Conan: Chief of Rice Flower's Science Points

Chapter 584 Finding Two and a Half

"Alright, everyone, could you please tell Inspector Yamamura about Ms. Kano's interpersonal relationships, who she has had conflicts or arguments with on set?"

At Shiraishi's prompting, the village began its routine inquiry.

"This one……"

The director, cameraman, sound engineer... even the doorman's agent, all looked at each other, their expressions revealing a story.

Shiraishi wasn't surprised by their expressions. After all, Ms. Kano's behavior on set yesterday was a clear indication of what was going on, and these guys must have suffered quite a bit from it on a regular basis.

Shiraishi immediately looked at Akechi—this "one of their own," who had been on the set before, should be able to provide some useful clues.

After adjusting his glasses, Akechi said, "Well... it seems like all of you have had arguments with the victims, right? It would be best if you all spoke out clearly now."

After a long pause, director Hiruta spoke first: "I've known Gana for a long time. How should I put it? Maybe it's because of the sense of loss that comes with early fame, but she does have a bad temper."

"Director, it's come to this point, why are you still speaking so politely? That girl from Kano isn't just bad-tempered, she doesn't respect anyone at all. Even Ms. Yoko was targeted by her because of the billing order." Compared to Director Hiruda's "euphemism," cinematographer Michio Akashi had clearly been holding back a lot of grievances for a long time.

"In all my years in the industry, this is the first time I've seen such an arrogant actress. Not only has her acting not improved at all, but she also always tries to shift the blame onto others."

“Last time, I just gave her a low-angle shot as required by the script, and she made a huge fuss, saying that I deliberately wanted to film her wardrobe malfunction, asking me what my intentions were, and even deliberately ruining an important job I was going to have.”

Suddenly, Yamamura slapped his thigh: "So, Mr. Cameraman, you have quite a motive for murder."

Akashi quickly protested, "Officer, I'm innocent! If that's the case, then all the people at the scene have a motive to kill."

"Takada, didn't Kano deliberately spill coffee on your computer last time, causing you to lose all the audio you had worked on? In the end, she falsely accused you of delaying everyone's work schedule, causing you to get scolded by the production team. And Ms. Ayatsuji too..."

Ayatsuji, whose name was mentioned, paused for a moment: "Me? What happened to me?"

"Hey, Ms. Ayatsuji, do you still feel alright?" Takada, who was in charge of the sound system, asked. His voice was muffled, and he seemed to be an introverted person who didn't talk much.

"Honestly, even I can't stand it anymore. You're Mr. Daimon's manager, but Ms. Gana is always picking on you and deliberately making you do difficult things. It's just too much."

Faced with Takada's righteous indignation, Ayatsuji felt somewhat awkward and didn't know how to respond.

Shiraishi rubbed his head, feeling that it sounded like another melodramatic soap opera plot involving complicated relationships.

"Actually, we're all fine. The one who really suffers is Director Hiruda."

“Yes, yes.” Takada nodded in agreement with Akashi: “If she hadn’t thrown a tantrum and changed the script and character settings, your last work wouldn’t have been criticized so much.”

"That's all in the past."

Although director Hiruda tried to maintain a respectable image, a hint of regret appeared on his face when his previous work was mentioned.

The subsequent inquiries were all quite different, mostly recounting Ghana's arrogant and domineering past, which I won't go into too much detail about.

Although the extent varied, as cameraman Akashi said, all these people had a motive to kill Ghana.

Akashi suddenly seemed to remember something and said, "Speaking of which... I remember Mr. Daimon had an argument with her before, right? Where is Mr. Daimon?" She looked at Ayatsuji with a puzzled expression.

"Huh? Mr. Daimon... hasn't he arrived yet? But when I called him just now, no one answered." Ayatsuji said with some doubt.

"Is he still sleeping? Oh right! Speaking of which, we all have alibis, but if Mr. Daimon isn't here..." Akashi suddenly said.

“Mr. Akashi!” Ayatsuji interrupted him, somewhat annoyed.

Although Akashi didn't finish his sentence, his meaning was already quite clear.

"An alibi?" Yamamura was taken aback when he heard this.

