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

A howling wind blew, causing frost flowers to form on the windowpane. Through the window, all that could be seen was a completely white world outside.

Inside, separated by just one wall, the scene was completely different. The firewood in the fireplace crackled and popped, the firelight reflecting off the nearby cream-colored furniture, creating a warm and inviting atmosphere, and the aroma of food filled the air.

Morofushi Kagemitsu stood in the kitchen, a pot of borscht almost ready in front of him. He ladled out a small bowl, tasted it, and finding the saltiness acceptable, put the bowl down.

"Click."

The door not far away opened.

He turned around, revealing the apron in front of him. He was wearing ordinary, simple home clothes, but the apron was cute, with a large cat smiling face on the bottom half, and a pair of round blue eyes.

He passed the dining table where the other main dishes were laid out, and after turning a corner, he saw someone changing their shoes in the entryway.

"thanks for the effort."

This is what Morofushi Kagemitsu said about this virtuous husband.

The beautiful woman with emerald green eyes looked up and smiled at him. He took the heavy coat she had taken off and said, "Dinner is ready. I made your favorite borscht and rye bread. Conan will be back later. He said there was a murder at school and he has to stay to help solve the case."

As he spoke, he suddenly noticed that her hair was a little messy, so he reached out and carefully tidied her long hair.

Morofushi Kagemitsu lowered his hand and met her even brighter smile.

“You’re so good to me, Scotland,” Anise said happily and sweetly. “Marrying you was the best decision I ever made. You have to take care of me like this and listen to me from now on.”

"—Never disobey me."

……

Zhu Fujingguang was awakened.

The cold, damp, and musty environment, so different from what he had just experienced, made him realize that what he had just dreamt was nothing but a bizarre dream, and that what he was seeing now was reality.

He breathed a sigh of relief at first, but immediately became vigilant again.

This is where?

He slowly sat up and felt the gun behind his waist being taken away. He saw the iron bars on the opposite side.

He was clearly no longer in the city hall, but in a place that resembled... no, it was a prison cell.

The room was small, with no windows or furniture. The only light source was an incandescent bulb on the wall. In addition, there was a single surveillance camera fixed above the room, which could capture every corner of the room without any blind spots.

Having infiltrated the organization for several years, Morofushi Kagemitsu was fairly certain that this was a cell used by the organization to imprison traitors or members who had made mistakes. He had seen several similar cells; their layouts were largely the same, and every organization's stronghold had one.

He pressed his temples and realized he couldn't remember anything that happened before he fainted. His last memory of Aniset was that earth-shattering statement, and then he knew nothing more.

It seems that Anisette must have knocked him unconscious and brought him back.

She didn't kill him directly...why?
Morofushi Kagemitsu fell silent for a moment.

Unfortunately, his current situation left him little time to think, because he discovered there was another cell next door.

There were people in that cell as well.

Morifushi Kagemitsu looked across at the other side. The distance between them was not far, so even though the incandescent light had a limited range, he recognized the other person.

When the man saw him looking this way, he carefully leaned over the iron bars separating the two cells and said in a voice that was as soft as he could, but still quite clear in this area, "You're finally awake. Are you alright now?"

"..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu silently watched Edogawa Conan, his gaze slowly shifting to another man sitting against the wall not far behind him, hugging his knees.

The man looked to be under forty and appeared very haggard. Seemingly having overheard their conversation, he lowered his head and buried his face in his knees.

Conan Edogawa introduced, "This is Mr. Itakura Taku. He was already here when we were brought in. He said he had been locked up for two days."

Morofushi Kagemitsu knew who he was; he recognized him at that very glance.

There were no guards outside, and the entire space seemed to contain only the three of them, but Morofushi Kagemitsu knew that someone in the monitoring room was watching their every move.

This wasn't the right place to talk, but there were some questions he had to ask:

"Conan-kun, how did you get arrested?"

……

Conan Edogawa is very anxious right now.

But when faced with questions from the police next door, he honestly replied, "I chased after you..."

The story begins in the evening. After dinner, Aoyagi Akimitsu returned to his room at the end of the corridor, while Edogawa Conan went to check on the room next door alone.

