Chapter 281
Forget Edogawa Conan, even Mouri Kogorou was confused. He quickly rushed up to stop Takagi Wataru, who was walking toward Sato Miwako's hospital room, and asked what was going on.
Takagi Wataru: "Huh? The case is already solved, the criminal is caught too. I'm staying to keep Officer Sato company, the others went back—they still have documents to write."
"Already solved???" Mouri Kogorou was very confused. "Did I fall asleep again just now?"
But he didn't remember any gaps in his memory?
Edogawa Conan figured it out: "Could it be Samukawa-kun..."
"Right, Samukawa-kun helped." Takagi Wataru said with emotion, "I heard Samukawa-kun doesn't like cases to drag on overnight."
Mouri Kogorou: "...??? Then couldn't Metropolitan Police just throw all cases to him to solve?"
Takagi Wataru smiled bitterly: "Ha ha ha, that probably won't work... Samukawa-kun takes cases based on his mood, and if he takes on too many at once he'll disappear..."
"Disappear?!" Mouri Kogorou's tone was incredulous.
Takagi Wataru nodded: "Right, but I've only heard about it. They say when he's in a bad mood, no one can find him... But we can't rely entirely on others anyway. We still prefer to solve cases ourselves, and only ask for help when there's really no other way."
Edogawa Conan: "............"
Samukawa Shinryu's consulting work sounds so casual!
Was he like this when he was a police officer too?!
Having unusually missed the deduction and arrest process, and only discovering everything was over when he found out, Edogawa Conan speechlessly returned to the Mouri household. The next day, he found an opportunity to call his father Kudo Yusaku in America to ask about Samukawa Shinryu's situation.
"Samukawa-kun? Of course I know him, we're fairly familiar. Before he resigned, I would make sure to see him whenever I went to Metropolitan Police."
Kudo Yusaku admitted readily: "Didn't I write many short stories in recent years? Many of them were actually inspired by Samukawa-kun. I even wrote a series before where the protagonist's nemesis was also based on Samukawa-kun... But to avoid causing trouble for Samukawa-kun, I changed a lot, though since you've met Samukawa-kun, you should be able to recognize it, right?"
Edogawa Conan: "...The nemesis one does seem familiar when I think about it... But the short stories..."
Kudo Yusaku explained: "It's just pure inspiration. I don't know why, but when I see Samukawa-kun, many plot ideas pop into my head."
Edogawa Conan: "..."
How should he put it—he kind of understood. Samukawa Shinryu's constitution that made detectives involuntarily start imagining things when they saw him was really quite mystical.
"...Then, Dad." Edogawa Conan pushed down his scattered thoughts. "What kind of person do you think Samukawa-kun is?"
Kudo Yusaku was silent for a while: "Hmm... that's a difficult question to answer."
Edogawa Conan felt maybe he had asked too broadly, so he narrowed the scope: "Do you think he could be connected to that Black Organization?"
Kudo Yusaku was silent for a long time before giving an answer: "Hard to say."
"...Even though you're already 'fairly familiar,' you only give that kind of answer!"
Kudo Yusaku answered seriously: "Ultimately, I haven't had deep interactions with Samukawa-kun."
The conclusion he could draw now was only that from his actions, Samukawa Shinryu was righteous, but what Samukawa Shinryu was thinking inside, Kudo Yusaku couldn't fathom.
Judging by deeds not hearts, just based on Samukawa Shinryu providing him with so much inspiration, Kudo Yusaku was willing to treat Samukawa Shinryu as a friend, but for other things, Kudo Yusaku couldn't guarantee, and couldn't mislead his son at such a critical time.
After hearing Kudo Yusaku's explanation and the intelligence he had gathered from Inspector Megure, Edogawa Conan frowned: "...So he became a police officer for that kind of reason... No wonder his 'justice execution' is weird."
"Rather than 'justice,' it's more like the developments he hopes to see, which most of the time happen to align with the public's idea of 'justice.'"
Kudo Yusaku also reasoned based on Edogawa Conan's account of his several meetings, conversations, and events with Samukawa Shinryu: "Like the Tsukikage Island you mentioned... Samukawa Shinryu should have known Dr. Asai was the killer from the first corpse. If Dr. Asai's methods could fool even you, he probably really wouldn't have stepped forward to say anything, but would have found various reasons to make this case go cold... In a way, that would also be harboring criminals."
Edogawa Conan irritably messed up his hair: "He seems like a complete good person though..."
"I said, from his actions, he is a good person." Kudo Yusaku said, "So the answer you want can only be determined after you understand his heart—whether he would join those illegal organizations."
Edogawa Conan felt this phone call was like listening to someone talk was like listening to someone talk.
However, he did gain quite a bit of information about Samukawa Shinryu from Kudo Yusaku's perspective, and about when Samukawa Shinryu was a police officer, meaning a few years ago.
It wasn't completely useless, just not as useful as he'd hoped. Kudo Yusaku didn't seem to understand Samukawa Shinryu that well either.
Especially when Edogawa Conan remembered to ask before hanging up: "Do you know if there's a [Consultant] in Tokyo? The kind that criminals often consult, like Moriarty."
Kudo Yusaku answered: "I do know that Samukawa-kun works as a consultant at Metropolitan Police after resigning..."
"...Never mind, I'll ask someone else."
Edogawa Conan sighed and hung up.
Sigh, Dad has been abroad for years, so he really doesn't understand Tokyo affairs well enough.
