Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Conan gave the answer on his own.

"Hey?"

Upon hearing this, Sonoko Suzuki, her face full of surprise, immediately grabbed Sano's hand: "Is that so? Wow, I'm so touched, senpai! You're actually willing to risk having your jewel stolen and your reputation ruined just to let me finish my willful little test first, really..."

After a period of self-reflection.

Sonoko Suzuki grabbed Conan's ear again.

"And you, kid, what do you mean by 'defecting to the enemy'? You used such a nasty language!"

...Isn't that tantamount to defecting to the enemy?

Sano pursed his lips, slightly speechless... It was only because the Suzuki family was so wealthy that he felt a little better; if it weren't for that, he would feel much better.

Just a couple of provocations from Kaito Kuroba and she fell into a super love-struck state, completely led by the nose, helping the enemy steal such an important gem, and completely disregarding the bet between her boyfriend and her mother... Of course, it's also possible that Sonoko Suzuki really didn't care about the outcome of the bet, but even so.

Sano still felt that it was incredibly stupid.

anyway.

If Kyogoku Makoto didn't recognize that Suzuki Sonoko was actually Kuroba Kaito in disguise, if even recognizing her by the length of her fingers wasn't the answer... what would this girl's reaction be now?

Will they be so disappointed that they break up?

"Ok?"

Sonoko Suzuki noticed Sano's gaze and turned around: "What's wrong?"

"nothing."

Sano stood up and patted his butt: "I was just wondering just how stupid you can be."

Sonoko Suzuki: "..."

"Let's get down to business. What exactly are you doing here?"

Sano's gaze shifted to the group of people sitting on the stairs: the two best friends, and the two fake children... Yes, even the fake loli had come over.

Sano didn't think that this group was there to exchange pleasantries with him.

"Just a heads up, if my hometown gets raided because of you guys, I'll be really angry... You understand?"

Hearing Sano's serious warning.

The plague-ridden figures, however, tilted their heads, seemingly puzzled...

"What are you saying?"

"It's nothing, I just wanted to say that it's fine to get involved in cases, but don't do anything like demolition or fires."

"..."

The two best friends, still bewildered after receiving the answer, were surprised. The two fake kids, however, realized what was going on and gave each other speechless, deadpan looks. Conan, in particular, seemed to have been hit where it hurt and couldn't help but retort, "Hey, can you stop being so superstitious like those incredibly stupid people?"

"How is it superstition? Isn't it scientific to use probability to calculate?"

Sano curled his lips into a smile: "For example, the Suzuki Museum yesterday. It had always been peaceful and safe, but last night, the roof was gone."

"How can you blame me? It's all Kaito Kid's fault, and also..."

Conan suddenly went silent... as did Makoto Kyogoku and the other two.

This is the real culprit.

But considering the identities of those people... Conan still thinks it would be better to pin all the blame on Kaito Kid, the legitimate thief.

"Besides, weren't you there too?"

Conan is planning to drag Sano into this again.

However, Sano just smiled dismissively.

"At least your office was almost bombed before... and it almost affected my shop. There have never been any murders in my area."

Conan was speechless, choked by what he was said.

Chapter 598, 601, Serious Sano

The other three people beside them were speechless... though that's not entirely accurate.

But Sano is clearly just blaming the pot calling the kettle black, isn't he?

"All right."

Ai Haibara clapped her hands, intending to end this pointless farce, and said, "We came here because we heard you were going to dance tomorrow, but you've been busy with the Phantom Thief Kid thing the past two days, so it seems like you haven't practiced at all, right?"

Sano raised an eyebrow and looked at the phones in the hands of the other three people besides Ran Mouri. He roughly understood what was going on and couldn't help but laugh angrily, "Whether I practice or not is none of your business."

"Hey, we've gotten too distant, haven't we?"

Sonoko Suzuki said with a grin, "We're just worried that if you don't practice well, you'll embarrass yourself on stage tomorrow. That would be so awkward... By the way, have you ever danced before, including ballroom dancing?"

Sano's memories were stirred, and he stroked his chin: "...I guess it could be considered that I did it, like radio calisthenics, square dancing, and maybe even social dancing?"

Upon hearing Sano's words, the four of them exchanged a slightly bewildered glance.

...Although I couldn't understand it very well, judging from the beginning of that radio calisthenics routine...

Without a doubt, Sano has never danced before.

They didn't even use the social dance stepping stone that Sonoko Suzuki provided.

"...What is social dancing?"

Ai Haibara's focus is peculiar; she's never even heard of the square dancing in the middle of the video.

