Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 349, Section 343: Helping Out
"Me? Take me with you! You have to take me with you when there's such a good thing!"

This world is a giant playground, and everyone is a fun-loving person living in it.

Kaito Kuroba is no exception; or rather, he's a fun-loving person who can operate in Tokyo as the Phantom Thief Kid.

The Kuroba family even has a family motto—when watching something funny, you can't laugh out loud; you have to keep a poker face.

Look at how strict the Kuroba family's family traditions are! They must be considered the moral benchmark among the fun-loving people.

"Bring you along? You really don't seem to care about the scale of a funeral, do you?" Lin Longma was speechless.

"Putting everything else aside, if your face appeared in front of Mori, would you want her to kiss you or punch you?"

Based on Ryoma Hayashi's understanding of Kaito Kuroba and Ran Mouri, a kiss between them would be completely impossible.

But the probability of him throwing a punch in a fit of excitement is not small.

Despite his seemingly carefree and energetic persona as Kaito Kuroba, he is ultimately just an "ordinary" high school student with exceptional magic skills.

Kaito Kuroba is ordinary, but Ran Mouri is anything but.

Not to mention anything else, just the whip kick that hung the thug on the wall at Nakamura Misao's villa was enough to give Kuroba Kaito a hard time.

What reason should we use to ask Nakamori Aoko to go to school and ask Kuroba Kaito for leave?
The reason was that he sneakily went to see a childhood sweetheart of someone his age who "shared" his face.

And then someone punched him and slammed him against the wall?
To be honest, considering Kaito Kuroba's habits at Ekoda High School, it doesn't feel out of place at all.

"Please, do you think I'm stupid!" Kuroba Kaito wasn't like Ryoma Hayashi; he already knew how formidable Ran Mouri was.

Since Shinichi Kudo's debut as a detective, Ran Mouri has always been by his side, serving as his source of combat strength.

While she's described as having the most fighting skills, she's really just a "henchman." However, Ran Mouri is the kind of henchman who's extremely efficient.

Few killers can withstand a single blow from Ran Mouri, let alone a full combo.

Kaito Kid is all about style when he goes out, so it's one thing to be chased by a bunch of rough guys (Detectives from the Second Investigation Division), but that's just how it is.

If he had to choose, Kaito Kuroba would prefer to be chased by beautiful girls—note, chased, not chased and attacked.

If he dared to show up with this face that looks exactly like Shinichi Kudo's, he might really end up being chased and beaten up.

"I would never appear in front of Ran Mouri with this face. Haven't we used disguise techniques before?"

"Fine, do as you please. But if you get caught, I won't be responsible." Lin Longma made a disclaimer right away.

Logically speaking, Kaito Kid's disguise skills should be trustworthy. After all, both generations of Kaito Kid have been active on the world stage for so long.

As a result, no one could find the flaw in the disguise technique.

Unless you personally tear off the mask, you can't tell if someone is disguised just by observing their face.

This is why Kaito Kuroba always observes the person he needs to disguise for a period of time before taking any action.

While people's appearances can be so similar as to be identical, their everyday gestures and habits are not easily changed.

In short, the Kuroba family's disguise technique is definitely trustworthy. However, Ran Mouri's recent unusual behavior has made Ryoma Hayashi a little more cautious.

Well, while he wanted to see Conan make a fool of himself, he didn't want to be part of that fun. So, no matter how small the probability of Kuroba Kaito being exposed was, as long as it wasn't "0", Ryoma Hayashi needed to clear himself of any wrongdoing.

"Don't worry, I won't drag you down with me." Kuroba Kaito complained irritably. He didn't expect that Ryoma Hayashi, who was a company chairman, would be such a coward.

Kaito Kuroba probably never imagined that if Ryoma Hayashi hadn't been so "cowardly," or rather, cautious, he would still have become the chairman.

It's uncertain whether Yixin Consulting even exists.
-
"Mouri, this is Kaneda, whom you've met before. If it's inconvenient, I can ask Kaneda to leave."

Upon arriving at the coffee shop that Ran Mouri had chosen, Ryoma Hayashi first pointed to the "Kinda" sign behind him and spoke to Ran Mouri.

Kaneda of the Isshin-kai is busy investigating the connection between the Karasuma Group and the organization for Ryoma Hayashi. This Kaneda is obviously the same as the one in Kosaka Castle, and is actually Kaito Kuroba in disguise.

Ryoma usually goes out with Kaneda and Shiraishi. Ran Mouri had clearly anticipated that Ryoma would bring Kaneda to the appointment.

Therefore, the appearance of "Kinda" was not surprising, nor did it cause any resentment.

After ordering their desserts based on the staff's recommendations, Ryoma Hayashi and Kaito Kuroba also got a latte.

After all the dishes were served, Lin Longma asked Mouri Ran, "So what's making you so conflicted, Mouri?"

Lin Longma could tell that Ran Mouri was truly conflicted—the small cake in front of her, if not riddled with holes, was certainly in a state of utter disarray.

In short, this little cake must have had its worst day as a dessert, as Ran Mouri had no intention of eating it at all.

He was just casually showing off his skills with the steel fork to the little cake.

“It’s like this, Uncle Lin.” Ran Mouri pursed her lips, put down her fork, and looked up at Ryoma Lin: “One of my classmates has recently encountered some trouble. No, I should say trouble or problem.”

Ran Mouri said something that no one would believe: "I have a friend." Oh, her version should be an upgraded one, from friend to classmate.

However, Ran Mouri's acting skills are not very good. With that conflicted look on her face, anyone can tell whether it's a friend or a classmate.

That's clearly referring to Ran Mouri herself.

Lin Longma understood the principle of not exposing someone's hardships, so he didn't intend to expose the girl and nodded slightly to signal Ran Mouri to continue.

"It seems she's recently met the person she's been looking for, and she suspects this is the person she's been searching for, but..."
But the man kept denying his identity.

Lin Longma knew his words were somewhat superfluous, but just to be on the safe side, he still needed to add them:
"Is it possible that your classmate has the wrong person? After all, if you deny it like that, what if it really isn't them?"

"At first, my classmate thought the same thing, but later she found a lot of clues and evidence that could prove that person's identity."

She no longer expects to hear that person admit their identity in person; she wants to verify it herself.

So she specifically asked me to help her find out if there's any way to verify his identity without his consent.

Okay, okay, that's how it should be!
Lin Longma appeared calm on the surface, but inwardly he was cheering. What was this, Ran Mouri?! This was a young girl's awakening!
Waiting for Conan to reveal his identity? Dream on! Don't be fooled by his quick and decisive reasoning; if this happened to him, he'd be a complete coward.

Things that can be explained in a single sentence are left unsaid; one simply endures and bears them until some tragedy occurs.

Conan is obviously unreliable, and Ran Mouri wants to see "evidence," so Rin Kaka has to step in and help her out!

(End of this chapter)