(`)
Those words struck right at the assistant's heart.
She looked up at Irish, feeling that she might have misjudged him earlier—perhaps this big security guard merely looked fierce, which was why his smile had given her the illusion of being "sinister and cold."
Having obtained useful intelligence, Irish did not linger and soon left.
He could not be bothered to investigate whether that talkative little assistant was a pawn Uzo had left behind. He had to admit that, in this confrontation with Uzo, he was temporarily at an absolute disadvantage. What he needed to do now was follow the bait Uzo had laid out and steadily build up his own strength. Then one day... Hmph.
"Kudo Shinichi."
The name felt extremely familiar to Irish. His excellent memory told him that this was definitely not merely because the other man had once been a somewhat famous High School Detective, but because there was another reason.
Irish went to a secluded corner, logged into the organization's Database, entered the name, and pressed Enter.
Some files appeared, divided into two sections. One contained this Great Detective's publicly available information, while the other, darker-toned section concerned the intersection between Kudo Shinichi and the organization.
After verifying his access privileges, Irish opened the latter and obtained some more confidential information.
Kudo Shinichi's death was indeed related to the organization—or, more precisely, to Gin. This Detective had stumbled upon Vodka's transaction site and had even taken photographs. But before he could take those photos away, Gin silenced him, and he died beside a construction site.
Yet now, this Detective, who should have been dead, had appeared alive inside the venue.
Irish exited the information screen, and his heartbeat silently quickened.
Anyone with even a little experience in internal strife knew that the best way