Conan: Science Cartoonist Kudo Yuji

"It looks like we've got new intelligence now."

Heiji Hattori returned to his office with a stack of notes. He split the notes into three piles, placing one pile in front of himself and tossing the rest in front of Yuuji and Conan.

The only sound in the office was the rustling of papers. As the transcripts dwindled, the three men gained a better understanding of the case.

"Ta-da. Minister."

Otaki's voice came from the doorway. He pushed the door open, looked at everything inside, and handed Hattori all the car information related to the car crash into the sea.

"Okay, and make three cups of coffee while you're at it: one with sugar and no milk, one with double sugar, and one with milk and coffee."

In just over ten minutes, the three of them put down their pens, grabbed their coffee, and lay back on the sofa, the steam carrying a faint fragrance into their nostrils.

"I never expected something like this to happen at school."

Heiji Hattori remained silent with a stern face, while Conan also kept quiet and looked at Yuuji.

"Can this situation be grounds for conviction?"

"No, she didn't do any hands-on practice."

Yuji Kudo tapped the case analysis he had written.

“Ms. Uchitake’s child lost his life in the pool because of the trio. As revenge, she took some blood from an HIV-positive student at the school and added it to the trio’s water bottle during class PE.”

"Why is that? This disease can't be transmitted by drinking the blood of a patient, right..." Conan frowned. Although not all high school students would know such a basic question, as the top high school in Osaka, how could the students at Kaifang Academy not know this?

“Five years ago, our head of headquarters Hattori cancelled the HIV transmission information course in Osaka schools.” Kudo Yuji exhaled a breath of hot air from his coffee.

Because of the lack of a clear-cut jurisdiction in Osaka, coupled with Japan's long-standing social problems, the mixed environment there led to a sharp rise in HIV infection rates. Hattori Heiji, fearing this would cause strong social unrest, directly canceled this popular science education on easily transmitted diseases.

“Students of this age, even if you tell them it’s nothing, they will subconsciously stay away from the infected person.” Hattori Heiji held his notebook in his hand: “The three suspected of being infected have gone from being the weak to the strong at school. If anyone treats them violently again, the two boys will cut their palms with knives.”

"By this time, Mr. Uchitake had already resigned, right?"

Conan looked at the students' evaluation of the trio. It seemed that Kamisuke was the first student to fall into mental problems, constantly panicking that he was ill, and eventually left the school.

"The new homeroom teacher had visited the home of Shangzhu several times. Later, he was expelled from school after being framed by Songgui. By then, Shangzhu and his mother had already died."

"This homeroom teacher is strange. After arriving at the class, he kept making home visits." Yuuji pushed a record in front of the two of them and circled the key points in red pen.

"The children living in that area said that Shangzhu's mother once knelt at her door and begged the new homeroom teacher not to make any more home visits, but the teacher still persisted in coming."

"It's really strange. This man doesn't seem like the kind of passionate teacher you'd expect. Why would a teacher who can't even remember his other students after starting work be staring at the assistant teacher..."

Conan looked at Yuuji.

"I'll have someone investigate." (End of Chapter)