Chapter 142 Conditions

The original plan of the Armed Detective Agency was to send Oda Sakunosuke and Miyazawa Kenji. Oda Sakunosuke was strong enough, but not destructive enough, which Miyazawa Kenji could make up for. However, Miyazawa Kenji's ability had a shortcoming, which was that the prerequisite was that the person was in a hungry state.

But now we have Akutagawa Ryunosuke, whose destructive power is stronger than Miyazawa Kenji, and Oda Sakunosuke, who is cautious and has strong judgment. One is for strong attack and the other is for insurance. The configuration should be better.

"The controller that controls the white whale's fall is either in the white whale's main control room or on Fitzgerald himself. If it fails to stop the white whale, we have to find a way to move the white whale to the sea."

After listening to Dazai Osamu's explanation, Oda Sakunosuke nodded in understanding, but Akutagawa Gin looked at his brother with a strange expression.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke frowned and asked slowly, "...Fitzgerald? The leader of the Guild, his full name is Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald?"

This was a bit strange, and it seemed a bit redundant to ask at this time, making everyone else in the detective agency look at him in confusion.

Edogawa Ranpo looked at him inquiringly, "Why, the one who lost her memory on your ship is his daughter?"

Aside from Dazai Osamu, everyone from the Armed Detective Agency looked at him with a mixture of surprise and confusion.

Edogawa Ranpo had seen Aska before. Yokohama was so small, and Aska was not a recluse like Lovecraft. He could always run into him once or twice in half a year. Moreover, the Armed Detective Agency was established with Edogawa Ranpo as the center. All the information collected by the Detective Agency on Yokohama would be sent to his desk.

Before Asuka came to Yokohama, she had a plane crash and fell into the sea. After being rescued by the Asuka Pirates, she stayed on the ship for another year. All the clues about her past had long been lost. The only things that could provide clues about her past were her blonde hair and Western face.

Even her hair, she wanted to dye it a different color like Akutagawa Ryunosuke to create a more personalized hairstyle_(:зゝ∠)_

Before Akutagawa Ryunosuke asked that question, or before the Guild leader visited the detective agency, these clues were like rootless duckweed, just some trivial and useless information. But now it is different.

Edogawa Ranpo has a good brain and a good memory. He remembers that Asuka has blonde hair, and can find common genetic features between Fitzgerald, whom he met for the first time, and Asuka, whom he hasn't seen for a long time, although the similarities are not that high. He doesn't remember the road to Yokohama, nor does he remember various common sense, he is just too lazy to remember them.

However, he noticed this and had this guess at the time because they immediately checked the other party's basic information after the Guild came to Yokohama.

The daughter of Guild leader Fitzgerald fell into the sea and died in a plane crash two years ago, but due to the location and time, the body could not be recovered. In the case of no body, it is hard to say whether she is really dead.

Moreover, two years ago, the Vermillion Pirates had just left the United States. It is not impossible that they captured the people before Fitzgerald's men captured them.

As for why she didn't contact her relatives after being rescued, doesn't this just coincide with Fei Niao's amnesia?

Seeing that Akutagawa Ryunosuke looked unnatural, Edogawa Ranpo immediately confirmed, "It seems that what I said was right."

Dazai Osamu clapped his hands, attracting everyone's ideas, and then smiled and said, "In this case, we can consider using another solution."

Kunikida Dopo, who had been tricked by him many times, immediately followed his thoughts and said, "Are you saying that we should let Akutagawa's companion go and negotiate with the other party?"

"As far as I know, Mr. Fitzgerald's purpose of coming to Yokohama this time is to find a way to revive his daughter. And now his daughter is still alive, so it is very likely that he will cancel the plan." Dazai Osamu looked at Akutagawa Ryunosuke with a smile: "What do you think?"

Having just digested the news that the 7 billion US dollars bounty was hanging on their companions and that the person who attacked them was the father of one of their companions, Akutagawa Ryunosuke's pupils were still a little confused. Hearing Dazai Osamu asking for his opinion, he thought for a moment and replied, "I have no opinion, but we still don't know the location of the white whale and how to board it, so we still need you to show us the way."

"Don't make a decision so hastily."

Dazai Osamu's somewhat strange tone made President Fukuzawa, who had been listening silently, look over.

Dazai continued to ask Akutagawa Ryunosuke: "Regarding the fact that Asuka is the daughter of the Guild leader, do the port mafia also know about it?"

Akutagawa Ryunosuke paused, but answered truthfully: "Regarding the matter of Asuka, I did ask the people of the Port Mafia to help investigate, and it was indeed Chief Mori who informed me of this matter."

Suddenly, almost all the members of the Armed Detective Agency looked a little strange.

