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

With one less person on the bus, the atmosphere eased considerably.

The police officer in charge of driving originally wanted to talk to Morobushi Kagemitsu about his experiences over the past two days, but seeing the obvious fatigue on his face in the rearview mirror, he silently swallowed his question.

Morofushi Kagemitsu was not in the mood for idle chatter.

He was now alone in the back, and the space was much larger, so he relaxed a bit. He leaned back in his seat and quietly looked out the window at the scenery.

"Buzz-"

Suddenly, his phone rang.

Morofushi Kagemitsu took out his phone. He had left it at the hotel when he ran out to chase Aniseto, and it had been brought back by his colleague who had gone there. The phone had been checked and confirmed to have not been touched while he was away.

It was Rei Furuya calling. Kagemitsu Morofushi was a little tired, but he still chose to answer.

"Hiro, have you arrived at the hospital?"

As soon as I pressed the answer button, my childhood friend's voice came through.

Morofushi Kagemitsu adjusted his posture and turned his gaze away from the window: "We're still on the way. We just dropped off Aoyagi."

Rei Furuya keenly sensed the weariness in his voice and immediately became alert: "What's wrong? Did that guy do something again?"

Hearing the stressed "again," Morofushi Kagemitsu sighed silently: "It's nothing, it's just..."

He briefly summarized what happened on the way, from thanking the other party to finding the cat after getting out of the car, and then talking about ordinary cases after returning to the car, and told it to Furuya Rei.

Considering that his colleagues in the front row were still there, he didn't mention Conan Edogawa for the time being.

After listening, Furuya Rei snorted with some dissatisfaction: "He did it on purpose, didn't he? He didn't want to talk about things at the base in detail, so he talked about other cases to pass the time. With his attitude, even if we ask him about it again later, we probably won't get anything out of him."

Zhu Fujingguang sighed, "Yes."

To be honest, he felt it was a pity, because he had so many questions he wanted to ask Aoyagi Akimitsu.

How did Aoyagi Akimitsu gain access to the base? How did he strike up a conversation with the lower-ranking officers, extract information from the two captured individuals, and get them to take him to the dungeon? What else did he see along the way? Whom did he encounter?

Where are Ireland and those two low-level members he took down? Where is Gin, whose identity he stole and who has yet to appear?
When he was talking to Karasuma Mochizuki and the others at the base, why did he say that Rum was overwhelmed with his own problems? Did he know Rum as well as he knew Gin, or did he hear something from Ireland? What exactly happened to Rum?
Why did he shoot through Bjergsen's stomach, but kill Karasuma Mochizuki by shooting him directly?

and also……

Those emerald green eyes once again uncontrollably surfaced in Morofushi Kagemitsu's mind.

Why was Aoyagi Akihiro nowhere to be seen when Aniseto appeared?
Ever since he opened the bedroom door and found Aoyagi Akimitsu missing, this question had been weighing on Morofushi Kagemitsu's mind. Even though Aoyagi Akimitsu had explained it during their escape, he hadn't completely believed it.

On the day Eto had his accident, he had already mistaken Aoyagi Akimitsu, who had mistakenly wandered into the park, once. At that time, he had even made a comparison and concluded that Aoyagi Akimitsu, whose gender, height, and build were completely different, could not be Anisette.

But when Aoyagi Akihiro appeared before him wearing green contact lenses, that absurd speculation once again occupied his mind.

It was difficult for Morofushi Kagemitsu to describe what that feeling was like.

Although their eye shapes, sizes, and color details are different—Anisset's green is brighter and more vibrant—the moment he looked at them, he saw them completely overlap.

"This is really troublesome. If all else fails, I'll ask Akai if I can inquire with him within the FBI. But knowing his personality, he probably won't bother with his colleagues..."

Rei Furuya is still criticizing Akihiro Aoyagi.

He was halfway through his sentence when he noticed his friend hadn't spoken for a while, and called out in confusion, "Hiro?"

Morifushi Kagemitsu snapped out of his daze. "Hmm?"

"Are you too tired?" Furuya Rei wasn't angry that he was distracted, only worried.

"No, I just..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu paused for a moment, then suddenly brought up another matter: "By the way, Zero, I remember you and Aoyagi were teachers at the Minato Ward Junior High School three years ago, right? What kind of person was he back then?"

The topic jumped abruptly, and Furuya Rei was taken aback for a moment: "Why are you asking this?"

Morofushi Kagemitsu never hid anything from his friend, and he said frankly, "I want to know your opinion of him. He saved me from both the Suzuki Hotel incident and this attack, when I encountered members of the organization. And the timing of his departure from the hotel tonight was just too coincidental."

Rei Furuya understood.

Whether as police officers or former undercover agents, suspicion has long been ingrained in their nature. Even in ordinary cases, someone who appears at the scene twice in a row will be suspected, let alone someone involved with that organization.

only……

He frowned slightly, recalling three years ago.

