The Split-Actress in Conan's World

"Hey, Doc..."

Conan put his hands in his pockets, looking at the living room that had been turned upside down by the three kids, and complained, "What does the letter you are looking for look like?"

"It's about the size of a postcard and it's in an envelope." Dr. Agasa was carrying a bag that contained all the things that had just been cleaned out and were about to be thrown away. He smiled awkwardly when he heard his words.

"What's the letter?" Ayumi opened the drawer of the TV cabinet, turned around and asked curiously.

"It's the wedding invitation for the son of a friend who I studied for a doctorate with before..." Dr. Agasa explained.

"And inside is a receipt that must be mailed today no matter what."

"Such important things should be put away properly!" Yuantai held a full garbage bag, half of his head sticking out from the back, and squinted his eyes to protest against the doctor's carelessness.

"That's right!" Mitsuhiko agreed.

"You can't just blame the doctor. It's also because you guys played too hard last night and made a mess of this place, right?" Haibara Ai yawned and pushed her wheelchair out of the room.

The person sitting in the wheelchair was naturally Chiyoko, who had just recovered from a serious illness.

He was rather resistant to the wheelchair, after all, he had recovered to the point where he could carry out basic activities without strenuous exercise.

However, Haibara Ai and the doctor unanimously decided that this wheelchair was still necessary, and even Conan did not object.

To celebrate Chiyoko's discharge from the hospital, Dr. Agasa's house was requisitioned by the Junior Detective League as a party venue yesterday. The little guys were having fun until the evening and even stayed overnight at the doctor's house.

"Why do I always feel like you're so sleepy..." Conan looked at Haibara Ai, who looked listless.

"Of course. After all, while you were still asleep, she and Ayumi got up early and ran to school to feed the rabbits." Chiyoko's face was full of resentment, and she was obviously indignant that they wanted to push her, a "disabled person", into the equation.

"What do you think?" Huihara Ai looked at him sideways.

"Don't dare, don't dare..."

"I see." Conan nodded. "No wonder there are ginkgo leaves on his head. The only ginkgo tree in the whole rice flower is on the road near the breeding hut."

"On the head?" Haibara Ai was stunned for a moment, reached out and touched it, and picked off a small umbrella-shaped leaf the size of a thumb from her hair.

She casually placed it on Chiyo's bald head, and the goose yellow leaves complemented his silver-white hair.

"Why didn't you remind me?"

"Please, I'm sitting in a wheelchair, how can I see if there are leaves on your head?" Chiyoko felt that this woman was becoming more and more unreasonable.

"Humph."

She snorted and turned her attention to Conan. "Instead of wasting time trying to figure out the origin of the leaves, why don't you use your brilliant mind to find the letter?"

"I have some clues now." Conan smiled, "Thanks to Chiyo's words."

"The doctor should always put the letters he has read on top of the TV out of habit, but there is a difference in the sight angle there, so it is easy to slide down."

Upon hearing this, Mitsuhiko walked to the TV and looked into the gap behind it.

"Really? A lot of letters fell down there!"

He moved the TV a little further away and took them out.

"New Year's cards, summer greetings, and driver's license renewal notifications...there's really everything." Conan looked at the letters and couldn't help but complain about the doctor's carelessness.

"This also shows that the doctor is popular. There are so many letters that even if a few of them disappear, no one would notice." Chiyoko also came over, driving the electric wheelchair modified by the doctor.

"What is this?" He suddenly found a postcard that looked out of place and pulled it out from the pile of letters.

"What cute handwriting... looks like it was written by a child." Huibara Ai came over.

"Ah, found it." Conan struggled to find the one the doctor wanted from a pile of letters. Ayumi called the doctor happily, but found that he was standing there in a daze, a little absent-minded.

Following his gaze, I saw the postcard with cute handwriting in Chiyoko's hand.

Genta raised his hand and waved in front of Dr. Agasa, but there was no response.

"What good thing did the doctor see that made him look so stupid?"

"Could it be a love letter?" Mitsuhiko guessed excitedly.

"Ah, no." Dr. Agasa finally came to his senses and said in a muffled voice.

"It was a postcard given to me by an old friend...it was almost forty years ago."

"Forty years ago?" Conan did a quick calculation. "That was when the doctor was in elementary school? It should have been around fifth or sixth grade, right?"

The doctor nodded and recalled: "Yes, it was the first day of school after summer vacation..."

As the young Dr. Agasa was about to be late, he chose a shortcut, and then the gears of fate began to turn.

