"What do you mean by 'discarded'?" Conan asked, his voice low and serious.
"Word has it that the Organization originally valued him for his remarkable agility. They wanted to mold him into a top-tier assassin," Haibara explained, her gaze fixed on the darkening woods. "But perhaps he just didn't have the temperament for it. Eventually, the Organization deemed him a failure and sent his files to me."
"Because he was no longer useful, he was designated as a lab rat for that drug?" Conan asked. He had already guessed the cruel reality.
It seemed life on the periphery of the Black Organization was a precarious tightrope; at any moment, one could be "liquidated" or worse.
"I told you, he almost was."
Haibara offered a thin, mirthless smile. "I received the files, but he managed to escape while he was being transported between facilities."
Ki'ichiro Numabuchi was, if nothing else, a man of surprising capability.
"I met him once in Osaka," Conan recalled, the memory vivid. "His mental state seemed… fractured. Unstable."
To be precise, it wasn't just a meeting; Conan had been on the receiving end of a knife.
"You don't need to be a genius to realize that very few people can maintain their sanity while being hunted by the Organization," Haibara said. As she thought about it now, the three victims Numabuchi had killed were either innocent bystanders or people with some tenuous connection to the Organization.
The man must have lived in a state of perpetual, soul-crushing terror. The power of the Organization was absolute and inescapable.
If I hadn't gone to the Kudo house that day, Haibara wondered, I wonder how long I would have lasted before I ended up like him.
"No wonder Numabuchi kept shouting that it was all 'their' fault when he was first arrested," Dr. Agasa noted, nodding slowly.
'They' had to be the Black Organization.
"Is that so? I imagine the police didn't take it seriously. They probably just thought he was making excuses to deflect blame," Haibara said, leaning against a tree and falling silent for a moment.
There were countless "discarded pieces" like Ki'ichiro Numabuchi within the Organization—shadowy figures who could vanish from the face of the earth at any moment, in any way, without leaving a trace.
"Something still doesn't add up, though," Conan said, furrowing his brow. "You once told me that whenever someone from the Organization appeared, you could sense them immediately. You said you could 'smell' them."
If this ability was inconsistent, then Conan's entire framework for identifying potential threats would have to be thrown out the window.
"Who knows? Maybe you should go catch someone whose identity we can confirm and let me test it out…"
"If I could catch them that easily…"
"I'm still hoping to make it back in time for a late-night snack!" Tsuneo shouted toward the silhouette perched high in a massive tree.
Numabuchi had been in police custody for a significant amount of time; his stamina was a shadow of what it once was. For Tsuneo, keeping pace was no trouble at all.
However, Numabuchi seemed to know these woods like the back of his hand. He was leading Tsuneo in circles, weaving through the undergrowth with desperate familiarity.
"I don't want to run anymore," Numabuchi said, his voice carrying a strange, heavy weight. He leapt down from the branch and looked up as thousands of tiny points of light began to rise from the forest floor.
Perhaps this was the last sanctuary left in his heart.
"Officer Yamamura said you hid a fourth body out here," Tsuneo said. Looking at the man now, he didn't seem like someone who had brought the police here to reveal a crime scene.
"I would never hide something like that… in a place like this," Numabuchi whispered.
He sat down, leaning his back against a tree and taking a deep, shaky breath. Officer Yamamura had talked to him quite a bit during the journey. The officer had mentioned that this forest was a place where he and a childhood friend used to play…
"Everyone, it's all thanks to you! Especially Mr. Tsuneo—I can't believe you chased the suspect that far into the woods all by yourself and brought him back!"
The situation had finally been resolved, and the color had returned to Officer Asan's face.
Strictly speaking, everyone shared some responsibility for the day's chaos, but the primary blame for letting Numabuchi escape rested squarely on the shoulders of the muddled officer himself.
As it turned out, the "fourth body" was a complete fabrication. Numabuchi simply wanted to see the place where he grew up one last time.
"He is thanking me, right?" Tsuneo asked, looking down at Conan with a deadpan expression.
Chasing him that far all by myself... Tsuneo thought. Why does it sound like he's accusing me of being a busybody?
"Probably…" Conan coughed lightly. Best not to overthink anything Officer Asan says.
The group piled into Officer Yamamura's car for the long drive back to Beika.
"Did Numabuchi say anything strange?" the young detective asked curiously.
Even if he was just a discarded peripheral member, the man was still a link to the Organization.
"Strange words?" Tsuneo thought back to the encounter. "From what I saw, he probably intentionally gave the police this location just so he could come back and see the fireflies one last time."
"Exactly! Great minds think alike! I felt the same way when I was chatting with him earlier!"
From the driver's seat, Officer Yamamura nodded vigorously.
"Officer Yamamura, if you felt that way, why did you let him run off?" Dr. Agasa asked, his voice filled with exasperation.
This policeman truly was a rare specimen.
"Dr. Agasa, haven't I told you? You can just call me Asan!" Yamamura said, immediately trying to look cool and brooding again.
"..."
The Doctor decided to keep the name "Asan" to himself for the time being.
"Summer is almost over," Mitsuhiko noted, looking down at his empty insect cage.
The group had already witnessed the magical sight of the fireflies rising through the mountain trees like stars. Mitsuhiko had released the two fireflies he caught back into the wild as soon as he saw them.
"School is starting soon, isn't it?"
Tsuneo realized it had been a while since he'd gone on a proper seaside vacation. I wonder if there have been any beach-related murders lately? I'll have to ask Mr. Mouri later.
"School…" Conan's mood dampened. The thought of returning to the life of a primary schooler was always a sobering one.
"When I was a kid, I had a friend," Yamamura said, his voice trailing off as he began another story. "We built a secret base right here in these woods. It's a shame I was too busy today to even go take a look…"
Asan's stories were never-ending.
"Hiromitsu?"
"Did I hear that right? Was that the name he just mentioned?" Tsuneo asked, leaning toward the others as he stared at the back of Yamamura's head.
The first half of the story had been perfectly normal—catching bugs, building bases, and making a pact to become "partners of justice."
But the name of that childhood partner had been Hiromitsu Morofushi.
Hiromitsu Morofushi.
"Do you know him?" Conan asked in a whisper, noticing Tsuneo's reaction.
The three children were in the middle row discussing school, while the Repairman, the Great Detective, and the "Evil Scientist" occupied the back.
Tsuneo shook his head, deciding not to share what he knew.
As one of the "Police Academy Five," Hiromitsu Morofushi had been an undercover agent in the Organization, just like Rei Furuya.
But Hiromitsu Morofushi—the man codenamed Scotch—was already dead.
"Officer Yamamura, did you two promise to become policemen together?" Ayumi asked.
"Yeah. But I haven't heard from him in years," Asan replied with a small, wistful smile. "Still, I'm sure he hasn't forgotten our promise!"
Tsuneo looked at the officer but didn't say a word.
Some people, he thought, are exactly the type to keep a promise forever.
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