The Different Color Tracks in the Detective Conan World

After several days of continuous rain, Tokyo finally cleared up. Lin Mo received an unexpected invitation—Kogoro Mouri had helped a hot spring inn resolve a property dispute, and the inn had specially given him several free accommodation vouchers. Ran dragged Sonoko, Conan, and even insisted on bringing Lin Mo along.

"This hot spring inn in Izu is super famous!" Sonoko exclaimed excitedly, flipping through a travel brochure as she sat on the Shinkansen. "They say it even has an open-air hot spring where you can see the stars at night!"

Ran Mouri added with a smile, "And the wagashi (Japanese sweets) at that hotel are also very famous. I specifically looked up the travel guide to make sure I tried their cherry blossom daifuku."

Conan leaned against the window, watching the scenery rush by outside, glancing at Lin Mo every now and then. Ever since the incident at the art museum, he felt that Lin Mo was hiding many secrets, especially his sensitivity to the "Organization," which even surpassed his own.

"Lin Mojun, have you been to Izu before?" Ran Mouri asked.

"No, it's my first time." Lin Mo was looking at the news on his phone when a message about "theft from the Department of Pharmacy at Dongdu University" made him frown. Among the stolen items were several raw materials used to synthesize new sedatives, which were somewhat related to the research direction of Miyano Akemi.

"What's wrong?" Conan noticed the change in his expression.

"It's nothing, I just saw a strange news article." Lin Mo put away her phone, not wanting Lan and the others to worry.

It was already afternoon when we arrived in Izu. The hot spring inn was nestled at the foot of the mountain, its wooden structure exuding a classic charm. Red lanterns hung at the entrance, and several maple trees grew in the courtyard, their leaves already beginning to turn red.

"Welcome!" The hotel owner was a kind middle-aged woman named Sato Fumiko. "Your room is ready. Please follow me."

They were put in a Japanese-style room on the second floor, with views of the distant mountains and forests just outside the window. After putting down their luggage, Sonoko immediately pulled Ran to change into a yukata: "Hurry, hurry, let's go soak in the hot spring!"

Lin Mo and Conan remained in the room. Conan took out his detective badge and whispered, "Haibara said the theft at Tokyo University might be related to the organization; they've been looking for ingredients to stabilize the side effects of APTX4869."

Lin Mo's heart tightened: "What about Miyano Akemi...?"

"The professor has already inquired, and she didn't come to school today, saying she took leave." Conan's tone was somewhat grave. "Hopefully, nothing bad has happened."

Just then, a quarrel broke out downstairs. Lin Mo and Conan exchanged a glance and immediately ran down.

In the hotel lobby, a young woman in a kimono was arguing with Sato Fumiko. The woman, named Shimizu Nana, was the hotel's chef. Her face flushed, she pointed to an empty spice jar: "I told you I didn't take it! That jar of 'sansho pepper powder' was specially ordered by a guest, how could I possibly lose it?"

Sato Fumiko sighed, "But you're the only one who's been to the condiment room right now... That customer has a bad temper; if he finds out we lost what he asked for, he'll definitely complain."

"What kind of guest is so picky?" Sonoko asked curiously as she and Ran came downstairs after changing into their yukatas.

"He's a guest from Osaka named Hattori Heiji," Sato Fumiko explained. "He said he was here to handle a case and also to soak in the hot springs. He specially ordered our special sansho pepper powder in advance, saying he wanted to eat it with sashimi."

"Heiji Hattori?" Conan was taken aback. Why was that guy here too?

Lin Mo noticed a small cut on Shimizu Nana's finger, with some dark green powder on it. "What kind of packaging is that jar of sansho pepper powder?" he asked.

"It came in a brown paper bag with a red chili pepper pattern on it," Fumiko Sato replied.

"When I went into the yard just now, I saw a torn brown paper bag next to the fence. I don't know if it's that one," Lin Mo said.

The group followed him into the yard, where they found a tattered paper bag under the fence. The powder remaining inside looked very much like sansho pepper powder. Shimizu Nana breathed a sigh of relief: "See! I told you I didn't lose it!"

Sato Fumiko was even more confused: "How did it end up here?"

Just then, a cheerful voice came from the doorway: "Hey! Where's my Sichuan pepper powder?"

Everyone turned around and saw a dark-skinned boy wearing a hat standing at the door. It was Hattori Heiji, and behind him was a girl in a yukata—Toyama Kazuha.

"Heiji? What are you doing here?" Conan asked in surprise.

