No one understands the laws of Collider better than me.

"Alright, now that we've found the evidence, Takagi, take this stubborn magician back with you."

Kitahara Masaki looked at Yamada, who was handcuffed, and thought about how this guy killed his assistant in order to compete with him for a woman. He was killed by his rival before he could compete with anyone else. This kind of thinking is really cruel. It seems that this middle-aged man is also a pitiful person affected by the Science Virus.

What are you doing!

They had already reached the door when Yamada miraculously broke free of the handcuffs using magic tricks, took out a small knife from his pocket, and pointed it at Takagi.

"Calm down, Mr. Yamada!"

"Who would stay calm! This is all your fault, police! You conspired with a child to frame me. There would have been no evidence if I had just destroyed the bottle."

Although Takagi was being held at knifepoint, what was even more unbelievable to him was that the magician had actually unlocked his handcuffs himself, just like in the movies, even though his key hadn't been stolen.

However, Kitahara Masaki knew the reason: after the Detective Conan world officially began, magicians were indirectly strengthened.

But for Kitahara Masaki, a nobody like Yamada is far from being a true phantom thief.

Kitahara Masaki and Vermouth simultaneously grabbed a playing card from the table beside them and threw it like a projectile. One card knocked the knife out of his hand, while the other pierced his calf.

"Trying to escape? You're 20,000 years too early."

Chapter 351 Early Morning Radio

"Last time, someone died before the magicians' gathering even started. This time, you and Uncle Mori have both been invited to the midnight radio show. I reckon that TV station will need two people to die for them to be safe."

Conan was furious on the other end of the phone, so angry he wanted to yell, but then he thought about how the shows featuring Uncle Mori always seemed to run into problems. As for whether someone died every time, that was definitely impossible!

As Conan pondered, he suddenly became a little uncertain again, but he was certain that these murders were not caused by him; they were all due to the perpetrators' inability to suppress the evil within them.

"Then Kitahara-nii, why don't you come too? I'm sure no one can kill anyone under my watchful eye!"

That's it. The victim might have had a glimmer of hope, but now that you, the Grim Reaper, have said that, it's all over for him.

"Okay, it's the midnight radio station, right? By the way, why did you suddenly invite Uncle Mori to the midnight radio station with you?"

"Hey! You weren't listening carefully, were you? Sigh—it's like this, a female radio host received a threatening letter, so she's afraid that the sasaeng fan who sent the threatening letter will give her to this or that. Since it's her turn to host the radio show tonight, she invited Uncle Mori."

Oh, I see—that sounds like a very classic tactic.

After hanging up the phone, Vermouth, who was standing nearby, was also very interested. Recently, Rum had suffered a setback, and the BOSS was also considering how to deal with Napoleon, so her intelligence work only needed to be done superficially. She was basically even more lazy than Kitahara Masaki, but she still got paid more than him.

Damn it. I want to slack off too!

So Kitahara Masaki promised himself that he would also go to that early morning radio station, since neither he nor Vermouth had ever actually been to a TV station early in the morning to see how it worked.

In the world of Detective Conan, time flies by as if it were a time jump. It's like riding Doraemon's time machine and arriving directly at the appointed day. Yesterday was Monday, and today is Monday again, but today's Monday is the appointed day.

After taking a nap in the afternoon, Kitahara Masaki drove to Nichiri TV station with Vermouth. The female DJ was already chatting with Uncle Mori. To be precise, Uncle Mori was chuckling with a smirk, while the female DJ responded with a fake smile.

After Kitahara Masaki got out of the car, the female DJ immediately told her female assistant to deal with Uncle Mori while she came over to greet Kitahara Masaki.

"Officer Kitahara! I really didn't expect you to come to our Nichiuri TV station."

"Haha, it just so happens that my girlfriend and I are both a bit interested in late-night radio, so we arranged to come over with Mr. Mori. Hope this won't be a hassle for you?"

"No, no, it would be great if you could come. If you could also say a few words at the beginning of the broadcast, then this live broadcast would definitely be a huge success! And the listeners would be pleasantly surprised!"

Kitahara Masaki just smiled and didn't say anything more, nor did he grant her request. He came here only to see how the radio station operated in the early morning, and also to quickly resolve the case that was about to occur.

Yes, Kitahara Masaki was certain that a case would occur soon.

