As a member of the Black Organization, Belmod naturally hasn’t dropped her work; while hiding her identity, she keeps up her search and investigation.
But just not long ago, Belmod picked up a piece of information from the bug she’d planted in Dr. Agasa’s house.
That little girl who’s always hanging around with Conan and the others actually turned out to be Sherry, who’s been missing from the Organization for ages!
To be honest, getting this news really surprised Belmod quite a bit. She even went out of her way, under disguise, to snap a few photos from a distance. After that, Belmod immediately became certain that the girl who’d turned into a child under the identity "Haibara Ai" was none other than Sherry, the one who’d already gone missing and was wanted by the Organization.
But Belmod’s discovery didn’t stop there.
By tailing Sherry, she found that the girl was very close to a certain woman and even called her "big sis." Although their appearances were completely different, watching the intimate way they interacted gave Belmod a hypothesis: that woman was very likely Sherry’s biological older sister—Akemi Miyano!
Now that’s big news!
Belmod remembered very clearly that Gin had personally told her he’d killed Sherry’s sister back then. But if this woman really was Akemi Miyano, then Gin’s words obviously needed a huge discount.
As for why they look different, that’s easy enough to understand: either disguise or makeup, or plastic surgery. After all, it’s not easy to escape from the Organization; getting your face redone or whatever is perfectly normal.
But that immediately leads to the second question: why are they still staying here?
Belmod’s first reaction was that the two of them had gone over to the police, but she quickly felt she was overthinking it. If they really had gone to the police, they’d have been moved far away from Tokyo long ago. No matter how stupid the Japanese police are, they wouldn’t be stupid enough to let witnesses live their daily lives right under the Organization’s nose. The other explanation, then, is—these two are bait.
After all, if the Organization finds out Akemi Miyano and Sherry aren’t dead, it will definitely send people after them. When that happens, who exactly is going to bite the hook... is anyone’s guess.
Which then brings up the third question...
Thinking this far, Belmod picked up the throwing knife at her hand, took aim at the dartboard not far away, and hurled it hard. The knife flashed through the air, then buried itself in a photo of a man.
Fang Zheng.
President of Umbrella Corporation, special adviser to the Metropolitan Police Department, creator of the Skynet System, micro-expression expert. This was what Belmod had dug up by going undercover and asking around nearby. According to her investigation, nothing seemed particularly odd. But the fact that he lives together with those two sisters is a whole different story.
And judging from the way they interact, this man and Akemi Miyano don’t look like lovers; strictly speaking, they look more like siblings—yeah, to the point that Belmod actually went and flipped through the Miyano Family genealogy just to confirm that The Miyano Couple never had a third child and that there was no marital affair by anyone...
Probably?
After all, there’s no way the Organization investigates every tiny detail down to this level. If Professor Miyano messed up and did something outside, he certainly wouldn’t report that to the Organization... Okay, enough with the wild speculations.
Let’s talk about something concrete.
But if that’s the case, then there’s a big problem.
Namely, the relationships between these people.
Gin said that after he killed Akemi Miyano, he once fought an unknown man. The guy drove a small knife straight through his chest; luckily it was a short blade—if it had been any longer, Gin might not have made it back.
And when the three of them later fought that unknown man in black in the old wing of the Beika Grand Hotel, he displayed a real knack for using throwing knives. That man also had a "cut-off-ear grudge" with Belmod. But after they escaped with their lives, none of the three could clearly remember what the man looked like...
If this woman really is Akemi Miyano, that would mean this Fang Zheng guy is closely tied to the man in black who attacked Gin and Vodka back then, and later fought the three of them. Add to that the intel the Organization got from the FBI’s undercover agents...
Hmm... In other words, this Fang Zheng is a member of that terror organization, the Peace Envoy?
A member of a terror organization becoming a special adviser to the Metropolitan Police Department—this is just... Well, they don’t exactly have the moral high ground to criticize anyone.
Seeing as the things they themselves do are about the same.
But if that’s really the case, then Belmod has a headache.
Because upstairs has repeatedly ordered them not to have any dealings with this organization called "Peace Envoy"—the first group that’s ever gone head-to-head against the United States of America and not fallen behind, and even turned all of America into a bloody mess. At the beginning, the U.S. Government was still raging, vowing they would make this organization pay the price and would definitely capture its leader, put him on trial, and execute him.
And how did that end? At this point, the White House press secretary is already on TV appealing, "The common people are innocent, we can sit down and talk..."
Damn, a terror organization that can force a national government to this point—how are they supposed to dare mess with that?
These are a bunch of full-on lunatics, okay!
Although America is calling on all countries to unite and launch a war on terror, most countries are just paying lip service; very few actually dare to take real action. Because the Peace Envoy lot truly have no bottom line; they’ll use any means to achieve their goals, they’re all anti-human, anti-social types, and they’re never afraid to blow things up to insane levels. They’ve even used white phosphorus shells and poison gas bombs, basically treating the Vienna human rights conventions as scrap paper.
In fact, America originally tried to find some clues from these terrorists’ explosives and wreckage. What frustrated them was that all the terrorists were using pure U.S.-style kit; if you looked only at the weapons and not the people, you’d think some elite American special forces unit was playing urban close-quarters combat.
