Chapter 158
Though confused, Bourbon's trust in Scotland naturally surpassed that in Usuha Izuki.
If Usuha Izuki said to call police but Scotland said no, then Bourbon would naturally put away his phone.
"Why can't we call police?" Usuha Izuki asked dissatisfied.
Scotland coughed and said quietly: "We proper organization members don't like seeing police."
Usuha Izuki: "..........."
Bourbon: "..........."
Kei, you've learned the essence, but this really didn't need to be learned...
Usuha Izuki also looked at Scotland with an indescribable expression, then nodded: "Fine, then let's not call for now."
The assistant nearby was sweating, having thought the easily fooled villagers would be easy to deceive, but they turned out to be just as easily fooled by other con artists. Now the situation had completely spiraled out of his control.
If police were really called, with the villagers on his side, he wouldn't be afraid. But if police were brought in with the current situation, it would be very troublesome...
However, he carefully observed and found these people didn't seem to have any intention of continuing to call police, so he breathed a sigh of relief and quickly went to the Cult Leader's side to discuss quietly.
"In this situation, we need to find a way to make them continue believing in you."
But the Cult Leader asked instead: "I think disbanding like this would actually be quite good."
The assistant was shocked: "What nonsense are you saying! Don't you want everyone to be happy?"
After hearing there was someone here who could seemingly see through people's hearts, he'd come to check the situation. He discovered that what was then an ordinary villager—the Cult Leader—didn't know if it was natural talent or what, but seemed to truly have some perception of others' thoughts and feelings, perhaps the legendary sixth sense far beyond normal people.
So the assistant came up with a plan to cooperate with her in creating a religion.
Initially the Cult Leader wasn't interested. She just wanted to help others. People would freely express their depression in front of her because they thought she could read minds. She also had great talent for comforting people. After good comfort, the other person would cheer up, which made her feel useful without thinking too much about it.
But the assistant persuaded her: "By creating a religion, you can attract more people and help more people, right?"
That's how the Cult Leader was convinced.
At first, everything was much like she'd imagined. People came to seek her help, believing she had divine power, so words from her mouth would be especially persuasive. Comforting others was twice as effective with half the effort. Many people were willing to join the "Spring Mother Cult," and many stayed by her side, making her—who had always been alone—feel like she had many family members.
But recently, ever since the assistant started finding people from outside and forbidding others from leaving the "Spring Mother Cult" without permission, the Cult Leader felt things had become somewhat wrong.
The assistant had her publicly curse those who left, telling her this would put the remaining people at ease, prevent wild thoughts, and increase their happiness, so she agreed.
She thought it was just to scare people, but those who left actually died, and not just one, but two, three...
Though the deaths were bizarre and seemed to have no evidence of murder, and because the area was remote with no one calling police, by the time police heard about it, the scenes had been cleaned up.
The police were also too lazy to meddle. Since the victims' families all insisted it was death by curse rather than murder, and didn't plan to pursue it—fearing they'd also be cursed—the police didn't bother either. They just sent someone to register the situation and left without even seeing the bodies.
The Cult Leader suspected the assistant did it. When she questioned him, the assistant admitted it.
"I did it for you too. If they went out, they'd just speak ill of us. Originally more people could have gained happiness, but they ruined it. Isn't that a shame? They deserved to die! And their next lives will be happier than this one!"
As a country old woman with little knowledge who had been manipulated by the assistant for a long time, the Cult Leader felt this was wrong but didn't know how to refute it, so she kept these thoughts to herself.
If Usuha Izuki's group hadn't come, after some time the Cult Leader would have been completely convinced by the assistant and become an accomplice.
But Usuha Izuki appeared, right at the time when the Cult Leader was questioning whether it was necessary to kill people to maintain this religion.
So the assistant was anxious, but the Cult Leader wasn't very anxious, feeling this was heaven giving her a chance to properly consider whether to disband the "Spring Mother Cult."
The assistant pulled at her, but she wouldn't leave. The assistant was speechless and had just tried to sneak away.
But sharp-eyed people discovered him, and with a shout, several people went forward and pinned down the assistant.
Seeing their money-giving boss get beaten, the hired muscle also wanted to act, but with one command from Usuha Izuki, they were also captured.
When the earlier group returned with the fugitive, they tied up the fugitive together with the assistant and the muscle, placed them in the middle of the room, while everyone else formed a circle around them, glaring menacingly.
As for the Cult Leader, though most believers could accept that Usuha Izuki also had supernatural powers, they couldn't accept being deceived for so long, so they still believed the Cult Leader truly had supernatural powers. No one roughed up the old woman, just looked at her with slightly doubtful eyes.
Since Scotland was determined to keep a low profile in the Gunma Prefecture area, it was Bourbon who stepped forward to assist Usuha Izuki in managing the scene.
He first explained the Cult Leader's methods to the believers who had missed the scene. After Scotland went to the back storeroom and found some props, he easily recreated other "supernatural powers" like "levitation," telling everyone these were all magic tricks.
The Cult Leader looked at the tied-up assistant, nodded, and admitted it.
Nakata Akira, who had just thought he'd found a place to belong, was greatly shocked.
"Fake... it was actually fake... then what should I do, I..."
Bourbon sympathized with this type of office worker and advised: "Cheer up. If you want to relax, where can't you relax? There's no need to find this kind of fraudulent marketing organization..."
