Chapter 1063: Defeat the Great Demon King Chi Feichi
A group of people paid the bill and walked to the company where the murder case occurred.
Along the way, Hattori Heiji glanced at Conan from time to time, feeling much better.
It was good to have Kudo. If he and Kudo joined forces and went all out, they could definitely defeat Brother Hichiji!
When they arrived downstairs, while Mori Kogoro was on the phone with Inspector Megure, Conan gave Hattori Heiji a speechless look. "Can you stop staring at me all the time?"
Hattori Heiji suddenly grinned, crouched down, and leaned close to Conan's ear. "Kudo, you should be a little more excited."
Conan gave him half-moon eyes. "What's there to be excited about?"
"Don't you get it? This time, Kazuha and Ran are just here to make up the numbers," Hattori Heiji whispered. "It's all down to whether the two of us can team up and crush Brother Hichiji, or if he alone can beat both of us..."
"How is that possible," Conan said defiantly in a hushed voice, glancing at Chi Feichi who was following Mori Kogoro towards the staircase. "How could the two of us, teamed up, possibly lose to one person?"
Hattori Heiji was smiling, but his eyes were filled with earnestness and determination. "Yeah, that's what I think too..."
Conan also started to smile, with a hint of gritting teeth. "I've been waiting for this day for a long time!"
Although, this wasn't a case of '1+1=2'. There is only one truth, and their minds couldn't be stacked into one. Even by joining forces, the most they could do was remind and supplement each other in areas the other might have missed. In other words, their alliance wasn't a guaranteed win, but they accepted this challenge.
Who was to blame but that guy Chi Feichi for always being faster than him, for always telling him the answer directly, for always ruining his joy of reasoning... Compared to Hattori, he was the one who had been putting up with it for a long time.
Their slogan was—defeat the Great Demon King Chi Feichi! And see the look of dejection on his face!
Hattori Heiji looked at the sparkle in Conan's eyes, satisfied. Very good, his teammate had entered a state of serious focus and was full of drive. Next up was to strike at the enemy...
"Besides, this is a battle of sanction against the traitor who betrayed men's friendship!"
As Chi Feichi walked past behind them, Hattori Heiji remained squatting in front of Conan with his back to Chi Feichi. He raised a hand and patted Conan's shoulder. "We have even more reason to go all out!"
Chi Feichi didn't even glance at them as he walked past, dropping a sentence in a calm and indifferent tone.
"If the ship of friendship is about to capsize, before it does, I'll kick you both overboard to drown first. With only me on the ship, it won't be able to capsize."
Hattori Heiji and Conan: "..."
What did that mean? Could it be interpreted as a threat?
"Brother Hichiji," Kazuha Toyama caught up to Chi Feichi, glanced back at the approaching Hattori Heiji, and said in a hushed voice, "Why don't you go help Hattori? If this causes you two to argue..."
"Don't overthink it, we're just too bored," Chi Feichi said. "We're just messing around."
"Huh?" Kazuha Toyama didn't quite understand, but hearing Chi Feichi say that, she was relieved. "Brother Hichiji, then we'll be counting on you on our side!"
On the second floor, Inspector Megure had already opened the door. Seeing Mori Kogoro enter, he went forward to greet him. "Brother Mori, you're here! Sorry to have made you come all this way."
"Not at all," Mori Kogoro said with a narcissistic smile. "For a famous detective like me who's brimming with righteousness, just tell me what the matter is, Officer. I'll definitely solve it for you!"
Inspector Megure chuckled to himself. He made it sound like the police were begging for help... well, it was true that they were asking for help, but...
"Inspector Megure." Chi Feichi greeted Inspector Megure with a placid expression, then let himself in and headed inside.
"Excuse us!" Kazuha Toyama and Mouri Ran followed him in.
"Inspector Megure, excuse us for intruding!" Hattori Heiji entered with Conan.
As the group walked past him, Inspector Megure was sighing internally about how all the Gods of Death had gathered today. He then noticed that Chi Feichi's group had gone directly to the room where the crime scene was located and hurriedly said, "Wait, you can't do that! Letting unauthorized people into a crime scene..."
"It's fine, it's fine. The officers from the Forensic Science Division have already gone over the scene with a fine-toothed comb, right?" Mori Kogoro smiled, becoming a little more serious. "Now then, please tell me the details of this case first."
"Alright," Inspector Megure followed them helplessly into the crime scene room, took out his notebook, and looked at the recorded information. "The one who was murdered is the president of this toy company, Togiya Kenji, 53 years old. This is the president's home and workshop. The estimated time of death is around 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 29th. The corpse was discovered the next day, on Monday, June 30th, at around 10 a.m...."
