Isn't it very scientific to use the Death Note to kill people?

This conversation took place in front of the police station in Okusui Village.

Seeing Ran's tense expression, Kogoro Mouri and Heiji Hattori, though finding it troublesome, had no choice but to put aside their business and start looking for her.

At first, the group was quite relaxed, but as time went on and the sun began to set, their mood gradually became more tense.

The forest at night is very different from the forest during the day. A small child in that environment could be in danger at any moment. Thinking of this, Kogoro Mouri's shouts were filled with tension:

"Get out here quickly!"

"Conan!"

"Where are you?"

Lin Jiashu also joined the search.

The sky gradually turned red.

At this point, with only half an hour left before the sun would completely set, the group suddenly heard the voices of two villagers talking nearby:

"Have you heard? A completely naked man floated up in the lake."

"I know, my mom is on her way with a blanket."

"Hey! Excuse me, is that person a primary school student?"

Hattori Heiji immediately ran up to ask.

However, the two villagers replied that he was a high school student.

Although it didn't seem to have anything to do with Conan, the group still quickly asked for directions and rushed over. They found a boy wrapped in a blanket being surrounded by several villagers asking him all sorts of questions by the lake in the forest.

Because of that familiar profile, Ran subconsciously stared intently for a moment, then quickly froze: "Shinichi...?"

"No way, Kudo?!"

Hattori Heiji also instinctively cried out.

The group immediately moved closer.

Shinichi Kudo, who had remained unresponsive amidst the villagers' cheers, quickly showed an expression upon hearing their calls. He looked up, bewildered, and asked, "Shinichi... is Shinichi my name?"

"Wh...what?"

Shocked by the genuine, unfamiliar gaze of the other person, Xiaolan began to waver.

Hattori Heiji was also stunned, and forced a smile as he told him to stop talking nonsense.

However, Shinichi Kudo still had a blank expression. He seemed to only react to his own name and identity as a detective, but forgot everything and everyone else.

Upon hearing his identity, the villagers who had been surrounding him immediately showed their disgust, some even saying they wouldn't have saved him if they had known.

Shinichi Kudo had no feelings about this.

He glanced at Hattori Heiji and Hayashi Yoshiki, finally fixing his gaze on the former and asking him to lend him some clothes.

"Has this kid really lost his memory?"

Kogoro Mouri was somewhat incredulous. "And why does he also have a bad cold?"

"A bad cold... Oh right! Conan! I need to find Conan quickly!"

"Well, I think we don't need to worry about that anymore!"

Upon discovering that the person in question was already sitting in front of him with amnesia, Heiji Hattori quickly stepped forward to comfort the anxious Ran, saying, "Actually, it's like this... Conan took the bus home first because he felt that the longer he delayed treating his cold, the worse it would get. That's what he told me before we went to the village office."

"He's alone? What are you even talking about, Hattori?"

"That's right, that's exactly it..."

Hattori Heiji gave an awkward laugh while winking at Hayashi Yoshiki.

I said, "Hey buddy, come and help me out!"

His eyes twitched as if his own eyes were twitching, and Lin Jiashu's gaze lingered on Kudo Shinichi's face for a while before he seemed to notice Hattori Heiji's hint: "Why didn't you say something sooner? You're so oblivious!"

"Because I was so focused on the commission at the time, I just brushed him off and forgot about it later, hahaha."

“But even if he goes back to Uncle Mori’s office, there’s no one to take care of him. Or is he planning to go to Professor Agasa’s office?” Hayashi Yoshiki said. “I think we should find an opportunity to call Professor Agasa and ask him.”

"Yes, yes, yes! Let's go back and ask that Professor Agasa!"

Although Ran was a little worried, seeing Hattori Heiji's confident demeanor, she reluctantly accepted the explanation.

Only then did she focus her attention on Shinichi Kudo, who seemed to have amnesia.

She looked at the other person with some concern.

"Let's go back to the hotel first."

Lin Jiashu said.

No one else had any objections.

So when they took the amnesiac Shinichi Kudo to the hotel, Heiji Hattori lagged behind and whispered to Yoshiki Hayashi, "What happened? Why did Shinichi Kudo suddenly recover and lose his memory?"

"He accidentally ingested the experimental antidote."

Lin Jiashu said softly.

"what?"

"I just received a call from Ai. She said that Professor Agasa accidentally gave Conan the stress reliever instead of cold medicine... The situation is a bit bad right now, mainly because Kudo has inexplicably lost his memory, and the antidote has an expiration date. If he doesn't regain his memory by the time he turns back into Conan, what do you think will happen?"

"Both of them have severe colds and amnesia, which will definitely make people suspicious of his identity!"

"That's it."

Hattori Heiji immediately realized that the situation was not good.

He looked at Shinichi Kudo, who was silent and had unfocused eyes, and was just following them to the hotel in a daze. For the first time ever, he started scratching his head in exasperation.

Hayashi Yoshiki, however, paid no attention to Kudo Shinichi.

His gaze fell on Xiaolan, who was walking ahead. Seeing that she looked worried and preoccupied, he didn't say anything.

The sun has completely set.

Back at the hotel, Hattori Heiji immediately found his clothes for Kudo Shinichi to wear. The two were about the same height, and the clothes fit him perfectly.

Lin Jiashu then said:

“Kudo-kun has no memory right now. I think we should take him to that so-called crime scene from a year ago. Maybe that will help him remember something.”

"What the young man said makes sense. Although the sun has already set, let's give it a try."

Hattori Heiji immediately echoed this sentiment.

He thought that Hayashi Yoshiki was very thoughtful. The current situation was that Kudo had to regain his memory as soon as possible... Furthermore, he was also very interested in why the village was so hostile to Kudo.

