Chapter 195, Seventy-Third Cycle (25)
The crimson train sped past the lush green forest, and the next second it entered a pitch-black tunnel, plunging the carriage into darkness.
"Knock knock knock!"
There was a knock on the door of compartment B in carriage seven.
"Who is it?" Murohashi Etsuto, dressed in a white suit, opened the door with displeasure, but there was no one outside, only an envelope on the ground.
As the red train emerged from the tunnel, the interior was instantly illuminated.
"Hmm? Is the mystery game starting so early this time?" The slightly overweight man bent down, picked up the envelope, opened it, and immediately understood. An excited look appeared on his face as he put the envelope away and walked towards carriage number eight.
Not long after, An Dongyu, who was originally in compartment C of carriage number eight, walked to the door of compartment B of carriage number seven.
The thin, bony man pushed up his glasses, picked up his suitcase, and walked in through the door.
*
The previously quiet carriage number seven gradually became noisy, attracting people from carriages number six and eight to come and observe, thinking that a mystery train had started a reasoning game for its passengers.
"What's wrong?" Conan Edogawa didn't have time to ask why Matsuda Jinpei, Hagiwara Kenji, and Date Wataru were also in the car. He grabbed Matsuda Jinpei's sleeve and asked directly.
“We were in the next room when we smelled blood and came out to investigate. We found that the smell was coming from room B, so we wanted to go in and check. But there was no answer when we knocked, and the door was locked. The train conductor said we couldn’t just barge into the guests’ private rooms.” Matsuda Jinpei’s explanation was as concise as ever.
Upon hearing this, Conan Edogawa's expression turned serious. He approached the room B that Conan was pointing to, and his nose twitched. He could indeed smell the very familiar scent of fresh human blood.
He pressed his ear to the door, but it was tightly shut, and he couldn't hear anything inside amidst the clanging of the train and the surrounding noise.
Meanwhile, Date Wataru and Hagiwara Kenji had already revealed their identities as detectives to the car commander. The car commander, who had been looking troubled, was taken aback and then took out a card two seconds later.
The train conductor has a way to open the doors. The doors of the compartments are equipped with sensor locks, which can be opened by swiping the ring on the guest's hand. Each train conductor also carries a card that can open all the doors.
However, most guests will close the keypad lock and treat the door like a regular door after entering the private room, otherwise it would be inconvenient to visit each other's rooms or play mystery games.
At most, people can lock it from the inside or hang a security chain, which is enough.
At this point, the people who were gradually gathering around thought it was part of a deduction game, and even whispered that there were police officers involved this time.
Someone who knew them said, "Carriage 7, compartment B, is that Murobashi's private compartment?"
Another person added in a subtle tone, "Yeah, that guy always likes to seek thrills and cause trouble. I wonder what kind of prank he's playing this time. How boring."
Phantom Thief Kid, disguised as one of the acquaintances, said, "But with such a strong smell, that guy wouldn't have taken it upon himself to do something drastic in the car, would he? Maybe something really has happened? Let's check and make sure."
The train conductor wasn't sure if the compartment was empty or if someone had locked it from the inside, so he knocked one last time to confirm, "Mr. Murohashi? Mr. Murohashi? Are you in there? I'm going to open the door and come in..."
"Huh? Did you call me?" Murohashi Etsuto suddenly appeared from behind the crowd, instantly attracting everyone's attention. He was taken aback for a moment, "What's wrong? Why are you all looking at me like that?"
He was followed by Kogoro Mouri, Ran Mouri, and Sonoko Suzuki.
"Huh? Mr. Murohashi is outside?" The train conductor turned his head subconsciously, but his hand continued to move, successfully swiping the card to unlock the door from the inside.
Kogoro Mouri stepped forward excitedly and said, "He came out of room C in car number eight. We bumped into each other as we exited, and I was surprised too. Mr. Murohashi said he was participating in a mystery game. Has the game already started?"
Ignoring them, Conan Edogawa stood on tiptoe, grabbed the doorknob, and opened the door to Box B.
In an instant, a strong smell of blood filled the air, and several people in the crowd turned pale.
