Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Page 133

Sano's ears twitched, sensing someone approaching. He quickly hid behind the door until a figure burst into the room.

It's Vermouth.

Sano calmly pushed the hammer of justice back: "Why are you here?"

Vermouth was startled by the sudden voice behind her. While she couldn't help but complain in her heart about how this newcomer had no presence at all, she quickly began to explain.

"Hamada is dead. He's suspected of killing him and trying to frame Kogoro Mouri. They're bringing men over now, we need to hurry..."

Before Vermouth could finish speaking, the same footsteps sounded again.

Looks like we've arrived.

Sano stared at the unconscious man on the ground, a headache washing over him. He'd been too slow when he was looking for Hamada, but now he'd acted too quickly with this guy. This was just... damn it.

"There's no other way but to disguise myself as this guy and fool him."

Under Sano's somewhat surprised gaze, Vermouth tore off her face, revealing a beautiful face that was clearly that of a foreign woman. Then she took out another face and put it on, making her look exactly like the man on the ground.

There's no time to change other aspects, so this is the only way to get by and hopefully smooth things over.

Vermouth glared at Sano: "What are you doing? Hurry up and hide him!"

Without saying a word, Sano grabbed the man next to him and hid him in the closet.

Through the crack, Sano observed the situation outside. The old man who had been responsible for picking up and dropping off Kogoro Mouri entered the room, and he was alone.

"Let's talk, Uehara."

Uehara is probably the name of the man who was knocked unconscious by Sano.

Vermouth, pretending to be Uehara, asked indifferently, "Is there something you need?"

"Stop pretending, Uehara. I already know you came here for the gold."

The old man exhaled: "Hamada, no, Aoki already confessed everything to me before. Back then, he was greedy and threw the ship owner and you into the sea for gold. I think you must hate him very much."

This old man was also in the know?

Hamada's real surname is Aoki, and this Uehara, so he was thrown off the Shenlong...

Sano and Vermouth were both surprised, but Vermouth had to continue to pretend, showing a hint of anger: "What does this have to do with you?"

"Aoki has been killed!"

The old man sneered, "You're the only suspect right now. The police and villagers are waiting outside to arrest you. I had a hard time persuading them to let me in to negotiate with you. If you're arrested, forget about the gold; whether you'll be arrested and imprisoned for murder is another matter entirely!"

If it were the real Uehara, he would probably have been intimidated by the old man by now, but Vermouth wouldn't. After a few seconds of silence, she asked in return.

Why are you helping me?

"Is this the time to talk about this? People outside could break in at any moment!"

The old man stretched out his large hand: "You still have a gun on you, right? Leave it with me for now, then hurry up and wait for me behind the naval cave. Otherwise, if you're caught with a gun on you, things will really get complicated."

gun?

Sano, hiding in the closet, patted Uehara's body and actually found a gun, but...

The old man's words sound like he's trying to scam a gun.

Of course, Sano wasn't the only one with this idea; Vermouth felt the same way. She glanced at the gap in the wardrobe out of the corner of her eye and saw Sano's eyes moving up and down. She understood that he was nodding, so she took out the gun from her body and gave it to the old man.

"Alright, let's go!"

The old man took the gun, and Vermouth had no choice but to trust Sano, turning around and climbing out the window towards the naval cave.

After Vermouth left, the old man sat down, pressed the gun against his arm, fired a shot, and then, covered in cold sweat, put the gun back in his pocket.

As soon as the gunshot rang out, people outside rushed in, including Conan and Kogoro Mouri.

"That guy shot me and then ran away."

The old man said this.

"Damn it, are they planning to flee to avoid punishment? Stop standing there, go after them!"

The group rushed out again in a panic. Although the old man's arm seemed to have only been scratched, he was still taken to the hospital.

Once the inn was empty, the wardrobe door was immediately pulled open, and Sano crawled out, dragging the unconscious Uehara out as well.

A few seconds later, another figure climbed in through the window. Although the face had changed to that of another middle-aged man, judging from the clothes, it was indeed Vermouth who had left earlier.

This guy can actually use disguise techniques? No wonder he didn't react much when he first saw me switch identities and didn't ask any further questions.

Sano looked at Vermouth, his thoughts racing, but he was also somewhat speechless.

Didn't Yukiko Kudo say that there are fewer people in the world who can use this kind of disguise than a slap? How come I've run into three of them in such a short time?

Isn't this just a common, readily available skill?

"Senior actually prepared the Uehara human skin mask in advance. Could it be that he prepared mine as well?"

In response to Sano's teasing, Vermouth chuckled and said, "After all, your face is fake, so what use is it to me?"

This time, Vermouth spoke in a female voice, which confirmed Sano's suspicion that the foreign woman's face he had seen earlier was most likely Vermouth's real face.

Of course, it's also possible that Vermouth did it on purpose to confuse Sano.

"It's really surprising. I didn't expect you to be such a beauty."

