Detective Conan: Birth of the Demon Child

Suzuki Seimei frowned slightly, looked around, and noticed that Ichiro, the guy suspected of being the murderer, was also there.

Wait a minute! One person is still missing!

"Sister Yuhua, where did Sister Lihua go?"

"Miss Lihua..."

Upon hearing Suzuki Harumi's words, Kurosaki Tamaka instinctively turned her head to look, a look of confusion on her pretty face. "It was just here a moment ago?"

Just now, Kurosaki Tamaka's attention was focused on Suzuki Seimei, and she didn't notice when Yotsui Reika disappeared.

"Oops!"

Suzuki Seimei's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly took out a 500 yen coin, converted it into wealth, and put it all into his nose.

With the help of 500 yen, Suzuki Seimei's sense of smell was enhanced several times, and he almost instantly detected the lingering scent of Yotsubi Reika.

Because of the banquet held in the villa earlier, many places still retained the scent of Yotsuki Reika, which to some extent interfered with Suzuki Seimei's judgment.

However, judging from the clues about the sign-in target, Suzuki Seimei can basically conclude that Ichiro Takashi is the murderer in this case.

If Ichiro Takashi really is the murderer, then Yotsuki Reika's sudden disappearance must be related to him as well.

Therefore, Suzuki Seimei was not simply searching for the lingering scent of Yotsuba Reika, but rather for the scent of Yotsuba Reika and Ichiro Takashi intertwined.

There was a lot of lingering scent from Yotsuki Reika in the villa, but very little from her when she was alone with Ichiro Takashi.

Following the scent of the two entangled individuals, Suzuki Haruaki quickly circled the villa and soon located one of the toilets.

Whether by coincidence or sabotage, Suzuki Seimei found the light in the restroom was broken when he arrived.

However, the darkness did not interfere with Suzuki Haruaki's sense of smell, and he ran straight to the bathtub next to the toilet.

The missing Yotsuki Reika was found bound hand and foot in the bathtub, the faucet still running, the water already up to her lips.

Kurosaki Tamaka, who followed behind, groped around in the dark toilet for a while and couldn't help but ask worriedly, "Young Master, Young Master, are you alright?"

"Sister Yuhua, come quickly and help me, I've found Sister Lihua."

After adjusting to the darkness for a while, Kurosaki Tamaka quickly walked to Suzuki Seimei's side and dragged the unconscious Yotsuki Reika out of the bathtub.

"Miss Lihua, Miss Lihua..."

Kurosaki Tamaka reached out and patted Yotsuki Reika's cheek, then checked her breath with her finger. Finding that she was still breathing, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Young Master, Miss Reika is alright. She just fainted."

Chapter Sixty-Six: The Truth from Two Years Ago

Soon, the others who heard the commotion rushed over. Seeing that Yotsuki Reika had been successfully rescued, everyone present seemed very happy, except for Ichiro, who was only pretending to be happy.

Because Takashi didn't wear a hood or other covering when he drugged Yoshii Reika, his identity as the murderer would be exposed once Yoshii Reika woke up.

"Damn it! I hid so well, how could I have been discovered so quickly?" Ichiro cursed inwardly.

To carry out this murder plan, Ichiro deliberately broke the lights in the toilet and the toilet corridor.

Normally, even if someone needs to use the restroom, they wouldn't come to this restroom with the broken light; they would go to one of the other restrooms.

If no one comes to this toilet within ten minutes, Yotsuki Reika will die in the bathtub without anyone knowing.

All Takashi needs to do is remove Yotsuki Reika's body from the bathtub and make it look like she was forcibly held down in the bathtub and drowned, thus creating an alibi for himself.

After all, Nikaido Yuuji was forcibly drowned in the fountain by him. With that example, people would subconsciously assume that Yotsuki Reika died in the same way.

Unfortunately, Ichiro never expected that Suzuki Seimei would find Yotsuki Reika so quickly, completely ruining his murder plan.

