Toru looked at the message Mary had sent him. He thought for a moment, then sent a reply.
[I'll be there on time.]
After sending the message, he pulled down the baseball cap on his head, found a convenience store by the roadside, and walked in. He casually bought a cup of coffee and some oden, then sat by the window.
Toru ate the oden in his hand, his gaze fixed on the upscale apartment building across from him, which was Sakai Takaaki's residence.
Not long after, another slender woman walked in, wearing a T-shirt and jeans, also with a baseball cap on her head.
The woman's hat covered her face, revealing only her pointed chin. She also bought some food, sat next to Toru, and whispered,
"Boss, the mission is complete."
Toru nodded slightly. He did not say a word and continued looking at the upscale apartment building across from him.
Rena's expression did not change. She patiently sat beside Toru and waited for about half an hour. Seeing that Toru still was not moving, she asked doubtfully,
"Boss, what are you waiting for?"
"I'm not waiting for anything. More accurately, I'm waiting for nothing to happen."
Faced with Toru's ambiguous words, Rena blinked and did not know how to continue the conversation.
Toru was waiting for Conan. He was afraid Conan would suddenly appear here.
No matter how well Rena had staged the scene, if that brat Conan showed up, he might still notice from the clues that Sakai Takaaki had not committed suicide.
Toru was not worried about Conan discovering that he was the murderer. He was worried that if Sakai Takaaki's death could not be ruled a suicide, then everything he had done would be meaningless.
Fortunately, although Conan seemed to bring death wherever he went, or rather, he always appeared wherever someone was about to die.
Tokyo was too big, and crimes happened every moment. Conan could not be at every crime scene at once.
Half an hour later, several police cars with sirens blaring stopped below the apartment building.
Sakai Takaaki's body should have been discovered.
Inside the apartment building, Kazami Yuya of the Security Department stared solemnly at Sakai Takaaki's body lying on the carpet.
Nearby, police officers were taking pictures.
Megure, with his ample belly, looked at the corpse before him. On the surface, he appeared solemn, but deep down, a trace of satisfaction had emerged.
He had personally witnessed Sakai Takaaki bringing people to take that batch of weapons and equipment from the docks.
And that equipment had later appeared in the terrorist attack on Shuchi'in Academy.
Megure later learned that, under the pretext of insufficient evidence, Sakai Takaaki had not been directly punished by law and was only temporarily placed under house arrest.
Megure, with his strong sense of justice, had been extremely furious.
However, as a low-ranking official, he had no ability to influence the decisions of those above him. If Sakai Takaaki were acquitted, there would be nothing he could do.
Now that this real culprit was dead here, even though he knew such thoughts were unworthy of his profession, Megure still felt relieved.
"Inspector, according to the preliminary investigation, Sakai Takaaki should have committed suicide."
"All right, check the source of the suspect's gun."
Although he said that, Megure also knew they probably would not be able to trace the gun's origin. As the head of the Special Investigation Department, Sakai Takaaki had his own channels for obtaining weapons.
"Inspector, we need to take this computer to the Security Department for investigation."
Under normal circumstances, evidence from the scene should have been handed over to the criminal police, but Sakai Takaaki's identity was special, and he was currently under investigation by the Security Department. These items would naturally be handed over to the Security Department.
Megure also followed procedure, had the other side sign for it, and after the handover, both sides left in a hurry.
Kazami Yuya walked to an empty corner and dialed a number.
"Kazami, what happened that you need to call me?"
"Commander Furuya, Sakai Takaaki is dead."
"Sakai Takaaki is dead?"
"Yes, we just discovered the body. The body has temporarily been taken away by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, but we kept the computer."
On a street in Tokyo, Rei sat in a car and frowned. "What was Sakai Takaaki's cause of death?"
"The preliminary investigation indicates suicide."
"Suicide? Hmm, whether it was suicide or murder, thoroughly examine his computer and see if there is anything we need."
"Yes, Commander!"
After hanging up the phone, Rei lightly tapped the car's steering wheel with his hand.
Did Sakai Takaaki really commit suicide?
Or did Sakai Takaaki possess some secret intelligence and get killed by the CIA?
Rei shook his head.
Regardless of whether Sakai Takaaki really had evidence that could identify the CIA, even if Japan had that evidence, would they really dare confront the CIA?
The final outcome would only be Japan swallowing the bitterness and pretending this incident had never happened.
This current result was also quite good. Sakai Takaaki had committed suicide out of fear of punishment, and the matter would end here.
"Damn CIA."
Rei angrily slammed the steering wheel.
