"B-But they're still injured!" Toyama Kazuha hurriedly reminded them, lifting her feet a little higher as well.
"It doesn't matter, they're just playing around," Morizono Yurie looked at Chi Feichi with a smile. "Right?"
Chi Feichi nodded, confirming that the two pets were indeed just playing, though it was impossible to eat like this. "Feichi, if you want to play, go outside."
Feichi immediately slithered toward the door, and Rebecca chased after him, the pair making a ruckus as they ran out.
"Meow!"
"Hiss-meow!"
From outside, the fading sounds of the cat were still rather eerie.
At the dining table, Chi Feichi remained expressionless, and the Morizono family was equally calm and composed.
Morizono Mikio smiled at Mouri Kogoro. "I apologize. The pets at home are a bit mischievous. Mr. Mouri, let us continue."
"Uh..." Mouri Kogoro had previously thought Morizono Mikio's smile was kindly, but now, no matter how he looked at it, it seemed a bit creepy. "Where were we?"
Hattori Heiji whispered to Conan, "Hey, Kudo, don't you think... this is weird?"
"Yeah!" Conan nodded.
The fight between the two pets wasn't exactly a small skirmish, and both animals were injured. As owners, was it really okay to ignore it so casually?
Chi Feichi was one thing—he always had that calm, cold personality—but for this entire family to chat and laugh so composedly seemed abnormal.
What kind of family was Chi Feichi staying with?
Morizono Mikio chatted with Mouri Kogoro for a few moments, then turned to look at Shigematsu Akio. "Shigematsu..."
"Master..." Shigematsu Akio's gaze unconsciously drifted down to his feet. His expression was one of suppressed agony. Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor.
"Urgh..." Sitting at the dining table, Morizono Kikuhito also slumped to the side with a pained expression, knocking his chair over as he fell.
"Ah—!"
The maid standing behind Morizono Kikuhito screamed.
Hattori Heiji and Conan snapped to attention, stood up simultaneously, and ran toward Morizono Kikuhito and Shigematsu Akio respectively.
Chi Feichi swept a glance over the room, committing everyone's reactions to memory. He briskly walked past Morizono Yurie and Katagiri Kaede to Morizono Kikuhito's side.
"Everyone else stay where you are, don't move!" Mouri Kogoro shouted with a grave expression, then turned to Mouri Ran. "Ran, hurry up and call an ambulance, and call the police!"
Hattori Heiji ran over quickly. Finding that Chi Feichi was already squatting down to check the situation, he asked directly, "What's the situation?"
A trace of bird-of-prey darkness flashed through Chi Feichi's eyes, only to dissipate quickly. "Interesting."
Conan sensed something strange and turned to look, but he found Chi Feichi's expression and gaze as calm as ever, no different from usual.
"What's wrong?" Hattori Heiji stepped forward in confusion. After seeing the situation clearly, he couldn't help but freeze.
Morizono Kikuhito's shirt hem had been pulled up. On his lower back, towards the side, were two bloody, parallel puncture wounds. The skin around the holes was swollen and turning a purplish-black color. He hadn't lost consciousness yet, but his whole body was trembling, and he looked like he couldn't breathe.
On the other side, Shigematsu Akio's pant leg was rolled up, revealing two identical puncture wounds on his calf. He had already passed out, his muscles twitching spasmodically.
Wounds of this shape immediately brought to mind one thing: snake fangs!
"No, that's not right..."
Hattori Heiji calmed down, examined the wounds on both men carefully, and suddenly smiled. "This really is interesting. Did Feichi offend someone here?"
"Who knows." Chi Feichi was noncommittal, but this was what truly annoyed him—
The culprit was actually trying to frame Feichi!
"By the way, do you carry antivenom?" Hattori Heiji asked hurriedly.
"Rapid swelling of the wound, hardening, incessant bleeding, skin turning purplish-black," Chi Feichi listed the symptoms. Annoyed as he was, his brain remained cool. He lowered his head to check their condition, his voice calm and devoid of emotion. "The victims are shivering, body temperature rising, heart rate accelerating, breathing difficult, unable to stand. It's a hemotoxin—a blood circulation toxin. I carry sea snake antivenom, which targets cytotoxins and neurotoxins; it's useless against hemotoxins. Also, judging by the current situation, the venom has already spread through the blood. Do not use the method of cutting the wound to bleed it out. Contact the hospital and tell them to bring snake antivenom when they come."
"Ran-neechan, tell the doctors to bring snake antivenom specifically for hemotoxins!" Conan turned and shouted.
Mouri Ran, who was handling the emergency calls, nodded immediately and relayed the information to the operator.
"Snake antivenom?" After controlling the scene, Mouri Kogoro walked over to check the situation. His gaze toward Chi Feichi suddenly turned suspicious. "Hey, could it be that your pet bit someone just now?"
Startled by the screams in the dining room, Feichi slithered back inside. "Bit someone? I didn't bite anyone..."
Along the way, everyone silently backed away to clear a path.
Chi Feichi stepped forward, picked up Feichi, and held him. "The bite marks of venomous snakes and non-venomous snakes are different."
Mouri Kogoro: "???"
