Detective Conan: The System Takes Me to Zero's World

The incandescent light in the interrogation room was blindingly bright. Lin Duxin lowered his head, and the coolness of the metal chair seeped into his skin through his thin prison uniform.

He placed his hands on his sides, with his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing an old light brown scar on his forearm - the scar was left when he was accidentally hit by a baton during training at the police academy.

Kudo Yuki hid in the shadow behind the one-way glass, looking at Lin Duxin's trembling shoulders.

Shushu crawled down her collar to her collarbone, scratching at the fabric with his little paws and muttering softly, "He's shaking. Not because he's scared, but because he's angry."

Toru Amuro picked up the phone next to the interrogation table. When he put the metal receiver to his ear, he noticed that Lin Duxin's shoulders tensed up almost imperceptibly.

"In this case, considering that you killed a police officer, the likelihood of you being sentenced to death is very high just for doing this."

Lin Duxin suddenly looked up, his eyes bloodshot: "Who are you?"

Amuro Toru tapped his fingertips and got straight to the point: "I'll make a legal deal with you. If you don't mention anything related to the public security department during the trial, I can guide the prosecutor to sentence you to life imprisonment, which is life imprisonment."

"You're from the Ministry of Public Security, right?" Lin Duxin suddenly laughed, a laugh filled with desperate madness. He turned his head to the side, the veins in his neck throbbing. "I refuse. I want to expose the crimes this country is committing during the trial."

Amuro Toru's eyes grew colder, but he wasn't angry. Instead, he added slowly, "If that happens, I'll make your relationship with Funukubo Maki public."

He looked at Lin Duxin's suddenly stiff back, his tone as flat as if he was discussing the weather, "Of course, if this happens, how will the world view her and her father who committed suicide?"

"You bastard!" Lin Duxin turned around abruptly, dragging the iron chair across the floor with a piercing scream. He gripped the edge of the table tightly with both hands, his knuckles almost digging into the wood. "How dare you!"

"Why wouldn't I dare?" Amuro Toru raised his eyebrows and put the receiver to his ear. "Then, choose the one you think is suitable."

"Despicable! You rely on such dirty means?" Lin Duxin roared.

"Yes, this is the method used by the public security department you have always belonged to." Amuro Toru's expression suddenly changed, and the warmth in his eyes instantly faded. "Don't tell me you don't know."

Lin Duxin's roar was stuck in his throat. He turned his face away, his jawline tensed, and his hands began to tremble uncontrollably - not because of anger, but because he was panicked by the past that was accurately exposed.

In the shadow behind the one-way glass, Kudo Yuki rubbed the warmth of Shu Shu's hand on her collar and pushed open the door beside Amuro Toru.

She walked straight to the glass and took the phone receiver from Amuro Toru's hand. The cold metal touched his palm, and Lin Duxin finally turned around slowly.

His gaze fell on Kudo Yuki's face. Complex emotions surged in those bloodshot eyes - hatred, suspicion, and a hint of panic that was forcibly suppressed.

"Miss Kudo seems to be quite free." Lin Duxin pulled the corners of his mouth, his voice as dry as sandpaper. "That whip on Mount Weibao was really merciless."

Kudo Yuki paused, her hand gripping the receiver. Her gaze swept across the old scar on his forearm from his police academy days. Her tone was as calm as if she were stating a fact: "Mr. Lin, on the surface, your actions appear to be a vent of personal anger, but your true motive is dissatisfaction with the judicial system, right?"

Lin Duxin's eyes flashed with coldness, and a sneer appeared on the corner of his mouth: "Ms. Kudo is quite insightful. It's a pity that when you were ruining my plan, you didn't think about these things."

His eyes swept across the glass walls around him. The night was like thick ink stuck to the outside of the glass, making the incandescent lights in the interrogation room even more dazzling.

"That whip on the snowy Mount Weibao almost killed me off from even standing and speaking. Do you think that if you stopped that one incident, you can stop everything?"

"I can't stop everything, but at least it's enough to stop you from continuing to attack people. Your idea is good, but it's very risky and a bit radical to want to reform the judicial system in this way." Kudo Yuki's gaze fell on the dark night outside the glass.

Lin Duxin's sneer froze on his face, as if he hadn't expected her to say such a thing. He stared at Kudo Yuki's calm profile, his voice sharp, as if struck by a thorn in his heart: "Excessive? Wait until those rotten things hidden in the cracks of the system have completely stank before slowly discussing reform?"

Kudo Yuki raised her eyes and met his red eyes: "I know everything about Miss Funakubo Maki and the verdicts of Mikuni Sadayakuni and Otomo Takashi."

