allendalepharm Page 156
Page 156
Chapter 191 Shattered Fantasy
"You, you, you... what are you saying, Sonoko!" Ran looked at Sonoko in front of her, her face flushed with embarrassment. She pointed at Sonoko with her hand, her voice becoming stuttering.
Conan: "!!!"
Mouri Kogoro: "!!!"
Conan and Kogoro Mouri stared at Sonoko in shock, then immediately turned their gaze to Yuu Aragaki standing to the side.
Their eyes were filled with undisguised murderous intent.
Aragaki Yu: "..."
He helplessly spread his hands towards Kogoro Mouri and Conan to indicate his innocence—
What are you looking at me for?
These are not my words. Go find whoever said them!
……
"Does it smell weird?" Just as Kogoro Mouri was about to go up and warn Yuu Aragaki not to have any ulterior motives towards his daughter, he unconsciously sniffed and froze, looking around.
However, because of Ran, Sonoko had already dragged Aragaki Yuu forward quite a distance, and despite Conan's anxious urging, Kogoro Mouri didn't pay too much attention.
After all, it's normal to have a strange smell in such a remote and desolate place.
……
"Hello, excuse me, I'm here for a gathering." Sonoko knocked on the villa's door.
"Welcome!" A tall, thin middle-aged man stepped out of the villa. He paused for a moment when he saw Sonoko, but quickly recovered and greeted her with a smile, "Ah, you're the magician's apprentice, aren't you!"
Sonoko stared blankly at the man in front of her: "But... but how did you know so quickly that I was the magician's apprentice!"
"I knew it immediately after reading your chat," the middle-aged man explained with a smile. "Anyone can see that the magician's apprentice is a girl pretending to be a man."
"Huh?" Sonoko never expected that her plan hadn't even been launched yet, and everyone had already discovered her identity.
"Don't you all agree?" The middle-aged man looked at the two people who walked out from behind him.
Behind the middle-aged man were a young man and a woman.
The young woman, wearing round-framed glasses and with her hair in two ponytails, looked very quiet. She chuckled and said to Sonoko, "Yeah, I often secretly chuckle to myself on this side of the screen!"
The young man smiled and nodded in agreement, saying, "That's right!"
"Ah..." Sonoko stared blankly at the three people at the door, a look of embarrassment on her face.
"Haha, if you're going to pretend, you should pretend as well as Tanaka!" The young man suddenly turned around and said to a rather sexy woman who was walking towards the door.
Kiku Tanaka slowly walked to the group's side, smiling slightly as she spoke, "Is that so? Actually, I didn't intentionally pretend to speak in a man's tone when we were communicating online."
Then, she looked at the young man with amusement and retorted, "As for myself, I always thought that the missing Barney was a girl!"
The "disappeared Barney" that Tanaka Kikue mentioned was the same name that the young man in front of her, Hamano Toshiya, used in the online chat room.
Hamano, who had been exposed, did not seem embarrassed. Instead, she cheerfully defended herself, saying, "Is that so? Then maybe I was deliberately being vague."
"What do you mean by deliberately blurring the lines! You jerk!" Kuroda Naoko, the young woman with twin tails who appeared with Hamano, glared at Hamano with considerable displeasure. "I also mistook this guy for a girl..."
“I even discussed underwear with this person in emails!” As she said this, Naoko Kuroda turned her head away somewhat embarrassedly.
"Yeah, I almost had a nosebleed back then!" Hamano Toshiya said, making an exaggerated expression as he looked at the shy Kuroda Naoko.
"well……?!"
Sonoko stood at the door, blinking her eyes repeatedly, staring blankly at the dramatic conversation between the people in the room.
"Haha, alright, I haven't introduced myself yet!" The middle-aged man who greeted the garden quickly smoothed things over, "I am Aragaki Yoshinori, the owner of this vacation cottage."
Araki paused for a moment, then pointed to a male waiter in black who had appeared at some point and was standing at the very edge of the room, saying, "As for this gentleman, he is Mr. Sugawara Kiyohiro, a staff member I hired this time."
"Hello." Mr. Sugana, the waiter, bowed slightly to the garden.
"Hello!" Sonoko quickly nodded in return to Mr. Suga, then turned to Mr. Arayoshi and asked the question that concerned her most, "Has Katsuki, ah, no, Red Herring, not arrived yet?"
"Oh, you mean the red herring!" Araki said with a smile. "He arrived a while ago and is upstairs now!"
Da da da……
Suddenly, footsteps echoed on the stairs inside the house.
“He’s here, Red Herring is coming down.” Naoko Kuroda glanced at the stairs and then immediately turned back to Sonoko and said.
