Chapter 187: A Strong Death Wish
Natsukawa didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he finished clearing the dishes and wiping down the table before gesturing for Kaito to sit on the sofa.
"Are you talking about Kaitou Kid's announcement?" Natsukawa asked knowingly. "But what does that have to do with you, Kuroba Kaito? This is a notice from Kaitou Kid—how would I know what's going on?"
Kaito's face darkened, and stress marks appeared on his forehead.
￣□￣｜｜
This Natsukawa, even at a time like this, was still playing these pointless games.
So what if he'd been a little stubborn before? Did Natsukawa have to hold a grudge like this? He'd come here today—he'd already essentially revealed his identity.
"Alright, alright, I'm done teasing you." Natsukawa waved his hand and poured Kaito a cup of tea before continuing. "You don't need to worry about this matter. If you're concerned about your reputation being damaged by identity theft, you can also conduct an operation tonight.
Tokyo is huge—there are plenty of people who possess valuable gems. Just find some unlucky target to send a notice to, then report it extensively to notify the media and fans.
Given how well Inspector Nakamori knows you, he'll definitely be able to identify which one is the real Kid. That way, you'll not only protect your reputation but also avoid contact with the Black Organization."
Kaito had already considered Natsukawa's suggestion and even had Jii Konosuke standing by near a potential target. After this conversation, he'd decide whether to issue the notice.
Asking about the Black Organization impersonating him with tonight's notice was just an excuse. His main purpose was discovering Natsukawa's true identity and why he was certain his father was missing rather than dead.
Also, what was this Zoo organization?
Last night had been too rushed, and he couldn't find out. He'd specifically taken the day off to come here for answers.
"Natsukawa-san, who exactly are you?" Kaito pondered for a long moment before finally asking this question.
"I've already told you everything, but you..." Natsukawa suddenly said dejectedly. "You know both my identities as a Special Investigator for the National Tax Agency and an undercover agent in the Organization. You know everything about me—even my daughter and girlfriend don't know these things."
Kaito curled his lip in disdain.
Natsukawa definitely had more than just these two identities, and his behavior was nothing like that of an investigator.
He was definitely hiding other identities.
Adhering to the principle of "I won't tell you even if you tell me; even if you tell me, I still won't admit it," Kaito shook his head. "I'm really not some Kaitou Kid."
"Then how did you know about my conversation with Kid last night?"
"I have my own sources." Kaito lied with a completely straight face, without any shame whatsoever.
It's your business if you know my identity, but I just won't admit it—what can you do about it?
The two stared at each other for a long moment until the clock chimed the hour, and the clear sound made them both look away.
Very well, they were both clever devils.
"You think my dad isn't dead, just missing?"
"Of course. Who is your father—an internationally renowned magician, the legendary Kaitou Kid, on every country's wanted list.
Do you think someone like that would die so easily?
Magicians don't casually perform tricks they can't execute, especially such high-risk escape illusions.
Of course, Houdini is an exception."
Houdini had thought himself invincible, but in the end, he'd died from a ruptured appendix after being punched.
Kaito nodded, agreeing with Natsukawa's assessment.
His father's skill was undeniable, and he'd witnessed his father conduct numerous practice runs before that escape trick, along with corresponding safety measures.
In that situation, his father definitely had at least three ways to escape.
Previously, he'd been blinded by suspicion, thinking the Zoo had done something.
Now, thinking back on it, with his father's caution and intelligence, he must have known beforehand.
Rather than saying his father had died accidentally, it was more accurate to say he'd moved from public view into the shadows to avoid the Zoo's surveillance.
Kaito's mind suddenly cleared, as if he'd realized something crucial.
"That figure on the clock tower that day..."
Kaito's eyes lit up with understanding.
"Alright, you should already know about your father's situation. As for the Zoo..."
Natsukawa waved his hand. "I don't know much about the Zoo either. You should already understand their purpose in stealing gems. Although it's somewhat absurd, what they claim is true."
Absurd wasn't too bad. He'd already encountered a witch—Kaito's acceptance threshold was quite high.
Magic existed, so some kind of elixir of immortality was reasonable. He wasn't operating in some pseudo-scientific detective world.
"It's fine, not too absurd. Koizumi—"
Kaito was about to mention that Koizumi Akako, the actual witch, was even more outrageous, but then remembered that Natsukawa was supposedly just an ordinary person. Telling him about the existence of real magic would probably be unacceptable to most people.
"Koizumi Akako? I know her. I even met her at the Mountain Goddess Shrine before." Natsukawa's expression suddenly became somewhat gossipy.
"So, Nakamori Aoko and Koizumi Akako—which one do you actually like?"
