Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

Takagi Wataru didn't expect there to be a kid in the room. He had a good temper and patiently explained to Edogawa Conan: "Mr. Aoyagi observed the crowd when he rescued people. The criminal who followed him might be hiding in there, so we asked him to identify him."

When identifying a criminal suspect, more than just one photo will be shown. In order to prevent the witness from making mistakes in his memory or making a random identification out of laziness or wanting to finish the process as soon as possible, at least seven photos must be provided.

Edogawa Conan was looking at one of the photos when a white light flashed across his lens.

When he raised his head again, his face had the innocent expression of a child again.

"Uncle police, why did the criminal target President Kawai?" He asked curiously, "There is more than one household in 10-chome. If it were me, after committing crimes multiple times in one place and the residents and police became more alert, I would never dare to stay there any longer and would run to other places as soon as possible."

"This..."

Takagi Wataru scratched his hair. He was not impatient at all. After listening carefully to what Edogawa Conan said, he gave an equally serious answer.

"We interrogated the criminal, and he confessed that he was accidentally seen by Mr. Kawai when he committed a crime last time. Although Mr. Kawai did not call the police at the time, he was worried that he would reveal it to others, so he followed him and tried to silence him, and then found the president."

It turned out to be the case.

Edogawa Conan's face darkened.

All the clues in his mind connected together, pointing to a cruel...truth.

The room suddenly became quiet. Takagi Wataru looked at Edogawa Conan who was in silence, then looked at Aoyagi Akimitsu who was standing beside him, and he was completely at a loss as to what to do.

Only Aoyagi Binguang's expression was as gentle as usual.

……

The first floor of the hospital.

The anxious Maori Ran did not find her own child, but instead met Maori Kogoro, who was also the target of her tracking and came to the hospital.

Just as she was about to say hello, her father hurriedly pulled her aside and gestured to her: "Shh! Shh! Be quiet! There may be reporters nearby!"

...But wouldn't you be more eye-catching this way?

Mao Lilan looked at his outfit with a puzzled look. Considering his face, she didn't say it out loud, but just asked quietly: "Dad, who is your client this time?"

"The wife of a famous male star." Maori Kogoro responded in a low voice, "The paparazzi seem to know about this. They have been keeping an eye on his rumored girlfriend these days. As long as they take a photo..."

As Mao Lilan was listening, the phone in her hand suddenly vibrated.

She checked the email. It was from Aoyagi Binguang, reminding her that Conan had gone upstairs. After reading it, she turned to him and said, "Dad, I'm leaving first."

Kogoro Maori nodded and continued to focus on the target.

Mao Lilan took the elevator to the fourth floor and asked the nurse to find the meeting room. However, when she arrived, she saw only Aoyagi Akimitsu coming out alone, without the child.

"Mr. Aoyagi, where is Conan?" she asked quickly.

"He said he and the police officer went downstairs to look for you. Sorry, I forgot to email you to inform you." Qingliu Binguang said apologetically.

Mao Lilan was a little angry: "Really? You're running around with an injured foot and causing trouble for others."

Aoyagi Akimitsu spoke well of Edogawa Conan: "This time the situation is special. Mr. Kawai is a mystery game designer. The game also borrowed from Sherlock Holmes. He was very interested, so he followed."

"You like Sherlock Holmes so much...you're exactly the same as Shinichi." Mao Lilan was speechless.

"Let's go down too." Qing Liu Bingguang said, "His foot is injured, and it's inconvenient for him to take the bus. I drove here this time, so I can take you back on the way."

Mao Lilan wanted to refuse, but thinking about Conan's sprained injury and his habit of disappearing as soon as he let go... she finally succumbed to reality.

She said embarrassedly: "Then I'll trouble you, Mr. Qingliu."

The two walked towards the elevator together, continuing to talk about the previous topic as they walked.

"Mr. Aoyagi, do you also like Sherlock Holmes?" Mao Lilan pressed the button and asked the question that she had been curious about for more than a year.

Aoyagi Hiromitsu said without any hesitation: "Compared to him, I admire Poirot more."

"..."

For a moment, Mao Lilan began to worry that one day they would quarrel over who was the best detective... She quickly threw this messy thought out.

She noticed the other person's choice of words: "Appreciate?"

"Because the character I really like is not a detective," said Aoyagi Akimitsu.

"Eh?" Mao Lilan was stunned for a moment, "Who is that? Could it be... Professor Moriarty?"

"It's not him either. He's a little-known person who only appeared in one work."

Aoyagi Binguang smiled lightly.

----

This article first describes how the protagonist gets into trouble, and then describes how Conan collects information to solve the case...but writing it this way feels like the information is repetitive and it seems like the word count is wasted, so I won't write the next event this way.

Chapter 267 Moriarty and Norton

The first floor of the hospital.

Koichi Kawai followed the police quietly, his face still sad, but there was a hint of excitement in his eyes that he couldn't suppress.

almost.

After sending the prisoners away, he will inherit all the property. Then everything in the company will be his and he can do whatever he wants.