Chi Feichi scanned the room.
He had some impression of this case, but as for who the specific criminal was, some of the details of the crime, and the evidence, he still needed to find some clues to awaken his memories and connect the dots.
It was a room set up as a studio.
To the right was a window, and in front of it were a coffee table and two sofas for resting and receiving guests. Further in was a storage cabinet filled with sundries and books. At the bottom corner of the cabinet, the door of a safe was open; the murderer must have looted the valuables.
In front of the cabinet and along the wall were stacked cardboard boxes. There were many boxes, but they weren't particularly messy.
Directly opposite the entrance was a table covered with rulers, pen holders, and various production tools. A chair faced away from the wall, likely the president's seat, who was the deceased. Four other chairs were scattered around the table, and the tabletop was partitioned into 'workstations', presumably for the employees.
A company that resembled a small workshop.
The area marked with outline tape for the crime scene trace was behind the table, next to the president's seat. It was clear the deceased had collapsed there.
At the edge of the table, an ink bottle had been knocked over, and the ink had flowed all the way to the ground, forming a puddle.
When the ink was spilled, the deceased had likely not been killed yet. The human-shaped trace on the ground had parallel and messy rope marks around the elbow and waist-abdomen area. He must have struggled after being tied up, and the rope, stained with some ink, left these marks on the ground.
In front of the human-shaped outline was a pile of building blocks. The bloodstains were around the head area. Judging from the spatter, he was struck to death by some object. There wasn't a large amount of bleeding, but the blow was very heavy.
Nearby, there were slender scratch marks about 10 centimeters long, concentrated around the head, but they were staggered. The weapon must have missed several times as the deceased dodged it. This indicated that the weapon was quite long and had a handle, and the murderer didn't crouch down to commit the act, which is why it could be dodged so many times. Combining that with the long, thin scratch marks...
He could reconstruct in his mind:
At that time, the deceased was tied up and laid on the ground. The murderer stood beside him, holding a golf club, and used the club head to smash down on the deceased's head. The deceased turned his head and dodged several times until he was finally hit and died.
"A total of four people discovered the corpse, all of them employees of this company," Inspector Megure said, walking to the room's window and looking at the shop across the street. "Those four always went to the snack shop in front of this building before work, eating breakfast while waiting for the president to contact them. That day, after the work start time of 9:30, because the president still hadn't contacted them, the four of them came up and used a spare key to open the door, and then..."
"And then they discovered the president tied up here, already beaten to death with a golf club," Hattori Heiji, squatting next to the outline tape, chimed in. "He collapsed right here in the shadow of this table!"
Kazuha Toyama stepped forward and bent down to look. "How did you know that? Heiji..."
"Where the corpse's back fell, ink was spilled, right?" Hattori Heiji stared at the traces on the ground. "The ink bottle on the table must have been knocked over when the president and the murderer were having an argument, and it wasn't set upright again. The murderer then tied up the president, so..."
No...
Chi Feichi glanced at the tabletop, then at the chair in front of the corpse's head.
There were few signs of a struggle. The things on the table weren't in disarray, with no trace of being knocked over during an argument. The pen holder was also still standing properly. Only this ink bottle... this ink bottle, placed at the edge of the table, was overturned.
Moreover, judging by the empty space under the table, the chair should have originally been near the corpse's waist, but it was pushed in front of the head. There were also no obvious signs of a struggle, as if someone had deliberately pushed the chair away, knocked over the ink bottle, and placed the deceased in this position.
This person could have been the deceased, but the deceased likely wouldn't have had the opportunity to make these subtle moves at the time. It was highly possible the murderer did it intentionally.
Then...
While Hattori Heiji was deducing the murder weapon, Conan was staring at a truncated bloodstain on the ground.
Chi Feichi crouched down opposite Conan, seemingly looking at him, but in reality, he was looking past Conan's body to see under the table.
In this case, Conan and Hattori Heiji were at a disadvantage.
First, they shouldn't compete with him in crime scene investigation.
"Huh?" Conan looked up at Chi Feichi in confusion, only to find Chi Feichi looking down at the bloodstain he had just been examining. The corner of his mouth twitched slightly.
Chi Feichi nodded at Conan in encouragement, then stood up, put on gloves, and looked for the remote control on the table.
Second, they shouldn't compete in the speed of connecting clues and reaction time with a cheating dog like him who had already seen the plot.
Over there, Hattori Heiji, facing Kazuha Toyama and the others, had finished his deduction about the deceased being tied up, the murder weapon being a golf club, the murderer forcing out the safe's password to take the money, and the deceased being conscious and dodging several attacks when he was killed. He then added, "However, these are things even the police could figure out..."
