People are in Conan, but Ace Attorney

Chapter 999 Yuichi Hisaka's Alibi
"Mr. Tsukigata Ryutaro, do you believe that Saruhashi Masaru is the suspect in the murder of the victim?"

Xiang Yuanguang directly presented his ideas without any hesitation.

Upon hearing this, Tsukigata Ryutaro was immediately startled.

The moment the secret hidden in his heart was revealed, the lock on his heart crumbled.

Ryutaro Tsukigata sighed and said helplessly.

"Truly a legendary lawyer, I never expected you to find out so easily..."

“That’s right. I did suspect that the murderer of Yuichi Hisaka was my other disciple, Masaru Saruhashi. After all, there was indeed some conflict between them.”

"There is a conflict regarding learning from me."

The contradiction of learning from you?
Xiang Yuanguang raised his eyebrows slightly, somewhat surprised.

This is rather rare. Could it be that the amount of knowledge learned leads to the outbreak of conflict?

But shouldn't someone in this situation be attacking the teacher? Why would they attack a fellow student?

Xiang Yuanguang was surprised.

Kogoro Mouri, who was standing next to him, immediately said,

"Yes, yes, I remember that too!"

"It was about six months ago when Mr. Yuexing came to visit my firm with two disciples. Didn't the two of them have a huge argument back then?"

Kogoro Mouri said with great enthusiasm,

"At the time, I remember the deceased Yuichi Hisaka saying that the distance between oneself and one's teacher also affects the quality of learning, and that Saruhashi Masaru, who followed his teacher every day, must have learned more than him."

"Therefore, Yuichi Hisaka said at the time that he wanted to move to Tokyo to serve Mr. Tsukigata."

“But Mr. Tsukigata said that Yuichi Hisaka still has a family and a job, and writing is only a side job for Yuichi Hisaka. There is no need for Yuichi Hisaka to give up everything in order to learn to write.”

"And that's how it ended, on a sour note. The next time I met them was at the crime scene."

—You saw Yuichi Hisaka's body at the crime scene, right?

Xiang Yuanguang twitched the corner of his mouth, disagreeing with this.

However, this does suggest that both Yuichi Hisaka and Masaru Saruhashi had a motive to murder each other.

Following this line of thought, Yuichi Hisaka should also have had a motive to murder Ryutaro Tsukigata.

However, among the three, there was no reasonable motive for Tsukigata Ryutaro to murder the other disciples.

In other words, motives can be refuted in court.

Then the problem is with the phone message...

"Something's fishy."

"Knowing that Mr. Tsukigata Ryutaro was not at home, Yuichi Hisaka still left a message for Mr. Tsukigata Ryutaro on the phone, which was almost like leaving a trace on purpose."

"It's as if to prove that I was indeed at a certain station at 8:05 pm."

Xiang Yuanguang tapped his fingers lightly on the table.

Beside him, the figure of 'Xiang Yuan' appeared, and he said thoughtfully,

"Was it an alibi created by the deceased for himself?"

"It seems that the person who really wanted to murder his fellow disciples was probably not Saruhashi Masaru, but Hisaka Yuichi. Otherwise, he would not have needed to create an alibi for himself."

"So... does Saruhashi Katsuyuki have an alibi?"

This is also the question that Xiang Yuanguang wants to know the answer to.

He snapped his fingers, drawing the attention of Tsukigata Ryutaro and Mori Kogoro, and asked,
"Uncle Mori, you were also at the scene of the investigation, weren't you?"

"Does Saruhashi Katsuyuki have an alibi?"

Asking this question is pointless.

Ryutaro Tsukigata shook his head. Before Kogoro Mouri could even think, he had already answered.
"Of course, Saruhashi has an alibi that proves he couldn't have killed anyone."

"The police told me that the victim was killed after 8:40 p.m., and that at 8:30 p.m., Saruhashi was drinking at an izakaya and did not leave until after 9 p.m.."

Therefore, Saruhashi could not be the murderer.

"I suspect he might be the murderer, simply because I feel there is a conflict between Hisaka and Saruhashi. Besides Saruhashi, there is no one else who would kill Hisaka."

After listening, Kogoro Mouri nodded quickly, indicating that this was exactly what he wanted to say.

Xiang Yuanguang merely narrowed his eyes slightly in response.

If we were to deduce that Saruhashi Katsumi was the murderer...

Reverse the reasoning result and examine the thought process.

The first problem should be Saruhashi Katsumi's alibi.

— Either the deceased died before 8:30, or it was impossible for Saruhashi Masaru to have entered the izakaya to drink at 8:30.

"Time Trick".

"In the former case, the deceased should have died before 8:30."

The 'Xiang Yuan' floating beside Xiang Yuanguang gave his judgment.

As a top-tier lawyer who also shares a deep connection with Xiang Yuanguang, Xiang Yuan naturally follows Xiang Yuanguang's line of thinking and adds,

"The key is to prove that the voicemail message at 8:05 was fake."

There are only two ways to forge a phone message.

One plan was to target the landline phone at Ryutaro's house, and the other was to create the illusion that he was still at the station at 8:05.

Xiang Yuanguang believes it is the latter.

He didn't think that Yuichi Hisaka could quietly enter Ryutaro Tsukigata's house, forge a phone message, and then return to the crime scene, Beika Park, without making a sound.

He was eventually murdered and his body dumped there.

"So, now there's only one question."

Xiang Yuanguang's finger gently touched his forehead.

He asked himself in a low voice,
"How can I prove that the voicemail message from Yuichi Hisaka at 8:05 to report his location was fake?"

This time, Xiang Yuan, who was standing next to Xiang Yuanguang, also stopped talking.

Yes, that is indeed a problem.

Hisaka Yuichi's alibi for 8:05 AM is unbreakable, given the inability to conduct a thorough investigation at the scene.

Ryutaro Tsukigata and Kogoro Mouri, who were standing nearby, were both startled by Hikaru Minamoto's abrupt change in thought.

We were just talking about Saruhashi Katsumi, how did we suddenly jump to proving that Hisaka Yuichi's alibi was fabricated? That's too outrageous!
However, after hearing what Yuichi Hisaka had to say, Kogoro Mouri stroked his chin.
"Speaking of which, I remember something very strange."

"Yuichi Hisaka came to Tokyo this time without bringing anything. You can't find his luggage anywhere. Don't you think that's strange? Normally, when you travel far, you should at least bring a change of clothes, right?"

Xiang Yuanguang pondered for a moment.

If that's the case, then he has a direction for his investigation.

First, there are the courier stations, and then the few lockers available in the city.

If we investigate these places thoroughly, we should be able to get results.

However... there's not enough time.

The trial is tomorrow morning, and he couldn't get into the building tonight to investigate.

It seems necessary to ask Officer Takagi for help.

(End of this chapter)