Detective Conan: The Ultimate Growth Space

Her sudden burst of laughter left everyone in the room completely baffled.

"Ayako?" Kento Toba was also puzzled.

Ayako Oki took out a cigarette, lit it, took a drag, and said, "I already know who the murderer is, the method they used, and the decisive evidence."

Everyone was taken aback when they heard this.

Ayako Oki took another drag of her cigarette, exhaled the smoke, and said, "I'll give you ten minutes. If you don't want me to say your name, then you'd better confess."

After she finished speaking, she walked out of the room.

"Ayako, where are you going?" Kento Toba asked hurriedly.

"Going to the toilet," Ayako Oki said casually.

"Don't do anything rash. If you act alone, you'll be targeted by the killer, and it will be dangerous," Toba Kento said anxiously.

“Then you can come and protect me,” Ayako Oki replied calmly.

Kento Toba hurriedly followed him out the door and then closed it.

"It seems things are coming to an end. You, the famous detective from Kansai, have no place to use your talents anymore," Fujisawa Toshiaki teased.

Heiji Hattori remained silent, lost in thought with his head down.

"Could she be just being deliberately mysterious?" Kawazu Ikuo asked doubtfully.

“She must have some clues that we don’t know about,” Conan said.

"Yes, very likely."

Heiji Hattori nodded, but then his gaze toward Conan changed.

When Conan encounters a case, he gets too engrossed, making it easy for others to notice that he has a problem.

“Perhaps Miss Ayako really did discover something. When I saw her during the day, she was indeed acting a bit strange,” Zhiyong said, pretending to think.

"What's wrong with her?" Hattori Heiji asked hurriedly.

"After lunch, on our way back to our room, Uncle Mori, Ran, and I saw Miss Ayako. When she saw us, she hurriedly hid something that looked like paper behind her back. At the time, I thought it was a Sherlock Holmes test," Zhiyong replied.

"Test Questions"

"Could it be that she's going to cheat?"

Upon hearing this, the group began to whisper among themselves.

At that moment, Kento Toba walked in from outside, looking slightly nervous.

Did she say who the murderer was?

"Tell us quickly!"

As soon as Ye Yanren came in, a few people started asking her questions.

"She said that even if I asked, she wouldn't tell me," said Kento Toba helplessly. "Then she went into the bathroom."

"That woman is awful, she's driving us crazy!" Fujisawa Toshiaki complained.

"Ms. Iwai, besides Ms. Ayako, who else didn't have lunch yesterday at noon?" Hattori Heiji asked.

"Besides Ms. Ayako, there's Mr. Kento Toba and Ms. Nanako Kiyoko," Hitomi Iwai replied after a moment's thought.

After listening to Hitomi Iwai's words, Heiji Hattori kept his head down and pondered.

"Big brother, did Ayako-neechan come to your room at noon?" Conan asked Kento Toba.

"No, I've been in my room doing test questions all day, and I haven't seen anyone come in," Kento Toba said, shaking his head.

Heiji Hattori looked at Conan with an even stranger expression when Conan asked him a question.

However, Heiji Hattori had no time to think about anything else; he needed to solve the case first.

Time passed little by little.

Zhiyong pretended to remind her, "Miss Ayako, why are you taking so long in the restroom? Twenty minutes have already passed."

Upon hearing this, Hattori Heiji hurriedly ran out, and everyone else followed suit.

He arrived at the toilet door, pounded on it, and called out loudly, "Miss Ayako, Miss Ayako."

……

Chapter 127 A Series of Deaths

Suddenly the toilet door opened, and Ayako Oki walked out of the toilet.

Ayako Oki said with great dissatisfaction, "What are you all doing, crowding around the toilet entrance? That's so rude."

"Don't misunderstand, everyone is just worried about your safety," Hattori Heiji explained.

“Miss Ayako, more than twenty minutes have passed. Can you tell me the murderer’s name now?” Fujisawa Toshiaki said loudly.

"Oh, I made a mistake earlier. I'm so sorry," Ayako Oki said with a smile, and then walked out.

However, Ayako Oki did not return to the hall to be with everyone; in fact, she said she was going out for a walk.

No matter how much everyone tried to persuade her, Ayako Oki wouldn't listen.

Ayako Oki also said that there would definitely be no more murders, and that the suspects were all here.

