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

confusion.

Utter chaos.

Morofushi Kagemitsu lay prone on the ground, with Edogawa Conan tightly shielded beneath him. The surrounding white light all turned into a bright red glow, and an alarm blared, almost deafeningly loud.

Oops.

Having once been an undercover agent for the organization, he instantly recognized what this meant—someone had activated the base's self-destruct program.

To prevent surprise attacks by enemy forces or the police, each organization's base has an emergency destruction system. The explosion just now was probably caused by the main control room of this base being blown up.

"Boom!"

Two more gunshots rang out outside. Morofushi Kagemitsu, disregarding everything else, quickly got up and helped the bewildered Edogawa Conan to his feet.

He paused for a moment as his gaze swept over the child's back.

The red light above his head kept flashing, hurting people's eyes, but this did not hinder a sniper's excellent eyesight. He saw a pinhole-sized red dot under the hair on the back of Conan Edogawa's head, just above his collar.

What was he injected with?
Before Morofushi Kagemitsu could react, he felt a tightness on the back of his collar as Aoyagi Ayami rushed back to their side, scooped them up from the ground, tossed one onto his back and tucked the other into his arms, and turned to rush toward the main gate.

Caught off guard, Morofushi Kagemitsu grabbed Aoyagi Akimitsu's shoulder and looked back after running a short distance.

The glass jar broke, and liquid kept leaking out of the crack. The woman who looked extremely similar to Aniset, and should be Karasuma Sakura, lay at the bottom of the jar.

A little further ahead, a woman of a certain age, who appeared to be entirely Asian, lay on her back on the ground, a bloody hole in the center of her forehead, her face frozen with anger.

Aoyagi Akimitsu actually shot her dead.

Morofushi Kagemitsu's first reaction was regret; if such a high-ranking member of an organization could be captured alive, a lot of information could be extracted from him.

Aoyagi Binguang seemed completely unaware of the policeman's feelings at that moment. He ran to the main entrance, kicked the heavy metal door with a tooth-grinding sound, and it was kicked away.

"Could you open all the doors here for me? I don't want to have to kick them all the way through."

Aoyagi Akimitsu's voice was very calm.

"Mr. Aoyagi, what exactly happened?!"

It was only then that Conan Edogawa found an opportunity to ask questions. He was being held in Aoyagi Akimitsu's arms, his head pressed tightly against his chest.

“My partner just activated the self-destruct program here,” Aoyagi Akimitsu quickly told them. “In ten minutes at most, this place will completely collapse. She’s giving me directions.”

When Conan Edogawa saw his earphones, he realized why the persona of Gin, which was working so well, suddenly started to attack, so he stopped making a sound.

Zhu Fujingguang leaned against his back and said to him, "Give me the gun; it's inconvenient for you to shoot like this."

"Don't move. Hold onto my shoulders tightly and wrap your legs around my waist." Aoyagi Akimitsu refused, "I don't have my hands free to hold you down."

It's extremely difficult for one person to carry a normal-weight adult male and a child at the same time; it's a miracle that Aoyagi Akimitsu could even run at this point. Morofushi Kagemitsu said nothing more, simply holding him tightly.

Aoyagi Akimitsu ran forward, carrying the two of them at breakneck speed. Perhaps his words had taken effect, for they did not encounter any more tightly closed metal doors.

As they ran down a corridor, they saw doors on both sides.

The doors were tightly shut. They heard loud banging on the doors from behind, but it was only for a moment, because Aoyagi Binguang ran straight over without even glancing at them.

Conan Edogawa's expression changed slightly, as if he wanted to say something.

"I'm sorry."

Aoyagi Akimitsu kept his eyes fixed ahead, but he guessed what Edogawa Conan was going to say, and he was still in the mood to offer comfort at a time like this.

“If it were any other time or if I had more time, I wouldn’t treat them like this. There are many other ways. But the situation is really special right now.”

Conan Edogawa paused, then whispered, "I know, I just..."

Morobuchi Kagemitsu remained silent.

Trapping a bunch of living people in a place that is about to be destroyed, making them watch helplessly as the countdown to destruction draws ever closer, is nothing short of a massacre bordering on torture.

But in the present situation, they have no choice but to do so, because only in this way can they reduce the dangers on their escape route.

"...I'm just a little disappointed," Conan Edogawa added in a low voice.

Aoyagi Akimitsu sighed as well, his voice even softening: "Me too."

Something touched the depths of Zhu Fujingguang's heart.

But that feeling, like the desperate pounding on the door, was fleeting, vanishing without a trace before it could be grasped. Suddenly, Morofushi Kagemitsu felt the body beneath him tense. He realized something and looked up in a certain direction.

