The Lawless Outlaw in Conan's World, Tokisaki Kurumi

Shutting off the noisy hair dryer and switching to drying her hair with a towel, Kurumi sighed and silently recited in her mind: 'Open main quest.'

As Kurumi willed it, the system's cold synthesized voice rang in her mind while a quest interface resembling something from a game appeared before her eyes.

[Main Quest: As the organization's most loyal member, the time has come to relieve the organization's worries]

[Quest Requirement: Though this money is trivial to the organization, every bit counts. Fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins somewhere in Tokyo are to be handed over to the organization by you!]

[Completion Reward: 200 points. Failure Penalty: A punishment quest will be unlocked—you'll never wear underwear again! Day or night]

Staring at the quest issued by this wretched system, Kurumi wished she could kill it with King Crimson right then and there.

What could 200 points even exchange for?

She knew that in the shop, even the most useless Hermit Purple cost fifteen thousand points, while slightly stronger Stands started at thirty thousand or more.

Damn it, so this really was 'every bit counts'!

Kurumi was utterly speechless.

Especially when she saw the failure penalty, her pretty face flushed red with anger.

If she failed this, would she have to go out commando from now on?

What the hell was the difference between that and a pervert?

Also, those Maple Leaf Gold Coins the system mentioned... Kurumi seemed to have a faint memory of them. It was probably an incident that happened not long after Kudo Shinichi shrank, when he was in elementary school and formed some Junior Detective Team with a few other kids.

That was about all Kurumi could recall.

"What a headache!"

Plop—she flopped onto the bed, carefully digging through the depths of her memory to recall this case.

"Seems like this incident started with Kudo Shinichi—no, Conan and the others finding a treasure map."

Kurumi frowned. She knew very well that the system wouldn't issue a random, clue-less quest.

"What could it be?" Generally, the system's quests hid some targeted hints.

"Mosquitoes? Gold coins? Tokyo area... underwear?" Suddenly, Kurumi seemed to think of something: "Wait, underwear? If I remember correctly, in the gold coin incident, those brats went to an underwear store... and the area should be near Tokyo Tower!"

A flash of insight—Kurumi felt she had grasped the key to the quest.

"That's right, Kudo Shinichi and the others definitely operated around Tokyo Tower!"

Having found the quest's crux, Kurumi got dressed and prepared to set out to complete it.

But when she arrived near Tokyo Tower, planning to see if she could coincidentally run into those kids while searching for the underwear store, Kurumi finally realized the problem she'd overlooked.

The streets near Tokyo Tower had quite a few ladies' underwear shops, spaced far apart.

That was a headache.

'What now? Am I really supposed to...' Just as Kurumi thought she'd have to rely on luck in the area, she noticed the towering Tokyo Tower not far away.

A smile appeared on Kurumi's face.

'Daytime and... nighttime, huh?'

As the sun gradually set, the orange glow of dusk was replaced by darkness.

Inside a ramen shop near Tokyo Tower, Kurumi—who should have been fully focused on her quest—was instead leisurely eating Tonkotsu Ramen.

"Delicious~"

Downing the last of the rich broth in her bowl, Kurumi wore a satisfied expression.

The reason she could be so relaxed was that she'd remembered the most crucial detail of the plot—Kudo Shinichi and the others would return to Tokyo Tower at night.

Now all she had to do was find a high vantage point and use King Crimson's precision with binoculars to spot those kids.

'Seriously, wasted a whole day.'

Wiping her mouth with a tissue, Kurumi left the ramen shop and started looking for a high point nearby.

A few minutes later...

Standing on the roof of a building, Kurumi summoned her Stand, King Crimson, and had it pick up the binoculars she'd bought earlier to observe the roads beneath Tokyo Tower.

Through the shared vision between Stand and Stand user, after waiting nearly an hour, King Crimson finally spotted several small figures in the distance panting under a streetlamp, as if exhausted.

Not only that, but in the shadows not far from them, three strange men in black suits—still wearing sunglasses even at night—were covertly watching them, thinking themselves hidden.

"Looks like fate is on my side!"

Having finally found Kudo Shinichi and the others, Kurumi rejoiced that she'd preserved her right to wear underwear. Taking advantage of the night, she used a pre-prepared rope to have King Crimson safely slide her down to the ground.

05 If Coincidences Didn't Happen

As an old Chinese saying goes.

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

In Kurumi's view, those elementary school kids playing treasure hunt were the cicadas, and the three Black Organization members following them were the mantises.

As for Kurumi~

Quietly trailing behind the three men in black, Kurumi pulled out her phone and dialed a number.

Though Kurumi was now a high-ranking member of the organization, unlike Gin—who had Vodka as both a lackey and a driver—she had always operated solo after completing her apprenticeship under Vermouth.

She didn't like having someone tailing her.

Especially given her identity as a Stand user, Kurumi was even less inclined to let others know about that.

Soon, the call connected.

"Big Sister Bei, find me a few people near Tokyo. I've got a shipment on my hands."

On the other end of the line.

"Kurumi? It's been a long time since you last contacted me." Lying lazily on her bed at home, watching TV, Vermouth was a bit curious. Kurumi had always struck her as lazy—aside from when the organization ordered her to assign tasks, even the number two, Rum, got nothing but a dismissive attitude from Kurumi when he gave her orders.

And because of Kurumi's coldness toward Rum, his faction in the organization had long held a grudge against her.

But grudges aside, Kurumi's abilities spoke for themselves. With a flawless one-hundred-percent mission success rate, no matter how much they complained, they'd yet to find a reason to teach her a lesson.

