Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Sano noticed Hattori Heiji's muttering and turned to look. The dark-skinned man was squatting down with his arm around Conan's shoulder, probably planning to have a chat.

Unfortunately, after glancing at the other person, Conan ruthlessly removed his hand and walked away.

Hattori Heiji: "..."

What happened?

Why is this guy being so cold to me today?

After clicking his tongue, a somewhat annoyed Hattori Heiji turned his gaze to Sano and narrowed his eyes.

...To be honest, Hattori Heiji didn't want to easily try to communicate with Sano.

This isn't a question of whether the other party will pay attention to you.

It was simply because Hattori Heiji felt he had made a very poor impression during their last meeting.

There are two people who "deciphered" the notice that Kaito Kid issued regarding the Egg of Memories.

One is Sano, and the other is Conan.

In terms of chronological order, Sano should be faster, while Conan is slightly behind.

...Even so, with Hattori Heiji failing to decipher the notice before the deadline, Conan, even if he's not as good as Sano, won't seem too bad.

Heiji Hattori, however, seemed to be excluded.

Extremely distressed.

After grinding his teeth, Hattori Heiji still decided to talk to Sano.

Otherwise, this situation where there is no progress and we can only wait obediently is too uncomfortable.

However, Hattori Heiji, who had finally made up his mind, had only taken a few steps when Sano, who had noticed him, turned his head and changed his position, clearly not wanting to talk to him.

...Damn, is it really necessary to act like you despise yourself so much?!

Heiji Hattori silently ran to a corner, squatted down, and drew circles on the ground with his finger.

Conan doesn't care about him, and Sano doesn't want to care about him either. Does that mean they're really excluding him?

Meanwhile, Sano was shifting his gaze from the black-clad knight who had left the scene.

...That's strange, no more tasks have been triggered. Does that mean my only reward for today is watching Ran Mouri's play for ten minutes?

Even if there were no missions, Sano would still want to get involved in this case.

This is not only because Sano hasn't been involved in many cases recently and has a low profile, but also because the location of this case is quite special.

Sano glanced at the onlookers in the stadium who were whispering and gossiping.

A large portion of them were students from Teitan High School.

...While that's not entirely accurate, this place could indeed be considered Sano's "home ground" to some extent.

If Sano doesn't perform well in this case and someone else solves it first, wouldn't that make him look incompetent?

Although Sano doesn't actually consider himself a detective, his own opinion is one thing, and what others say is another.

Sano has his pride too, you know.

The presence of a rather unique character in the room made Sano even more eager to be the first to solve the case.

As for how to solve this case...

Sano already had a guess in his mind.

Of course, Sano is still unsure whether this speculation is correct, and he only has a general idea of ​​the evidence.

But it's not a big problem.

Anyway, Sano didn't really intend to win head-on.

It's enough to make others think that you've won.

Sano rubbed his fingers together a few times. Now he just needed to wait for the right moment to make his move. You could say that everything was ready except for the right opportunity.

...Soon, Takagi Wataru led the three of them back to the gymnasium.

The small bottle containing potassium cyanide found in the deceased's car further convinced Inspector Megure that the case was simply a suicide.

Just as Hattori Heiji's expression changed, and he was about to speak up to forcefully stop the situation and stall for time, another voice rang out even faster than his.

"Wait a minute, Inspector Megure, this is not a suicide case, but a homicide without a doubt!"

"what?"

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Inspector Megure immediately turned around and saw that it was the black-clad knight who hadn't yet removed his hood. He then asked in confusion.

Who are you?

"Heh, it's been a while, and you don't even recognize me anymore, Inspector Megure."

As the face beneath the hood was revealed, the same phenomenon that occurred before, when Heiji Hattori removed his hat, happened again.

"Shinichi Kudo!?"

Amidst gasps of surprise, Heiji Hattori stared blankly at Conan… Wait, since Shinichi Kudo has appeared, this guy shouldn't be Conan… So who the hell is this guy? Or is this Shinichi Kudo actually the fake one, and the real Shinichi Kudo is still Conan?

