Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 297 Fishing and Last Wish

"You guys want to play tennis too?"

Karuizawa.

As the man with the mustache drove through the dense forest, listening to Ran and Sonoko chatting and laughing behind him, he gradually frowned.

He longed to see those beautiful women in miniskirts, but he didn't want his daughter to wear one too.

"Let's get this straight: playing tennis is fine, but don't come up with any other dirty tricks."

"What do you mean by 'crooked idea'?" Sonoko asked expectantly, holding her fingers together. "I just want to take a charming picture of Ran and then tease that detective kid who's disappeared somewhere. That kid gets jealous the most."

"Sonoko!" Ran blushed and looked at Conan, who was trying hard to hold back his emotions. "I think you should play tennis with Kido instead."

"I have other plans."

Gao Mo glanced at the sky outside.

"And it looks like it's about to rain here, so we probably won't be able to play tennis."

Just kidding, he doesn't even know how to play tennis, how could he embarrass himself in public?

"Rain?" Sonoko looked up at the sky. "It really is! There are so many dark clouds over there... No way? The weather was fine when we came here, and the weather forecast said it would be sunny."

"It rains very easily in Karuizawa."

Gao Mo's memories were taken back to the events of the Dark Magic incident.

This is where he entered the third tier. He remembers that his senses covered the entire Karuizawa area at that time, and he also has an impression of this place because the area near Gunma Prefecture has the most evil spirits.

Speaking of Gunma Prefecture...

Information surfaced in Gao Mo's mind.

Gunma Prefecture has appeared quite a few times in the case files of the man with the mustache; his devoted fan, Yamamura Misao, who rose through the ranks at lightning speed, is from Gunma Prefecture.

Other areas with a relatively high number of cases include Nagano Prefecture and Shizuoka Prefecture.

The former has several very capable criminal investigators, while the latter is that Coral Head Detective Heng Gou.

"It's raining." The man with the mustache felt a chill in his heart.

We won't be able to see any pretty college girls in miniskirts anymore.

Do you really come to a place like this to fish?

"Well, Kido, how about we go fishing? We can't just come all this way for nothing and catch some fat fish to cook with..."

"You don't need to worry about cooking. The chef and maid at my villa will take care of it." Sonoko had no interest in fishing at all.

“Rich girls are so ignorant,” the man with the mustache sneered. “Fish you catch yourself are much more fun to eat. Just tell your chef to wait.”

"Ha ha……"

Sonoko stole a glance at Gao Mo in the passenger seat, barely suppressing the rage within her.

"I heard that you can't catch fish here, you jinx like your uncle."

"Who says I can't catch fish?" the mustachioed man shouted defiantly. "I'll show you today! I've won fishing competitions before! Just you wait!"

Gao Mo's eyelids twitched, but he ignored the lively atmosphere inside the car.

He was a notorious air force pilot in his past life when it came to fishing, and he didn't want to try his luck again in this life.

Anyway, he's never won a single lottery in the shopping district, making him the complete opposite of lucky players like Ai and Ran.

"Let's go to the villa first. I didn't sleep well last night, and I want to catch up on some sleep."

"What did you do yesterday?" the man with the mustache asked curiously. "I remember you went back quite early, didn't you? I even took your statement... cough cough, well then, I'll take you to the villa first."

"A statement?" Sonoko's ears perked up. "What statement? Didn't Kido-nii go out to buy books last night?"

"It's nothing, I just happened to run into the Kindaichi case," Gao Mo glanced at the mustachioed man who had fallen silent. "The book I got yesterday was actually obtained by him from the author himself; it's the real author."

"The real author? What's going on?" Sonoko was completely confused.

“I know that,” Xiaolan said with a complicated expression, “that Kariya Shigeie is not the author of the novel at all. The one who wrote that novel was actually his younger brother whom he hid. Moreover, he was the one who committed the murder, but he kept it from his brother and made his brother hide the crime for 12 years.”

"real or fake?"

Sonoko was stunned.

There's such a bizarre story behind a pure romance novel. She even cried buckets while reading it, deeply moved.

“It’s true,” Xiaolan affirmed. “It’s said that she was so bored hiding in the attic that she tried writing novels. The reason they are so retro and old-fashioned is because she hasn’t been out for years.”

“No wonder,” Sonoko said suddenly. “I was wondering why the author seemed to have never seen a girl with dyed hair before. All the characters with dyed hair were villains. I was puzzled when I was reading it.”

"Whoosh!"

The rain started suddenly. Before the group even reached the villa area, it began to drizzle in the mountains, and dark clouds covered the distance, indicating a downpour was imminent.

"Can you still fish in this?"

"Why can't we fish? It's precisely at times like this that there are more fish."

The man with the mustache wasn't worried at all. He steadily escorted Gao Mo to the villa entrance and then confidently went inside to ask for a bucket of water.

"Going fishing at this hour?" Ayako Suzuki, who had been waiting at the villa for a long time, looked worried when she learned that the man with the mustache was going to go fishing in the rain.

“I saw it on the way here; it’s a fantastic fishing spot,” the mustachioed man said impatiently. “If I don’t catch any fish, I won’t eat today… This must be Tomizawa Yuzo, right?”

Tomizawa Yuzo, with his thick eyebrows, also carried a bucket and a fishing rod: "Mr. Mori, I'm a big fan of yours. Take me with you when you go fishing!"

"Yuzo..."

Before Ayako could offer any advice, she saw her fiancé and the man with the mustache get into the car, and could only sigh helplessly.

Apart from Gao Mo, none of the others had any intention of staying at the villa.

"Mr. Kido, your room is upstairs..."

"excuse me."

Gao Mo muttered to himself.

It feels like so much time has passed, but this couple still hasn't gotten married.

