Nana's heart skipped a beat.
"Ah.. it seems we are a little late." An elegant youth wearing glasses spoke in a gentle, slightly apologetic male voice, a warm smile spreading across his face.
"Shin.. Shinide?!" Ran exclaimed in surprise.
Hmm.." Shinzo Tomoyasu nodded, then explained unhurriedly, "The victim is one of my patients.. I was originally coming to see him today.. I didn't expect something like this to happen.
Hi, everyone!" The blonde woman behind him, an English teacher named Judy, also stepped out from behind him: "Oh, Cool Kid!
The moment she saw Conan, she greeted her with a smile.
However, Conan clearly wasn't in as good of a mood as she was, her eyes behind the glasses lenses harboring a hint of vigilance. She rushed to Ran's side, "Judy! Why are you here too?"
It was a completely instinctive movement on his part—even with his small frame, he could not stop Ran.
“I came with Shinzo! I.. plan to see if I can be of any help to him,” the female teacher explained in unpracticed Japanese. The sentence was very awkward, but she seemed unaware of it; after speaking, she turned her head and smiled at Shinzo Tomoyasu.
Shinzo Tomoyasu showed a slightly helpless expression. He gave a bitter smile and waved his hands repeatedly, appearing both helpless and unsure of how to refuse this enthusiastic and open foreign woman before him.
Ran, who knew Shinide, looked at the two of them with a hint of surprise at this moment.
I think it's not just you two.
A strange voice rang out, its deep tone carrying an unmistakable coldness. The voice reached the ears of everyone present, sending a shiver through them all.
Nana slowly turned her head.
The one who spoke was the black-haired youth, who had remained silent until now.
However, the black-haired youth did not look at him, or rather, the black-haired youth did not look at anyone present.
He kept his hands in his pockets, but his slightly hunched back was actually straight, his handsome face remaining indifferent as his ice-like, blade-sharp eyes narrowed slightly.
Thus, a slightly cold and sharp gaze pierced straight toward the person directly in front of him.
Shinzo Tomoyasu blinked softly.
Judy frowned slightly.
Nana slowly turned her head again.
It was still that same mysterious and dangerous Black-haired man wearing a mask from the Tram, standing quietly at the crossroads.
He stood against the light amidst the suspicious or indifferent gazes of Everyone.
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Author's Note: I will try my best to finish this incident before July..
After this, I expect to start "[Zong] Working Hard to Blend In with the Underworld Today" in July.
If I don't write this brain hole now, I won't have time to write it later QAQ
If everyone is interested, you can add this to your favorites (*￣︶￣)
..
Everyone in this group came here for their own reasons.
And having run into the muzzle of a gun once again, Dan Nani only wanted to find a place to cry—fortunately, she does not know the Truth yet.
..
The Fake Liquor chapter probably won't be out until this one is finished. Thank you to the Little Angels who voted for me with Overlord Tickets or provided Nutrient solution~
Little Angel who voted [Landmine]: A Bag Who Loves Walking at Night 1;
Little Angels who provided Nutrient solution:
Magnificent Ye Xiu 30 bottles; Morning Light 10 bottles; Kongshan Jue 2 bottles; Bai Chenshang 1 bottle;
Thank you all so much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 134 One Hundred and Eighteen: There Will Be Two More Cases..
The deceased was named Aida Yuichiro, a Hotel Manager in his forties. He had a wife who was three or four years younger than him, but the two had no children.
Or rather, they once had two children.
Mr. Ai was of medium height but had a thin build, looking weak and frail, as if he lacked the strength to tie a knot. However, from his files and photos, it could be seen that this gentleman was a hot-tempered man who frequently scolded his staff.
His death was quite gruesome; the cause of death was the inhalation of a large amount of toxic substances. However, forensic autopsy revealed that, in addition to the toxic substances, there were also large amounts of sleeping pill components in his body. Not only that, but there were also traces of binding on Aida Yuichiro's hands and feet.
In addition, what was even more striking—especially to the detectives present—was that a large capital letter 'I' had been carved into Aida Yuichiro's face with a knife.
Nana and Kindaichi exchanged a glance, both seeing the helplessness in each other's eyes.
"Hey! Big sister!" Before she could even snap out of it, her skirt was tugged forcefully.
Nana lowered her head at the force of the tug, sure enough, she saw that clever but rather disobedient little one.
“What's wrong?" Considering he was still quite young, Nana was relatively patient—otherwise, the mere fact that he had secretly brought Detective Mori along would have been enough to make Nana feel annoyed.
It wasn't that she was unwilling to share the Case; it was simply that the feeling of someone forcing their way in and acting without her consent was unpleasant.
Of course, if necessary, neither she nor Kinda Ichichi would oppose help from others.
—They were not people whose self-esteem was greater than the heavens; naturally, everything was secondary to solving the case.
“Big sister, you said this is a 'new' victim, what do you mean by that?” Edogawa Conan said, acting cute with her bright eyes.
Although she didn't feel that such matters should be revealed to an elementary student, seeing that the boy accepted the case well and that Mori Kogoro did not object, Nani, mistakenly believing it was Detective Mori's intention, hesitated before explaining the details of the incident.
This was not the first murder case.
In fact, since a year ago, several murder cases have occurred one after another in Tokyo. These cases were not classified as a serial murder case because the killer carved letters into the bodies of the victims.
Based on the time of the incident, the victim of the first case was a cowardly male. Due to his overly cowardly personality, he was frequently ostracized and treated with malice by his colleagues, because of this, he gave up on himself, often shirking his work and entrusting his tasks to even more unpopular newcomers.
