Bourbon's Intelligence
After their talk, Hondo Eisuke ultimately gave up on confessing to Ran. But before he left, he couldn't resist leaving one parting shot behind. "I may have given up, but Miss Lisa always keeps her word. And her junior — just like she said, I'm sure he's both brilliant and gentle. Though at that point, well... that'll be Kudo's problem to worry about, won't it?"
The mood lift Conan had gotten from dispatching one love rival promptly plummeted straight back into the basement.
Right. The next one was going to be far more trouble.
Anyone who could earn Lisa's praise for being handsome and outstanding would be a much tougher opponent than Hondo Eisuke. What if Ran actually ended up charmed by the guy?
And that so-called junior was very likely one of the Teyvat Syndicate's people too — meaning he couldn't afford to target him too openly.
Aaargh!
What was he supposed to do about this?!
Once he'd finished agonizing over it, Conan couldn't help recalling the news Judy had passed along when she'd taken the time to call him a while back.
Apparently, the Black Organization had somehow confirmed that Akai Shuichi was dead — and Kir, the one credited with taking Akai down, had earned a measure of their trust in return, along with a small degree of freedom.
That was the only reason she'd managed to find a window to phone Judy and deliver a piece of intelligence: a new member of the Organization was about to move. An investigative specialist — a master of intelligence gathering, observation, and deduction across the board — operating under the codename Bourbon.
Rena Mizunashi had warned the FBI to be extremely careful in the coming days......
"Bourbon......" Conan turned the codename over in his mind, searching for its meaning.
A Black Organization operative was about to arrive on his doorstep, and by the sound of it, a formidable one at that. If he happened to unearth any unfavorable leads, things would get very messy indeed.
Conan's brow creased, a flicker of worry crossing his eyes as he sank deep into thought. He understood all too well that the days ahead were unlikely to be as peaceful as before.
The mysterious Teyvat Syndicate had people on the move — people who might well approach Ran — and now the Black Organization was sending in an investigative specialist on top of it all. The situation was growing more tangled by the day.
But no matter what, he would do everything in his power to protect the people around him and drag the Black Organization's secrets into the light.
Just then, a chill crawled up Conan's spine from behind. He whipped around — only to find the space behind him completely empty. Had it been his imagination? He frowned, a thread of unease winding through his suspicion.
At that very moment, a shadowy figure stood in a corner not far away, silently watching the backs of the departing group......
"Done staring yet?"
Before long, a second figure — taller than the first — strolled up behind the mystery man, his voice edged with impatience. "If you're done, hurry up and come with me to meet Xiayu and the others. I'd rather not keep my little sister waiting."
With that, the latecomer — Aether, as it happened — cast a glance at Conan's retreating back, his expression cold and indifferent. Clearly, he had no interest in sparing the detective any attention today.
"I know. You don't need to remind me." The first figure — the Wanderer — rolled his eyes, utterly unimpressed by Cointreau's anxious posturing.
The reason the two of them had wandered into this neck of the woods and crossed paths with the freshly returned Conan was, in fact, tied to that very piece of intelligence Conan had just been mulling over.
Some time ago, under Gin's direction, the Black Organization had re-examined the identity of the corpse on Raiha Pass, confirming beyond doubt that it was Akai Shuichi.
Even so, Gin harbored his own doubts about Akai's "death" — the staging smelled too clean. But with no hard evidence to the contrary, he had ultimately chosen to accept Kir's account.
And so Kir's suspicion was washed away, and Gin restored a degree of her freedom to act.
It was at that point that the Wanderer had engineered a private meeting with Kir — and, while he was at it, brandished a photograph of Hondo Eisuke to deliver another warning to Rena Mizunashi.
The meeting had taken place at a secret location, with only the Wanderer and Kir in attendance.
The Wanderer had shown her the photo of her younger brother, then warned her once more: if she failed to comply with the Organization's demands, Hondo Eisuke's life would be forfeit. The FBI could not protect him.
It was also at that meeting that Kir had passed along the tip about Bourbon coming to investigate the circumstances of Akai Shuichi's death.
Which was precisely why Aether and the Wanderer had shown up here today.
Though Aether considered it unlikely that Bourbon would report anything about Xiayu's peculiarities to the Organization, they couldn't afford to leave it to chance. Before Bourbon laid eyes on Xiayu, they needed to work out a scheme that would make the man think twice — something that would render him incapable of breathing a word about her.
After all, when Aether had first returned to Japan under the guise of Cointreau, he hadn't bothered with a disguise. Bourbon had already seen Cointreau's true face.
The moment Bourbon began investigating through Mouri Kogoro, it was only a matter of time before he crossed paths with Xiayu.
And anyone who had seen both Cointreau's real face and Xiayu's would inevitably connect the two.
......