I work as an editor at Marvel.

"You must be Kudo," Kazuha Toyama said coldly to Ran Mouri, resting her chin on her hands.

"What? Me?" Ran Mouri was completely confused.

“Heiji often talks to me about you,” Kazuha Toyama continued, turning her head closer to Ran Mouri to put extra pressure on her—the kind of pressure the main wife faces from a mistress.

"Ah, no, my name is Ran Mouri. You must have mistaken me for someone else." Ran Mouri waved her hand and said. She was not a mistress. Everyone had a childhood friend, so why would she be a mistress?

"Really?" Toyama Kazuha seemed skeptical. "Then where did Kudo go?"

"He went out to handle a case! He hasn't come back yet!" Ran Mouri gritted her teeth, and the chopsticks in her hand snapped in two with a snap. This bastard who left his girlfriend alone on their date and then never showed up again!

Kazuha Toyama shuddered; she now believed that Ran Mouri wasn't Shinichi Kudo. "Um... excuse me, I mistook you for someone else. By the way, where's Heiji?"

Reminded by Kazuha Toyama, Ran Mouri realized what was happening and asked, "Were you watching me from behind just now?"

Kazuha Toyama blushed and nodded shyly.

"If it's you staring at me, then who's staring at them?" Ran Mouri muttered to herself before suddenly standing up and running out, leaving Kogoro Mouri and Kazuha Toyama looking on with question marks.

After leaving the store, Heiji Hattori and Conan were nowhere to be seen, but Ran Mouri instinctively headed in the direction they had just gone.

Meanwhile, in the alley, Conan and Heiji Hattori stood back to back, with Fina on their left and Vernon on their right. As for Frank, he was standing at the alley entrance to prevent unauthorized people from entering.

"Who are you! Why did you lead us here?!" Conan shouted.

Tap tap tap, a sound of footsteps came from directly in front of them. Hattori Heiji and Conan looked in that direction nervously, and then almost tripped and fell.

A little girl walked out in front of them. She had brown hair, wore a pleated skirt and a short t-shirt. Apart from her slightly off-putting demeanor, she looked exactly like a cute little girl.

"Shinichi Kudo, where did my sister die?!" Ai Haibara asked directly and bluntly.

"Your sister?" Conan looked confused. Who is your sister?

"My sister goes by the alias Hirota Masami, you know that, right! Tell me where she is!" Ai Haibara shouted angrily at Conan.

“Hirota Masami…” Conan’s memory flashed back quickly. He remembered the older sister lying in a pool of blood in the warehouse. It was she who told Conan that the organization’s standard color was black.

“aptx-4869, this is the serial number of the drug that shrunk you. As long as you tell me the location, I can give you the antidote!” Ai Haibara continued.

Just then, a loud bang was heard, and the walls next to them shook twice.

Frank, who had been kicked into the wall, was still a little confused. He had only stopped a thin, ordinary girl.

Ran Mouri watched Frank warily. Her intuition told her that Conan and the others were in the alley and needed her help.

"Sorry, you'd better not go in." Frank became serious. How could he continue to survive in Ouroboros after being beaten up by an ordinary little girl?

Ha! Ran Mouri didn't hesitate and delivered a side kick to Frank.

Frank braced himself with both hands, feeling the strength of Ran Mouri's grip. After all, she was most likely an ally, and he couldn't just draw his gun directly.

To be honest, even Frank, who had been enhanced, was having trouble with Ran Mouri's angry kick; his forearm might even have cracked.

After realizing that a direct confrontation would only result in mutual destruction, Frank began to use his skills. Ran Mouri only knew some academic Taekwondo and usually relied on her extraordinary speed and strength in actual combat, while Frank was proficient in hundreds of kung fu routines, and his skills directly overwhelmed her.

Ran Mouri always goes all out, but she always misses the mark, as Frank keeps swaying her from her target.

After a dozen or so moves, if Ran Mouri hadn't been constantly fuming, the scene would have looked more like a master giving his apprentice pointers.

