Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"The bathroom window is permanently sealed, and the security camera footage shows that Mr. Segawa Shoichi was probably murdered after entering the toilet. Could the murderer have been hiding in the toilet all along?"

On the ship, Officer Ikui stood in Segawa Shoichi's cabin, arranging for people to check the room while waving at the camera. Seeing the infrared device rotate with his hand, confirming it was still intact, he added...

“We were told when we boarded that, due to storage capacity issues, the cameras would only be turned on three hours before departure.”

Old Kudo continued, "If this bathroom isn't a locked-room mystery, then the murderer probably hid in this toilet before that."

Or perhaps they could enter the toilet in another way. To verify this hypothesis, a group of people lay prone around the toilet and patted everything, until a policeman noticed something was wrong.

"Strange."

Several people immediately crowded around, chattering, "What! What! What did you see?"

"Why is there not a single retainer in the ventilation duct of that toilet?"

Everyone looked up and saw that the ventilation duct opening, large enough to accommodate a thin person, was now bare, with only the decorative plastic cover around it remaining. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that the cover could be easily removed.

"Why don't some of you go up and check... the murderer shouldn't be inside anymore, right?"

The group looked at each other, and finally unanimously elected the police officer who was leading the group.

"If you're in danger, just shout and we'll come to your aid right away!"

Old Kudo confidently patted the policeman on the shoulder, then ordered several officers to carry their leader up. Sure enough, they acted swiftly, and within five seconds, Officer Ikui hit the ceiling.

"Who...whose subordinates are you?!"

...

"It looks like the uncles and the others have come down!"

Standing in front of the elevator on the next floor, Higashino tugged at Conan's sleeve, clutching his stomach where he had been punched hard, and told him to watch the elevator move.

"It's also possible that someone was using the elevator downstairs, which is why they went down."

Conan crossed his arms, and although he said that, he still checked his equipment so that he could react quickly if he encountered danger.

"Are you out of your mind? The elevator stopped on this floor after we came up. Now it went up and came down again. What does it mean if the people upstairs left?"

Higashino shuddered as he watched Conan slowly turn his head, then immediately stood at attention and said, "What Lord Edogawa said may not be without reason. I think it is indeed necessary to confirm it carefully. I will go first, and you will cover the rear."

"Ok?"

"That's true, that's a bit too much of a task for you. I'll lead the charge and cover the rear." "Won't that be tiring?"

"It's not hard at all, absolutely not hard at all!"

Higashino immediately pushed open the stairwell door and tiptoed up the stairs as if avoiding a villain. After three short steps, he stood at the entrance of the stairwell for Segawa Shoichi's VIP floor.

"It seems like this floor has been shut down, and the original guests have probably all been compensated by finding some decent rooms on the lower floors."

Conan placed his hand on the glass of the steel door and looked inside through the frosted glass. The entire floor was shrouded in darkness, with no light except for the rotating infrared camera.

"That camera is not only infrared, but also light-sensitive."

Conan interrupted Higashino, who was about to turn on his watch and shine the flashlight inside, and covered his wrist with his hand before making a shushing gesture at him.

“The Segawa brothers have just died. If they have someone behind them, they will definitely be restless and worried that the documents brought by Segawa Masakazu might be taken away by the police or secretary on the ship and handed over to someone else for safekeeping.”

"If that's the case, the older man would definitely be the first suspect, since he's the detective Segawa Shoichi invited to protect him..."

As soon as Dongye finished speaking, he noticed a dark figure rushing towards the two of them out of the corner of his eye. The figure seemed to be coming down from above, wielding a heavy axe and slashing down at their heads.

"careful!"

Higashino kicked Conan hard in the stomach, then threw two silver bullets from his pocket, which slammed into the stair railing. As the bullets exploded, the entire stairwell was filled with a gray smoke that blurred vision and brought tears to people's eyes.

"Ugh! You wretched brat!"

The axe cleaved horizontally and vertically incessantly, leaving trails in the air without smoke, which were quickly filled with the smoke that was still being ejected.

In an instant, just as all three were unable to open their eyes, following the man's shout, Conan quickly set up five soccer balls on his belt and then kicked them to block all of the man's escape routes.

"Snapped!"

"Snapped!"

The collision between the soccer ball and his body, and the shouts after being hit, all told him that he had hit the target. Conan breathed a sigh of relief and took a deep drag of tear gas during his breathing.

"Cough cough cough. Higashino? Higashino!"

【Why don’t you speak? 】

Did he just hear two collision sounds? (End of Chapter)