Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Chapter 18 Moonlight Sonata

Seeing that Maoli and the others were discussing going to the community center to ask the village chief, Chu Ming nodded in agreement: "Let's ask the young lady over there for directions."

Ran ran over and asked, and after Asai Narumi gave her directions, she asked with a look of surprise, "Are you from Tokyo? I was born in Tokyo too. Isn't this island very different from Tokyo? It's great, isn't it? The air is so fresh, and it's so—quiet."

Just then, a propaganda truck with a loudspeaker drove by: "Masato Shimizu, please vote for Masato Shimizu—"

The most awkward thing was when the air suddenly went quiet. Chu Ming felt embarrassed for her; this was a slap in the face at lightning speed.

Chengshi tried to smooth things over by saying, "This is an exception, haha. The main reason is that the village chief election is about to be held."

Xiaolan asked curiously, "Village chief election?"

"Yes, the candidates include Mr. Shimizu, the current fisherman's representative; Mr. Kuroiwa, the current village chief whose evaluation has recently declined; and Mr. Kawashima, the biggest capitalist on the island..." Asai Narumi spoke eloquently.

Kogoro Mouri couldn't help but interrupt her: "Um, miss, we're not interested in the election. We just want to go to the community center to ask the village chief a few questions..."

"My name is Asai Shigemi, and I'm the island's doctor. If you're looking for the village chief, go to the community center; you'll see those three people I just mentioned. They're holding a memorial service there today to commemorate the third anniversary of the succession of the previous village chief, Mr. Kameyama..."

After saying goodbye to Cheng Shi, the four of them bumped into the village chief's secretary who happened to be coming out. The secretary told them to wait in the reception room for a while and then hurriedly ran back.

After waiting and waiting without seeing anyone come, Chu Ming quietly nudged the little detective and pointed outside. He knew Conan was getting restless too.

The two conspired together and quickly agreed to sneak out while Kogoro Mouri and Ran weren't paying attention.

Conan took the lead, relying on his detective intuition, and went straight to the piano room. The two pushed open the door and prepared to go in.

Kogoro Mouri and Ran caught up at this moment: "Conan, you can't run around like that—Chu Ming, really, why didn't you stop him?"

Chu Ming smiled sheepishly: "Kids like to run around, it's normal. I'll be fine with you around."

"Hey, hey—" Conan said indignantly, "You were the one who encouraged me to come out, how come you're turning around and blaming me?"

Kogoro Mouri also quite naturally wandered in and around, as if detectives in the world of Detective Conan can always freely browse other people's rooms = =

“This piano is a bit dirty—” Chu Ming touched the surface of the piano.

Conan also leaned over to lift the lid and take a look, when their secretary, who had been searching around, rushed over: "Don't touch it! That's Mr. Aso's piano! It's a cursed piano!!"

Chu Ming muttered to himself: LOL, even Death is afraid of curses?

Seeing that the men remained unmoved, the secretary added, "It wasn't just Mr. Aso; the same thing happened to the former village chief!"

Upon hearing that a clue had been delivered to his doorstep, Conan tilted his head and asked, "Is it the village chief who's holding the ceremony today?"

"Yes, that happened a while ago. It was also a full moon night, and I happened to be passing by this area. There should have been no one in the mansion, but I heard the sound of a piano playing 'Moonlight' coming from there! I was about to go and check if anyone was there when the piano music suddenly stopped. When I went in, Mr. Kameyama was lying on the piano. The cause of death was a heart attack..."

"...From then on, this piano was unknowingly called the cursed piano."

In the tense atmosphere deliberately created by the secretary, Chu Ming squatted on the ground and quietly encouraged Conan: "You're a kid, no one will say anything if you're naughty once in a while. Go and press the keys on that piano and see what secrets it holds."

Upon hearing this, the stubborn Conan rushed over and lifted the lid, his fingers skillfully playing the piano tune: "This piano is no different from any other one, just like a regular one."

Chu Ming stood behind, concealing his merits and fame.

Seeing Conan stubbornly insist on doing it, the secretary, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, pushed them out of the room and locked the door: "In short, please wait in the entrance hall until the ritual is over!" With that, she stormed off.

Chu Ming crouched down and asked Conan, "Is there anything unusual?"

Conan frowned and said in a low voice, "It's strange. According to them, that piano hasn't been used for several years, but when I played it just now, the sound was normal. It's as if someone secretly adjusted the pitch for some purpose."

Chu Ming patted Conan's clever head: "I knew I wasn't wrong, you—"

Conan was startled, thinking that Chu Ming had seen through his identity. He was about to say something like that his uncle Shinichi had taught him to brush it off when he heard the second half of Chu Ming's sentence.

"—You really are a child prodigy. Your logical thinking and knowledge far surpass those of children your age, and you can tell whether a piano sound is normal just by listening to it. You must have perfect pitch. Have you had your IQ tested? For someone your age to have this kind of intelligence, hmm, it reminds me of myself when I was a child..."

Conan listened with a chuckle as Chu Ming boasted, while sitting on the steps in the entryway with Kogoro Mouri.

"So there's definitely something fishy about this. How can a piano that hasn't been played for years still be in tune? And that secretary's reaction was way too much. Maybe he knows some details, or maybe the piano itself has some secret, which is why he made up this curse to keep people away... How about we sneak in tonight and see what's wrong with the piano?" Chu Ming started instigating Conan to do something bad again.

Conan nodded thoughtfully. He found that Chu Ming's thinking and reaction were indeed very impressive. He could deduce so many connections from just a few details. He wondered if he could recruit Chu Ming to be a detective.