"Rum asked me to investigate him. To avoid arousing his suspicion, I didn't deliberately get close to him at first. It wasn't until after the student kidnapping and bombing at the Minato Ward Middle School that we gradually became acquainted..."

Rei Furuya disliked Akimitsu Aoyagi, but honestly, in his eyes, this FBI agent wasn't particularly suspicious. Aoyagi's presence at both of Hiro's captures by the organization could indeed be a coincidence: once when he received an invitation from an American judge, and another time when an American tourist/student went missing in the area. According to the investigation, his decision to travel to these two locations predates the police investigation.

The same applies to the hotel. The organization knows Hiro is staying there, and they certainly know who else is with him. To increase the success rate of the arrest, they will inevitably lure the troublesome guy away first.

Because he harbored completely different feelings for a certain member of the organization, Rei Furuya failed to grasp the complex emotions that Kagemitsu Morofushi was experiencing at that moment.

“That guy was annoying back then. When we went out for drinks, he complained to me about the security situation in Japan. We even ran into Binga once.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "I remember that not long after that, Binga disappeared."

Rei Furuya paused for a moment, then said helplessly, "Yes, but I don't think it has anything to do with Aoyagi. I checked the surveillance footage from when I was away. He was sitting at the bar the whole time and didn't notice Binga's arrival at all."

Morobuchi Kagemitsu remained silent.

Rei Furuya continued, "During that time, the Red-Haired Serial Murders also occurred. His international department had many foreign students, and the case caused quite a stir. Some parents came to pick up their children. It was then that I discovered his target was the aunt of a student named Labrencheva, and I also discovered the civilian revenge organization called 'Nadalunichtokitti'."

"And after that comes the school trip."

When this was mentioned, Rei Furuya sighed silently.

“In early November, the Minato District Middle School went on a school trip to Moscow, and I was assigned by Pramiya to go with them. Then, we received an evacuation order from the administrator, and that's when you were exposed.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu was stunned: "A school trip? What about Aoyagi...?"

“He went too,” Furuya Rei said. “We were staying at a hotel near Lubyanka at the time, and I was wondering how that guy, as an FBI agent, could stay so close to the Russian Federal Security Service without feeling uncomfortable at all.”

"A lot happened that day. Aoyagi saw the news about the explosion at the US military base, asked the head of discipline for permission to return early, and then booked a flight for the afternoon..."

Morofushi Kagemitsu didn't hear what happened next.

Because he had caught a crucial clue.

Three years ago, on the day he and Aniset were working together and she tricked him into exposing his undercover identity, Aoyagi Akimitsu was in Moscow, more than 7,000 kilometers away, with Furuya Rei.

—His most trusted childhood friend was the alibi of the person he most suspected.

Although there are still possibilities such as disguise and doubles, Morofushi Kagemitsu knows that when the US military base exploded, Furuya Rei would definitely be keeping a close eye on Aoyagi Akimitsu in order to determine the US's attitude. If the other party does anything unusual, he will definitely be able to detect it immediately.

So, he made a mistake?
Zhu Fujingguang was momentarily dazed.

"crunch-"

The sudden braking interrupted all my thoughts.

Morofushi Kagemitsu snapped back to reality, and Furuya Rei, on the other end of the phone, also became alert upon hearing the sudden noise: "Hiro? What happened over there?!"

"Bear!" shouted a police officer in the front row. "A bear is coming!!"

Zhu Fujingguang looked up and saw through the car window a huge black shadow appear on the roadside, walking towards them. At the same time, there was a smell of blood and the stench of wild beasts.

It was a bear, and judging by its size, it was a brown bear.

When it saw the car, it didn't rush towards it directly, nor did it show fear or back down. It approached slowly, like taking a walk after dinner.

It stopped a few steps away from the front of the car and opened its mouth towards the two police officers inside.

Something fell out of its mouth.

Morobuchi Kagemitsu watched as the round object rolled twice on the ground, and when it finally stopped, he finally saw it clearly.

That was a human head.

His blond hair was stained with blood and beast saliva, his skull was half-collapsed and broken, and his entire face was a bloody mess. The only intact eye was facing the car window, where it met the gaze of Morofushi Kagemitsu inside the car.

Morofushi Kagemitsu: "..."

"Hiro?!" Furuya Rei, unaware of what had happened, called out anxiously again.

“...Zero.”

Morofushi Kagemitsu's calm voice rang out: "I saw Irish whiskey."

……

Anzhong City.

Aoyagi Akimitsu strolled back to the hotel as if taking a leisurely walk.

He fed the last bit of food to the ragdoll cat in his arms, stroked its head, looked into its blue eyes, and asked gently:
"Do you like it?" (End of Chapter)