Conan: When Shinjiu and Maolilan swap bodies

"Brother Xiu!"

Her voice was filled with the urgency and worry of someone who had survived a close call. But the next second, her steps and words stopped simultaneously.

The moonlight illuminated Shuichi Akai's pale face and the blood on his body, as well as the lifeless figure that he and Cameron were supporting together.

The unfamiliar woman's face, with its short blonde hair, appeared a cold, plaster-like white in the moonlight.

She didn't know her.

But that's precisely why the impact was so direct and chilling.

A living, breathing person who fought alongside his brother has now become a cold, lifeless body, dragged from the corner of death.

And it all started when she revealed her relationship with her brother...

Akai and Cameron silently placed the body aside, their movements carrying an almost ritualistic heaviness.

No words are needed; the smell of rust and gunpowder permeating the air, along with the deathly silence, speaks volumes.

Sera Masumi stood there, feeling the night wind suddenly become biting.

A sharp, almost suffocating sense of guilt gripped her throat.

A living person died because of her.

If she hadn't exposed her relationship with her brother, hadn't been arrested, if she had been stronger, if she had been more vigilant...

This unfamiliar agent might not be here, might not have become a lifeless body...

She became the bait, leading innocent people to their deaths...

Self-blame, guilt, and lingering fear boiled over in an instant, only to be ignited by an even more intense anger and hatred.

For the organization, for those people, and for herself.

She clenched her fists, bit her lower lip hard, her nails digging deep into her palms, and her body trembled slightly.

A steady, powerful hand, tinged with the smell of blood, pressed down on her tense shoulder.

Sera Masumi suddenly looked up and met Akai Shuichi's green eyes.

It was as still as the deep sea, with a kind of almost cruel calmness forged from too many life-and-death experiences.

"Look at her, so innocent."

His voice was low and hoarse, yet every word was clear and unmistakable.

"This is how organizations operate. They have no bottom line and exploit every weakness. There is no room for complacency when dealing with them."

"We have all been prepared to make sacrifices in our fight against them."

"But Masumi, you're still young. You don't need to bear these burdens yet. After this, leave Japan!"

He hadn't anticipated that Gin would impersonate him and appear before Masumi; it was his concealment and mistakes that led to all of this.

Zhenchun's relationship with him has been exposed. If this happens once, it will happen again.

Only by leaving can I guarantee my sister's safety in the future.

Sera Masumi's breath caught in her throat, and tears welled up uncontrollably.

She suppressed a sob in her throat and kept her head down.

Shuichi Akai didn't say anything more, but he pressed down slightly on her shoulder with his hand, the force heavy as if pressing down the unfinished words and the weighty entrustment.

Not far away, Sera Mary stood quietly.

Her petite figure almost blended into the shadows. Her eyes swept over her son's weary profile, then over her daughter's hunched back, and finally landed on the foreign agent she had never met, who had sacrificed himself to save her daughter.

A barely audible sigh was quickly dispersed by the wind.

A car was parked at the edge of the factory area. James, in the driver's seat, looked solemn. When he saw the scene before him, especially the golden patch on the ground, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

He got out of the car, took the first-aid kit, and quickly bandaged Cameron's injuries.

Shuichi Akai's injuries are not too bad, but Cameron's injuries are quite serious.

Sera Mary nodded slightly to Shuichi Akai and led her daughter toward the motorcycle in the shadows by the roadside.

Her identity is difficult to explain, and it is not appropriate for her to stay here any longer.

Zhenchun vigorously wiped her face, removing the wetness and the sob in her throat.

She silently put on the helmet, climbed onto the back seat, hugged her mother tightly around the waist, and buried her face in her mother's thin but straight shoulders and back.

The motorcycle sped into the cold night, and the strong, cold wind immediately whipped against the helmet and clothes like a real whip, making a whooshing sound.

A cold wind rushed into my collar, chilling me to the bone, both physically and mentally.

The night was already very deep, so thick it was almost impenetrable.

Shuichi Akai sat in the car, watching the abandoned steel plant shrink in his field of vision.

They had just come out of it, yet it still looked like a terrifying, dark maw, much like that boundless iceberg lurking in the darkness.

In this confrontation, although they saved Masumi, they lost Judy.

It was a crushing defeat.

He exhaled a puff of white mist and looked up at the moon.

Dark clouds shrouded the moonlight, as if casting a shadow over the road ahead.

Chapter 452 Do you feel like a hero?