She paused, her eyes glancing over his tense profile, and continued, "You resorted to extreme means to retaliate, even implicating other police officers—but I'm guessing you were once a good police officer who strictly abided by the rules. This incident pushed you to the brink of despair, so you resorted to this desperate measure, right, Mr. Lin?"

Lin Duxin's breathing suddenly stopped. He stared at Kudo Xue, his jawline almost tense. After a long while, he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth: "Have you investigated her?"

Kudo Yuki didn't avoid Lin Duxin's gaze, her tone calm, "Ms. Funakubo Maki was a ski shooting athlete. Her career was ruined when she injured her right foot during a robbery. These files are not difficult to check."

"Isn't it easy to check?" Lin Duxin repeated these three words, as if he had heard some huge joke, and his laughter was filled with deep sadness.

"Miku Sadakuni was sentenced to three years, but what about Otomo Takashi? He was given a suspended sentence because he signed a judicial bargain! They ruined Maki's life! What you call judicial justice is allowing the perpetrator to erase all sins with just one word of 'cooperation'?"

Kudo Yuki tightened her fingers around the receiver slightly as she looked into Lin Duxin's red eyes. Besides anger, what was surging in them was a bottomless feeling of powerlessness.

"There's a rationale for judicial bargaining, and any system needs to be constantly improved. But in your shooting of Inspector Sametani, you went from being a victim to being the perpetrator. If Ms. Funakubo Maki were still alive, would she want you to use her death as leverage and become the very perpetrator you once hated the most? Have you ever considered what will happen to Inspector Sametani's family and lover?"

"I..." Lin Duxin turned his head away, avoiding Kudo Xue's sight.

Toru Amuro watched from the side. The silence in the interrogation room was like a tide, rising little by little, almost covering Lin Duxin's chest.

"I choose life imprisonment." Lin Duxin suddenly spoke, his voice so low that it seemed to be squeezed out from between his teeth, "But you must promise to never touch the names of Maki and her father."

Kudo Yuki raised her eyes and met his gaze. Something in those bloodshot eyes was completely extinguished, leaving only a dead ashes.

She said into the phone, "The Ministry of Public Security will draft an agreement and hand over all information gaps in this case. As for what the new judicial system will be, I don't know."

Lin Duxin's shoulders slumped almost imperceptibly, as if all his strength had been drained away. He sat back down in his chair, the chill of the metal running down his spine, numbing him with cold.

"You'd better do what you say." His voice was hoarse, and his head was lowered. The emotions in his eyes could not be seen clearly. Only his clenched fists still revealed the remaining unwillingness.

Amuro Toru took the receiver from Kudo Yuki, tapped the keys twice, and returned to his previous calm tone: "The agreement will be drawn up as soon as possible. In the meantime, you'd better keep quiet."

After saying that, he hung up the phone, and the metal receiver made a slight sound when it collided with the body of the phone.

The night outside the one-way glass grew darker, as if it was going to completely swallow up this small space.

Kudo Yuki turned and walked out, and paused when she passed by Amuro Toru.

"He won't talk nonsense anymore." Amuro Toru looked at the silent figure in the interrogation room and spoke lightly.

"Yeah." Kudo Xue responded, but her eyes fell on the blurry shadow of Lin Duxin reflected in the glass, "It's just that there are some things that you can block your mouth but not your heart."

Toru Amuro didn't respond, but just raised his hand to adjust his sleeves.

The incandescent light in the interrogation room was still blindingly bright, clearly illuminating the old scar on Lin Duxin's forearm. The light brown mark, like an unhealable wound, was not only engraved on the skin, but also engraved in his past that was crushed by reality.

Lin Duxin kept his head down, and no one knew what he was thinking. Perhaps he was thinking of the snow on Mount Miho, or perhaps he was remembering the way Fukubo Maki smiled. Or perhaps he was simply staring at his own shadow on the ground, watching it become thin and long in the light, like a life that had long gone off the track.

The elevator door slid open with a ding, and two people with cold air stepped out one after another.

The light from the ceiling lamp in the corridor cast a faint shadow on the faces of the two people. They walked in unison around Yuya Kazami who was standing against the wall, without saying a word the whole time.

The two men walked past Yuya Kazami without looking at him, and the light from the ceiling light in the corridor fell on them.

"Mr. Furuya, Ms. Kudo." Kazami's voice broke the deadlock, and he subconsciously straightened his back.

Seeing the two men stop, he continued to report: "The incident of Maori Kogoro firing a pistol bullet has been covered up."

