Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Sano's lips twitched.

After suppressing the instinctive urge to slap Erhei, who was biting his earlobe, Sano tried to secrete spider venom, but unexpectedly discovered that the spider venom produced by Erhei's mouthparts could be controlled by him when it was inside his body, or rather, inside a living organism.

...This is a pleasant surprise, though not in a bad way.

After sitting up, Sano turned his attention to the commotion coming from inside the house.

The lights are on.

There were fewer people in the room, on the beds.

Sano only caught sight of Conan and Kogoro Mouri, and quickly ran outside.

It seems they are chasing after someone.

Sano looked down at the blanket covering him, thought for a moment, then lay back down and pulled the blanket up a bit more... It was quite cold late at night.

If we can avoid moving, we should.

"You little brat, I told you to wake me up, not to bite me!"

Having been startled awake, Sano couldn't fall back asleep for a while.

They started complaining about Erhei's wake-up service.

Who the hell taught him this?

Erhei replied somewhat aggrievedly, "I did call for you normally, but you were sleeping so soundly that you didn't react at all. I was afraid of delaying things, so I thought I'd take a bite, but you still didn't move, so I secreted some venom. I'm sorry, I was wrong..."

...Was I really sleeping that soundly?

Sano sighed: "Wait a minute, can the secretion of this poison also be controlled?"

"Yes."

"Oh."

Sano thought that since he had been bitten by Erhei, he would definitely be poisoned.

It turns out this guy can also control the secretion of venom.

I was daydreaming because I hadn't eaten anything last night.

Sano's stomach began to rumble in protest.

Although Silver Fox said he could give his dinner to Sano, it's worth considering that besides poison, there are other things that can incapacitate a person.

Sano felt that it was better to be self-sufficient in terms of food.

Anyway, Sano has a supply depot on him.

After tucking his head under the covers, Sano took out his wallet and picked through the items.

Sano then started eating cake and drinking coffee.

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, Sano felt sleepy again, while the others who had gone out returned.

Then a scream came from outside.

Conan rushed into the room, reached into Sano's blankets, and tugged at his clothes.

"Kurosawa, wake up! There's a dead body outside, just about ten meters from the house. Did you notice anything strange while you were inside?"

"Ok?"

Sano opened his eyes. He had been completely covered by the blanket, and the wind outside was strong.

I didn't even notice anything happening.

After getting out of bed, Sano followed Conan outside. The woman from the young couple was lying on the ground with a knife stuck in her body, and she died with her eyes wide open.

Sano glanced at the others.

Besides the person who was chased out of the house by Sano, there was an extra bald old man.

I'm having a great chat with the bearded guy right now.

Sano looked at Conan.

Conan immediately explained the situation: In the middle of the night, he saw a figure with a knife attempting to kill Kogoro Mouri, but was startled away by his shout.

The group then gave chase.

When they caught up with the group at a cave, Conan and his friends found a trembling old man.

So, what this uncle had was claustrophobia?

Sano didn't hear clearly either.

Anyway, the "suspicion" against this uncle has basically been cleared.

"Judging from the location of the knife, the murderer should be left-handed."

Kogoro Mouri turned his gaze to the long-haired man lighting a cigarette, noticing the hand that was doing so.

It was the left hand.

Because he had previously learned that the man was left-handed, Kogoro Mouri had paid special attention to him, and the long-haired man had always used his right hand before.

This makes it seem like the long-haired man is deliberately hiding this fact.

Unsurprisingly, Kogoro Mouri turned his attention to the long-haired man once again.

She went on and on, even mentioning the long-haired man's identity as a novelist.

Sano didn't pay much attention.

The task of finding the murderer has arrived... at least it's an extra source of income.

It wasn't a wasted trip.

As for why Sano was too lazy to listen to Kogoro Mouri's ramblings, it wasn't entirely because he felt that the guy's reasoning could only be done through the process of elimination.

More importantly, there's what's inside the corpse's manicure.

After habitually examining the body carefully, Sano noticed this.

Sweater fibers.

Because of the cold weather, and because it was in the mountains.

Most of the members of the mountaineering team were wearing sweaters.

But this color and material of sweater seems to belong only to the deceased's boyfriend.

Of those who chased after them, besides the extra middle-aged man, two people were missing.

Silver Fox, and the male member of the couple.

...In addition, there is a less serious clue, which Erhei told Sano.

The guy who was inside the house at the time, trying to stab Kogoro Mouri with a knife.

It's none other than someone else.

This is the guy.

The killer Silver Fox, the murderer from the village at the foot of the mountain, the possible third murderer who killed the dark-skinned college student, and the bearded client who may have ulterior motives, are all involved in this mountain climbing activity.

Currently, there are at most four people with problems. Excluding the dark-skinned college student who is already dead and this woman, there are only six suspects in total. It's impossible that they are all bad people. There are probably some overlap. At least Sano thinks that the long-haired man is fine.

Of course, such development is not entirely impossible.

But at least in this matter, Sano can be sure that the character will not be wrong.

"Stop staring at him, the murderer is the victim's boyfriend."

"what?"

Hearing this, Conan, who had also noticed the thing under the woman's fingernails, turned around in surprise: "But that person isn't left-handed, is he?"

"Who said the murderer must be left-handed?"

After picking up Conan, Sano used his right hand to simulate the action of stabbing him in the lower back, which is the way the victim died, from various angles: "If you want to, you can stab him like that with your right hand. After all, there has never been any evidence to show that the murderer attacked from directly behind the victim."

"But……"

"No buts."

Sano interrupted Kogoro Mouri: "If you don't believe me, find that guy first. At worst, we can wait for the police to come and examine the contents of the deceased's fingernails. If you mean Silver Fox, then it's that administrator."

"...Is Silver Fox the administrator??"

Kogoro Mouri and the others were shocked again, while the long-haired man and the middle-aged man looked completely bewildered.

"silver fox??"

Conan stroked his chin, finally realizing: "I see. That caretaker was also left-handed, and his skin was too pale. People who live in the mountains all year round wouldn't be that pale. I understand now. He also killed that college student. Because he often came to this rest stop, he must have been very familiar with the original caretaker. So Silver Fox was worried about being exposed, which is why he wanted to kill him to cover it up. And dinner, that guy reported the number of people to the caretaker when he was down the mountain, and the caretaker prepared the amount of dinner based on that."

"If I hadn't known the college student was dead, I shouldn't have said there was no extra dinner when I spilled my meal last night."

Sano added one more point about Conan.

Sano had actually thought of this as well, while he was eating breakfast under the covers.

From this, Sano knew that Silver Fox wasn't here to retire.

However, Sano is unsure whether the dark-skinned college student was actually killed by Silver Fox.

Firstly, there is no evidence.

Secondly, Sano didn't know beforehand that the dark-skinned college student frequently came here, nor did he know that when he made the call, he was informing the rest area about the number of people staying overnight. But what is clear is that...

The real culprit in this second murder case, that's right.

Since the task of finding the murderer was over, new side income emerged.

"Ensure the survival of the assassin Silver Fox"—that's the mission requirement.

...Sano blinked and looked at it again.

Once he was sure he hadn't misread the situation, and that what he needed to ensure was Silver Fox's safety, not the survival of any other person, Sano was speechless.

What the hell is this about protecting the silver fox?

Isn't this guy supposed to be a top assassin?

So he's a five-star assassin too?