BWDC:SDDK Chapter 65: Mouri Kogoro, Missing While Drinking
Ren Ichimonji's eyes flickered with a hint of surprise.
The previous security mission involving Takayama Minami and Nagano Shiina was likely triggered because Conan had come into contact with Takayama Minami. But what was the deal with this new security mission?
Conan and Mouri Ran had only just run past him, and they stumbled into a murder case right after leaving the Budokan?
Isn't the "Reaper Halo" supposed to activate once a day? Why is it working so frequently today?
Did Conan activate some special trait?
A Mega Evolution or something?
"Eh, Dad? You're not at home?"
Walking a bit further from the Budokan, they reached the exterior area.
The voice of the high school girl with the unique hairstyle reached Ren Ichimonji's ears. Mouri Ran spoke with a touch of complaint,
"Conan was actually involved in a kidnapping incident today, you know?"
"If it hadn't been for Mr. Ren Ichimonji's timely help, it would have been a huge disaster."
On the other end of the line, Mouri Kogoro went silent.
After a moment, he shouted back,
"I know! Those brats with Conan even said I was the one who kidnapped him. I had to rush to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters to give a statement before I was even fully awake! Anyway, the result is that he's fine now, right?"
"I ran into a friend on my way back. I'm having a few drinks with him and will be home later. Don't worry, don't worry!"
His voice was indeed quite loud.
Even Ren Ichimonji and Suzuki Sonoko, standing next to Ran, could hear him clearly.
Accustomed to such behavior, Suzuki Sonoko shook her head and sighed,
"Ran, your dad went out drinking again."
"Honestly, even though he's a famous detective, he doesn't care about his personal image at all..."
Halfway through her sentence, Sonoko suddenly realized Ren Ichimonji was still standing there.
She immediately turned her head in embarrassment, trying to reclaim some of her image as a refined young lady.
However, the more she thought about her transparent attempt to hide the truth, the more her face flushed. She felt that her behavior only made her lose more "image points."
"You say Uncle Mouri doesn't care about his image, but aren't you the same as the second young lady of the Suzuki Financial Group?"
Standing beside Ran, Conan twitched the corner of his mouth, thinking to himself with a deadpan expression.
It was getting late, and the other members of the Junior Detective League had already headed home. They were originally supposed to leave before lunch, but after the concert, it was nearly dusk. If they didn't get home soon, they would surely be scolded.
Conan stuck his hands in his pockets and said rather boredly,
"Sonoko-neechan, looking at the time, shouldn't you be heading home too?"
"If you're any later, Aunt Tomoko will probably call to check on you. She might even send the family staff to pick you up."
After all, last time Sonoko was alone in a car at dusk, she had been kidnapped. The kidnapper didn't even know who she was; she just happened to be with the target and the kidnapper feared she knew too much. Since then, Suzuki Tomoko had been very attentive to such matters.
Hearing this, Suzuki Sonoko immediately took out her phone to check the time, muttering,
"What? It's still early."
"Besides, so what if Mom sends someone to... ugh, actually, that's not good..."
At that point, Sonoko suddenly thought about her mother's attitude toward her finding a boyfriend.
Since the Chairman of the Suzuki Financial Group, her father Suzuki Shiro, only had two daughters, and her older sister Suzuki Ayako had already married out, the successor to the Suzuki Financial Group could only be Suzuki Sonoko.
Tomoko always hoped she would find a highly capable husband from a family of equal status. If Tomoko found out she was dating someone, she would definitely come looking.
To avoid any complications, it was better not to let her mother know she was dating Ren Ichimonji for now.
"Um, I... I should go now?"
"I'll come find you to play another day!"
Sonoko awkwardly changed her tune.
Ren Ichimonji gave a non-committal nod and was about to ask if he should see her home. However, he saw a taxi already pulling up to the curb to solicit passengers.
Thus, he simply saw Sonoko into the car and left it at that.
"Then, Miss Suzuki, goodbye for now."
Suzuki Sonoko went home in the taxi, her face still red.
Ren Ichimonji had a good idea why Sonoko chose to leave early after thinking about her mother sending someone to get her.
If he remembered correctly, Sonoko's father, Suzuki Shiro, was quite open-minded about her relationships. However, Suzuki Tomoko was very authoritarian in this regard.
That noble lady was determined to find a capable man of equal status to marry into the family. Later on, she would even put Kyogoku Makoto through "eighty-one trials" before finally recognizing his abilities.
Ren Ichimonji put his hands in his pockets, lost in thought.
Marrying into the family as a "live-in" husband was impossible—not in this lifetime. As for "equal status," for Ren Ichimonji, who possessed technology beyond the current era, it was simply a matter of time.
He believed that eventually, all problems would be resolved.
But before that, he needed to deal with the problem at hand.
Ren Ichimonji turned to Mouri Ran and asked,
"Miss Mouri, don't you think your father is about to be involved in—or perhaps has already been involved in—a violent murder case?"
Mouri Ran: ?
Even though you call yourself Batman and are very good at this stuff...
You can't just say things like that!
How could my old man suddenly run into something like that? That's too ridiculous!
A hotel near Shibahama Station.
A middle-aged man, looking equally drunk, pushed his glasses up.
He squinted his eyes, looking for a long time until he finally recognized the visitor through a series of afterimages.
The middle-aged man smiled and said,
"Oh, it's just Mouri's daughter."
"My, Ran, what's the matter? Coming to the hotel so suddenly... you're looking for Mouri, right?"
"After you talked to him on the phone earlier, he said he was taking the train back on the Beika Line."
"He's not here anymore."
Ran and Conan, who had been skeptical of Ren Ichimonji's claim, looked at each other.
They were now truly beginning to suspect if Mouri Kogoro had become embroiled in some violent murder case.
No matter how you look at it, losing contact while drinking is quite bizarre. He could answer the phone before, so why did he stop answering after getting on the train?
"Mr. Ren Ichimonji, in that case, where should we go to find Dad?"
Ran asked anxiously.
Ren Ichimonji was speechless.
He stared at the rapidly moving mission indicator arrow in front of him, not knowing what to say.
The security mission arrow sometimes pointed directly to the crime scene. Other times, it pointed to specific people involved, or, like when Takayama Minami was kidnapped, there was no arrow at all, and he had to rely on a tracker.
Now, the arrow was shifting positions at an incredible speed.
Who could find a murder scene with this thing moving like that?
He could suddenly understand why the Batman in Gotham wanted to set up city-wide surveillance.
Ren Ichimonji felt the urge to build one himself right now!
End of Chapter
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