Slacker Assassin's Multiverse Daily

"Don't ever say something like that again. If I'd been worried about being discovered by the Black Organization back then, I wouldn't have saved you," Jiang Hang said as he pressed Miyano Akemi's shoulders and had her sit down in a chair. "All you need to do now is wait."

Taking out a roll of bandages from a nearby drawer, Jiang Hang wrapped them around his newly injured arm so that if things really escalated later, he would still be able to remain in peak condition.

Even when Jiang Hang left the office with the air of a hero marching toward certain doom, Miyano Akemi was unable to say another word.

Watching Jiang Hang's departing figure, Miyano Akemi slowly curled up in her chair, no one knowing what she was thinking at that moment.

Jiang Hang sped toward Conan's location at the commission site as fast as he could. God knew how much evidence of traffic violations the cameras along the way had captured.

In Eagle Vision, the other party was cautiously hiding in an alley not far from his home, seemingly waiting for someone.

Seeing that Conan was still unharmed, Jiang Hang could not help but let out a breath of relief.

He casually found a place to park, but at that moment, Jiang Hang suddenly saw a red-highlighted woman approaching Conan in Eagle Vision!

Red... a woman... and she had disguised her appearance?

Through Eagle Vision, Jiang Hang could easily tell that the woman had altered her appearance.

If she was an important woman connected to the Black Organization who also knew how to disguise herself, Jiang Hang could only recall someone named Vermouth fitting that description.

Still, he did not remember much about her. He only knew that the character seemed fairly popular. She also seemed to have a bit of a traitor vibe, though Jiang Hang did not know much about what she had done in the TV anime.

But since she already showed some inclination toward being a traitor, given the Black Organization's usual style, she probably was not far from becoming a real one.

By the time Jiang Hang reached Conan's location, the woman suspected to be Vermouth had already drugged Conan unconscious and was preparing to take him away.

Seeing someone suddenly approach, the woman seemed somewhat surprised. However, she quickly adjusted her expression and explained to Jiang Hang with an apologetic smile.

"My son has suffered from hypersomnia since he was little. I'm just taking him home to sleep..."

Jiang Hang did not hesitate in the slightest. He raised his hand and fired the Rope Dart he had practiced with all day, carefully controlling its force so it would not hurt her as it struck Conan directly in the chest.

Amid the disguised woman in black's cry of alarm, Jiang Hang reeled in the Rope Dart. The powerful pull forced her to let go of Conan in her arms.

Before Conan could hit the ground, Jiang Hang had already rushed over and caught him with his other hand.

As he retracted the Rope Dart, the Hidden Blade glinting with a dangerous sheen extended from Jiang Hang's wrist under his control.

His gaze fell on the handkerchief she had just used to knock Conan out.

The woman clearly had not expected this sudden turn of events. Especially when she saw Jiang Hang's eyes glinting dangerously as he slowly approached, her expression immediately turned ugly.

"Um... he really is my son. I was only joking with him..." She awkwardly backed away, and at that moment, Professor Agasa's flustered voice came from behind Jiang Hang.

"Jiang Hang, she and Conan... cough, Conan's mother are very close. She was just playing a joke on Conan this time!"

Hearing Professor Agasa's voice, Jiang Hang's hand abruptly stopped.

He turned around and swept Eagle Vision over Professor Agasa, who had rushed over in such a panic that he was panting.

There was no disguise on him... In other words, this really was Professor Agasa?

Then what was going on with the Black Organization mentioned in Conan's commission? Could Professor Agasa in this world really be the boss of the Black Organization?

Jiang Hang's expression turned suspicious. But at that moment, a middle-aged man dressed in a black formal suit walked out from behind Professor Agasa.

"You must be Mr. Jiang Hang that Professor Agasa mentioned. Hello, I'm Yusaku Kudo, a mystery novelist."

Jiang Hang stared at him carefully. This man was not wearing a disguise either.

Yusaku Kudo... wasn't that little brat Conan's father?

At that moment, Jiang Hang suddenly remembered that there seemed to be an episode in the anime where Conan's parents returned from abroad. After learning that Conan had shrunk, they deliberately disguised themselves as members of the Black Organization to test Conan.

With that memory, Jiang Hang immediately understood.

