Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

Pulling out the dagger from her leg, Machiko signaled with her eyes to Mizunashi Rena and Fujiwara to catch some fish. Soon, the two returned to the door of the machine with some sea creatures. There was even a small octopus on Fujiwara's mask.

Seeing these animals, Machiko immediately stabbed them with a dagger, then went to the entrance of a drainage passage, kicked off the grille outside that was used to block debris, and stuffed all the animal carcasses in.

There was a noise coming from the machine door, and then the noisy sound of the machine stopped. Machiko raised her hand and looked at her watch. After estimating the oxygen content, she gestured to Fujiwara and the other man to continue.

"Director!"

In the command room on the top level of the ocean buoy, Naomi looked at Makino Yosuke who was sitting at the back: "The alarm just showed that there was a malfunction on the sixteenth level of the ocean buoy."

"Sixteenth floor?"

Makino Yosuke put away his original laziness and sat up straight: "I remember that place is..."

"It's the emergency escape exit from the base under the sea."

While using a handheld makeup mirror to draw her eyeliner, Grace threw a wink at Makino who was sitting in the director's seat, but received no response.

Seeing the Indian Ed next to her handing over a strange fruit, Grace showed a hint of disgust, but when the Indian Ed looked at her in a flattering way, she smiled sweetly and said, "Thank you, Brother Ed."

"Could it be that you remembered it wrong, Grace? Why would there be a problem with the escape exit?"

Before Makino could finish his words, he was sneered by the last person in the command room. The German Leonhardt glanced at Makino with contempt, and then said something sarcastic.

"He can't even remember the layout of his own base, but he can still be the director. He really deserves to be a person with Asian blood."

Apart from the fact that he was a pure-blooded German, Grace had American nationality but was actually Japanese, and Naomi's mother was Japanese. With just one sentence, Leonhardt scolded everyone except him.

"Leonhardt, please take that back." Naomi, who had been suffering from Leonhardt's theory of Asian descent being incompetent since the formation of this team, slammed the table again and refuted: "The director's lack of ability is his own business, please don't involve all Asians."

"cut."

Leonhardt glared at Naomi, then kept silent.

"Um, Naomi-chan, can you tell me why the alarm went off on the escape floor?"

Not angry at the personal attacks from his subordinates, Makino chuckled twice as if he had no temper, and then asked a question.

"There must be some marine life or other garbage blocking the drainage outlets of the base."

Naomi displayed the structural diagram of the drain on the screen in the command room, and then drew out the grid with a red circle.

"Normally, the base should be cleaned at least once every two weeks to avoid this kind of situation, but our base was put into use three days ago."

"So you mean this alarm is abnormal?" Makino's eyes changed slightly, and then he heard Leonhardt's mocking voice again.

"Are you out of your mind? There's a grand wedding taking place tonight on Hachijo Island next door."

Leonhardt picked up the coffee in front of him and said, "For this wedding, the deputy director of the police department even booked the entire island. Needless to say, there will be a lot of guests. The amount of garbage will definitely increase dramatically. Is it any wonder that the drain is blocked?"

"Are you saying that the Japanese like to litter everywhere? You haven't even figured out the cause of the blockage yet, but you're blaming the Japanese for it!"

"Stop talking nonsense." Leonhardt's disdainful look made people want to beat him up.

"Indians are like people living in garbage, Thais are disgusting, Koreans are the best at licking their boots, Japanese are cowardly, and Chinese people talk about peace but actually want to start a war more than anyone else." "That's just your stereotype!" Naomi scolded Leonhardt loudly: "There are people like this in every country, not just Asians."

"Whatever you say, I'm going to go back to Germany after the Japanese police come over with the surveillance system and connect to the international police system."

Leonhardt stood up and left the command room without saying hello to his colleagues.

"This is a bit difficult." Makino shook his head regretfully: "The international police force hasn't arrived yet. Now we are the only ones left. Who of you will go clean the drain next?"

"I'll go!" Ed raised his hands proudly: "I grew up in the Ganges."

"Then I'll leave it to you, Ed."

After the Indian left, Grace thought of the Ganges he had just mentioned, and couldn't help feeling nauseous. She quickly threw the fruit he had sent her into the trash can, and then she felt better.

"Director..."

Grace's whimpering was so long that the men trembled and the women felt cold. The long, distorted voice sounded in the command room. Naomi covered her ears helplessly, looked at the time on the display, and begged the Japanese police to come faster.

After coming here for a few days, she still couldn't figure out why Grace, who looked like a strong woman, acted like she had taken some strange drug when she saw Makino, and teased the director all the time.

Nineteen-year-old Naomi once wondered what it was about a man like Makino that attracted a so-called high-quality woman like Grace in the eyes of the public, but she never figured it out.

[Is it true that the more outstanding a woman is, the weirder the men she likes? ]

Naomi looked at the display screen and suddenly had a bad feeling. Would the cross-age search system she developed to find Miyano Shiho eventually discover that she was already the wife of some strange creature?
"Should I also have a relationship?"

Outside the ocean buoy, Machiko, who was looking at the watch, heard a sound coming from the mechanical door and immediately ordered Fujiwara and Mizunashi Rena to turn off the light on the masks. The three of them just floated quietly in the sea, watching the equipment next to the machine pump water inside, increase the pressure, and finally spit out a man wearing only a diving suit.

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

【Take out the trash, take out the trash.】

Ed slowly kicked his feet and tried to swim to the drain, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed three pure black shadows floating in the sea water.

"Woo?"

【what is that? 】

Curious, he swam towards the shadow and pointed the waterproof flashlight at it. What appeared in front of him was a mummy in a diving suit.

At the same time, three shadows began to bubble out continuously, and stretched out their arms at the same time, floating towards him.

The poor Indian man was knocked unconscious in the sea by Machiko and the other two while smiling, and became the key for them to enter the ocean buoy.

Worried about the surveillance system inside the base, Machiko entered the mechanical door first, looked at the drainage area used for isolation, checked all around and did not find any hidden cameras, then asked the two to carry the man in.

After the mechanical door was locked, Machiko looked at the drain button written in English next to it, took out a dagger from her arms, touched the connection between the wall and the drain button with her gloves, and smashed it down with the tip of the dagger.

(End of this chapter)