Ghost Detectives in the Detective World

Page 164

Conan groaned, feeling as if all the bones in his body were swelling, and his consciousness was becoming somewhat blurred.

"Conan, Conan! How are you?"

Ran also came over, and seeing Conan's pained expression, she became anxious as well.

"Officer Matsuda, Conan seems to be in a lot of pain. What should we do now?"

"It's nothing, he just has a fever," Matsuda comforted Ran. "I'll take him to a room to rest first. Ran, you go find a doctor."

"Oh? Okay!"

Xiao Lan agreed and hurriedly ran out.

"Excuse me, could you please find a place for this child to rest?"

Matsuda picked up Conan and asked Tsujimura Takayoshi, who was standing nearby.

“Let’s go to my room.” Takayoshi Tsujimura pointed to a spot not far away, “It’s at the end of the corridor.”

"Thanks,"

Matsuda, carrying Conan, walked to the door of Takayoshi Tsujimura's room.

There, they happened to run into Hattori, who had just returned from outside.

"Officer Matsuda, I already know the method used in that locked room incident, and who the murderer is!" Hattori said with a hint of smugness. "I won the deduction in this case."

"What did you say?!" Everyone in the room looked at Hattori.

"The mystery of the locked room has been solved?" Mori exclaimed in shock.

"Uh, how could this happen..."

Megure muttered something to himself. Although it was a bit of a shame that Matsuda hadn't solved the case, the top priority now was to close it as quickly as possible.

Ignoring everything else, Inspector Megure hurriedly asked, "What exactly happened?"

……

In Takayoshi Tsujimura's room, as soon as Matsuda carried Conan inside, he felt Conan's body getting heavier and heavier.

After putting Conan on the bed, Matsuda wanted to go out and listen to Hattori's reasoning.

Unexpectedly, Conan suddenly screamed.

Immediately afterwards, a very unscientific scene unfolded before Matsuda's eyes.

In just a few seconds, Conan's body, which was less than 1.2 meters tall, rapidly stretched and expanded.

In Matsuda's view, it was only a blink of an eye for Conan to grow from an elementary school student into a high school detective, Shinichi Kudo.

Chapter 202 The All-Powerful Fishing Line

Is this what Ke Xue (柯学, a term referring to the study of science) is all about?

Matsuda recalled the increasingly heavy feeling he had when he entered the room.

Does the most basic law of conservation of energy not exist in the world of Detective Conan?

"Um, Officer Matsuda, I..."

Conan, or rather, Shinichi Kudo, groggily opened his eyes while lying in bed.

"Congratulations, you're back to normal," Matsuda said, clapping his hands.

"Restore it to its original state?"

Shinichi Kudo paused for a moment, then hurriedly got up, staring blankly at his high school student body.

"Hey, just a heads up, Ran will be here with the doctor soon," Matsuda chuckled. "Are you planning to go see her like this?"

"I?"

Shinichi Kudo looked down and was immediately filled with embarrassment.

Because of the sudden change in his body, his original clothes were now torn to shreds.

Now it's not much different from being completely naked.

"Let's borrow Takayoshi Tsujimura's clothes for now,"

Matsuda pulled open the clothes rack next to him, picked up a few pieces of clothing, and tossed them to Shinichi Kudo.

"Take your time changing, I'll go out and check out Hattori's reasoning."

……

In the lobby on the second floor, Hattori had finished explaining his reasoning.

According to him, the person who killed the Tsujimura diplomat was his father, Mr. Tsujimura Toshimitsu, who loved fishing.

"At the time of the incident, all the windows in the study were locked, which is why such a secret room was created,"

Hattori confidently pointed to what he considered to be the suspect.

"Only you, Mr. Tsujimura Toshimitsu, killed the diplomat Tsujimura first, left the study, locked the door with the key, and then used fishing line to tie the key ring!"

"Then, through the gap under the door, slip the key back into the diplomat Tsujimura's pocket, just as previously arranged!"