This [Criminal Consultant] was too hard to find, and Metropolitan Police caught such a low-level guy and thought the problem was solved. He was so worried...
Edogawa Conan had no idea that if he hadn't missed that scene of the criminal's sophistry at the hospital last night, he might have had his revelation long ago!
But now, he was still worrying endlessly about the unknown [Criminal Consultant], and didn't have much hope for Hattori Heiji either.
Tokyo's Metropolitan Police had already arrested the low-level version and thought it was settled. Kansai was independent from Metropolitan Police, so they should understand even less about Tokyo's [Criminal Consultant].
Edogawa Conan sighed melancholically, feeling like problems kept coming one after another. Recently Ran seemed to vaguely suspect he was Kudo Shinichi too—whether he should confess was another problem...
Headache!
After Edogawa Conan finished this phone call, Usuha Izuki's side gained another pile of suspicion values.
[At this rate, even minus the daily survival points, I think at most half a year would be enough to buy permanent residency rights.] Usuha Izuki sighed.
The system was more optimistic: [Four or five months, about right!]
Usuha Izuki rubbed his chin: [Not bad, then I can rest for a few days.]
Planning to rest, Usuha Izuki browsed his emails to see if there were any fun events or invitations, and found Vermouth's email.
Right, last time he said he'd go play with Vermouth, but after recording the video of Gin and Vodka releasing Sherry in the snow, he was busy setting fires everywhere and didn't have time to eat with Vermouth. He could only send this video to Vermouth afterward to watch the excitement.
Vermouth should have watched the excitement, then went to the group chat to catch up on everyone's conversations before sending him this email.
From the wording, Vermouth enjoyed watching Gin's misfortune, but also reminded Usuha Izuki not to go too far, since Gin was a subordinate the Boss had always trusted.
If he was really bored, he could come play with her—she would be in Japan recently.
So Usuha Izuki called Vermouth.
The call was hung up, but Vermouth sent him an email shortly after.
[Not convenient to take calls right now, let's chat later.]
Usuha Izuki sensed something interesting and waited expectantly for a while, finally receiving Vermouth's call: "Hello?"
A male voice responded: "It's me."
Usuha Izuki wasn't too surprised and quickly figured out Vermouth's current situation: "You're using a man's voice, are you on a mission?"
"Sort of." Vermouth said, "What's up on your end?"
Usuha Izuki sighed: "I was a bit bored and wanted to play with you, but since you're busy, forget it... You've been doing missions constantly since returning to Japan, no time to play at all, right?"
Vermouth smiled: "It's fine, we can play together after I finish. But you really should make more friends."
"Don't mention it, I did make a young friend before, but didn't he disappear?"
Vermouth's expression changed slightly at something she thought of: "Who?"
Usuha Izuki: "Did you forget? You're the one who took me there—Yukiko-nee's son, Kudo Shinichi! Have you visited the Kudo house since returning to Japan? Recently Ran has been cleaning, which is good, but for a long time before no one was tidying up!"
Vermouth fell into an eerie silence for a second, but quickly picked up the conversation: "I didn't forget. You're that close to Shinichi? Do you visit him often?"
"Not really, I got a key from Yukiko-nee and often go to borrow books, which is how I discovered no one had been living there." Usuha Izuki's voice was flawless, "A high school student not attending school properly, heard he went to solve cases secretly... Not a word of news, if Yukiko-nee's attitude wasn't normal, I'd be worried something happened to him."
Vermouth: ".................."
Vermouth's heart didn't feel good.
This time returning to Japan, besides helping with Pisco's mission and meeting Gin, she was actually here to see Kudo Shinichi and Mouri Ran.
Because a year ago, these two children had saved her soul like angels, becoming the two most important people in her life, much more important than Usuha Izuki.
After returning to Japan, she soon discovered Kudo Shinichi had disappeared—most terrifyingly, with some investigation, Vermouth found that rather than disappearing, Kudo Shinichi had died, and the cause was Sherry's drug and Gin.
So she was now very happy to see Gin's misfortune, and hated Sherry even more.
But because she had infiltrated Beika High School and investigated some files related to Mouri Kogorou, she discovered Edogawa Conan should be Kudo Shinichi.
So while Vermouth breathed a sigh of relief, she also swore to protect this secret.
But now a problem she had caused herself was before her.
Because Usuha Izuki was a fan back then, Vermouth had taken Usuha Izuki to meet Kudo Yukiko and Kudo Shinichi, and even without her knowledge, Usuha Izuki had grown closer to these two people.
Before Kudo Shinichi's incident, Vermouth was naturally happy to see this, but now that Kudo Shinichi had an incident, and the cause was related to the organization, this was a hidden danger.
Now, Usuha Izuki already knew Kudo Shinichi wasn't dead, but didn't know it was related to the organization. Once someone in the organization let something slip, like Vodka thoughtlessly mentioning "Big brother and I killed that high school detective before," and then Usuha Izuki said "Kudo Shinichi? He's not dead, I asked his mother"...
Just thinking about it made Vermouth break out in a cold sweat.
This kind of thing couldn't happen!
Vermouth even suspected that Usuha Izuki's sudden mention of Kudo Shinichi was because he already knew something...
Just as she was thinking this, Vermouth heard Usuha Izuki say:
"With Shinichi missing, I did meet a new kid who looks a lot like him, almost thought he was Kudo Yusaku's illegitimate son..."
Vermouth: "...!!!"
He's already met Conan?! Usuha Izuki's eye for people was famously sharp... Did he really not notice anything?!