Chapter 228
After some time passed, Kudo Shinichi—no, he should be called Edogawa Conan now—had gradually gotten used to his current life.
Living at his childhood friend's house, attending elementary school, playing detective games with elementary students, working hard to solve cases only to have all the credit go to Mouri Kogorou... until now.
Today, because Mouri Kogorou had to attend someone's wedding in Kyoto, he brought him and Ran along on the shinkansen.
But he actually saw those two men in black that he'd been searching for so long without any leads—they had appeared on this very shinkansen!
Looking at the two men in black standing at the car door, Edogawa Conan was so shocked he froze in place.
It wasn't until he was glared at by that silver-haired man with fierce eyes that he shuddered.
This was the person who had tried to kill him... If he was seen, the fact that he hadn't died but had instead become smaller would be discovered!
Just as Edogawa Conan reflexively raised his arm to cover his face, the other man in black wearing sunglasses waved at him viciously: "Damn brat, get out of the way!"
Edogawa Conan was stunned, his tense nerves relaxing slightly.
...It seemed they hadn't recognized his true identity... Ahaha, that's right, he had become a child now. Even Ran who grew up with him had been fooled, so it was normal that these two men in black couldn't recognize him...
Just as Edogawa Conan breathed a sigh of relief, a familiar voice he hadn't heard in a long time suddenly rang out.
"You're the ones who should get out of the way. Such a narrow aisle, and you two are blocking it sideways—do you have any public decency left!"
Hearing this, Edogawa Conan uncontrollably widened his eyes, straining to look behind the two men in black.
This voice was... Usuha-nii's voice! How was he here?! And he dared to talk to those two dangerous men in black like that!
Although in broad daylight with so many people around, even killers might not directly make a move, what if they held a grudge and secretly poisoned him or something? It was perfectly normal to eat and drink on the shinkansen! There would be plenty of opportunities!
He still remembered! According to what the men in black said, that drug that made him smaller couldn't be detected for toxicity after death!
Perhaps those two men in black were also shocked by such impolite words. They could have just walked forward to their seats, which would also count as making way, but they looked at each other, and the one wearing sunglasses actually silently stepped aside to let the person behind pass first.
Sure enough, the next person to enter the car was Usuha Izuki, dressed in a fashionable style that Edogawa Conan couldn't quite understand.
His golden haori nearly blinded Edogawa Conan's eyes, while a black feather-shaped single earring swayed gently under his right ear, echoing the black cross hair clip on the left side.
When walking in, Usuha Izuki also waved his hand dismissively like the man in black with sunglasses had done.
But while that person's wave was just a gesture that didn't actually touch anyone, Usuha Izuki was wearing a long string of prayer beads—half wrapped around his hand, half held in his palm. With this casual wave and a loosening of his grip, the bead string almost flew into the man in black.
Not only did Usuha Izuki not apologize, he was extremely arrogant.
"Dressed so suspiciously, acting so arrogantly, even bullying children—obviously not good people. Be careful or I'll call the police!"
Edogawa Conan nearly suffocated from Usuha Izuki's attitude.
For a moment, Edogawa Conan almost wanted to rush over and cover his dear Usuha-nii's mouth.
Although he knew Usuha Izuki was probably overflowing with a sense of justice and couldn't stand seeing the two men in black bully a child, Edogawa Conan still wanted to shout at him:
Who's being more arrogant here?! Usuha-nii! Tone it down! Show some of that obedient behavior you have in front of my mom!!!
The barely relaxed Edogawa Conan tensed up again, carefully watching those two men in black.
Perhaps these two men in black still had a mission and didn't want to cause conflict at this time to avoid drawing attention, or maybe they were simply bullying the weak and fearing the strong...
In any case, these two fierce-looking guys showed none of the bad temper they'd had when facing him when confronted with the arrogant Usuha Izuki. They just silently kept their distance from Usuha Izuki and walked to their seats.
Edogawa Conan sighed in relief.
He didn't want to go to the bathroom anymore—quickly returning to keep an eye on those two men in black was the priority!
So Edogawa Conan quietly returned to Mouri Ran's side.
When passing those two men in black, Edogawa Conan heard the resentful voice of the one wearing sunglasses.
"Big Brother! That guy..."
"Don't say it."
Edogawa Conan thought that maybe Usuha-nii's deductive abilities were pretty good, so when he said he'd call the police, he might have actually noticed something suspicious about these two people and was warning them... But Usuha-nii didn't know that these two men in black weren't just small-time yakuza thugs, but the kind who would actually kill people!
If he were still Kudo Shinichi, he could openly go discuss this with Usuha-nii now, but he wasn't...
Edogawa Conan sat back in his seat, looking at Usuha Izuki sitting not far from him, and sighed deeply.
