Chapter 197, Seventy-Third Cycle (27)

"You'd better keep your word." Gin sneered and hung up the phone.

"Brother, what's wrong?" Vodka asked, leaning closer. "Is Scotland bothering Bourbon again?"

“He said he has his own mission.” Gin said impatiently. “Hmph, it’s obvious he took this mission specifically to find Bourbon. How boring.”

Vodka looked at the bomb button in his hand: "Big brother, should we still blow it up?"

Gin: "..."

Gin turned around angrily: "Go retrieve the bomb!"

Why would we blow something up? Although it's unlikely, if something really happens and we blow up Vermouth, Bourbon, and Scotland—three important codename members—not to mention whether the boss would forgive him, who would do the work in the organization then? Those useless people?

“Okay, anyway, all three of them are here. If Shirley is really in the car, she definitely can’t escape.” Vodka even wanted to light a candle for the defector scientist.

“But Vermouth certainly wouldn’t just ask us for bombs randomly, would she?” Vodka thought of Vermouth’s previous email and pondered, “She’s never liked Sherry. Is she planning to blow Sherry up in the car?”

Did Bourbon know? Probably not. Bourbon kept saying he wanted to bring Sherry back to the organization to continue serving the research team.

Vodka remembered his somewhat superficial friendship with Bourbon, and took out his phone to remind him that Vermouth was planning to do something behind his back.

"Whatever." Gin finished speaking and then curled the corners of his mouth, his mood improving again. "Being blown up into fireworks on a speeding red train, that's a pretty suitable way for a traitor to die."

Vodka paused in his typing, his eyes behind his sunglasses struggled for two seconds, and finally he exited the message page.

Fine, since Gin wants Sherry dead, he won't remind Bourbon.

*

Mysterious train.

Carriage No. 7, compartment D.

The girl with brown hair nestled close to her sister, holding her hand tightly.

"Sister, I've been wondering why Mom and Dad made that kind of medicine?" Shiho Miyano's eyes welled up with tears. "Even now, I still can't understand why that kind of medicine shouldn't exist..."

Akemi Miyano reached out and gently stroked her younger sister's head: "Although I don't know much about the research, I know Mom and Dad. They're not like that. They initially went to the Karasuma Group just to earn money to give us a better life. They just never expected that the Karasuma Group was backed by an organization..."

“I know, I know.” Shiho Miyano looked up at her sister. “What Mom and the others were researching back then wasn’t poison, but a dreamlike drug, a study that would benefit all of humanity. It was called the Silver Bullet.”

“But no matter how good something is, once it falls into the hands of the organization…” Shiho Miyano couldn’t continue, and after taking a deep breath, her eyes gradually hardened.

"Now that I've successfully escaped and my sister is safe, I will absolutely never go back to the organization," she said.

She would rather die than go back.

*

"Mr. Mori, everyone's here." Amuro Tooru, Kogoro Mori's top disciple, who was fast asleep, stood at the door and said, "The passengers in carriages seven and eight are already outside, but Mr. Midorikawa from room D and Ms. Katsuki from room E in carriage seven are not here. It seems they went to the dining car in front for lunch."

"Oh, those two are fine, let's get started," said Kogoro Mouri in the private room, without explaining why.

Subaru Okiya slightly opened his narrowed eyes.

"What nonsense..." Murohashi Etsuto muttered under his breath, then couldn't help but step forward impatiently and raise his voice, "Detective Mouri, you said you already know who killed Andon? Is that true?"

"Yes, there is only one truth, and the criminal's evil deeds will eventually have nowhere to hide." Conan Edogawa, hiding under the sofa, continued while holding the voice changer with his hands in a bow tie. "However, what I am going to talk about now is not the criminal who killed Mr. Anton, but the criminal who killed more than a dozen people in the arson case five years ago."

The expressions of all the passengers in carriage number eight changed drastically in an instant, but the one with the most intense and panicked expression was Murohashi Etsuto. However, he was standing very close to the front, so only Amuro Tooru and three policemen who were closest to the door saw him.

Matsuda Jinpei scoffed without any politeness.

"W-What are you talking about?" Murohashi Etsuto's face twisted for a moment, but he tried to remain calm and said, "Wasn't the fire five years ago an accident caused by a circuit malfunction? And the most important thing now is to find the murderer who killed Andon. Otherwise, what if the criminal escapes when the train arrives at the station?"

