"So that was why that detective named Hakuba had been connected to my uncle and aunt's deaths..."
Akemi Miyano lowered her head, unable to stop herself from mulling it over distractedly.
Among this group of young high school detectives, Saguru Hakuba ranked among the very best. By Tangze's standards, Shinichi Kudo undoubtedly took first place—Noah considered that assessment biased, but Tangze insisted—followed by Saguru Hakuba and Heiji Hattori. Yet unlike pure armchair detectives or lone wolves who worked alone, Saguru Hakuba had a more elite style: he emphasized pooling resources and even built databases himself. In investigations involving large organizations, his role could be even greater than that of the first two.
In other words, he was an exceptionally capable investigative prodigy. It might not have been a coincidence that Saguru Hakuba, who had been tracking down the Zoo, had crossed paths with the Tang Ze couple at some point.
"The Zoo was involved in their affairs too?" Hirotsugu Morofushi frowned instinctively.
One organization was already troublesome enough. Adding some unknown international group of thieves or assassins that might also possess special abilities... the pressure was more than doubled.
"I'm guessing it was because of that alloy." Asai Narumi, who had been flipping through the files, set down the document in her hand and recalled what she had heard before. "If I remember correctly, the brooch Miss Shiho gave Tangze wasn't one the organization had later collected. It was a 'meteorite alloy with special radiation' that the Tang Ze couple had personally bought at an auction in their early days, in order to treat their son..."
"Mm, that explanation makes much more sense." Hirotsugu Morofushi nodded slowly. "The Zoo didn't know what had happened to the Tangze family. Ever since Cognitive Science demonstrated its true power, the Tang Ze couple