"The organization is looking for high-tech programmers with tainted records?" Miyano Akemi repeated Kazawa's conclusion as she sat at the dining table. "You're saying that all the software practitioners participating in this event have some kind of 'leverage' on them?"
"That's right." Kazawa leaned against the sofa behind the TV table, grabbed an apple from the table, and casually tossed it in the air, catching it repeatedly. "That bank employee you recognized—Shiro Konno—may indeed be linked to the one billion yen robbery like you said. Whether he colluded with outsiders or had security flaws in his own code, judging by his current status, the bank hasn't held him accountable yet. Otherwise, at the very least, he would've lost his job—if not faced criminal charges."
The Central Bank of Japan was a branch of the Bank of Japan, and as a semi-governmental institution, this wasn't a small matter.
Even if Shiro Konno had no direct ties to the organization, the organization still used a backdoor in his code to execute the robbery that Miyano Akemi had been made responsible for.
A personal work error leading to involvement in a massive robbery—once exposed, his entire life would be ruined.
"Same for that sleazy guy, Jiang Yuan Shinan?" asked Hoshikawa Teru, who had witnessed the slipper-throwing incident earlier. He and Miyano Akemi were sitting nearby when Kazawa suddenly jumped up and launched his slipper across the room.
The reason was simple: Ehara Tokio had tried to harass Mouri Ran. His drunken and perverted behavior made it hard for Hoshikawa to believe he was actually a "high-tech programmer."
Kazawa caught the apple again and took a bite. "Of course. Don't be fooled by appearances. Jiang Yuan Shinan is a hacker—an extremely skilled one. He became enemies with Sayama Akiko because he stole software developed by her brother, which broke the capital chain and led to her brother's suicide."
"He's a hacker..." Xingchuan Hui suddenly understood.
Although Kazawa had said there was no need to study programming, Xingchuan Hui—having nothing better to do at home—still took the initiative to learn the basics. Now, he could fully grasp what Jiang Yuan was involved in.
"He and Sayama Akiko are enemies…" Miyano Akemi's gaze shifted to the participant list in her hand. "So, you came here because you were chasing a murder that hasn't happened yet?"
She didn't question Kazawa's ability to gather information so precisely.
Although she had only joined the Phantom Thieves recently, she had already seen the kind of intelligence methods they had—especially back in the case involving the TV host.
They could skip the person entirely and interrogate their mind...
If that's really what her uncle and his team were researching… it was terrifying.
"Yes. If we don't step in, he might not survive the night," Kazawa said vaguely, his mouth full of apple.
"He seems pretty hated," Hoshikawa Teru nodded knowingly.
"Kamijou Hideko is Ehara Tokio's ex-wife. Their marriage broke down because of his shady dealings. Unbeknownst to her, many of the early codes and engines in her company were full of legal and copyright issues due to his involvement. If that came to light, the entire company would've collapsed."
Kazawa stepped up beside Miyano Akemi, tapped the paper in her hand, and slid his finger from "Kamijou Hideko" down to the next name.
"And as for Maeda Satoshi—his job's clean on the surface. But how did Sayama Akiko, just a math teacher, know that Ehara Tokio was the one responsible for her brother's death?"
"Maeda Satoshi used illegal methods to track down Ehara Tokio's personal information?" Hoshikawa Teru leaned in, quickly connecting the dots with his growing knowledge of computers and networks.
Kazawa took another bite of the apple and smiled.
"Strange..." Miyano Akemi frowned as she looked over the names. "Programming and software development aren't dangerous jobs. Even if there's sensitive information involved, is it really necessary to gather people like this, just because they're easy to blackmail?"
"You don't have any clues either, Sister Akemi?" Kazawa asked. Since he hadn't finished watching Conan before traveling through time, he only had a rough idea about what the organization was planning.
After thinking for a while, she shook her head. "Shiho's always handled pharmaceutical research. My uncle and aunt's work never involved electronics or software. I really don't know what the organization is doing."
"Hmm..." Kazawa shifted his gaze to Xingchuan Hui.
