Some distant corner.
Vodka sneezed. "Achoo!"
The busy organization member rubbed his nose and warily looked around. Finding nothing suspicious, he finally sighed in relief and retreated into the Safe House he had temporarily found.
"Tonight's the time to trade with Itakura Suguru." Vodka calculated the operation plan. "I hope everything goes smoothly. I'd better not get tangled up with that thing."
After Tequila had been blown to death, much of the work handled by that Kansai brute had flowed back to the organization to await reassignment.
And now, the series of tasks involving the handover with Itakura Suguru had landed in Vodka's hands.
"But why should I take over? Debts have their debtors. If you ask me, this should've gone to Uzo."
When Tequila had been killed, Vodka had not thought much of it.
But now, as a seasoned Uzo-ologist, all it took was a casual look back for him to notice that the incident had Uzo's traces everywhere—an apparently accidental Murder Case, an organization member caught up in the murder and killed, an innocent Detective passing by, and even that Conan brat running all over the place... It was practically the most textbook example of Uzo's handiwork.
"If I remember correctly, Jiang Xia was still just an ordinary Peripheral Member back then." As Vodka recalled all the details, the hairs on his back stood up.
"After Tequila died, Brother Gin considered recruiting new blood because of that guy's stupidity and the shortage of manpower.
"And at that time, Jiang Xia, who had passed through that incident and successfully retrieved both the information and the funds, undoubtedly became an extremely conspicuous candidate.
"Sure enough, Brother Gin began testing him, and Uzo naturally passed with ease."
"...In other words, Brother Gin had already been influenced by him back then, following