Conan: Rice Flower Spring

Chapter 382, ​​Section 376: It is because of sacrifice that we must commemorate it.

"Everyone." Kogoro Mouri, who had remained silent since the beginning of the meeting, finally began to make his presence felt.

Is it possible that Ms. Ben got off the elevator not voluntarily?

This led to her family or someone else, upon learning of the situation, launching a massive retaliation against the original survivors.

Before becoming a detective, Kogoro Mouri was a detective in the First Investigative Division. As a detective, he was well aware of the wickedness of human nature.

In emergencies like fires, the darker side of human nature can be fully unleashed.

It's entirely predictable that someone would be ostracized simply to save their own life.

“Mr. Mori is right, that was our initial suspicion as well.” Shiratori agreed with Kogoro Mori’s guess.

These criminal investigators, at certain times, are not afraid to assume the worst about people.

"But according to our subsequent investigation, ever since these survivors left the hotel, they have been anonymously sending bouquets to commemorate Ms. Ben Shang every Qixi Festival."

"Last year was the beginning, and this year is no exception."

If no one offered a memorial service or if the memorial service wasn't anonymous, it's hard to say whether Nanako Honjo voluntarily gave up her elevator seat.

But now, these survivors still keep anonymous memorial books for Nanako every year.

This was clearly not a show, and these survivors did it spontaneously without anyone taking the lead.

This does indeed align with their initial testimony—that Nanako Honjo voluntarily gave up her chance to survive to others.

“I agree with Officer Shiratori’s assessment,” Kogoro Mori replied after listening to Shiratori’s analysis.

He might have slightly weaker reasoning skills, but he's not without judgment. After Shiratori finished his reasoned and well-founded analysis, Kogoro Mouri immediately agreed.

"Based on the existing clues, we can make the following inference: the murderer in this case is very likely a family member of Ms. Honjo, who died two years ago at the Ori Hotel in Kyoto."

Only a few people knew about Ms. Honjo's good deeds at the time. Perhaps Ms. Honjo's family knew part of the situation at the time, but not the whole story.

Because of this misunderstanding, Miss Honjo's family began to retaliate against the survivors.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we now have good news and bad news."

Shiratori spoke very seriously to everyone—he wasn't joking, but really had some good news and some bad news.

Without asking whether everyone wanted to hear the good news or the bad news first, Shiratori said directly:

"The good news is that we now have some suspects in the cases."

"Kosuke Mizutani, male, 28 years old, freelancer. He is Ms. Honjo's boyfriend."

Like Ms. Honjo, they both enjoy stargazing. Furthermore, our investigation revealed that Mr. Mizutani and Ms. Honjo eloped to Kyoto.

"The second suspect is Ms. Honjo's brother, Honjo Kazuki. He is 35 years old and a certified public accountant."

Because Miss Honjo's parents died early, her brother, Mr. Honjo, has always taken on the role of her parents.

It can be said that Miss Honjo was raised by Mr. Honjo alone.

Miss Honjo eloped to Kyoto with Mr. Mizutani because Mr. Honjo opposed their relationship. "These two are practically Miss Honjo's last remaining family members in the world."

Upon hearing Shiratori's words, the detectives unanimously agreed that this was indeed good news.

During investigations, they are never afraid of having many leads or suspects. Because as long as they investigate step by step, they will eventually be able to investigate all the suspects.

But it's truly frustrating when there are no useful clues, like before.

"Then hurry up and bring these two here for questioning!" Now that they finally have two suspects, Mizutani Kosuke and Honjo Kazuki, the detectives at the scene are eager to interrogate them and see if there is a real culprit among them.

"This is our bad news, everyone," Shiratori said, looking up at all the officers present.

"We sent people to 'invite' them to the Metropolitan Police Department building as soon as we identified the suspects."

But we've lost track of both Kosuke Mizutani and Kazuki Honjo.

"My colleagues in Kyoto told me that Kosuke Mizutani has been 'missing' for at least half a month."

According to our investigation, Ben Shang and Shu have not been to the company for a week.

There were only two suspects in the case, and both of them subsequently disappeared. Does that make sense?
"Ladies and gentlemen, we have even worse news to share. Thanks to the perpetrator's brazen attack, all the survivors who stayed on the 7th floor of the Kyoto Oriole Hotel two years ago on Tanabata have been confirmed dead."

This means that if the killer is indeed either of these two people, then their revenge plan is complete.

Shiratori's words made all the police officers present look serious.

Yes, if the murderer mistook the survivors on the 7th floor of the fire for the murderers who killed his own sister (or lover), then all these "murderers" would have been slaughtered by them.

Now that the revenge has been taken, there will naturally be no more murders.

The question now is, where did the two real culprits who had completed their revenge go?
Will they ever return to where they used to live? Are they aware that the police have identified them as suspects?

Following Shiratori's excellent report, the joint investigation meeting transformed from an exchange session into a mobilization meeting.

The officers already knew the suspect's identity; now they just needed to arrest him and find evidence of his crimes.
-
"Officer Shiratori, please wait!" Inspector Yamato Kansuke from Nagano Prefecture suddenly called out to Shiratori, who was about to leave the meeting room.

"Inspector Yamato?" Shiratori stopped and looked at the inspector who had called out to him, who had a fierce look on his face and was not very good at walking.

"Officer Shiratori, there's something I need to inform you about." Shiratori's report made him quite famous in front of his colleagues from other prefectures.

In particular, the investigations in the report all came from their own police force, with "no" detectives involved. Shiratori, who accomplished all this, is clearly the future pillar of the police force, the backbone of its future.

Almost all the police officers present had a favorable impression of Shiratori.

Shiratori was fully aware of this, and he also knew that his friend Ryoma Hayashi would never reveal the truth.

Matsumoto Kiyonaga would never do that.

Matsumoto Kiyonaga wanted a successful promotion, and Shiratori was equally eager to try his luck at the position of manager.
To put it bluntly, we're all in the same boat; if the boat capsizes, no one will benefit. Besides, the fact that the two advisors only offered suggestions without explicitly stating them was a kind gesture.

Shiratori knew that all he needed to do in the face of such kindness was to repay it in the future; to hesitate and refuse would only make everyone look down on him.

(End of this chapter)