Detective Conan: I, with my magical powers, am going to destroy the world!

"It's this videotape."

Chiba picked up a videotape from the ground and played it, then said, "It's the 4-minute cooking segment from the 7 AM Good Morning Live Stream. I always record the dishes they teach because they're simple and delicious..."

893 "This is Yoko Okino's 4-minute cooking time... And today's menu is a Japanese-style omelet rice with autumn mushrooms and taro. Ladies from all over the country, are you ready?"

A familiar voice came from the television.

Akatsuka looked at the television covered with sticky notes. It was indeed Yoko Okino's 4-minute program today. Akemi Miyano had even recorded it to learn how to cook for Akatsuka.

"Officer Chiba, did you record this yourself?"

“I’ve always recorded the footage on a schedule, but last night I was drinking with Kato while watching the videotapes of the rented land, and then I slept in this living room and forgot to set the time,” Chiba said somewhat embarrassedly.

"However, I did get up and record it myself, so it's impossible that a pre-recorded program was played in the morning, and there was only one video recorder in use at the time..."

"Isn't there another video recorder downstairs?"

"This machine is usually only used for copying videotapes. If we use this machine, the TV cable will hang in front of us. Even if I'm still half asleep, I should notice that, right?"

Chiba took out a newspaper with a program schedule.

"Look, it's the 7 AM live broadcast on Nichiri TV. After the weather forecast, it's Yoko Okino's 4-minute cooking show. I remember it very clearly."

Sato asked Chiba.

Chi Chufeng stopped disturbing the criminal police officers' investigation and started looking around with his hands in his pockets.

With Ayumi around, he knew pretty much everything.

On their way to school, Ayumi and her friends saw a strange man who looked a lot like Akira Kato, who was also Chiba's roommate, near the apartment where the incident occurred. It was around 7 o'clock.

The strange man was panting as if he were jogging.

However, the rain had just stopped 10 minutes earlier, and the strange man's clothes were almost completely dry, leading to the suspicion that he was the murderer who had just killed someone.

Following the clues, they identified the victim's colleague and fiancée's ex-boyfriend as Akira Kato.

However, Kato Akira happened to have an alibi starting at 7 o'clock, and the witness was none other than Detective Chiba...

Akatsuka looked at the man in the vest, Kato Akira, who was waiting outside.

This is interesting; too much of a coincidence is suspicious in itself.

The key question is, what method was used to prevent Chiba from noticing the problem...?

“Uncle records this every time too,” Conan said, standing in front of the television.

"And last time, when he found out that Yoko Okino was participating in a live program, he threw a huge tantrum, saying that he would definitely be a guest next time."

He leaned down to look at the various notes pasted all over the edge of the television screen and frowned slightly.

"These are all notes for various programs... How can Officer Chiba watch TV and record videos at the same time when there's only one video recorder working?"

The older officer continued, "What did you and your friend do after 8 o'clock?"

"We'll start watching the recording at 8 o'clock," Chiba stammered, "It's...it's that..."

"What that?"

Seeing that Chiba seemed reluctant to talk about it in front of Genta and the other kids, Sato asked suspiciously, "Could it be an adult film?"

"No, no!" Chiba wiped his sweat. "It's... it's Kamen Rider..."

"is it?"

"And then what? How late do you watch this children's program?"

"Watched the whole tape..."

"You watched for two hours?" Takagi's eyes widened.

"No, no," Chiba said awkwardly, "It's because it's recorded at 3x slower speed, so..."

"Six, six hours?!"

"Uh, I accidentally got so engrossed in it..."

"So, you spent those six hours looking at the land with your friend?" the older officer continued to ask.

“No,” Chiba shook his head and said, “I took a shower halfway through, for about 30 minutes, and then came back to continue watching. After I finished watching, the professional baseball game started. It was on the program schedule, from 2 pm to 4 pm, the Tokyo Falcons vs. the Jaguars…”

"Officers, you arrived when we were halfway through."

Chapter 599 Watching cartoons is also a way to solve a case

“I see,” the old police officer narrowed his eyes even more. “From here to the victim’s apartment, by car, it takes about an hour and a half if there’s morning traffic…”

“The two of them watched TV together from 7 to 8 in the morning, and then watched a recording for 6 hours. They watched it together almost the whole time. In that case, their alibi would be established.”

The veteran police officer pondered for a moment and said in a deep voice, "However, just to be on the safe side, let's still look for it and see if any children have seen the man wearing the gray coat and black backpack."

While the police officers were conducting separate checks, Conan put the 6-hour Kamen Rider videotape that Chiba had mentioned into the machine and pressed play.

"Officer Chiba, did you record this videotape too?" Conan asked.

“No,” Chiba said nervously, glancing at Genta and the others who were playing with the figures. “Kato gave them to me as a thank you gift for letting me stay here… Hey, you guys, please don’t break them, these figures are really rare…”

"It really is Kamen Rider!" Genta and the others excitedly rushed to the TV. "And he's the first Kamen Rider! That's amazing!"

