Chapter 268 The Third Player

The boy had a baby-like face that looked a little young, and seemed to be no more than sixteen or seventeen years old. He had a brilliant smile, bright eyes, and was quite familiar with people - at least in the memory of "Mochizuki Xun", he had no intersection with him.

But Saikai Haruto himself and the pseudonym "Mochizuki Kaoru" all know that he is Edogawa Ranpo.

I don't know how he got here.

However, Xi Haiqing Dou still walked over and took a look. "Has he never come out?"

He stretched out his hand and used a little force, tapping and shaking the vending machine, and soon a bottle of blue soda came out.

"Ohhh, my boba soda! Thanks, Mr. Glasses!"

Edogawa Ranpo's eyes lit up, "I just took a picture of it and it didn't respond for a long time!"

He opened his palm and stretched it in front of Xihai Qingdou, like a child coming to an adult to complain, his palm was red.

Xihai Qingdou laughed dumbly.

He said matter-of-factly: "There is something wrong with this machine. Maybe your force or direction is wrong. Just try a different machine next time."

He reached out and handed Edogawa Ranpo's bottle of soda over.

"I'm not stupid. How could I use this stupid machine that can't even spit out soda again?"

Edogawa Ranpo blinked, reached out to take it, and suddenly asked him curiously: "Uncle, do you know me?"

And before Xi Haiqing Dou could answer, he nodded nonchalantly, with a look of confidence and pride: "Have you heard of the name of the famous detective somewhere? Hmm, I didn't expect the famous detective to be so famous! If you have something to ask the detective agency to do, I can ask the president to give you a discount, but it's only a small discount! And you can't tell the president that I bought soda today!"

He said this in an emphasizing manner and made a "little bit" gesture with his hand. It can be seen that the "discount" he mentioned must really be only a very small "little bit".

It can be seen that the boy is indeed quite confident and proud. Not only does he talk without thinking, but he also has a very determined tone and posture, as if he is very sure that Saikai Haruto must know him. He even jumps to something like "detective agency", "commission" and "discount", which is to the extent that if it were a stranger, it would easily make people feel "incomprehensible".

But this kind of pride on him is not offensive at all, but makes people feel "natural". Maybe it's because his attitude is too relaxed, casual and determined? Or maybe it's because his appearance and tone are obviously lively and cheerful. In short, even if people may not understand him, it's still hard to have any bad feelings towards him.

The same is true in the eyes of "Mochizuki Kaoru", and he even feels that "this is normal" - after all, as Edogawa Ranpo himself said, he does know him, and the boy himself is also a "genius" in the true sense.

Being arrogant because of one's talent is such a thing... The prerequisite is that one must have "talent" to be "arrogant", not to mention that in his opinion, the boy was not really "arrogant", at most he just had some lively youthfulness.

The only organization in Yokohama that has a "Supernatural Business License" issued by the Supernatural Special Affairs Department, which allows people with supernatural powers to use their supernatural powers in their daily work affairs. He is one of the most core members of the Armed Detective Agency and the only synonym for the word "detective" in the "Armed Detective Agency". He is a famous detective who has no supernatural powers but walks as a "supernatural detective", Ranpo Edogawa.

Even the reason why the Armed Detective Agency was established was for him.

Although he had never officially "met" Edogawa Ranpo before today, Saikai Haruto still knew him as "Mochizuki Kaoru".

The reason is very simple. It was because of Natsume Soseki, or maybe it was because of Mori Ogai. It can only be said that because of those reasons, he had met Fukuzawa Yukichi, another founder and president of the Armed Detective Agency, once or twice.

Although I have never actually met Ranpo Edogawa, I couldn't help but look him up a little out of curiosity... I even learned that he "is not actually a psychic."

But Zhixiao is Zhixiao, and he has no intention of doing anything with this incident.

Of course, the reason why Saikai Haruto had not met Edogawa Ranpo, who used "Mochizuki Kaoru", before was not only that they just missed each other by coincidence, but also that he didn't want to be seen through by this overly smart boy... At that time, his script was not yet complete, and he didn't want someone to peek at it so soon, and there was not even such a small possibility.

Simply put, it was similar to the reason why he didn't plan to have too much interaction with Dazai Osamu in advance - of course, the reason why he had interaction with Dazai Osamu in advance was just because of the huge bug and accident of "book".

And meeting Edogawa Ranpo here at this time was also a coincidence that couldn't be more coincidental, an accident that had absolutely nothing to do with him.

However, accidents are accidents, but this accident is not a bad opportunity for him at this time - after all, the script he has in his hands now is completely different from the original one. It is a perfect revised version after being overturned and revised N times. Moreover, maybe it is a good thing to meet him here.

