Chapter 254
Unlike Edogawa Conan, who had been depressed for several days after learning that the organization's bar had been bombed, Usuha Izuki had been particularly happy these past few days.
He ate and drank as he pleased, with no strange people coming to consult him. He leisurely made it to Saturday before going to his other house to open the door for Bourbon.
Bourbon had already inquired about his schedule and didn't come stupidly early like an idiot. He arrived in the afternoon, just as Usuha Izuki had arrived not long before.
Seeing Usuha Izuki open the door so quickly, Bourbon felt somewhat flattered.
"What's with that expression, like you're suspicious I have some ulterior motive," Usuha Izuki complained. "If you don't dare come in, don't come in. Let Scotland come instead."
A man couldn't say he didn't dare. Bourbon walked in without hesitation.
Since Scotland had roughly described it to him, Bourbon had some idea of what Usuha Izuki's new home was like, but after actually walking in, he still felt this impact couldn't be described in words.
This entrance hallway had walls painted tender green, with a wooden fish and a miniature shrine placed at the entrance—he didn't know if it was for convenient prayers before going out or what, but they had to be placed here.
But it wasn't completely unacceptable. Compared to the paintings on the walls with their chaotic lines and dirty colors that made your brain hurt just looking at them, and the inexplicably placed rows of oddly-shaped coat racks on both sides of the entrance hallway, each hung with various dolls, the wooden fish and shrine that were merely placed in a somewhat inexplicable location were reassuringly normal.
Bourbon suppressed the urge to ask why dolls were hung on coat racks, turned sideways, and walked through the two rows of coat racks with a wooden expression, heading inside.
Inside was the living room, where the style suddenly changed dramatically. The walls were painted bright red, the golden chandelier was magnificent and splendid, and the pink piano with the skeleton sitting in front of it were clearly veteran performers. The sofa had been changed to a leather sofa perfect for lying down, piled high with cushions—just the patterns were somewhat mismatched, being too anime-style.
But stranger still was the TV cabinet. It actually had two TVs placed on it at once. In the middle was a large-screen LCD TV, and beside it, probably due to lack of space, on the left was a very small, somewhat old TV with wires attached that would probably only show black and white images when turned on. On the right were several game consoles, routers, and similar items, packing the originally not-short TV cabinet full.
Next to the TV cabinet in the corner was a shelf unit, with each level holding a TV. The top level reached all the way to the ceiling—those who didn't know might think this was a TV store.
Bourbon couldn't help but wonder for a moment whether Usuha Izuki liked collecting TVs from different eras, or if he was simply a TV killer...
"Do these TVs still work?" Bourbon pointed at the shelf unit.
"They work, but their performance isn't as good as the one I'm currently using."
Only the best-performing TV was one he bought himself; the others were all drawn from somewhere, with average quality but great attributes—he couldn't bear to throw them away!
Bourbon: "...Then why don't you throw them away? Don't you think they take up space?!"
Usuha Izuki was outraged: "Don't say such things! I have feelings for all of them!"
Bourbon: "What about that pile of coat racks at the entrance? You don't want to throw away every single one either?"
"Correct."
Bourbon: "..........."
Was this some kind of Middle Eastern battlefield PTSD? This guy's hoarding disorder seemed to be getting worse and worse...
Bourbon forced himself to endure the eye strain and looked elsewhere, discovering the windows were covered with cartoon stickers. The neighbors probably already thought a child lived here to make the windows look like this. On the side cabinet's tray, twenty identical glass cups were stacked together—Usuha Izuki might not even live here twenty days in a month.
The vases too—besides the previous veteran performers, several more had been added, just placed on the windowsill, blocking quite a bit of the originally good light. Strangest of all was that instead of flowers, each vase had a book placed over its opening.
Noticing Bourbon looking at the vases, Usuha Izuki said: "The vases also have things inside. Though I've used books to block the dust from above, occasionally I need to take out the contents to clean them. Oh, don't mess up the order, and don't mix up the contents either..."
After all, he had categorized them by attributes!
Bourbon didn't want to look at other areas anymore. After not seeing him for several years, Usuha Izuki's home had become even more insane. If he tried to analyze Usuha Izuki's psychology from this aspect, he could only conclude "seriously ill."
"...Have Miyano Akemi and Scotland ever commented on your home?"
Usuha Izuki recalled: "Akemi said cleaning my house was very easy and told me not to feel burdened."
Bourbon complained: "That was sarcasm, right?"
"How could it be sarcasm!"
After all, though his house had many things, since he didn't cook and only occasionally came back to stay, it really wasn't dirty. Most of the time, you just needed to dust things off.
