Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 457 Underwater Restaurant
"Hey...where are you guys going?" Xiaobaihe was halfway through cooking when she saw everyone rushing out.

"Sorry, something came up..."

"I won't be home for dinner tonight."

"Next time I will definitely..."

Sayuri:......

She was used to it; her father often did this. She just didn't expect that with so many people eating at home today, not a single one of them would suddenly leave.

……

In Dongdu Bay, there is a "Crystal Restaurant" that has been completed and will soon open.

This soon-to-open "Crystal Restaurant" is located in Dongdu Bay.

It's not just a pseudo-water structure connected by a "big pier," but a magnificent super-large building that's almost the size of a stadium!
Not only is it some distance from the shore and accessible only by cable car, but there is also an underwater section that cannot be seen. It is said that the main body of the restaurant is also underwater, allowing diners to enjoy their meals surrounded by the ocean and schools of fish.

The owner of this restaurant is none other than Asahi Katsuyoshi, and the operator hired by Asahi Katsuyoshi is none other than Sawaki Kohei...

According to the information Shiraishi received, the next attack is about to occur right here, right now!

So Shiraishi and the others hurriedly set off and arrived at the Crystal Restaurant, without even having time to explain to Sayuri, who was cooking.

"This crystal restaurant..." Shiraishi exclaimed upon seeing the crystal restaurant.

"It is indeed very luxurious, and... very artistic." Shiratori said, but still gave Shiraishi a strange look—"Very luxurious" is not something you should be so impressed with, is it?

Shiraishi continued, "It's really asymmetrical in every way. If you invite Moriya Teiji to dinner here, he'll have to jump into the sea before he even finishes the appetizers."

Everyone:...

No one reacted to Shiraishi's lame jokes.

"Of course, Moriya Teiji might not even get a chance to be served the appetizer. After all, he also has a 'two' in his name, and he might just be killed by Sawaki Kohei," Shiraishi added.

The atmosphere grew even colder.

Megure grinned and said, "Speaking of which, Sawaki and Moriya are both Beika people, right?"

You people from Mihua are truly a chaotic bunch, like immortals in a tangled mess...

Mori then asked anxiously, "Chief Shiraishi, you just said the murderer is Sawaki Kohei... What exactly happened?"

"I don't really know the specifics, but..." Shiraishi said, glancing to the side.

The Mikasa Police Department had not yet had time to report the specific details of the case to Shiraishi, but out of trust, Shiraishi had already made arrangements to "assume the result is correct".

Following Bai Shi's gaze, you can see a luxury car parked over there.

At this moment, the people inside also came out...

The Mihua Police Station staff drive luxury cars to and from get off work, and there are only two of them.

And now, the one stepping out is none other than Daisuke Kobe.

"Chief, the arrest and rescue are underway. Deputy Chief Murasakibara has just led the mobile unit members onto the speedboat and is approaching this artificial floating island," Kobe said with an air of elite competence.

While on the way, Shiraishi had already ordered Murasakibara to immediately bring the mobile unit to the scene to help control the situation.

Unlike Miwako Kobe, Daisuke Kobe is not naive or innocent at all.

Looking at the luxury car and the young man addressed as "Chief," Inspector Megure felt a little embarrassed—the Beika Police Department really was full of hidden talents.

"Who's inside now?" Shiraishi asked to confirm.

"The restaurant is still in its soft opening phase, with only the owner, Katsuyoshi Asahi, and his friends... food critic Minoru Nishina, foreign journalist Peter Ford, photographer Eiaki Shishido, model Nana Koyama, and... Kohei Sawaki, who works for Katsuyoshi Asahi," Daisuke Kobe said knowingly. (Shishi sounds like "meat")
"These people... besides Officer Shiratori's 'three,' Detective Mouri's 'five,' and the little detective's 'one,' is everyone together?" Shiraishi nodded and asked.

According to the criminal's logic, "仁" is obviously "two", the foreigner Ford is "four", "宍" is "six", "奈奈" is "seven" (a Japanese homonym), "公" is "eight", and "旭" is "nine"...

"Wait, why do you suspect Ze Mu? He's just a bartender..." Mori immediately asked.

Kobe then looked at Shiraishi, clearly seeking instructions. Shiraishi nodded and said, "It seems Detective Kobe has found a breakthrough... then please explain it to us."

