#fujigen

It was because they needed to make it look convincing. Faking his death would only work if everyone believed he was dead.

even his friends

Jigen as a result never told Goemon or Fujiko, and that was WHY Jigen had a falling out with Fujiko

you see I always HCed that Lupin doesn't actually fake his death as often as we think he does. But when he does, the reason he doesn't tell the gang is to make it look convincing or more so to protect the gang.

Ever notice how when he does it it's normally when a BBEG is involved. It’s not super frequent but when it does happen it’s a Big Thing. Especially when it's a situation where he doesn’t tell the gang. Usually a situation where he feels backed into a corner and there’s no other way out.

which is why the gang expect it FROM Lupin

But Lupin ultimately had no hand in this It wasn’t his plan his big brainiac scheme

it was Jigens

they never expected Jigen to do something like this.

The whole plan had originally started because Jigen and Zeni started to plot the take-down of much of the city's more corrupt police force, knowing that with them in the way, progress would be tremendously limited in looking for the real culprit behind both attacks on Lupin and Yata and all subsequent issues that followed with that. Both hoped that by doing so, that it might entice certain individuals out of hiding when they find out their protection is slowly being whittled out.

However doing so also started to put Lupin and others at risk and rather than risk anything else happening to people they have a shit about, the pair came up with a plan.

Basically fake Lupin's death to throw the scent off and discreetly move him someplace else.

However in order to make it convincing

Jigen had the fucking bright idea not to tell Goemon and Fujiko in order to make it seem realistic. And because Lupin was so bad off and everything was touch and go already, the plan had worked, people bought it.

Only downside is, Goemon and Fujiko ended up spending literal weeks thinking Lupin was actually gone because the plan went so well and Jigen didn’t tell them until both Goe and Fuj found out themselves sometime later

Fujiko of course wasn’t happy

but by extension of Jigen not telling the gang,

Zeni never told Yata

Point of the matter is even in that short time where Yata and Lupin started talking, Yata and Lupin began to "bond" to the point even Jigen starts to thank Yata for keeping Lupin company when he's not around

and given the whole fact Jigen was never one for talking even when Yata still tried to make small talk, often to focused on the other to even bother to notice that Yata even existed and when he did talk, conversation was brief, Yata feels. . .for some odd reason a small sense of strange proudness; getting a thanks from a man as Dark and Mysterious as Jigen. Yata knew something was wrong when Lupin stopped talking. . .But he was never let in on the plan

But you see the issue with not telling Yata is Yata is a smart boy

very smart

If Zenigata didn't tell him something Yata would probably find out by snooping, and Zeni couldn't have that and risk him maybe letting it slip which would ruin everything. Yata of course would always know Zeni had a plan, and because of that, Zeni couldn't keep him totally in the dark.

So maybe he told him something, some other "secret" plan in order to make the lie look convincing and to maybe throw Yata off the scent

as a result Yata didn't know what the ultimate plan was

Yata knew he was planning something just not what

But Yata wasn't expecting Lupin to die

How the ultimate plan went no one knows for sure. Jigen had been the mastermind behind that actual plan, tricks like this were their specialty. Zeni had the ultimate hand in it, but in reality it was Jigen who planned everything down to minute detail because as good as Zenigata is, Jigen had learned from Lupin, never leave a detail untouched.

It was him who had the bright idea to coincide the time with Lupin's move on the day he was supposed to have surgery to fix the leg. Because in Jigen's eyes no one would have suspected if something went wrong; Lupin was so bad off as it was already that everything was touch and go. No one would have suspected if Lupin had either died on the table or afterward.

His plan to keep Fujiko and Goemon away from the hospital was so easy. Take a walk, find someplace to sit down somewhere, and just talk. .just talk. . .he doesn't mention the plan, he doesn't even talk about anything regarding Lupin unless he has to, and the ruse is easy, because the other two simply suspect that he's just nervous and not showing it.

To further sweeten the deal, Jigen also mentions that his sister is planning his nephew's baptism and he wants the two of them to join him.

And the pair are happy to agree.

Not knowing that Jigen is actually heartbroken that he's actively lying to them about this.

He's focused of course, he knows it needs to be done

But it's killing to have to do it, but he has too. So he buries it and the trio talk like they haven't talked before. Even Jigen and Goemon are enjoying each others company

all under the guise of a lie

heh. . .who would've thought. . .

Between all this Jigen is waiting for a phone call. . .a signal that the plan is in motion. He told the doc to "call him on his cell" when Lupin was out of surgery, with the gang standing around to make it look convincing. Maybe in the end it was the doctors who would ultimately decide how to go about Lupin's "death"

Afterall leave it to those who deal with bodies to know. . .

When he finally get the call, it's not hard to feign any shortage of emotion. In the beginning it was. . .relief maybe. . .to hear his phone ring some hours later and be told that Lupin's out and they can come and see him.

Jigen tells the gang and their excited, their quick to make it up there even when jigen's trying to stall for time, but their a "little early" anyways so the doc's tell them to

"wait in the waiting room"

and they'll call them in when they get Lupin all settled

But Jigen notices a glint, a certain look in the Doctor's eye. . .and he knows just by that look along that it's time. So he waits and he braces himself for the inevitable

As they wait, things seem to go quiet; no one calls them in. And in the end it's Goemon who's first to ask what's taking so long, and he sounds nervous while doing it and maybe it was fate's sick idea of a joke, but not even a millisecond after he says that, all hell finally breaks loose.

Jigen doesn't know how they did it. To be honest he's afraid to know. Because it's convincing, so convincing to the point that when they go to the room and find the docs working on Lupin, even with knowing the plan, it's so realistic it's like every bad dream Jigen's had over the last few months come true.

Which is why when Lupin "dies" and the Docs finally call it, it not that hard to feign shock or worriedness or whatever else he must be feeling

because after all. . .it's not like he hasn't thought about this already. . .

watching it come true just makes it easier

So much easier, that when Zenigata spots Jigen shortly after the Docs call it, it looks like he's actively shutting down, and it doesn't take long for Zeni to notice that he is actually doing that. But Zeni can't just go over, he has to leave him for just a few more moments until Jigen is alone or else the others will get suspicious or something.

But the moment he is alone, Zenigata is quick to remind him as he pulls him by the shoulders that it's not real

none of this is. But he has to remember the plan

and also that Zenigata has to go as well that it's time

and he promises Jigen that he will look out for Lupin, he gives him his word.

And maybe that snaps Jigen out of his farce, just enough to not completely have a total meltdown, enough to remind him what they're doing.

So Zeni leaves him, determined to see the rest of this through, while he leaves Jigen to mourn with the gang.

But as he goes to the ambulance bay, where Lupin, still sedated having actually been cut open on an operating table and wheeled out no more than 10 minutes ago is being loaded up, one of the nurses in on the plan whose been taking care of him (maybe it's the one jigen likes), basically tells Zenigata as he hops in the back that she hopes he knows what he’s doing because if he doesn’t, he’s surely going get lupin killed, perhaps even going as far as to actively start protesting against it all and perhaps telling him that he's going to kill Lupin attempting this and to please reconsider

but Zenigata is determined, and he’s on schedule and maybe being a little bullheaded to admit she has a point, but they're in to deep now, so he pays it no heed to her warnings as he closes the ambulance door

because as far as everyone else is concerned