At the kitchen door.
As Vodka stared at the kitchen floor, observing Yuki Aono's condition.
Conan crouched several meters away, watching Vodka's back before glancing at Jiang Xia and Yuki Aono in the kitchen. He secretly let out a sigh of relief.
—Just now, Vodka and Hoshino Terumi had noticed that Jiang Xia was gone and followed the trail to the kitchen.
Conan, meanwhile, had seen Vodka leaving and followed him.
The moment he saw the scene in the kitchen, Conan broke out in a cold sweat.
—Others might have been fooled, but with his terrifying observation skills and his usual understanding of Jiang Xia, Conan had immediately sensed it: Jiang Xia had probably been about to pull off one of his practiced knock-someone-out moves. But perhaps because he had noticed someone approaching the kitchen—or perhaps for some other reason—he had stopped midway.
Conan: "..." It was fortunate things had turned out this way. Otherwise, if Vodka had burst through the door and happened to see Jiang Xia knocking someone out, discovered the Great Detective's violent side, then forced himself to conclude from that one-sided scene that Jiang Xia was "well suited to The Organization," or saw it as dirt he could use to threaten him... what if he extended an olive branch to Jiang Xia in the end?
If it really came to that, it would already be too late.
Given The Organization's brazen habit of bombing anything they pleased, once they invited someone, that person either joined or died... He had to cut things off before they worsened to that point.
And besides...
Conan looked warily toward the kitchen door:
For some reason, Vodka had been standing there the whole time. Judging from the direction his head was turned, he really was watching Jiang Xia.
If he kept