Officer Takagi, seeing the sudden, sharp shift in Tsuneo's expression, waved his hands dismissively in a frantic gesture.
"No, no! We're not making you redo them! We have backups of everything. It won't affect the upcoming court dates or the legal proceedings at all."
"Well, that's a relief," Tsuneo said, his shoulders visibly relaxing. As long as he didn't have to sit in a cramped interrogation room wrestling with a ballpoint pen, all was right with the world.
"The thing is," Takagi continued, his face hardening into a more professional, serious mask, "we're worried. Given the nature of the files taken, we suspect someone from a past case handled by you or Mr. Mouri might be looking for… well, payback."
In a line of work where you put dangerous people behind bars, the threat of retaliation was a constant shadow.
"Takagi-keiji," Conan interjected, his voice low and calculating as he looked up. "When exactly did these reports go missing?"
This was the pivotal question.
"Well, it looks like it happened on the same day as the bus hijacking," Takagi recalled, rubbing the back of his neck. "We've been investigating it for several days now, but we haven't found a single lead. We have no idea who could have pulled it off."
"The higher-ups are actually debating whether or not to put you and Mr. Mouri under official police protection," the officer added, looking toward the mechanic.
The department was taking this very seriously. They were launching a multi-pronged investigation, starting with the obvious suspects. They'd initially looked at the hijackers from the bus incident, but they only had one accomplice, and he was already safely tucked away in a prison cell. That left a much more unsettling possibility: someone specifically interested in the cases where both Tsuneo and Kogoro Mouri were involved.
"I'll pass on the protection," Tsuneo said with a casual grin, giving his heavy silver wrench a light, rhythmic toss.
"Right… of course…" Takagi nodded blankly. He remembered the bus incident vividly. Tsuneo had taken down two armed terrorists single-handedly without breaking a sweat. If anything, the police would just be in his way.
"Conan-kun?" Takagi leaned down, noticing the boy's pale face. The little detective seemed lost in a dark trance, only snapping back to reality when his name was called.
"Don't be too worried. It could just be a sick prank," Takagi said, trying to offer some comfort. He whispered a final warning for the two of them to keep the matter strictly confidential before heading back to the red Mazda where Officer Sato was waiting.
The police had been hesitant to share this information. Inspector Megure had gone back and forth on whether to involve his 'detective brothers' in such a vague and potentially dangerous mess. However, after hearing that Tsuneo had apprehended another violent criminal in broad daylight today, Megure had instructed Takagi to come clean.
Catching criminals is good, but you need to watch your own back, too.
"Someone infiltrated the Metropolitan Police Headquarters just to steal files on the old man and you," Conan muttered, his eyes fixed on the retreating police car. His voice was heavy with dread. "This can only mean one thing…"
The Great Detective glanced toward Ai, who was currently chatting with the other three children a few meters away.
The timeline was too perfect. The disappearance of Shinichi Kudo and the meteoric rise of 'Sleeping Kogoro' happened almost simultaneously. To a casual observer, it was a coincidence. To a skilled investigator, it was a lead.
If the Black Organization—or specifically, the woman known as Vermouth—had begun investigating the ghost of Shinichi Kudo, it was only natural that she would turn her sights toward the detective agency where he used to hang around. And now, she was looking into the mechanic who kept appearing at the center of the chaos.
"I'm always forgetting where I put this thing," Tsuneo remarked. He opened the door to his truck and placed his heaviest, most reliable wrench in a prominent, easy-to-reach spot on the passenger seat.
There. Much better.
Next time someone came looking for trouble, he wouldn't have to dig for a response.
"Hey! Be serious for once!" Conan hissed, feeling a headache coming on. "If your files are gone too, it means they've targeted you as well! Have a little crisis awareness, will you?"
"I figured this day would come eventually," Tsuneo said, stifling a yawn.