The two seemed to have settled the matter during their conversation.

Xiao Lan, who had been silent all along, seemed to notice something and looked at Lin Jiashu.

The latter's gaze fell on Shinichi Kudo:

"Let's go, Kudo-kun."

Chapter 454: Folk Legends

The crime scene was a villa in Okusui Village.

Upon entering one of the rooms, they were greeted by a desolate scene that had been deliberately preserved from years ago—a variety of miscellaneous items were scattered on the moldy wooden floor, cabinets were overturned on the floor, and a large amount of shredded paper and notebooks filled the entire room. The thick layer of dust and the musty smell made the group move very carefully, barely daring to breathe.

"As the young master wishes, we have kept this room exactly as it was at the time of the incident."

Village policeman Chengshan Shuma explained to the group.

It's truly astonishing that a civil servant would use such a nickname as "young master."

Soon, the group realized from the photos in the room who the young master he was referring to was—the little boy who had pointed at them and shouted "liar" at the village office that afternoon, Daiki Nihara.

"On the night of the incident a year ago, Young Master Da Shu was spared because he happened to be visiting a relative."

When everyone's eyes fell on the photo album, Shiroyama Kazuma spoke up.

The photo shows a family of four.

The kind couple nestled affectionately beside young Daiki Nihara, while a smiling high school student wearing glasses stood between them.

"Young Master Daiki's parents died in that murder case, and his father was the village chief at the time, Mr. Hihara Takitoku and his wife, Ms. Chikako."

According to Kazuma Shiroyama, Takitoku Nihara was a very cheerful and generous person with a good reputation in the area. He had served as the village head for more than 20 years, so the tragedy that happened to him a year ago was very heartbreaking for the villagers.

While listening to the other person's explanation, Lin Jiashu kept glancing at Kudo Shinichi in front of him.

Very similar, or rather, exactly the same...

This shows that in the world of Detective Conan, not only is the ability to disguise oneself unfair, but the plastic surgeons are also supermodels in their professional skills... Like the maid who transformed herself into a one-to-one replica of an old woman in this incident and the Blue Castle incident, it is truly incredible that she could maintain a natural facial expression and have no trace of plastic surgery after such extensive surgery.

If you hypnotize him and make him truly believe that his name is Shinichi Kudo, writing it in the Death Note might cause the deaths of two people.

As he habitually thought about this, Lin Jiashu couldn't help but show a speechless expression.

After obtaining the Death Note, he would uncontrollably think about things related to its use... As long as he continued to have such thoughts, he would never be able to live like an ordinary person.

But there's nothing wrong with it!

Lin Jiashu genuinely enjoyed this extraordinary experience.

He preferred his current life, at least compared to the relatively successful twenty-odd years he had lived before his time travel.

Xiao Lan stood quietly to the side, watching.

Her gaze would unconsciously fall on Shinichi Kudo, who looked dazed and confused, her eyes filled with worry. Then she would see Yoshiki Hayashi occasionally glancing at Shinichi Kudo, and suddenly she would show an expression that she couldn't quite understand.

What is Jia Shu thinking?

She was a little bothered by it.

Of the group, only Hattori Heiji was completely absorbed in solving the case.

He stared at the series of conspicuous black footprints in the messy room, guessing that the murderer must have stepped on the bloodstains of the village chief's wife, who had been murdered on the stairs.

These footprints stretched for a long distance inside the house.

From the stairs to the room, then to the large balcony outside, the path turns back at the end of the balcony—and it was from this balcony that the village chief fell to his death.

"The murder weapon used by the killer was not found in the room, but some gems and antiques disappeared later. All that was left were bloodstained footprints in the house, and the same footprints that stretched back and forth from the back door to the cement road in the village."

"So, what was Kudo's reasoning at that time?"

"—His reasoning is that the village chief of Nihara committed suicide, and that he became despondent after being diagnosed with cancer, so he forced his family to commit suicide together."

After Lin Jiashu asked the question, a female voice suddenly came from the side.

The woman was nearly forty years old with a harsh face. She walked in from outside and introduced herself without waiting for anyone to ask: "I am Kawauchi Fukasato, a reporter from the Toto Shimbun. I'm sorry, I came in because the door was unlocked."

Is there anything wrong with his reasoning?

"Of course there is. The nurse at the hospital where the former village chief had his medical check-up accidentally let slip the next day that although it was diagnosed as cancer, it was actually a benign tumor. The former village chief seemed very happy after hearing that he could recover with surgery."

Hearing this, Hattori Heiji found it hard to believe.

He couldn't believe that someone like Shinichi Kudo would make such a big mistake, so he couldn't help but run up to him, grab his shoulders, and shove him, demanding to know what was going on. However, the latter could only look at him blankly and then painfully cover his head, indicating that he knew nothing.

Now everyone knows why the villagers hate Shinichi Kudo so much; after all, his behavior is an insult to their beloved village chief.

"So that means the real killer is likely still at large?"

"Maybe so. Everyone in the village says that it was probably done by that guy who lives in the forest."

"I am a village police officer," said Chengshan Shuma.

There's a folk legend about Okuho Village: "If you encounter this in the forest, don't look at it. If you don't avoid it, you'll suffer retribution and become a prisoner of the Grim Reaper, Lord Luo."

"A folk legend that only circulates in the local area?"

Lin Jiashu became somewhat interested.

"Generally, local folk tales like these are often fabricated or deliberately acted out by adults in the village to make children obedient and to scare them. They are like the folk tales here, which are essentially meant to instill fear in children about the forest so that they dare not venture in."

"No, the legend of Lord Death God Luo is not false."

The village police officer immediately refuted Lin Jiashu.