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

"Speaking of which, there's a gaming-themed convenience store downstairs. If you like these two games, living here is really convenient." Officer Chiba sighed as he looked out the window. "The last time I came here with Miaozi to buy gaming merchandise, I complained about the poor soundproofing in this apartment."

Sato Miwako followed his lead and chatted, "It seems you're quite familiar with these kinds of games. You've even finished a female-oriented one like 'Moe Moe Memories'?"

"Of course!" Officer Chiba puffed out his chest, his tone filled with pride. "I've written all the endings in it, and Miaozi even praised me for being so good!"

While the three were talking, Conan did not come over to listen to the discussion as usual. Instead, he was circling around the bedroom door, which was unusual for him.

Just now, when he was following the forensic personnel passing by the bedroom, he caught a glimpse of an unusually colored stain on the carpet out of the corner of his eye. Now, while the adults were paying attention to the conversation, he was crouching down to investigate quietly.

"Hmm?" Conan squatted down and gently brushed his fingers across the carpet at the end of the bed - there was a circle of light brown square indentations on it, and a few tiny rust marks on the edges of the screws, obviously left by heavy objects placed on it for a long time.

"Is this the mark from the horizontal bar base?" he muttered to himself, his eyes immediately sweeping towards the nearby audio cabinet. Sure enough, on the side of the cabinet, close to the ground, he saw the exact same indentation. "The prisoner specifically moved the horizontal bar from the end of the bed to next to the audio cabinet... why?"

Conan followed the traces and simulated the scene: [If the horizontal bar was a tool for hanging, it was originally placed at the end of the bed, and the body could be seen at a glance from the entrance. It could be moved next to the audio cabinet, and the cabinet would just cover the lower half of the body. Unless someone deliberately walked into the bedroom to check, it would be difficult to find it at the first sight.]

"Could it be that he wanted to delay the discovery of the body and create an alibi for himself?" Conan frowned and thought, and subconsciously raised his foot to wipe off the dust next to the audio cabinet, but heard a light "click".

He looked down and saw several pieces of silver metal fragments rolling out from the bottom of the audio cabinet, with fresh scratches on the edges, obviously having been broken not long ago.

Conan immediately squatted down, picked up a piece of debris with his fingertips, and glanced at the door of the audio cabinet.

The cabinet door was ajar, and there were obvious pry marks on the keyhole. The shape of the fragments just matched the gap on the edge of the keyhole.

"What's hidden in the stereo cabinet? Why do we have to pry it open?" Conan's heart skipped a beat. Just as he was about to push the cabinet door, Kudo Yuki's voice suddenly came from behind him: "Conan, don't mess around with the scene, it will cause trouble for the forensic department."

He turned around and saw Kudo Yuki standing at the bedroom door, holding a transparent evidence bag in her hand. Her eyes were filled with meaning. "I just had the forensic department check. The lock was pried open with a thin crowbar. The partition inside is empty. Something must have been taken away."

She secretly glanced at Conan, indicating that he should look at Wakita Kensuke in the corner of the living room. The other party was not looking at the police, but was looking towards the bedroom, making it difficult to guess his emotions.

Conan followed his gaze to Wakita Kensuke, his doubts growing thicker in his mind: "Is the lock fragment part of the security chain of the entrance door? But Mr. Cameron and Mr. Wakita broke the security lock when they opened the door from outside, so the fragments shouldn't have fallen into the room."

"Conan, come here." Wakita Kensuke's voice suddenly came from the entrance. He waved at Conan, and his hands hidden under his apron clenched secretly.

Conan suppressed his doubts and walked over, looking up with a child's curiosity: "Mr. Wakita, what's going on? Did you find anything strange?"

"Look." Wakita Kensuke walked quickly to the entrance hallway and pointed at a shallow scratch on the ground outside the door. He slowly squatted down, his fingertips almost touching the mark. "Don't you think this line on the door is strange? Ordinary residents don't have such fresh friction marks on their doors. And look at the direction it goes..."

Conan looked in the direction he pointed, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

The shallow mark coincided with the trajectory of the door opening, and there was a little light silver metal powder on the edge, which was exactly the same material as the safety chain.

Conan suddenly understood, and the clues in his mind suddenly closed like a puzzle: "So that's how it is! The criminal didn't destroy the safety chain from the outside. Instead, he used tools to make traces outside the door beforehand, and then took advantage of the chaos to throw the broken safety chain fragments into the room, creating the illusion of a locked room!"

