The establishment of the Time Travelers Alliance began in the first year of Conan

Chapter 267 Asagi's Success (Seeking Monthly Tickets at the Beginning of the Month)

The moon tonight is exactly the same as last night's, so bright it's almost blinding.

No, perhaps it's not just exactly the same as last night, it's as if it came straight out of someone's memory.

Asai Narumi looked up at the window, and the cool, silvery light was exactly the same as what she had seen two years ago.

The moon that shines on the old friends of today.

And now, the moonlight shines through the open window at the far end of the second floor of the village office.

It followed the soft, light gauze curtains, fluttering in the night breeze, and stretched across the wooden floor to the other end of the corridor—

The moonlight draped over Conan's shoulders.

He stood there, his body trembling slightly.

The broadcasting studio door was open, and Conan saw Kuroiwa Tatsuji, the current village chief, hunched over the recording equipment.

A sharp knife had penetrated most of his body from his back, leaving only the hilt. The bloodstains spreading across his back were glaringly obvious under the light.

Kuroiwa Tatsuji also died.

This person, whom he had read the transcript of just an hour ago and heard the voice of, died right before his eyes.

Half of his face was turned toward the door, his eyes wide open, and Conan could almost see a sense of shock and resentment in them.

Conan felt a little dazed, and something snapped in his chest with a "bang".

The whole world suddenly fell silent, and Conan felt as if he had suddenly left his body—

Everyone ran to the second floor because of the sound;
Ran's worried calls, Reiko Kuroiwa's sorrowful roars, Inspector Megure's commands...

Conan could only hear his own heartbeat echoing.

"Why... is it like this again?"

He had already noticed the unusual nature of Ken Nishimoto's disappearance.

Even though he had already realized that the murderer had not stopped, he still did not stop.

And he was still a detective, yet he still didn't stop it.

"All the police officers are here!"

"I told you I'm not the murderer!"

Reiko Kuroiwa rushed up to Inspector Megure, confronting and questioning him.

"If you hadn't insisted on interrogating me for so long, I would have gone home with my father long ago!"

She buried her head in her hands, almost in despair, and cried out, "Daddy won't die!"

Her voice tormented Conan's heart.

The murderer brazenly killed someone again in front of all the police officers, and in front of himself, who "claimed to be the guardian of the truth."

Conan clenched his fists tightly, his nails digging deep into his palms, and then slammed his fist against the wall.

"Unforgivable."

……

Reiko Kuroiwa finds it hard to believe what's happening—her father has died just as she's about to get married.

She was pale and dazed, and after uttering a few desperate roars, she collapsed to the ground.

But in the end, in order not to disturb the scene and to solve the case as quickly as possible.

Accompanied by Murasawa Shuichi and comforted by Mouri Ran, she was eventually helped away from the second floor.

Because the forensic pathologist who arrived this morning took Kawashima Hideo's body back to Tokyo around noon for a more detailed autopsy.

Inspector Megure sounded tired; a murder had actually happened right under the police's noses. He looked at Asai Narumi, who had followed him up.

"Dr. Narumi, I'll have to trouble you to perform another autopsy."

"Yeah, no problem."

Faced with Inspector Megure's request, Asai Shigemi nodded, took out gloves from her pocket, put them on, and approached the body to conduct an autopsy.

Kuroiwa Tatsuji collapsed onto the playback equipment, his blood staining almost half of the mixing console, like a piece of blood-red Xuan paper scattered across the surface.

Her gaze had been fixed on Reiko Kuroiwa out of the corner of her eye, carrying an indescribable... silence.

What could she say?

A moment later, she looked at Kogoro Mouri and Inspector Megure, who were standing in the center of the room, and told everyone her conclusion.

"The murderer must be male, otherwise he couldn't have killed the victim so decisively with a single stab."

"Furthermore, based on my current understanding, I believe the murderer was killed just minutes before the body was discovered."

Inspector Megure nodded: "Yes, that matches the timing of the recording."

As he spoke, he took the cassette tape that a police officer had handed him from the player and handed it to Kogoro Mouri, who was standing next to him.

"This is a cassette tape of the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata. There is a blank tape at the beginning for about three minutes and thirty seconds, during which there is no sound."

At this moment, Officer Shiraishi, who was in charge of the search of the scene, spoke up to report his findings.

"Inspector Megure, there is a musical score drawn in blood under the deceased's chair."

"It's sheet music again!"