When everyone went up to the TV station's studio, it was a winding road with countless rooms, stairs, and elevators. It would probably take a long time for newcomers to get used to working here.

"Brother Kitahara! There will absolutely be no more murders this time. Right now, it's just the two of us at the TV station, along with the security guard on the first floor. So nothing will happen!"

Kitahara Masaki looked at the brat in front of him. His desire to prevent the tragedy from happening was certainly not wrong, but going against the will of the world would not lead to anything good.

The early morning radio show started quickly. Looking at the female radio host, Kitahara Masaki suddenly realized he didn't even know her name. After all, he was only interested in the early morning radio show; there was no need to know about such a common woman. But it would be too embarrassing if he couldn't even give her name when he went up to say a few words later—referring to the female host, of course.

"Conan, what's that female news anchor's name?"

"Ha! You didn't even ask anyone's name?"

"After all, we'll only meet once. Alright, just tell me already."

"Her name is Mitsui Mika, remember that! And she recently received a threatening letter from one of her sasaeng fans! That's why she came to talk to Uncle Mori, and you even followed her, saying that a murder is bound to happen. As long as I'm here, I will absolutely not let a murder happen!"

Alright, Kitahara Masaki stopped trying to hurt Conan, because he knew very well that the truth would definitely give him a heavy blow later.

Although Uncle Mori in the studio was still leering at Mitsui Mika, his eloquence far surpassed his reasoning abilities. He and the female anchor Mitsui were basically having a back-and-forth conversation.

However, when talking about the cases that Uncle Mori has solved, he can only say that he seems to have solved the case by himself after taking a nap. Even if he is telling the truth, to others, Uncle Mori now seems like an actor who is extremely persistent in maintaining his persona.

"Conan, this is all your fault. Why don't you ever tell Uncle Mori how the case was solved after he wakes up?"

"Ah, I solved all the cases, why should I explain the process to Uncle Mori!"

However, he had already told Uncle Mori several times, but Uncle Mori drinks and gambles on horses every day. Conan had just told him once yesterday, but Uncle Mori forgot about it the next day, so now Conan doesn't bother to make a fool of himself.

Time flew by as the female announcer and Uncle Mori chatted. Kitahara Masaki stopped teasing Conan and instead focused on listening to the radio program with Vermouth.

In the early morning, in addition to a short interview with Uncle Mori, the radio station will also respond to some interesting fan letters, and even throw out one or two horror stories and urban legends after creating a certain atmosphere.

"Japanese people really like these."

Vermouth, sipping her hot cocoa, remarked that Kitahara Masaki recalled cases he'd handled before, including the Tengu Murder Case and various other supernatural tales and murders. It seemed that not only ordinary people enjoyed supernatural tales, but even murderers did...

The murderer also liked—ghost stories.

Looking at the eloquent radio host, Kitahara Masaki felt a sense of unease. It couldn't be such a coincidence, could it? Besides, everyone was under his and Conan's watchful eyes. She couldn't possibly have killed someone without a plan in front of the police and detectives.

Chapter 352 You really dare to kill someone in front of detectives and police?

"Alright everyone, it's commercial break now. I'm going to take a break and listen to a CD that a newcomer brought me."

Mitsui walked out of the studio and headed towards the rest room. Conan originally intended to follow, but since he seemed to have used the excuse of needing to pee too often, he now really needed to go to the toilet. So, while the female anchor Mitsui was resting, Conan also went to the toilet. However, the Nichiuri TV station was very big, and it took him quite a while to find the toilet.

When Conan returned, shaking his wet hands, he was surprised to find that the news anchor Mitsui had already returned to the studio.

"So everyone else has already come back."

"How come it's so fast? I've only been gone for about seven minutes."

"Ms. Mitsui will be back in less than five minutes."

Vermouth looked at the great detective in front of her and thought to herself that Kitahara Masaki was going to play some kind of prank on her again.

"Five minutes? That's so fast!"

"Yeah, you take longer to go to the toilet than other people can sing a song. Don't tell me you're going to stay away from me."

Kitahara Masaki moved a little further away in disgust, which made Conan angrily shout:

"It's all because the layout of the rooms at the Nichiuri TV station is too complicated! It took me a long time to find the restroom."

"I see. But don't hide it from me. Everyone has times when they suddenly have an upset stomach."

