Chapter 288 Seventy-Threeth Cycle (118)

Under a huge moon hanging in the night sky, at the bustling Shibuya Crossing, an unbelievably enormous soccer ball gradually rose into the air, leaving passersby in awe.

The pedestrians had already fled when the helicopter exploded in the sky, and because there were many police officers around, the evacuation was quick and safe.

But what happened next forced them to stop in shock and stand at a distance, gazing at the fantastical scene.

"...What is that?"

After putting Wataru Takagi into the ambulance, Miwako Sato kissed him and then rushed into the scene of the investigation.

She knew at a glance that the soccer ball was made by Conan Edogawa, but she had never seen a soccer ball that was larger than the surrounding buildings.

A helicopter streaked across the night sky, leaving a trail of fire, and crashed into a soft yet resilient soccer ball. After sliding down a distance, it got stuck between the soccer ball and a building, with its propeller getting caught on a street lamp.

Sato Miwako immediately drew her gun and ran towards the scene, but when she arrived, she only saw the injured and unconscious Pramia and Yamaguchi Kiyoko, as well as Muranaka Tsutomu.

There are no police officers here.

Meanwhile, the leader of the organization called "Nadaunichtokitti" was confronting Nu, who was protecting the village of Pramia, with a gun in hand.

"Please believe me!" Murakami Tsutomu said earnestly, "I guarantee that she will be punished by law this time! I will never tolerate crime!"

"Get out of my way!" Elenica didn't believe him at all. "Prumia must die today!!!"

"Stop!" Conan Edogawa slid down from the soccer ball on his skateboard and stood directly in front of Elenica, even grabbing her hand that was holding the ball. He said gently, "Don't kill her, or you'll become a murderer too."

Elena's ferocious anger softened slightly when she saw the child, but she still refused to lower her gun, trembling as she said, "Am I just going to let Pramia go like this? What about my dead husband and son?! Did they deserve to die?!"

"No! Elenica! They're still alive!!!" A brown-haired man with a thick beard ran over from a distance, shouting as he ran.

“…Brother?” Elena was stunned. “You…you’re still alive?”

Oleg hugged her tightly, tears welling in his eyes: "Not only am I alive! Elenica! Your husband and children are still alive!"

Elena stared at him blankly, momentarily unsure whether she was in a dream or reality.

Oleg quickly explained, "Me, and them, we were all saved by Sakura! We all faked our deaths!"

"And there are others too!" He turned to the rest of the organization and shouted, "Since seven years ago! Sakura has been secretly investigating Pramia! Most of the people Pramia killed survived because of the information provided by the hacker Sakura! Then, as Sakura requested, they faked their deaths to keep it a secret from everyone! Until today, when Pramia was finally dealt with!"

Although he only learned about this after faking his death, he had only vaguely collaborated with Sakura before.

He asked Sakura why they couldn't secretly contact their families to work together to capture Pramia, as they were also heartbroken to see their family and friends so devastated. But Sakura simply said that it wasn't the right time yet.

Before this, he could only contact those who were "dead".

“Plamia won’t be so easy to deal with! We, who faked our deaths, have been secretly investigating Pramia’s collusion with high-ranking officials and wealthy individuals in various countries, and we’ve now gathered enough evidence!” Oleg grasped her hand, excitedly saying, “Plamia can’t escape legal punishment this time! The justice of the whole world is watching her! You don’t need to dirty your hands anymore!”

“Kyril…Kyril is waiting for you at home too,” Oleg said, his voice choked with emotion. “He misses his mother so much.”

"Thud—"

Tears fell onto the gun.

The gun, as if unable to bear the weight, fell to the ground.

The blonde woman choked up for a few seconds before finally bursting into tears, hugging her brother tightly and sobbing loudly.

While Conan Edogawa was surprised that Mr. Amuro had kept this matter from him, he was also genuinely relieved.

Miwako Sato slowly lowered her gun.

"Ah! It's Officer Sato!" Several children from the Junior Detective Club, dressed in Halloween costumes, suddenly appeared in a dangerous place that should have been off-limits to unauthorized personnel.

"What are you doing here?!" Sato Miwako exclaimed in shock.

"Conan-kun asked us to come and help!" Ayumi Yoshida exclaimed, her smile radiant.

"We knew something big had happened here!!" Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya exclaimed excitedly.

"Now it's our turn, the Junior Detective League, to step in!!!" Genta Kojima laughed heartily, hands on his hips.

“We’re here to deliver something to Edogawa-kun,” Ai Haibara said expressionlessly.

What they brought was Professor Agasa's new product to stabilize the soccer ball. Conan Edogawa planned to fix the giant soccer ball directly at the Shibuya Crossing to prevent the liquid bombs on the street from converging there and blowing the entire city into the sky.