Inspector Megure's voice finally calmed Conan down, and he peeked out from behind Kogoro Mouri.

"Could this also be a message left by the victim?"

Before Kogoro Mouri could even begin his analysis, Conan rudely interrupted him.

He didn't even try to hide it, and rattled off several suspicious points in one breath.

"If the deceased was still capable of drawing this musical score before his death, why didn't he choose to ask for help?"

"No matter how you look at it, it's impossible for the deceased to have finished drawing this musical score and then lay down on the tuning pegs."

He pulled out a small brown notebook and a pen from somewhere and copied the sheet music in front of him into the notebook.

He even found several more pieces of evidence by glancing at the relatively clean ground next to the sheet music.

"Furthermore, the bloodstains don't match. The sheet music was drawn with blood, and if it was drawn by the deceased, there wouldn't be any other bloodstains around it, which also means..."

When Kogoro Mouri heard Conan's first words, he looked somewhat relieved.

As Conan spoke more and more, a vein throbbed on his forehead, and his brows furrowed deeper and deeper, and then—

"You little brat!"

Kogoro Mouri punched the annoying detective brat, causing Conan to stumble.

He fell right onto the sheet music stained with blood.

The atmosphere fell silent for a second.

"Eh--!"

Four people immediately shouted in alarm. Kogoro Mouri grabbed Conan by the back of his collar and looked at the ground with a tense expression.

The sheet music beneath Conan was intact.

"Phew—" All four of them breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

"It's good that the sheet music is okay."

Kogoro Mouri put Conan down.

Then, in order to cover up the fact that he had almost made a big mistake, he looked at Officer Shiraishi standing to the side.

"Did you find anything in the corridor?"

Officer Shiraishi was very perceptive; he pretended nothing had happened and continued to report his findings.

"According to Long Island's description, the second-floor window was always closed. It seems that the murderer escaped through the window."

“However…” he paused, “Kawada has already gone to see it. That window leads to the backyard of the village mansion, which is the sea cliff.”

"What!" Kogoro Mouri jumped up. "Does that mean the murderer might have escaped to the castle?!"

Inspector Megure's expression also turned serious—

Yesterday, in order to avoid having to walk through the piano room's backyard again to deliver sushi to everyone, and also to prevent the murderer from taking the opportunity to strike again or destroy evidence.

He ordered the locked castle gates to be opened.

"Immediately send men to the castle to check for any trace of Kenji Nishimoto!"

Inspector Megure then ordered another officer to go check on the castle immediately, and then he looked at Kogoro Mouri.

"However, it is also possible that other suspects present at the scene committed the crime, since Shimizu and Murasawa did not have alibis at the time."

……

After instructing another officer to develop the photos that had just been taken, Inspector Megure and Kogoro Mouri went downstairs.

He first gave everyone a brief explanation of the police's current leads.

Then he looked at the few people who remained at the scene, wanting to ask Nishimoto Ken and Kuroiwa Tatsuji if they had any conflicts.

Reiko Kuroiwa is quite strong; she has just calmed down.

However, Inspector Megure's words made her angry again, and she pointed at the witness Shimizu: "It must have been Shimizu who did it!"

"Don't you understand yet?"

She looked at Shimizu Masato with a hint of resentment in her eyes.

"Both Dad and Kawashima are candidates for village chief this time. If we get rid of them, he'll be the village chief!"

Shimizu Masato quickly retorted, "How could I possibly do that? It's just a village chief's position!"

"How could I possibly kill someone for this!"

As everyone started arguing about it, Inspector Megure tried to restrain the agitated Reiko Kuroiwa with Kogoro Mouri.

Ran Mouri noticed that Conan was frowning, a rare sight for him, and his eyes were fixed on the notebook in his hand.

"Conan?" She leaned down. "What are you looking at?"

"I'm looking at the sheet music that the perpetrator left at the crime scene."

Conan looked up. "These symbols must have been left by the culprit. These sharps and flats must be coded messages containing some kind of information."

Asai Narumi's gaze was drawn to Conan's deduction. She glanced down at the blue gem on her chest, and then heard Ran Mouri give a hint to the child.

"These symbols must refer to the piano keys, right?"

If sharps and flats represent the black and white keys on a piano, then arranging the piano keys according to their alphabetical order would be—

Conan spoke slowly and deliberately:

"Do you understand now? You're next."

For some reason, the noisy crowd suddenly fell silent.