The anime had not mentioned Miyano Akemi, but in reality, she had just been saved by him and Conan. Even Professor Agasa had gotten involved, and the one billion yen was still hidden in Professor Agasa's house.

So after Professor Agasa learned more about the Black Organization and told Conan's parents everything, had they simply used Miyano Akemi's situation to scare Conan?

Should he say that Yusaku Kudo truly deserved to be a world-class mystery novelist, or lament that Conan really had quite the pair of parents?

Yusaku Kudo's Invitation (Ten More Chapters~)

It was not only Professor Agasa and Conan's parents who found the atmosphere awkward because of Jiang Hang's arrival. Jiang Hang himself was rather embarrassed as well.

He had thought Conan was in danger and rushed over to save him, even putting on the air of someone who might never return in front of Miyano Akemi.

Yet after arriving, he discovered that this had merely been a game Conan's parents had concocted to test their son's deductive abilities.

Inside the car, Conan's mother, the once-famous actress Yukiko Kudo, had already removed her disguise and revealed her true appearance.

However, she was driving up front, and her expression looked somewhat gloomy, as though Jiang Hang's sudden intrusion had completely disrupted the rhythm of the acting performance she had finally gotten the chance to show off.

As for Yusaku Kudo, he silently observed Jiang Hang from the side.

Of course, neither of them had revealed Conan's true identity yet. They only said that after learning Conan had come into contact with a criminal organization in recent days, they wanted to use this kind of "game" to tell him not to be too reckless.

Jiang Hang had also just called Miyano Akemi and the two girls at the detective agency, telling them it was only a false alarm and that they did not need to worry.

That's what I thought. With so many traitors and undercover agents in the Black Organization, even a few more god-tier teammates wouldn't be enough to save them. How could a positive, upstanding little detective like me possibly make them notice Conan so soon?

After grumbling to himself like that, Jiang Hang relaxed slightly.

He had now begun discussing his Hidden Blade with Professor Agasa.

"This thing called the 'Hidden Blade' is exquisitely made. Both its functionality and safety are extremely high. Especially the material used for this Rope Dart—even I've never seen anything like it. Is it some new material developed by your Foundation? It certainly can't be cheap, right? Just the material cost of making a set of these Hidden Blades would probably exceed a hundred million yen." As a research fanatic, Professor Agasa immediately wanted to study any unfamiliar item he got his hands on.

He looked at Jiang Hang expectantly, hoping Jiang Hang would lend him the Hidden Blade for research later.

Jiang Hang generously said that he could give Professor Agasa the blueprints for the Hidden Blade when the time came, and that he could study it however he liked.

How could Jiang Hang refuse when an inventor of Professor Agasa's caliber was willing to research his Hidden Blade? As long as the professor could make some powerful improvements to it later, Jiang Hang would come out well ahead.

While Professor Agasa began studying the Hidden Blade, Yusaku Kudo asked Jiang Hang why he had gone there at that particular time.

As a world-class mystery novelist, his deductive abilities were formidable, and he was also someone who placed tremendous importance on logic.

Yet he simply could not figure out why Jiang Hang had appeared there at that moment and happened to discover Conan's whereabouts.

Logically, it did not seem to add up.

Jiang Hang answered the question cautiously. He had already exposed the Rope Dart and Hidden Blade in front of them. Who knew whether this man, far more seasoned at deduction than Conan, might notice something amiss from a careless remark?

"I suppose I'm more sensitive to danger around myself or the people near me. Since I'd just clashed with that organization a few days ago, I'd been especially vigilant. Today, I had a feeling something might happen, so I planned to stop by Professor Agasa's house and take a look. Then I happened to find Conan." Jiang Hang tried not to reveal any more than necessary. After hearing his answer, Yusaku Kudo merely nodded lightly to show that he understood.

Unlike Conan, Yusaku Kudo did not suspect Jiang Hang of being connected to the Black Organization. He had heard of the mysterious Pioneer Foundation.

It clearly controlled an enormous fortune, yet it had remained exceptionally low-profile in society.

But keeping a low profile did not mean it was easy to push around. Since its astonishingly rapid rise, The Pioneer Foundation had encountered countless enemies. Yet those forces had ultimately been defeated through open and aboveboard business methods.

Over the years, no one had ever heard of The Pioneer Foundation using any illegal methods in secret, much less leaving any evidence for others to seize upon.

