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

Amuro Toru raised the muzzle of his gun slightly: "It turns out to be you, Rum's man."

"Does 'yes' or 'no' really matter?" Tsushima Shuji sneered. "Just like Kurokawa Miyuki, you say she's an undercover agent, Kiryuu says she's the organization's sword, but maybe she just wants to grow a flowering cactus in prison. People are always trapped by the labels others give them."

Shushu half-peeked his head out of Amuro Toru's pocket, his chubby little paws scratching at the fabric and shaking it. "I smell a lie! The perfume on this guy is the same as the man in black who stalked the lawyer last time!"

Amuro Toru caught a glimpse of Shushu's actions out of the corner of his eye and made an inaudible "hmm" sound in his throat.

Tsushima Shuji walked over to the cold storage unit and knocked on the metal door. "You two hid the sample very well. But speaking of which, Mr. Detective, Ms. Detective, do you know why the organization is so obsessed with this thing?"

Kudo Yuki didn't respond, her eyes falling on the half-encrypted fountain pen sticking out of his windbreaker pocket.

"It seems he doesn't know." Tsushima Shuji chuckled to himself. "Itakura Taku... that programmer believed until his death that he was making a deal with the devil, unaware that every line of code he typed was building the skeleton of ES Dark Amber."

Kudo Yuki's gaze shifted from the encrypted pen to Tsushima Shuji's face. "'ES Dark Amber'? That sounds a lot like your organization's usual style. You always like to give shady things fancy names."

"Fancy?" Tsushima Shuji raised an eyebrow, turning around and leaning against the refrigeration equipment. "Once this thing is actually running, you'll know how 'practical' it is. Those people at the top who think they control everything are just puppets in our hands in the end."

"I'll chew through the strings of the puppet!" Shushu suddenly jumped out of Amuro Toru's pocket and landed on his shoulder. His chubby paw pointed at Tsushima Shuji, "Besides the smell of lies, you also smell of blood! The same smell I smelled in the abandoned warehouse before!"

Amuro Toru raised his hand to hold down Shushu, who was about to jump down, and said in a steady voice: "The fire in the abandoned warehouse was caused by you."

The smile on Tsushima Shuji's face faded a little. "Detective, you are well-informed. But that little thing is not worth mentioning. Compared with Mr. Itakura Taku's 'contribution', it is really nothing."

Kudo Snow's eyes darkened slightly.

She remembered that Conan had mentioned programmer Taku Itakura, saying that the diary he left behind was full of fear of "demons".

"Itakura Taku..." Kudo Yuki repeated softly, her tone devoid of emotion. "I heard he died of a sudden heart attack?"

Tsushima Shuji scoffed. "Heart attack? Miss Detective is still too naive. How can someone who knows too many secrets and wants to quit midway qualify for a 'natural death'?"

Amuro Toru tightened his grip on the gun.

Shushu whispered on his shoulder: "I have found out that Itakura Taku spoke with Vermouth before his death."

"He thought he could get away with refusing to continue programming?" Tsushima Shuji asked, as if speaking of something insignificant. "That night, Itakura Taku simply wanted to destroy the code on the hard drive, but he was 'cleaned'. It's a shame those nearly finished modules cost us even more time to complete."

"So what he wrote in his diary, 'For all mankind,' actually meant he discovered what you were planning to do with the code?" Kudo Yuki's fingertips quietly pressed the miniature recorder hidden in his collar.

Tsushima Shuji narrowed his eyes. "The detective knows a lot. But he also has some self-awareness. He knows how big a storm it will cause once it's completed. Unfortunately, it's too late."

Shushu suddenly pulled Amuro Toru's ear: "He's looking at the lock of the refrigerator! His hand is moving in his pocket!"

Amuro Toru instantly turned sideways, pointing the gun at Tsushima Shuji's wrist: "Don't have any bad thoughts."

The composure on Tsushima Shuji's face finally cracked. He slowly raised his hand, a strange smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "Do you really think you can guard the sample forever? Lord Rum has long anticipated the unexpected. Once the 'ES Dark Amber' is activated, all of you self-righteous people will become our 'collections.'"

Suddenly there was a slight noise outside the cold storage.

Toru Amuro immediately looked towards the door vigilantly. Kudo Yuki had already taken out the short knife hidden in her boot, and Shushu quickly went back into Toru Amuro's pocket, leaving only his little head exposed, looking around vigilantly.

Tsushima Shuji put a smile back on his face: "Looks like my 'backup' has arrived. You two, it's time to end the game."

