Chapter 169 Tomorrow Blooms

Ikawa put his hat on his head and took the cigarette from the driver.

The sound of the lighter rang out, and the car was soon filled with the pungent smell of cigarettes. He lowered his eyes. Judging from his well-developed muscles and 1.9 meters tall body, he could not be seen as a man in his forties.

The same eye color.

The man turned this sentence around in his mouth as if he was tasting a cigarette, and inexplicably a feeling of absurdity came over him.

Didn't they say that family backgrounds must be checked before admission to the police academy? What are those checks in Japan for? The son of a hired mercenary actually became a cop, and a drug smuggler at that. How is that possible?

Several people got out of the car and walked into the pharmaceutical factory. It was very dark inside, filled with a strange smell of cigarette ash, and combat boots kicked up a cloud of dust when they stepped on the ground. The other two people who had just been carelessly opening their clothes put on masks that covered most of their faces, leaving only their eyes above their noses exposed. They would not be naive enough to show their faces in front of their "customers."

Walking all the way to the basement of the pharmaceutical factory, the man who had just driven the car unlocked the lock, removed the iron chain around the door one by one, and then pushed open the heavy door, allowing a little dim light to illuminate the room that had no ventilation at all.

When he roughly saw the outline of the man inside, Ishikawa cursed in his heart.

...Fuck, it really is.

Without looking at the face, the man could instantly recognize the person who was hanging in the room by the chestnut curly hair that was completely different from his own.

The man next to him did not notice his companion's distraction. He threw the sack on his shoulder to the ground, unsealed the sack, and dumped the child inside directly to the ground.

Conan Edogawa, who was violently driven out, rolled on the floor before he could stabilize his body. He had already adapted to the darkness after being in the sack, and now he could easily see the appearance of the room. The

familiar chestnut-haired man was kneeling on the ground, but his upper body was tied up by a rough hemp rope with his hands. He lowered his head, and did not react to the commotion, as if he had fainted.

The boy smelled a faint smell of blood.

Edogawa Conan coughed violently several times because of the smoky air before he got used to it. He had been tapping his fingers to calculate the time when he was in the car just now. It took about thirty minutes to get from the camping mountain to this place.

"Hey, we found a kid to keep you company." The man who had just thrown the boy to the ground spoke, and did not get any response. A hint of displeasure flashed across the man's face, and he raised his foot and kicked the other's abdomen, which was hung by his hands and had no way to cover it.

Conan Edogawa's eyes widened, but all his sounds were blocked by the cloth in his mouth, and he could only make some anxious and angry sobs.

Kasugawa Shugo, who had not responded, bent over because of the pain in his abdomen, lowered his head and coughed violently twice, and then he seemed to finally wake up.

"Iwama." Ikawa, who was standing aside with his arms crossed, frowned and said.

The man called Iwama waved his hands, his voice still carrying the same uncomfortable smile from before, "It's 'complete' anyway, it's okay, it's okay if we just play around before that woman arrives, Oikawa, you're too serious."

He gently nudged his companion, who usually didn't like to get involved in such things, with his crooked hand, and then as if he remembered something, he reached out and grabbed Kasugawa Shugo's furry hair, forcing him to raise his head a little.

Kasugawa Shugo frowned because of the pain in his abdomen and head, raised his head and opened his eyes to look at the other party, but before he could move away, someone pressed the corner of his eye with a finger still covered with dust. The chestnut-haired man couldn't help but squint his eyes because of this action, and his long and thick eyelashes kept trembling subconsciously, as if to protect his too fragile eyes.

"Hey, hey - give me some reaction." Iwama patted his cheek with the back of his hand, motioning the man behind him to come over and look, "Look, is it almost the same."

The mandarin-colored eyes looked at the mandarin-colored eyes.

After seeing the man behind Iwama, the chestnut-haired man's eyes widened instantly, and then he quickly lowered his head, swallowing back the bloody smell in his throat from the blow to his abdomen just now, and he didn't look up for a long time.

He had jumped from the shock of why Edogawa Conan was so unlucky to be caught with him to another more shocking discovery.

...What is going on?

Last night when he ran into the group of mercenaries head-on, the man named... uh, at least now changed his name to Ikawa, had not appeared, so he had sneered at the comments of those on the forum who saw the mercenaries and wondered if they were his father.

