Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

"Haha, just kidding... Could he actually be your dad's illegitimate child?"

...His thoughts drifted back, and Gin, who hadn't slept all night, felt a slight headache.

Gin understood why Vermouth repeatedly suspected his relationship with Black Mask.

Because the other party... plagiarized my name, which was truly without any reason.

Whether there's an ulterior motive or something else, Gin or the organization should at least find out first... although Vermouth did find out.

But according to Vermouth, she would know it was just a simple accident.

Gin was quite confident in Vermouth's disguise skills.

Therefore, things started to get a little strange.

The other party couldn't have created such a pseudonym simply for their own amusement, could they?

...Or is it that I really do have a younger brother that I don't remember?

Gin was startled and quickly snapped out of his thoughts.

impossible.

Absolutely impossible!

Well, no matter what, we still need to catch that guy who's hiding somewhere as soon as possible.

Gin thought to himself.

Meanwhile, on the other end of the line, Sano continued brushing his teeth after the call was disconnected.

To be honest, it was somewhat expected that Gin would call, but the sheer number of calls, and even his visit to their door, was astonishing.

That was somewhat unexpected.

Sano originally thought that the news of "Rye's" attempt to take down the FBI agents with him would inevitably reach Gin, or rather, the organization.

It shouldn't be this fast.

By then, Sano had already publicly returned to Japan and appeared before Gin alive, even though the news had reached him.

There shouldn't be any problems.

Chapter 376, Shocking! Shinichiro Sano's two-year-old photos exposed.

Unexpectedly, it reached Gin's ears now, no, to be more precise, last night... To be more precise, it shouldn't be "told," but rather that he intentionally arranged for intelligence agents to keep an eye on the matter, otherwise he wouldn't have found out so quickly.

Considering Gin's reaction after finding out... does this guy really care that much about whether I live or die?

Sano began to have doubts.

Although I really want to see this as Gin's pretense, a means to "control" his subordinates and enhance their sense of belonging and collectivism, if it really was just a matter of colleagues, shouldn't Sano have been moved first before responding to anything?

Sano stopped brushing his teeth, pondered for two seconds, and then shivered—maybe it's better to just let it go and pretend it never happened.

Otherwise, it would be really disgusting.

As for anything else, Sano couldn't be bothered to care.

Let's take it one step at a time. As the saying goes, there's always a way out, and things will work themselves out when you reach the bridge.

……

After the bus hijacking, Sano had a day off until the next day when he went to school.

It caught the eye of both Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki.

To be honest, since the last time in Izu... the two brigades, Sano hasn't appeared in front of the two of them for quite a long time.

Although Sano only went abroad once during that period, and didn't even stay there for two or three days, the total time, including the round trip, the time before departure, and the time after "returning," was indeed quite long.

During this time, the two did send text messages to Sano, but Sano either read them but didn't reply, or just gave perfunctory replies like "um," "ah," or "oh."

...It's not that Sano is too lazy to even deal with things, it's just that he's really busy.

Actually, it's not just this pair of best friends.

Conan, Amuro Tooru, Kyogoku Makoto, Ito Taka, and even Inspector Megure and Asai Narumi—people he knew through various aliases—had all sent text messages to Sano.

Sano, however, has always treated everyone equally.

Either agree to not replying to read messages, or reply to everyone... just give a perfunctory answer.

The term "master of balancing" perfectly describes someone like Sano.

After exchanging pleasantries, the two quickly shifted their attention from Sano to Ran Mouri's cell phone, which seemed to be a new gift from someone.

As for who "others" are.

Sano said he had just finished breakfast and wasn't hungry, so he wasn't interested in it.

When the class was almost halfway through, Sano suddenly noticed that the students in the class were starting to act strangely. One after another, they were taking out their phones, either whispering to their deskmates or rapidly pressing buttons on their phones, most likely texting each other.

Of course, if that were all, Sano wouldn't care too much.