Kitahara Masaki didn't go to see Conan again, but instead listened to Mitsui's radio show. The female anchor was talking about a convenience store robbery that had just happened in the next city.

"Mr. Mori, if the robber is wearing a mask, like the criminal in the breaking news just now, wearing the Tokyo Gourmet Mask, will the detective still be able to identify him?"

"Ahem, of course. We can identify the prisoner from his fingerprints and physical characteristics."

While listening, Conan took out his phone to check the news. Just now, the Nichiuri TV station broadcast a breaking news report about a convenience store robbery in the next city. Mitsui and Uncle Mori were talking about this at the moment, and they also talked about the methods of solving robberies.

"The news on my phone doesn't even have details about the robbery yet."

"The criminal wasn't captured on camera. Wasn't he wearing a mask of an anime character? He should have been quite conspicuous."

"No, there are only text reports online right now, no pictures."

After discussing the robbery case, the radio show was nearing its end in the early hours of the morning. Mitsui concluded his remarks and officially ended the show.

"It's a real shame that Officer Kitahara didn't say a word."

"Haha, no need, Mr. Mori said it perfectly."

The female anchor led everyone away, and at the same time she dialed her assistant's number.

"Hey, why isn't Saito answering the phone?"

After she said that, the case sensors of Kitahara Masaki, Conan, and Uncle Mori immediately lit up. However, Kitahara Masaki thought that the female assistant who didn't answer the phone was probably done for.

"Ms. Mitsui, let's go to the parking lot together and look for her."

"Okay, thank you everyone."

When the group arrived at Mitsui's car, they quickly found his female assistant, Saito, lying on the ground with blood flowing from her head.

"Saito!"

Uncle Mori grabbed Mitsui, who was trying to lunge forward, while Conan went over and touched the now-cold female assistant, then shook his head.

"Call the police and get Inspector Megure here right away."

Kitahara Masaki remembered that Inspector Megure had once woken him up in the early hours of the morning, so this time he directly called Inspector Megure and asked him to bring his men over immediately.

Ten minutes later, Inspector Megure, sporting dark circles and squinty eyes, arrived at the scene with Takagi and Chiba, who were equally dazed.

"Oh, you're here."

Kitahara Masaki gave each of them a bottle of black coffee, and this time it was Kitahara Masaki's turn to introduce the case to them.

"The victim's name was Saito Yuki. The cause of death was likely a blow to the head, leading to excessive blood loss. She was Mitsui's assistant and usually stayed in the car while Mitsui conducted her early morning radio broadcasts. As was customary, she would drive Ms. Mitsui home after the broadcasts. However, this time she was beaten to death. The time of death was during the radio broadcasts, roughly between midnight and 1 a.m. Considering the degree of blood clotting, the time of the crime was around 12:30 a.m., which coincided with the break in the radio broadcasts."

Vermouth looked at the cordoned-off scene and couldn't help but shake her head. As a member of the Black Organization, she should stay away from murder cases, but as long as that great detective's death aura is still there, she will probably have to solve a case every time she goes out with them.

Mitsui, who was standing nearby, took out the threatening letter from his bag and explained why he had invited Uncle Mori: he was afraid of such crazy sasaeng fans.

“Officer, I always lend her my red sweater when I’m on the radio in the early morning because it’s quite cold then. So it must be that the person who sent the threatening letter mistook Saito for me.”

Inspector Megure nodded. After all, it was the middle of the night, and it was pitch black all around. There was a good chance that he would mistake someone for someone else after seeing a red sweater.

"But the person Ms. Saito saw should be someone she knows."

Kitahara Masaki was originally planning to stand aside and slack off, since it was already past midnight and it wouldn't hurt to let the sleeping Kogoro make an appearance. However, this time it was Vermouth who wanted to indulge her detective fantasies.

"Sister Evelyn, why is that?"

"It's simple. There was a cigarette that had been stubbed out near the deceased. It hadn't even been taken two puffs before it was put out, which means the assistant had just lit the cigarette when the criminal arrived, and the assistant hurriedly extinguished it. In other words, the assistant had considerable respect for the criminal!"

Upon hearing Vermouth's reasoning, Miss Mitsui immediately went along with it, saying:

"Ah, that's definitely it. The culprit must be that sasaeng fan who sent the threatening letter. I always require my assistant to respect the fans."