Four years earlier
Kenmochi and Akechi were simply doing paperwork when suddenly Akechi's phone rings
"Akechi speaking go ahead"
"This is Superintendent Akechi of Tokyo MPD?"
"Yes, may I ask who's calling?"
"I'm with the Hong Kong police, you know a detective Pai-Long Li of the Taiwanese police correct?"
"Yes I do, in fact I am in regular contact with him since we had a case together"
"Indeed, can I have your e-mail information? I need to send you something and e-mail is the fastest way I can think of"
"Of course"
Akechi gives the person his e-mail information and confirms with the person that he received the e-mail before hanging up. Once he does Kenmochi speaks up
"What was that about?"
"Not entirely sure, though I know it involves detective Li somehow, someone from Hong Kong just sent me a link, let's read it together, if it's in English I'll translate it for you"
And so Akechi opens the link and sees a Japanese newspaper instead, and the prominent headline was the disappearance of one detective Li. As they read and check the date they find that Li had been abducted by a dangerous group three days earlier and that a search was currently in progress but that given the nature of the group the search would only last for a short amount of time
"We need to tell at the very least Kindaichi about this"
"Not yet, let's give them another day before doing so"
"But Akechi..."
"Kindaichi would understand Kenmochi, besides that if they delayed telling law enforcement then they must have had a good reason, as such we will keep this under wrap until after twenty-four hours pass, then we'll tell Kindaichi about this"
"Guess you're right, what about Nanase?"
"Go with the flow, if we catch the two of them after school then we'll tell them together, if not leave it up to Kindaichi to tell her"
And so they keep a lid on the news for twenty-four hours and then simply wait for school to let out after Akechi called to see if there was any further news about Li and getting a negative let him know he was about to do what he really, really hated. Meanwhile Kindaichi and Miyuki were discussing their possible futures with each other as they walked out of school that day, but seeing Akechi and Kenmochi both there stopped that cold, the look in their eyes made it that much worse in Kindaichi's eyes because he could tell that something serious was going on
"Come on Miyuki, looks like Akechi and Ossan have something to talk to us about"
"Yeah"
And so the two go over and all they're told is not in public and so they go to the police station where the two are led to a private area
"What's going on Ossan? Akechi?"
"Yesterday we...we received a call from police in Hong Kong, they sent me a link to my e-mail after confirming I knew detective Li, Li's reported missing, has been for four days now, suspected that he's been abducted by a group that hates police"
"Which means that there's not much we can do right now"
"Exactly, let Hong Kong deal with it for now, we'll get involved later if possible"
And so the group simply waits and wonders when they'll have to take action, eventually Li is declared as deceased and an incident blew up in everyone's faces delaying Kindaichi's entrance into the police force, but once he'd entered Akechi and Kenmochi mentored him from the start and while he wasn't quite ready to test for detective he was pretty close to being ready
Present
"So Kindaichi, has anyone else caught onto your secret investigation?"
"Not yet Akechi, and the only reason you two know about it is because I involved you from the start"
"Would you have if we didn't know you?"
"Not sure"
"Kindaichi..."
"Only because of the fact that between you two being busier than me and the fact that I might not have ever started the investigation I'm not sure if I would have involved you two except when I collapsed"
"That makes sense then"
The four simply continue to remember their lost friend but eventually have to split up for the rest of the day. The next day at work Kindaichi received a surprise first thing at the start of his shift, he was called in by his superiors and told that if he felt he was ready for it he could take the detective test
"Wait really?"
"Yes, you've been doing very well in the field and many of the officers who have worked with you have stated that you're practically a detective in all but name, which makes sense considering you've helped with cases in high school and are being mentored by Akechi and Kenmochi as well"
"Have you talked to the two of them about this?"
"No, we deliberately have kept away from them seeing as how they would have skewed ideas about your skills"
"I see...I'll do it but...don't tell those two until after the results are in, maybe we can find some excuse for me to be absent for that day"
"Yes, and we're going to use a very old but very good excuse that isn't that far from the truth"
"Okay, let me know the date then and I'll get to it"
"Will do, we'll make the arrangements soon I promise"
"Okay"
"And for the record you three haven't hidden the side investigation you've been doing regarding detective Li's disappearance four years ago as well has you thought you have, we haven't said anything since you three don't let it interfere with your work and we understand why you have to investigate even with the fact that he was declared deceased after half a year of no leads. You three can keep doing the investigation but no more sneaking around about it and you'll have open support the moment you have a concrete lead, I'll be telling Akechi and Kenmochi in person about this so don't say anything to them the moment you leave the office"
"Yes sir"
And so Kindaichi left the office and was then immediately called out to a case, this was because of the fact that Akechi and Kenmochi were dealing with a different case and the officers only trusted Kindaichi, Akechi and Kenmochi with the situation at hand