11:00 AM.
The sun shone brightly on Izu beach.
Chi Feichi lay on a beach chair, wrapped tightly in long sleeves and trousers, watching a little boy chase Haibara Ai towards him.
"Can't you swim?" the little boy asked, hugging his inflatable dolphin. "It's okay, I can teach you! I can lend you my dolphin too."
"No thanks..." Haibara Ai hadn't changed into a swimsuit either, wearing only a short-sleeved shirt and capri pants. She walked up to Chi Feichi, pulled Feichi out of his sleeve, draped him over her arm, and turned to the little boy. "I want to play with the pet."
The little boy's face turned pale. He took two steps back, turned around, and ran away.
Feichi: "..."
So I'm used to scare away kids?
Chi Feichi continued to play dead without lifting his head. "Careful not to make the kid cry."
"Feichi won't make kids cry, but you, the bandage freak, might," Haibara Ai glanced at Chi Feichi's bandaged fingers. Seeing people nearby looking over, she worried about Feichi being seen, so she put Feichi near Chi Feichi's sleeve and let him crawl in. "Will Feichi feel uncomfortable in this heat?"
Chi Feichi looked at the parasol overhead. "Should be fine; he still looks energetic."
"You can't swim anyway. If we knew, we wouldn't have come. That rich young lady said you were here to look after a certain brat, but that brat has no self-awareness at all, always sticking to them..." Haibara Ai teased softly, looking at the trio by the sea. "Someone is hitting on them again... Huh? This time the target is actually that rich young lady?"
Chi Feichi sat up and looked over. He saw a man in a yellow shirt with his arm around Suzuki Sonoko's shoulders. "The color of his clothes isn't great."
Haibara Ai turned to glance at Chi Feichi. Running to the beach in all black, the one with the worst clothing color was Chi Feichi, right? "You're biased. But if you don't help soon, the girl your junior likes will be taken away by another man for some alone time..."
"Alone time?" Chi Feichi wasn't worried at all. "Impossible."
Haibara Ai thought Chi Feichi wanted to do something to stop it, but there was no need. After a while, Suzuki Sonoko brought the man over.
"Brother Feichi, this is Mr. Michiwaki Masahiko..." Suzuki Sonoko was a bit embarrassed.
"Mr. Michiwaki wanted to invite Sonoko to lunch together," Mouri Ran smiled and helped explain, not explicitly stating that Sonoko chickened out at the last minute. "But Sonoko thought it wasn't good to make us wait for her, so she invited us to go along."
Suzuki Sonoko had obviously told Michiwaki Masahiko about Chi Feichi before. Michiwaki didn't ask much, just stood by Suzuki Sonoko, smiling gently.
The group went to a small shop by the beach.
Michiwaki Masahiko chatted with Suzuki Sonoko, claiming to be a student at Beika University.
"Then you are Ran's father's junior!" Suzuki Sonoko looked at Mouri Ran with a smile.
Conan secretly tugged at Chi Feichi's shirt hem, only to touch Feichi, who poked his head out: "..."
Chi Feichi: "..."
I told him not to pull my clothes randomly; it's easy to touch the snake. Did Conan forget just because nothing happened the last few times?
Seeing Chi Feichi notice him, Conan retracted his hand and whispered, "Your junior is a step behind Uncle Mouri's junior. You should tell him too. Just sneaking around won't yield any results; he looks more like a stalker..."
Chi Feichi didn't expect Conan to be such a gossip. "No one can say for sure until the end."
"You really don't worry at all..." Conan muttered. He felt Chi Feichi was overly calm.
Bang!
A glass of beer was slammed heavily in front of Michiwaki Masahiko. The noise was so loud it attracted everyone's attention.
Kyogoku Makoto, wearing glasses, long sleeves, and trousers, with bandages wrapped around his fingers too, said expressionlessly, "Hello, your beer is served."
"Ah, okay, thanks..." Michiwaki Masahiko thanked him.
Chi Feichi observed Kyogoku Makoto. He walked a bit awkwardly, but it didn't look very serious.
Judging from this situation, Kyogoku Makoto should have no problem dealing with a serial killer who only bullied women.
