No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

When Hakuba Saguru returned, he indeed found his father and wanted him to thoroughly investigate the matter. However, who was the person who could climb to the position of Superintendent General? After careful inquiry, it turned out that Kitahara Masaki was the one fanning the flames. So the old man went with the flow and portrayed Kitahara Masaki as the policeman who successfully sought justice for the person who committed suicide. He also described him as a nobleman who joined the police force just out of interest, and the true hope of the police force.

Originally, he only intended to use the tiger's skin to fulfill his promise to Koshimizu Nanatsuki, but he never expected that the old bastard would turn the tables on him. Now, Kitahara Maki is completely locked up with the Metropolitan Police Department, and even Amuro Tooru no longer says anything about coming to our police department.

The trip to the deserted island came to a successful end. Tokitsu Junya originally wanted to find some small media outlets to retaliate, but because many major media outlets were reporting on the reason why his reasoning was wrong and caused others to commit suicide, the small media outlets did not want to help him.

Meanwhile, those officers who believed the flawed reasoning were reassigned to police stations on remote islands.

After fulfilling all her promises to Nanatsukoshi, she quickly joined the First Crime Investigation Division with the help of Masaki Kitahara, serving as his deputy.

With the female detective, who had finally avenged her great grudge, working diligently, Kitahara Masaki was finally able to escape from a pile of minor cases and spend the entire New Year with Vermouth on a yacht.

However, it seems that there haven't been any major cases lately, mostly small ones, so Kitahara Maki, who has been very free, received an invitation—an invitation from Sonoko.

"I didn't expect that the eldest daughter of the Suzuki family would still remember me."

"Haha, Mom has been saying that she wants to treat Kitahara-nii well. It was Kitahara-nii who resolved the Tomizawa Group case so quickly, which prevented my sister's reputation from being damaged. So I would like to invite you and Evelyn-nee to this cake party."

"A cake party?"

"Yes, admission to the Rice Flower Museum is only 500 yuan, and now the touring cake shop inside is half price and you can eat your fill. Plus, many of the cake chefs there are celebrities who have been on TV, so I thought it was perfect and invited the two of you to go together."

Kitahara Masaki pondered for a moment and asked:

"Miss Mori and that brat Conan will be there too, right?"

"Of course, I will definitely ask Xiaolan to go, but for some reason that kid is always very attached to Xiaolan, so I think he will go along too."

Alright, that's it. Now we've met death itself, how can I not go?

"Thank you for the invitation. We will definitely go."

Chapter 206 His relationship with Conan is really good.

"Kitahara-kun—you guys are here too."

"What, kid, you're still thinking about having some alone time with Ran, huh? Unfortunately, that's impossible until Haibara makes the antidote."

Conan was furious. The thought of Kitahara Masaki having fun on a yacht with his girlfriend during the New Year holiday made him even angrier. He wished he could go back to when he was still Kudo Shinichi and tell him not to be so stupid as to watch the Black Organization's transaction. He should leave such a dangerous organization to the police.

"Oh well, it's like experiencing elementary school life all over again, and I'm not in a hurry."

"Yeah, what are you in such a hurry for? I'm the one who should be worried. I don't know if there are any Onmyoji in Tokyo who can cure your Grim Reaper constitution."

"Kitahara-nii! I haven't even settled the score with you from last time! You're using my face and calling me a Grim Reaper, that's not funny at all!"

"Of course, it's not funny at all to me personally, but it's funny to me."

Damn it, Kitahara Masaki, you just wait!!!

The three ladies who watched as Kitahara Masaki unilaterally tormented Conan had a different perspective from Conan.

"Conan and Kitahara-kun have a really good relationship."

"Yeah, that kid really likes detective games, so it's normal that he keeps bothering Kitahara-nii."

"Hehe, their relationship is indeed very 'good'."

Vermouth always felt a sense of familiarity when she looked at Conan, like she was looking at a friend... but when she saw Kitahara Masaki laughing and ruffling his hair into a mess, she could never remember which friend it was.

The five of them went to a huge candy shop in the Rice Flower Museum, where three cake makers were making their own cakes. Each maker had their own area. The first one they saw was a middle-aged maker with a buzz cut. His capable appearance made him look more like a basketball coach than a cake maker.

"That chef is Chef Maeda Tsuyoshi. I heard he has been making cakes for twenty years and is very famous in the Japanese food scene. He has also won several major awards."

"He's really amazing. He can make three kinds of cakes at the same time, and he does it all with complete ease."

Sonoko and Ran seem to be very familiar with pastry chefs, while Kitahara Masaki only recognizes one pastry chef, Amuro Tooru.

