I'm in Conan, I'm not a gangster

Chapter 602 Reward for Solving the Case: One for Each Person! (2 Updates)
"Oh no, Conan. The person is dead! You've killed someone!" Shiraishi E squatted down next to the fallen Tsugawa Museum Director and checked him over, saying, "He's not breathing."

"Impossible!" Conan turned around abruptly, his voice rising in shock: "It was just a tranquilizer dart, how could he die?"

He hurriedly ran to Tsugawa's side and squatted down, his fingers trembling as he probed for the other's carotid artery.

Ten seconds, twenty seconds. Not a single beat.

Conan recoiled as if electrocuted, his face turning deathly pale: "How could this be?"

Shiraishi E walked over, thoughtfully stroking her chin: "It might be an overdose of anesthetic. I remember Professor Agasa saying that one dose is enough to anesthetize an adult elephant."

Conan stiffly looked up: "Uh... I... I fired ten shots."

“Wow.” Shiraishi E raised an eyebrow: “That’s the dosage for ten elephants. No wonder his heart stopped working.”

Conan sat frozen on the ground, his glasses reflecting a cold light. His mind was blank, with only one sentence echoing in his ears:
I killed someone.

The thought hit him like a bucket of ice water.

Even if the other party was a murderer, even if it was to save someone, the feeling of ending a life with one's own hands still caused him a sharp pain in his stomach.

"Oh no!" Conan's voice was hoarse. "I've killed someone!"

Shiraishi E crouched down and patted his shoulder: "Don't panic, you were acting in self-defense."

He added, "Besides, you're a minor. According to the Juvenile Delinquent Protection Act, you don't even need to go to a juvenile detention center!"

"That's not what I care about!" Conan suddenly looked up and said irritably, "Besides, I'm not a scumbag! I did it to save people!!"

“I know,” Shiraishi E interrupted him calmly. “I’m just stating legal facts. From any perspective, you’ll be fine.”

Conan took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He adjusted his glasses, and his eyes behind the lenses gradually regained their clarity: "You're right. The most important thing now is to find evidence to prove that Tsugawa is the murderer of Mr. Tamada."

"Will that make your conscience feel better?" Shiraishi E asked with a grin.

Conan remained silent, which was taken as an admission of the fact.

Under his direction, the Junior Detective League sprang into action.

However, even the police couldn't find anything, so what could four children possibly find in such a terrified situation?

Not wanting to waste too much time here, Shiraishi E walked toward the dimly lit children's book section.

Conan noticed his actions and couldn't help but turn his attention to the other person, wanting to see what he was going to do.

Shiraishi E casually picked up a copy of "The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh," then hummed in agreement: "Wait, there's something wrong with this book!"

"…Stop pretending." Conan walked over and said irritably, "Your acting is terrible! What's wrong with this book?"

Shiraishi E handed the book to Conan with a smile, saying, "This book doesn't have a back cover."

"No back cover?" Conan was surprised and looked down.

"I see!" A glint flashed in Conan's eyes. "No wonder Genta and I both saw that there were still books on the other side that hadn't been put down. So they were books without back covers! Heh!" A strange light flashed in Conan's eyes.

“It’s sealed upside down inside…” Conan pondered for a moment, then suddenly tore open the book’s packaging and snapped it open with force.

The pages inside the book had clearly been cut open and hollowed out, and a transparent sealed bag containing white powder had been stuffed inside.

After Conan took it out, he tore open the seal, touched it with his finger, put it in his mouth, and tasted it. His expression changed drastically: "Oh no, this is drugs!!"

Shiraishi E couldn't help but complain, "Do you really have to try it? What if you get addicted?"

“Just a little bit, no way! I tasted it the same way on Moonshadow Island last time,” Conan said confidently.

"Really? I want to try it too." Genta was very curious and wanted to get some to try as well.

Conan slapped his hand away and said irritably, "No way! How can you taste something like this?"

"Quick, go check the other books on the shelves. Are any of them missing spines?"

Genta was very dissatisfied, but Conan held great authority in his heart, so he could only keep his dissatisfaction to himself.

Soon, Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko also found other books without back covers.

Upon opening the "books" in my hand, I found that they were indeed filled with packets of white powder.

Mitsuhiko understood now and said, "So Director Tsugawa is using children's books for smuggling?"

Ayumi swallowed hard: "Was Mr. Tamada silenced because he discovered this?!"

“That’s definitely it!” Genta said with certainty.

Conan nodded, his eyes serious: "He must have stumbled upon Tsugawa's transaction..."

At this point, he looked at Shiraishi E and said, "You... you actually knew all along, didn't you?"

"I'd heard of this method before, just in case... but I didn't expect it to actually be true." Shiraishi E made up an excuse to brush it off, saying, "Next, you'll have to find the body... so you can get a good night's sleep tonight."

Conan pushed up his glasses and said irritably, "Stop keeping me in suspense! You already know."

"I don't know either... I'm just guessing." Shiraishi said this, but her feet were already walking towards the elevator.

He stopped as soon as he stepped into the elevator, turned around to look at Conan who had followed him, twitched his nose, and said, "Can you smell something rotten?"

