Chapter 55: Conan Picks a Lock
Miles away, the heavy door of Toru Amuro's apartment clicked shut. He did not immediately reach for the light switch. Instead, his eyes swept the darkened entryway, his hand hovering near his pocket as he checked the microscopic clear thread he had wedged into the doorframe earlier that morning. It was unbroken. He moved through the silent rooms, his gaze sweeping the shadows, checking the precise angles of his belongings. Only after confirming that not a single soul had breached his sanctuary did the tension finally bleed from his shoulders.
He shed his coat, tossing it over the back of a chair, and sank into the seat before his desk. The exhaustion of playing his part and seeing Vermouth off still lingered in his bones, but the night's work was far from over. He pulled out his encrypted phone, his thumb flying across the screen to pull up the intelligence files he had ordered Kazami Yuya to compile.
Amuro's brow furrowed as the document loaded. There was surprisingly little to read—just a few sparse pages.
The Ragnvindr Family. A hereditary noble lineage rooted in a distant European nation. The former Viscount had passed away a few years prior, leaving the entirety of the estate and the aristocratic title to his only son, Diluc Ragnvindr. Their primary asset was a massive estate known as the Dawn Winery. According to the financial reports, their newly developed dandelion wine was a massive commercial success, dominating both domestic and international markets. Even here in Japan, high-end restaurants and exclusive bars kept Dawn Winery products stocked on their top shelves.
He scrolled further down, his eyes scanning through dry industry statistics, export logistics, and the current operating conditions of the winery. It was all painfully mundane. There was absolutely nothing in these financial spreadsheets that hinted at a connection to the criminal underworld, let alone the Black Organization. Amuro skimmed the rest with growing frustration.
It was a dead end. The file read like a perfectly normal, entirely legal account of a foreign aristocrat's business empire. Why would the Organization be interested in a legitimate winemaker?
Amuro paused, his thumb hovering over the screen. A nagging instinct tugged at the back of his mind. He scrolled all the way back to the first page, his eyes narrowing as he reread the family's background. Tucked away in two inconspicuous lines of text was a minor detail he had initially glossed over.
Viscount Diluc had an adopted brother.
An orphan named Kaeya Alberich, whom the former Viscount had suddenly brought home and taken in years ago.
Because the man did not bear the Ragnvindr surname, Amuro had subconsciously dismissed him as an outsider, assuming he held no real authority within the family's hierarchy. But in the world of espionage, it was always the shadows with unknown backgrounds who wielded the sharpest knives. Amuro's instincts flared. If someone from the Ragnvindr Family was secretly collaborating with the Black Organization, it wasn't the Viscount. It was this Kaeya Alberich.
Amuro's deduction was sharp, and he was entirely correct about Kaeya leading the collaboration. However, his assumption that Kaeya was operating in the dark, hiding his criminal ties from a blissfully unaware Diluc, was entirely off the mark. Diluc knew exactly what Kaeya was plotting. He simply could not be bothered to care. The Dawn Winery had mountains of legitimate paperwork and logistics to manage, and the Cavalry Captain—who was supposed to be helping—was notoriously absent all day. As far as Diluc was concerned, it was a relief that Kaeya had found a new project to occupy his time; at least it kept him from lounging around the manor and demanding free drinks.
Meanwhile, the rhythmic swaying of the ocean finally ceased beneath Natsume's boots.
She stepped off the gangway and onto solid Japanese soil, tilting her head back to take a long, deep breath of the crisp air. The tension of the boat ride melted away.
A sudden, icy prickle touched the tip of her nose. Natsume blinked, reaching up to brush her skin, her fingers coming away wet. She looked up at the night sky. Fat, white flakes were drifting down from the heavy clouds, swirling gently in the glow of the streetlamps.
Paimon materialized beside her in a shower of starlight, her tiny hands clapping together. "Traveler, look! It's snowing! This is our first time seeing snow in this world, isn't it? I wonder if winter here is colder than Dragonspine?"
'Dragonspine should definitely be colder,' Natsume thought to herself. While she had never physically walked the freezing peaks of Dragonspine in her past life, the sheer mechanics of the place dictated it. After all, she had watched the Traveler's health bar drain to zero and freeze to death on that mountain no less than ten times during her early gaming days.
Still... Natsume reached out, letting a delicate snowflake land on her palm. It melted instantly against her warm skin. Her expression shifted into one of mild bewilderment. 'Has time really passed this quickly? I swear it was the peak of summer when I left for the island, and now I come back to the dead of winter.'
Paimon crossed her arms, her tone entirely matter-of-fact. "The Traveler has been gone for almost half a month. It's perfectly normal for the seasons to change in the Scientific World."
Natsume's expression flatlined, imaginary dark lines dropping over her face. 'Is... is that how logic works here?'
She shook her head, dismissing the headache-inducing timeline of the detective world. Now was not the time to question the bizarre seasonal shifts. She had just returned from a tropical island, and she was severely underdressed for a sudden blizzard. While the Traveler's superhuman constitution meant she wasn't in any real danger of frostbite, the biting wind was still uncomfortable. She needed to hurry back to the agency and find a heavy coat.
The snowfall grew heavier, dusting the asphalt in a pristine layer of white. Natsume walked briskly along the sidewalk, her boots leaving a solitary trail of footprints in the fresh snow.