At least we can still make up a general idea, which may be similar or very different, but this social movement is unique.

...Ai Haibara was completely unable to entertain any fantasies.

"……nothing."

Realizing he had said something he shouldn't have, Sano casually brushed it off.

...That's a painful memory, best left unmentioned.

Sano waved his hand and walked upstairs: "Alright, I'm not going to argue with you guys anymore. If you want to see me make a fool of myself, then you don't need to. I'm going home to sleep."

"Hey, senior, we really don't want to see you make a fool of yourself. On the contrary, we just don't want you to embarrass yourself tomorrow, so we want to give you some special training today."

Sonoko Suzuki called out hurriedly, but unfortunately Sano ignored her.

"Tch, it failed again after all."

Looking at Sonoko Suzuki's regretful face, Ran Mouri beside her felt somewhat helpless.

"I told you not to do that, what if the senior gets angry?"

"I'd really like to see what that guy looks like when he's angry..."

Conan muttered something, attracting Ran's attention, and quickly changed his tune, saying, "Ah, what I mean is, with Sano-nii's easygoing personality, he definitely wouldn't get angry over such a small joke... If this can make someone angry, then what about all the things he's done so far, the punishment of the devil?"

After fooling Ran Mouri, Conan couldn't help but mutter another word.

"Oh well, I'll have to go on stage tomorrow anyway."

Sonoko Suzuki put her hands on her hips and laughed, "We'll just watch the live broadcast then."

"The garden..."

Ran Mouri wanted to say something more, but Sonoko Suzuki put her arm around her shoulder and said with a sly smile, "Hey, Ran, you should know what kind of dance you're going to do at kindergarten tomorrow, right? It's a super cute girly style that would make even two high school girls feel a little embarrassed to dance. How do you think you'll dance it? Will you be particularly awkward? Have you ever seen your senpai shy? Don't you want to see your senpai blushing but having to keep going? Aren't you curious?"

Under the guidance of Sonoko Suzuki, who was breathing rapidly and whose eyes were shining.

Ran Mouri's gaze gradually became unfocused...

"...I'm saying, since we came here today and failed to achieve our goal, might we have alerted Sano and made him wary, so he might not go on stage tomorrow?"

Conan turned to look at Ai Haibara, whose eyes held a hint of dissatisfaction, and laughed: "You can rest assured. I may not be able to say what the final result will be, but I can be sure that this guy will definitely take the stage. That's the only thing he can't escape."

"Yeah."

Ai Haibara nodded thoughtfully, then asked another question.

"Are you sure that doing this won't make that guy hold a grudge? You should know that even if we do get hold of Sano's dark history, compared to what he has, our stuff is like heaven and earth. Not to mention, many of our things aren't just dark history, but can be called leverage. And we've been getting along normally for so long, and I haven't seen him do anything. We've been living peacefully together. There's absolutely no need to worry about it escalating to the point where we have to reveal each other's secrets, right?"

...Most importantly, if the cards are actually revealed, then this card is useless.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Conan clicked his tongue dismissively: "What matters is never whether it's equal or not. You're right, Sano hasn't been using our weaknesses against us all the time, but it still exists. He can bring it up whenever he wants, even if it's just on a whim. It's like a thorn in our flesh... I don't think we have a way to remove this thorn, or even just to stick a thorn back in. But, as the saying goes, even Buddha fights for a stick of incense, and people live for a breath of air... Otherwise, why did you come here without saying a word after receiving the news?"

Ai Haibara remained silent, clearly having been hit where it hurt by Conan's words.

Looking to the side, Ran Mouri had already been completely fooled by Sonoko Suzuki.

Everything is ready now, except for Sano taking the stage!

Conan revealed an unusually lewd smile. Tremble, Sano! I'm about to show you that even an ant can fight back!

at the same time.

Sano, back inside, turned on his phone.

...Perhaps Sano did feel a little awkward about the dance he was supposed to practice, but not enough to make him choose to run away, let alone that he couldn't escape it anyway.

After all, Sano has always adhered to... in short.

Sano made an excuse to leave for a reason: Gin called.

"Hello, what's up?"

"Why did you take the day off again today?"

As soon as the call connected, Gin launched into a cold interrogation.

...That's right, Sano took the day off today, and in fact, not just today.

Sano seems to have been on leave for quite some time now.

Sometimes, Sano does indeed have a plausible and legitimate reason.

But sometimes, it's just a complete sham.

For example, it's almost equivalent to not handing in homework when you were in school, and when the teacher asked why you didn't hand it in, you answered that you forgot to bring it.