Options system in my brain: Detective Conan

"Akako, you must remember this.

A witch must never shed tears, or she will lose her magical power."

—Koizumi Akako still remembers this solemn advice from her mother, given after she first displayed the characteristics of a witch.

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When she was young, Koizumi Akako always thought she was no different from others, except that her house was a little bigger.

After entering elementary school, Koizumi Akako suddenly realized that she seemed different from her classmates.

Those games popular among girls her age, like playing house or tag, brought her no enjoyment.

Koizumi Akako also found it difficult to understand the fascination boys had with video games or collecting trading cards.

She was briefly interested in these games, but that interest quickly faded as her mind matured.

---

Her schoolteacher once said:

"The students in our class have a wide range of interests.

Some enjoy outdoor activities like playing tag or catching rhinoceros beetles.

Others prefer to stay in the classroom, quietly flipping through picture books or drawing with colored pencils.

This diversity of personalities makes each student unique."

Because of this, Koizumi Akako believed that her boredom with the games her classmates were obsessed with was simply due to her personality.

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By the third grade, the academic gap among students in the class had begun to widen.

Some students who loved to play and disliked studying gradually started struggling to understand what the teacher was saying in class.

When asked to answer a question, their eyes would dart around nervously, and their hands would tremble.

They would sigh in frustration while doing homework, scratching their heads and muttering, "This is so hard."

This might seem normal to many people, but to Koizumi Akako, it was incomprehensible.

---

She had rarely forgotten anything since she was born.

After hearing a lesson once, she could fully memorize the teacher's lecture and the textbook content.

For her, homework was never something to sigh over.

It was simply writing down what the teacher had said during the day.

---

Because of this, it was hard for Koizumi Akako to understand why some students couldn't finish their homework and had to arrive early to copy from others.

She also couldn't grasp why someone would feel so afraid when called on to answer a question.

To her, these were questions that required no effort to solve.

---

At the end of the first semester of third grade, Koizumi Akako ranked first in all subjects for the tenth time since starting elementary school.

She had been basking in the envious gazes of her classmates not long before, but then she noticed the boy sitting next to her.

His face was pale as he received several test papers filled with red Xs from the teacher.

---

His grades were terrible—only 39 points on the Chinese exam.

Yet Koizumi Akako clearly remembered that he wasn't a troublemaker.

He had worn glasses from a young age and often tugged at his hair while staring intently at his textbooks.

Despite all his hard work, he still failed the test.

---

It was only then that Koizumi Akako realized something.

She was "special."

---

For her, absorbing knowledge was as natural as drinking water or breathing.

But for many children in her class, it was an insurmountable struggle.

Even the second-best student in class, the one whose grades were only slightly behind Koizumi Akako's, found it difficult to remember and digest the teacher's lessons after hearing them once.

Yet for Koizumi Akako, a single glance at a textbook page was enough to recite its contents fluently.

---

At last, she understood the name of the emotion that surfaced when she watched her classmates play games she couldn't relate to.

Childish.

Even though they were the same age, Koizumi Akako found them incredibly immature.

While her classmates were still playing carefree games, she had already begun reading books meant for teenagers.

---

But even that wasn't what made her feel the true gap between herself and others.

The real difference was something else entirely.

She was the only one who occasionally saw images appear in her mind, like scenes playing on a television screen.

She also started having strong premonitions about certain events.

---

For example, one day after school, as she was about to cross the street, an image suddenly flashed in her mind—a black cat being hit by a car.

A few seconds later, a black cat suddenly leaped out from the grass and dashed across the road.

And then—

A speeding car passed by, striking the cat just as she had foreseen.

---

Other times, when Koizumi Akako saw a stranger, she would inexplicably sense something about them.

Once, she passed an elderly man on the street and was struck by an unshakable thought: This person is wicked.

That same night, she saw the man on the news—arrested for committing a crime.

---

Koizumi Akako asked many people if they had ever felt the same way she did.

The answers were unanimous.

Without exception, no one else had experienced such sensations.

---

After keeping it to herself for a long time, Koizumi Akako finally confided in her mother.

That was when she learned the truth.

She was a witch.

---

Koizumi Akako came from a lineage of witches.

She was the rightful heir to the orthodox Red Magic.

The visions that occasionally flashed in her mind and her ability to perceive people's auras were known as the "Sixth Sense."

But unlike the ordinary sixth sense that people spoke of, Koizumi Akako's was extraordinarily precise.

---

As she grew older, she mastered various skills—Red Magic, prophecy, divination…

She could easily foresee the outcome of an event through divination.

After countless experiments, she came to one undeniable conclusion.

---

Her prophecies always came true, no matter what.

---

Koizumi Akako once thought that if she predicted a tragedy, she might be able to prevent it through her actions.

But—what a pity.

She discovered that her situation was different from those in science fiction movies where changing the past could alter the future.

No matter what she did, she couldn't change the future she had foreseen.

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Regarding this, Koizumi Akako still remembers her mother's explanation:

"Fate stands above all and cannot be changed."

"We are merely those who glimpse into its design."

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(End of the Chapter)