Everyone turned their attention to Conan, who had begun his "deduction."

Ran looked at Conan as well: "Conan? Do you know what the sheet music means?"

"Hmm." Conan nodded. "If you know the trick, this code isn't actually that complicated."

"Just arrange these notes in order from left to right, from A to Z."

"What about the second sheet music?!"

Kogoro Mouri suddenly leaned over.

He seemed to have suddenly forgotten that he had just warned Conan not to run around at the crime scene, and suddenly didn't mind Conan getting involved in the case.

"As for the second sheet music..."

Conan glanced down at his notebook, then read the sentence aloud, word by word:
“The resentment of karmic fire will be eliminated here.”

The resentment of karmic fire?!
"That...that's the pianist who committed suicide by setting himself on fire twelve years ago..."

Reiko Kuroiwa's voice trembled slightly as she spoke.

The people present were immediately struck dumb, as if by lightning, and Hirata Kazuaki once again showed a look of panic.

"It's...it's Aso Keiji's ghost that's come back for revenge!"

“There are no ghosts at all!” said Long Island.

The veteran police officer, who had spent several nights guarding the village mansion and the castle two years ago, began to speak.

"At that time, people finally found Keiji Aso's teeth in his mansion, and I also stayed in the piano room for several nights."

"The entire house was burned down at the time, and the only thing that was left was a safe containing a sheet of music."

Sheet music again!

Kogoro Mouri jumped up and rushed to Long Island.

"Where is that sheet music?!"

“It’s in the warehouse of the village mansion,” Long Island pointed to a spot not far away, “that’s the room.”

"However, since the room key and the safe key are both on the key chain, and I don't come here often, I left them at the police station at the foot of the mountain."

"Then why don't you hurry up and get it!" Inspector Megure rushed up as well.

"Ah! I'll go right now!"

Seeing the Long Island police officer run out of the village mansion, Conan immediately chased after him, "I'll go with you!"

……

Under the full moon's glow, the bumpy dirt road nearly broke the old police car apart.

Conan, now sitting in the passenger seat, finally had a chance to ask this veteran police officer who had been through so much.

"Did that pianist really set the fire himself?" Nagashima glanced at Akechi (Conan) sitting next to him and replied, "That's what the witnesses said."

"eyewitness?"

Conan's expression changed instantly. He realized the implied meaning of those words, and his voice immediately became urgent.

He pressed further, asking, "Were the witnesses Mr. Kameyama, Mr. Kawashima, Mr. Kuroiwa, and Mr. Nishimoto?!"

Long Island paused for a moment, then nodded: "That's right, so how did you know?"

Conan didn't answer Long Island's question; he simply frowned and continued to press:
"What kind of people are Murasawa Shuichi, Hirata Kazuaki, and Shimizu Masato?"

Long Island thought for a moment, and then answered the question one by one.

“Murasawa Shuichi moved to this island three years ago, and recently got engaged to Kuroiwa Reiko.”

"Shimizu Masato is a very upright person; even his name makes him seem reliable."

He smiled and said, "Aside from being a bit careless in his work, everyone trusts him a lot, otherwise they wouldn't have made him a candidate."

The information Long Island provided made Conan frown even more.

Murasawa Shuichi arrived three years ago, so the timing of his arrival on the island doesn't match up, and he has no reason to harm his father-in-law.

Needless to say, Shimizu Masato proactively revealed a lot of information—even that alone was enough to eliminate much of his suspicion.

After all, the murderer had no reason to tell Uncle Mori these things on his own initiative, let alone bring a detective to the crime scene.

From this perspective, Murasawa Shuichi and Shimizu Masato's motive for committing the crime is very small.

Furthermore, if Dr. Asai's autopsy results indicate that the perpetrator was a man...

Could the murderer be Hirata Kazuaki?
He was not only the first person to discover Kameyama Isamu's death, but his phrase "passing by the village mansion" is also highly questionable.

After all, who would go to a rarely visited sea cliff in the middle of the night, and "just happen to be passing by"?

According to Nagashima, Hirata Kazuaki had been acting suspiciously and was often seen with Kawashima Hideo.

Furthermore, as the village chief's secretary, he also knew about the "Crimson Fire Festival"...

All this information combined makes it seem like the murderer is about to be revealed.

……

Now, sitting in the swivel chair in the police station, Conan watched as Nagashima rummaged through several cabinets, and he lowered his head to think about the ins and outs of the case.

