Chapter 119 Thirteen Cats

Conan seemed unable to believe the unexpected reason given by the store manager, but Shirley accepted it well.

In fact, it was because the store manager stayed with her most of the time that it took her only three days to understand almost everything that Hagiwara and the others had discovered after two months of getting along with each other - the store manager, who looked like an adult, was extremely lacking in the common sense that a normal person should have.

On several occasions, Shirley found that the store manager would secretly check the store surveillance between the store managers, or pretend to play with the cats in the lobby, but in fact he was secretly observing the behavior of the customers, then put what he saw into practice and quietly make adjustments based on other people's reactions.

Perhaps it was because Shirley was always tormented by the fact that she had brought danger to the store manager. Now she was a puppy with nothing to do except sleeping and eating. Her eyes were on the store manager all the time, so she naturally noticed the details among the details.

I have to say that the store manager's disguise was really good. At least Shirley was sure that even Xiaozi, a clerk who had been working with the store manager for two months, did not realize that he did not even know how many digits there were in his phone number. Even she did not realize it until the store manager admitted it in person.

What kind of environment did the store manager originally live in? Shirley, who had just arrived, had been thinking about this question unconsciously for the past few days, stepping into the dust of her predecessors.

She had originally speculated whether he was the kind of young master who was isolated from the world, who had been home-schooled since childhood due to poor health, so he lacked common sense or something, but even if that was the case, he shouldn't have never come into contact with electronic products, right? In this information society, the store manager's every move was even more awkward than those elementary school kids outside.

Shirley originally suspected that the store manager's motives might not be pure for spending half a million U.S. dollars to find the puppy's previous owner, but after a few days, she completely understood.

The store manager did this because he absolutely lacked knowledge of the value of money. It was as if he was just running the store for fun and didn't care at all whether he could make money for himself.

Similarly, the store manager is not good at using electronic products. Even now that Shirley knows him, every time the store manager uses electronic devices, he is basically listening to music and playing games. Although he rarely logs into social software, he is as proficient in games as a teenager who has been addicted to the Internet for ten years. Shirley can't help but wonder if the store manager is really not good at it or is he just too lazy to learn because he finds it troublesome.

After all, this guy has such a strong learning ability, and it doesn't look like he can't learn it. Based on this, Shirley can reasonably infer that things like phone numbers are completely forgotten by the store manager because he thinks they are useless.

How should I put it? In a sense, people like this are much more terrifying than the real impermanence, right?

Shirley came to her senses and whispered to Conan not to try to talk to the manager again. She didn't want the cats outside to find out at this critical moment that she was next to the manager and was being carefully hidden and raised by the manager.

I always feel like I lost somewhere...

Conan could tell at a glance that they were all the same kind, so how could Shirley not notice it? She simply felt that she would not spend much time with them, and she thought the store manager knew nothing, and she didn't want to be the first person to disrupt the manager's peaceful routine.

Because of this thought, she had been able to live in peace with the cats outside for so many days.

The store manager is gentle, can talk to small animals seriously, lacks the common sense that a normal person should have but is terrifyingly smart, and is always smiling. He should always live leisurely among the people and enjoy the happy life that he deserves.

Shirley still doesn't know why she has such a good impression of him, but this does not prevent her from placing the store manager in an important position... To be honest, no one would dislike this guy after getting to know him, right?

Shirley didn't think the manager seemed to understand what they were saying. Unlike Fūya, she didn't intend to delve into the issue. For her, who had been tired for too long, as long as she could get peace and stability, it didn't matter even if it was short-lived and false.

Seeing that Conan was still trying to ask something, the store manager quickly closed the door and slipped away, as if he didn't know what he was thinking. However, both Shirley and Conan could tell that the store manager slipped away because he was embarrassed to continue the topic.

When Shirley fell to the ground and turned back into human form, she saw the confused expression in the little detective's eyes, which made her less willing to continue teasing him.

Really.

Conan obviously recovered quickly after seeing Shirley's face. His smart mind quickly found the contradictions in Shirley's previous words based on the manager's answer.

And if you think about it calmly, Xiaolan went to Sonoko's house to play today, and her uncle is still helping with the investigation at the Metropolitan Police Department. These two people are definitely not at home at this moment. No matter how dangerous the people in the organization are, they would not kill people in the Metropolitan Police Department or kill people by bypassing the Suzuki family's strict security measures!

The corner of his mouth twitched, and he looked at Shirley with empty eyes, his expression no longer as vigilant as before.

If the store manager is not good at using electronic equipment, there will be no need for him to play with mobile phones or computers in this room. In that case, it would not be strange to install a signal jammer here. In this way, Shirley seemed to be misleading him the whole time.

"Hey, it seems like the store manager is simply an uninformed person." The young detective stared at Shirley with dead fish eyes.

The latter still had his hands behind his back and calmly looked away: "Oh? I never said he was also an accomplice of the organization."

It's confirmed that Shirley really did it on purpose!

