Why Is Bourbon Here?

By the time Tang Ze Zhao finally made it to Beika Station, two hours had already passed.

Before crossing over, Tang Ze Zhao had not been Japanese, but he had lived in Tokyo before. He had been mentally prepared, more or less, for the hassle of taking the subway in Japan and for how much of a maze Shibuya Station was.

Yet Conan's world's modified underground rail system still left him completely baffled. He had vastly underestimated how long the trip would take, and it was already past two in the afternoon by the time he found Polo Cafe.

He was supposed to go to Teitan High School to complete his enrollment procedures today. With this delay, he was probably going to miss dinner.

Silently mourning his faintly aching stomach for two seconds, Tang Ze Zhao pushed open the door to Polo Cafe.

There were still two or three customers in the shop. The two servers stood behind the long counter chatting with them, and at the sound of the door opening, everyone turned to look at Tang Ze Zhao.

"!" Tang Ze Zhao looked up at the two of them, and his heart skipped a beat.

The long-haired girl on the left looked gentle and friendly. She was probably Azusa Enomoto, the cafe waitress who regularly appeared in the manga. The problem was that the man on the right had far too distinctive a face. A handsome guy with tan skin and short blond hair—anyone who had watched Conan could name him at a glance.

Why was Tooru Amuro here?!

Seeing that Tang Ze Zhao had frozen in the doorway after pushing the door open, looking utterly at a loss, Azusa Enomoto studied him carefully. Her gaze moved from his school uniform to his unusual hair color and blue eyes.

"Ah!" Azusa Enomoto tapped her right fist against her palm, looking suddenly enlightened. "You're the high school student the boss mentioned, aren't you? Mr. Tang Ze Zhao."

Tang Ze Zhao came back to his senses and reflexively bowed in greeting. "Sorry for my rudeness. Nice to meet you. I'm Tang Ze Zhao, and I'll be staying here from now on. Please take care of me."

His almost instinctive, textbook three-part first-meeting greeting made Azusa Enomoto smile. He was a little jumpy and seemed very nervous. Tang Ze Zhao looked like a reserved, inexperienced young man with poor social skills.

"He's pretty cute, isn't he?" she murmured to Tooru Amuro, tilting her head.

Tooru Amuro was also carefully examining Tang Ze Zhao. At her words, he put on a warm, approachable smile and waved him over. "No need to be nervous. The boss told us about you. I'm Tooru Amuro, and this is Azusa Enomoto. We work here. Please take care of us as well."

Looking at his sunny smile, Tang Ze Zhao quietly adjusted his breathing to calm the elevated heart rate brought on by the shock. He returned Tooru Amuro's smile and walked into the cafe.

Beneath his calm expression, however, his heart was in turmoil.

What was going on? Had the Conan side of the plot already progressed this far? By the time Tooru Amuro started working at Polo Cafe, Shuichi Akai should already have become Subaru Okiya, right?

But he remembered glancing at a newspaper on the way here. There had clearly been headlines like "High School Detective Shinichi Kudo Solves Another Bizarre Case." Shinichi Kudo was still active!

Then Tooru Amuro...

This was bad. His boarding life had become extremely bad from day one.

"Your belongings arrived yesterday, and we put them upstairs for you." Azusa Enomoto pointed to the wooden staircase behind the side of the counter and told Tang Ze Zhao, "You can go up and sort things out or rest first. If you need any help, just ask us."

Having decided that Tang Ze Zhao was somewhat socially anxious, Azusa Enomoto worried that being stared at by the customers would make him even more nervous. Thoughtfully, she gave him an excuse to leave.

"Thank you very much, but I was delayed too long on the way here and I'm about to run out of time for enrollment. Could I have the proof of residence first?" After hesitating, Tang Ze Zhao was unsure whether Azusa Enomoto and the others knew his identity, so he only euphemistically used the word "boarding."