He wasn't surprised. Stealing Kogoro's files meant Vermouth was moving past mere suspicion and into a deep-dive investigation of the 'Sleeping Detective.' As for his own files being taken? He'd likely stood out too much during the bus hijacking. A 'boring mechanic' who could dismantle professional gunmen in seconds was an anomaly that needed explaining.
Besides, he was genuinely tired. Between work and 'patrolling,' his sleep schedule had been non-existent lately.
"But still," Conan whispered, trying to find a silver lining to soothe his own frayed nerves. "Shinichi Kudo has been 'dead' to the world for a long time. Even if Mouri-ossan suddenly became famous, they could just think he finally grew a brain. Who would ever imagine that I took a drug, shrank into a child, and have been doing the deductions through a voice changer?"
Even Ai, the very person who created APTX 4869, hadn't known it could cause de-aging until she investigated the Kudo household and found the evidence. To anyone else, the idea was pure science fiction. It was too absurd to be the first conclusion.
As for Tsuneo, his 'Dark Knight' persona was dangerous, but he was meticulous. He didn't leave a paper trail.
"Hey, are you two still talking?" Ai asked, leading the other children over.
The criminal was caught, the excitement was over, and yet the two of them were still huddled together like conspirators.
Conan and Tsuneo shared a brief, silent look. They reached a silent agreement: Don't tell her. If she knew the Organization had breached the police archives, she'd spiral into a panic.
"Yeah, we're done!" Conan said, forcing a bright, childish grin. He shot Tsuneo a look that said 'Keep your mouth shut,' then adjusted his backpack. "I've got to get home! See ya!"
He turned and sprinted away, his short legs moving as fast as they could. No matter how much he tried to rationalize it, the weight of the invisible eyes watching him was becoming unbearable.
"He's acting weird," Ai noted, her eyes narrowing as she watched him disappear around a corner.
"Maybe he and Ran have a date to take a bath together after school," Tsuneo joked, leaning against his truck.
It was a classic, crude distraction, but it worked.
"Even though Tsuneo-niisan caught the guy, the Junior Detective League gets half the credit!" Mitsuhiko declared.
Officer Sato had given them a few words of praise before she left, and the trio was practically glowing. Even Genta had forgotten his brush with death, his mind returning to its factory settings.
"I feel like I could actually eat another bowl of eel rice now!" Genta cheered.
"You really are a hopeless sleeper, Genta," Ayumi teased with a giggle. "You didn't even notice the guy was getting his hair dyed right next to you."
"Well, there were a lot of people waiting!" Genta grumbled, scratching the back of his head.
"My mom says the more a kid sleeps, the faster they grow," Mitsuhiko added, looking up at Genta's height. "Maybe that's why you're so big."
"Alright, alright. Into the truck, I'm taking you all home!"
Tsuneo spotted an ice cream machine in front of a nearby shop. A few minutes later, the children were all piled into the vehicle, happily licking soft-serve cones as they headed back to their respective neighborhoods.
After ensuring the children were all safely inside their homes, Tsuneo drove Ai back to Professor Agasa's house.
"Tsuneo-kun, Ai-kun, you're back late!" the Professor called out as they entered. He and Akemi had been waiting in the living room; if they hadn't called ahead, the two adults would have assumed the worst. Kidnappings had been on the rise lately, after all.
"It's a long story. Someone actually tried to assassinate Genta today," Tsuneo said, chuckling at the absurdity of it.
If Genta hadn't been in actual mortal peril, the fact that he'd slept through a criminal's makeover would have been the joke of the century. It was only because the killer had been arrogant enough to walk back into the lion's den that they'd caught him so quickly.
"Hmm…" Ai ignored the chatter. She sat down on the sofa, pulled the gachapon capsule from her bag, and popped it open.
Inside was a high-quality miniature model of Kamen Yaiba.
She looked at the little hero in her palm and felt a tiny, rare spark of warmth. It seemed her luck was holding up after all.
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