It was a long and narrow alley where a sister named Noi lived and had a large dog.

When he walked in, he saw a girl from the lower grade standing there. She was wearing a small flower hat, her big eyes were tearful, and her face was blue with fear.

She seemed to be afraid of the big dog's barking, so she didn't dare to go over.

The young man Agasa kindly took the girl with him and let her hide behind him, then he slowly walked over.

Later, every time he passed this alley, he would see the girl standing at the entrance. She was afraid and did not dare to go over, so every time he took her with him as he did before.

Gradually, the two of them developed a habit of going to and from school together without any prior arrangement.

One day he curiously asked her why she was so scared. The girl said that she was bitten by her dog when she was a child, so she began to be afraid of animals.

The young boy thought, if this is the case, isn't it too pitiful? So he came up with an idea. After school every day, he often took the girl to his friend Chono's house to play. He had a very cute hamster at home.

At the beginning, the girl seemed a little scared and could only hide behind him and watch carefully. However, as time went by, she gradually got used to it and was able to take the initiative to tease the little hamster and was amused to the delight.

Two months later, the girl's fear of animals gradually dissipated, and she could even walk past Noi's sister's house with a smile.

The two months of living together day and night have made the relationship between the two people closer and they have become dependent on each other.

"Wow..." The three little ones sighed with emotion.

Ayumi's big eyes twinkled, "So you two have become very good childhood sweethearts?"

"That?" Dr. Agasa smiled embarrassedly, feeling a little nostalgic and a little melancholy.

"It was only that autumn..."

"Ah?" Several children exclaimed in surprise.

"I still remember it was a cold rainy day in November. I waited for her at the door of Sister Noi's house as usual, but she didn't come after waiting for a long time..."

"I thought maybe she had a cold and couldn't come to class, so I ran to her house after school."

"Her neighbor told me that her family moved out early this morning..."

"Ah~~?" The three little ones' voices fluctuated a bit, with a sense of being disappointed in their children, and at the same time, they were disappointed with the bad ending of the expected story.

"Doctor, have you been keeping silent all this time? Haven't you ever told her how you feel?" Mitsuhiko asked hurriedly.

"You should at least say goodbye formally, right?" Even Yuantai's eyes contained a bit of contempt.

"Uh, that..." The doctor was a little at a loss.

Huibara sighed and spoke out to help.

"I must have wanted to say it very much but couldn't."

She crossed her arms and said in a cold tone, "For many words, I either didn't have the courage or I missed the chance. Especially the word 'goodbye', which is a sad word that hurts the heart when we are separated..."

"It's too sad to say goodbye like this!" Mitsuhiko wailed.

"Most things in the world are like this. After all, no one knows which will come first, tomorrow or an accident." Chiyoko felt her pocket, but found nothing.

Before he was discharged from the hospital, Haibara Ai took away all his sweets and didn't leave any for him. She told him not to even think about it until his health fully recovered.

"It's not like they didn't say goodbye at all...she even sent me a postcard to express her gratitude. Look, this is the one I found in the mailbox after I went back that day." Dr. Agasa weakly held up the postcard that Chiyoko had just found.

"There's not even a stamp on it." Mitsuhiko frowned.

"It must have been put directly into the doctor's mailbox before moving." Conan took the postcard from the doctor.

"So what does it say on it?" Yuan Tai asked.

"Thank you very much for these three months. It's great to meet Agasa!" Conan read out the content. Dr. Agasa on the side felt uneasy, with a suspicious blush on his face.

He is truly innocent. Chiyoko looked sideways at this old man who had no love history.

"Because I hate saying goodbye, let's meet at the old place before sunset, ten years later."

"If I can't see you, then wait another ten years, or even a long, long time later. Even if I become an old woman, I will keep waiting. If you are free then, please come and see me once..."

"To Agasa, whom I love very much, November 24th, Class A, Grade 4, Kinoshita... The ink on the name is blurred, so it's a little hard to read."

"Maybe it got caught in the rain when it was put into the mailbox. After all, it was raining at the time." The doctor guessed.

Huiyuan Ai gently lifted the hair that fell on her ear and cast a scrutinizing look, "So have you met this Kinoshita?"

"No," Dr. Agasa shook his head honestly, "because I can't figure out where this 'old place' refers to..."

"Huh?" Several people looked at him in surprise, and Dr. Agasa lowered his head in embarrassment.

"How can there be such an unreliable person..." Conan's mouth twitched.