Stay away from Conan.

Gao Yuan told Ooka Hongye about the photo.

In the photo shown by Gao Yuan, Ms. Gao Yue, the former president of Gao Yuekai, was sitting in the passenger seat of the car with her head down and a silent look on her face.

Facing the camera towards the vehicle, a person who seems to be a security guard is blocking the vehicle and facing the camera with a serious look on his face. It seems that he is driving away the onlookers.

Then, at the rear door of the vehicle, Mr. Achiha, the current president of the Satsuki-kai, was opening the door and about to walk in.

So, this should be the scene five years ago when Nagoro Shikao challenged Ms. Satsuki, the president of Satsuki-kai, to a duel. However, Nagoro Shikao did not show up, and Ms. Satsuki was about to leave the competition venue, but was surrounded by reporters. This was the picture captured by a reporter.

But now, according to Gao Yuan, he has directed his attention to the vehicle in the photo.

Ooka Hongye was a little puzzled about this, but she carefully picked up the phone that Gao Yuan used to show the photo, and began to try to enlarge the photo and examine it carefully.

At the same time, facing this situation, Iori Muga, who was standing aside, also saw that Gao Yuan was very likely to have discovered something and came here to ask Miss Ooka Momiji, so Iori Muga also came over and observed the photo shown by Gao Yuan. The result was -

"Hmm? This car..."

Soon, after just a glance at the photo, especially after Gao Yuan reminded him to pay attention to the vehicles, Iori Muga noticed something unusual and said:

“It’s so dirty…”

"Ugh!"

Immediately, after Iori Muga clearly pointed out the problem, Ooka Hongye also completely connected it to the earlier words that Gao Yuan had just said -

"Whenever Ms. Gaoyue has an important competition, Mr. Achiha will wash the car the day before the competition for good luck. He said that washing the car clean is the secret to winning."

Obviously, his teacher Nagoro Shikao challenged Ms. Gaoyue to a duel, which could be regarded as a direct challenge from the Nagoro society to the Gaoyue society at that time, so it was naturally an important competition.

However, when encountering this kind of competition, the vehicle that Ms. Gao Yue was riding in was so dirty that it didn't even look like it had been washed. This is totally...

"Yes, it's very unreasonable, right?"

  Gao Yuan nodded, and after seeing that the other party had discovered the obvious problem, he said affirmatively:

"I specifically checked the weather conditions on the day of the match and the day before, and it didn't rain, which ruled out the possibility that the car got so dirty because of the splashing mud on rainy days. Therefore, the only explanation is that Mr. Achiha didn't wash the car before the match, so the car appeared so dirty.

"So, here comes the question -

"Why didn't Mr. Achiba wash the car? Did he think this game was unimportant? Or was it..."

  At this point, Gao Yuan's mouth curled up slightly, and he looked at Ooka Hongye and the others with a gloomy smile, and continued:

"There is no need to wash the car to bring good luck to the important game, because they know that this game can no longer be held normally. Mr. Nagoro Shikao will not show up on the day of the game!"

Gao Yuan said this solemnly, which shocked Ooka Momiji, while Iori Muga looked a little more serious. "So... Mr. Akechi, what you mean is..."

Ooka Hongye asked Gao Yuan with some disbelief.

  Gao Yuan nodded and said what he really wanted to say very smoothly:

"I think the disappearance of Mr. Nagoro Shikao is very likely related to the former president of the Satsuki Association, Ms. Satsuki, and the current president, Mr. Achiha! Although Ms. Satsuki has passed away..."

  At this point, Gao Yuan paused and added:

"Maybe Ms. Gao Yue's death is related to this matter..."

  Then, he continued with the original topic:

"But Mr. Achiha should know the truth. So, in order to find out the truth about Mr. Nagoro Shikao's disappearance, Ms. Ooka, can you help me make an appointment with Mr. Achiha?"

So, hearing Gao Yuan's request, Ooka Hongye looked at Gao Yuan with a worried expression, then after thinking for a while, nodded and gave a reply:

"This...should not be a problem...but..."

"Besides that, I have some requests regarding the specific details of the appointment with Mr. Achiha."

After seeing that Ooka Momiji agreed to help him make an appointment with President Achiha, Gao Yuan went a step further and prepared to make a more critical request, so even his expression became more serious.

  In this regard, seeing Gao Yuan's serious look, Ooka Hongye couldn't help but be affected and became serious. She asked solemnly:

"Yes, go ahead."

  So Gao Yuan continued:

"It is said that the Satsuki Association has a traditional karuta that is used in the national karuta competition held in the Satsuki Association. After the Satsuki Association competition ended last year, this karuta was stolen for a while. Although it was quickly found, the champion of last year's competition later said that security should be strengthened. Therefore, this karuta, which was usually kept in the museum for exhibition, is now kept with stricter security measures, right?

"I want to see that deck of cards, can I?"

At this point, Gao Yuan has basically said everything he wanted to say and hoped that Ooka Hongye would help him with.

After all, the truth about Nagoro Shikao's disappearance is essentially that five years ago, the day before Nagoro Shikao's competition with Ms. Gaoyue, Nagoro Shikao went to Ms. Gaoyue alone and played a competitive karuta game with Ms. Gaoyue before the competition.

As a result, Ms. Gaoyue, who was defeated miserably, felt humiliated and killed Nagoro Shikao in anger on the spot.

Mr. Achiha was of course aware of this matter. Later, Achiha and Gaoyue, a couple, handled the scene together and hid the body of Nagoro Shikao, as if Nagoro Shikao was missing.

However, there is actually a very crucial piece of evidence left in this incident, and that is the song cards.

At that time, the karuta that Nagoro Shikao used when competing with Gaoyue was the one from Gaoyue's party. After the competition, Gaoyue killed Nagoro Shikao on the spot, causing Nagoro Shikao's blood to be stained on the karuta. As a result, the karuta that has been preserved to this day has become the most core evidence to prove the whereabouts of Nagoro Shikao. The story of the original work "The Crimson Love Letter" also revolves around this karuta.

Therefore, I want to deal with this matter in advance to prevent myself from leaving it alone. Once subsequent events develop like the original and become extremely uncontrollable, I will need an extremely critical key to control the overall situation.

  And that key is the song card!

As long as we can confirm that the karuta card is indeed stained with Nagoro Shikao's blood, then with this as a starting point, if we get the police involved, everything will fall into place... (End of this chapter)