The cross-dressing master in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 161 Top Ten Pretentious Professions of the Year

"Since you're going over there, let me make a call first."

As he spoke, Sakata took out his cell phone from his pocket and called the woman named Okazaki Sumie.

"Hello, are you Ms. Sumie Okazaki? Let me introduce myself. I am a police officer from the Higashi-Kiu Police Station. My surname is Sakata."

"Police officer, please come here quickly and protect me! If this continues, I'm sure someone will kill me. I can tell you everything that happened in the past. Please come here quickly, please come quickly."

Sakata's phone was on speakerphone, so everyone in the car heard Ms. Sumie Okazaki's flustered tone.

"Ms. Okazaki, please calm down. Open the door and don't let anyone in. We're on our way."

Analyzing her words, it seems that these people are not completely unrelated; at the very least, they should know each other. Otherwise, Sumie Okazaki wouldn't have mentioned "things that happened in the past."

However, it's suspicious why this point wasn't investigated. Kazama Kaoru sometimes finds the problem of incomplete investigation data very annoying. It's unbelievable that someone can change a name and act as if nothing ever happened.

“Officer Sakata, it seems we need to get to the Saito Apartments as soon as possible. Ms. Sumie Okazaki looks like she’s not doing well.”

“Yes, I understand, but we’ve already passed Xidu Apartments, and this road is particularly congested. If we go back, it will probably take a lot of time.”

As mentioned before, many areas in Osaka have one-way streets, which can sometimes make traffic particularly inconvenient.

Of course, this situation also largely prevents traffic accidents from happening.

"There's no other way, the situation is urgent, I had to get out of the car and run there. You two be careful."

Kaoru Kazama immediately unbuckled her seatbelt, and taking advantage of the fact that the car was still moving slowly, she opened the door and jumped out.

"Hey, Officer Kazama, there's a car ahead."

Just then, a large truck came head-on towards Kaoru Kazama. Because it was overloaded, it couldn't slow down at all, and it looked like he was about to be hit and thrown into the air.

At this moment, Kaoru Kazama seemed to be terrified. Instead of dodging, he ran two steps toward the truck, then took a running start and leaped into the air, landing directly on the roof of the truck using its trapezoidal cab.

"What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?"

Such a thrilling and dangerous situation would likely trigger road rage in any driver.

The truck driver was no exception. After seeing that no one was hurt, he leaned against the window and started cursing loudly, also to vent his fear and apprehension.

"I'll talk to you about the overloading issue later. I've already written down your license plate number."

Kaoru Kazama skillfully pulled out his police ID from his pocket with his left hand, then pretended to scare the driver.

Actually, he's a criminal investigator, not a traffic police officer, so he has no jurisdiction over overloading issues.

However, that guy believed it and immediately shut up, wishing he could find a hole to crawl into.

"Officer Kazama is too..."

Having witnessed the entire process, Sakata was at a loss for words. However, if he had also traveled through time, he would probably call it "fierce."

"Holy crap, is she really a monster? Only someone who's trained specifically could do something like that. Are you sure this Ms. Kazama is a police officer, and not an acrobat?"

Heiji Hattori and Conan witnessed the whole thing. In fact, it was thanks to Kaoru Kazama's jump that they got off the bus; otherwise, they would have been cursed by countless drivers.

The appearance of this tough young woman caused a momentary pause in the flow of traffic as the vehicle was moving slowly.

She was both shocked by his fierceness and captivated by his beauty.

In a daze, Kaoru Kazama seemed to hear a faint system notification, saying that the cross-dressing glory mission was one percent complete.

A question arose in her mind: Could it be that this cross-dressing glory mission was just to let her show off? If that were the case, then there should be no reason for her to refuse the request to be a detective.

It's worth noting that the top spot on the list of the ten most pretentious professions in the Conan world is held by detectives. Of course, due to Shinichi Kudo's disappearance, the title of the most pretentious person of the year has temporarily been taken by Saguru Hakuba, who has returned from England.

