Conan: The Romantic Daily Life of a Ghost Detective

Several hours passed, and it was evening.

The group left the hotel and headed towards the nearby fireworks display site.

Although the hotel didn't have many guests, there were quite a few people at the fireworks display, presumably tourists from surrounding hotels who came to join in the fun.

Just as Kogoro Mouri found a good vantage point, Ran suddenly asked, "By the way, why isn't Aunt Yumi here?"

Mrs. Ayashiro: "Oh dear, how could I forget about Yumi? Is she still sleeping in her room?"

"Should we go and call her over?" Xiaolan asked.

"Let's not do it, she hates being disturbed when she's sleeping," said the bald man, Kazushi Nakamichi, with a smile.

"But Aunt Yumi said she hasn't been here for many years. She'll be very disappointed if she doesn't get to see the fireworks, right?" Ran hesitated for a long time before finally deciding to go back to the hotel to call Yumi.

Conan followed along like a shadow.

However, when Ran and Conan returned to the hotel, they found that Horikoshi Yumi was already lying in a pool of blood.

She held a pistol in her hand, staring at the ceiling with a desperate look in her eyes, as if she had no more attachment to this world.

Chapter 133 Assist, Uncle Mori's Highlight Moment

Ten minutes later, having received the news, Wen Shui and Kogoro Mouri quickly ran back to the hotel.

Standing at the door of Yumi Horikoshi's room, you can smell a strong stench of blood.

Yumi Horikoshi's body was leaning against the wall opposite the door. She was wearing a navy blue yukata from the hotel and holding a pistol in her hand.

There was a dark brown bloodstain running from top to bottom on the wall behind her. Combined with the gunshot wound on Horikoshi Yumi's forehead, it was highly likely that she slid to the ground while standing after shooting herself in the temple, leaning against the wall.

Ran and Conan stood on either side of the body; it seemed Conan had already examined the crime scene.

He was pacing back and forth in the room, trying to figure out who the murderer was.

After seeing Yumi's body, the Ayashiro couple were stunned for a few seconds before running uncontrollably towards her corpse, crying out, "Yumi, what happened to you, Yumi?"

"No!" The bald man, Nakamichi Kazushi, sternly stopped him. "You can't get close to the body. If you destroy the traces left by the murderer, it will be troublesome. Ayashiro, call the police quickly."

The two suddenly stopped halfway through their run.

Then, after glancing at the tragically dead Horikoshi Yumi, he couldn't help but burst into tears.

Kogoro Mouri looked extremely unwell. He walked over and patted Yukio Ayashiro on the shoulder: "Alright, if you're feeling too uncomfortable, go outside first. I and Nakamichi can handle this. By the way, Ran, did you call the police?"

Xiaolan: "I've already contacted the Metropolitan Police Department, they should be here soon."

The Ayashiro couple helped each other into the corridor.

Kogoro Mori squatted down in front of the corpse and examined it with great care: "She's been dead for some time now. There's a clear gunshot wound on her temple, and she was holding a pistol in her hand. Does that mean Yumi actually committed suicide?"

Conan then interjected, "By the way, Uncle Mori, this gun looks a lot like the gun that drug smuggling boss, Yagura Machi, lost a few nights ago."

Aunt Yumi was also at the scene of the incident, so do you think she might have picked up the gun?

Kogoro Mouri's eyes widened: "You mean, Yumi found that pistol and then chose to commit suicide here?"

Judging from the situation at the scene, this speculation is indeed true.

However, the culprit, Nakamichi Kazushi, took the initiative to advise, "Mouri, I think we should wait until the police arrive before making a judgment. It would be too arbitrary to draw conclusions without an autopsy."

Kogoro Mouri: "You're right, I was too impatient."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Xiaolan's phone rang.

After speaking a few words on the phone, she suddenly exclaimed, "What? You said it might take several more hours to get to the hotel? What about the body?"

After listening to the other person say a few more words, Xiaolan hung up the phone.

"What's wrong, Ran?" Kogoro Mouri asked urgently.

Xiaolan shook her head: "The Metropolitan Police Department called and said that there are many celebrations taking place in the vicinity, and it's starting to rain outside, so it will probably take several hours for them to arrive. They told us to protect the body and not let anyone touch it."

"Damn it! The body has been sitting for hours, way past the optimal time for autopsy!"

Mori slammed his fist into the wall, exuding an aura of impending loss of control.

Eri Kisaki came over and grabbed his arm: "Kogoro, how can you lose your composure at a time like this? You are now responsible for finding the murderer who killed Yumi."

Upon hearing this, Kogoro Mouri took a deep breath.

"No, we can't wait for the police to arrive, that would be too late. Let's perform an autopsy first," Uncle Mori made a decisive decision.

Kazushi Nakamichi: "It's possible, but we don't have the equipment. Without a camera, we can't turn what we see into valid evidence."

“I happen to have brought my camera with me, it’s the latest model, the image quality is definitely not a problem,” the chubby man with glasses interjected.

“Great, then let me and Nakamichi perform the autopsy on Yumi,” said Kogoro Mouri.

Eri Kisaki: "I'll help too."

Soon, the bespectacled man took out a camera from the room.

Everyone else waited patiently in the corridor, but Xiaolan kept her head down, her mood noticeably lower than before.

She was probably thinking that if she could have come back sooner, she might have been able to stop Aunt Yumi from committing suicide.

