Chapter 34
“…Can you get off me first?”
“No!”
“Please, can you just get off? I can explain.”
“No!”
Everyone has their own psychological trauma, and overcoming it is no easy feat. Even time, which is said to heal all wounds, was of no help, because An’an had just drowned yesterday.
She had just drowned yesterday, and today her swimming instructor was throwing her into the water. Was this something a human being could do?
Mr. Amuro has gone crazy, the girl thought, trembling. I’m the one who opened Pandora’s box.
If I hadn’t let him help me dispose of the body, he wouldn’t have developed a strong interest in crime after dumping the body, and he wouldn’t be trying to kill me now.
An’an has brought this upon herself. Heavens, what kind of queen-kills-queen tragedy is this?!
The girl was lost in her terrifying imagination, unable to extricate herself. She didn’t notice that the blond young man, holding her, had already walked to the edge of the shallow end, where the water only came up to her calves.
In the deep end, their current posture could barely be defined as a rescue.
In the shallow end, the other guests were casting incomprehensible glances at them.
“The hotel is less than twenty meters from the pool,” a passing guest tactfully suggested. “Do you have to hug in here?”
So passionate. It’s a bad influence, isn’t it?
Amuro Tooru had no way to explain to the passing guest. He couldn’t even see the passing guest.
An’an was using him as a cat tree. A fluffy-tailed cat, its fur standing on end after touching the cold water, was hissing fiercely while clawing its way up the cat tree, using both its hands and feet.
Her chin was resting on Amuro’s head as she struggled to breathe the fresh air above to alleviate her fear of suffocation.
The blond Public Security officer couldn’t open his eyes, nor could he close them. There was nowhere for him to look.
To make matters worse, the girl was clinging to him for dear life. Her advantage in strength was terrifying.
Amuro was helpless against her. He could only sit down on the edge of the pool and try to soothe the cat.
“Calm down, An’an,” he said in a gentle voice. “Look down.”
Isn’t it just water down there? What’s there to see? An’an wouldn’t listen.
Amuro got no response. He raised his hand, cupped the dark-haired girl’s cheek, and applied a little pressure, making her look down.
The clear pool water reflected their overlapping figures. An’an couldn’t help but ponder a serious question.
Why am I sitting on Mr. Amuro’s lap?
She remembered now. Her legs had gotten a little tired from being wrapped around his waist. She had suddenly discovered a new landing spot, and her body had just sat down on its own.
She really didn’t mistreat herself.
“It’s Mr. Amuro’s fault,” An’an insisted on her point of view. “We even pinky promised that you wouldn’t let go of me no matter what. You broke your word.”
“You have to swallow a thousand needles,” the girl’s fair fingertips tapped the blond young man’s Adam’s apple.
She thought she was threatening him, but she didn’t get a rebuttal from Amuro.
“…Okay,” he said, a beat too late, his voice a little hoarse.
An’an: “?”
What did I say that you agreed to? Swallowing needles is not a good thing.
An’an suddenly felt a sense of guilt for bullying an honest person. She reflected for a moment and admitted that she was also partly responsible.
“I’ll be able to swim on my own sooner or later,” An’an said in a small voice. “But for now, at least for the next two days, let me rely on you a little.”
Amuro also reflected on his teaching method. He should have tailored it to her needs, not just copied his previous teaching experience.
They both reflected for a while, and the atmosphere between them softened.
“It looks like you’ve made up. I’m so happy for you,” Edogawa Conan said, coming over from the kids’ section.
He: “So are you two going to keep hugging?”
The great detective, who was always being treated as a part of their play, would no longer be a forced participant. He was now going to voluntarily join this family!
The great detective, on the offensive, had landed a critical hit. The two people before him separated as if they had been electrocuted, one looking up at the sky, the other looking down and kicking the water.
The great detective felt a long-lost sense of joy.
…
Amuro had promised to teach her, and he had not lied.