Just now, when Mr. Wu Jingyou said, "I was the first to discover that the door couldn't be opened," Atobe Michiya's hands kept touching his pockets, and his cuffs seemed to be stained with the same metal powder... The culprit is Atobe Michiya!]

But the excitement did not last for two seconds. Conan frowned again and secretly glanced at Cameron who was being questioned by the police not far away.

I thought to myself: "No, I can't just throw this line around. Mr. Cameron is still suspected of being an "accomplice from outside," so he can't come forward as a detective. Which of the officers should be "put to sleep"?

There are too many police here, and it would be troublesome if we were discovered. Moreover, this method requires the location of the fragments I just saw in the room to supplement it. If I tell you directly, you will definitely ask, "How can a child know this?" ...

Conan peered through the crack in the door at the arguing Wu Jingyou and Atobe Michiya, as well as the reactions of the others: "But how do we get this theory out there? Mr. Cameron is now a suspect and can't be used as a detective. It's too risky to let one of those three officers fall asleep and stage a mystery show. And this method requires me, who was here at the time, to explain it clearly."

Wakita Kanenori suddenly moved closer and asked tentatively, "Conan, what's wrong?"

Conan's heart tightened, and he immediately lowered his head, feigning ignorance. But his mind was racing: "Oh no! Mr. Wakita seems to be staring at me! I have to at least divert his attention before I can ask my sister for help... I have to find a way to distract him."

Wakita Kanenori leaned forward, his voice soft and slow, like an invisible thread beckoning: "Tell the police about this quickly and resolve the incident. That way everyone can feel at ease, right?"

"Huh? I seem to have heard this voice somewhere." A clear female voice suddenly interrupted. Wakasa Rumi appeared at the end of the corridor at some point, standing with her hands on her hips, only three steps away from the squatting Wakita Kanenori.

She raised her chin slightly, looking down at him condescendingly, a playful smile on her lips, her gaze as cold as a pond, without a trace of warmth. "Have we met somewhere before? The owner of the sushi restaurant?"

Conan turned his head and looked at Wakasa Rumi - her hair was still a little windblown, and there was an unknown fallen leaf on her sleeve, obviously she had just come back from outside.

He didn't say anything, but quietly took a half step back, hiding himself in the shadows of the corridor, but in his heart he was muttering: "Why did Teacher Wakasa suddenly come here? She seems to know Mr. Wakita?"

Shushu lay on Kudo Yuki's shoulder, suddenly pricked up his ears, grabbed her collar tightly with his chubby little paws, and leaned close to her ear.

"Xiaoxue, Wakasa Rumi is here! She's directly confronting Wakita Kanenori. Conan is right next to them. Do you want to go over?"

Kudo Yuki lowered her eyes to look at the little guy on her shoulder and replied telepathically: "Don't move yet, wait and see what they will do next."

The smirk on Wakasa Rumi's lips deepened, her gaze fixed on Wakita Kensuke's face. "I feel like I've heard your voice somewhere before. When exactly? Was it in a dark attic, or when we passed each other on a rainy night?"

"No," Wakita Kensuke's smile was still gentle, but the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes were tense.

Speculations surged in my mind like a tide: "Sure enough, this woman... is Amanda Hughes' bodyguard, Rachel Asaka! Just as I worried, did she remember my voice from that argument in the cabin seventeen years ago? Is she testing me now?"

Wakasa Rumi leaned forward, her elbows resting on her knees. She moved close enough to see Wakita Kanenori's eyelashes. Her gaze fell on the black cloth covering his eyes. Her tone was deliberately nonchalant. "What's wrong with your left eye? I haven't seen you take off the patch since a while ago. Is it an old injury, or... is there something you can't let others see?"

Wakita Kensuke paused, then raised his left hand and gently stroked the knot at the edge of the eye patch. A helpless smile laced his voice. "I've got a big bump, and I can't help but scratch it when it itches, so it's been hard to heal. Do you want to see it? Come to think of it, no one's ever seen me in this state."

A sharp light flashed across Wakasa Rumi's eyes, but she immediately returned to her casual demeanor, even raising her eyebrows slightly. Her tone was as relaxed as if she was chatting about the weather: "Okay, okay, I don't mind this kind of thing."

The smile on Wakita Kensuke's face froze instantly, his fingers stopped on the knot, and even his breathing slowed down.

