Chapter 282
Usuha Izuki looked at the suspicion values from Vermouth ding-donging into his account and felt very emotional.
[After all these years... the suspicion values she's given have been almost nonexistent... Today she's finally being generous for once!]
As for whether losing Vermouth's trust would be upsetting or anything like that—not at all!
Vermouth's feelings toward him were plastic to begin with, so seeing his progress bar moving forward now only made Usuha Izuki happy.
Career-minded people are just that ruthless!
The system had originally wanted to comment, but seeing Usuha Izuki's attitude, it shut up.
Fine, with Usuha Izuki being so career-focused, it should encourage him.
[That's right! Keep up the good work!] The system began cheering Usuha Izuki on.
Probably knowing that staying silent too long would arouse suspicion, Vermouth quickly replied by email: [I don't think Kudo Yusaku would cheat. There are naturally people who look alike in this world, it's probably just a simple resemblance.]
She chose a very safe topic.
It wouldn't expose her tendencies or position, wouldn't involve Kudo Shinichi, and instead shifted focus to Kudo Yusaku, displaying the grace of an organization intelligence officer.
Usuha Izuki replied: [No no no, they really do look alike! Practically identical!!!]
Vermouth's heart went cold.
She pondered that if Usuha Izuki wasn't spreading this around everywhere, it would be fine. Even if he told other people, as long as he didn't mention it in front of organization members other than herself, that would be okay. But if he mentioned these things in front of the wrong people...
If Gin and Vodka, who had personally "killed" Kudo Shinichi, discovered something, that would be troublesome. To avoid this, she'd need to shut Usuha Izuki up.
As an organization member, the simplest method Vermouth could think of was silencing him.
But she didn't really want to do that to Usuha Izuki.
The reason wasn't that she worried about the organization losing Usuha Izuki now affecting their income or anything... that wasn't in her consideration range—she was purely a devoted daughter of the Black Organization.
On one hand, after all these years, almost all her memories of interacting with Usuha Izuki were happy ones. Even with their plastic relationship, she didn't want to immediately resort to silencing.
On the other hand, and this was the main reason... the last person who found Usuha Izuki displeasing was Gin, and everyone in the organization could see what treatment Gin got now. Vermouth didn't want to follow in those footsteps—just thinking about it made her shudder.
Vermouth's mind rapidly considered how to handle the worst-case scenario while her hands quickly replied to emails pretending nothing happened: [Really that similar?]
Usuha Izuki: [Yes, wait a moment, I'll send you photos.]
While Usuha Izuki was looking for photos, Vermouth quickly organized her thoughts.
Calming down, she felt maybe Usuha Izuki truly didn't know that Kudo Shinichi was already dead according to the organization.
Because Usuha Izuki never worked and didn't care much about most of the organization's mission contents. Only for Gin's missions would he occasionally drop by if it was convenient, and Gin just happened to be...
Wait, she didn't really follow that group chat persecuting Gin. If Usuha Izuki really went to find Gin, there should be traces in the group. When was Shinichi attacked again?
Vermouth quickly searched the chat records and was shocked to discover that Usuha Izuki had actually posted in the group that day, even uploading a group photo of Gin, Vodka, and Kudo Shinichi's distinctive hair tuft visible in the corner!
That meant on the day Kudo Shinichi had his incident, Usuha Izuki was also at the amusement park...
He might have even been watching when Kudo Shinichi was attacked! Maybe he even saw the whole process of Shinichi shrinking!
Vermouth felt her hands trembling.
How could this happen? Maybe Usuha Izuki had already investigated Conan privately for fun... Was he testing her by telling her this now?!
How could she protect Shinichi...
At that moment, a new email arrived. Vermouth's phone vibrated, making this cold-blooded organization member's heart skip a beat.
She silently opened the new email from Usuha Izuki.
[Look! Isn't he very similar?]
[Attachment: "Image"]
While waiting for the image to load, Vermouth felt her palms sweating, but after it loaded, a question mark slowly appeared above her head.
Wait, this isn't Edogawa Conan either!
Who is this... He does look very similar to Shinichi, just with some different details... Oh my, she recognized him!
