Daily Spy Life in the Detective Conan World

Chapter 235 Childhood Trauma - Clock Villa

Although she was still young, she understood some things about love and romance; she had just wanted to tease her father and Aunt Joel.

After all, because of her father, her academic pressure has increased considerably recently, so she has to fight back no matter what.

anyway.

Today, while Ai Haibara was at Professor Agasa's house "playing games" again, she was finally able to rest for a while.

He went to Conan's house intending to play with him, but when he heard that Kogoro Mouri had taken on a request, he immediately became interested.

Upon learning that the commission was for an old villa in a forest, her interest grew even stronger!

Anya loved this kind of detective reasoning game the most, and she pulled at Kogoro Mouri's trouser leg, asking him to join in.

On television, terrifying things usually happen in places like this.

This is so much fun!
Kogoro Mouri had originally planned to invite Natsukawa to come along.

Natsukawa is his lucky star; Kogoro Mouri quite likes him.

Especially during the Dark Star incident.

If Natsukawa hadn't told the reporter that Conan was able to find the Dark Star thanks to his uncle, a famous detective, he wouldn't have been able to make the news.

Therefore, Kogoro Mouri believes that Natsukawa is likely his lucky charm, just like Conan.

Moreover, he had a premonition that this client would likely be a young woman or a wife. hihihihi——

This makes it very necessary to bring Xia Chuan along; he's definitely a great straight man, always boasting about himself.

Plus, he already has a girlfriend, so she's practically the perfect wingman.

"You mean, Mr. Mori invited us to help solve a case?" Joel asked curiously.

"Uh-huh."

“…” Xia Chuan pondered for two seconds. Although he still didn’t know what kind of case it was, he knew it was definitely not a good thing.

However, Anya's hopeful gaze still won him over.

Well, I'm just idling at home anyway, so it's nice to join in the fun.

Anya has been quite busy with schoolwork lately, so this is just something to do after class.

But this time, I must make sure Joel keeps a close eye on Anya and doesn't let her run around!

This elementary school student is no better than Conan; if you don't keep a close eye on him, he'll run off.

Now he finally understands how Kogoro Mouri and Ran feel.

Ten o'clock in the morning.

The Mercedes and GTR drove away from Beika Town one after the other.

By the way, Uncle Mori's car is pretty resilient; it hasn't exploded yet even now.

Natsukawa was quite emotional, perhaps because the story had just begun and most of the cases were taking place in downtown Tokyo.

After that, things might change. As Kogoro Mouri's reputation spreads throughout Japan, he'll receive more and more cases outside of Tokyo, and the rate of cars being scrapped will increase significantly.

Now, Xia Chuan had his doubts.

The Hiromoto Group might not even last until it's swallowed up by the sake brewery; it might be bankrupted by the maintenance costs of Kogoro Mouri's Mercedes.

After all, the story has gone through more than a thousand episodes, and Kogoro Mouri has damaged at least eighty or a hundred cars.

Based on the repair costs of this Mercedes, it's not impossible that the entire profit of the Hiramoto Group this year could be used to cover them.

Natsue Hiromoto had made a bold statement that if anything went wrong with this car, the Hiromoto Group would take full responsibility.

The narrow, winding road, with its rugged terrain, was punctuated by birdsong, which added a touch of color to the otherwise monotonous driving experience.

The destination this time was a forested area on the outskirts of Tokyo.

Upon learning that the client was a mystery novelist, Xia Chuan felt relieved.

The creators of Neon are all eccentric, or perhaps Aoyama is an eccentric one; these strange villas are everywhere in the Conan world.

He recalled another oddball who would dress up as a vampire at home, sleep in a coffin every night, and didn't even know his wife had run off with someone else.

After a bumpy ride, the group finally arrived at the old villa where their client was located before noon.

Before setting off, Xia Chuan already knew the background and consequences of this commission.

This villa is an inheritance that the client, Nakamura Misao, received from his grandfather.

She had only been staying there for a few days, and apparently, after a few days, she couldn't even find a kitchen.

It's a miracle that someone like that can be a mystery novelist. With that kind of memory, he probably forgets everything he wrote before, let alone fill in the plot holes.

Furthermore, given that I've never even heard of the name Nakamura Misao, you can imagine that he's a flop novelist.

A few days after moving in, he seemed to discover something was wrong and realized that his villa might be being watched.

As a mystery novelist, he did not choose to call the police, but instead invited the rising star Kogoro Mouri to come and help him.

While finding the reason, he also hoped to gain writing inspiration from Kogoro Mouri through this contact.

