Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"That woman, don't care about her?"

Watching the woman from the police station take the elevator next door and go down, Naomi turned sideways and looked at Makino.

"Isn't the Director very worried that this base will be taken away by the Japanese police?"

Before, Makino gave everyone the impression of being extremely cowardly, and she couldn't understand why he was so relaxed now.

"This woman is the leader of these police officers. She is in our hands. There is nothing to be afraid of."

Makino put his hands behind his back, and it seemed as if he was no longer the weak person he was before. Now he was full of heroism.

"We have five people and a base like this, while they... heh, only have a few dozen people."

Makino looked at the open elevator door. The light from inside the elevator shone on him, and he really felt like a hero. However, this feeling disappeared in an instant when the elevator announced, "I've been waiting for you so long. Please hurry up."

"Let's go back and check the search system."

The moment Makino and Naomi entered the command room, they saw three people inside. They were all sitting in their seats. Ed and Leonhardt had expressionless faces, but Grace was excited.

"Commander, you are ready, right?"

"Well, after such a long wait, today we are going to fulfill our wish."

Makino tilted his head to look at Leonhart: "Leon-kun, once I'm sure there's no problem, I'll report for you and request that headquarters transfer you back."

"Ah."

Fujiwara remembered what the German said below, so he simply responded.

"Ed, you..."

"Chief, I want to stay with Grace-chan."

"Okay... okay."

The four of them quickly took action, but they were not able to speed up. Logically, the terminal program of the operating system had been edited long ago, and the four programmers only needed to manually input the program to increase the computing power of the system. However, the reality was that the task could not be completed in a hurry.

"So slow!"

Grace complained, but her fingers didn't stop moving. She puffed up her lips and said in a voice that could kill you: "If I find out that any of you are lazy, I will definitely punish you severely!"

"Then I will immediately stop what I am doing and punish me, Grace-chan!"

Mizunashi Reina, who had been pretending to work hard but was actually typing away on the keyboard, took over the conversation well, making Grace dispel her doubts about herself while looking grim. "The base is just in the startup phase, so it's understandable that it's slow and has insufficient computing power."

After Makino consoled them several times, the two people who were working hard finally felt a little better, so they stopped talking and started to work seriously.

"Okay, all systems are connected, Chief."

Naomi stood up from her seat. She managed her expression well, but you could still tell she was excited.

"For the first test, I..."

"I know you've always had someone you want to find."

Among the few people, Makino really admired Naomi. Grace, who was neither male nor female, always made him feel nervous. As a man with normal sexual orientation, he naturally would not have a good impression of her.

Leonhardt looked down on him for being an Asian and often offended him. Fortunately, his hometown was not Tokyo Rice Flower, otherwise this kid would definitely not be alive and talking now.

Ed is a typical bootlicker. He will not do any task assigned to him except licking. Unless he has to make a little sacrifice, he will do something at Grace's request.

In comparison, although Naomi has her own little thoughts, Makino can completely accept them.

"Naomi-kun, although as we said before, the person you are looking for is probably not in Japan, but I will still borrow her photo for the first test."

Naomi nodded gratefully, then opened an old photo that she had treasured on her computer. After opening it, everyone knew the source of the photo after Naomi's introduction.

"Miyano Shiho was a good friend of mine when I was a child. At that time, I was bullied by foreigners because of my Asian face, and she protected me. When I was in college, I found out her name and school, so I went there."

Naomi pointed at the big screen, where Shiho Miyano was secretly photographed from the side in the school library.

"This photo was given to me by a junior student of hers who I met when I was asking about her at that school. It seems that Miyano Shiho skipped a grade and returned to Japan. That junior student was also looking for her. At first, she looked at me with a wary eye, but later, after knowing my past, she generously gave me a photo."

Naomi smiled sweetly: "I think I should stand in front of her and tell her that I am doing well now. God must think so too, otherwise why would he let me meet that school girl."

Naomi thought of the boyish boy and was surprised at first thinking he was Miyano Shiho's boyfriend.

"Commander, I'm starting."

Looking at the surveillance footage that popped up after a full twenty minutes of testing, Naomi opened her mouth slightly.

"Why... an elementary school student?"

(End of this chapter)