Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

But Hojo Toika thought of what Kotomine Janna had said to her in the dessert shop just now.

——When I visited victims to investigate negative news about other consortiums, I found that some of them had been secretly stalked and harassed...

Is this guy from the consortium?

Hojo Toika gritted her teeth secretly.

The young master of their consortium hit Shinji to death, the chairman and his wife made trouble at the funeral, and then they were dragged by their son's car... Although the traffic police who came to deal with it judged that the perpetrator was fully responsible, what if other people in the consortium did not believe it and wanted to continue the investigation...

"……teacher?"

Kotomine Joanna's voice rang out, and Hojo Tobiko came back to her senses: "What?"

"I have a solution, I wonder if you can accept it..."

"any solution?"

"He might be sent by the consortium. They won't give up easily. Even if we get rid of him, they will definitely send others. Those people might be more difficult to deal with. Instead of that, it's better to keep this known person."

"At the same time, let him reply with something like 'She is not abnormal' or 'her behavior is normal' to evade the terrifying power behind the scenes..."

Kotomine Jonah looked at Hojo Toika carefully.

"——Can your hypnosis do something like this?"

Hojo Toika thought about it and felt that what she said made sense.

"Of course!"

……

Half an hour later, Hojo Toika arrived home safely.

While removing her makeup, she texted with Kotomine Jonah.

【84 Passerby: I'm home. How are you? Is the road safe? 】

【Colombo's Kamen Rider: I'm here too. 】

[Kamen Rider of Colombo: Teacher, although the stalker has been dealt with for the time being, the people from the consortium know where you live. If possible, you'd better move immediately. ]

There is nothing wrong with this statement. Many people will change their residence as soon as they realize that they are being followed inexplicably.

【84 Passerby: I will tell my parents about it.】

[Colombo's Kamen Rider: Um... Teacher, I have something else to ask of you...]

【84 Passerby: What's the matter? 】

Hojo Toika suddenly became alert. Could it be that she still wanted to hold on to Zero? !

[Colombo's Kamen Rider: Next I have to interview that pharmacy expert. He's really difficult to deal with. I'm worried that he will refuse my interview... I want to do my last job before I leave beautifully. Can you help me? ]

Seeing that it was such a small matter, Hojo Tobiko breathed a sigh of relief.

【84 Passerby: Don’t worry, leave it to me. 】

After chatting with her fans and removing most of her makeup, she threw her phone aside, picked up her nightgown and went to take a shower.

In addition to the shower room, the bathroom in the Hojo family also has a bathtub, which Hojo Toika has never used. Last year, her father wanted to take them to a hot spring, but she strongly refused.

——Because she is afraid of water.

Hojo Ibaraki didn't know what was going on.

Before she traveled through time, she loved swimming and longed for hot springs. But after entering the game, she became afraid of all pools that could drown a person...

----

On the other side, Kotomine Joanna also breathed a sigh of relief after receiving a positive answer.

【Artemis: How? 】

[Colombo’s Masked Superman: She didn’t raise any suspicion. 】

Seeing that Hojo Toika was so easy to coax, she almost couldn't control herself and wanted to ask about the murderer. Fortunately, Artemis reminded her in time ("Others will never be as important as those people in her heart, and all your efforts will be wasted"), and taught her how to fool her.

Fortunately, Hojo Toika believed it. Just as Artemis said, work was the best excuse...but she felt a little sorry for the pharmaceutical expert who used it as an excuse.

Kotomine Joanna wants revenge, but she doesn't want to implicate innocent people and take revenge on society like the scientist who developed addictive drugs.

There are only three people she wants to take revenge on - the murderer, Hakubato, and Hojo Toika who tried to brainwash her.

Thinking of Baijiu, she quickly remembered another thing.

[Kamen Rider in Colombo: When I passed by Beika-cho yesterday, I saw him sitting in a taxi, but I didn’t know where he was going.]

Kotomine Joanna was very clear about her own fighting ability, so she did not follow the car, but only wrote down the company the car belonged to and the license plate number.

【Artemis: Do you remember the license plate? 】

【Colombo's Kamen Rider: Remember.】

【Artemis: Then you can call the company, ask for the driver's number, and ask him where to get off. 】

[Artemis: I have a feeling he might...]

Chapter 121 Malice (Part )

"You have to make up a reasonable motive, but not just anything will do. When this motive is made public, the world's sympathy will inevitably focus on you, and the victim..."