"Heh, don't joke around. That Koizumi Akako is completely unlikable."
"Oh, so you prefer your childhood friend?"
"Of course not!" Kaito slammed his hand on the table, then, realizing he'd overreacted, awkwardly sat back down. "How could I possibly like that kind of airhead?"
"Oh, so you've been stringing her along because her father is Inspector Nakamori of the Metropolitan Police, a detective specifically targeting Kaitou Kid. You're exploiting Nakamori Aoko's feelings to gather intelligence—what's the difference between that and being a scumbag?"
Kaito's eyes darted around nervously. What Natsukawa said did make some sense.
But he didn't mean it that way.
It was always Aoko who invited him, okay?
As a guy, he absolutely couldn't easily refuse a girl, especially since Aoko was his childhood friend.
It's just that Inspector Nakamori himself wasn't very discreet, often casually revealing police plans targeting Kaitou Kid.
Natsukawa clearly saw through Kaito's thoughts and stated bluntly, "Didn't you use her to access crime scenes, or impersonate her to scout locations?"
Kaito's eyes continued darting around nervously.
Whether he did or didn't was another matter, but he didn't want to discuss this now.
"By the way, the person you disguised yourself as that day—was he someone from the Organization?"
"Hmm?" Natsukawa frowned.
Kaito's expression was somewhat awkward, and after a long pause, he finally said, "I feel like the guy you disguised yourself as looks somewhat familiar."
"Who?" Natsukawa sat up straight, his full attention focused, waiting for Kaito's explanation.
He couldn't help but become serious when it came to Tequila's identity.
"It's Snake, the one who impersonated a police officer during the Bell Tree Express incident. His name translates to—Snake!"
"Him?"
Natsukawa was taken aback. He knew this character—every time he appeared, Kaito would give him a thorough beating. However, this guy was incredibly resilient; he'd even survived a high-speed train crash into a tunnel wall.
He should be called Cockroach—the unkillable cockroach.
Noticing Natsukawa's confusion, Kaito asked curiously, "You know about the Zoo, but you don't know him?
This guy looks somewhat similar to the Tequila you disguised yourself as, and both their codenames contain 'snake' characters. Does that mean something?"
Natsukawa leaned back on the sofa, crossed his legs, and pondered for a while but couldn't determine any connection between the two.
He hadn't actually seen Snake before. Did the guy really resemble Tequila?
It should have been during the Bell Tree Express incident, but at that time he'd been wearing a disguise mask, so his actual face wasn't visible.
Considering the art styles of Magic Kaito and Detective Conan, the two did indeed share similarities.
However, the codenames "Snake" and "Tequila" were probably just coincidences. A Zoo using "snake" and an Organization using "tequila" as names wasn't problematic.
Thinking about it, Kaito and Kudo were similar, as were Aoko and Ran.
So Snake and Tequila being similar was probably just because Aoyama-sensei reused character designs, right?
Natsukawa couldn't provide an answer, but he did take this information to heart.
Since the two were similar, maybe there was some connection.
In the original story, Tequila had appeared and then died, so there was no background information about him.
Seeing that Natsukawa couldn't give him an answer, Kaito left somewhat disappointed.
He was a bit let down—he'd thought Natsukawa knew something about Snake and had hoped to extract some information.
However, at least he'd learned one crucial thing:
His father—wasn't dead!
He also had a theory about why his father was hiding behind the scenes—it must be related to the Zoo.
Watching Kaito leave, Natsukawa sat on the floor in the entryway, looking at Bond and saying, "Such a big dog sneaking in like that, and you don't even react?
No barking, no alerting, not even wagging your tail—whose dog are you anyway?"
Natsukawa rubbed the dog's head indignantly. Such a large dog was completely wasted—it had none of the imposing presence expected of a Great Pyrenees.
Even a smaller dog would at least bark at strangers, but Bond only wagged its tail. He'd never seen it bark at anyone.
"Woof?"
Bond tilted its head, blinked, and then went back to sleeping, its tail no longer wagging.
Natsukawa's eyebrow twitched in annoyance, but he couldn't do anything about it, so he grabbed his keys and left.
When he arrived at Shirakage Pharmaceuticals, he found Vodka in the conference room.
The man was discussing suitable sniping positions at the transaction location with Korn and Chianti.
"Tequila, you're here."
Korn and Chianti greeted Natsukawa.
They couldn't help it—over the past two days, they'd learned that Tequila's status had risen dramatically. It was no longer what it used to be.
"A warrior must be viewed with fresh eyes after three days apart." Tequila was now a trusted confidant of Gin, someone they could no longer treat casually, holding a position equal to Vodka's.
