Meanwhile, Conan, who was being dragged away by Ran, couldn't help wondering what was going to happen next. But the next second, he caught sight of Uncle Mouri stuffing his face amidst the crowd. Conan let out a helpless sigh—only Uncle Mouri could remain so endlessly carefree.
Feeling utterly mortified, Ran hurried over to stop him, calling out, "Dad."
Seeing Ran appear before him, Uncle Mouri finally paused for a moment and asked, "Where did you go? Were you running around everywhere for this little brat again?" With that, he cast a rather disdainful look at Conan. "What would you do if you got lost and couldn't find your way back?"
Though what her father said was true, Ran still couldn't help blushing with embarrassment. Raising her voice, she scolded, "Dad!"
Uncle Mouri didn't continue dwelling on his daughter's shortcomings. Instead, Ran, unable to hide her curiosity, asked, "Dad, why are you only coming back now? Did something happen?"
"Your old man here just landed a huge deal," Uncle Mouri said, breaking into an instant grin. "As long as I pull off this commission, I'll make a fortune."
Finding this utterly humiliating, Ran and Conan shared a remarkably synchronized reaction, covering their faces and pretending they didn't know Uncle Mouri at all.
With that, Uncle Mouri went right back to stuffing food into his mouth at a frantic pace, talking between bites. "You two hurry up and eat! If you don't eat now, it'll all be over. Who knows when you'll get a meal like this again?"
Hearing this, the two of them just wished the ground would swallow them whole. At that moment, the rest of the attendees seemed entirely absorbed in the memorial banquet, and no one noticed when Hakuba and Akako had slipped away. As the only two people present who understood Hakuba to any degree, Conan and Kaito immediately sensed that something was wrong. Hakuba would never leave before the proceedings were officially declared over, leading them to suspect that he and Akako might have run into some tricky trouble.
Right then, the host of the banquet, the international businessman, announced that the memorial banquet had come to a successful conclusion. Most of the guests left, feeling that the evening had ended too soon. Kaito drifted toward the exit with the flow of the crowd. He had already been planning to sneak back in and investigate further anyway, and now, with Hakuba and the others missing, he had to return no matter what. So, after leaving alongside the departing guests, Kaito waited for the right moment and quietly slipped back inside.
Instantly, he targeted his search on the secret passage Conan had mentioned. Perhaps here he could verify his suspicions, gather more information about those people, and perhaps even discover the reason behind the disappearance of Hakuba and the others.
Kaito walked down the empty corridor, searching as he went, when he suddenly heard the sound of footsteps—or rather, the sound of someone running. Kaito guessed who it was almost instantly and unhurriedly stopped to wait for him.
Sure enough, the person who appeared before Kaito was none other than Conan. His arch-nemesis had realized Hakuba was missing just as he had, and had even figured out Kaito's intentions, sneaking back in just like him. "Kid, I knew you'd be here." Just as Kaito understood Conan, Conan knew Kaito would never simply leave things be.
"Great Detective, aren't you the same? Surely our cooperation isn't over yet, Great Detective."
Conan understood Kaito's meaning. In a situation like this, fighting alone was far inferior to fighting side by side—not to mention there were still numerous unsolved mysteries for which he needed answers from Kaito.
"Fine." Conan didn't turn down Kaito's proposal. The two walked forward side by side, stepping through the gorgeously decorated yet completely empty corridor, walking right into a trap that had been set for them. Perhaps because there were only the two of them in the corridor, the sound of their footsteps echoed clearly in their ears, creating the illusion that they were the only two people in the entire mansion.
"Great Detective, do you think Hakuba and the others disappeared because they discovered something unusual here?" Kaito asked suddenly, as if wanting to test Conan's judgment.
"Without any clues right now, any deduction is just guesswork."
Before long, the two reached the spot in Conan's memory where he had lost track of Uncle Mouri. "Right here."
Earlier, Kaito had suspected the existence of another secret passage, but since they had been in a rush to leave, they hadn't been able to verify the theory. Now that they were back, they naturally had to find out the truth. Following the method Conan had previously used to open the hidden door, the two searched along the corridor wall. For Kaitou Kid, finding hidden mechanisms and secret passages was an absolute breeze. Kaito quickly located the spot and gave the wall a gentle push with his hand. With a creak, the door swung open. Looking into the pitch-black world beyond, Kaito said, "It really is here."
The two stepped inside, and the moment they entered, the door clicked shut behind them, and lights flickered on automatically. The space inside was much more spacious than they had imagined, feeling like an entirely different world from the outside. While the exterior was lavishly decorated, the interior was rather plain, devoid of any superfluous ornamentation—built simply to serve as a convenient underground passage.
Conan carefully surveyed his surroundings and said, "There's no difference between this place and the secret passage I went into before. They must have been built at the same time."
"But why would they go to such great lengths to build secret passages inside this mansion? And more than one, at that?" Kaito asked in confusion.
Kaito had posed a question that could not be answered at the moment; the only way to get answers was to keep moving forward. Not far ahead of them, Hakuba lay motionless on the ground, apparently unconscious, and Akako was nowhere to be seen.