Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 21 Agave

The Tanaka family's case made the news early the next morning.

However, the residents of Beika Town don't seem to care much about this. Such murders happen every few days in Beika Town, and they've gotten used to it.

All I can say is, if you're not afraid of death, come to the Mikaku Grand Stage.
This is Natsukawa's third visit to the Mihana Department Store.

On his first visit, he spent over two million, which scared the manager so much that he came out to assist him.

The second purchase was less, but only compared to the first time.

This time, the manager was with him again, but this time it was a different person.

Xia Chuan had a good impression of the previous manager, so he asked, "Where is your previous manager? I haven't seen him today."

The manager hesitated for a few seconds, but after seeing Xia Chuan's slightly dissatisfied expression, he said, "Uh, Manager Tasaki just passed away yesterday."

“He was murdered by his wife. When I saw him before, they were such a loving couple. I never expected that Manager Tasaki’s wife would kill him because he wouldn’t let her keep a dog.”

Xia Chuan: "."

It's pretty outrageous, but it seems barely acceptable in Mihua, considering there are even more outrageous reasons for murder. Killing a dog could be considered a reasonably legitimate reason for murder.

Even Gotham is only known as Millet Flower; the reasons behind this are quite obvious.
"It's such a pity. Manager Tatasaki is also pitiful. He is a very responsible manager."

That's what they say, but in reality, Natsukawa only just found out that the manager's surname is Tazaki.

"You don't need to come with me. I'll look around by myself. I'm just here to buy groceries today."

"I see. Mr. Xia Chuan, please feel free to look around. If you have any questions, just have someone call me. I'll be in the manager's office." The new manager left in a hurry.

Having just taken over this position, it's somewhat temporary, and many things haven't been handed over properly, requiring him, the new manager, to handle them.

Xia Chuan watched the manager leave; he didn't want anyone following him today.

The things I bought here today have a special purpose; they're not just ingredients for cooking.

He needed to buy some materials for disguise. Although these things are relatively common, they might not be available in a regular market, so coming to the department store was the best option.

The department store's vegetable market was on the first floor, and because Xia Chuan arrived relatively late, there weren't many people there at this time.

The people I occasionally see are mostly women; men are relatively rare here.

The unique characteristic of Japan is that men are the breadwinners while women stay at home, so most of the women are housewives.

The housewives were quite surprised to see Xia Chuan. A young man not at work at this hour was actually shopping at the market; it seemed he was unemployed.

However, some sharp-eyed people noticed that Xia Chuan's clothes were not cheap, which gave them a different perspective.

Under these gazes, Xia Chuan continued to select disguise materials on his own.

Disguise is an essential skill for a spy; a good disguise is essential for long-term infiltration, and this is precisely the specialty of this spy, 'Twilight'.

In this world, the only one whose skill in disguise can compare to his is the now-deceased phantom thief, Toichi Kuroba.

It's not that Natsukawa is bragging, but his disguise skills are unmatched even by Vermouth and Yukiko Kudo, at least in terms of the details.

In addition, his acting skills are unparalleled; even the wife, children, and parents of the person he disguises would have a hard time recognizing him.

The combination of the two is the perfect disguise technique.

At the checkout counter, Xia Chuan handed the groceries from the cart to the cashier for a count.

Besides a bunch of disguised ingredients like sweet potato starch, lotus root starch, and wheat, there are also some real food ingredients.

The refrigerator at home is empty. I have to say Anya has quite a big appetite. Luckily, he has quite a bit of wealth.

Just as Xia Chuan was about to leave after paying, the cashier called him back.

"Sir, our manager asked me to give this to you."

As she spoke, the sales clerk placed a coupon in Xia Chuan's hand.

Xia Chuan: "???"

Another travel voucher?
Last time I used the travel voucher to go to Shikijima, but there were no beautiful women on the beach or anyone sunbathing. Instead, I was so bored that I couldn't sleep well at night.

However, it's not all bad news.

For example, his relationship with the Mori family improved a lot; he made a lot of money selling gold nuggets; and he learned that the brewery had a drug manufacturing base in Chiba Prefecture.

Thinking about it, it seems pretty good.

"Thank you!"

The sales clerk bowed deeply at a 90-degree angle. "We should be thanking Mr. Xia Chuan for trusting our Mihana Department Store. This voucher should have been given to you last time, but it was an oversight on our part. We are truly sorry."

It turns out that the Mihana Building has a rule that if you spend over one million, you will receive a travel voucher, and the destination will be different for each person each time.

Xia Chuan looked at it carefully; it was a voucher for a hot spring inn, also a family package.

I checked the time on the travel voucher; I just need to use it within the month.

Natsukawa said he didn't know how long "within a month" meant.

However, he didn't ask. It was nothing to him; after all, he was very wealthy and wouldn't care about such a small gift from the department store.

After leaving the Mihana Department Store, Xia Chuan arrived at Frank's large villa.

With the press conference for Full Paradise approaching, his plans could now proceed.

"Where is he now?" As soon as Xia Chuan entered the living room, he saw Frank sitting seriously in front of the computer, with headphones on his head and his eyes fixed on the computer screen.