Night deepened, and the full moon hung in the sky. Chu Ming looked at the sky, then suddenly turned to the three of them and said, "Didn't the letter Uncle received say that on the night of the next full moon, a shadow would disappear on Moonshadow Island...? Aso Keiji and the village chief died on the previous full moon night. Does this mean someone might be going to—"

Before he could finish speaking, a melodious piano tune drifted over—it was Moonlight!

"Oh no!" Conan and Mori exclaimed in unison, and rushed towards the piano room they had just left.

Chapter 19 Space Pilot?

A crowd had already gathered outside the piano room, but they all stood at the door, not daring to go in. Conan rushed over and pushed the door open.

In the dim light, a man lay hunched over a piano, his hands hanging limply to the ground. Water dripped down his clothes, forming a small puddle, and the eerie piano music echoed in the room.

—It is Hideo Kawashima.

The system has already consciously absorbed the life magnetic field.

Kogoro Mouri stepped forward and checked his pulse: "He's dead. Ran, call the police immediately."

Turning to Narumi, he said, "Dr. Asai, would you mind performing the autopsy?"

Asai Narumi responded and stepped forward.

Conan gritted his teeth, secretly cursing himself for not solving the mystery sooner. If he had let Chu Ming see the warning letter sooner, or if he had thought things through more carefully, perhaps this bloodshed wouldn't have happened today...

"Damn it!" Conan clenched his fist.

Chu Ming squatted down and patted Conan's head: "Don't blame yourself. No one could have predicted this. You've done a great job. Now that it's happened, what we need to do is find the culprit."

Conan nodded vigorously. He would definitely—he absolutely would find the culprit!

"Ah—it's a curse! This is the curse of that piano!!!" Secretary Hirata shouted, pointing a trembling finger at the piano.

Kogoro Mouri scoffed dismissively. He picked up a radio from behind him and said, "What curse? The sound isn't coming from a piano, it's just this radio."

He raised his hand and pressed the switch, plunging the entire room into silence.

“Based on what happened two years ago, this is definitely a planned murder!” Kogoro Mouri said in a deep voice.

"What nonsense are you spouting? This is utterly incomprehensible! Who are you?!"

Kogoro Mouri straightened up, straightened his clothes, and cleared his throat: "I am Kogoro Mouri, the famous detective from Tokyo."

Then raise an eyebrow and wait for someone to exclaim: "Is that the famous detective?"

What we got in return was:

"Is he a space pilot?"

"no!"

"Oh, I know, it's the one that always appears in mystery novels, right!"

"That's Kogoro Akechi!"

……

After some discussion, the islanders turned their attention back to Kogoro Mouri: "So who exactly is this person?"

Kogoro Mouri shrunk into a corner, looking dejected.

Chu Ming bent down, looked at the trail of water on the ground where he had been dragged, dipped his hand in it, and smelled it: it smelled of the sea, it was seawater.

At this moment, Narumi finished the autopsy and stood up: "The time of death was 30 minutes to an hour ago. The cause of death should be suffocation. I think Mr. Kawashima should have drowned in the sea."

"Did he drown?"

Cheng Shi shook his head: "Without dissection, I can't draw a conclusion."

Conan turned around and said, "I think Dr. Narumi is right. Look at that jacket on the beach, it should be Mr. Kawashima's! And there are drag marks from the beach from the door to the piano. Mr. Kawashima's back is also covered in mud and sand. All the doors and windows in this room are locked. The first few minutes of the tape should be blank..."

Chu Ming shook his head. This guy forgets his current identity when he gets into deduction. You're just a kid now... You're getting cocky, Conan.

Kogoro Mouri stared in disbelief: "When did this guy...?"

Conan continued his rambling: "I'm afraid that during the ritual, the culprit took Mr. Kawashima to the beach to drown him, then moved the body to this room, locked the door, turned on the tape recorder, and went out into the hallway..."

Chu Ming secretly kicked him. Conan turned around and saw the surprised looks on everyone's faces, so he quickly added, "Really? Uncle."

Kogoro Mouri stammered twice and said, "Ah, yes, yes... that's right."

Chu Ming watched the two with great interest. Kogoro Mouri hadn't interrupted Conan's reasoning at all during this process. Wasn't he surprised? How could a little kid have such extensive reasoning knowledge... He took out his notebook and wrote it down. Kogoro Mouri's suspicions increased by 1.

After thinking for a moment, Kogoro Mori added, "If the door to this room is locked, and we've been staying in the entryway, I believe the culprit will return to the memorial service... which means the culprit is among you!"

The crowd was filled with suspicion and looked around, fearing that the prisoner was right next to them.

"Did anyone notice when Mr. Kawashima left his seat during the religious ceremony?"

Kuroiwa Tatsuji chimed in, "I know that. He said he needed to go to the bathroom."

"Did anyone else leave their seat midway through the session?"

"Who would notice something like that..."

"Has he offended anyone?"

"I wouldn't say I offended him, but if we're talking about him dying, the happiest person would probably be Mr. Shimizu, who was also a candidate for village chief!" Kuroiwa immediately started to belittle him.

Masato Shimizu was furious. "You scheming old man! I haven't even said anything to you yet, and you've already framed me!" So he retorted, "What nonsense are you spouting... You're the same way, aren't you, Village Chief Kuroiwa!"

The village chief's daughter chimed in, "Yes, that's right. If someone hadn't secretly changed Mr. Kawashima's votes to their own, my father would have been elected long ago."

Seeing that the group was about to start arguing, Kogoro Mouri quickly stepped in to stop them: "Alright, alright, everyone, say less."

Conan stood to the side, staring out the window: "But why would the culprit move the body to this room?"