POV: 3rd Person
The glittering lights and luxurious displays of the Tokyo department store did absolutely nothing to lift the heavy, suffocating weight in Ran Mouri's chest.
"Look at this one, Ran! It would look absolutely gorgeous on you," Sonoko Suzuki cheered, holding up a designer dress. She was trying her absolute best to cheer up her best friend, practically buying out half the store.
"It's beautiful, Sonoko. Thank you," Ran forced a small, fragile smile.
But her eyes were completely hollow. The public news broadcast from yesterday was still replaying on an endless, agonizing loop in her mind. *Shinichi Kudo is dead.* The boy she had loved for as long as she could remember was gone, leaving her entirely alone in a world that suddenly felt cold and empty.
She lowered her gaze, her eyes landing on the small boy standing next to Sonoko.
Conan Edogawa looked up at her with large, concerned eyes. However, instead of feeling the usual warmth toward the child she was tasked with looking after, Ran felt a sharp, agonizing twist in her heart.
He looks exactly like him, Ran thought, her hands trembling slightly as she instinctively took a half-step away from the boy.
Every time I look at his face, every time I hear his voice... it's like seeing Shinichi's ghost. It hurts. It hurts so much.
Conan noticed her stepping away. He lowered his head, hiding his eyes behind his oversized glasses.
His chest tightened with profound, crushing guilt. He had faked his death to protect her from the Black Organization, but seeing the vibrant, strong-willed Ran reduced to a hollow, depressed shell was tearing his soul apart.
"Let's go grab some tea at the cafe area," Sonoko suggested, noticing the awkward, painful tension.
As they walked toward the open-air cafe in the center of the mall, Sonoko suddenly paused. She blinked, recognizing a familiar face sitting at one of the large tables.
"Hey, isn't that Mamako-san?" Sonoko pointed.
Ran looked up, her eyes widening slightly. Sitting at the table was Mamako Oosuki, surrounded by an many breathtakingly beautiful women Ran and Sonoko had ever seen in their lives.
And standing right behind Mamako, holding a literal mountain of high-end shopping bags, was a very familiar young man.
Jay Oosuki was wearing a black cap, dark sunglasses, and a black mask that covered the lower half of his face. However, his disguise did absolutely nothing to hide his towering 6'7" height or the broad, perfectly sculpted physique visible beneath his casual clothes.
Sonoko froze. Ran stopped dead in her tracks.
The two girls exchanged a terrified, wide-eyed look. Utaha Kasumigaoka's description from the encrypted neural chat group last night violently echoed in their minds:
'6'7" tall... incredibly hot... a body like a Greek god statue.
No way... Sonoko thought, her heart racing.
Is Jay-kun the Boss of NEXUS?!
Because they personally knew Mamako and Jay from the graveyard encounter, it would be rude to walk away. Swallowing her nervousness, Ran approached the table with Sonoko.
"Mamako-san? Jay-kun?" Ran greeted politely, bowing slightly.
"Oh my! Ran-chan, Sonoko-chan!" Mamako beamed, radiating her usual, overwhelming motherly warmth.
"It's so lovely to see you here! We are just taking a break from shopping with Jay-kun's fiancée's family!"
Jay shifted the fifty shopping bags in his arms and offered the two girls a relaxed, albeit exhausted, smile from behind his mask.
"Hey, Ran nee, Sonoko nee," Jay greeted them warmly.
"Yeah, I'm currently on pack-mule duty today. Nice seeing you guys here."
While the girls made polite small talk, Conan stood off to the side, his detective instincts screaming at maximum volume. He stared at the pink-haired woman (Echinacea) and the red-haired woman eating a massive parfait (Ygnisia). His logical mind couldn't explain it, but every cell in his body was warning him that those two women were walking natural disasters.
Suddenly, the casual atmosphere shattered.
Gunfire erupted, shattering the glass ceiling above the cafe.
Screams echoed across the department store as five men wearing ski masks and wielding military-grade assault rifles stormed the floor.
"Nobody move! Get down on the ground, right now!" the leader roared, firing another warning shot into the air.
"This is a hostage situation! Anyone who tries to be a hero gets a bullet in the head!"
Panic ensued. Shoppers dropped to the floor, covering their heads. Sonoko dragged Ran down, trembling in fear.
Conan gritted his teeth. He reached for his stun-gun wristwatch, his eyes darting to Ran. He needed her to cause a distraction. He needed the captain of the karate club to disarm the closest gunman so he could take out the leader.
Ran, now! Conan thought, looking at her desperately.
But Ran didn't move.
She was kneeling on the floor.
What's the point? Ran thought, tears welling up in her eyes as she stared at the guns.
Shinichi is dead. Maybe with this i can go to him after life.
Conan's eyes widened in horror. Ran, the strongest girl he knew, had completely given up.
"Hey, you!" one of the nervous robbers yelled, pointing his assault rifle directly at Jay.
Here we go again conan effect..
"I said get on the ground, you giant freak!"
Jay didn't move. He just stood there, still holding the shopping bags, letting out a long, exhausted sigh.
