Conan: I've been linked to the tech tree system.

Chapter 199 What do you want to say?

Since James Black said he would go to the parking lot to get the car, Dr. Agasa and his group waited near the overpass.

Although it seemed more convenient to take the bus there to meet up, I couldn't very well refuse their kind offer.

To everyone's surprise, this wait turned into an endless wait.

"That's really strange, it's been 40 minutes already."

Dr. Agasa was keeping track of time, wondering what James was up to.

Did they park the car in Hokkaido?

"He's so slow."

"I don't know what they're doing."

Mitsuhiko and Genta can't stand it anymore.

Anyone would be unhappy if they had to wait 40 minutes for no reason, even if the offer was to treat someone to a meal.

"I'm starving," Ayumi said, rubbing her stomach in distress.

"Well, on the bright side, it might not be that they stood us up; maybe something happened?" Toru Tono said casually.

"Huh? Really?"

Ayumi looked up in horror.

"Don't worry, nothing's going to happen that easily... He just likes to talk nonsense."

Seeing Ayumi's worried expression, Shiho Miyano offered a word of comfort.

"...Who knows?" Tohru Tohno shrugged innocently.

He was just stating the most likely guess. Haven't you Junior Detective League seen enough corpses?

"No, Tono... what my brother said is very likely. It's impossible for an average person to take this long to get their car from the parking lot..."

Conan pondered.

"Then, let's leave Professor Agasa here and go see what happened?" Mitsuhiko, being a master of ideas, quickly came up with a good one.

"That's good." Conan nodded. "There don't seem to be many parking lots that you can walk to from here."

"Hmm, is Haibara-neechan coming along too?" For some reason, ever since they bought the same keychain, Ayumi seems to have become much closer to Shiho Miyano.

Although it appears to be only one-sided.

"Hmm... I'll pass." Shiho Miyano glanced at Toru Tono, who remained unmoved.

"Then you guys go ahead, we adults will wait for you here." Tohru Tohno waved his hand helplessly.

Although it might not be a good idea to send a few kids out to search for someone on their own, this wasn't the first time. After all, one of the kids is Conan, a former high school detective whose "body has shrunk but whose mind remains as lewd as ever," so he still has the ability to turn danger into safety.

So there's no need to worry about being bothered by the parents of the naughty child if something happens.

......

After the mischievous kids left, only Professor Agasa, Toru Tohno, and Shiho Miyano remained.

Professor Agasa was getting old, and with his cold still lingering, and having stood by the overpass for a long time, he was starting to feel exhausted. So he found a wooden bench on the street nearby to rest.

Tohru Tono changed his posture, resting his hands on the railing.

After organizing his thoughts, Toru Tono decided to first tell Shiho Miyano about Shuichi Akai's arrival in Japan.

As for the relationship between the Miyano family and the Akai family, he hadn't decided whether to bring it up.

After all, that's not an important matter.

"that......"

"actually......"

Just as he opened his mouth, Shiho Miyano suddenly uttered a single word.

When they realized that the other person seemed to have something to say, they both fell silent at the same time.

"puff"

After a moment of silence, Shiho Miyano suddenly burst out laughing.

"..." Toru Tohno smiled helplessly, "We're surprisingly in sync when it comes to silence."

“Is that so? But I always feel that some people are just too timid.” Shiho Miyano continued to smile meaningfully.

"..."

"So, what do you want to tell me?"

Tohru Tono didn't know how to respond, but fortunately Shiho Miyano didn't seem to expect any answer anyway.

"It's about your sister..."

Toru Tono told Shiho Miyano about discovering that Shuichi Akai had come to Japan.

"You mean, the person on the bus that day was Shuichi Akai?" Shiho Miyano frowned slightly. "No wonder I sensed the organization's presence..."

"Not entirely. Perhaps what you felt belonged more to Vermouth."

"Belmod?!"

