Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 352, Section 346: Really? I don't believe it.

The intelligence support department choosing to postpone a mission because of feudal superstition is something that sounds unpleasant.

What kind of place is that organization?

While the members here cannot be described as utterly wicked, the fact that every other one is executed suggests that quite a few have escaped the net.

If you say these people are superstitious and believe in karma, then the whole organization should have been disbanded back then.

The problem is that the series of accidents triggered by the death of the cadre in the research department are simply too horrifying.

The intelligence support department couldn't find suitable personnel to continue the mission in the short term.

It's one thing for people to follow orders from their superiors when working in an organization, but it's another thing to force someone to do a task that is clearly a suicide mission.

For missions with a slim chance of survival, people might still try their luck and gamble on a chance to rise to prominence.

If a mission with a 100% chance of death were actually assigned, the person who issued the mission would probably be the first to die.

In short, for the sake of overall harmony within the Intelligence Support Department and for their own personal safety, the cadres of the Intelligence Support Department chose to throw the research cadre's file into their own archives to gather dust.

Then you selectively forget about it.

Until recently, a group of ravenous Isshin-kai members were rummaging through the archives of the Intelligence Support Department and luckily found this file that did not belong to their department.

"Akita, you know what, the little stories circulating in the intelligence support department are quite interesting."

After hearing the story, Lin Longma chuckled and shook his head.

"What, big brother, you don't believe me?" Akita was, after all, one of Lin Longma's old men, and he could tell what his boss was thinking just from Lin Longma's expression.

Akita recalled the story he had just told Ryoma Hayashi. It made sense; the logic was sound and the circumstances were consistent.
If this had happened anywhere else, Akita would have definitely thought that the bastards in the intelligence support department were treating them like Japanese.

But it makes perfect sense that this research cadre incident happened in Mihua.

The very existence of Beika Town is a huge irrationality, so no matter how irrational the events that occur there, they all seem perfectly reasonable.

"It's not that I don't believe it, it's just that this kind of thing happened in the intelligence support department under Rum's command. Don't you find it strange?"

Who is Rum? He's incredibly impatient. Time is money is his motto.

As the organization's second-in-command, he was one of the cadres deeply trusted by the boss.

As the organization's second-in-command, this meant that, to some extent, Rum and other members of the intelligence support department were not on the same level.

Rum is part of the "ruling class" in this organization, unlike the cowards of the intelligence support department.

The so-called "unlucky guy" story might fool others, but it definitely won't fool Rum.

Or, to put it another way, for Rum, the mission must be completed on time. If the mission fails or is delayed for other reasons, that is not unacceptable.

But the absurd notion of "bad luck" was absolutely not going to convince Rum.

If Rum finds out about this, he'll get to the bottom of it, even if it costs lives.

Let's see if it's the intelligence branch or the organization's executive department that has more people, or if the research cadres are cursed with evil spirits.

“That’s right, that’s exactly what Rum is like.” Akita immediately agreed with his older brother’s analysis.

That's what rum is like.

If this were reported to Rum, he would probably think that someone was trying to challenge his authority within the department in a clumsy manner.

"So I plan to go to the place where that research officer died to see why the intelligence support department is preventing others from exploring that place, or rather, exploring that research officer."

They were even willing to risk the lives of members of the intelligence support department for this.

In summary, Lin Longma did not believe the Intelligence Support Department's statement, but he did believe the information provided by its members.

This information is easy to find, especially the confirmation of a member's death.

The organization's requirement for confirming the death of its members has always been to see the person alive or the body if they are dead.

Even details about the body must be documented.

This is why Sherry went to Shinichi Kudo's house to investigate time and time again.

Because until Shinichi Kudo's body is seen, his survival status within the organization will always be unknown.

Even if a person disappears for ten or twenty years, they will still be listed as unidentified in the organization's files.

This shows just how much risk Sherry took when she wanted to alter Shinichi Kudo's survival information in the organization's files.

It's fine if this kind of thing isn't discovered, but once it is, Sherry might as well say goodbye to this world.

The boss does appreciate talent, but that doesn't give Shirley the right to act recklessly—it's one thing to cross a line normally.

If you were to do that and get caught, it would be like walking right into a pile of red lines. Every little movement would cross multiple red lines.

It would be strange if it survived.

Moreover, Shirley hadn't proven herself at the time. She destroyed the only guinea pig sample.

She changed Shinichi Kudo's identity to that of a dead man.

At the time, she was just a genius scientist with talent in pharmaceuticals, but whose direction was not quite right.

The boss's requirement was "immortality" and "rejuvenation." But Sherry just sent him to his death.

Gin even used the drug A that she developed as poison.

For the boss, a genius of that value is no big deal if he dies. He'd rather not take that poison than risk it.

As for now, this drug A has been proven to have a "rejuvenating" effect. Not to mention that this thing was originally a poison, even the "Shit" boss would happily take it.

In short, they can't fool anyone when it comes to information about the deaths of their members. Since the organization was founded, there have been very few members whose survival status cannot be determined.

You know what, that research cadre is one of them.

"Akita, that research department executive went to see his friend back then?"

"Historian Mamiya and I were members of the same club when we were students. We didn't drift apart after we started working, and we see each other at least once or twice a year."

Even the cadres in the research department were like that when they first joined the organization.

So, Lin Longma now understood the depth of the friendship between the two.

If historian Mamiya is unaware of the situation, how could the staff in the research department be unaware?

The fact that they were able to meet at that moment must have been due to Mamiya's persistent request, which the research cadre agreed to without hesitation.

Whether out of fear of implicating friends or simply joining the organization, meeting with outsiders right after joining is the most dangerous thing to do.

(End of this chapter)