Chapter 71 (Presented beneath the Gentian Flower): Offering My Eyes...
There is an old Chinese saying
It's called "There's an old saying that goes..."
Zhuge Tongzhi and Conan stayed away from the treacherous and cunning struggles among the adults, watching Furuya Rei and Akai Shuichi engage in various covert competitions until Morofushi Takaaki finished handing over the documents and joined the conversation, at which point the two finally calmed down.
After a long sigh, the two fake children began to talk about what had happened in the past day.
As Zhuge Tongzhi listened to yet another murder case in Beika Town, he endured Conan's eye-roll and sharply criticized Conan's death aura. Then, he was pulled into the chat group by the Junior Detective League, who had finished their pancakes and had free time to eat.
A group of children were laughing and talking about the aftermath of the Ferris wheel explosion and being beaten with bamboo shoots, but the fact that they were able to come to Nagano now clearly shows that their parents' stay-at-home orders were still largely ineffective.
The atmosphere here was light and cheerful, but Furuya Rei, who was at the center of the discussion, suddenly realized that he had overlooked something important when he saw Morofushi Takaki.
He hasn't told Hiro that he's not dead yet.
Recently, I experienced a series of exhausting events, including the explosion of Qingchuan Tower, the capture of Ireland, and the pursuit of Curaçao. Just when everything was finally coming to an end, I was dragged to Kyoto overnight by Alju.
Even for a top earner like Rei Furuya, who works three jobs simultaneously, there isn't a single spare moment to make a trip to Nagano by himself, let alone find a reasonable time to manage all three jobs at the same time.
The last time he informed the other party of their death, he took advantage of a mission to personally drop a torn-up police ID into the Morofushi family's mailbox, and left after confirming that the other party had received the document.
Although it was absolutely good news, it was not the right time to speak... Furuya Rei watched as Morofushi Takaaki nodded at him as if he were a stranger, and politely bowed in return.
We had no choice but to wait until the case was over.
Noticing that the firepower focused on him had suddenly stopped, Shuichi Akai raised an eyebrow above his narrow eyes and looked at the newly joined Inspector Morofushi.
Oh dear.
When he saw the other person's beautifully shaped phoenix eyes, his squinty eyes widened for a moment. His dark green wolf eyes then swept over Zhu Fu Gaoming's face, lingering on the small mustache under his nose for a moment before he squinted again.
So, the real surname of the Scottish people is Zhufu?
And both brothers chose to become police officers—was there some hidden reason? Thoughts raced through the pink-haired man's mind as he bowed slightly to the phoenix-eyed officer as he introduced himself.
Faced with the newly joined Morofushi Takayoshi, the two bottles of fake sake, each with their own thoughts, simultaneously fell silent in a realm unnoticed by others.
As the official police officer being questioned, Morofushi Takaaki politely greeted the private detectives present, his gaze briefly sweeping over Furuya Rei before moving on without lingering.
Kagemitsu's childhood friend, a hint of sadness flashed across his deep blue eyes as he lowered them, but it was quickly buried deep within his master's heart. It was that child named... Furuya Rei.
The fact that they're using aliases in this case is probably part of the police operation. Morobushi Takaaki glanced at the media pointing their cameras at them, his brow furrowing slightly.
"Gentlemen," said the impeccably dressed, phoenix-eyed police officer in a sharp suit, "this case cannot be delayed. Now that the procedural details have been finalized, let's begin the investigation now."
“I’m fine.” Hattori Heiji quickly straightened his backwards baseball cap and loudly announced his origin in Osaka dialect, adding with a hint of complaint, “The handover in Gunma is even more complicated than in Osaka.”
As soon as he spoke, everyone's eyes turned to Yamamura Misao, who represented the Gunma Prefectural Police Department.
The sharp-mouthed police officer, who looked remarkably like Suneo, wore a cross necklace and was holding a string of very new Buddhist prayer beads in his hand. Upon hearing this, he scratched his head and said somewhat embarrassedly, "It's better to be cautious."
Yamato Kansuke glanced at the jingling religious accessories on his body, then looked at this former detective fool he had worked with before. An annoyed look appeared on his dark face, and his aura became even more intimidating.
With that flick of his wrist, he tugged at his clothes, revealing the ornaments folded at Yamamura Misao's waist: a yellow talisman, a small peach wood sword, and a red and white amulet embroidered with "Evil spirits begone."
"Huh?" Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya pointed to the yellow paper placed in the card holder and asked in confusion, "Officer Yamamura, what is this?"
