Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

When Jinpei Matsuda heard something was wrong, he rushed back to the bar.

The bar was in a mess.

Amid the deafening music, the crowd stopped dancing and reveling. Colorful lights shone on them and they ran outside screaming and crying, all huddled together.

Thick, choking smoke filled the entire space.

Jinpei Matsuda did not run away. He tried his best to walk in the opposite direction of the crowd. He quickly recalled the map he had seen before and rushed to the fire-fighting equipment installed inside, while shouting to help guide the crowd.

His sunglasses had been thrown aside long ago, and he gritted his teeth and looked around.

There are too many people here! And the visibility is very dim! If this continues, there might be a stampede!

The worse the situation, the calmer Jinpei Matsuda could be. Soon, he noticed something was wrong.

The smell of smoke is wrong.

As a member of the explosive ordnance disposal team, Jinpei Matsuda was much more familiar with the smell of gunpowder smoke than ordinary criminal police, and he found that the smell of the smoke was wrong.

Not a fire.

——This thick smoke is caused by smoke bombs!

Almost instantly, he reacted and shouted into the headset:

"Oda, has Kotomine come out of the bathroom?!"

"No... ahem, I don't know!" the other party answered loudly, "I haven't seen her!"

Matsuda Jinpei's face darkened and he changed direction. He took out his cell phone and checked the direction of the transmitter, confirming that he was still in the women's restroom, and ran towards it.

"boom!"

The bathroom door slammed aside and Jinpei Matsuda stood at the door.

He saw the cosmetics on the sink that had not been collected in time, the women's bag thrown on the ground, and...

The transmitter was thrown into the pool.

The transmitter is disguised as a brooch with delicate petals on it, which become crystal clear when washed by the water.

Jinpei Matsuda looked at the single rooms at the back again. The doors were almost all open and there was no one inside.

Kotomine China is gone.

"Da da……"

When Jinpei Matsuda heard footsteps, he turned his head and looked towards the corridor.

Baijiu stood there, his face as pale as paper.

……

Outside the bar, the police guarding the entrances and exits were at a loss.

They saw the door open and the people inside rushed out like crazy. They couldn't stop them, so they could only try to see if there was a red-haired person inside, but they found none.

A woman wearing glasses and a silk scarf, a shirt and a tight skirt walked past them, holding another person in her hand.

The man's head was completely drooped, as if he had no consciousness at all, and his long, greasy but inferior hair, like that of a Barbie doll, hung down on his shoulders.

"It's okay... We've already escaped. I'll take you home right away..."

A policeman heard the comfort, glanced at them, and then looked away when he saw that neither of them had a striking hair color.

The woman supported her companion and walked forward.

She moved very quickly, and even though she was carrying an unconscious person, she didn't walk much slower than the others.

She came to an alley where a modest car was parked. She opened the door, threw her companion in, and casually grabbed the drooping head.

A brown wig fell off, revealing a bright red underneath.

Binga, who was wearing women's clothes, smiled triumphantly. He turned his head to look at the bar that was thrown into chaos by the smoke bomb, without any guilt in his heart.

He got into the driver's seat, started the car quickly and drove towards an organization's base, and sent an email to Rum.

[I caught it. ——Pinga]

The car drove onto the road, Binga paid attention to the movements of the woman next to him, and Rum quickly responded to him.

[Don’t make a mistake! —Rum]

Binga knew that his boss would sometimes hesitate - for example, if there were many ordinary people around the target and he couldn't hit the target accurately, he would temporarily stop - he replied confidently.

[She is wearing a transmitter! There is no mistake! - Pinga]

Ordinary people wouldn’t carry a transmitter on their bodies. Wearing this little thing while drinking, her identity must be extraordinary!

Binga thought confidently.

He would ask her what Rum wanted to ask! No matter what it took!

……

Two hours later, at the organization's base, Binga met the second most hated person in his organization.

"Rum asked me to help."

The blond, dark-skinned Bourbon glanced at Binga's bloody fingers and gave a mocking smile.

"It seems you didn't get anything out of her."