Like a curious child exploring different room types, he wandered around each room, and after confirming that everything was alright, he planned to go back to get his things for the hot spring.

He planned to secretly bring his phone into the hot spring. If there were no outsiders in the bath, he could take advantage of this opportunity to get rid of the listening device and let Aoyagi Akimitsu know about Uncle Mori's situation.

Conan Edogawa had planned his next move, but a small incident occurred. As he left his room and returned to the corridor, he saw a suspicious man loitering at the stairwell. Their eyes met, and the man immediately turned and went downstairs.

This strange behavior naturally caught the attention of Conan Edogawa. He didn't call out to Kogoro Mouri or Ayagi Akimitsu, but simply followed them.

Then they lost track of them.

—As if he could turn invisible, he disappeared in the blink of an eye after walking down the stairs.

Conan Edogawa was quite frustrated. Considering that Ran and the others were waiting for him, and also fearing that asking others might alert the enemy, he didn't proceed rashly. Luckily, no one was at the front desk at that moment, so he took the opportunity to stick a listening device in an inconspicuous spot near the hotel entrance.

“…You might have accidentally stepped on it.” Conan Edogawa said, glancing at Morofushi Kagemitsu’s shoes. “He came looking for me after I changed my clothes.”

Zhu Fu Jingguang: "..."

He did feel something step on when he jumped, but he was too anxious to look at it. It turned out to be a bugging device.

For a moment, he didn't know whether to question how a child could use a bug so skillfully, or to reflect on why he hadn't noticed when he stepped on it until someone pointed it out.

"I chased him all the way to the city hall."

Conan Edogawa, oblivious to Kagemitsu Morofushi's strange expression, continued.

“I saw you lying on the ground, and two men in black were talking to each other. They saw me, and then someone… something knocked me unconscious.”

He raised his hand and touched the back of his head.

The feeling was strange. He was very familiar with what it felt like to be hit on the back with a stick, but this time it didn't feel like he was being hit at all.

Upon hearing this, Morofushi Kagemitsu interrupted him: "Why did they bring you here?"

He was a former undercover agent for the organization, and Itakura Taku, who sat there silently, was a researcher connected to the organization; it was not surprising that they were both here.

But what's the deal with Conan Edogawa?

He knew there might be something wrong with his identity, but how did he get involved with the organization?

"This one……"

Conan Edogawa's expression stiffened. "Before I passed out, one of them tried to attack me, but the other stopped him, saying, 'This is the child Mr. Glenn mentioned. Take him back first.'"

This is the reason for his current anxiety.

Glenn, grain.

When he first heard the name, he thought it was some foreigner, but their next words made him feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

"—'We'll go first. Mr. Ireland is still looking for that escaped FBI agent and might be back at base a little late. Hopefully, he won't run into Mr. Gin, who's on his way back…'"

Conan Edogawa repeated in a low voice what he had heard, "That was the last thing they said."

Gin.

He was captured by the organization, and the culprit who shrunk him is on his way.

What surprises or frightens Conan Edogawa even more than Gin is actually another person: Glenn.

They said Glenn had mentioned him, but he didn't even know who Glenn was or when he had met him, let alone why he had been noticed.

The thought that his identity as Shinichi Kudo might have been exposed to the organization sent a chill down Conan Edogawa's spine as he imagined all sorts of terrible consequences.

With Qingliu Binguang gone and none of the other familiar and trusted people around, he could only pin his hopes of escaping on the policeman in front of him.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was unaware of Edogawa Conan's worries. Upon hearing the three code names, his brows gradually furrowed.

"Ireland is looking for Green Willow?" he repeated slowly. "When you entered the city hall, there were only me and those two men in black. Didn't you see a foreign woman with brown-grey hair?"

Conan Edogawa looked at him strangely, seemingly not understanding why he would put two completely unrelated things together.

“Besides you, there are two male security guards who are unconscious. No women were seen,” he answered cautiously. “Is there a problem?”

Morofushi Kagemitsu did not answer. (End of Chapter)