Will this wedding be delayed indefinitely?
Shaking his head, Gao Mo locked the door and took out his disguise tools from his suitcase.

I didn't sleep well last night, but the real reason I parted ways with the others was because of a last wish that suddenly surfaced in my notes—"Help my husband."

At the same time, a blurry memory also appears—

A map of the route deep in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture, near Karuizawa, shows an old house nestled in the mountains and a short, frightening old man.

Is it the memory of the dead that he once absorbed?

Gao Mo took his disguise tools, informed Ayako Suzuki, and left the villa. He had always thought that the absorbed spirits would disappear completely, but now it seemed they were trapped in the notebook.

"call!"

Rainwater slid down the leaves in the forest, and the wind seemed to come from the abyss, whistling mournfully, carrying a hint of longing amidst the sorrow.

As Gao Mo surveyed the surroundings with his eagle eyes, he quickly found his way by reflecting on the images in his mind's eye and his memories.

No one knows who built a detached house deep in the mountains, several kilometers away from the nearest supermarket. In the memory he absorbed, a sick woman went down the mountain in the rain to buy groceries, collapsed on the way back, and never opened her eyes again.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" A tall man in sportswear called out to Gao Mo from behind.

Holding a transparent umbrella, she had her hair tied in a ponytail, her face was dark, and her eyes were filled with melancholy.

It overlaps with the blurry figure in fragmented memories.

We've found our target.

"It's easy to get lost in this area. If you're here to have fun, it's best not to wander around," the tall man warned, frowning.

[Seeing my deceased wife one last time] - Hiroto Akashi

"Hello."

Gao Mo, disguised as a young man with disheveled hair and a camera slung across his chest, handed over a business card upon hearing this.

"I'm a freelance writer. I came here to interview about a case, but I accidentally got lost."

"Shinji Hasegawa?" The tall man examined the business card suspiciously. "There don't seem to be any cases happening around here, right?"

"Maybe I went the wrong way."

Gao Mo laughed heartily.

"It doesn't seem like the rain is going to stop anytime soon. Are there any hotels around here?"

"What hotels are there around here?" The tall man held the business card, his expression shifting slightly. "If you don't mind, you can stay at my house. It's just my father and me there."

"That would be wonderful."

Gao Mo breathed a sigh of relief, looking relieved, his top-notch acting skills easily fooling the man.

"By the way, I don't know how to address you?"

"I am Hiroto Akashi, a tennis coach at a nearby tennis court."

The tall man became enthusiastic, leading Gao Mo home while introducing his job.

"Actually, I was supposed to play tennis at the tennis court today, but the rain suddenly started to pour. That's just how the weather is here."

I see you still have an umbrella, so you must have expected it to rain. But it's best not to wander around in the mountains in the rain. Getting lost isn't the worst thing; the worst thing is encountering a flash flood. My wife died in a flash flood before..."

The man suddenly stopped talking.

"What's wrong?" Gao Mo followed closely behind the man.

“It’s nothing, I just remembered something,” the man sighed. “My wife and I met on the tennis court.”

Gao Mo's expression held a hint of understanding: "I'm sorry for reminding you of such a sad thing."

"That's not true, and today happens to be the anniversary of her death."

The man quickened his pace and changed the subject.

"What's the case Mr. Hasegawa wants to interview about? Maybe I can help."

"It must be a revenge case, right?" Gao Mo roughly understood what the last wish meant.

"should?"

"Because I wasn't quite sure either, it was a task that was suddenly assigned from above."

“I see,” Akashi Hiroto said understandingly, without asking any further questions. “Does Mr. Hasegawa like curry? I was planning to invite the students to my house for dinner today, but none of them came, and I made too much curry.”

"Then I won't stand on ceremony, I happen to like curry."

Gao Mo followed Akashi Hiroto's gaze and soon found a tall wooden building with lights on in the jungle.

It looked a bit eerie in the rain.

It doesn't look like a villa belonging to a wealthy family, and the surrounding area is far too remote with difficult roads. Living here would be a real ordeal.

“This is my home,” Hiroto Akashi explained. “My father said we should stay away from those annoying, vulgar people and the city, so he built a house in this remote mountain area.”

"Who?"

Footsteps could be heard coming from inside the wooden house.

As the door slid open, a chubby face covered in age spots appeared through the crack.

"Kuanren? And this is..."

"Mr. Hasegawa is a reporter I met on the road. Since I got lost, I thought I'd let him stay for the night."

"Oh, a reporter?"

The old man first looked up at Gao Mo warily for a while, then revealed his broken, yellow teeth and greeted him warmly.

"Welcome, welcome, come in. It's quiet in the mountains, but we haven't had any guests in a long time."

Gao Mo's gaze lingered for a moment on the old man's demon-like face and his hunched back as he left.

Strange, shouldn't people living in a place like this hate contact with outsiders?
"Kuanren, I'm going upstairs for a nap. Wake me up tonight."

"Okay, Dad."

Akashi Hiroto watched the old man climb to the second floor, his smile froze for a moment, then he turned and greeted Gao Mo with a smile.

"That's just how he is; sometimes he's annoying, and sometimes he's very enthusiastic."

Gao Mo took off his shoes and entered the room. As was his professional habit, he first scanned the room, taking in all sorts of details.

However, why is there a faint sense of malice, like I'm being targeted?
It feels like one of those psychopathic killers in movies who like to lure strangers into their homes.

I remember when I was playing Red Dead Redemption 2, I was attacked by a pair of NPC siblings in the wild.

"Are you hungry now?" Hiroto Akashi asked. "If you are, I'll heat up some curry rice for you."

"No, thank you."

Despite not feeling threatened, Gao Mo still refused.

He needs to clarify the specifics of the will before he can avoid any unforeseen complications.

(End of this chapter)