Natsukawa felt that the other party might be disappointed in this regard, after all, he knew Kogoro Mouri all too well. If Nakamura Misao were to use him as a model or inspiration for his writing, then he would probably only become more and more of a flop.

"What a beautiful forest."

Joel smoothed a strand of hair from his temple and looked at the forest trees, the chirping of insects, and the calls of birds, and couldn't help but sigh.

After dealing with a bunch of rookie apprentices every day at the Metropolitan Police Department, he finally had a chance to get out and breathe some fresh air.

Xiaolan angrily closed the car door and glared at her father.

Without a doubt, Kogoro Mouri expressed a strong desire for his client from the very beginning, a desire that she be a woman.

Therefore, she was dreaming about going on a date with him the whole way, and Xiaolan must be angry about this.

Because she was overthinking, the car even swayed from side to side. Xiaolan's ability to hold back from vomiting was already quite impressive, so how could she possibly give her a pleasant look?

Conan, sitting in the back, wasn't so lucky. After getting out of the car, he immediately ran to a tree and started gagging.

If I hadn't eaten a light breakfast, I probably would have thrown up everything by now.

The back seat shook violently, especially since Conan hadn't had time to fasten his seatbelt. He was like a bouncy ball, rolling and bouncing around.

"Are you OK?"

Anya walked up to Conan and pinched her nose to smell him.

Could it be that Uncle Mori discovered Conan was the one who gave him the tranquilizer injection? Otherwise, things wouldn't have come to this.
"It's nothing, just vomiting—"

I dry heaved at the door for almost five minutes before I could recover after gulping down a bottle of mineral water.

"useless!"

Kogoro Mouri muttered something under his breath with deadpan eyes, then put his hands in his pockets and walked towards the old-fashioned villa in front of him.

The villa has a rather unique overall style, but it also has some eye-catching features.

This is Teiji Moriya's favorite symmetrical building, which is somewhat different from the Suzuki family's villa.

There is a row of stairs at the entrance, and there is an entryway at the top of the stairs, which is slightly different from traditional neon villas.

The odd style of the wooden stair railings and the two lion head doorknobs on the front door seem out of place with this villa.

It has a patchwork style feel.

Even someone like Xia Chuan, who has done missions all over the world, couldn't figure out the style. Although he couldn't identify the style, Xia Chuan immediately recognized the case that had occurred at this villa!
This is definitely a case that would traumatize anyone in their childhood.

Although the shadows appeared for less than ten seconds in total, they are still unforgettable!
What impressed me most was that there was a hole in the wooden door on the second floor of the villa. In the original story, Conan looked through the hole and saw a pair of eyes looking out as well.

This scene would have been incredibly shocking for him when he was a child, which is why he remembers it so vividly.

That's right, it's the villa incident involving the robbery gang!
The eye in the hole on the second floor is Nakamura Misao, the client who was kidnapped.

His gaze lingered for a moment on the lion-head doorknob and the openwork pillars on the stair railing. He reached his finger inside the openwork pillars and pried at them, discovering a piece of glass and confirming his guess.

"Uh"

Xia Chuan paused, then withdrew his hand with a strange expression.

Looking at the small lens in his hand, he was somewhat taken aback.

I rely on!

It fell down.

Just as he was about to put it back, Conan came up and pushed Natsukawa aside.

Xia Chuan was in a daze when he was suddenly jostled, and the glasses in his hand fell to the ground, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

"."

He glanced down at Conan and shook his head inwardly, thinking, "This is your own doing."

He didn't have the time to pick up the lens.

Conan also noticed something strange and went over to examine the two handrail pillars.

"Conan, what's wrong?" Ran had been watching Conan closely because she was worried about him. She noticed that Conan was staring intently at the pillar and asked him curiously.

"Sister Xiaolan, don't you find it strange? Why is there a tiger statue on the left handrail pillar, but not on the right one? The solid wood pillar also has two holes carved into it."

Conan's curiosity is unquestionable. After confirming that she wasn't feeling unwell, Ran breathed a sigh of relief: "It's probably just that it's been neglected for years. Didn't I go through that belief when I came here?"
This was an inheritance left to Mr. Nakamura Misao by his grandfather; it's normal for it to turn out like this over time. Especially since this is a forest, it's possible that some animal or something damaged it.

After saying that, she glanced at her father.

Kogoro Mouri pursed his lips and muttered under his breath, "How could it be a man? This Nakamura Misao must be a young and beautiful woman, probably in her twenties, or at most thirty."

It's so impolite to determine gender by name; it doesn't resemble me at all."