The next morning, Ran Mouri was woken up by her alarm clock. She groggily opened her eyes, sat up, and reached for her phone next to her pillow.

There's a photo on my phone that Qingze sent me around 6 a.m.

In the photo, light flows down from the edge of the horizon, spilling over the edge of the sleeping city.

Night had not yet completely faded, but dawn had already peeked out, bringing with it a strange and beautiful sight.

She rubbed her eyes and glanced at the time uncertainly.

So early?

A smile crept onto her lips. She saved the photo and tapped the screen lightly with her fingertips.

The photos are beautiful.

[Aze, you didn't sleep all night, did you?]

She put down her phone and got up to change her clothes. Just as she finished putting on her coat, a notification sound went off.

Your friend is safe.

The short line of words was like a warm hand, gently supporting her heart, which had been hanging in suspense since last night.

She let out a long sigh of relief, walked to the window, and drew back the curtains.

The bright sunlight poured in without reservation, bringing a rare and warm feeling in winter, instantly filling the room.

After breakfast, she walked briskly downstairs with her schoolbag on her back. As she passed the Iroha Sushi restaurant next door, she overheard the chatter of two employees.

"Why did the boss suddenly go on vacation without saying a word?"

"Don't pry into the boss's business, just do your job well."

"That's true... but the boss has been acting strange lately. He doesn't seem to care much about the business, his temper has improved a lot, and he's even changed his old habit of always putting wasabi on his sushi..."

"As long as the salary is paid, who cares if it changes or not."

"You're so boring..."

"That's called being pragmatic."

Ran Mouri unconsciously slowed her pace, feeling as if she had been ignoring something.

She greeted them with a bright smile:

Good morning, Mr. Yamakawa and Mr. Kobayashi!

"Ah, Ms. Mori, good morning!"

"I just heard that Mr. Sun Yat-sen went on a trip?"

"Yeah, I suddenly received a LINE message this morning saying that I'm going to relax and won't be back for about half a month. I also told us not to slack off..." Xiaozhao, the shop assistant, scratched her head.

Ran Mouri nodded, finally grasping what had been overlooked all along.

"Come to think of it, it seems like it's been a while since I've seen Madame Sun Yat-sen."

Iroha Sushi has been here for almost ten years; the two are true old neighbors.

When we meet on ordinary days, we always exchange a few pleasantries.

But it was only at this moment that she suddenly realized that those familiar faces that should have appeared seemed to have disappeared from her sight for some time.

The lightness that had filled Sera Heian's heart vanished at this moment, leaving only a blank emptiness.

"I heard they had a fight recently, and the lady went back to her parents' home," Shanchuan explained.

"I see..."

Lan responded softly, exchanged a few more words, and continued walking toward the school.

The streets remained the same, the sun was warm, but she felt a chill rising from the soles of her feet.

Too many things have happened lately, too many at once: his father was injured and hospitalized, a bomb threat, Shinichi's "death," and the clear feelings between him and Aozawa...

Her mind was in turmoil, almost entirely focused on the important people and things in front of her, leaving her with no energy to notice the subtle changes in her rarely seen neighbors.

Only then did those overlooked details, like fragments sunk to the bottom of the water, rise to the surface of my mind.

She recalled the night she saved Kidd.

She witnessed Kidd making the mask herself.

The mask, which didn't cover the face, lay flat, obscuring the features, but the two photographs used as reference points were now glaringly clear—

Wakita Kanenori and Nakayama Chika.

A terrifying conjecture, accompanied by a chilling sense of reality, crashed into her consciousness.

Unbeknownst to her, while she was being swept along by her own world... something had already happened to the Zhongshan family.

His fist clenched tightly at his side, his nails digging deep into his palm.

She finally realized, albeit belatedly, that the photograph was related to the "substitution" technique.

At that moment, her attention was focused on Kid's gruesome wounds, on playing Aoyama, and on her anxiety about the approaching enemy...

She simply watched helplessly as that photograph slipped past the edge of her mind.

I didn't think about it deeply.

No further questions were asked.

They didn't even glance at it twice.

The backpack strap slipped off her slightly trembling shoulder without her noticing.

If only she had looked one more time back then...

if--

She should have realized it sooner...

Overwhelmed by immense guilt, she felt a tightness in her throat and a stinging sensation in her eyes.

Mr. Sun Yat-sen and Mrs. Sun Yat-sen have met with an accident.

She should have saved them...

She can save them...

but……

She overlooked it.

She did nothing.

The road to school seemed exceptionally long.

Every step I took was treading on the thorns of self-reproach.