Waiting for the four, including Kogoro Mouri, to change into their yukata, Chi Feichei followed the group out of the room, through the activity room, and towards the open-air hot spring.
Conan talked about what they encountered outside, from Akeshi Eri's tale of the Kimono Sleeve God legend, to Ran Mouri suspecting the Kimono Sleeve God wanted to harm Chi Feichei, how they t Fukatsu Harumi at the shrine, and how they discovered two new paper figures in the Kimono Sleeve God shrine.
After listening, Chi Feichei turned his head to look at Ran Mouri, "Ran, do you have any thoughts about writing?"
"Feichi-niisan, even you are saying that, really..." Ran Mouri's face turned red with annoyance, "I'm serious!"
"I'm serious too," Chi Feichei said expressionlessly, "You often travel to various places to see the scenery. If you're interested, whether the Kimono Sleeve God exists or not, you could try recording these kinds of yokai tales and travel notes."
"Eh?" Ran Mouri was startled, touching her chin as she considered seriously, "Travel notes? If you put it that way, I could definitely share them with my classmates and the karate club mbers. Then it would be best to take so scenic photos. I should have brought my digital cara to the shrine today..."
Ai Haibara saw Ran Mouri's train of thought was suddenly led astray, and finally stopped staring at them nervously. She looked up at Chi Feichei, "The snow scenery in the village is quite nice. It's a bit of a sha you didn't go with us."
Whether the snow scenery was beautiful, she didn't feel, but she did want to probe why Feichi-niisan didn't go along.
Chi Feichei lowered his gaze to look at Hassashi, who had his head resting on the collar of his yukata, "Hassashi is about to shed his skin."
"Shedding skin?" Ai Haibara was a bit surprised, "Isn't the season wrong?"
Chi Feichei stopped, squatted down, allowing the two little ones to see Hassashi clearly, "Probably because he hasn't hibernated recently."
Conan leaned forward to look, "Although it's not obvious yet, Hassashi's eyes are indeed not as black and bright as before."
Ran Mouri turned to look at Hassashi, "Then when Feichi-niisan said he wasn't going out with us earlier..."
Chi Feichei stood up, confirming Ran Mouri's guess, "I wanted Hassashi to stay put and rest, and I would stay with him."
"So that's it," Ran Mouri felt relieved, thinking that Chi Feichei wasn't angry. She looked at the open-air hot spring on the mountain, then lowered her head and said cheerily to Ai Haibara with a smile, "Well, Ai-chan, let's go soak in the hot spring, and then go back to eat the dinner prepared by the inn!"
Chi Feichei had soaked in the bath during the day, so he didn't go to the open-air hot spring with Kogoro Mouri and Conan. He stayed in the ga room, played arcade gas for a while, then went to the corridor, looking up at the thick snow in the courtyard and lost in thought.
This afternoon, after he fell asleep, he actually had a dream.
It was a vast and boundless gray space, with no edges, no sky, and no ground.
He knew he was dreaming. When he looked down, he could see his outstretched hands and feel his movents.
Not far in front of him, a large, semi-transparent white box floated in mid-air, roughly at chest height. Hassashi was inside.
When he walked up to look, Hassashi was chasing a small, similarly semi-transparent white sphere at the bottom of the box, playing happily. His scales were exactly the sa as in reality, so real it didn't feel like a dream.
He couldn't put his hand into the box, nor could he touch Hassashi, but he could use his consciousness to control the box's movent and create obstacles inside the box.
For example, when Hassashi was happily chasing the sphere, he looked at the bottom of the box, thought about a wall appearing, and the bottom of the box really manifested a similarly semi-transparent white partition wall, shaped like the 'wall' he envisioned, causing Hassashi to bump into it unprepared with a 'pat'.
Moreover, he could control the size of the box and the size of Hassashi inside the box.
After discovering this, he built a maze for Hassashi, created obstacles for Hassashi to chase the sphere, and dug pits and set traps for Hassashi...
He tested very seriously and played very happily.
As for when Conan returned, he hadn't noticed at all.
Under normal circumstances, he should wake up as soon as soone opened the door.
In his previous life, he repeatedly forced himself to discard and suppress all fatigue the instant he woke up, to quickly regain full consciousness and enter 'battle readiness', until it beca a habit.
After adapting in this life, he also continued that habit. Unless he was physically unwell, such as being in a coma, shock, or having a high fever, he could always wake up.
But today, it wasn't until Conan reached out and touched his forehead that he suddenly woke up.
This was also an anomaly.
"Ah, right, Master," Hassashi lazily flicked his tongue, "I dread of you today. But usually when I dream of you, you give delicious food. Not today..."
Chi Feichei: "..."
Even Hassashi usually dread, but he didn't. Today was the first ti.
"Today's dream made this snake so angry, I haven't been this angry in a long ti," Hassashi suddenly beca annoyed, "I dread of a round sphere, it looked especially delicious, but it could run. I planned to catch it and eat it in one bite, but as I chased it, I kept bumping into things, and there were strange mazes. I chased it until I was dizzy, and that sphere kept bouncing in front of , occasionally coming back to tease . Then I looked up and saw Master looking down at from above. I wanted Master to help, but then I suddenly woke up..."
Chi Feichei rembered that before he woke up, the Hassashi in the dream had also looked up at him. He pondered, "Was the sphere about the size of a duck egg, but quite round, white and semi-transparent, with a surface that looked very smooth?"
"Yes, that's why I couldn't wrap around that sphere..." Hassashi suddenly paused, extended his body slightly outward, and looked up at Chi Feichei, "Master, how did you know?"
"We should have had the sa..." Chi Feichei paused, "No, it was the sa dream."
