Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Then, Sano saw a blond, dark-skinned man dressed as a waiter.

Sano: "..."

Damn, this guy is stalking me, right? He definitely is.

Amuro Tooru also saw Sano and immediately raised his hand to greet him.

"...Because the exhibition was canceled and my work was over, I was planning to go back to Tokyo. Then I saw that the Suzuki family's ship was recruiting temporary staff. Thinking that I could earn some money and save on travel expenses, I applied for the job on the ship."

...Okay...a perfectly valid reason.

Listening to Amuro Tooru explain why he was on the ship, Sano clicked his tongue, then suddenly noticed a key point: "You just said that the Suzuki family recruited a lot of temporary waiters in Osaka to board the ship?"

"Yes, there are quite a lot of people on the ship, and the original staff were not enough, so we had to hire temporary staff."

Upon hearing this, Sano narrowed his eyes.

...The two missions Sano is currently handling both involve two groups of assassins who are watching the two mission targets.

What puzzled Sano was that they had already boarded the ship back to Tokyo, so how were these assassins going to get on board and kill them?

Taking a plane?

There is another possibility.

That means they boarded the ship in advance and hid on board.

Among the temporary workers recruited in Osaka, there might be some of these killers.

Sano pondered for a few seconds under Amuro Tooru's questioning gaze, then asked him to keep an eye out for any strange people among the temporary workers.

Amuro Tooru was naturally puzzled by Sano's strange request and asked for the reason.

Sano pondered for a few more seconds and then decided to sell Ito Taka... well, to the other party.

...Of course, Sano didn't mention Ito Taka's name, he just said that it was one of his... well, fellow patients who provided him with this information.

Anyway, nothing will go wrong. Sano doesn't believe that Amuro Tooru would bother to investigate Ito Taka's identity and then take action against him. What would he gain from that?

After receiving the answer, Amuro Tooru did not immediately conclude that it was a delusion caused by a mental illness.

...Mainly, Amuro Tooru felt that Sano wasn't the type to joke about something like this.

Since Sano chose to believe the other party, it proves that the other party's words should have a certain degree of credibility.

Moreover, no matter how low the possibility of two more groups of assassins appearing on the ship, Amuro Tooru felt that they should investigate as much as possible. After all, everyone was in the same boat now, and there was no need to make up any troublesome reasons.

So Amuro Tooru accepted the job... Hmm?

Why would someone who is the boss of both an art museum and a ship where their employees work, and now have to gather intelligence for them?

Amuro Tooru realized something was wrong, but he had already agreed, and there was no point in going back on his word...

Sano didn't notice anything amiss with Amuro Tooru... even if he did, it wouldn't have mattered. He just noticed that Amuro was staring intently at him as he took out a cigarette, so after a few seconds of silence, he reached back and took one out and offered it to Amuro.

...Just say you want to smoke.

Toru Amuro: "..."

Who the hell asked you for a cigarette?

"Bah."

After Amuro Tooru instinctively took the cigarette, Sano then lit the cigarette he was holding in his mouth.

Unexpectedly, a figure hurriedly approached Sano's side the next second, staring intently at his hand.

Sano stared at Inui, whose face was burning with desire, for a few seconds before simply stuffing the cigarette pack into his pocket: "Sorry, I'm done, I'm out of cigarettes."

"..."

Amuro Tooru's lips twitched. You can't just lie like that, can you? Besides, this guy probably didn't come to ask Sano for a cigarette.

...Unlike planting flowers, there is no such custom of "spreading smoke" in Japan.

Therefore, Inui was somewhat confused about what Sano was saying.

But after regaining his senses, Qian Jiangyi didn't bother with anything else. He just rubbed his hands together and said, "Hey, little brother, can I borrow that lighter in your pocket so I can admire it?"

"Ok?"

lighter?

You didn't come here for cigarettes?

Sano then realized that besides the cigarette case, he had also had a lighter in his hand. It turned out that Inui had been staring at that thing.

After instinctively pulling out the lighter that Sono Suzuki had given him, a bad feeling suddenly welled up in Sano's heart.

...Actually, Sano didn't intend to use the lighter that Sonoko Suzuki gave him; he just planned to keep it at home as a decoration.

After all, this thing is too flashy and impractical.

It's not only difficult to use, but it's also quite expensive. I'm always worried about damaging or bumping into Sano.

However, when Sano was lighting a cigarette, he happened to find that his original lighter was out of gas, so he just used it and forgot about it, and ended up taking it all the way to Osaka.

After using it for two days, Sano got used to the cumbersome way of starting the engine and decided to continue using it.

...Of course, that's not the important thing right now; what's wrong with this art dealer is that he's acting strangely.

Rather than calling Qian Jiangyi an art dealer, it would be more accurate to call him an antique dealer.

Judging from his previous offer for the Egg of Memories, he is clearly not short of money and his taste is certainly not bad. However, when he saw Sano's lighter just now, he still showed a reaction that could be described as being somewhat unsettled.

...This made Sano doubt the value of the lighter in his hand.