The father and daughter bickered a few more times about the matter, and finally Xia Chuan couldn't stand it anymore, so he went up and knocked on the door.

The door opened immediately after the knock, as if the person inside had been standing behind it waiting.

In fact it is.

Xia Chuan had noticed the footsteps long ago; the other person must have been standing behind the door waiting not long after they parked.

"Hello, may I ask who you are?"

A short, stout middle-aged man with a large belly asked from behind the door.

"Hahaha, that's me."

0.0
Kogoro Mouri's initial enthusiasm for expressing himself vanished instantly. He stared wide-eyed at the middle-aged man in front of him, stammering "Aba aba" for a long time before finally being speechless.

Where is Ms. Nakamura Misao?

His gaze drifted behind the short, stout middle-aged man, anticipating the appearance of the genuine Nakamura Misao.

However, the result was not ideal; there was no one behind the short, stout middle-aged man.

"See, I told you Nakamura Misao is a gentleman."

Ran was clearly disgusted by her father's disgraceful behavior, and at this moment she added insult to injury: "But having dinner with Mr. Nakamura should be quite nice, right, Dad?"

"hateful!"

Kogoro Mouri's interest waned considerably. He shrugged and nodded at the other person as a greeting.

"You mean Xiao Cao? He's not some middle-aged, greasy uncle like me."

The short, stout middle-aged man stroked his mustache and called out to the inside with a smile.

Soon, a tall, thin man walked out. He looked to be in his early thirties, not young, but much younger than the short, stout middle-aged man.

At least it met Kogoro Mouri's expectation that the other party was in his early thirties.

It's obvious that he is Nakamura Misao.

"Ah, you must be Mr. Kogoro Mouri, right? Seeing is believing, you are even more energetic and handsome in person than in the newspaper photos!" Nakamura praised Mouri.

This hit Kogoro Mouri's sore spot, and he smiled slightly: "Ahahaha, not at all, I'm really sorry, it seems we have a bit too many people."

"It's alright, it's more fun with more people. Since he's Mr. Mori's friend, he should be able to help."

Kogoro Mouri hadn't changed his habit of getting cocky when praised. He smiled broadly and shook hands with the short, stout middle-aged man. Just as he was about to shake hands with Misao Nakamura, he noticed that the other man's right hand was wrapped in bandages.

The group chatted for a few more minutes about the arms and introduced themselves to each other.

The short, stout middle-aged man was named Nakamura Masaru, and he was Nakamura Misao's cousin.

“That hand doesn’t look like it’s been injured and is in a cast,” Joel and Natsukawa said from behind.

Xia Chuan nodded. If the plaster cast looked like this, that doctor should retire.

"Let's see what's going on first."

The Nakamura brothers warmly welcomed Natsukawa and his party into the living room.

Upon entering the living room, everyone's eyes widened at the sight of the dazzling array of clocks.

This scene was quite spectacular.

It's more like a clock exhibition hall than a villa.

Even Tokyo's watch exhibition halls don't have as many as this.

Although Xia Chuan had watched anime, there was still a certain gap between anime and reality.

"These are all from my grandfather's collection. To be honest, I was quite surprised when I first saw these clocks."

That's understandable, though. My maternal grandfather, Chu Yuanwen Shilang, was a renowned watchmaker; his passion began with a love of watches, and he dedicated his life to them.

The middle-aged man was clearly more talkative than Nakamura Misao, the "owner," and gave a brief introduction to the original owner of the villa.

Nakamura Misao then went to the kitchen to prepare tea for the group.

“Strange, the letter said he stayed in the villa for several days and couldn’t even find the kitchen, but now it seems that’s not the case.”

Conan accurately noticed the discrepancy between the information on the envelope and the actual situation, and felt something was amiss.

"What's wrong with that? This letter was sent to Uncle Mori's house yesterday. Including the delivery time, it's been three days now. Isn't it normal for him to know where the kitchen is?"

Although Anya knew that the playground brothers had a problem, wasn't Conan's suspicion a little too strange?

A normal person should be able to figure out the layout and purpose of a villa just by walking around it once, right?
“That’s true.” Conan nodded, not because he listened to Anya, but mainly because he didn’t want to argue with her.

"By the way, is the strange thing you mentioned in your letter about these clocks?"

Kogoro Mouri pointed to the clocks filling the room, and said, "If there are any questions, these are the ones."

As he spoke, he picked up a digital clock to examine it and found a vertical scratch in the middle of the minutes.

(Ask for monthly ticket)

(End of this chapter)