Nakata Akira's movements paused, then he suddenly turned to Usuha Izuki: "Master! Master, you must be real! Tell me what I should do now!"
Bourbon: "..........."
Completely stubborn, huh?
And wouldn't you know it, with Nakata Akira taking the lead, those who had lost their faith all seemed to find new hope, bowing to Usuha Izuki.
"Father! Please show us the path!"
"Please use your spiritual sight to look at me. Is my dead child still by my side? I always feel like I can sense him..."
For a moment, the scene that had been somewhat serious suddenly became cult-like again.
Bourbon & Scotland: "..........."
This Usuha Izuki really could cause trouble... he'd only been here a short while and already became a Cult Leader!
They felt the organization really had no idea how to arrange Usuha Izuki—completely putting talent in the wrong position. If they found the right method and had Usuha Izuki use his ridiculous eye for people to deceive others, the organization could probably already be running Japan's number one cult.
This kind of religious money-making would be much faster than Gin and Vodka threatening people! And tax-exempt too!
The two undercover agents unanimously decided to seal away today's events, lest the organization discover new business opportunities.
Scotland also took advantage of Usuha Izuki not being able to see their side to find Usuha Izuki's wish from the pile of envelopes.
But since it was written in a minor language, he couldn't understand it and planned to find someone to help translate later... though he didn't think Usuha Izuki would write anything important in this kind of situation. But precisely these unimportant situations where there was no need to rack one's brains making things up were more likely to reveal true inner thoughts.
Usuha Izuki was just here to watch the excitement, not really to become a Cult Leader, so he said things like everyone should gather again tomorrow, he needed rest today, and casually fooled everyone into leaving.
Bourbon crossed his arms: "What do you plan to do? Explain to them tomorrow that you don't have supernatural powers either? Enough is enough, don't play too far."
Usuha Izuki: "Where did I play? Isn't this all the proprietress's commission? I'm a detective doing my job properly—is that wrong?"
Bourbon and Scotland suddenly remembered that it seemed the hot spring inn proprietress had indeed commissioned them to expose the cult's true face and bring back her son...
"Besides, tomorrow's matters are for tomorrow. It has nothing to do with us anyway. When no one's paying attention, we'll leave quickly." Usuha Izuki said righteously. "How could a law-abiding good citizen like me commit fraud?"
So that evening, they took the proprietress's son and, abandoning his crowd of new believers, quietly escaped at night.
The next day, police responding to the report arrived at the village.
Yamamura Misao asked with a confused expression: "What did you call police for?"
"Our Cult Leader! Our Cult Leader ran away!" the villagers said in a chorus.
Yamamura Misao turned to look at the old woman who had come to confess, the assistant and fugitive who had been locked in the woodshed overnight, and the string of suited muscle behind them, question marks appearing above his head.
"Isn't your Cult Leader right here?"
"Not this one! This one's a fraud! The one who exposed her is our real Cult Leader!"
Someone knowledgeable quickly added: "He should have returned to that hot spring inn over there! Officer, let's hurry over! We can't let the Cult Leader leave! What will we do if he's gone?"
"Oh right, the Cult Leader left a letter saying it should be given to police..."
Yamamura Misao opened it and found the assistant was apparently related to some police officer.
This relative held a high position, and if promoted again would be a high official. So if this assistant escaped, with some maneuvering he might be released without charges. The suggestion was not to let him contact family members yet.
Yamamura Misao's expression immediately became serious.
This was a big case!!!
So he first took the three criminals back to the police station, then under the villagers' urging, headed to the hot spring inn.
The proprietress received him: "You're looking for that guest? He left with his companions this morning... Eh? What Cult Leader? He said he was a detective."
Yamamura Misao complained: "Seems like another fraud. The people over there all say he's the new Cult Leader..."
The proprietress's son suddenly appeared: "Definitely not a fraud! A real fraud would surely stay to cheat money, but he was different, which proves he's a true psychic, a divine messenger!"
The proprietress's smile became forced: "As you can see, I actually commissioned that detective to help find my son, but somehow my son started believing in that detective instead... Do you know that detective by any chance?"
Yamamura Misao scratched his hair in distress: "What was his name?"
Proprietress: "Edogawa Conan."
Yamamura Misao: "To have the surname of the father of Japanese mystery plus the name from the father of Sherlock Holmes, and be a detective himself... looks like a fake name, hahaha!"
Proprietress: "..........."
Meanwhile, Usuha Izuki, already on the return journey to Tokyo, sighed: "You wouldn't let me call police, making me lose a chance to become famous!"
"Famous for what? Edogawa Conan?" Bourbon's mouth twitched. "Could you put more thought into your fake names?"
Usuha Izuki: "Why do you say this is a fake name? Can't there be someone surnamed Edogawa who's also a mystery fan, so they named their child Conan?! Maybe they'd be inspired by this name to become a detective too! It's a kind of inheritance!"
Bourbon: "How is that possible..."
"What if we really meet someone like that?"
Bourbon followed in the footsteps of his Metropolitan Police colleagues and actually made a bet with Usuha Izuki: "Then I'll apologize to you."
Even if someone really had this name, and he happened to encounter them, and they happened to be a detective—the probability was essentially negligible.
Besides, this name was obviously fake at first glance! If he really encountered someone like that, he'd want to check if their household registration was real!
Time will prove everything!