secret door slowly opened. Conan turned on his watch light to reveal Professor Agasa, bound and lying on the floor just as Conan had been, though unlike Conan, his mouth was taped shut. Presumably, the perpetrator thought Conan had been rescued because of noise, so she had silenced the Professor to prevent a repeat.

Professor Agasa was mostly conscious, and upon seeing them, he let out a sigh of relief. Chi Feichi set Conan down and stepped forward to cut the Professor’s ropes. Conan helped peel the tape off the Professor's mouth. "Professor, what happened?"

Professor Agasa felt as though several hairs from his mustache had been ripped off by the tape. He rubbed his face and said, "I was planning to sneak out and call the police when I saw your hat lying on the ground with blood on it. I went over, was knocked unconscious, and when I woke up, I was already here. I didn't even see who it was..."

"Did you enter a door that opened suddenly?" Chi Feichi asked.

"I saw Shin... er, Conan's hat, and there was a secret door open nearby, so I thought I’d take a look at the entrance..." Professor Agasa explained sheepishly. He then said to Conan, "Mr. Chi came to find you earlier and told Haibara to be careful of that family, not to alert anyone, and not to enter any doors that open suddenly..."

"And yet you still went in, didn't you?" Conan was speechless. He’d been warned and still fell for it.

"We've lingered too long. Let's hurry out," Chi Feichi said, turning to leave the secret room.

Since the warning had been given and Professor Agasa still fell into a small trap, Chi Feichi no longer expected the others to heed his advice not to "send themselves in one by one." Then again, Haibara and the three children might not be "sending themselves in one by one"—it might be a "package deal."

Before they reached the exit, Chi Feichi stopped, moved to open a mechanism on the wall, and revealed a parallel secret passage, pulling out an unconscious Kojima Genta.

Conan grew anxious. "They haven't all been taken out, have they?"

"Probably not," Chi Feichi replied. After returning to the main passage, he closed the mechanism and looked ahead. "One of them managed to sneak in."

As soon as he spoke, Mitsuhiko appeared at the corner, wearing the glasses Conan had dropped earlier. His watch-flashlight caught Chi Feichi’s group, and he rushed over. "Conan! Mr. Chi, and Professor Agasa! It's great that you're all okay! By the way, Genta..."

Chi Feichi hoisted Genta up and shook him slightly. "He's out cold. Aside from a big bump on the back of his head, he's fine."

"Phew... that's good," Mitsuhiko panted, explaining, "I found Conan's glasses and used the tracking function and Conan's Detective Badge to locate you. A door opened in front of me, but I remembered Haibara saying Mr. Chi told us to be careful of doors that open suddenly, so I didn't go in. I grabbed the glasses and left that spot... Here, Conan, your glasses!"

Chi Feichi couldn't help but look at Professor Agasa; even a child was better at taking advice than he was.

Professor Agasa laughed awkwardly. "By the way, what about Haibara and Ayumi..."

Mitsuhiko rushed to say, "We found the area near the tower that caught fire four years ago!"

Conan put on his glasses, checked the location of the remaining two Detective Badges, and looked at Chi Feichi. "They're together, not far above us. Let's go find them."

"I'll take you by a shortcut," Chi Feichi said, continuing upward. At a corner, he found another mechanism, opening the wall to reveal a ladder leading up. Carrying Genta in one hand, he climbed the ladder with the other. "Climb up, and you'll be on the first floor of the tower."

Conan followed closely. "I heard Mr. Taba mention that the master of this house was a cousin of your grandfather. You're so familiar with the secret passages here—have you been here before?"

"No," Chi Feichi replied.

Conan pondered, "If you can find your way in the dark... could it be that this castle used to be your family's? Or perhaps you have the original blueprints for the secret passages?"

"No, and no. I've been living here for a while; I'd have to be blind not to notice something," Chi Feichi dismissed Conan's wild imagination and reached up to open the exit above. "Turn off your watch light. She probably knows where Haibara and Ayumi are too, and she might already be waiting for us up there."

"Wait! Their positions are moving," Conan said, looking at the tracker on his glasses. "It looks like they've entered a secret passage too... heading toward the main building!"

Chi Feichi was silent for a moment, then calmly and seriously remarked, "Is everyone playing a collective game of hide-and-seek tonight?"

Conan could only offer a dry laugh. "Let's go find them first!"

"Fine, let's head up," Chi Feichi said. "I'll take you by a shortcut."

Conan: "..."

*How many shortcuts does this guy know?*