Now it's good! It's really here! !

The chestnut-haired man lowered his head, and in the darkness and the obstruction of his drooping curly hair, his expression almost looked like a mask of pain.

Unlike Tsukiyama Asari and Hanedani Miu, who had almost identical eyes, Kasugawa Shugo had no similarities in outline and eyebrows with the man in front of him. Only the similar eye color subtly told of the blood connection between the two.

This was too much of a coincidence...

While Kasugawa Shugo was tangled, Edogawa Conan, who was tied up beside him, was observing the situation of the man in front of him. The boy saw large patches of blood on the police officer, but there was no sign of bandage. If all this blood was from him, it would be impossible for the mercenary to hand over this target intact to the buyer without bandaging it.

It looks like all this blood belongs to someone else... But the lack of visible external injuries doesn't mean the condition is good. The boy narrowed his eyes, but before he could see more information, he saw Iwama and the other man hurriedly answer a phone call and turn away.

After the door closed again, Edogawa Conan hurriedly checked the corners.

"There's no surveillance, I've checked before." Knowing that the boy was looking for any listening or surveillance equipment, Kasugawa Shugo took a deep breath and whispered in a relaxed tone, "... See you again, little detective."

Hearing this, the boy skillfully spit out the cloth stuffed in his mouth, and hurriedly asked, "Mr. Kasugawa, how are you?!"

"Not bad." At least I'm not missing any limbs.

The chestnut-haired man silently swallowed the second half of the sentence. The current situation is much better than he expected. Although he is in pain all over, being hit by a fist is better than being hit by a bullet or a knife.

Conan Edogawa frowned. He initially thought that the police officer in front of him lowered his voice in order not to attract the attention of the mercenaries who might be stationed outside, but now it seems more like the other party has completely lost the strength to speak loudly.

"Mr. Kasugawa."

"...It's just a sleeping pill." Being stared at by the boy with a stern look, Kasugawa Shugo sighed, feeling that this little detective was indeed becoming increasingly difficult to fool. He could only continue to speak and provide more details about his situation, "There's also a little muscle relaxant. The effect is almost gone, it's nothing... Why were you caught here?"

In order to avoid being questioned about his injuries, the man quickly threw the conversation to the other party.

"Oh right..." Conan Edogawa just remembered, he told the police officer in front of him about his situation in detail, "The General Affairs Office has already known about it, and will launch a rescue operation immediately, we..."

"Asari..." Kasugawa Shugo accurately caught the key words in the boy's words, and kept lowering his head and coughing. As he coughed, the smell of blood in the air became stronger. After coughing, the man paused for a moment, his voice was even hoarse and lower than before, "I'm sorry, I dragged you into this."

He originally just wanted Tsukiyama Asari to bring a few children to find the traces left when he was kidnapped, and then use this to inform his senior Takeda Daiji, but Edogawa Conan, a professional kidnapper, was still affected.

The boy's eyes widened at the apology and he was speechless for a long time.

When Subaru Okiya asked the reckless police officer to pay attention to the wound on his abdomen on the cruise ship, the first thing the chestnut-haired man said was an apology.

Conan Edogawa clenched his hands that were tied behind his back, but before he could say anything, he heard clear footsteps outside, the sound of high heels stepping on the ground.

He quickly bit the strip of cloth he had just spit out back into his mouth, and pretended that nothing had happened and retreated to the corner.

When the door was pushed open again, Conan Edogawa narrowed his eyes, and in the dim light he could see Kasugawa Shugo, who was hanging in the middle of the room, a little more clearly. He then discovered that the man's wrists had been worn out from being hung above his head, and coupled with the subconscious shaking after being kicked in the abdomen, blood continued to seep out of the place where he was tied, flowing down his arms.

He frowned and turned his gaze back to the outside of the door.

The person who came was indeed a woman whose age could not be determined, just as Iwama had said. Just like Iwama and his men would use masks to cover most of their facial features in front of buyers, the woman obviously did not trust the group of mercenaries she hired. She wore a black mask, revealing only a pair of eyes with heavy makeup.

She seemed to have sprayed some perfume, and the air was full of sweet smell when she walked in.

"Long time no see, Officer Kasugawa." She said casually, but her feet did not stop moving, stepping on the man's abdomen with her feet in high heels.

