Conan's corpse picker

Chapters 3783 and 3797: [Superficial Vodka]

After a moment of disappointment, Officer Sato suddenly realized he was right: even if the pimp didn't know the bag contained drugs, he should at least know it wasn't legal. Why would someone like that, even if he was just bored and using a few rides, possibly fill out a questionnaire and reveal his personal information?
“In that case…” Sato Miwako recalled her extensive experience in conducting interviews, but still focused her attention on the other three questionnaires in Jiang Xia’s hand:

"Why don't we bring these three high school students over and ask them if they remember the remaining three suspects? I remember these three students were on the next boat after us, which means they were standing right behind us when we were queuing."

Backpacks are meant to be worn on the back. If these three middle school students had good observation skills and memories, and happened to remember the backpacks dangling in front of their faces, wouldn't they be able to directly identify the real coachman?

“I think I vaguely remember this person.” Sonoko Suzuki looked at the photo and recognized the more handsome one among the three middle school students. “I just saw them walk by here. They shouldn’t have gone far. Let me look for them…”

As the high school girl spoke, she looked around like a seasoned expert.

Her gaze quickly settled on one spot, and she exclaimed in delight, "There it is!"

Ran Mouri followed her gaze. She hadn't noticed anything in the photo, but now that the real people were in front of her, she suddenly recognized them: "These three people look like the 'Three Ravens' from DC Academy."

Upon hearing this word, Jiang Xia pushed up his sunglasses and glanced at the three high school students: "..." What a coincidence! The key tones of the Black Organization Boss's email address, when played together, formed the melody of the song "Seven Crows." Conan should have heard it from Vermouth last time. I wonder if this tone-deaf elementary school student with perfect pitch has figured it out yet.

Officer Sato knew neither the Seven Crows nor the Three Crows, and couldn't help but ask, "The 'Three Crows' from DC Academy?"

Ran Mouri nodded: "They are very famous athletes. I heard that after graduation, they all plan to go into the professional sports world. Our school's sports clubs often talk about them."

Officer Sato began to consider whether athletes had good memories and hoped that the three students could remember what kind of backpack the person in front of them was carrying.

While praying silently, she went up to ask, but all she got in return were three bewildered faces.

The three middle school students looked at each other and found that their companions were just as confused, so they apologized, "We were chatting the whole time and we had to go through a lot of activities, so we really don't remember who was sitting in front of us on the rafting trip, let alone who was carrying what kind of bag."

"I see..." Officer Sato said, unwilling to give up, "Why don't you think about it again? It's these three people."

She handed over the photo.

The three high school students stared intently at the photo, racking their brains to recall the scene. The painful expressions on their faces gradually appeared, reminiscent of when they discovered they knew nothing about the questions during an exam.

Seeing their expressions, Officer Sato looked disappointed, but could only sigh and give up on digging for clues from there. He waved his hand and let the three middle school students leave.

……

"You're leaving already?"

In the mutual aid group, Vodka stopped what he was doing: three people, two of whom were plain-looking, while the other was quite handsome... He had already set the option for the deceased, but now, the middle school students left safely, showing no intention of staying.

Chianti saw the disc that had been canceled almost immediately and scoffed: "[Uzo's interest in adults far outweighs his interest in students; he rarely lays a hand on minors—you study Uzo every day, yet you know less about him than I do?]"
Vodka snorted coldly: "..." He rarely lays a hand on minors, but it's not like he's incapable of doing so—there are plenty of minors who have died at his hands, you just haven't seen them.

"However, what that damned woman Chianti said makes some sense. At least in these newsworthy cases, Uzo rarely targets minors... Could this be what Brother Gin meant by 'having sense of propriety'?"

Behind the other screen, Curaçao immediately added this to her mental anti-Uzbek manual. As she wrote it down, she gradually became numb: She'd memorized a whole bunch, but would they really be of any use? Why had she never guessed correctly before…

……

At the amusement park, Officer Sato was also somewhat numb.

Is it really like searching for a needle in a haystack, or even three needles in a haystack—finding all three suspects based solely on this not-so-clear photo?
...How many people would we need to send?

Just then, Matsuda Jinpei, who had been quietly standing beside him—no, Mr. Kurosawa, who had been quietly standing beside him—finally spoke up: "What comes to mind when you see these three middle school students?"

"Hmm?" Officer Sato made no connection to the three middle school students, but his eyes lit up at their words. "Do you know who the stable boy is?"

Jiang Xia looked at the policewoman who remained unmoved and showed no intention of developing a detective career, sighed, and could only say, "Athletes often have some unique habits, like those three middle school students."

He pointed to the three people who hadn't completely gone away: "The one on the far right is the left-handed pitcher who made it to the top four in Koshien, the one in the middle is the record holder in the freestyle high school league, and the one on the far left is a player from the youth soccer team—look at them, do you notice anything amiss?"

Whether Officer Sato had noticed or not, Vodka didn't know, but now he regretted removing the plate too soon.

—If Uzo knows these three students so well, what does he want from them?!

……

The other people in the amusement park were also observing the three middle school students, following Jiang Xia's words.

Conan had already figured it out, but he dared not say anything, so he could only hold it in and miss the happy times when he was still Shinichi Kudo.

Sonoko Suzuki has recently been working on the Jiangxia mini-game. Although the accuracy of her reasoning is still mediocre, the complexity of her ideas has improved significantly.

She thought for a moment, then suddenly slapped her palm: "The three suspects from earlier, excluding the golfer with his son, seem to be a baseball player, a swimmer, and a soccer player—which corresponds perfectly to the professions of these three high school students! This is too much of a coincidence; reality is even better than the script I wrote."

Upon hearing the script, Conan shifted uncomfortably, thinking of a certain organization executive lurking in the shadows. But he didn't think Sonoko Suzuki had anything to do with that executive—how could such a mysterious and terrifying person have a brainless idiot as a subordinate?