Even more embarrassing, the orange agent they released in the city was also leftover stuff from when America bombed Vietnam back in the day...
If this were a global terror organization, then of course everyone would have to work together sincerely. But if they’re only wrecking America, well...
Then everyone else really had to think twice.
Australia actually did respond at first, even sent its own SWAT to assist the FBI investigation, and then the very next day they turned around and someone lit up a forest fire that almost burned all of Sydney to the ground.
That scared Australia into shutting up immediately, not daring to fart again.
With that cautionary tale in front of them, the other countries naturally didn’t want to invite disaster, and forces like the Black Organization were even more determined to stay far, far away from this bunch of lunatics. They were already like Old Mouse, creatures of the dark, but if you pissed off these crazies, they might just blow up your entire patch of land along with your hidey-hole and drag everything out into the open.
Now that would really be the unluckiest shit in eight lifetimes.
Going by Belmod’s usual MO, she should be looking for a chance to take out Akemi Miyano right now, then disguise it as an accident, and after that disguise herself as Akemi Miyano to probe and investigate Fang Zheng. But she didn’t dare take that risk; the guy was swaggering down the street without a care, beyond his looks he didn’t seem to be paying attention to anything at all. He gave off the vibe of someone who’d genuinely started a new life—this was a big, shiny bait if she ever saw one. How stupid would she have to be to bite?
As for using disguise to get close to Fang Zheng, that was relatively safer, but Belmod vetoed that plan too. She already knew he was a micro-expression expert, and as a seasoned actress, Belmod was well aware of how powerful micro-expressions could be. No matter how good her Disguise Technique was, at the end of the day it was still a fake skin stuck on her face; her expressions would always be just a little bit off.
Of course, your average person probably wouldn’t notice, but a micro-expression expert like Fang Zheng was a different story. For all she knew, he’d see through her disguise at a glance and then play along with her act—that would be real humiliation.
Aside from that, there was that famous Detective Shinichi Kudou... wait, no, he should be called Edogawa Conan now.
According to the intel Belmod had eavesdropped from Dr. Agasa, they seemed to have some connection with this organization too, which was a real headache—especially since Ran Mouri also appeared to be entangled in it.
She had to come up with something.
Staring at the photos of Shinichi Kudou and Ran Mouri at her side, Belmod’s expression turned sober. If that man named Fang Zheng really was a member of the Peace Envoy like she suspected, then letting him keep in contact with these two was far too dangerous!
In Belmod’s view, if Fang Zheng was a member of the Peace Envoy, then he had to be here preparing for the next terror attack. Considering that Japan also had a U.S. Military Base, and that the "Peace Envoy" organization had a consistent anti-American stance, this was almost a given. His current behavior was most likely just a cover, and as for Shinichi Kudou and Ran Mouri, they very likely had already been used by him!
But... she couldn’t possibly tell Shinichi Kudou about any of this!
If worst comes to worst, I’ll just have to handle it myself.
Fixing her gaze on the photos pinned to the throwing-knife board, Belmod’s expression grew even more serious and frosty.
Then she picked up the envelope lying next to her and slowly opened it.
As far as Fang Zheng was concerned, things had been going absurdly smoothly lately.
After that company president died, Umbrella came in with a ton of capital, directly parachuted in, and completely took over the now leaderless TV station. Compared to negotiating with that guy before, this was dozens of times smoother. See? Conan really is a lucky cat that attracts money!
That day, Fang Zheng signed the agreement and then swaggered home in high spirits.
"We’re back."
"Welcome home, Lord Fang Zheng, Master Akemi."
Hearing Fang Zheng return, the Shimokasa Sisters hurried out to greet him. The elder Shimokasa took Fang Zheng’s coat with one hand and handed him an envelope with the other.
"Lord Fang Zheng, this is your letter."
"Mine? Who’d be writing me a letter?"
Fang Zheng muttered as he eyed the envelope, then tore it open. Inside was an invitation card and a sheet of stationery.
"Dear Mr. Fang Zheng, on the night of this month’s full moon, please allow me to invite you to partake in this terrifying night banquet. It will be a blood-soaked shipboard party. Of course, whether you attend or not, the poor lambs about to die will curse their fate, and the sinners will drink themselves senseless before their final breath... and your unspeakable secret will also be exposed to the public... What the hell is this crap?"
"What is it, Mr. Fang Zheng?"
"An invitation? A threat? I honestly have no clue what this nonsense is supposed to be."
"It says your unspeakable secret...?"
"Tch, that’s just bluffing. As the saying goes, if you’ve done nothing guilty in your life, you don’t fear ghosts knocking at your door at midnight. If a female ghost really shows up, I’d even pour her a drink—though if it’s a guy, forget it."
Fang Zheng gave a little snort and shrugged, and hearing this, Akemi could only let out a helpless, wry smile.
"So are you going to go, Mr. Fang Zheng?"
"To be honest, I don’t really want to. What I actually want is to see what kind of ’unspeakable secret’ they think they can expose about me..."
At this point, Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes.
"Frankly, this is kind of interesting."

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