Outlaw in Conan's World, Tokisaki Kurumi

After turning off the noisy hair dryer and switching to drying her hair with a towel, Kurumi sighed and silently recited, Open the main quest.

As the thought crossed Kurumi's mind, the system's cold synthesized voice rang out in her head, while an image resembling a game's quest interface appeared before her eyes.

Main Quest: As the organization's most loyal member, the time has come for you to ease the organization's worries.

Quest Requirement: Though this money is insignificant to the organization, even a mosquito is still meat. Fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins hidden somewhere in Tokyo will be handed over to the organization by you!

Completing the quest will grant 200 points. Failing the quest will activate a punishment quest: Don't even think about wearing underwear again! Whether it's day or night.

Looking at the quest issued by this damned system, Kurumi wanted nothing more than to use King Crimson to kill it outright.

What could 200 points even buy?

Even the most useless Hermit Purple in the shop cost fifteen thousand points, while slightly stronger Stands were priced at no less than thirty thousand.

Damn it, even a mosquito really did count as meat!

Kurumi was utterly speechless.

Especially after seeing the punishment for failure, her beautiful little face immediately flushed red with anger.

If she failed, did that mean she would have to go commando forever?

How the hell would that be any different from being a pervert?

And those Maple Leaf Gold Coins the system mentioned... Kurumi seemed to have a vague impression of them. It appeared to be an incident that happened not long after Kudo Shinichi was shrunk down, when he was attending elementary school and formed some kind of Junior Detective Team with several other children.

That was about all Kurumi remembered.

"My head hurts!"

With a thud, Kurumi flopped onto the bed and began digging through her memories, trying hard to recall the case.

"It seemed like... this incident began when Kudo Shinichi—no, Conan and the others—found a treasure map."

Kurumi frowned. She knew perfectly well that the system would not issue a pointless quest with no clues whatsoever.

"What could it be?" Generally speaking, the quests issued by the system always hid some targeted hints.

"Mosquito? Gold coins? Tokyo area... underwear?" Suddenly, Kurumi seemed to think of something. "Wait, underwear? If I remember correctly, those brats went to an underwear store during the gold coin incident... and it should have been near the area around Tokyo Tower!"

A flash of inspiration struck, and Kurumi felt that she had grasped the key to the quest.

"That's right. Kudo Shinichi and the others were definitely active near Tokyo Tower!"

Having found the key to the quest, Kurumi got dressed and prepared to get to work.

However, when Kurumi arrived near Tokyo Tower, intending to search for underwear stores while seeing whether she might happen to run into those children, she finally discovered a problem she had been overlooking.

There were quite a few women's underwear stores on the streets near Tokyo Tower, and they were spread far apart.

That was a real headache.

What should I do? Do I really have to... Just as Kurumi thought she could only try her luck around the area, she noticed the towering Tokyo Tower in the distance.

A smile appeared on Kurumi's face.

Daytime and... nighttime, huh?

As the sun gradually set, the orange glow of the evening was slowly swallowed by darkness.

Inside a ramen shop near Tokyo Tower, Kurumi, who should have been focused on her quest, was leisurely eating a bowl of tonkotsu ramen.

"Delicious~"

Draining the rich remaining broth from the bowl in one gulp, Kurumi wore a satisfied expression.

The reason Kurumi was so relaxed was because she had recalled the most crucial detail from the plot—that Kudo Shinichi and the others returned to the base of Tokyo Tower again at night.

All she had to do now was find a high vantage point and use King Crimson's precision along with binoculars to search for those children.

Seriously, I wasted an entire day.

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

A few minutes later...

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

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

Not only that, in a dark spot not far from them, three strange men dressed in black suits and wearing sunglasses even at night were observing them while believing themselves well hidden.

"It seems fate is still on my side!"

Having finally found Kudo Shinichi and the others, Kurumi rejoiced that she had retained her right to wear underwear. At the same time, she used the darkness and a rope she had prepared beforehand to have King Crimson safely bring her down to the ground.

If Coincidences Won't Happen

There was an old saying in China.

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

In Kurumi's eyes, the elementary school students playing their treasure hunt game were the cicadas, while the three men in black following them were the mantises.

As for Kurumi~

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

Although Kurumi was now also a high-ranking member of the organization, unlike Gin, who had Vodka as both lackey and driver, Kurumi had always operated alone ever since she finished training under Vermouth.

She disliked having people around her.

Especially since she was also a Stand user, Kurumi would never easily let others know about it.

The call was answered quickly.

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

On the other end of the call.

"Kurumi? You haven't contacted me in a long time." Vermouth, who was lounging lazily on her bed at home and watching television, was somewhat curious. Kurumi had always given her the impression of being lazy. Aside from when the organization had Vermouth assign her missions, even Rum, the organization's number two, was met with an indifferent attitude whenever he gave Kurumi a task.

And because of Kurumi's cold attitude toward Rum, Rum's faction within the organization had always been very displeased with her.

But displeasure was one thing. Kurumi's abilities were there for all to see, and her mission success rate had always been an outstanding one hundred percent. No matter how dissatisfied they were, they had never found any excuse to punish her.

As far as Vermouth was concerned, Kurumi's personality was very much to her liking, so she had willingly become Kurumi's backer within the organization.

Besides, they both practiced mysticism, which made Kurumi even more suited to Vermouth's tastes.