It was hard to imagine, but that truly had been The Pioneer Foundation's consistent style for decades.

Even decades ago, not long after The Pioneer Foundation first made its fortune, the CIA of the United States sent an undercover agent to investigate it. In the end, that agent genuinely worked diligently at the foundation for twenty years. Even by the time he retired, he had found nothing suspicious within it. In fact, the pension he received from the foundation after retirement was far higher than his pay as an undercover agent.

The foundation's attitude toward undercover agents was equally clear: as long as they worked properly, they could investigate the foundation however they pleased. But if an undercover agent did not work properly, the foundation would politely send them back to the intelligence agency they belonged to on the spot, while demanding that agency replace them with an agent diligent enough to do actual work.

It could be said that, back then, most intelligence agencies in the world had been humiliated by this foundation. Even now, no country openly sent undercover agents to infiltrate The Pioneer Foundation anymore—if word got out that one of their agents had been forcibly "repatriated" for slacking off at someone else's foundation, it would be an extremely embarrassing matter for any intelligence agency.

And through that utterly unpretentious, straightforward style, The Pioneer Foundation always managed to make solid profits in places no one expected, regardless of whether the economy was in recession or the world was in the midst of a financial crisis.

As the heir to The Pioneer Foundation, Jiang Hang could not possibly be a member of that mysterious transnational criminal organization, no matter how one looked at it.

On the contrary, Jiang Hang seemed to have taken an interest in that organization as well. Perhaps with the power of his foundation, they might be able to uncover the organization's background more quickly.

But that foundation, which appeared to have no secrets at all, did not truly have no secrets.

After Professor Agasa told him about Jiang Hang and he saw the man's abilities firsthand, Yusaku knew that Jiang Hang was definitely hiding an enormous secret.

However, for the moment, the Black Organization was clearly more important. As for Jiang Hang's secret... who did not have a few secrets they hoped others would never discover?

Compared to Conan, who was still exceptionally immature in every other respect and cared only about uncovering secrets, Yusaku Kudo was far more mature. Even if he had guessed that Jiang Hang was hiding something unspeakable, he could still keep his curiosity under control.

He pondered for a while, then looked at Jiang Hang again and formally extended an invitation.

"Then, would you like to join us in this 'detective game' we're putting on for Conan?"

Hearing Yusaku Kudo invite Jiang Hang, Yukiko Kudo showed a trace of surprise.

She knew what that represented, but she had always trusted her husband's judgment, so she said nothing.

Sure enough, after Jiang Hang agreed, Yusaku Kudo told him Conan's true identity.

Once he had finished, he saw that Jiang Hang looked only mildly surprised, and a flash of understanding passed through his eyes.

He lightly adjusted his glasses. "Just as I thought. You must have deduced Shinichi's situation a long time ago, haven't you?"

Listening to Yusaku Kudo, Jiang Hang thought that Conan's father really was still Conan's father. They had known each other for less than half an hour, yet he had already figured all this out?

He nodded. "I noticed it a long time ago. How did you figure it out?"

"Because anyone with common sense would not have a child arrange a 'murder scene.' Shinichi has a hard time seeing things from that angle, but you definitely aren't like that. I imagine you already knew who he was back then," Yusaku Kudo said, looking at Jiang Hang. "Can you tell me what led you to that conclusion?"

"There were plenty of things. For example, Kogoro Mouri had spent years making a living only by tailing people and finding missing persons, but less than a month after Conan moved into his home, he suddenly gained the nickname Sleeping Kogoro. Even after things had reached that point, he still couldn't stop solving cases. He really wasn't worried about being discovered by the Black Organization at all." Jiang Hang paused, then listed the other flaws one by one.

Naturally, he had only been able to work backward from them because he already knew Conan's identity. How could an ordinary person possibly think of so much?

But Yusaku Kudo was different. He was no ordinary man, and he did not regard Jiang Hang as an ordinary person either. The flaws that might even sound far-fetched to normal people instead sounded perfectly reasonable to him.

So-called deduction was really just connecting seemingly far-fetched clues and uncovering the final truth.

At last, Jiang Hang directly pulled out his ultimate trump card. "Of course, the easiest method would be to check his fingerprints. He got smaller, but fingerprints don't change. All you need to do is collect them and compare them. If this hadn't happened, I was planning to confront him directly about the fingerprints after some time."

