Outside the restaurant.
By the time he had been surrounded by four adults, Gin's car had vanished into the distance.
Watching the car disappear, Conan stopped struggling in dejection. There was no way he could catch up now.
"But why would Gin be around here?" His body had stopped moving, but his mind could not. Conan rapidly thought it through.
"Could it be because the Commercial District has such heavy foot traffic, making it a good place for a deal?—If so, then if I'm lucky, maybe I can catch Gin's other trading partner nearby!
"And besides, it looked like Gin was the only one in that car just now. Where did Vodka go?"
Conan warily glanced around, then recalled something with mixed feelings. "Come to think of it, I hardly ever run into Gin and Vodka together anymore. When I'd just been shrunk, those two always showed up together..."
When had that change started?
After thinking back carefully for a while, Conan suddenly became alert. "If I remember correctly, it seems to have started when Vodka used the alias 'Mr. Yamada' to worm his way into Jiang Xia's side."
"Could Gin also know that the criminal aura around him is too strong, so he deliberately kept his distance from Vodka to avoid making Jiang Xia suspicious?... Those bastards!"
Beside him, Suzuki Sonoko watched Conan's expression change countless times in a single second. Completely baffled, she scratched at her hairpin. "You really are a strange little brat. Don't tell me you're possessed or something? Maybe we should take you to a shrine another day."
"What shrine?" A voice came from the distance. Someone walked over from across the street and chimed in, "I want to go too."
The two police officers who had been about to leave froze when they heard