"Are you deaf?!" The robber panicked at Jay's sheer size and lack of fear. His finger slipped on the trigger.
*BANG!*
The bullet completely missed Jay. However, it flew past him and struck the table behind him, shattering a glass perfectly in half.
Specifically, it completely obliterated Ygnisia's giant, limited-edition Strawberry Parfait.
Oh shit!!! Jay screamed internally
The entire mall went dead silent.
Ygnisia stared at the spilled strawberry syrup and the ruined ice cream on the table. Slowly, she turned her head toward the robbers. Her pupils snapped into razor-sharp, draconic vertical slits.
An ancient, primordial exploded from her body.
It wasn't just fear. It was the absolute, conceptual weight of death. The air in the department store instantly turned to lead. The robbers dropped to their knees, gasping for air, their faces pale white as their minds fractured under the pressure of a Heavenly Dragon's wrath. Conan collapsed to the floor, clutching his throat, genuinely believing he was about to die.
She's going to vaporize this entire area, Jay realized.
Jay moved.
To Ran and Sonoko, who were watching in sheer horror, it looked like reality itself had glitched. Jay didn't run; he simply bypassed the concept of distance.
In less than a microsecond, the five armed robbers were launched into the air. The assault rifles in their hands instantly crumbled into fine metallic dust. Their bones cracked in unison, and they slammed into the marble pillars, completely unconscious before their brains could even register the pain.
Jay reappeared at his original spot before anyone could even blink. With a snap of his fingers, the ruined parfait vanished, replaced by an identical, brand-new parfait summoned directly from his inventory.
Ygnisia blinked, looked at the new parfait, and instantly dropped her killing intent, happily digging in with her spoon.
The suffocating pressure vanished. The mall was silent, save for the groans of the unconscious robbers.
Ran and Sonoko stared at Jay, their jaws practically on the floor.
Their suspicions were confirmed, 99%.
The speed that defied physics. The casual display of supernatural power. Jay Oosuki was the shadow dictator who commanded the NSAA. He was the Boss.
Jay glanced at the terrified crowd and the gasping Conan. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a sleek, metallic cylindrical device.
"I don't have time to deal with you guys," Jay muttered.
With a subtle wave of his free hand, Jay cast an invisible, conceptual barrier.
He specifically enveloped his own family Mamako, Sephie, Echinacea, Lala, Ygnisia, the twins, and Yami, as well as Ran and Sonoko.
He had already established that there were no secrets in his household, and the two high school girls already knew too much anyway.
Click.
A blinding flash of pure white light erupted from the device, washing over the rest of the department store.
When the light faded, the civilian crowd blinked in confusion. Conan shook his head, looking around wildly. He saw the robbers unconscious on the floor, but his mind instantly provided a completely fabricated logic:
The robbers must have panicked, slipped on the recently polished marble floor, and knocked each other out.
His scientific worldview remained blissfully intact.
The alien royals and Mamako simply watched in mild amusement, completely unfazed by Jay using hyper-advanced memory-wiping technology to clean up a mess.
However, Ran and Sonoko remembered everything.
They sat on the floor, staring at Jay in absolute, unadulterated awe and terror.
Jay looked down at the two high school girls through his dark sunglasses. Slowly, he raised a single finger to his masked lips in a universal gesture.
Shhh.
Ran and Sonoko nodded frantically, sealing their lips tight.
[NEXUS]:Ran-nee, Sonoko-nee. Bring the kid and follow my family to the VIP restaurant on the top floor. We have some things to discuss.
Ran and Sonoko swallowed hard. They quietly followed Mamako, Jay, and his entourage of breathtaking women to a luxurious, high-end restaurant that NEXUS Corp had somehow fully reserved in a matter of seconds.
Once they entered the soundproof VIP room, Jay turned to look at Conan, who was still looking around in absolute confusion due to the memory wipe.
"Sorry, but this is an adults-only conversation," Jay said flatly.
Before Conan could even react, Jay gently snapped his fingers. A low-level, conceptual sleep wave hit Conan instantly, knocking him out cold. Jay casually caught the boy before he hit the floor and laid him down comfortably on the long leather sofa.
"I-Is he okay?!" Ran panicked, her maternal instincts kicking in as she took a step forward.
"He's just taking a deep nap. He'll wake up in a few hours," Jay replied smoothly. He finally took off his cap, sunglasses, and mask, revealing his striking, calm face to the two high school girls.
Ran and Sonoko stared at him, their expressions a wild mix of awe and disbelief.
"Oh my god, Jay-kun... it really is you?"
Sonoko finally spoke, pointing a trembling finger at him.
"The monster athlete who got banned for life from every national sports tournament because you traumatized your opponents and destroyed the arenas... is the Boss of NEXUS Corp?!"
Jay sighed, leaning back in his chair while Mamako and the alien royals began ordering food from the menu.
"Yeah, that's me. I just wanted to test my physical limits in a few martial arts and track tournaments. I didn't expect them to take it so personally."
