The Daily Life of a Salted Fish Assassin in Anime Crossovers

As a potential target of the perpetrator in this case, and given that the other party is also a suspect in this case, even if that congressman hates the police, he will probably have to go and be questioned by the police.

They had thought that the name Goji Sotaro was already quite prestigious, but they were surprised to find that the driving school training class from 20 years ago was full of hidden talents. Soon, another name came out of Okazaki Sumie's mouth that moved everyone in the car.

"Numabuchi Kiichiro?"

Jiang Hang had never heard of this name before, but judging from the astonished expressions on the faces of Hattori Heiji, Officer Sakata, and even Miyano Shiho beside him, this Numabuchi Kiichiro was actually more important than Goji Sotaro.

Jiang Hang soon learned about Numabuchi Kiichiro's situation from Hattori Heiji.

In a sense, this Kiichiro Numabuchi is indeed quite famous within the police department.

He has committed assaults and even murders in Osaka, Gunma and other places. Although he disappeared for a few years, he recently reappeared and killed three innocent passersby. He is still being hunted down by the police with a reward.

“If I remember correctly, that Numabuchi Kiichiro committed a robbery in Kyoto a while ago and then disappeared again. According to internal police intelligence, it is believed that he has fled back to Osaka, right?” Hattori Heiji checked with Officer Sakata, who was driving.

Officer Sakata nodded: "Yes, that is the case. We also received calls from concerned citizens in our Higashijiri Precinct who said they saw someone resembling Numabuchi. Our police station launched a manhunt for him a while ago, and I participated in that operation."

"However, no trace of Numabuchi Kiichiro was found in the end. I guess he has probably escaped to another place again."

But before Officer Sakata could finish speaking, Heiji Hattori refuted him.

“I don’t think so. After all, there were a series of deaths at that driving school training class 20 years ago. Now, the only people still alive are Numabuchi, Councilor Goji, and this Ms. Okazaki whose life is threatened. I don’t think this is a coincidence.”

"Based on the current clues, there may be some unknown secrets in that training course back then, such as the suspicious death of that coach."

"Then, so many years have passed, and Numabuchi Kiichiro, having committed his crimes, happened to return to Osaka. So he wanted to use what happened back then to blackmail the victims. Eventually, something went wrong, leading him to decide to eliminate everyone from back then, which resulted in this series of cases..."

After stating his reasoning, Hattori Heiji turned to look at Jiang Hang in the back seat, wanting to see what Jiang Hang thought of his reasoning.

Unfortunately, while Hattori Heiji's reasoning sounded plausible, to Jiang Hang, who had more information, it was essentially the same as listening to Mouri Kogoro's reasoning—allowing him to immediately rule out a wrong answer.

Just now, Jiang Hang had exchanged information with Miyano Shiho, whose face showed a look of astonishment.

That Kiichiro Numabuchi should be the target locked by Shiho Miyano's brewery radar.

Jiang Hang glanced at Hattori Heiji and Officer Sakata who was driving, then brought his ear close to Miyano Shiho's mouth to listen to her begin to explain about Numabuchi Kiichiro.

Even if Shiho Miyano didn't explain in detail, he could still guess a lot of useful information.

First of all, given the distillery's consistent style, from the moment he joined the distillery, his life was no longer his own.

If you dare to show any intention to rebel against the organization, Gin, who specializes in killing his own people, is not kidding.

Since the other party is still being hunted by the police and has to hide everywhere to do petty theft, and even the brewery has no intention of protecting him, it means that he is definitely not an important cadre. At most, he is just a low-level member who has worked for Shiho Miyano.

This guy might even have already been abandoned by the brewery.

Sure enough, through Shiho Miyano's whispered explanation, Jiang Hang quickly understood the true background of this Kiichiro Numabuchi.

A social outcast who had killed people was recruited by the Black Organization. The organization originally wanted to train him to be an assassin, but his performance was consistently unsatisfactory, and he even showed signs of resistance against the organization on several occasions due to his personality.

Ultimately, it was sent to Shiho Miyano's laboratory as the least valuable consumable item in the brewery for drug testing.

The information on the people had already been delivered to Shiho Miyano, but this Kiichiro Numabuchi really had some tricks up his sleeve. He managed to escape the organization at a critical moment and even managed to evade their pursuit.

However, because he still acted recklessly and committed several murders while on the run, he was eventually targeted by the police and the brewery, and eventually fled from Tokyo all the way to Osaka.

It must be said that although this Kiichiro Numabuchi may not have any other skills, his ability to escape is truly first-rate, managing to withstand the pursuit of the brewery and the Japanese police for such a long time.

