Chapter 360: Suspicious Toru Amuro (Combined Chapter)
Jiang Xia walked past Vermouth and walked out of the classroom, and casually arranged: "You come to find the person hiding in this classroom. I'll go check on Conan."
Vermouth felt the very natural attitude of Uzo when he directed "Amuro Toru" and couldn't help but doubt Bourbon's position in the detective agency.
Although she felt that Uzo's interpersonal status was a bit strange, she didn't want to be exposed so quickly, and she didn't know how the mysterious Bourbon usually treated his employees, so she had to suppress the strange emotions in her heart, pretended to be "this is how it should be", and obediently walked to the podium.
After taking two steps, Vermouth suddenly heard the sound of footsteps behind her.
When I looked back, I saw that Conan's two classmates were not with Jiang Xia, but were following her closely.
"……?"
Vermouth was a little confused. She subconsciously raised her hand and touched her face, thinking, could it be that Bourbon's appearance was more popular with children, so that after just a short while of getting along, her affinity surpassed Uzo's?
...Obviously, Uzo looks more approachable. The kids have poor taste. Hmm... maybe they don't see mixed-bloods often, so they are curious and follow her?
Vermouth ignored them, looked away, and continued walking towards the podium.
…
On the other side, after Conan finished howling, he stomped his feet on the spot for a while, from heavy to light, pretending to have run away.
Then he pulled Yuantai up and tiptoed to the side.
After a few minutes, a slightly old figure was seen holding a rag and wiping the stairs all the way down - scaring people comes at a price, as the paint on the handrails used to act as "blood stains" will be difficult to wipe off once they dry.
After wiping off the last trace of blood, the Dean of Academic Affairs breathed a sigh of relief and raised his hand to wipe away the sweat from his head.
He was about to continue looking for his wig, but when he turned around, he was shocked to see two children: "Why are you here?!"
Conan raised his head in surprise, looking at the Dean of Academic Affairs' different hairstyle: "Your hair..."
In a flash, the director suddenly disappeared, Mr. Ohata showed a strange expression when he was questioned, a figure rummaging in the corridor late at night, a mysterious person who ran away when he saw the children and pretended to be a ghost in an attempt to scare them away...
All these phenomena flashed through Conan's mind at once, as if an electric current had passed through him. He suddenly understood the strange circumstances of tonight.
——The director’s wig must have been lost, so he came to school at night and secretly looked for it alone.
Before, Ayumi went to the Dean of Academic Affairs’ house and rang the doorbell but no one opened the door. It was not because the Dean was killed by a mysterious man, but because the Dean did not want to meet students with a bald head, and he happened to live alone and had no family members to help receive him.
...By the way, if you mind your bald head being seen so much, why don't you wear a hat to cover it up?
Conan met the director's embarrassed gaze and was too embarrassed to complain out loud.
He changed the subject considerately and asked about what he was most interested in: "How did you make that mouth on the plaster statue?" Then he thought of the two missing classmates, "Where are Ayumi and Mitsuhiko now?"
"......?" The Dean of Academic Affairs' eyes slowly changed from embarrassment to confusion, and he obviously didn't understand Conan's previous question.
The latter one vaguely understood: "Two students are missing?!"
Conan was slightly surprised to see that his reaction didn't seem fake.
Previously, based on the circumstances when Mitsuhiko disappeared, Conan had guessed that there was more than one scary Xiao Hei wandering around the teaching building.
Later, through the call with Jiang Xia, Conan found that Jiang Xia also entered the teaching building. He thought that if Ayumi and Mitsuhiko who were running around did not fall into the hands of the criminals, they might have been picked up by Jiang Xia, which could effectively prevent the two children who were left alone from getting into accidents... Tsk, although Jiang Xia had good intentions, it was too scary for the people who were left behind...
...In short, after Conan saw the Dean of Academic Affairs coming down the stairs, the "Xiao Hei" in his mind was automatically replaced by the Dean of Academic Affairs + Jiang Xia.
But now, the two things that he cares about most, "the mouth on the plaster statue" and "Ayumi Mitsuhiko's disappearance", are not the work of the Dean of Academic Affairs...