The door of the cold storage was slammed open, and several dark shadows filed in. The man in the lead had a hideous scar on his face, and his eyes swept fiercely towards Toru Amuro and Yuki Kudo.

"Mr. Tsushima, I'm sorry to have let these two ignorant detectives get in the way." The scarred man spoke in a hoarse voice, his hand on the gun at his waist.

Tsushima Shuji stood up straight, patted the wrinkles on his windbreaker, and his tone returned to its previous calmness: "Just get rid of it, don't damage the things inside."

Amuro Toru protected Kudo Yuki behind him, his hand holding the gun as steady as a rock: "The people from Nagano Trading Co., Ltd. are quite quick."

The scarred man's expression changed slightly: "How did you know?"

"The smell of disinfectant on you is exactly the same as the smell of the warehouse over there." Kudo Yuki walked out from behind Amuro Toru, twirling the dagger around her fingertips. "It seems that the actions of Manager Kuroda have alarmed you."

Shu Shu spoke from Amuro Toru's pocket: "I smell the person arranged by the other three of the five police officers! He's behind the last one wearing a black jacket!"

Toru Amuro and Yuki Kudo saw Ran in each other's eyes at the same time.

Tsushima Shuji didn't understand their riddle and thought it was just the detective's trickery. "Don't waste time. If you know what's good for you, hand over the sample. Maybe I can leave you with an intact body."

"The code that Itakura Taku destroyed before his death was the core program of 'ES Dark Amber', right?" Kudo Yuki suddenly spoke, staring sharply at Tsushima Shuji. "He wanted to end the cooperation because he discovered that you were trying to use that thing to control politicians. And Vermouth didn't contact him for the software at all, but to monitor him and prevent him from leaking secrets, right?"

Tsushima Shuji's pupils suddenly shrank: "How do you know this?"

"If you don't want others to know, then don't do it yourself." Amuro Toru replied coldly, "Do you think that getting rid of Itakura Taku will solve the problem? He has already hidden the backup somewhere you can't find it."

This statement was half true and half false, but it hit the organization's soft spot.

Tsushima Shuji was indeed anxious: "Nonsense! We turned his house upside down, and there is no backup at all!"

"That's why you're so obsessed with this sample." Kudo Yuki smiled, her fingertips sliding over the recorder in her collar. "Because this is the final hardware core needed for ES Dark Amber. Without it, even with the code, it won't work."

The scarred man raised his hand impatiently and was about to order a shooting, but was interrupted by a siren.

"What's going on?!" Tsushima Shuji looked towards the door with a sullen expression, "Didn't I tell you to clean up the outside?"

The scarred man was also panicked: "Impossible! Our people have been keeping watch outside the whole time."

Several muffled thuds were heard outside the cold storage, followed by the sound of something heavy falling to the ground. The men in black, who had been so arrogant just now, suddenly panicked and subconsciously looked at the scarred man.

"Why are you panicking?" Tsushima Shuji said, forcing himself to remain calm. "They're just policemen. They can't stop them."

"They alone might not be enough, but what about us?" A familiar voice came from the doorway. It was Takaaki Morobushi, dressed in a police uniform, followed by a Nagano Prefecture police officer. "Tsushima Shuji, Nagano Trading Co., Ltd. is suspected of illegal trade. Come with us."

Tsushima Shuji then realized something was amiss. Those men who had escaped from Nagano weren't reinforcements at all; they were being chased by the police! He suddenly glanced at Amuro Toru and Kudo Yuki, and finally understood: "You've set a trap long ago!"

"Same here." Amuro Toru pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed the scarred man's wrist and knocked the gun out of his hand. "Do you think Rum really trusts you? He's just treating you like a pawn."

Kudo Yuki seized the opportunity and rushed forward, pressing her dagger against Tsushima Shuji's neck. "Tell me the list of researchers behind ES Amber and the location of the organization's human laboratories in the capital. I can earn you leniency."

Tsushima Shuji looked at the surrounding police, then at the gun in Amuro Toru's hand, and suddenly laughed strangely: "Do you think it's over after catching me? Lord Rum has already obtained Itakura Taku's backup code. Even without the sample, 'ES Amber' can be activated! You all just wait to be controlled!"

Shushu suddenly jumped out of Amuro Toru's pocket, pounced on Tsushima Shuji's pocket, and took out a microchip: "I found this! There is a strange signal!"

Kudo Yuki snatched the chip, her eyes stern: "It's a locator, he's sending a signal to the outside world."

Amuro Toru immediately took out the signal jammer and turned it on: "It's too late."

