Chapter 64 Everyone Has Work to Do (Bonus Chapter)

Billows of thick smoke poured out from the restroom doorway. Through the black haze, the wall on the side of the street was faintly visible, having been blasted open with a gaping, transparent hole.

Conan gritted his teeth, attempting to charge straight into the smoke and dust.

"Stop!" Karasawa's hand shot out, grabbing Conan tightly by the collar. "It's too dangerous! There might be a secondary ignition point!"

"But...!" Conan struggled in his grip, glaring at the restroom ahead with utter frustration.

At long last, he had finally caught a glimpse of their shadows. Just when he was about to follow the clues and potentially track down the person who had ambushed him, that hope was instantly shattered right before his eyes.

Understanding his state of mind, Karasawa helplessly patted Conan on the back. "Call the police."

"Who did this?" Conan growled in angry, hushed tones. "Was it a silencing act? Did they find out about my wiretap? Or..."

Clenching his fists, he fished out his smartphone. Instead of dialing the police emergency number, however, he opened his outbox and fired off an email to a specific address.

[An explosion happened here, and the man who called himself "Tequila" is dead. Was this intentional, Joker?]

Karasawa, who had taken out his own phone intending to call the police and fortunately managed to hit the mute button just in time, thought: [...]

Don't launch surprise attacks like that, you brat!

No, this wouldn't do. He needed to buy two more burner phones. His new persona also needed its own contact address. If Conan ever got a whim and sent another message to Joker, and his phone went off with a couple of beeps, he would be utterly and completely screwed...

With these thoughts in mind, Karasawa opened the email Conan had sent, silently and rapidly tapped out a reply, sent it back, and then dialed the emergency services.

"Hello, yes, we are at the Beika Hotel, at the venue of the Manstela game release event. There's been a sudden explosion here... Yes, exactly... I'm not sure, but there's no fire on site..."

Amidst the sound of Karasawa reporting the incident to the police, Conan received his reply.

Pressing his lips into a tight line, he tapped it open.

[Nothing to do with me. Stay safe. I need to take my leave; their cleanup crew will arrive shortly. Be careful to stay hidden, little detective.]

Conan's eyes flickered. He looked up at the scene, which was still emitting a foul, burning odor, and wrote back to the sender.

[You knew he would show up, and you were hiding from them. Are you connected to them? Are they hunting you down?]

Having just hung up the emergency call, Karasawa caught sight of this email and curled his lip. He had no idea what new elaborate scenarios the detective's overactive imagination had conjured up for him this time, but he decided to play along with the other person's train of thought anyway.

[I can only tell you that the members of this organization like to wear black, and their key members all use alcoholic beverages as code names. The moment they discover me, everything will be beyond redemption. Protect yourself, little detective. Until next time.]

Everything Karasawa said was the absolute truth. The moment the Black Organization discovered the connection between the Phantom Thieves and his parents' research, disaster would strike.

However, Conan obviously interpreted it in an entirely different light.

That organization was also Joker's enemy. Joker possessed extraordinary abilities, yet even he was being hunted by the organization to the point of having to lurk in the shadows... Conan put away his phone, his mood sinking even lower.

"Karasawa," he whispered. "Let's go. We're going to drag out whoever it was that traded with Tequila."

---

The familiar Inspector Megure, the familiar Investigation Division One.

Tequila had been blown into extremely fine pieces. With such a violent explosion occurring in a confined space like a restroom, he was probably now evenly distributed throughout the ruins.

Karasawa didn't really want to delve too deeply into that matter. He let Conan loose to investigate alongside Mouri Kogoro, while he quietly hung back with Suzuki Sonoko and the others, waiting for the case to be solved.

The person involved in the trade had already been narrowed down to Hideaki Nakajima and the other two. The scope was small, and once Conan realized the true explosive device had come from the briefcase, the case would likely be solved in no time. There was no need for Karasawa to forcefully insert himself into it.

After observing Conan's progress in solving the case for a brief moment, he took out his phone and began tapping away incessantly.

"Karasawa?" Suzuki Sonoko watched the police officers' movements for a while and soon grew bored. Noticing that Karasawa kept typing on his phone, she looked over at him with curiosity.

Waiting until he received a reply, Karasawa glanced at it.

[Isn't that unnecessary? You're the one actually solving the case; I could never be a detective.]

[I'm not asking you to actually solve a case. Hurry up and go take a walk outside, or go grab something to eat if you have nothing to do.]

[.]

After sending a single period, the other side sent no further messages. Only then did Karasawa look up at Suzuki Sonoko with a warm smile. "I was just reporting to Mr. Amuro that I'm safe. Shouldn't you let your parents know? They'll probably see the news about the explosion at the press conference soon enough."

"True." Suzuki Sonoko agreed, dialing her father's phone.

Seeing her attention diverted, Karasawa finally sent the message to Toru Amuro.

[Mr. Amuro, something happened at the game release event. I'm fine, everyone is fine too. Don't worry when you see the news later.]

[What's the situation?]

[Well, an explosion case happened. It seems someone died.]

[?]

A single, concise question mark fully expressed Toru Amuro's confusion and speechlessness.

He had only let the kid out for a single day, and noon hadn't even passed yet...

[Hide yourself and don't let any reporters take your picture!]

Toru Amuro sent another message, preparing to notify Kazami Yuuya that he would have to work overtime again.

Before that could happen, however, a phone call came in.

Seeing the caller ID, he immediately frowned, walked back into the rear storage room, and answered it.

"Hello? Gin?" Toru Amuro said with a trace of annoyance. "What is it now? I'm in the middle of a long-term assignment, don't contact me unless it's necessary."

"Go take care of the bar on the roof of the Daikoku Building," the person on the other line completely ignored what Toru Amuro had said, speaking directly. "Hurry up. There are explosives in the bar's storage room, resolve it within an hour."

With that, the call was abruptly disconnected.

Toru Amuro took a deep breath, so irritated by the other person's self-absorbed attitude that he wanted to roll his eyes. After thinking for a moment, he simply dialed Kazami Yuuya's number directly.

"Things blew up on Karasawa's end," Amuro said crisply the moment the line connected. "And there's a homicide. I can't get over there, figure out a way to handle it."

Without waiting for a reply, he hung up that call too, feeling a vague sense that the pent-up frustration in his chest had dissipated slightly.

After finishing his calls and changing out of his uniform, Amuro got into his Mazda, stepped hard on the gas pedal, and drove toward the Daikoku Building, skimming the speed limit.

Being this urgent about cleanup meant an emergency had definitely occurred. The "Cocktail" bar on the top floor of the building was one of the organization's properties in Tokyo, frequently used as a meeting spot.

For Gin to suddenly want to blow the place up meant that whoever had used this stronghold had run into trouble, and the bar might soon catch the police's attention. The last time a similar situation happened, some unlucky low-level member had gotten into a car accident; instead of hitting the target he wanted to murder, he had run over a passing organization member, rendering a certain safehouse unsafe...

Wait a minute?

Toru Amuro's brain stalled for a fraction of a second as he silently recalled the message Karasawa had just sent.

He took another deep breath.

Kazami Yuuya, who was driving his personal car toward the Beika Hotel, heard his phone ring. The moment he pulled it out, his temples twitched violently.

"Take Karasawa away immediately," Amuro said through the phone, gritting his teeth. "The person who died might be an organization member... We can't let anyone find out he was there! Right now, immediately, get him out of there!"