Murohashi Etsuto was still confused: "Yes, Anton and I both received envelopes and exchanged rooms as instructed. Anton should be in my room now, right? What happened to him?"
The train commander exclaimed in surprise, "But the deduction game hasn't even started yet!"
Murohashi Etsuto: "Huh???"
Date Wataru and Hagiwara Kenji had already rushed into the room, with Edogawa Conan close behind.
"This is real human blood." Conan Edogawa stared solemnly at the large patch of scarlet blood in the room.
“And this amount…” Date Wataru frowned, “could very well be life-threatening.”
"Even if he didn't die, he wouldn't survive being thrown out of the car window." Kenji Hagiwara pulled his head back from the blood-stained window.
Those outside the private room were stunned, exchanging incredulous glances.
"What are you talking about? Isn't this a fake mystery game?" Murohashi Etsuto's face was grim.
Matsuda Jinpei, leaning against the door, sneered, put on the sunglasses hanging from his chest, and said expressionlessly, "No, this is a real murder case."
*
"What happened?" Subaru Okiya asked Ran Mouri, who had just finished her phone call, a step late.
“It seems like a murder has occurred,” Ran Mouri explained. “Mr. Anton disappeared after leaving a lot of blood in Mr. Murohashi’s room.”
"Mr. Murohashi said someone left an envelope for this deduction game at their door, asking them to switch rooms. But the conductor said the game hadn't started yet, and the information on the envelope didn't match their plan. They only saw the two of them switch rooms. But the conductor knew they knew each other, so he didn't find it strange." Ran Mouri thought seriously. "My dad and the others deduced that since we went through many tunnels, and one of the conductors was always dozing off, Mr. Murohashi could have quietly returned to compartment B of car number seven, killed Mr. Anton, thrown his body out the window, and then waited for darkness to fall again before sneaking back to compartment C of car number eight to forge his alibi."
Subaru Okiya said with an "Oh," and "This reasoning... isn't very convincing, but it's certainly possible."
Ran Mouri nodded, saying helplessly, "So, Mr. Murohashi is only a suspect. He said that if that's the case, then everyone in carriages seven and eight is a suspect. My dad and the others are investigating other people and have discovered that this matter may be related to a fire five years ago."
Sonoko Suzuki chimed in, "This Suzuki Express was built five years ago. The first-class carriage was custom-made by Uncle Jirokichi at the request of a friend. That tycoon was a big fan of the Orient Express and wanted to build this mysterious train so that his family could enjoy riding it."
At this point, the girl couldn't help but sigh: "However, almost the entire family perished in a fire a month after the first train departed. On the day of the wealthy family's birthday party, a fire suddenly broke out, and the entire family and twelve guests who came to the party died in the fire. The survivors who were rescued from the fire were the six guests who booked the Mystery Train in first class every year."
Ran Mouri then explained, "However, due to a system problem, we booked the 8th car, B, which Mr. Murohashi usually books every year, but Mr. Murohashi ended up going to the 7th car, B."
Subaru Okiya nodded and then asked, "Has the cause of that fire five years ago been determined?"
Sonoko Suzuki shook her head: "The cause of the fire is believed to be a power system malfunction, but the detailed cause has not been investigated."
Having roughly understood what had happened, Subaru Okiya decided not to stay there any longer.
It's just a regular case, probably unrelated to the organization's operations, so let's leave it to Conan Edogawa and those three policemen to handle.
Subaru Okiya planned to continue keeping an eye on Vermouth, Bourbon, and Scotland, especially Ai Haibara and Sera, who weren't in the crowd. He was genuinely worried they might run into any of the three.
Ai Haibara isn't here; she's probably been kicked out with the Detective Boys and is staying obediently in the private room. But it's a bit strange that Sera isn't here either.
Given his sister's personality, if something like this happened in a nearby carriage and caused quite a commotion, she should have come over immediately to investigate, right?
Subaru Okiya had a bad feeling and prepared to turn around and leave to find someone, hoping that the two of them would not run into Scotland.
Twenty minutes earlier, he had opened a small crack in the door and, judging from the footsteps, he knew that Bourbon and Scotland from carriage number seven had passed by his door, arguing and saying they were going to the dining car in carriage number five.
