Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

Zhu Fu Jingguang instantly shook off his helpless mood and asked back, "What do you mean?"

"Did you find out anything when you went to Yokosuka base to confront the former commander?" Jinpei Matsuda asked without any concealment.

Zhu Fu Jingguang said calmly: "I didn't find out anything. I can only say that it hasn't reached the worst point yet."

His tone was particularly enigmatic, but considering his current special identity, Matsuda Jinpei did not ask any further questions and quickly figured out what the other party meant.

——The former commander, whose identity was the most troublesome, did not assist the suspect Hunter. The difficulty of the case did not increase.

However, Jinpei Matsuda's mood did not improve. He put the cigarette back into his mouth and casually glanced at several FBI agents in the conference room.

She especially looked a few more times at Akai Shuichi, the man with long black hair and a fierce temperament.

"What were the results of the visits to the other two people?" Zhu Fu Jingguang asked.

Matsuda Jinpei leaned casually against the window, his cigarette butt swaying slightly as he moved. He answered in a low voice, "It's quite troublesome."

"Ok?"

"Contrary to yours, those two people are highly suspicious."

Jinpei Matsuda is an ordinary detective who was transferred from the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Team to the First Investigation Division. He does not have any Riddler attributes and states the results of the search directly.

"Sato and the female detective named Stellin went to find Hunter's former instructor, who currently runs a motorcycle shop in Machida. He said he knew Hunter's experience, but he hadn't seen him for several years and didn't know where he was now. He was very surprised that Hunter was a suspect."

"They also asked him what he thought about Hunter violating the rules of war. He thought it was very unlikely that Hunter would do so. Even if he did, it must be to protect his teammates, not for his own selfish desires."

"As for the other one..."

Matsuda Jinpei paused here and slowly exhaled a puff of smoke.

"Takagi and Otto went to find the man named Kevin Yoshino, who was Hunter's former comrade-in-arms. He said Hunter had saved him and many others. He believed that Hunter would not shoot civilians, let alone commit murder in revenge."

"Yoshino was quite emotional, and he accused Otto of knowing this, and even suspected Hunter... Takagi and the others had to appease him first, which delayed them, and they haven't come back yet - these are what he just relayed when he called."

Zhu Fu Jingguang did not say anything. He was quietly thinking about the reactions of the two people.

Regardless of whether they lied or not, their attitude towards Hunter was exactly the same.

"They all thought he would not seek revenge."

Jinpei Matsuda calmly expressed the same conclusion as Morobushi Kagemitsu.

Zhu Fujingguang glanced at this friend of his time. He noticed that Matsuda frowned slightly and whispered a fact:

"Matsuda, no matter what his relatives and friends think, whether they think he was misunderstood or slandered, he is the only suspect so far."

Matsuda Jinpei paused for a moment, then raised the corner of his mouth mockingly: "I know."

The two were speechless for a moment.

Just as silence fell between them, Akai Shuichi walked over.

He came to the window to smoke. As soon as he approached, Matsuda Jinpei looked at him warily, but when he saw that Zhufu Jingguang had no reaction, he quickly relaxed.

Shuichi Akai seemed to be unaware of their actions. He stared at the confusing rain outside and did not speak to them.

He didn't say anything, but Zhu Fu Jingguang suddenly said, "Akai, I have a question. I wonder if it's convenient for you to answer it."

Akai Shuichi took down his cigarette: "You say."

"Did you, the FBI, catch the man who forged Hunter's identity?"

This question was very subtle, as if he was trying to find out the FBI's internal intelligence, or just concerned about the case at hand. If that person was caught, the fake identity Hunter was currently using would naturally be known.

Shuichi Akai did not answer, but just looked at Keimitsu Morobushi deeply.

That look made Zhu Fu Jingguang stunned, and almost instantly, he realized something.

Could it be that that person is——

……

When the three of them were having a small group by the window, Judy saw Aoyagi Binkou walking in from the door.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to make sure the injured person was stable before coming back, so I was delayed a little."

Aoyagi Akimitsu apologized to his FBI colleagues. His whole body was soaked by the rain. As he spoke, he smoothed his wet hair and pushed aside the hair stuck to his forehead.

"This rain came so suddenly."

Inspector Megure, who followed behind and returned from the hospital, was also soaked. He took the towel handed to him by Sato Miwako, did not take off his hat, but just wiped his face.

Miwako Sato showed a helpless expression and also sighed.

"Yes, it's very troublesome to visit in such heavy rain, and some evidence may disappear."

She murmured quietly, looking out the window.

"But, on the other hand, in this kind of weather, Hunter's actions might also be hindered..."

Chapter 315 Moth

"Wow..."

The heavy and continuous sound of rain made the man lying on the bed open his eyes.

This is an old apartment located by the river. The interior is dim, and the worn-out furniture and leaky doors and windows are well worth its low rent.

