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

Edogawa Conan returned safely to Beihua.

Although the spider ran away halfway, the Metropolitan Police Department dispatched additional police officers to search the sea and nearby areas, and the others did not stay in the castle.

He came back in the same car with Maori Kogoro, and Aoyagi Akimitsu was also in the car. When they arrived at the detective agency, he was let out first, and then the car drove to the Metropolitan Police Department.

It was only 7:20 in the evening and the coffee shop was still open. The windows of the Mouri Detective Agency on the second floor were dark, and Mouri Ran might have gone back to her room on the third floor to rest.

Conan Edogawa looked at the dark detective agency on the second floor, but instead of going up, he turned around and ran quickly towards another street.

……

"Doc—uh, why is it you?"

At Dr. Agasa's house at 2-22, Beika-cho, Edogawa Conan looked at the person who opened the door for him in surprise.

Huihara Ai glanced at him expressionlessly, then turned and walked into the room: "The doctor is out, I am the only one who can open the door for you."

Edogawa Conan put on his slippers and followed her to the living room: "Do you know where he went?"

"I don't know." Huiyuan Ai sat back on the sofa, staring at the TV screen, not paying attention to Edogawa Conan's reaction, "He went out after receiving a phone call, and said he might come back late today."

Come back later?

Edogawa Conan was puzzled. Was he going to meet a friend? This was not right. Most of Dr. Agasa's friends were researchers who were about his age. They would not suddenly ask to meet at night.

The possibility of being held accountable for product errors is not high. Although his experiments often explode, he is very responsible for those products. The products he sells must have been tested many times to confirm their safety, and there will be no accidents...

Edogawa Conan stood there guessing where his neighbor might have gone. Haibara Ai didn't say anything, and for a moment the only sound in the room was the TV.

After thinking for a long time, Edogawa Conan chose to give up because there were too few clues. He turned his head to look at the TV, and he was a little surprised when he saw the picture on the screen.

"'Day and Night'?" He recognized the characters in the drama. "Are you also interested in detective dramas?"

Haibara Ai glanced at him, surprised at his easy-going attitude. After all, when they first met a few days ago, he said that it was impossible to understand someone who made poison and killed people.

"…Yoshida and his friends came here yesterday and recommended this TV series to me. They also told me that they knew the original author of the series." She said lightly.

Edogawa Conan grasped the point: "Original author? How do they know him?"

"Yoshida said they saw him almost being crushed by steel bars and saved him once." Huihara Ai said calmly, "After the author knew they were from the Junior Detective Team, he planned to get material from them."

"That's it..."

Conan Edogawa met the author in the hospital not long ago, and the other party told him the reason for his hospitalization. Unexpectedly, the kind-hearted people who saved him were those children.

The Young Detective Team doesn't encounter many murder cases, and many of them are close calls. Using them as material means that Mr. Lu Ren's future creations will move from criminal investigation and reasoning to adventure stories, which is a bit of a pity.

After sighing that a favorite author might have changed his career, Edogawa Conan looked at Haibara Ai, and unexpectedly his eyes met hers.

Huihara Ai studied his expression and said, "I remember you went to Osaka this weekend. You just came back from there and came to see the doctor. Did something happen?"

Edogawa Conan fell silent.

He came to see the doctor to discuss Xiaolan - they have been childhood sweethearts for many years. As they spend more and more time together, she will sooner or later doubt her identity. How should he respond then?

However, when he ran to find the only person who knew his identity, the other party was not there; instead, the person who created the drug that could make people smaller was waiting for him here.

"…It's okay. I just came to check it out."

He currently does not trust the traitor from this organization, so naturally he will not tell her about this.

Haibara Ai saw through his concealment and fell silent.

Edogawa Conan turned around awkwardly: "Since the doctor is not here, I'll leave first..."

Halfway through his walk, he suddenly stopped.

Haibara Ai also noticed his pause. She saw the shrunken famous detective turn back again with obvious hesitation and embarrassment on his face.