"Sorry, Big Sister Bei~" Kurumi's voice came through the phone with a giggle. "You know I don't like trouble. Of course, if it's an order from you, Big Sister Bei, I'd be very happy to carry it out."

Kurumi's words made Big Sister Bei laugh.

"All right, then. You contacted me so proactively this time. Did you find something in Tokyo?"

"I did~ Big Sister Bei, do you know about the robbery that happened in Italy some time ago?" Kurumi asked.

"Italy?" Hearing Kurumi mention Italy, Vermouth recalled the robbery that had taken place there not long ago. According to intelligence, the mafia group that had robbed fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins in Italy had fled to Japan recently.

With that thought, Vermouth understood why Kurumi had taken the initiative to contact her at this time.

"It looks like you're going to earn another merit, Kurumi." Vermouth smiled, having already made up her mind.

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

Hearing her answer, Kurumi's delighted voice came from the other end. "Then I'll leave it to you, Big Sister Bei."

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

Having received Vermouth's agreement, Kurumi put her phone back into her pocket.

With King Crimson's outstanding eyesight, Kurumi naturally had no fear of losing track of those mafiosos.

Soon, Kurumi followed the mafiosos—who had no idea they themselves were being followed—to a pitch-black building.

This should be where they hid the gold coins.

After arriving here, Kurumi finally remembered the details of this incident.

But the plot was just the plot.

According to how things had originally developed, these mafiosos would appear after Kudo Shinichi and the others found the gold coins. However, because they still did not know the exact hiding place of the coins, they chose to tie up the children, who had unknowingly been working for them, and interrogate them.

But... if things really unfolded that way, Kurumi was not worried about the children's safety.

Though she really disliked those little brats who seemed to have a death wish.

Or rather, calling them troublesome kids was more fitting.

Still, in consideration of possible accidents, Kurumi decided to show a little kindness and make sure those troublesome kids would not be brutally killed by the men in black.

Standing below the floor where those people were, Kurumi directly activated King Crimson.

"King Crimson!"

Using Time Erasure, Kurumi arrived at a corner on the same floor as them and hid herself. She summoned King Crimson again, invisible to ordinary people, and had it stand openly in the dark corridor, staring at Kudo Shinichi and the others, who had already been tied up by the mafiosos.

In Kurumi's plan, if the three mafiosos tried to harm the children, she would immediately activate King Crimson's ability to erase time, then directly kill the three men.

Her hands were already stained with blood anyway. Even if she took on a few more lives, Kurumi no longer cared.

The more debts one had, the less one worried; the more lice one had, the less one itched~

Besides, those people on the other side were hardly good men.

King Crimson, which ordinary people could not see to begin with, held three pitch-black throwing knives in its hands, perfectly blended into the darkness. The moment the three black-clad robbers tried to harm the troublesome kids, Kurumi would have King Crimson throw the knives and take them out first.

Although Kurumi was annoyed by those troublesome kids' suicidal tendencies, they were still children. Kurumi considered herself fairly tolerant toward children.

But they would not be spared a lesson!

Seeing them suffer a little would make her feel better too.

However, the plot was ultimately only a plot. Under Kurumi's gaze, something unexpected happened.

For some reason, the original trio of idiots had suddenly gained an intelligence buff. After finding several bags hanging from the ceiling beams based on the answer to the riddle Shinichi had given them, the man with the figure-eight mustache, who was clearly their leader, pulled his mouth into a vicious grin.

"Good!" The excited man pulled out a pistol from his clothes. Seeing his movement, Shinichi, who had thought they had finally found a chance to escape, went pale.

This was completely different from what he had expected!

"Now that we've found the gold coins, you little brats are useless." After having his two companions retrieve the hanging bags, the man slowly approached the tied-up children.

This was reality, not an anime. All those coincidences from the plot were ultimately just coincidences.

After all, these three robbers might have been a bit stupid, but they were still people who could hurt innocent people for profit.

In their eyes, now that the hidden gold coins had been found, these children who knew about it were of no use to them.

Troublesome Kids Are So Annoying

When the murderous man pointed the dark muzzle of his gun at them, the children, who had already been terrified, immediately burst into tears.

Desperate wails echoed through this deserted, dark place. Even Kudo Shinichi, who had always been calm, could not help feeling the threat of death.

Damn it, is there still any way out of this? Unlike the "real" children who had also been tied up, Kudo Shinichi's appearance had changed into that of a child, but his heart and mind were still those of a high school student. Although he too felt nervous and despairing, he still refused to give up, rapidly searching for the one possible way out.

Damn it!

Cold sweat slowly slid down his forehead as time passed. The piercing cries of the troublesome kids beside him made Shinichi feel as if his head were splitting in two.

Click.

When the grinning man cocked the hammer of his pistol, it meant that the moment he moved his finger, a gunshot would be followed by the end of a life.

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

Good grief, it looks like following them this time was the right call.

Kurumi, lying in ambush in the darkness, helplessly shook her head as she watched events develop in a way that sharply differed from the plot.

Because King Crimson itself possessed exceptional senses, the piercing cries of those troublesome kids made Kurumi extremely irritated.

Even King Crimson's two faces, one large and one small, had turned into (o益o) because of Kurumi's irritated mood.

That also indirectly demonstrated just how threatening troublesome kids could be.

Irritated or not, Kurumi naturally would not let these robbers kill those troublesome kids.