"Actually, I didn't find the breakthrough; I was just investigating along the lines of the breakthrough proposed by the chief." Kobe didn't seem like a humble person, but he said it very modestly.

"The breakthrough I found?" Bai Shi was also taken aback when he heard this - you didn't learn about interpersonal relationships in Interpol, did you?
“That’s right. I heard about the chief’s thoughts from Detective Gen… First, the killer’s real target is likely more than one; second, the real target includes Hiroki Tsuji; third, the killer is likely among the digital users; fourth, the killer has recently experienced a major upheaval…”

Kobe paused here, then continued, "So, as long as we first identify 'all the people the Mori detective knows, from one to nine,' as suspects, then investigate the relationships between all the suspects, find out who has a grudge against the multiple targets, and then confirm whether the people who match the targets have recently lost any relatives or friends, or been diagnosed with a serious illness at the hospital... we can basically identify the murderer!"

Everyone:? ? ?
Apart from Shiraishi, everyone else looked at him with suspicion.

That sounds reasonable, but the problem is...

How did you conduct your investigation?
The first step, "identifying the people Kogoro knows whose names contain numbers," was already extremely difficult—even Kogoro himself couldn't confirm them and was prone to forgetting things!
The next step is to investigate the relationships between them and identify any overlap in their hostile relationships...

How many police officers would that require?
Even if the Mihua Department called all the staff who were off duty back to work overtime, it would be impossible to do so, right?
"How exactly... was the investigation conducted?" Megure asked, expressing his desire to learn.

"Specifically?" Kobe was taken aback at first, then proceeded to demonstrate—he adjusted his glasses and calmly said, "Shusko, hacked into Kogoro Mouri's phone and all his social media accounts... Ugh!"

gross profit:……

Kobe was speaking when he was suddenly kicked from behind by Shimo, almost falling to his knees, but Shimo helped him up: "I'm sorry, everyone, he's talking nonsense... It's all because we did a thorough investigation, and his family has a lot of manpower, so we have more clues!"

Everyone:...

Hmm, it seems the investigation was conducted quite clearly.

Ultimately, what was needed was manpower and some "gray areas of privacy," both of which Kobe could provide. In short, these people were "screened out." Because of the naming conventions of the eastern island nation, coupled with the method of identifying criminals based on names containing the numbers one to nine, it was actually quite crude; even characters like "仁" (Jin) and "公" (Kou) could be included. Furthermore, Mori, as a detective, knew many people, so after the first screening, over a hundred people met the criteria!

This makes it more difficult and requires a huge amount of work to investigate their network of relationships and find overlapping points, but in the face of "money power," "workload" is the least valuable thing.

Furthermore, the ability to access communication records without a warrant allowed them to quickly identify Sawaki Kohei among them...

"This guy not only has a grudge against Nana Oyamachi, but also against other people like Hiroki Tsuji, Katsuyoshi Asahi, and Nen Nishina," Shima said simply. As for how he knew, don't ask, it would be impolite to ask too much!
"What level of hatred?" Megure didn't ask how he knew, but specifically asked this question.

After all, when the police solve a case, they pay a lot of attention to the "motive," and most of the time they find the criminals by looking at the "motive."

"We discovered that Mr. Sawaki had been in a car accident two months ago. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured, but unfortunately, he hit his head. Furthermore, according to his recent medical records, Mr. Sawaki has been diagnosed with a taste disorder."

"Although the driver fled the scene of the accident, shortly after the accident, Nana Oyama's car had a repair record, and Nana Oyama had a party with others that night. The location and time of the accident also match her route and time home."

“To treat this as a traffic accident, we need to supplement legal evidence, but it’s sufficient for the investigation…” Zhimo said at this point.

This answers two questions—why Sawaki harbored murderous intent towards Koyamachi, and why he exhibited a clear tendency to take revenge on society…

For an ordinary person, perhaps losing money could make up for it.

However, Sawaki is a sommelier, and his "taste disorder" has essentially sealed his career. He clearly doesn't want money, and even after learning that the hit-and-run driver was Oyamachi, he showed no intention of pressing charges...

