The Real Business War

"So you don't want to find someone to disguise themselves, and you don't want to ask Kuroba's side for help either. What are you going to do on your birthday?"

"Whew, I'll figure something out eventually. Worst comes to worst, I'll just..."

"Worst comes to worst, you'll take the medicine I gave you, right?" Tangze opened his eyes and stared wordlessly at the elementary schooler sitting across from him. "Did I give you that medicine so you could use it like this?"

After spending half the day soaking in Moriyama Teiji's Pure White Palace and another entire night desperately trying to solve puzzles, Tangze felt like the brilliant white light had nearly baked him into snow blindness.

So now, he sat outside the café with his eyes closed, lazily basking in the sun—and was thus spotted by his deeply worried upstairs neighbor.

Though Tangze knew all too well about the upcoming birthday and date, he still put on the act of a thoughtful older brother and listened to his neighbor complain about being forced to stand Ran Mouri up.

"But if I don't use it this time, my birthday might turn into my death anniversary." Conan, who felt the same way, thought of Ran's increasingly strange and ambiguous attitude lately and clutched at his wildly pounding chest. "This can count as a critical life-or-death moment, right...?"

Originally, just as Tangze had said, he knew Joker, who was skilled in disguise, and he knew Kaito Kuroba, who looked almost exactly like him. If it was just a quiet meeting in a dark movie theater, he could indeed ask someone to attend the date in his place, keep communications open, and pull off a simple remote substitute act.

But after recalling Yusuke Kitagawa's earth-shattering invitation to model nude yesterday, then considering Ran