"But it's true that you're the drug developer." Conan put his hands in his pockets and said seriously, "So, why are you here?"

"Yes, but I defected on the night mentioned in the store manager's commission."

Shirley lifted the end of her hair and said in a cold tone, not caring at all: "Besides, he was indeed the one who picked me up from your doorstep."

Conan was stunned, and for a moment he didn't know whether to ask why she defected first, or why she was at his door.

Shirley glanced at him.

"You probably don't know yet, the original and purest purpose of APTX4869's development." Her subordinates behind her back clenched their fists, but their voices were calm and not affected by emotions at all. "Erasing other people's memories? Turning adults into this childish appearance? Or forcing a cat to turn into a dog? Of course, none of these. This is not the drug that the organization needs me to research."

"To add to our loneliness - a magical drug that turns ordinary people into our own kind."

Conan's pupils trembled as Shirley said this.

"We no longer need to live cautiously in the cracks and shadows of human society, no longer need to worry about being caught and taken to a research institute for experiments after our true identity is exposed one day, no longer need to feel that we are out of tune with others and feel the loneliness that is born into us."

Shirley seemed to be smiling, but also showed a look of disgust: "The organization you are investigating has actually been doing this all along. Perhaps as a victim you will feel that the organization is too extreme, but it is undeniable that this organization is always just an association that exists to help its peers survive better in this world."

"Even so, do you still want to stop them?" She asked, "Kudo Shinichi, are you really ready to stand on the opposite side of this organization? Based on the fact that you are 'the same kind' as them."

Conan was silent for a moment, and his blue eyes behind the lenses stared straight into Shirley's eyes. He seemed to have just thought for a while and was not at all shaken by such words.

"I don't agree with this approach." The detective said firmly, "Maybe what you said is true, but I will never agree with it! If the so-called better life is built on taking away the good life of others, then it has completely lost its necessity to exist!"

Are all people in this world willing to have the ability to transform into animals? Even among their own kind, who are naturally able to transform between two forms, there are some who hate their original form and identify more with human identity.

If one wants to take away the happiness of others for the sake of one's own happiness, is it really feasible to continue such behavior?

If you want all your peers to live honestly in this world, who says this is the only way to go?

Shirley was stunned, her eyes fixed on Conan's face.

It's serious. This detective means everything he says.

...That's great. Now she can feel a little relieved, right? Someone like this might really be able to do it.

"You really are incompatible with the organization." She exhaled slowly and said inexplicably.

In fact, Shirley used to agree with that idea.

She deeply felt how lonely they were in human society, so when the organization asked her to take over her parents' research, she did not refuse.

But as she researched more and more, she became more and more skeptical of what she believed in, until now, she no longer recognized the medicine she had personally mixed.

Whether it's Kudo Shinichi or the store manager, the longer Shirley spends with such shining people, the more clearly she can understand her past indifference, so she longs to get closer to them, but at the same time she feels resistance to it.

"Huh? Of course I'm like this now, how can I possibly get along with the organization?" Conan's originally serious expression collapsed, and he said speechlessly.

"That's right, so I defected." Shirley shrugged. "I don't have the same moral ideas as you. I just left there because I had an irreconcilable conflict with the organization."

"contradiction?"

"Ah, my sister who depended on me for life was killed by the organization." Shirley said coldly, "In the past, I was always confused by the mask of the organization. I thought it was really an extreme method, but it had never crossed the line... But my sister died, and the organization didn't give me a word of explanation. They just wanted me to continue my research, so I left there unbearable."

"You should know that your house was invaded." She raised her eyebrows.

Conan showed a look of astonishment: "It really was the organization that did this..."

Shirley briefly explained how she found out that Conan was a victim of the drug's effects, and then said, "I thought that since our current situations are not too different, you are probably the one who can understand the situation the most, so I decided to go find you."

As a result, he was picked up by the store manager and stayed by his side.

Conan opened his mouth, but the words 'How can I possibly understand someone like you who developed that kind of drug' were stuck in his throat and he couldn't utter them.

Shirley's words about the organization made him realize that there might be many inaccuracies in his guesses, and made him realize that the nature of the drug was indeed not something that could kill or harm people. The feeling between the same kind, as fragile yet tightly attached as spider silk, also made Conan unable to continue questioning Shirley.

That doesn't make sense.

He had no choice but to shift his attention elsewhere and couldn't help asking, "So that black cat is indeed of the same kind? But why didn't I see him outside just now?"

"Rather, the fact that you actually concealed this secret from the store manager proves that the store manager really knew nothing about it, right?" Conan complained, "But this is the first time I've seen so many of the same kind together at once, and it turns out that you're all working part-time in a cat cafe using your prototypes?"

"Black cat? What black cat?" Shirley asked with frown.

Hasn’t she seen a black cat here at the store manager’s place?

"Is it the black cat that took you away and brought you to the store manager?" Conan also felt confused.

The two looked at each other, and there was a deathly silence in the room.