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

Tokyo's nightlife is always exceptionally vibrant.

Before becoming an undercover agent, Morofushi Kagemitsu had done a lot of mental preparation, but he never imagined that one day he would be shopping with a female member of the undercover organization like an ordinary man and woman.

The escalators in the mall carry different tourists up and down, and Morofushi Kagemitsu is standing on one of the upward escalators.

He felt his right arm being tightly held, trapping him in an awkward position. He had to raise his other hand, which was laden with shopping bags, and laboriously wipe his lips.

"Are you really so unwilling to spend time with me?"

The woman next to me said with a hint of dissatisfaction.

Morofushi Kagemitsu paused in his wiping motion and turned to look at the person beside him.

Anisette was staring at him, her beautiful face full of displeasure.

A few minutes earlier, Morobushi Kagemitsu accompanied Anisette to try on lipsticks at the cosmetics counter below.

She thought they all looked beautiful and asked for his opinion. He only knew a little about makeup and couldn't offer any advice on these similar shades of red, so he just randomly pointed to one.

She bought it, but after packing it up and leaving the counter, she suddenly became unhappy, saying that he had just been perfunctory with her, and accused him of not spending enough time with her that night, not even as good as Gin.

Then she suddenly opened the lid and smeared the lipstick on his lips. He couldn't dodge it, and she ordered him to stay like that until they left the mall.

Morofushi Kagemitsu initially tried to accept it, but as the way people around him looked at him became increasingly strange, he eventually couldn't help but wipe it away.

Seeing her dissatisfaction, he explained, "I'm sorry, Japanese men don't usually wear lipstick. If I walk outside like this, people will stare at me, and I don't want to attract attention."

The last sentence serves as a reminder to this second-generation member of the organization not to disregard organizational discipline due to momentary willfulness.

Aniset said nothing more.

She just kept looking at him with dissatisfaction. After the escalator reached the top, she silently tossed his arm aside and strode towards the jewelry store in front of her.

The high heels clicked on the ground, making a crisp, rhythmic sound.

Feeling the gazes sweeping over him again, Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed inwardly. He didn't bother wiping the remaining lipstick from his lips, and carrying the things he'd bought along the way in Anisette, he hurried to catch up.

Anisette had already entered the store and was standing in front of the counter. Hearing footsteps behind her, she didn't turn around but said directly to the salesperson in front of her, "Show me your biggest emerald."

The salesperson glanced at her expression, then at Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was carrying large bags behind her, and seemed to understand something. He smiled politely and said, "Okay, please wait a moment."

Morobushi Kagemitsu walked to her side, glanced at the rings and necklaces under the counter and the prices marked below, and quickly thought about what to do.

Anisette seems genuinely angry. She holds a high position in the organization, and it wouldn't be good if she were to get back at him later.

Should he buy her something she likes to appease her? Although these gems are expensive, he's spending the organization's money right now; using the organization's money to please its members is part of his undercover work...

While Morofushi Kagemitsu was deep in thought, the saleswoman returned with a box. She opened it and carefully took out a ring.

"Miss, this is the largest style in the store."

The emerald on the ring is as big as an adult's finger joint. According to Morofushi Kagemitsu's aesthetic sense, such a ring is beautiful to wear, but it is too eye-catching and inconvenient to do things.

But this time he didn't say it directly. Instead, he looked at Aniset carefully with a very serious expression and said to her, "It's a beautiful, vibrant green that matches your eyes perfectly."

Anisette paused in her outstretched hand.

She looked up and met his gaze, then suddenly asked, "What about red? Which shade of red do you think is the best?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't think too much of it, assuming she was still talking about the lipsticks below, and continued to coax her: "They're all very pretty. If you like them, we'll buy them all the ones you just picked out when we go back later."

Aniseth laughed upon hearing this.

Her emerald green eyes curved slightly as she gave him a smile.

“No need,” she said slowly. “One or two are enough. I can’t possibly use more than that.”

……

The memories from three years ago are so vivid.

Those eyes and that smile from back then overlapped with the person standing before me now.

Seeing that the man was about to leave, Zhu Fujingguang hurriedly gave chase. Fortunately, he was in a relatively remote place, with no wards or medical staff around, so his running did not alert anyone.

However, just as he was about to run around the corner, a shadow suddenly fell in front of him—the bespectacled man hadn't left immediately, but was standing at the corner waiting for him!