Being born and raised in a coastal city had given An’an a bit of a regional buff. After working hard to overcome her fear of drowning, she could now successfully swim a distance of 50 meters.
For the audition, it was enough.
“Miss Azusa, I need to take the afternoon off today. Is it okay if the new dessert is only available for one morning?”
At Café Poirot, the blond young man in a waiter’s uniform pressed his hands together and pleaded with his colleague.
“Of course. I can’t make the new dessert anyway,” Enomoto Azusa said, used to Amuro’s occasional requests for leave. Her colleague had so many part-time jobs it was frightening. To think there was someone in the world who loved working so much.
“Is it for your detective work again?” Azusa asked curiously.
Amuro smiled. “No, I have a date.”
…
The white Mazda was parked in front of the Trojan Horse Apartments. A hand pulled open the passenger door, and a girl, still misty from the shower, got in.
A cool breeze wafted from her as she moved. Amuro started the car and asked, “Practicing holding your breath in the bathtub again?”
The dark-haired girl squeezed the damp ends of her hair and said truthfully, “I have pre-exam anxiety.”
Strictly speaking, today was her second audition.
“The spectacular failure of my first audition for the female lead in ‘Broken-Winged Angel: The Devilish Young Master’s Fierce Love’ left a deep scar on me,” she sighed. “I thought I did a pretty good job. How did the male lead end up in the hospital…”
Director Yamanaka: You don’t know the reason? Can you honestly say you bear no responsibility?
The productions of Director Matsuzaka and Director Kawamura had no audition process. Fan An had no competitors, so there was not much pressure.
“The difficulty of today’s audition is on the level of a provincial exam,” she said, her hands clasped together, her voice filled with anxiety. “The people I’m competing with are high school students, and I’m Conan.”
Edogawa Conan: Hey!
My real self is a high school student too!
For this audition, Fan An lacked experience and was not a skilled swimmer. She was full of debuffs.
Her only advantage was that she had thoroughly read “A Beginner’s Guide to Planning a Drowning Murder” and could recite it backwards.
“Right now, I can only cram by practicing holding my breath in the bathtub a few more times,” the girl sighed. “Actually, I also bought “A Guide to Identifying Popular Murder Locations on the Internet.” I just happened to be reading the bathtub chapter.”
Amuro: I swear, on behalf of the Public Security Bureau, that I will ban this series of books sooner or later… after the organization is eliminated, I will definitely ban it.
How many books are in this series? Does she really love reading it that much?
“I’m so nervous,” An’an rambled. “During my first audition, a senior taught me a great way to relieve tension. As long as you imagine the scene as something you’re familiar with, you won’t be nervous.”
“A senior is a senior for a reason. I did as he said. I imagined the filming set as a slaughterhouse, and everything I could see was a pig waiting to be slaughtered. I wasn’t nervous at all.”
However, a substitute can only last for so long.
“I really can’t find any common ground between a swimming pool and a slaughterhouse,” the girl said, her eyes lifeless. “If I had known, I would have gone to the duck farm next door for my part-time job.”
If I hadn’t picked up a butcher’s knife and had chosen to be a beachcombing vlogger instead, would my fate have been different?
“I heard that beachcombing in Yokohama is very interesting,” Fan An said with longing. “You can randomly catch a super-large human-shaped mackerel, a small-sized slug, and a strange bandage monster.”
(T/N: References to Dazai, Chuuya, and Dazai again from “Bungo Stray Dogs.”)
Different seas have different local specialties. If you were to cast a net in Tokyo Bay, you would catch more corpses than fish.
An’an: The water quality is worrying. (shakes head.jpg)
The life of a beachcombing vlogger was ultimately just a dream. When she woke up, she still had to face the tense and exciting audition.
“It’s a huge help that Mr. Amuro is willing to come with me,” the girl said gratefully. “Is the fishing net I told you to bring in the trunk? If I’m too nervous during the audition and sink to the bottom of the pool, you have to pull me out.”
Her life was in his hands!