“There’s no escaping it.” Conan Edogawa held the voice changer with a bow in one hand, while typing on his phone with the other. “Because this murderer doesn’t exist. Mr. Anton didn’t die. It was all just a show.”

Amidst the confusion, Kogoro Mouri's voice called out one of the names: "Right, Amuro?"

The blond, dark-skinned youth, who had suddenly become the center of everyone's attention, smiled upon hearing this: "As expected of Mr. Mori, I knew you had seen through our plan long ago."

"...What are you talking about? What does this mean?" Murohashi Etsuto's face was extremely ugly, and he had already started to back away.

However, he had nowhere to retreat. The tall and imposing Date Wataru was standing behind him at some point, and Hagiwara Kenji and Matsuda Jinpei were also blocking his escape route.

"What are we talking about? I thought Mr. Murohashi should be the one who knows best?" Amuro Tooru smiled.

"Murohashi, what does that mean?"

"Murohashi, do you know what happened?"

"Hey, I bet this isn't some kind of prank you and Anton pulled together, is it? This is really going too far!"

The passengers in carriage number eight all frowned, and the woman with the most fiery temper and light eyebrows even rushed directly in front of him.

Kenji Hagiwara smiled and stopped her from getting close to the man.

"Mr. Mori, shall I be the one to explain from now on?" Amuro Tooru turned to ask his master for permission.

"Alright, then I'll leave it to you." Kogoro Mouri's voice was steady. "Amuro, let me see what you've learned so far."

Everyone looked at the blond youth again.

Amuro Tooru showed no stage fright whatsoever, naturally revealing a smile, and then turned around and opened the door to the adjacent Room C.

“Mr. Anton, you can come out now,” he said.

Under everyone's gaze, a thin man walked out of what should have been Amuro Tooru's private room, his face pale and his arm wrapped in white bandages.

Those present were stunned, not expecting that Anton was actually alive and was hiding in Amuro Tooru's private room.

"Wait, no, why? We didn't find such a big person in Mr. Amuro's room during the interrogation and inspection, did we?" Sera Masumi was the first to react.

"Because at that time, we knew we needed to check the room of a potential suspect, so we temporarily hid him elsewhere," Amuro explained with a smile.

"The train conductor should have been very vigilant after the murder, so why wasn't he discovered when he entered your room?" Subaru Okiya also raised this question.

There is no doubt that Amuro Tooru has helpers.

But almost everyone in carriage number seven could become his accomplice.

And the help they provided wasn't limited to this case; it also included...

"Because of the mirrors." An Dongyu pushed up his glasses, put down the box he was carrying, and opened the drawing board inside the box to find three large mirrors.

"Once the train enters the tunnel, the mirrors are quickly assembled onto the doors, temporarily deceiving the train conductor in the dim light," he explained simply.

Subaru Okiya remained silent, but his gaze swept across all the compartments in carriage seven, pondering which compartment the helper who had covered for them was from.

"Wait? But why? Why put on such a show? What about the real culprit of the fire five years ago that Detective Mori mentioned? Wasn't that an accident?" The short-tempered woman with light eyebrows couldn't help but keep asking questions, and the other passengers in carriage number eight also showed anxious and angry expressions.

"This all started with a case I received not long ago." Amuro Tooru's eyes gradually sharpened. "I'm sure you all understand by now. Yes, the client was Mr. Anton, and he asked me to investigate the fire from five years ago."

He exchanged glances with several passengers in carriage number eight and slowly said, "Two years ago, Mr. Anton accidentally discovered that the painting that should have been burned was being auctioned off. So he secretly investigated the person who owned the painting and found out that it was Mr. Murohashi. Therefore, he suspected that Mr. Murohashi stole the painting and set fire to the whole house."

Murohashi Etsuto broke out in a cold sweat instantly, and his forced composure finally crumbled. He chuckled, feigning surprise, and said, "Haha, it was just an accident. You all know that painting is priceless, so I took it with me during my escape. But the number of deaths and injuries in that fire was so high that I was worried that taking it out would only make the survivors more saddened by seeing it, so I didn't make a fuss."

This explanation was full of loopholes, and the others didn't even bother to refute it, but simply continued to stare at Amuro Tooru's Ando Yu.

