Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"The banquet hall is empty. Neither Sayoko nor that fake is here!"

Rushing into the banquet hall, Conan saw a group of people immersed in joy. The guests present were not saddened by the death of the Segawa brothers. Perhaps a few individuals were uneasy, especially a few whose expressions tightened when they saw Conan appear, but that was about it.

After running around the venue for a while and not finding his daughter in the corner, Conan hurriedly grabbed the waiter who was serving drinks. He learned that the famous detective Kudo had taken his daughter to the deck to enjoy the night breeze. He then quickly informed the two people upstairs via communicator before running out again.

"Conan-kun? What are you doing here!"

Ms. Nohara, dressed in an evening gown, paused for a moment upon seeing Conan's hurried expression as she stepped out of the elevator. She was still feeling guilty, having just exchanged information with her superior in the elevator about an assassin disguised as Segawa Shoichi roaming the area. Meanwhile, the superior delivering the food circled around to the right, pushing a cart of wine towards the banquet hall under Conan's watchful gaze.

"Detective Kudo! The Detective Kudo from this afternoon was a fake too! Sayoko was taken away by her."

Conan hurriedly pressed the elevator button and saw Ms. Nohara turn around and squeeze back. He placed his hand on his belt with some distrust.

"Why did you come along? Wouldn't it have been better to take some photos in the banquet hall for the news?"

"I follow detectives, and from what you've said, Miss Sayoko is in danger right now, isn't she? Having more people around can be a great help."

"...If you don't keep it to yourself, you could be of great help."

“You are definitely not ordinary children.” Miss Nohara pulled out a three-shot pocket pistol from beside her leg and examined it: “I must find out about the Segawa family. Who killed those brothers?”

It's clear that the person who killed Segawa Taikei wasn't one of their own police officers, yet their superiors said they arranged for one of their own to kill him to cover for her killing Segawa Masakazu. So what's really going on?

The elevator reached the first floor, and the two returned to the deck where they had discovered Conan during the day. Since it was dinner time and the deck pool was closed, there were hardly any tourists around except for the cleaning staff.

"over there!"

Conan, who had activated the night vision function on his glasses, immediately pointed to a dark figure running towards the stern of the ship, seemingly carrying someone on his shoulder.

"I'll go!" Miss Nohara sprinted forward, running quite fast in her high heels, and caught up with the boat when it was about halfway up the boat.

"Give Miss Sayoko back, then kneel down obediently and take off your disguise mask!"

With the pistol pointed at "Shinichi Kudo" in front of her, Ms. Nohara moved aside slightly and noticed out of the corner of her eye that Conan had also arrived.

"According to Higashino, disguise and infiltration are the specialties of the police. The Tokyo Public Security Bureau only knows how to change into a fake identity." Conan walked out from the side of Ms. Nohara, looked at the fake person with his face on the other side, and Sayoko being carried, and turned back halfway.

"I knew something was off about you, but whose side are you on? Are you with the Americans?" "What are you talking about, Conan? The target right now should be that person pretending to be Detective Kudo."

Miss Nohara's eyes widened, wondering why this kid had suddenly turned against her and sided with the fakes.

"No, no, no, it wasn't you, Miss Nohara. It was Mr. Asuka who's been following us since just now. You forgot to take off your name tag."

Another dark figure slowly appeared in the dim light from where they had just run. It was a face that looked passionate, but somehow felt awkward.

"Mr. Tsuruno, no, I should address you as Mr. Tsuruno, the Director of the Foreign Trade Division of the Economic Section of the Prime Minister's Office."

Shinichi Kudo looked at Tsuruno, who was wearing a forced smile, and exposed the ugly truth behind his mask, then ripped the mask off.

"Huh?" Conan was taken aback.

"Hmm?" Tsuruno frowned.

"Dad?!" Miss Nohara blinked in disbelief. "How could it be you?"

"Eh? Dad?" Sayoko, who was leaning on Yuuji's shoulder and looking back, was pressed back down by Mr. Nohara, and then looked at Tsuruno.

"Tch, so it's not that idiot prime minister who's in charge? I thought he'd pay a little more attention to his older brother."

Tsuruno spat and clapped his hands, calling out more than a dozen people dressed as waiters from the side.

"It turns out that we were worried you wouldn't take the bait, so we deliberately didn't restrict the recruitment conditions for waiters. As a result, quite a few of you actually came."

He tossed Sayoko aside, grabbed Conan and used him as a cushion for the girl, then put his hands on his hips as two helicopters with spotlights flew up from under the cruise ship, leaving all the light on Yuji and Tsuruno.

"Yuji Kudo?" Tsuruno asked suspiciously.

"No, I am Hiroo Nohara."

He spread his arms out naturally, as if bathed in holy light, and the music for the protagonist's entrance played on the helicopter.

"Bullshit! You did the same thing at last year's conference! It was you!" (End of Chapter)