"Cough cough cough..."

Before Ichiro could come up with a good solution, Yotsuki Reika, who was unconscious, suddenly coughed and slowly opened her eyes.

Seeing this, Aunt Mi hurriedly approached Shijing Lihua and asked with a worried expression, "Miss, are you alright? Who attacked you?"

Although Aunt Mi is just a servant in the Yoshii family, she has been working for the Yoshii family since the generation of Yoshii Reika's grandfather, and is essentially a retainer of the Yoshii family.

Not only Yoshii Reika, but even the chairman of Yoshii, were all people that Aunt Mi watched grow up.

Therefore, in Aunt Mi's heart, Miss Yoshii Reika was actually like her granddaughter, even more so than her own granddaughter.

As Yotsuki Reika gradually regained her senses, she first subconsciously looked everyone over, then pointed at Ichiro Ryu with a terrified expression and cried out, "It's...it's Ichiro Ryu!"

"what?!"

The expressions of everyone present changed drastically, and they all turned to look at Yi Long.

Butler Rokuda frowned and said, "Ichitaka, why did you hurt the young lady? Aren't you one of her suitors?"

To be honest, it's somewhat understandable that Ryuichi killed Yuuji Nikaido, and that Rokuda, the butler, was somewhat justifiable.

Since they were both suitors of Yotsuki Reika, and Yotsuki Reika clearly favored Nikaido Yuuji, it's somewhat plausible that Ichiro killed someone out of jealousy.

But Rokuda couldn't understand why Ichiro wanted to kill Yotsuki Reika, since killing Yotsuki Reika would do him no good at all!

"Don't joke around! Who would want to pursue this vicious woman? I only approached her as a suitor to avenge Yaeko," Ichiro said angrily, his eyes bloodshot.

"revenge?"

Upon hearing this, Aunt Mi's expression changed slightly, and she couldn't help but ask, "What do you mean by that? Didn't Yaeko die in an accident?"

Yaeko, whom Takashi mentioned, is actually Aunt Mi's granddaughter. She is Yotsuki Reika's best friend who grew up together.

Two years ago, during a sea trip, the group encountered a terrible storm, and Yotsuki Reika was even trapped on a small island that was about to be submerged.

In an attempt to rescue Yotsuba Reika, Yaeko disregarded everyone's objections and risked her life to paddle a rubber boat to the island. Yotsuba Reika was successfully rescued, but Yaeko died at sea.

Although Aunt Mi was very saddened to learn of Yaeko's death, she did not blame Yotsuji Reika for it.

Like Kurosaki Tamaka, Aunt Mi was an orphan who was raised and supported by the Yotsui family from a very young age. She was also the personal maid of Yotsui Reika's grandfather and was extremely loyal to the Yotsui family.

It was precisely because of this that Yaeko was somewhat influenced by Aunt Mi and regarded Miss Yotsubi Reika as her object of loyalty, which is why she risked her life and braved the storm to rescue her.

"It wasn't an accident at all. Yaeko was killed by Nikaido and Reika!"

Ichiro stared intently at Yotsuki Reika and said viciously, "That day, Yaeko risked her life to rescue this woman, paddling a rubber boat to that isolated island."

But when Yaeko arrived at the island, she discovered that besides Reika, Nikaido was also there, and she had only brought a life jacket.

"Could it be..."

“That’s right! This woman and Nikaido teamed up to steal Reika’s life jacket, which is why Yaeko wasn’t wearing a life jacket when we found her body.”

Ichiro clenched his fists and said, "Before killing that guy Nikaido, I had already interrogated him, and he admitted to conspiring with this woman to kill Yaeko."

“Miss…is what he said true?” Aunt Mi turned to look at Yoshii Reika and asked in a trembling voice.

To be honest, Aunt Mi can accept that Yaeko died to save Yotsubi Reika, but she can't accept that Yaeko was killed by Yotsubi Reika.