"That's right, I killed him,"

After glancing at his daughter-in-law and grandson, Mr. Tsujimura Toshimitsu readily confessed to his crime.

Hattori had expected the old man to at least argue back, but he never expected the old man to be so agreeable.

"No matter what, I won this time!" Hattori clenched his fists inwardly.

For some reason, Hattori felt uneasy looking at the calm old man.

"Hattori, this is your result,"

Matsuda walked out of the house and overheard the old man confessing his crimes.

"Hattori, think about it again. With your skill level, you shouldn't make this kind of mistake," Matsuda reminded him.

"What do you mean?" Hattori frowned. "Are you saying that Mr. Tsujimura Toshimitsu is not the murderer?"

"Officer Matsuda is right, Mr. Toshimitsu Tsujimura is indeed not the murderer!"

Shinichi Kudo said in a weak but confident voice,

“Mr. Toshimitsu Tsujimura is lying; he did not kill anyone.”

"Shinichi Kudo!?"

Despite their varying feelings, everyone in the room showed the same surprised expression at the sudden appearance of Kudo.

"Officer Matsuda, could you give me this chance today?" Kudo whispered to Matsuda beside him. "It's been a while since I've shown up. Let me have my moment in the spotlight."

"Well, that's fine."

Matsuda nodded, feigning generosity.

Even if I wanted him to say something now, I doubt he could.

"Thank you very much."

Shinichi Kudo replied gratefully, then staggered to the middle of the room.

"Shinichi, where have you been?! I thought you'd disappeared, and now you've suddenly reappeared! Do you know how worried I was about you?! You idiot!!"

Ran, who had just returned with the doctor, happened to see Shinichi Kudo. The familiar face immediately brought back all the grievances she had felt, and she couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

"Ran, don't cry," Kudo chuckled. "I'll explain the details to you later."

"Now, let me solve the mystery of this locked room, okay?"

"...That's fine."

Xiaolan had mixed feelings, but she still nodded in agreement.

At this point, Hattori Heiji, who had been standing to the side, could no longer hold back and directly questioned him.

"Kudo, you just said that Mr. Toshimitsu Tsujimura was lying. So, you also think my reasoning is wrong?"

“That’s right, Hattori, because the method you described is impossible to achieve.” Kudo smiled confidently. “I will absolutely not agree with using methods that are impossible in reality to identify a murderer.”

“Brother Kudo, wait a minute,” Inspector Megure couldn’t help but say. “I need to prove to him that his reasoning is perfect, and he just successfully reproduced the method.”

"Inspector Megure, take a good look. Did that key really go into your pocket?" Kudo wiped the sweat from his brow. "Look again carefully. Did that key really go into your double pockets?"

"Ok?"

Caught off guard by this question, Inspector Megure was momentarily at a loss for words.

He only remembered that the key went into his pocket right under his nose, so he assumed that was really the case.

"Of course!"

Hattori rushed over and reached directly into Megure's pocket.

"If you don't believe me, just look for yourself. Look at the double pockets on these pants."

After Hattori took Megure out of his pocket

The key slipped out of his pocket and fell to the ground with a crisp sound.

Hattori stared blankly at the keys on the ground.

"Impossible! I clearly threaded the fishing line through the double pockets."

"Because Inspector Megure was sitting down at the time," Kudo shook his head. "Whenever you're sitting, your pants will get wrinkled."

"And because of the folds, the key won't go into the double pocket and the fishing line will break."

"Furthermore, the fact that the deceased was even fatter than Inspector Megure only made this situation more obvious."

"Come to think of it, it was indeed very tight when I put my hand into the deceased's pocket," Inspector Megure recalled.

"That can't be absolute, can it?"

Hattori had lost his earlier confidence and could only offer a weak defense.

"Shouldn't you succeed once or twice out of ten?"

“It’s impossible to succeed even once,” Kudo immediately retorted. “Think back carefully yourself, about the direction the key was facing.”