Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 478 A Heart-Stopping Handmade Project

The second 2016, May 31, Wednesday, 5 PM.

At that moment, Munakata, the head of the Criminal Investigation Division of the Beika Police Station, was on the phone with his daughter, Kotomi…

"Are you playing with the Junior Detective Club again?"

"Okay, okay, it's about doing crafts together... I understand, be careful."

"By the way, Mihana Park hasn't been repaired yet after the last explosion... Oh, go to Hulu Lake Park, be careful not to get too close to the water."

"That boy with glasses isn't going, right? Hmm, that's good..."

Munakata also noticed that his daughter had matured a lot after playing with those children—although the Junior Detective Club members were theoretically two years younger than Kotomi, they were inexplicably mature and remained calmer than most detectives when faced with murder cases…

Therefore, Zong Fang followed the director's advice and relinquished some authority, though he couldn't help but offer some words of advice.

and……

It should be relatively safer today since "that child" isn't here.

……

Meanwhile, Shiraishi received a phone call from Ai in the director's office.

When Shiraishi saw "sister" on the caller ID, he was a little nervous—Ai usually doesn't call him!
Just three days ago, at director Sakeki's memorial service, Shiraishi had defeated Vermouth and also won over Pisco, a veteran of the brewery...

"Hello, what's wrong?" Shiraishi asked directly after answering the phone.

"I feel a bit off today, like someone's watching me..." Ai said in a low voice.

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi became concerned—Ai's intuition is very strong, and it might really be an "alcohol allergy."

However, Shiraishi still said, "Don't worry, it's probably just that a lot of people have caught colds lately... How about the school close for a few days?"

"No! What if... people get suspicious?" Ai immediately rejected the idea.

"What did that brat say?" Shiraishi asked Conan for his opinion.

"He said to stop drawing blood, because the blood won't regenerate in time... Oh, you mean about this? He didn't find anything," Ai said calmly.

Shiraishi:……

"You guys are in the lab? You have some craft class on Wednesday, right?" Shiraishi asked speechlessly.

"Well, what's the use of that kind of thing... I've also handed over my and Edogawa's craft projects to Yoshida and the others," Ai said matter-of-factly.

Anyway, this week's craft project was completed in groups.

In a group of five, isn't it normal for two people to slack off?
“Okay… I’ll keep an eye on the lab’s alarm system,” Shiraishi reminded him.

Shiraishi's cell phone and Ai's lab alarm system are connected to the internet.

However, it wasn't needed this time; it was just an ordinary day, and apart from Conan being a little weak, nothing special happened...

If I had to mention something special, it would be the second day!
The Junior Detective Club has to hand in their craft project. Yesterday was their plaster sculpture class, and the craft teacher assigned the project to be done in groups.

Conan and Ai missed the trio's activity because of other commitments. The next day at school, Conan wanted to check on the results of their craft projects, but…

"Don't worry! This is absolutely a breathtaking work!"

"It's a good thing I went to Hulu Lake with Kotomi yesterday. Ai and Conan, it's such a shame you didn't go."

Just you wait and see!

The three little ones kept it a secret from him, calling it a "surprise." Their confident demeanor made Conan a little uneasy, but at that moment he hadn't realized how "shocking" their work was.

In the afternoon, the new art teacher finally came to collect the homework.

"The outstanding works selected in this class competition will be displayed in the school's exhibition room during the parent-teacher conference! Everyone participated, right? Nobody slacked off, right?"

Despite his middle-aged appearance, Vermouth inwardly sneered: Let me see! Are you going to leave your real fingerprints, or not participate in the assignment at all...?

Now that Conan's identity was clear, Vermouth lost interest in Teitan High School and instead infiltrated Teitan Elementary School.

She also tried taking fingerprints from Ai's spot, but...

No findings!

The fingerprints were only found during clay class, but with Vermouth's sharp eyes, she could naturally tell that it was from a fingerprint sleeve.

After wearing a fingerprint sleeve, because there is no sweat, fingerprints will not be left on smooth objects. However, fingerprints from the fingerprint sleeve will be left on easily deformable objects.