Human hearts are made of flesh and blood; even the most loyal retainers cannot bear the betrayal of their lord!

"No, no, Aunt Mi, I really didn't want to. It was Nikaido who forced me to do it."

Faced with Aunt Mi's extremely sad gaze, Yoshii Reika shook her head helplessly and said through tears, "That... when Yaeko came to rescue me that day, the rubber boat was smashed as soon as it got close to the island."

Yaeko was going to give me the life jacket, but... Nikaido snatched it away instead.

In an attempt to retrieve the life jacket, Yaeko got into a fight with Nikaido, but... she accidentally bumped her head and passed out.

Yaeko was bleeding a lot from her head, and I... I really didn't know what to do.

Later, Nikaido told me that either I should stay by Yaeko's side and wait to die together, or I should take the life jacket off Yaeko and maybe someone else would come to rescue her.

I really didn't mean it, I... I just wanted to live.

Aunt Mi, I really didn't mean to kill Yaeko, I really didn't..."

ε=(′ο｀*))) Sigh...

Seeing Yoshii Reika's tearful appearance, Aunt Mi couldn't help but sigh and then reached out to touch her hair.

Although these were only Yoshii Reika's side of the story, Aunt Mi was still willing to believe what she said.

Aunt Mi also understands Yaeko's personality very well. Given a choice, Yaeko would definitely prioritize rescuing Yotsuki Reika rather than rescuing Nikaido Yuuji.

Chapter Sixty-Seven: Even Death Gets a Cold (Please Vote and Add to Favorites)

In other words, Yotsubi Reika had no reason to snatch Yaeko's life jacket. She would only do such a thing to save herself if the life jacket was taken by Nikaido Yuuji.

“Miss, the fact that the area has always favored Nikaido all these years, could it be because of this?” Butler Rokuda suddenly realized.

Yotsuki Reika nodded slightly, her face showing resentment, and said, "Ever since Yaeko's death, Nikaido has been using this incident to threaten me. Even though he was the one who stole the life jacket, he blamed me for Yaeko's death, forced me to buy him a car, and even wanted me to choose him as my fiancé."

"..."

After learning the truth about what happened back then, everyone fell silent.

Even Suzuki Seimei wouldn't know how to evaluate this matter.

While Reika Yotsui made a mistake, others in that situation might not have been able to make a better choice.

Faced with the threat of death, no one knows what they might do driven by the instinct for survival; otherwise, there wouldn't be the saying of exchanging children to eat.

Beep~woo~~Beep~woo~~Beep~woo~~

More than half an hour later, Inspector Megure arrived with Wataru Takagi and the others, taking away Takashi Ichijo, who had committed murder, and Reika Yotsuhiro, who had changed into clean clothes.

However, according to information that Suzuki Haruaki learned afterward, Yotsubi Reika was released on bail by the Yotsubi Group's legal counsel not long after she entered the police station.

Because the witness, Yuji Nikaido, is dead, no one can prove that Reika Yotsuba killed Yaeko.

Without witnesses and physical evidence, the police have no way of convicting a rich young lady like Yoshikawa Reika, after all, the Yoshikawa Group's legal team is not to be underestimated.

Although Yotsubi Reika was acquitted, the chairman of Yotsubi secretly gave Aunt Mi a compensation of 50 million yen.

In fact, when Yaeko drowned, Chairman Yotsubi had already given the Yone family a compensation of 20 million yen.

At the time, Chairman Yotsubi was unaware of the truth. He believed that Yaeko had actually died in an accident while rescuing Yotsubi Reika.

That 20 million yen compensation is actually more of a reward. If the boss is too stingy, why would anyone work hard for you in the future?

After Chairman Yoshii learned the truth, he first gave Yoshii Reika a severe scolding, and then immediately found Aunt Mi, took out 50 million yen as compensation, and obtained the forgiveness of Aunt Mi's family.

It must be said that the chairman of Yotsubi is indeed very shrewd.