The Pirated Onmyoji of the Detective World

"Hmm." Aragaki Yu nodded to Ueki Kusahachi. "But I'm really sorry, I don't know where the restroom is. Could you please show me there, butler?"

However, a hint of unease flashed in Ueki Kusahachi's eyes when faced with Aragaki Yu's reasonable request.

"Guest, I think it would be better if I stayed here to accompany the police investigation. Or should I have the maid take you to the restroom?"

Although his words sounded reasonable, Aragaki Yu still gave him a meaningful look. "I think it would be better if you, Mr. Butler, went there in person."

"!!!"

Mr. Ueki Kusahachi didn't know why, but when he saw the smile on Aragaki Yu's face, he felt inexplicably uneasy, and even unconsciously shifted his toes.

"Can……"

He seemed to want to say something more, but this time, Aragaki Yu didn't give him the chance and walked straight out the door.

Seeing this, Mr. Ueki Kusahachi frowned deeply. After hesitating for a moment, he still chose to follow Aragaki Yu's back and walk out.

……

When Mr. Ueki Kusahachi walked out of the room and into the corridor, he noticed that Aragaki Yu was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, obviously waiting for him.

And those eyes that had been wandering around all around fell on him the moment he stepped out.

"Guest, weren't you going to the restroom? Please follow me!"

Facing Aragaki Yu's gaze, Ueki Kusahachi seemed a little guilty, but still managed to maintain a composed demeanor.

"No rush." ​​However, Aragaki Yu shook his head at him. "Compared to going to the restroom, isn't the truth of this case more important?"

Upon hearing this, Mr. Ueki Kusahachi subconsciously looked away, unable to meet Aragaki Yu's gaze any longer. "The...truth!? Sir, have you already discovered the culprit?"

Unlike Ueki Kusahachi's guilty conscience, Kudo Yukiko, who had left the monitoring room after noticing Aragaki Yu leaving the room, suddenly brightened up upon hearing this.

"Is it true, Aragaki-kun?" Kudo Yukiko walked up to Aragaki Yu with some surprise and patted him on the shoulder to ask.

Yuu Aragaki wasn't too surprised that Yukiko Kudo had run away with them.

After all, he had noticed from the beginning that Yukiko Kudo's gaze kept falling on him.

"Yes."

Yuu Aragaki nodded, then slowly said to Yukiko Kudo and Mr. Kusahachi Ueki, "The key to this case is the two gunshots we heard when we arrived outside the AV room."

"Two gunshots? Is there a problem?" Yukiko Kudo asked, somewhat puzzled.

Yuu Aragaki glanced at Yukiko Kudo and said, “This is what I noticed was wrong earlier. Outside the monitoring room, besides the two obvious gunshots, I also heard a softer sound, but perhaps because of the classical music playing in the room, it wasn’t very clear.”

"After all, it's a soft sound?"

Upon hearing this, Yukiko Kudo frowned in surprise.

Mr. Ueki Kusahachi's expression stiffened slightly.

"If I'm not mistaken, that was probably the third shot fired by the murderer, but they used some method to make the sound quieter."

"A silencer!?" Yukiko Kudo immediately followed up on Yuu Aragaki's words with her own answer, but what followed was an even bigger question, "Wait a minute! This isn't right!"

She looked at Aragaki Yu with a puzzled expression and asked, "But the police only found three bullet casings at the scene, and there were only three bullet marks on Mr. Fujieda Mikio's body. If the murderer fired three shots when we arrived outside the audiovisual room, then what was Mr. Fujieda Mikio's initial shot like..."

This time, Yukiko Kudo stopped speaking before she could finish.

Judging from the strange look that suddenly appeared on her face, she seemed to have guessed something.

After all, she wasn't some clueless newbie.

She encountered many cases while with Yusaku Kudo, so she still possesses this level of keen insight.

And Aragaki Yu's next sentence indeed confirmed her guess.

"I think we were probably deceived by the murderer from the very beginning of the case."

"The murderer first misled our judgment with threatening letters and bullet casings, making us take it for granted that he would use a gun to attack Mr. Fujieda Mikio."

Although she had already agreed with Aragaki Yu's words, Kudo Yukiko still had some questions. "But in the surveillance footage, wasn't it only after the murderer threatened Mr. Fujieda with a gun that he raised his hands and was ultimately shot dead by the murderer?"

“That’s definitely what it looks like from the surveillance footage.” Yuu Aragaki didn’t deny it, but then immediately brought up another suspicious point he found in the audiovisual room: “In the audiovisual room, there was a string used as a bookmark in the book that Mr. Mikio Fujieda was reading before he was shot.”

“Isn’t this normal? If you haven’t finished reading the book, of course you’d use a bookmark…” Kudo Yukiko had only explained halfway when she realized what Aragaki Yu meant, “Wait a minute, if Mr. Fujieda Mikio was threatened with a gun when he left his seat, he wouldn’t have done something like this!”