The latter can be barely blamed on Jiang Xia, but the former is very puzzling.
——According to Conan's speculation, the strangely open mouth on the plaster statue should be some kind of material that will expand under certain conditions.
In order to set up this mechanism, the mastermind needs to be able to enter the teaching building in advance and guess that someone will enter the art classroom.
But the reason Jiang Xia entered the teaching building tonight was because the children adjusted their duty time without permission, so Jiang Xia came in to look for someone... This was a sudden unexpected incident.
In addition, Jiang Xia didn't know about the recent strange legend about the art classroom in Teidan Elementary School. He didn't have time and it was impossible for him to make these preparations, not to mention that Jiang Xia had no motive at all.
Which means... there is a third person in the teaching building? !
I thought I had solved the puzzle, but at this moment, a "Xiao Hei" with a blurred face suddenly popped up.
Conan's scalp tingled for a moment.
However, after getting rid of the previous assumption that "there were two people", more details began to emerge in his mind one by one - thinking about it carefully, those campus legends were indeed inconsistent with the behavior of the Dean of Academic Affairs who was looking for a wig.
For example, there is a legend about a "muscle mannequin running wildly at night." But when the director was looking for a wig, there was really no need to carry the mannequin around.
Even if this could be seen as a trick he used to scare away students, the plaster statues in the art classroom were difficult to explain: according to legend, they had been moved more than once, and if you wanted to find something, you only had to turn it over once, there was no need to look back and forth.
...I don’t know if Jiang Xia has discovered the existence of that “third person”. I have to tell him as soon as possible.
Speaking of Jiang Xia... Didn't he intend to be the one waiting behind? Now that the director has come out, Jiang Xia still hasn't shown up. Could it be that he went to catch another person? He had already discovered that "Xiao Hei" was two people? !
Just as I was thinking about it, I heard a few sets of footsteps coming from deep in the corridor.
Several people of varying heights walked out from the shadows.
Conan looked over quickly and saw the two children, and he felt relieved immediately - Ayumi and Mitsuhiko were indeed fine.
And the two adults walking beside them...
Conan saw the person clearly and was slightly startled: "Teacher Kobayashi?" And... "Mr. Amuro?!"
Upon hearing this, "Amuro Toru" looked at him, gave him a friendly smile, and touched his head as he passed by.
Conan froze for a moment.
...Why does Toru Amuro seem more enthusiastic today than usual?
In the past, although Mr. Amuro was quite friendly, he would always look at him with a strange, slightly scrutinizing look from time to time, especially when they were sitting in the car together... But today, Toru Amuro did not have a similar expression at all, but inexplicably gave people a gentle feeling.
Conan looked at him carefully, secretly puzzled, and continued to look behind the four people: "Why isn't Brother Jiang Xia here?"
"I just went to check on the puppets in the tool room."
Jiang Xia's voice came from the other side.
Soon, he followed out and glanced at the Dean of Academic Affairs with a hint of disappointment.
The Dean of Academic Affairs touched his head in confusion and shrank to a darker place behind him so that his head would not be so conspicuous.
After feeling the safety brought by the darkness, he wanted to use his dignity as a director to question these naughty kids who stayed in the school late at night and the two adults who appeared out of nowhere.
But when he thought about what he had done today, the Dean of Academic Affairs' confidence suddenly deflated like a deflated ball. In the end, he could only shrink into the shadows silently and pretend that he did not exist.
Conan looked at the director, then at Jiang Xia and "Amuro Toru", and finally at Teacher Kobayashi, and habitually entered the four-choice mode.
Teacher Kobayashi's current attitude is very different from her usual serious look. Combined with the plaster statue in the art classroom, Conan vaguely understood.
He looked at Jiang Xia first and confirmed, "Ayumi and Mitsuhiko were with you just now?"
Jiang Xia looked at the two children who shuddered and stood at attention when they were called out. He thought that Conan could ask them the truth later, so he might as well admit it directly.
So he spoke frankly and made up an excuse for his behavior: "It's dangerous to let a child run around alone."
Conan nodded in understanding. This was consistent with his previous speculation.