Could it be... that Sonoko Suzuki dug this out from some hidden corner of her own warehouse, which is actually a treasure trove, as a gift?

After a few seconds of silence, Sano handed the lighter to Inui.

Then Inui examined the lighter carefully for a while, and finally offered Sano a high price of 30 million yen in an attempt to acquire him, confirming his suspicions.

...Damn, thirty million! That's more expensive than the watch that Gin and Gin gave us!

The thought of having 30 million yen in his hands for the past few days, and only using it to start fires, made Sano want to complain. Now, how was he supposed to reciprocate when Suzuki Sonoko had her birthday?

This is troublesome.

"...I'm sorry, this lighter was a gift from someone and it's not for sale, so I can't sell it to you."

Sano forcibly pulled the lighter back from Inui's hand, then refused the other party's repeated price increases, and went from the top-floor lounge area to the first-floor deck.

...Although the top deck offers a wider and more distant view, the first deck is still the most suitable for close-up observation of the sea, and the deck area is also relatively large.

The real children were chasing and playing around, running around everywhere, while Ai Haibara, the fake loli, was staring blankly at the waves.

"What are you looking at?"

Ai Haibara glanced at Sano, who had come to her side, and said calmly, "It's nothing."

Sano then asked, "I just heard Ran Mouri say that she originally wanted you to come over and chat with her, but you refused. Why?"

"...Do I need a reason if I don't want to chat?"

“I’m not blind. You’ve had a lot of contact with Ran Mouri, how could you not see that you’re deliberately avoiding her?”

Chapter 269, 268: The Game Has Only Just Begun

"I do not have."

"Fine, if you say no, then no."

Sano fell silent, but Ai Haibara spoke up after a moment of silence: "Dolphins are the most popular mammals in the ocean. Sharks, which escaped from the dark and cold seabed, cannot be compared to them at all."

...Does this mean that Ai Haibara is a shark, while Ran Mouri is a dolphin?

After Sano did a quick reading comprehension exercise, his expression turned strange until Ai Haibara couldn't stand his gaze any longer and turned to meet his eyes.

Sano couldn't help but laugh and said, "Are you getting old and starting to act like a chuunibyou and pretend to be melancholic?"

Faced with Sano's words, which were ostensibly teasing but were actually sarcastic, Ai Haibara's face darkened, and she snorted coldly, realizing that it was a mistake to have confided in him earlier.

While Ai Haibara can mute her microphone, it doesn't mean she can block Sano's comments.

Sano pressed down on the other person's head with one hand and rubbed it hard, while continuing to mock, "And another thing, looking like you now, how dare you call yourself a shark? Calling you a goldfish is already a compliment, isn't it?"

Under Sano's ravages, Ai Haibara's once neat and tidy wavy short hair quickly turned into a bird's nest.

Ai Haibara gritted her teeth and pushed Sano's hand away, finally unable to contain her anger any longer, and shouted, "Sano!!!"

Sano casually dodged Ai Haibara's two kicks, then put his hands in his pockets and made a quick getaway, leaving the frizzy fake loli on the deck in a helpless rage.

After running a distance, Sano suddenly felt around on his body again and confirmed that the lighter was still in his pocket.

...Having 30 million in my pocket doesn't give me a sense of security; it feels like it could fall out at any moment.

Sano felt a little awkward and lit another cigarette. A 30 million yen lighter, it felt like a waste not to use it more.

Then, as night fell, the unexpected finally happened.

Nishino, who had originally planned to call everyone for dinner, unexpectedly discovered that Ryuu Samakawa had been shot through the right eye and died. After receiving the report, Inspector Megure and Shiratori Ninzaburo quickly took a helicopter from Tokyo to the ship.

After some deduction, based on two clues—the Romanov Dynasty necklace that Hanchuan Long had flaunted on the deck at dusk, which was found under Nishino's bed, and Nishino's pen left in Hanchuan Long's messy room—they pointed the finger at Nishino as the murderer.

Although Conan immediately ruled out Nishino as a suspect based on the torn feather pillow at the scene and Nishino's feather allergy, and after seeking help from Professor Agasa, he determined that the culprit was the internationally renowned bandit killer who habitually shoots people in the right eye.

Shi Kaobing.

Then, Conan guided Kogoro Mouri to deduce the truth of the case as he saw it.

That is because Nishino had some grudges with Hanchuan Long a few years ago, so Hanchuan Long held a grudge and deliberately showed off his ring, then placed it under Nishino's bed and stole his pen, attempting to frame him.

As a result, Han Chuanlong was killed by Shi Kaobing, who took the videotape in the room that might have captured his appearance, and then searched the room again to find the ring.

“We have inspected the ship and found that one lifeboat is missing, which was most likely taken by Scorponok.”

With Shiratori Ninzaburo's report, the case reached a dead end, and the trail went cold.

"Since that's the case..."

Before Shiratori Ninzaburo could finish speaking, a voice suddenly interrupted: "No, Scorpion is on the ship, and right here."

"What!?"

Inspector Megure and the others immediately looked in the direction of the sound and saw Sano standing at the door with a cigarette in his mouth.