Sano teased again, feigning sarcasm, while Vermouth, with a seductive look in her eyes, raised her hand and touched Sano's neck: "What, are you tempted?"

"Tsk, senior, don't you think it's disgusting to say such things and do such things with a man's face?"

Vermouth's hand froze.

nausea?

How could someone who's always been praised be called disgusting?

Just as Vermouth was about to get angry, the next second she unconsciously pictured herself with her current face and voice, making that gesture.

...It does seem a little disgusting.

Vermouth shuddered, casually withdrew her hand, and her voice returned to a masculine tone: "What should we do next?"

"What else can we do?"

Sano looked down at Uehara, his eyes cold: "Of course, we'll dig out everything that those in the know know."

Then... forced to become a porter, Vermouth had no choice but to carry the load to the Navy Cave.

After setting Uehara down, Vermouth looked at Sano with a resentful gaze: "I mean, don't you have any gentlemanly manners? How can you let a woman do this kind of thing, especially since I'm your senior?"

Sano casually pushed open the altar: "What can I do? I'm too weak to carry him."

Vermouth recalled how Sano had been carrying Uehara for only ten meters before becoming breathless and almost getting discovered by the villagers who were searching. Her lips twitched involuntarily.

"I'm not trying to be mean, but you're a cadre, not a researcher. How come your stamina is so poor?"

In fact, Vermouth suspected that Sano's performance just now was purely an act.

After all, people who know how to disguise themselves are usually good at acting, so it's not impossible that the other party might deliberately act as if they are physically exhausted in order to push the hard work onto them.

To put it bluntly, he just wants to slack off and be lazy!

As for Vermouth's suspicions, Sano simply shrugged: "There's nothing we can do about it, it's innate."

Chapter 165, page 164: This perverted bastard...

That's right, Sano wasn't faking it, but he wasn't entirely faking it either.

While Sano's stamina under normal conditions is indeed a major problem, his other aspects are not too bad.

Carrying a man weighing over 100 pounds for more than ten miles, while also having to avoid the villagers searching everywhere, was indeed a bit difficult for him, but it was impossible to say that he couldn't do it at all.

Sano felt that rather than waiting until things couldn't hold out any longer before handing it over to Vermouth, it would be better to hand it over to her from the beginning to avoid trouble.

...This is called making good use of resources and team composition, how can it be called slacking off?

Vermouth didn't bother to dwell on the matter. She simply kicked Uehara, who was on the ground, into the hole. Uehara rolled down the steps, making a loud clattering sound that looked painful.

"Aren't you afraid of running him over and killing him? That would mean losing a source of intelligence."

Hearing Sano's words, Vermouth just snorted and turned her head away. Wasn't she allowed to vent her anger?

"boom!"

Then, in the next second, a loud noise came from the cave entrance. Sano and Vermouth were both startled and quickly stuck their heads in. Then they vaguely saw that... the steps below seemed to have collapsed.

"..."

At a height of nearly ten meters, won't Uehara fall to his death, or be crushed to death by those bricks?

After the two pulled their heads out again, they fell silent.

Seeing Sano's gaze turn to her, Vermouth quickly coughed: "Well, this is definitely not my fault. These steps are old and in disrepair. Besides, if I hadn't kicked that guy down just now, we might have been the ones who fell when they collapsed. This is a good thing."

Sano didn't say anything, he just kept staring at Vermouth until Vermouth couldn't take it anymore and said, "Okay, I know I was wrong, alright?" Then she turned around and jumped into the hole.

Sano naturally had to jump down as well, but to avoid falling flat on his face, he quickly put on his special attack suit halfway down and only took it off after landing.

Anyway, it's dark enough inside the cave, and Vermouth can't see it.

Because of the collapsed steps, the place where the two fell was full of bricks and uneven. When they landed, they were both a little unsteady and flustered, but they still couldn't see each other.

After taking a few seconds to adjust to the light, Vermouth and Sano quickly got to work, pulling Uehara out of the bricks and dragging him to the light.

However, when Sano pulled Uehara out, his gaze lingered on the bricks for a moment before he completely handed over the moving work to Vermouth and picked up a brick to examine it.

Vermouth turned around and found Sano still crouching in the shadows behind her, and her dissatisfaction immediately rose in her heart: "Hey, seriously? You're not going to put in any effort at all?"

Before Sano could utter a sound, Uehara, who had been unconscious at Vermouth's feet, slowly woke up, groaning as if in pain.

Seeing this, Vermouth didn't dwell on Sano any longer and got down to business. She immediately slapped Uehara twice to wake him up: "You're awake now. Tell me, where is the gold?"

"W-what gold? I don't know anything about it!"

Although Uehara was still somewhat confused, he instinctively wanted to conceal the presence of the gold.

Unexpectedly, before Vermouth could even employ some impressive interrogation techniques to impress her junior and save face, Sano pulled her away and threw a pebble into Uehara's collar.

Vermouth: "?"

"clatter."