Feeling the heavy stare, Xingchuan blinked in confusion and pointed at himself. "If none of you know, how would I know anything?"
"I wasn't asking you." Kazawa waved the half-eaten apple, then pointed at the laptop beside Xingchuan. "Log in to the organization's internal network. Amuro told me that every accessed document gets archived. I haven't had the chance to check it since I got authorization."
Xingchuan Hui pulled the laptop toward himself and booted it up. "If you want to do it yourself, why don't you—wait... ah..."
"You guessed right." Kazawa grinned. "They require fingerprint and facial recognition."
Of course.
Xingchuan sighed. Following Kazawa's instructions, he entered a strange, scrambled URL, clicked through the submenu, and proceeded to the login screen.
"Username, kummel," Kazawa said between bites of apple. "Password: karasawa_ichikawa0121."
Miyano Akemi instantly clenched her hands on the table. Kazawa placed his hand on hers gently and patted it twice.
karasawa… 唐泽.
ichikawa… 一川.
"They actually used my uncle's death anniversary…" Miyano Akemi's voice trembled.
To her, the Karasawa couple had been more than just relatives.
She'd lost her father early in life, and while Shiho had studied abroad, the Karasawa couple had given her guidance and comfort like parents. To see their deaths mocked like this...
"This password changes regularly," Kazawa said calmly, still holding her hand, her knuckles white. "I'm guessing all the future ones will also be related to the 'Karasawa family.' The organization's riddler types love this kind of disgusting detail. We've got to learn to stay calm."
This group of riddle-obsessed lunatics had long been unhinged.
Don't even mention the ridiculous wine code names—they even gave APTX4869 the nickname "The Crippled Detective"...
That kind of cruel flair sharply contrasted with the actual tragedy of the deaths.
It proved that slow thinkers didn't survive long in the world of high-stakes science and crime.
The intranet password they gave to Kummel was practically dripping with malice.
To the organization, Kummel was the final dagger that finished off the Karasawa family—and also the key to absorbing everything they had left.
Giving him the chance to log in with that password—that was their idea of irony.
Hoshikawa Teru glanced at Miyano Akemi's tense face and didn't dare say a word. He undid his hair tie, tidied his hair, and silently assumed his "Akechi Goro" mode. Then he lowered his head and typed in the account and password Kazawa had given.
The login screen appeared successfully.
A red light lit up beside the webcam. Xingchuan stared directly at it with a blank expression.
After a few seconds, the light went out.
Then came the fingerprint prompt. After a final password entry, the system loaded a barebones internal webpage—black text on a white screen.
Xingchuan Hui exhaled slowly. He knew that from this point on, every single action would be tracked. It was even likely that someone on the other end was watching his every move.
Kazawa casually placed a piece of black tape over the webcam, then leaned in to view the sparse interface.
"Try these keywords." He pointed at the blank search box. "'Software development,' 'Programmer info,' 'Internet companies'..."
The organization's internal system only stored data related to its own activities. If someone had the right clearance, they might even be able to retrieve APTX4869 records.
But Kummel wouldn't have had any reason to search for that—he might not even know the name. Trying to access that would be far too risky.
As Xingchuan tested out different queries, many came back empty, though a few yielded odd, irrelevant results.
Kazawa skimmed through them. Eventually, his eyes stopped at a peculiar entry.
"'Ark Navi'..." he muttered, raising an eyebrow. "What's this?"
Xingchuan carefully hovered the mouse over the title. A tooltip popped up: Insufficient Permissions.
"Hm... Ark Navi, huh?" Kazawa tapped his chin. "I think we're hitting a wall. Let's log out."
Xingchuan looked as if he'd been granted a royal pardon. He clicked the logout button in a flash and shut down the browser.
Even those few preview thumbnails had made his scalp go numb.
The less time spent in the organization's intranet, the better.
"Good work. Relax. I won't make you dig through this kind of stuff often." Kazawa patted his shoulder and closed the laptop.
Then he casually tossed the oxidized apple core into the trash, pulled out his phone, and made a call.
"Hello, senpai, is this a good time to talk?"