Neither of them were fools. Compared to Vodka, who only knew how to drive, the intelligent Tequila, though a newcomer, had already surpassed them and was more valued by Gin.
This was evident from the fact that Tequila was the primary person in charge of this operation.
"Mm."
Natsukawa nodded with a cool, aloof demeanor.
His nearly two-meter height gave the three of them a sense of pressure.
Vodka coughed lightly, feeling his status challenged, and immediately felt displeased.
Considering that Tequila was late for their agreed meeting time, it was clear he didn't respect him.
The camaraderie they'd formed over drinks had evaporated. Now they were both working under Gin, and were competitors.
"Tequila, you've arrived at just the right time. What do you think of the sniper setup for this transaction location?"
The location had been chosen by Natsukawa and Gin last night—the rooftop of an abandoned building in the suburbs.
With a wide field of vision and other abandoned buildings awaiting demolition nearby, the three had selected the rooftops of two buildings higher than the transaction site as sniping positions.
Vodka, confident in his arrangement, gave Natsukawa a somewhat smug look.
Natsukawa glanced at the markings on the map and the photographs of the buildings.
The three abandoned buildings were clustered together. The chosen transaction building had thirty-five floors, while the other two had forty-one and forty-four floors respectively, making them suitable sniping positions.
However, positioning snipers on the rooftops was too exposed.
If Suzuki Jirokichi arrived by helicopter, they'd be completely visible.
"Don't use the rooftops. Choose floors higher than the transaction building's roof. That way, you can easily find windows to conceal yourselves.
The transaction building has been abandoned for years and has no elevator. Do you think Suzuki Jirokichi, a man in his fifties or sixties, can climb all those stairs?
If they arrive by helicopter, you'll all be spotted immediately.
Although positioning snipers is only to prevent unforeseen circumstances, we can't let them discover us from the start."
The three were taken aback—they hadn't considered this factor.
Thirty-five flights of stairs—someone like Suzuki Jirokichi definitely couldn't endure that kind of physical strain. He might actually arrive by helicopter.
Positioning snipers inside the building would make them far less likely to be detected and would also provide more time for retreat.
Korn nodded admiringly. "As expected of Tequila—truly impressive. No wonder Gin made you the person in charge of this operation."
Natsukawa rolled his eyes internally. This opportunist's flattery came so naturally. He'd thought the guy was a ruthless professional killer, but now he seemed rather ordinary.
This same person had mocked him quite a bit during their last encounter with the FBI, and today he was already sucking up.
Though such praise might be cloying, everyone enjoyed hearing it, so Natsukawa naturally wouldn't rebuke him at this moment. He nodded and continued:
"The sniper scopes we use must be anti-reflective. Apply anti-glare coating to the lenses. It doesn't matter if accuracy decreases slightly, but we must ensure we won't be detected. If there's a critical situation, you can switch to regular scopes later."
"Understood." ×2
Seeing the two snipers convinced by Tequila's arrangements in mere minutes, Vodka swallowed his displeasure.
"Is aniki going tonight?" Natsukawa asked Vodka.
Hearing Tequila imitate his way of addressing Gin as "aniki," Vodka's lips pursed unhappily again.
That sycophantic Tequila—how come he hadn't noticed this before!
"Yes, he'll be nearby to provide backup."
That's good!
Natsukawa breathed a sigh of relief.
Originally, he'd thought he could determine when Sherry would escape just by checking the weather forecast, but after Franky checked, it had been raining for the past several nights.
This was too absurd. He suspected the will of the Conan universe was targeting him specifically!
This made him completely uncertain about when Sherry would transform into Ai Haibara.
This was troublesome.
The thought of having to find daily excuses to lure Gin away from Shirakage Pharmaceuticals gave Natsukawa a headache.
It was far too difficult.
But there was no alternative—he had to find a solution, no matter how challenging.
After discussing the specific operational plan with the three of them, Natsukawa headed straight to the storage room.
Soon, he saw Sherry, her face streaked with dried tears and her eyes completely lifeless.
Sherry, her hands shackled, slumped weakly on the floor, leaning against a storage shelf like a lamb awaiting slaughter.
She didn't even look up when the door opened. Her eyes were vacant, seemingly filled with nothing but a death wish.
Natsukawa glanced around the room, only relaxing when he confirmed there were no security cameras.
"Haven't slept all night—your eyes have dark circles."
He sat down across from Sherry, glancing at her left hand, which was sluggish from prolonged suspension in restraints, and shook his head. "Your sister probably wouldn't want to see you like this. Isn't living better? Why seek death?"
Sherry didn't move, her hoarse breathing seeming to mock Natsukawa for his meddling.
[End of Chapter]
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