Information Exchange
"A grown-up?! No way!" Conan blurted out, unable to believe his ears.
Amuro Tooru wore a look of obvious disbelief as well.
"Why is that so hard to believe? I just have one of those baby faces, that's all." Venti helpfully pointed at Amuro as an example. "Take this gentleman here, for instance — he's got a youthful face, looks like he could be a college student, but isn't he already pushing thirty?"
"How do you know my age?" Amuro's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.
Could another member of the Black Organization have leaked his information, only for Venti — a member of the Teyvat Syndicate — to pick it up? Did he and Diluc already know that he was Bourbon?
A dozen guesses flashed through Amuro's mind in an instant.
Conan, too, looked at Venti with keen curiosity, waiting for his answer.
"Xia Yu told me. You two know her, don't you?" Venti replied without missing a beat, his expression perfectly natural. "I've only just arrived in Japan, and she was telling me about the friends she's made here. Especially a certain someone who recently became the first disciple under Detective Mouri. She happened to mention your age, so that's how I know."
It was true that Amuro had told Miss Natsume his age — but was Venti's knowledge really just a matter of hearsay? Even if Diluc and Kaeya seemed to be on poor terms, was there truly no chance he'd learned something about him from Kaeya?
Then Venti pivoted, turning his gaze to Conan. "That said, the person Xia Yu talked about most was actually a little boy. She said he was every bit as obsessed with detective work as his name suggested, and absolutely bursting with curiosity. The trouble is, his curiosity runs a little too hot — he keeps running into danger, and roughly eighty percent of it is his own curiosity's fault."
Venti looked down at Conan and gave him a wink. "If I'm not mistaken, that little boy would be you. I thought she might have been exaggerating, but here we are, meeting for the first time in the middle of a crisis. Looks like Xia Yu was right on the money."
"Eh? Conan, you get into danger that often?" Amuro turned toward the boy with lively interest, then let his voice soften into concern. "Don't be so reckless next time. You're still a child — you're no match for those adults. Don't put yourself in harm's way."
Under Amuro's admonishment — and under the sharp glare Ran was directing at him from across the way, hands on her hips — Conan could only laugh dryly and nod along in rapid agreement.
Up on the pedestrian overpass not far away, Vermouth watched the scene of the car accident unfold below her, the corner of her mouth curling faintly upward.
Recalling the intelligence she'd just received from Gin, she studied Venti with mild interest as he chatted and laughed with the cool guy down there. After a moment's thought, she composed a short text message and sent it to Bourbon.
Below the overpass, Amuro felt his phone buzz. Careful to slip out of Venti's and Conan's line of sight, he glanced at the screen. The moment he read its contents, his face hardened for the briefest instant — then the sunny smile returned, as bright as ever.
He tilted his head just enough to steal a glance at Vermouth up on the overpass, then fixed his attention back on Venti.
So this was the head of the Mondstadt division of the Teyvat Syndicate — Kaeya's superior?
Granted, Venti claimed to be an adult, but every inch of him screamed that he was lying through his teeth just to buy drinks. And the way he could chat so happily with an elementary schooler — he looked for all the world like a boy who had yet to grow up.
Then again, that wasn't necessarily the case. Amuro's thoughts drifted to Vermouth. Perhaps this man shared circumstances similar to hers. The Teyvat Syndicate's biotechnology was superb — they could produce and sell something as miraculous as the Life Potion. Delaying aging, or even reversing it, might well be within their power.
Meanwhile, Amuro Shuichi — no, Furuya Rei's fellow undercover operator Akai Shuichi, working under the name Amuro had beaten to the scene by only a step — had just finished calming Haibara Ai, whose face had gone pale for some inexplicable reason, and made his way over toward Conan as well.
From the moment he arrived at the scene, he had sized things up with a sharp eye. Both Venti and Diluc belonged to the Teyvat Syndicate, but where Diluc's status made him conspicuous, Amuro found himself far more interested in the youth currently talking with Conan.
Had the Black Organization learned something? Was there something special about that young man's identity?
Akai quietly filed the question away.
Rather than pushing his way to Conan's side, he struck up a conversation with Mouri Kogoro about the day's events, occasionally keeping an eye on that corner of the scene from the corner of his eye.
Before long, the police dispatched after the emergency call arrived at the scene.
Inspector Megure, with Takagi, Matsuda, and the others in tow, loaded the two culprits — Kenzuka Kei and Tegawa — into police cruisers, saw to it that the relevant witnesses gave their statements, and then swept off with characteristic briskness.
On his way out, Matsuda Jinpei paused for just a moment as he passed Amuro — but he said nothing, and left together with Inspector Megure.
"Amuro-san, do you know that Officer Matsuda?"
"Not really. We've only crossed paths once. When that case involving Mouri-sensei came up, he happened to be the officer on the scene, so that's how we met."
Amuro turned slightly toward Venti, who at some point had finished talking with Conan and drifted over to stand beside him, and answered without a flicker of change in his expression.
Then, affecting casual curiosity, he asked, "What brings that question up all of a sudden?"
"Oh, nothing." Venti waved it off as if it hardly mattered. "It's just that Officer Matsuda once told Xia Yu that she looks remarkably like the person who saved his life three years ago..."