This is that kid named Kaito from her disguise teacher Kuroba Toichi's family, right? He should be the same age as Shinichi this year! Was Usuha Izuki talking about Kuroba Kaito?!
Ah... right, Usuha Izuki is 24 after all. Calling someone 7 years younger a "kid" is very normal. Based on normal school ages, when Usuha Izuki was in college, Shinichi and the others were still in elementary school.
She had preconceived notions thinking he meant Edogawa Conan, and ended up scaring herself...
Vermouth felt relieved after the false alarm, feeling as tired as if she'd been chased by the FBI for three days and nights. Her heart felt dead and couldn't stir up any more waves as she slowly typed back: [Indeed very similar.]
The system watched the suddenly decreasing suspicion values with regret: [Not going to stimulate her more?]
Usuha Izuki: [No, Vermouth's mind is already very delicate. This is enough—going too far would backfire, and besides, this isn't my main goal.]
Then Usuha Izuki sent Vermouth another photo: [Look, this one's also very similar. This is a photo I took at some kendo tournament, seems to be called Okita Soji.]
Vermouth looked and speechlessly discovered this Okita Soji did indeed look very similar to Kudo Shinichi... How had she never noticed before that Shinichi had such a generic face.
Sigh... But the world is vast. She'd even seen people who looked like herself, so having several more who resembled Shinichi was normal. At this time it could help divert attention, which was good.
After relaxing for a while, Vermouth suddenly realized something wrong—Usuha Izuki naming these people unrelated to Edogawa Conan didn't mean he hadn't seen Edogawa Conan!
Usuha Izuki himself said he often went to the Kudo house to borrow and return books... Conan also frequently went to Dr. Agasa's house. As neighbors, the probability of encountering each other was high...
Why hadn't Usuha Izuki mentioned Conan until now?! Was he very fortunately not encountered, or was he deliberately saving that information...
Sigh, Kudo Yukiko didn't know she was from the organization and had no wariness toward the Usuha Izuki she brought, allowing such important information to be extracted and letting this dangerous person freely enter and exit. Too bad her Sharon Vineyard identity was already dead—Yukiko even attended her funeral—otherwise she'd definitely need to talk to Yukiko about raising her guard.
Vermouth hesitated whether to ask, and the suspicion in her heart reached another small peak.
The system was dumbfounded and wanted to shout "awesome": [Really, you didn't say anything more, but she started suspecting again...]
Usuha Izuki was very calm: [Basic operation, don't be impressed.]
Actually he didn't know what Vermouth was imagining. He just knew Vermouth wouldn't let her guard down so easily.
Otherwise Vermouth would have died outside long ago, and wouldn't have been able to use the Sharon Vineyard identity for so long without even Kudo Yukiko discovering it.
After hesitating for a long time, Vermouth ultimately didn't dare test whether Usuha Izuki knew Edogawa Conan.
She decided to test Edogawa Conan later! That was safer than testing Usuha Izuki anyway!
Usuha Izuki even asked: [When can you finish your mission? I'll come find you to play.]
What was normally a completely ordinary sentence now seemed full of danger to Vermouth—although she usually disguised herself as Beika High School's school doctor, she wasn't completely without personal time and could totally remove her disguise to go out and play with Usuha Izuki. But now she just wanted to politely refuse.
[Sorry, the timing is uncertain. I'll call you when I'm done anyway. Don't you trust me?]
Because Usuha Izuki's ridiculous eye for people still had no clear explanation of its principle, Vermouth didn't dare see him recently, afraid he'd notice something wrong with her and then tell the Boss she was also an undercover agent.
...That shouldn't happen, right! She'd treated Usuha Izuki to so many meals after all!
Soon, Usuha Izuki replied.
[Of course I trust you! In the organization, I trust you the most! Those undercover agents can't compare to you!]
Vermouth: "............"
What's this about? If you're going to praise me, just praise me. Why suddenly bring up undercover agents for comparison? You never did this before...
Could it be that Usuha Izuki suspects she might betray the organization because of Shinichi?... He's not thinking that, right?