How to put it, that sphere was also controlled by him, including when Hassashi got tired from chasing, the sphere would return and bump Hassashi, making Hassashi continue the chase – he was the one directing that.
"The sa dream?" Hassashi was startled for a mont, trying to understand, "So, the Master I saw in the dream wasn't fake, but..."
"We arrived in the sa space in the dream," Chi Feichei felt his body; there seed to be nothing unusual. "Is there anything unusual with your body?"
"No..." Hassashi tilted his head seriously, inadvertently showing a cute side, "It seems the sa as before sleeping, no changes."
Chi Feichei didn't ask further.
The possibility of him and Hassashi entering the sa dream was high, but neither he nor Hassashi seed to have undergone any changes. He had absolutely no premonition of what his 'three-nothing cheat' might do next.
Thought carefully, thinking failed, gave up directly, and returned to the ga room to play gas.
...
An hour later, the inn staff delivered dinner and drinks to each room.
After finishing his bath, Kogoro Mouri ordered quite a bit of sake, feeling refreshed as he pulled Chi Feichei along to drink. Then, twenty minutes later, he successfully got himself drunk.
"A re re~"
Kogoro Mouri tied a towel around his head, and also stuck two crab legs into the towel. Drunk, he swayed the sake bottle, "Didn't they pour any sake from the start? Ran, pour so more!"
"No way," Ran Mouri guarded the sake, "You can't drink too much. If the Kimono Sleeve God appears tonight, you have to protect us."
"Just one last cup, just one last cup, okay?" Kogoro Mouri chuckled ingratiatingly in his drunken state, "After drinking this cup, Daddy really won't drink anymore!"
"No ans no." Ran Mouri refused sternly. She turned and smiled as she poured sake for Chi Feichei, "But Feichi-niisan, drink a bit more, then have a good night's sleep, and we'll go back tomorrow!"
Conan: "..."
Was this an attempt to prevent Chi Feichei from being 'lured' out by gods or ghosts in the middle of the night?
Chi Feichei didn't refuse; when Ran Mouri poured, he took it.
Kogoro Mouri made a fuss twice, nagging Ran Mouri into pouring him two cups of sake. After drinking too much, he collapsed next to the table and fell asleep.
Chi Feichei finished the food in front of him and looked up at Ran Mouri.
Ran Mouri saw that Chi Feichei showed no sign of drunkenness. She turned the sake bottle upside down, showing Chi Feichei that not a single drop of sake dripped out, and said speechlessly, "It's empty..."
Before long, the inn staff ca to clear the table.
Ran Mouri got a blanket, had Kogoro Mouri lie flat, covered Kogoro Mouri with the blanket, then looked up and asked, "Feichi-niisan, do you want to go rest for a while?"
"No need," Chi Feichei took the charged laptop to the living room. There was no sign of drunkenness on his face. Holding the computer, he asked, "I downloaded a movie earlier. Do you want to watch?"
"Watching a movie is a good way to pass the ti," Ai Haibara nodded, watching Chi Feichei sit down at the table. "But Feichi-niisan, have you ever gotten drunk?"
"Yes, sake just has too low a proof," Chi Feichei scrolled through movies on his computer, estimating the volu of those small sake bottles, "It would take more than thirty bottles."
Ran Mouri imagined the scene of thirty empty sake bottles piled together, and fell silent.
She was wrong. She actually thought she could knock out Feichi-niisan with ten bottles of sake.
Chi Feichei started the movie and got up to turn off the lights, "Watching a movie is better with the lights off, it has more atmosphere."
"Ah? It's not a horror movie, is it?" Ran Mouri asked vigilantly.
"No." Chi Feichei replied.
Ran Mouri felt relieved. It was fine as long as it wasn't a horror movie.
Half an hour later, the four people sat in the darkened room, leaning against the wall in a row, watching the computer on the table in front of them.
"It's Gara! He's back!"
"Roar—!"
"Don't get close, his state is a bit off..."
Chi Feichei stared intently.
Watching the giant monster Gara sweep away a building with his tail.
Hassashi stared intently.
Silently comparing Gara's size with his own.
Ai Haibara stared intently.
She hadn't seen this movie. It was good to watch it so she wouldn't have a generation gap with the elentary school group.
Conan had a look of despair.
Although this movie was one that was almost impossible to find now, he had already watched it several tis ten years ago.
Ran Mouri watched along with great interest.
Although she had seen it, the atmosphere of everyone watching a movie together was quite nice.
Conan changed positions, stretching his legs out in front, resting his right elbow on his knee and propping up his chin, staring with half-moon eyes.
That guy Chi Feichei actually likes this kind of movie. Wouldn't watching the latest detective dramas be better?
Honestly... if he had known, he would have suggested they play poker together.
"...Daddy! Mommy! Gara, wake up quickly!..."
In the dim room, the four people sat side-by-side against the wall, their four faces illuminated by the light from the computer screen.
In front of the door by the courtyard with the glass window, Harumi Fukatsu was startled. She knocked on the door, "S-sorry, may I co in?"
Chi Feichei got up and pressed pause on the computer.
Ran Mouri stood up to open the door, "Harumi-san? Please co in!"
"Excuse for bothering you," Harumi Fukatsu entered the room, her expression hesitant, "Actually, I have sothing I'd like to ask Mr. Mouri for help with..."
"Okay, please sit down first," Ran Mouri turned to call Kogoro Mouri, who was sleeping by the table, "Daddy? Daddy!"
"Hm?" Kogoro Mouri was shaken awake. Wrapped in the blanket, he propped himself up, turned his groggy face, and mumbled indistinctly, "What? Gara, wake up quickly..."
"The one who needs to wake up is you!"
Ran Mouri's shout sobered Kogoro Mouri up quite a bit.
End of Chapter
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