I'm in Detective Conan, and the system has appointed Batman.

Chapter 690 Visbania Ore

"Oh my, Tokyo is really chaotic tonight, it's quite a shock."

Inside the secret base of Phantom Thief Kid.

After investigating the situation inside the Ekoda Department Store and confirming that there were no other bombs remaining, Kaito Kuroba and his companion returned to their secret base.

Kuroba Chikage said this half-jokingly.

"If Tokyo continues to be this chaotic, Kaito, why don't you consider moving in with your mother? The United States is much safer, you know."

Kuroba Kaito:?
Even Japan, which has gun restrictions, is fighting like this. I don't even want to imagine what the United States, where there are no gun restrictions and gun shops are everywhere, would be like.

How could the United States be safer than this?
Although Tokyo's crime rate does seem to have increased significantly compared to before...

But it's still much better than the United States.

Kaito Kuroba shook his head and said.

"Mom, there's no need to say anymore."

"It's not like Tokyo is dangerous every night. It only happens once every week or two."

"Most of the time, it's just some ordinary murder cases or small cases."

"Such a grand event tonight is rare even in the history of Tokyo."

To put Kuroba Chikage's mind at ease.

That's how he explained it.

Kuroba Chikage: ?
What? Only once every week or two?
So frequently? If Tokyo isn't that dangerous, in what ways is it not dangerous?
Kuroba Chikage turned her head to look at Terai Kinosuke.

The butler, who had served two generations of Kaito Kid, noticed Chikage Kuroba's gaze and assumed that Chikage was asking him for confirmation.

Terai Kinosuke nodded and said.

“Madam, I can vouch for the truth of what Master Kaito said.”

"Tokyo is not usually this dangerous."

Kuroba Chikage: ?
Is this what you're trying to explain?
Shouldn't we be refuting the question of how frequently such major events occur?
Kuroba Chikage frowned.

Her gaze then fell on Kaito Kuroba.

He seriously considered again whether or not to take Kaito Kuroba to settle in the United States.

If it weren't for the agreement reached between Kaito Kuroba and his son Toichi Kuroba in Hakodate City...

She couldn't simply take Kaito Kuroba to settle in the United States.

At that moment, he simply packed up his eldest son and took him away.

Tokyo is too dangerous; the United States is much safer.

At least the cities of the United States are not in such dire need of crises that they occur every week or two.

"However, young master Kaito, and lady Chikage."

"It's quite surprising that this crisis has occurred in the Ekoda area."

At this moment, Terai Kinosuke suddenly spoke up.

He added what he hadn't said before, speaking hesitantly this time.

"Under normal circumstances, a crisis is unlikely to occur in the Ekoda area."

"This is the safest district in Tokyo, so safe that even serious murders are extremely rare."

"But it's not too strange that the demolition expert inexplicably shifted the last target from other districts of Tokyo, which were previously targeted, to the Ekoda area."

"In addition to the inexplicable failure of all communication methods in the Ekoda area..."

—Are all communication methods in the Ekoda area still unavailable?

Upon hearing this, Kaito Kuroba and Chikage Kuroba were startled.

When the crisis occurred, they were all dealing with the Four Guardians in the Beika Town area, and later their attention shifted to the pursuit along the Tsutsumi River, completely neglecting the communication situation in the Ekoda area. Therefore, they only learned about this matter now that Terai Kinosuke had brought it up.

If the previous ones could be described as coincidences, then...

The fact that all communication methods inexplicably failed likely carries a hint of being targeted.

Kaito Kuroba stroked his chin, speaking thoughtfully.

"This appears to be a murder targeting a specific individual?"

"Because they couldn't be sure if someone would warn the target beforehand, they simply shut down all communication methods in the entire Ekoda area at once? But that's too strange. How could such a thing happen?"

"To commit such a blatant act simply by murdering one person..."

"And how can we disable all communication methods in the entire Ekoda area?"

His brow furrowed slightly, as if he couldn't quite understand.

However, it was the knowledgeable and experienced Kuroba Chikage who spoke up at this point.

"Actually, it's not impossible."

"Visbania ore is said to have the effect of completely disabling electronic devices in a certain area. If it were used on a signal base station, it wouldn't be impossible to do the same thing..."

Those are minerals unique to the Kingdom of Vesbania.

The mechanism by which this mineral can cause electronic devices to malfunction and become paralyzed is still unknown. All that is known is that it is rare, seldom found outside the country, and is subject to strict international monitoring and control.

However, Kuroba Toichi had previously stolen a gem made from polished Vesbania ore.

He accidentally touched the gemstone to the electronic equipment, which directly caused a major power outage in the gemstone exhibition hall, thus confirming that the seemingly fantastical gemstone mineral did indeed possess this effect.

It's not some urban legend fabricated by a small European country for fame.

"Visbania ore? Huh? There's such a thing?"

Kaito Kuroba said with some surprise.

He is often active in Japan and rarely goes abroad, so he doesn't know much about things abroad, let alone the mining rumors involving high-level officials.

Moreover, even if he did hear it, he would most likely not believe that the effects of this mineral actually exist and would not take it to heart.

Now, Kuroba Chikage has clearly explained this gemstone.

He was convinced that the Vesbania gemstone did indeed possess similar effects after the effects were emphasized, but he was somewhat skeptical that it had been used in this possible murder.

—If it were actually used for this possible murder.

Therefore, Batman should not be completely unaware of this.

The guardian knight of Beika Town will definitely find the person causing trouble near the signal base station as soon as possible, and then take them away along with the invaluable Vesbania ore.

The global communication outage continued until Batman defused the bomb.

That means this thing has nothing to do with Vesbania ore.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

"You've all guessed wrong."

The classic three-part laugh of a rich young lady echoed through the secret base.

Kaito Kuroba and Kinosuke Terai, unfazed, turned to look at the direction from which the sound came.

Only Kuroba Chikage was still somewhat unaccustomed to this.

Then, Koizumi Akako appeared in sight and spoke earnestly.

"This is a product of magic."

"We must use magic to defeat magic!"

(End of this chapter)