On the path from the sports field to the abandoned warehouse at Yotsubashi Middle School, Shiraishi E began to stroll while holding Ran's hand.
"Th-This... Shiraishi-kun," Ran fidgeted, stammering, "Do we... have to hold hands?" Her face was slightly flushed with shyness. Aside from emergency situations where Shinichi had pulled her along, she had never properly held a boy's hand in her entire life.
"Yes, we have to," Shiraishi E said righteously. "Detective Mouri told us to pretend to be a couple, so we have to make it look convincing! This is about the safety of a hostage; we can't be careless!"
"Th-That's true," Ran found his reasoning sound and stopped bringing up the hand-holding issue. The current situation felt strangely surreal to her. In all her years with Shinichi, they had never once properly held hands, yet here she was, holding hands with Shiraishi E.
As her mind wandered, she heard Shiraishi E ask, "What do you want to eat for dinner?"
Ran snapped back to reality. "How about... we get some ramen?"
"That's what your dad likes," Shiraishi E emphasized again. "What do you want to eat?"
This made Ran feel valued, and a sweet feeling blossomed in her heart. "I'm not a picky eater, anything is fine! Is there anything you want to eat, Shiraishi-kun?"
Shiraishi E chuckled. "Detective Mouri is definitely going to earn a hefty fee for this case. Let's go have a nice meal. If he doesn't spend this money, he'll just waste it on horse racing or mahjong."
"That's true!" Ran, of course, knew her dad well and readily accepted the suggestion. Besides, she believed Shiraishi E deserved most of the credit for finding the kidnapper. Treating him to a meal was the right thing to do.
The two chatted as they walked and soon arrived near the abandoned warehouse. The kidnapper inside heard their voices, and his heart tightened. He grabbed a small knife and crept to the door. Squinting, he saw it was just a young couple and breathed a sigh of relief. But to prevent them from causing trouble, the kidnapper went out to shoo them away.
He swaggered out of the warehouse and shouted, "Hey! You two, what are you doing in a school this late at night? This isn't a place for dates! If you want to go on a date, go to Beika Park!!"
Seeing that the kidnapper had been drawn out, Ran got into character perfectly. Her acting skills took over as she hid nervously behind Shiraishi E and said weakly, "S-Sorry! We'll leave right now! Shiraishi-kun, let's go!"
Watching Ran pull him away by the arm, Shiraishi E couldn't help but admire that women are natural-born actors. He played along with her act and let her pull him away.
However, they hadn't gone far when they heard a scream. "Ah!"
Shiraishi E and Ran turned around to see that Kogoro Mouri had already pinned the kidnapper to the ground.
Once the kidnapper was caught, the rest was simple. They rescued the hostage, Akiko Tani, and went to collect the reward. President Tani was extremely grateful and, with a grand wave of his hand, stuffed one million yen into Kogoro Mouri's hands.
One million yen sounds like a lot, but the average monthly income for most Japanese people is around 150,000 yen. This was less than seven months' salary for an ordinary person. It was like rescuing the daughter of a listed company's chairman, and the chairman dismisses you with less than 500,000 yen (approx. $3,300 USD).
"So stingy," Shiraishi E thought, utterly speechless. If it were him, he wouldn't stand for such an insult. He'd turn right, put on a mask, and get to work on the spot. He wouldn't let the person go without extorting at least tens of millions of yen.
"He already gave a lot!" Kogoro Mouri gleefully counted the money. After confirming the amount was correct, he waved his hand magnanimously. "Let's go! Whatever you want to eat today, it's on me!"
"Ugh..." Coming out of the high-end yakiniku restaurant, Shiraishi E let out a satisfied burp, a contented smile on his face. Although he frequented this restaurant, paying for it himself and having someone else treat him were two different things. He looked at the pained expression on Kogoro Mouri's face. "Thank you for the meal, Detective Mouri! I ate very well!"
"You really know how to eat, kid, going straight for the Kobe beef!" Kogoro Mouri said through gritted teeth as he looked at the 200,000-yen bill. "Aren't you afraid of eating yourself to death!"
"I'm a growing boy right now, I won't die from eating," Shiraishi E smiled. "It's getting late, so I'll head home now... farewell!"
"You ate so much of my food and you think you can just go home?" Kogoro Mouri said, greatly displeased. "You're on vacation tomorrow anyway. Come on, come back with me for a drink!!!"
On any other day, Shiraishi E would have definitely gotten the stubborn Kogoro Mouri drunk, but he had things to do now. During dinner, Akemi had sent him an email with new intelligence. Since he was free, he had agreed to take it on.
"I'm a bit tired today, I'll come find you tomorrow," Shiraishi E said, waving goodbye to Kogoro Mouri as he walked away.
He first went home to change into a clean set of clothes, then headed to the agreed-upon location—Beika Park.
Upon entering Beika Park, before meeting up with Akemi, Shiraishi E bought a thermal imaging night vision device and scanned the surroundings. Although he had established a partnership with Akemi now, given her track record of being deceived by Gin, it was better to be safe than sorry and check for any ambushes.
After scanning the area and confirming that Akemi was alone, Shiraishi E confidently put on the Azu mask and went to meet her.
Akemi, who had been getting bitten by mosquitoes on the bench, stood up when she heard footsteps. "Mr. Azu, you're finally here... Couldn't we have picked a place with fewer mosquitoes?" Her tone held a hint of complaint. It seemed she had suffered quite a bit here.
"Alright, we'll change the location next time," Shiraishi E admitted he hadn't considered that. He asked, "What is it this time?"
Akemi organized her thoughts. "A group of robbers stole 15,000 Maple Leaf gold coins from the Pasta Bank in Italy, with a total value of 600 million yen!" As she spoke, her voice was filled with excitement. "And this group of robbers just happens to have fled to Japan!"
Hearing this, Shiraishi E was surprised. "How did you find out about this?"
Seeing Mr. Azu's surprise at her intelligence-gathering ability, Akemi blushed slightly. "Uh... well... I saw it on the TV news while I was having dinner at home."
"..." Shiraishi E fell silent. He realized he had been overthinking things.
Akemi, blushing, continued, "The gang leader, Dino Cavane, has already been arrested by the police... I think if we can snatch him from the police, we should be able to find out where the Maple Leaf gold coins are."
"Snatch someone from the police?" Shiraishi E thought for a moment. He only remembered that the bags of gold coins were hanging from the ceiling of some building, but he didn't know the exact location. Waiting for the three little kids to stumble upon a treasure map could take forever. And now that Conan was gone, a key character for triggering the plot was missing. He didn't know the Detective Boys and didn't have time to befriend them.
Instead of waiting foolishly for an opportunity, it would be faster to take the initiative and snatch him himself. Besides... he also wanted to play a game with the police. It was getting boring just playing CS with gangsters all the time.
With this thought, Shiraishi E nodded. "Alright!"
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