"We couldn't find Jiang Yuan Shinan anywhere, and no one answered the landline in his room. Ms. Sayama was worried he might have drunk too much and had an accident in the room, so she called the police..."
With his hands in his pockets, Conan walked into Kazawa's spacious suite, deep in thought.
"You didn't find out where Jiang Yuan Shinan went?" Kazawa walked to the bar, poured a cup of coffee, and casually put the other cup—left there by Xingchuan Hui—into the cupboard.
After that, he naturally walked to the TV table and handed the freshly poured coffee to Conan.
"The police retrieved the surveillance footage and found that Jiang Yuan Shinan took the elevator to the 21st floor alone at around 10 o'clock last night and entered his room..." Conan, focused on his own analysis and unaware of Kazawa's subtle actions, took the coffee without thinking, "...and then never appeared again."
"If it's the 21st floor, it's unlikely he could've left through any other exit." Kazawa sat across from him, also picking up his coffee and glancing at the bedroom with the door ajar.
There was no need to check. Kazawa already knew who was inside through his "third eye"—the tarot cards placed at the entrance had told him. The two unlucky ones were hiding in the bedroom.
"Not only his room, we also checked surveillance footage from the floors above and below, but found nothing. Instead, we found this in his room." Conan took a sip of coffee, then pulled out his phone and showed Kazawa the photo.
Kazawa had only taken Jiang Yuan Shinan with him. All of his belongings were left untouched in the hotel room.
After all, joining an organization to work on risky projects wasn't much different from going to prison—you could just move in with your luggage.
…Well, to be exact, Jiang Yuan Shinan was forced to "move in with his luggage."
Before leaving, Kazawa had upheld the professional pride of a puzzle creator and opened his laptop. He typed out a mysterious message, reinforcing the idea that "Ehara Tokimura left of his own will."
At this moment, Conan's phone displayed the photographed message on that very laptop screen:
"I have found the true meaning of the world. I have found Noah's Ark!
I have thrown myself into the arms of the 'Night Baron'!
I will go to where he is, disappear from this world, and step into a new one!"
"Kinda sounds like a weird cult message," the creator himself commented frankly.
Kazawa had improvised the whole message.
Jiang Yuan Shinan's hysterical behavior and fanatical expression were indeed convincing enough to raise doubts about his sanity.
So Kazawa cherry-picked some of Jiang's own ramblings, threw in the term "Ark Navigation" from the organization's internal files, and used it to vaguely hint at the hacker's destination.
And funny enough, it was the truth.
The "Dark Night Baron" virus had originally been developed by the organization. Now that Jiang was going to join them to work on Ark Navigation, wasn't that quite literally throwing himself into the arms of the Dark Night Baron?
For something he made up in just a few minutes, Kazawa thought it was pretty clever nonsense.
After giving his own review, he looked at Conan, waiting for the "reader's feedback."
"This is what we found on his computer." Conan scrolled to another photo, showing the scene evidence. "I carefully checked his room. The entire hotel room is carpeted, so it was hard to find traces. But I found a set of footprints on the balcony."
"He went outside?" Kazawa leaned in to look at the photo. "You mean… Jiang Yuan Shinan jumped off the building?"
Conan nodded and swiped to the next picture.
It was the Dark Night Baron outfit that Akemi Miyano had thrown from the terrace into the pool.
"I did a comparison. The footprint matches the sole of these leather shoes exactly." Conan pointed at the soaked, crumpled black shoes.
Though the cheap costume and shoes were now ruined by seawater, the hard soles still made identification easy.
"Huh… Kind of odd. What, he jumped off the building in the middle of the night, but his clothes didn't fall into the pool until the next day? Still, based on this, Ehara Tokio is the organizer?" Kazawa redirected the suspicion effortlessly.
Akiko Sayama had played it safe—except for that time she pushed the kid into the pool. She had booked the participants' rooms, made calls, and handled everything under anonymity.
Now, no murder had occurred, Sayama Akiko wasn't talking, and Ehara Tokio had truly vanished... The whole thing was turning into a mystery without a solution.
At most, it might become an urban legend that the hotel used to attract more tourists.
Kazawa was in a relaxed mood now. He was just waiting for Gin to hand Jiang Yuan Shinan over to the organization and uncover what came next. While Tokyo's net slowly tightened, he could enjoy this rare vacation.
Joker had nothing to do. Kumail had just handed in a living person. Kazawa's job of assisting Conan was basically complete—perfect time to rest.
"Is that so?" Conan murmured.
Jiang Yuan Shinan was tall.
Back when he'd clashed with Kazawa and Maeda Satoshi, Conan remembered that Ehara Tokio was obviously taller than Kazawa—about the same height as the broad-shouldered Maeda Satoshi.
But the Dark Night Baron who shoved him into the pool yesterday…
Though Conan had his back turned and didn't see the face clearly, when Kazawa reached out to catch him and the Baron turned to leave, Conan couldn't shake the feeling that the man wasn't as tall as Jiang Yuan Shinan—who had been a full head taller than Kazawa...
"There are no other suspects for now, right?" Kazawa tried to steer the conversation away, worried Conan might catch on. Even if he'd cheated his way through the abduction, a top-tier detective like Conan was hard to fool. "So… does he really have the 'Dark Night Baron' virus? The message made him sound pretty obsessed."
"That's not the case." Conan temporarily set aside his doubts. "When the police arrived, the other participants took the opportunity to rummage through his room. He did have a lot of stolen data, but no virus program."
"Hm… looks like those tech guys will be checking out soon." Kazawa pointed downward—he lived on the 23rd floor, the highest in the hotel. This gesture referred to the other guests. "They came here for the virus. If it's not here, they'll leave. How's your investigation on that list?"
"We've reached some preliminary conclusions." With the topic shifted, Conan brightened up.
He'd been busy these last couple of days—sneaking peeks at phones and laptops, shamelessly asking strangers personal info…
It was the first time since turning into a kid that he truly appreciated the convenience of his new form. Adults and teens were bound by etiquette, but children could act freely. With a few innocent words, they could cross all social boundaries and search for evidence without restraint.
No wonder Sherlock Holmes had his Baker Street Irregulars. There were things only kids could do.
"I found that besides the 'tainted programmers' you mentioned, most people on the list had backgrounds in AI and game programming. The software that Ehara Tokio stole from Genichiro Kaneshiro was a game. Mr. Kaneshiro was a game producer. Shiro Konno was in charge of a bank's security systems, but his undergrad major was AI. Satoshi Maeda's research lab is now developing AI for transportation systems..."
As he confidently rattled off the investigation's progress, Conan tapped through his browser and opened a link.
"Ehara Tokio's message inspired me. Whether he left voluntarily or was taken, the message had to be written by someone related to the case—it must contain a clue." The website finished loading, showing a futuristic, vibrant design. Conan flipped the screen to Kazawa: "'Noah's Ark,' 'Game,' 'Artificial Intelligence'... I finally found this."
It was the official website of a tech company.
In the center of the page was their latest announcement:
"Artificial Intelligence 'Noah's Ark' and holographic gaming device 'Cocoon'..."
Spoiler Kazawa: "?!"
What the hell!?