“This one.” Yamamura Misao took down the talisman and showed it to Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko, showing him the talisman with some kind of incomprehensible pattern drawn in cinnabar. The erudite boy looked at it from both sides but still couldn’t figure out what it was.
"Exorcising evil spirits?"
"Is this a Taoist exorcism talisman?" Zhuge Tongzhi, who was walking over hand in hand with Yoshida Ayumi, carefully examined the Chinese characters on it and said with great surprise, "There's also a peach wood sword for exorcising ghosts. It looks so professional."
"Haha, of course." Seeing that someone recognized its value, Yamamura carefully put the talisman back into his waistband, raised his pointed mouth, and said proudly, "This is something I, 'Yokai Hunter Yamamura,' asked a master for."
“But this is a murder case, so bringing exorcism items won’t work,” Yoshida Ayumi said incisively, her voice sweet and clear as she asked, “Officer Yamamura is such a coward. How can he be a monster hunter like that?”
"What do you know, you little brat?"
Well, after all, he's someone who can determine a murder as a suicide. Conan, holding his head, strolled over at the very back of the Detective Boys, glancing at Yamamura Misao, who suddenly became embarrassed and annoyed, and pouted.
Despite having terrible reasoning skills, he was still promoted to police inspector within six months.
"And you should call me Inspector Yamamura!"
As expected, Yamamura corrected him, then bent down to explain his protective amulets to the children, solemnly saying, "Let me tell you, cases that happen in places like hospitals are not to be underestimated; they are often filled with particularly strong evil spirits..."
"Oh, oh, oh!" The three children responded with a sound of admiration that they didn't quite understand. Zhuge Tongzhi also clapped along and nodded repeatedly with a look of conviction. Only Conan, who couldn't fit in at all, stood by with a speechless expression.
After listening to a few words, Kogoro Mouri, who was standing nearby, was pulled into the sharing session by the enthusiastic Yamamura Misao. After coughing twice, he began to share the supernatural cases he had solved.
Heiji Hattori, whose cases also involved these kinds of scare tactics, naturally stood next to Conan, propped up his radish-headed brother's head with one hand, and started talking eloquently.
Looking at the lively scene before him, which was completely different from the serious investigation, Yamato Kansuke pinched his brow and felt a phantom pain on the scar on his left eye.
Besides Conan, why are there a bunch of underage kids at the scene?
For a moment, he almost couldn't resist using the same trick again, having Uehara Yui take this bunch of big and little idiots out to "retake their statements," but he swallowed his words as soon as he opened his mouth.
As the cross-county joint investigation was just beginning, it was impossible for him to transfer Yamamura Misao and Mori Kogoro away from each other at the outset.
"Alright everyone, let's head into Matsushiro headquarters now." Uehara Yui noticed that Yamato Kansuke's patience was about to run out, and spoke up before he could say anything bluntly: "Everyone, please put on your helmets."
“Some of the passageways inside are quite low, making it easy to bump into things.” The brisk policewoman said, then casually hooked a large basket full of construction safety helmets, took out two helmets and handed them to Ran Mouri and Kazuha Toyama. “Here you are, ladies.”
After thanking them, the two girls took the helmets and put them on. Then, each of them took another helmet from the basket and turned around to put them on the heads of Hattori Heiji and Conan, who were saying something and looking smug.
"On weekdays, there are so few people here." Heiji Hattori barely managed to change the subject, hurriedly patting Conan's helmet under Ran Mouri's somewhat questioning gaze, and laughed, "Right, kid?"
"Hahaha, yeah." Conan replied with an awkward laugh, feeling his head spinning from being slapped by that idiot Hattori.
Ran Mouri glanced at Conan, whose expression was somewhat unnatural, but finally looked away and put her hands on her hips to face the four children who had each received a little exorcism trick from Misao Yamamura.
"Kiri-chan, Ayumi-chan, Mitsuhiko, and Genta, you guys better hurry up and put on your helmets!"
"Hi----"
This mountain village, despite being terrified, is surprisingly generous. Zhuge Tongzhi twirled the rather heavy peach wood sword in his hand, fastened the safety buckle on his helmet, and then took the distributed rubber gloves and put them on.
Once everything was ready, amidst a flurry of flashes from the media, the large group, led by their guide and carrying flashlights, entered the dark passageway.
"Maintain your current direction of travel and continue forward for 67 meters."
Compared to the scorching heat of the outside world exposed to the sun, the tunnel was as cool and pleasant as if it were air-conditioned. However, combined with the dim lighting inside and the occasional iron fence blocking the way, it could only be described as chilling to the bone.
