“Yes, we do.” The restaurant manager, dressed in a black uniform, gave an unexpected reply.
!" Nana's eyes lit up, just as he was about to say something, a clear and gentle male voice came from beside him. Amuro Tooru looked at the manager, his tone not aggressive, but sincere with a hint of sternness: "Could you let us take a look at the surveillance footage?
Nana shot a quick glance at Amuro Tooru, his lips parting slightly, but he made no sound.
Helping to speed up the investigation process is fine.. but she shouldn't stand out too much.
He did not yet know if the blonde-haired youth before his had recognized him.
When she had just stepped out and introduced himself as an Amateur Detective intending to help, there was a hint of surprise on the Blonde-haired youth's face.
—but it didn't seem like the surprise of seeing someone unexpected.
In Nana's view, it felt more like the shock of not expecting another "Detective" to happen to appear at this Western Restaurant.
It was completely within the realm of normal.
But.. that's not necessarily true either.
If he had hidden it well and only showed a partial amount of surprise, then was this timely surprise because he had recognized him.. Nana wasn't even sure.
The young detective with short black hair lowered her eyes slightly, several possibilities flashing through her mind. Unfortunately, she couldn't distinguish which one was more likely, nor could she guess what this person—who appeared gentle and approachable but was actually deep and possessed an ambiguous stance—was actually thinking..
Nana felt the painful experience of not having enough intelligence.
But regardless, the detective calling himself 'Amuro Tooru' showed no hidden intentions, when he heard that she was also a 'detective'—albeit an amateur—he was quite cooperative, sharing some of the information he had gathered from the Restaurant manager and the nearby customers.
Although they were all objective facts and contained no part of the reasoning, they still provided Nana with a certain amount of help.
So now, Nani took a deep breath, casting aside the tangled mess of thoughts in his mind, deciding it was best to focus on the Case first.
"It is possible, but.." The Restaurant manager appeared quite hesitant, a faint look of anxiety etched onto his thin face, his words came out somewhat haltingly.
It was early summer, the air conditioning had already been turned on in the Western Restaurant. The temperature was moderate, neither making one feel hot nor cold—the service was quite thoughtful. However, even so, beads of sweat were faintly seeping from the Manager's nose. He seemed unaware of it, not even making a move to wipe it away.
“……”Perhaps knowing there was more to the story, neither Nana nor Amuro Tooru pressed them for an answer.
They were waiting, waiting for the Restaurant manager to take the initiative to reveal the truth.
After all, given that such an incident had occurred, the Restaurant would cooperate actively, even if only to minimize the impact.
Perhaps knowing that hesitating for too long at a time like this would only invite suspicion, the Restaurant manager only hesitated for a short while before pointing toward the area slightly above and ahead. "It's right there. There is a surveillance camera in that spot that can find this seat."
Amuro Tooru and Hashimoto Nana looked in the direction he pointed with his finger. The ceiling grid lights in the Restaurant emitted a soft glow, providing a bright environment within the room without being dazzling.
Nana shifted his gaze slightly away from the light source; by not looking directly at it, he felt the brightness was within a tolerable range for his eyes.
At the same time, she also saw a small black surveillance camera not far from the grille light.
The young detective was a bit puzzled, she looked at the surveillance camera, asking with doubt, "Is something wrong?"
"This surveillance camera broke the day before yesterday." The Restaurant manager also looked up at the surveillance camera, let out a sigh, his gaze slowly fell.
"Why haven't you replaced it?" Amuro Tooru's gaze lingered on the surveillance camera for a moment longer, as if trying to memorize the appearance of the area around it, perhaps hoping to find some suspicious clues later.
The Restaurant manager looked up at the Blonde-haired youth who was asking, his expression somewhat irritable and looking thoroughly vexed: "All the other surveillance cameras are working fine; only this one is broken. We were planning to replace it within these few days."
It was just unknown whether his expression was genuine or fake.
His brow furrowed even deeper. Staff members had already tried to contact the Bar owner earlier, but unfortunately, they couldn't get through. It had only been a few short minutes since the incident occurred, he was under immense pressure. From his tone, one could hear, "Who could have known something like this would happen?"
The man in the black uniform looked both frustrated and exhausted.
However, if one were to say the deceased happened to die right under a malfunctioning surveillance camera.. it would be hard to call it a mere coincidence.
Could it be—
Was it done by Restaurant Staff?
Nana glanced at him, his green eyes reflecting a hint of doubt, said nothing.
Amuro Tooru, standing to the side, seemed lost in thought.
At the murder scene, everyone around was ordered by Security not to leave by the Security. Although there were many complaints, the Customers reluctantly cooperated, but they all stayed far away from the crime scene, whether it was because they were afraid of the Corpse or because they did not want to get involved in this matter.
Or perhaps it was both.
At a time like this, the deceased's wife, the restaurant manager, the accompanying waiter, the two uninvited detectives standing by the corpse appeared quite conspicuous.
The group of youths at Niwang's table was already a mixture of fear and curiosity regarding the murder case—judging by their expressions, it was likely that the latter was the dominant emotion. The moment Nana stepped forward, Marui let out a small gasp.
For this group of tennis youths, something like a murder case was a rare experience for a detective.
Yagami shook her head at Marui, signaling him not to make too much noise; the Red-haired youth nodded in understanding, but still whispered, "This is kind of cool."
Yagami frowned and reminded her, "This is a murder case."
Marui fell silent, however the Tennis Club's highly anticipated ace junior silently undermined him: "It is indeed a bit cool.." Kirihara Akaya turned his head toward the Silver-haired youth: "Senpai, how did you two start dating? Was it also because of a case?"