What do you mean, 'even the police could figure out'? Can detectives see more than the police?
Inspector Megure felt slighted. Just as he was feeling speechless, he looked up and saw Chi Feichi fish a remote control out from the table. "Hey, hey, Brother Chi..."
"I'm wearing gloves," Chi Feichi said, then used the remote control to turn on the television.
Inspector Megure: "..."
It's not a matter of wearing gloves or not.
The moment these people entered the crime scene, it was like bandits entering a village. They'd run over here, run over there, touch this, poke that, pick something up here, and rummage through things there...
Have they ever considered his feelings?
He was just like that village chief who had to watch the bandits run rampant, yet still had to hope they would offer him some help!
Helpless, powerless, and aggrieved.
Chi Feichi turned on the television. The screen that lit up wasn't showing a program; a small English box was displayed in the top-left corner.
Conan stood up and looked. "It's in the external input state, which means..."
Chi Feichi didn't continue the thought, placing the remote control back on the table.
"Which means?" A strong sense of crisis rose in Hattori Heiji's heart.
There was a clue. Kudo found it, Brother Hichiji found it, but he didn't!
Conan shot a speechless glance at Chi Feichi, who refused to cooperate and continue his line of reasoning. He had no choice but to rely on himself, and he even had to work hard to shift the credit. Pointing at the spot where the bloodstain was cut off, he used a child's voice to act cute, "Just now, Brother Chi was staring at the bloodstain on the ground. There's a breakpoint there, like something was placed there before but was taken away."
Hattori Heiji understood. He looked at the television displaying 'External Input State'. "It must be something like a camera! For some reason, the murderer placed a camera here to film the president, while monitoring his actions on the television, perhaps while he was opening the safe, or maybe to do something else..."
Kazuha Toyama bent over and looked at Conan. "Conan, you can't keep staring at Brother Hichiji and then passing information to Heiji, okay."
Conan: "..."
He was the one who saw it first...
Hattori Heiji also crouched down and whispered in Conan's ear, "Kudo, if you find any clues, tell me right away."
Conan: "..."
But then Chi Feichi saw it right after.
After seeing it, Chi Feichi went to get the remote control to check the television's status.
His reaction was frighteningly fast. I didn't even have time to say anything, or even figure out the key point...
"What passing information?" Inspector Megure was completely confused. "What are you talking about?"
"Ah, nothing, it's nothing," Mori Kogoro said quickly with a laugh.
If Inspector Megure found out that the murder case he was asked to investigate was being used as a bet for these kids, Inspector Megure would blast him with his Roaring Lion's Roar Technique.
"Are there any other strange things at the scene?" Conan asked, looking up at Inspector Megure. "There must be, right?"
"Hurry up and tell us!" Hattori Heiji urged with a grin.
"Ah, um..." Inspector Megure felt that this group was unusually active today. Suppressing the doubt in his heart, he took a stack of photos from his suit jacket pocket and showed them to the others. "These four building blocks were dropped around the president..."
In the photo were four building blocks stained with ink. A single Japanese Hiragana character was engraved on each block.
Hattori Heiji turned his head to look. "Speaking of building blocks, there are some next to the corpse too."
"But only these four blocks have both the president's fingerprints and ink on them," Inspector Megure laid the other photos out on the table for the group to see. "If you connect the characters on the four ink-stained faces of the blocks..."
"o mo ch..."
Hattori Heiji and Conan looked at the photos and recited in unison, "Omocha? (Toy?)"
Chi Feichi took out his notebook and began to draw and write.
Another clue had arrived.
Third, Conan and Hattori Heiji shouldn't compete with a cheating dog like him, who had already seen the plot, in the speed of deciphering a code.
Because he remembered the key.
The ink marks on these four building blocks were indeed left when the president was still alive, but the clue wasn't on the inked side. One should look at the side opposite the inked one.
Judging from the photo, one of the blocks had three faces with う, お, and え, as well as an animal pattern...
In his previous life, it wouldn't have been easy for him to spot the pattern, but in this life, he had a solid foundation in Japanese, making it easy to deduce the hiragana on the other faces.
To substitute, it would be equivalent to seeing the three letters c, d, and e, with an animal pattern below e. Unfolding the six faces of the block would look like—
[?]
[?][c][d]
[e]
[图]
Then he could restore all the engravings on the block:
[a]
[b][c][d]
[e]
[图]
The sorting method is:
[1]
[2][3][4]
[5]
[图]
In this incident, it was the same. He just had to fill in the Japanese Hiragana according to the same pronunciation pattern.
(End of Chapter)