Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"I disagree! What do you mean by 'fooling'?"

Jintaro looked at Masuyama Kenzo, his expression no longer as natural as before. He clearly had his own ideas now and had made up his mind.

“It is a fact that someone died. We can find a police officer who can help us, or who is biased towards us and willing to believe that we are not the murderer. But doesn’t lying mean that there is a possibility that other innocent people might be accused of murder?”

As Jintaro guessed, the two men, who were not employees of Kenzo Masuyama, appeared here wearing his motorcycle shop uniform, which aroused the suspicion of both Kuromaru and Yata.

Worried that the two getting too close to him would reach the old man's ears, Kuromaru Yata just wanted to resolve the matter as quickly as possible before setting off. Masuyama Kenzo, on the other hand, was afraid that his identity would be questioned, so he wanted to confirm that the still-living Shiota Heihachiro was the murderer.

“You weren’t like this at school, Kuroba.”

Kuromaru Yata reminded Jintaro, "Some classmates have disputes and misunderstandings, and even though you know the truth, you don't try to mediate. Why are you getting so angry now because of strangers?"

Since Kuroba Jintaro transferred to Kyoto, the three of them have never had a fight.

"Because this is the bottom line, after all, someone died." Kudo Yuji looked at the somewhat dazed policeman and mentioned that he had a bucket of milk in his luggage.

"Don't you hate milk? Why did you bring a whole bucket?" Kuromaru Yata asked curiously as he watched Jintaro run off to get the milk, having failed to dissuade his companion.

Because the Kudo family is completely Western-style, they almost always put milk and cheese in their cooking, so after spending so much time together, I had already learned about my own habits from him.

“It was Marina’s father who told us that we must take two buckets of water with us on the road.”

Seeing that Jintaro had placed a sealed jar on the ground, Yuuji immediately went over and took out a can opener from his pocket.

"Give this whole can to that policeman later. Marina has another can, so don't worry about me."

The policeman, who had been vomiting and being forced to drink, quickly regained his senses. He was vomiting so much that he was clutching his chest and opening and closing his mouth repeatedly. Finally, his gaze fell on Neishi Matsu.

"Genshi, get me a warm towel." "This happened so early this morning, I didn't even have time to boil water..."

The meaning was clear: that was it. Nei Shijing pointed in the direction of the offering box and told the police that the body was over there.

"Let me see."

The group followed and finally saw the condition of the body. The blood under the body had turned black, and the bloodstains were flowing from the back of the person. There were no obvious signs of injury to the head.

"This suggests that the wound on his back is probably the real cause of his death."

"I don't know, take off your clothes and see."

The policeman impatiently reached out and peeled the body open, turning it back up, and then gave a somewhat bewildered "hmm".

"They cut flesh from your back?"

There were two blood-stained white sand stuffed into the wounds on the corpse's back, clearly indicating that flesh was missing, which puzzled everyone, even Yuuji.

[Killing and dismembering someone feels like a random crime... but could it have been a staged random event?]

Yuji pinched his chin. If it was a random case, then the murderer should be the shrine owner, and the fabricated situation was pointing to Shiota Heihachiro as the murderer.

"Could we please call a forensic doctor...?"

"We don't have a forensic doctor here." (End of Chapter)