"...The victim names you gave me did indeed match the survivors from the sixth floor of the fire. And the elevator's passenger limit really was seven."
"Just as I thought. I'm guessing the last two residents on the sixth floor were named Nanako Motokami and Kosuke Mizutani, right?"
"Correct. Looks like you already have some leads, Kudo."
"I wouldn't have asked you to skip school and investigate this otherwise..."
At that, Conan slowly let out a breath.
Some of the heavy shadows looming behind this case seemed to poke their heads out again.
"Among these dead, one person's identity was concealed as an Organization member. I sent you the information. What do you think?"
Closing the notebook in his hands, Heiji Hattori heard the obvious despondency in his voice. After some thought, he did not answer right away.
He knew that if Kudo was saying this, it meant he had already uncovered some clues himself. He was not looking for an answer or confirmation now so much as someone to talk to.
"A university professor, a restaurant chef, a legislative secretary, an IT worker... Honestly, only now am I vaguely realizing that the Black Organization members I've encountered were spread across so many professions." Conan gently closed his eyes. "When I saw this information and learned it was connected to the Organization, my first reaction was actually—could they all be members?"
After investigating the Organization for so long, aside from operatives like Gin and Vodka who seemed to work for it full-time, the others truly came from every walk of life.
From ordinary programmers to fabulously wealthy tycoons, even people who had nothing to do with the Organization for the moment would naturally be tempted with fame and fortune when they possessed some useful value, made to turn that value