Although Michiwaki Masahiko was a serial killer, the police hadn't investigated clearly yet, and Chi Feichi had no evidence. Better leave the hero-saving-beauty act to Kyogoku Makoto.
Before leaving, Kyogoku Makoto turned back and said sternly to Michiwaki Masahiko, "Sir, please don't drop cigarette ash on the floor, okay? Otherwise, it will be troublesome to clean up later."
"Oh..." Michiwaki Masahiko responded, stubbed out the cigarette in the ashtray, and turned to look at the departing Kyogoku Makoto. "This waiter has a really bad attitude."
Conan also recognized Kyogoku Makoto and chuckled inwardly. Not attacking directly is probably considered a relatively good attitude...
Mouri Ran withdrew her gaze in confusion. "Hey, don't you think we've seen that waiter somewhere before?"
"Of course! He's the young owner of the inn we're staying at. When we arrived at the door yesterday, he kept staring at us. I asked the people at the inn; I heard he came back to help during the summer vacation. Also..." Suzuki Sonoko looked at Chi Feichi again. "You think he looks familiar maybe because, like Brother Feichi, he's dressed so tightly on the beach and has bandages on his hands. Is this the trend this year?"
"Accidentally cut my hand on the edge of a mirror last night," Chi Feichi made up an excuse.
Without him saying more, Suzuki Sonoko automatically made the connection. "No wonder you suddenly decided not to swim today; it's because your hand is injured... That young owner's hand wouldn't happen to be cut by a mirror too, right? What's wrong with that瓦屋 (Kawara-ya/Tile-roofed) Inn? They should replace mirrors that cut people."
Conan chuckled in his heart, sorting out Suzuki Sonoko's logic.
Dilapidated small inn = bad environment = very likely safety hazards exist.
Chi Feichi's hand was cut by a mirror. Being in the same inn, it wasn't impossible for the young owner's hand to be cut by a mirror too.
As for why others weren't cut, maybe because children couldn't reach the dangerous part of the mirror, and girls didn't have a certain habit so their hands wouldn't get cut?
Chi Feichi, this guy is a master of lying. Finding such a suitable excuse without changing his expression.
If Uncle Mouri had this skill when playing pachinko or betting on horses, he wouldn't be exposed so easily, right?
"You're staying at the Kawara-ya Inn? It's not far from the hotel where I'm staying..." Michiwaki Masahiko suggested going to a seaside restaurant for dinner tonight and mentioned the ghost of a woman murdered last year appearing in the restaurant, reminding Suzuki Sonoko to bring a camera to capture it.
Chi Feichi quietly watched Michiwaki Masahiko perform.
"Hey, have you heard?" Two people outside the small shop were chatting. "Another body was found in the forest next to the train tracks this morning. The unlucky victim was also a girl with brown hair..."
Conan instantly perked up and whispered to Chi Feichi, "Something seems to have happened. Do you want to go check?"
Chi Feichi looked at the dazzling sunlight outside the shop. "No."
Conan was speechless. He stood up and ran out himself. "Then I'll go check!"
"Hey, Conan..." Mouri Ran hurriedly stood up.
"You go ahead. Ai and I will go back to the inn later," Chi Feichi said.
Hearing this, Mouri Ran said sorry and chased after him. Suzuki Sonoko also left in a hurry with Michiwaki Masahiko.
Kyogoku Makoto used the excuse of cleaning the next table to glance at the four plates of basically untouched cold noodles on the table. He walked up to Chi Feichi nonchalantly. "Senior Chi, are they... leaving because of my bad attitude just now?"
"It's fine, they went to watch the show," Chi Feichi reminded him. "If you have time, keep an eye on that Mr. Michiwaki. I can't put my finger on it, but something feels off."
Kyogoku Makoto hesitated. He didn't mention seeing Michiwaki Masahiko hitting on other girls at the beach a few days ago. He had no evidence, and saying it would seem like bad-mouthing someone behind their back. He still admired this senior, Chi Feichi, and didn't want Chi Feichi to think he was a petty person. He just nodded and said, "I'll keep an eye on him."