The "he" that Xia Chuan mentioned is naturally the tequila from the distillery.

Frank was highly skilled; he secretly installed eavesdropping and tracking devices on his target without anyone noticing.

“We’ve just left the Tokyo area, so the location and eavesdropping devices can’t track us too far yet; they’re only effective within the Tokyo area.” Frank tapped a few keys on the keyboard and put down his headphones.

The monitoring equipment will now enter standby mode and will issue an alert when the target reappears within the monitoring range.

The two approached the table.

Xia Chuan placed all the materials on the table and began to prepare the disguise mask.

"How's the situation? When would be a good time to make a move?" Xia Chuan asked while adding water to the sweet potato flour.

Sweet potato starch and lotus root starch are most suitable for making disguise masks because they have good elasticity. With the addition of some pigments, they can imitate human skin color. If the skin color is dark, like that of Osaka Dark Skin or Amuro Tooru, black pigment can be added in appropriate amounts.

Of course, you can also add dark soy sauce. It has no taste and is very convenient for coloring, but you have to control the amount.

Frank watched Xia Chuan's movements and slowly took out a notebook.

"This guy is called Tequila. He's a code name member of the distillery, specializing in illegal transactions. Recently, drug trafficking has become his main business."

Xia Chuan hummed in agreement, looked up at Frank, and gestured for him to continue.

"You seem to have known this code name all along, not surprised at all."

“Surprised? But I’m a spy, isn’t it normal for me to keep my emotions hidden?” Xia Chuan chuckled as he glanced at Frank, who had recently become suspicious that he had other intelligence partners.

How is that possible? He knows all this because of his excellent knowledge of science fiction before he transmigrated.

He vividly remembered the great injustice done to Tequila. It appeared for only a few minutes before being sent flying by a bomb. The worst part was that it was accidentally killed. Who could he reason with?

The distillery must be completely dumbfounded; this is utterly out of the blue. It's just bad luck for tequila.

However, this is also a problem with Tequila itself. Why did they insist on making the deal at someone else's press conference? Wouldn't this problem have been avoided if they had just made the deal over coffee?
"really?"

Frank stared at Xia Chuan for several seconds, trying to figure out something, but faced with the expressionless spy Twilight, he could only give up.

"Of course, intelligence is something that can kill me if I'm not careful. I won't easily replace people. As an intelligence dealer, you should know this very well."

Xia Chuan chuckled and added, "Besides, what kind of relationship do we have? When there's money, our own people will definitely make it first. We'll only cheat outsiders when there's a problem."

Intelligence partners don't come easily. If he and Frank hadn't grown up together and completely trusted each other, he would definitely be a lone wolf like other spies in the underworld.

In the underworld, regardless of whether someone is an assassin, spy, agent, thief, or any other profession, the most important thing before taking action is to gather intelligence, so the importance of intelligence dealers is self-evident.

If the other party has ulterior motives, it's easy to set a trap in their intelligence, causing them to die without even knowing why. Therefore, selecting intelligence brokers is of paramount importance.

Frank clearly understood this as well.

"Alright, you pass." Frank shrugged, changing the subject, and continued:

"Tequila just left Tokyo city and seems to be going to a place called Tsukikage Island to make a deal. This island is a small island within the Tokyo area, with a permanent population of about five or six hundred. It's a small island village, similar to Shikijima, which you went to before, but with a larger population."

Moonshadow Island is actually related to a winery?

Xia Chuan paused for a moment.

He thought the drug trade on Moonshadow Island was just a small-scale operation, but he didn't expect it to involve a winery.

Frank continued, "Besides, Tequila will also be making a deal with Director Tsugawa of the Beika Library tomorrow night at seven o'clock. Do you want some?"

Frank (￢_￢) glanced at Xia Chuan sideways, "Should we go and see what the specifics of the transaction are?"

Then he took out another file.

"This is the file of Tamada Kazuo, an employee of the Beika Library. If you want to go, you can borrow this person's face."

Xia Chuan nodded and took the file.

Since it's a D-grade transaction, he'll definitely need to observe Tequila's behavior.

This is very important.

He has already made plans to replace Tequila on the day of the Full Paradise Games launch event.

Tequila doesn't have a public identity, at least not Frank can't find it. The only way to find out is to follow and eavesdrop on him to see how he behaves, so that he won't run into trouble when he disguises himself as Tequila.

This contains photos of Tamada Kazuo, as well as some of his interpersonal relationships and personality traits.

Xia Chuan needs to study these carefully.

Fortunately, a good memory is one of Xia Chuan's greatest strengths, so this task was not difficult for him.

"Looks like we have a lot of masks to make today!" Xia Chuan sighed slightly, somewhat helplessly.

Making a disguise mask is not something that can be done easily. To make it lifelike, you must precisely control every detail, down to the smallest freckles and moles.

Frank asked, "It's just Tamada and Otoko, isn't it?"

“Of course not.” Xia Chuan shook his head. “Disguise is also necessary when following them. After all, they are official members of the distillery and need to be respected.”

We need to make two more disguise masks for passersby, just in case.

(Fellow science fans, remember to vote with recommendation tickets or monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)