Then they had enough time to slowly deal with the thousands of pumpkin bombs.

Fortunately, the police seemed to have been prepared, and they escaped fully equipped with bomb-dissolving liquid.

People from the [Nadalunichtokiti] organization are also helping.

Miwako Sato took the children to find Professor Agasa's car, and on the way, she overheard them still excitedly discussing the matter.

"Speaking of which, compared to everyone else's costumes, our Halloween outfits are really too ordinary." Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya saw a magical girl riding by on a motorcycle and couldn't help but look at their traditional vampire, werewolf, and witch costumes.

“You’re right,” Genta Kojima said. “Did you guys see that? The blonde lady who was talking to Conan just now was dressed as Kamen Rider, right? Even though she took off the mask, I recognized the outfit immediately! It was so cool! Damn it, why didn’t I think of that?!”

"It seems so." Ayumi Yoshida skipped around, turned around and laughed, "But if we're talking about the most handsome, it has to be Amuro-nii we just saw! Although Amuro-nii looked so serious and focused in his police uniform that it was a little intimidating, his battle-worn appearance was just so good-looking! The blood on his blond hair looked so real—"

"Blonde hair?" Miwako Sato turned her head sharply. "Police uniform? You just saw a blond man in a police uniform?! Amuro? Do you know him? That name sounds familiar..."

Ai Haibara immediately looked up at her expression, alert.

“Yes, we ran into Amuro when we arrived,” said Ayumi Yoshida. “He was wearing a super cool police uniform and told us he was cosplaying as a policeman.”

Genta Kojima waved his arms excitedly and said, "And he even caught a zombie! Mr. Midorikawa is cosplaying a zombie! Police versus zombies! How fun!"

“Mr. Amuro is a staff member at Poirot Cafe, and he’s quite famous in Beika Town. Inspector Matsuda and his colleagues are also on good terms with Mr. Amuro,” Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya said. “And Mr. Midorikawa is a chef at Iroha Sushi Restaurant next to Poirot Cafe. Like Mr. Amuro, he apprenticed under Mr. Mori. They’re very close, and they must have arranged to cosplay together for the Halloween party today.”

Sato Miwako was stunned.

She remembered that several police officers in the Metropolitan Police Department who were quite familiar with Conan Edogawa often went to Poirot's Cafe, especially Wataru Date, Jinpei Matsuda, and Kenji Hagiwara.

But she only assumed they were going to see Mr. Mori and Conan...

By the way, Yumi mentioned before that there was a handsome blond guy with dark skin at Poirot's Cafe, but she didn't pay much attention to him.

“No,” she suddenly said. “Yumi and I have been to Poirot twice, but we didn’t see any blond men.”

"Huh?" The three children were also stunned.

"What day of the week and what time did you go there?" Ai Haibara asked.

“Sunday morning…” Miwako Sato recalled.

“That’s right.” Haibara sighed. “Mr. Amuro’s schedule is usually Sunday afternoon, and you just missed it.”

“Is that so…” Sato Miwako frowned and pondered.

"Officer Sato, why are you asking this?" Ai Haibara asked, looking up.

Miwako Sato snapped out of her reverie, blinked, smiled, and said, "Actually, I just saw him too. I feel like I've seen him somewhere before. But he walked away too fast, and I couldn't strike up a conversation."

Ai Haibara didn't say anything, but immediately took out her phone after she left.

*

Countless people have seen what happened at the Shibuya Halloween party; it's impossible to hide it now.

The situation escalated to the point where the Pramia planned to blow up the entire city of Shibuya, and the results of the victims' seven-year investigation were all posted online by hackers.

The whole world has seen the irrefutable evidence, and high-ranking officials and wealthy people from several countries have been implicated, especially in the United States.

Even some of the major things Pramia did in Russia at the beginning were secretly supported by the US government.

The result caused a global uproar.

The FBI couldn't bring Pramiya back; he was eventually taken back by Russian police and executed.

Sato Miwako was quite satisfied with the result. Although she also wanted to carry out the execution herself, it was simply too difficult to do so here.

Moreover, a considerable number of high-ranking officials and wealthy individuals have also been implicated here, and the situation remains chaotic.

It was three days later when she finished her work.

After resolving the Pramia issue, the remaining cleanup work couldn't be done so easily and quickly... or rather, the higher-ups didn't have the energy to deal with those "minor matters" yet, and simply left the investigation to them.

The situation with Kiyoko Yamaguchi and the Yamaguchi-gumi was already causing them a lot of headaches, and now the Muddy Slaughter Association has also gotten involved...