After hearing Jiang Hang's words, Yusaku Kudo seemed to sigh over how many flaws his son had exposed. "Shinichi truly is too immature in this regard. It's fortunate that the organization hasn't discovered him yet. That's why I wanted to use this method to show him just how badly he's handled things over the past month."

Then, mid-conversation, Yusaku Kudo abruptly changed the subject. "But since Shinichi won't be waking up anytime soon, before the main show begins, let's go have a proper meal first. I haven't been back in Japan for a long time. I've started missing Japanese food."

Look at that—was that something a real father should say?

"Conan actually suspected me of being a member of the Black Organization?" When Jiang Hang learned this from Professor Agasa at the dinner table, he really wanted to go beat up Conan, who had yet to recover from the effects of the drugged tea.

Although he no longer needed to pretend that he did not know Conan's true identity, habits built over more than ten years were not so easily changed.

"Cough, cough... Actually, when Shinichi first mentioned that suspicion to me, I was a tiny bit doubtful too," Professor Agasa explained awkwardly to Jiang Hang. "But after Yusaku told me about your circumstances, I knew Shinichi had to be wrong."

No wonder the request on the commission board had said he wanted to inform Professor Agasa and Miyano Akemi about this, but never mentioned telling me. So he was still worried that I was the mole!

Jiang Hang had already made up his mind. Once this was over, he would give Conan an unforgettable "lesson."

Muttering to himself, he looked toward Yusaku Kudo, who was off to the side after dinner, writing the script for this "detective game."

They had already written the script, but now that Jiang Hang had been added, they naturally had to write some scenes for him as well.

Having just learned that Conan considered him a "suspected Black Organization member," Jiang Hang immediately told Yusaku Kudo that he could simply play himself.

"Doesn't that guy think I'm a Black Organization member? Then let him keep misunderstanding. I'll just become a member of another Black Organization branch... As for a codename... Maotai and Wuliangye don't seem very original, and Harbin Beer sounds way too stupid," Jiang Hang pondered for a moment before suddenly clapping his hands. "How about I just use Jiang Xiaobai as my codename? It even sounds a bit like my name."

Yusaku Kudo rubbed his forehead. He had heard of famous liquors like Maotai and Wuliangye, but what kind of liquor were Harbin Beer and Jiang Xiaobai?

He shook his head. "No need. I heard your previous conversation with that organization. The 'Brotherhood of Assassins' you made up is quite interesting. Hassassin is the origin of the word 'assassin,' while brotherhood has many possible origins—it can be traced back to the Pythagorean School, and later there was even a Catholic order called the Little Brothers. Combining those two terms with your Hidden Blade... I can already feel my creative passion being stirred."

Of course, he also knew that Jiang Hang had already used that organization to fool the Black Organization. At least until the problem with that organization was resolved, he could not write it into one of his novels.

"In any case, using the Brotherhood identity will be enough. I'll make a few adjustments to the script." Yusaku Kudo glanced at the time. Conan would probably wake up in two hours at the earliest. There was no way to write an outstanding script in such a short time, but Jiang Hang's role did not need to be too prominent. It should be enough to fool Conan for now.

Come to think of it, Conan really was miserable. His own parents had drugged him, and while they were eating and drinking their fill in a restaurant, Conan was tied up and thrown into a dusty old house without even being given dinner.

But considering that Yusaku Kudo had gone this far because he wanted his son to back down in the face of difficulty, Jiang Hang felt that this was already quite gentle.

Still, Jiang Hang only wanted to pat Yusaku Kudo on the shoulder and tell him: your son has a terminal illness where he gets itchy all over if he sees anything suspicious and does not go investigate it. No matter how much effort you put into this, in a week at most, your son will have forgotten all about it.

Night fell, and Conan groggily regained consciousness.

The moment he woke up, he realized his current situation.

He had been tied up and thrown onto the floor of a dilapidated house.

Though his head was still spinning, he quickly remembered what had happened before.

Had the Black Organization captured him again? Damn it... he had miscalculated after all.

Fragments of memory seemed to flash through his mind. When that woman had drugged him into unconsciousness, he vaguely remembered seeing Jiang Hang appear.