Detective Conan: The System Takes Me to Zero's World

Conan tiptoed to the edge of the table and suddenly pointed to the lower right corner of the screen: "Wait a minute, there's a reflection here."

He grabbed a pencil from the table and drew a simple outline on the notepad. "There's a rose pattern on the side of the box. It should be the limited edition packaging of 'Star Diamond Court', usually used to hold necklaces or bracelets."

"There's something even more suspicious." Inspector Megure gestured to Maori Kogoro to continue playing. "Fast forward to 18:15 PM, in front of the flower shop."

On the screen, Sawatari stood before a glass flower cabinet as a salesperson handed him a bouquet of exquisitely wrapped red roses. The two dozen buds were wrapped in crimson paper, and the ribbons were tied into beautiful bows, clearly carefully selected.

Maori Kogoro smacked his lips and said, "This flower doesn't look cheap at first glance. It's at least an A-grade rose."

"Sawatari's wedding anniversary and his wife's birthday are still some time away." Inspector Megure pulled a small notebook from his pocket and flipped through it. "I specifically checked his memo, and there are no dates worth giving jewelry to in the next two months."

He closed the notebook, his voice filled with fatigue, "In other words, the recipient of these gifts is most likely not his wife."

"But..." Mao Lilan frowned, "Maybe he wants to prepare a surprise in advance? My father sometimes gives my mother gifts unexpectedly."

"Sawatari isn't that kind of guy." Inspector Megure waved his hand decisively. "That guy is incredibly rigid. He only gives gifts on holidays and even proposed on our anniversary. My thirty years as a detective tell me my instincts aren't wrong—there must be another woman with him."

"Intuition again." Shushu poked his nose out, his chubby paws digging into the fabric of Kudo Yuki's clothes and shaking them. "Why don't we just hold an 'Intuition Contest' and let all the officers compete to see who has the most accurate sixth sense?"

Kudo Yuki gently scratched Shushu's chin with her fingertips, and while everyone's eyes were on the screen, she communicated telepathically: "Don't make trouble, listen to Inspector Megure."

The rat hummed in dissatisfaction, turned its little body around, and faced the person with its round butt. Its fur showed a sense of grievance, and it looked like a poor little thing that was being bullied.

Conan raised his little face, his eyes behind the glasses showing a hint of inquiry: "By the way, Officer Megure, Officer Sawatari is your capable subordinate who has always been by your side, right?"

Officer Megure nodded heavily, his tone full of regret: "Sawatari was brought up little by little from the local police station back then. His investigative ability is ranked among the best in the headquarters. Who knew..."

He swallowed the words back and sighed heavily.

"Since he is someone you trust, why don't you just ask him directly?" Conan tilted his head pretending to be innocent, but he caught a glimpse of Kudo Yuki in the corner of the sofa, who was tapping her chin with her fingertips, obviously thinking about this matter.

Maori Kogoro crossed his arms and agreed: "That's right, superiors and subordinates should speak frankly."

Officer Megure shook his head helplessly, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the brim of his police cap. "I tried to insinuate something about him yesterday under the pretext of a work report, but he was very tight-lipped and gave no leaks. But after all these years as a detective, I know that evasive look in his eyes means he's definitely hiding something."

"But these are just speculations after all. There is no solid evidence." Kogoro Mouri frowned.

"That's why I'm so anxious to ask you for help." Inspector Megure sat up straight from the sofa, his hands on his knees. "I must find irrefutable evidence that he's done something wrong. I can't let him go down this wrong path while there's still room for recovery!"

After saying that, he bowed deeply to Kogoro Mori.

"Inspector Megure, what are you doing?" Kogoro Mouri jumped up in fright and hurried to help him.

Mao Lilan covered her mouth and widened her eyes.

Even Conan slid off the sofa and trotted over to Kudo Yuki to exchange a glance.

Officer Megure stood up straight, his eyes full of earnestness: "Thank you for your help, Maori. But I don't want to see him leave the police force even more."

"Leaving the police force?" Mao Lilan looked confused. "Just because..."

Inspector Megure stood up and said goodbye, his broad figure quickly disappearing around the corner of the stairs. Kudo Yuki and Conan followed closely behind him. When they reached the street entrance below the detective agency, Conan suddenly stopped and looked up at Inspector Megure: "Inspector Megure, does the Investigation Section 1 have a public computer?"

"For police officers, extramarital affairs are a serious matter, enough to cost them their jobs," Officer Megure said gravely. "If it gets out of hand, they'll be punished at the very least, or even fired outright."