"!!" Feeling those eyes staring straight at him, Morobushi Kagemitsu felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively reached for his gun.

The man opposite him was a step ahead, closing in instantly. His outstretched left hand pressed firmly on the man's right hand with immense force, like an iron clamp that rendered the man unable to move.

The next second, the unfamiliar-looking man spoke in a voice that sounded somewhat familiar to Morofushi Kagemitsu: "Morofushi, it's me—I'm Aoyagi."

Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."

He was almost stunned for a moment.

"What is it...?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu continued, "It really is me. I made a simple disguise, but my voice is the same. You can't possibly not recognize me, can you?"

"..."

Interrupted from what he was about to say, Morofushi Kagemitsu stared at him blankly.

Seeing his absent-minded look, Aoyagi Binguang's face showed a hint of helplessness. He didn't let go of him, but pulled him with one hand and pushed open the door next to him with the other: "Let's talk in the emergency exit."

It was only then that Morobushi Kagemitsu noticed that the entrance to the emergency exit was right next to them.

The door opened and closed gently, shutting out all the noise outside the hospital corridor. The corridor was also lit, and under the dim white light of the incandescent bulbs above, Morofushi Kagemitsu felt the hand that was pressing on him finally release.

Only then did he completely calm down. He looked at the FBI agent in front of him, his brows furrowed slightly: "Why are you here?"

"Didn't Mr. Mori tell you?" Aoyagi Akimitsu asked him in surprise.

Morofushi Kagemitsu shook his head: "I did run into Kogoro Mouri on the first floor, but he probably had some reservations and didn't say much to me."

He paused for a moment, then asked a second time, "What exactly did you encounter?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu sighed.

“It’s like this,” he began again in a low voice, “American tourists and students have gone missing nearby, and the embassy sent me here to investigate, and then…”

He quickly and simply recounted how he chose to travel with the Mori family to conduct a low-key investigation, how he received the commission at the Takeuchi residence, how he was bugged by someone suspected to be the chairman of the Takeuchi family after arriving at the hospital, and how Conan Edogawa eventually met the chairman's grandson and discovered the hospital's bizarre surgical accident rate...

“That’s it,” Aoyagi Akimitsu said. “The last item is still under investigation, because it’s information that Conan saw online. We need to go into the archives to check the specific records to confirm it.”

He seemed completely unconcerned about his obvious violation of regulations by rummaging through the hospital's archives.

Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."

A seven-year-old child is far from being old enough to pay the price for their actions under current laws.

The person in front of me is a diplomat. Even if he commits murder or arson, the matter can only be resolved through diplomatic channels. He cannot be tried under Japanese law.

A Japanese public security officer, criticized for constantly skirting the edge of the law, was momentarily speechless when faced with two truly outlaws.

Morofushi Kagemitsu silently skipped over this point, briefly reviewing the massive amount of information in his mind, and discovered that they had the same destination as him. He also planned to go to the archives to find Itakura Taku's records.

Things weren't as bad as he'd thought, and the two destinations happened to overlap. Looking at the FBI agents before him, Morofushi Hiromitsu asked his biggest question:

"Where's that kid named Conan? You said you'd take him to do some research, why isn't he with you?"

“He’s in the archives.” Aoyagi Akimitsu seemed completely oblivious to the problem. “Actually, we had just gone in, but I suddenly got a call and came here to answer it. I didn’t expect to run into you as soon as I came out.”

He paused, then added, "Don't worry, I had him get another listening device. I can hear what's going on over there, and if he's in danger, I can go over immediately."

Seeing that he was wearing a Bluetooth earphone in one ear, Morofushi Kagemitsu thought: "…………"

For a moment, he didn't know whether to say that the FBI was too careless, that Aoyagi Akimitsu trusted Edogawa Conan too much, or to criticize him for not taking the child's safety seriously at all.

"The phone number is..."

He then tentatively asked, feeling that it couldn't have been Kogoro Mouri who made the call, since the other party was wearing a listening device and would have used email or other silent methods to notify Aoyagi Akimitsu.

“A friend I know in the US, he’s not really involved in this disappearance, you don’t need to worry about him.”

Aoyagi Akimitsu didn't want to talk much about this friend, so he looked at Morofushi Kagemitsu and extended an invitation.

"I'm going back to the archives," he said with a smile. "Want to come with me?" (End of Chapter)