Chapter 49: Another Group
The abandoned warehouse fell into a heavy, suffocating silence, broken only by the wet, ragged gasps of Akemi Miyano. She lay crumpled on the cold concrete floor, a dark pool of crimson spreading slowly beneath her.
Before long, the quiet isolation of the building was shattered.
The frantic, sharp clatter of polyurethane wheels against pavement echoed through the cavernous space. Conan Edogawa skidded into the warehouse on his motorized skateboard, his eyes widening in horror at the sight of the woman he knew as Masami Hirota lying in her own blood. Without a second thought, he abandoned the board and sprinted to her side.
"Pull yourself together, Ms. Hirota!" Conan shouted, his small hands hovering over her, desperate to anchor her fading consciousness.
Through the haze of impending death, Akemi heard the childish voice. Her eyelids fluttered, heavy and sluggish, revealing dulling eyes. She stared at the little boy kneeling beside her, a flicker of confusion crossing her pale face. "Co... Conan..." she breathed out, each syllable costing her dearly. "Who... who exactly are you?"
Conan looked down at the fatal gunshot wound. His jaw tightened, a bitter helplessness washing over him. He knew there was absolutely nothing he could do to save her. "Edogawa..." He paused, his expression hardening into solemn resolve. "No. My name is Shinichi Kudo, and I am a detective."
What followed left the young detective entirely stunned. Between shallow, agonizing breaths, Masami Hirota revealed the truth. The ones who had shot her belonged to a massive, terrifying syndicate shrouded in layers of mystery. It was the exact same organization that had forced poison down his throat and turned him into an elementary school student.
With the last of her fading strength, Akemi pressed the correct key to a rental safe into Conan's palm. She whispered the location of the locker, her fingers weakly curling around his. "Please... retrieve it before the organization finds it," she begged, her voice barely a wisp of air. "I am counting on you, little detective."
Conan watched as her eyes slowly drifted shut, her hand falling limp against the concrete. He closed his own eyes, a heavy sorrow settling over his shoulders.
In the end, he still had not been able to stop her from dying.
Forcing himself to push past the grief, he pulled out his phone and dialed Inspector Megure to report the murder.
But just as he lowered the phone, preparing to check on Ms. Hirota's body one last time, a sharp, sudden impact struck the back of his skull. His vision went black instantly. As his consciousness plummeted into darkness, a single, frustrated thought flashed through his mind: 'How did I not hear any footsteps!?'
Natsume stared down at the little detective, who now lay slumped on the concrete thanks to the stone she had just hurled at his head. A fleeting twinge of guilt pricked at her conscience, but it hardly slowed her movements. She swiftly kicked the offending rock into a dark corner, thoroughly destroying the evidence of her blunt-force intervention.
She then stepped over to Akemi Miyano. Looking down at the motionless woman, Natsume tilted her head. "Sangonomiya Kokomi," she called out, a hint of hesitation in her voice. "Is she really still alive?"
"Rest assured, Traveler."
Soft, rhythmic footsteps approached from the shadows. Sangonomiya Kokomi stepped into the dim light, an ethereal, translucent jellyfish floating gracefully beside her shoulder. "I have been using Kurage's Oath to maintain Ms. Miyano's vitality at an absolute minimum level. For now, she is in a state of suspended animation."
The phantom jellyfish pulsed, casting a soothing, aquatic glow over the bloodstained concrete. As Kokomi drew closer, the faint rise and fall of Akemi's chest resumed. The horrific bleeding slowed, then stopped entirely under the gentle hydro energy.
Once the fatal wound was about half-healed, Kokomi waved her hand, and the glowing jellyfish dissolved into a mist of water droplets. It was safer for Akemi to remain unconscious for the time being. Neither Kokomi nor the Traveler wanted the woman to know too much about their methods just yet.
Natsume watched the stabilized woman with calculating eyes. They had saved her, yes, but primarily because of her immense strategic value. Akemi cared deeply for her younger sister, Shiho Miyano, which meant she would be relatively easy to manage. The current plan was to stash her on Tsukikage Island. Once the bullet was properly extracted and Kokomi fully healed her, they would smuggle her abroad to Dawn Winery. Later down the line, if they ever needed use to confront Shuichi Akai, Akemi Miyano would prove to be an exceptionally useful trump card.
, once Shiho Miyano inevitably shrank and became Ai Haibara, Natsume only needed to feed her the news that her older sister had successfully escaped the Black Organization. Knowing that seeking out Akemi would only bring the syndicate's wrath down upon them both, the brilliant scientist would surely cooperate with the Teyvat faction. After all, Natsume mused, they were not nearly as cruel as the Black Organization. They would not force anyone to commit murder.
Natsume bent down and scooped Akemi into her arms. Carrying the unconscious woman, she followed Kokomi out of the warehouse and toward the rocky seaside. A sleek speedboat sat hidden in the cove, waiting for them. They boarded quickly, the engine purring to life as they set a course toward Tsukikage Island.
Suddenly, a familiar, energetic voice chimed directly inside Natsume's mind.