Upon hearing the name, Shiho Miyano's pupils dilated slightly, and her body stiffened unnaturally for a moment.

Clearly, the Thousand-Faced Witch exerted a level of pressure on Shiho Miyano, who had always known that she deeply disliked her, that was unmatched by any other member of the organization.

"Is she... here to investigate me?"

"That seems to be the case now." Toru Tohno thought for a moment. Vermouth's main purpose in coming to Japan was probably to find Shiho Miyano, who had escaped. Seeing her son was only one aspect at most.

“But you don’t need to worry. The organization’s intelligence is basically transparent to me.” Toru Tohno was very confident about this. “As long as you don’t go to the organization’s base and shout ‘I’m here,’ my employees have no right to tell us what to do.”

As he said this, Tohru Tono suddenly remembered that Shiho Miyano in the early parts of the manga actually had strong self-destructive tendencies, and fearing that she might do something rash, he added, "The person Vermouth is currently disguised as is that Dr. Araide. I'll find a way to monitor her; there won't be any danger..."

"puff"

Halfway through her speech, Shiho Miyano's expression suddenly changed, and she burst out laughing for some reason.

"...What are you laughing at?"

Tohru Tono looked at her with a helpless expression.

Do you look down on me?

"It's nothing." She said that, but Shiho Miyano couldn't stop the smile on her face; in fact, it seemed to be widening.

"That's ridiculous." Toru Tohno was speechless. "Anyway, you don't need to be afraid of anything. Just stay at home as usual and no one will know that you are Shiho Miyano."

Tohru Tohru used both hands to prop herself up from the railing and glanced in the direction the Junior Detective League had just left.

By now, shouldn't we realize that James is missing?

"Speaking of which, what were you about to say just now?" He suddenly remembered this.

"forget."

"forget?"

"I forgot," Shiho Miyano said with a smile.

"..."

Tohno Toru was too lazy to argue with her, so he simply stopped talking.

Mysterious.

Chapter 200 P&A

"Brother Tono, look, we found this!"

As he expected, the Junior Detective League returned shortly afterward.

Conan, who was at the front, was panting, clutching a white lion keychain stained with blood.

Conan shouted as he placed the pendant in Tohru Tohru's palm, then secretly added in a low voice, "I found this near what appears to be James's car, and the children at the scene also confirmed that he was taken away by two other people."

Tohru Tono nodded and took the phone pendant.

Conan still manages to sneak into other people's cars without permission.

The white lion pendant itself doesn't seem like anything special, but what's intriguing is the ribbon used to connect it, which is printed with a string of English letters, among which the letters "P", "&", and "A" are completely stained red with blood.

This is highly suspicious, because if it were accidentally stained with blood, it would be impossible to cover it so precisely.

Therefore, it is only possible that someone deliberately left a message.

Considering the circumstances surrounding James's departure, it's easy to imagine that he sensed something was wrong before being taken away by others, and secretly left this message to convey something to himself and the Junior Detective League, who were likely to be searching for him.

So, the question now is, what exactly does this "P&A" mean?

He glanced at Conan, who had more information, and saw him shake his head, indicating that he hadn't solved the problem either.

"Anyway, let's call the police first."

Tohru Tono said it quite naturally.

Ultimately, in the event of a kidnapping, contacting the police is always the best course of action.

This is probably why Conan rushed over to find him.

If those kids went to report the crime themselves, they would be suspected of playing a prank.

......

Tohru Tono's face is now somewhat famous in Tokyo, so he's not mistaken for some boring adult who's too old to be playing pranks.

However, the professional competence of the police in Detective Conan... well, those who know, know.

After hearing about the kidnapping case, the police officers at the branch office didn't think to report it immediately. Instead, they asked the officers to describe what the kidnapped person looked like.

What good would it do for you two office workers to know?

Despite thinking this way, Tohru Tono still had Ayumi take out the booklet with "Randy Hawk" printed on it and show the last page to the two policemen.