Stay away from Conan.

At this moment, for Ai, although Vermouth had answered her question, the content of her answer and the series of questions she asked could only conclude that the organization had indeed planted a spy within the police force. As for asking her to eliminate that person?

Obviously, this is something Ai can't do on her own. At most, from her own perspective, after confirming this with Gao Yuan, she can only see if Gao Yuan has a good way to cooperate with the police to find and arrest the other party while keeping it from the organization inside the police.

However, this point also has some problems—

After all, the organization can't just leave the people they've planted within the police force alone, can it?
Therefore, if that person's identity becomes questionable, it might trigger further action from the organization, making this matter quite complicated.

Therefore, after seeing the content of Vermouth's reply email, Ai's expression grew increasingly serious. However, looking at her older sister Akemi Miyano's reaction on the computer screen beside her, and her smile, Ai asked with some confusion—

"Sister, what's your opinion on this?"

After all, Ai noticed that her older sister, Akemi Miyano, seemed to have a different idea after seeing Vermouth's reply email.

Upon hearing Ai's question, Miyano Akemi naturally responded:
"At least... for now, although no further details have been revealed, judging from Vermouth's quick and proactive reply to the email, she seems genuinely eager to contact you and obtain your assistance in achieving some goal. Since she also has something to ask for, there's naturally room for negotiation..."

Starting with the fact that Vermouth replied to the message so quickly, Miyano Akemi analyzed Vermouth's possible attitude and then expanded on her thinking, continuing:

"In this light, perhaps the statement that Vermouth 'can be trusted when necessary' that Father and the others believed back then had a necessary underlying logic. At least now, based on all the things we know about Vermouth's actions, her purpose may be different from what we previously knew about Gin and the others!"

Hearing what Akemi Miyano said, Ai Haibara fell into thought, and then asked Akemi Miyano about the current situation:

"Then... Sister, what should we do?"

After all, given the current situation, Vermouth may have something to ask for, but our side doesn't actually have enough countermeasures, and there's no guarantee that Vermouth won't suddenly give us the antidote again, like she did at the lookout restaurant before.

In response to Ai's question, Akemi Miyano thought for a moment and then said:

"Let's tell Gao Yuan about this after he wakes up. Since this is a negotiation, we need to have enough leverage, and Gao Yuan should be able to find the guy hiding inside the police force. As long as we can confirm that person's information, then the initiative will be in our hands!"

Hearing this, Ai turned to look at Gao Yuan, who had already fallen asleep, then turned back to the video chat camera. Just as she was about to nod vigorously at Miyano Akemi, Miyano Akemi suddenly mentioned:

"Oh, right, now send a reply email..."

"Then I asked:"
"Is that person no longer of value to you?"

……

"It has no value to 'me'... rather than asking 'It has no value to the organization'..."

Seeing the reply from Gao Yuan and the others that she received in her email so quickly, Vermouth's lips curled up slightly, seemingly not too surprised that they had realized the problem so quickly.

After all, it's understandable that they would think that their behavior is inconsistent with the organization's usual style.

Therefore, Vermouth didn't need to think much about it and simply replied with one sentence—...

"not necessarily?"

After she asked that question in response to her sister's words, Ai Haibara received a reply with just this one word a short while later, which confused her even more.

After all, Vermouth's initial question seemed to be asking how to deal with the person the organization had placed inside the police force. Judging from her attitude, it seemed that the person's fate had no impact on Vermouth.

But now she replied with "maybe not," which puzzled Ai.

Meanwhile, upon seeing this reply, Miyano Akemi pondered for a moment, then, seemingly not entirely surprised, but rather showing some interest in the matter, replied:
"I see... It seems that perhaps Vermouth is targeting someone else entirely..."

……

"Although the police set a trap last night at Officer Shiratori's sister's engagement party based on their prediction of the perpetrator's actions, thus catching the suspect, but..."

"I always felt that this matter was probably not that simple."

"Just like Mr. Akechi mentioned last night, since the murderer knew that the police initially interpreted Officer Narasawa's action of clutching his chest before his death in the first case as an allusion to the police manual, and thus deliberately created a scene in the second case to guide the police to interpret it according to the police manual, then obviously, how did the murderer know the police's internal judgment on the first case in such a short period of time between the two cases?"

"Could it be that the murderer was at the scene? Or did he have a way of knowing information within the police force?"
"If that's the case, is it possible that the murderer knew about the so-called setup last night beforehand and thus turned the tables on the killer?"

Inside the Mouri Detective Agency, Conan was looking down, recalling the events of the previous night. He clearly had doubts about the outcome of the incident. A day had passed, and he wondered how the police investigation was progressing, whether they had already closed the case by treating the suspect arrested the previous night as an indisputable criminal.
Conan couldn't help but feel a little worried, as he also felt that there were still many unanswered questions about this matter.

However, now, the more troublesome thing is...

"What are you doing here again, kid?"

Just then, after the new semester started and school had already let out, Ran returned to the agency with a boy wearing a Teitan High School uniform. Upon seeing the boy Ran brought back, Kogoro Mouri immediately said something with a displeased expression—

Because this person was Hondo Eisuke, with whom he had previously had contact.

Meanwhile, Conan, who was meeting Hondo Eisuke for the first time, also recognized him the moment he saw him.

After all, Conan knew in advance that a boy named Hondo Eisuke, who looked very much like Rena Mizunashi, had visited the agency, so when he saw the boy's appearance, Conan immediately knew his identity.

but……

What's this guy doing here? (End of Chapter)