Seeing Mouri Kogoro's bewildered look, Hattori Heiji felt helpless about Chi Feichi's way of speaking. We might understand, but you have to consider if others can, right? He decided to take over the explanation.
"Venomous snakes have two long, sharp fangs connected to venom glands, so the bite marks will leave two deep little holes. Non-venomous snakes only have rows of serrated teeth, leaving behind neat rows of small, shallow tooth marks. The marks on Mr. Kikuhito and Uncle Shigematsu are traces that only a venomous snake could leave. Although Mr. Chi said Feichi has a trace amount of venom, I looked after Feichi for a while in Osaka. Based on his teeth, he falls into the non-venomous category. It's impossible for him to leave marks like that!"
"Is... is that so?" Mouri Kogoro wanted to look at Feichi to confirm, but when he turned his head, he saw an emotionless human face and an emotionless snake face, both with the same calm, cold eyes. He coughed awkwardly. "Ahem... So that means there's another poisonous snake that sneaked in here?"
"Huh?"
"No way, right?"
The faces of the people in the dining room changed drastically as they all looked down at their feet.
"But, Uncle, don't you think it's strange?" Conan used his innocent child persona to drop a hint. "It's understandable for Butler Shigematsu to be bitten on the calf, but Kikuhito-niichan was bitten on the waist, near the back of the chair. Do snakes specifically go for people's waists? It seems more likely they'd bite an ankle or somewhere easy to reach, right?"
"And from the moment we entered the dining room, Miss Kaede has been sitting next to Young Master Kikuhito, right on the side where the bite marks are," Hattori Heiji looked at Katagiri Kaede with a scrutiny. "Why didn't the snake bite anyone else? Why didn't it bite Miss Kaede sitting right next to him, but bit Mr. Kikuhito instead?"
"This..." Mouri Kogoro stroked his chin in thought. "Could they have been bitten by a snake before entering the dining room?"
Hattori Heiji didn't speak. He felt it would be better for Chi Feichi to debunk this theory. But after waiting a while without anyone speaking, he turned around and saw that Chi Feichi had already taken Feichi back to his original seat. "..."
Seeing Hattori Heiji looking at him, Chi Feichi explained calmly, "I'm avoiding suspicion."
Oi, oi...
Conan was speechless. Did Chi Feichi actually think he would be considered a suspect?
Hattori Heiji had black lines dropping down his forehead, but he considered it. "Before you touched the two of them just now, you didn't forget to take photos for evidence, did you?"
"I did." Chi Feichi took out his phone, opened the photo album, and held it up to show Hattori Heiji the photos taken before he touched the victims.
Hattori Heiji nodded. He knew Chi Feichi wouldn't forget something like that. He stepped forward to look at the photos and decided to raise the question himself. "At that time, the wounds seemed to have just started swelling, yet Mr. Kikuhito and Butler Shigematsu quickly showed signs of suffocation and unconsciousness. Isn't that a bit too fast? Can you determine what kind of snake venom this is?"
Mouri Kogoro muttered in a low voice, "Even if Mr. Chi studied veterinary medicine, you really think he's an animal encyclopedia..."
"Sharp-nosed Viper (Deinagkistrodon), 95% probability," Chi Feichi said. "The venom of the Sharp-nosed Viper is a protein-based hemolytic toxin. It has strong hemorrhagic properties. The victim will experience immediate pain and bleeding from the wound, followed by swelling, blistering, tissue necrosis, and ulceration, then dizziness and accelerated heartbeat."
Mouri Kogoro: "..."
Seeing Mouri Kogoro stunned into silence, Conan chuckled dryly in his heart and squatted beside the two victims to check their condition. "The wounds are bleeding continuously. Although the volume isn't huge, there's no sign of clotting or stopping. Big Brother Chi judged it based on this, right?"
"In that case, we really can't use blood-letting first aid. But do we just watch?" Hattori Heiji frowned and asked Chi Feichi, "Can we use a pressure bandage?"
"Pressure bandages won't stop the bleeding and might cause widespread systemic bleeding," Chi Feichi checked the time on his phone. "Calm down. If the emergency personnel arrive with the antivenom, they won't die. At most, there will be some tissue necrosis."
Hattori Heiji was speechless. What did he mean by 'at most some tissue necrosis'?
And telling them to calm down... couldn't he see that Morizono Mikio and Morizono Yurie's faces had gone pale?
However, this confirmed one thing: the Morizono family was fine. The only one with issues was Chi Feichi...
"Then, what about the onset time of this snake venom?" Conan's gaze involuntarily lingered on Chi Feichi's phone for a split second before asking, "Also, where could one obtain this kind of snake venom? That's what Hattori-niichan wanted to ask, right?"
Hattori Heiji remembered there were still things to confirm and looked at Chi Feichi as well.
"Oi, oi..." Mouri Kogoro was exasperated. Even if Chi Feichi knew about venomous snakes, asking about the onset time was understandable, but asking where to get the venom? Wasn't that crossing the line?
"Because Japan doesn't have Sharp-nosed Vipers, the channels to obtain this venom are definitely limited," Hattori Heiji explained. If not for that fact, they wouldn't have needed to confirm it with Chi Feichi.