Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 795: Dark Pursuer

"Detective Maori's assistant, huh? I see."

Zhufu Takaaki looked down at the elementary school student standing in front of him, then looked at Tang Ze who was a step behind and standing a little further away, and finally chose to lower his head and continue talking with Edogawa Conan.

"What do you two want to ask me?"

He did not directly question why it was two children who were communicating with him.

Kogoro Mouri is well-known, and he certainly does not want to make any mistakes or omissions that would damage his already established reputation when he is involved in the case. However, his position in the investigation team is awkward, as he has a position but no command power, and it is indeed inconvenient for him to directly contact the front-line police officers.

Conan looked at the solid-colored lunch box beside him and quickly told the prepared story: "Uncle Maori said that you are a famous detective, and the first victim of the case appeared in Usui Ridge, which is very close to you. You should have some preliminary investigation conclusions."

After arriving in Tokyo, I received thank-you gifts and letters from the public. Although I haven't had much contact with them due to the distance, he must be a policeman who is serious and responsible in handling cases.

As for Usui Ridge located at the border, it strictly belongs to Gunma Prefecture, but he did not ask Yamamura So from Gunma Prefecture this question... I guess everyone can understand it without any explanation.

"Well, just now in the restaurant I heard the Tokyo police say that Mr. Maori had a very young but very smart assistant. It seems that they were talking about you." Zhu Fu Gao Ming looked at Conan with interest for a moment, nodded, and did not deny his statement. "The first murdered victim, after our confirmation, had a fight with someone because of some conflicts a year ago and was stabbed with a knife. Due to the severity of the injuries, the suspect is already on the police's wanted list. We are still verifying the whereabouts of the fugitive."

Conan's eyes lit up after receiving a definite answer, and he quickly asked: "Can you tell us the details? Or, you can consider giving the information to Detective Maori..."

"It doesn't involve specific personal information, and there's nothing I can't say. The suspect is still at large, but he has a girlfriend who he's in close contact with, who lives in Nagano Prefecture. My colleagues are monitoring her movements, and there should be a high probability that they will be able to find this person's whereabouts. The investigation team will definitely notify Detective Mori at that time, so he can rest assured." Zhu Fu Gaoming answered truthfully, with no intention of hiding anything.

With the establishment of the task force, this suspect will naturally come into the police's sight, but according to Zhu Fu Gaoming's idea, the possibility that this person is the murderer is not high.

He is more inclined to believe that the murderer must have had some interpersonal connection with all the victims, which is why he would have committed the crime in such an emotional and cathartic way.

There is no high need to keep this information confidential, so there is certainly no problem in telling the relevant personnel of the investigation team.

"Can I ask what caused the conflict between him and the deceased?" Conan thought about it and felt that the probability of this person being related to the case was low, but he did not completely ignore this clue and continued to ask.

"According to the records and eyewitness testimonies at the time, the two people were queuing up to participate in an amusement project in Dorobiga Park. They had an argument because the deceased asked the fugitive to put out his cigarette. The fugitive became resentful and followed and attacked the deceased. He was an impulsive and irritable guy." Zhufu Gaoming commented.

What he meant was that a guy who almost killed someone over a minor conflict would hardly control the victim first and then transport him to the crime scene to kill him. This conflict was a crime of passion caused by impulse, which was completely inconsistent with the image of the murderer in this case.

“Did the other deceased also go to Dorobiga Park?”

"No, we haven't found any similar information so far."

"Did the quarrel arise because of smoking while waiting in line..." Conan touched his chin, thinking about something. He was just about to turn around and have an eye contact with Tang Ze to see if Tang Ze had anything to add, but when he turned around, he found that his friend who had been following him silently was nowhere to be seen.

"Are you looking for the boy with brown hair?" Zhu Fu Gao Ming pointed to the aisle behind him. "He went upstairs. He must have gone to the bathroom."

----

When Ireland hurried to the bathroom door with a stack of files, he saw Kumail leaning against the window with a cigarette between his fingers, seemingly looking down at the road below.

The way he held the cigarette was very standard and skillful, and he could easily bring the filter tip to his mouth, like an old smoker. Seeing this, Ireland frowned instinctively.

"Standing in the corridor of the Metropolitan Police Department and smoking doesn't fit your image as a good student." Facing this underage colleague with a weird personality and difficult to get along with again, Ireland was too lazy to pretend and asked in a harsh tone, "Don't get too carried away."

Kumail is a guy who grew up in the organization, so it is not strange for him to have all five poisons, but this is not the case with Tang Ze Zhao.

If other people saw him like this, it would easily arouse suspicion.

Tang Ze turned his head and gave Ireland a cold look as if he was a fool, then bit open the scroll in his hand in front of him.

A small white candy piece with a sweet fragrance was revealed.

Tang Ze, who has really quit smoking for many years, would never smoke even if his current age is not taken into consideration. This is a piece of tobacco candy.

Ireland felt like he had been fooled: "..."

