The Mall Bombing Incident
Suddenly, a few car horns sounded behind Amuro Tooru.
He turned at the sound.
Cointreau was waving at him, gesturing for him to get in the car.
"Fancy running into you here. Hop in — I'll give you a lift."
At the voice, Amuro's steps faltered, his gaze settling on Cointreau as a flicker of doubt passed through his eyes.
He frowned slightly, seeming to hesitate for a moment, but in the end he turned, opened the door, and climbed into the passenger seat.
Once Amuro was settled, Cointreau restarted the engine and the car pulled away.
Inside, Amuro studied him with a probing look, wariness and suspicion lurking beneath his gaze.
After a stretch of silence, he finally spoke, his tone deliberately unreadable. "How did you recognize me? And... was running into me today really a coincidence?"
Cointreau gave a faint smile, his eyes never leaving the road ahead. "Vermouth mentioned your plan to me, just a little."
"What, did you think I'd been tailing you on purpose, just to engineer a little 'chance' meeting?" His voice was low and mild as he glanced sideways at Bourbon, the corner of his mouth curling as though Bourbon's paranoia struck him as mildly amusing.
Amuro pressed his lips together, and his eyes sharpened in an instant. "So the fact that you've been keeping an eye on me lately — that's my imagination too, is it?"
He stared hard at Cointreau, searching his expression for the slightest crack.
But Cointreau's face held nothing but that faint, unreadable smile.
"It's not your imagination," Cointreau went on. "Though it's nothing more than the normal curiosity of a colleague wondering whether you could really find the inconsistencies in the official conclusion that the Silver Bullet is dead."
"Is that so." Bourbon's eyes gradually settled back into calm, as if he had accepted the answer. "Then I'd like fewer 'coincidences' like today's, going forward."
Cointreau nodded, his smile unchanged. "Let's hope you get your wish."
******
A few days later, at Beika Shopping Mall.
Xiayu was strolling leisurely through the mall with Charlotte.
"So Xiayu — you're telling me it was your brother who sent you here today?" Charlotte asked, curious.
"Mm-hm." Xiayu nodded, tugging Charlotte along toward the next shop as she explained. "According to him, Bourbon plans to get close to Mouri Kogoro, which means he's bound to catch a glimpse of my face sooner or later — and once he does, he'll connect me to Cointreau in the Organization. So rather than let it happen on his timing, we might as well seize the moment ourselves and let him discover me when it suits *him*."
"Ohh, I get it now." Charlotte's face lit with understanding — then she planted her hands on her hips. "Then why did you drag *me* here? This has nothing to do with me."
"Aww, come on. It just looked pathetic wandering a mall alone, so I called you out." Xiayu laughed and pulled her along. "Besides, the news never runs out of stories, but even a reporter needs to unwind sometimes."
Just then, a commotion broke out in the crowd ahead, threaded with a few panicked shrieks.
"There's a bomb! A bomb!"
"Let me out! I don't want to be here anymore!"
"......"
Thankfully, someone at the front of the crowd seemed to be keeping the situation under control, and the panic was quickly quelled.
Xiayu and Charlotte exchanged a glance.
Then Charlotte spoke up. "So today really is the day of the Red T-Shirt Signal Case. And Gin is out there lying in wait for Scar Akai to show up, I take it?"
Xiayu nodded.
As she recalled it, this incident was staged by someone who strapped a bomb to himself, played the victim, and pressured Mouri Kogoro into finding whoever had mailed him the red T-shirt.
And in the course of it, the culprit had used the bomb to seal off an entire floor of the mall, letting no one in or out.
Which meant Amuro Tooru — disguised as Scar Akai — and Subaru Okiya had both ended up trapped on that floor as well.
Charlotte, thinking of how Gin had learned Scar Akai would appear at this mall and was now waiting outside, asked with a hint of worry, "Then why did he call you here today? If Gin caught even a glimpse of you, Xiayu, wouldn't that be a serious problem?"
"It's fine. As long as I don't walk out the front doors before Gin leaves, I'm safe. When it's clear, my brother will let me know."
Having said that, Xiayu pocketed the phone that had just buzzed with a message, glanced around — and sure enough, spotted a face she'd seen a few times before, somewhere in the crowd.
She searched the area around him a little, and it didn't take long to find Subaru Okiya's back.
Judging from the direction his head was angled, he had clearly spotted the man wearing that original face as well.
Then, evidently deciding something, he slipped away from where he stood.