Kudo Yuki's eyes flickered slightly, and she spoke softly, "Manager Kuroda once told me that every year there are two or three cases in the police force where people lose their jobs because of this kind of thing."

Inspector Megure turned to Maori Kogoro, his tone becoming more serious: "I want to stop him before the truth is exposed, and this requires solid evidence. You are a detective, so investigating this kind of thing should be easy for you."

"Dad, just agree to Inspector Megure!" Ran Mouri immediately joined in.

"That's easy for you to say." Maori Kogoro scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "According to the rules, this kind of commission must be submitted by the spouse of the person involved. Mrs. Sawatari didn't even know about it..."

"His wife must not know!" Inspector Megure interrupted hastily, his voice rising. "I don't want to destroy his family. That woman is innocent!"

Maori Kogoro's eyebrows twitched. "But the investigation methods for this kind of thing basically have a set process. They need to check the person's schedule, cell phone, bank statements, credit card usage records, and even install monitoring equipment at home. None of this can be done without his wife's cooperation."

"That's right. Without the family's consent, these are all violations of privacy." Mao Lilan nodded.

"What about Officer Cha Zedu's P3?" Conan suddenly spoke with a faint smile on his lips.

"P3?" Mao Lilan suddenly realized, "It's that police radio that police officers carry, the one that can locate the location?"

"That's right!" Maori Kogoro slapped his thigh. "Just check the GPS records and you'll know where he goes every day."

Officer Megure immediately shook his head. "No, no, it's illegal to retrieve P3 data without permission. If we're caught, we'll get a serious warning."

Conan stroked his chin in thought: "Then it seems that we can only rely on tracking and surveillance."

"My team is on break today, I can follow!" Inspector Megure immediately responded with a hint of urgency in his tone.

Seeing this, Mao Lilan smiled and took out a notebook from her schoolbag and sat down on the sofa: "Since you have decided to do it, Officer Megure, please look here——"

She pushed the notebook over and said, "We have three payment methods: time-based payment, fixed-rate payment, and settlement after the transaction is completed."

"Hey! Ran!" Maori Kogoro's face turned green. He leaned over and lowered his voice, "Are you still talking about money with Inspector Megure?"

Mao Lilan glanced at him and said inwardly, "Didn't you say you have no job and no money?"

Kogoro Mouri instantly wilted and stepped aside awkwardly.

"However," Mao Lilan immediately put on a business smile, "since Officer Megure has always taken care of our family, I'll give you a friendly price this time!"

Officer Megure looked at the fee list, a look of embarrassment on his face, and scratched his head. "Friendship price... Thank you very much. As long as the problem can be solved, I will find a way to pay it."

Kudo Yuki suddenly touched Conan's arm and said in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "I think it's better to wait until Inspector Megure finishes his commission before telling him about the case report on Samedani."

Conan's eyes flickered behind his glasses, and he nodded slightly, responding in the same low voice: "Well, telling him now would only be a distraction. We still have no clue about Officer Sawatari's case, so it's better to focus on the commission at hand."

He paused, then added, "Inspector Samedani's case is quite involved. Once this is over, we'll find a chance to discuss it with Uncle Maori in detail."

After saying this, he quietly glanced up at Inspector Megure, who was discussing the details of the surveillance with the Mori father and daughter. Seeing that they weren't paying attention, he lowered his head again, his fingers unconsciously rubbing his chin. "The time points mentioned in Inspector Samedani's case report seem to overlap subtly with Inspector Sawatari's recent whereabouts. I hope it's just a coincidence."

Inspector Megure stood up and said goodbye, and his broad figure quickly disappeared around the corner of the stairs.

Kudo Yuki and Conan followed closely behind. When they reached the street corner below the detective agency, Conan suddenly stopped and said, "Officer Megure, does the Investigation Section 1 have any public computers?"

Officer Megure turned around and scratched his cheek in confusion. "Yes, our class shares an office area with the third department, and the computers are all connected to the Internet."

Conan murmured, "Officer Megure, does your Investigation Section 1 have computers?"

Inspector Megure stopped and looked back at him: "Yes, I will use it together with the people from the third department."

"What if..." Conan deliberately drawled out his words, tapping his chin lightly with his fingertips, "What if Officer Sawatari used those computers to look up hotel information, legal provisions related to infidelity, or how divorce settlements are calculated? If we find those records, wouldn't that be a preliminary clue to his misconduct and allow us to launch an investigation?"

A glint flashed in Inspector Megure's eyes, then he frowned and looked at Conan: "This is a good idea... But, Conan, how do you know all this? You are only in the first grade of elementary school, right?"

