Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

Good news for Ai: Gin doesn't know she defected

Bad news for Ai: the one chasing her has been replaced by Curacao, whose facial recognition ability is far different from Gin's.

Chapter 273 Heroine and Hero

Children have a good ability to recover. After just a few days, Edogawa Conan returned to school in full spirit.

Mao Lilan, who had been worried about him these days, finally breathed a sigh of relief, and even felt better when going to school.

Suzuki Sonoko, who was sitting in the row behind her, was taking out her first-period textbook. Seeing her smiling and relaxed look, she couldn't help but ask, "You seem to be in a good mood today. Is there anything good going on?"

"Conan's foot has finally recovered." Mao Lilan happily shared the news with her.

"That's good."

Suzuki Sonoko was also very happy. She invited her best friend and this little kid to her sister's party, but a murderer appeared and chased and hacked them. She felt quite sorry about it.

After being happy about this, she remembered another thing: "Xiaolan, is your father free this weekend?"

Mao Lilan thought for a moment and said uncertainly: "His commission to investigate the affair has not been completed yet. I'm not sure if he has time... What can I do for you?"

"This Saturday is the opening ceremony of our family's Osaka Museum of Art, and he wants to invite you to attend," said Suzuki Sonoko.

Mao Lilan was a little confused. She and Sonoko were good friends, but the two fathers were not familiar with each other.

Suzuki Sonoko noticed her expression and lowered her voice and said, "Actually, your father's reasoning in the hospital a few days ago was on the news. My father saw it and he was full of praise for that reasoning. It just so happened that there was a problem at the art museum, so he wanted to ask him to investigate it."

"What's the problem?" Mao Lilan's doubts increased instead of decreased.

"The security of the art museum was triggered the night before yesterday," explained Suzuki Sonoko, "but when others rushed over, only one security guard was knocked unconscious nearby."

"That's the Eastern European Pavilion, which mainly displays items from the Russian dynasty. Nothing was lost, and no one was killed. After the security guard woke up, he couldn't tell whether he fell accidentally or was knocked unconscious. There was no way to call the police, so we wanted to ask a detective to check the situation."

Mao Lilan finally understood the whole story after hearing this: "I will tell my dad."

"If you go, you can bring Conan with you. He's so young, and he may have never been to Osaka before. I'll invite you to go out and play while they talk about business."

Suzuki Sonoko finished speaking with a smile. Suddenly, her eyes turned and glanced at a table not far from them.

Mao Lilan looked over and the smile on her face disappeared.

That's Kudo Shinichi's position.

"That guy...still no news?"

Suzuki Sonoko, who was also one of her best friend's childhood friends and knew clearly what her best friend felt, also smiled a little less.

Mao Lilan shook her head silently.

"No. He hasn't contacted me in the past few days."

……

At the end of the day's classes, Mao Lilan and Suzuki Sonoko said goodbye at the street corner and went home alone.

"I'm coming back—huh?"

She pushed open the door of the office on the second floor and stared at the empty room.

Kogoro Mouri has been coming home late these days because he is investigating an affair. It is understandable that he is not home, but why hasn't Conan, a primary school student, come back earlier than her?

Mao Lilan casually put her schoolbag on the sofa and went to pick up the garbage left by Mao Li Kogoro before he left.

Just as she was putting away some of the developed photos, her cell phone suddenly rang.

[Sister Xiaolan, I'm going out to play with my friends tonight and may be back late. You don't have to wait for me for dinner. - Conan]

Mao Lilan put down the photo and typed a reply.

[Don’t run around if your feet are not well. Go out and play in a few days. — Mao Lilan]

[Sorry, this is a special situation. My friend is in trouble. I will be back as soon as possible! - Conan]

"..."

Mao Lilan frowned and sent a few more words, but was blocked by the other party one by one.

This made her feel strangely familiar.

Seeing that she couldn't persuade him to come back, and not knowing where he was, Mao Lilan had no choice but to give up. She put away her phone, looked at the photos on the table, and planned to find a suitable storage book to temporarily store them, because there was no room in the drawer.

She walked to the cabinet on the other side, raised her hand and took down a book, only to find out when she opened it that it was wrong - this book had already been used.

Inside were her own photos, from when she was a baby until now. Besides her, the people in the photos included her, her parents, Sonoko, her past teachers, and...

Mao Lilan's gaze paused, and even her breathing seemed to stop at that moment.

It was a photo with a magician.

——It was taken ten years ago, when she and Shinichi took the photo together.

She stared at the childish, familiar yet somewhat strange face and did not speak for a long time.

……

"I am back."

Conan Edogawa pushed open the door of the office. His tone was not as relaxed as usual. If you listened carefully, you could hear a hint of heaviness.

He was indeed in a bad mood.

It’s hard to describe what happened today.

He had been resting in the office for the past few days and hadn't even contacted his doctor. He only went to school today, and today, a transfer student named Huihara Ai came to his class.