"Instead of worrying about me, you should worry about yourself. Adachi Toru is not a positive guy. It's your business if you are eager for quick success in order to complete the mission. Don't ruin this identity that Bourbon and I have worked so hard to obtain." Tang Ze crunched the sweet candy and threw back all the sarcasm from Ireland.

On the surface, this identity was that he and Bourbon brought a low-ranking undercover agent of the organization to Tokyo for convenience, and made a full set of identity cover-ups and arrangements for the other party. What he said was absolutely the truth, and no one could find fault with it.

Ireland held his breath and couldn't let it out. His face was ugly for a moment, and he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Okay, I've told you the results of the meeting. You should continue to act like a good student."

Kumail took advantage of his identity and followed Kogoro Mori to guard the door of the conference room. The organization said it was for the convenience of support to prevent his identity from being exposed and causing any accidents. In fact, they did not trust Ireland's acting ability and wanted to ask him to cover the situation just in case.

Even if it wasn't Kumail, he would probably have sent Vermouth to disguise himself and sneak in. This was the order of the organization, not Kumail's personal behavior.

Ireland understood the truth, but when he saw Kumail showing such a sarcastic look on his baby face, he couldn't help but feel angry.

Vermouth knew that the two of them had a bad relationship, but she still threw this job to Kumail. He deeply suspected that he had offended this woman in some way and that she was deliberately messing with his mentality.

"I'm just reminding you kindly. Anyway, I won't be held accountable if anything goes wrong." Tang Ze shrugged and threw the things in his hand to Ireland. "Here is all the information about Maori Kogoro. You should do your best. I hope you can get the things back in time, otherwise... humph, you know the consequences."

If Ireland fails to complete the task as scheduled, the detailed information on most of the undercover list will fall into the hands of the police, which will mean a huge loss to the organization.

At that time, Kumail, the military police-like supervisor, will really play the role of a supervisory team.

Ireland clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles made a slight crackling sound, and clutched the USB flash drive in his hand without saying anything else.

Tang Ze, who had completed the handover, shrugged his shoulders and stopped talking to him. He backed out of the small scraper at the bathroom door, pointed at Ireland with two fingers, and then changed his gesture into a pistol, tapping his own temple, the warning meaning was obvious in his words.

Ireland gritted his teeth, the blood vessels on the side of his cheek bulging as he exerted force.

He knew that Kumail was making a naked threat.

If anything went wrong during the mission, Kumail would have legitimate reason to kill him, just like Gin killed Pisco.

Therefore, in this mission, let alone getting assistance from teammates, it would be a great blessing for him not to be backstabbed by this bunch of useless colleagues.

Ireland was so angry that his teeth were itching, but he still took out his phone and started to edit an email to send a report on the execution of the task to his boss. Turning around, Tang Ze put away his sinister image and immediately returned to his usual state. As soon as he walked to the stairwell, he ran into Conan who was running up to look for someone.

"Tang Ze! You are here." Conan was nervous for a moment, and quickly confirmed that Tang Ze was fine, then he breathed a sigh of relief.

It shouldn't be possible for anything to happen in the Metropolitan Police Department building, but the Metropolitan Police Department is now crowded with people and it's hard to say whether Tang Ze's special identity will cause any problems. Now that he sees that Tang Ze is normal, he finally breathes a sigh of relief.

"You're running around without even saying hello. You'd better be careful." Conan twisted Tang Ze's sleeve and said unhappily.

Tang Ze felt that this sentence sounded strangely familiar, and even felt that the roles were wrong: "..."

What's going on? You and Ran Mouri have a tacit understanding, and then you become Ran Mouri, right? What? There must be someone in your team who is responsible for saying "Oh my god, where did XXX go?", right?

"This is the police station. What can happen to me here? I'm just going to the bathroom. Aren't you busy collecting evidence?" Tang Ze shook his head, but did not resist Conan's pulling.

His recent mental illness performance was too realistic, which caused some fear to Conan, which is understandable.

The two were about to go downstairs when Ireland, who played the role of Adachi Toru, mixed in with the crowd that had finished their lunch and were walking from the restaurant to the office area.

The faint keystrokes from his cell phone blended into the noisy voices and were immediately noticed by Conan's keen hearing.

Conan's expression froze for a moment, then he quickly realized the meaning of the melody. He widened his eyes, stepped out of the stairwell, and looked towards the corridor behind Tang Ze.

The dark, disorderly crowd was like a vast ocean, covering and swallowing up the small wave. It was as if there was not a drop of water in the ocean. The short boy stood in front of the vast torrent, and he could no longer find any trace of it.

----

"Someone from the organization sneaked into the joint task force's investigation meeting? Really?" Dr. Agasa repeated, his expression full of disbelief, "Why? Is there anything special about this serial murder case?"

From a macro perspective, there must be a large number of serial killers in the organization, and a large number of lives must have been lost.