So now, there is only one unresolved issue...
Conan turned to Mr. Kobayashi, who was trying to hide in a corner: "The plaster statue and the muscle mannequin in the health room were all moved to the classroom by you to practice for the upcoming parent-teacher meeting."
Kobayashi Sumiko covered her red and slightly hot face and nodded in shame.
Conan paused, then continued to speculate in an uncertain tone:
"Because two strange legends in the school recently - 'moving plaster statues' and 'running human models' - have begun to spread, Teacher Kobayashi is worried that people might think that this is actually someone preparing for the upcoming parents' meeting, and then guess that it is her who has just been working at Teitan Elementary School for a short time. So she decided to completely stereotype the rumors as two strange legends to distinguish them from what she is actually doing.
"The most popular legend is that there are moving plaster statues in the art classroom, so Mr. Kobayashi pasted a material on it that changes shape according to temperature or light..."
As he spoke, Conan's voice gradually became lower.
——Since he switched to the topic of "It was Mr. Kobayashi who attached the material to the plaster statue", Kobayashi Sumiko's eyes began to become confused. Although she didn't say anything, her face clearly showed "I am not what you are talking about".
“……”Not her?
Who did that?
Conan also became confused.
Then, after a series of intuitive reasoning that even he himself was unable to react to, Conan instinctively turned his head and looked at Jiang Xia.
...When it comes to the magical material on the forehead of the plaster statue, it is hard not to think of Dr. Agasa.
And Dr. Agasa likes to share some interesting props with others. If we were to say who the doctor is most likely to show his new product to first, it would definitely be Jiang Xia, except for Haibara Ai, who is closest to the doctor.
Conan's suspicious gaze fell on Jiang Xia.
Make a bold assumption and verify carefully: Perhaps the doctor suddenly remembered that "Shinichi didn't like listening to him talk about his strange new inventions" and was upset about it, so he gave the strange expanding material to Jiang Xia and asked Jiang Xia to "find an opportunity to scare Conan"?
...The doctor does like to play pranks sometimes. And if he really asked, Jiang Xia would not refuse - this reasoning has a certain theoretical basis.
However, when Conan looked at Jiang Xia, he found that Jiang Xia's eyes were even more confused than Teacher Kobayashi's.
Soon, Jiang Xia seemed to have thought of something, and asked Conan with a hint of curiosity: "So you screamed in the art classroom just now because you were scared by the 'transformation material'? What did it become?"
"…It wasn't a scream, it was just a shout." Conan corrected this embarrassingly.
He simply described the "mouth".
Then Jiang Xia was also excluded.
Since Jiang Xia didn't admit it, it definitely wasn't him who did it.
Because there is no need to hide it: according to Dr. Agasa's character, if he really gave Jiang Xia that kind of expansion material, the doctor would definitely come to ask Conan with a smile later about how he felt about being scared. Jiang Xia must also know this, so he doesn't need to lie about this matter at all.
After crossing out "Jiang Xia" from the list of suspects, Conan looked at the few children who were secretly glancing at Jiang Xia and dared not speak out yet, and decisively crossed out these three classmates - they did not have such acting skills and courage.
The only thing left is...
Conan raised his head little by little and moved his eyes upwards.
His eyes fell on "Amuro Toru" who was watching him with interest.
"Amuro Toru" met Conan's suspicious gaze and raised his eyebrows in slight surprise.
After understanding, he did not explain, but just smiled meaningfully at Conan.
Jiang Xia, who was watching from the sidelines: "..."
...If you wear someone else's skin, you can do whatever you want.
Conan was also stunned by "Amuro Toru's" reaction: Is this... a provocative smile after a successful prank?
...However, theoretically speaking, Mr. Amuro, like Jiang Xia, is an outsider of the school. It is unlikely that he could do such a thing, and he has no motive.
Therefore, at present, the focus of suspicion should still be on the Dean of Academic Affairs and Kobayashi Sumiko.
Although the confusion of the two faculty members seemed very real.
But Conan thought, there are many kinds of people in the world - maybe there is a dramatic spirit hidden among these two honest people.
Must be carefully identified.
(End of this chapter)
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