"Um, Huiyuan, there is something I don't know if you know..."

“?” Huibara Ai was puzzled.

"…Are there any police undercover agents in that organization?"

Edogawa Conan finally asked.

This is what he thought of after hearing about Aoyagi Akimitsu's experience. The Yakuza is legal in Japan, but the police will secretly send people to investigate some organizations that are excessive or cross the line. The research power of that organization is so strong that it can produce a drug that shrinks people, which should have attracted the attention of official agencies.

Huiyuan Ai looked at him steadily. After a while, she slowly said, "Yes."

Edogawa Conan was delighted, but before he could ask, he heard the other party say: "Three years ago, the undercover identity of a Japanese public security officer was exposed, and he escaped from the organization and has been hunted by the organization ever since."

"…and my sister's boyfriend."

"After he met my sister, he joined the organization with this identity and got a code name. Then two years ago, his identity was exposed. The organization found out that he was an undercover agent of the FBI, and he also escaped."

Edogawa Conan was startled: "...FBI?"

"The organization's power is far greater than you think." Huiyuan Ai said, "The United States, Britain, Germany, Canada... They have operations in many countries."

"I don't know why you came to see the doctor, but there is one thing you must understand, Kudo."

Haibara Ai looked at him with cold eyes.

"——We are dangerous if we are discovered by the organization. If we are discovered by some official agency personnel and their upper-level bigwigs and know that we are successful people who have achieved 'rejuvenation', we and the people around us will also be in danger."

"Hide your identity well, don't forget it."

……

Conan Edogawa returns to the detective agency.

Along the way, he was thinking about Haibara Ai's words, his own identity and her reminder... His mind was spinning as if it was about to explode, until he saw the lights on the second floor of the office, he came back to his senses.

He glanced at the clock on his phone and found that it was almost 8 o'clock. The time he spent going to and from Dr. Agasa's house was actually longer than the time he spent on the bus from Yokosuka.

Not knowing whether Kogoro Mouri had returned, Conan Edogawa went up to the second floor and pushed open the door of the office.

The person waiting there was actually Mao Lilan.

She was wearing the same clothes she wore during the day, leaning against the window, looking up at the moon hanging high in the dark night, the expression on her face was very, very calm.

"Sister Xiaolan?"

Edogawa Conan called out suspiciously, closed the door and walked towards her.

"——You ran away again this afternoon."

Edogawa Conan suddenly froze.

He almost forgot that he was originally going to leave the meeting room with Xiaolan, Sonoko and the others. It was when he went downstairs that he became more and more unable to let go of the case, so he found an excuse to sneak back and happened to hear their plan.

When arriving at Yokosuka Station, Mao Lilan asked him again if he wanted to come back with her. At that time, he had already been allowed by Mr. Aoyagi and Mr. Furuya to join the treasure hunting team, so he rejected her without much thought.

…So, she came back alone again.

"You told me to go first and come back soon, but I ended up waiting for you there for a long time..."

Ran Mao Li murmured, and every word she said was like a heavy hammer hitting Edogawa Conan's heart. He could even clearly hear the sound of his own eardrum vibrating.

Could it be that she has already...

"Fortunately, when lunch was over and I returned to the hotel room, I saw you again, and you were staying well with your dad."

Mao Lilan smiled at him, but her eyes were filled with tears without her realizing it.

"That's great," she smiled, "You're not like Shinichi."

Conan Edogawa felt his throat blocked: "Xiaolan..."

She really has...

"Dong dong."

There was a sudden knock on the door outside.

Since the door was not closed tightly, it opened naturally after a few gentle knocks. A slightly plump middle-aged woman wearing glasses stood at the door.

"Hello."

She greeted Mao Lilan, but Edogawa Conan's figure was blocked by the desk and she could not see him from her current perspective.

"My name is Edogawa Fumiyo. Excuse me... Is there a child named 'Conan' here?" (End of this chapter)