Chapter 285

When Shinichi Kudo woke up, he found himself lying in the infirmary.

Ran Mouri paced anxiously beside him. Hearing him wake up, she rushed over to check on him: "Shinichi! You're finally awake! What's wrong with you? It seems like you were like this last time..."

"Uh, I haven't slept for several days because of the investigation, and my body might be a little too weak..." Shinichi Kudo quickly made up an excuse and managed to fool Ran Mouri.

Ran Mouri really wanted to stay and be with Shinichi Kudo, but although the stage play was terminated due to the case, the things to finish up were not reduced at all, but rather increased.

Shinichi Kudo returned secretly, and his fainting didn't attract anyone's attention. He was taken to the infirmary by Heiji Hattori, Ran Mouri, whose strength was comparable to that of boys his age, and Vermouth, who was disguised as a medical teacher at Teitan High School. With Vermouth's help in covering for him, no one really noticed his condition.

Therefore, Ran Mouri cannot disappear without a reason. Even if Sonoko Suzuki tries to smooth things over by saying that she went to the restroom, it would still feel strange if she couldn't be found while working. Ran Mouri doesn't want to go back and explain that she had diarrhea or something.

Seeing that Shinichi Kudo had woken up, understanding why he had fainted, and confirming that he was alright, Ran Mouri reluctantly left the infirmary.

Vermouth watched her angel leave with a smile, then turned and said, "I'll be leaving for a bit too. Remember to lock the door from the inside, and don't open it if anyone comes."

"Okay, thank you, doctor."

Shinichi Kudo observed the situation: "Dr. Araide is..."

"Because you suddenly fainted, you scared your sister Ran. She seems to trust that Dr. Araide a lot, so she called him to come and see you. She also asked Dr. Araide not to tell anyone, so it didn't attract anyone else's attention... You should be alright, right? What do you think?" Hattori Heiji wasn't familiar with Dr. Araide.

Shinichi Kudo recalled the case he had solved at Dr. Araide's house as Conan Edogawa, and his understanding of Dr. Araide's personality, and nodded: "Dr. Araide is fine. He is very understanding and won't gossip."

After all, he almost couldn't resist jumping out and solving the case in front of the entire venue. Now, with just one more doctor, it's already perfect.

Hattori Heiji sighed: "I thought you were going to shrink in front of Miss Ran, which scared me... I knew you couldn't have been scared unconscious by Mr. Hanchuan."

Shinichi Kudo: "…………"

Hattori Heiji: "...No way? It's really because of Mr. Kagawa?"

"...It's just a coincidence. I'm genuinely a bit shocked." Shinichi Kudo scratched his head, looking exasperated. "Well... in any case, I'd better be more careful around Mr. Kankawa in the future."

"You're starting to suspect Mr. Hanakawa is up to no good again?" Hattori Heiji didn't find Kudo Shinichi's fickleness a problem; after all, it's normal for a detective to suspect this and that. "What's your reason?"

Since it wasn't appropriate to talk about Ai Haibara, Shinichi Kudo vaguely replied, "We've found some new leads."

Hattori Heiji immediately said, "What a coincidence, I also have some new leads about Mr. Kankawa, but I haven't had time to confirm them yet."

Shinichi Kudo: "...??? What clue?"

“His address,” Hattori Heiji remarked. “I don’t know why, even though we’re practically acquaintances in the Metropolitan Police Department, his address was incredibly hard to find. My dad was initially reluctant to help me with this, saying things like, ‘Why ask him for such a small thing?’ But it took him ages to finally find it out…”

Shinichi Kudo pressed further, "Besides the address, did you find out anything else?"

"...He's a very low-key person, like Moriarty in the police force, a bit of a loner or something, not very valuable," Hattori Heiji recalled. "But I heard he was an orphan, grew up in an orphanage, went to university on his own, then got into the Metropolitan Police Department's police academy, and stayed in Tokyo. Pretty inspiring..."

Shinichi Kudo was slightly taken aback.

This was a bit of a surprise.

Because his several meetings with Kankawa Shinryu were all at crime scenes, there was no chance to talk about family matters. Even the easy-going Inspector Hagiwara wouldn't suddenly say, "Oh, by the way, Kankawa is an orphan."

But how to put it? Just looking at Han Chuan Shenliu, the manners he exudes and his calm confidence in his daily life make it hard to believe that he was an orphan!

Even if he occasionally says something hurtful and offensive, it usually seems intentional—etiquette is something that Han Chuan Shenliu can have, but doesn't care about when he doesn't care. And with that kind of temperament, even those who are offended by him can't accuse him of being ill-mannered...

People would believe he comes from a family with a rich history.

So, this cold, deep river is actually home to orphans? What kind of orphanage is so amazing?

Shinichi Kudo thought about it rationally and realized that there was a possibility that Shinryu Samakawa's learning ability was too strong!

Let's not even talk about spies. Some con artists in history have been trained to impersonate nobles and hold their own against real nobles. Mr. Hanchuan is certainly better than those con artists, isn't he?