No one could stop him anymore.

Just as they were about to pass the seats in the inquiry area and were only a few steps away from the door, a figure hiding behind a sign and behaving in an extremely sneaky manner attracted their attention.

The two people around him were policemen after all, and the hospital was a high-risk area for accidents, so Inspector Megure stepped forward and asked, "Sir, what are you doing..."

The man turned around and shouted in surprise: "Officer Megure?"

Megure Jusan was stunned as he watched the other person pull down his mask and take off his sunglasses, revealing a face that was very familiar to him. It turned out to be Mouri Kogoro.

"Why are you like this?" Megure Jusan, who almost thought he was a criminal, was speechless.

Maori Kogoro made a shushing gesture and said, "Please be quiet! I have received a commission and am now..."

"Pfft."

An imperceptible sound was heard.

Megure Juzo did not hear the voice. He watched the man who was talking peacefully one second ago, and the next second his knees went weak, his body took several steps back as if it was equipped with an automatic navigation function, and sat down on a seat.

"Brother Maori?"

Megure Juzo, who had seen this posture yesterday, suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Inspector Megure, as you can see, I'm investigating a case right now." Maori Kogoro's voice sounded again, "It's related to the recent serial burglary cases in 10-chome."

His voice was not loud, but this was the exit on the first floor of the hospital, with a large flow of people around, and he immediately attracted everyone's attention.

Seeing the crowd gathering and talking, Megure Jusan, who had become one of the focus of the crowd, wanted to stop them: "Wait a minute, brother Mori, the suspect in this case was arrested last night!"

The one who actually made the noise, Conan Edogawa, hid behind his seat, trying to keep his body as low as possible so that others wouldn't notice him.

"The serial criminal has indeed been caught. What I want to talk about is the case that happened last night. There is another murderer in the case that killed President Kawai!"

Kawai Koichi's expression changed slightly.

He noticed that another detective next to him was looking at him worriedly, and then he showed a shocked and angry expression and walked forward: "Is it true? Someone else killed my father?!"

"Yes."

Edogawa Conan said in a firm tone.

"——And the other murderer is you, Mr. Kawai!"

The crowd was in an uproar.

There were discussions everywhere, and some of them even raised their cameras excitedly. Kawai Koichi felt that they were all looking at him, and he immediately became anxious.

"I was with my friends last night, how could I possibly kill my dad?! If you keep talking nonsense, I will sue you for defamation!"

"You didn't kill him yourself. But you led the criminal who killed him there yourself!"

The stern voice made Kawai Koichi's pupils shrink.

At that moment, all the sounds around seemed to disappear, and only the detective's voice was left, slowly narrating a certain fact.

"Mr. Kawai, to you, your father is more like an enemy, right?"

"An enemy who will always weigh on your head, making you complain, hate, and despise him... but because you are connected by blood, you can never let him go."

The surroundings suddenly became quiet.

……

A suffocating silence spread in the air, and after a few seconds, Kawai Koichi reacted.

"What are you talking about? I don't understand. How can my biological father and I be enemies?"

He looked at the other person helplessly and blankly.

"Mr. Maori, I know you are a detective who has been unknown all this time and wants to gain fame, but that doesn't give you a reason to frame me at will? Can you build a reputation as a detective by slandering innocent people?"

The sound of discussion began again, but this time the subject of discussion was the sleeping detective.

And when the detective faced the onlookers and questioning, there was no trace of panic in his voice.

"This criminal would have scouted out the area in advance if he was targeting the elderly living alone. If he had targeted the president from the beginning, he would have known that he was in the hospital and could have taken advantage of that time to commit the crime. He wouldn't have waited for him to come home."

"So his target was actually you. I think the prisoner mentioned this after he was arrested."

Takagi Shigeru nodded and said, "That's true. During the interrogation, he confessed that he didn't target the president, but Mr. Kawai, because Mr. Kawai was a witness in the previous case."

"He has targeted you at least twice in the past few days," the detective said in a calm tone.

"...Twice?" Kawai Takaichi was stunned.

"Yes, twice. But the first time he found the wrong person. He mistook a man with a similar hairstyle and body shape for you and pushed down the steel bars to hit him. After that failure, the criminal sneaked into the hospital again and saw you who happened to be visiting your father. When he saw your appearance, he realized that you were the one he was really looking for."

There was a hint of sharpness in Kogoro Mouri's usually untuned voice.

"He began to stalk you and on Saturday at noon, he deliberately pushed you at the intersection of the road, which was the second attack."

"I can't be sure when you realized someone wanted to kill you, but the only thing I'm sure of is that you didn't choose to call the police at that time."

Kawai Koichi noticed the strange looks around him and said, "That's because--"

"Then yesterday, you went to a coffee shop." The detective interrupted him mercilessly, "I was also in the store at that time, sitting at the table next to you, and I heard you loudly say that your father was about to be discharged from the hospital and that there was a large amount of cash stored in your home."