Conan: I'm really not the mastermind behind the scenes

The pungent smell of rust made Eto Daizo, who was still on the second floor, go blank.

His world seemed to have turned into a silent movie. Each frame seemed to pass by in an extremely long time. He could not hear what the foreign boy was saying. He could only see his mouth opening and closing, and the blood-red color slowly spreading outward from under his feet.

When Eto Daizo reacted and instinctively wanted to escape, the door behind him suddenly opened and a hand silently rested on his shoulder.

"Why don't you go down?"

A voice exactly the same as the one he just heard sounded behind him.

Jiang Teng Daizo suddenly looked up and saw an identical face appear in front of him.

The foreign boy seemed to be standing behind him as if he had teleported, and he was looking down at him, his panic-stricken and frightened face clearly reflected in his emerald green eyes.

As if he was satisfied with his reaction at the moment, a gentle smile appeared on the boy's face.

"Ahhhh!!!"

Eto Daizo finally couldn't suppress the fear in his heart and screamed.

He waved away the boy's hand and tried to escape. He heard the sound of something flying past, and then he felt a sharp pain in his thigh.

A fruit knife flew from below, slashed across his trousers from bottom to top, leaving a wound more than ten centimeters long on his thigh, and then nailed into the door panel behind him with a thud.

It happened to be stuck on the wooden sign with the name on it, and blood slid down the edge of the blade, dripping a few drops of blood.

Eto Daizo fell to the ground instantly. The pain and fear made him whimper without making any sound, and a heat flowed between his legs.

As he flipped his perspective, he saw a pair of legs quickly walking up the stairs.

"You almost let him escape, brother."

Brother ちゃん(Ni-chan).

This address made Eto Daizo move his body. He barely raised his head and looked above himself.

There were two young men standing in front of his bedroom. They looked like they were looking in a mirror. Their appearance, figure and clothes were exactly the same.

One of them, with blood on his hands, took the fruit knife off the door and fiddled with it between his left fingers. He seemed to have noticed Eto Daizo's gaze, so he paused and looked down at him.

"I'm sorry, I was so careless. Fortunately, you are here."

The other one said this while looking at Eto Daizo.

Two pairs of identical emerald green eyes looked down at the boy who was trembling on the ground, speechless and incontinent.

"What to do with him?"

The more lively brother tossed the fruit knife in his hand a few times and frowned in distress, "It seems that the current criminal investigation technology can magnify the shadow of a person on the pupil of the deceased... should we dig out his eyes first?"

Jiang Teng Daizo's body froze, and another young man tried to stop him, saying earnestly:

"Don't use unnecessary violence. It will become a habit. Stay away from Gin in the future. He is corrupting you. Also, stop playing with knives. Be careful not to cut your hands."

The lively boy stopped and said, "Oh."

He was silent for less than a second, then he reached into his pocket, took out something, peeled it open and threw it into his mouth, then he spoke again:

"How long do we have to stay here? The train I booked is for 3pm, and it's leaving in less than two hours. It's a bit far from here to the station, and that person might come back early...Brother, do you want candy? I just bought this coriander candy, it tastes pretty good."

He did not hide his whereabouts at all, and exposed everything to Eto Daizo.

"Eat by yourself, and we'll leave after I finish looking at the computer in the study."

The boy who looked more mature spoke in a gentle voice to comfort him. He paused and added, "Don't worry. There is no security system in this house. The traps I left behind are enough to hold him back until the evening."

At this point, Eto Daizo realized something.

"…What trap?"

The nine-year-old child was not completely ignorant, he already had certain values ​​and understanding abilities. From the few words spoken by the two people in front of him... from their completely unrestrained and frank remarks, he understood their underlying meaning.

Jiang Teng Daizo cried and sobbed, "What did you do to my father?"

There were only three of them living here, and the two men in front of them must be wary of his busy father who was away from home for a long time.

However, with just these simple words, Eto Daizo suddenly saw the young man in front of him change his expression.

The boy who used the name that his classmates gradually stopped using in a cheesy way had a gloomy expression. Under his gaze, Jiang Teng Daizo felt a chill running up from his tailbone and crawling all over his back. The chill was even stronger than when he saw his mother being stabbed.

"dad?"

The young man repeated it in a light tone, he bent down, grabbed Eto Daizo's hair, and pulled him up from the floor.

"I just killed your mother, and all you care about is your father who wasn't there for you at a time like this?"

The boy seemed very angry, and beneath his nonchalant tone was a force that could almost tear a person's scalp off.

Eto Daizo let out a gasp and fell into confusion.

He didn't understand. It was the person in front of him who killed his mother, but he was angry for her... He didn't know what he was angry about. It was so strange and ridiculous.