"what!"
As Sonoko waited expectantly, a figure slowly descended the stairs and came into view.
However, as the figure appeared, Sonoko's expression stiffened.
Contrary to her expectations of a talented and handsome man, what appeared before Sonoko was an ordinary-looking, overweight man.
He walked to the door with a big smile on his face and said to Sonoko, who had just arrived, "Could it be that you are the magician's apprentice? It's me, I am Doi Takuki!"
"No way!" Sonoko was as if her soul had left her body, her heart filled with despair. "My fantasy... is shattered..."
Doi Takaki looked at Sonoko excitedly: "I knew it! You must be a girl, that's amazing!"
"By the way, who are you all?"
At this moment, Arayoshi also noticed the group of people standing outside the door behind Sonoko.
"Hello everyone, I'm Ran Mouri, who was brought along by Sonoko." Ran introduced herself to everyone in the room with a bright smile.
"Hello, I'm Yuu Aragaki." Yuu Aragaki, who was next to Ran, smiled and looked at the people in the room.
Kogoro Mouri, however, replied dismissively, without much interest, "I'm Ran's father, and I was responsible for bringing them here."
"I'm so sorry for being so rude. Please come in!" Araki felt a little embarrassed for having inadvertently overlooked the people behind the garden, so he quickly went outside and invited them to come inside and warm up.
Unexpectedly, just as he walked up to Kogoro Mouri and was about to help him carry his luggage, Kogoro Mouri grabbed him by the collar.
Chapter 192 The Heartless Man, Aragaki Yu
"You'd better get this straight, you'd better not mess with these three guys!" Kogoro Mori glared fiercely at Yoshinori Ara and warned.
Aragaki Yu: "..."
He gave Kogoro Mouri a strange look, though he was grateful for his consideration.
But what's with this man in front of me trying to use his brain on me...?
For some unknown reason, Aragaki Yuu suddenly shivered.
Huang Yi blinked in bewilderment, still unable to comprehend why this strange man had grabbed him by the collar.
"Dad!" Noticing Kogoro Mouri's rude behavior and his meddling, Ran quickly ran to her father's side to stop him.
"You, you can rest assured!" Araki Yoshino assured Kogoro Mouri with a slightly embarrassed expression before finally escaping from his grasp.
"Hmph!" Kogoro Mouri snorted coldly, still somewhat annoyed, then grabbed Conan by the back of his collar as he tried to sneak into the room, pulling him back to his side: "Where are you going, kid! Come on, let's go home!"
"Uncle Kogoro, I want to live here too!" Conan said to Kogoro Mouri in a spoiled manner.
After hearing Sonoko talk about boyfriends and girlfriends, Conan became even more worried about Ran attending the party.
However, Kogoro Mouri ignored Conan's request. After helping Conan straighten his slightly askew mask, he said irritably, "What nonsense are you spouting! You already have a cold, what are you doing here? Go home and get some rest!"
"Alright, I'll leave these three kids in your care!" Kogoro Mouri turned around, nodded to Yoshinori Ara, and then carried Conan, who was still struggling, away.
"No! I don't want to go back..."
……
When Arayoshi led the three into the vacation villa, the people in the villa's living room couldn't help but be slightly taken aback.
Hamano Toshiya noticed Ran walking in and his eyes lit up.
Meanwhile, Kikuko Tanaka and Naoko Kuroda stared intently at Yuu Aragaki, clearly not expecting such a handsome young man to be among the attendees of this gathering.
"Bliss..."
When Doi Takaki saw Ran, he didn't show any surprise. However, when he saw Aragaki Yu walk into the house, a hint of shock and resentment flashed in his eyes.
[Haha, so this is what you meant by the neighbor's dog about to have puppies?]
It turns out he was going to the party with girls, so he decisively chose to give up his own side!
Damn it! I was the one who invited him first, and yet I was heartlessly abandoned. What a treacherous guy!
Uh, as he was greeting everyone, Aragaki Yu suddenly felt a resentful gaze fixed on him.
He followed the source of his gaze and saw a fat man looking at him meaningfully.
According to Mr. Arayoshi, his name is Doi Takaki, and his online chat room nickname is Red Herring.
"But why is he looking at me like that..." Aragaki Yu suddenly became alert, his heart filled with doubt.
Wait a minute, is there something I've overlooked?
Magic enthusiast gatherings, online chat rooms...
Aragaki Yu suddenly remembered Kuroba Kaito, who had also extended an invitation to him but which he had rejected the day before.
Could it be... that I've misunderstood?