"The first generation of Masks looked strange, but it was just good-looking..."

"By the way," Chi Chufeng asked, watching the video, "Officer Chiba, do you know anything about Mr. Kato? His motives and such..."

“As for the motive, there was definitely one,” Chiba recalled. “That guy had been on a business trip abroad for a year until last month, and as soon as he got back, he called to ask if he could stay with me for a while…”

"He said it's because his live-in girlfriend was taken away during this year, leaving him with nowhere to live. When he came to visit me, he often complained, saying that he called me every day while he was away on business and kept writing back. Women are really hard to understand... But it's normal, after all, they live in different places."

"Hey, hey," Takagi, who was still inspecting the area, looked at Chiba with a pale face, "Really?

"What's wrong, Takagi?" Chiba asked curiously.

"My senior colleague at the bureau told me today that I'm about to be dispatched to the Joint Investigation Headquarters in Tottori Prefecture," Takagi said, his face grim and on the verge of tears. "They said I'll be staying there for three years..."

“You’re finished,” Chiba said, looking at Takagi with a hint of sympathy. “Three years is too long. But, it seems like you never really had a chance in the first place…”

Conan glanced at Takagi and Ayumi, who were whispering about their feelings, and then at Akaso Kaze, who was holding Ayumi and watching Kamen Rider. He suddenly felt a little tired.

"Hey, Akaso," Conan pulled Akaso aside and asked, puzzled, "Are you here to investigate a case or to watch Kamen Rider?"

"This is what it means to investigate a case."

Chi Chufeng laughed, "No matter what method you use, there will always be flaws. Since it's a time-related trick, it must have confused Officer Chiba about the correct time, so..."

Chi Chufeng picked up the program schedule from the side and moved his finger to the second page.

"With only one video recorder working, allowing Officer Chiba to watch TV and record simultaneously... there's only one possibility: the cable TV's 'Good Morning 7' rebroadcast at 9 AM..."

"Whoa! Masked Flying Kick!"

"Damn Kamen Rider!"

Ayumi and the others were watching the TV with great interest, but at least it was much quieter now.

"So," Takagi looked at Kato Akira outside and asked in surprise, "Chiba is watching the 9 o'clock rerun of Good Morning at 7 o'clock?"

"Probably."

“If it takes an hour and a half to drive here from the scene, then after murdering Mr. Nakamoto at around 7 a.m., it would be about 9 a.m. by the time you got back here. If you then woke Chiba up to watch TV together, you could create an alibi…”

Takagi murmured to himself, "Chiba also said that the two of them were drinking all night and ended up sleeping in this living room. Maybe he drank so that Chiba would oversleep in the morning. If Chiba had a hangover when he was woken up, he might not have noticed that he was watching a replay on cable TV..."

"No, that's not it!" Chiba said helplessly. "I might not have woken up properly this morning, but the program was recorded, wasn't it? And it was recorded along with the time displayed on the cooking show, so the cable TV rebroadcast of 'Good Morning 7' doesn't show the time because it's two hours late..."

"Moreover, we finished watching the program at 8 o'clock, and then watched 6 hours of recording, and then there was the baseball game that started at 30 o'clock in the afternoon. Until you came, Kato was by my side the whole time. The only time we weren't together was when I went to take a shower, and I couldn't do anything for 30 minutes..."

"Is there really nothing we can do?" Chi Chufeng laughed. "You can do a lot of things in 30 minutes, like copying videos or something..."

"Copy the video?" Chiba stared blankly at Akatsuka.

"Officer Chiba, around what time are you going to take a shower?"

"It must have been around 11 o'clock, when he was halfway through watching a Kamen Rider video..." (worker).

Chapter 600: A 5-Minute Time Difference

“So,” Akazuka sat up from the TV and looked up at the living room clock, “as long as you record the 7 a.m. program in advance, you can wait until you go to take a shower for 30 minutes and then copy and overwrite the cable TV program you recorded, which is Yoko’s 4-minute cooking show.”

"Officer Chiba, think about it again. When you watched 'Good Morning 7:4' cooking, did you really see the time displayed on the TV?"

"Me." Chiba opened her mouth, looking at the TV covered in sticky notes, unsure of herself.

"Hey, hey," Kato Akira appeared behind Chiba, sweating profusely, without anyone noticing.

"These are just your guesses, okay? We watched Kamen Rider videos for six hours straight starting at 8 a.m.!"

Adding the 30 minutes Chiba spends taking a bath, it's a total of 6 hours. If I watch the rebroadcast at 9 PM, how will I have time to finish watching it?

“I can see it all,” Akatsuka Kaze said, meeting the gazes of Kato Akira and the veteran police officer from the investigation team.

"If it were me, I could watch it all. Excluding the commercials, the opening and ending credits, the next episode previews, and the recaps, I would fast-forward through everything. Each episode would only be about 20 minutes long, and 12 episodes would only take 4 hours."

“I see,” Takagi asked again, “Chiba, is that how you do it too?”

"This seems to be it."