Chapter 116 Ten Cats
From the corner of her eye she saw a child who was also listening attentively, and the corners of Chijiang Nayue's lips curled up slightly.
He knew that after Shirley escaped from the organization, she wanted to find Kudo Shinichi, the common victim, so he simply created opportunities for the two children who were bound to meet, which also created a more stable opportunity for Shirley to make friends.
Furthermore, this will peak the little detective's curiosity about himself.
According to what Akae Nazuki knew, it has been more than two months since Conan became what he is now. During this period, if nothing unexpected happens, he has confirmed the existence of the Black Organization and has also seen Tequila and Miyano Akemi who were killed by the organization.
Regardless of whether the latter is really dead, the fact that he did not meet Shirley at the scheduled time means that Conan currently does not know the information about the drug that made him smaller, and still knows very little about the organization.
This is the perfect time to take advantage of the little detective's curiosity.
Would Conan, who lives in the office to track down the organization's information, let go of the "person of interest" sent by the store manager? Not to mention that this is a young detective who has not been taught by Akae Nazuki and does not know how to act within his capabilities when it comes to danger? The answer is of course no.
"Hey, this is so strange." The little detective ran over to them and sat on the sofa next to Uncle Maori. He swung his legs and said in a childish tone, "Brother Shinichi obviously doesn't have a dog, so why did Shirley fall there?"
Hooked.
There are many ways that Akae Nazuki could have used to attract Conan's attention, but he chose the most hilarious one - a highly targeted fishing enforcement that was roughly equivalent to whispering "Kudo Shinichi" directly into the little detective's ear.
It is undeniable that this method really works quickly, isn’t it?
Uncle Maori, who was standing opposite, wanted to punch the kid on the head to tell him not to interrupt the store manager's narration. However, after hearing this question, he just curled his lips and said, "Maybe someone didn't want to keep a dog anymore, so he just dumped it somewhere. You really have a lot of problems, kid."
"Yes, why?" Chi Jiang Na Yue didn't look angry and agreed, "It is precisely because I want to know this 'why' that I came to entrust you two with this."
Two? That includes him as well. Conan's heart sank.
Ordinary clients usually only see their uncle, so a situation like this is rare. This further confirms Conan's suspicions about the other party.
Sure enough, isn't Shirley and the Kudo residence just a coincidence? Speaking of which, when he returned home before, he did find traces of someone rummaging through the house. Although the other party made it seem as if those traces were Conan's illusion, he still found something wrong and hid it in his heart.
Because Conan knew that at this sensitive time, if someone would be interested in Kudo Shinichi and break into his house to search, that person must be someone related to the organization that caused him to become like this.
"What kind of job do you do, big brother? If you're just looking for the puppy's owner, the commission is really a lot!" Conan pretended to be indifferent and ignored the previous topic, innocently testing the other party's identity, "Big brother, didn't you just pick up Shirley yesterday?"
Uncle Maori's forehead veins jumped, and he was about to pick up the child and throw him back into the room to stop him from making trouble, but he heard the client on the opposite side patiently answering the child's rash questions without paying any attention to them.
"I forgot to introduce myself. Sorry." The black-haired young man held the silver fox in one hand and took out a thin card from his bag with his other hand. "My name is Miyamoto Akira. This is my business card."
The Kaluuya in this world has no name, not even a code name like A, because he has been sleeping since the day he came to this world, until Akae Nayue woke up in this body two months ago.
Karasuma Renya wanted to give him a name at that time, but Akae Nazuki himself didn't want his counterpart to have the surname Karasuma. Even if the old man in this world was not a bad person, he refused to let such a disgusting thing happen!
The parents in this world are still alive, and Chijiang Nayue didn't want to involve them, so she gave up the idea of using her real name and finally chose this pseudonym she had used before.
After Kaluya truly wakes up and sees the memories he transmitted, whether he still wants to contact the Akae couple and whether he still wants to get this name is up to that Kaluya.
The two heads, one big and one small, leaned over to take a look. The black, white, and red business card only had the client's name printed on it, and -
They both blurted out at the same time: "The cat cafe manager?!"
Are you kidding me? The guy who casually paid a detective $500,000 to find the former owner of an abandoned dog he had only known for one day was actually just the manager of a cat cafe? This is totally inconsistent with Conan's previous reasoning!
Moreover, for some reason, the business card did not have the store manager’s contact information, nor the cat cafe’s address and name. It seemed to be just for a simple self-introduction.
Nazuki Akae explained: "In fact, my grandfather only has me as his descendant, so he is particularly concerned about my life. The commission money was earned when I worked part-time in my grandfather's company."
...This guy is a rich second generation.
These words appeared in the minds of the two people facing each other.
"Which company has a part-time job that can earn half a million dollars? I'd really like to see it." Uncle Maori muttered in a low voice with dissatisfaction in his heart.