Heiji Hattori's mind went blank, and for a moment he even began to doubt whether the things between him and Conan were just his imagination.

"Oh my god, Shinichi Kudo is back..."

"Hey, detective, we've all been waiting for you!"

"Shh, don't say that. Don't forget there's a famous detective here..."

"Ah, I almost forgot, a showdown between two high school detectives? That sounds really interesting!"

"...But judging from Sano's previous performance, it seems that he hasn't made any effective progress yet. After all, he became famous relatively late, so he should be inferior to Kudo, right?"

"..."

Amidst the cheers and gossip, Shinichi Kudo first calmed Ran Mouri, who was greatly shocked to see him, before pretending to signal the onlookers to be quiet and preparing to begin his show time.

...He really is quite pretentious; in this respect, he's quite similar to Kaito Kuroba.

These two must be twins, right?

Sano glanced at Conan... or rather, Ai Haibara, who was not far away, and sure enough, he saw a hint of dissatisfaction, speechlessness, and disgust in the other's eyes.

In fact, Sano already knew from the very beginning that Conan would temporarily revert to Shinichi Kudo today.

On the night Heiji Hattori came to visit Conan, the kid called Sano and complained to him about how Ai Haibara, that fake little girl, had repeated her earlier actions by scaring him with a toy gun in order to prevent him from losing his composure and confessing to Ran Mouri.

Then Conan brought up the method that Ai Haibara had suggested to him, a way to fool Ran Mouri.

That is to use the antidote, which is still under development, to turn Conan back into Shinichi Kudo.

Instead of Conan, Ai Haibara appeared in disguise.

...Of course, this disguise could never reach the level of Kaito Kuroba.

However, thanks to that large mask, which is also a gadget developed by Dr. Agasa, it shouldn't be a big problem to fool him for now.

After all, as Sano said before, good-looking people are always similar.

Although Sano was reluctant to admit it, the two fake children were indeed quite good-looking. With a little makeup, it was hard to tell anything was wrong just by looking at their eyebrows and eyes.

In this way, Shinichi Kudo and Conan Edogawa could appear in front of Ran Mouri at the same time, leaving her no choice but to believe it.

...Although Sano still didn't quite understand, since Conan made a special phone call to him to explain their plan in order to avoid being exposed, why couldn't he also make a phone call to Hattori Heiji to explain?

Look at this little dark-skinned guy, his eyes are practically popping out.

Gee tut.

She put such a thick layer of putty on her face for the other person, and even traveled all the way from Osaka.

In the end, it was all for naught.

Sano thought to himself, "Another pathetic simp."

But none of that matters.

The important thing is that now that Shinichi Kudo has made his appearance, it's time for Sano to appear next.

Chapter 312, 311: The Tool for Wiping Up Butts

That's right, the biggest factor that led Sano to want to get involved in this case was actually Shinichi Kudo.

After all, they are different from others.

Sano might "lose" to someone else in a case, like Heiji Hattori or even Kogoro Mouri... even though Conan is behind him.

However, if it were another high school detective in the same class at the same school, the feeling would be completely different.

Furthermore... Sano himself is also quite curious about how Conan will react when he is interrupted and even gets there first at this important moment when Conan has returned as Shinichi Kudo, as if he has returned as a king.

They must be incredibly frustrated, right?

what.

Sano stopped keeping a low profile and walked straight to the woman named Mai, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"Well!"

Wu Yi immediately gave a soft snort, arched her body, and took a step back.

...It really was this woman.

Sano narrowed his eyes and met Mai's gaze, which was filled with surprise and doubt, causing a hint of panic to unconsciously show in Mai's eyes.

Of course, quite a few people noticed Sano's actions and the commotion between the two.

Among them, there were quite a few people who understood the meaning behind Sano's action and Mai's reaction.

"Brother Sano, what's this...?"

Inspector Megure moved closer and cast a probing look at Sano.

"Yes, she is the murderer."

Unlike other detectives, Sano had no desire to take things slowly and deliberately; he went straight to the point and revealed the culprit's identity.

This greatly surprised everyone present.