Chapter 51 Trouble Starts in the Mountains

For a long time, Conan thought that Dr. Agasa's inventions were unreliable and always maintained a cautious and skeptical attitude, fearing that something might explode, crack, or break if he wasn't careful.

However, this camping trip completely changed his mind.

After the Junior Detective League arrived at a mountain in Nagano, it soon began to snow, which was far from the weather forecast that predicted cloudy skies turning sunny.

However, this did not dampen the children's enthusiasm at all; on the contrary, they played in the snow with great enthusiasm.

That evening, the snow suddenly intensified.

Snowflakes fluttered down and landed on the branches, rocks, and tent tops.

It was getting late, so they built a snowman and climbed into their sleeping bags to go to sleep.

Conan noticed that Ai's voice sounded a little strange and asked, "Haibara, do you have a cold?"

"I'm fine," Ai replied calmly.

Conan then said no more, hoping she would feel better tomorrow.

However, things didn't go as planned. By the next morning, Ai's illness had worsened, and Conan was awakened by the girl's coughing.

When I woke up, it wasn't even 6 o'clock yet.

Looking outside again, I saw a scene of snow-covered landscape.

The snow is still falling.

Conan sighed heavily, climbed out of his sleeping bag, and whispered, "Haibara, I'm going to buy medicine. When the professor wakes up, tell him that the snow outside is too thick and the mountain roads are difficult to travel. Let's wait until the snow melts a bit before driving down the mountain."

"Then how will you get there?" Xiao Ai asked in a hoarse voice.

"I have a skateboard!"

As it turned out, the skateboard was the only thing that didn't let Conan down.

The wildly inaccurate weather forecast was just the beginning of a series of misfortunes during my trip to Nagano.

Now, this snow and dry-land sled modified by the doctor has experienced its first "snowfall".

Conan eventually reached the pharmacy at the foot of the mountain and bought cold medicine.

They also replenished some food and water in case they were stuck on the mountain for too long.

Conan thought he had done everything perfectly, but even the wisest can make a mistake.

When he finally made it back to the campsite after a long and arduous journey, devastating news arrived—

Ai is missing!

Conan was greeted only by a worried-looking Professor Agasa, a sobbing Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko and Genta looking at each other helplessly.

"What exactly happened?!" Conan demanded angrily.

In just over two hours, a perfectly healthy person was gone.

Moreover, this person is Ai Haibara, who has a severe cold and would never run around.

“When I woke up, Ai told me that I had gone down the mountain. I woke the children up and we made breakfast together outside. Ai was sleeping inside. Later, a man came over and said that his car had a problem and asked me to go and take a look. So I went over.”

“I’ll be back once his car is fixed. After I made breakfast, Ayumi went to call Ai but found she was gone. Her phone and detective badge were still there…” the professor said. “I’ve already called the police, and they said they’ll be there as soon as possible.”

"I'm going to find her. You all stay here and wait for the police," Conan ordered.

"Isn't this too dangerous?" the doctor objected.

"In this weather, the prisoner can't have gone far. If we chase after him quickly, we might be able to catch him!"

However, Conan only anticipated the impact of weather and terrain on the criminals, forgetting to consider that he himself could not contend with the forces of nature.

The heavy snow was quickly covering the criminal's tracks, but the young detective had not yet found any crucial clues.

"Damn it! What exactly does the criminal want to do?"

"Could it be that the organization has discovered Ai Haibara?"

"However, Haibara said that the organization's policy towards traitors is to silence them all, so the reason for taking her away doesn't make sense."

"But if it's a human trafficker, then it's too much of a coincidence!"

Just as Conan was racking his brains trying to figure out the culprit's motive, Dr. Agasa called: "The police from Nagano Prefecture have arrived."

Conan had no choice but to abandon the search and return the way he came.

The two police officers who arrived were a man and a woman, named Yamato Kansuke and Uehara Yui respectively.

The first thing Conan learned when he returned to the camp was that these kids were trying to find Ai Haibara by imitating her, and they almost got lost themselves, but luckily they ran into the police.

"Can you please stop making things worse?!"

Conan thought to himself with a headache.

"Professor Agasa, the police have already blocked off the roads down the mountain. We will immediately begin a search and rescue operation to find the child. Now, I'll take you down the mountain to the Metropolitan Police Department!"

"Officer, I want to ride in the police car!" Conan said to Yui, hopping and skipping around.

However, this move inspired another round of imitations from the Junior Detective League, and ultimately no one was able to get into the police car because the seats were too crowded, leaving Conan with a deep resentment.

So, failing to charm his way through, he resorted to a less desirable method: hiding a listening device in his pocket—Ai's detective badge.

Conan sat in Dr. Agasa's Beetle, listening to the conversation between the two police officers who were leading the way.

He heard Yui say, "Ah, Professor Agasa identified the man who asked him to fix his car as Maruyama Ken. That means the two criminals who kidnapped the baby in Tokyo yesterday came to Nagano, changed cars at a relative's house, and fled into the mountains. But what I don't understand is why they went up the mountain in such terrible weather? And why did they choose this girl as their target?"