"Get out of my way!" Suddenly, Ran Mouri had a flash of inspiration, as if she had entered some kind of magical state. All the techniques Frank had just used converged into an idea in her mind.

Squat down, twist your waist, generate power from the ground, and kick upwards!

Ran Mouri's knee slammed into Frank's abdomen, sending him flying dozens of meters past Conan and Vernon.

“You don’t want to drag innocent people into this, do you? Just pretend.” Fina jumped down from the wall and gestured to Conan, “We’re not part of the Black Organization, otherwise everyone around you would have been shot dead.”

Conan thought about it again and realized that it was better not to let Ran Mouri know about these things while things were still unclear. Of course, he was definitely not afraid that Ran Mouri would be shy if she knew the truth and then do the same thing to him as she did to Franky.

So when Ran Mouri came in, she saw Fina holding Ai Haibara's hand, and Conan following Heiji Hattori. The two groups seemed to be on friendly terms, but Ran always felt that they were looking at her like she was some rare animal.

"What's going on here?" Ran Mouri asked, somewhat confused.

Chapter 136 Alien Companions?

"Hello, sister. I'm Conan's old friend. This might be a misunderstanding." Ai Haibara's performance perfectly exemplified what acting is all about.

Ran Mouri looked at Conan, and Conan could only nod in agreement.

Ran then imagined the misunderstanding unfold, figuring that Conan might have mistaken the man in black for a bad guy, and that she herself had made the mistake.

"I'm so sorry, I was impulsive. I'm so sorry. Should I call an ambulance?" Ran Mouri quickly bowed and apologized.

"It's alright, the young lady is quite skilled, she just doesn't know her own strength."

Frank walked out of the alley by himself. He had just cushioned his stomach with his hand, so he wasn't injured.

As he passed Fina, Frank said in a low voice, "I agree with you that this world is a very complex place."

He was so embarrassed by the little girl he met on the street. Judging from their strength, she was good enough to take the test for a professional.

"I'm so sorry," Ran Mouri apologized again. "How about I treat you to dinner?"

"No need!" Conan reacted quickly, winking at Ai Haibara as he spoke. "They have other things to do and aren't going the same way as us."

“Indeed,” Fina said with a smile.

Ran Mouri, still puzzled, left with Conan and Heiji Hattori, but Conan soon returned.

Just as Conan was about to say something, Fina directly displayed the map, guiding Conan to mark the location where Hirota Masami died.

Fortunately, Conan has a good memory. Someone else might not have been able to find the location so quickly. These days, there are quite a few people who can't find their way even with navigation.

After Conan left again, Fina looked at Vernon and asked, "Captain, how is it?"

Ai Haibara was very anxious, but she also knew that her own affairs were not Fina's and the others' top priority. Since she needed their help, she shouldn't overthink things.

“Very interesting.” Vernon stroked his beard. “That girl clearly received help from the World Consciousness at the last moment, otherwise Frank wouldn’t have been able to be sent flying by her, given the huge difference in skill.”

"World consciousness?" Fina wondered.

“That’s right, but we haven’t observed a fully formed world consciousness yet, which is a contradiction,” Vernon continued. “The most likely option now is that someone has somehow severed the world consciousness, and we don’t know if this chaotic timeline is a tool or a manifestation of that severance.”

"I'm starting to get a little interested in that black-clad organization."

A glint flashed in Vernon's eyes; perhaps the person behind the Black Organization shared the same goal as them.

The only difference is that they follow a path of win-win cooperation, while the other side follows a path of plunder.

"Fina, go to that place and see if Miyano Akemi's soul can still gather. Haibara Ai, you can't leave yet; there are some things I still need to test," Vernon then ordered.

Ai Haibara nodded and let go of Fina's clothes. She wanted to know the result as soon as possible, but she also knew that she should obey orders now.

Fina didn't linger; after receiving orders, she directly left this world via the shuttle.

"Frank, find an opportunity to arrange a meeting with them and have a talk," Vernon continued. "As for Ai Haibara, try to recall everything about the organization, down to the smallest detail."