What he actually needed was a volunteer guardian certificate for his observation and protection period. Tang Ze Zhao was effectively a criminal on probation now. A volunteer had to act as his temporary guardian, communicate with the school, provide proof that they would be responsible for watching over him, stay in contact, and submit regular reports. Only then would a high school be willing to take in such a hot potato as a juvenile offender.

"Proof?" Azusa Enomoto repeated doubtfully, seemingly not quite understanding Tang Ze Zhao's circumstances.

Tooru Amuro beside her took over. "Ah, proof of residence? Leave it to me. The boss explained it to me. You're transferring to Teitan High School, right? It's not far from here. I can go with you."

Tang Ze Zhao turned and met Tooru Amuro's violet-gray eyes. From the smile on his face, Tooru Amuro clearly understood exactly what he had been talking about.

Tang Ze Zhao glanced at the customers in the shop and asked quietly, "It's still business hours. Is that really all right?"

"It's fine. I can handle things by myself right now," Azusa Enomoto hurriedly said, nudging Tooru Amuro out from behind the counter. "Mr. Amuro, hurry up and take him over there."

So Tang Ze Zhao stood obediently to the side, waiting for Tooru Amuro to take off his barista apron, put on his coat, and head outside. Then he followed behind him with the same obedient expression.

In truth, though, Tang Ze Zhao's fingers were digging so hard into his commuter bag that they were nearly tearing through the fabric.

Good grief. Just... good grief.

Azusa Enomoto might have thought he only needed some kind of document proving his address, but Tang Ze Zhao knew perfectly well that he needed his supervisor to coordinate with the school. No ordinary bystander could handle that for him.

So after all that, his temporary guardian was not the mysterious cafe owner who had never shown his face, but Tooru Amuro?!

At that thought, Tang Ze Zhao lowered his head behind Tooru Amuro and stared fixedly at the shadow beneath his feet, terrified that he might reveal an inappropriate expression and let this sharp fake liquor spot a flaw.

It was over. Shinichi Kudo had not even been knocked out with a club yet, but The Organization had already surfaced on Tang Ze Zhao's side.

Yes, it was definitely The Organization.

Whatever the real purpose behind this layered identity act was, whenever he used the public identity of Tooru Amuro, it meant that the surface motivation behind his actions had to be that of Bourbon, a codename-bearing member of The Organization.

In the original plot, Tooru Amuro had started working at Polo Cafe because Bourbon wanted to investigate the Mori Detective Agency.

And Bourbon would not come to a cafe for no reason just to become a high school student's guardian. That meant there had to be something connecting "Tang Ze Zhao" to The Organization, triggering Bourbon's cafe job plotline ahead of schedule.

"You seem very nervous, Tang Ze Zhao?" Tooru Amuro suddenly turned around and spoke as he looked at Tang Ze Zhao, whose head was lowered so far that only the top of it could be seen.

"Y-Yes. Sorry." Tang Ze Zhao maintained his socially anxious persona and answered in a tiny voice. At the same time, he raised his head by thirty degrees and switched to staring at Tooru Amuro's cuff.

Tang Ze Zhao's memories of the original owner's first dozen or so years of life were still extremely hazy. Apart from a few relatively vivid fragments, he could not even remember his parents' names clearly. He had no idea what Tang Ze Zhao had been like before.

Tooru Amuro definitely knew more than Tang Ze Zhao did now. With the style of this fake liquor, he would never casually approach Tang Ze Zhao without digging up every last detail of Tang Ze Zhao's family history.

Tang Ze Zhao simply decided to improvise based on his own interpretation. After all, a kid who had been wrongly accused of becoming a criminal with a record could reasonably become withdrawn even if he had once been a social butterfly with maxed-out interpersonal skills, right?

Tooru Amuro was still smiling pleasantly, his tone relaxed and easygoing. "It's all right, Tang Ze Zhao. I more or less understand your situation. The boss is abroad year-round, so for the next year, I'll be responsible for your guardianship."

Knew it.