"What's that stench?" Conan sniffed hard, but couldn't smell anything.

"I can't smell it," Ayumi asked, trying her best.

“Me too,” Mitsuhiko said.

"Is there something wrong with your nose, Shiraishi-nii?" Genta asked suspiciously. "No, smell it carefully again," Shiraishi E said, looking at Conan.

Conan sniffed a few more times, but couldn't smell anything.

Just as he was about to say something, he suddenly realized that the other person was reminding him!
"It's the elevator!! The body is up in the elevator!!" He looked up abruptly!
Then, Conan impatiently had Shiraishi E drag him up. He smashed open the access panel at the top, and a stench instantly filled the air—

Tamada Kazuo's body lay atop the Heavenly Ladder, already showing signs of decomposition.

"As expected..." Conan took a deep breath, suppressing the discomfort in his stomach, and said with a sigh of relief, "It's exactly the same as my deduction!"

------------

All the reasoning was proven true—Tsugawa used the library as a drug transit point, and Mr. Tamada was silenced after accidentally discovering this secret.

"You killed a drug dealer," Shiraishi E said calmly, looking at Conan. "That's equivalent to saving countless families who might have been harmed by him."

Conan shook his head: "I have no guilt."

His voice was soft, but firm, "I just... never expected things to turn out this way."

Shiraishi E observed Conan's expression and suddenly smiled: "It seems I was overthinking it. You're much more mature than I thought!"

"Nonsense! After going through so much, how could I not be mature?" Conan pushed up his glasses and said irritably.

"So..." Shiraishi E waved her phone, "Should we call the police?"

Conan hesitated.

If a normal alarm is raised, they, as the first to discover the incident, will inevitably be subjected to lengthy questioning.

The case of death due to an overdose of tranquilizer darts, while legally considered self-defense, is complicated to explain. Moreover, the three members of the Junior Detective League are involved…

"Let's report it to the police anonymously," Conan finally decided, "to avoid unnecessary trouble."

Shiraishi laughed. He took out his newly bought phone, dialed the police, and used a voice changer to simulate an adult male's voice: "I need to report a crime. There's a corpse in the elevator shaft of Beika Library, and drugs are hidden in the children's picture books... Who am I? Just a passerby who couldn't stand by and watch."

After hanging up the phone, he looked at Conan and said, "The police will be here in ten minutes. We should leave now."

The five people quietly left through the back door of the library.

After hiding in a more secluded spot, and seeing the police cars arrive and surround the Mihana Library, everyone felt relieved and left.

"Today... was really dangerous," Ayumi said softly, still shaken.

Mitsuhiko touched his neck: "Yeah, but! We've solved another big case!"

Genta rubbed his stomach and said with a grin, "Yeah! Let's go to an eel rice restaurant together and celebrate!"

Looking at the three children, Shiraishi E said to Conan, "These three little guys are much better than me... When I was their age, I was still playing in the mud."

“They’re much better than me… When I was their age, I was still reading detective novels. How could I have so much practical experience?” Conan looked at his three companions, a slight smile playing on his lips.

"The three members of the Junior Detective Club!" Shiraishi E called out to the three children in front of him, gesturing for them to come over, and said with a smile, "You all did a great job tonight!"

"As a reward—ta-da!! One cell phone tranquilizer gun for each person!"

"From now on, you won't have to worry about running into bad people anymore!!"

As he spoke, he took out the cell phone-shaped tranquilizer gun he had just bought from the bandit mall from his backpack and gave it to the three of them!

Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta were pleasantly surprised when they saw it, and they took the cell phone-shaped tranquilizer gun and cheered!

"really?"

"We have a share too?"

"Great! We won't be afraid of bad guys anymore!!"

"........."

Conan was horrified when he saw this!

He rushed forward to stop them, saying, "No! What are you doing? Giving them such dangerous stuff!! If they shoot randomly, people will die!! Give them all back right now!"

Upon hearing that Conan was going to take away their cell phone-shaped tranquilizer guns, the three immediately protested.

They all simultaneously pointed their cell phone-shaped tranquilizer guns at Conan.

Conan was so frightened that he stood still, too scared to move. He said in a panic, "You...you guys be careful! Don't shoot! People will die!!"

Ayumi said indignantly, "Why can Conan use it, but we can't!"

“Yeah, yeah!” Mitsuhiko said unhappily, “With this, we can protect ourselves! We won’t be a burden anymore!!”

Yuan Tai shouted, "That's right! What are you really up to? You can't stand to see us doing well!!"

Conan patiently explained, "These things are too dangerous. You're too young...you can't handle them! If you accidentally hurt someone, that would be a real problem!"

Ayumi complained, "Conan, don't you trust us?"

Shiraishi E chuckled and said, "Yes, Conan. You have to learn to trust the three of them. The future belongs to us, and it also belongs to you, but ultimately it belongs to you. You have to trust the kids!"

"Where do you get so many fallacies?" Conan was furious.

What angered him even more was that he couldn't win an argument with the other person!
Seeing the three angry children, Conan had no choice but to surrender: "Fine, fine, you can take it... but you can't use it without my permission! Understand?"

Upon hearing this, the three little ones finally smiled and cheered!

(End of this chapter)