While Vernon was planning the next move, Conan and Heiji Hattori were also talking about Franky and his group.

Conan: "Hattori, do you think what that little girl said was true or false?"

Heiji Hattori: "It's fake. If she were someone who had shrunk like you, she would have used the antidote herself. If she were just a child, none of this makes sense. But that medicine... my intuition tells me it might be real."

Conan nodded, agreeing. "Did you notice that the guy Ran kicked had marks on his waist where a gun holster was? And sometimes his hand would unconsciously reach for it. Clearly, he trusts firearms more than his skills."

Heiji Hattori agreed with this opinion; having basically grown up in the police force, he was more sensitive to firearms than Conan.

"However, Kudo, I think we should pay more attention to that foreign woman and the man who hasn't said a word."

“A normal person would be surprised to see someone kick someone dozens of meters away, but they were very calm and didn’t seem worried about their companion getting hurt. They are either cold-blooded or fearless.”

Upon hearing this, Conan could only say "indeed." He lowered his head and mentally compared the four people he had just seen with the members of the Black Organization he had encountered.

Both sides are very mysterious, but their methods of handling things are indeed very different. If it were the Black Organization, Ran Mouri might not even have a second chance to make a move.

When Kazuha Toyama saw Heiji Hattori and Conan whispering to each other, she inexplicably felt as if her childhood friend had been stolen away.

"Hey, hey." Kazuha Toyama nudged Ran Mouri, who was still feeling a bit guilty for her impulsiveness. "Is Shinichi Kudo really the same age as you? If it weren't for the age difference, I would have thought that little brat was Shinichi Kudo. Heiji, really..."

They've never been this enthusiastic towards me.

Kazuha Toyama didn't finish her sentence. She felt a little wronged. She had already been rude enough for mistaking a girl for Shinichi Kudo and stalking her, and now Heiji Hattori was ignoring her.

Ran Mouri looked at Conan, and from her perspective, the glasses on Conan's nose slowly disappeared, and he grew up rapidly, soon turning into Shinichi Kudo.

Even the way they discussed things was exactly like Shinichi Kudo. Come to think of it, Shinichi Kudo was really similar to Conan when he was a child.

"Ugh, ugh, ugh," Ran Mouri shook her head violently, making an incomprehensible sound.

Ran Mouri, what are you thinking?! How could Conan be Shinichi?!

……

Why can't Conan be Shinichi?

Clues kept colliding in Ran Mouri's mind.

Conan reappeared shortly after Shinichi's disappearance, and Conan, like a hunter who has caught the scent of prey, is relentless in solving cases. Moreover, Conan's logical thinking and interests overlap significantly with Shinichi's...

The more Ran thought about it, the more she felt something was wrong, and the way she looked at Conan became increasingly strange.

"Conan."

"What's wrong, Sister Xiaolan?"

When is your birthday?

May 4th.

Okay, now we have one more thing in common: Conan and Shinichi's figures completely overlap in Ran Mouri's eyes.

Chapter 137 A Case-Handling Method That Even Hydra Would Despise

Once suspicion begins, it's hard to stop. Coupled with the blurring filter inherent in suspicion itself, Ran Mouri finds Conan increasingly resembling Shinichi Kudo.

However, the idea of ​​reversing aging is too challenging to one's worldview, so Ran Mouri cannot be certain yet.

It wasn't until the moment Sakata led them out of a restaurant, the instant the body crashed onto the car, and the way Conan instinctively ran to the rooftop, that Ran Mouri finally realized that he was her childhood friend—Shinichi Kudo.

Ran Mouri hasn't figured out why this is happening, and she's also unsure whether she should confront Conan.

A few minutes later, Hattori Heiji and Conan, who had come down from the rooftop, worked with Sakata to cordon off the crime scene. The coffee shop owner was standing behind them, and it was his figure peeking out from the rooftop that attracted Conan up there.

"The method used in this case is very simple. After killing the person, the murderer tied the victim to the rooftop railing with a rope, so that the person would fall off whenever the door was opened," Hattori Heiji said to those around him.