Chapter 469
The Past
Karasuma Mochizuki looked at Aoyagi Akimitsu.
"Have you met the former leader?" she suddenly asked.
Aoyagi Akimitsu nodded slowly: "We met once a long time ago, and usually only communicate by email and phone."
“He has always been a cautious person,” he added.
"careful?"
When Karasuma Mochizuki mentioned his blood grandfather, he let out a cold laugh that was remarkably similar to that of Aoyagi Akimitsu just now.
"He's just afraid of dying," she said coldly. "After all, how could a monster who has lived to be over 140 years old dare to let the young people under his control see him in his decline?"
……
Behind the machine.
Morofushi Kagemitsu and Edogawa Conan were both stunned.
Based on Karasuma Mochizuki's identity and the age mentioned, they have deduced who she was referring to.
Renya Karasuma, the former head of a top zaibatsu and one of Japan's richest men.
After the war, Japan's major zaibatsu (financial conglomerates) were forcefully dissolved by the United States, but with the subsequent economic boom, they quickly regrouped and formed even greater power. The Karasuma family was undoubtedly the largest of them, even surpassing the current Suzuki family.
He was the former leader of the Black Organization. Upon learning this information, both of them wanted to send the message back immediately.
However, given the critical situation, they dared not act rashly and could only continue to suppress their emotions and remain silent.
……
Aoyagi Akimitsu certainly knew who the former leader was, and what he had just said was true. He had met him a long time ago, shortly after he was brought back.
Now that the man was dead, he no longer cared about him, so he silently continued to listen to Karasuma Mochizuki's story.
Her story belongs to the story of Karasuma Mochizuki, and it's actually quite similar to what Conan Edogawa and others heard from President Takeuchi and the maid.
Born into a wealthy family, with an older brother and sister, she married a man from the United States at the age of sixteen for political reasons. However, a few years later, unable to bear the discrimination from her husband's family and his infidelity, she chose to divorce him and return to Japan with her daughter.
The biggest difference began forty years ago at the auction held at the Karasuma family mansion.
Two suspicious tourists did appear at that auction, and the young heir who presided over the auction did indeed die afterward. However, he was not killed by them.
He was killed by Karasuma Renya.
“My father, my brother Mirai… to prolong his own life, he killed them and took their young organs,” Karasuma Mochizuki whispered.
To some extent, the rich are far more afraid of death than the poor.
For people living in poverty, life is a matter of taking it one day at a time; sometimes, living is even torture for them. Ordinary people feel that growing old peacefully is a kind of happiness. Only the rich, who are used to enjoying everything, will try every means to prolong this enjoyment.
Aoyagi Akimitsu lowered his eyes.
Organ transplantation requires matching, and people with close blood relatives are less likely to experience rejection.
The world's first successful organ transplant was performed on a pair of twin brothers.
……
Karasuma Mochizuki's mind was in turmoil.
I don't know why, but today I suddenly felt an overwhelming urge to confide in others, blurting out things that should have been absolute secrets. It was as if I were bewitched.
She composed herself and looked at the man in front of her again.
Gin was a formidable figure in the organization. She hadn't seen him often in the past, but because she was the leader's granddaughter and the mother of the third-in-command, he treated her with relative politeness.
At this moment, his gaze towards her was also very peaceful.
Karasuma Mochizuki felt a strange sense of familiarity when faced with that gaze, and even as he recalled his experiences over the past few decades, he became calm. Many things had happened since that tragedy.
Karasuma is a traditional family where everything is inherited by men. In addition, her father was the youngest son in the family. Therefore, Karasuma Mochizuki and her sister Yoko had no idea what kind of business the family had before they got married.
It wasn't until she married and moved to the United States, and came into direct contact with her grandfather's maternal relatives, that she learned about the clandestine dealings between the two families. Because of this, after the incident at the auction, she immediately realized who the real murderer of her two relatives was.
However, she did not resist at the time.
She couldn't call the police, as Gunma was entirely Karasuma territory at the time, and calling the police would be useless.
More importantly, she herself was a member of the Karasuma family. Once the family fell, even if she had done nothing wrong and committed no crime, she would be implicated and her young daughter would live under the contemptuous gaze of the world.
So she chose to keep quiet.
Moreover, a few years later, due to the bursting of Japan's economic bubble, the Takeuchi family was also affected. Not wanting to trouble her sister for relief anymore, she went to Karasuma Renya.
Karasuma Mochizuki still remembers what he said back then:
"Please help me, my daughter and I are going to starve. I want to do something for you, I... I'm willing to do anything."
At that moment, Karasuma Renya just stared at her, while his former deputy, Rum, stood to the side, expressionless.
Then Karasuma Renya agreed.
He was dead in the eyes of the world, living entirely behind the scenes. He never cared about Karasuma Mochizuki, didn't care why she got divorced, or whether she hated him.
His thinking was simple: only male descendants were considered heirs, and even though he only harvested organs from male descendants, his granddaughters were still considered his bloodline. Even if they didn't perform as well as his ordinary subordinates, they were still more noble than these outsiders who weren't his blood relatives.
From then on, Karasuma Mochizuki began to be involved in the organization's affairs. She had a special position, no code name, and was usually in charge of pharmaceutical matters.
Karasuma Renya desires immortality, and in addition to replacing his offspring's organs with younger ones, drugs are also one of the directions of his experiments.
No, it should be said that medication was his only hope at the time. The surgeon in charge of the operation responsibly told him that even with repeated organ and blood transplants, his body was still aging and would not be able to withstand any more major surgeries in the future.
Karasuma Mochizuki did not tell his older sister Yoko about joining his grandfather's organization.
Even though she knew that the other woman's husband, Masaaki Takeuchi, was also a member of the organization, and that they had even met within the organization, neither of them chose to tell her.
Karasuma Mochizuki was the older sister who didn't want these sordid matters to taint the peace of their life. Not only the older sister, she wouldn't tell her daughter either.
As for Takeuchi Masaaki, perhaps out of consideration for his status as his granddaughter's husband, he dared not act rashly, or perhaps out of genuine affection, he knew his wife would absolutely not be able to bear it, so he did not tell her.
After that, Karasuma Mochizuki lived a relatively peaceful life for a long time.
She watched her daughter grow up, occasionally met with her sister to chat about life, and sometimes heard rumors about organizations killing some important figure. She also regularly reported on the results of her drug research.
Until one day, Karasuma Renya suddenly told her something.
"Your child is outstanding."
Karasuma Mochizuki, not understanding what was going on, thought he was talking about his daughter.
Unexpectedly, his next sentence was:
"I never imagined he could climb up that viperous family and still be willing to take over the organization's affairs." Karasuma Renya said in an aged voice, unusually using a tone of admiration.
Karasuma Mochizuki only realized what was happening at this moment.
He was referring to her son.
—The son she had to abandon in order to leave and escape that family as soon as possible. Her first child.
His name...
“Goldvasel, that’s the code name I gave him.”
Karasuma Mochizuki looked at the table.
On the desk by the window sat a bottle of wine. The liquid was a pale amber color, with shimmering golden flakes constantly rising and falling within it. (End of Chapter)