To Vermouth, Kurumi's personality was quite admirable, so she willingly became Kurumi's backing in the organization.

Besides, both of them followed the principle of mysticism, which made Kurumi even more to Vermouth's taste.

"Sorry about that, Big Sister Bei~" Kurumi's cheerful voice came through the phone. "You know I don't like trouble. But of course, if it's your order, I'm more than happy to carry it out."

Kurumi's words made Big Sister Bei laugh.

"Alright, so why the sudden initiative to contact me? Did you find something in Tokyo?"

"Yeah~ Big Sister Bei, do you know about that robbery in Italy a while back?" Kurumi asked.

"Italy?" Hearing Kurumi mention Italy, Vermouth recalled the recent robbery there. According to intelligence, the Italian mafia who'd stolen fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins had fled to Japan not long ago.

At that thought, Vermouth understood why Kurumi had reached out now.

"Looks like you're about to make another merit, Kurumi." Vermouth smiled, already making up her mind.

"Don't worry, I'll send someone to contact you right away."

Hearing her reply, Kurumi's delighted voice came through the phone. "Then I'll leave it to you, Big Sister Bei."

"Hmph, smooth talker." Vermouth teased before hanging up.

With Vermouth's approval, Kurumi pocketed her phone.

Using King Crimson's exceptional vision, Kurumi had no fear of losing track of those mafia members.

Soon, following the oblivious mafia men, Kurumi arrived at a pitch-black building.

'This should be where they're hiding the coins.'

Standing there, Kurumi finally recalled the details of this incident.

But still, plot was plot.

According to the original course of events, these mafia members would show up after Kudo Shinichi and the others discovered the coins. But since they didn't know the exact hiding spot, they'd tie up the kids—who were unknowingly doing their work—and interrogate them.

Only... if things went that way, Kurumi wasn't worried about the kids' safety.

Even though she really disliked these brats who loved to court death.

Or rather, 'little monsters' was a more fitting term.

Still, considering the possibility of accidents, Kurumi decided to show some kindness and make sure these little monsters didn't get brutally killed by the men in black.

Standing on the floor below them, Kurumi activated King Crimson.

"King Crimson!"

Using the power of Time Erasure, she hid in a corner on the same floor as them. Kurumi summoned the invisible King Crimson, letting it stand boldly in the dark hallway, staring ahead at Kudo Shinichi and the others, already tied up by the mafia.

In Kurumi's plan, if these three mafia members tried to harm the kids, she'd immediately use King Crimson's ability to erase time and take them out.

Her hands were already stained with blood; a few more lives meant nothing to her now.

As the saying goes, 'Many debts, no worries; many lice, no itch.'

Besides, those guys weren't good people anyway.

Invisible to ordinary eyes, King Crimson held three pitch-black knives that blended perfectly into the darkness. If the three black-clad robbers tried to hurt the little monsters, Kurumi would have King Crimson throw the knives and kill them first.

Though Kurumi was annoyed by these brats' reckless nature, they were still kids. And when it came to kids, Kurumi considered herself fairly tolerant.

But they still needed a lesson!

Letting them suffer a bit would at least cheer her up.

However, plot was just plot. Under Kurumi's watch, something unexpected happened.

The original trio of idiots somehow gained a buff to their intelligence. Following the answer to the riddle Shinichi had blurted out, they found the bags hanging from the rafters. The mustachioed man, clearly the leader, twisted his lips into a vicious grin.

"Excellent!" The man's excited tone was accompanied by him pulling a gun from his pocket. Seeing this, Shinichi—who'd thought their chance to escape had finally come—went pale.

This wasn't what he'd imagined at all!

"Now that we've found the coins, you brats are useless." Ordering his two companions to grab the hanging bags, the man slowly approached the tied-up children.

This is, after all, the real world and not an anime—any coincidences in the plot are ultimately just coincidences.

After all, although these three robbers were a bit stupid, they were still the kind of people who would harm innocents for profit.

In their eyes, now that the hidden gold coins had been found, these witnesses were completely useless to them.

06 Bratty Kids Are Such a Pain

When the murderous man aimed the dark muzzle of his gun at them, the children, already terrified out of their minds, burst into tears.

Desperate wails echoed through this desolate, pitch-black place, and even Kudo Shinichi, usually so calm, couldn't help but feel the threat of death closing in.

'Damn it, is there any way to turn this around now?' Unlike the other 'real' children tied up alongside him, Shinichi—whose body had become a child's but whose mind and thinking remained that of a high school student—also felt tension and despair. Yet even now, he hadn't given up, still racing through his thoughts, searching for the only way out.

'How frustrating!'

Cold sweat slowly slid down his forehead as time passed, and the piercing cries of those bratty kids ringing in his ears only made Shinichi feel like his head was about to split.

Click.

The grinning man pulled back the hammer of his pistol, signaling that with just a twitch of his finger, a gunshot would inevitably end a life.

No one is unafraid of death—not even the famous detective, Kudo Shinichi.

'Well, well, looks like it was a good thing I followed along.'

Kurumi, lurking in the shadows, watched as the situation deviated severely from the plot and shook her head helplessly.

Because King Crimson possessed excellent senses, the grating cries of those bratty kids were making Kurumi extremely irritable right now.

Even the two faces of King Crimson—one large, one small—had twisted into an expression of shock due to Kurumi's agitation.

Which just goes to show how dangerous bratty kids can be.

But irritation aside, Kurumi naturally had no intention of letting these robbers kill those children.