Inside the room, Kogoro's father and Kazushi Nakamichi squatted in front of the corpse, while Eri Kisaki held a camera, ready to capture any useful evidence.

Kogoro Mouri twisted the deceased's ankle: "His toes and ankle are already a bit stiff, so it seems he's been dead for some time."

“Yes, it looks like my skin will take at least a few hours to heal,” Kazushi Nakamichi said.

“Alright, then I’ll take a look at the corpse spots.” Kogoro Mouri said, stepping forward and gently pulling off Yumi Horikoshi’s yukata. He then exclaimed in surprise, “Eh? Why is Yumi only wearing a yukata? She doesn’t have any underwear underneath?”

Nakamichi Kazushi's expression changed slightly, but he quickly recovered: "It does seem a little strange."

No sooner had the words been spoken than a child's voice broke into the conversation:

"It's not just this one thing that's strange. Aunt Yumi's clothes seem to be a bit larger than her usual size, and look at the hand she's holding the gun, her index finger isn't even on the trigger."

There was a moment of silence in the room.

Uncle Mori gave Conan, who had somehow sneaked in, a big tap on the head: "Damn it, when did you sneak in, get out!"

Conan was thrown out.

Eri put down her camera: "But Conan is right, this yukata seems to be a bit bigger than the one Yumi wore before."

"Really? Could the problem lie here?" Kogoro Mouri squatted down and continued his examination.

If he found anything suspicious, he would have Eri Kisaki take photos.

Unfortunately, although some places looked a bit strange, no evidence was found to prove the identity of the murderer or to clearly prove that Horikoshi Yumi was murdered.

After the autopsy was completed, the three Mori members came out of the room.

In the corridor, after being hit on the head by Kogoro Mouri, Conan was scolded by Ran for a long time, and he seemed a little dazed.

Kogoro Mouri looked at Ran: "Haven't the police arrived yet?"

"No," Xiaolan shook her head. "Dad, did you find anything?"

Kogoro Mouri: "Judging from the degree of rigor mortis in the body, it has probably been six or seven hours since the death."

Ayashiro Yukio exclaimed in shock, "Six hours ago, wasn't that exactly when we parted ways from the billiards room and Yumi said she was going back to her room to sleep?"

"So, Yumi committed suicide after returning to her room?" Mrs. Ayashiro's eyes were red. "But she was in a good mood when she left. She had no motive to commit suicide."

“No, Yumi said that before,” Ayashiro Yukio said. “When we were chatting in the living room before, Yumi said that the pressure of life was too great and she really wanted to leave this world.”

"But... wasn't that something I said as a joke?" Nakamichi Kazushi exclaimed in shock.

Kogoro Mouri said in a deep voice, "It's hard to say. People who really have suicidal thoughts don't necessarily have to show it very obviously."

"You mean, Yumi really committed suicide?" Although Nakamichi Kazushi was overjoyed inside, he put on an expression of disbelief.

This is undoubtedly due to the fact that he is a criminal police officer with exceptional counter-surveillance capabilities.

Kogoro Mouri wasn't lying. He glanced at Yumi Horikoshi's face, which was covered in the room, and his expression was calmer than ever before when he encountered a case.

Because the Metropolitan Police Department doesn't know when they'll arrive.

Furthermore, since the deceased was Kogoro Mouri's classmate, everyone stood silently in the corridor.

Kogoro Mori relentlessly searched the room for clues, but unfortunately, all the evidence pointed to the high probability that Yumi Horikoshi had committed suicide.

"Slap...slap!"

Suddenly, the sound of a lighter being pressed came from the corridor.

When Kogoro Mouri turned around, he saw that Numi had somehow gotten a lighter and was playing with it in her hand. After the flame had been burning for a while, she accidentally burned herself when she put the lighter back into her pocket.

With a reproachful look, Xiaolan reached into the warm water pocket of her bathrobe and confiscated the lighter.

At this point, Kogoro Mouri was no longer concerned with the subtle interactions between Ran and Nukumi.

A flash of lightning seemed to strike his mind.

"Yeah, how come I didn't notice such a big flaw?" Uncle Mori muttered to himself, then immediately ran up to Horikoshi Yumi.

Upon hearing this, the others also rushed into the room.

Nakamichi Kazushi asked somewhat guiltily, "Kogoro, what did you find out?"

"The muzzle, it's the muzzle!" Kogoro Mouri pointed to the circular wound on Yumi Horikoshi's temple. "When a person commits suicide, the muzzle of the gun will definitely be pressed against the skin."

"If I fired at that moment, the wound should have been burned by the hot air from the muzzle along with the bullet, but there wasn't a single burn mark near Yumi's forehead."

"Oh yeah, I completely overlooked that!"

Nakamichi Kazushi slapped his forehead, his face full of remorse, not at all like the reaction a murderer should have.

Ayashiro Yukio: "So, Yumi didn't commit suicide, but was murdered?"

“That’s right.” Kogoro Mouri scanned the room with his sharp eyes. “And the murderer might even be in this hotel.”

Everyone looked at each other, their eyes filled with doubt and confusion.

However, Eri Kisaki secretly glanced at Wen Shui and Shu next to Ran. When he was playing with the lighter earlier, Eri Kisaki thought that this kid also smoked.

But now that I think about it, maybe he was trying to remind Kogoro?

But since Wen Shui figured out the killer's method, why didn't he say so? He's a detective too.

Could it be...?