"Hmph, I'm here to investigate a case and relax in the hot springs while I'm at it." Hattori Heiji walked up to Lin Mo, sizing him up. "You're the Lin Mo Ran was talking about? I heard you're quite good at deduction?"

"I was just lucky," Lin Mo replied neither humbly nor arrogantly.

When He Ye saw Lin Mo, her eyes lit up: "Lin Mo-kun? What a coincidence! You're here too!"

Hattori Heiji immediately became alert and pulled Kazuha behind him: "You know him?"

"I met him once in Tokyo, and he even helped me out," Kazuha said with a smile.

Hattori Heiji looked at Lin Mo suspiciously, feeling that there was something wrong with the way this guy looked at Kazuha—although Lin Mo actually just thought it was a coincidence.

In the evening, everyone ate together in the restaurant. There weren't many guests at the hotel. Besides them, there was a middle-aged man wearing glasses who claimed to be a painter who had come to sketch; a young man in a suit who said he had come to discuss business; and a quiet old lady who sat in the corner drinking tea.

Halfway through the meal, the young man in the suit suddenly clutched his stomach, collapsed to the ground in pain, and groaned.

"What's wrong?" Sato Fumiko was startled.

"He...he seems to be poisoned!" Ran Mouri immediately ran over to check.

Conan and Heiji Hattori rushed over simultaneously. The man's face was pale, white foam was at the corner of his mouth, and he had lost consciousness. Heiji Hattori examined the plate in front of him: "He ate the sashimi platter and miso soup. Is there something wrong with the food?"

"Impossible!" Shimizu Nana hurriedly waved her hands. "The ingredients today were all fresh, and everyone else ate them without any problems."

Lin Mo noticed a tiny needle mark on the man's finger, unlike an insect bite. "It's not food poisoning; he was probably injected with some kind of drug."

At this point, an ambulance and police arrived one after the other. The man was rushed to the hospital, and the police began questioning him. The man in the suit was named Kenichi Tanaka, an employee of a trading company, who was said to have come to discuss a collaboration with a local factory.

"Has he had any arguments with anyone?" the police officer asked.

Sato Fumiko thought for a moment: "At noon, he seemed to have argued with that painter because of the soundproofing of the room."

Everyone looked at the painter with glasses. The painter quickly waved his hand: "I only complained a few times, how could I possibly harm him!"

Conan and Heiji Hattori investigate the restaurant. Conan discovers that on the chopsticks used by Kenichi Tanaka, besides his own fingerprint, there is also an unfamiliar fingerprint; Heiji Hattori finds a crumpled tissue with a little transparent liquid on it in the restaurant's trash can.

"Lin Mo, what do you think?" Hattori Heiji unusually didn't jump to conclusions but instead asked Lin Mo.

"Tanaka Kenichi's needle mark is on his right index finger, as if he injected himself, but he wouldn't have needed to do that." Lin Mo walked to the spot where Tanaka had been sitting and looked out the window. "You can see the storage room in the backyard from here, and the window is open."

He got up and walked towards the backyard, with Heiji Hattori and Conan immediately following. The storage room was filled with miscellaneous items, and in the corner was an empty syringe with a little liquid still inside the needle.

"This is... a muscle relaxant?" Conan recognized the drug's properties. "An overdose can cause respiratory failure."

Heiji Hattori picked up the syringe: "Are there fingerprints on it?"

"We'll need police testing to find out, but I suspect it's related to that painter." Lin Mo pointed to a footprint stained with paint on the dirt near the storage room door, "The same color as the paint on the painter's shoes."

Back at the restaurant, the police were questioning the painter. The painter, named Matsumoto Ichiro, admitted to arguing with Tanaka but firmly denied assaulting him.

"Mr. Matsumoto, did you go to the storage room in the backyard at noon?" Lin Mo suddenly asked.

Matsumoto Ichiro's eyes flickered. "I... I'm going to get my art supplies. What's wrong?"

"Do you need to wear gloves to handle art supplies?" Lin Mo pointed to the edge of the gloves sticking out of his pocket. "And it seems like you're missing a paintbrush from your art supply case?"

Matsumoto Ichiro's expression changed, and he subconsciously reached for his art supply box.

Heiji Hattori immediately said, "We found a syringe in the storage room, and the fingerprints on it should match those on your gloves. You took advantage of Tanaka going to the restroom to pass him a cup of tea laced with sleeping pills through the back window, and then, when he returned to his seat drowsy, you used the excuse of adjusting his tie to secretly inject him with a muscle relaxant, right?"