Zhuge Tongzhi watched the distance in the navigation box shrinking. One of his hands was held by Yoshida Ayumi, while the other was wrapped in Mouri Ran's hand, both palms filled with a warm and soft touch.
A serial murder case... The black-haired girl looked up at the blonde head that stood out from the crowd, and in the low-pressure atmosphere where only the sound of footsteps could be heard, she inexplicably fell into a daze.
The surgeon whose organs had been partially removed... Images of some pornographic films she had seen before flashed through her mind, and her expression was slightly distorted by the red mosaic covering her face. It was hard to imagine what the scene would actually be like.
The girl, lost in thought, didn't notice that Furuya Rei had stopped. She had only taken two steps forward when she was pulled back by the people on either side.
"This is it. Last night at about 8:15 p.m., the security guard found the dead Dr. Ueda during a routine security check and the dead Nurse Yamanashi in a deep pit 30 meters ahead."
Yamato Kansuke's deep, hoarse voice echoed through the tunnel. Zhuge Tongzhi, along with the crowd who lined up in a row, approached the crime scene. The faint smell of blood at the tip of his nose grew stronger, carrying a slightly distorted and strange sensation.
"The deceased received an anonymous letter in the afternoon, delivered by a child patient in the hospital, and then immediately came to Matsushiro Town after taking leave."
Using his sturdy build, Kojima Genta created an opening between the adults for his friends. The agile Yoshida Ayumi grabbed Zhuge Tongzhi and the lagging Conan and squeezed through the opening, with Tsuburaya Mitsuhiko following closely behind.
"The cause of death was a stab wound to the heart. The murder weapon was found near Ms. Yamanashi, but apart from that..."
He was pulled off his feet by his friend who was as fast as the wind. Before Zhuge Tongzhi could see the appearance of the deceased, the warm touch of his hand being clenched and his arm being held first transmitted the information to his brain through his nerves.
She instinctively stepped forward to shield the child beside her before looking up at the source of the strong smell of blood.
"The victim's eyes were gouged out by the murderer and placed in his palm."
The man in front of me, still dressed in white, had two dark, bloody holes in his face. He was kneeling on the ground, his posture stiff and slightly crooked, as if he were presenting something. His ten knuckles were stiff, and he held a pair of eyeballs, whose bloodstains had already congealed, in his palms.
From the perspective of the Junior Detective League, those bloodshot eyes seemed to be being offered to them, and the smell of blood was overwhelming.
Genta Kojima looked horrified, took two steps back and fell to the ground with a thud. Ayumi Yoshida, her legs weak, leaned against Tongzhi Zhuge and was led away from the horrifying scene by the black-haired girl.
She opened her mouth wide, but an uncontrollable gagging sound reached her throat before she could make a normal sound. Zhuge Tongzhi turned his head and glanced at the deceased one last time before leading Yoshida Ayumi across the crowd to a place where the deceased could not be seen.
But it wasn't just the children who lost their composure; everyone present looked grim. Yamamura Misao let out a howl and grabbed Kogoro Mouri's arm tightly.
"Dr. Ueda was already in this position when the administrator found him."
But it's impossible for a person to maintain this posture on their own after death. Conan and Heiji Hattori exchanged a glance, reading the same thought from each other's furrowed brows.
Only by helping the deceased maintain this position for at least three hours can the body be frozen in its current state after rigor mortis occurs.
What kind of person could spend so much time face-to-face with a dead body in a dimly lit tunnel? Conan's expression turned serious, and he began to carefully examine Dr. Ueda's body.
"The nurse from Yamanashi came to find Dr. Ueda after the hospital incident, but the surveillance cameras at the entrance did not capture anyone who came out after them."
“This means that the murderer either left through another exit.” Yamato Kansuke tapped the ground heavily with his cane, his remaining single eye looking at the police and detectives present. “Or, he is still hiding somewhere in this tunnel.”
Another exit? Furuya Rei looked at the black-haired girl who was patting her friend's back, far away from the crime scene. She was wearing an orange-yellow safety helmet, and the ends of her hair were sticking up from the edge of the helmet like messy weeds.
Are they still inside the tunnel? Zhuge Tongzhi gently patted Yoshida Ayumi's back, his gaze drifting towards the navigation box in the void, which remained unchanged.
