Chapter 316: Reality or Dream
Raiden Ei raised the crackling polearm in her hands, her eyes cold and merciless as she brought the blade down fiercely toward Conan Edogawa. Her movements were swift, decisive, and entirely devoid of hesitation, leaving the young detective absolutely no window to react.
Conan's eyes widened to their absolute limits. Terror seized his throat as the impossibly sharp blade cleaved through the air toward him. He desperately willed his limbs to move, to dodge, to struggle, but his body felt as though it had been encased in solid ice. Paralyzed, he could only watch helplessly as the cold, deadly gleam of the weapon drew closer, his chest tightening with overwhelming despair and a fierce, unyielding reluctance to die.
"Ahhh!" Conan tore himself from the nightmare with a bloodcurdling scream, his entire body shuddering violently.
His eyes snapped open, wide and frantic, as he violently kicked off the heavy blankets and bolted upright in bed. He gasped desperately for air, his lungs burning as his chest heaved with ragged, uneven breaths. Cold sweat plastered his bangs to his forehead and soaked through his pajamas. The lingering phantom pain of the blade seemed to pulse against his skin, leaving his pupils dilated with raw, unfiltered terror.
It took several agonizing minutes for his racing heartbeat to slow. Even as the familiar shadows of the bedroom came into focus, the visceral panic of his own execution clung to his senses.
Before he could fully ground himself in reality, the soft patter of footsteps echoed from the hallway. The doorknob clicked.
"Conan, get up already! You're the only one who's still asleep," Ayumi chirped, pushing the door open with a bright, innocent smile.
"Yeah, Conan, what's the big idea sleeping in so late?" Genta grumbled good-naturedly, lumbering into the room right behind her. "We tried yelling your name earlier, but you were totally out cold!"
Mitsuhiko quickly trotted over to the edge of the futon. His cheerful expression faltered when he noticed the pale, clammy state of his friend. "That's strange... why are you sweating so much?" he asked, leaning in with genuine concern. "Did you have a nightmare?"
A cool, teasing voice drifted in from the doorway. "Oh? So the great detective suffers from night terrors just like a normal child?" Ai Haibara leaned against the doorframe, her arms crossed and a faint, amused smirk playing on her lips. "Do tell. What exactly managed to scare you so badly?"
Conan looked at the circle of familiar faces gathered around him. The comforting, mundane reality of the Detective Boys slowly chipped away at his lingering dread. He took a slow, deep breath, forcing his trembling hands to steady.
'Could everything before... really have just been a dream?' he pondered inwardly, his brow furrowing.
He closed his eyes, and the blinding flash of Raiden Ei's lightning-fast blade immediately replayed behind his eyelids. The phantom chill of impending death still gripped his heart. Every single detail—the rustle of the wind, the coldness in Ei's eyes, the suffocating pressure of her presence—was seared into his brain with terrifying clarity. 'If it was just a nightmare, how could it feel so incredibly real?'
The events of the previous night had been far too sudden, far too dangerous. He desperately needed a moment alone to untangle the chaotic web of his memories. Lowering his head, he quickly composed his expression. When he looked back up at Mitsuhiko and Haibara, he flashed a sheepish, childish grin, offering a flimsy excuse about a giant monster chasing him through an amusement park.
Haibara's ice-blue eyes narrowed slightly. She clearly saw right through his blatant lie, but glancing at the genuinely worried children beside her, she merely offered a soft scoff and chose not to press the issue. Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko visibly relaxed, relieved that their friend was perfectly fine.
Seizing the opportunity, Conan carefully shifted the topic, casually asking the group to recount what they had done the previous evening.
Genta tilted his head, scratching his cheek in confusion. "Huh? Weren't you right there with us the whole time? Why are you asking?" Despite his bewilderment, the boy happily obliged. "After we finished watching the match yesterday, we all went out to play hide-and-seek. Don't tell me you forgot already, Conan!"
"That's right," Mitsuhiko chimed in, nodding affirmatively. "But after we played a few rounds, it started getting pretty late. Brother Ayato eventually came out to find us and escorted everyone back inside to rest."
"And then this morning, we all woke up bright and early," Haibara drawled, rolling her eyes in mock exasperation. "Albedo even dropped by to pick up Klee. But a certain someone was dead to the world, completely missing Klee's energetic farewell."
"Oh, right!" Ayumi gasped, her eyes lighting up as she suddenly remembered a crucial detail. "Nahida came along with Brother Albedo, too!" Her bright smile quickly faded into a disappointed pout. "It's such a pity, though. She only stayed for a tiny bit before they had to leave. We barely got to chat with her at all."
"Nahida?!" Conan blurted out, his voice cracking with sudden urgency. He grabbed the edge of his blanket, his knuckles turning white. "You guys actually saw Nahida?!"
Sensing the abrupt spike of tension in his voice, Haibara frowned. Her gaze sharpened with suspicion. "Yes, we saw her. What's wrong with you? Is there some sort of problem with her?"
Conan hesitated, his mouth opening and closing. The words caught in his throat. Ultimately, he decided against telling Haibara about his near-death experience. It felt far too surreal, too deeply entrenched in the world of nightmares, and his fragmented memories completely contradicted the timeline the others had just established., when Mitsuhiko mentioned Kamisato Ayato escorting them back to their rooms, a hazy, disjointed image of the elegant blue-haired man leading them down a dimly lit corridor suddenly flashed through Conan's mind.
Doubt began to gnaw at his confidence. Was this simply a textbook case of his daytime anxieties manifesting as night terrors? He had spent the entire previous day obsessing over Raiden Ei's suspicious actions regarding the Takahashi Family. Was it so far-fetched that his paranoid subconscious had conjured up an image of her executing him?
Yet, the confirmation of Nahida's physical presence this morning—the very same Nahida he had supposedly seen in his dream last night—threw his logical deductions into complete disarray.
After finally dragging himself out of bed, Conan quickly washed his face with freezing water to shock his system awake. He managed to slip away from the energetic children shortly after, making a beeline straight for Okiya Subaru to exchange intelligence.
"Let me make sure I understand," Subaru said, adjusting his glasses after listening quietly to Conan's frantic recounting. "You are saying that you witnessed Raiden Ei, Zhongli, and Nahida secretly gathering in the pavilion last night. And when the topic of the Takahashi Family was breached, Miss Raiden suddenly turned hostile, pulled a polearm out of thin air, and attempted to strike you down?"
Conan thought back to the terrifying sequence of events and gave a grim, tight nod of confirmation.
"And then you suddenly woke up in your bed, completely unharmed, leaving you unable to determine whether last night's events were reality or a mere dream?" Subaru pressed.
Conan nodded once more, his expression heavy with frustration.
Subaru fell silent, pondering the bizarre situation for a long moment. He reached up, lightly tapping his chin in thought. "Based on everything you've just told me," Subaru finally murmured, his tone measured and calm, "I believe the probability of this being nothing more than a vivid nightmare is exceedingly high, Conan."
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