Go to Big Rice Flower Shop First

"Guchuan! Um..."

"You finally came to pick me up." Guchuan shook his head at Conan.

Conan did not understand what Guchuan meant, but when he saw the man in black take out an ID and the police officer immediately put on a smile, he understood.

This organization really did have an undercover agent within the police, and one with a fairly high rank.

After the man showed his ID, the officer smiled as brightly as a blooming flower.

Fumiyo Edogawa also spotted Conan. Her expression was somewhat surprised, as though she had not expected to run into him here.

This was truly too wonderful.

Having finished speaking with the police, Yusaku Kudo turned around and locked eyes with Guchuan's group of four.

All four had their own thoughts, and an eerie silence filled the air.

"Guchuan, is this little friend the one who came to pick you up?" Yumi Miyamoto broke the strange atmosphere.

"Yeah. Officer Miyamoto, you know that I left my parents when I was little. The only one who could come get me is my best friend, Conan," Guchuan said.

"Having a child come over is still too ridiculous." Yumi Miyamoto sounded displeased.

"I don't have anyone else who can come get me." Guchuan looked pitiful.

Yumi Miyamoto could not bear to scold the child either.

His parents did not care about him, letting Guchuan develop such an awful personality. It was all his parents' fault!

"Alright, since someone has come for him, let them go." A middle-aged police officer stepped in to smooth things over.

That was enough. Let people off when you could. If you refused to let someone off today, someone would refuse to let you off tomorrow.

Being a police officer was not easy these days.

Guchuan's group and Yusaku Kudo's group left the Police Station at the same time. Outside the station, both sides remained relatively restrained, and no argument or fight broke out.

Yusaku Kudo brushed the snow off his hat, got into the car, and drove away.

"Don't chase them."

Guchuan grabbed Conan's arm.

"They definitely have guns. If we go after them, we'll just be walking into death."

"Guchuan, didn't you collect a lot of antique pistols? Can those guns still be used?" Conan asked.

Guchuan's eyes lit up as he looked at Conan with satisfaction. As expected of someone I think highly of—he actually wanted to have a shootout with his own father and mother.

Good! You've got guts!

Conan seemed to read something from Guchuan's eyes and scratched his head awkwardly.

"I was only thinking about self-defense."

"Fine, I'll get a few for you. Do you want a submachine gun? It's a little hard to get, but I can borrow one from a friend."

"N-No, no, no." Conan shook his head repeatedly.

I only wanted something for self-defense, not to go have a gunfight with them.

The two arrived at the Collection Hall. Guchuan gave Vodka's sidearm to Conan while taking Gin's Beretta for himself.

Guchuan kept waiting, but no call came through on his phone, leaving him somewhat disappointed. I've already met you people face-to-face, and you still aren't coming after me?

If I couldn't toy with Conan, then I could only toy with you!

Conan also stared at the gun in his hand in deep thought.

This gun was not an antique either.

The two began discussing a battle plan. At Professor Agasa's house, the Kudo couple were also discussing a plan to abduct Conan.

"Professor Agasa, I found your car. Do you know someone named Guchuan?" Yusaku Kudo asked.

"You mean Guchuan? Of course I know him," Professor Agasa said.

"Guchuan seems to have a mental illness. When he has an episode, he likes doing strange things."

His mental illness was rather harmless. When he had an episode, he merely seemed a little abnormal, but he never hurt anyone.

"Oh, right. Guchuan also knows Shinichi's identity," Professor Agasa added.

"Is that so?" Yusaku Kudo nodded.

Shinichi really was too reckless. Quite a few people knew his identity already.

"Then can you contact him? With his help, teaching Shinichi a lesson would be more effective," Yukiko Kudo asked.

"Uh, his house is right next door, but I don't seem to have his contact information." Professor Agasa tugged at his beard.

As neighbors, they did not even have each other's contact information.

"Then forget it."

"We definitely can't go to the Mouri Residence now."

"I can't go home either."

"I called Professor Agasa so many times, but I couldn't get through."

"Then let's go check Professor Agasa's house first," Guchuan said.

He had no idea where the Kudo couple might have gone either, so they would first head to Professor Agasa's house to look for clues.

After driving to Professor Agasa's house, the two of them sneaked toward it.

Conan was afraid of being spotted by "organization members," while Guchuan was afraid that Little Ai at home might happen to spot him.

Once inside, Guchuan began rummaging through drawers and cabinets openly, giving Conan a fright.

"Guchuan, we don't know whether there's anyone in the house," Conan said in a lowered voice.

"There isn't. Didn't you see that none of the lights are on?" Guchuan said with complete confidence.

Conan could not stop Guchuan. One of them was sneaking around, while the other was as relaxed and bold as if he had returned to his own home. Only after Conan had finished searching the place did he nervously hold his breath again.

Professor Agasa had most likely been taken away by those organization members.

I'm sorry, Professor!

Looking at Guchuan's fearless expression, Conan's mouth twitched uncontrollably.

Although Guchuan values loyalty and friendship, and he has strong reasoning skills and a high IQ, this reckless personality of his is really hard to deal with.

"There's a newspaper in the trash can."

"What's so unusual about a newspaper?" Conan said carelessly.

"There are a lot of holes in it. Maybe the organization members cut out the words on it." Guchuan placed the newspaper on the table and slowly guided Conan along.

"There are a lot of cigarette butts in the trash can, and Professor Agasa doesn't smoke. Besides, no visitors would come to see an old man living alone. These cigarette butts could only have been left behind by organization members."

Guchuan was somewhat disdainful of the clues Yusaku Kudo had left behind.

Their organization was a professional criminal syndicate. They would never leave such obvious clues at a crime scene. Not even Vodka would be stupid enough to do that, let alone Gin.

Fortunately, Conan still believed it.

"Let me see."

Conan snatched the newspaper away.

"The missing characters are 'rice,' 'flower,' 'big,' 'hotel,' and 'shop.' Put together, they make Beika Grand Hotel!"

"No," Guchuan objected.

"I know a flower shop called Big Rice Flower Shop."

"What!?" Conan looked stunned.

What kind of flower shop had a name like that? Did the owner really like eating rice that much?

"So where should we go first?" Conan scratched his head.

Since the cut-out characters formed two locations, that mysterious organization would definitely be acting at one of them. If they went there, they would surely find more clues and rescue Professor Agasa.

"Let's go to Big Rice Flower Shop first. A normal person would definitely think of Beika Grand Hotel, so the organization will surely do the opposite," Guchuan suggested.

"Okay."