"At a gathering a while ago, Tsuji Hiroki made some rather inappropriate jokes about Sawaki's profession. As for Nishina Nyan and Asahi Katsuyoshi... well, as a food critic and a big capitalist, there's no need to say more." Shima glanced at Kobe as he spoke—Shima sometimes wanted to kill this rich man.

As a sommelier and an employer of Katsuyoshi Asahi, it's no surprise that Sawaki would have reasons to resent his boss. As for food critics, they make a living by criticizing chefs and sommeliers, so it's normal for them to have grievances.

Normally, this kind of "resentment" wouldn't be a big deal.

However, Ze Mu is now in a state of desperation and is going to make a big move, so he has made them all his targets for killing!
Just then, Shiraishi's phone rang.

"Hello, this is Shiraishi."

"Chief, we've approached the Crystal Restaurant from the sea. Should we board..."

BOOM——

An explosion was heard from both the cell phone receiver and the sea surface!

Fortunately, the sound was muffled, but it did create a large splash – indicating that the explosion occurred underwater. Murasakibara and the others who were traveling by boat were startled, but they were probably not injured.

At this moment, Murasakibara and the mobile team's ship were in front of Shiraishi and the others, blocked by the huge ground-based building in front of them.

"What happened?" Shiraishi asked hurriedly.

"Chief, we have no casualties, but... it seems there was an explosion in the restaurant. The explosion occurred underwater, and seawater is probably flooding in now!" Murasakibara said hurriedly.

"How good are you guys at swimming?" Shiraishi didn't immediately send them into the water for the rescue, since the mobile team might not be able to swim.

After the explosion, Matsumoto immediately contacted the security department.

Previously, because there was no evidence and it was almost just "the speculation of the Miho Department," it was impossible to call for support.

Shiraishi could make the decision to send the mobile unit from the Security Division of the headquarters directly, but Matsumoto couldn't command the Security Department of the Headquarters!

"We brought several diving suits and have already started trying them out in the water," Murasakibara said quickly.

"Prioritize rescuing people, be careful of secondary explosions," Shiraishi instructed.

Meanwhile, Shiraishi walked toward the small pier leading to the Crystal Restaurant.

This small pier is part of the Crystal Restaurant's own facilities; it's not for docking boats, but rather a station for boarding and alighting the cable car.

"Chief Shiraishi, there was just an explosion, the cable car should be out of service..." Shiratori quickly reminded him upon seeing this.

The restaurant's power supply will likely be damaged after the explosion, and even if it does rely entirely on the dock for power, the tracks could also be damaged...

"No electricity needed." Shiraishi knew this principle, after all, even elevators are not safe during an explosion, let alone cable cars.

but……

At that moment, Shiraishi took off his shoes and jumped from the embankment to the dock below!
Everyone was shocked and rushed forward to check, only to find that Shiraishi had landed directly on the cable car tracks...

Not to mention the difference in height between here and below, which is three or four stories, and... Bai Shi actually landed on the tracks? And these tracks are barely wider than his foot, yet Bai Shi landed on them and still remained stable?
Shiraishi is a skilled fighter, strong, and agile... Everyone knows that, but it was only then that people realized how good Shiraishi's balance was. Given Shiraishi's weight, he should be at a disadvantage when walking on this kind of "balance rope," but at this moment, Shiraishi was already "walking like a cat"!

Because it was just a narrow track, Shiraishi couldn't run on it, but even walking like a cat, he was still moving extremely fast.

Soon, the white stone was moving further and further away from the shore, and closer and closer to the Crystal Restaurant...

Shiratori and the others didn't sit idle either. After running down, they immediately asked the dumbfounded administrator for the keys and started the two speedboats parked next to them!
Both Shiratori and Kobe, being wealthy, drive these kinds of cars, saving Conan the trouble of showing off his Hawaiian technical school diploma.

"Hey... Conan, don't go up there..." Ran tried to stop him, but it was too late.

Conan secretly boarded the speedboat driven by Kobe, and surprisingly, no one else noticed immediately.

"Ah! There's a child, Kobe, let's go back first!" Shima said hurriedly.

"I don't have time. You have high hopes for him," Kobe said matter-of-factly.

"you!"

"I will protect myself!" Conan quickly said—which pleased him.

The group split into two boats and headed towards the restaurant.

Although the speedboat wasn't as fast as Baishi, the distance wasn't far, so it was only a few minutes slower...

(End of this chapter)