The emergency exit indicator light at the end of the corridor flashed a faint green light, and Kudo Yuki stopped when she heard a name.

Toru Amuro stopped in time and stood half a step away from her. The lines of his profile looked a little cold and hard under the ceiling light in the corridor.

"When Officer Morobushi and Mr. Kagekawa were rescued from the icy pond beneath the waterfall, they were still not fully conscious, and they kept muttering 'Kagemitsu'." Kazami Yuya lowered his voice. "I remember that Morobushi Kagemitsu was in the same class as you and Ms. Kudo. He's now back in Nagano to visit Officer Morobushi Takaaki in the hospital."

Amuro Toru didn't respond, but just turned his head slightly.

The corners of Kudo Yuki's lips curved slightly, and her voice was not filled with much emotion, but softer than before: "Let him be."

She turned to look at the still flashing green light at the emergency exit, "The Zhufu brothers...it's time for a chance to sit down and have a good chat."

Kudo Yuki lowered her eyelashes, her tone seemed to be talking to Kazami Yuya, but also seemed to be talking to herself: "Once we have said everything we need to say, Hiro will come back on his own."

Amuro Toru's gaze fell on the profile of Kudo Yuki as she turned towards the emergency exit, reflecting the emotion in his eyes at the moment: "Kazami, regarding the progress of the handover from Nagano Trading Co., Ltd., Ida and the others don't need to rush things."

Yuya Kazami immediately took out his notepad and said, "Yes, we've already rotated the guards in batches according to the three freight channels that Manager Kuroda had marked. Officer Matsuda said they'll play the long game."

Kudo Yuki didn't stop, took Amuro Toru's hand and walked straight out the door: "Let's hand over the course of this case to the judicial department, and let them formulate a new judicial system."

The next morning, sunlight slowly streamed into the Mouri Detective Agency.

The morning news was playing on TV, and the anchor's voice could be heard clearly: "Today, the National People's Congress will continue its deliberations on the 'Amendment to the Criminal Procedure Law'. Meanwhile, the judicial department will oversee the entire revision process..."

Conan reached for the remote control under the coffee table and turned off the TV with a click.

The moment the screen went dark, Mao Lilan came over with two glasses of orange juice. The cuffs of her light blue home clothes were stained with flour, obviously she had just baked cookies. She sat down next to Conan, "It seems you found the remote control."

Conan took a sip of the orange juice and said, "I didn't find it. I just felt it in the crack of the sofa. By the way, where is Uncle Maori?"

"We went to Tottori." Ran Mouri picked up a cookie and handed it to him. The edge of the cookie still had slightly burnt marks.

"Take the bird?" Conan asked vaguely while biting a biscuit, and the face of Inspector Sametani flashed through his mind.

"It's Tottori Prefecture." Mao Lilan couldn't help laughing. "Dad said he went there to deliver the crocodile's ashes."

Conan suddenly realized something, and his eyes fell on the photo on the table. In the photo, Inspector Sametani was holding a crocodile and smiling until wrinkles appeared on his eyes. "So that's Inspector Sametani's hometown."

Mao Lilan followed his gaze to the photo and lowered her voice: "Shinichi, are you thinking about the case again? You tossed and turned and didn't sleep well last night, and your brows are furrowed like an old man."

Conan was stunned for a moment, then lowered his head to hide his red ears: "No, no. I was just thinking that Inspector Sametani can finally fulfill his wish."

At Nagano Prefectural Hospital, the cedar trees outside the window sway gently in the wind.

Zhu Fushi Jingguang watched Zhu Fushi Gao Ming slowly open his eyes on the hospital bed, his fingertips unconsciously stroking his sleeve - there was a note hidden there that Kudo Yuki had sent him last night via Mouse Mouse. It had only one line of words on it: "Brother Gao Ming's memory suppressant is wearing off soon."

In Nagano Prefectural Hospital, Takaaki Morobushi opened his eyes while lying on the hospital bed and saw a familiar figure.

"Brother, you're awake." Zhu Fujingguang removed the disguise of his voice at this moment, "The doctor said it was just a scratch, it's nothing serious."

Zhu Fugaoming supported himself on the headboard and sat up. He remembered the last thing he saw before he passed out was his brother leaping from a three-meter-high cliff. "You shouldn't have jumped."

His voice was soft, his eyes fixed on the new scratch on his brother's wrist. "Didn't the police training course teach you to prioritize your own safety?"

"We also mentioned this during the training course," Zhu Fujingguang's voice was lower than usual, with a subtle hint of bitterness. "When the target is a blood relative, all regulations automatically become invalid."

To be continued...