But after hearing Ai Haibara's words that she suspected Shinryu Samikawa might be a member of the organization, Shinichi Kudo began to wonder if Samikawa's resume was fabricated.

After all, Japanese archives are too easy to forge. There are piles of paper materials, and even when there is data that has been entered into a computer, it is not connected to the network. Each system operates independently, and the connection is useless... The data of Shinryu Samakawa in the orphanage is more than 20 years old. Can it really still be found?

Moreover, as far as he knew, the police academy's file review process was actually quite lax...

As Shinichi Kudo thought about this, he couldn't help but frown.

We can't be prejudiced. We have no choice but to continue the investigation. But we must be more careful in our next move. If Ai Haibara also thinks there's something wrong, it could easily alert them.

...However, we can't rule out that Ai Haibara may have misunderstood something, after all, Mr. Hachiman's temperament...right?

"What are your plans?" Seeing that Shinichi Kudo was silent, as if he was thinking about something, and worried that Ran Mouri or Dr. Araide might return at any time, and that they wouldn't have enough time to talk, Heiji Hattori took the initiative to suggest, "I'd like to go check out the area around that address, but I have to go back to Osaka in a bit..."

Shinichi Kudo nodded seriously: "I'll go back and take a look."

Because he became much more cautious, Shinichi Kudo worried that his house was being watched, and since he couldn't rule out the possibility of shrinking in the middle of the night, he had no choice but to reluctantly stay at Professor Agasa's house next door.

Ran Mouri was baffled. Who would leave their own house empty and stay at their neighbor's instead? But Shinichi Kudo managed to fool her with an excuse.

When Shinichi woke up the next day and found that he hadn't shrunk, he breathed a sigh of relief. He chatted for a while with Ran Mouri, who couldn't help but stop on her way to school to check if he had dreamt the day before. Then, he didn't dare to swagger off to school and watched with regret as Ran Mouri and Ai Haibara, who was still pretending to be Conan Edogawa, left.

He was cautious all day, but the medicine finally stopped working that night. He couldn't wait even a day longer, so after changing his clothes, he immediately went to the address Hattori Heiji had given him to check on the situation.

After all, many shady things happen at night, so you might accidentally discover something if you go at night, right?

Professor Agasa was speechless, but he promised to call the police immediately if Conan Edogawa asked for help—since he often stayed up late anyway, it was just a small favor.

Just in case, Professor Agasa also gave Conan Edogawa a few new gadgets. Although their quality is not very consistent, they might be of some use.

And so, Conan Edogawa set off.

The address wasn't in a very remote place, but since it was this time of day and he was a child on the street, he was likely to be caught by patrolling police who would contact his parents. So Conan Edogawa simply took a taxi there, so the driver would only think he was taking a taxi home.

When they arrived near their destination and parked, the driver gave him an extra few words of advice: "Why didn't your family come to pick you up? Hurry home, and avoid any suspicious people! It's a bit chaotic here at this time!"

Conan Edogawa's eyes lit up, and he quickly tried to get information out of the area: "I feel very safe here, Uncle. What's wrong?"

"Sigh, I once passed by here and saw three people fighting, yelling 'I'll go first' and stuff. One of them even had a gun fall out of his clothes!" the driver sighed. "After that, whenever I passed by here, I would make a point of observing, and sure enough, at night, some tough guys would often show up here..."

Conan Edogawa: "...Uncle, aren't you going to call the police?"

Driver: "Shouldn't someone else call the police? It seems like police cars come here quite often..."

Conan Edogawa: "..."

His expression was somewhat solemn.

Are those tough guys the driver mentioned related to Han Chuan Shenliu living here?

Was Hanchuan Shenliu the cause of those suspicious people, or the person who called the police? Or was it both?

He got out of the car, turned into a small alley, and waited for the taxi to leave before cautiously making his way to his destination.

Soon, Conan Edogawa's eyes narrowed as he spotted the small building with its gate locked but the lights on on the first floor.

He took a slightly roundabout route to the back of the building and found that there was indeed a back door.

Conan Edogawa obviously couldn't just knock on the door; he only intended to observe. However, the driver's words made him somewhat suspicious.

If we could find those suspicious guys the driver mentioned at this point, we might be able to find out something.

Conan Edogawa walked along the street for a while, his gaze lingering on a small alleyway a bit away from the home of Shinryu Sakkawa—someone had just turned into it.

He looked around, ran to the fire escape outside the building across the alley, adjusted his glasses, and finally saw the situation in the alley.

There were about three or four people in the alley. Whether it was because of the cold winter night or because they didn't want to be seen, they were all bundled up tightly, wearing hats, sunglasses, masks, scarves, and all the other protective gear they could find. They were forming a circle and—

Conan Edogawa stared blankly.

—A lottery?! What are these people doing here in the middle of the night?!

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Requesting nutrient solution at the end of the month~

.

Shinichi Kudo kept a low profile for two days, which pleased Vermouth.

Vermouth was backstage at the time and didn't see Shinryu Samikawa.