The real problem is that these students would occasionally turn around and steal a glance at Sano.

This made Sano realize that the focus of these guys' "talking" was probably on him.

What's happening?

Sano turned his gaze to Suzuki Sonoko, and as their eyes met, she almost instinctively looked away, only to realize a second later that something was amiss.

He turned to look at Sano again and waved his phone.

Sano knowingly took out his phone and received a text message from Sonoko Suzuki a few seconds later.

"Senior, you know your fan website, right?"

Without even turning his head, Sano blindly typed back, "I know, what's wrong?"

"Dudu-"

Sonoko Suzuki: "So, do you know how to log in... Never mind, I'll just send you the pictures directly."

...Why does this have this strange gossip vibe?

Sano frowned. He, who was usually just a bystander, never expected to be caught up in his own gossip. He just wondered what kind of gossip it was.

Soon after, Sonoko Suzuki sent another picture.

Upon clicking, the first thing that caught Sano's eye was a "title".

Shocking! Shinichiro Sano's two-year-old photos exposed!

...Damn it, who came up with this title?

Isn't the flavor a bit too strong?

After a moment of silence, Sano scrolled down and finally saw the "true face of Mount Lu".

This picture is probably taken from Sano's fan site by Sono Suzuki, so it's something like a post.

It could also be called an article.

Besides the long passages of text, the most eye-catching thing is the accompanying picture.

The person in the picture is indeed Sano.

However, it was Sano wearing a special attack uniform.

Yes, that's right, it's the special attack suit that Black Death wore.

Sano frowned. Sure enough, the original owner of the body two years ago must have been a delinquent with dreams of being a delinquent. His relationship with that special forces member was probably not as "unjust" as Kyogoku Makoto thought.

Sano never expected that the original owner would leave behind such a photo.

Even more unexpectedly, Sano's fans dug up this photo.

This is just a bit outrageous.

"Dudu-"

Soon after, Ran Mouri also sent a message, with no other purpose than to investigate the relationship between Sano and the "Black Reaper"... Of course, she didn't ask that question right away, but rather probed in various ways.

Of course, this kind of word is not appropriate to describe Ran Mouri.

Because this girl is not good at, much less capable of, doing this kind of thing.

It's just that Sano has a keen sense of smell and can see through Ran Mouri's apparent concern to the underlying curiosity she can't hide. Of course, there's nothing strange about that.

After all, the significance of the "Black Reaper" is self-evident.

This thing was only created this year, while Sano had already put on this iconic outfit two years ago. It's hard to say that there's no connection between the two.

Who the hell would believe that?

Gossip is a human instinct. Not to mention Ran Mouri, Sano and Vermouth, even Gin cannot suppress the birth of this instinct.

At most, it's just about controlling your behavior and not paying the price for this instinct.

And it's clear that Ran Mouri isn't the only one with this instinct.

After sending the picture, Sonoko Suzuki held back for a while, but the text messages kept coming in like they were being thrown at her, and at the same time, quite a few students from her class were also texting Sano.

...Sano did not proactively exchange numbers with these classmates.

As a central figure who wasn't exactly at the center of attention, these classmates naturally wanted to exchange phone numbers with Sano. However, since they couldn't reach him most of the time, they asked their two best friends to help them inquire if they could get his number.

Sano didn't have any intention of acting like a big shot; it was just a number, so he gave it to him without hesitation.

This has resulted in Sano receiving a massive amount of information, like a sea of ​​water.

This caused Sano's phone to freeze.

...After Sano fixed his phone and returned home, he was too lazy to even look through the basket of text messages. Most of them were just gossip and curiosity from strangers, and perhaps some inquiries from important figures.

But none of it really matters.

It's just a piece of clothing, no big deal.

What Black Reaper? I don't know, I've never heard of it.

It has nothing to do with me. Believe it or not, it's up to you.

"Ok?"