Otherwise, Xi Haiqing Dou would not have come to help without hesitation when he was called just now.

Of course, he only briefly pondered these inner thoughts in his mind, and then immediately hid them, without revealing the slightest bit of them in his eye expressions or body movements - facing Edogawa Ranpo, who is said to be able to "see through the truth at a glance", not even the smallest details can be wrong, and he would not bet on whether it was his acting skills that were so good or the author's ability to reason about details that could be called bug-level that Edogawa Ranpo was so good.

When facing Ranpo Edogawa, he was just "Mochizuki Kaoru".

Facing the boy's series of words that hit him so fast that he barely had time to react, the handsome and gentle young man just smiled calmly and nodded in agreement: "Well, after all, he is the most powerful supernatural detective in Yokohama. It's hard not to remember the name of Edogawa Ranpo-kun."

"My name is Kaoru Mochizuki," he said.

As famous as Edogawa Ranpo is his "superpower", which is said to be the superpower called "super reasoning" that can see the truth of things at a glance. The "Detective" in the name of the Armed Detective Agency also comes from him.

Edogawa Ranpo's eyes lit up, and after hearing his words, an expression on his face immediately showed a hint of smugness.

He said that although the president told him not to brag about himself outside, it would easily make the client feel unstable and distrust him, but he said that it was the other party's fault, because he was originally a super smart, no, the most powerful detective! Sure enough, the person in front of him had the same idea as him! He knew it was not his problem!

However, he still had one thing to seriously correct: "It's not Yokohama, it's the most powerful detective in Japan and the world!"

"If you want help from the detective agency or a famous detective, you can ask me directly for help."

He was not surprised that Mochizuki Kaoru would directly expose his identity - "Super Power Detective". After all, this title was basically given out by him on his own initiative, and he did not think there was anything wrong with this title at all - after all, his supernatural power of "super reasoning" was super powerful, so powerful that he could see through the truth of an incident in a second. He was a "Super Power Detective"!

Considering that what he said and the attitude he displayed were normal - meaning that he didn't treat him with contempt or as if he were a child like some messy people did, Edogawa Ranpo felt that he could take the initiative to do something good today - maybe he could take the initiative and independently complete a commission in the president's absence, and maybe then he could increase his pocket money for snacks this month without the president noticing.

...It's hard to say whether the second reason is the most important for Ranpo Edogawa - after all, according to the regulations of Fukuzawa Yukichi, the president of the Armed Detective Agency and Ranpo Edogawa's guardian, Ranpo Edogawa's pocket money for buying snacks this month is almost used up.

Even the last bit of money was used by him to buy the bottle of soda in his hand.

Mochizuki Kaoru had no idea what he was thinking, but the boy's thoughts were easy to understand, and he was not hiding anything, so people could tell at a glance. But he still nodded and said, "Ah, I was wrong."

He shook his head again: "If there is a chance next time, but I don't have any troubles right now that require me to commission anything from your detective agency."

I declined very politely.

After a pause, he continued, "But what is the purpose of Edogawa-kun's presence here?"

"If possible, don't go any further. That white mist is a product of supernatural powers and it will be very dangerous."

White mist is the supernatural product of Shibuzawa Ryuhiko, which can separate supernatural users from ordinary people. Mochizuki Kaoru does not know what other space ordinary people will appear in, but it does not seem to cause any harm to ordinary people. Supernatural users who are hit by the white mist will be separated from their own supernatural powers, and even become hostile to each other. The supernatural powers will turn around to attack their masters, or even kill the supernatural users.

Of course, Mochizuki Kaoru knows that Edogawa Ranpo is not a person with special abilities, so Shibuzawa Tatsuhiko's white mist does not pose much threat to him. However, like Fukuzawa Yukichi, Mochizuki Kaoru is also willing to maintain the illusion that Edogawa Ranpo is a "person with special abilities" and does not want to expose this. However, if Edogawa Ranpo walks into the white mist, this matter will obviously be impossible to hide.

Edogawa Ranpo blinked.

"I'm here to handle a commission, and I'll be leaving soon. But Uncle Mochizuki, you're really weird." He said, "Are you trying to change the subject just now?"

"You obviously have a very troublesome problem that needs to be solved, why are you lying to me and saying it's not a problem?"

The young man exposed Mochizuki Kaoru's words with extremely straightforward words. The expression on his face was curious and confused. He didn't seem to care about Mochizuki Kaoru's feelings at all. He even seemed a little angry because of the young man's "distrust": "Don't lie to the famous detective, Uncle Mochizuki, do you think the famous detective can't solve it?"