“That’s right.” Yuu Aragaki smiled and glanced at Yukiko Kudo, giving her a look that suggested she was a promising student.

"Then why did Mr. Fujieda Mikio stand up from his seat with his hands raised?" Kudo Yukiko was even more puzzled now.

"So, if you, Yukiko-neechan, finish reading a book and want to relax, what would you do?"

Faced with Yuu Aragaki's question, Yukiko Kudo was slightly taken aback at first, then scratched her head somewhat embarrassedly and said, "Uh, hahaha, actually, I haven't read for a long time in a long time, so..."

Aragaki Yuu: (oωo?)

Chapter 598 Shouldn't it be Hawaii's dad?

In response, Yuu Aragaki rolled his eyes at Yukiko Kudo with a rather helpless expression, "Then try to think about what you would do if you sat on the sofa watching TV for a long time."

"Let me think about it..."

Fortunately, this time Yukiko Kudo did not respond with "I don't watch TV".

She tapped her chin with her index finger, tilted her head, and imagined a similar scenario, "It would probably just be twisting my head, moving my shoulders, tapping my back, or maybe just stretching or something..."

As she spoke, Yukiko Kudo stretched, seemingly unconcerned about displaying her beautiful figure to Yuu Aragaki.

However, in the next second.

Yukiko Kudo's outstretched arm froze in mid-air as she looked at Yuu Aragaki with surprise. "You mean stretching!?"

"Ahem...that's right."

Yuu Aragaki nodded, subtly shifting his gaze away from Yukiko Kudo while confirming her guess: "Mr. Mikio raised his hands not because he was threatened with a gun, but because he was just standing up and stretching."

However, this statement was strongly opposed by the butler, Mr. Ueki Kusahachi.

"How could that be? The master clearly collapsed to the ground very quickly; how could he have been stretching!"

However, his deliberately amplified voice could not mask the guilt and panic in his tone.

"No, I don't think the problem is with the stretching movements!"

This time, without Aragaki Yuu saying anything more, Kudo Yukiko preemptively answered Ueki Kusahachi's question.

"Mr. Mikio Fujieda collapsed because he had a problem when he stood up."

Just as Yukiko Kudo was explaining, the others in the audiovisual room, perhaps noticing that Yuu Aragaki and the others had disappeared from the room at some point, or sensing the commotion in the corridor, ran out of the audiovisual room one by one to check the situation.

Yukiko Kudo, who had her back to the room door, did not notice this and continued to explain to Mr. Ueki Kusahachi: "I think many people have experienced this. After sitting for a long time, they may feel dizzy or lose their senses when they suddenly stand up."

"Quick, but the timing of your moment of distraction is just too coincidental!" Inspector Megure asked in confusion as soon as Yukiko Kudo finished speaking.

Judging from Inspector Megure's question, they must have overheard quite a bit of the conversation between the three of them.

At least I heard what Yukiko Kudo said about why Mr. Mikio Fujieda collapsed.

"what!?"

Yukiko Kudo was startled by the sudden sound of Inspector Megure's voice from behind her.

She clearly hadn't expected Inspector Megure and his group to appear behind her.

However, seeing the puzzled expressions on Inspector Megure's and the others' faces, she quickly composed herself. "I think it must be some kind of drug that made the timing just right!"

At that moment, she vaguely remembered a certain drug that her husband, Yusaku Kudo, had mentioned casually.

"The name of that drug is... this... it's called isopropyl... isopropyl..."

However, perhaps because a lot of time had passed, and because she hadn't paid much attention to it at the time, she couldn't remember the name of the drug.

Isopropyl alcohol!

After hearing his mother's words, Conan, who had an "I knew it" expression on his face, subconsciously echoed his mother's words.

"Um!?"

However, after he blurted out the name of the medicine, Conan's expression changed amidst the puzzled looks on everyone's faces.

Oh no...this is terrible!

Forget that you're just a child now!

"Hahaha……"

Realizing what had happened, Conan scratched his head and chuckled awkwardly. Then, quick-wittedly, he covered up his mistake by saying, "Actually, Uncle Mori mentioned it during one of his work assignments!"

When Conan explained it, Yukiko Kudo almost burst out laughing. She pinched her thigh to suppress her laughter, but her eyes still twitched a couple of times.

Aragaki Yu's expression also became somewhat strange.

Unexpectedly, Kogoro Mouri didn't show up this time, and he became the scapegoat.

Wasn't it always the "Hawaii dads" who taught us?

However, after hearing this, Xiaolan and the others had a look of sudden realization.

Of course, even though she accepted Conan's explanation, Ran still muttered a complaint, "Oh, I see. But Dad is really something, how could he talk to a child about something like that!"

"Uh hahaha..." Conan apologized to Uncle Mori in his mind while maintaining an awkward smile on his face.

"Oh, it's isopropyl alcohol!"