“That’s right. Ghana called me for help earlier, and we turned on the recording function of the hidden camera. At that time, we saw the process of the ‘wild man’ breaking in at the villa over there…” Director Hiruda then stepped forward and said.

"'You' saw the whole thing? Does that mean everyone?" Yamamura quickly pressed for an answer.

"No, it was me who called Akashi to start the screen. Inspector Shiraishi was sleeping in the living room, so he was there too. When Inspector Shiraishi rushed out, Inspector Akechi and Detective Mori had already heard the noise and came down..." Hiruda described.

“Then let’s say that those who have no alibi are…” Yamamura said, about to look at the others.

“Wait! Officer Yamamura, even if we weren’t here then… we’re all here now!” Hiruda emphasized, while Akashi muttered quietly beside him, “Except for Mr. Daimon.”

"Huh? After that? Doesn't that mean you can kill someone, then take off your props and rejoin everyone?" Yamamura said very seriously.

“Impossible, it’s a twenty-minute drive between the two places!” Akashi said.

"Twenty minutes? But Inspector Shiraishi just said..." Yamamura said while flipping through the police officer's notebook—Shiraishi had just told him that he would arrive at the scene soon!

However, Akechi pointed speechlessly to the mountain stream beside him: "If you want to get to the scene in just a few minutes like Inspector Shiraishi, you need to jump over there."

Yamamura:……

Looking at the ten-meter-wide ravine, Shancun chuckled and said, "Alright, it seems unlikely that ordinary people would come here using Inspector Shiraishi's method... Let's block off the roads up and down the mountain and find that gatekeeper first!"

It was clear that the village had realized that the gate was the only suspect with the time to commit the crime.

"Alright, that's all for now. Everyone, go back and rest." After saying that, Yamamura muttered to himself, "Speaking of which... could there really be wild men?"

Shiraishi:……

"By the way..." Shiraishi said, "Just to be on the safe side, everyone should double-check their alibis when they get back, preferably down to the exact time, that is, at what point in time they were seen."

Upon hearing this, Mingzhi seemed to remember something, glanced at the camera in the room, and gave Shiraishi a smug smile.

"Hey! Who are you? Why are you grinning like an idiot at this scene? You're not allowed in either!" The villager shouted at the suspicious person he spotted.

Akechi: "...I am...the soon-to-be-appointed head of the First Investigation Division!" Akechi said angrily.

"Huh? How come I didn't know that other officers wanted... Inspector Akechi!" Yamamura was initially suspicious, but after carefully examining his identification, he immediately stood at attention and saluted.

He instinctively thought it referred to the Gunma Prefectural Police's First Investigation Division, but... it was the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, and their rank was one level higher than his!
Looking at this clueless detective, Mingzhi was furious and said in a bullying tone, "Are you from the non-professional team or the semi-professional team?" as if to say that only our noble professional team can represent the police of the Eastern Island Nation.

"Um... I passed the first-class exam... I think it was the professional group... Hehehe." Yamamura chuckled smugly.

wise:……

Having bullied himself with a face full of wisdom, he wisely chose to shut up.

At this moment, Akechi looked at Shiraishi with displeasure. He'd actually gone back to rest—didn't he intend to compete with me? Going back already? Bureaucratic style!
……

Back at the villa, since it was already morning, Shiraishi deliberately found an empty room to sleep in—because when he sleeps, he transforms into the appearance of a mere eight-year-old. It's fine that no one comes out at night and Shiraishi is alert, but after dawn, someone could come to the living room at any time!
Everyone assumed that Shiraishi was simply looking at the bright lights and didn't want to be disturbed while resting...

In contrast, Akechi and Yamamura spent the whole night searching the scene. Shiraishi could only think to himself, "It's normal for the adults to do more. I'm just an eight-year-old child. Of course, I need to get plenty of rest!"
Around noon, Shiraishi had just woken up and came out of his room when he saw Yamamura there. It seemed they were verifying everyone's alibis. Just then, Yamamura received a phone call...

"What?" Yamamura stood up in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Shiraishi frowned and asked, seeing his startled expression.

Upon hearing this, Yamamura, his face pale, covered the receiver and said, "Inspector Shiraishi, Mr. Daimon has been found, but..."

However, the bad news is that the person is already dead.