Amuro facepalmed.
This was why he had specially taken leave to accompany An’an to the audition. Having a familiar person around could somewhat alleviate her nervousness.
Besides, other actors had their agents, assistants, makeup artists, and even a whole team to support and encourage them. An’an couldn’t have nothing.
Amuro selectively ignored the fact that the girl’s cousin also lived in Beika Town, and that Mr. Hanzawa would have been more than willing to accompany his cousin An’an to the audition.
A close neighbor is better than a distant relative.
…
The audition was held at a high-end private swimming club.
Director Yuko had booked the entire place just for this one audition, which showed how much importance she placed on casting the main character.
The white Mazda drove into the parking lot, where several celebrity vans were already parked.
“I see several actors I recognize,” An’an said, leaning against the car window and looking out with longing. “Wow, look over there—I grew up watching her dramas.”
Amuro looked as she said. Indeed, they were all familiar faces that often appeared on TV.
As expected of a resource introduced by Vermouth?
“Isn’t An’an also an actor whose name people know?” Amuro said encouragingly. “Don’t underestimate your popularity right now.”
He could testify to the terrifyingly high caliber of the entire distillery watching her drama.
But the girl was not encouraged. An’an thought for a moment and told Amuro about her conversation with Director Yuko.
“…That’s how it is. She’s very happy to have me play a villain role, but Director Yuko thinks I don’t have enough experience. She explicitly said that even if I participate in the audition, she will most likely reject me.”
But An’an still wanted to try. An actor who doesn’t want to be the main character is too unambitious!
“It’s rare for Mr. Amuro to introduce a resource to me. I still want to try my best,” she said with a “hmm.” “Is that a bit of an overestimation of my abilities?”
Amuro was slightly taken aback. So that’s it… that’s why she worked so hard to overcome her fear of drowning and learn to swim no matter what?
Stripped of the halo that the outside world had placed on her, An’an was, at her core, a serious and sincere person.
“Can I see the script?” Amuro asked.
Fan An handed him the audition script.
It was a story about revenge:
A shipwreck had taken all of the female lead’s family, and she was the only one who had survived.
In her despair, the female lead learned that the shipwreck was not an accidental natural disaster, but a huge conspiracy.
Rage burned everything away. Hatred made her enter the game. She changed her identity and voluntarily stepped into the vortex of the conspiracy.
The audition scene was the opening scene of the drama:
By the pool of a villa party, the rich second-generation male lead was bored, his eyes filled with weariness.
Suddenly, the pool in front of him stirred. A woman like a water sprite leaped out of the water.
The high splash of water fell, revealing a pair of wet, bright eyes.
In that moment, the male lead’s heart skipped a beat.
“After that, he was tricked by the bad woman until he had nothing left,” the dark-haired girl said, shrugging.
Everything was a carefully designed trap by the female lead. Her heart was filled only with revenge. A man would only slow down the speed at which she drew her sword.
The female lead’s character was very complex. She was dominated by hatred. Her goal was crazy, but her actions were rational. She was ambitious and had a certain self-destructive tendency. She fought for power and wealth, but in reality, she cared for nothing.
“Like a thousand-layer cake,” Fan An summarized. “I feel like it’s the kind of role that only someone who usually shows three faces to the world can play well.”
She was just making an analogy, but the blond young man let out a series of violent coughs.
An’an: “?”
What’s wrong? I didn’t scold you. Your trigger point is so strange.
“It is indeed a very complex character,” Amuro said, composing his expression. “It’s only natural that the director would want to work with a more experienced actor.”
“But I don’t think An’an is without a chance,” he changed the subject. “Putting experience aside, there is no one here who is more like the female lead than you.”
The script clearly stated: After deciding on revenge, the female lead abandoned everything from her past. She would use everything she could, and appear at the card table with the greatest advantage.
Therefore, she had carefully selected a perfect face for herself.
“A perfect face,” Amuro sighed softly. “It’s right in front of me.”