Sigh, although Usuha-nii had caused him a lot of trouble—like giving his mother wrong information that led to being bombarded with phone calls from his mom and nearly exposing his shrinking that very day... he still didn't want to drag Usuha-nii into this pile of dangerous trouble.
But seriously, he was a high school student—what was wrong with not being home by 8 PM! His mom even had Dr. Agasa tell him to take responsibility for Ran... What weird things were these adults thinking! He and Ran weren't that kind of relationship! It was all Usuha-nii's fault for talking nonsense!
But continuously taking leave from school wasn't sustainable either. His parents would eventually notice something was wrong, and no matter how much he asked Dr. Agasa for help, he couldn't fool them anymore...
Thinking of this, Edogawa Conan felt a headache coming on.
Suddenly, both men in black stood up and left this car. Edogawa Conan quickly followed.
Usuha Izuki, who was pretending to read a book, caught sight of Edogawa Conan leaving the car from the corner of his eye and leisurely turned a page.
System: [You didn't farm much suspicion value from this either. Feels like a wasted trip.]
[You don't understand.] Usuha Izuki's little classroom was in session again. [This is the investment phase. Once the groundwork is properly laid and Conan starts suspecting me, he'll remember today when I appeared together with Gin and Vodka... That won't be a simple 1+1=2 problem! The investment return will be higher than you can imagine!]
The system thought about it and found it reasonable: [Worthy of you!]
After a while, Edogawa Conan was dragged back by Mouri Ran. On the way, he had hurriedly placed a listening device near the two men in black's seats, hoping to gain something.
After another while, Gin and Vodka also returned.
After sitting down, Vodka cautiously glanced toward Usuha Izuki: "...Gin-aniki, our mission this time won't have any problems, will it?"
Why was Usuha Izuki here?!
He got scared whenever he encountered Usuha Izuki! He always felt like their mission was about to be ruined!
Most terrifying was that Usuha Izuki was actually pretending not to know them...
Well, yes, there were so many people here. When surrounded by ordinary people, Usuha Izuki would trigger that "we ordinary people are all like this" mode.
The problem was, what ordinary person would encounter him and Big Brother and instead of staying silent and avoiding them, would actually provoke them!
Gin didn't want to talk.
Over the years he'd developed a habit—whenever Usuha Izuki was within 20 meters and the topic would involve Usuha Izuki, he would lose the desire to speak.
But Vodka was still being paranoid: "Big Brother, do you think Botanist..."
"Shut up, Vodka." Gin finally couldn't stand it anymore and spoke. He didn't want to hear that person's codename. "Such a simple mission—how could it possibly fail?"
Vodka thought about it and relaxed: "That's right, it's just delivering that black briefcase. Now that we've got the money, it's basically already successful."
Speaking of mission success, Gin's mood improved somewhat: "Hmph, there's still one last step. Once the bomb in that briefcase explodes, everything will be completely finished. That bomb will explode with any strong shock. At 3:10, that guy will press the switch himself and let himself and the shinkansen blow up into fireworks together... Heh heh..."
Edogawa Conan, who was eavesdropping, was horrified.
Good news: he learned three codenames—Gin, Vodka, and Botanist... These were all alcohol names, probably the organization's naming tradition for codenames.
Bad news: they had actually brought a bomb onto the shinkansen!
People would die at 3:10?! That was less than 40 minutes away!
He had to find a way to stop it!
Seeing that they'd reached Nagoya Station and those two men in black were getting off, Edogawa Conan wanted to follow but was stopped by Mouri Ran.
"Really, the moment I take my eyes off you, you run around again!"
Edogawa Conan was anxious beyond measure.
He dodged Mouri Ran and ran to find the shinkansen crew, but was treated like a child telling tall tales and brushed off. That meant he could only figure it out himself.
With so little time left and several hundred people on the shinkansen, how could he find that bomb?!
At such a busy time, someone suddenly grabbed him from behind.
"Found you, Conan-kun, right? Mouri-san has been looking for you. Don't make her worry."
Edogawa Conan was extremely irritated, but quickly realized this was Usuha Izuki's voice.
He turned around, looked up at Usuha Izuki, and asked somewhat puzzled: "You know Ran... cough, Ran-neesan?"
"I know her boyfriend. Seeing how anxious she looked, I helped her find you." Usuha Izuki looked down and sighed. "Little friend, could you please not run around?"
Edogawa Conan: "............"
What boyfriend?! You're still spreading rumors! Do you know what my mom will imagine when you talk so carelessly?!
For a moment, old and new grudges surged up in Edogawa Conan's heart.
Just then, Usuha Izuki suddenly frowned, changing from bending over to crouching down, studying his face with a somewhat strange look.
"Eh...? Little friend, why do you look familiar to me?"
Edogawa Conan: "......!!!"
—Oh no! Not only had Ran seen him as a child, Usuha-nii had also seen him when he was in middle school and hadn't developed much yet! Could he have been discovered?!