Ganshu replied, "Bad weather might not be a bad thing for criminals. In this situation, if they take the risk of climbing over the mountain and taking back roads, they'll likely be able to escape the police blockade. As for the connection between the two cases, the only thing I can think of is that both children are mixed-race. But just looking at their appearance, Officer Date's son doesn't have particularly prominent mixed-race features, does he? He has black hair!"

"A criminal who escaped from Tokyo?"

"And the baby they stole yesterday was born naturally?!"

Conan was taken aback.

Yui continued, "According to the confession of Sanada Shu, a relative of the female criminal arrested last night, she herself did not know the ins and outs of the case. She only knew that Sanada Haru told her to prepare a car and wait for a pick-up, and that she would be given a sum of money after the deed was done. She knew nothing about the child or anything else. But I always feel that she is hiding something. Sanada Haru and Maruyama have never had a criminal record in Nagano before. It is impossible for her to be completely unaware of the fact that she suddenly came to ask her relatives in Nagano for help. If we question her more carefully in a while, we may be able to get some information."

"So one accomplice has already been caught. The Nagano police are really efficient!"

This good news lifted Conan's spirits.

"Since the police couldn't get anything out of the criminal, I'll take over!"

Upon arriving at the Metropolitan Police Department, Yui led them to the visitor reception room.

Conan, under the pretext of going to the restroom, hid inside and began studying the floor plan of the Nagano Metropolitan Police Department that he had secretly photographed at the main entrance, attempting to pinpoint the culprit's location.

As for how to approach him after finding him, Conan has no specific plan.

Things will work themselves out; let's just play along!

Conan could have informed Amuro, or even spoken to Date, but he didn't.

The reason for this was out of consideration and care for Mr. Gong.

Conan believes this matter seems to have nothing to do with the organization, and he doesn't want Amuro, who is far away in Tokyo, to be worried about it and affect his important undercover work.

Furthermore, protecting Haibara was the most important task Amuro left him. Since he messed it up this time, he would have to clean up the mess by himself. Asking Amuro to step in would inevitably make him seem incompetent.

Considering that Amuro mentioned that the Metropolitan Police Department had been infiltrated by the enemy, Nagano was probably no exception, and a stranger as a police officer would naturally not be able to win the young detective's trust.

In short, after officially becoming a Public Safety Assistant, Conan's behavior pattern did not fundamentally change compared to before.

The only change was his attitude towards Amuro, which went from being confrontational to showing concern and care.

Therefore, in Rei Furuya's long career, Conan is probably the only one who can infuriate him to no end under the guise of being considerate of his superior.

Because Conan always manages to come up with all sorts of legitimate reasons to justify his actions, claiming that he does it all for the other person's benefit. However, Amuro is never willing to buy into these bizarre acts of kindness.

This became the focus of their conflict in their subsequent collaboration.

Right now, Conan is sitting on the toilet seat, pondering how to overcome the numerous obstacles posed by the Metropolitan Police Department to obtain firsthand information about the criminals.

However, Conan didn't expect that Amuro and Date had already arrived in Nagano.

Clearly, his previous experience of daring to storm the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department gave the young detective false confidence, making him naively believe that he could succeed this time as well.

Conan crouched down and slipped out of the restroom, luckily without being discovered by anyone.

Conan arrived at the entrance of the building and chose the stairs over the elevator.

He climbed smoothly to the 5th floor, and if he wasn't mistaken, the prisoner was locked in an interrogation room around the corner.

Conan tentatively approached, wanting to listen through the crack in the door.

However, he had only taken a few steps when he noticed a gaze on his back:

It seemed like there was a pair of eyes watching him from behind that door across the street.

Who is it?

Conan suddenly tensed up.

He stared intently at the door, and for some reason, that dangerous gaze held a fatal attraction for the young detective.

He instinctively walked over, wanting to open the door and see who was inside.

Conan walked slowly, as if he was carefully considering every step.

One step... two steps... three steps...

As he lifted his foot for the fourth time, the door to the interrogation room next door opened, and a man walked out.

Conan was startled and shrank back in fright.

What surprised him even more was that the man's face instantly reminded him of someone else.

However, the person in front of him seemed more serious and aloof, unlike the one he knew who had a warm and gentle smile.

"Little brother, why are you staring at me?" Gao Ming asked.

"I know someone who cooks really well and looks a lot like Uncle," Conan replied without thinking, then immediately regretted it.

A hint of nostalgia crossed Gao Ming's face as he said, "I think you must be mistaken. My mother has been dead for many years."

"Eh? I'm so sorry!" Conan apologized repeatedly, cursing himself for his loose tongue.

"I am Morofushi Takaaki, a police officer from Nagano Prefecture," Takaaki introduced himself, forgiving the child's indiscretion.

However, it was only much later that Conan realized that Takami was actually faking his madness.

For some reason, the young detective was always easily fooled by the Morofushi family.

"Hello, Officer Morofushi, I'm Conan Edogawa," Conan replied obediently, trying his best to appear harmless.

Because Gao Ming's way of greeting him was completely unlike that of someone facing a child, it made him wary.

However, Inspector Morabushi's next words were even more unexpected: "Edogawa-kun, welcome back to the Special Operations Team."

"Please come with me to interrogate the prisoner."

"I think I know who's in that room."

Conan thought to himself.