"Right, meet with the superiors first, go to Hong Kong second, and I get why they can't be told of Li's survival Akechi, if...if he has amnesia or is forced into fighting fellow law enforcement..."

Akechi sighs at that

"I know Kindaichi, I just...I just wish that they could know the truth"

"So do I, but it's better that they continue to think of him as deceased until we know one way or the other because there's still a chance he'll die"

"Very well"

And so Kindaichi talks to his superiors and then the three head to Hong Kong where it turned out that Takato wasn't involved this time but the reason it seemed like it had was because the person had idolized Takato and did their best to do a crime like he would have

"At least it wasn't Takato, that would have made things worse"

"Agreed"

"You know, since we're here maybe we can..."

"Yeah, let's ask them about it"

And so the three visit Li's grave and put flowers on it, and while it was hard for Akechi, Kenmochi and Kindaichi not to say the truth of the matter in front of the grave they managed and gave him a partial update in front of the grave and then they left

"I hope that someday they can know the truth"

"Agreed but maybe...maybe they can receive good news while learning the truth"

"Yeah...maybe"

And so the group leaves and simply continues solving crimes knowing that Takato was still out there and that the US would call them if they got any further leads regarding Li, and so this continued for a year where they took on cases with most not involving Takato but a couple did and wondering when they would get any further leads in regards to Li's situation. Meanwhile in the US once Kindaichi was forced to leave with no further leads on Li's location the department Kindaichi had been working at sent out a nationwide alert regarding Li and his situation as far as the department knew of it, naturally the ire of the entire US police force was risen because of what they had found out and the FBI was just waiting for a chance to get involved with the group that last had Li in their grasp so that they could take part in the hunt for Li legally, and bring federal charges against his captors. The entire US police force also understood though that Li might be a temporary enemy depending on various factors but they also hoped that they could bring him back quickly if that was the case, what no one knew was that Li would finally be found in Phoenix, Arizona in bad shape and with the FBI's help due to the fact that things started in Las Vegas, New Mexico with a drug raid where there was a group of people in bad shape and one of them spoke up after a time

"They're gone, the people who enslaved us are gone"

"You were definitely slaves?"

"Yes, we've been traveling around in blindfolds but we always know that we're in a different state, some of those with us are only kids"

"Looks like we're going to need the FBI to get involved in this, do you know where they went?"

"Arizona, they said that they were heading to Arizona, they...they also had a foreigner with us that they took, they called him the special slave, the foreigner spoke decent English though he sometimes slipped into another language that no one recognized"

"I see...do you know of anything that the foreigner touched recently that we can use for fingerprints?"

"Yes, and also...also DNA, there's a torture room, they...they raped and tortured him right before they abandoned this place, drugged him too to make him more compliant"

"I see...can you take us to that room?"

"Yes, I...I was in that room too recently, they never raped me but..."

"Threatened it enough and tortured you in the meantime?"

"Yes"

"You don't have to go into the room but we do need directions, and once you show us to the room you're getting taken straight to the hospital where the rest of the group is being taken"

"There's...there's something you should know about the majority of us, most likely we're declared deceased in the system, even the younger kids who haven't been with us for very long, these people like to fake deaths apparently"

"We'll help everyone get their lives sorted out again I promise, but in the meantime...we need to see that room to process it"

And so the police are led to the torture room and they process it, though it wasn't easy for them because they could obviously tell that the torture elements had been used recently

"There's evidence of semen recently as well"

"We were warned that the person was raped, how much more needs to be done to process the room?"

"Not much"

"Right, well in the meantime we have to contact the FBI and let them know that they need to get involved in the case, and run everything as soon as possible I want an identity on that foreigner yesterday"

"Understood"

And so while the group waits for word on who the foreigner was they get in contact with the FBI and get that ball rolling and also start the process of getting people's lives back together, dealing with paperwork that let the government know that people declared deceased were actually alive

"This paperwork is a headache"

"I'm just glad that these people haven't been declared dead for ten or fifteen years, that would be much more paperwork and a bigger headache than what we have right now"

"Good point, the longest someone has been declared as deceased is two and a half years, and we got lucky with the kids, the longest a kid has been deceased so far is eight months"

"Any word back yet regarding the foreigner?"

"Not yet, but hopefully soon"

Suddenly the computer beeped and the officer in front of it used very, very strong language

"What's wrong?"

"Our luck regarding paperwork just ran out, the fingerprints for the foreigner just came back, and...they're to a deceased officer with one other hit in the US and thus their status as deceased hasn't been changed by decree of Interpol"

"Say what?"

"We need to have an emergency meeting with the FBI, now"

"But they'll take at least an hour to arrive"

"Then as soon as they arrive, I'm telling the chief in the meantime, this isn't good, not good at all"

And so an hour and a half later everyone was in the main meeting room and most of the local officers were confused, the FBI agents there were stone faced and not showing if they were confused or had any emotions at all and the chief and three officers looked suddenly very, very tired and worn out

"Okay, everyone or at the very least most of those here are most likely confused about what's going on, including the FBI agents since they're from Phoenix and will be coordinating with the agents on the ground in Arizona, this is because of this man right here"

The chief clicks a button and a picture of Li pops up on the screen

"This is a picture of Pailong Li, he's a detective with Taiwanese police, but he's stationed in Hong Kong and was working on getting Hong Kong citizenship and joining the Hong Kong police force officially, he could do both of that because he's originally a Hong Kong citizen but moved to Taiwan for complicated and sealed reasons, he's been declared dead for about four and a half years after being abducted about five years ago by a group known to kill police officers. His fingerprints first showed up about a year ago in San Francisco California and he disappeared right before he could be discovered there, now then the FBI already knows this but if we get any further information about him, and I am going to have to do this once this debriefing is done you are to contact three people in Japan, this person right here is detective Hajime Kindaichi, this is detective Osamu Kenmochi, and this is Superintendent Kengo Akechi, these three officers of the Tokyo MPD are known friends of detective Li and there is a note in the case file that one of these three must be contacted whenever there's a lead, I simply haven't done it yet due to not only the time difference but also the fact that I needed to properly debrief everyone first so that you understood just how important this case is"

"Wait...won't you need translators though to contact those three?"

"Not entirely, if I reach Kenmochi then yes I will need a translator but according to their files Akechi and Kindaichi are both profecient in English"

"I see, so...this means we're going to have Japanese officers come over soon I guess?"

"No, I think they'll be convinced to stay over there until we have a more solid lead on Li's location besides simply Arizona"

"In any case we have a lot of work cut out for us in the future"

"Indeed we do, now then I have an unpleasant phone call to make"

And so once the debriefing is done the chief does indeed make the necessary and unpleasant phone call reaching Kenmochi which means that a translator was needed but fortunately dealing with an older officer also meant being able to reason with him in regards to the fact that it was better to stay in Japan until there was a more solid lead besides simply knowing that Li was some where's in Arizona. When Akechi and Kindaichi came back from an investigation he had just finished the phone call