The man on the bed seemed to be still in a half-asleep state. He subconsciously wiped his forehead and touched the water stain. The cool feeling made him completely awake. He supported his body and sat up from the bed.

The surroundings were so cold that he shivered.

There was no heating or air conditioning in the cheap house, and even the quilt used to keep warm was only a thin one.

Timothy Hunter turned his head to look at the window, his thin face reflected in the glass. Seeing the windowsill splashed with rain, he reached out to grab the remote control there.

[“No, how could I do that?! You’re crazy!”]

"..."

He paused as he stretched out his hand, then ignored the voice in his ear as if nothing had happened and picked up the remote control.

Before he could withdraw his hand, he felt his fingertips seemed to touch something.

Hunter looked there again and saw a moth sitting on the windowsill, its antennae trembling faintly.

……

The TV lit up, becoming the only light in the room.

Hunter sat on the edge of the bed, took a clean cloth, and carefully wiped the surface of a photo frame while listening to the news report.

"Another attack occurred in Beihua Town this morning. Fortunately, it was only a small explosion and no one was killed. Only a high school girl was injured and is currently being treated in the hospital."

The wiping action stopped and Hunter looked at the screen.

On the screen, the host and the invited expert sat on either side of the podium. After explaining the situation, the host earnestly asked the expert:

"Although the police have not yet disclosed the details of the crime, everyone believes that it is very likely that the criminals in the previous cases have committed crimes again. What do you think about this?"

The expert next to him said, "In my experience, criminals who use bombs to commit crimes are likely to escalate their crimes because they are more skilled in bomb making and have a better understanding of the power of bombs. In addition, they feel the excitement of repeatedly injuring people, so they tend to cause more casualties in the next attack."

"This time the bomb was placed in a trash can outside the company. Plus, today is Sunday, so most people are not at work..."

"So you think it's not the same person, but someone else might have copied the crime?" the host asked.

"No, I'm not sure yet..."

The two chatted about these random things, and the topic quickly jumped to whether the bomber was a psychopath, and they never mentioned what happened to the injured girl.

Hunter listened for a while with a frown on his face, and then lost his patience. He switched to a channel that was also broadcasting related news and picked up his phone, but he glanced at the heavy rain outside the window and hesitated.

After a few seconds, he sighed weakly and put the phone back.

Hunter put down the cloth and planned to put the photo frame back to its original place after wiping it, but when his hand was in the air, he suddenly shook again. A sharp pain exploded in his brain and his eyes suddenly went black.

His eyes widened, his body stiffened, and he tightly grasped the photo frame. He took several trembling breaths, as if he had used up all his strength to barely stabilize his body and not fall down.

Hunter gradually calmed down and placed the photo frame safely back on the table.

In the photo, he is holding his wife and sister, standing under the blue sky and sunshine, smiling at the camera.

[“Go ahead. Don’t worry about me, just do what you want to do! No matter what the future holds, I will support you!”]

"It's almost time..."

Hunter withdrew his gaze from the photo of the family of three and murmured softly, with a hint of determination between his brows.

He slowly stood up and picked up a photo and a black chess piece on top of it from the photo frame.

……

How easy is it to make a person fall to the bottom?

For Timothy Hunter, Waltz's reporting of him and his stripping of the Silver Star marked the beginning of his downward spiral.

When the verdict came out, he remained calm because he thought others would stand on his side - they should all know what kind of person he was.

But after he returned, he found that the attitude of people around him had changed.

He went to the commander to seek justice, hoping to confront Waltz, but the commander kicked him out;

He confessed his innocence to his comrades, but they always looked at him with suspicion. Some even believed what was said in the tabloids, saying that he did not deserve to be called a hero and was just a cold-blooded butcher, and they were unwilling to have any contact with him again.

They said he shot civilians but did not remove him from the battlefield. He also wanted to prove himself with practical actions and worked harder. Then he was isolated and helpless, was hit in the head by a bullet, and left in the most embarrassing way.

However, even though he had retired from the war and would never pick up a gun again, others still did not let him go.

His wife and sister came to the hospital to take care of him, and reporters followed them in, snapping photos of him on the bed. The smiles on their faces were more ferocious than the clowns in horror movies. They tried desperately to protect him, and only after they finally drove them away did he realize that they had been harassed during this period.

Reporters continue to pay attention to him because many people are still "curious" about him.

Those strangers, countless strangers who had never met him before, on the battlefields of the Middle East, in various fields of the United States, and in different corners of the world, pointed fingers at everything about him, trying to peel open every pore of his body and examine it one by one, and blame every loophole.

"Why do you do this?"

"You are a murderer!"

"You've killed so many people, you're simply a monster!"

"You'd better not let me know where you live, brother, or I'll definitely come looking for you."

They were unwilling to let him go.