Next waypoint: The secrets deep within the fortress (incomplete)
…
Meanwhile, in Miharachi, Tokyo
Kenji Hagiwara, dressed in a rare, understated casual outfit, was standing in a phone booth on the street. His gradient brown-red sunglasses were perched on his straight nose, and a pleasant smile played at the corners of his mouth.
With that gentle expression, passersby who glanced up at him in a hurry would often think to themselves, "What a handsome face!" and then guess that he might be calling his girlfriend.
Kenji Hagiwara leaned against the wall of the phone booth, winked at a woman who looked at him with surprise, and asked his "mysterious girlfriend" on the phone with a smile, "Class monitor, have you confirmed the target?"
"Yes, the location has been confirmed." To the dismay of those who were shipping the "mysterious girlfriend," the voice coming through the microphone was rather rough, a deep voice that sounded unmistakably masculine. "Midori is already waiting downstairs."
"Alright, looks like it's time for Kenji to lure the snake out of its hole!" Kenji Hagiwara raised his hand to smooth his hair and exchanged a glance with Wataru Date, who was lurking at the street corner.
Instead of waiting until Sunday to wait for the kidnapped children to come to them, the four officers decided to take the initiative and use the ample clues they had on hand to reduce the time the kidnapped children were in the hands of their kidnappers.
Now that the pattern of the kidnappers regularly appearing at Poirot's Cafe has been established, it is not difficult to trace back to a car with a fixed license plate.
However, since Ida Wataru was transferred to Tokyo, he has frequently appeared in the news due to a series of major cases on his hands. After the Ferris wheel bombing incident, he even gave a television interview.
The Tokyo First Investigation Division naturally strongly supports things that can improve the image of the police, but the increased profile also makes it impossible for Date Wataru to lure out the kidnapper on his own.
Fortunately, he had two reliable contemporaries.
"Be careful, just lure him downstairs." Date Wataru instructed over the phone, while Morofushi Kagemitsu's voice came from another spare phone in his hand: "Leave the hostage rescue to me, I'm very good at picking locks."
"Hey, don't worry, Midorikawa-chan." Kenji Hagiwara glanced up to locate the floor of the kidnapper's residence and said into the microphone, "It's just acting, I'm good at this."
"However, the lock might be an electronic lock, and this apartment seems to have been renovated."
"It's alright, I brought a silenced pistol."
"Wow, you're well prepared! The second-year graduate student is going to go all out!"
"Uh..." Tada Wataru, sandwiched between two phones, paused subtly, unsure whether to praise his fellow gangster who was armed with an illegal gun or encourage his soon-to-be-acting fellow colleague.
No, actually, there's no need for a gun at all. Only then did he realize the teasing smile in Morofushi Kagemitsu's words, and two black lines rolled down his forehead. Once the person was caught, everything was already solved.
These guys...
The tension that had gripped him ever since he heard the death announcement subtly eased. Date Wataru exhaled, stretched his stiff shoulders, and spoke into the two phones in his hands:
"Operation begins."
"Received." Kenji Hagiwara hung up the receiver and strode out of the phone booth quickly, following the last person as they pushed open the door and went upstairs, raising his hand to stop the door from closing.
With a friendly smile, he dispelled the other person's doubts. The man with medium-length hair chatted briefly with his neighbor about the utility bills before politely but distantly waving goodbye from his floor.
Kenji Hagiwara raised his hand and pressed the doorbell beside the doorframe. He recognized the heavy footsteps approaching from inside the house and spoke:
"Excuse me, are you Mr. Yoshioka, the owner of the car with license plate XXXX?"
The door was pulled open a crack, and a man with a middle parting peeked out warily through the security chain, saying in an unfriendly tone, "It's me. Who are you?"
"I'm so glad you didn't mistake me. I just moved in." Kenji Hagiwara breathed a long sigh of relief, then looked worried and said, "Your car in the garage was broken into. I saw that the front drawers were pulled open."
"What?" After the door closed, the man with the middle parting walked out from behind the wide-open door where the safety chain had been removed, and looked at Kenji Hagiwara's sincere eyes with a puzzled look, "But how did you know I lived here?"
Kenji Hagiwara glanced at the empty room and gestured for the man with the middle parting to walk outside. As they went downstairs, he casually remarked, "Maybe it's because I deal in counterfeit goods that I pay more attention to this."
"ha??"
-----------------------
Author's Note: Ouch
They've completely degenerated into updating every other day.
Morning star, oh morning star! How could this be!
…
Zhu Fujia
A great fire extinguisher for whiskey (Fujiya thumbs-up smile jpg).
…
Mwah to everyone!
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