Tang Ze Zhao fell silent for a moment and did not follow up on his topic. If he handed the initiative over to Tooru Amuro, they would probably enter an interrogation loop next. But guess what? He knew even less than Tooru Amuro did.

Instead, he asked, "So Miss Enomoto, and everyone else in the shop, know too, right?"

Tang Ze Zhao phrased it as a question, but his tone was that of a certain statement. The dejected note in his voice made Tooru Amuro raise an eyebrow.

At heart, Tooru Amuro was steadfastly Red Faction. He was more inclined to be considerate and caring toward sensitive teenagers. Seeing Tang Ze Zhao display such a wounded posture, he naturally could not continue probing him. Instead, he reassured him, "No. The boss only informed me. You can live here without worry. We'll protect your privacy, so there's no need to be concerned."

During the walk away from the cafe, Tang Ze Zhao had conducted a rapid brainstorming session and quickly chosen the persona he would use from now on.

He began acting according to the character template he had decided on. With a self-mocking snort and a low, desolate tone, he directly named the term Tooru Amuro had been trying to avoid. "That makes sense. If people knew there was a juvenile offender convicted of grievous bodily harm living in the cafe, it would affect your reputation. Business would become difficult, wouldn't it?"

Tooru Amuro frowned. "How could that be? Don't think like that, Tang Ze Zhao."

"I'll try my best not to cause everyone trouble. Please rest assured." Tang Ze Zhao continued without waiting for a response, his brows and eyes lowered. Though his head was raised now, his gaze remained fixed very low. His long eyelashes concealed his bright blue eyes. "I'll behave myself. I just need to stay for one year. I won't cause you any trouble."

His extremely negative, self-abandoning demeanor really did make Tooru Amuro unable to bear asking about what he had originally wanted to know. He could only change the subject to Tang Ze Zhao's future school, Teitan High School.

"Teitan High School is a well-known school even within Tokyo, and its advancement rate is very high. Transferring here isn't necessarily a bad thing. It might even be more helpful when you apply to school in the future." Tooru Amuro softened his phrasing. If he had initially sounded like he was speaking normally to a middle school student, he now sounded a little like he was coaxing an elementary schooler. "The atmosphere among the students here is very good. You can relax a little."

Tang Ze Zhao finally raised his eyes and met Tooru Amuro's gaze for the first time since they had begun walking.

His lips moved as if he did not quite agree with Tooru Amuro's assessment, but in the end, he said nothing. He only pressed his lips tightly together.

Tang Ze Zhao's current thought was, Keep fooling the out-of-towner, why don't you.

Is there anywhere in Beika Town where the interpersonal atmosphere is good?

Really? I don't believe it. Civilized and courteous Beika Town, huh?

Tang Ze Zhao had made this expression on the train as well. When he tightened the corners of his mouth, his cheeks puffed up into a rounded shape, like he still had a little baby fat left. Though he himself was indeed very serious, other people would only find him cute.

Tang Ze Zhao was not deliberately trying to act younger. He simply had not adapted to this new face yet and did not know how to use it very well.

But in any case, Tooru Amuro could not resist reaching out and rubbing his head.

"Relax. There's nothing to worry about. Teitan High School is right over there. It's close, isn't it?"

Following the direction Tooru Amuro pointed, Tang Ze Zhao saw the school name "Teitan High School" engraved across the street ahead.

...Come to think of it, Shujin High School, where the P5 protagonist attended, was a pun. "Shujin" and "prisoner" had the same pronunciation in Japanese, representing the P5 protagonist's so-called fate as a prisoner.

Teitan High School was also a pun. Teitan was pronounced teitan, which was tantei—detective—with the syllables reversed.

...So I really can't escape puns in this life, huh.

While grumbling furiously in his heart, Tang Ze Zhao still obediently followed behind Tooru Amuro into this famous two-dimensional landmark.

_(:з"∠)_ New author, new work. Favorites, recommendations, keeping up with the updates—anything is fine. Please give me some, I'm begging you.