An Interesting Photo
Conan leaped up in a hurry and tugged at Ran's sleeve. "Ran-neechan, I want to see too! Let me look!"
Ran thought nothing of it and handed the camera over. "Be careful with it, okay?"
Conan gave a soft "mm" and slowly began flipping through the photos Charlotte had just taken.
When he finished, he let out a quiet breath of relief. It was fine — during the case afterward, Charlotte had only snapped three or four shots. Sure, none of them showed Uncle Mouri with his mouth open, but that could easily be chalked up to coincidence.
He had only just begun to relax when his gaze suddenly hardened, locking onto the very last photograph.
In the corner of the frame was a vaguely familiar face, half-hidden beneath a hat. The man had clearly been caught mid-stride, drifting along with the crowd toward the staircase.
Conan's heart clenched. How could it possibly be him?!
"C-Conan? What's wrong?" Ran stared, baffled, as his face went through a drastic change. "Hey! Where are you going?!"
Conan thrust the camera back into Ran's hands and bolted for the staircase without a word of explanation.
He had barely made it down one floor when he was stopped by Ms. Jodie, who happened to be searching the building for someone as well.
From her, Conan learned that Jodie and Cameron had also spotted the scarred man resembling Akai inside the department store — and that it might well have been him who left Jodie the message: This place is dangerous. Get out.
It only reinforced Jodie's belief that the man was Akai Shuichi himself — that he had simply been injured so badly in the incident back then that he hadn't been able to come find them until now.
"This place really is dangerous..." Cameron warned the two of them.
"Why?" Jodie didn't understand what had brought that on. If he meant the incident upstairs, that had already been resolved.
"Because I saw it. Through the window of the restaurant across from this department store, the silhouette of a sniper took shape — and parked down below the store is a black Porsche 356A."
Gin!!!
The name flashed through Conan's and Jodie's minds at the exact same moment.
Jodie feared they were here to eliminate Akai Shuichi, the man who had appeared at the store today. Ignoring the protests of Conan and Cameron, she tore down the stairs, worry and dread churning inside her, worst-case scenarios playing over and over in her head.
When she burst out near the store's main entrance, she spun around anxiously, scanning every direction for any trace of Akai Shuichi.
Shuichi, where are you?
Her eyes swept the crowd ceaselessly, refusing to miss a single corner.
Then, suddenly, she saw it — a familiar back moving with the flow of people toward the exit. In an instant, Jodie knew exactly who it was.
There — it's Shuichi!
Her eyes went wide, and she screamed toward him with everything she had. "No, Shuichi! Don't go outside!" Her voice carried a thread of fear and desperation, as if she could already see the danger about to unfold.
Shouting all the while, she plunged into the crowd and ran, desperate to stop him.
But by cruel luck, someone barreled into her, and she went sprawling to the ground.
The stranger apologized and helped her back to her feet.
By the time she was up, however, Shuichi had already vanished from sight.
Jodie spared the person no more than a glance — she shoved them aside and dashed onward, anxiously resuming her search.
All she left behind was a man standing frozen, watching her retreating figure with a faint look of bewilderment.
"Mr. Amuro— ah, no — Mr. Okiya! What a coincidence, you're here too."
Yes — the man Jodie had so conveniently collided with was none other than Okiya Subaru.
At the sound of the voice, he turned to look. It was Xiayu, whom he'd met before, along with the friend at her side. Okiya knew the rough description Conan had given him — this should be the reporter from the Beika Daily, and a member of that mysterious organization, the Teyvat Syndicate.
What a lively day it was turning out to be. A bomber, the FBI — and now both the Black Organization and the Teyvat Syndicate had shown up at this very department store.
"Mr. Okiya, have you seen Conan? He just ran downstairs — did you see him go out through the main entrance?" Xiayu asked.
"No." Okiya shook his head. "I was nearby just now and didn't see him. He's probably still somewhere in the store."
"Then Charlotte and I will go look around inside some more."
"Honestly, the second we look away, he's gone. I really do need to keep a closer eye on him from now on." By the end, Xiayu's voice had dropped low, as though the very thought gave her a headache.
After bidding Okiya goodbye, the two girls turned back toward the staircase, apparently planning to comb the store once more, carefully this time.
They walked a fair distance, and once she was certain Okiya was out of sight, Xiayu grabbed Charlotte's hand, her mood noticeably bubbling over with excitement. "So? Did you get it?"
"My photography is first-rate. There's no such thing as a shot Charlotte can't take." She said it with pure confidence.
She pulled out her camera, scrolled to the handful of pictures she'd just taken, and handed it over for Xiayu to see.
Xiayu swiped through them a few times. The shots had captured everything that had just happened.
One frame in particular was the best of the lot: scarred Akai, Jodie, and Okiya all caught together. Scarred Akai was walking out through the crowd, seemingly unaware that behind him Jodie was reaching out desperately to grab him — while Okiya stood just ahead of her, the two of them a heartbeat away from colliding.