Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

In the living room, the huge fireplace was burning, crackling and popping, but it couldn't dispel the chill in the air.

Kogoro Mouri was currently enjoying the treatment of being the center of attention.

Tonight's audience consists of two female writers, Sakurai and Hashimoto.

Their questions still revolve around those perplexing cases.

Kogoro, as always, skillfully employed his unfathomable art of deception.

"That case... the key is actually in the power dynamics." Kogoro picked up his glass of red wine and took a small sip.

“Some powers, once mobilized, go beyond simply solving cases.”

The two female writers exchanged a glance, their eyes reflecting the same reverence as Takeda and Matsumura.

Their compliments were like free gifts, making Kogoro feel incredibly flattered.

The vanity derived from being worshipped by women is clearly more subtle and intoxicating than the flattery from men.

Kogoro squinted, thoroughly enjoying the feeling of being looked up to.

You can make money and be praised by others at the same time. Where else can you find such a good deal?

"Alright, let's have dinner first, and we can talk after dinner."

A slightly deep voice broke the beautiful atmosphere.

It was Takahashi who spoke.

Kogoro smacked his lips, still wanting more, thinking that he needed to be full to have the energy to persuade others, so he readily agreed.

The group sat around a long dining table, where the butler, Miki, was methodically setting out the silver cutlery.

The sound of the knife and fork striking the porcelain plate was very crisp.

"Why haven't Matsumura and Takeda arrived yet?" Takahashi looked around, his brows furrowed, and his tone carried a hint of displeasure.

"I'm coming!"

A loud response came from the corridor on the second floor.

He leaned halfway out, looked downstairs, and said, "I'll be right there."

"Hurry up, Takeda, or we'll eat yours too!" Takahashi shouted, looking up and forcing a smile.

"I'm coming right now."

Takeda responded and turned around as if to call Matsumura.

However, just a few seconds later, a sharp scream suddenly came from the second floor.

"Huh? Who are you?!"

This shout made everyone downstairs stop what they were doing.

Everyone looked up in unison, their gazes focusing on the railing on the second floor.

Takahashi shouted upwards, "What happened? Takeda!"

“Window…window…” Takeda’s voice trembled violently as he pointed his finger intently at the glass window at the end of the corridor.

"There seems to be something next to the first-floor window!"

what?
"What's that?" Takahashi tried to remain calm and followed his gaze to the window.

Outside, there was nothing but howling wind and snow and a few dim, swaying courtyard lights.

"There it is!" Takeda screamed hysterically. "It moved!"

As soon as he shouted, the thing that had been hidden in the shadow of the curtains really moved.

A person completely covered in black cloth flew past the window.

Only his face was visible, and it was bandaged.

He was holding a bag in his arms, and Matsumura was inside the bag, with only his head sticking out.

"what!!!"

Screams erupted instantly.

The restaurant instantly descended into chaos.

Takahashi rushed to the window, opened it, and leaned out. Outside, there was only howling wind and endless darkness.

“It’s so dark, we don’t know where they’ve gone.” Takahashi turned around and said, his face pale.

"hateful!"

Without any hesitation, a small figure leaped out of the window and rushed out.

Conan doesn't care about all that nonsense.

It's important to save people.

"Hey! Conan! It's too dangerous!" Ran shouted anxiously from behind.

“Let’s go out and look for him with that kid. The lady can stay in the villa.” Takahashi wiped his face, forcing himself to calm down.

He called to the men to grab their flashlights, and they rushed into the forest outside the villa.

In the forest, the group shone their flashlights, the beams of light flickering wildly through the dark woods, but they found nothing.

"it's here!"

Takeda's voice was choked with sobs.

The black canvas bag was discarded under an old pine tree.

The crowd gathered around, and the beams of their flashlights focused on the bag.

The contents of the bag had stopped moving.

With trembling hands, Takahashi untied the rope at the top of the bag.

Matsumura's body lay stiffly on the snow.

But inside there was only... the torso of a corpse.

There were no signs of a struggle at the scene, only a few drops of blood.

As Takeda looked at the neatly dissected torso, his stomach churned, and he couldn't help but gag.

Everyone felt a chill run from the soles of their feet straight to the top of their heads.

