"Okay."
The others did not know much about the process of taking photos, so they gave it no further thought.
At President Hoya's call, they all boarded the elevator that stopped between floors one and eight and headed for the eighth floor together.
Okiya Subaru stood in the corner of the elevator, watching the numbers tick upward. For some reason, he could not shake a sense of foreboding.
A dozen seconds later, he realized his premonition had come true.
—With a ding, the elevator stopped on the eighth floor.
President Hoya stepped out and looked around. Then her gaze suddenly froze on something beside her.
She let out a shrill scream—"Aah—!!"—and collapsed to the floor in terror, trembling as she raised a hand to point at the neighboring elevator. "Mi-Mika, she...!!"
Okiya Subaru: "..."
...It could not be what he thought it was, could it?
As he fell silent, two figures suddenly rushed past him—
Jiang Xia and the elementary school student darted out of the elevator. When they saw the scene outside, both froze, their expressions gradually turning grave.
Okiya Subaru looked at Jiang Xia, then at Conan. "..."
...Detective habits really were contagious. That tiny first-grader already looked like a fully formed Detective.
Come to think of it, Okiya Subaru suddenly thought, little Conan must have done plenty of detective work with Jiang Xia. Otherwise, there was no way his demeanor and movements could be so similar.
If he found an opportunity to extract information from Conan, perhaps he might unexpectedly uncover traces of Uzo's existence—what if Uzo was actually friendlier toward children and had forgotten to guard against them?
Of course, after quietly noting down this possible breakthrough, Okiya Subaru had no intention of trying it himself.
Instead, he planned to toss the information to Akai