If it weren't for the fact that this guy has stained his hands with the blood of countless innocent people since his debut, Jiang Hang would have really wanted to recruit him into the brotherhood he made up to be a gofer.

But after hearing what Shiho Miyano said, Jiang Hang couldn't help but have more doubts.

A man being pursued by both the brewery and the police actually had the intention to kill someone he had learned to drive with 20 years ago after escaping to Osaka. He even devised a unique method of murder and created a mechanism to make the body fall, just to provoke the Osaka police.

This is not only provoking the police, but also blatantly humiliating the distillery.

After defecting from the Black Organization, FBI agent Shuichi Akai spent several years working discreetly on the fringes of the American political scene, until recently when he returned to Japan because of Vermouth.

If a low-level defector from a brewery can slap the brewery in the face like this, and the brewery can't even respond, then the brewery's already increasingly precarious reputation will probably plummet to rock bottom.

Therefore, after confirming with Shiho Miyano that Kiichiro Numabuchi was a fugitive member of the brewery, Jiang Hang ruled out his possibility of committing crimes.

Chapter 381: Chapter 377: The Past 20 Years Ago

After some deliberation, Jiang Hang determined that Numabuchi Kiichiro was temporarily ruled out as a possible perpetrator due to external factors related to the brewery.

But this does not mean that the case has reached a stalemate again.

Regardless, this case has already implicated the fugitive, Kiichiro Numabuchi.

The perpetrator in this case happened to target the members of that training class when Kiichiro Numabuchi fled to the vicinity of Osaka.

To be a bold guess, perhaps this Numabuchi Kiichiro was just bait used by the real culprit to draw attention away from the real killer.

The killer may have wanted to kill one of the members of that training program but hadn't found the opportunity before.

It wasn't until the appearance of Kiichiro Numabuchi that he felt he could use Kiichiro Numabuchi as a target to draw the police's attention.

Even if the police investigate the training course from back then, they will only regard the suspect as Numabuchi Kiichiro, who returned to Osaka to extort some money for his escape, and will not notice the real culprit hidden deeper inside.

If that's the case, then the real culprit has indeed succeeded in achieving their goal.

If Shiho Miyano hadn't heard about him when she was at the brewery, Jiang Hang would probably still be wondering about the whereabouts of Kiichiro Numabuchi.

After all, even Heiji Hattori, the famous detective from Kansai whose reasoning ability is no less than Conan's, now thinks that the culprit in this case is most likely Kiichiro Numabuchi, so there is no need to say more about the others.

Jiang Hang did not stop Heiji Hattori from contacting a police officer he knew, preparing to inform the Osaka police that the murderer might be Kiichiro Numabuchi.

The real culprit probably wanted to draw everyone's attention to Numabuchi Kiichiro so that he could then take advantage of the situation when no one was paying attention to him and continue to target his own enemy.

Hiding oneself in public, killing the target, and then leaving a mark on the victim—this method does indeed have a bit of an assassin's feel to it.

However, it won't be so easy for the murderer to continue targeting his intended victims.

The murderer wanted to kill members of a driving school training class from 20 years ago. Although the specific purpose is still unclear, three people from that training class are still alive.

Kiichiro Numabuchi is currently a fugitive, and no one knows his whereabouts.

Sotaro Goji is a member of the Osaka parliament and usually goes out with bodyguards.

Although these bodyguards might not be able to handle firearms, the tools the murderer is currently using are nothing more than ropes and knives. As long as Goji Sotaro isn't alone, the bodyguards can still be of some use.

The most vulnerable person right now seems to be Sumie Okazaki, a divorced single woman living alone.

Now that the police know the killer's target, they will naturally provide protection for Sumie Okazaki.

In this situation, how would the murderer achieve their goal?

While Jiang Hang was pondering these matters, Officer Sakata finally drove the car to the building downstairs in Okazaki Sumie's building.

"I'll stay here and guard downstairs. Jiang Hang and Heiji, you two go up and talk to Ms. Okazaki. If you need police support, just contact me," Officer Sakata said as he assigned his tasks upon arrival.

Heiji Hattori had no objection to this. He and Jiang Hang exchanged a glance and said, "Let's go and find out what exactly happened 20 years ago."

Since the matter involved defectors from the brewery, Shiho Miyano naturally went along with them.

Upon hearing Jiang Hang's calm voice, Okazaki Sumie carefully examined the three people outside the door through the peephole. Only after seeing their appearance did she breathe a sigh of relief, open the door, and welcome Jiang Hang and his companions into the house.

Jiang Hang had a Metropolitan Police Department badge, and Hattori Heiji was already a well-known detective in the Kansai region.

As for Shiho Miyano, her air of a social elite is still quite reassuring at this time.