Binga gritted his teeth and said, "Shut up, Bourbon! I caught him!"

"I know you made a lot of noise in the bar."

Before coming here, Toru Amuro learned from the news that a stampede almost occurred in a bar in the Minato Ward - thick smoke inexplicably rose inside the bar and the police found smoke bombs there.

This is the organization's style of doing things. It seems to be low-key, but in fact it does not care about the lives of innocent people at all. Even if there are some concerns, it is because they are worried about the police's follow-up investigation, not about caring about other people's lives.

——This is the reason why he tried his best to defeat them.

Binga glared at him angrily, but reluctantly took him to the interrogation room.

The interrogation room was at the innermost part of the base. As soon as the door opened, Toru Amuro saw a woman tied to a chair.

She had short, bright red hair and looked dishevelled. She might have been very beautiful, but now she looked nothing like a human being.

Toru Amuro heard low whimpering, but no clear sound came out.

Binga temporarily blocked her mouth to prevent her from biting off her tongue before making sure she was willing to confess. After all, her hands could no longer write.

Toru Amuro had no sympathy. After joining the organization, he had seen more and more miserable corpses.

He just inexplicably felt that this woman looked a little... familiar.

As he began to recall, the woman who was suspected to be the mistress of the organization's third-in-command may have heard the noise. She raised her head and looked at the two of them.

At this moment, Toru Amuro saw her face clearly.

She saw him clearly too.

Those eyes filled with tears and fear widened, as if someone had lit a fire in the darkest place, and suddenly an intense light burst out.

Amuro Toru just stood there in a daze.

It was as if someone had poured a bucket of ice water over his head; every drop of blood in his body was cold.

He recognized her.

She is his classmate Hakubato's girlfriend, Kotomine China.

She recognized him, too.

——This woman, who was rescued from kidnappers by him and a few friends a few years ago and had seen him in the police academy uniform with her own eyes, recognized him as Furuya Rei.

"What's wrong, Bourbon?"

Binga, who came along, noticed that Kotomine China suddenly began to struggle, and he looked at Amuro Toru who was motionless beside him.

"Do you know this woman?"

Chapter 99 The Sixth Victim

Toru Amuro has asked for leave.

Rabbit heard the news during the last music class of the morning, where the second-year students in the regular department - Aoyagi Akimitsu was still substituting for the teacher - were discussing the matter after class.

"Mr. Amuro didn't come today?"

Aoyagi Binkou stopped the students who were discussing.

"Yes."

One of the girls who was about to walk out the door stopped. Maybe she knew that Aoyagi Akimitsu and Amuro Toru had a good relationship, so she said a little more.

"He suddenly asked for leave this morning. The homeroom teacher came in to inform us to change classes, and then we found out that Mr. Amuro hadn't been here the whole morning."

Another added: "But he said that Mr. Amuro is not in serious trouble and might be back in the afternoon."

Aoyagi Akimichi nodded and watched the student leave.

After they left, he began to tidy up the desks and chairs in the classroom, and the system pop-up window quietly appeared beside him.

Rabbit lay on the piano, not urging Aoyagi Binguang to go to the cafeteria, his mind was full of students' words. He was curious why Amuro Toru asked for half a day off.

Is it for the mission?

Public security or organization?

...It can't be for personal reasons. He heard from his classmates that Amuro Toru was very responsible in every job. Even if he was just working as a waiter in a coffee shop, he would never be absent without reason.

Rabbit was full of doubts. He looked up at Aoyagi Binguang and found that he didn't seem to care at all about Amuro Tohru's request for leave.

Aoyagi Akimitsu was straightening a slightly crooked table, putting the chairs back in place, and tidying up the entire classroom - he was also taking his job as a teacher seriously.

He quickly cleaned up the entire classroom and returned to the rabbit.

[Angry: I won't go to the cafeteria today. I'll just eat the tuna sandwich I brought this morning. Is that ok?]

Although there was no one around, he always communicated with Rabbit through group chat to be on the safe side.

The rabbit was about to reply when he sneezed.