The other boy was not surprised by this mood swings.

"Artemis," he called softly, "On the way here, I reminded you not to kill him directly, but now..."

He sighed softly.

"Do whatever you want with it, as long as it makes you happy."

…“Plop!”

Daizo Eto fell into the cold water and his head hit the hard rock below.

He was thrown into the well in the backyard - a well that had been dug last year for the convenience of watering the flowers - and he frantically waved his limbs around and actually managed to stand up from the bottom of the well, with the water barely reaching his calves.

The well was very shallow, only 3 meters deep. After he stood up, he could still faintly hear voices.

"In Osaka..."

"...It's not a problem. You can just turn the person you're staring at..."

Jiang Teng Da Zang took a few deep breaths and tried to hear what the people above were saying. But maybe it was because the collision was too severe, he could only hear fragmentary information.

"They can all be done today...what about the last one?"

"Stone God..."

Jiang Teng Da Zang looked up at the wellhead, which was the only source of light. His head became dizzy and warm liquid flowed down his forehead, but he felt no pain.

The moment he raised his head, he met two pairs of green eyes again.

Miraculously, this time Eto Daizo was not afraid. His lips trembled a few times, but he did not cry out.

He just stood quietly at the bottom of the well, looking up at a thin water pipe sliding down from the wellhead and stopping in mid-air. Water gushed out from the middle and poured on his head, and ripples formed in the water under his feet.

The water level began to rise slowly.

He heard the older brother among the teenagers say, "Why don't you just kill him?"

"Killing and physical torture are not the best methods - you taught me that before, and I still remember it. I also need to learn to grow up and mature."

The younger brother said, his tone becoming lively again, "By the way, brother, please accompany me to the exhibition again the day after tomorrow."

"Hmm? ...We can, but we have to change our faces this time. Using our original appearance will draw attention."

"..."

Eto Daizo gradually couldn't hear the rest of the words.

……

The smell of blood deep in my memory is so clear.

Now 22 years old, Daizo Eto recalled the memories from 13 years ago, and the smell of blood once again rose from his mouth.

He stared at the smiling dark-haired man in front of him.

This time there was only one person on the other side, with only a pair of venomous green eyes like a venomous snake, looking down at him condescendingly.

Eto Daizo's heart was filled with hatred and rage, to the point of anger that his eyes were almost bloodshot. However, before this emotion consumed him, a hint of doubt flashed through his mind.

The man in front of him was the murderer from thirteen years ago, and was undoubtedly a member of that organization. Now he came to Japan as an FBI police liaison officer, and was most likely an undercover agent sent by the organization to the FBI.

As an undercover agent, why did he dare to show up directly in front of the victim in the previous case?
Is he really sure that he had completely lost his memory? Would he suddenly regain his memory in the middle of the investigation, identify his identity, and capture him in one fell swoop?
still is……

——Does he have other intentions?
"You are an undercover agent..."

Eto Daizo made an ambiguous sound. Between personal hatred and duty, he chose to ask his final questions as a public security officer.

"Why do you dare to show up so... openly? Aren't you afraid of being...exposed?"

Aoyagi Binkou blinked, as if he had not expected him to bring this up.

"Maybe it's because I'm full of empathy and good at sympathizing with others. When I see people in the same situation as me, I can't help but run to them in person."

As Aoyagi Binkou spoke, he turned and looked in a certain direction.

"I let you off the hook at that time, and you luckily survived." He said calmly, "But today, you are not so lucky."

Jiang Teng Da Zang had a cold expression, and there was no fear in his eyes. When Aoyagi Binguang tied him up and tortured him here, and when he regained his memory, he knew that he would never survive.

"Da da……"

A sound of footsteps came from not far away.

As a figure stood in front of him, the determination on Eto Daizo's face solidified like a mask, and then shattered in an instant.

Aoyagi Binguang stepped aside as if nothing had happened and looked out the window.

It's cloudy outside the window and it looks like it's going to rain at any moment.

……

"Squeak-"

With a brake sound, a low-key and ordinary-looking car stopped in front of the Metropolitan Police Department.

It is pouring rain outside.

Jinpei Matsuda, who was sitting in the driver's seat, secretly sighed at the terrible weather. He unbuckled his seat belt, groped in the corner, pulled out a folding umbrella, and casually handed it to the person next to him.

Aoyagi took the umbrella, thanked him politely, and then asked, "Officer Matsuda, do you have any other umbrellas?"

"I don't need it, you can do it yourself."

Matsuda Jinpei said nonchalantly, pushed the door and got out of the car. (End of this chapter)