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

Conan Edogawa stroked his chin, lost in thought. He easily ignored his surroundings and began to talk about his understanding of this genetic disease:

"Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an X-linked recessive genetic disorder that usually begins to manifest between the ages of 3 and 5. Patients typically need to rely on wheelchairs by their teens. Currently, there is no cure in the medical field... So she came to the hospital for recuperation?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu silently observed the child who possessed an excessive amount of knowledge, then turned to Aoyagi Akimitsu.

For some reason, after the FBI agent revealed the other party's specific illness, he fell silent.

He thought about the hospital's true area of ​​expertise and raised his question: "They often die from cardiopulmonary complications. Did she come to this hospital for a heart transplant?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu nodded slightly: "Yes."

Conan Edogawa was taken aback and asked in confusion, "Why? The heart damage in this type of patient is the result of muscle atrophy affecting the myocardium, not simply heart disease. Performing a transplant would be meaningless and would only increase the burden on the body."

Aoyagi Akimitsu looked at him calmly and said, "Perhaps all other treatments have been tried, but none of them worked. This is the last resort."

There was a sudden silence.

Conan Edogawa felt a pang of pity for her plight, considering she was only a teenager.

The next second, he suddenly connected her surgery with several accidents that had occurred at the hospital, and proposed a hypothesis:
"Could it be that multiple accidents at this hospital, resulting in several patients undergoing minor surgeries and who were otherwise healthy, falling into brain death, were all in an effort to find a suitable donor for her?"

Apart from kidneys or livers, other organ donations often come from deceased individuals—retrieved as soon as possible after brain or heart death to ensure organ quality.

In Japan, this type of surgery requires the donor to register before death, and the association will communicate with the family again after death to obtain their consent before the organs are harvested. However, due to the long-standing problem of organ shortage, the law was amended a few years ago, removing the lower age limit so that children can also donate, and stipulating that unless the donor has explicitly refused before death, the family can directly decide whether to donate.

Unfortunately, due to conservative local attitudes, these measures have not solved the shortage problem, so some patients go overseas or... take illegal measures.

Aoyagi Akimitsu glanced down at him and denied the claim: "No, according to that administrator, the girl died four years ago, before the surgery."

The other two were both taken aback.

"Dead?" Conan Edogawa asked incredulously.

"How did you die?" Moribu Kagemitsu pressed.

"I don't know. The administrator is just a regular employee. He heard these things from his colleagues, and he doesn't know the specifics."

Aoyagi Akimitsu lowered his eyes, a hint of pity flashing in his emerald green eyes: "After her death, her mother was greatly traumatized. Many people saw her run out of the hospital and then get into a car accident on the road in front of the hospital."

"Although she was immediately brought back for emergency treatment, unfortunately, due to the severity of her injuries, the hospital pronounced her dead a week later."

Morofushi Kagemitsu sorted through these words and combined them with the information he had obtained earlier: "So, that... President Takeuchi's aunt lost her daughter and granddaughter in a very short period of time?"

He didn't know the other person's name; he had just heard Conan Edogawa call him that, so he followed suit.

Conan Edogawa initially suspected organ transplantation, but now that the person scheduled for surgery has died, he can't deduce any further possibilities.

No wonder he hadn't seen the relevant surgical records, he thought, feeling a pang of sympathy. Losing a child in old age—it was truly one of the greatest tragedies.

but……

Conan Edogawa thought about her family situation: "I remember she has a son in America, and judging by his age, he should be married and have a family by now. With such terrible things happening to her sister and niece one after another, hasn't he come to visit them?"

"Meow-"

A sudden scream interrupted Conan Edogawa's words.

The ragdoll cat in Aoyagi Akimitsu's arms was terrified for some reason. It struggled to break free from his arms, jumped to the ground, and ran towards the door in a flash.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was startled by the sudden meow. When he came to his senses and looked at Aoyagi Akimitsu, he saw that Aoyagi Akimitsu was also just coming to his senses and was too late to stop him.

The meow clearly alerted the people outside; the door swung open, and the caretaker appeared in the doorway, phone in one hand and doorknob in the other. The cat's tail fur fluffed up, its flat ears stood up, and it quickly tucked them behind his legs.

The keeper looked at the clearly frightened pet and then asked them suspiciously, "What happened?"

"I'm sorry." Aoyagi Akimitsu stepped forward, looking apologetic. "I'm a novice at taking care of cats. I may have petted it too hard just now and scared it."

The administrator still looked suspicious.

He whispered something to the person on the other end of the phone, then turned to them and urged, "Alright, you should be done watching, right? Hurry up and leave. It'll be time to leave work in twenty minutes, and I need to lock the door."

