Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

"Give me ten seconds."

"Hey?"

Judy instinctively reached out and took the cage. When she looked up again, Sano had already walked towards the other two.

"Wait……"

Before Conan could even react, the other two had already followed in his footsteps.

Turning back, Sano retrieved the cage amidst the screams and quickly left. At the same moment, the elevator doors dinged again.

Inspector Megure and his group came out.

Then he was stunned by what he saw and stood there dumbfounded.

"What, what's going on?"

"It looks like a cat abuse gang."

Judy had somehow found the man in the hat's phone. After a few clicks, she opened a video. When she turned the screen around, the content was so shocking that everyone, including Conan, couldn't bear to look at it.

Conan initially thought that Kurosawa's actions were too ruthless, given that it was just a cat, but now it seems...

That makes much more sense.

While it may be reasonable, that awkward feeling still lingers.

Because Kurosawa is not just Kurosawa, but also Black Mask.

That may not be quite right, but that's the truth.

At that moment, in Conan and the others' minds, the original pure white image of "Black Mask" seemed to have a faint black line added to it, or rather...

Conan and the others then realized that they seemed to have thought too highly of Kurosawa.

Perhaps Black Mask is still righteous, but at least...

Conan will no longer consider the other party to be a kind and virtuous person.

But thinking about it carefully, this is actually the normal thing.

After all, a real person can't be perfect, unless they're faking it, or that's what others think, or... that person is fictional.

……

"Gah!"

Sano glanced through the window at the large black cat lying on the power line behind his house.

"I think I told you not to get so close to me."

But I clearly didn't go inside!

"You might as well go inside."

"really?"

"Wait a moment."

Sano first closed the window, then used the summoning ability, and Daikoku immediately appeared in the house.

"Don't shout anymore, it will have a bad influence if outsiders hear it."

Sano issued a restraining order to Daikoku through mental communication.

Big Black nodded vigorously... It has to be said, the nodding motion of birds is quite remarkable.

It looks a bit strange.

As for why Sano wanted Daikoku to keep its distance from him, and why he forbade it from making a sound.

That's because when Rye was with Amelica, he always carried a black raven with him, which seems to have become the FBI's default setting.

Sano doesn't intend to let his true identity get involved with Daikoku.

However, there's no need to rush for Big Black to get too far away from me.

Firstly, crows are more common than greyhounds like the black dog, and because they can fly, they are not easily spotted.

Secondly, Sano has always been quite tolerant of his pets and tools.

If they want to have fun outside, let them.

If you're willing to go along, even if it might cause trouble, you can get through it by half-heartedly agreeing.

...And to be honest.

Sano had pets in his past life; to be precise, they were local dogs from his hometown.

If you really have to say, it can't really be considered Sano's pet.

But that doesn't stop Sano from liking that dog.

Cute and obedient, it wags its tail like a propeller whenever it sees Sano.

Sano has even come to regard them as family.

No one, not even dogs, will be allowed to bully Sano. If Sano gets a bite of meat, he will get a sip of soup too.

...Unfortunately, it was later stolen by some bastard.

Even the children who stayed behind lost their affection for each other after they went to school in the city.

I have no recollection of when Sano disappeared.

When Xiao Hei first appeared, it stirred up Sano's memories, but it was not that dog after all, and it wouldn't be following him around all day... Of course, he didn't think much of it, and of course, Da Hei's clinginess made it easier to accept.

"Dong dong dong."

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door of the Sano family's house.

Chapter 401, Conan: Ah~ Bourbon

Listen to the height of that knocking...

"Are you home, Uncle?"

really.

Sano grabbed a piece of clothing from the side and covered Dahei with it, then thought for a moment.

They stuffed the gloves in too.

He then opened the door and looked down at the little girl.

"What's wrong."

"Ah, finally we met."

Upon seeing Sano, the little girl visibly breathed a sigh of relief and said cheerfully, "Hehe, I just wanted to see how Uncle's gloves were coming along, because the charity sale is tomorrow, and I needed to check on things."

"Yes, the gloves are ready, you can rest assured. But don't look at them yet... Keeping them a little mysterious will bring more surprises."

Sano scratched his head, trying to fool the little girl for now.

The little girl's attention was focused only on Sano's fingers.

To be precise, it was on the bandages covering all ten of Sano's fingers.

Yes, the area under the band-aid is full of needle marks.

It's the kind of thing that will make someone with trypophobia's scalp tingle instantly.

Seeing the hesitation on the little girl's face, Sano could roughly tell what she was thinking.

"These are all proof of my hard work."

Sano waved his hand: "You have to treat me to something nice after this is over."

The little girl blinked.

Does it hurt a lot?

"It's alright."

The little girl hesitated, picking at her fingers. "If it really doesn't work, then maybe we should just forget about it..."

"What are you talking about? I've already finished it, how can you say it's over? Do you want me to have worked for nothing?"

Sano raised his hand and pressed down on the little girl's head, rubbing it hard until her soft hair was a mess: "Alright, I have other things to do. You go home first. I'll come to your kindergarten to find you tomorrow."

"OK then……"

After seeing the little girl off, Sano opened his coat.

Daikoku instinctively wanted to yell, but Sano pinched his mouth shut.

"I have something to do outside. I'll call you back later."

"learn."

Then Sano took a detour, changed horses, and ran into Gin.

"There are no high-level missions tonight, so I'll just do a couple more low-level missions."

Gin handed three file folders to Sano: "I've already made arrangements for your subordinate. Just focus on your own task."

...Originally, the organization did not have a clear definition of task classification.

However, after spending a lot of time with Sano, Gin unconsciously became infected with this perception, even the unspoken rules of his direct subordinates.

Because of Sano's frequent bluffing, Gin had no choice but to take over.

...There's no other way; only in this way can Ito Taka's role be maximized, while also being more beneficial to the opponent's development.

Subordinates need to be worried about, and subordinates' subordinates also need to be worried about.

It's exhausting.

This instruction reveals the frustration in Gin's heart, but at the same time, it also reveals some of his inner thoughts... He's already so tired.

We have to achieve something, right?

When Sano first joined the organization, he worked incredibly diligently.

After being promoted to a codename member, he almost squeezed every last drop of Gin's work out of him.