For Miyano Akemi, cleaning Usuha Izuki's house was actually quite relaxing. Usuha Izuki even allowed her to stay overnight and such. When she felt too pressured by being monitored, she would come here to hide. At least she could be sure organization members wouldn't come knocking on Usuha Izuki's door looking for her.
So Miyano Akemi was quite fond of this place and was very proactive about maintaining the hygienic environment here. It really wasn't sarcasm.
Usuha Izuki added: "Scotland also praised this place as 'chaotic yet orderly.'"
Bourbon: "..........."
Was that praise... well, actually, that phrasing was quite accurate.
Though it was hard on the eyes, it seemed everything had been carefully categorized and arranged—coat racks together, cushions together, vases together, TVs together... it was just that even after careful arrangement, it was still so eyesore-inducing, yet the person involved felt there was absolutely no problem. It felt like the person's brain hadn't just been accidentally bumped—it had been completely run over by a tank.
Usuha Izuki asked suspiciously: "Can you handle this or not? If not, I'll have Scotland come instead."
As a police officer who always kept things very tidy, Bourbon painfully closed his eyes: "If it's just dusting, I should be fine."
Only then was Usuha Izuki satisfied, and he sat down on the sofa: "Speaking of which, you couldn't possibly be eager to come clean for me, right? What else is going on?"
When it came to serious matters, Bourbon became slightly more serious, then instinctively glanced around.
"Stop looking. There are no cameras, no recording devices, nothing at all. If you don't believe me, you can search, or you can search while cleaning—I don't mind."
Bourbon looked at the environment around him that was perfect for hiding surveillance equipment and fell silent.
This guy really wasn't afraid of people coming in to install things. With his house being such a mess, it really wouldn't be easy to find anything.
However, Bourbon had brought a signal jammer directly. Though it might cause neighbors upstairs, downstairs, and on both sides to suddenly have poor signals, he was too lazy to care about that—it was just for a moment anyway.
Once the signal jammer was turned on, Bourbon asked: "Before I speak, regarding Miyano Akemi, is there anything you want to say?"
I already know that you know that I know, so let's speak frankly!
"...What do you want me to say?" Usuha Izuki raised an eyebrow. "She's already dead, and now you're bringing this up... huh? Looking at your expression, could it be she's not dead? Oh, then it must be thanks to me!"
Bourbon: "..........."
He felt his expression hadn't changed at all, but considering Usuha Izuki's uncanny ability to read people, he wasn't sure whether he had exposed anything in Usuha Izuki's eyes.
Saving Miyano Akemi was somewhat due to his personal feelings, so after ensuring the person was still alive, he let his Japanese Public Security colleagues handle the subsequent interrogation in a businesslike manner.
Initially, he had received intelligence from the first round of questioning, but this kind of thing couldn't be resolved with just one round of questions. Multiple interrogations were needed, since human memory sometimes wasn't trustworthy. To ensure intelligence accuracy, they had to ask repeatedly to discover contradictions. Even considering FBI involvement, Public Security had called in microexpression experts and psychologists to study together.
As a result, they really did discover some problems. They suspected Miyano Akemi's successful escape had help, but this helper wasn't necessarily from the FBI.
Bourbon immediately suspected Usuha Izuki.
But Usuha Izuki's reaction of immediately claiming credit for himself upon discovering the person wasn't dead made him wonder if he was overthinking...
Wasn't Usuha Izuki reluctant to admit it? What was going on now?
"What's with that suspicious look? For someone like me who's a friend to women, isn't it normal to help a poor girl?" Usuha Izuki pouted.
Bourbon said meaningfully: "This is betraying the organization."
"Gin is the one betraying the organization, right? What was he thinking, wanting to kill Akemi? I bet Sherry is on strike now." Usuha Izuki hugged a cushion and said with a smile, "Besides, I have my own understanding of betrayal. Don't think of me with your undercover brain... Moreover, I didn't really do anything, just had Chianti shoot Akemi once in the heart. Who knew her heart was on the right side? Anyway, it's better than Gin's headshot. I'm definitely her lifesaver."
Bourbon: "..........."
I see, so this was the source of Usuha Izuki's confidence in admitting it? He really had reasons for everything, making it impossible to determine whether he actually wanted to save Miyano Akemi.
And the origin of the bulletproof vest couldn't be traced—the delivery had been transferred too many times, making it impossible to find the sender...
Bourbon looked at the silver-haired young man smiling like a white demon, his mental scales wavering.
Forget it, he'd still tell him that news.
Bourbon said coldly: "Rum has cultivated someone who's very good at interpersonal relationships. Rum wants to use them to replace you. Be careful and stop being so reckless."
Usuha Izuki: "...?"