"Th–that's… that's so much gold!"
"This can't be real… that's an absurd amount!"
"If we sold all this, we'd easily make billions of yen!"
Inside the villa's vault, Akemi gasped as she stepped in wearing the full hazmat suit Ren Kuroda had given her. For a few seconds, she was completely frozen, dazzled by the sight of the towering golden mountains.
Then the excitement hit. She couldn't help herself — she began hopping in place, arms waving as she giggled and reached out to touch the shining bars.
Ren watched her reaction and, oddly enough, felt a bit relieved.So it wasn't just him who was overwhelmed by the sight of all that gold.
"There's too much here," he said after a moment. "We can't take it all. We'll have to settle for a portion."
Akemi immediately realized the problem — but the thought of just leaving the rest behind clearly pained her.
After a moment of thought, she looked up at him and said, "Then… let's hide it! We can stash the rest somewhere safe and come back for it after everything cools down!"
Ren raised an eyebrow. "Hide it? And where, exactly?"
Akemi pointed in the direction of the villa's west wing. "When they built this place, they added a small dock to make moving goods easier. I saw a forklift parked there when we came in."
Her eyes gleamed with a mischievous sort of ambition. "We can use the forklift to haul the gold to the dock and dump it into the sea. The water's deep there — no one will find it. Once the coast is clear, we'll come back and fish it out. What do you think?"
Ren blinked. He hadn't expected Akemi to be this… greedy — or maybe "resourceful" was the better word. Still, her plan wasn't half bad. He thought it through and finally nodded. "All right. That could work."
He turned toward the Blackrock estate in the distance, where the explosions had ceased. "The blasts over there stopped. I should check it out — see what's going on. We'll deal with this once I'm back."
Akemi quickly volunteered. "Mr. Kuroda, leave this to me!"
The hardest part of the job was already done, and she felt it was only right to handle the logistics.
She hesitated, then awkwardly added, "Um… but I've never driven a forklift before. Could you show me how?"
Ren chuckled. "Sure. It's not hard."
He had Master-Level Driving Skills from the System, after all. Operating a forklift was child's play.
Forklifts worked like cars, just with a few extra levers — one for raising and lowering the forks, another for tilting them forward and back. Nothing complicated at all.
Once Ren was sure Akemi had the basics down, he widened the hole in the vault wall with another blast, making it easier for the forklift to move in and out.
Before leaving, he turned to her and said seriously, "If things go south, just abandon it. Money can be earned again. But if you get caught, you won't be able to live a normal life anymore."
Akemi nodded firmly. "I understand!"
Ren gave her a last look, then left the villa.
As his figure disappeared down the hall, Akemi rolled up her sleeves and got to work.
She started the forklift, lifting and hauling the stacks of gold toward the dock, dumping load after load into the dark sea.
The water near the villa's dock was deep — at least six meters — designed to fit yachts. Once the gold sank, it vanished into the depths, invisible from the surface.
After a dozen trips back and forth, she kept a small portion for herself — just enough to carry — and dumped the rest into the ocean.
To be safe, she tossed a few rocks over the spot as camouflage.
When it was done, Akemi was exhausted but filled with a strange, glowing satisfaction. She'd never felt this alive.
Carrying a heavy bag of gold, she was about to leave — when she noticed another storage room tucked behind a side wall.
Curiosity got the better of her. She stepped inside, flicked on the light…
…and froze.
Inside the warehouse were hundreds of tons of narcotics.
She stood there, stunned.
By the time Conan arrived at the villa, the explosions had already stopped. The battle was over.
But as he looked up, a yellow haze drifted out from the windows — toxic gas.
"Tch… gas?" Conan frowned. "Damn it — I can't go in!"
He clenched his fists, frustrated. Things had been going fine, and now someone had decided to flood the place with poison?
If he couldn't enter, he couldn't investigate — and waiting for the sea breeze to clear the gas could take forever.
Just as he was racking his brain for ideas, he saw movement — someone driving out of the villa.
A black Humvee. The driver was wearing a hazmat suit.
Conan's eyes narrowed. He ducked into the bushes and switched his glasses to telescopic mode.
He couldn't make out the driver's face through the mask. Still, he pulled a small gadget from his glasses frame — one of Professor Agasa's tracking beacons.
He waited for the right moment to toss it onto the vehicle…
But before he could throw, the Humvee slowed to a stop. Right in front of him.
"Get in, kid," came a familiar voice from inside.
Conan froze. He hadn't expected to be spotted.
He hesitated for a moment, then decided to reveal himself. If the person behind the wheel had wanted to kill him, they'd have just run him over instead of stopping.
Click.
Conan opened the heavy door and climbed up clumsily into the passenger seat.
The driver was peeling off his hazmat suit — and sure enough, it was Ren Kuroda.
"What happened in there?" Conan asked, casually resting a hand on his watch.
Ren glanced sideways. "If I said I was just visiting relatives, would you believe me?"
He tossed the hazmat suit out the window and gestured for Conan to close the door.
Conan wasn't stupid. "You expect me to believe that? Those explosions were loud enough to shake the island… don't tell me you used RPGs again?"
"Of course not," Ren snorted. "Those things only fire once per reload — way too inefficient."
He noticed Conan's hand twitching toward his watch again — and without hesitation, reached out, snatched it off, and flung it out the window.
"Seriously? Your movements are way too obvious," Ren said as he started the engine.
"..." Conan grimaced. He knew the man was right — his setup wasn't exactly subtle. But what could he do? The watch's tranquilizer function was hard to use one-handed. He made a mental note to ask Professor Agasa to fix that later.
"What was inside the villa?" Conan asked, staring intently at Ren's face, memorizing every feature he could.
"Drugs. A lot of drugs," Ren said casually.
He hadn't taken the boy with him for fun — it was to make sure Conan didn't stumble into danger while he finished cleaning up.
"I knew it," Conan muttered.
Ever since finding traces of narcotics in that cursed piano case, he'd suspected there was something sinister about this island. And after his recent research into Ren Kuroda, the pattern was clear: the man always targeted criminals.
"You shouldn't be here," Ren said. "But really — why are you? Seems like you're always showing up at my scenes."
"That's…!" Conan froze, eyes darting away. He knew it looked bad. But what could he say? That he just couldn't resist getting involved?
"It's not like that! It's just coincidence — really!" He coughed and tried to change the subject. "Anyway, why do you do all this? Don't tell me you actually hate drugs that much."
Ren shrugged. "No. It's because they're rich. And when I take out guys like that, no one hates me for it. People think I'm a hero."
He grinned. "Even if the police issue a wanted notice, the officers will look the other way. None of them will bother me."
"..."
Conan opened his mouth — but found he had no argument.
For once, the great detective had nothing to say.