She's definitely not in any danger if she goes out.

As for Ayako Oki's purpose in going out.

Zhiyong knew that she was after the first edition of "A Study in Scarlet".

As the saying goes, good advice is hard to persuade a damned person, and great compassion cannot save someone who has chosen to die.

For someone like Ayako Oki, this was a path to certain death.

Zhiyong couldn't be bothered with her; besides, he was just there for show today.

Not long after, a huge explosion was heard outside.

Everyone was startled by the sudden sound.

"The explosion sounded like it came from the garage," Kento Toba said in surprise.

There was no time to think about it; everyone headed in the direction from which the explosion had come.

The garage is now engulfed in flames.

Maria Toda asked in surprise, "Is Miss Ayako inside?"

Upon hearing this, Kento Toba rushed inside, calling out, "Ayako, Ayako..."

Hattori Heiji quickly hugged him and said, "If you rush in now, you'll only get burned to death."

Zhiyong had already run over with a fire extinguisher.

"Put out the fire quickly, otherwise, that book will..." Fujisawa Toshiaki said with a somewhat grim expression.

When they worked together to put out the fire and entered the garage, they found a body lying face down on the back seat of the car.

"Judging from the body shape and other aspects, the corpse in the garage is indeed Miss Ayako," Hattori Heiji said regretfully.

"So, it's true that she once said she knew who the murderer was," Maria Toda said.

"Could it be that the murderer was trying to silence us?" Hitomi Iwai asked, puzzled.

“But we were all inside the room when the garage caught fire. Even Detective Mouri, whom we just checked on, was lying there sleeping,” Nanako Kiyoko said, puzzled.

"Then who could be the murderer?" Hitomi Iwai asked.

"Could it be that Mr. Kanaya didn't die at all? That's the only explanation," Kawazu Ikuo said, his imagination running wild.

“That’s absolutely impossible. I just said that the person in the car is indeed Mr. Kanaya. I saw it clearly, there’s no mistake.” Hattori Heiji replied.

“I saw it too,” Conan said.

"Then tell me, who is the murderer? Ayako must have been killed to silence her," Kento Toba said sadly.

“Now we know at least that the culprit isn’t among us. The only suspects are Detective Mouri and Miss Ran,” Maria Toda said.

"I think we should go back to our rooms and rest, and deal with it during the day," said Kiyoko Nanako.

Zhiyong went to see Xiaolan first, telling her not to worry about the explosion, before heading to the restaurant.

Just then, thunder rumbled outside, and rain began to fall.

Once inside the room, everyone was exhausted and hungry after a whole night of running around.

Everyone suggested that Hitomi Iwai should get some food for everyone.

For Hitomi Iwai's safety, Ikuo Kawazu and Kento Toba also volunteered to go along.

Zhiyong asked, "Mr. Fujisawa, I remember when the fire started in the garage, you said, 'Put out the fire quickly, otherwise that book will...' Can you tell us what you meant by that?"

“Yes, I heard that too,” Kiyoko Nanako nodded in agreement.

“Look at this card. It says, ‘If you want that book, come to the garage at 5:30 tomorrow morning. I’ll put it under the back seat of the car.’ If I go there, I’ll be the one who dies. Maybe Mr. Jingu really didn’t die, and it was all his doing.”

Fujisawa Toshiaki pulled out a card and shouted angrily.

Heiji Hattori took the card and pondered, "The garage caught fire at four o'clock, and the back seat of the car was where Miss Ayako's body was located."

Conan asked, "When did you receive this card?"

“I saw it stuck in the door crack when I went back to my room after dinner last night,” Fujisawa Toshiaki replied.

At that moment, Ikuo Kawazu and Kento Toba walked in from the kitchen, each carrying a cup of coffee.

Fujisawa Toshiaki said angrily, "Why did he want to kill me? I even helped him when he was about to publish his book."

"Books? What books has he published?" Hattori Heiji asked.

“It’s the book about Sherlock Holmes that he self-published last year. I remember the title was ‘Irene Adler’s Mockery’,” Fujisawa Toshiaki said.

Suddenly the lights went out.

Maria Toda asked, "Why is there a power outage?"

Hitomi Iwai replied, "It's not a power outage, it's probably a blown fuse."

Fujisawa Toshiaki took out a lighter, lit it, and said, "Ms. Iwai, I'll give you light."