However, a new "primary school student braggart" has recently emerged, with a detective who always calls himself Conan Edogawa, leaving countless criminals speechless and severely insulted in their intelligence, even to the point of being too ashamed to show their faces in prison.

After all, people who frequently spend time in jail know that everyone there is talented and speaks very politely. If you go in, they will inevitably ask why. It wouldn't matter if you were arrested by the famous detective Kogoro Mouri, since he is a famous detective.

But to say that someone was dragged in by an elementary school student would be incredibly embarrassing.

With a sense of foreboding in her heart, Kaoru Kazama approached the West Capital Apartments at top speed, while Conan and Hattori were already exhausted.

Hattori, being a chauvinist, couldn't accept being left behind by a girl, so he tried his best to catch up, but after chasing for five or six minutes, he still couldn't catch up, and the gap kept widening.

Conan is basically just following behind and getting left behind. His stamina is considered exceptionally good for a child, but it's nothing compared to someone like Hattori who has practiced kendo since childhood, let alone Kaoru Kazama.

"Whoosh~whoosh"

"Are you two crazy? Why are you running so fast? I'm exhausted."

Conan was almost unable to stand. When he realized he couldn't catch up with him, he twisted open his high-tech sneakers. The electric current stimulated the soles of his feet, generating extraordinary explosive power that almost surpassed Kazama Kaoru.

However, this current spineless state is a consequence of his condition; he can't even stand up straight.

"Are you alright? Or should I carry you upstairs?"

Although Kaoru Kazama said that, even Heiji Hattori could see the mocking look in his eyes.

Aside from taking advantage of Ran, Conan is quite chaste when it comes to other women.

Of course, anime male protagonists all have the "central air conditioning" attribute, and they are constantly being flirted with by girls, which doesn't count.

"Wait a minute, don't rush upstairs, I think I smell blood."

Kazama Kaoru suddenly reached out and stopped Conan and Hattori, who were in a hurry to go upstairs, and explained to Conan with a half-believing look in his eyes.

"Really? I can't smell it."

"I don't have it either. Could it be your imagination?"

They both sniffed the air, but found nothing.

"It shouldn't be. You two go up and find that woman first. I'll look for the source of this bloody smell. My sense of smell shouldn't be wrong."

Kaoru Kazama was very determined, and the two of them had no choice but to go up first, since it was a matter of life and death.

"We'll be going now, contact us if you need anything."

Hattori is quite outgoing; he seems like Kaoru Kazama's colleague.

Chapter 162 Can a detective's actions be called perverted?

Following the scent, Kaoru Kazama slowly walked to the front of the women's restroom.

Without a ripple of emotion, I walked straight in, and sure enough, right in the middle of the women's restroom, a middle-aged woman lay on the ground.

As before, he was stabbed in the chest by a dagger that had pierced through his wallet, and fell backward to the ground.

He looked like he had died with his eyes wide open, staring in fear, indicating that he had been quite frightened.

Upon seeing this, Kaoru Kazama immediately called Conan and told them to come into the women's restroom instead of going upstairs to look for him.

As for the perverted act of entering the women's restroom, he noticed that Hattori and Conan didn't seem to care too much.

Well, can you call a detective's work perverted? It's called investigation and evidence gathering.

In less than three minutes, the two had arrived at the scene, along with Detective Sakata. During this time, Kaoru Kazama also called the Osaka Prefectural Police and asked them to bring people to protect the scene, because someone had already discovered a body near the toilet, and at this point, almost everyone was gathered outside watching the spectacle.

"How's the situation?"

When the two arrived at the scene, the first thing they saw was Kaoru Kazama, who was examining the body with his head down. It was precisely because of this that no one dared to come in casually.

"The time of death was not long ago, and the pupils had not yet started to dilate, so it seems that it must have been shortly after we called."

"Any clues upstairs?"

