Sunday, February 10.
For once, Ritsu went out without wearing Onizawa's face.
Instead, he was using Augier's appearance. To keep his hair color from attracting too much attention, he wore a black bucket hat pulled low over his head, along with an admittedly exaggerated pair of thick black-rimmed glasses.
With his arms crossed, he turned to look at Vodka, who was dressed in casual clothes. A purple floral Hawaiian shirt beneath a dark camel shawl-collar cardigan.
Ritsu was so used to seeing Vodka in a black suit that the outfit felt incredibly strange.
What left him even more speechless was the guy was actually wearing cologne. And it even had a strong rose scent.
Being particularly sensitive to smells, Ritsu rolled down the car window before resting his chin on one hand.
"Vodka, don't wear your sunglasses later. The two of us are already dressed like this. If you keep the sunglasses on at the concert, people are going to think we're criminals."
Vodka looked a little aggrieved.
"But I think sunglasses make me look cooler. They make me look more manly, don't they?"
"...You already look plenty manly. There's really no need to emphasize it."
After nearly a thirty-minute drive, they finally arrived at the venue for the concert.
Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda Ward. A massive venue capable of holding over ten thousand people.
Looking down at the paper concert ticket in his hand, Ritsu couldn't help reflecting on why he was spending his day off here with Vodka.
It was because he'd blown up the kitchen in Vodka's new house.
Feeling guilty about it, he'd spent a small fortune on front-row arena tickets so this middle-aged idol fan could properly enjoy himself during his day off.
He had even asked Gin to give Vodka the day off. Even workhorses deserved a break every now and then.
The missions could always be handed over to the Organization's lower-ranking members. It was a perfectly reasonable way to train the new recruits.
"By the way," Ritsu said,
"I didn't know you liked TWO-MIX. I always thought you only liked Earth Ladies."
The moment the conversation shifted to idols, Vodka became visibly excited.
"I actually know a lot more about the entertainment industry than you think. The two singers in TWO-MIX are both amazing! Especially Takayama Minami!"
"She's beautiful, she sings incredibly well... Hehe. I've never been able to resist someone who's both talented and attractive."
Ritsu, who had never been interested in celebrities, simply couldn't relate.
That said, when buying the tickets, he'd listened to two of TWO-MIX's songs. They were excellent. But for some reason, Minami's voice had sounded strangely familiar.
"Conan, what are you doing here by yourself?"
'...Conan?'
Only then did Ritsu suddenly remember why the voice had sounded so familiar. Wasn't that Conan's voice?
And... did he just hear Ran's voice too?
Almost mechanically, Ritsu turned around. Sure enough, Ran was standing there holding a bouquet of bright red roses, beside her stood Sonoko.
As for little Conan, the boy whose voice was identical to Minami Takayama's, he was looking up innocently with a can of soda in his hand.
"Ran-nee, what are you two doing here?"
'Why are they here? That's way too much of a coincidence.'
Ritsu stiffly turned his head back around and lowered the brim of his hat.
At that moment, he was extremely thankful he had come wearing Augier's face. Otherwise, explaining this would have been nearly impossible.
He could fool Yumi. But Shinichi? The guy was much harder to fool.
And if Vodka noticed something suspicious about Conan, things would become incredibly troublesome.
"Augier, what's wrong?"
Not wanting to arouse Vodka's suspicion, Ritsu changed the subject.
"Nothing. What are you looking at?"
Vodka smiled as he held up his phone.
"I'm checking Twitter. The concert doesn't start until six, so I'm seeing if anyone's spotted the TWO-MIX members. They usually arrive pretty early and walk around the area beforehand."
"You really know your stuff."
"Come on, if we go in early, we can at least find a good spot."
"Hm?"
"There aren't any seats in the arena. It's standing room only."
Ritsu's pupils contracted.
He had absolutely no idea the arena section didn't have seats. As someone who had never attended a concert before, he could only describe this as an inhumane design.
'I have to stand through the entire concert? That's torture.
I'd rather go solve a case.'
Without another word, he grabbed Vodka and hurried forward. He genuinely wanted to avoid running into Conan and the others.
If something as ridiculous as this caused the carefully planned course of his life to veer off track, Ritsu felt like he'd completely lose it.
There were still three hours before the Budokan concert began. Around the waiting line were fan-run TWO-MIX merchandise booths.
Besides the standard glow sticks, there were support fans printed with the singers' photos, along with fan-designed T-shirts and towels.
Unable to resist, Vodka bought a support towel and draped it around his neck. Then he bought two support fans.
Handing the one featuring Shiina Nagano to Ritsu, he thoughtfully made sure his companion also looked like a proper fan.
Ritsu stared at the fan in his hand with half-lidded eyes. He let out another sigh.
So his wonderful day off was going to end with two straight hours of standing while listening to music?
Just imagining it was painful. No... including the time spent waiting in line, that made it nearly five hours of standing.
After almost an hour of queuing, they finally entered the venue.
Instead of heading straight for his assigned spot, Ritsu made his way toward the restroom. After taking care of business and washing his hands, he suddenly heard hurried footsteps.
Curiosity got the better of him.
He leaned around the corner, and immediately spotted five extremely familiar little figures.
"..."
'Why was the Detective Boys here?'
From what he'd overheard earlier, Conan had merely happened to be nearby playing with the Detective Boys.
A terrible premonition suddenly washed over him.
After a brief internal struggle, Ritsu turned around, entered a restroom stall, and took out the disguise kit from his waist pouch.
In less than three minutes, he had transformed into Onizawa.
Following the direction the children had run, he soon encountered a staff member in a black suit rushing out in panic.
The moment the man saw him, it was as though he'd found a lifesaver. Clearly, he recognized him.
"I-Is that Officer Onizawa?!"
Ritsu nodded.
"Yes, is there something you need?"
The staff member hurriedly replied,
"There are too many people out here. Officer, could you please come inside with me?"
"Of course."
Following the staff member into a waiting room, Ritsu immediately noticed the Detective Boys sitting on the sofa.
The instant Ayumi called out, "Onizawa-nii!"
Conan looked up in surprise.
'Why is Sensei here? Could it be... He's a TWO-MIX fan too?'
"So," Ritsu asked, "can you tell me what happened?"
The staff member quickly explained,
"Officer Onizawa, here's the situation. Just a few minutes ago, we received a call from a kidnapper. And their demand was... very strange."
"They said that the only way to save the two members of TWO-MIX... was for us to call the police."
'Just as I thought... Another case.'
Ritsu shot Conan a resentful glance.
Whenever a police officer and a detective showed up at the same place, nothing good ever happened.
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