Conan Edogawa wanted to ask something more, but seeing that the two adults beside him hadn't said anything, and seeing the administrator holding the cat with a look of heartache on his face, he silently shut up.

Aoyagi Akimitsu quickly tidied up the things on the table, apologized to the manager and the cat again, and led Edogawa Conan outside.

From the moment he entered the room until now, Morofushi Kagemitsu had been in a very passive state—he had inexplicably received a bunch of seemingly important information, while he hadn't been able to find out a single thing about Itakura Taku, whom he had originally intended to investigate. He glanced at the caretaker and decided to come back later, or when no one was around at night. He followed Aoyagi Akimitsu, and the three of them left together.

The administrator watched the three of them leave quickly and then slammed the door shut. He put the cat down again, put his phone back in his pocket, and went to the table to start organizing the files.

Over the years, he had become accustomed to this kind of work and tidied up quickly. After putting the last file back on the shelf, he let out a soft sigh of relief.

"Meow~"

The Ragdoll cat meowed softly. It stood on the table, walked around the awful lunchbox that was impossible to swallow, and headed towards its owner.

The manager leaned against the table, raised his hand to pat its gradually relaxing back, and muttered something under his breath:
"It's so similar..."

……

Led by Aoyagi Akimitsu, Morofushi Kagemitsu, who was visiting the hospital for the first time, avoided all surveillance cameras and returned to the first floor.

"I'm sorry, if I hadn't scared the cat, we might have been able to investigate a little longer," Aoyagi Akimitsu apologized to the other two.

Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't say anything, but Edogawa Conan asked with a hint of curiosity, "Mr. Aoyagi, are you very concerned about this case? It's rare to see you like this."

Aoyagi Akimitsu sighed, not denying it: "I am very concerned. I initially suspected that the disappearance of the two international students and the tourist was related to this hospital, but... sigh, I myself am more involved."

"Huh?" Conan Edogawa was taken aback.

"So all those medical malpractice victims were mixed-race. If I had known, I wouldn't have used a disguise and would have used my natural face to fish for them."

As Aoyagi Akimitsu spoke, he turned to Morofushi Kagemitsu and said regretfully, "You too. If it had been Furuya who came this time, people would never guess he was Japanese just by looking at him, making it easier for him to set up a sting operation."

Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."

...Luckily, it wasn't Zero who came, otherwise his childhood friend, whose temper was even stronger than his, might have blown up this FBI agent whose emotional intelligence was a mystery first.

He suddenly noticed another key point in the other person's words: "Are you mixed race?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu looked at him strangely: "It's not hard to guess, is it? I don't look Asian, but I have a Japanese name. There are only two possibilities: either I'm mixed race, or it's a pseudonym."

Zhu Fujingguang's heart suddenly skipped a beat for no apparent reason.

While they were talking, Conan Edogawa took out his phone, intending to ask Kogoro Mouri the name of the investigation target, as it was really troublesome to always call her "the president's aunt".

He had just sent the email when he heard Aoyagi Akimitsu's words. He looked up and interjected, "Mr. Aoyagi, your Japanese ancestry should come from your father's side, right? After all, your uncle, that Supreme Court Justice, looks like a white man with Slavic ancestry, and he looks a lot like you."

“Yes.” Aoyagi Akimitsu nodded. “My grandmother was Japanese, and I inherited my black hair from her.”

"Buzz-"

Two different cell phone vibrations sounded almost simultaneously.

Conan Edogawa and Hiromitsu Morofushi took out their respective cell phones.

Aoyagi Akimitsu stood to one side, his expression calm.

Her surname is Karasuma, the same Karasuma who used to be the head of Japan's largest zaibatsu (financial conglomerate). Her full name is Karasuma Mochizuki.

When are you coming back? Don't wander off; Xiaolan is worried about you, and don't cause Qingliu any trouble.

Conan Edogawa opened the email Kogoro Mouri had replied to, sensing a hint of impatience in the wording. He frowned slightly as he looked at the surname.

Morofushi Kagemitsu's pupils suddenly contracted the moment he opened the message.

[Ishigami is missing. His phone sent out a distress signal half an hour ago, and we can't reach him. Where are you now?]

Zhu Fujingguang stared intently at the words, his grip on the phone tightening unconsciously.

"Looks like you've run into trouble?"

A voice said from beside me.

Zhu Fujingguang stiffened, and slowly turned his head to meet a pair of emerald green eyes.

Aoyagi Akimitsu looked directly into his eyes and said in a friendly manner, "Do you need my help?" (End of Chapter)