After experiencing the gust of wind directly to her face, Kisaki Eri sat dumbfounded.
The proof was just too overwhelming. Even if she didn't want to accept it, reality didn't allow her to deny it.
Could an ordinary person's punch create a storm? Kisaki Eri silently asked herself this question. The answer was obvious—impossible.
While she remained stunned, her daughter returned from the balcony and sat across from her at the table.
"So now, can Mom believe it?"
Kisaki Eri's mouth twitched at her daughter's words. The demonstration had been more than convincing. With such clear evidence before her eyes, how could she not believe it?
"How could I not believe it? You already proved it."
Kisaki Eri pressed her fingers to her forehead, feeling a mild headache come on. At this moment, it felt like the worldview she had carefully built up over the years was starting to crack.
Why had the familiar world around her suddenly become so foreign?
After a long silence, Kisaki Eri finally accepted the reality—her daughter had stepped into a world of superpowers. But that only raised more questions.
"Ran, how did you get these powers? I remember you being perfectly normal not that long ago."
"Actually, I only got this ability about two months ago. It happened for some unknown reason. At the time, my appetite grew a lot, and I was worried I'd get fat."
Hearing this, Kisaki Eri recalled something—when Ran first moved in, her appetite did indeed seem abnormally high.
She'd found it strange then, but assumed it was because Ran was training hard in karate and needed the energy. After all, she herself had gone through a growth phase like that, when her appetite had spiked and her body had started changing.
Back then, she had thought Ran was going through the same thing.
But it turned out it had been caused by a superpower.
"So, the reason you moved in wasn't just because you couldn't accept Kudo Shinichi's situation, but also to relieve Kogoro's burden?"
At that moment, Eri Kisaki felt she needed to reevaluate the real reason her daughter had moved in.
"It wasn't just that."
The hesitation on Ran's face made the veins on Eri Kisaki's forehead twitch. This daughter of hers really was too filial—she even knew how to save money for Kogoro. Knowing her mother was wealthy, she chose to move in with her.
Looks like Ran understood Kogoro's financial problems well… Eri tried to comfort herself with that thought.
She knew Kogoro had struggled with receiving cases ever since becoming a detective, mostly due to his lack of business sense.
It wasn't that Eri looked down on him—she just knew him too well. From the beginning, she hadn't considered Kogoro very competent. Despite being sharp as a detective, his business acumen was a different story.
Limited income from cases was one issue. The other was much clearer.
"And the other reason is Kudo Shinichi?"
"Yeah."
Ran nodded slightly but quickly added:
"But it's not that I couldn't accept his death. What I couldn't accept was that he's living with Dad in another form."
"…What?"
Kisaki Eri had been nodding but froze mid-motion.
It wasn't about Shinichi dying, but about him living with Kogoro in another form?
She suddenly recalled how it was Yukiko who had asked Kogoro to look after her and Yusaku's 'second son.'
Kisaki Eri's mind came to a halt. The image of Kudo Shinichi and Edogawa Conan overlapped in her mind.
"That kid… is Kudo Shinichi?"
"Yeah."
Hearing the clear confirmation from her daughter, Eri felt an oncoming migraine. She took a deep breath and asked cautiously:
"Did that kid turn into a child because of some superpower?"
"No. He was knocked out after witnessing two men in black make an illegal transaction with a businessman. To cover it up, the men gave him a lethal drug. But due to the drug's instability, it shrank his body instead."
Kisaki Eri's vision blurred for a second. She almost blacked out.
Yukiko, I really sympathize with what happened to your son… but you had to drop this on me like a bomb?
Eri Kisaki gritted her teeth in frustration.
Now she understood—her best friend had left a walking time bomb right next to Kogoro, one that could explode at any moment.
Trying to suppress her rising anger, Eri clenched her fists. If it weren't for the fact that she still had some rationality left—and because she and Yukiko were still good friends—she might have already called to yell at her.
Now she finally understood why Ran chose to move in with her.
Eri Kisaki instantly realized that Kudo Shinichi had moved in with Kogoro to be close to Ran.
Understanding this made her blood pressure skyrocket.
"…Mom, I'm not trying to shift the blame onto Aunt Yukiko. But I think if something like this happened, she probably wouldn't want Shinichi to stay here either. After all, if those men in black found out Shinichi was still alive, the first people they'd go after would be Aunt Yukiko and Uncle Yusaku."
Ran's words helped calm her mother down, taking some of the weight off Yukiko's shoulders.
Eri narrowed her eyes slightly.
"That's true. Yukiko may be unreliable sometimes, but she'd never take her son's safety lightly."
Some of her anger toward Yukiko faded, but all that frustration shifted toward Kudo Shinichi instead.
Eri Kisaki sneered.
"Hmph, that boy is something else. Knowing he's basically a walking bomb and still choosing to stick close to Kogoro… He must not care if Kogoro dies."
At that moment, Kisaki Eri's opinion of Kudo Shinichi had dropped below zero.
(To be continued.)