Jiangxia spotted a faint flush on her face—subtle, but just enough to prove she wasn't a shikigami in disguise. With that confirmation, he slipped into the car. Definitely faster than taking the subway.
…
Amuro Tooru slammed the accelerator, launching them out of there before the traffic police could catch up.
"What happened?" he asked as the buildings blurred past.
He'd already pieced together a rough idea, but he wanted to hear it from Jiangxia himself.
Jiangxia sighed. "Ran into Ms. Ogata—our English teacher. Usually kind of a scatterbrained type, but honestly a good person. She dragged me off for a few drinks, and… well, one thing led to another."
Amuro Tooru hummed thoughtfully. "Did she ask you anything?"
"Yeah…" Jiangxia rubbed his temple, playing up the drunken haze. "She started asking these detective-related questions. Said something about Gin using APTX4869 on Kudo Shinichi—you know, my classmate. That famous high school detective who disappeared a while ago.
"But apparently that drug isn't foolproof. Still in testing or whatever. She said Sherry confirmed Kudo's death, but since Sherry defected, her testimony's basically just… freelance. So, Ogata—not-Ogata—thought maybe he's still alive. Wanted to see if I had any clues."
Amuro Tooru listened closely, not yet connecting the dots between the "dead" Kudo Shinichi and the suspiciously clever little four-eyed elementary schooler who was constantly around.
I mean, shrinking into a kid? Come on. He believed in science.
His thoughts shifted. This was different from what he'd expected.
He'd thought Vermouth was hunting Sherry. But this?
Amuro frowned.
"…So why the sudden interest in a high school detective?"
If Kudo really wasn't dead, that would be a massive pot Gin left behind—like, European Emperor-level blunder. Could Vermouth be trying to catch Gin slipping?
But that woman was chaos incarnate. Amuro Tooru couldn't figure out her game.
After a pause, he glanced over at Jiangxia.
"I heard you're not just his classmate—you live next door to him too, right? So what do you think? Is Kudo Shinichi really dead?"
Jiangxia, still pretending to be drunk, nearly choked on his fake hangover.
…So direct??
Even though this was Bourbon, aka his current boss, he couldn't just blurt out the truth.
He kept up the act, paused dramatically, then finally murmured, eyes closed like a Buddhist pondering life and death:
"He should be dead."
Amuro nodded slowly, unreadable.
Then he switched topics.
"That woman's codename is Vermouth. If you follow the entertainment world, you'd recognize her—she's Chris Vineyard. International actress. Ridiculous acting skills."
As he spoke, Amuro recalled how Jiangxia had been strangely merciful to Vermouth earlier. He added, casually but pointedly:
"She's a master of disguise and voice mimicry, and personality-wise? Rotten. People who partner with her tend to… stop existing. Mysterious reasons. But the boss favors her, so even if her teammates die during missions, it's always written off as coincidence. No consequences."
"In short—don't let her face fool you."
Jiangxia nodded, feigning solemnity while quietly hiding his thirst for her delicious, intoxicating killing intent.
He cleared his throat. "I thought she was Ms. Ogata at first."
*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.
Progress: 23/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS
Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.
Progress:3/10*