While being held by the store manager, Shirley inexplicably breathed a sigh of relief: she had never heard of the store manager's name in the organization before, although it was possible that it was a pseudonym... When she went to the store in the morning, she was startled by the "Kaluya" in the store name, and later she remembered that there was actually no one with this code name in the organization.
To be honest, she was also shocked by the half a million dollars, but she was shocked that the store manager would use the money to commission an agency to find her 'previous owner' - a thing that did not exist.
After all, she was not abandoned outside the Kudo residence by anyone, but she found her way there on her own.
After the two parties negotiated the information related to the commission, the store manager planned to leave, and Shirley returned to the bag.
"This is my contact information. If there is any progress in the investigation, please contact me through this number." After saying this, Akae Nazuki leaned over and rubbed Conan's head as he ran to her side. "See you next time, Mr. Maori and... Little Detective."
Even when Akae Nayue left the office, Conan couldn't stop sweating profusely.
Why did they suddenly call him "Little Detective" and call uncle "Mr. Maori"? Generally speaking, wouldn't they call uncle Maori Detective and ignore this little brat?
Hey, this is not good news.
He secretly made the decision to investigate this person.
—
The number that Akae Nazuki gave was actually a dud. He never gave out his real contact information, but he was not worried at all that Conan would not be able to find him.
The kid's talent for reasoning was 'barely' recognized by Mr. Ranpo, and even though Conan here was not his student, it could not conceal his shining abilities.
Rather, it is precisely because Conan is an unpolished diamond that Akae Nazuki feels itchy. The contact method is just the simplest hurdle. If Conan can't even solve this, he shouldn't get involved in more dangerous and complicated organizational operations.
Chijiang Nayuesi didn't think there was anything wrong. After returning from the office, she resumed her previous work and rest schedule, but she no longer randomly caught cats and employees every afternoon. Instead, she stayed alone in the store managers' room to rest.
In fact, this was to prevent his cats from discovering that he had secretly raised a puppy among the store managers, but what Akae Nazuki didn't know was that his actions made the cats such as Fūya even more nervous.
"This is terrible..." Matsuda said solemnly, sitting on top of the cat climbing frame, "He hasn't combed my hair for two days. I asked Miss Azusa to do it for me."
As a beautiful Labrador Rex cat, Matsuda's coat is hell for the groomer. If you don't pay attention, it will become more and more tangled. You must be patient and take good care of it. The store manager's skills are much better than Miss Azusa's, so this job used to be done by the store manager himself, and they both enjoy the fixed time for grooming every day.
Since Fūya has only been here for a short time, he doesn't quite understand his friends' attitude of facing a powerful enemy. He only joins the conversation because he wants to find out the manager's secret.
So he spoke seriously without any psychological barriers: "When the store manager came back from outside the afternoon the day before yesterday, I saw white hair on his cuffs."
After saying that, the three cats all looked at Hagiwara, the only one with white skin on his body.
Hagiwara's eyes turned into crescents in silence: "It wasn't me. The store manager didn't even touch me that day, how could he have touched my hair?"
"Did the store manager really raise another pet outside?" Zhu Fu asked curiously, "Why didn't he just bring it back? Do we usually show such bad tempers that we won't accept new employees?"
"Unless the puppy the store manager raised outside is really a puppy." Having said this, Hagiwara, who was the first to discover this, firmly believed in his guess and repeated it.
The four cats looked at each other again.
When they are in cat form, their minds are influenced by instinct, so it is normal for them to reject outsiders. In fact, it can be controlled. However, they really cannot accept that the store manager has a dog outside and even wants to bring the dog back to the store.
It was one thing for them to not be able to get along with ordinary, unenlightened puppies, but what they cared about most was that the store manager, a staunch cat person, would actually betray them!
"And I haven't seen that kid in the past two days. I don't know if what I said the other day scared him." Hagiwara said sadly, "If that kid had come to the store, the manager might not have gone out to secretly raise a puppy."
The corner of Furuya's mouth twitched. He really couldn't understand his friend's train of thought. But seeing the expressions of faint approval from Morobushi and Matsuda, he silently shut his mouth.
Did the store manager give Hiro and the others some kind of magic potion?
Fūya admitted that he wanted to be friends with the store manager in human form. He felt very comfortable and at ease when he was with the store manager. His cat-stroking skills were so good that the cats were trembling. Moreover, the cat food, cat snacks, cat climbing frames, cat nests, etc. were all carefully prepared and of the best quality. No matter how you looked at it, he cared about them very much...
Well.
Fūya was shocked: How did he become the store manager?!
Coincidentally, at this moment, the store manager came out from the store manager's office, yawning lazily. When he passed the cat climbing frame, he rubbed the four heads one by one.
"Where are you going, store manager?" Zhu Fu asked.
The store manager, who always seemed to understand what they were saying, responded this time, but shook his head.
"I just came out to pick up the kids." The store manager smiled, "They are the little guests we are here to receive this afternoon. I'll have to trouble you again later."