[Traveler! Noelle just sent a message!] Paimon announced happily. [The one billion yen in the rental safe has been successfully retrieved, and she said absolutely no one saw her. Traveler, you are amazing! Both the money and the person have been successfully acquired!]
Natsume nodded to herself. Noelle's efficiency was truly terrifying. Natsume had only just forwarded the location of the safe that Akemi had whispered to Conan, and the maid had already secured the cash.
However...
Imaginary dark lines dropped down Natsume's forehead. 'Paimon, do not make it sound like I am some sort of bandit, stealing both money and people, okay?'[Wait, isn't that exactly what happened?] Paimon asked, sounding genuinely confused.'Of course not!'Natsume retorted, feeling deeply wronged.'At worst, I am just a thief robbing a thief!'
"Wee-woo, wee-woo..."
The faint, piercing wail of police sirens drifted across the water, echoing from the direction of the docks they had just left behind.
"It seems the authorities have arrived," Kokomi noted, her gaze fixed on the horizon. "Traveler, hold onto the handle. We are about to speed up."
The moment the warning left her lips, Kokomi slammed the throttle forward. The speedboat lurched, tearing across the dark waves at breakneck speed. Natsume quickly grabbed the safety rail with one hand, using her other arm to firmly pin Akemi down so the unconscious woman would not be thrown overboard into the freezing ocean. If they lost her now, all of today's exhausting efforts would be completely wasted.
Back in the warehouse, the blaring sirens finally roused Conan from his forced slumber.
He groaned, his eyes fluttering open. He instinctively reached for the back of his head, expecting a massive, throbbing lump. To his utter bewilderment, his fingers found nothing. The skin was smooth, and there was zero pain. It was as if the brutal strike that knocked him out had been nothing more than a vivid hallucination.
He did not know that before leaving, Natsume had specifically asked Kokomi to heal him. Natsume was well aware of her own superhuman strength and had been genuinely worried about giving the boy permanent brain damage.
Conan scrambled to his feet and looked toward the spot where Ms. Hirota had taken her last breath. His breath hitched.
The body was gone.
All that remained was a massive, chilling pool of blood. He dropped to his knees, frantically inspecting the surrounding dust and concrete for drag marks or footprints, but he found absolutely nothing. It was as if Masami Hirota's corpse had simply vanished into thin air.
At that moment, Inspector Megure and his team swarmed into the warehouse, their flashlights cutting through the gloom. Conan quickly detailed everything that had transpired, carefully omitting any mention of the Black Organization to protect himself and those around him.
Hours later, based on Conan's testimony and the forensic evidence at the scene, the police officially concluded that Masami Hirota had committed suicide out of fear of justice.
However, the bizarre disappearance of her body, combined with the fact that the locker key Conan handed over did not match the safe, and the complete vanishing of the one billion yen, led the authorities to a secondary conclusion. They deduced that an unknown third faction had been present at the scene. This mysterious group had knocked out Conan, swapped the key—though in reality, Akemi had swapped it beforehand—stolen the one billion yen, and, for some inexplicable reason, stolen Masami Hirota's corpse.
Despite having zero leads on this phantom faction, the police were forced to close the one billion yen robbery case for the time being.
Meanwhile, deep within a dimly lit Black Organization base, Gin watched the late-night news broadcast with cold, predatory eyes.
"Another group?" Gin muttered. He pulled a cigarette from his silver case, placed it between his lips, and lit it. The flame briefly illuminated his sharp, sinister features. He took a slow drag, exhaling a thick cloud of gray smoke. "Could it be the FBI?" he asked the man standing a few paces away.
"Unlikely," Cointreau replied, his tone smooth and indifferent. He took a slow sip of the amber liquid in his glass, deliberately taking a half-step back to escape the drifting smoke. "The FBI would not bother taking that one billion yen."
Gin caught the subtle movement. A dark, mocking sneer twisted his lips. "Still hate the smell of smoke that much?"
"Smoking is bad for your health," Cointreau stated earnestly, swirling the ice in his glass. He looked at the ruthless executioner with mild disapproval. "You should smoke less too. Watch out for lung cancer."
"Lung cancer?" Gin scoffed, the sound grating and cruel. "After injecting that kind of serum, do you really think I could still contract a pathetic disease like that?"
Standing off to the side, Vodka kept his mouth firmly shut, not daring to interrupt the exchange between the two high-ranking members.
"Akemi Miyano's body has disappeared," Gin continued, clearly not expecting a real response to his previous question. He shifted back to the matter at hand. "Do you think she might still be alive?"
"You were the one who shot her," Cointreau replied, his expression remaining perfectly blank. "You should know better than anyone. Under normal circumstances, taking a bullet to that specific area is instantly fatal."
"That is true." Gin seemed satisfied with the logic. He downed the rest of his drink in one swift motion and turned away from the monitors.
"Big Brother, wait for me," Vodka grunted, hurriedly chasing after the tall man's sweeping black coat.
Cointreau stood alone in the quiet room, his eyes fixed on the doorway where Gin had just disappeared. He took another slow sip from his glass, his thoughts completely unreadable.
'That is right,'he mused silently.'Under normal circumstances.'
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