Tsushima Shuji's smile froze on his face as he watched the police handcuff him and take him away, still shouting, "You can't win! 'ES Dark Amber' will make everyone surrender..."

The warehouse finally quieted down. Morobushi Takaaki stepped forward and saluted Kudo Yuki and Amuro Toru. "Thanks to your timely notification, all the people from Nagano Trading Co., Ltd. have been apprehended, and the undercover police officers inside are all safe."

"Thank you for your hard work." Kudo Yuki handed the chip to Zhufu Gaoming, "Leave this to the technical department to decipher. They should be able to find more clues."

Amuro Toru touched the rat in his pocket and whispered, "Rum must have a backup plan. We need to find the research and development base of 'ES Amber' as soon as possible."

Kudo Yuki nodded and looked out the window at the gradually brightening sky: "Don't worry, we still have allies."

Far away in Nagano Prefecture, Date Ko, Matsuda Jinpei, and Hagiwara Kenji looked at the closed trading company and smiled at each other. They had won another round against the Black Organization. But everyone knew the real hard battle was yet to come.

Three hours later, the streets of Beika Town became increasingly crowded, and a black car with a silver crow logo stopped silently in the shadow of the street corner.

In the back seat of the car, Wakita Kanenori rubbed the black leather gloves on his knees with his fingertips while the morning news was playing on the radio.

The female anchor reported in a calm voice that the Nagano Prefecture police had raided a trading company, but was vague about the specific details.

Wakita Kanenori suppressed a sneer, but the sinister look in his eyes could not be hidden: "If that idiot Tsushima becomes a discarded pawn, his base in Nagano will also be exposed."

"Lord Rum, do you need to get rid of that tail over there?" The bodyguard in the front row asked in a low voice, his eyes warily scanning the window for a courier who seemed to be passing by.

Wakita Kanenori didn't look up, but simply turned off the radio. The car instantly fell silent. "No need, they're just a bunch of clowns."

His fingertips traced fine lines on the seat. "Those two detectives, on the other hand, have been behaving themselves quite well lately."

The bodyguard followed up on his words, "Are you talking about Kudo Yuki and Amuro Toru from Beika Town? I heard that their Poirot Cafe is doing pretty well, and Amuro Toru's sandwiches are pretty famous around here."

"Detective?" Wakita Kanenori scoffed, his eyes scrutinizing. "They were involved in the last case in Nagano, but it went away clean, leaving no trace in the news. But that's just as well. Someone like that who only relies on clever tricks to solve cases won't amount to anything."

Outside the car window, the sun gradually climbed up to the roof of the car, and there were more pedestrians on the street. Several boy and girl who looked like students walked past the car, talking and laughing.

One of the boys, wearing a blue suit and school uniform, was talking to the girl next to him with his head down, and the girl patted him in an annoyed manner from time to time - it was Conan and Mao Li Ran.

Wakita Kensuke's gaze lingered on them briefly, then moved away and fell on the sign of the Poirot Cafe not far away.

The glass door was pushed open and the wind chimes jingled.

Kudo Yuki stood behind the bar, wiping the glass briskly with her fingertips. The sunlight shone through the glass window onto the tips of her hair, giving it a layer of warm gold.

She smiled and nodded at the regular customer at the door: "Good morning, would you like an iced Americano as usual today?"

Amuro Toru was busy at the counter, his white shirt sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his sleek arms. He was spreading freshly fried bacon on toast, his movements as deft as if he were conducting a precise experiment. The aroma of butter and toast wafted through the air.

The two occasionally exchanged glances, their tacit understanding needing no words - that was the vigilance and peace of mind that had settled into their daily lives after fighting side by side in the cold storage last night.

"See, I was right." The bodyguard followed his gaze and said with a hint of contempt, "He's probably still thinking about how to make new desserts for the guests right now, so why would he think about what's going on in Nagano?"

Wakita Kanenori didn't say anything, but just put on his hat with a wide brim again, covering most of his face.

The carriage fell silent again, with only the occasional subtle noise made by the bodyguard as he observed the movements around him.

Wakita Kanenori spoke slowly, his voice so low it seemed to come from deep in his throat. "Have the people below keep a close eye on the progress of ES Amber and make sure nothing goes wrong. As for those two detectives... if they get in the way, we can deal with them later."

He closed his eyes, his fingers still unconsciously stroking his knees, as if he was thinking about something.

The black sedan stopped silently at the street corner, out of tune with the bustling scene around it, yet strangely blending into it, waiting for the next instruction.