Chapter Forty: A Noble Family of Complete Loyalty and Righteousness

After the police escorted—ah, no, carried away the criminal, the mother-daughter reunion, which had not been overly disturbed, continued. Seeing the harmonious atmosphere, Karasawa smoothly shoved Conan back to Mouri Ran, signaling her to whisk him away immediately.

"Eh, didn't Conan come here to study with Karasawa-kun? If he goes back just like this..." Mouri Ran felt a tiny pang of guilt toward the neighbor who had obligingly helped look after the child.

"It's fine. It was actually me who wanted to sneak out for coffee... Besides, Conan-kun learns kanji quite fast; he should be able to finish reading this book by himself." Amidst Conan's anxious gaze—wondering where on earth a book had suddenly appeared and whether his cover was about to be blown—Karasawa reached into his bag and genuinely pulled out a book.

Conan took it and looked, realizing it really was a mystery novel, and one very suitable for teenagers at that: Edogawa Rampo's *The Fiend with Twenty Faces*.

Conan couldn't help staring at Karasawa's rather flat commuting bag for a moment.

...Just what on earth does Karasawa keep in that bag? Ever since he met him, the items Karasawa had produced from it included, but were not limited to, water, glasses, a notebook, books, bandages, and a change of clothes—the hoodie Karasawa had been wearing earlier was brought by himself, and furthermore, he had just handed his stained trousers over to the police...

Karasawa, are you Doraemon?

Of course, Karasawa noticed Conan's shocked expression, but he just smiled without a word.

Where else could the book have come from? It was *The Great Phantom Thief Arsène*, which he had borrowed from the Shujin Academy High School library in his save data. For some reason, the moment he took it out, it turned into *The Fiend with Twenty Faces*, but it was all the same—enough to fool people.

"Have fun," Karasawa raised his cup, which still had half a latte left, as a gesture. "I'll go back to enjoying my coffee."

Watching the reluctant Conan being dragged away by Mouri Ran, Karasawa put away the gentle smile on his face and once again locked eyes with the man quietly watching him from across the street.

Normally, Karasawa wouldn't just leave these main characters behind like that, but while waiting for the police to take away Dandayama Tsugutoshi just now, his peripheral vision had suddenly caught a long-haired man staring straight at him without hiding or flinching at all.

Karasawa had once again spotted Akai Shuichi following him, and from the latter's completely unfazed and motionless posture, he sensed an intention to communicate.

Previously, Karasawa had already basically deduced that Akai Shuichi's undercover identity had not yet been exposed, and that his current mission was related to Karasawa Akira. Even so, having him approach this directly was still an unexpected development.

Unless some variable had emerged that forced him to take the risk of directly contacting Karasawa.

Slowly organizing his counter-strategy for what was to come, Karasawa unhurriedly finished the rest of the coffee in his cup, secretly glanced at his Tarots via the system map to make sure Amuro Toru hadn't followed and that Conan was far enough away, and only then walked out the door toward Akai Shuichi.

Akai Shuichi, who had long since assumed that Karasawa had noticed his tail, wasn't surprised by his choice. He turned around in advance and walked into the parking lot, waiting for Karasawa to catch up.

"How should I address you?" As soon as he stood still in front of Akai Shuichi, Karasawa asked.

Akai Shuichi didn't answer immediately; instead, he carefully scrutinized Karasawa's face.

Karasawa hadn't inherited his mother's blonde hair and green eyes. He looked more like the Miyano sisters, though the blue of his eyes might be slightly lighter than theirs, taking on a cold, icy blue hue under the sunlight.

Under the piercing scrutiny of those eyes, he couldn't help but smile.

"You can call me Rye, or you can call me Akai Shuichi."

Karasawa tried his best to control his expression, preventing his astonishment from showing.

He had actually blurted out his real name and even stated his Black Organization codename. In all his calculations, Karasawa had expected at most to hear something like "Moroboshi Dai."

And Akai Shuichi's next sentence completely ruined Karasawa's expression management.

"Or, you can also call me big brother." Akai Shuichi observed Karasawa's expression as he delivered the final line of his opening statement. "Your uncle and aunt, meaning your parents, passed away a little over two months ago."

Karasawa couldn't help but take half a step back, his mouth slightly agape, pupils trembling.

Ah?! Big brother?!

Wait a minute, hold on, something's wrong. This script is wrong. Let him process this; it's a bit chaotic.

His father definitely didn't have the surname Akai, and the term Akai Shuichi had just used was "aunt," which meant that...

...Karasawa Akira's mother, Karasawa Leona, had the maiden name Sera?!

Good grief, he had to say good grief. No wonder a perfectly fine high school student was suddenly persecuted until his life was ruined—turns out he was tied to the Sera family line. What a stroke of shared bad luck!

The situation Akai Shuichi understood differed from the actual reason behind Karasawa's shock, but assuming he understood it completely anyway, he didn't give the slightly trembling Karasawa time to react, continuing: "For the eight years they were away from you, your parents were working in a secret organization's research facility. They were kept under long-term control, and for your safety, they had no choice but to leave you behind in Japan alone.

"They always maintained their guard against the organization, concealing the core results of their research. Furthermore, right from the early stages of the project, they built a solid patent barrier surrounding their research topic with the help of specialized lawyers. By the time the organization noticed, it had already lost the opportunity to monopolize multiple formulas and technologies...

"This bought eight years of time for your aunt, your uncle, and you. But now, things are different. Akira, you are in grave danger right now." Akai Shuichi quickly stated his ultimate goal. "Come with me. Japan is the territory where this organization has infiltrated the deepest, and you are facing mortal danger at any moment here. I have a way to get you out of the country. Leave here with me, as fast as you can."

These successive thunderbolts struck Karasawa so hard he was almost unresponsive.

Why were they persecuting technical personnel again, and why were the persecuted technical personnel members of the Sera family yet again?

In this spliced world, the Sera family had gained yet another sister who did research, got targeted by the organization, and was now gone...

Karasawa covered his eyes with trembling hands.

Shouldn't he start getting on better with Professor Agasa right now? He was genuinely terrified that in the near future, he too would be slipped a drug, forced to knock on Professor Agasa's door wearing the appearance of an elementary schooler, and gloriously join the first grade of Teitan Elementary School...

"...I guessed it." A storm was raging inside Karasawa, but the tremor in his voice didn't contain much acting. "Two months ago, I should have guessed it."

The death of the Karasawas was a conclusion Karasawa had basically established. The memories left to him by the original body were like a filing cabinet covered in heavy locks; they would only unlock step-by-step when triggered by keywords. Yet, based on the parts he had obtained so far, Karasawa Akira's trial had also been extremely suspicious.

Though Karasawa Akira rarely saw his parents over the years and wasn't close to them, their love for their son was evident. They hadn't voluntarily been absent from his upbringing; rather, they had no other choice.

With something as major as a criminal trial, the couple would never have simply handed matters over to a defense attorney and washed their hands of it.

Judging from Akai Shuichi's confirmation, there was likely a cause-and-effect relationship between the two events. The Karasawas, deeply entangled with the organization, had died, and Karasawa Akira, having lost their protection, had quickly fallen victim to a wrongful accusation, been isolated from his familiar environment, and thrown to the control of two organization codename members.

As for the fact that those two codename members turned out to be two pieces of fake booze—well, one could only say the Black Organization hadn't wanted that either; it was a pleasant, mutually heading-toward-each-other surprise.

Karasawa dropped his hand and pressed further: "What does 'Rye' mean? What is that organization? How did they die? And how did you find out about my parents?"