... What do you think of my stomach? !

Kasugawa Shugo gritted his teeth and tried hard to swallow the bloody taste that surged up in his mouth again, and complained viciously in his heart. Why do one or two like to attack this place, and this time it's high heels.

Please... How high are your heels? It feels like you can poke a hole in my abdomen with a little more force.

He swallowed the blood in his mouth again, then squinted his eyes and said, "...Long time no see."

...Who is this person? Damn

, I really can't remember at all. I've been a policeman for so many years and have arrested hundreds of drug dealers and criminals, but I really can't remember who this person in front of me is... Could she be the relative of a guy who is probably in prison or serving hard labor in hell?

Kasugawa Shugo felt that his thoughts were probably affected by the drugs. He racked his brains but couldn't figure out who this woman who said "long time no see" to him was. He simply gave up thinking and sloppily threw her into the category of drug dealers and their relatives.

The other party didn't seem to want to argue with him. The woman's eyes moved to the side and fell on the boy tied up in the corner. "Where did this kid come from..."

Then, her voice was filled with a malicious smile, "Isn't he the son of the police officer?"

"Ah... I don't think so." Kasugawa Shugo twitched his mouth. Since Suemitsu Sosuke was mistaken for the father of this little detective last time, it was finally his turn. He didn't know who would be the next vest to suffer. He endured the pain in his body and responded in a chatty tone, but his eyes glanced around obscurely, observing the current situation.

In addition to the woman, there were four mercenaries in the house...

While he was thinking, Iwama briefly explained why there was an extra child in the house, "Buy one, get one free. How about that? Our service is in place, right?"

The woman frowned at his joking words, as if she didn't like his style of doing things, but then she thought of something, and her long eyebrows stretched out again, "Well, children are also useful."

After that, she reached into her coat pocket and took out a mobile phone, and waved it in front of Kasugawa Shugo, "Do you recognize this, Officer?"

The chestnut-haired man recognized it at a glance. This was the mobile phone that was snatched away when he was caught.

"As expected of a drug-hunting police officer, your phone is clean. Not to mention text messages, not even a single photo is left. I've been worrying for a long time about how to contact your colleagues and let them find out who has you." The woman tapped the phone screen twice with her long nails painted with burgundy nail polish, and her eyes suddenly curved up, revealing a little smile.

Kasugawa Shugo instantly had a bad premonition.

"But what a coincidence, your friend or family member just sent you an email, 'Are you done with work? If you don't come, we'll eat first', let me see the number..." The woman's voice was a little vague due to the mask. There was no contact on the phone in her hand, and the received text message only showed the number. She read out the line of numbers and was satisfied to see that the police officer, who had originally looked relaxed, gradually widened his eyes in disbelief.

Damn... Why would they send a text message to me.

Edogawa Conan lowered his eyes and turned the number carefully in his mind. This was not from Tsukiyama Asari, so the sender of the email must be one of the good friends of this police officer.

"Since the contact information is already here, there's no need to bother them to send the videotape to the Metropolitan Police Department." The woman fiddled with her phone for a while, "Let me see where the video is... Ah, I found it."

She handed the phone in her hand, which was already turned on to the camera interface, to Iwama behind her. The man took it and pressed the record button with interest, then used his free hand to pull up the officer's chestnut curly hair, "Mr. Officer, raise your head so they can take a good look."

The mercenary didn't hate the police as much as the drug lord, but he certainly wouldn't miss this rare opportunity.

Iwama raised his eyebrows, pressed the camera down a little, and took a close-up of the man who was half hanging in the middle of the room, and didn't forget to avoid his companions to prevent the police from noticing any information.

"Don't say anything. This video is going to be sent to your friends." Seeing that he raised his head as he moved his hands but still said nothing, the man let out a light "tsk" and was a little dissatisfied, "Is your mouth sewn shut?"

Kasugawa Shugo frowned. He was really not used to the other party's frivolous tone. The calmness that he had managed to maintain was interrupted by this sudden familiar number. Before the man had time to think about anything else, he felt a pain on the side of his face. The huge force made him turn his head uncontrollably, and the bloody smell that he had suppressed with great difficulty surged up again in his mouth.