If he had the chance, he really wanted revenge against that true terrorist organization, the CIA, which acted recklessly in Japan and launched all kinds of terrorist attacks!
In Rei's heart, aside from Toru, there were no good people in the CIA.
He even vaguely suspected that the CIA's actions this time had been meant to eliminate Toru!
But what exactly had Toru done? What could have made the organization he belonged to want to kill him?
Rei could not guess the cause and effect for now, but no matter what, Japan would next launch a nationwide investigation into potential terrorists and at the same time carry out a severe crackdown on drug trafficking.
The true identity of those terrorists was a drug trafficking group from Colombia.
Inside the convenience store, Toru watched as Sakai Takaaki's body, covered with a white sheet, was taken away by the police, and he slowly stood up.
Seeing this, Rena quickly put down her coffee and followed after him.
"Has the Organization given you any work recently?"
"They've had me investigating the Pacific Buoy of the International Police. Gin has also recently returned to Japan."
Toru nodded.
It seemed that the Pacific Buoy was the Black Organization's next major focus.
"Gin has returned to Japan? Has his injury healed?"
Gin had fallen from a helicopter back then and broken a leg. Judging by the time that had passed, with Gin's physical condition, he should have recovered enough by now.
The members of the Black Organization were truly miserable. As soon as they recovered from their injuries, they had to go right back to work.
Rena whispered, "The Organization recently sent over a submarine. It's temporarily docked somewhere in the Pacific Ocean."
Toru was stunned for a moment.
A submarine? This Organization really did have everything.
It had already been remarkable enough that they could get an Osprey helicopter last time. He had not expected them to be able to get a submarine too.
Toru was a little envious. This Organization was stronger than he had imagined. Although the members' abilities were average, they really were rich and well-connected.
After all, buying a submarine was not like buying a car. Even a car needed annual maintenance, and maintaining a submarine was a massive system project.
Toru suspected that the Black Organization must have established a submarine base on some uninhabited island in the Pacific for maintenance.
There were not many countries capable of manufacturing submarines, and given the Black Organization's many connections, Toru suspected the submarine Rena mentioned was most likely retired military equipment from the United States.
For the Organization to obtain it, there was a strong possibility that people from the military-industrial complex were among the black hands behind it.
Ah, this was the gap between an individual and an organization.
Not to mention intelligence agencies of superpowers like the CIA.
The Black Organization also had a history of at least several decades. Over those decades of development, how deep its work ran and how powerful the people behind it were was probably hard to say.
Moreover, Toru strongly suspected that Karasuma Renya had actually died a long time ago, and the current apparent controller of this Organization was not necessarily Karasuma Renya.
"Since the Organization has been giving you a lot of work recently, let's try to keep contact to a minimum for now. Remember to report any intelligence from within the Organization to me immediately."
"Yes, Boss!"
Rena nodded in agreement.
When they reached an intersection, the two parted ways, each heading toward their own parked vehicle.
Sitting in the driver's seat of the Porsche, Toru felt a little greedy.
Could he find a way to seize the Black Organization's submarine?
But just taking the submarine did not seem very useful. He would also need a submarine base.
"Forget it, one step at a time. I'm only twenty years old, and I still have a long future ahead of me to build my own forces."
Pressing the engine start button, Toru drove the Porsche 911 toward a hotel.
...
In a mid-level suite of a five-star hotel in Tokyo, Mary, wearing a short-sleeved shirt, sat on the sofa with her bare feet exposed.
In front of her, Masumi ate fruit and asked, "Mother, have you made up your mind?"
Mary held a tablet in her hand, repeatedly playing the video of Toru eliminating the terrorists at Shuchi'in Academy.
She pressed the pause button and said, "This man is worth betting on and cooperating with. Besides him, we can't find a better partner."
"These members of the drug trafficking group must have been brought into Japan by the CIA. They definitely would not kidnap students from Shuchi'in Academy just for money. Their goal from the beginning was to kill Fujiwara Toru."
"Fujiwara Toru refused that mission, and the CIA wants him dead. Now he stands on the opposite side of the CIA."
"As for me, because I took that medicine and turned into a child, I can never appear before any intelligence agency again. MI6, where I once served, is now my enemy as well."
"The creator of the APTX4869 drug is also by Fujiwara Toru's side. Whether it's to get the antidote or to find an ally, Toru is the best choice, and the only choice."
Masumi sighed. "Since you say so, I'll listen to you."
Her mother was a cautious person. The fact that she had made a decision meant she had already considered every possibility. Masumi always supported her mother's decisions.
Just as mother and daughter were talking, there was a knock at the hotel room door. Toru had arrived...
(To be continued.)
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