As she turned the corner onto a familiar street nearing her home, Natsume's footsteps faltered.
Parked silently by the curb was a sleek, vintage black car. A Porsche 356A.
And crouching right beside the driver's side door were two very small, very familiar figures. Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara. Conan had a piece of wire in his hands, actively working it into the lock of the antique vehicle!
Natsume's eyes widened as the pieces clicked together. Her meta-knowledge flooded her mind. The Porsche. The snow. The lockpicking. This was the prelude to the Haido City Hotel incident! The Black Organization executive, Pisco, was planning to assassinate the politician Shigehiko Nomiguchi. Pisco would accidentally be caught on camera, leading to Gin ruthlessly executing him to protect the Organization's secrecy.
This was also the exact moment Pisco would discover Sherry's secret—that she had shrunk into a child. If Pisco hadn't been unlucky enough to get photographed by a sports reporter, Conan and Haibara's true identities would have been exposed to the Organization, and the series would have met a very abrupt, very bloody end. Gin, ironically, was the unintentional MVP for keeping the thousand-plus episode plot alive by constantly killing his own competent allies.
Natsume let out a silent sigh.
Still, Conan's protagonist halo was truly blinding. Who else could brazenly pick the lock of a mafia executive's car on a public street without getting arrested? Natsume glanced around. The sudden snowstorm had driven the usual evening pedestrians indoors. The street was entirely deserted. She was the only witness.
A mischievous spark lit up Natsume's eyes. She pulled her smartphone from her pocket, lined up the camera, and hit record, capturing high-definition blackmail footage of the great detective committing grand theft auto.
Through her screen, she watched in disbelief as the lock clicked. Conan didn't just open the door—he actually climbed inside the Porsche! Natsume winced. She had forgotten just how reckless early-canon Conan could be. Was he not even slightly worried that Gin might walk out and catch him sitting in the driver's seat?
Right on cue, a tall, imposing figure materialized at the far end of the intersection.
Natsume's breath hitched. She immediately stepped back, melting into the deep shadows of a nearby alleyway. She had absolutely no intention of drawing aggro from the Black Organization's top killer, but she wasn't going to miss watching this iconic scene play out in real life.
Gin strode through the falling snow, his long black trench coat billowing behind him. Silver hair spilled out from beneath his dark fedora, framing a face carved from ice. The sheer, oppressive aura radiating from the man was suffocating. The few brave pedestrians who had ventured out into the snow instinctively crossed the street, giving him a wide, terrified berth without even realizing why.
What a terrifying presence. Natsume watched from the shadows, feeling a brief, absurd flash of envy. When would she be able to clear a street and terrify her enemies with just a single glare?
She watched as Gin and Vodka approached the Porsche. Conan had managed to slip out just in the nick of time, ducking low. Gin climbed into the driver's seat, the engine roaring to life with a deep, guttural growl. The vintage car pulled away from the curb, its taillights bleeding red into the falling snow, leaving Conan and Haibara huddled together in the freezing slush where the car had just been parked.
They were staring after the departing taillights, their bodies tense.
Natsume stepped out of the alley. Her boots made no sound against the fresh snow as she closed the distance. She stopped right behind the two children, leaned down, and whispered in a bright, sing-song voice.
"I saw everything~"
Conan and Haibara flinched violently. Their pupils contracted to pinpricks, and their bodies locked up in sheer, paralyzing terror.
Conan, recognizing the cadence of the voice a split second later, was the first to break the freeze. The terror instantly morphed into intense annoyance. He whipped his head around, glaring up at her. "Sister Natsume! Do you have to walk without making a single sound? Why would you sneak up and scare us like that?!"
Hearing Conan's irritated tone, Haibara realized the person standing behind them was not the silver-haired demon she feared. The rigid tension in her small shoulders collapsed. She let out a shaky breath and slowly turned around, her usual mask of cool indifference sliding back into place, though her eyes still betrayed a hint of lingering panic.
Natsume smiled down at them, her eyes gleaming with meaningful amusement. She tapped the side of her phone. "My walking habits don't matter right now. I think what you two were just doing is a little more important."
Before Conan could formulate a lie, the crunch of tires on snow announced the arrival of a familiar yellow Volkswagen Beetle. Dr. Agasa, who had been circling the block to avoid drawing attention, pulled up to the curb and rolled down the window. Recognizing the blonde girl standing over the children from his interactions with Ran, he leaned over.
"Natsume-kun? Did something happen just now?" the professor asked, looking nervously between the three of them.
"Dr. Agasa, did you know?" Natsume turned her phone over in her hands, her voice dripping with mock innocence. "Conan just picked the lock of a car."
She turned her gaze back to the boy detective, crouching down so she was at eye level with him. She locked eyes with Conan, her expression shifting into that of a deeply concerned older sister.
"Conan, I've always known you're a very smart child," Natsume began, her tone gentle but firm. "But you need to know that there are lines you simply do not cross. Before, you ran around active crime scenes and liked to imitate Mr. Mouri solving cases. That was fine. We indulge you. But casually picking the lock of a stranger's car on the street is going a bit too far, don't you think? Especially an expensive antique car like that Porsche. If you had broken the lock, or worse, been caught by the owner... do you have any idea how worried Ran would be?"
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]