These kinds of props are easy to spot in a formal investigation; they can only fool simple time clocks.

However, Vermouth did not give up and instead used a specially formulated plaster. She was confident that as long as Ai did it, the complex marks left on the plaster could be extracted, and then, as long as the influence of the outer fingerprint sleeve was eliminated, the fingerprints inside could be drawn!

As a formal member of the organization, Sherry's fingerprints were naturally kept on file within the organization...

Each group of students took turns presenting their work to the whole class, and Vermouth patiently waited... until finally it was the Junior Detectives' turn!

The three little ones swaggered forward. Conan pretended to be interested, while Ai... didn't even bother to act, keeping her head down and remaining silent in the back—Ai's "alcohol allergy" was acting up at this moment; she couldn't quite put her finger on what was wrong, she just felt uncomfortable.

The artwork was then held by Yuan Tai, with a cloth covering it for added mystery.

"Is this the work of the five of you?" Vermouth said with a smile.

"Yes! Teacher, it's an amazing piece of work!" Genta continued to boast.

"Yeah, the teacher is really looking forward to it." Vermouth's smile turned a little sinister.

Just then, Mitsuhiko swiftly untied...

The plaster sculpture beneath the cloth was, in fact, a...face? A mask?
The stark white plaster cast then revealed the features of a man, so lifelike it was almost uncanny!
The man's terrified expression seemed to come alive, and a dent could be seen on his forehead...

Conan:! ! !
Belmode:......

The bullet hole from the 9mm bullet—Vermouth confirmed the nature of the dent at first glance.

and……

Vermouth examined the details of the "pale face" closely—well, as a master of disguise, Vermouth could say with certainty…

This thing was definitely made using a human face mold!
"We'll name this 'Despair'!"

"How was it, teacher? Did it give you a Picasso-esque 'The Scream' feeling?"

"This can definitely be exhibited, right?" The three little ones looked at Vermouth with their innocent, wide eyes...

Vermouth was shocked, even imagining the three brats having a "happy time" copying faces off corpses. She wanted to ask—whose subordinates were these three brats? Did they ever consider joining a criminal organization? Our Raven Legion desperately needed talent like you…

"Hey, where did you three come from..." Although Conan didn't have Vermouth's professional "face-playing" skills, he could tell that this was definitely not a fake.

"Ah! It's Uncle Merri!"

At that moment, a little boy stood up, pointed at the word "despair" in surprise, and shouted.

"Merry? You know this person?" Conan quickly asked him to confirm.

"Huh? Really... such a person exists?" Upon hearing this, Mitsuhiko suddenly became a little scared.

"Could that really be... an out-of-body experience?" Genta almost dropped [Despair] on the ground, but thankfully Ai calmly caught it.

“Uncle Merri is my neighbor… He seems to have disappeared recently, and his mother is still looking for him,” the boy who stood up said.

Ai had already taken out her phone, taken a picture of the "despair," and sent it to her "brother."

Conan quickly asked Mitsuhiko, "How exactly was this made?"

"Ahem! This class is now free time, everyone go out and have fun... You guys stay behind." Vermouth looked at Conan helplessly.

To prevent Kudo from being exposed, Vermouth had to kick everyone else out of the classroom first.

"actually……"

Mitsuhiko then demonstrated how this thing was made through his actions.

Mitsuhiko returned to his seat and took out a strange "metal plate" from his bag...

There is a complete human face indentation on this "metal plate", as if it was pressed out by a stamping machine!
That's right...

From a manual work perspective, this "despair" is actually a bit like cheating—it was directly rubbed out using a found metal plate.

"Where did this metal...aluminum plate come from?" Conan knew as soon as he took it—it was an aluminum plate, very light.

“We found it yesterday at Hulu Lake Park… by the lake.” Mitsuhiko’s face also turned pale at this point.

When the children first saw this thing, they were a little scared, after all, it looked so realistic. But they quickly prepared themselves mentally like they were approaching science – this must be a work of art!
Otherwise, what? It can't be something like... "dirty stuff," can it?