A red mark and three or four narrow bloody streaks soon appeared on the left side of the man's cheek. The woman used all her strength to hit the police officer, and her long nails, which were even harder after applying nail polish, scratched several bloody streaks on the police officer's face.

Iwama snorted and pried open the other's tightly clenched teeth. The blood that he couldn't swallow in time quickly flowed from the corner of his mouth. He rubbed the chestnut-haired man's sharp fangs with his fingertips in a provocative manner, then withdrew his hand and responsibly raised his phone closer.

"Where are the things I brought?" The woman pinched Kasugawa Shugo's chin, lifted it up a little, looked around, and then put her hand down, "Take a closer look, this face is really beautiful."

No... I don't like being praised with this word, can't you change it to another word, like handsome. The chestnut-haired man complained in a bitter and amusing way.

"That box?" Iwama paused, then he remembered that the woman had arranged for them to pick up a box before, "It's in the next room, Archie, go get it."

The man with heavy gauze wrapped around his shoulders and abdomen responded.

"Mr. Officer, I know you are investigating this batch of drugs. Since you want to know so much... I don't want to let you go home disappointed." The woman used her knuckles to touch down along the bloodstain on the side of Kasugawa Shugo's face. After touching his neck, she suddenly changed her gentle strength and pinched the man's neck hard. "I specially prepared one for you. You will know the effect after trying it yourself."

The feeling of pressure from the neck became stronger and stronger. The instinct for survival made the man, who had no strength due to the residual drugs and muscle relaxants, struggle subconsciously. He opened his mouth to breathe in more air, but was completely blocked by the hand pinching his neck.

The air was deprived bit by bit, and the feeling of suffocation slowly swept through the whole body. The strength of Kasugawa Shugo's struggle gradually weakened. Just before he completely stopped all movements, the woman let go of her hand.

So the chestnut-haired man immediately bent down and coughed violently. Before he could breathe in much of the not-so-clean air again, his neck was pinched again.

In the corner, Conan Edogawa's eyes were bloodshot. His hands, which were tied behind his back, had pinched bloody marks on his palms, and even his mouth smelled of blood because of the huge bite force. There was no way to save the police officer at this moment. He could only force himself to watch this scene, as if he wanted to record all the torture that Kasugawa Shugo had suffered.

Iwama held up his cell phone, then took out the key that could open the door from his waist and threw it to Aqi who was waiting for the key to open the door. The key string drew a sharp arc in the air. The man at the door was about to reach out to take it, but the key in the air was taken away by someone else and put into the cell phone.

Ikawa held the key string, put the key ring on his finger, and turned it around casually. Most of his face was blocked by the shadow cast by the brim of his hat, and his expression could not be seen clearly, but his tone was very relaxed, "I'll go."

As he said this, he took out a cigarette from his pocket and held it in his mouth, opened the heavy iron door, and walked out of the corridor.

"This guy, he went out to smoke at this time." Looking at Ikawa's actions, Iwama naturally attributed this behavior to his companion who wanted to go out to smoke a cigarette under the pretext of getting something.

However, the woman did not show any dissatisfaction with this kind of slacking behavior at work. She tightened her hands again and again like a sheep with its limbs tied up, and then let go of the man before he was about to faint from suffocation. When Ikawa brought the box, the woman let go of her hands. Kasugawa Shugo did not cough violently like before, but just lowered his head and breathed a little, as if he had already gotten used to the feeling of suffocation.

The muscular man opened the box and held it aside. Inside was an injection, with a transparent colorless liquid in the syringe. It was hard to tell what it was.

"Try it. I prepared it for you." The woman's voice was a little hoarse. She held up the injection, but did not inject it directly into Kasugawa Shugo's body. Instead, she pressed the booster at the back with her thumb and pushed it forward a little. A small stream of liquid came out of the thin syringe, and all of it was sprinkled on the man's bloody side face.

Blood mixed with the colorless liquid flowed down his cheek.

"Would you like to taste it?" After the man asked this question with a smile, Iwama was very tactful and pinched the chestnut-haired man's jaw with his free hand, forcing him to open his mouth a little.

Oops...

Kasugawa Shugo tried hard to hold his breath and did not swallow any of the liquid that was put into his mouth, but after the liquid touched his tongue, it still dutifully transmitted signals to his taste buds.

...This taste?