"No, apart from the door being open, there's nothing unusual in the room. We should have told her not to go out unnecessarily."

Hattori Heiji wondered, "Judging from the woman's tone, she was terrified. Most people would lock the door shut to keep everyone out, so why was she running around even though she knew there was danger?"

"Judging from the look in her eyes before she died, she must have been extremely frightened. There are two possibilities."

"Oh, which two?"

This was the first time Hattori Heiji had heard a police officer's reasoning, and he was also very curious about Kazama Kaoru, wondering why his father would let a police officer from Tokyo take the lead in this case.

"The first possibility is that the culprit was an ugly monster, whose appearance was so terrifying that it frightened the deceased to this extent. The other possibility is that the culprit was someone that the deceased, Ms. Sumie Okazaki, never expected."

"Someone I never thought of? You mean it was someone she knew? I remember the victim had been divorced from her husband for some time. Are you saying the perpetrator might be her husband?"

Hattori Heiji continued to speculate on Kazama Kaoru's ideas, but instead of understanding, he frowned even more.

Aside from the methods used, these serial murders had no obvious commonalities. Some members of the Osaka Prefectural Police even believed that the perpetrator was impromptu and random in killings.

Even if the ex-husband of the deceased, Ms. Sumie Okazaki, had a grudge against her, he wouldn't have implicated a few unrelated strangers.

"Judging from what she said at the time, the victims of these serial murders could not possibly be unrelated. I could clearly see the fear in her eyes at the time; she was obviously worried about being implicated. If she didn't know that Noya Kazuto, she wouldn't have shown that expression."

"Sakata, please investigate the relationship between the victims in these cases carefully. Make sure you find out if there is any subtle relationship, such as living in the same boarding school."

"Yes, I'll go back to the police station to retrieve the documents right away."

Computers weren't commonplace back then. Even Uncle Mori only started using computers to handle cases after more than 700 episodes. In one movie, he was even suspected of being a criminal because of his computer. Of course, this wasn't the first time Uncle Mori had been suspected of being a criminal suspect; he was already used to it.

There's no way to speculate on the time of death. The body's temperature hadn't dropped yet, nor had it started to stiffen. Moreover, only about ten minutes had passed since they received the call. Within that short time, the victim was attacked and killed, making it a very tight and sensitive period.

To be able to grasp it so accurately, either the prisoner is incredibly lucky and managed to just barely avoid their pursuit.

Either the prisoner had an inside contact among them who knew when they would arrive.

Or rather, the prisoners were among them.

Thinking of this, Kaoru Kazama couldn't help but glance at Officer Sakata, who was on the phone.

"That shouldn't be possible, right? Breaking the law isn't something that happens often in the Detective Conan world."

Kaoru Kazama was a little conflicted. After all, he couldn't just go up to Ginjiro Toyama and say that his subordinates were prisoners. That would make him look like he was there to cause trouble, not to help.

It's important to know that the relationship between the Osaka Prefectural Police and the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department has never been harmonious.

This relationship is probably like that between Beijing and Shanghai in China, or New York and Los Angeles in the United States—they can't stand each other.

One is a high-tech city driven by rapid development, where the fast-paced life is reflected in the fact that high-speed rail, subway, and taxis are everywhere, and fast food restaurants, dry cleaners, and all kinds of shops that make life more convenient are readily available.

Osaka, on the other hand, is completely different. Ancient buildings are everywhere, and ancient buildings such as the castle tower and Tsutenkaku Tower are very well preserved. Walking on the streets, you might even feel like you've traveled back in time.

The sheer number of one-way streets is something that busy Tokyoites probably can't accept.

Similarly, Osaka residents can't accept Tokyo residents' fast-paced, direct approach to everything; it's just that each has its own unique characteristics.

To give a simple example, Tokyoites think that Osaka people, with their Kansai accent, are all country bumpkins and naive.

People from Osaka, on the other hand, think that people from Tokyo only care about money, have no human touch, and are all pretentious and cheap.