Chapter Twenty: Sosuke Aizen
Just as Haruaki Suzuki hesitated, wondering whether to fabricate it himself, a semi-transparent screen suddenly appeared before his eyes. The interface resembled the character creation screen in a video game.
However, compared to the functions for designing game characters, this fabrication feature was clearly more advanced.
All Suzuki had to do was imagine the appearance of his Stand, and a corresponding character model would automatically materialize on the screen.
Drawing from his imagination, a slender man with short brown hair, wearing black-rimmed glasses and bearing a gentle smile, slowly appeared on the screen.
The man was dressed in a fitted black kimono with a white haori draped over it, which bore a large character “Five” on the back.
It was none other than Sousuke Aizen, the captain of the Fifth Division from the anime “Bleach”!
In the anime, Aizen appeared to be a kind and gentle man, but in reality, he was a sinister and ruthless villainous boss.
Suzuki chose Aizen as the prototype for his Stand partly because Aizen was undeniably handsome, and partly because a villainous boss-type Stand suited his future plans for stirring up trouble.
With Suzuki’s confirmation of the Stand’s appearance, the semi-transparent screen before him suddenly transformed into a burst of white light, merging into the Stand Doll.
“Zzzzz…”
The palm-sized Stand Doll began to rapidly expand until it became a humanoid Stand that looked exactly like Aizen.
Curious, Suzuki reached out to touch Aizen’s palm and found that not only did it feel remarkably like human skin, but it also radiated a normal human warmth.
However, Aizen’s eyes were vacant, lacking any focus, which gave off an unsettling feeling.
After scrutinizing Aizen from head to toe, Suzuki tentatively injected a bit of his spiritual energy into the Stand’s body.
“What a strange sensation… Is this what ‘dual attention’ feels like?” As the spiritual energy infused, Aizen suddenly blinked, his curious gaze fixed on Suzuki, who was sitting on the toilet.
At that moment, Suzuki experienced two perspectives simultaneously: one from his own body looking upward, and the other from the Stand looking downward, which instinctively confused him.
Fortunately, thanks to the blessing of the Guardian Necklace, Suzuki’s spiritual energy had risen to nineteen points—nearly twice that of an average person—allowing him to quickly adapt to this dual-focus state.
As long as neither the body nor the Stand engaged in strenuous activity simultaneously, Suzuki’s powerful spiritual energy made it easy to maintain this dual attention.
---
Meanwhile, Conan seized the opportunity when two men dressed in black left their seats, wrapping a miniature listening device in chewing gum and discreetly sticking it under their chairs.
“What are you doing, Conan?” Ran Mori’s voice suddenly rang out, startling Conan.
Damn! How did Ran notice?
Feeling guilty, Conan nervously waved his hand. “N-nothing…”
“Conan, you really do enjoy pranks, don’t you?” Just as Ran bent down to inspect, Haruaki Suzuki stepped forward first and removed the gum from under the chair with a napkin, rolling it into a ball.
“It’s because of pranksters like you that adults dislike us kids,” Genta said in a mock-adult tone.
“Used chewing gum should always be wrapped in paper and placed in the ashtray!”
“…”
After being lectured by the kids, Conan felt speechless. But when he saw Suzuki place the wrapped gum into the ashtray drawer on the armrest of the black-clad man’s chair, he couldn’t help but admire silently, “Well done. It will pick up sound even better there.”
“Conan, you should learn from others too!” Ran, seeing this, casually gave Conan a little lesson, then smiled and praised Suzuki’s group, “Everyone’s doing great!”
“Of course! Come on, Conan, let’s go play!” Suzuki and the others laughed and pulled Conan away.
---
At the same time, inside the train’s dining car, the two men in black were conducting a transaction with their contact.
Just as the fake Vodka was about to light a cigarette, a short-haired woman sitting opposite them spoke up, “Could you please not smoke for a while? Honestly, I can’t stand the smell of smoke.”
She was clad in a deep purple women’s suit, with a balanced figure and delicate features, exuding the aura of a formidable businesswoman.
Indeed, this woman was a powerful figure—Matsumoto Sawaya, president of Matsumoto Jewelry Company.
Though Matsumoto Jewelry was a small firm, its market value was around tens of billions of yen, otherwise Sawaya wouldn’t have presented 100 million yen in cash to conduct this transaction with the men in black.
---
“Sorry.”
Though the fake Vodka felt a bit annoyed, he obediently put away his cigarette and lighter so as not to jeopardize the deal.
“This is 100 million yen, all in circulated old bills as requested.” Matsumoto opened a black briefcase beside her, revealing stacks of ten-thousand yen notes which she handed over to the two men.
(✧◡✧)
Fake Gin’s eyes lit up at the sight. Without a hint of emotion, he picked up the briefcase beside him and pushed it toward Matsumoto.
“This is what you wanted.”
Sawaya took it eagerly, but frowned when she noticed the combination lock was still secured. “What’s the password?”
In a hoarse voice, fake Gin replied, “I can’t give you the password now. I’ll call you with it once we reach a safe place.”
“You’re playing me!”
Sawaya’s expression darkened. She snatched back her briefcase, gritting her teeth. “How can I trust you if I can’t see what’s inside first?”
“Please don’t be angry, President Matsumoto. This isn’t our first transaction. It’s just that this time the goods are more important, so we have to be cautious.” Fake Gin gestured politely toward her, “If you don’t trust us, then this deal is off. We have no shortage of buyers.”
“…”
Seeing fake Gin’s brazen confidence, Sawaya hesitated, suppressing her anger before finally reaching out to take the briefcase.
The item in this transaction concerned gold-related intelligence—if the men in black’s information was genuine, it could earn Sawaya a profit exceeding one billion yen. She was unwilling to let this deal slip away.