After becoming invincible, start having fun in the world

Chapter 357 Techniques
Seemingly finding Kogoro Mouri's deduction increasingly strange, Takahashi Mubai stood aside with his arms crossed: "Besides, according to Detective Mouri's deduction, Mr. Sato was strangled to death, so wouldn't it be enough to just check whose hands have strangulation marks?"

After saying that, Takahashi Mubai stretched out his hands and showed them to everyone. His fingers were slender like those of a pianist, white and bony.

To verify the truth of his words, Takahashi Muhaku rolled up his sleeves, exposing his wrists as well.

Indeed, there were no marks left by the ropes!
“That makes sense. It seems that Mr. Takahashi is indeed not the murderer.” Kogoro Mouri stroked his chin and nodded in agreement.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately raised their hands to prove their innocence.

However, none of them had any obvious marks on their hands.

The only exception was Kogoro Mouri himself; the slight blush left on his face when he turned the lock on the locked room door was within the normal range.

In an instant, the scene fell silent.

The current situation is completely baffling.

Could it be that no one was the murderer, and that Sato Seizawa committed suicide by strangling himself?

Just thinking about it makes Kogoro Mouri want to laugh; it's practically an insult to one's intelligence.

On the other side, Conan fell into deep thought.

'No. Could it be that no one is the murderer?'

'Impossible, there must be clues they haven't discovered!'

Conan glanced at the people around him, then tiptoed into Sato Seizawa's room and examined the crime scene once more.

The French windows were still wide open, and a cold wind howled in, causing Conan to tighten his coat.

Upon reaching the balcony, Conan carefully examined the handrail pillars and discovered some clues he hadn't noticed before—before this, everyone had been drawn to the rope marks on the handrail and subconsciously assumed that the body had been tied to the handrail and thrown over the railing.

However, there is actually a small piece of broken tile at the bottom of the handrail where it connects to the ground.

It's really small, maybe only two fingers wide.

Conan reached out and touched the tiles, discovering that the edges of other tiles didn't seem to have been beveled, and they felt somewhat sharp to the touch.

In an instant, a flash of lightning struck Conan's mind.

He now knows how the murderer disposed of the body without being at the scene!
But that's only one aspect.

The evidence is insufficient to convict someone solely based on how the body was disposed of.

The biggest question right now is that Sato Seizawa was clearly strangled with a rope, but there were no rope marks on anyone's hands.

As we all know, forces are reciprocal, and the force that can strangle a person will inevitably leave something on the killer's body.

It is possible that the murderer used some means, such as covering the area with clothes or a handkerchief beforehand, to avoid leaving any traces.

However, this actually leaves an even bigger flaw – as anyone who has used hemp rope to kill someone knows, most hemp ropes are not oil-soaked, and many easily detached fragments will remain on the object they come into contact with.

At this point, simply finding the object that had been in contact with the rope residue could lead to the discovery of the murderer.

Conan was thinking the same thing at that moment.

Aside from the entertainment room, there didn't seem to be any trash cans in the villa.

In other words, the murderer only had three ways to destroy the cushion.

'Hide it on your body, hide it at the scene, discard it outside the window and let the wind and snow bury it.'

After his thoughts became somewhat clear, Conan began searching around.

His first suspect was the carpet, but he didn't find the traces he expected.

After searching and eliminating options such as carpets, curtains, and sheets, Conan turned his attention to the wardrobe at the entrance of the suite, which was used to store bathrobes.

He tiptoed to the wardrobe and gently opened the door. A strong fragrance wafted out, causing Conan to frown.

Despite feeling uncomfortable, Conan went over to check the pajamas.

They returned empty-handed.

Did I miscalculate?

Conan's expression wasn't good, but he had no choice but to leave the room and return to the others.

At this moment, everyone was still arguing, but the topic had already started to diverge because they couldn't find any clues.

Sato Seiyu was trying to calm the high school girl down, while the Matsushima sisters were grumbling and cursing.

"I shouldn't have come to this awful place this time." Matsushima Wanxing looked annoyed and tired. "Not only is the bridge broken, but so many people have died. Ugh, this place is really old. There are even ants crawling on my bag in the closet. It's ridiculous. I don't want to stay here for another second!"

This unintentional complaint, however, revealed Conan's doubts.

A flash of inspiration, like a giant hammer, shattered all doubts and connected the clues.

Almost instinctively, Conan raised his watch and pressed it lightly.

"Huh? Here we go again~~"

Kogoro Mouri felt a sharp pain in his neck and then lost consciousness.

Conan quickly used his seemingly superhuman height to carry the fallen Mori to the wall, then hid himself behind the corner.

At this moment, everyone seemed to have suddenly developed an eye disease. The huge Conan instantly disappeared in their eyes, and Mori's obviously strange fainting was also interpreted as an active skill.

"It's 'Sleeping Kogoro'!" the high school girl suddenly exclaimed. "I know that! Whenever Detective Mouri falls into this state, he can quickly solve cases and find key clues."

"what?!"

Everyone was shocked.

“That’s right.” Conan’s voice, after being changed by the voice changer, became the same as Kogoro Mouri’s, and slowly came out.

"I already know who the murderer is. It's you! The painter Takahashi Muhaku!"

"What!" Takahashi Mubai took a step back, his face grim.

"That's utter nonsense. I clearly stated it before."

"Hmph, it's true that there are no rope marks on your hands, but who says the victim was strangled to death!"

These words struck like a bolt from the blue, causing Takahashi Mobai to take another half step back.

"What do you mean? Isn't it obvious? Could it be that he was stabbed to death?"

"That's not the case. If I'm not mistaken, Mr. Sato Chengze died of asphyxiation from a foreign object, and the real murder weapon is something buried far away in the snow, right?"

"Uh"

"The murder weapon is the fixative spray you used to spray paint!" Conan revealed the truth: "Mr. Sato was not strangled, but suffocated by the fixative spray you sprayed into his trachea."

"When you were drawing before, you mentioned the properties of this fixative to Conan. Once it forms a film, it can protect the image from scratches."

"And right there in Sato Seizawa's wardrobe, I smelled a strong odor of fixative!"

"At first, just as you wished, I thought it was the smell of fragrant insect repellent, but why is it only in this room?"

"The answer is that this is actually residue left behind from the fixative spray you applied when you were pressing Sato Chengze down with your bathrobe!"

"Sato Seizawa's real cause of death was asphyxiation from a foreign object, and the rope was just a cover-up you left for him after his death!"

(End of this chapter)