Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

At the next corner, her light steps came to an abrupt halt.

Not far ahead, at the edge of the halo of light from the streetlights that were not yet fully lit, a figure stood quietly at the boundary between the shadows of the buildings.

The man was dressed entirely in black, wearing a hood with white hair peeking out from under the brim, and his eyes, peering over in the dim light, gleamed with a dangerous crimson light.

She paused for a moment, recognizing that this was Qingze's attire when she first met him at the hospital.

In an instant, a guess that I dared not think about was confirmed, and my heart sank to the bottom.

Before she could think any further, a sense of crisis exploded like an ice pick piercing her skin!

The dark, specially modified muzzle of the gun, like a venomous snake raising its head, precisely locked onto her.

puff!

With a soft click, the tranquilizer dart shot out from the muzzle of the gun like a venomous snake, piercing precisely into her neck!

All of this happened so fast!

He saw it, drew his gun, aimed, and pulled the trigger—his movements were as fast as a ghost, without warning.

Sera Masumi didn't even have time to make any effective defensive or evasive maneuvers.

A sharp pain shot through my neck, and my consciousness receded rapidly like a receding tide.

In the last second before she was completely plunged into darkness, she saw a face grinning with a cold, almost cruel smile in the shadow of the hood.

The schoolbag slipped from her hand and fell to the ground, where Sera Masumi's body slumped limply.

The wired earphones slipped from her ears, bounced a few times on the ground, and were left on the cold floor along with her phone and backpack.

Gin glanced coldly at the girl lying on the ground, then bent down and picked her up without any pity. He turned around, his sharp gaze precisely targeting the surveillance camera on the street corner utility pole.

The surveillance camera silently recorded the scene, clearly capturing the face that wasn't obscured much by the hood.

……

The sky outside the window darkened rapidly, as if being soaked in ink layer by layer, with low-hanging clouds.

Sera Mary sat on the sofa, a strange sense of unease tightening around her like a rope.

It's so late, why hasn't Zhenchun come back yet?

I'd usually be back by now, and even if I wasn't, I'd call or text her beforehand to let her know.

She picked up her phone and dialed her daughter's number again.

The receiver kept ringing with busy signals, each sound a constant reminder of her increasingly tense nerves.

After the third missed call, intense anxiety finally broke through the threshold, turning into a cold alarm bell blaring in my mind.

Without the slightest hesitation, she quickly grabbed her hat and mask, put them on, and draped an inconspicuous coat over her shoulders before heading out.

Night had fallen, and the streetlights began to illuminate the night, casting clusters of dim, lonely yellow light.

With a mother's instincts and an agent's vigilance, Sera Mary quickly searched along the route her daughter was most likely to take home from school.

Finally, on a quiet sidewalk with few pedestrians, her steps faltered and she stopped abruptly!

The light from the streetlights clearly illuminated several things on the ground:

A familiar backpack; next to the backpack is a cell phone with its screen facing down; a white earphone cable meanders out from the phone's port, the other end lying alone on the cold ground.

My heart felt as if it had been instantly gripped by an invisible hand.

Zhenchun is in trouble!

The fact that even the phone and earphones that were in the ears fell out here can only mean one thing—

The attack was so sudden that Masumi didn't even have a chance to react or resist before losing consciousness.

Her gaze swept across the surroundings like a searchlight, and the next second, she locked her eyes on the surveillance camera on the utility pole not far away.

Chapter 437 Koniak?

Public surveillance in Tokyo is not very dense, but here, at this time, there was a camera pointing directly at the scene of the incident.

Not only that... the other party took Zhen Chun away, but so "casually" abandoned these items that clearly belonged to her in a conspicuous place, without even bothering to cover them up or throw them in the trash can.

This was practically like deliberately leaving a mark, intentionally telling her:

Your daughter has been taken away. Look, the clue is right here.

A surge of emotion, a mixture of anger, anxiety, and chilling murderous intent, welled up inside him.

Sera Mary gripped her phone tightly, her face beneath the mask looking extremely pale.

She took a deep breath, quickly stepped forward to pick up her daughter's belongings, and kept her eyes and ears open, alert to any potential dangers.

She didn't linger at the scene; she immediately turned around and disappeared into a narrow alleyway with no surveillance cameras.

In the darkness, she dialed her son's number.

The call was connected almost instantly.

"It's me, something happened to Zhenchun."

Shuichi Akai's heart sank suddenly on the other end of the phone.

We met yesterday, and this happened today.

They moved so fast!

He gripped his phone tightly, his eyes gleaming with a chilling light.

"Location? Situation?"

"On her way home from school, on the south side of the intersection of Beikacho 17th Street, her schoolbag, cell phone, and earphones were abandoned on the ground... There is a CCTV camera at the scene..."

Mary spoke very quickly, “They’re doing this on purpose! They’re provoking us, or… they’re fishing for us.”

"They're trying to catch me."

Shuichi Akai understood the other party's intentions almost immediately.

