Mr. Natsume
After thinking it over for a while, Conan lifted his head again, about to say something — and out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of a familiar face, one he'd mentioned only moments ago. The name slipped out of him before he could stop it. "Xia-yu?!"
He whipped his head around immediately, but the street was thick with people coming and going, and in the blink of an eye the figure had vanished from view.
Conan frowned, his gaze sweeping back and forth through the crowd.
It was baffling. Blonde hair was such an unmistakable color — how could it disappear the instant he blinked? Had he simply imagined it?
Besides, Xia-yu was in Japan right now. There was no way she could be in London.
Watching Conan's odd reaction, and remembering the name he'd blurted out, Yusaku Kudo raised an eyebrow. "What is it? See someone you know?"
"Huh?" Conan, still lost in his own thoughts, took a moment to catch up, answering Yusaku's question on reflex.
"You mean Miss Natsume?" Yusaku asked.
"Probably not... I think." Conan pulled himself together, though he didn't sound certain.
"Oh?"
"Xia-yu's still in Japan," Conan explained.
He was sure of it. Ran had called Sonoko earlier to tell her what had happened, and Xia-yu had happened to be right there beside Sonoko — he'd heard her voice with his own ears. That alone proved the person he'd just glimpsed couldn't be her.
It had only been a flash, so he hadn't gotten a good look. But thinking back on it now, there was something distinctly different about that figure.
The hair and eyes had been the same gold, but Conan had spotted him from within a crowd, which meant he had to be tall — certainly taller than Xia-yu — and he seemed to have been a man...
At that thought, a spark went off in Conan's head. Could the person he'd just seen be Xia-yu's mysteriously missing brother?
Conan couldn't help looking up at Yusaku.
Yusaku, who had only recently been digging into Natsume Xiayu's records, had clearly arrived at the same conclusion. He looked down at Conan, gave an answering nod, and ventured a guess. "Miss Natsume's brother — if I remember right, his name was... Natsume Cang, was it? Was that him?"
Conan shook his head. "It was over too fast. I didn't get a clear look."
"Perhaps it's worth looking into this Mr. Natsume more closely later."
"Mm." Conan nodded in agreement.
He had his suspicions that it was actually *this* man who held the real connection to the Teyvat Syndicate — and that his mysterious disappearance might be tied to it as well.
Father and son each raised a hand to their chin, stroking it in thought, their expressions mirror images of one another.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Cang — who had slipped past the Organization's watchful eyes to reach London — was finding himself with an unusually persistent headache.
He had come to London to make contact with some of his old subordinates, the ones who had carried out missions with him across Europe and elsewhere, to meet them face to face and confirm which of them could still be trusted.
As it happened, Neuvillette would also be arriving in London, which would make him the perfect person to vet anyone involved.
Afterward, Cang planned to find a way to shift the Black Organization's European operations to Country F with as little notice as possible — or, failing that, to manipulate the Boss into issuing the order himself.
With Neuvillette's help on the ground, he would then be able to take control of the Organization's European forces that much faster.
The thing was, Cang had assumed that this world's protagonist — that Edogawa Conan kid — was stuck in Japan. The boy had no passport; there was no way he could leave the country.
On top of that, Cang had spent some time in this city himself back in the day, so it counted as familiar ground, and he'd let his guard down just a little.
Besides, wearing a disguise all the time was uncomfortable, so he'd gone about London wearing his own face.
By the time Xia-yu's message reached him — telling him that Edogawa Conan and company were coming to London — he had already boarded the plane, and doubling back to Japan to have Vermouth fix him up with a new face wasn't exactly practical.
And anyway, London was a huge city. Cang had allowed himself a small measure of wishful thinking: surely they wouldn't run into each other.
And things had gone smoothly the past few days, too. There'd been word of a possible attack in London, but he'd braced himself for trouble the moment he learned the protagonist Conan had touched down, so that hadn't come as a shock.
What he hadn't expected was this: the moment he stepped out of the Organization's London base today, he ran straight into the police investigating a case nearby.
He'd only glanced at the scene from the edge of the crowd — and been spotted anyway.
Was this what they called protagonist luck? Running into each other even like this.
Cang had registered Conan's gaze the instant it swung toward him, ducking nimbly behind the crowd to break the line of sight — though even he had to admit the whole thing felt a little ridiculous.
Thankfully, the kid probably hadn't gotten a clear look...
Still — the man beside Edogawa Conan had been his father, Yusaku Kudo, hadn't it? That was another troublesome individual to have on your trail.