Kudo Yuki stood aside, arms folded, watching her younger brother with interest, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the magician's divination cards in her pocket.

At this moment, it seemed as if he was urging her to watch the show. She decided not to intervene and wanted to see how Conan would make it go this time.

Conan choked at the question, his cheeks flushed instantly, and he subconsciously shrank his neck and stammered, "I, I heard it from Shinichi-ni! He handled similar cases before, and mentioned these little tricks for investigating cases when we were chatting..."

"Oh - so that's how it is." Officer Megure suddenly understood, and the doubts on his face dissipated a lot. He patted Conan on the head and said, "Okay, I'll find a way to check the computer records later. Thank you, Conan."

He turned and strode away, his figure quickly blending into the crowd at the corner of the street.

After Inspector Megure was completely gone, Kudo Yuki couldn't help but chuckle and reached out to ruffle Conan's hair: "Great, now you've learned to use your own identity to cover up the 'Conan' account'? Are you planning to let Kudo Shinichi be the universal excuse for all your 'magic operations' in the future?"

Conan's heart was touched, and his cheeks flushed. He subconsciously shrank his neck back, trying to avoid Kudo Yuki's hand that was touching his hair.

He curled his fingers around the hem of his shirt, his eyes drifting to the telephone poles by the roadside, and muttered in a voice like he was holding a candy: "I, I was in a hurry and couldn't think of a better way to put it."

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he was angry with himself - he had just blurted out "Shinichi brother said" so naturally, why did he become so timid when his sister teased him?

He glanced up at Kudo Yuki and saw a teasing smile on her face. He simply stiffened his neck and pretended to be calm: "Besides, what's wrong with using my identity as a cover? It's better than being exposed by Inspector Megure's questioning, right?"

Seeing him trying to divert attention by sticking to his words, Kudo Yuki couldn't help but pinch his cheek. "Alright, I know you're trying to solve the case. But next time before you use 'Kudo Shinichi' as an excuse, you'd better report it to Xiaolan first. She just messaged me asking if you're passing off Shinichi's reasoning as your own again."

Conan's face turned even redder, the tips of his ears tinged pink, and he uttered a vague "hmm," but in his mind he was rapidly thinking: "Next time I have to ask Amuro-san to help me come up with a more plausible excuse. I can't always rely on my sister and Ran to smooth things over for me."

The afternoon sun shines through the leaves, casting dappled shadows on the street.

When Maori Ran walked quickly to the street, she happened to run into Maori Kogoro who was fully armed - he wore a baseball cap pulled down low, a pair of sunglasses on his nose, and even his windbreaker that he usually wore open was tied tightly, looking like a lousy detective drama actor.

"Dad, do you know how to use a digital camera?" Lan shook the box in his hand with a helpless smile in his tone.

Maori Kogoro immediately straightened his back, lowered his voice deliberately and put on a serious look: "Don't treat your dad like an idiot! I use it when I work. Okay, I'm leaving."

"Uncle, are you going to follow Officer Sawatari?" Conan suddenly popped his head out from behind Ran, his sneakers splashing tiny drops of water in the puddles on the road. "I'll come with you, maybe I can help!"

"Go away, go away. Why are you, little kid, joining in the fun?" Kogoro Mouri waved his hand without turning his head, but subconsciously quickened his pace.

Conan looked at his back as he turned the corner of the street. Suddenly, he pulled the corner of Lan's clothes and whispered in her ear on tiptoe: "Xiao Lan, sister, let's go back to the office first. I found something strange."

As soon as he finished speaking, he trotted back to the Maori Detective Agency.

Kudo Yuki looked at Conan's anxious back and chuckled: "He must have found something new about Officer Sawatari. Let's catch up quickly to prevent this kid from getting into trouble again."

Back at the Mouri Detective Agency, Conan had already placed his laptop on the coffee table. A blurry surveillance video was playing on the screen. He quickly dragged the progress bar with his finger and suddenly pressed the pause button: "Look here!"

In the picture, Officer Zedu got out of the car in plain clothes, looked around for a few seconds, and then walked straight into the "Star Jewelry Store" on the corner of the street.

Mao Lilan moved closer to the screen: "Shinichi, what's wrong?"

Conan took the water cup and pointed at the screen to explain, "Look at the time. He entered the store at 17:20 PM and left at 17:25 PM, a mere five minutes. If he was buying jewelry, that wouldn't even be enough time to choose; but if he was picking up something he'd reserved, it's too fast."

To be continued...