Chapter 150: The Doorbell Incident
The sudden, sharp ring of the doorbell sliced through the quiet of the apartment, jolting Mizunashi Rena from her thoughts.
Her head snapped up, her gaze instantly fixed on the front door with a practiced alertness. A visitor at this hour was unusual. She kept a small circle of friends, and it wasn't the time Yoko Okino would typically drop by. Who could it be?
Mizunashi Rena moved with a deliberate lightness, her footsteps silent against the floor. She approached the door and peered through the peephole, her eyes widening in surprise. The person standing on her doorstep was the very same man she had just been reading about in the newspaper.
After a brief moment of consideration, she unlatched the lock and opened the door. She discovered that it wasn't just Kogoro Mouri waiting outside—he had company.
"Hello, Miss Mizunashi. We meet again," a young man said with a cheerful smile, poking his head out from behind Kogoro Mouri.
"Charlotte, it's you," Mizunashi Rena acknowledged, her expression shifting to one of polite confusion as she took in the entire group. "And Detective Mouri… what brings all of you here?"
"Well, you see, it's like this..."
Once the introductions were made, Kogoro Mouri, acting as the group's representative, explained the reason for their unannounced visit. As Mizunashi Rena listened to his explanation, the pieces clicked into place.
Outwardly, her expression remained placid and professional. Inwardly, however, her heart gave a tight, anxious throb when she heard that Kogoro had discovered someone monitoring the building from the apartment across the way. She hadn't expected anyone besides herself to have noticed the FBI's movements. A feeling of sheer speechlessness washed over her.
'Are these FBI agents really so incompetent?'she thought, a flicker of disbelief crossing her mind.'To be spotted by an ordinary citizen… Is Kogoro Mouri just that perceptive, or are these agents simply that bad at their jobs?'
Still, she reasoned, it was better that Kogoro was skilled. It offered a greater sense of security for her plan to entrust Eisuke to his care.
"However, I can't imagine the people watching from across the street are targeting me, are they?" Although Mizunashi Rena knew with certainty that she was the FBI's target, she had no intention of revealing the truth to the detective. Admitting it would do nothing to help her maintain her cover.
"I have indeed been dealing with some trouble lately," she continued, smoothly redirecting the conversation, "but it has nothing to do with any surveillance. In fact, if you hadn't come to tell me about this today, Detective Mouri, I would have been completely unaware of any suspicious people watching this building. The problem I've been facing is actually related to my doorbell..."
Following that, Mizunashi Rena recounted the strange ordeal she had been experiencing.
"Oh? So you've been dealing with a prankster ringing your doorbell and running away for the past two months," Kogoro Mouri summarized, picking up the cup of coffee she had just brewed for him.
"Yes," she confirmed, her brow furrowed with a convincing display of worry. "It started then. Every Saturday morning, around 6:30, the doorbell rings. But no matter how quickly I open the door, I can never find the person who pressed it."
"They run away immediately after ringing it?" As a reporter, Charlotte was clearly intrigued. He leaned forward, already scribbling notes on a small pad while pressing for more details.
"I'm not sure," Mizunashi Rena replied, her tone laced with just the right amount of hesitation. "But the time between hearing the bell and opening the door is very, very short. I don't think it would be enough time for someone to run away that quickly."
"If you're not sure, why don't we test it?" Conan Edogawa piped up, looking at her with wide, innocent eyes. "We can see if someone actually has enough time to run away if we try it ourselves, right?"
With no other leads to follow, the adults considered his suggestion. It seemed logical enough. They all trooped back to the entryway, positioning themselves while Kogoro Mouri stood outside to press the doorbell.
After a practical demonstration—and Kogoro nursing a fresh bruise on his forehead from a door opened a bit too enthusiastically—they all confirmed it: an ordinary person could not have vanished from sight in such a short amount of time.
'That's strange, then,'Conan thought, his gaze sweeping across the hallway outside Mizunashi Rena's apartment.'How did the culprit disappear?'His eyes drifted thoughtfully toward Natsume.'Could it be?'he wondered.'Is the person, like Sister Natsume, exceptionally fast? Fast enough to get away in just a few seconds?'
Natsume felt the boy's analytical stare land on her and couldn't help but feel a little baffled. Why was he suddenly scrutinizing her again? She hadn't done anything particularly noteworthy recently. In fact, she'd been preoccupied with managing the second collaboration between Ningguang and the Black Organization, so she hadn't appeared in front of Conan much at all.
She knew, of course, that Mizunashi Rena was a member of the Black Organization, codenamed Kir. But Natsume could guarantee she had absolutely no connection to the woman. Aside from Charlotte's one prior meeting with her, no one else from Teyvat had ever made contact.
Initially, Natsume had wondered if the watchers across the street were connected to Charlotte. But after seeing Mizunashi Rena, she naturally deduced that the surveillance was aimed at the undercover agent. Though she couldn't recall the exact details of this particular incident from the original story, she remembered that Mizunashi Rena's appearance in the plot coincided with the FBI suspecting her of being tied to the Organization. So, the watchers had to be FBI.
How to put it delicately?
'Hmm... the capabilities of these FBI agents are a bit... underwhelming,'Natsume mused.'They really don't seem like they've had professional training.' She had spotted them the moment she arrived to meet Charlotte today, and she was certain Charlotte had known about them for a long time.
Natsume noticed Conan withdraw his gaze from her, his brow furrowed as he glanced toward the apartment building opposite them. She realized with a flicker of amusement that the little detective had also detected the surveillance.
Honestly, if even a child—no, a high school student in a child's body—could spot them, it was a poor showing. Even accounting for the fact that Conan was already primed to look for someone, it didn't change the fact that the FBI's tradecraft was severely lacking. Natsume couldn't be blamed for initially mistaking them for some common criminal threatening Charlotte.
"Miss Mizunashi, you have so many locks on your door."
The group filed back into the apartment. This time, as Kogoro Mouri closed the door behind them, he glanced back and noticed that the array of locks on her door was far more extensive than on Charlotte's.
"You're right," Mouri Ran added, also turning to look. "There are four of them."
Mizunashi Rena offered a helpless smile. "A woman living alone has to be a little careful."
"That's right! Charlotte, you should learn from Miss Mizunashi and pay more attention to your own safety." Hearing this, Takeuchi Koichi shot a condemning glare at his reporter. "Stop being so careless about everything and focusing only on your scoops."
The editor-in-chief continued his lecture, his voice filled with concern. "The incident with the threatening letter just ended; you should be lying low for a while. At the very least, report on something safer. Otherwise, you should just move. There's someone watching the building, and Miss Mizunashi is being harassed. I can't help but feel this place isn't very safe."
Charlotte sighed internally. He hadn't said a single word, yet his editor still found a way to bring up the old matter and start nagging him again.
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