With what Amuro just said, a figure immediately appeared in Conan's mind — a little white kid wrapped in a scarf, holding a needle, eyes glowing faintly.
…The anonymous organizations people are on the Izu Mystery Tour too? What's their game?
Conan first thought of the "Night Baron" virus.
…But Satoru said he actually doesn't have the virus. So the Anonymous shouldn't confuse something so simple.
And even if it was about the virus, why did Xiaobai stab the boss of the detective agency? Is there some secret about Amuro Toru?
Conan thought back. No, there was nothing suspicious about Toru Amuro — plus, he didn't even like wearing black.
Then again, he reminded himself not to be so sure.
Looking over Xiaobai's history of stabbing people, it was clear the kid just jabbed anyone who got in his way.
…In short, Amuro Toru might just be plain unlucky.
Nearby, Amuro Toru didn't know Conan had already cleaned up the mess for him.
He asked Jiangxia about the situation. After learning Satoru Maeda never mentioned the child who stabbed him and that mysterious little boy hadn't appeared again, he nodded thoughtfully and returned to his room.
—Satoru Maeda is now out of the game, but for Amuro Toru, this doesn't mean clues are cut off; it actually makes it easier for him to gather information.
He sent a message to his police subordinates, ordering them to investigate.
…This isn't about revenge. It's about using children to help commit crimes. That's too dirty to tolerate. We have to find the mastermind behind this madness.
While Amuro typed, a ghost hovered on his shoulder.
After the mermaid read the message, it swam back and told Jiangxia, who had also returned to the room.
Jiangxia thought it wasn't a big deal: a phantom puppet like that — even if the whole city was hunting with photos, they wouldn't find it. Especially since Amuro didn't take any pictures, only glanced briefly.
After the murder case was closed, the night deepened. Several people just stayed at the hotel, waiting for tomorrow.
Amuro had just finished messaging the police and turned around to write a mission report for the organization.
On the way, he thought about the kid stabbing needles wildly.
…Looks really young — about the same age as the two kids Jiangxia brought along. Hope his ribs are okay after the bump...
Amuro shrugged it off — this incident had nothing to do with the organization's virus, just an oolong.
He focused on the investigation results.
The next day, before Jiangxia even woke up, his exploits were already in the morning paper.
Tokyo.
In the conference room of a business building.
Vodka finished checking the room, sat on the sofa waiting for the chairman, and took the newspaper from his bag.
Since the organization had an extra Ouzo now, Vodka habitually followed his news.
On one hand, knowing yourself and your enemy helps avoid surprises.
On the other hand, if the boss suddenly asks about something related, you can't just say "I don't know." A good hacker has to know everything — and be a good driver, too.
Vodka silently unfolded the paper. His eyes, hidden behind sunglasses, skimmed the page.
The first thing that caught his eye was the picture — a corpse pierced by a statue. The photographer was skilled. Though the print was black and white, the layers were clear; the image rough but striking. The black blood almost splattered onto the reader's face through the paper.
In short, reading it gave Vodka the creeps.
He looked at the photo a few times, then scanned the article.
Suddenly, his eyes twitched: Ebihara's cause of death was being thrown from a high place, a high place…
He suddenly remembered explaining to Ouzo at the sushi restaurant why Tokio Ebihara was targeted by the organization — Ebihara had picked up the bag of an organization member who died unexpectedly. The cause of that member's death? Being thrown from a high-rise.
Is this coincidence? Or is Ouzo no longer satisfied with just the status quo, and starting to play with propositional compositions…?
Gin came to the window and looked outside for a moment. Turning around, he saw Vodka's face was weird.
He glanced sideways at the newspaper, then gave a short evaluation:
"Art."
Vodka: "…?"
Gin paused, then suddenly remembered something.
"You guessed wrong before."
"...Huh?" Vodka was confused, a bit alert. What had he guessed wrong?
"When Ouzo took risks several times, he wasn't looking for death. It was his pursuit and desire for the art of killing that overwhelmed his desire to survive."
Gin lit a cigarette, cracking this interesting puzzle in his spare time. Like dissecting the thinking of the younger generation:
Gin mused: "In other words, for Ouzo, ignoring his own danger to make the script run smoothly is actually normal... Fortunately, we didn't lock him up like Vermouth said, or else it'd be normal for her to return and find him insane."
Vodka: "…" This "normal person" must be a whole other species.
…and what the heck is the art of killing anyway? Don't we always just leave after a headshot? Why does he suddenly sound like a killing connoisseur?
Vodka could not agree with the boss on this one.
Now he just hoped Vermouth would come back soon and turn Ouzo into a real "normal person." It didn't matter if he killed people — just don't kill blindly. The key was to instill the concept of "teammate" in Ouzo, ideas like "organizational colleagues are talents; you can't just mess with them."
Thinking this, Vodka pretended calm and followed Gin's topic:
"Vermouth hasn't arrived yet?"
Gin snorted coldly: "Those hyenas have very smart noses. Not easy to deal with. But she's coming soon."
…That means it'll still take a while.
Vodka sighed bitterly.
Although Vermouth stirred up trouble, set traps, and broke a lot of things, he'd started to miss that chaotic relationship.
Izu Princess Hotel.
By the next morning, the Izu Mystery Tour participants gradually left.
—Although they paid for three days, these are all busy bosses making money every day, only here for the virus. Now the virus is fake, nobody has time to play anymore, so they turned and left.
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 51/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:2/10*