A boy of high school age stood not far in front of them. He was startled when he saw them appear like this and took a step back.

Upon seeing the person who suddenly appeared, Conan Edogawa recognized him: "Ichiki-nii?!"

"I, you..."

Takeuchi Kazuki looked at them, then at what was behind them, his expression a mixture of tension and confusion: "What exactly happened here?"

Upon hearing the name, Morofushi Kagemitsu realized that the person before him was one of Chairman Takeuchi's grandchildren. Although he was a high school student, his presence here at this time still made him extremely wary.

Aoyagi Akimitsu's attitude was alright: "This place is going to explode in five minutes, and we're running away. What about you? How did you get here?"

Hearing the gentle tone that suggested they were discussing what they had for dinner, Takeuchi Kazuki paused, then paused, "I needed to see my father, but he wasn't in his room. While waiting for him, I accidentally bumped into a book on the bookshelf, and then a door opened on the floor, leading to a staircase, so I went down..."

The surrounding red lights kept flashing, and the alarm had been blaring non-stop since it started. In this setting, his somewhat slow voice sounded rather eerie.

Conan Edogawa was getting anxious. Before Kazuki Takeuchi could finish speaking, he interrupted, "Stop talking, Kazuki-nii! Hurry up and run with us! You came from that side, right? Then we can go back the way we came and get back to the surface!"

Zhu Fujingguang said in a deep voice, "No, we can't take that road."

Conan Edogawa wanted to retort, but he realized what was happening first.

They had just confirmed that the Karasuma and Takeuchi families had deep ties to the organization. Returning to the Takeuchi family's main residence at this time would be like walking into a trap.
As Takeuchi Kazuki listened to their words, his expression became even more bewildered. He turned to Aoyagi Akimitsu.

Meeting those venomous, emerald-green eyes, he instantly snapped back to reality.

He murmured, "There really is a problem. Grandpa, and..."

Aoyagi Akimitsu looked at the high school student who had wandered in by mistake, his gaze sweeping over him before suddenly stopping.

Completely oblivious to the person scrutinizing him, Takeuchi Kazuki looked in the direction behind them and spoke in a low voice, almost drowned out by the alarm:
"...Is she inside?"

Both Morofushi Kagemitsu and Edogawa Conan, who were initially on guard against him, were taken aback, completely unprepared for his words.

Aoyagi Akihiro nodded and said simply, "Yes."

Kazuki Takeuchi didn't speak again, nor did he look at them anymore. He clenched the thing in front of his chest, as if he had made up his mind, and then ran forward—into the depths of the base that was about to explode.

Conan Edogawa was horrified: "Wait!!"

His words were drowned out by the sirens. Aoyagi Akimitsu didn't stop there. He didn't choose the road that Takeuchi Kazuki had come from, but started running wildly again on the road next door.

“Mr. Aoyagi, Brother Ichiki…” Conan Edogawa grabbed Aoyagi Akimitsu’s collar anxiously.

"Kazuki Takeuchi knows what he's doing."

Aoyagi Binguang kept walking without turning around, his voice perfectly steady.

“Perhaps, if given more time to think it over carefully, he would choose to run away,” he added. “But at least for now, he is willing to go there.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu felt that the body he was embracing was still taut, but compared to before, it had become soft and warm, as if it had transformed from a rock devoid of any human emotion into a person.

The strange feeling that had been lingering in Morobuchi Kagemitsu's mind disappeared along with it.

They didn't encounter anyone else on the road after that. With the increasingly loud noise behind them, they finally reached the end of the road.

Aoyagi Akimitsu climbed the stairs fixed to the wall, smashed open the roof with his fist, pushed Edogawa Conan out first, and then carried Morofushi Kagemitsu up on his back.

The opening is quite large; two adult men could fit through it by stacking on top of each other.

Just as the three of them were completely out of the passage, a second loud bang came from below, followed by a violent tremor in the ground, which then slowly subsided.

Conan Edogawa sat on the ground, staring at the now completely silent cave entrance, his expression incredibly complex: "Are we safe?"

Aoyagi Akimitsu stood beside him and put Morofushi Kagemitsu down. Despite running with the two of them for so long, his clothes were still in place, his hat and headphones hadn't fallen off, and even his long silver wig was perfectly in place.

He sighed and raised his hand to his face: "I was in such a rush that I forgot to even tear off the disguise. It's so hot..."

The conversation ended abruptly thereafter.

Conan Edogawa looked up, his face full of astonishment.

Multiple beams of flashlight shone in the nearby woods and were still approaching! (End of Chapter)