Conan: I'm really not the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 23 The Disappearing Corpse

The autograph session hasn't started yet, and the three middle school students standing in line are chatting about various topics.After talking about all kinds of trivial matters, we finally brought up the serious matter of today.

"I didn't expect Shinichi to come with me."

"What?" After hearing Mao Lilan's words, Suzuki Sonoko was startled: "Didn't he pester you and ask you to accompany him to this autograph session?"

"not like this."

Mao Lilan denied Suzuki Sonoko: "I started following Mr. Hojo when she started the online serialization, and I am a loyal fan of her. Because it is a mystery novel, when I don't understand some clues, I will ask Shinichi for help."

"Xinyi can guess correctly every time, but when he sees the ending of some cases, he always frowns. Maybe he doesn't like it..."

"Is that so?" Suzuki Sonoko turned to Kudo Shinichi.

Kudo Shin nodded: "I don't like it very much."

He admired some of the techniques in "Detective Today's Son", which were fancy and imaginative, but he didn't like the concepts revealed in it.

It is true that Sherlock Holmes and another great detective Poirot did let criminals go under special circumstances.Even in "Curtain", Poirot was unable to punish Norton's behind-the-scenes instigator prisoner because of the law, and even planned to kill the other party himself, and then died by refusing to take medicine.

But times are changing, the law is also improving, and private revenge should no longer be popular.If everyone sets up their own private execution ground, society will be in chaos.

Moreover, Kyoko's ideas are even more extreme. She not only supports private revenge, but also supports homogenous revenge - you kill my parents, and if I don't kill you, I will kill your parents.

Such an act of angering innocent people, coupled with the negative news about the author circulating on the Internet... Kudo Shinichi could never stand to watch this work.

On the contrary, Mao Lilan liked it more, because Toyoka Hojo was a female writer and her descriptions of love were more delicate and touching. She liked the interaction between Kyoko and her sweetheart very much.

"I didn't expect that. I thought you would like all mystery works..." Suzuki Sonoko was equally clear about Kudo Shinichi's reasoning madness. She suddenly paused and raised her finger to the sky: "What's up there?!"

"!!"

Following her exclamation, Kudo Shinichi looked up.

The next second, his eyes widened in shock - he saw a figure falling from the top floor of the shopping mall opposite, smashing the glass extending outward on the first floor, and then fell heavily to the street!
"Whoa-"

"boom!!"

The sound of shattering glass and the sound of falling were intertwined, and the nearby crowd was stunned for a second before letting out high-pitched screams.

Many passers-by were hit by broken glass flying down from above, and the scene was extremely chaotic.

Kudo Shinichi looked serious and thrust the book into Mao Lilan's hand: "Xiaolan, call the ambulance and call the police quickly!!"

"Xinyi?!"

Kudo Shinichi ignored Mao Lilan calling him from behind, crossed the road and ran towards the crowd, while mentally recalling the nearest hospital and various first aid methods.

The ground was full of glass fragments, and he would be scratched if he was not careful. Kudo Shinichi ignored these, stepped on the glass and struggled to push through the crowd, and finally squeezed to the front.

"How about it……"

However, before he finished speaking, the scene in front of him stunned him again.

——There was nothing in front of him.

There were no bodies, no seriously injured people, and there wasn't even a large pool of blood on the ground. Those sporadic blood stains all fell from other injured people.

"........."

Kudo Shinichi stared blankly, unable to tell whether the scene just now was an illusion or whether the other party really disappeared out of thin air.

----

The coffee shop on the second floor was also in chaos. Many people were sticking to the transparent curtain wall, looking down one by one.

"what's the situation?"

"Did someone jump off the building just now?"

"But there's no body down there! ...By the way, a book signing for detective novels is being held opposite. Isn't this a magic trick by the organizer?"

"The magic show will smash all the glass? And injure so many people?"

"It's so miserable. Fortunately, I came up in time..." Everyone was talking about it. These chaotic voices had nothing to do with Aoyagi Binguang. It was only after hearing the words "no body" that his expression changed subtly.

He turned his head and looked outside. Those people who were suspected to be public security police were also shocked by this turn of events... No, the expressions on their faces were not surprise, but more of annoyance as if they had caught a prey and escaped.

The man wearing a communication headset stretched out his hand to press the headset, and the other person told him something. He opened his mouth and said "Received", and then turned to the other people.

——Operation failed, evacuate now.

They did not watch the excitement like ordinary people did, and quickly left the place, completely unaware that a line of sight was looking at them not far away.

Now Qingliu Binguang was completely sure that they were public security police.

Japanese public security police are not ordinary criminal police. They are a kind of secret police who are usually responsible for national security and counterintelligence and other intelligence work.Most of the Japanese undercover agents sent into the organization are public security police.

Qingliu Binguang looked away, and suddenly he felt the phone in his pocket vibrate.

He thought it was from the skill clone and that something happened to Rabbit.When he opened it, he found it was a sender that he had not expected, but was not surprised by.

[At 8 o'clock tomorrow night, go to the Rattlesnake Bar after cross-dressing. I have something for you. ——Gin】

【receive……】

Aoyagi Binguang thought about Gin's level of face blindness - in a certain mission, another girl accidentally changed her hair style to the same as the target, and he almost shot her - and gave a kind reminder.

[...I will go over in disguise and give you a surprise. You must recognize me. 】

Aoyagi Binguang did not type in his code name. Even the code names of undercover agents sent out by the organization must be kept confidential and will not be used in correspondence.

Gin didn't reply.

……

Because of an accident, an ambulance came to take away the injured, and the police came to investigate. The book signing was forced to be cancelled.

Aoyagi Binguang didn't take notes. He waited in the coffee shop for another hour, but the skill clone or the rabbit never sent him a message.

He looked outside at the sky and felt that the mall might be closed if he waited any longer, so he took the initiative to send an inquiry email to another mobile phone.

【How about it? 】

【He has returned. 】

"...?"

Qingliu Binguang was a little surprised. Since he was back, why didn't either of them notify him?
Soon, the clone sent him another email.

[The rabbit is not in the right state. It’s best to come and pick him up quickly. 】

Seeing this sentence, Qingliu Binguang stood up immediately.He deleted the email as he walked toward the men's room.

There was still no one in this remote bathroom. He walked to the only locked door, raised his hand and knocked lightly: "Are you in there?"

There is no response inside.

A few seconds later, Aoyagi Binguang's cell phone made a beeping sound, which was the notification sound of a message received in the system group chat.

Almost at the same time, a wave of memories flooded into his brain - the skill clone in the compartment took the initiative to cancel the skill - Aoyagi Binguang instantly knew everything that had happened here in the past two hours.It turned out that the rabbit came back half an hour ago.

The door slowly opened, and Rabbit was sitting on the toilet in his human form, his hands hanging limply on one side, as if the opening of the door exhausted all his remaining strength.

"what happened?"

Seeing that there was no one around, Qingliu Binguang asked directly.

Under Aoyagi Binguang's gaze, the teammate in front of him shrank little by little and turned back into the form of a black rabbit.

[…I’ll tell you the details after I get back. 】

[I may have thought too simply before...]

(End of this chapter)