This was a brutal murder.

He was dismembered.

The group then discovered Matsumura's other parts around the area, including his head.

Not daring to linger in the forest, the group stumbled back to the villa.

The fireplace was still burning in the living room.

Looking at the women who had gathered around him, Takahashi spoke with difficulty, his voice hoarse:

"Matsumura... was killed. He was already dead when we arrived."

"what!!!"

There was another scream.

Sakurai was so frightened that he hid behind Ran, trembling all over.

At this moment, Ishibashi curled his lip and said indifferently, "What's the big deal? It's just someone who died."

Looking at the composed Ishibashi, Sakurai asked fearfully, "That bandaged monster killed Matsumura, who knows if he'll come back to kill us?"

"Just keep the doors and windows closed," Ishibashi said nonchalantly.
"It's all because Matsumura likes to wander around outside. If he had just stayed in the villa, he wouldn't have been killed by that weirdo."

Conan kept his eyes fixed on the stone bridge.

This person's reaction is very abnormal.

Faced with the tragic death of his companion, he showed not the slightest fear, but rather as if he were commenting on a trivial matter.

This indifference is even more terrifying than that bandaged monster.

"This is all we can do now." Takahashi sighed, his face deathly pale.

"It's so late now, everyone should close the doors and windows and get some rest. We'll head down the mountain first thing tomorrow morning."

"Yes, call the police! We must call the police!" Takeda stammered as he took out his phone.

"This kind of psychopathic killer must be caught by the police!"

However, his hands were trembling so badly that he couldn't press the buttons accurately.

Finally, the phone slipped from my hand and fell to the ground.

Takahashi reluctantly took out his phone, preparing to dial the police.

When something like this happens, calling the police is the obvious course of action.

He swiped his finger across the screen and found the emergency number.

However, just as he was about to press the "call" button, Takahashi's finger froze.

Whose villa is this?
It belongs to Mr. Zhengyi.

The murder will definitely bring a bad reputation to the villa and may even have some negative impact on Mr. Zhengyi.

What if... Mr. Zhengyi wants to keep this a secret?
After all, for a big shot like Shoichi, this little matter could probably be resolved with just a phone call, without needing to involve the police. "What's wrong?" Conan keenly noticed Takahashi's unusual behavior and asked curiously, "Mr. Takahashi, have you forgotten how to call the police?"

"Cough cough!" Takahashi seemed to have been burned, abruptly pulled back his phone, and coughed twice to cover up his panic.

"For something as important as calling the police, it would be better to call Mr. Zhengyi first to report it."

"After all, this is Mr. Zhengyi's villa. With such a big incident, we have to follow his instructions."

……

Zheng Yi was nestled in the large leather sofa, his legs casually crossed, holding a manuscript in his hands.

This is the first draft of "Shoichi's Autobiography" written by Ai.

As he watched, he couldn't help but pick at his ear.

It was as if they wanted to physically erase those outrageous words from the auditory nerve.

Ai sat upright on the single sofa opposite.

His face remained expressionless as always, but his large eyes were fixed on Zheng Yi.

"Ai Haibara, let me make it clear to you that you are writing my autobiography, not some guy with the surname Haibara."

Shoichi's tone was stern, and he called Ai by her full name.

Upon hearing this, Ai wrinkled her nose slightly and let out a very soft snort.

She had no idea who had the surname Haibara, but she knew someone named Miyano.

That person is being scolded by Zheng Yi.

Masakazu felt that Ai was also a narcissistic person.

She only used one sentence to briefly describe my appearance?
This sentence even included his education and family background.

"You haven't described my appearance at all!"

Zheng Yi stared at Xiao Ai.

At the very least, they should write down exactly how handsome I am, right?

"Word count is limited, so we need to be concise. Besides, your physical description will appear multiple times in the later plot, so there's no need to waste words on it at the beginning."

Ai said it in a very serious tone.

It sounds plausible.

"Excuse!"

Zheng Yi turned to a few pages later and pointed to an illustration with accompanying text, which was Ai's own description of her first appearance.

That page was densely covered with ornate language, taking up half the page!
She even included a picture!