From their conversation, we can tell that Bourbon was unaware that Scotland would be coming, and Scotland was not in Bourbon and Vermouth's plans.
No wonder Vermouth didn't try to get Conan Edogawa away from that train.
Ten minutes ago, Subaru Okiya went to the dining car, but he didn't see Bourbon and Scotland.
He sat for five minutes, ate something casually, and came back, only to discover that a murder had occurred behind him.
"Attention passengers, an accident has occurred on this train..." the announcement rang out, explaining the situation in a way that tried not to cause panic among the passengers.
Subaru Okiya was a little surprised and turned to ask again, "Isn't this train going to stop at the nearest station?"
Sonoko Suzuki chuckled, "Well, because Uncle Jirokichi said that the despicable murderer dared to kill someone in our Suzuki family's car, and we absolutely couldn't let the culprit get away. So Uncle Jirokichi ordered the car to stop in Nagoya as originally planned, and told us to find the murderer in the meantime. The police are already waiting in Nagoya."
"I see..."
However, the mysterious train travels at 80 kilometers per hour, and their time is running out; the organizers will surely make their move soon.
The question is, who was Vermouth disguised as?
"Ah, it's Mr. Amuro!" Sonoko Suzuki's eyes lit up instantly.
"Mr. Amuro is here too? What a coincidence, we've run into so many acquaintances today." Ran Mouri was also a little surprised, and glanced at Subaru Okiya next to her.
However, it seems that Mr. Subaru and Mr. Amuro do not know each other. Perhaps it is because they only met once at Poirot Cafe?
She still remembers that the person who served the food was Ms. Azusa, so they probably didn't even meet or talk to each other, right? That time when Sonoko mentioned Mr. Subaru to Ms. Azusa, she said that she served the food herself and said that the pink-haired young man was indeed very handsome or something.
"Yeah, I was lucky to get a ticket." The blond, dark-skinned young man greeted them with a smile and asked what had happened.
"I was eating at the restaurant when I heard the announcement, so I rushed over immediately," Amuro Tooru said. "How lucky I am! I never expected to run into you guys, Mr. Mori..."
That's a lie; he's not at the restaurant at all.
However, if that's the case, then Bourbon may really have nothing to do with this case.
What about Scotland? Where did the Scotland he was with go?
Subaru Okiya took a step back, took out his phone, and started sending emails.
Bourbon is on my side; we can begin.
"What happened this time?" The familiar girl's voice was cheerful, clearly in a very good mood, and she walked out from the corner passageway the next moment.
"Sera! Where did you go? I sent you messages but you didn't reply. I was so worried about you—" Sonoko Suzuki complained in a drawn-out voice.
"Sorry, sorry." Sera Masumi quickly smiled apologetically, but her joy was barely concealed, showing in the corners of her eyes, her eyebrows, and her pointed little fangs. She said, "Because I ran into my brother whom I hadn't seen in a long time, I couldn't help but chat for a while longer."
Subaru Okiya paused in pushing up his glasses.
elder brother?
But his younger brother Hideyoshi doesn't seem to have come on this mysterious train, does he?
"Brother Xiu, come here quickly, let me introduce you. This is my friend Ran Mouri and Sonoko Suzuki..."
Subaru Okiya's nerves finally snapped.
Shuichi Akai opened his sharp green eyes in an instant, his whole body tense as he looked in the direction the girl had called out to.
"Boom boom boom—" The train entered the tunnel, and the visibility around it immediately decreased.
A man dressed entirely in black slowly emerged from the darkness, one hand in his pocket.
The man looked up, revealing a face under the brim of his hat that looked exactly like Shuichi Akai's, the only difference being a burn scar on the side of his face.
Akai Shuichi: "..."
The fake Shuichi Akai stood openly next to Sera Masumi and nodded naturally, saying, "Hello, I am Shuichi Akai. Thank you for taking care of my sister."
The real Shuichi Akai, disguised as Subaru Okiya, standing nearby: "..."
Conan Edogawa, who turned around abruptly and whose pupils dilated in shock: "???"
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