Chapter 81 081 Mystery Drama - Act Two

081 - "Or perhaps they wrote this story?"

Obviously, Ranpo's casual remarks did not satisfy the nearly frantic Lewis.

"So how exactly did you figure it out?" Sitting on the sofa opposite Ranpo, Lewis flipped through the documents in his hand with disbelief, crumpling a few thin pages as if he wanted to tear the stack of papers apart, trying to find something that could serve as a clue.

After his search proved fruitless, Lewis began trying to find something on paper that could serve as a code.

If these can be considered attempts within the bounds of common sense, then Lewis's subsequent practice of reading documents upside down is quite strange.

Kunikida Doppo, who was observing and didn't understand what Lewis was doing, frowned, pushed up his glasses, and looked in Fabre's direction: "Excuse me, sir, what are you doing...?"

He originally intended to question Lewis about his unusual behavior. However, upon seeing Fabre, Kunikida Doppo suddenly changed his mind and began questioning Fabre himself.

Because ASA is the stronger side, and this is ASA's home turf, Kunikida Doppo subconsciously used honorifics.

Following Kunikida Doppo's strange question, the two remaining people in the room—Miyazawa Kenji and Tanizaki Jun'ichirō—subconsciously turned their heads to look in Fabre's direction.

Fabre was seen adjusting something while wearing a monocle, and holding a potted plant in his other hand, gazing at something with a serious and fascinated expression.

"Trouble?" Kunikida Doppo was a little puzzled, and subconsciously took two steps closer to Fabre—Fabre and Lewis had introduced themselves when they came over to "issue the mission," so Kunikida Doppo knew his name.

"Mr. Fabre?"

"Hmm? Are you calling me?" Fabre finally realized someone was calling him. He put down the potted plant and turned his head with a smile. "Excuse me, but this little 'home' in the tiny pot caught my eye. You know, it's not easy to create such an exquisite 'home' of this size..."

After speaking eloquently, Fabre turned his head and bumped right into three bewildered faces.

Miyazawa Kenji & Tanizaki Junichiro & Kunikida Doppo:? ?

What did he suddenly say?

While the three of them were being blinded, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki couldn't help but divert some of his attention to Lewis.

Then, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki saw that Fabre had somehow placed the single sofa horizontally on the floor. Then, he lay down on the sofa in a normal sitting position.

More importantly, Lewis is still examining the manuscript in his hands with a serious expression.

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki: ...What??

Are these people really the elite troops of Europe?

Although his emotional intelligence was low, it wasn't as low as Lewis's. Fabre blinked innocently and readily stopped his long-winded speech.

"Oh, sorry for rambling on about unrelated things. Is there something you need?"

"..." Kunikida Doppo remained suspiciously silent.

He had originally intended for Fabre, who seemed perfectly normal, to examine Lewis, whose actions were shrouded in mystery, but now it seemed…

Kunikida Doppo found it hard to confirm whether the person in front of him could be considered a "normal person" as he had originally thought.

Thinking back to the group of students from the academy he had seen earlier, who seemed to be having a book club, Kunikida Doppo suddenly wasn't sure if this group had come to help.

They're all being way too casual; they don't look like they're on a mission at all.

Although Kunikida Doppo hesitated to speak, Miyazawa Kenji and Tanizaki Jun'ichirō behind him looked completely bewildered. However, Fabre quickly understood what they wanted to ask—

Fabre, who knew exactly what an eccentric Lewis was, looked at Lewis as his first reaction when he realized someone was asking him a question.

Then, predictably, Fabre saw Lewis sitting upright on the sofa, having turned it upside down.

Fabre: ...Fine, Lewis is just that weird anyway.

Although he couldn't understand what Lewis was thinking, he was definitely the kind of person capable of doing such things.

"It's okay, it won't be long anyway..."

Before Fabre could finish speaking, Lewis jumped up from his strange sitting position and ran towards the door.

"Let's go, Fabre! Let's go back and ask Holmes!"

He called out in Fabre's direction, and Lewis himself couldn't wait to open the door and rush out.

“That’s just how Lewis is; he doesn’t act logically at all.” Fabre shrugged and waved goodbye to Kunikida Doppo, who was once again completely bewildered. “Anyway, goodbye.”

After saying that, Fabre quite naturally grabbed the potted plant that he had put back in its place, and rushed out the door with a pace that looked like walking but was actually a jog.

The detectives, who were originally going to say goodbye, were completely baffled as to what they were thinking.

After exchanging bewildered glances for a while, the members of the Armed Detective Agency finally returned to their posts with surreal expressions and continued working.

Among them, Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, who was relatively free since he hadn't been assigned any tasks, hesitated for a moment before running up to Ranpo Edogawa.

"Um, Mr. Ranpo..."

"You want to know how I know the answer?" Edogawa Ranpo glanced at Tanizaki Jun'ichirō and suddenly reached out his hand towards him.

Jun'ichirō Tanizaki readily agreed and took out a bottle of orange soda, handing it to Ranpo Edogawa.

Seeing Edogawa Ranpo's satisfied expression after receiving the orange soda, Tanizaki Jun'ichirō couldn't help but mutter a thought to himself:

They really look like elementary school students...

After receiving the soda, Ranpo took two satisfied sips before finally speaking with contentment—

Ranpo didn't even engage in any deep thinking or professional intelligence gathering.

The intelligence used was only what was known from the very beginning.

First, the UN extensively collected various intelligence within Yokohama. From all aspects, what differed from ordinary intelligence gathering was that the UN devoted some effort to Yokohama's "urban legends".

For the UN, it is impossible for them to do anything meaningless at this time.

In addition, the few things I heard about the Special Abilities Special Chasing Corps' "special items" after arriving here were also stolen, and considering that there are no other famous and verifiable legends in Yokohama...

The UN's primary objective was "books," a conclusion that came to Ranpo's mind as naturally as instinct.

Then there is speculation about the UN's "specific objectives".

All the information on the three major powers was collected, and it was a very extensive collection—meaning that the UN only had a few directional clues but no specific ones.

However, relying on only a few clues to gather intelligence on an attack force... means that the clues must have very obvious characteristics that are easy to identify and cannot be mistaken.

Other information varies across different factions, but information about people with superpowers and criminals is repeatedly collected—the clues must point to "people with superpowers who commit crimes".

The information collected was largely limited to a period of "three months"—their clues clearly specified the time frame, thus classifying them as newly added "criminals with special abilities."

However, the UN's subsequent actions were unrelated to the search for personnel; in other words, they did not find the target.

So the characteristics are that they appeared after the UN attack, were newly added, were criminals with supernatural abilities, and had obvious characteristics...

At this point, Ranpo rested his chin on his hand, looking somewhat unhappy.

"That's why I said this test seemed too casual; it was completely too simplistic for me, a mere child."

After gaining access to the criminals' information, Ranpo quickly identified his target.

There is only one target that meets these conditions—the "man-eating tiger".

Then, Ranpo sighed again, his tone full of dissatisfaction.

"Why use something that can be known at a glance as a test?"