Ran looked at Mamako, her eyes filled with worry.
"Aunt Mamako... did you know about this?"
Knowing Mamako was close friends with her mother, Eri Kisaki, and Yukiko Kudo, Ran was incredibly concerned.
Mamako just smiled warmly, pouring herself a cup of green tea.
"I only found out a few days ago, Ran-chan. Jay-kun finally told me everything. He even made me quit my job at Hana's Company (Chitoge mom) and take a permanent leave. He said I never have to work again."
"Obviously," Jay chimed in.
"Why would my mother work a normal office job when her son literally controls forty percent of the global economy?"
Ran and Sonoko were still trying to process this absurd reality. What jay said completely shattered their common sense.
"So, Ran-nee, Sonoko-nee. Do you have any questions?" Jay asked, opening the floor.
Ran looked down, her hands tightly gripping her skirt. Her mind drifted back to shinichi death.
"Jay-kun... this world has some supernatural power right? is there a way... to bring someone back from the dead?"
The room fell completely silent. Sonoko looked at her best friend with deep pity. She knew Ran was asking for Shinichi's sake.
Jay stayed quiet for a moment. Slowly, a faint, amused chuckle escaped his lips.
"Bring someone back from the dead?" Jay shook his head slowly. "I could. But why would I need to? The guy you're mourning isn't dead, Ran-nee."
Ran's eyes widened to their absolute limits. Her heart felt like it stopped beating.
"W-What do you mean...? Yukiko-obasan... Shinichi's mother called me herself. She was crying. She told me he was caught in an incident and didn't make it."
"Yukiko Kudo is a world-class, award-winning actress," Jay stated simply.
"She faked those tears, and she and Yusaku Kudo faked his death to protect you."
Absolute silence. Sonoko covered her mouth in sheer shock.
Ran stared at him, her entire world tilting on its axis. "H-He's alive? Shinichi is alive?!"
"He's alive," Jay confirmed.
"But he crossed the wrong people. He stumbled upon a massive, deeply entrenched criminal syndicate known as the Black Organization. They are ruthless. If they knew Shinichi Kudo survived their encounter, they would hunt him down. And worse, they would immediately execute everyone he cares about to tie up loose ends. That means you, your father, Sonoko, and his parents."
Jay leaned forward, his eyes serious. "Shinichi had to disappear. His parents helped him fabricate his death so the syndicate would stop looking for him. The Black Organization is obsessed with illegal human experimentation, aiming to create biological weapons and immortality drugs. If they catch him alive, he won't just be killed—he'll be locked in a lab and used as a human guinea pig for their horrific experiments for the rest of his life."
At the word "experiments," Golden Darkness (Yami), who had been quietly reading her book in the corner, suddenly flinched.
Her grip on the book tightened so much that the cover slightly tore. Her breath hitched. The word triggered her darkest memories—being abandoned by Tearju, waking up in a cold laboratory, and being forced to become a biological weapon through cruel experimentation.
No one noticed this micro-reaction. No one except Jay.
Jay's eyes darted to Yami for a fraction of a second, filing away that traumatic response in his mind. I need to talk to her tonight, Jay thought.
He turned his attention back to Ran. Her face was pale, tears streaming down her cheeks. However, the tears weren't just out of relief. There was a profound, agonizing sense of betrayal in her eyes.
"He's alive..." Ran whispered, her voice cracking. "Thank god, he's alive... but... he lied to me. Even his mother lied to me to my face."
"They did it to keep you safe, Ran," Sonoko said softly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder.
"I know it's dangerous," Ran cried, her voice trembling with heartbreak.
"But... does he really think I'm that weak? He didn't trust me. He'd rather watch me break down over his death than share his burden with me. He just... shut me out completely."
Jay let out a soft sigh. He couldn't argue with that. Logic dictated Shinichi's actions, but human emotions rarely bow to pure logic.
Women... jay internal thought
"I won't tell you where he's hiding, for your own safety," Jay said gently.
"But knowing the truth... what's your decision now, Ran-nee?"
Ran wiped her tears, her expression hardening into a mix of relief and deep disappointment.
"I... I'm going to move into my mother's apartment for a while," Ran said quietly.
"I'll tell my dad I just need some time away to grieve properly. But the truth is, I just need space. I can't stay at the agency right now."
Jay nodded in understanding. He didn't reveal that the very source of her pain was currently snoring on the sofa. "A wise choice. Take all the time you need, Ran-nee."
The night had finally fallen. The exhausting shopping trip and the heavy revelations were over. Mamako and the Deviluke family were already fast asleep in their respective rooms.
Jay stood alone on the third-floor balcony, staring out at the Saitama skyline while sipping a can of black coffee.
The cool night wind blew gently against his face.
Without turning his head, Jay spoke into the dark corner of the balcony.
"You know, your habit of hiding in the shadows doesn't really work on me, Yami."
From the darkness behind a pillar, the physical form of Golden Darkness slowly materialized. The blonde assassin stepped forward, her expression as stoic as ever, though her crimson eyes carried a heavy guard.