This discrimination is so blatant that even Zheng Yi can't tolerate it.

This is my autobiography!

"Look at yourself! Look at how you describe yourself!"

"Half a page! A whole half a page! Ai Haibara, why didn't you just put your headshot on it?"

Ai's ears hurt from his noise. She frowned impatiently and muttered under her breath:

I have my reasons.

"Your reasoning is useless; I'm the main character." Zheng Yi banged on the table, making a "bang bang" sound.

Ai pouted, but for the sake of the money, she forgave Masakazu for yelling at her.

Only when he saw that she had become a little more obedient did he continue flipping through the pages.

"Look, much of what you've written is wrong! It's seriously inaccurate!" Zheng Yi pointed to one section:
"Here! What do you mean Mr. Shoichi used Ai Haibara to coerce Akemi Miyano into working for him?"

"Did I?"

Ai rolled her eyes.

There's none?
"Ahem." Zheng Yi coughed and said, "At least I wasn't so blatant in my threats. You need to change that."

Ai looked at Masakazu with disdain.

Zheng Yi pretended not to see it.

He then pointed to the next paragraph and said, "This is not right either. What does it mean that Mr. Shoichi has extremely bad tastes, that he likes to deceive Ai Haibara, threaten her, and even force her to sleep with him?"

Zheng Yi doesn't remember this part.

He doesn't remember using force.

Ai said, "Back then, I thought you were one of the organization, and that's when I played the Three Kingdoms role-playing game with you."

“That was your own choice,” Zheng Yi said.

It was clearly you who ran into my bedroom late at night, and when I asked you a question, you were trembling with fear.

I asked you if you wanted to sleep with me, and you nodded.

"Isn't that because you kept it from me back then?" Ai asked, dissatisfied.

"You knew I was part of the organization back then, and you know I'm part of the organization now, so what have I been hiding from you?"

Zheng Yi pouted and said, "Why aren't you afraid of me anymore? You don't want a hug anymore?"

This little devil wrote so many bad things about himself.

Zheng closed the manuscript.

"Delete all that nonsense! Rewrite it!"

Ai placed her hands on Shoichi's thighs and stared intently at him.

She wrote all of that while staying up all night!

"Trying to be cute won't work."

Ai: ?
When did I act cute?

Zheng Yi rubbed Ai's head, and the phone on the table suddenly started vibrating.

He pulled Ai aside and picked up his phone.

"Hello? Okay, I understand. Call the police. I'll go there tomorrow during the day," Zheng Yi said.

After hanging up the phone, Masayu winked at Ai.

"what happened?"

"You've lost one competitor."

"Huh?" Ai looked at Masakazu in surprise.

With such a large prize, it's surprising that someone would be willing to leave.

Even if we lose the competition, we'll still get tens of millions of yen.

"gone?"

“He’s dead,” Zheng Yi said.

In the first round of elimination, one person has already been eliminated.

No, it's two.

The murderer is inside the villa, and another person is about to be arrested.

Zheng Yi muttered to himself in a low voice, "Am I being too hasty? A week has passed, and I probably haven't written much yet?"

They should have closed the circle later.

Ai Haibara heard Shoichi's mutterings and her eyes widened.

"Did you kill him?" she asked.

“I’ve been at home the whole time, I don’t have time to kill anyone,” Zheng Yi said.

……

In the mountain villa, after speaking with Shoichi on the phone, Takahashi addressed the group:

"Zhengyi has given permission for everyone to call the police."

The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere instantly became strange.

Kogoro said with dissatisfaction, "It's only natural to call the police when someone dies, so why should Shoichi be allowed to do so?"

"Does Zheng Yi still intend to keep this a secret?"

The other writers stared blankly at Kogoro's face, as if trying to glean something from it.

But his performance was so realistic, it seemed like he was genuinely dissatisfied.

Ran held Kogoro's hand and said:
“Dad, Mr. Takahashi was just asking politely; he didn’t necessarily need Masakazu’s permission.”

Conan also grabbed Kogoro's arm and said, "Ran is right."

And didn't Brother Zheng agree to call the police?
Takahashi dialed the police emergency number.

You and your daughter are even singing in unison.

"Hello, officer..." (End of Chapter)