This time it was Ando Yu who spoke up, gritting his teeth as he said, "That's right! It was Murohashi! He stole the painting from the house!! And to cover up the theft, he set the whole house on fire!!!"

The crowd gasped in disbelief.

"I didn't! You're lying!" Murohashi Etsuto shouted, even trying to rush up to stop the two guys from continuing to talk, but Date Wataru easily grabbed him and made him unable to move.

“Sir, please don’t be violent.” Kenji Hagiwara smiled. “Please let them finish their reasoning. If you are truly innocent, our police will definitely clear your name.”

Murohashi Etsuto gave an awkward smile.

The problem is, he's not innocent!

Amuro Toru continued, "Mr. Anto originally thought that he, like the passengers in carriage number eight, boarded this train every year to commemorate those who died in the fire. He originally planned to persuade him to turn himself in during last year's mystery train deduction game."

An Dongyu's chest heaved violently: "But in that mystery game, I was playing the culprit and he was playing the victim. He actually said to me: 'Isn't this kind of thing really exciting? It's the thrill of feeling alive. Don't you think it reminds you of the feeling of being rescued from that fire and barely surviving?'"

"How could he say such utter nonsense! That guy showed absolutely no remorse! He was even smug about it! My wife died in that fire because of such scum—"

The man completely lost control of his emotions; his reddened eyes held tears of despair and sorrow, as well as murderous intent filled with hatred.

Murohashi Etsuto couldn't help but take a step back, forcing himself to say, "You're talking nonsense! Those are just guesses! What evidence do you have?!"

"As for evidence, of course I have it." Kogoro Mouri, who had been silent for a long time, spoke up again. "Amuro, shouldn't you have the evidence?"

Amuro Tooru chuckled, took out his phone, and showed everyone a video, explaining, "Mr. Anton and I staged this scene to force out the evidence."

That was originally the room of Anto Yu in carriage number eight. The video of Murohashi Etsuto being frantically self-destructing after being terrified by the fake fire projection following the murder, the more details he revealed after making a phone call in a guilty and fearful state, and the detailed information that Amuro Tooru had investigated during this period... All of this is enough to prove that Murohashi Etsuto was the arsonist in the arson case five years ago.

*

The case was solved, and the perpetrator was apprehended by three off-duty police officers.

With 30 minutes to go until the final stop, Nagoya, there was still plenty of time, so the plan to hold the gem exhibition continued.

The scarred Shuichi Akai said he wanted to go to the front carriage to look at the jewels.

According to the Suzuki Group's arrangements, the gem will be transported from the front carriage to the back carriage number eight, and finally displayed in the first-class carriage to await the challenge of Phantom Thief Kid.

However, the scarred Shuichi Akai suspects that Kaito Kid might be hiding among the guests admiring the jewels, and then steal or switch them along the way, so he wants to follow him from the very beginning.

Before leaving, he sincerely invited Amuro Tooru to go with him to watch the Jewel Catcher and capture the Phantom Thief Kid.

Amuro Tooru declined with a smile.

With a heavy heart, Shuichi Akai, bearing the scars, left with regret and reluctance.

Okiya Subaru: "..."

Sera Masumi naturally followed her brother, but at the end she couldn't help but look back at the blond youth, pondering the relationship between him and her brother.

Amuro Tooru remained where he was, talking to Kogoro Mouri, who had just woken up and walked out of the private room.

Subaru Okiya adjusted his glasses, glanced at his phone, and ultimately decided to stay put.

Ran Mouri is searching everywhere for Conan Edogawa.

The Junior Detective League has also been released and is looking for Ai Haibara.

Although Ai Haibara sent them a message telling them not to worry, they were still bored and decided to go out and look for Conan Edogawa and Ai Haibara.

Ai Orikasa followed them around for a while, and eventually managed to coax the child back to the private room.

Kaito Kuroba pushed the old man back to the private room to wait for the gem to be delivered to him automatically, while pondering the conversation he had overheard earlier.

What is the relationship between the organization codenamed "Alcohol" and the organization codenamed "Animal" that he's been investigating? Are they also looking for Pandora? Could it be related to his father's death? And is the spider really in the car?

But as soon as he opened the door, his thoughts and actions froze instantly.

Inside the private room, a primary school student in a blue suit was sitting on the sofa, turning to him and giving him an innocent smile.

"Big sister, you must be Kid." Conan Edogawa's voice was sweet.

Kaito Kuroba: "..."