Dean lay on his bed, holding a book whose title alone would make most people feel guilty just for glancing at it.
He read with great seriousness.
Less than five minutes later—
Dean yawned.
His eyes blurred with sleep.
Without hesitation, he closed the book, tossed it onto the bedside table, lay back, and fell asleep almost instantly.
Barbara had already seen this exact scene more than ten times.
Each time, the same doubt surfaced in her mind.
Is he really reading… or is this just an extremely effective sleeping pill?
She even began to wonder whether Dean's habit of reading obscure religious and academic books at the Gotham City Library had nothing to do with research at all.
Could the Roman mythology and history he read before just be coincidence?
Was he simply looking for books that could knock him out faster?
The thought was so ridiculous that Barbara didn't even know how she would explain it to Dick if she tried.
And yet—
Looking at Dean's behavior, it strangely made sense.
For a high school student, going to bed at 10:00 PM was undeniably early.
But Dean had never behaved like a normal high schooler.
Over the days of surveillance, Barbara noticed something else:
Dean's bedtime changed every day.
The latest he slept was 11:59 PM.
The earliest was 9:30 PM.
His schedule was completely irregular.
And yet—
No matter what time he slept, he always woke up at exactly the same time the next morning.
Never late.
Never early.
Barbara couldn't understand it.
Was this some strange form of discipline?
A magician's habit?
Or something else entirely?
In the end, she stopped trying to analyze it.
Because none of it mattered tonight.
If Kaito Kid appeared at midnight—and Dean remained asleep in his bed—then Dean would have an ironclad alibi.
Only if one of them disappeared would suspicion return.
What Barbara didn't know—
Was that the "sleeping" Dean on the screen was no longer the real Dean.
---
Inside Dean's Bedroom – Reality
Dean silently activated the mini surveillance jammer in his hand.
Under its effect, the hidden camera immediately began looping footage from one minute earlier—
Dean sleeping peacefully in bed.
No current Earth-based surveillance technology could detect the interference.
Calmly, Dean got out of bed and changed clothes.
Then, he took out an ultra-realistic dummy he had prepared long ago and placed it under the blanket, perfectly recreating the shape of a sleeping body.
Only after stepping out of the bedroom did he turn off the jammer and put it away.
In the ten days leading up to tonight, Dean had repeatedly used this method to leave his house, scout the museum, and set up mechanisms—
All while being watched.
> "Once tonight's operation is over, I won't have to worry about identity exposure for a long time."
With that thought, Dean quietly left Thurston Mansion and headed for the Gotham Natural History Museum.
---
Museum Square – Late Night
Disguised as an ordinary citizen, Dean arrived at the museum plaza.
Normally, the museum would have closed hours ago.
But tonight was special.
At Mrs. Chandler's request, the museum was ordered to remain open for 48 continuous hours, from March 10th through March 11th.
Whether this decision truly came from her—or from someone else—remained unclear.
What was truly absurd, however, was the crowd.
Despite the late hour, the massive square was packed with people.
Dean estimated at least two to three thousand, not including visitors inside the more than ten pavilions.
> "Perfect," Dean thought.
"The audience is even larger than I expected."
His preparations over the past ten days had not been wasted.
Tonight, he would perform a grand magic show.
---
Boom—!
A sudden clap of thunder tore across the sky.
Dean looked up.
Dark clouds rolled overhead, lightning flashing violently within them.
The square erupted with noise.
Some people groaned.
Some sighed in relief.
"It's really going to rain! Good thing I brought an umbrella."
"Damn it, there were no signs all day!"
"Hey, your umbrella's big—can I share?"
But soon, another concern spread through the crowd.
"I heard Kaito Kid uses a hang glider. He can't possibly fly in weather like this, right?"
Dean turned his head.
Nearby stood a group of twenty to thirty young people, holding signs with the words "KAITO KID" written boldly across them.
More than half of them were women.
A fan club.
The speaker was clearly one of them.
"If it rains, won't his disguise mask get soaked?"
"What if it falls off and someone sees his real face?"
"He'd be arrested for sure!"
"That's terrifying. I don't want Kid to end up in Blackgate Prison."
"But if he doesn't come after sending the Notice Letter, wouldn't that ruin his image?"
"I want him to come—but I also don't want him to come!"
The group fell into conflicted chatter.
Dean listened from a short distance, stunned.
This was the first time he had seen his own fan club in person.
He had assumed they existed only online.
He hadn't expected organized offline gatherings.
> "So this is what it feels like," Dean thought with amusement.
"Having people genuinely worried about you."
Their concern, of course, was unnecessary.
But it still felt… nice.
For a moment, Dean almost wanted to disguise himself as a fan and join their discussion.
Almost.
But he had far more important things to do.
---
Dean shifted his gaze toward the Jungle Pavilion, heavily guarded by police.
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
> "Just as I thought."
> "Everyone believes Caesar's guidance points to the Jungle Pavilion."
> "But unfortunately—"
> "You're all wrong."
He checked the time.
There was still more than an hour until midnight.
Plenty of time.
Without another glance back at the square, Dean turned and walked away.
His destination was not the Jungle Pavilion.
It was the Library Pavilion—
Located on the west side of the Cultural Relics Pavilion.
Perfectly mirroring the Jungle Pavilion on the east.
The real stage was about to be set.
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