BWDC:SDDK Chapter 61: With a Friend Like You, Who Needs Enemies?
After the little interlude caused by Ren Ichimonji and Conan, the two members of the TWO-MIX duo finally finished their final preparations before the performance. They changed into their respective stage costumes and walked out from backstage, greeting Ren and Conan.
Minami Takayama even said with a smile, "Mr. Ren, Conan, would you like to come up on stage with us? I'm sure everyone would give you a very warm welcome!"
Ren Ichimonji: ?
Did you not just hear Conan's mysterious singing style?
Ren immediately declined. He grabbed Conan—who looked like he was actually eager to try—by the back of his collar and prepared to take his leave. However, seeing the two of them getting ready to go, Shiina Nagano quickly spoke up.
"There are seats reserved for staff in the front row. Mr. Ren and little Conan can go there to watch. It should be much better than watching from the control room, right?"
--- That was true.
Ren didn't refuse this time. The seat corresponding to the concert ticket he had brought earlier was likely inaccessible now. After all, while the seat Suzuki Sonoko had booked was near the front, it wasn't the very first row.
Ren had no intention of gambling on whether the ordinary citizens of Beika Town would be so enraged by him blocking their view while passing through that they would camp out at the Tokyo Budokan exit to murder him in a fit of passion.
In a normal city, the probability of such a thing would be near zero. But this was Beika Town. The logical circuits of its citizens were always different from regular people; no one knew what kind of unforgivable motive would lead them to commit a physically unforgivable act of murder.
When he arrived beneath the dark stage from the backstage area while carrying Conan, Ren finally let go of the boy's collar. He scanned the front-row seats of the Tokyo Budokan. A staff member who had seen him in the control room earlier was waving at him from that section. Ren gave a slight nod and walked over immediately.
--- As seats specifically reserved for staff, there were no other spectators nearby, making it quite secluded.
But seclusion was a good thing; few people would notice what was happening here. It was also the perfect chance for Ren to ask Conan how things were going with Miyano Akemi and the Yotsubishi Bank. Even though he already knew the specific situation through the tracker he'd had Conan place under Miyano Akemi's car, he needed to hear it from him.
Seeing that Ren didn't seem to intend to strike up a conversation and headed straight for the seats, Conan narrowed his eyes slightly, attempting to enter his "Spinosaurus mode."
However, after carefully reflecting on his "braindead" behavior today that almost led to a total party wipe, he decided to abandon that dangerous move. Between being angry and being pathetic, he chose to be pathetically angry.
Suzuki Sonoko, who had already been paying attention to the mysterious cloaked figure on stage, noticed Conan and Ren instantly.
--- To be more precise, she noticed Conan.
The blue suit Conan was wearing was equally conspicuous in the dark environment. Looking past Conan, she could see Ren, wearing his cloak and moving toward the other seats.
"I-I told you! That mysterious cloaked person just now was Ren!"
Suzuki Sonoko excitedly patted Mori Ran's shoulder. This caused Ran's attention to shift from Minami Takayama and Shiina Nagano on stage to Ren.
However, unlike Sonoko, Ran's focus was on Conan. She muttered softly, "That's strange. Didn't Conan say he was going out to play with his friends today? Why would he appear at the Tokyo Budokan performance with Mr. Ren?"
Ran felt that something wasn't quite right. It was the same feeling she had back on the Queen Selizabeth. It felt like she had missed an entire episode's worth of content again.
Sonoko didn't notice what Ran was thinking. She leaned close to Ran's cheek and whispered, "Let's go over and check it out during the intermission, okay?"
Check it out...?
Ran hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded. She also wanted to ask Conan why he was here.
"Ren, I've actually been meaning to ask you something."
Sitting in the reserved staff seats, Conan looked up at Ren suspiciously. He asked, "How did you know I was in that abandoned warehouse? If you used the surveillance cameras from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's Traffic Department, then the police should have arrived before you. Why did you give the location to Inspector Megure only after you arrived?"
Conan had wanted to ask this for a while. But his train of thought had been interrupted by Inspector Megure earlier, and his microphone had just been kicked away by Ren on stage. Now, his intellect had finally reclaimed the high ground.
Seeing there was no one else around, Conan immediately asked the question he had been harboring. "Did you use Professor Agasa's Tracking Glasses to find my location? But that doesn't make sense either. The Tracking Glasses lock onto the transmitter inside the Detective Badge, and my badge was crushed by that kidnapper's foot. It shouldn't have been functioning."
The more Conan asked, the more he felt something was off. He stared at Ren and asked again, "Just what is going on?"
In response, the Batman of Beika Town pulled a cup of coffee out of nowhere. He took a sip, feeling his mental state return to its peak. Then, Ren spoke with absolute certainty.
"Because, I'm Batman!"
Conan: ?
Can you stop posing with that coffee cup and saying you're Batman whenever I ask you something?
Conan bounced off the chair like a spring. He instinctively felt around his clothes, eventually finding something with an odd texture on his collar. Then, Conan plucked the tracker off his collar.
Looking at the tracker in his hand—the exact same model he had attached to Miyano Akemi's car—Conan fell silent.
--- When was this put on?
Why hadn't he noticed at all? Was it early this morning? Or yesterday afternoon?
"This is for your necessary protection," Ren said righteously, placing his hand on Conan's head with an expression like Whitebeard looking at one of his sons.
In response, Conan just tilted his head and shook off Ren's hand. A cold light glinted off his plain-glass spectacles.
Suddenly, Conan entered Spinosaurus mode!
Heavenly Tier Combat Skill: Hissing!
"Don't let me catch you putting a tracker on me again!" Conan said huffily. "Or you're going to regret it!"
He finally understood why Lex Luthor said that classic line in the comics:
"With a friend like you, who needs enemies?"
Every bit of cleverness this guy had was being used against his own teammates!
However, Ren just laughed it off. What adult would get angry at a child?
If you found it this time, it's because I stuck it under your collar. Next time, if I sew it inside your blue suit, won't you just lose your mind? Are you going to rip your clothes open to check every morning before sewing them back up?
Seeing that Ren had no intention of apologizing, Conan hissed for a long time before finally settling down. He sighed and sat back in his chair. Come to think of it, he had installed trackers in the Detective Badges of every member of the Junior Detective League. He didn't really have the right to be angry at Ren.
Just as Conan was reflecting, Ren finally got down to business. He asked, "By the way, how is the situation with Miyano Akemi?"
End of Chapter
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