Conan: Above all force, there is truth!

"Idiot! I would have agreed even without you saying so! I will definitely find out his true identity!"

Seeing this, Kuroba Toichi revealed a wicked smile: "That's more like it, my brother, Kudo Shinichi!" After saying that, he looked at Ryūno: "Kid, what's your name?"

“Tatsuno Takeda,” Tatsuno replied calmly.

"Is that so? I'll remember that." After saying that, Kuroba Toichi tossed the wallet and knife in his hand over.

When everyone looked in his direction again, he had already disappeared.

Ryūno picked up the wallet and knife from the ground, glanced at them casually, and then handed them to Shinichi Kudo.

Shinichi Kudo pulled a note with a coded message from his wallet, but couldn't figure it out even after looking at it for a long time.

Longye knew it was getting late, so he suggested that everyone go home first and explore the mystery again tomorrow.

Shinichi and Ran knew it was getting late, so they agreed to Tatsuno's proposal.

...

In front of the Kudo house, Shinichi said goodbye to Ryuno and Ran before going inside, leaving Ryuno and Ran walking alone on the road.

As they were about to reach the Ryūno family's house, Ran gradually lowered her head.

For a primary school student, tonight's experience was indeed quite frightening, not to mention that Xiaolan herself is terrified of ghosts.

The thought of having to walk alone on the dark road after saying goodbye to Longye made Xiaolan feel a little scared.

After walking around with her head down for a while, Xiaolan realized something was wrong. She looked up and asked in confusion, "Huh? Longye, aren't we already at your house?"

"Well, it's too late today, I'm going to take you home first."

Longye didn't say anything more. Xiaolan was just a primary school student, and it was unreasonable to let such a young girl go home alone late at night.

Upon hearing Longye's answer, Xiaolan's eyes lit up, and she not only raised her head but also skipped a few steps.

After walking alongside Ryūno for a while, she whispered, "Thank you, Ryūno!"

Chapter 5 Unraveling the Mystery Under the Setting Sun

More than ten minutes later, Longye and Xiaolan finally arrived at a house on the side of the street.

Looking at the familiar words "Mouri House" on the doorplate, Tatsuno seemed to be deep in thought.

In the original story, after Kogoro Mouri and Eri Kisaki separated, they lived in different places.

The house in front of us has been transformed into the "Mouri Detective Agency".

At such a young age, he was able to buy a multi-story apartment on a bustling street...

Anyone who says Kogoro Mouri is poor will be slapped hard across the face by Ryuno on the spot.

However, this is only for this moment.

After Kogoro Mouri resigned from his job as a detective, he couldn't get any good cases and was constantly struggling to make ends meet. This led to a period of financial hardship for him.

After going up to the second floor, Longye gently knocked on the door.

Before long, they could hear footsteps getting closer and closer inside the house.

A young woman wearing glasses and with a ponytail opened the door.

Ryūno recognized her at a glance; she was Eri Kisaki in her youth, Ran's mother.

However, she doesn't yet possess that "queen-like" aura; right now, Eri Kisaki is probably still a rookie lawyer.

Before Eri could speak, Tatsuno said first, "Hello, Auntie, I'm Ran's classmate, Takeda Tatsuno. I'm sorry to have made Mori come home so late today."

We went to the school library with Kudo-san, and we're sorry to have worried you. Now that we've brought her back, I'll be leaving now. Please don't blame her.

Eri Kisaki originally wanted to question them about why they were so late, but after hearing the child's very polite words, her anger inexplicably subsided.

After learning that Ryūno had specifically brought Ran back, she made a point of thanking him.

After seeing Ran enter the house, Ryuno left.

After entering the house, Eri Kisaki originally wanted to give Ran a little lecture, but the child from earlier really piqued her curiosity.

She brought Xiaolan to the opening ceremony. She always had a good memory, but she didn't remember ever seeing this child.

"Xiaolan, was that child your classmate?"

"Yes! His name is Takeda Tatsuno. We've been walking home together a lot lately!"

"Really... They even went out of their way to bring you back. You seem to be a sensible child."

"Yeah, and Ryuno is really amazing! He even protected us from bad kids before!" Ran's emotions were clearly stirred up when talking about Ryuno.

Seeing Ran's excited expression, Eri Kisaki became even more interested in Ryuno.

However, remembering that Xiaolan came home so late today, he still said to her, "Xiaolan, you can't come home so late in the future."

"Well, I see..."

Seeing that Ran knew she was wrong, Eri nodded.

Then, Eri Kisaki seemed to remember something and asked, "By the way, Shinichi Kudo went with you too, where is he?"

“He went home a long time ago,” Xiaolan replied after thinking for a moment.

"Really? He should really learn from that kid. I don't know how Yukiko teaches him..." Eri Kisaki retorted, arms crossed, after hearing Ran's reply.

Suddenly, the bedroom door was opened.

Kogoro Mouri came out yawning, and while putting on his clothes, he said, "Isn't this just like Yukiko's laissez-faire attitude?"