Kudo Shinichi's reading stopped abruptly.

In the huge library, he and the black rabbit lying on his head looked up at the same time, and the four eyes looked at Aoyagi Binguang who was leaning against the ladder.

"Teacher Qingliu, are you listening?"

"I am listening."

Aoyagi Binguang put down the mystery novel in his hand and said, "You read well and your pronunciation is very clear."

Kudo Shinichi rolled his eyes, but soon a smile appeared on his face again.

He closed the dark-covered book and put it on the table, then held the rabbit in his arms and walked over to Aoyagi Binguang: "Do you have any other novels you want to read? I can lend them to you. It's just right for reading on the plane."

As an exchange student, Kudo Shinichi also participated in this training trip.

The trip lasted for 6 days in total. I took a flight on the morning of the 5th and returned on the morning of the 10th. It took nearly 10 hours to fly from Tokyo to Moscow. I couldn't use my phone on the plane, so I had to find other activities to kill time.

After school today, Aoyagi Akimitsu stepped into the Kudo family for the first time just to borrow books; Kudo Shinichi, who found a reasoning friend for the first time, happily entertained him and read to him with great interest.

"Can I borrow these two books?"

Aoyagi Binkou pointed to the book in his hand.

Kudo Shinichi glanced at the title of the book and found that it was a relatively famous social mystery work published in recent years.

"Of course," he said.

After getting the approval, Aoyagi Binkou put the book into his bag, then took out his cell phone to check the time.

"It's getting late. I should go back." He paused and continued, "Kudo, if you want to learn Russian, you can come to my office during your lunch break these few days. I can teach you a little."

Kudo Shinichi handed him the rabbit and smiled: "I understand. I will study hard."

Aoyagi Binkou smiled, put the rabbit on his shoulder, walked out of the library, and closed the door behind him.

The sound of a door closing with a click announced that Shinichi Kudo was the only one left in the huge Kudo family again.

Looking at the closed door, Kudo Shinichi scratched his cheek a little disappointedly, sighed, and sat back in the armchair behind the desk.

He didn't start doing his homework. Instead, he looked at the book he had just read to Aoyagi Binguang and Rabbit, and casually opened it again, turning to the part near the end.

——This hatred is so deep that even you cannot explain it, but it is the cause of this incident.

——There is no reason for you to hate him, he is an excellent person...but I know that this kindness has instead bred hatred. It is impossible for you not to feel inferior in front of him.

The words were written in black and white, and the content of the statement was as sharp as a needle.

“Malice…”

Kudo Shinichi whispered the name of the book.

Unlike his favorite Sherlock Holmes series and the orthodox reasoning that prefers to solve the methods of committing crimes, as an adult, Aoyagi Akimitsu seems to prefer this social school that delves into the spiritual world.

……

When he got in the car, Rabbit hugged his seat belt tightly, his mind full of the mystery novel that Kudo Shinichi was reading.

He had read the book "Malice", but turned away when he read that the protagonist had a relationship with the deceased's ex-wife. He didn't expect there would be such a big reversal later!

The real reason for the murder made his fur stand on end.

There are many murders in Conan, and the motives are varied. In the first part of the comics he has read, many of the victims were killed in revenge, or at least were foul-mouthed and offended people. There are very few completely innocent victims.

But the book he just listened to was really...

Rabbit looked at Aoyagi Binguang beside him and couldn't help asking: [When you watched "Malice", were you surprised by the reversal at the end? ]

He remembered that this teammate liked the novel very much and bought a copy when he went to the bookstore that time.

"I'm quite surprised." Qing Liu Bingguang saw the words in the group chat and replied, "I didn't expect that even the poisonous cat at the beginning was guiding the readers."

【I mean motivation.】

Rabbit interrupted him, typing quickly with his short hands: [He is a good person but he is hated so deeply. Not only did he die physically, but he was almost ruined by a scheme. If he succeeds, he will die a second time on a social level, his reputation will be completely destroyed, and others will only spit on him when they mention him...]

He was so excited that he was a little incoherent at the end.

But Aoyagi Binguang remained calm.

He glanced at the rabbit through the rearview mirror, and at the moment their eyes met, there was a moment of complete silence in the car.

He continued calmly as the Mazda drove out of Kudo's house.

"Inferiority complex, and jealousy..."

"For a person with this personality, it only takes a little push to twist their soul and turn it against completely innocent people."

“It’s all too common.”

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