Sato Miwako temporarily put those matters aside and used her rare break time to think about the blond youth.

I took out my phone and saw that it was Sunday.

Without hesitation, she got up and headed to Poirot's Cafe.

*

"Those useless bastards! Now even the last few undercover agents are in trouble! Who framed them and is involved in the Pramia affair?!"

Karasuma Renya flew into a rage on the phone.

"And those guys who are planning to join the immortality project! While most of them are indeed dishonest, why get involved with Pramia?!"

"Investigate this thoroughly! Did they really do those things, or were they framed? Who is interfering with me?!"

"And those damn cherry blossoms! They're ruining things again!"

"Bourbon! Investigate this immediately!! Investigate everything!!!"

“Received,” Furuya Rei said.

The phone call came through the old man's heart-wrenching coughs and the screeching of countless medical instruments, followed by the voices of medical staff, interspersed with a few meows from cats and the cawing of crows, before being disconnected a few seconds later.

Rei Furuya put away his phone and then adjusted the white gauze on his forehead in front of the mirror.

Actually, he only slightly scraped his skin, and it's almost healed, but everyone's reaction was so strong... Maybe it's because the blood that flowed was a little scary.

The blond youth raised his phone, lifted his bangs, took a selfie, and posted it in the cherry blossom group to indicate that he was fine.

Before the replies in the cherry blossom group could come out, a message from Conan Edogawa popped up first.

[Conan Edogawa: Mr. Amuro, Haibara told me that on Halloween, Inspector Sato seemed to see you in your police uniform.]

[Conan Edogawa: Inspector Sato said she felt like she'd seen you somewhere before, and seemed quite concerned about it.]

[Conan Edogawa: Mr. Amuro, you're back at work today, right? Genta and the others ran into Inspector Sato and Inspector Takagi on their way to find me. They're also coming to Poirot's. Is anything wrong with you? Do you need any help?]

Rei Furuya raised an eyebrow slightly.

Has it gotten this fast already? He thought he'd have to wait a while longer.

"Should I give it a try..." he murmured to himself, while typing a reply: [No need, it should be fine with Sato Miwako.]

After sending the message, he put away his phone, went outside to continue his work, and waited for their arrival while making coffee.

Conan Edogawa was upstairs, and he immediately ran downstairs.

The second one to arrive was Ai Haibara, who also seemed to have rushed over. After entering the room, she glanced at him and then lowered her hat brim to go find Conan Edogawa.

Rei Furuya breathed a slight sigh of relief when he didn't see Hiroki Sawada following behind.

A few minutes later, Sato Miwako and Takagi Wataru led the three children of the Junior Detective League into Poirot Cafe.

When Sato Miwako came in, she did glance in his direction, but she didn't immediately come over to test him. Instead, she casually led the children over to talk to Edogawa Conan.

Enomoto Azusa took the menu over, and Sato Miwako didn't ask her anything.

She didn't turn to look at Rei Furuya until he carried the plate over.

The policewoman with neat short black hair stared sharply at the blond youth's handsome face, a face so striking it was impossible to forget.

“I feel like I’ve seen you somewhere before?” she said.

"Hmm? Is that so?" Furuya Rei put down his water glass, straightened up, and looked at her as well. After thinking for a moment, he tilted his head and smiled, "Ah, I remember now, it seems like it was a few years ago..."

I saw you at the police academy gate during your graduation ceremony.

"thump--"

The world suddenly fell silent for a moment, so quiet it was as if time had stopped, accompanied by excruciating pain; all that could be heard was the increasingly violent pounding of a heart.

"Ugh!" The blond youth suddenly clutched his heart and stumbled, bumping into the table.

"Clang!" The water glass on the table was knocked to the ground with a piercing sound of shattering.

"Mr. Amuro?!" Conan Edogawa was the first to jump up.

"What?! What's wrong? Is your heart hurting? Do you have any medicine with you?!" Ai Haibara rushed over, grabbed his hand, and anxiously checked his body.

The others were completely stunned, not understanding what was happening.

"Is...is it a heart condition?" Sato Miwako took out her phone. "I'll call an ambulance right now!"

However, as soon as the phone was unlocked, it was grabbed by a dark-skinned hand.

"No...no need...I'm fine...it's just an old ailment..."

His hands were icy cold and trembling, yet his face wore a gentle smile as he tried to calm their panic.

"What I was trying to say was that we do seem to have met three years ago."

His speech gradually returned to normal, and the other hand that was tightly gripping his chest slowly loosened.

"It's in Kabukicho." The handsome young man with blond hair and dark skin smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Do you remember [The Fox]?"

He sighed silently to himself.

As expected... it still doesn't work...