These people either had direct contact with Mori Ogai or even spent quite some time with him and knew what a piece of shit he was; or they had the dark filter of the leader of the Port Mafia and often heard from their companions that they had been slandering Mori Ogai and had kept their impression of him low. Now that they knew that Mori Ogai might also know about this, they instinctively thought that he would definitely cause trouble.

The fact is just as they thought. On the night that Mori Ogai informed Akutagawa Ryunosuke about Asuka and Fitzgerald, he asked Margaret to contact Fitzgerald and convey his intention to meet. At night, Margaret came to the Port Mafia again with Fitzgerald's reply.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke went to the Armed Detective Agency the next day, and was picked up at the Armed Detective Agency's secret base in the evening. On the same morning, Mori Ogai, who had already obtained Fitzgerald's contact information, set a time and place for the meeting, which was at 7pm, at a Western restaurant owned by the Port Mafia.

It happened to be the time when Mori Ougai himself came online after the exchange.

He was now racing against time to negotiate a deal with Ryunosuke Akutagawa and Fitzgerald before they could exchange information.

It was also bad luck. If Ace had not been online when the colonel called last night, he would have been able to keep this information secret for the time being and tell Ace and Akutagawa Ryunosuke after he had talked with Fitzgerald.

Unfortunately, Ace was online at the time, and he couldn't stop Ace from telling the news to Akutagawa Ryunosuke, even if he tried to stop him. He could only use words to convey the news to Akutagawa half-hiddenly. After all, Ace was watching at the side, and the most he could do was to get himself to relay the news.

The two sides talked even before Akutagawa Ryunosuke arrived at the Armed Detective Agency.

Moriou did this without telling Ace, and this time he set out after letting Ace go out, without taking him with him.

Fitzgerald managed to keep his composure. Even though the other party claimed to have the information that he cared about most at the moment, and even though he suspected that the other party was using his beloved daughter as a raft, he still maintained a decent demeanor and finished the dinner.

Now that the superficial aspects are done, it’s time to get down to business.

Fitzgerald put down the tissue he had used to wipe his mouth and stared at Sen Ouwai unkindly: "Mr. Sen, regarding the incident you mentioned earlier, is it time to tell us what happened?"

Mori Ou's smile remained unchanged, with the hypocrisy common in the field of interests between adults, "Mr. Francis, you are a businessman, so you don't need me to remind you what to do when you obtain valuable intelligence, right?"

Fitzgerald narrowed his eyes slightly, and pursed his lips, his eyes filled with fear. "Before that, do you want to prove the truth of what you said?"

Mori Ogai understood what he meant and had expected the other party to ask this question. He took out a photo from his pocket - the photo that Akutagawa Ryunosuke had sent to the colonel to ask him to help find someone, placed it on the table, and then pushed it in front of Fitzgerald with his index and middle fingers.

Fitzgerald lowered his eyes, his pupils shrank immediately, and even his breathing quickened for a moment.

The person in the photo was indeed his daughter Scottie, and her appearance had hardly changed from two years ago when the accident happened, but her hair had grown longer and was tied into a half bun. There seemed to be blurred Chinese characters and katakana in the background.

...Is it in Japan?

He had no impression that his daughter had ever been to Japan, so this photo was definitely taken during the two years when she was presumed dead.

Fitzgerald raised his head and looked at Sen Ouwai. "Say what you want."

Even when he was at a disadvantage in the negotiation, he still maintained a condescending attitude, as if he always had the upper hand.

"It's very simple," Mori Ogai met his gaze and raised his hand to extend a finger, "First, withdraw the White Whale from Yokohama," followed by the second finger, "Second, the development of the Port Mafia in the United States is not very smooth. Mr. Francis has a big business there, so it should be no problem to give him some convenience, right?"

Mori Ogai did not mention that he should cancel the bounty on the man-eating tiger. That was something Akutagawa Ryunosuke should consider. He did not need to help them for nothing. It was one thing not to get any benefit, but it was also easy to expose some information that he did not want to expose.

"Of course, if what you say is true." Fitzgerald did not bargain. As long as his daughter was fine and the other party could tell him where his daughter was, this request was nothing to him. "Can you tell me where she is now?"

"Mr. Francis is a straightforward person." Sen Ouwai smiled and opened his briefcase, took out the contract he had prepared early in the morning and handed it to him, "Sign it, and I will immediately inform you of your daughter's whereabouts."

Fitzgerald took the contract impatiently and glanced over it hastily. He felt that there was no problem with it and signed it on the spot.

"Can we talk now?"

"Of course," Mori Ouwai put away the contract, "Perhaps you still remember the man-eating tiger you once hunted?"

Fitzgerald frowned. "What do you want to say?"

Mori Ogai said meaningfully: "You can go to the place where the tiger lives now and take a look. Maybe you will gain something."