But this serial murder case, which was clearly a revenge killing, clearly did not fit the organization's characteristics. Why would they focus their attention on this criminal case?
"I don't know." The living room was dimly lit with only one light on. Conan was very serious. "Maybe the people involved in the case are related to the organization, maybe the case is related to the organization's events, or even..."

It is even possible that the up-and-coming detective, Kogoro Mouri, has finally attracted the organization's attention, and they want to take this opportunity to observe his ability to solve cases up close.

The organization is a behemoth with tentacles in various industries, so their code of conduct has become elusive and it is difficult to determine why they are acting.

"But what is certain is that since he can send emails directly to the boss of the Black Organization, this person must be of high status, and the situation he is concerned about must need to be reported to the higher-ups." Conan pursed his lips, his expression solemn.

Kogoro Mori participated in the investigation. What's more, because the case was of great importance and was no longer an accidental murder, it was difficult for him, an elementary school student, to directly participate in the investigation.

Conan was not sure whether the abnormality of Maori Kogoro would be exposed in the investigation, and whether anyone would question his sudden and brilliant performance in the past few months.

Dr. Agasa also nodded heavily without saying anything.

As the two people sitting face to face at the coffee table looked at each other in silence, a gentle voice sounded from behind them.

"You didn't sleep at night, but came here to have a 'candlelight chat'. I was wondering what you were discussing." Haibara Ai, who was wearing home clothes inside and a white coat outside, walked out of the darkness with two cups of hot coffee in her hands. "You are talking about the organization again."

"Haibara, I'm sorry to disturb your rest?" Conan's expression relaxed a little after taking the porcelain cup from her hand.

Traces of the organization appeared around them again. Thinking of the dream in which Gin broke into the detective agency, Conan instinctively felt that this should not be told to Karasawa and Mao Lilan. He sneaked to Dr. Agasa in the middle of the night to discuss what he saw and heard during the day.

It would definitely be better to discuss this issue in detail with Haibara, a former member who knows the organization better than to make blind guesses.

"No, I just finished the experiment." Sitting down next to Dr. Agasa, Huihara Ai brushed the hair on the side of her cheek behind her ear, "Did you find anything else, Kudo?"

Just now, when she was making coffee in the dark, she heard most of what happened to Conan during the day and had guessed most of it.

Of course, she knew very well that Tang Ze had suddenly gone to Izu a few days ago, and that another egg had hatched in the Phantom Thieves' villa.

During the day at the Metropolitan Police Department, the sounds of emails being typed that Kudo heard were nothing more than the choice between Karasawa, who went to assist as Kumail, Amuro Toru, who was running around for Adachi Toru's identity as Bourbon, and Ireland, who had taken away his identity and was currently using it.

She was not surprised that Kudo would find out that this matter was related to the organization. What really surprised her was why a guy with such a keen perception as Kudo had not suspected Tang Ze until now.

Is it that Tang Ze’s acting is just too good, or is this what they call the darkest place under the lamp?

After describing the daytime scene again and emphasizing the details of the case, Conan asked cautiously: "…Who do you think it could be? Could it be Vermouth?"

Vermouth is a person who can disguise herself in Teitan for many days and has a perfect disguise ability. If someone is needed to sneak in, she is undoubtedly the best candidate.

And of course she also knew the boss's email address - Conan heard it from her.

Huihara Ai shook her head: "Vermouth can change her appearance, but she is not limited to changing her appearance for herself. Your mother also has similar makeup skills. It would be easy to use them on others, right? As for the mailbox..."

Haibara Ai's eyes flickered for a moment.

That's the boss's work email address, not a private number. An organization that focuses on protecting the privacy of code name members cannot create a work group for everyone. Of course, we can only send letters to the boss's work email address.

As Shirley, she was also very clear about this email address, but she would never tell Kudo on her own initiative.

"Almost every member of the code name group knows this email address. You are looking for a dark shadow." She spoke softly, her voice carrying a cool feeling in the night, as if a dark figure was slowly walking into the cover of the night as she spoke. "Our code names are not given by ourselves. The first thing to become a code name member is to receive an email from this address, telling us the email address of our code name."

"So, in the Metropolitan Police Department this afternoon, I passed by a code member..." Conan's eyes widened.

"Yes. So if you insist on asking me who I am, I really can't confirm it." Huihara Ai shrugged her shoulders, "I'm just a researcher. I know a limited number of codename members, and I haven't met most of them in person. It's hard to give you any useful information."

It's true, but not entirely true.

At least, she knows the three code-named members in the Metropolitan Police Department today.

"However, I can roughly guess why the organization is paying attention to this case." After saying this, Huihara Ai didn't want to be questioned by Conan any further, so she decisively threw out a twist, "Since the other party chose to infiltrate instead of blatantly calling Gin over to deal with the aftermath, it means that there are some loopholes in the matter, but it is not to the extent of using violence. I guess that among the six deaths in this case, someone must be related to the organization. They are looking for someone, or something."

(End of this chapter)