Conan and Gin are both my brothers, what's wrong with meeting them once?

Health teacher Nakamura is knowledgeable about medicine.

She shook her head after examining Sugiyama-sensei's body.

"He's been dead for a long time, and his body is stiff; he's likely been dead for over nine hours..."

Ms. Sakai looked bewildered: "It can't be...it couldn't have frozen to death, could it?"

“No…” Conan, who was also squatting beside the body, pointed to Sugiyama-sensei’s neck. “Look, there are rope marks here too. It’s obviously a murder, and he was strangled.”

Ms. Shimoda frowned deeply: "But how could someone who's been dead for several hours ring the doorbell? Did someone leave his body at the door?"

Ms. Yonehara shook her head: "Ran and Sonoko were in the room at the time, and the rest of us were having dinner by the radiator. Could it be... that the murderer is someone from outside?"

"I'm afraid not?" Kudo Kazuma shrugged. "The murderer might still be in the villa. Look at the back of the victim's hand."

On the back of the deceased, Mr. Sugiyama's, hand was written the hiragana character "コ (romanized ko)" in lipstick.

Conan thought of the message Ai Haibara had sent and blurted out, "Mi, Na, Ko (mi na ko), three katakana characters put together, is a name—Minako."

Before he finished speaking, Mr. Shimoda was already sweating profusely and terrified.

"Ms. Shimoda, what's wrong?"

"Don't touch me! This has nothing to do with me!"

After finishing his sentence, Mr. Shimoda ran back to his room and refused to come out no matter what the others said, telling them not to worry about him.

“There’s nothing we can do…” Mr. Sakai sighed. “We can only wait for him to calm down on his own.”

With his hands in his pockets and leaning against the wall, Kudo Kazuma shrugged.

As I've said before, a solo journey inevitably leads to my demise.

This Mr. Shimoda probably can't calm down yet, but we can probably wait for his body to cool down...

Conan walked up to Kazuma Kudo and asked in a low voice, "Have you figured out who the culprit is?"

Kazuma Kudo shrugged and didn't say anything.

"Since it involves that incident from back then, the murderer must be one of the four teachers..."

As Conan pondered, he suddenly realized that his perspective had shifted significantly. It turned out that Kazuma Kudo had picked him up: "At a time like this, it's better to go and protect Ran and Sonoko. Their safety is more important."

Upon hearing this, Conan couldn't help but sigh: "You really are as steadfast as ever..."

I don't know how my brat developed this unreasonable personality of always siding with his own family.

Oh well, let him be. It seems he'll have to take on the task of finding the murderer himself.

A little while later, Mr. Yonehara and Mr. Nakamura also arrived at Ran's place, and Conan secretly slipped out to look for clues.

Since it was inconvenient for Kudo Kazuma to stay in a room with four women, he simply leaned against their door and played on his phone.

During this time, Ms. Sakai came once and said that she had called the police, but the snow was too heavy for the police to come.

This is quite a Ke-esque move.

"I heard that the detective Edogawa Kazuma can figure out who the murderer is without looking for clues—could it be that you instructed that kid to find the clues?" The reporter suddenly appeared outside the door, his tone still gloomy.

Kudo Kazuma didn't even look at him, and scoffed, "None of your business!"

Others might be afraid of these annoying reporters, but he isn't.

The others were also annoyed with him, and Ms. Sakai asked rather irritably, "What are you doing here again?"

People are dying outside, who wants to talk to a reporter with such a gloomy face and a gloomy voice?

"I'm just here to give you some advice. I suggest you pay more attention to the person alone in the second-floor room. Based on my journalistic intuition, he might be the next victim..."

"But I don't really care. After all, the more people die, the more I, as a reporter, can write about. For me, that's good news."

The reporter's words made everyone uncomfortable. Ms. Yonehara sighed and suggested that Ms. Sakai go and keep Ms. Shimoda company, while she and Ms. Nakamura would make some coffee for everyone.

Ran was worried about Conan, who was now in a child's body. Seeing that Kazuma Kudo was waiting outside Sonoko's room, she called out to him and went out to find Conan.

A short while later, a melodious scream came from the second floor. Everyone quickly gathered together and saw Mr. Shimoda lying face down next to the bed.

Conan rushed inside and searched around but couldn't find the murder weapon or any clues. The only thing he knew was that Ms. Shimoda also had a ligature mark around her neck, and there were even several places where she had bled.

The group huddled together and deduced that the murderer was one of them, and that the rope, which was the murder weapon, was probably still on the murderer's body.

Apart from Kazuma Kudo, who had been guarding outside Sonoko's room, everyone else had experience acting alone, so they searched each other, but found nothing.

Just as Kazuma Kudo was pondering whether to reveal the culprit's identity or let Conan search for clues, Conan stepped forward first.

"Why can't we find the murder weapon anywhere? How did the killer manage to hide it?"

Ran crouched down and patted his head: "Conan, don't worry, think carefully, you'll definitely find a clue."

Kazuma Kudo tilted his head and gave a hint: "Perhaps it's not that we didn't find the murder weapon, but that no one thought that such a thing could be used as a murder weapon?"

Conan frowned upon hearing this, while Ran suddenly seemed to remember something, leaned close to his ear, and asked in a low voice, "Conan, do you remember the case we had on the plane to New York when we were in middle school?"

Her cheeks suddenly flushed: "I remember the murder weapon was something that no one would realize."

Conan's face flushed slightly, but he still spoke in a low voice, "Something that can be used to make rope, but isn't easily mistaken for rope? Is it the drawstring on a hoodie? No, that's a bit troublesome..."

Xiaolan seemed to have thought of something, her face suddenly turned pale, and even her tone became somewhat difficult: "...There's something more suitable—hair..."

If her guess is correct, then the murderer in this case is the person with the longest hair at the scene, who is none other than Ms. Yonehara, whom she has always liked and admired.

Conan also thought of this. Seeing Ran's tearful expression, he felt extremely distressed and couldn't help but try to think of a way to exonerate the suspect.

"Maybe... the murder weapon wasn't hair? After all, even hair that long wouldn't be convenient to use as a rope, right?"

That being said, while identifying the murder weapon, he figured out many details and was almost certain that the murderer was Mr. Yonehara.

Xiaolan slowly shook her head, her voice filled with deep sorrow as she said, "If it's a wig, then it's very easy."

"Don't try to comfort me, Conan. After all, Teacher...she..."

Tears finally fell, but Ran's tone grew even more resolute: "Conan, you and Kazuma go find the evidence. I'm fine. I'm going to keep Sonoko company..."

"orchid……"

Tears were shed for the teacher I admire.

The steadfastness is for the sake of the victims.

This is the Ran Mouri he's liked for so long...

Conan hesitated for a moment, then his tone became firm as he said to Kudo Kazuma, "Let's go find the evidence."