Conan: Start from Lucky Three

Chapter 32: Crooked Feet Don't Be Afraid of Straight Shoes

"what?"

Tachibana Seiji, Sonoko and Ran all looked confused. Why did they suddenly mention Kudo Shinichi?
"No. Aren't you going to investigate Kudo Shinichi?" The confusion on the faces of the three people made Hattori Heiji realize that there seemed to be some deviations in his reasoning.

But it shouldn't be
According to the information currently known to Hattori Heiji, among the three people in front of him, at least Sonoko and Ran are very familiar with Kudo Shinichi and seem to have a good relationship with him.

Now that Kudo Shinichi has disappeared for such a long time without any reason, although the neighbors at home have reported that he is dealing with a difficult commission, Hattori Heiji, who is also a detective, scoffs at this statement.

Hattori Heiji reluctantly agreed that Kudo Shinichi and himself were detectives of the same level, so it was impossible for any difficult commission to bother them for so long.

Hattori Heiji is a serious "insider" and he knows very well that events cannot be achieved by just spending time.

This is similar to a math problem: if you know how to do it, you know how to do it, and if you can solve it, you can solve it. If you can't solve it, even if you can figure it out, it's still a math problem that has tricks but can't be solved.

The same is true for events.

What's more, Kudo Shinichi is not a professional detective. He is still a student at heart. What student would choose to drop out of school because of an unsolved case?
This shows that Kudo Shinichi is in some trouble!
Since Kudo Shinichi is in trouble, isn't it reasonable for his friends like Sonoko and Ran to want to find out and investigate?

Such a perfectly logical conclusion turned out to be wrong? How could this be plausible?

"Didn't you tell him?" Sonoko gave Tachibana Seiji a probing look.

Tachibana Seiji shook his head: "After all, this is Ran's family matter. I think it's better to let Ran speak for herself."

Shizuka Tachibana made two preparations. If Xiaolan was willing to tell Hattori Heiji about their investigation of Uncle Mori, she would explain it in person.

If Xiaolan doesn't want to say it, then just treat this hot spring trip as a simple trip with friends. Anyway, he wants to treat Hattori Heiji to have fun.

Knowing that Tachibana Shizuka had considered everything so carefully, Xiaolan smiled sweetly at Tachibana Shizuka, and then said to Hattori Heiji:
"Hattori may have misunderstood. We are not trying to investigate Shinichi's whereabouts, but to investigate my father."

"Who is your father?"

"It's Maori Kogoro. My father now runs a detective agency in Tokyo."

"Oh! I remember now, isn't that the sleeping Kogoro? Right?" Hattori Heiji suddenly realized.

I can only say that Kogoro Mori has become really famous recently. Even Hattori Heiji who is in Osaka has heard of his reputation.

However, before he met Tachibana Shizuka and the others, Hattori Heiji was quite dismissive of this famous detective who was quite popular.

However, since he was a relative of someone he knew, Hattori Heiji changed his attitude.

"Mr. Maori's career is quite successful, isn't it? What else is there to investigate? I mean, you're not planning to investigate an affair, are you?"

Hattori Heiji thought of several more subtle descriptions, but finally decided to use the standard one.

"No, it's not an affair investigation," Xiaolan scratched her head in distress and said to Hattori Heiji, "Actually, it's like this."

Hattori Heiji listened quietly to Xiaolan's story about what they wanted to investigate, but the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong. Even at the end, the way he looked at Tachibana Shizuka was wrong.

"What's wrong, Hattori-kun?" Finally, Hattori Heiji's expression was so distorted that even Ran could see that something was wrong, and she asked.

"It's nothing, it's nothing!" Hattori Heiji is a loyal brother after all. He quickly controlled his expression, gave Sonoko and Ran an apologetic look, and ran to the next seat with Tachibana Seiji.

"Hey, what are you doing?" Tachibana Seiji was suddenly pulled away and was completely confused. Why are you pulling me in while you listen to Xiaolan's explanation of the situation?

"I say you are a bit of a dishonest guy!" Hattori Heiji had an expression on his face that said, "I see through you."

"What the hell?" Tachibana Seiji felt completely bewildered.

"Xiao Lan said you've been investigating his father for a while? How is it possible that you can't find anything?"

The theory that Hattori Heiji used on Kudo Shinichi can also be applied to Tachibana Shizuka. What you hear is not as good as what you see. Hattori Heiji believes that Tachibana Shizuka is a high school detective who is as capable as himself.

Is it difficult for Tachibana Shizuka to tell whether the detective has real talent or not?

The reason why the investigation has been delayed for so long is clearly because he has ulterior motives towards Xiaolan!
"I say, your imagination is really big!" Tachibana Shizuka was speechless, but you have to say that he was really shocked when he first heard Hattori Heiji say it.

Isn't that what he thought at the beginning?
It was just the change in his inner thoughts that allowed Tachibana Seiji to confidently say that he absolutely did not lead the investigation!
"Although I don't deny that I like Ran and want to develop a relationship with her, I'm not so tasteless as to drag her down with something like this," Tachibana Shizuka explained seriously. "The difficulty we're facing in our investigation isn't that we don't have any clues or information, but rather that we're stuck because we have too much information."

Tachibana Shizuka rolled his eyes at Hattori Heiji and pulled him back to his place: "Don't worry about him, this guy is crazy all the time. Let me fill in the gaps from now on."

Shizuka Tachibana briefly explained to Hattori Heiji about Kogoro Mori's decadent time, and also told him what they had investigated at the police academy.

Tachibana Shizuka said to Hattori Heiji, "Well, this is the situation. Ran's investigation was never about whether Mr. Mori had any real talent or not.

Rather, it's about why Mr. Maori had been depressed for so long, and why he suddenly became excited recently."

"I'm not a detective, so I don't have much idea about situations like this. What do you think, Hattori?"

"Hmm, I see." After hearing what Tachibana Shizuka said, Hattori Heiji nodded. Now everything made sense. "Speaking of which, this is quite a tricky situation."

Although Hattori Heiji said it was tricky, the gleam in his eyes clearly showed that he was completely excited.

"That Maori-san is indeed a rather contradictory person. Tachibana's judgment is correct. I'm afraid we need more information to get to the truth."

Speaking with an Osaka accent, Hattori Heiji calmly analyzed the current situation.

This scene fell into the eyes of Sonoko and Xiaolan, making Sonoko's expression become strange: "Hey, Ran, don't you think Hattori and Kudo are becoming more and more alike?"

"Really?" Xiaolan was also a little surprised. She naturally would not mistake Hattori for Kudo.

But this didn't stop her from writing this down first and then finding a chance to tell Kudo about it - it was really amazing to meet two people who were so similar?
(End of this chapter)