"If it wasn't Ken Nishimoto who did it, then Kazuaki Hirata looks like the murderer."

However, there are still a few key points that don't make sense.

Conan remembers it very clearly.

For the ten minutes or so after Kuroiwa Tatsuji died, Hirata Kazuaki sat motionless in the chair opposite him.

Dr. Chengshi said the deceased had only been dead for a few minutes.

"So the question is, how did he manage to kill Kuroiwa Tatsuji while sitting right in front of me?"

"Ah! Found it!"

Long Island's shouts broke Conan's train of thought, and he pulled the key out of the cabinet as if he had found a treasure.

Conan immediately jumped off the swivel chair. "Then let's hurry up and hand it over to Inspector Megure!"

Regardless, he thought that the last musical score left behind by Keiji Aso must be the key to unlocking the mystery!
However, before they could leave, a series of hurried footsteps came from the door of the police station.

"Conan!" Ran Mouri appeared in the doorway, panting as she called out, "Everyone's already heading down the mountain! The case's solved!"

"What?!" Conan turned around abruptly.

Ran Mouri was the first to run down the mountain to inform Conan.

Perhaps there was even the "influence" of the terrifying forest at night—she ran the whole way in just a few minutes.

She took a few breaths and then told Conan about the final culprit the police had discovered.

"It was Mr. Nishimoto. Mr. Yokoyama heard the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata while searching in the forest."

"Then he saw that Mr. Nishimoto had already hanged himself on the big banyan tree near the cemetery!"

Conan stood there, stunned, his mind going blank.

……

Ken Nishimoto's death was very strange, or rather, it was as if he had been grabbed by something.

As a GSSRA professional, before venturing into the forest alone to conduct a search.

Daisuke Yokoyama then took out various equipment, including infrared, night vision, and miniature sonar, from a hidden compartment in the police car.

Then he discovered that after a whole day of searching, he couldn't find the suspect.

“Nishimoto Ken, fifty-five years old… It’s completely impossible for someone of that age to disappear silently into the entire forest.”

He returned in distress, but just as he was about to give up, he finally discovered an extremely faint trace on the ground.

Daisuke Yokoyama followed the trail and arrived near the dilapidated and ancient cemetery.

After searching for a long time along what he had discovered—the last possible trace left by humans—he was filled with doubt.

Yes, the strange thing is—

The surrounding soil was soft, and in theory anyone would have left a mark by stepping on it, but he found no trace of anyone "leaving".

He had searched the vicinity of the cemetery, but apart from one set of footprints clearly pointing inwards, there were no footprints pointing outwards.

Unless that person can fly, otherwise...

Then, out of instinctive alertness, Daisuke Yokoyama raised his head warily and looked in the cold moonlight.

He saw it among those silent, lifeless branches, atop that towering banyan tree.

"That...that is—!"

That scene even gave this well-trained special forces soldier a fright.

On the thickest branch of the banyan tree that almost completely enveloped the cemetery, the figure hung high among the treetops, swaying gently in the night breeze.

His direction was directly towards the distant beach, facing the lighthouse that appeared in the night sky.

Even in Daisuke Yokoyama's eyes, that person was like someone hanging at the top of that lighthouse.

Almost at the same time he discovered the body.

The cemetery seemed to echo with the roars and cries of countless dead defying their fate.

Even Daisuke Yokoyama himself felt as if he were being strangled by a soul filled with anger and resentment.

That was a stormy finale.

The third and final movement of the Moonlight Sonata is the "Presto".

……

However, for Conan now, the moment he heard the news of Ken Nishimoto's death, alarm bells went off in his mind.

Something is wrong!
He immediately grabbed Ran Mouri and the Long Island police officer and drove back to the village mansion on the sea cliff as fast as he could.

The suspects who were standing in the lobby of the village mansion had all left, leaving only a few police officers moving things around.

The lights in the interrogation room were still on, and Inspector Megure was pulling Kogoro Mouri along to organize the last of the documents.

"Inspector Megure, how could Ken Nishimoto commit suicide?!"

Faced with Conan's eager question, Inspector Megure looked up and waved a stack of sheet music in his hand.

"Ah! That's right, he explained it all in the score."

Now that Conan has found the pattern, translating those sheet music pieces becomes very simple.

"He said his motive was to cover up their past crimes, and that he knew he would eventually be identified, so he committed suicide out of fear of punishment."

