Shimizu Koji stood up and walked over to the wardrobe to rummage through it. Although he didn't have any children's clothes, he could always make something work.
He picked out a shirt, a jacket, and a pair of trousers, grabbed a pair of scissors, and—under Miyano Shiho's slightly dazed gaze—snip, snip—cut them down to size before tossing the altered clothes onto the bed.
"Your clothes from before were too dirty," he said. "And way too big. I've already taken them to be washed."
"They might still not fit perfectly, but I don't have any children's clothes here. You'll have to make do for now."
Even after hearing all that, Miyano Shiho still clung to a sliver of hope before she got an answer.
"Is it just you living in this house?"
The moment she spoke, Shimizu Koji knew what she was really asking.
"You're just a kid," he said calmly. "And you were filthy earlier, so I helped you take a bath."
"By the way, what happened to you? It was pouring rain, and you were running around the streets dressed like that."
At first, words like kid, filthy, bath made Shiho's eyes instinctively flash with cold hostility.
But when she heard the question that followed, panic caught her completely off guard.
She had only just turned into an elementary schooler. Even now, she hadn't fully accepted that reality, and subconsciously still thought of herself as the original Miyano Shiho.
From what she could tell, Shimizu Koji probably didn't have much to do with the Organization—but she couldn't be sure. After all, she had seen things with her own eyes.
She hadn't expected herself to faint from fear back then. Fever might have played a role, but being caught red-handed in that situation left far too many things impossible to explain.
"Whose child are you?" Shimizu Koji asked when she refused to speak, changing tactics.
By now, he had already mentally labeled her a problem child.
After hesitating for a moment, Shiho couldn't come up with any good explanation. She lowered her eyes slightly, her gaze turning unfocused.
"I… I'm sorry," she said softly. "I think I've lost my memory."
Her eyes trembled, as if she had recalled something terrifying. The confusion and fear in her expression didn't seem fake at all.
Shimizu Koji's eyes narrowed slightly. He didn't press further. Instead, he sighed, reached out, and gently patted her head.
"I'll step outside. Get dressed, then call me back in. If you're hungry, eat that bowl of noodles—I haven't touched it."
By now, he could guess a few possibilities. The girl might have been kidnapped, or had run into something dangerous.
When someone—especially a child—is overly frightened, the brain often triggers a self-protective avoidance mechanism. He'd seen that kind of thing more than once.
Shimizu Koji closed the door and left, leaving Miyano Shiho alone in the room.
After waiting a few minutes and making sure he wouldn't suddenly come back in, she quickly slipped out from under the blanket and pulled on the clothes. They were still a size too big, but at least wearable.
The waistband of the trousers was far too large—she could practically step into them from her head. Thankfully, Shimizu Koji had thoughtfully left her a short piece of string. Once tied, the pants stayed up.
It looked a little ridiculous, giving her the air of a country tomboy. Shiho herself felt awkward the moment she finished dressing.
But none of that mattered right now.
What mattered was figuring out who Shimizu Koji really was—and…
Thinking of the thing she had been fixated on before coming here, Shiho felt lost all over again.
She walked to the window.
That's right. This was Kudo Shinichi's house.
She had come here in a blind panic. Tokyo was huge, yet there was nowhere for her to go.
Looking back, it was foolish. Even if Kudo Shinichi had truly turned into a child like she suspected, there was no way he'd still be living here. She'd been here several times before—no one had ever been home.
So what was Shimizu Koji's situation?
At this point, Shiho had two guesses.
First: Shimizu Koji was connected to the Organization. Gin, ever paranoid, might have sent him here to lie low and investigate the vanished Kudo Shinichi—dead without a body.
Second: if Shimizu Koji had merely appeared at the research facility by coincidence that day, then the fact that he could openly live here meant that, even if he wasn't connected to Kudo Shinichi himself, he had at least some relationship with Shinichi's family.
Shiho didn't dare trust anyone easily anymore. The only person she could think of trusting was Kudo Shinichi—someone who should be in a situation similar to hers, even if he might despise her.
She walked over to the desk. The ramen on it was still steaming. On the bookshelf against the wall were only a few detective novels.
Even though the news of her sister's death had hit her hard, she had never been someone who would easily give up on life.
If not for the Organization's constant coercion and exploitation, she never would have swallowed that poison with the resolve to die.
But now, by sheer luck, she had survived—and successfully escaped the Organization.
For the time being, she had no intention of seeking death again.
What she needed now was a new name.
Her gaze lingered on the detective novels. Thoughts churned in her mind. Finally, her eyes shifted slightly, and she murmured aloud:
"Haibara… Ai."
After giving herself that name, Haibara Ai stood there in a daze for a while. Only when her stomach began to growl did she come back to her senses.
She looked at the ramen on the desk. It didn't look very appetizing, but she had been hungry all day. Strangely, she didn't feel very thirsty.
Then she noticed the fever medicine and glass of water set beside it—and understood why.
Imagining what might have happened to her over the past few hours, Haibara Ai shuddered, quickly shaking those thoughts away.
After hesitating for a moment, she sat down, picked up the chopsticks, and tried a bite of the noodles.
"Ugh—so salty!"
The flavor was far heavier than she'd expected, but in the end, she still ate nearly half the bowl—half from hunger, half deliberately.
For now, she was a partially amnesiac little girl.
Until she fully figured out Shimizu Koji's identity, she would remind herself of that every moment.
Do what a child should do.
—
"Your name is Haibara Ai?" Shimizu Koji asked.
Haibara Ai nodded.
"Do you remember why you came here?"
She shook her head.
"Do you remember your parents? Or anything about who you are?"
She shook her head again.
Shimizu Koji asked many questions, but the little girl couldn't answer most of them. Something felt off, but since she was just a child, he didn't think too deeply about it.
Sighing, he felt a rare sense of helplessness.
"So… what do you remember?"
"My name is Haibara Ai."
Alright. That's enough.
Shimizu Koji pinched the bridge of his nose, already getting a headache over what to do with her.
The best solution would be to send her to the nearest police station—but the moment he mentioned it, Haibara Ai immediately looked terrified, her eyes filling with tears.
Forget it.
The internet wasn't very developed in this era. If she were sent to the police station and her family couldn't be found after a while, she'd probably be transferred to an orphanage.
And at an orphanage…
Looking at the delicate, doll-like girl in front of him, Shimizu Koji believed himself to be an upright man—but others might not be.
He had always been willing to assume the worst of people.
Meanwhile, Haibara Ai felt equally helpless. If things hadn't been so rushed earlier—if she'd had time to come up with a better excuse—she wouldn't have lied about losing her memory.
Now it had only made things more complicated.
She wanted to leave this place, but she absolutely didn't want Shimizu Koji to send her to a police station or orphanage.
As far as he was concerned, she was an amnesiac child—a perfectly ordinary little girl.
Watching Shimizu Koji think, a ridiculous thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
If he really were with the Organization, that might actually be better. Organization members would probably just throw her out.
"Then you can stay here for now," Shimizu Koji finally said. "I'll help you look for your family over the next few days."
"…Okay."
Both of them spoke with a hint of resignation, but in the end, the matter was settled just like that.