Horse-Stripping Saber Technique

Tang Ze leaned down, his gaze level with the sweating elementary school student.

Tang Ze thought to himself, Conan looked quite amusing like this, mouth agape, eyes wide and unmoving, like a startled hamster.

It wasn't an accident that he'd been hit by a tranquilizer dart; he'd deliberately bumped into Sonoko, using her proximity.

Based on his previous deductions, the main figures of the Red Faction could trigger coop. Tang Ze had no reason not to try with Conan, such a major protagonist. It was just that his alias, Tang Ze Zhao, was a bit awkward.

The day he transferred schools was precisely when Shinichi Kudo's absence began. They hadn't met as classmates, and Tang Ze's current situation, surrounded by the Organization, wasn't conducive to slowly getting acquainted with Conan. The current Conan was a reckless fool who would climb into Gin's Porsche to plant a bug, prone to causing trouble.

So, Tang Ze pondered, since the conditions for triggering coop involved keywords like agreement, transaction, and contract, then holding leverage was a form of transaction, wasn't it?

Conan's biggest leverage was this alias that everyone in the Red Faction knew.

The day was bright and breezy, a perfect day for stripping a horse, and the murder case arrived neither too early nor too late, the timing was just right. Thus, Tang Ze seized the opportunity to stage a little accident.

"It seems you're a child with secrets, Conan-kun." Tang Ze, with his back to everyone else, made a not-so-kind, sinister expression. He stared until Conan broke out in another cold sweat before smiling and straightening up.

"Mouri-kun!" Tang Ze raised his voice and called out.

"No, wait...!" Conan, startled, lunged forward, trying to stop Tang Ze from saying more, but being barely as tall as Tang Ze's waist, he could only reach Tang Ze's elbow.

"What is it?" Ran Mouri looked over, confused.

Don't! Conan tightly gripped Tang Ze's forearm, dangling there uselessly, kicking his legs, his heart wailing.

"Could I borrow this child for a moment?" Tang Ze, with Conan hanging off him, cupped his hands under Conan's chin and lifted him to his chest. "He was a great help with the case today, very capable. I promised him I'd take him out for cake."

"Is this child bothering you? You don't need to be so polite." Ran Mouri looked at the stunned Conan, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"No, no, he found crucial evidence today and did a great job. He's quite the little detective, isn't he?" Tang Ze put down Conan, whose emotions had fluctuated wildly and was now a bit frozen, and smiled, patting the round head.

Patting him, Conan blinked. The system successfully rebooted, and he quickly shouted in a child's voice, "Yes! I want cake, big brother, take me to eat cake!"

Conan secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as Ran didn't find out, anything was fine.

Tang Ze didn't know Shinichi Kudo. Even if he found his behavior unusual, he probably wouldn't connect it to his true identity... right...

After all, an adult shrinking into a child was such a common-sense-defying thing...

With a sliver of hope, Conan considered this in his mind.

Ran Mouri felt no suspicion towards Tang Ze, her new neighbor who was considerate and had a good temper. Instead, she worried about the troublesome, rowdy child causing trouble.

After giving Conan a few instructions, she let Tang Ze lead the fake elementary schooler away.

The main entrance of the museum was already surrounded by reporters who had caught wind of the news. Inspector Megure, in charge of the case, was being interviewed at the entrance. Tang Ze gazed at the scene from afar, deciding to avoid the main entrance and pulled Conan away through a side exit.

True to his word, Tang Ze did go to a dessert shop on the shopping street.

"Since you don't seem to want to talk to me proactively, I'll speak first." Tang Ze stirred his warm coffee, propped his chin on his hand, and looked at Conan, who was sitting opposite him, staring intently at the cake plate. "Since there's a 'Sleeping Tang Ze Zhao,' then the title 'Sleeping Mori Kogoro' must have been your doing as well, right? I rarely saw Mr. Mori in the social pages before. You've only been staying at their house for a few days, and Mr. Mori suddenly appeared..."

"!" Conan's hands, which were on his knees, tightened instantly, and he looked up to meet Tang Ze's gaze.

"It seems I've guessed correctly, little kid." Tang Ze pinched a sugar cube between his index and middle fingers, making a "peace" sign. "Next question, is your name really 'Edogawa Conan,' and are you an elementary school student? Has no one ever told you that your acting is really terrible?"

Conan's alias issue was one of the most frustrating plot points in the Conan manga.

Conan's performance was too outrageous. An elementary school student in the first grade, he entered murder scenes as if they were his own backyard, landed airplanes, and kicked satellites with soccer balls. As a result, almost every intelligent character associated with the Red Faction would discover Conan was Shinichi Kudo after a few rounds of back-and-forth.

Even Mori Kogoro, whose back of the neck was turned into a hedgehog, had figured it out. His alias was essentially only effective against the dim-witted.

Conan was practically using his real name online within the Red Faction. On top of that, he would unhesitatingly take a temporary antidote and show up in his adult form, leading to Gin having to create the bizarre setting of people forgetting the dead just to smooth things over, practically a Great Memory Erasure Technique.

Conan watched the sugar cube disappear into the coffee cup. He held back, but couldn't resist muttering softly, "It can't be that bad..."

"You can only fool people who are careless," Tang Ze commented frankly. "You're attending school now... Take a good look at the children your age, and then look at yourself. Smart children, smart teenagers, and smart adults, although all are smart, they present themselves very differently. Let me guess..."

Tang Ze pinched another sugar cube and slowly waved it back and forth in front of Conan's eyes. "You're definitely not an adult, but you're not too young either... A high school student?"

Conan's startled gaze followed his moving fingers. It was quite amusing, like watching a cat.

Tang Ze threw this sugar cube into the coffee cup as well. The falling cube splashed a little water. Conan watched the white sugar slowly melt and sink, feeling as though it was a metaphor for his own fragile disguise.

"High school student, detective, a high school detective from Tokyo..." Tang Ze pinched another sugar cube and held it over the cup, tilting his head as if in thought, and slowly said, "Hmm, although I don't know how you managed it, but the recently elusive high school detective from Tokyo—"

With a soft "plop," Tang Ze loosened his grip, and this sugar cube also fell into the coffee.

Conan slowly shifted backward, pressing his back against the chair's backrest, unsure if he wanted to distance himself from Tang Ze's terrifying words or to give himself some physical support.

Stopping at the right moment, Tang Ze swallowed back the name that was already on his lips and didn't continue his logical chain.

He blinked his right eye and picked up the coffee, which he had made sweet by adding sugar, and took a sip.

When he put down the ceramic cup again, the bottom of the cup made a crisp "clink" against the saucer, like a chess piece being firmly placed on the board.

"Checkmate," Tang Ze concluded.

Chapter two will be a bit later. I still have work to do, so I'll write it after I get off work [lying down]