The experience was quite thrilling; the youth's eyes sparkled as he imagined many possible plots.
Niwang Yaji's mouth twitched. "You're overthinking it." Although it did have something to do with a murder case, he didn't even need to ask to know it certainly wasn't the kind of case he was thinking of.
And—
Yaji let out a silent sigh in his heart.
Who knows how hard it is for me!
Compared to Niwang's table, Gin and Akai Shuichi's seats were closer to the crime scene; in this environment, if one listened carefully, one could even catch the gist of the conversation between Amuro Tooru, Hashimoto Nana, the Restaurant manager.
Gin raised his eyebrows slightly; the loophole in his reasoning had been filled.
The middle and index fingers of the Silver-haired youth's left hand moved slightly and inadvertently, parting and then closing again; then he snapped out of it, letting out a soft, dissatisfied 'tsk'.
Although the sound was very faint, Akai Shuichi, who was immersed in the case, still heard it. He did not speak, but his green eyes cast an inquiring glance.
Gin ignored him, his gaze drifted slowly downward in a tentative manner, coming to a rest on the Silver-haired youth's long, well-defined fingers.
The way he held the cigarette.. he wanted to smoke, didn't he?
The Black-haired agent understood.
Gin only felt it was utterly baffling.
After several months of semi-cooperation, the two of them had developed a certain level of tacit understanding regarding their official business.
—And, without realizing it, a certain amount of one-sided understanding had formed.
Although he didn't quite understand what was with Akai Shuichi's gaze, Gin had no interest in investigating it—there wasn't much that could pique his interest. Although he was feeling a bit irritable due to his nicotine cravings, he looked at Amuro Tooru, who was somewhat confused because he hadn't found the key point, Hashimoto Nana, who was dazed, the furrowed brow of Akai Shuichi from before.
It seems he is the first person to discover the Truth.
This realization improved his mood.
Gin's eyes flickered. He leaned his weight back against the chair, adopting a bored and casual posture, while one hand slid into his trench coat pocket in a subtle yet completely natural manner.
Then his gaze shifted toward Bourbon, appearing as if he were "uninterested in the case but, out of boredom, watching how this Organization Cadre solves the case to pass the time."
Akai Shuichi's usually cold and impassive gaze showed a rare hint of hesitation. The keen intuition regarding danger and other matters that he had cultivated throughout his career—and even before that—which had saved his life several times, told him that something was wrong, but—
When he scanned Gin once more—not too intensely, for if he looked too seriously, he might actually get beaten up—and even turned his head to look around, he found nothing out of the ordinary.
The intuition lasted only a moment, after that, there was no such feeling again. Akai Shuichi wanted to grasp it, but such things do not follow one's will; after one attempt, he declared he was giving up.
He pulled himself together.
By the way, speaking of which..
That female college student looked somewhat familiar?
But he couldn't remember if he had ever seen his before—it seemed that even if he had, they certainly had no connection.
Or perhaps.. it was simply an illusion of his own?
..
Although he rarely used it—as there was no need and he was unwilling to—his acting, which had not regressed much, seemed to be still quite sharp.
Gin, who had successfully deceived many formidable figures on a few rare occasions, felt that this might actually be somewhat useful.
However—
Perhaps it was because his usual personality and mannerisms were so deceptive, that no one would ever suspect that the Black Organization's Top Killer would use such "little tricks."
What the hell.
Gin complained silently.
Who hasn't struggled and fought their way up from the bottom? What kind of misconceptions do you all have about him?
Although he usually looked down on using such methods, was he not allowed to have an exception?
Or perhaps he just wanted to play around a bit?
..
Gin cursed inwardly a few times, but in the end, he wasn't a character with a lot of internal monologue. After letting his thoughts run wild for a moment, he began to play the role of "Brother."
His left hand, tucked inside his black trench coat pocket, moved slightly to grip the mobile phone. Gin adjusted his posture slightly, discreetly checking the button positions displayed on the glowing screen, before turning his gaze back to Bourbon—though he only gave him a sidelong glance. His focus was instead on Nani girl, who seemed to have understood something, yet his expression still held a hint of confusion.
Gin narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly, revealing a hint of evil amusement.
Since he wanted to play, he would certainly play to his heart's content—of course, by "play," he meant playing according to his own whims.
He began composing the text message.
..
Nana's mobile phone was set to silent mode, so receiving an SMS didn't attract much attention—of course, even if she hadn't set it to silent, it wouldn't have changed the outcome.
The mobile phone vibrated incessantly in his pocket, pulling Nana's thoughts back from the thick fog of distraction. He felt a hint of impatience—after all, having one's train of thought interrupted was never a pleasant experience.
The black-haired detective girl curled her lips slightly, blinked her green eyes, took a step back to check the SMS, making sure not to disturb anyone.
The next second, his vexing thoughts were swept away, Nana's green eyes lit up, like a green plant that had just been washed by the rain, shimmering with a fresh luster.
The SMS on the white screen with black text was extremely concise—after all, the sender was touch-typing, so it was brief, consisting of only a few short lines; but as far as the result was concerned, the meaning this SMS intended to convey was very clear.
Wow—
Nana heard the admiration and screams from the little fangirl hidden deep within his heart.
As expected of Zhenjun!
Her heart was filled with pride, the little person in her soul wanted nothing more than to wear a cheerleader's skirt and cheer wildly for Zhenjun!
—Ahem, that's a bit of an exaggeration; just get the idea.