Ayumi enthusiastically invites her to join the Junior Detective Team, saying there will be a secret surprise. Edogawa Conan is still wondering what the surprise is (did he not come up with something new during his absence?), when they receive a commission from the next class.

The classmate's brother disappeared, and before he disappeared, he saw a woman in black.

After meeting Aoyagi Akimitsu that day, Edogawa Conan realized that not all people in black were members of the organization, but because their behavior was suspicious, he was still very concerned and followed the clues all the way to the newspaper office.

It turned out that it was just an ordinary counterfeit money gang, and there was no organization among the prisoners. Wearing black clothes was purely coincidental. They were also scolded by the strange police who rushed over for their reckless behavior.

However, just when his hopes were dashed and he had no choice but to send the transfer student home, Huiyuan Ai gave him a big surprise -

She is a member of the organization, codenamed "Shirley", and like him, her body has become smaller.

Conan Edogawa was trapped by APTX4869 and couldn't go home. He was very angry at the drug maker, but at the same time he knew that the organization was hunting her down and if he drove her away he would kill her, so he could only accept the reality that the number of organization members around him would increase by 1.

——"The people in the organization are afraid that I will be exposed, so they will take the initiative... Just like Professor Hirota, you should have seen his news, right? He was killed just because he accidentally received a drug disk..."

Conan Edogawa had seen the accident at Nanyang University, but at that time he didn't realize that it was done by an organization.

As he gained a deeper understanding of the organization's ruthlessness, he decided to cover his vest more tightly.

With such a complicated feeling, Edogawa Conan returned to the office. However, after shouting the familiar "I'm back", he did not get any response.

He looked at Mao Lilan who was sitting on the sofa. Seeing that she was motionless, he walked over curiously: "Sister Xiaolan, what's wrong with you...?"

Mao Lilan shuddered and finally came back to her senses.

"It's okay, I'm thinking about other things." She looked at him and smiled: "Dad just called and said he might not come back tonight, so it's just the two of us having dinner... By the way, Conan, do you want to go to Osaka?"

"Osaka?"

Conan Edogawa originally wanted to ask him why he didn't come back, but then he heard Mouri Ran suddenly mention the famous city in Kansai, which he felt a little strange.

"It's Sonoko. She invited us to attend the opening ceremony of her art gallery. You..."

Mao Lilan looked into his eyes quietly.

"...You, do you want to go with me?"

She swallowed the words she was about to ask and asked the question with a smile on her face.

……

At the same time, Mihua Central Hospital.

Kogoro Mouri was outside the ward at the end of the corridor on the fourth floor, flipping through the photos one by one with his camera, looking very unhappy.

The air was filled with a faint smell of blood. The old man on the hospital bed was dead with a bloody hole in his right eye. A large patch of blood exploded on the wall behind him. The two dead bodyguards on the ground were also shot in the right eyes.

Aoyagi Binkou stood in the ward. Under the watchful eyes of two police officers beside him, he calmly put away his phone.

"No doubt about it," he said. "It's the wanted criminal on the Red Notice, Scott, who escaped from the FBI's roundup two years ago and whose whereabouts are still unknown."

----

Xiaolan will know Conan's identity as soon as possible.

I am confused about his concealment in the original book. If he was hiding somewhere else, he should have concealed the truth from the Maori family, but now he is staying at their house, and Maori Kogoro was almost in danger of being sniped, but he still didn't say it...

Chapter 274: No Magicians at the End of the Century

Saturday morning, Shin-Osaka Station.

Perhaps because it was a weekend, there were many passengers in the station. When the Mori father and daughter and Edogawa Conan took the escalator to the first floor exit, they immediately saw the person who was waiting for them at the station leaning against the guardrail.

"Xiaolan—over here, over here!"

Suzuki Sonoko waved at them repeatedly to attract their attention.

"Sonoko!" As soon as Mao Lilan saw her friend, she immediately went to greet him. "Sorry, did I keep you waiting for a long time?"

"No, my dad's secretary saw the time the train would arrive and sent me here. I only had to wait for less than five minutes."

Suzuki Sonoko said this while looking at Kogoro Mouri and Conan Edogawa. Since they were only traveling for two days, the three of them didn't bring much luggage.

She smiled and said, "Come out quickly, he's still waiting outside. He'll take us directly to the art gallery later."

The group left the platform and boarded the car sent by Suzuki Group to pick them up.

This is a six-seater black Toyota Century. The two rows of seats at the back face each other, allowing passengers to communicate freely.

Maori Kogoro, who rented a car, sat in the last row. As soon as he got in, he kept looking around the interior and exclaimed, "This car is really good. It's worthy of being from the Suzuki Group."

"Because it's a special day, tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the art museum." Suzuki Sonoko was used to such flattery, "and this time it was my father who specially invited you to come, so we can't be rude."

Conan Edogawa sat opposite Ran Mouri and listened to their conversation.

He had a good impression of Chairman Suzuki, who was a very easy-going person and had been in the high position for nearly 20 years without any problems. In fact, the last commission he received before he became a minor was introduced to him by Chairman Suzuki.