"Perhaps they were using the sheet music as a code to plot something."

Kogoro Mouri, who was standing to the side, nodded as well—he still remembered the Red Fire Festival!

However, because of his promise to Masato Shimizu, he didn't tell Inspector Megure about it, but just muttered to himself:
"I think it must have been a dispute over how to divide the treasure of the Crimson Fire Festival back then."

This reminded him of the things that happened between Akimoto Kazuta and Ooi Kento.

He shook his head, sighing inwardly, "Greed..."

The sheet music is the best evidence.

Faced with overwhelming evidence, Conan even wondered for a moment if he had made a mistake.

He was about to lean closer to see the specific contents of the sheet music.

A familiar scream came from the piano room.

"Ah!" — It's Xiaolan.

When everyone arrived at the piano room, they found Murasawa Shuichi lying quietly on the floor next to the piano.

Behind him was a broken window.

Upon seeing the person collapsed in the piano room, Inspector Megure immediately called out to the officers standing nearby.

"Quickly call Dr. Chengshi here! And all the other suspects, they shouldn't have gone far!"

Conan immediately looked at Officer Nagashima: "Uncle Nagashima, could you please bring over Keiji Aso's sheet music right away?"

He should have trusted his gut feeling!
Ken Nishimoto was definitely not the murderer!
……

Then, everyone looked at each other blankly as they stared at the unconscious Murasawa Shuichi.

"He's just unconscious."

While bandaging his head, Dr. Chengshi calmly said, "The assailant hit his head; it's likely a mild concussion."

Dr. Chengshi's tone carried a hint of reproach, making everyone present feel ashamed.

Even Kuroiwa Reiko, who was sobbing, froze mid-sob.

They all thought just now—

Murasawa Shuichi was the killer's next target, presumably already dead.

So much so that, in order to prevent Dr. Narumi from disturbing the scene before he arrived, they left Murasawa Shuichi there unattended.

They all thought that Murasawa Shuichi was the killer's next target, and that he was already dead!

"However, since Mr. Murasawa is not dead..."

Kogoro Mouri stroked his beard. "Then we just need to wait for him to wake up to find out the truth."

Conan's eyes narrowed.

His gaze had fallen on the oddly shaped metal tool in Murasawa's pocket, which looked like a tuning hammer.

He turned to Ran Mouri: "Ran-neechan, what did you see at that time?"

Ran Mouri thought about it carefully.

"I heard some noise in the piano room. When I opened the door, I saw a dark figure break through the window and run out."

"And then—"

Ran Mouri suddenly pointed to the piano, "It seems like Murasawa was squatting there when he collapsed."

"Squatting there?"

Conan crawled under the piano in full view of everyone, and they saw him start groping for something.

"Huh? This is it?"

With a gentle upward push, a small hidden compartment was opened.

Upon seeing this result, Kogoro Mouri's expression turned serious.

"In other words, the murderer did indeed come back and take something."

As for Conan, he stared blankly at the snow-white powder that spilled onto the floor as the hidden door opened.

"The Crimson Fire Festival happened a long time ago, and nobody remembers it anymore..."

Masato Shimizu's words echoed in Conan's mind, one by one.

The treasure of the Red Fire Festival, the port that no one is allowed to approach, the location of Keiji Aso's mansion, the haunted piano...

There's no mistake!

Everything is connected now!
Conan already knows what the so-called "treasure of the Red Fire Festival" refers to.

The "Crimson Fire Festival" was indeed just a facade!
He even glanced at Hirata Kazuaki, who had just been called back by the police officers and rushed into the piano room—and his right hand, which had just been bandaged.

There's no mistake, it's that person!

Just as Conan was about to reveal the mastermind he had deduced,

Long Island police officers appeared at the door without anyone noticing.

He waved a file folder at Conan, "Conan-kun, here's the sheet music you wanted."

Great, we have the real evidence!
Conan ran over, took the stack of sheet music, and unfolded it. Then, his pupils immediately dilated.

"For my son, Chengshi..."

Wait, Keiji Aso has another son?!

"Uncle Nagashima, Keiji Aso committed suicide with his wife and daughter, right?"

"Ah! That's right! Keiji Aso also has a son, and the Aso House that was burned down was rebuilt by him later with his own money."

"But it seems he was hospitalized in Tokyo at that time, and his name was something like—"

And his name is Asagi Minami.

(End of this chapter)