Seeing Kogoro put on his coat, Eri Kisaki immediately asked, "Honey, are you going out to work again?"

"Yes, there was a murder at the Beika Port warehouse. Inspector Megure asked me to go there. You guys be careful too, and don't forget to lock the doors and windows. I heard that outrageous thief is still running around." Kogoro said carefully, looking at Eri Kisaki's face.

Eri Kisaki stepped forward and straightened Kogoro's collar, her face gentle: "I'm a detective's wife, after all; I know this much. Be careful on the road~"

Xiao Lan, standing to the side, saw her parents' loving relationship and a happy smile appeared on her face.

……

the other side

Back home, Shinichi handed over the code he had just received that day to Yusaku Kudo, lying that it was a riddle given to him by his teacher.

As soon as Yusaku Kudo saw the beginning of the code—"pacify HIDO's anger"—he understood its true meaning.

They also realized that this was not, at all, what Shinichi had described as "the teacher's riddle."

However, he didn't expose Shinichi directly, but instead subtly suggested, "By the way, how about we go to the beach sometime?..."

As expected, Shinichi immediately made his own guess after hearing the words HIDO and the beach.

Seeing that his son seemed to understand, Kudo Yusaku smiled, but he didn't intend to interfere with his son's "adventure".

...

The next day, Shinichi called Tatsuno and Ran, and the three of them rode together in Professor Agasa's car to Beika Port.

Dr. Agasa asked worriedly as he drove, "Even if your guess is right, is this really a good idea? Wasn't that dangerous man from yesterday still waiting for you there? Don't you really need to call the police?"

Hearing this, Xiaolan looked at Longye beside her and mustered her courage to say, "It's okay, Longye is here. He will protect us!"

After listening to Xiaolan's words, Longye felt that something was not quite right, but seeing the shining look in Xiaolan's eyes, he nodded and tacitly agreed with her.

Anyway, this whole thing is just a farce, there's no danger involved.

At this moment, Shinichi Kudo also spoke up: "It's okay. That guy said he would tell me his identity after I solve the mystery, and it's not too late to call the police then."

Seeing how determined the three of them were, Dr. Agasa didn't say anything more.

After their casual conversation, the group arrived at Beika Port. Shinichi deduced another location, Toriya Minato, based on a puzzle on a fire hydrant, and then found a new puzzle on the train's barrier...

After traveling to various places, Shinichi Kudo finally found the final location of the mystery—the city hall—based on Kogoro Mouri's clues.

...

As dusk fell, the group arrived at the city hall.

Based on Shinichi's conjecture, the group went up to the top of the city hall building and found the final code on the flagpole—S→W.

Judging by the direction, everyone looked to the west, where they were greeted by a beautiful sunset.

Upon seeing the sunset, Shinichi said, "This sunset should be what we're looking for. It seems this riddle was set by my dad. He specially asked a friend to lead us here so we could see this beautiful sunset."

The man in the library must be a friend of my dad's. I've been staying home a lot lately reading, and he probably came up with this riddle to get me out of the house.

"The truth is, we've all been led by the nose by him." Shinichi leaned against the railing, looking helpless.

After Shinichi Kudo finished speaking, Tatsuno realized that he needed to reveal the real answer: "I don't think so, Kudo. Although the sunset is indeed beautiful, it's not the final answer to the mystery."

Amidst the puzzled looks of the crowd, Ryūno continued, "Your father's full name should be Kudo Yusaku, right?"

"That's right, how did you know? I don't think I ever said that, did I?" Shinichi Kudo was somewhat surprised to hear that Ryūno had actually mentioned his father's full name.

He seems to have never mentioned his father to Longye.

"Kudo, you still have that leather wallet on you, right? Tear it open and take a look." Ryuno didn't answer his question directly, but instead asked Kudo Shinichi to take out the wallet from his pocket.

Puzzled, Shinichi Kudo took out his wallet from his pocket, tore it open along the edge, and found a message written on the inside.

It clearly states on the label: TO: Yusaku Kudo

There's a big question mark below.

The signature is: 1412

Everyone stared at the "note" in surprise, feeling as if they had returned to the origin of the mystery.

While everyone was still confused, Ryuno explained, "If I'm not mistaken, the person that man is really challenging is your father, Yusaku Kudo. And his true identity—should be the infamous Phantom Thief Kid."

"Phantom Thief Kid??" X3

Hearing this, everyone looked bewildered, and Professor Agasa asked, "Then what does this question mark mean?"

“I think it must be a message from Kaito Kid to Yusaku Kudo, something like a criminal declaration,” Tatsuno said calmly, looking at Professor Agasa.

After listening to Ryūno's "reasoning," Shinichi frowned and asked, "Then what did S→W mean just now?"

"Oh, that one. If you turn that symbol around this way, it will become OXHIDE, which means cowhide in English, referring to this cowhide wallet."

Shinichi Kudo stared silently at the question mark on the wallet. He understood that Ryūno's reasoning was correct, and that made sense.

Ran and the professor, who were standing nearby, realized that Ryūno's reasoning was correct.