Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

Chapter 346 A man who likes his older sister
The izakaya where Yuto Ogasawara works is not far from his rented apartment.

Following the address provided by the apartment manager, Lin Xiuyi and the others quickly arrived at the izakaya.

It was not yet 10 a.m., and the izakaya's door was tightly closed. Lin Xiuyi's gaze swept across the window, which was dark inside, with only the outlines of a few tables and chairs vaguely visible.

Officer Matsumoto frowned, turned to the officers behind him and instructed, "Go to the nearest police station and have them call the owner of the izakaya."

A short while later, a young patrolman arrived in a hurry with a middle-aged man.

The shop owner, Mr. Kitagawa, was around fifty years old, slightly overweight, and had messy hair; he had obviously been suddenly woken up.

He had two obvious dark circles under his eyes, and his face was full of reluctance.

"Why are you inspecting my shop?" Mr. Kitagawa rubbed his sleepy eyes. "Nothing's wrong with my izakaya; it's still closed for the day."

Officer Matsumoto's face immediately darkened. He stepped forward, his tall figure casting a shadow over Mr. Kitagawa: "Stop talking nonsense and open the door!"

Startled, Kitagawa swallowed hard, fumbled for the izakaya key, and opened the door.

Lin Xiuyi went in first. The interior of the izakaya was dimly lit, with only a small area illuminated by sunlight coming in from the doorway.

"Do you have a freezer in the store? Where is it?" Lin Xiuyi's voice echoed in the empty izakaya.

The owner, Kitagawa, pointed towards the kitchen counter: "It's in the back."

He paused, seemingly changing his mind.

"Never mind, I'll take you there myself, so you don't break my things."

Led by him, the group walked through several tables and chairs to the area behind the cooking station.

It was even darker here than before, and the air was filled with the smell of raw meat and seafood.

A large commercial freezer stood quietly in the corner, its surface covered with a thin layer of white frost.

Lin Xiuyi walked to the freezer and reached out to pull open the heavy cabinet door.

The freezer was lit by a dim yellow light, illuminating the various meats neatly arranged inside: beef, pork, and chicken, all packaged in transparent plastic bags with labels attached.

"It's so full?" Lin Xiuyi asked casually, his eyes carefully searching the inside of the freezer.

Boss Kitagawa rubbed his hands together and said with a hint of pride, "Business has been good lately, so yesterday I followed Ogasawara's advice and bought a lot more meat."

Lin Xiuyi did not respond, but instead began taking bags of meat out of the freezer.

In no time, a "mountain of meat" was piled up on the cooking counter next to it.

"Hey, what are you doing?"

Boss Kitagawa could no longer contain himself; the fat on his face trembled with excitement.
"If this meat thaws and isn't used immediately, it will spoil very easily!"

He stepped forward, trying to stop Lin Xiuyi.

Officer Matsumoto quickly grabbed his arm: "It's only been a few minutes, how could it possibly be broken?"

Under the angry gaze of the Kitagawa boss, Lin Xiuyi continued his work.

When most of the meat in the freezer had been moved out, he suddenly stopped and his body stiffened for a moment.

Then, Lin Xiuyi said in an unusually serious tone, "Eri, take Reiko out!"

Hearing the serious tone, Eri, who was standing nearby, immediately understood what was going on. Although she was also incredibly curious, out of absolute trust in her childhood friend, she immediately took Reiko's hand and said, "Let's go outside and wait."

"Why?" Reiko protested, pouting. "I want to see too!"

"Listen to me!" Lin Xiuyi's voice became unusually stern.

Reiko pouted and was reluctantly pulled out by Eri Kisaki.

"Mr. Lin, have you discovered something?" Officer Matsumoto asked impatiently.

"It's just a freezer, what could you possibly find?" Mr. Kitagawa muttered resentfully. "At most, some meat might have gone bad."

However, the next moment, when Lin Xiuyi took a glass jar out from the depths of the freezer, Boss Kitagawa's words came to an abrupt halt.

His eyes were wide open and his mouth was agape, but he couldn't make a sound.

"What...what is this?!"

After a long while, Boss Kitagawa finally let out a scream, his face turning deathly pale.

His legs went limp like noodles, and he collapsed to his knees with a thud, his hands bracing himself on the floor, his whole body trembling violently.

The young officers who were with Officer Matsumoto also changed their expressions drastically.

One of them suddenly covered his mouth, turned around and rushed out of the izakaya;

The other one clung tightly to his companion, his fingernails digging into the other's flesh;
Another one had a livid face and beads of sweat on his forehead, but he stubbornly refused to collapse.

"Another head?"

Officer Matsumoto swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing as he recalled the photograph he'd seen at the Ogasawara residence.

"Is she Mari Ogasawara?"

Indeed, the glass jar that Lin Xiuyi took out from deep inside the freezer was filled with a clear formalin solution.

In the solution, a complete female head floats silently.

Her long hair swayed gently like seaweed, her face was serene, and there was even a faint smile on her lips, which was in stark contrast to the disfigured head that had been found in the convenience store earlier.

Lin Xiuyi carefully placed the glass jar on the counter, then leaned closer to examine the head's face and severed neck.
“It is indeed Mari Ogasawara, and the neck of this head is longer than the one we found in the convenience store, so it can be attached to the body we found on the riverbank.”

"So it really was Ogasawara Yuto who killed his sister?" Inspector Matsumoto's voice was tense. "But what's the reason? They should have had a very good relationship, shouldn't they?"

Lin Xiuyi sighed, his gaze falling on the faint handprint visible on the neck below the head: "It must be a love triangle. The Ogasawara siblings' parents died early, and for many years they were left to depend on each other. Ogasawara Yuuto gradually developed extraordinary feelings for his sister."

"But for Mari Ogasawara, such feelings were something she could never accept."

"Before she found a boyfriend, Yuto Ogasawara could suppress his feelings. But after Mari Ogasawara became President Okawa's mistress and often played those kinds of sex games with him, Yuto Ogasawara gradually lost control."

"A week ago, upon learning that his older sister was going to Kyoto with President Okawa for some alone time, Yuto Ogasawara, filled with jealousy and resentment..."

Lin Xiuyi pointed to the handprint on her neck.

"...then he strangled his sister to death. Judging from the expression on Ogasawara Mari's face, she did not hate her brother in her last moments before she died."

(End of this chapter)