"You're talking nonsense!" Matsumoto Ichiro retorted excitedly.

"Your argument with him wasn't about soundproofing at all," Conan added, "but because you plagiarized his company's design, he found out, and he was going to report you, so you killed him to cover it up."

Matsumoto Ichiro's shoulders slumped, and he finally collapsed to the ground, confessing his crime. It turned out that he had indeed plagiarized Tanaka's design, and fearing disgrace after being discovered, he wanted to teach Tanaka a lesson, but accidentally overdosed on drugs.

The case was solved, and the police took Matsumoto Ichiro away. The atmosphere in the hotel was somewhat heavy. Sato Fumiko apologized repeatedly, while Lin Mo and the others offered her a few words of comfort.

In the evening, everyone decided to relax in the open-air hot spring. The men's and women's baths were in different areas, and Lin Mo, Kogoro Mouri, Heiji Hattori, and Conan were on one side.

"I didn't expect you to be such a good strategist," Hattori Heiji said to Lin Mo while soaking in the hot spring. "You're much better than that old man who just sleeps."

Kogoro Mouri immediately puffed out his beard and glared, "Who are you talking about, you brat!"

Conan chuckled to himself, then suddenly noticed a faint scar on Lin Mo's arm, as if it had been scratched by something. "Brother Lin Mo, what happened here?"

Lin Mo subconsciously covered the scar: "It's nothing, I just got scratched by accident before." — It was from before he transmigrated, when he saved a child who was almost hit by a car.

Heiji Hattori also noticed the scar, his eyes flickered, but he didn't ask any more questions.

After soaking in the hot spring, everyone chatted and ate wagashi (Japanese sweets) in their room. Sonoko and Ran were still shaken by the case they had encountered during the day, while Kazuha excitedly recounted the amusing stories she and Hattori Heiji had had in Osaka.

Lin Mo sat by the window, gazing at the stars, when his phone suddenly vibrated. It was a text message from an unknown number: "I didn't do what happened at Dongdu University. Don't worry."

The sender was anonymous, but Lin Mo immediately guessed it was Miyano Akemi. He breathed a sigh of relief and replied, "Be careful."

"What are you looking at?" a voice sounded behind him. Lin Mo turned around and saw Ai Haibara standing in the doorway, holding a thermos in her hand.

"Haibara? What brings you here?" Conan asked in surprise.

"The doctor said you were here. I was just coming over to pick up something, so I thought I'd drop by." Ai Haibara's gaze fell on Lin Mo's phone. "Did you receive good news?"

Lin Mo put away his phone and nodded: "I guess so."

Ai Haibara walked over to him and looked out the window with him: "There are more stars in Izu than in Tokyo."

"Um."

"The organization won't give up easily," she suddenly whispered. "Those stolen raw materials might be for testing new poisons."

"I know," Lin Mo said calmly, "but there will always be a way to stop them."

Ai Haibara turned her head to look at him. Moonlight fell on his profile, and his eyes were firm, not empty words. She suddenly remembered when they first met, he said, "Some dangers can be avoided." At the time, she thought it was naive, but now she inexplicably felt that perhaps he really could do it.

"Oh, right, this is for you." Ai Haibara took out a small medicine box from her pocket. "It's a sample of the antidote the doctor made. Although it's ineffective against APTX4869, it's okay against common neurotoxins."

Lin Mo took the medicine box and said "thank you".

Night deepened. Everyone went back to their rooms to rest, but Lin Mo was wide awake and walked alone into the inn's courtyard. Maple leaves swayed gently in the night breeze, and the sound of a hot spring flowing in the distance could be heard.

He took out his phone and found Akemi Miyano's number—she had given him her contact information when they parted ways at the library, saying, "You can contact me if you want to borrow books in the future." After hesitating for a long time, he still didn't call, but instead sent a text message: "Get some rest, don't overwork yourself."

Not long after, I received a reply, just a simple "Mm" followed by a goodnight emoji.

Lin Mo smiled and put away his phone. He knew that he was slowly entering these people's lives and being influenced by them. Whether it was Ran's gentleness, Sonoko's enthusiasm, Kazuha's cheerfulness, Haibara's calmness, or even Miyano Akemi's cautious kindness, they were all like the temperature of this hot spring, gradually seeping into his originally lonely world.

The road ahead is still full of unknowns, but at least for now, I have people I cherish around me and a night sky where I can see the stars.

He turned and walked towards the room, the moonlight casting a long shadow that quietly overlapped with the shadows of the others in the courtyard.