Openly abducting someone under surveillance and leaving such an obvious "scene" goes beyond the scope of ordinary kidnapping or revenge; it is more like a blatant declaration of war and enticement.

Although this possibility had been anticipated, the action was indeed swift.

“Since they want to lure me out with Zhen Chun, they won’t hurt her easily before they achieve their goal. I’ll try to retrieve the surveillance footage from that time period now.”

……

"Brother, should we wake her up and try to get something out of her?"

Vodka drove the car and looked at Gin in the passenger seat next to him.

Gin has now returned to his original appearance, but he hasn't changed out of his black combat suit that allows for easy movement.

He held a lit cigarette between his fingers, leaned back in his chair, and didn't even lift his eyelids when he heard this.

"What do you think you can find out from a high school student?"

He took a drag of his cigarette, his voice coming through the thin smoke, cold and indifferent.

Who is Shuichi Akai?

The FBI's ace, a top-notch agent.

Would someone like this casually share information about their work or personal safety with their family?

If he could even fake his own death and escape undetected, it would be even less likely that he would reveal anything else.

Waking someone up for interrogation is a waste of time and may even create more complications.

As for taking revenge on Shuichi Akai by torturing his sister...

Gin exhaled a smoke ring, his expression indifferent.

He's an assassin, not a psychopath.

Venting emotions by harming innocent and vulnerable people is a pathetic trick that only amateurs indulge in.

It is both inefficient and superfluous, and only makes one appear superficial and shallow.

Vodka was stumped by the question and scratched his head: "Oh, right."

What core secrets could a high school girl possibly know? Should I ask her about the scope of the next exam?

He then secretly glanced at Gin's unusual outfit.

Having gotten used to seeing my older brother in his black trench coat that was practically welded to his body, it felt a bit refreshing to suddenly see him in a sharp combat jacket.

Vodka recalled something else and felt somewhat worried:

"Is it okay to leave Koniak's face exposed? If we reveal his identity, that guy will definitely come looking for trouble."

"Trouble?" Gin let out a short, cold laugh through his nose. "Haven't he caused me enough trouble already?"

This is called using their own methods against them.

He remembers clearly the "scapegoat" he was wronged last time, which has now restricted his activities outside.

It's time for Koniak to experience this for himself.

Vodka still doesn't feel quite right.

The main problem is that Koniak has a bad temper...

He was somewhat worried. "Koniak doesn't like doing missions anyway. If he's wanted, won't he have even more reason to avoid them?"

Gin turned his head and glanced at Vodka, a hint of mockery flashing in his eyes.

"Who decided that he has to look like that to go on a mission?"

Vodka fell silent again.

He seems to have developed a stereotype of Koniak, believing that Koniak will always appear with his iconic white hair.

"Big brother, how do we contact Shuichi Akai and lure him into the trap we've prepared?"

Upon hearing this question, Gin glanced at the signal jammer placed on the armrest box and took another drag of his cigarette.

You can't have both shark fin and bear paw.

An assistant's intelligence or loyalty are often mutually exclusive.

The previous one was too clever; he was cunning and had many ideas.

Having learned his lesson, he specifically chose a bottle of vodka as his assistant.

Loyalty is sufficient, but other aspects are lacking.

He tapped his finger on the armrest box. "Do you think that after realizing his relationship with his sister has been exposed, Shuichi Akai won't make some kind of arrangement for his sister?"

While contacting FBI technicians to remotely access the stored records of the surveillance cameras, Shuichi Akai activated the location tracking program.

The map interface on the screen unfolded, but the dots representing the location signal did not light up as expected. There was only a blank grid, glaringly silent.

He took a drag of his cigarette, his expression somber.

Was the location necklace he gave Zhenchun yesterday removed? Or was its signal blocked?

Time was too tight, and in the rush, this was the only insurance we could prepare.

He thought that with Zhen Chun's skills and alertness, he could protect himself without any problems, and even if he encountered danger, he could at least hold out for a while and send out a distress signal...

But I never expected that even the last trace would disappear so completely.

He turned his attention to the electronic map, trying to search for other public or private surveillance footage in the vicinity that might have captured clues, with the location of the incident as the center.

However, Tokyo's surveillance network is not extensive, especially in relatively quiet neighborhoods, where the paths to investigation seem to have been quietly erased by an invisible hand, leaving very few clues.

Half an hour later, the surveillance footage was sent to his email.

He immediately clicked on it, leaning slightly forward.

The video played silently as his gaze followed the black-clad figure intently, watching as the person pulled out a tranquilizer gun, knocked his sister down, then held her in their arms and turned to look at the security camera.

He abruptly pressed the pause button!

In the scene, the white hair under the hood is as white as snow, and the red eyes shimmer eerily in the dim light of dusk, like will-o'-the-wisps burning in the depths of hell.

The face was directly facing the camera, a cold, cruel smile spreading across its lips.

—Koniak?!