The "good news" is... not only did they find Mr. Gatekeeper, but they also found two and a half Mr. Gatekeepers!

Immediately, Baishi and Shancun arrived at the scene together.

Kogoro came along too, so Conan and Ran were basically one person accompanying the other...

The police officers drove the group down to the bottom of the ravine, and then the group walked to the scene ahead.

In the distance, Mingzhi was seen directing operations on-site...

Although his personality isn't likable, he's very serious about his work and stayed with me all night.

"How is the situation?" Shiraishi asked Akechi as he walked over.

Mingzhi merely gestured with his eyes in the direction of the corpse.

At the same time, Shiraishi looked at the corpse...

Hmm, two and a half gates.

When Ran, who was following behind Mori, saw the body, she suddenly screamed.

Upon seeing this, Mingzhi frowned, but didn't say much—after all, this was indeed quite impactful.

Although Xiaolan has seen countless corpses, the scene before her eyes still ranks in the top ten.

The corpse at the gate was broken in two at the waist, with the body part below and the legs above, and... the corpse's hands were raised high above its feet!

When Shiraishi saw the body, he noticed that the cut was very rough, with obvious signs of tool use, and that it must have been done after death. So he asked, "Can you determine the cause of death?"

"The preliminary judgment is cyanide poisoning." Mingzhi also realized that "cutting in half" was not the cause of death, and immediately made a determination of the cause of death.

"Could it be... that he committed suicide out of fear of punishment?" Yamamura said somewhat timidly from behind Kogoro.

Kogoro, his face grave, stared at the broken edge and said, "I'm afraid not."

Mingzhi nodded and said, "That's right. Based on the preliminary examination of the body, the time of death was probably between 3 pm and 6 pm yesterday... well earlier than when Miss Ghana was killed!"

"Three o'clock?" Shiraishi recalled that was roughly the time Mr. Daimon left after they finished going through the procedures yesterday. In other words, Mr. Daimon was killed within three hours of leaving the villa.
If the killer is the same person, then he killed the gatekeeper in the afternoon and then killed Ghana at midnight!
"No other traces were found at the scene. The body was probably thrown from the cliff above, but the condition of the body is a bit strange." Mingzhi didn't need to explain exactly what was strange; everyone could see it!
"Holding up his own feet with his hands? I don't know if the murderer had a perverse sense of humor or was deliberately interfering with the investigation..." Shiraishi shook his head at such a blasphemous act.

“However, this means we must consider the possibility of external attacks!” Kogoro said thoughtfully.

“Indeed, if Mr. Daimon isn’t the murderer either, then everyone in the crew has an alibi.” Yamamura nodded seriously.

Akechi seemed about to say something, but just then, Kogoro slapped his palm and exclaimed, "Ah! Right, those three Americans!"

That's right, speaking of which...

Although they had nothing to do with the film crew, those three people, disregarding motives, all had the means to commit the crime!
Since it's in the mountains, and the police blocked off the roads after they arrived, and no vehicles were found at the scene, it seems unlikely that the perpetrator was an outsider. However, there are three other people within the "effective area"...

At this point, Shiraishi deliberately said, "By the way, I've heard there are quite a few cults in the United States. It seems necessary to inquire about them... If we're going to interrogate Americans, Inspector Akechi should be quite good at it, right?"

wise:……

What's the reason?
If we're talking about cults, the island nation of Japan is pretty much the same, isn't it?

However, since Shiraishi said so, he couldn't very well not ask, otherwise it would seem as if he was protecting Americans after leaving the rice behind!
……

Half an hour later.

Jodie, Akai, James: ...

The three FBI agents were speechless—"You're all dead, why are you asking us? We don't even know you!"
Just as Judy was about to protest the question, Shiraishi, who had been watching the scene unfold, spoke up: "Don't worry, you three! This Officer Akechi has received advanced training at your FBI. You should trust the FBI's capabilities, right?"

Jodie, Akai, James: ...

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Dongdong: Today is November 6th. 77 years ago today, the Huaihai Campaign began. Please vote for me! Please vote for me! Please vote for me!
(I wrote half of this today, and now I can open my eyes... However, my right eye vision is about the same whether I wear glasses or not [400+ diopters]. I don't know how much it can recover...)
(End of this chapter)