He was stunned for a moment, pursed his lips calmly, and the taste of the liquid quickly dissolved in his mouth. The chestnut-haired man raised his head slightly and looked not far away, and met the eyes of the man who was leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed. Oikawa

adjusted his hat, and his eyes, which were originally hidden under the brim of the hat, were revealed a little at this moment. The eyes that were exactly the same as the man's flashed, and then hid in the darkness again.

When the woman took her hand back, the amount of liquid in the injection was almost invisible. "This kind of medicine is usually injected with one-third, and the rest is kept for next time. But as a police officer, you should be much more powerful than ordinary people, right?"

She pierced the man's skin with the thin tip, and before she could say anything else, she felt a pain in her calf.

Edogawa Conan, who was originally beside her, rushed over and hit the woman holding the syringe hard.

The boy gritted his teeth, knowing that his behavior was extremely reckless, but there was no other way except to try it once. If this powerful illegal drug was really injected into Officer Kasugawa's body, would he die directly because he couldn't bear it? Even if he was rescued... that would be...

He tried his best to knock down the woman holding the syringe while everyone's attention was on the drug. It would be best if the drug in her hand could slip out of her hand and break on the ground when she fell.

From what she said, there should be only this one prepared. Even if it was urgently transferred from somewhere else, it could buy more time for Kasugawa Shugo.

Unfortunately, his idea soon fell through. After crashing into the woman, he was grabbed from behind before he could use more strength.

The man next to Iwama picked up the boy and threw him to the side, cursing. He had no control over his strength. Edogawa Conan's head hit the wall and soon bled.

No... I absolutely cannot let her inject this thing into him.

The boy staggered and tried to stand up again, but before he could steady himself, the injection was over.

"Tsk." The woman threw the injection on the ground, then reached out to take the phone that Iwama had been holding and was recording, and took two steps back to face the man who lowered his head after the injection.

The room soon fell silent. Iwama waited for a while with his arms folded, and couldn't help asking, "Why is there no reaction?"

"Ah, of course there is a reaction." The woman raised an eyebrow, "It's just that Officer Kasugawa is more patient."

The man looked carefully at the man who was hanging there, and then he found that his whole body was shaking slightly, as if he had tried his best but couldn't suppress the subconscious reaction of his body.

The woman held up her cell phone, signaling Iwama to pull his head up. The man quickly did as he was told. The front of the phone automatically illuminated Kasugawa Shugo's eyes in the dark.

His pupils had already shrunken.

The man seemed to be completely blind to the scenery in front of him, as if he was completely trapped in the hallucination caused by the drugs. He didn't even react when his face was pinched and photographed.

The woman held the cell phone and waited patiently. As time went by, Kasugawa Shugo's body trembled more and more violently, accompanied by increasingly heavy breathing. The police officer finally couldn't control himself and pulled out an extremely hoarse roar from his throat.

He hunched over like a trapped beast that had been forced into its extreme corner. In the empty and small room, the only sounds were the man's roar due to extreme mental pain and the malicious laughter of others.

"It's almost done." The woman raised her cell phone and finally moved the camera that had been aimed at Kasugawa Shugo, and turned to Edogawa Conan, who was standing next to her with red eyes. "Officer's friend should also be a police officer? Let's put it this way, since there are two people here... I'll let one go."

"So, whoever received this video, which one are you going to leave behind?" The woman took out a pistol from her waist and slowly aimed it at the trembling man. The bullet fired from the gun penetrated the chestnut-haired police officer's body, but because of the position, the blood only flowed slowly and in small amounts. "If you've made up your mind, just text me and tell me. As for the time limit... before Officer Kasugawa's blood runs out."

After saying that, she finally cut off the video, which was nearly seven minutes long. The woman moved on the phone interface and quickly sent the video.

"Sent... Success." She whispered the prompt tone, tapped Kasugawa Shugo's cheek with the back of the phone, and asked, "Do you think they will choose you or the innocent child next to you?"

Just as expected, there was no response. The woman glanced at the other party's eyes that were dazed by the drug, snorted coldly, and turned away first.

The author has something to say:

Thank you for reading

Posted earlier today~

[Supplement] emmm... Everyone has different opinions on this chapter. If you feel that this comment makes you uncomfortable, just don't read it. There is no need to argue below~ I will delete such comments directly.