Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"You are not Segawa Taikei!"

Miss Nohara stared warily at the man opposite her. After figuring out what had happened, she immediately realized that the story of being assassinated and then killing him in self-defense was nonexistent. Segawa Taikei was indeed dead, and the man opposite her was the "comrade" who had killed him.

But why didn't she change her identity? Why did she have to disguise herself as Segawa Taikei? Even using her own face would have been much better than this face that would be discovered soon after her corpse was found.

"Before boarding the ship, I asked Segawa Taikei to put a small boat in the inner harbor at the stern so we could go for a ride on the sea and play some fun games. It seems his older brother found out, because we can't find the boat no matter how hard we look."

The murderer glanced at Conan, who had been dragged away and severely reprimanded by the waiter for trying to move a chair, and then turned around to see that there was a gun in Kudo's stomach, so he dared not make any rash moves. He then stabbed the gun into Conan's stomach even more.

With one hand supporting her chin, "Segawa Taikei" made no attempt to hide the fact that she was a woman. The background music in the restaurant drowned out the clinking of cutlery and plates from the other tables, but just a minute later, the shockwave from the lower part of the ship shook everyone in the restaurant off their chairs.

"It's now!"

The blue lightning-fast soccer ball successfully struck "Segawa Taikei's" wrist, knocking the pistol out of his hand.

"Damn it, she got away!"

As he got up from the floor, Old Kudo clutched his stomach and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He sighed with relief that the gun hadn't gone off, and then he saw a blurry figure disappear at the restaurant entrance. Conan instinctively chased after it.

"You brat, I told you not to move around..."

Touching the gun that had been knocked away, Old Kudo casually removed the magazine and looked at the paint "bullets" that glowed green through the transparent plastic in the darkness.

"BB gun?"

The entire ship was now plunged into darkness. Thanks to the night-vision function of his glasses, Conan relentlessly pursued the culprit, finally cornering her at the end of the third-floor corridor, where she was forced to hide in the toilet.

"You can't escape now..."

Conan turned on his flashlight watch, the light shining into the men's restroom. He had his other hand on his belt, ready to kick the ball out at any moment.

The noisy shouts came from outside, but now was not the time to care about what was happening outside. The elementary school student stared intently at the back of the figure around the corner, pulled the elastic strap from his chest, hung it in the gap by the door, adjusted its position, and tied his watch to it as well.

"Snapped!"

A foot suddenly kicked out from the toilet stall, shattering the wooden planks and heading straight for Conan's face. However, the elementary school student instinctively crouched down and stepped on the wall tiles. Realizing he had missed, "Segawa Taikei" reacted quickly. Before Conan could kick a soccer ball into the hole kicked in the door, he took a step back, fell backward, jumped onto the toilet seat, and flipped around, landing face-first on the stall ceiling.

"Missed it?!"

The blue light enveloped the soccer ball, piercing through several layers of doors. Through the holes, Conan discovered that no one was in any of the rooms. He immediately pulled off his watch and held it to his eyes, holding his breath as he quickly ran past the doors.

"No!" He lowered his hand, feigning confusion, then immediately raised it again three seconds later: "It's up there!"

"Humph!"

A cold voice sounded from behind, and a karate chop stunned the elementary school student. The familiar but unfamiliar voice appeared in Conan's ear just before he fainted.

"So it was you. Shinichi Kudo!"

The restroom fell silent again. Grabbing Conan by the back of his collar, "Segawa Taikei" gave the boy in his hand a haughty look and tiptoed out.

"I'm hungry again..."

"Want some cream puffs?"

A plate emerged from around the corner, the hand holding it remaining still. Then, the owner of the hand stepped out from behind the wall, and in the dim light, it was clear that the face was that of a certain missing old man.

"You made me eat cream puffs at the toilet entrance, how disgusting!"

"Segawa Tai-kei" rolled his eyes: "The morgue exploded?"

"It's all black from the explosion. The poor corpses are probably in the Pacific Ocean now."

Yuji Kudo squinted, his gaze fixed on Conan's face. He pinched the elementary school student's cheek with his hand, lifted it up, and examined it carefully.

"So that's why they didn't tell me where I went back then, turns out it's only now..." (End of Chapter)