Chapter 230: The Preferences of Anonymous

Tsuji Hiroki didn't notice Jiangxia's suspicious gaze.

The flight time he'd applied for was drawing near. Once the police stopped blocking him, he circled to the other side of the helicopter, opened the door, and climbed into the cockpit.

As usual, he pulled out a little bottle of eye drops and squeezed a few into his eyes.

Just as he tilted his head back, a small figure appeared by the not-quite-shut cockpit door.

—It was Jiangxia, controlling Xiaobai's puppet. Standing on tiptoe, he jabbed a needle of anesthesia into Tsuji Hiroki's bare ankle.

Tsuji Hiroki's helicopter and flight path weren't the issue.

And this trip wouldn't have ended in an ambush, either.

The attacker, Sawagi Kohei, preferred a straightforward approach. Jiangxia agreed with the logic: helicopters were too much of a hassle. Why mess with the machine when you can just take out the pilot?

Tsuji Hiroki was a creature of habit. He liked to go for a ride before a competition. And before that, he always used eye drops to relieve fatigue and get into the zone.

So this time, Sawagi's "Ten" plan had been to swap out Tsuji Hiroki's eye drops in advance for a type of mydriatic drug.

Mydriatics paralyze the ciliary muscles, dilating the pupil and letting in more light. While the drug is active, vision becomes blurred, and the user becomes extremely sensitive to bright light.

The medicine itself isn't toxic or lethal.

But for someone like Tsuji Hiroki, about to fly straight into the sun? That intense glare could lead to a tragic accident, like, say, a fiery mid-air crash.

So technically, the easiest way to prevent disaster was just to confiscate the eye drops.

But Jiangxia, after some thought, decided to let Tsuji Hiroki use them anyway.

There are many kinds of mydriatics, and the one Sawagi picked has long-lasting effects—three weeks, maybe even a month.

In short, even if Tsuji Hiroki didn't immediately plummet to his death, the medication would sideline him from the next match—a match that really mattered to him.

Unlike people like Dr. Agasa, Eri Kisaki, or Inspector Megure—who were often just background decoration—Tsuji Hiroki had actually humiliated Sawagi Kohei before. He was a genuine target.

If Jiangxia changed the drops now and let Tsuji Hiroki make it out unscathed, Sawagi might not take that lying down.

And Jiangxia recalled that the attacker had a stockpile of bombs and an obsessively meticulous mindset. There was no telling whether they'd adapt their plan and go for round two.

…No point messing with a perfectly working prediction.

Besides, swapping eye drops wasn't really any easier than knocking the guy out. In fact, the latter required zero brand-matching effort.

So Jiangxia opted for the straightforward route: one sleepytime jab.

When Tsuji Hiroki felt the sting, he winced and looked down at his ankle—but the puppet had already vanished without a trace.

At that moment, everyone else was on the far side of the helicopter.

No adult noticed a thing.

Except for Conan. Thanks to his vertically challenged vantage point, he could see right through the cockpit—and the figure looked awfully familiar.

Xiaobai's movements were fast and subtle. By the time Conan looked properly, he only caught a vague upward motion, enough to guess the little guy had climbed into the cockpit.

But when Conan stood on tiptoe and peered inside, all he saw was Tsuji Hiroki looking down at his own leg. No trace of Xiaobai.

…Did Xiaobai fake him out? Pretend to go up, but actually duck under the chopper?

Suspicious, Conan crouched to check under the helicopter.

At that very moment, someone grabbed the back of his collar.

Ran Mouri picked him up like a kitten and tapped his head. "Don't crawl under the helicopter. That's dangerous."

Conan protested, "I wasn't playing around—there's someone under there!"

Ran gave him a skeptical look. "Lying now, are we?" This was the kind of crafty little lie only a bear child would come up with. Who the heck would hide under a helicopter, especially in a place like this, full of police and detectives?

Conan opened his mouth to explain—

—but just then, the police burst into a sudden panic. "Mr. Tsuji!"

Both Ran and Conan jumped and turned to the cockpit.

There sat Tsuji Hiroki, slumped in his seat with his eyes shut, looking quite convincingly dead.

Panic erupted. The man had been fine mere minutes ago. Had the attacker managed to kill "Ten" right under their noses?!

Mouri Kogoro shouted his friend's name and rushed over in a dramatic sprint to save him.

But when he reached the cockpit, he just stared, full of question marks—there was nothing to save. Tsuji Hiroki was breathing normally, heartbeat steady, fast asleep.

In the ensuing chaos, Conan broke free from Ran.

He ran to check on Tsuji Hiroki.

After confirming that the man was merely anesthetized, Conan was even more convinced: that figure earlier had to be Xiaobai. No one else was that good with needles.

He clutched his stun-watch and warily scanned under the helicopter. But there wasn't even a hint of movement.

…Had Xiaobai used the distraction to slip away?

Conan sighed. Whatever. Even if Xiaobai was still around, Conan wasn't likely to catch him. Probably he himself would have gone to keep Tsuji Hiroki company in dreamland…

More importantly, why had the anonymous person intervened in this series of attacks where—so far—no one had actually died?

The anesthetic needle used on "Ten" was way too gentle compared to the previous three incidents.

This didn't feel like an attack. If anything, it felt like a rescue.

Maybe Tsuji Hiroki's helicopter really had been tampered with. Maybe taking off would've led to disaster, so Xiaobai preemptively grounded the pilot.

Conan mentally adjusted his internal "Anonymous Organization Alignment Meter," adding a tiny weight to the "Good Guy" side.

Truth be told, ever since the first Maple Leaf Gold Coin incident, this anonymous person had shown up now and then, saving him from several potentially fatal scrapes. And now, here they were again. Honestly, Conan had even planned to sneak into the helicopter earlier himself.

…So why did this anonymous person keep turning up wherever he went?

Was it because he'd been shrunk? Did that somehow make him especially interesting to them?

Then again, according to Hattori, during that Mermaid Island case, Miss Anonymous had pulled three people up from a cliff—none of whom were Conan. It had been Hattori, Kazuha, and Jiangxia.

Speaking of Jiangxia… When he thought about it, aside from the Maple Leaf case, Jiangxia had been around during almost every appearance of the anonymous figure...

Conan's thoughts slowly congealed into a theory.

There is only one truth:

The anonymous person… might just have a thing for saving young, promising high school detectives.

…Or maybe it was just coincidence. After all, high school detectives do tend to run into this sort of thing a lot.

*Goal #1: Top 200 fanfics published within the last 31 - 90 days by POWER STONES.

Progress: 4/60(approx) for 10 BONUS CHAPTERS

Goal #2: One BONUS CHAPTER per review for the first 10 REVIEWS.

Progress:2/10*