So the three little ones, along with Kotomi, had a sudden inspiration and used this "found craft" to create a plaster craft project for their class.

But now some people are saying that there really is someone who looks exactly like this?
Is it...

Is it really an out-of-body experience related to this?
……

Meanwhile, Shiraishi, having seen Ai's text message, called the Life Safety Division.

"Hello, this is Shiraishi. Has anyone reported a missing person recently? Yes, a young man... Hmm, transfer the case file to the Criminal Investigation Division." Shiraishi confirmed that there really was a missing person report.

The disappearance of an adult male like this, without any evidence of murder, cannot be transferred to a criminal case.

Then Shiraishi called Munakata to his office.

……

Soon after, detectives from the Beika Police Station brought Meri's mother to Teitan Elementary School.

“That’s right! This is Shang Yan! Where is Shang Yan? Have you found him?” Mrs. Merri asked anxiously.

"Don't rush... Mrs. Merri, let me take you to rest for a while..." Yuan helped Mrs. Merri away while giving Yamada a wink.

Yamada then called back to the station to report, and after receiving the news, Munakata formally applied to Chief Shiraishi to launch a salvage and search operation in Hulu Lake!

“Then let’s start the salvage operation… We’ll deploy our own people first, and if we don’t have enough manpower, we can apply for assistance from charitable rescue organizations,” Shiraishi said while looking at his phone.

Zong Fang didn't think the director was being rude, because he knew the director was probably still looking at the photos of the aluminum plates and plaster.

Although there is a lack of rigorous logical connection between "finding an aluminum plate with a human face printed on it by the lake" and "the body being in the lake," however...

Try anything, even if it seems hopeless!
After all, no one can explain where this aluminum plate came from.

Both Shiraishi and Munakata noticed in the photo that there was a groove on the forehead of the face that looked like a bullet hole.

Therefore, they all understood that if the metal plate truly reflected Mr. Merri's current condition, then he was probably in grave danger.

If we were to look for a place around the location where the aluminum plates were found that could be a "possible hiding place", the most suspicious place would of course be Hulu Lake itself!

However, it was precisely because of this lack of logic that Baishi did not ask the head office for help—he couldn't bring himself to say that he had found an aluminum plate near Hulu Lake that appeared to have the face of the deceased printed on it, and therefore requested the head office to send people to help retrieve it from the lake.

……

Meanwhile, after reporting to the administration, Yamada also inquired about the situation from Principal Uematsu and Ms. Kobayashi.

Unfortunately, neither of them could explain the current situation, only knowing that "the children discovered 'this' because of their craft class assignment."

"By the way, what about Nakajima, the craft teacher?" Yamada asked, puzzled.

While the principal and homeroom teacher are also targets for inquiry, the most relevant teacher is probably the craft teacher.
"Um... we couldn't find him just now, does Mr. Kobayashi know?" Uematsu asked, puzzled.

"No, I haven't seen it since I called the police..." Xiaolin was also puzzled.

Yamada seemed somewhat concerned upon hearing this, but...

Looking at the "pale plaster face," Yamada secretly shuddered—there were too many things to worry about, and that Nakajima-sensei didn't seem to have any direct connection to the case...maybe he was too cowardly and ran away?
Vermouth did indeed run away...

But of course, it's not because I'm timid!
However, she was only using a temporary identity and had no intention of staying as Nakajima for a long time.

Naturally, after inevitably attracting the attention of the police, he simply ran away!
Although ordinary police officers probably wouldn't find any flaws, this is Beika Town after all, and Vermouth is afraid of attracting Shiraishi Guro's attention.

Then, with the help of the three children and Kotomi's testimony, the search team focused on dredging the lake near the "discovery site".

Although it lacks logic, however...

Blind cat actually stumbled upon a dead mouse!

Whether it was good luck or the experience and efficiency of the civilian salvage team in Beika Town, they found Meiri Naohiko's body before dark.

Because the body had been submerged in the lake, it was severely decomposed. However, a hole could still be seen in the forehead, and the clothing matched the description given by Mrs. Merri when she reported the incident, which stated that Merri was wearing the last garment she had been wearing.

(End of this chapter)