Upon arriving at the Sumie House in Okazaki, Jiang Hang and Hattori Heiji first listened to the so-called voicemail.

The content was no different from what Sumie Okazaki said, but the voice was obviously altered using a voice changer, and the tone and accent made it impossible to discern any useful information. One could not determine the criminal's situation based on the phone message.

However, Jiang Hang further denied the possibility that Numabuchi Kiichiro was the perpetrator.

Although a voice changer is not a professional device, it is not so easy for a suspect on the run to obtain.

Besides, the attempt to conceal something in these phone messages is far too obvious.

Numabuchi Kiichiro was already a major criminal who had killed several people and committed several robberies, and was being closely watched by the police. His voice was frightening enough that he didn't need to disguise it.

After hearing the message, seeing Okazaki Sumie relieved by the arrival of the police, Hattori Heiji asked some simple questions before pressing for details about what happened back then.

“Now that things have come to this, there’s nothing we can’t talk about from 20 years ago,” Hattori Heiji said, revealing the time of death and the method of murder for the three people.

Although Sumie Okazaki already knew about these things from the news, the detailed death report from the police, delivered by Heiji Hattori, still sent a chill down her spine.

She bit her finger and then used her nails to forcefully leave marks on her skin, a gesture that perfectly expressed the turmoil in her heart.

But under the silent gaze of Jiang Hang and Hattori Heiji, Okazaki Sumie slowly recounted what happened back then.

“Our training class’s coach at that time was a very famous devil coach. All six of us were severely disciplined by him when we were taking classes there.”

"The day before graduation... because we couldn't stand that coach's temper anymore, the six of us discussed it and decided to play a prank on him..."

"On graduation night, we tried to get the coach drunk, wanting to see him make a fool of himself... But we really didn't expect that the coach would be involved in a car accident and die the next day, and would even be checked by the police for drunk driving..."

"After that incident, Numabuchi and Goji came to us. They first warned us and then offered us a sum of money as hush money, telling us never to mention it again... But I never expected that 20 years later, first Nagao was killed, then Nishiguchi, and today Noyasu is dead too. Now all that's left are me, Goji, and that Numabuchi!"

"It must be one of them who wanted to completely resolve what happened back then, which is why they did this. Now that I've told you everything, your police force should be able to guarantee my safety, right?"

Chapter 382: Chapter 378: Hattori Heiji's New Deduction

Hearing about this past event from 20 years ago from Sumie Okazaki, Heiji Hattori frowned, seemingly trying to figure out whether it was more likely that Kiichiro Numabuchi was the perpetrator, or that of Soutaro Goji, who had become a member of the Osaka Prefectural Assembly.

Generally speaking, it seems more likely that Kiichiro Numabuchi, who has already committed multiple crimes, is the culprit. After all, he has so much blood on his hands, so it wouldn't be surprising if a few more lives were lost.

But after hearing this story, it seems that Goji Sotaro is also quite suspicious.

Numabuchi Kiichiro used force to threaten others into not revealing the matter, while Goji Sotaro was a bit smarter and chose to use money to make everyone keep the matter buried forever.

If it weren't for this murder case, Sumie Okazaki probably wouldn't have thought of revealing it.

After listening to Okazaki Sumie's words, Jiang Hang had just opened Eagle Vision to observe the situation at the other party's house when Hattori Heiji pulled him aside and whispered his new idea.

"Could it be that after returning to Osaka, Kiichiro Numabuchi wanted to use Soutarō Goji to blackmail him using this past incident, but Goji refused because he asked for an exorbitant amount? To prevent his past from being exposed, Goji first eliminated Kiichiro Numabuchi, and then proceeded to deal with the people from that time one by one, preparing to completely eliminate any future troubles?"

Heiji Hattori's speculation is reasonable.

The first victim in this case, Hidetoshi Nagao, was Sotaro Goji's former secretary. The man who fell from the building and hit a police car today, Kazuto Noyasu, was also his former driver. These two men have been able to stay by Sotaro Goji's side for so many years, so they must have received a lot of benefits from him.

Perhaps it was the appearance of Kiichiro Numabuchi that made Soutarō Goji grow tired of the endless giving and extortion, which led to the occurrence of this series of murders.

As for the final conclusion, after thoroughly eliminating those people from back then, Goji Sotaro would create the illusion that Numabuchi Kiichiro committed suicide out of guilt, thus completely extricating himself from the case.

After explaining his new idea, Hattori Heiji wanted to hear Jiang Hang's opinion.

It has to be said that Hattori Heiji's new reasoning sounds much more plausible than before.

However, Jiang Hang's gaze was not on Hattori Heiji. Instead, he lowered his head with a somewhat subtle expression, looking thoughtfully at the ground where he could not see anything.