"Haha, I'm different. I can eat three different cakes at the same time."

The group continued walking forward. The other two cake makers were a man and a woman, both of whom were handsome and beautiful. The man, in particular, had a large number of female spectators watching him make cakes.

"That's the prince of the cake world—Yasuo Fujino. His area is right in the center. And that female chef is Tomomi Morimoto. Everyone calls her the Candy Magician."

Indeed—while the prince's movements weren't as nimble as the middle-aged master's, his elegant gestures and the smile on his face prompted the audience to snap photos. The candy magician, on the other hand, carved lotus flowers from candy and even conjured a candy swan from her hands.

However, what Kitahara Masaki was more concerned about was—were there only three people? If a fourth person appeared, there should have been a murder, but now there were only three.

Just as he began searching for the fourth person, the cake prince suddenly extended an invitation to Conan, who was yawning as he watched:

"Little friend, would you like to try making a cake? Just to complete the last step, how about it?"

Surrounded by a group of women giving him disapproving looks, Conan could only obediently walk over and try making a cake.

"Now I'm going to spread the cream on the cake roll. Next, you kids, use this fork to draw the wood grain pattern on the cream."

Conan, his hands trembling, slowly drew with the fork, actually just slicing the cream from right to left until it set and looked like a piece of wood. However, at the very last point, Conan's fork pierced the cake roll, startling the little rascal into a scream.

"Haha, it's okay, I'll fix it up for you later and then give it to you. These days, guys who can bake cakes are very popular."

This kind of joke-based approach to children is very popular with women. Compared to the middle-aged master baker and the candy magician, the audience for Cake Prince is clearly much larger.

After walking around, Sonoko had already taken a whole plate of cakes, which made Vermouth frown. However, since the other party was a very energetic high school girl, she thought about it and decided not to bother.

"Masaki, what are you looking for?"

"The fourth person is someone who is in charge of the event. Such a large candy store cannot be without a person in charge, or someone who is in charge of these three cake chefs."

"Is there something wrong with that person?"

“Although I don’t care about the safety of strangers, the fact that a case occurred on the last day of the New Year holiday is disrespectful to the Metropolitan Police Department.”

While they were discussing who the victim might be, a woman directed the staff to repair the candy store and gave various instructions to the cake maker.

"It seems she's the fourth person."

The shrewd informant Conan secretly ran back to his seat and whispered to Kitahara Masaki:

"It's amazing that you even know that the female shop manager has a grudge against the three cake chefs. But in my opinion, none of it is a big deal. The female shop manager, Sachiko Hashitsune, asked the middle-aged chef, Tsuyoshi Maeda, to smile more when facing customers, but Chef Maeda scoffed at the idea. Then there's the cake prince, Yasuo Fujino, who wanted to start his own business, but of course, he was refused. Finally, there's the candy magician, Tomomi Morimoto, who wanted to focus more on the taste of the candy than on its appearance, and she ended up getting a severe scolding."

One of the laws of science is that when someone has a grudge against everyone else, it is almost certain that she is the victim.

Kitahara Masaki thought to himself that the case was probably about to happen, but he had no motivation to stop it. Instead, watching Vermouth eat cake made him feel more relaxed.

"Conan, do you have a coin?"

"Hey, why are you suddenly asking me if I have any coins... Oh, I do have one, it's what I had left over from buying a drink."

"Alright, bet on it, hurry up, let me see if the will of death and the will of the world are the same. I'm betting on the flower side."

Conan was puzzled, but he still tossed the coin. Watching the silver coin fly and spin in the air, he couldn't help but sigh that fate might just be like this.

Snapped!

"It's a human face! Is there a problem, Kitahara-kun?"

"No, I just think it's better for me to just eat the cake obediently."

Chapter 207 I'll Hurl a Wooden Cake at You

Just after the coin was tossed, the Cake Prince actually brought over Conan's failed cake. However, it had already been decorated and looked like a piece of wood. You couldn't tell at all that Conan had pierced the cake with his fork. He truly is a professional.

Just as everyone was about to try a piece of this wooden cake, a scream suddenly came from somewhere.

Kitahara Masaki chose to eat a piece of cake before going over, while Conan had already rushed to the scene of the crime. He saw the middle-aged man with a terrified expression on his face, who had just been with the candy magician Morimoto Tomomi the day before, staring at the cash register.

The person lying on the ground was the female shop manager. The female shop manager… Conan was shocked when he thought of Kitahara Masaki, who had just asked him to investigate whether the relationship between the three cake makers and the female shop manager was harmonious. Could it be that Kitahara Masaki had already noticed the case before it even happened?