He didn't expect Wakasa Rumi to respond so directly. The excuses he had prepared, such as "I was afraid of scaring you" and "I'm not fully recovered yet", were all stuck in his throat, and he was speechless for a moment.

Officer Shiratori followed Kudo Yuki's gaze and saw Wakasa Rumi standing at the door with her signature gentle smile on her face.

"Aren't you the vice-homeroom teacher in Mr. Kobayashi's class... Mr. Wakasa?"

"I'm Wakasa Rumi." Wakasa Rumi gently pushed open the door and walked into the entrance hall. Her eyes seemed to casually sweep over everyone present, and finally fell on Conan.

"Long time no see, Officer Shiratori! I just ran into Genta and the others on the road. They said that Conan Edogawa was still at the murder scene in this apartment. I was a little worried, so I came over to check on the situation."

Conan stood in the middle of the living room, alarm bells ringing in his heart, thinking to himself: "Really? So that's why the teacher is here?"

He didn't believe that this was just a simple "worry". The appearance of Mr. Wakasa was never accidental.

Wakasa Rumi seemed to see through his thoughts and still greeted Conan with a smile: "Then the teacher will wait for you here. If you notice anything unusual, be sure to tell the police immediately!"

"Okay, I understand." Conan nodded, turned and ran into the house.

My mind raced: "If Wakasa-sensei can find a way to distract Wakita-sensei... then I can find more clues."

He had just been observing Wakita Kensuke, and always felt that there was something indescribably strange in the other's eyes and behavior.

Wakita Kanenori saw Conan running away, and he also scratched his head with a smile, and put on a cheerful look to say goodbye: "Oh, I'm so sorry to bother you, I still have to deliver the takeaway, so I'll take my leave first."

However, before he could take a step, a hand suddenly and gently rested on his shoulder.

Wakasa Rumi had stood behind him without him noticing, her smile still sweet. "Hey, sushi bar owner, this is a rare opportunity. Why don't you wait until the incident is resolved before leaving? And I heard from the kids that what just happened should have happened in another room, right? Two murders in the same apartment building within one day, don't you think it's exciting?"

Her eyes narrowed slightly as she continued, "I remember clearly that you were at the scene when the deceased was found, right? The police might come to ask you about the situation later. Wouldn't it be troublesome if you left now?"

The smile on Wakita Kensuke's face instantly faded. He turned his head and looked at the hand on his shoulder, then looked into Wakasa Rumi's seemingly gentle but bottomless eyes. After a moment of silence, he said, "You're not wrong."

Kudo Yuki withdrew her gaze from the doorway and quietly moved behind Sato Miwako. She gently pressed a finger on the microphone hidden in her sleeve. "Toru, did you hear everything?"

Her voice was so low that it almost blended with her breathing, hidden in the background sounds of other people's conversations in the living room and the police officers' movements.

Miwako Sato was discussing something with her colleagues in the forensic department and was completely unaware of the small movements of Yuki Kudo behind her.

Kudo Yuki tilted her head slightly, her ear almost touching the microphone, patiently waiting for a response from the other end.

The voice of Amuro Toru soon came from the microphone: "I heard it. Wakasa-sensei's move is interesting."

He was sitting by the window in the Poirot Café, his fingertips stroking his empty coffee cup.

On the surface, he was just an ordinary clerk waiting for the next takeout order in the store. But only he knew that his attention was not on the store at all.

"Interesting? I think it's more like Bubujingxin. You heard Wakita Kanenori's reaction. He obviously didn't expect to be entangled."

Amuro Toru's lips curled up into a meaningful smile: "Startling by Each Step is interesting, isn't it? One more person disrupting the situation may not be a bad thing for us."

"Wakasa Rumi took the initiative to keep Wakita Kanenori. Was she trying to test him, or did she have other motives?"

"Perhaps it's both," Amuro Toru analyzed. "She's deeply obsessed with the Haneda Hiroshi case, and she won't let go of any suspicious person or thing. Wakita Kanenori's appearance is too coincidental, especially at this time and in this place."

Shushu poked his little head out from Kudo Yuki's shoulder and grumbled quietly, "I think he's treating us like pawns on a chessboard! The sweeter Wakasa Rumi's smile, the harder it is to guess what she's thinking."

Amuro Toru chuckled into the communicator: "You're quite perceptive, little fellow. As long as her goals overlap with ours, that's enough."

To be continued...