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

While Aoyagi Akimitsu was talking to the administrator, in another corner of the archives, Morofushi Kagemitsu was secretly observing them from an imperceptible angle.

Even though he knew that Conan Edogawa was sharing very important information, he couldn't help but pay more attention to the situation there.

Even he himself couldn't explain why.

Under such subtle scrutiny, the two ended their conversation. The administrator took out his phone from his pocket, made an apologetic gesture to Aoyagi Akimitsu, and then turned and left the room.

Aoyagi Akimitsu didn't walk towards them until the door closed again, still holding the cat in his arms.

Morofushi Kagemitsu recognized it as a Ragdoll cat, with snow-white fur, a large build, and beautiful blue eyes. It nestled in Aoyagi Akimitsu's arms like a plush pillow. Because it was being held by a stranger and was close to two other strangers, it raised its head somewhat uneasily.

"Mr. Aoyagi, why did that administrator leave?" Conan Edogawa asked.

Aoyagi Akimitsu patted the cat's back reassuringly: "He said he wanted to visit his ex-girlfriend's grave after get off work today, so he needed to call his current wife first to find a suitable reason to come home late."

"..." Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had just vaguely heard a few words, frowned slightly. "And then you let him out?"

“Yes,” Aoyagi Akimitsu said. “He’s the kind of person who has had a stable job since graduation, doesn’t need to interact with many people on a daily basis, and whose maturity hasn’t kept pace with his age. Such a person is not good at lying.”

He spoke with such certainty that it only made Morofuk Kagemitsu frown even more deeply.

"you……"

Just as Morofushi Kagemitsu was about to speak again, Aoyagi Akimitsu suddenly approached him, lifted the plush cat in his arms, and placed it next to his face.

Caught off guard by the sudden touch to his face, feeling the fluffy cat fur brush against his cheek, Morofushi Kagemitsu was startled and took a step back.

A question mark floated above Conan Edogawa's head as he stood nearby: "Mr. Aoyagi? What are you doing?"
"Um……"

Aoyagi Akimitsu didn't approach. He looked at Morofushi Kagemitsu, then at the ragdoll cat in his arms, which he was holding by the armpits and whose legs were dangling in the air and kicking wildly, as if he was making a serious comparison.

“I noticed it just now, your eyes look so alike,” he exclaimed. “And this look of being startled and reacting is quite cute.”

Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."

Conan Edogawa's eye twitched slightly, surprised that he would suddenly bring up something completely unrelated to the investigation: "Mr. Aoyagi, please be serious. This is not the time for jokes. And using 'cute' as a description is too..."

"What's wrong?" Aoyagi Akimitsu looked at him with a puzzled expression. "I remember that cute culture was once popular in Japan. It shouldn't be offensive to praise someone like that, right?"

Conan Edogawa blushed: "It wouldn't be considered offensive, it's just..."

It's common to use "cute" to describe harmless small animals or children, but isn't it a bit too subtle to use it on a tall, strong adult man whose job involves dangerous areas?
As for the person being praised, Morofushi Kagemitsu, he didn't react much.

He'd heard all sorts of nasty things while working undercover and as a police officer; "cute" was at most a bit odd, not malicious, and besides...

Considering the other party's identity as a diplomat and his close ties with the military, Morofushi Kagemitsu became even calmer and seized the opportunity to inquire about information: "Mr. Aoyagi, what did you get from him?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu hugged the cat back into his arms, his expression becoming serious: "He joined the hospital four years ago, right after it was built, and his ex-girlfriend was the first victim."

Conan Edogawa was taken aback, then quickly realized what was happening. He took one of the several open files in front of him and pointed to a page: "Is it her?" The files from Takeuchi General Hospital contained personal information, detailed medical reports, and surgical reports. The first page showed a young girl with striking features, who was clearly of mixed race.

"It's her, just like the photo on his desk."

As Aoyagi Akimitsu spoke, he turned to Morofushi Kagemitsu and said, "When I first came in, Conan and I went through the files and saw this file. It said that her surgery failed, and I suspected that she was one of the victims. I also saw that the administrator had her photo, so I went over to ask her a few questions."

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "So you talked to him about his current wife because..."

"It was to get the conversation going," Aoyagi Akimitsu explained. "It's strange to randomly ask about the opposite sex that the other person is close to. And since his current marriage seems to be in a terrible state, he can't even afford a decent lunch, so I just went along with that."

Zhu Fu Jingguang was silent.

It turns out that when Aoyagi Akimitsu overheard the administrator complaining about his wife and deliberately mentioned his ex-girlfriend, he wasn't trying to sow discord, but rather to naturally extract information...

He couldn't describe the feeling in his heart at that moment. It was as if a taut string had been quietly relaxed, yet it also seemed as if it had remained in its original state.

A question suddenly flashed through his mind—why was Aoyagi Akimitsu explaining so much to him?

Conan Edogawa, unaware of what the public security officer was thinking, pressed on, "What else did you find out? That administrator has worked here for four years; he should know other information, right?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu glanced towards the doorway, seemingly worried that the other person would return soon, and quickened his pace:
"He met Chairman Takeuchi four years ago when the hospital was newly built. At that time, the chairman was accompanied by an elderly lady of similar age and a woman in her early forties. He thought they were the chairman's wife and daughter, so he greeted them and was reprimanded."

Conan Edogawa instantly realized: "That old lady is... uh, President Takeuchi's aunt?"

More than half a day had passed since Kogoro Mouri received the commission, and he still didn't know the name of the target of his investigation—the sister-in-law of Chairman Takeuchi and the aunt of President Takeuchi.

“It should be.” Aoyagi Akimitsu nodded. “He met them on the inpatient floor. The hospital had just been built at the time, and there weren’t many patients admitted yet. Later, he inquired out of curiosity and found out that a teenage girl was staying in one of the wards. She was the lady’s granddaughter and had come to Japan from the United States specifically for medical treatment.”

Conan Edogawa recalled the information he had heard that morning: the company president said that his aunt, who had married and moved to the United States, had a son and a daughter. After the divorce, the son stayed with the father, and she took the daughter back to Japan. Then, one day, the daughter married and moved to the United States.

He asked curiously, "Why not stay there for treatment?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu did not answer immediately.

He paused briefly, then let out a soft sigh.

"I haven't found out about that. But maybe they're just worried. Although American medical care is advanced and there are all sorts of supplies... I mean, the doctors have seen all sorts of different people and have plenty of opportunities to hone their skills, so the success rate of surgeries is actually quite high, but it's not very reliable in some aspects."

Zhu Fujingguang recalled some scenes he had seen during his undercover mission in the United States, but did not ask in detail what the consumables referred to.

Conan Edogawa pressed on, asking, "What exactly is the illness?"

"Cardiac disease caused by muscular dystrophy."

Aoyagi Akimitsu's voice softly echoed in the room. The room was silent, only his voice reverberating.

"Duchenne muscular dystrophy is a disease that usually affects men, with women mostly being asymptomatic carriers. But she was unlucky; the X chromosome carrying the mutated gene was overactive, which eventually caused her to develop symptoms." (End of Chapter)