How did they detect it? Through their eyes? Their words? Their actions? Or did the police already know the killer's plan?

No, none of that is realistic. If there were concrete evidence, the police would have taken action long ago. So that means he observed it!

Damn it, I was watching the whole time, but I never expected this...

"How about it?"

"The victim is bleeding heavily from the head, indicating she was hit on the head by some hard object, and it happened just now. By the way, Kitahara-kun, how did you figure out that this female shop owner would be attacked?"

Kitahara Masaki, who arrived shortly after, had already anticipated Conan's question, but he shook his finger and replied:

"Trade secret. But in the end, there's no real evidence, so even if we told her, the female store manager would probably just laugh it off."

Kitahara Masaki stood at a distance, holding a plate and eating cake.

"Brother Kitahara, Happy New Year! Oh, no, excuse me, Inspector Kitahara."

After receiving the report, Inspector Megure rushed to the scene. He originally wanted to greet Kitahara Masaki, who was not in the same department, but he found that this colleague, who was more than 20 years younger than him, was already a higher-ranking officer.

"Haha, Inspector Megure, there's no need to be so formal. I've always scoffed at those formalities. Please just call me as you always have."

"Ahem, well then, I'll have to trouble you this time too."

"Although I really wanted to agree, I had already promised a girl in my department over the phone that she could try her hand at it and get a feel for what it's like to be on-site."

Let her have a 'duel' with Conan and see how good this new girl who joined the First Crime Investigation Division is. After all, she chose to kill to avenge her best friend on the deserted island, so Kitahara Masaki has not yet experienced her reasoning skills.

"I'm so sorry I'm late."

"It's alright, let me introduce you. This is Inspector Megure from the First Investigation Division. You'll definitely be seeing the people from our First Criminal Investigation Division quite often in the future. And this is Patrol Chief Koshimizu, who is now my deputy. If I happen to be handling other cases, this promising young detective I scouted out will take care of the cases I don't have time to see."

After exchanging business cards, Inspector Megure suddenly patted Kitahara Masaki on the shoulder and asked in a low voice:

"Is this Ms. Koshimizu still a high school student?"

"No, she's an adult. The Metropolitan Police Department couldn't possibly have gotten her age wrong."

Kitahara Masaki was speechless at Inspector Megure's imagination. He indicated that the case would be handed over to Koshimizu Nanatsuki to solve, and Conan also let him start to use his skills. Without Mouri Kogoro, he was like a cat looking for a mouse, searching for clues at the scene.

"Ahem, Ms. Koshimizu, the first thing to do when you arrive at the scene is to identify the people. In the First Investigation Division, the officers who are specifically responsible for summarizing the information at the scene and interviewing eyewitnesses and suspects are this honest-looking Takagi and that chubby Chiba. If you need to ask about the initial investigation information, find those two."

Kitahara Maki waved to Takagi, signaling him to explain the case.

"The body was discovered around 12:30. Upon questioning, Mr. Maeda Tsuyoshi went to his office at 12:25 to answer a phone call, but the call was disconnected before he could speak. However, no one was in the office at the time, so no one could testify on his behalf. Fujino Yasuo, on the other hand, brought a decorated wooden cake to Conan. According to him, it took him some time to find Conan in the larger restaurant. Finally, Morimoto Tomomi said that she was in the kitchen preparing cookies for the afternoon."

Koshimizu Nanatsuki carefully noted down this information and the on-site tips given by Kitahara Masaki. Kitahara Masaki continued:

"The second thing—don't tell anyone—is that the people in the Metropolitan Police Department's forensic division generally don't have very good eyesight. In this case, you need to look carefully for anything else on the ground. If you really find it difficult to find, you can let this kid look for it. Although he wears glasses, his eyesight is always better than that of the forensic team."

Koshimizu Nanatsuki was shocked by this and asked in a low voice:

"Why...why do the forensic investigators all wear glasses? Shouldn't forensic investigators all have excellent eyesight?"

"Hehe, I can't explain that. Anyway, remember this is the second thing, and then there's the third thing—you have to remember this well: don't stop these people when they come to the scene, especially that brat Edogawa Conan. Besides helping you notice hidden evidence and clues, he can also help you identify suspects. Just like now, the suspects are these three cake makers, so it's absolutely impossible for it to be an outsider."

Koshimizu Nanatsuki was taken aback. She only learned these things after arriving at the scene. These things could not be known through reasoning at all. They were more like some kind of metaphysical knowledge summarized by Kitahara Masaki.