Besides what appeared to be workplace conflicts, his own diary revealed that in his earlier years, he had attended a music training class. Due to his laziness, he had entrusted a guitar he needed to return to a classmate from the training class, asking his to return it for him. As a result, on her way to and from the training class, she was assaulted by a villain.
Yet, being cowardly and fearful, he failed to help a woman being assaulted, watching helplessly as she was dragged away by someone on the pitch-black road.
The letter "A" was carved into his face.
In addition, a year ago, there was another victim named Chikamoto Chieko, whose face was burned by fire and whose back was carved with the capital letter "L". Although this woman had previously splashed sulfuric acid on the current girlfriend of the man she had a crush on, causing the latter to be disfigured, despite the other party having a sufficient alibi, the woman's parents still remained suspicious of this, the Police had no effective evidence to close the case.
After disappearing for six months, the Killer committed two more cases, with the victims having the capital letters "A" and "I" carved into their shoulders and chests, respectively.
And this time, it was the fifth case.
"Is there any special meaning to the carvings on their faces?" Conan revealed a contemplative expression, his gaze as sharp as if he were anything but an Eyeglasses elementary student.
What special meaning could there be!" Mori Kogoro grumbled unhappily. "Two 'A's, one or two 'I's, an 'L'—you can't tell what it means at all! It's probably just something the Killer scribbled down randomly!
Nana: …………
Her polite smile was slightly stiff, as she truly did not know what to say.
It wasn't carved haphazardly," Kinda Ichichi said with certainty. "The killer used a lot of force when he did it, the characters are quite clear—it doesn't look like a random outburst, but rather something done deliberately.
In fact, it might have even been quite solemn.
The eyes of this young detective held a firm and calm certainty; although it was impossible to tell on a regular basis, whenever he encountered a case, he was a quite reliable senior.
Even Mori Kogoro was stunned by his expression.
Nana finally spoke up, "However, because these letters are so chaotic, we couldn't understand what the Killer was trying to express for the time being."
"What a letdown.. It's just that we couldn't figure it out.." Mori Kogoro muttered.
Then he was quickly proven wrong.
Kinda Ichichi, who had just been wearing a serious expression, turned to ask Nana, completely ignoring this seemingly unreliable middle-aged man who looked quite unreliable: "Hashimoto, do you think it might be related to religion?"
"Religion?" Nana repeated her guess hesitantly.
Yeah. I started having my doubts after the last case—the one where the killer carved the letter 'I' into the victim." After a pause, Kindaichi continued his analysis, "After all, the manner of death in this case is far too unusual—under normal circumstances, a killer wouldn't sew a deceased person's eyes shut with needle and thread.
"At first, we suspected it was because the Killer harbored a deep hatred for the Deceased and wanted to torture him on purpose—or perhaps this method held some special significance for the Killer, but there wasn't much overlap between the various Deceased," Kinda Ichichi narrated slowly.
He paused, clearing his slightly hoarse throat. "While we still have to consider those two possibilities, besides those, there is generally another possibility that would cause the Killer to deliberately use such an unusual method to treat the Deceased."
The reason for doing this intentionally is more like a sense of ritual." Conan had approached at some unknown point; he lowered her head, analyzing with a serious expression, "This sense of ritual is very likely connected to religion.
Kindaichi nodded in agreement, "Right, so.. Eh, eh, eh?!"
She and Nana both looked at this Child who they had to look down upon, both of them showing expressions of surprise.
When did you little brat sneak over here?!" / "Edogawa-kun, a murder case like this isn't suitable for a child to be involved in.
Well.." Conan looked up at Nana, who was frowning with a look of disagreement, then turned to look at Kindaichi, who, despite not frowning, still had a hint of surprise on his face, gave a few awkward laughs. "That.. Uncle Mori asked me to come over.
"Is that so?" Kindaichi glanced hesitantly at Mori Kogoro, who had already run into the room. Being quite carefree, he focused more of his attention on the case itself; although he vaguely sensed something was amiss, he didn't intend to investigate it further for the time being.
Nana glanced hesitantly at Mori Ran, who was standing far away, then looked at Conan with hesitation, before finally letting out a soft sigh and reaching out to rub the boy's head. "If you feel unwell, you must tell us, okay?"
Conan, who was treated like a real child: ".."
O-okay!
"But.. what kind of religion could cause such a method of murder?" Judy, who had been standing by Dr. Shinzo's side, asked.
A few minutes earlier, Dr. Shinzo, who had come to help, had already entered the room along with Mori Kogoro.
Mori Kogoro went in to search the Room for any possible clues, while Shinzo Tomoyasu went to another Room to comfort Mrs. Aida, who had lost her husband.
Since he was an old acquaintance of Mrs. Aida, while Judy did not know Mrs. Aida—and considering Mrs. Aida's current mental state, it was not appropriate to rashly introduce a stranger to the woman who had just lost her husband—Judy could only remain in the Living room for the time being.
“But in that case..” Nana thought about the possibility of religion, which was undoubtedly a new direction, but: “There are far too many religious sects, aren't there? Besides the mainstream ones, there are those that aren't as famous, as well as many small religions.. not to mention some cults that deceive people.. how can one distinguish them?”
"The letters carved on the corpse must be the clue!" Conan said with certainty.
But—" Nana dealt her a ruthless blow: "We can't even guess the meaning of those English letters!
After a pause, she turned her gaze toward Judy.
This foreign woman should be more familiar with English than they are.
Unfortunately, to everyone's regret, Judy shook her head. "I can't guess it right now either."
Just as this clue reached a stalemate, a cold male voice, which everyone present almost thought would never be heard again, drifted over once more: "It's not an English word."
This single sentence drew everyone's gaze.